The new 8th generation Toyota Land Cruiser V8 has replaced its predecessor the Land Cruiser Amazon in the UK market. It continues the Land Cruiser’s trademark body on frame construction, which Toyota says tackles tough terrain better.

The new Land Cruiser V8 is powered by a new 4.5 liter D-4D common rail turbodiesel V8 engine. It produces 282 horsepower and 650Nm from a low 1,600rpm. It is engineered to work in temperatures from -30 to 50 degrees Celcius. It channels power through a 6-speed automatic gearbox with manual sequential gear selection and a set of low ratios. New to the Land Cruiser is the worlds first four-wheel Active Height Control and Adaptive Variable Suspension (4-Wheel AHC & AVS), a fully adjustable system that also provides spring rate control. It enhances wheel articulation to a point that the Land Cruiser is able to crawl over steps with a 630mm height difference without lifting a wheel off the ground! The Land Cruiser is also able to switch from H4 to the L4 set of low ratios without stopping - at up to speeds of 4.8 km/h.

The interior seats 7, and occupants are protected by 14 airbags including front knee airbags and curtain shield airbags along the entire length of the cabin. Creature comforts include four-zone climate control air conditioning, full-map satellite navigation, Bluetooth, rear parking monitor, nine-speaker sound system with six-DVD autochanger and leather upholstery. The ICE may be upgraded to an optional JBL audio system with iPod integration and rear LCD screens for watching DVDs.

More photos after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Toyota Land Cruiser V8 launched in the UK

The 3-door version of the Mazda 2, already available in 5-door form will be unveiled soon at the 2008 Geneva Motor Show. It will be powered by the same engine range as the 5-door version - a 1.3 liter petrol, a 1.5 liter petrol and a 1.4 liter turbodiesel. A sedan bodystyle has also been unveiled previously in China, so that makes 3 bodystyles so far for the Mazda 2. More photos to be unveiled at the Geneva show.

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The 5-door Hyundai Elantra Touring was unveiled at the Montreal International Auto Show, and is basically the Hyundai i30 CW wagon with a different name. Under the hood is a 2.0 liter inline-4 engine putting out 141 horsepower, mated to either a 5-speed manual or a 4-speed automatic.

More photos after the jump.

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Reader Maru sent in a batch of amazing photos of the Proton Waja CPS and the Proton GEN2 CPS, which were spotted at a resort in Port Dickson last week. Continue reading this post after the jump for the clearest shots of the car so far, including photos of the Waja CPS’s interior, which has some minor changes.

[ UPDATE: Latest news, showroom photos of the new Proton Waja CPS 1.6. ]

[ UPDATE: The facelifted Proton GEN2 with a new range of Campro IAFM and Campro CPS engines has been launched in Malaysia! Click for more details. ]

Click here to read the rest of SPYSHOT: Proton Waja CPS and Proton GEN2 CPS exterior and interior

The new 2009 Hummer H3T will be unveiled to the public at the 2008 Chicago Auto Show, but product photos have already been released on the internet. The H3T is essentially a pickup truck version of the Hummer H3, based on the H3/Chevy Colorado chassis but has its wheelbase stretched by 86mm to allow for a pickup bed and maintain good cabin space at the same time.

There are a few engine options - a Vortec 3.7 liter inline-5 making 245 horsepower at 5,600rpm and 328Nm at 4,600rpm or a 5.3 liter V8 putting out 304 horsepower and 433Nm of torque. Both engine options are fitted with 4-speed autos, while the inline-5 is also available with a 5-speed manual.

More photos after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of 2009 Hummer H3T to be unveiled at Chicago 2008

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The Mitsubishi Lancer 2.0 GT is flying off the shelves and there is currently a 12 month waiting for the car, so if you book the car now you will most probably receive it in end-January 2009. When contacted, Mitsubishi Motors Malaysia said the long waiting period is due to overwhelming demand coupled with global production constraints.

Also, there will be a price hike, which Mitsubishi Motors Malaysia says is due to unfavorable exchange rates. According to Mitsubishi, majority of customers who placed bookings in the first two months of launch (August and September 2007) may enjoy the current price, but some may have to pay the hiked price, which is RM119,624.10 OTR without insurance. This new higher price will be effective September 2008 onwards, so if you manage to get your Lancer 2.0 GT before September, you will pay the original price.

As for the few units of the Mitsubishi Lancer 2.0 GLS variants which are already on Malaysian roads, Mitsubishi Motors Malaysia has no plans to officially launch the GLS at the moment, but have brought in limited units to offer to those who have made bookings for the Lancer GT as an alternative car for those who do not want to wait for their 2.0 GT. The Lancer GLS is priced at RM114,500 OTR with insurance.

