Mitsubishi has launched a new special edition 3-door Colt in the UK, sporting some very nice black paint worthy of it’s Black Hawk nickname. Two spec levels are offered, one with a 1.1 liter normally aspirated 3-cylinder 74 horsepower gasoline engine, and a much faster one called the CZT, with a 1.5 liter turbocharged MIVEC inline-4 making 147 horsepower. The limited edition Colt Black Hawk is available in a limited edition run of 400 units, while the more exclusive Colt Black Hawk CZT has as 200-unit run.

I’ve driven the Colt offered locally in Malaysia before, and with it’s punchy 1.5 liter normally aspirated MIVEC engine combined with a smooth CVT gearbox, and a pretty inspiring drive despite it’s height, it’s really not bad a buy for those who can afford it. Recently a few units were sold off at a lower price, even better value for money!

Click here to read the rest of Mitsubishi Colt Black Hawk CZT

BMW North America CEO Tom Purves says BMW sees a market for a car positioned above the BMW 7-Series but below the Rolls Royce models, and would likely offer a premium four-seater sedan based on the BMW Concept CS shown recently at the 2007 Shanghai Auto Show.

“BMW is predominantly interested in building very beautiful luxury sport sedans. The Concept CS is not a stretched or modified anything. It has aerodynamic style and presence, which is important for customers in that category. Our dealers, having seen the photos, are very excited. They love it. I don’t know the research from the auto show. If media and dealers like it, there’s a good chance the customers will,” said Purves.

This retro-looking coupe is actually reskinned BMW 6-series. It’s design cues are based on an old Russian sporty car, the Volga GAZ-21 from the 1950s. The result is this Volga 6-series Cabrio. The original Volga GAZ-21 was a 4-door car, but it has now been turned into a 2-door cabriolet, not like that’s a bad thing.

Volgas were built to last in the harsh climate and rough roads of the then Soviet Union, complete with high ground clearance, a rugged suspension, a strong and abusable engine, and rustproofing on a scale unheard of in the 1950s. It was the most luxurious car any Soviet citizen was permitted to own, anything more expensive and you’d have to be more than a citizen - I don’t really know the rules of a communist. Volgas generally share a much much better brand perception than say, a Lada.

More photos after the jump, as well as a photo of the original Volga GAZ-21.

Click here to read the rest of BMW 6-series skinned to look like Volga GAZ-21

F1 cars might switch to turbocharged 2.2 liter V6 engines in 2011, if FIA president Max Mosley gets his way. And these engines might just use biofuel, and drivetrains might use all-wheel drive. Also suggested are power boost buttons much like the A1GP style, which should be achievable by upping the turbocharger boost.

These changes are an effort to make the F1 sport more cost-efficient, road relevant and environmentally friendly. Part of the environmentally-friendly strategy is to use a single engine for at least 5 GP races, instead of the current 1 engine to 2 race ratio.

Currently F1 cars are 2.4 liter V8s, having dropped from 3.0 liter V10s in 2006. The last use of a turbocharger in F1 was in 1988, with a ban being imposed the next year. These turbocharged engines were limited to 1.5 liter turbo engines, and 3.5 liter normally aspirated engines were also allowed. You had to pick either one.

The turbo engines usually made more power than the normally aspirated ones - 685 horsepower from a Honda RA168E turbo V6 limited to 2.5 bars of boost compared to Ford’s DFR 3.5 liter V8 making 585 horsepower.

Source

A front engined, front wheel drive hatch, converted to be a rear-engined, rear wheel drive monster. It’s happened before with the Renault Clio V6, and even a local has managed to stuff a Mitsubishi 4G63 VR4 Turbo engine into the rear of a Perodua Kancil. Now Volkswagen has pulled the same stunt with this show car it displayed at the Wörthersee 2007 meet in Austria. This is the Volkswagen Golf GTI W12 650 Concept.

You are correct to assume this particular concept would end up being a 650 horsepower W12-engine powered rocket due to it’s very indicative name. Only the production car’s hood, lights and doors remain - every other panel has been converted to have a widebody look. The C-pillar receives some engineering treatment, incorporating air intakes now to feed air into the engine mounted behind the driver and the front seat passenger.

