Toyota FT-86 to feature D-4S Boxer engine

October 9, 2009 at 12:54 am By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, Concept Cars, International News, Toyota

Toyota D-4S Boxer

A pretty sharp reader managed to point out that the words found on the Toyota FT-86 boxer engine is actually D-4S Boxer and not C-45 Boxer. Now this makes so much sense, and also gives us an idea of the kind of technology that’s going to be found in the new engine. We can also predict its power output based on other engines that have featured D-4S and high compression in the past, like the 2GR-FSE.

The fact that the production version of the FT-86 coupe will feature D-4S is not new actually. Sometime earlier this year at the Tokyo Auto Salon, Akio Toyoda said that the production car will not be coming very soon because a new boxer engine with Toyota D-4S technology was still being developed. The Subaru version of the FT-86 (if it’s still going to be produced) will also feature its own Subaru D-4S Boxer engine.

D-4S is basically an advanced variant of Toyota’s D-4 direct injection system. You might have noticed D-4D badging on local Toyota Hilux pickups – that’s their diesel direct injection. D-4 is basically gasoline direct injection, and D-4S stands for D-4 Superior. D-4S combines both direct injection and conventional port injection for each cylinder which means two injectors per cylinder, or eight injectors if the engine is a 4-cylinder boxer like the FT-86 production car will have. The system will pick between the two types of injectors according to needs (here’s a good story on how it works).

In the 2GR-FSE 3.5 litre D-4S V6 engine, it allowed Toyota to tune the engine for very impressive torque to litre ratio figures for a normally aspirated engine. 377Nm of torque from a 3.5 litre engine while maintaining good emission, refinement and fuel consumption figures is not easy to get.

It won’t surprise me if the 2.0 litre D-4S Boxer engine in the production Toyota FT-86 coupe may make over 160 to 170 horsepower and around 210 to 215Nm of torque, which exceeds what regular 2.0 litre engines with port injection can do.

Related Posts:
Toyota FT-86 Concept – AE86 spiritual successor finally previewed!
VIDEO: Toyota FT-86 Concept in Gran Turismo

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Tokyo 2009: Daihatsu e:S compact car

October 8, 2009 at 5:43 pm By Paul Tan Filed Under 2009 Tokyo Motorshow, Cars, Daihatsu, International News

Daihatsu e:S Concept

This is the new Daihatsu e:S. It weighs just 700kg and is powered by a 660cc engine, typical of K-cars in Japan. The car looks like it’s in the same class as the Ford Ka and it uses a current Daihatsu production platform but with its wheelbase shortened to 2,175mm. That’s even shorter than the Viva’s 2,390mm. The light weight and the fuel efficient engine with features such as Idling Stop System results in an estimated fuel efficiency of 30km per litre under the Japan 10-15 test! In case you were wondering what the name meant – e:S stands for ‘eco and smart’.

Four larger photos available after the jump.
[Read more...]

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Naza to assemble ASEAN Peugeot 207 Sedan in Gurun from October 2010

October 8, 2009 at 5:03 pm By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, International News, Local News, Peugeot

Peugeot 207 Sedan

Peugeot and Naza signed an MoU for the assembly of the Peugeot 207 Sedan in Paris today. Naza’s plant in Gurun will be the production hub for the 207 Sedan for the ASEAN region from October 2010 onwards. For now, the Gurun plant will be the only right hand drive 207 Sedan assembler in the world. A production of 18,000 units a year is planned.

The 207 Sedan is essentially an updated 206 Sedan based on the 206 chassis. Previous stories revealed that it will be offered with a 1.6 litre engine, which is up from the 1.4 litre found in the Naza 206 Bestari.

Peugeot 207 Sedan

The project is referred to internally by Naza as the T33 Project. Naza is the current franchise holder for Peugeot here in Malaysia under its company Nasim Sdn Bhd. They’ve made a name for offering excellent value for money pricing for locally assembled cars such as the 308 and the 407, something that is really unusual with Continental makes here in Malaysia.

Ever since taking over the Peugeot franchise, Peugeot sales in Malaysia have risen from 748 units for the whole of 2008 to the current figure of 2758 units as of August 2009.

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Mazda 2 production begins at Rayong, Thailand

October 8, 2009 at 1:47 pm By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, International News, Mazda

Mazda 2 Facelift

There has been talk going around for quite some time now on the possibility of the Mazda 2 being offered here in Malaysia, but this piece of news released by Mazda Japan today probably pretty much seals the fact that we will most likely see the cute little compact car on our shores sooner or later. This is because Mazda has started production of the Mazda 2 at the AutoAlliance Thailand Co Ltd manufacturing facility in Rayong, Thailand. The plant is a JV with Ford.

mazda2-inside

Mazda expects collective ASEAN sales to be approximately 20,000 units per year. It was not mentioned in the press release whether the sedan or hatchback version will be built but the images that accompanied the press pack showed photos of the hatchback. Not a reason to discount the sedan of course.
[Read more...]

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New world land speed record (for the blind)

October 8, 2009 at 12:12 pm By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, International News, Mercedes Benz

SL65 AMG Black

A new world land speed record was set with a Mercedes-Benz SL 65 AMG Black Series this week. The car hit 322.5km/h at an Upington International Airport runway. The best part is – it was set by a blind man, Hein Wagner. And the record is of course the “land speed record for the blind.”

Wagner is a motivational speaker and he was born blind. He had also previously set a world land speed record for the blind back in 2005 in a Maserati, clocking 269km/h. It must be pretty scary to go that fast in a car when you can’t see.

