S-Tronic Audi A3 gets auto start-stop system

October 6, 2009 at 6:26 am By Paul Tan Filed Under Audi, Cars

Audi A3

Audi has added start-stop technology to its automatic transmission cars. Normally other than in a hybrid paired to some kind of CVT or e-CVT, auto start-stop systems have traditionally only been available with manuals, as they are so far with cars from manufacturers like BMW.

It’s abit of a grey area here as the A3′s auto start-stop system is technically not mated to an automatic transmission in the traditional sense. It’s not a proper slushbox but is instead an S-Tronic (DSG) twin clutch transmission, which is sort of like a manual but with two computer controlled clutches.

The auto start-stop system helps the 105 horsepower 1.6 litre TDI engine deliver a fuel consumption of just 4.2 litres per 100km. With the 1.4 TSI with 125 horsepower, consumption is rated at just 5.3 litres per 100km.

These figures also include a brake energy recovery system that is used to assist the alternator. Mind you, these are real figures on a combined driving cycle, not some highway-only kind of mileage! Impressive stuff!

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Beijing Auto to buy rights for old Saab 9-5?

October 4, 2009 at 7:14 pm By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, International News, Saab

Old Saab 9-5

It looks like Beijing Auto has fast-tracked its plan to reap the benefits from its Koenigsegg/Saab investment. But of course knowing the mainland Chinese stuff like this were probably the plan all along.

BAIC is thinking about buying the tooling and design rights for the outgoing 9-5 sedan that has been just replaced and putting it back onto the market.

But of course the questions then would be what badge it would be sold under and which markets would it be available? The 9-5 is a premium car – parts and maintenance will not be cheap, so it has to stay as some sort of a ‘premium’ car.

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Japan GP: Vettel goes from pole to podium

October 4, 2009 at 4:21 pm By Harvinder Sidhu Filed Under Formula 1, Motorsports

f1-japan-gp-1

Sebastian Vettel was the first driver to cross the finish line at the 2009 Japanese GP after 53 laps and a last minute safety car situation.

Second place went to Toyota’s Jarno Trulli and the final podium position went to McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton. Vettel, after scoring 10 crucial points, is now 16 points behind championship leader Jenson Button who only managed to score one point with his 8th place finish.

Ferrari scored some valuable points today with Kimi Raikkonen’s fourth place. Behind him was William’s Nico Rosberg and BMW’s Nick Heidfeld. Rest of the top ten was made up by Rubens Barrichello, Jenson Button, Robert Kubica (BMW), and Fernando Alonso (Renault).

f1-japan-gp-2

Toro Rosso’s Jaime Alguersuari and Sebastien Buemi failed to finish. In addition, Buemi was the only driver with a slow start as his car momentarily stalled. Mark Webber who started from the pits entered the pits three times within five laps. Timo Glock of Toyota did not start the race thanks to an accident during qualifying.

Towards the end of the race with just 5 laps to go, the safety car came in. Almost, if not all drivers maintained their respective positions. Kimi in fourth was right behind Hamilton and nearly overtook him. Button was still trying to make it to seventh place, but failed. Towards the end, he nearly gave his position to Robert Kubica in ninth.

f1-japan-gp-3

Button currently leads with 85 points ahead of his team mate Barrichello with 71 points. Both Barrichello and Vettel have the chance of clinching the driver’s title, if Button continues to finish down the grid provided Barrichello and Vettel win race or two, and score as much points as possible.

In the Constructor’s Championship, Brawn leads by 35.5 points. Red Bull is in second place. The only chance for Red Bull to win is if it scores 1-2 victories in the two remaining races and at the same time both the Brawn’s don’t score a single point. Both circumstances are very unlikely, so it is safe to say that Brawn GP will win the championship. McLaren is closing in for third, just 2 points behind Ferrari. From the looks of it, Ferrari will lose its third place to McLaren.

With only two races remaining in the season, it looks like the championship battle will go down to the wire at the season-ending race in Abu Dhabi.

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Porsche Panamera range launched in Malaysia

October 4, 2009 at 3:17 am By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, Local News, Porsche

Porsche Panamera

The Porsche Panamera is now available from Auto Eurokars with a 2+2 year extended warranty. You can get either a Panamera S with a 6-speed manual, or the Panamera 4S and Panamera Turbo with 7-speed twin clutch PDK gearboxes.

  • Porsche Panamera S – RM998,000.00
  • Porsche Panamera 4S – RM1,118,000.00
  • Porsche Panamera Turbo – RM1,398,000.00

All the cars use a 4,806cc V8 engine but naturally the difference is that the Turbo has twin turbochargers. In normally aspirated form, the engine makes 400 PS at 6,500rpm and 500Nm of torque between 3,500rpm to 5,000rpm. When twin-blown, this goes up to 500 PS at 6,000rpm and 700Nm of torque between 2,250-4,500rpm.