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The Fiat Bravo now has two new engine options, a 105 horsepower turbodiesel and a 120 horsepower turbodiesel - both 1.6 liter Fiat Multijet 16v engines in different states of tune. The new 120 horsepower 16 liter Multijet replaces the old 120 horses 1.9 liter Multijet. The new Multijet’s torque has improved by 25% - 300Nm at 1,500rpm (105hp version has 290Nm), and its consumption has been reduced by 8%, measured on the NEDC cycle. Noise levels has been reduced by 5%. Acceleration time from 80-120 km/h in 5th gear is almost 4 seconds lower.

Most impressively, the engine has a service interval of 35,000km, reducing normal maintenance costs by 25%! The Fiat Bravo is a fun little car especially with a manual gearbox. Read my earlier short test drive report of the 1.4 liter T-JET turbocharged petrol version linked in the related post list below.

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Fiat Bravo GT 1.4 T-JET 150hp Short Test Drive

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The new Skoda Superb will be unveiled at the 2008 Geneva Motor Show, but here are some details released before the event. The new Superb will have a new feature called the Twindoor, which is basically both a sedan and a hatchback’s boot-opening mechanism both rolled into one. Twindoor allows the boot lid to be opened like a sedan - only the bootlid swings open, or like a hatchback where the rear window also tilts open together for full access to the 565 liter luggage space.

Six engine options will be available, divided equally into petrol or diesel powered options. The baseline engines will be the 122 horsepower 1.4 liter TSI engine and the 158 horsepower 1.8 liter TSI engine, while the top of the range petrol engine will be the 3.6 liter FSI V6 putting out a healthy 256 horsepower.

Oil burner options include a 1.9 TDI PD DPF with 103 horsepower, a 2.0 TDI PD DPF engine with 138 horsepower, and finally a new 2.0 TDI CR DPF which features common rail injection, producing 168 horsepower.

More photos including an interior shot after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Skoda Superb pre-Geneva preview photos

More details of the upcoming Ford Focus RS available on the net now - the latest scoop is a 280 horsepower upgraded version of the 2.5 liter inline-5 engine in the Focus ST, which makes its additional power via upgraded pistons, cams, valve springs, a bigger turbo, a larger intercooler, and a tuned up ECU.

The car may or may not get the new Ford/Volvo 6-speed PowerShift, and despite being aimed at the all-wheel drive Volkswagen Golf R32, it will be a front wheel drive car.

As previously mentioned, the Focus RS will be revealed at the London Motor Show in July this year, so stay tuned.

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Audi displayed this turbodiesel-powered Audi R8 at the 2008 Detroit Auto Show earlier this month. Peek through the rear hatch where the engine bay is and you will see the huge 6.0 liter V12 TDI turbodiesel engine based on the 5.5 liter V12 TDI engine used in Audi’s 24 Hours of Lemans 2006 and 2007 winner, the Audi R10 race car. The engine is mated to a 6-speed manual gearbox.

This road-going, Euro VI-compliant version of the engine is built at Audi’s Gyor plant in Hungary, and puts out 500 horsepower and 1,000Nm of torque from as low as 1,750rpm, just over idle speed! This massive amount of power and torque sends the Audi R8 V12 TDI to 100km/h in just 4.2 seconds. Putting all that torque to the wheels is Audi’s famous quattro system, sending power to all four wheels in a 40:60 front to rear ratio. The engine bay is illuminated at night with LEDs and can be seen through the rear glass hatch.

The V12 TDI’s crank case is made of gray cast iron with vermicular graphite, a material that Audi calls GJV-450. Audi is already using it in its V6 TDI and V8 TDI engines. This material is 40% more rigid and 100% more fatigue-resistant than conventional gray cast iron. This allowed Audi to make the engine block thinner, cutting weight by 15%.

The mind-boggling grand total of 1000Nm of torque between 1,750rpm and 3,000rpm are thanks to two variable turbine turbochargers located outside of the V bank that blow up to 2.6 bar of boost pressure into the two banks of cylinders. These turbos have two large intercoolers. Exhaust exists from each turbo into its own exhaust system - this means twin exhaust and even twin particular filters.

The cylinder head is made from 3 main elements, a high-strengh aluminium alloy base, an oil bearing upper section and a reinforcing ladder frame supporting the two camshafts. Low-friction roller cam followers actuate the 4 valves per cylinder, and cylinder compression ratio is 16.0:1. Diesel is injected via a Bosch common rail system featuring two new dual-piston high pressure pumps and eight-hole nozzle piezo injectors, injecting with a pressure of up to 2,000 bar.

The piezo injectors can inject up to 5 fuel operations per cycle. Other than main injection, pilot and post injections are possible. Pilot injections tone down the acoustic harshness of the combustion process. Post injections are designed specifically to increase the temperature of the exhaust gas for the two standard particulate filters.

I cannot even begin to imagine 1,000Nm of torque, all of which you can feel during acceleration because they are put down to the ground efficiently thanks to quattro. I just can’t. Can you? More photos after the jump.

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