Do you remember the scan from a Japanese magazine showing how the future 2007 Honda Jazz would look like? The same magazine also showed how the 2007 Honda CR-V would look like - shown above. The canvas and disguise have come off the new CR-V making it rounds for testing and it’s confirmed that the new 2007 Honda CR-V DOES look like the drawing above. I guess this should also confirm that the new Jazz would look like the drawing they carried too. Spyshots of the 2007 Honda CR-V without disguise is available after the jump.

UPDATE: Added two more clearer photos of the new 2007 Honda CR-V.

UPDATE #2: Click here for official information on the new 2007 Honda CR-V, as announced by Honda.

UPDATE #3: The Honda CR-V has been launched in Malaysia.

UPDATE #4: Read my test drive report on the 2007 Honda CR-V!]

Click here to read the rest of 2007 Honda CR-V Spyshots

Lotus CEO Mike Kimberley reveals some of Lotus Cars’ future plans in an interview with Autocar. Kimberley says Lotus is aiming to increase it’s annual production to 8,000 units in the next five year’s time, which is double the current levels. This increase is to be spearheaded by sales of the Lotus Elise and the Lotus Europa, as well as the new Lotus Esprit powered by a BMW V8 engine coming in late 2007.

Kimberley also hints that Lotus might be producing more tuned cars using donor cars by other manufacturers. Some Lotus-tuned donor cars are the Lotus Cortina based on a Ford Cortina and the recent Lotus Carlton based on the Vauxhall Carlton pictured above. I’m sure many of you remember what Lotus did to an old Lada Riva in an episode of Top Gear. If you’ve missed it, the video is available here.

The Vauxhall Carlton originally had a 3.0 liter inline-6 DOHC engine. Lotus increased the stroke of the engine to 3.6 liters, and bolted on two Garrett T25 turbochargers with a water-to-air intercooler to give the engine 377 horsepower at 5,200 rpm with 557Nm of torque at 4,200rpm. They mated this to a ZF 6-speed stick shift from the Chevrolet Corvette ZF-1. The result was the Lotus Carlton. It did 0-100 in 5.2 seconds and had a 283km/h top speed.

Of course in tandem with the increased power, the suspension and brakes were upgraded. A family sedan which could go really really fast, ala BMW M5 style.

Alfa Romeo is preparing it’s new 149 hatchback to be launched by the year 2007 or 2008. Above is an artist impression by Italian magazine Quattroruote, apparently based on spy photos leaked from Alfa. The car’s design cues are said to be based on the Alfa Romeo Kamal concept which made it’s debut at the 2003 Geneva Motor Show, and the Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione. It’s platform will be shared with it’s parent company Fiat’s upcoming Fiat Stilo/Bravo. The platform will likely be a shortened wheelbase version of the company’s Premium platform which was used in the Alfa 159. Shown here is a 5-door hatch, but 3-door versions will also be offered.

Hopefully the new 149’s GTA model will have a better way to deliver it’s massive power to the wheels, as the previous 147 GTA’s 250 horsepower was a bit too much to be driven to the front wheels only. Perhaps it will be offered with Alfa Romeo’s Q4 all wheel drive system.

German car magazine AutoBild reports that BMW is developing a four-door sedan model to go against the Mercedes Benz CLS Coupe and the upcoming Audi A7. The artist’s impression doesn’t seem to indicate a B pillar, so it might have suicide doors. While some sites have predicted that this new car will be the BMW 8-series, others have said it is actually the BMW X6, a crossover coupe with 4WD capabilities. I think the latter is more likely. The car will be based on the BMW X5 platform.

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This is AutoBild’s artist’s impression of the upcoming Audi A5 due to be launched in 2008. The Audi A5 will be based on the Audi A4, and like it’s namesake will be positioned between the Audi A4 and the Audi A6. There seems to be some debates on whether it will be a competitor for the BMW 3-series Coupe or the BMW 6-series.

Audi already has a larger coupe planned in it’s line-up, the Audi A7 which will be a four door coupe that goes against the Mercedes Benz CLS. While most artist’s impressions have shown a two door version of the Audi A5, there are some rumours that there will be a four door version as well.

BMW has been testing their new BMW 1-Series soft top cabriolet over at the Nurburgring track in Germany. The small cabriolet is based on the BMW CS1 Concept (picture above) shown back in 2002 at the Geneva Motor Show. The CS1 featured a 1.8 liter Valvetronic engine mated to an SMG gearbox. What differentiates this from it’s older brother the BMW 3-series convertible is the latter has a powered hard top while the 1-series cabriolet will be smaller and will have a normal canvas top. Technically, according to BMW’s naming scheme this should be called a 2-series, but it appears that BMW is leaning more towards calling it a 1-series cabriolet.

Click here to read the rest of 2007 BMW 1-series Cabriolet Spy Video

AutoExpress has this nice spy video of the Audi R8 making test rounds around the infamous Nurburgring track in Germany. I’m sure all of you will enjoy the sounds of the R8’s engine which is supposedly a Lamborghini-derived V10. It is said that the car will feature a 4.2 liter V8 FSI and a 5.2 liter V10 FSI, with a possible turbodiesel option considering Audi’s success with the turbodiesel Audi R10 race car. I’ve hosted it on my server for you to enjoy better streaming speeds.

Click here to read the rest of Audi R8 Nurburgring Spy Video

I’m sure some of you have heard of anti-lag systems or sometimes known as misfiring systems, thanks to anime like Initial D. You might have noticed that most of the cars have flames coming out of their exhaust when they shift gears. If you’ve watched Top Gear’s review on the Prodrive P2, you will see that the P2 has it too. That’s a misfiring system in action. Let’s just call it anti-lag from now on. So what does anti-lag do?

Click here to read the rest of What is an anti-lag or misfiring system?

Proton will be bringing in new models like the Gen2, Satria Neo, Savvy and Waja into the Indonesian car market in January 2007. It currently sells the Proton Wira there, which are assembled at it’s Cikarang plant in West Java. The USD$20 million Cikarang plant has a full capacity of 50,000 cars a year, or 4166 cars a month, but currently only outputs 300 Proton Wiras a month.

The Proton Wira is mainly marketed as a taxi in Jakarta, Surabaya and Medan, and will continue to be sold there to the same target market of taxi drivers. Proton admits however, that the Indonesian market currently seems to be particularly interested in MPVs.

Proton aims to sell 3,000 cars a year there once it’s Indonesian operations are fully set up. Which makes me wonder, if 3,000 is a target, then how much is being sold now? 300 Proton Wiras produced a month is already 3,600 Wiras a year. Does this mean unsold Wiras are being stockpiled in yards?

Source

Perodua aims to increase export activity beginning mid-2007 with it’s Indonesian exports spearheading the export drive. Originally, the Perodua Myvi was to be exported to other ASEAN countries in the second half of 2006, but domestic orders have been averaging 7,000 units a month for the last three months.

The plans were postponed due to the lack of production capacity available for export. Perodua intends to help create a compact car market in Indonesia and sell about 500 Perodua Myvi cars a month. Indonesia has a relatively low person to car ratio and the automotive industry volume in 2006 to date is 30-40 percent lower than the same period last year. Compact cars will be welcome in the Indonesian market. Just October last year, the Indonesian government raised fuel prices by 87% in drastic measures to reduce subsidies that are hurting the government coffers.

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