Other than the differentiation in terms of 4WD and the turbo for the Turbo, the 4S and the Turbo also comes with auto start-stop, which the S does without. The 4S and Turbo also has a larger fuel tank of 100 litres compared to the S’s 80 litres.

Other than that, most other specs are the same except the Turbo gets a better 14 speaker BOSE sound system compared to the “standard” 10 speaker system. For more details on specs differentiation if you’re really in the market for one its best to check out the Porsche dealership for a personalised buying experience.
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VIDEO: Aston Martin Rapide Promo Footage

October 4, 2009 at 2:32 am By Paul Tan Filed Under Aston Martin, Cars, Videos

Aston Martin Rapide

Here’s a new promotional video for the Aston Martin Rapide that runs just a little longer than 3 minutes. Really not the best promo video released ever, but there are some nice shots and it helps that an Aston Martin is always a beautiful thing to look at. It starts off at the Mira Automotive Test Facility in Warwickshire, England and moves on to the notorious Nurburgring test track in Germany before heading to Stelvio Pass in Italy. Watch the video after the jump.
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Torotrak pushes for flywheel hybrid systems

October 4, 2009 at 2:26 am By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars

torotrak
Torotrak’s full-toroidal traction drive is the vital link between the flywheel energy store and the base powertrain

Drive specialist Torotrak will be presenting a mechanical hybrid assist system at the SAE Commercial Vehicle Engineering Congress sometime this week. Torotrak says a mechanical system similiar to some F1 KERS implementations is a fundamentally more efficient approach as energy remains in the mechanical state.

When it comes to electric motor assist systems that are used in all mild hybrid systems now, mechanical energy harvested from brake energy regeneration has to be converted into electricity, then converted into chemical energy in the battery, and then later converted back into electricity and into mechanical energy again when it is used. At each conversion stage, there is an efficiency loss.

The basic architecture of the mechanical hybrid is a lightweight high speed flywheel connected with a CVT to the engine. Torotrak’s paper will highlight past successes with flywheel hybrid bus applications and F1 systems.

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Hyundai Equus Stretch goes on sale in Korea

October 3, 2009 at 6:04 pm By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, Hyundai, International News, Koreans

hyundai-equus-1

The most luxurious Hyundai ever has just been launched in South Korea. The long-wheelbase version of the Hyundai Equus callled the Equus Stretch is the largest and most expensive vehicle in the Hyundai line-up.

The vehicle is longer than major competitors by as much as 310 mm. Backseat legroom is longer by up to 376 mm. The new model is fitted with the most powerful engine ever built for a Hyundai production car – a 5.0-litre V8 producing 400PS and 500Nm of torque.

hyundai-equus-2

Rear passengers will find they have the world’s first power-driven footrest (I know for a fact that MAS first class gets a powered footrest), seat leg support, relax posture control and a massage system. It’s quite clear that an airplane’s first class seating is the inspiration for the Equus rear passenger room.

There is also a bulletproof version of the car and 3 units have been delivered to the Korean President. Hyundai is the first Korean company to develop a bulletproof car with its own technology.
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Rulers check out the new Proton Turbo engine

October 3, 2009 at 12:08 am By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, International News, Local News, Malaysian Makes, Proton

Campro Turbo
A turbocharged Campro engine in an Exora Prestige we saw back in July…

Proton unveiled a turbocharged 1.6 litre engine to selected press in Norwich, UK earlier today while our King and Queen His Majesty Seri Paduka Baginda The Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Wathiqu Billah Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin Ibni Al-Marhum Sultan Mahmud Al-Muktafi Billah Shah and Her Majesty Seri Paduka Baginda The Raja Permaisuri Agong Tuanku Nur Zahirah were visiting the Lotus headquarters in UK.

The new turbocharged engine is said to have the power capacity of a 2.0 litre engine. No precise figures were given but we can make an educates guess – 2.0 normally aspirated would mean around 140 to 150 horsepower. Usually with a turbocharged engine, a 150 horses figure would probably be accompanied by 220Nm to 240Nm of torque. This should put performance at a similiar level with the turbocharged 1.6 litre in the Peugeot 308 Turbo, which is very nice since the peak torque kicks in at low RPMs.