The W12 engine is a 6.0 liter twin-turbocharged monster, found in the likes of the Audi A8 and Bentleys. It makes 550 horses in a Bentley, however in this car it makes 650 horsepower at 6,000rpm and 750Nm of torque to the rear wheels!

0-100km/h takes 3.7 seconds, a number that could perhaps be reduced if the car had all-wheel drive instead of just being rear wheel drive.

More photos of this monster after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Volkswagen Golf GTI W12 650 Concept

Some of you may have heard of Ghost Rider. No, not the comic book one, but motorcycle stunt rider Patrik Furstenhoff, who rose to infamy with his high speed journeys through cities like Stockholm where he is based. Stuff he does includes weaving through traffic at 300km/h. There’s also another dude who drove different cars through a city with a similar pace, called Getaway in Stockholm. However, that was done mostly at night with not much cars on the road.

But what about a Go-Kart? Kart Vader drives his 125cc shifter go-kart through Quebec City in Canada in the middle of the night, through both streets and highways, at speeds up to 160km/h. In a go kart! He’s selling DVDs of his 44 minute journey online. He has a free teaser trailer available though, and I’ve put it up after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Kart Vader: through the streets of Quebec

There has been no word yet from Volkswagen on the potential tie-up with Proton, says Second Finance Minister Nor Mohamed Yakcop. “Not yet. I will let you know one day … just give us a little time. We will resolve it,” he said.

As for General Motors, who have also been in talks with Proton, spokesperson Rob Leggat said GM is still interested in Proton and tie-up talks continue at preliminary stages. If Proton ends up having a tie-up with GM, you can be sure that we will see the re-entry of DRB-HICOM as a Proton stakeholder, as GM’s local partner in Malaysia is DRB-HICOM, who sells the group’s Chevrolet and (ex-)Suzuki brands. Suzukis was once controlled by GM, but GM has since divested in the Japanese automaker since 2006.

Theophilus Chin works his magic with Photoshop again to tease our imagination with his concept of how a special edition kitted up Perodua Viva might look like. His Perodua Viva Special Edition was created by adding the original Daihatsu Charade’s front bumper, widening its corner vents, adding fog lights from Peugeot 207 GTi, widening the front and rear wheel fenders, adding bigger wheels and rims from the Peugeot 207 GTi, deeper side skirt, black B and C-pillars, darkened headlights surrounds, a new grille from Mazda 3, and finally doing the body up in a metallic red-ish tone.

Click the image above to view an enlarged version.

Read more about the Perodua Viva:
Perodua Viva and Perodua Myvi Loan Comparison
Perodua Myvi vs Perodua Viva - Equipment and Specs Comparison
New Perodua Viva Full Details, Photos and Price!

Remember the Smartuki? A Smart Fortwo with a Suzuki engine. Here’s a similiar engine in a chassis that looks alot less likely to topple over any moment - the Mk1 Volkswagen Golf! In a chassis that’s been stripped down to weigh 650kgs, the 1.3 liter Hayabusa engine has now been turbocharged to make over 350 horsepower. Not sure if these videos were recorded before or after the forced induction modification. Nevertheless, the engine sounds damn sweet. Three videos after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Golf Mk1 with turbocharged Hayabusa engine

Proton is trying to cut down it’s dealership network by offering a voluntary separation scheme (VSS) to it’s dealers, offering a one time pay-off fee to compensate for them having to close down their dealerships. Proton offered RM150,000 to each dealer, money that it had obtained from the government - that’s RM10 million there. The money comes from the RM500 million Automotive Development Fund allocated in the Ninth Malaysia Plan

However, out of the 102 dealers that were offered this VSS scheme, only 36 accepted the offer. Many dealers snubbed the offer, saying it was too low. Most have written formally to Proton, saying they want more - amounts of up to RM500,000 were requested. The dealers say they invested up a minimum of RM200,000 to setup their operations.

Proton’s latest proposal is to increase the compensation to RM300,000 - double the earlier RM150,000 amount. To do this, it is requesting another RM16 million from the government. The 36 dealers who accepted the offer earlier would also be entitled to this higher amount.

Seriously now, RM26 million for Proton dealers?!?!

EDIT: I’ve added two more sources from Associated Press via Forbes, as well as Associated Press via Chron.

Source: Business Times, Chron, Forbes