Alfa Romeo drivers, who call themselves the Alfisti are very passionate about their cars. Oops, pardon me of the sacrilege I just committed calling Alfas mere cars, as the Alfisti refer to their Italian beasts as their Bellas, which is basically Italian for something curvy and sexy that you’d like to spend the whole night with, awake.

Which isn’t exactly untrue - I was dead tired after a long day which stretched to 4am, and I should have really gone back to get some shut eye - but I still wanted to take the Alfa Romeo 147 on a few spins around the empty roads of my neighbourhood. And that’s exactly what I did. The sound of the TwinSpark engine roaring in the silence of the night - you really have to experience it for yourself.

Here’s my take on the Alfa Romeo 147 2.0 Twinspark Selespeed. [UPDATED!]

Click here to read the rest of Alfa Romeo 147 2.0 Twinspark Selespeed Test Drive

Yesterday, the traffic police lowered fines for traffic offences by amounts between 15% to 75%, to help with the rakyat’s rising cost of living due to rising oil prices. The reduction in rates applied to most offences except dangerous cases like fatal accidents, driving without a license and illegal racing. The rates were reduced in accordance to the seriousness of the offence, with minor offences having the most reduction of 75%, which could be as much as a RM200 reduction.

Another rationale given was to make fines affordable enough for public to choose to pay the fines instead of bribing policemen. However, with the reduction of fines there would no longer be the option of appealing for a reduced settlement.

Today, Transport Minister Datuk Seri Chan Kong Choy (also MCA Deputy President) expressed suprise on the move by the traffic police, saying they were not consulted by the police before the implementation of the discounts, instead having to find out about it via the media. The Ministry of Transport feels A reduction would reduce the deterrent effect of the fines, and could possibly affect the Ministry’s road safey campaigns.

Naturally, Datuk Seri Chan proceeded to bring this matter up with the Cabinet to discuss it with the Prime Minister. After today’s Cabinet meeting, it was decided that the reduction of fines would be postponed until the police, Road Transport and Road Safety Department officials, and Internal Security Ministry officials have sat down and discussed this issue as well as numerous other issues.

The move to reduce fines comes off as pretty awkward to me, if the cost of living is high enough to hurt us, the solution is easy - just don’t break the rules and you won’t get fined. Uh, most of the time anyway!

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This is the new Lancia Delta HPE Concept, which will be shown to the public at the Paris Motor Show, with a production version to roll off the lines sometime in 2008. The Lancia Delta HPE Concept is 4.5 meters long, 1.8 meters wide and 1.5 meters high, with a wheelbase of 2.7 meters. Trunk capacity is about 400 liters, which is not too bad. The Honda City has a 500 liter trunk while the Audi A4 has a 460 liter trunk.

The Lancia Delta HPE will be based on the new Fiat Bravo platform, and it’s expected that the car will come with a few engine options - 1.4 turbo with either 120PS or 150PS, a 1.8 turbo with 190PS, and two turbodiesels, a 1.6 oil burner with 120PS and a bigger 2.0 oil burner with 165PS.

The original Lancia Delta was a hatchback that was pretty successful, and it had a performance model called the Lancia Delta HF Integrale, fully geared up with a turbocharged engine and an AWD drivetrain. Some of you might be foreign to the name Lancia, an Italian automobile manufacturer which is somewhat less well known than it’s other Fiat Group siblings - Fiat, and Alfa Romeo. However, Lancia has clocked up the most WRC manufacturer’s championship victories so far in the history of the race. Lancia’s rally-equipped Delta HF Integrale was the car responsible for dominating the World Rally Championship, scoring 46 WRC victories overall and winning the Constructors Championship six times in a row from 1987 to 1992, a record.

Click here to read the rest of Lancia Delta HPE Concept

More Volvo tuning goodness for you! This is Heico’s Volvo C70 II, one of the two Volvo C70 convertibles that Heico has kitted up. The Heico kit is a full tune-up kit, not just interior and exterior enhancements but also performance enhancements that affect the engine, suspension and brakes.

There are a few performance parts which you can opt to install from Heico. Let me break down the options one by one. Engine upgrades include a Heico Sportiv ECU upgrade T5 which boosts power from 220hp to 250hp and torque from 320Nm to 360Nm. 0-100km/h acceleration goes from 7.6 seconds to 7.2 seconds.

Other upgrades include performance air filters, and a special Heico LSD differential. Exhaust system upgrades come in either twin tailpipe or 4 tailpipe versions. Sports springs are available for suspension upgrades. Brakes can be upgraded to 4-piston caliper brakes. There are a few wheel choices available, but in this photo set the car adorns Heico Sportiv Volution V wheels. Don’t ask me why it’s spelled Volution instead of Evolution.

