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Mazda has unveiled the North American domestic market version of its new second generation Mazda 6. More details are to come later, but from the initial press release we know that the North American version has slightly different styling on the front and rear end, and the option for a large 3.7 liter V6 engine mated to a 6-speed auto as the flagship model. The other engine variant is the 2.5 liter inline-4 engine mated to a 5-speed auto. More details to come when Mazda issues a full press kit.

More images after the jump.

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The MINI Clubman and its higher powered sibling the Clubman S is now available in the Malaysian market, priced at RM 225,000.00 and RM 259,000.00 respectively OTR without insurance. It’s a 5-door as opposed to the Cooper’s 3-door body, but the configuration of the 5-doors is not what you would expect.

Instead of having 4 doors on the sides and 1 rear hatch, the MINI Clubman has 2 doors on 1 side, 1 door on the other, and 2 doors for the rear hatch. The double-hinged rear hatch reinterprets the design of the old estate-body MINIs. The additional door on the right side of the car is called the “Clubdoor”, and does not have a handle on the outside. It can only be opened when the driver’s door is open.

It’s up to you to decide whether this door is actually useful or not but as for me I think having this Clubdoor on the passenger side makes more sense. It would also mean the Clubdoor would open to the curb instead of onto the road, facilitating safer loading of goods or passengers. Unfortunately BMW’s engineers designed the Clubman primarily for left hand drive markets where this Clubdoor would be on the passenger side of the car. They say it would be too costly to reengineer the Clubdoor’s position for right hand drive markets because of the position of the fuel filler and other components.

While the use of the MINI Cooper’s rear seats are at best acceptable, the Clubman adds an additional 80mm of legroom for the rear passengers, thanks to an overall increase of 240mm in length for the overall car. The bootspace is now also more usable at 260 liters, extendable to 930 liters with the rear seats down.

Engine options for the Clubman and Clubman S are the same as the Cooper and Cooper S. The Clubman gets a normally aspirated 1.6 liter Valvetronic engine producing 120 horsepower at 6,000rpm and 160Nm of torque at 4,250rpm. The real scorcher is the 1.6 liter direct injection twin-scroll turbocharged engine making 175 horsepower at 5,500rpm and a peak torque of 240Nm right down from 1,600rpm up to 5,000rpm. This increases to 260Nm momentarily during overboost, which the car activates automatically depending on your throttle behaviour.

10 body colours are available for the new Clubman - two solid colours which are Chili Red and Pepper White, and the rest are metallic: Astro Black, Sparkling Silver, British Racing Green, Pure Silver, Lightning Blue, Dark Silver, Laser Blue and Hot Chocolate. Interior trim can also be customised with four interior colours and five Colour Lines. The seats are offered in cloth, cloth/leather, full leather, and premium Leather Lounge upholstery. Some of these upholstery can be configured to match the exterior paint.

Safety features include ABS anti-lock brakes, Electronic Brakeforce Distribution, Cornering Brake Control, and Dynamic Stability Control including hill start-off assistance which automatically helps you apply the brakes so you can start off from inclines without the car rolling backwards.

There is also an optional MINI Tender Loving Care package which is similiar to BMW’s Service Inclusive. For RM888, you do not have to pay for your MINI’s maintenance for 3 years or 50,000km.

More photos of the MINI Clubman available after the jump.

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Subaru is worried that its upcoming “AE86 spiritual successor” rear-wheel drive coupe that it will share with Toyota may erode its image as a niche all-wheel drive specialist, according to Subaru’s overseas marketing chief Masatsugu Nagato.

Its marketing team also has to figure out how to differentiate its own version of the car from the Toyota product, as it is very likely that there will be many major markets where both cars will be sold side by side as there will not be Toyota-only or Subaru-only designated markets.

Then again, we can look at Audi, a car manufacturer that is much older than Subaru. Audi is now rather famous for its quattro all-wheel drive system despite having many front-wheel drive models in its line-up. Is rear-wheel drive for the new small Subaru really a cause for worry? At least it still uses a horizontally-opposed engine! As long as it is a fantastic drive, they should do fine. After all, the rear wheel drive boxer engine specialist image already has another car to “taint” it - the new Subaru Justy.

According to Autocar UK, the Subaru boxer engine in question will be a normally aspirated 2.0 liter inline-4 boxer putting out 175 horsepower for the base model, with a turbocharged 2.5 liter model to come later, possibly with all-wheel drive. Autocar says they have viewed top-secret sketches of the car and have produced the artist impression shown in the thumbnail above based on those sketches. You can click the thumbnail to view the full image. It looks rather like a Scion tC crossed with a Hyundai Coupe.

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Apparently there has been some criticism on how modern Lamborghinis have become no more than Audis on steroids (especially with the introduction of the Audi R8), so president Stephen Winkelmann has announced a new policy that future common parts with the rest of the Volkswagen/Audi bin will not exceed more than 20%.

The 20% will include things like electrics, hoses, filters, and other more “hidden” components which will not affect Lamborghini’s “DNA” as perceived by enthusiasts.

In the same interview Winkelmann also confirmed two more versions of the Lamborghini Gallardo - a rear-wheel drive version and another track-focused barebones lightweight version like the Superleggera (shown above). The current Gallardo uses a rear-biased all-wheel drive system.