VIDEO: Bulletin Utama segment on the Proton Turbo engine

Source

70 engineers worked on the engine project. According to Proton, the engine was developed in collaboration between Proton and Lotus Engineering, with active involvement of Malaysian engineers and vendors. I actually so happened to meet a few young Proton engineers at a UK visa application center in KL and they were applying for a UK work visa for a certain project, so this must have been it ;)

Producing the engine took 18 months from approval of engineering proof of concept. The proof of concept could have been that turbocharged engine we saw in the Exora. The engine was designed for high torque applications, which will provide good driveability in larger Proton cars such as the Proton Exora. Proton Director of Engineering Tajul Zahari said the engine is RON95 compatible. Apparently the engine will be ready by 2011, so we should see it in Protons by then.

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Goodyear Duraplus Contest #1: Winners List

October 2, 2009 at 6:00 pm By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, Local News

Goodyear Logo

Goodyear DuraplusInitially when the Goodyear Duraplus contest was first announced, Goodyear was putting up one set of Duraplus tyres for a lucky and deserving winner to win. The entries poured in like crazy and the Goodyear folks had a tough time picking out a winner.

There was also another issue – there were really too many entries who really really needed a tyre change but could not because they couldn’t afford them. Being the good-hearted folks they are, they decided to increase the amount of sets they were giving out to four!

Here are the four winners:

Goodyear Duraplus Winner 1 Goodyear Duraplus Winner 2 Goodyear Duraplus Winner 3 Goodyear Duraplus Winner 4
Click images for enlarged version

The winners have been contacted and they will be getting their sets from Goodyear directly. I hope you’re happy with your tyres guys. I’m planning to organize more tyre giveaways in the future especially before festive seasons.

Festive seasons are the times when many families will be on the road to ‘balik kampung’ and they should be able to do so safely. Times are very tough for many these days so helping people with a fresh set of tyres for their own safety as well as for the safety for others is never a bad thing. So if you didn’t manage to get selected this time around, do try again! Many thanks to Goodyear for the tyres!

For more information on Goodyear Duraplus, visit the related link: Goodyear Duraplus lasts up to 100,000km?

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Michelin Primacy LC – pretty decent comfort tyres!

October 2, 2009 at 4:45 pm By Paul Tan Filed Under Test Drive Reviews, Videos

Michelin Primacy LCThe new Michelin Primacy LC is the successor to the Michelin Energy MXV8 and was just introduced in Malaysia in April this year.

Michelin claims a reduced rolling resistance of 13% compared to the MXV8, as a result of testing conducted on a Honda Civic 1.8 i-VTEC using 2.4 bar tyre pressure on all four tyres. Michelin also recorded reduced dB levels for road and tread noise compared to the MXV8. The new tread pattern also gives 21% more rubber contact on the road surface compared to the MXV8.

Michelin’s product positioning has placed the new tyre under the Primacy line to move it up towards the Performance category instead of Entry-level category. There will be three “brands” in Malaysia for passenger cars – the Pilot, the Primacy and the Energy.

The Primacy LC is available in various sizes – 31 in total, ranging from 15 to 19 inch and 40 to 65 series, with 195 to 245 section widths. There is Rim Protector for all sizes 55 series and below. It is made from a full silica compound and comes in V, W and Y speed indexes.

Michelin Primacy LC
Click for enlarged image with available tyre sizes

I tried out a 205/55R16 tyres on my Perdana V6, replacing the set of Bridgestone Potenza Adrenalin RE001 tyres that were previously had fitted. I had previously found the RE001 a little too loud and while it is a high performance tyre that gave excellent grip in the dry and decent enough in the wet (no crazy stuff in the wet for the Perdana), and a great feel devoid of much tyre flex during cornering, it didn’t really suit the kind of ride and feel that I wanted with the Perdana. The noise levels were too high for my liking and to put it plainly, the tyre felt too ‘hardcore’ for a stock standard Perdana. It’s more of a performance tyre and I really should have gone for a “touring” or comfort kind of tyre instead.

The tyres are rather smooth and exceptionally quiet on roads where JKR have been holding up their end of the bargain, but it somehow gets very affected when the roads are a little bad, though I would still say they perform quite well in absorbing most of the little bumps and imperfections on the roads. Driving right through a puddle of water on the highway (at non-excessive speeds of course) also proved to be no problem for the tyres. I’ve not taken the tyres to the limit yet but so far the car continued feeling as stable as a Perdana can be when negotiating the usual medium-speed bends and curves especially on highway entry and exit ramps. I really doubt the grip is going to be outstanding but the tyre’s characteristics suit the kind of drive I am looking for.

I think it’s a decent candidate for those looking to replace “baseline” tyres and are looking for something quiet and comfort-oriented. Are any of you using Primary LC tyres, or any of its similiar competitors? Share your experiences to help other fellow motorists make a decision their next tyre purchase.
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