His next challenge? Flying a Boeing with passengers from London to Johannesburg!

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Honda releases new images showing Accord Crosstour’s interior and luggage room

October 8, 2009 at 2:01 am By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, Honda, International News

Accord Crosstour Bootspace

The Honda Accord Crosstour may look like a Japanese take on the BMW X6, but at least it has seating for five. They’ve just released a new set of images showing the interior of the car especially the luggage areas – previous images were only of the exterior. The dashboard area looks pretty much similiar to the sedan and coupe variants of the Accord, so no surprise there. Look after the jump for the interior photos.
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Rally Indonesia: power steering problems for McRae’s Proton Satria Neo S2000

October 8, 2009 at 1:50 am By Paul Tan Filed Under Motorsports, Proton Satria Neo, Videos

satria-neo-s2000-indonesia

Alister McRae’s debut in the Proton Satria Neo Super 2000 rally car at the Rally Indonesia last weekend did not end too well despite setting some very competitive times at first. He had to retire from the race prematurely thanks to some issues with the car’s power steering system, which is to be expected considering the car is still under development by UK’s Mellors Elliot Motorsport.


Source: YouTube

APRC.tv (watch the video above) seems convinced that the car will pose a real threat to the Subarus used by the current Motor Image team domination and personally I certainly hope so. Watch the video for some nice footage of the car’s performance in Indonesia. The next stop will be China on the 14th to 15th of November 2009.

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VIDEO: Toyota FT-86 in “Gran Turismo”-vision

October 8, 2009 at 1:16 am By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, Concept Cars, Toyota, Videos

Toyota FT-86 C-45 Boxer

Want to see the new Toyota FT-86 Concept in action? Well, you can’t see a real one on the roads in action just yet, but thanks to Gran Turismo we have this video that features the FT-86 in motion. The video also lets us have a glimpse into the car’s engine bay. There’s not that much to be seen really but we do get to see a virtual rendering of the engine, called the C-45 Boxer D-4S Boxer.

Toyota FT-86 Fuji Speedway

There’s also something else about the FT-86 that I’ve just noticed that I did not notice before when I was rushing to publish the story. Look closely at the hi-res photo of the interior where you can see abit of the dash (I’ve cropped the relevant bit in the photo above). There’s a small image of the Fuji Speedway!

Is it just decoration, or can the FT-86′s dash display show you where you are on the track so you can anticipate corners just like in a videogame? After all, Fuji definitely means something special to Toyota, it even named its performance Lexus range after the circuit – F in IS-F and F-Sport refers to Fuji.

Watch the video after the jump.

Related Posts:
Toyota FT-86 – AE86 spiritual successor finally previewed! (with image gallery)
[Read more...]

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Neiman Marcus XJ for 2009′s Christmas Book

October 8, 2009 at 12:03 am By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, International News, Jaguar

Jaguar XJL Neiman Marcus Edition
Click for enlarged image

I thought BMW was the only car company that has special Neiman Marcus Edition cars for sale in their Christmas Book. Last year’s Christmas Book featured the very first F02 BMW 7-Series to be sold in the US – only 31 units of a Neiman Marcus Limited-Edition 2009 BMW Individual 7 Series sedans based on the 750Li sold for $160,000. Previously we’ve also seen a special 50 unit run of a Neiman Marcus M6. All 50 units priced at US$139,000 each were snapped up within 1 minute and 32 seconds of launching.

Jaguar XJL Neiman Marcus Edition
Click for enlarged image

This year, rich wives in the US will be able to choose from 50 units of a special Neiman Marcus Editiong long wheelbase Jaguar XJL based on the Supercharged version for their rich husbands. Or vice-versa. One will set you back US$105,000 (a regular XJL Supercharged is priced at US$90,500) and will come in an exclusive Celestial Black metallic paint exterior and a custom butter-soft navy and ivory leather interior with Zebrano matte wood accents. You also get 20-inch double-10 spoke polished alloy wheels, illuminated tread plates and trunk finisher as well as the nameplate inside that reads: “Neiman Marcus 1 of 50.”

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Robert Kubica moves to Renault F1

October 7, 2009 at 11:46 pm By Paul Tan Filed Under Formula 1, Motorsports

Robert Kubica

Renault has quickly found a replacement for Fernando Alonso, who will be moving to Ferrari next year. Filling Alonso’s seat will be Robert Kubica, who will be leaving his current BMW Sauber F1 Team.

“I am very happy I will be joining Renault in the 2010 season. I feel I have a special connection with this team because in 2005 I won the World Series by Renault. This gave me the chance to test with the team in Barcelona, which led to my debut in Formula One,” said Kubica. He was testing for the team back in 2005.

“We are very excited to have signed Robert with the Renault F1 Team starting next season. Ever since Robert made his Grand Prix debut in 2006, he has been on our radar as one of the most naturally talented drivers of his generation and he has delivered on that promise so it’s great to have secured him in one of our cars next season,” said Renault’s new team principal Bob Bell.

BMW Motorsport Director Mario Theissen said: “Robert played an important role for us – and certainly we did the same for him. He joined us in 2006 as a test driver with no Formula One experience, and then we promoted him to be one of our team’s drivers during that season. He never let us down and, with our first pole position in 2008 in Bahrain and first victory the same year in Canada, he set milestones in the history of our team. We are grateful for his strong and constant performances and wish him all the best for his future.“

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