Daimler is reacquiring a stake in its old division Tognum, which supplies diesel engines and driveshafts to the German automaker. Daimler will buy the 22.3% stake for 585 million Euros. Tognum was previously a division of DaimlerChrysler (now Daimler) called MTU Friedrichshafen, but was sold off to the EQT investment group when DaimlerChrysler got too caught up with trying to sort out Chrysler and was unable to give MTU Friedrichshafen the attention it needed. This was back in 2005. Kind of like like Proton selling off MV Agusta actually.

The Korean domestic market Kia Sportage gets a different exterior look than the facelift that we received last year. The Korean Sportage gets a more Rondo/c’eed-like look on the front end.

Two engine options with a total of three variants are available in Korea - a 2.0 liter CVVT petrol engine with a 2WD drivetrain, or a 2.0 liter turbodiesel with a Variable Geometry turbocharger available with either a 2WD or 4WD drivetrain.

The turbodiesel engine is the more powerful one, putting out 151 PS at 3,800rpm and 320Nm of torque at 2,000rpm as opposed to the petrol engine’s 142 PS at 6000rpm and 188Nm of torque at 4,500rpm.

More images of the KDM Sportage after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Kia Sportage for Korean Domestic Market

Fiat has picked Serbia to be the production base for its new low-cost car. It will use Zastava’s former plant in Kragujevac, Serbia, with an initial capacity of 200,000 units a year, with plans for this to be upped to 300,000 units from 2010 onwards. Fiat will invest a sum of 700 million euros into the production line, and the Serbia will contribute 200 million euros through tax breaks and incentives.

The first model to be built at the Serbian plant will be called the Fiat Topolino. Fiat had a car called the Topolino back in the 1930s, and it was a two-seat minicar. The new Fiat Topolino will be based on the Fiat 500 and Fiat Panda’s platform, and will be a shorter vehicle than either of the two vehicles at 3150mm long. The Panda currently measures 3538mm long, and the Fiat 500 about 3550mm long. An upscale variant of the Topolino will be marketed under the Lancia brand. Topolino means “little mouse” in Italian.

It was previously reported that Fiat might revive the Uno or Palio name for a new low cost car program. Fiat announced that from 2010 onwards, a new low-cost car project currently codenamed the B-compact family will be produced at the Serbian plant. This should be the new low cost car, but no name was revealed.

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According to a report by Turkish paper Today’s Zaman, Proton intends to make Turkey its European production center. Proton’s Turkish distributor is Ulu Motor, part of the Ulubaslar Group.

The Turkish automotive industry produced 1.13 million vehicles last year, and expects to hit the 2 million annual production mark by 2012. It is now ranked number 10 in the world in terms of annual production of cars. In the past 4 months this year, Turkey’s automotive exports rose 52% compared to the same period in 2007.

Mercedes-Benz has launched its new compact SUV, the Mercedes-Benz GLK-Class, which is set to go against the likes of the BMW X3 and the Audi Q5. The GLK-Class has a sharp-edged boxy look to it, perhaps to pay homage to the larger G Wagon, which the GLK shares the G model letter with.

Mercedes-Benz says the design also allows the typical advantages of a proper off-roader to be offered on a compact SUV like large approach and departure angles and good ground clearance. It’s 4MATIX all-wheel drive system splits torque at a 45:55 front to rear split during normal conditions. A multi-disc clutch in the centre differential allows a basic partial locking torque of 50 newton metres between the front and rear axle.

There is a button labelled G that you can press to activate a special off-road driving program for the 7G-TRONIC transmission which softens the accelerator pedal so that you can modulate how much throttle input you want to put in more precisely. This makes it easier to tackle off-road conditions with low-friction surfaces. There is also a Downhill Speed Regulation system which lets you set a maximum speed and just let the GLK roll down a hill, with the DSR system controlling the braking automatically.

At launch, the GLK-Class is available in 4 variants - the GLK 220 CDI BlueEFFICIENCY, the GLK 320 CDI, the GLK 280 or the GLK 350, with the first two being turbodiesel engines and the other two being V6 petrol engines. The GLK 220 CDI BlueEFFICIENCY’s 2.2 liter inline-4 engine puts out 170 horsepower and 400Nm of torque between 1,400 to 2,800rpm. This engine is from the recently launched OM651 twin-turbocharged turbodiesel family. The GLK 320 CDI’s V6 turbodiesel puts out 224 horses and 540Nm of torque.

The petrol-powered GLK 280 and GLK 350 put out 231 horsepower and 272 horsepower respectively. Both turbodiesel and petrol V6 variants use Mercedes-Benz’s 7G-Tronic transmission which features 7 forward speeds and two reverse speeds.

More photos and 4 videos of the new GLK-Class available after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Mercedes-Benz GLK-Class: Details and Photos

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Volkswagen will enter a factory-developed racing version of the new Volkswagen Scirocco in the upcoming Nürburgring 24 Hours race to be held from May 24 to 25 2008. The racing-tuned Volkswagen Scirocco will feature the 2.0 liter TFSI engine tuned up to produce 300 PS, and will be mated to a direct-shift transmission based on DSG.

“The racing version of the Scirocco was developed and prepared by our technical staff in record time and we are well on schedule now that we have successfully completed this first endurance test (at the Oschersleben motorsport arena). The Nürburgring 24 Hours is the ideal platform to showcase the performance capabilities of this exciting coupe,” said Volkswagen Motorsport Director Kris Nissen.

The Nurburgring 24 Hours is officially called the ADAC 24h Rennen Nürburgring, introduced by ADAC as a low cost alternative to the 1000 km Nürburgring aimed mainly towards amateur drivers and relatively cheap production cars.

One more shot after the jump.

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