Toyota is considering adding a small monocoque two-door pick-up truck (think Proton Arena) to the Scion car line-up, which should fit right in to the whole youth and lifestyle angle of the Scion marque. Rumours are that a likely name for this new vehicle would be the Scion xP, with the P naturally standing for Pick-Up.

Scion currently has three cars in it’s line-up - the xB and xD 5-door hatches and the tC 2-door coupe. The new Scion xP’s styling could be based on the previously exhibited Scion FUSE concept shown above, which is something like a 2-door pick-up, except the truck bed is a large boot integrated into the coupe-hatch-like design. Translated into a real world production version, a traditional pick-up bed might be used instead.

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Inspired by the spyshots of the performance-oriented Proton Satria Neo prototype posted earlier today, talented Theophilus Chin has worked some photoshop magic and produced this artist’s impression of a Proton Satria Neo GTi.

Bumper design as well as hood vents are inspired from the design we saw in the spyshots, and an intercooler has been added, peeking out from the center bumper intake. Theophilus has also added wheel arch extensions, though he has omitted the “screw holes” that we saw on the prototype car.

The bling wheels have been swapped with larger 6-spoke wheels though not of the same design as the prototype car, and behind these are red Brembo calipers.

Click the image above to have a look at a larger version of the image for more detail. What do you think?

Piezo fuel injectors are all the rage for turbodiesel engines these days for the superior performance they have. Pieze injectors (graphic shown) can inject fuel using multiple jets and multiple injections per cycle, and is the key to reduce in-cylinder emissions, boost performance, and reduce noise. This comes at a cost however - piezo injectors are expensive as the piezo crystal that gives it it’s name is expensive to produce.

Robert Bosch GmbH says it has succeeded in developing a solenoid valve injector that can handle up to 29,000 pounds per square inch of pressure and will launch it later this year. This new solenoid valve injector comes very close to the performance of piezo injectors.

While high end manufacturers like Mercedes Benz would likely still go for piezo instead for benefits of better refinement and reduced engine noise, Bosch targets the mid-range customers for this new solenoid valve injector.

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Here is a video of a Caterham Seven driven by Ken Evans going up the Loton Park hillclimb route. Driving at such speeds in what is essentially a big go-kart with a car engine is exciting. Video after jump.

Video courtesy of: Seven Builder

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A reader sent in these photos of what appears to be a more aggressively kitted Proton Satria Neo complete with something that looks like a big cardboard made to look like an intercooler smack in the middle of front bumper, hiding details on how it looks like from our eyes. Or it could be a real one, I’m not too sure. The foglamp inserts seem to be shaped differently though.

We also see a more prominent roof spoiler at the rear, as well as more pronounced wheel arches complete with the Satria GTI’s “screw” design, which leads me to believe this might be a prototype grey Proton Satria Neo GTI getting some tender loving care in the form of a car wash.

The alloy wheels of a new non-bling design, but they look like they remain to be 16 inch-sized. Peeking out from behind those 6-spoke alloys are what seems to be red-coloured brake calipers. If you look carefully at the hood, you will notice what appears to be two hood vents on the left and right of the hood.

A look at the EXIF data of the photos reveal that the shots were taken with a Fuji Finepix Z1 on 17 May 2007, exactly a month ago, thought it might be just taken yesterday, just that the camera’s date and time settings were wrongly set.

This could either be something from Proton, or a custom kit done by a Neo owner himself. More shots after the jump, but they are pretty much of the same angle.

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Volkswagen’s facelifted Touareg, known as the Touareg 2 in markets like the US, is now available in Malaysia.

With the new facelift, the new Touareg gets a few enhancements, like an upgrade from 3.2 liters to 3.6 liters for the baseline model that is sold here. This increase in displacement boosts power from 240 horsepower to 280 horsepower. However, the pre-facelift model sold here by Volkswagen Malaysia already had this new engine.

Despite being facelifted, it hasn’t got a pricelift - the new Volkswagen Touareg facelift maintains it’s pre-facelift price of RM437,282 without insurance.

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Volkswagen Touareg 2 facelift launched in US

The Volkswagen Golf GT is quickly becoming a favourite with the automotive world, heck, even I wish I could lay my hands on one, and the little boost meter on the top right of this blog is actually from the Golf GT’s dashboard meter panel.

The engine requires no introduction - the highest end of the TSI engine family that makes 170 horsepower and a peak torque of 240Nm thanks to the use of a supercharger and turbocharger for the low and top ends of the rev range.

The latest award to be received by Volkswagen for the Golf GT is the Barcelona International Motor Show Awards, of which more than 100 automotive projects compete for to win the honour of the “best technological innovation of the year.”

Increasing demand for diesel-burning Toyota cars in the European market has prompted isuzu to build a new plant in Japan to increase supply to keep up with demand. The new US$110.5 million plant in Hokkaido is set to be completed by 2012, and will make up to 200,000 units of a new 1.6 liter turbodiesel engine a year.

Japanese newspaper Nikkei reports that this new 1.6 liter turbodiesel engine will be jointly developed by Toyota and diesel-experts Isuzu, and will be used in C-segment cars like the Toyota Corolla for the European market.

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The Nissan Titan is Nissan’s full-sized pick-up truck offering in the US, and is powered by a 5.6 liter 32 valve V8 engine codenamed VK56DE, making 317 horsepower and 522Nm of torque at 3,600rpm. It uses the same ladderframe platform as many other Nissan trucks, including the Nissan Frontier available here on local shores.

Nissan wants to change this from being a petrol-only offering to one that has a diesel option by 2009, proving that more and more manufacturers are responding to a growing interest in diesel vehicles in petrol-loving America.

The new diesel engine will be built by U.S. truck and engine maker Navistar International Corp. For it to have more torque than the petrol’s 522Nm, it would need to be at least a 3.0 to 3.5 liter I suppose. A modern turbodiesel around that size could make between 600 to 700Nm of torque.

PSA Peugeot Citroen said going into the market of premium vehicles with a new marque might be one of the options it is considering, a move much like Nissan and Toyota with their Infiniti and Lexus brands respectively. While these two brands have had considerable success (especially Lexus), a similira move by Mazda with the Amati badge was a failure even before it was launched.

French magazine Challenges reported that PSA Peugoet Citroen might revive the old Panhard brand for it’s luxury marque, a report that PSA Peugeot Citroen declined to comment on. Panhard was a French car manufacturer that was established in 1890, but it’s modern day existence is limited to light tactical and military vehicles.

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