As for exterior bodykits, you have front lips and a special cornering light upgrade. This cornering light upgrade swivels your fog lamps to the left or right when you are making a turn. Then of course, to get the full Heico experience on the inside, you have Heico gear knobs, hand brake handles, aluminium foot pedals and leather interior trim.

Two more photos and ECU upgrade power/torque curve after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Heico Volvo C70

FAW Tianjin Xiali Automobile is Toyota’s partner in China. They’ve recently launched a few compact car called the FAW Xiali C1 back in the first half of 2006, but I did not notice it until reader ShadowFox pointed it out to me. The Xiali C1 rides on a 2425mm long platform, and measures 3810×1670×1480 mm. Engines range from 1.3 liter to 1.6 liter.

The front lights look like it was taken off the Suzuki SX4, and the rear lamps are clearly inspired by Audi’s eagle head shaped rear lamps. But the whole shape of the car in it’s entirety looks very familiar, I’ll let you decide for yourself what it reminds you of.

More photos after the jump, including photos of the car’s interior which features a center-mounted dashboard meter panel very similiar to the Naza Sutera’s. FAW was also the company responsible for the FAW Xinfu Happy Messenger electric car.

Click here to read the rest of FAW Xiali C1

MalaysiaKini quotes financial weekly The Edge in reporting two proposals to buy over government investment arm Khazanah Nasional’s 42.7 percent stake in Proton. These proposals are said to be from Naza and DRB-HICOM. MalaysiaKini’s article also says Sime Darby Berhad’s CEO Ahmad Zubir Murshid told The Edge that Sime Darby also had submitted such a proposal a long time ago but no further details have been revealed.

I don’t have a copy of this week’s The Edge, so this is pretty much all the details I have on the issue. But such a news will surely trigger a query from Bursa Malaysia, so let’s wait for DRB-HICOM’s response on the issue. Previously DRB-HICOM responded to a Bursa Malaysia query on a similiar report by BizWeek titled “DRB-HICOM steers towards Proton” on 12th August 2006 with a statement denying any talks or negotiations with any Proton Holdings Berhad shareholders regarding a purchase of stake.

Perusahaan Otomobil Kedua Sdn Bhd (Perodua) is set to follow Toyota’s footsteps with TopMark and venture into the used-car business in a year’s time. Perodua Managing Director Syed Hafiz Syed Abu Bakar says Perodua has been studying the used car market over the past one year, including observing how Japan conducts it’s second hand vehicle auction concept that is so successful that it attracts international buyers.

Syed Hafiz says in matured markets, there will be fewer and fewer first-time buyers of new cars, just like what is happening in Malaysia now. Perhaps over here it is more of the fact that first time car buyers are usually very young and have just started working, and with their meagre salaries they cannot go anywhere else but turn to the second hand car market. Perodua’s used car business will deal in both Perodua and non-Perodua makes.

As for it’s new car business, the Myvi is still doing well and Perodua will invest RM295 million to incraese capacity to 240,000 units from it’s current capacity of 205,000. Perodua also wants to lit it’s export volume to 10,000 units a year from the current 3,000 units.

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After a few spyshots including some showing the new CR-V fully undisguised, Honda has put out an official announcement that the car will make it’s debut this month at the 2006 Paris International Motor Show. For now, specifications and official photos from Honda have been released. Let’s take a look at the all-new 2007 Honda CR-V!

[UPDATE: The new 2007 Honda CR-V has been launched in Malaysia! Click here to read my report on the launch!]

[UPDATE #2: Read my 2007 Honda CR-V Test Drive Report!]

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

Since the previous posting on a few concept versions of the Volvo C30 by tuners got some pretty positive feedback, I’ve decided to showcase a few tune-up concepts by Volvo tuners. This is Heico Sportiv’s Heico HS4 Odin Concept car, based on the new Volvo S40. Heico created this blue beast to show at the 2005 Essen Motor Show, slapping on some nice bodykits as well as tuning up the car’s 2.5 liter turbocharged T5 powerplant. More details after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Heico HS4 Odin Concept based on Volvo S40

100 Proton cars will hit the streets of Saudi Arabia by mid-September, brought in by Riyadh-based Al Rashed & Al Thunayyan Auto Co. Al Rashed & Al Thunayyan Auto Co is Proton’s exclusive distributor in Saudi Arabia, appointed by Proton for the period of 5 years.

The distributorship contract involves a volume commitment of 1,060 units for the first year, 1,800 units for the second year and 2,400 units for the third year. Al Rashed & Al Thunayyan Auto Co expects to sell between 100 to 120 units monthly in the beginning and hopes this will grow to between 4,000 to 5,000 units annually in the future.

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