Archive for Local News

The MINI John Cooper Works is now in Malaysia and available at Auto Bavaria and Sapura Auto showrooms for RM279,000. The MINI JCW’s 1.6 liter turbocharged engine gets boosted up to 211hp, with peak torque now at 260Nm (280Nm overboost) from as low as 1,850rpm. The MINI JCW is only available with a 6-speed manual, reflecting its more hardcore nature as compared to the Cooper S.

Other equipment that differentiates the JCW from the Cooper S is a sports suspension, JCW aerodynamic kit and a carbon fiber rear spoiler. BMW says all bodykit items serve aerodynamic functions instead of being just for aesthetics, improving handling and road-holding especially at higher speeds. THere are also exclusive 17 inch light alloys which weigh less than 10kg wrapped with 205/45R18W high speed run flat tyres.

DSC with DTC is offered as standard, an improvement over the DSC-only of the “baseline” MINIs. DTC is a less naggy version of DSC that only kicks in when you’re about to get into serious trouble, allowing you to have abit more fun with the car. When DSC (and DTC) is turned completely off, there is still Electronic Differential Lock Control.

The interior is done in Piano Black with Anthracite roof lining. The exterior comes in either Lightning Blue, Laser Blue, British Racing Green, Astro Black, Pure Silver, Dark Silver, and Sparkling Silver metallic, or Chili Red and Pepper White non-metallic.

Look at the linked related post for a hi-res photo gallery and videos.

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MINI John Cooper Works Details and Hi-Res Photos

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Naza Corporation has introduced a premium version of the Naza 206 Bestari called the Naza 206 Premium. It’s priced at RM71,888.00, about RM3k more than the 206 Bestari’s RM68,877.80 price tag. For the additional RM3k, this is what you get:

• Leather on the steering wheel, interior and two-tone seats.
• 3 head restraints for the rear seat bench
• A 6-speaker audio system (additional 2 over the Bestari)
• Seat back pockets and Peugeot logo at the back of the front seats
• Only rear spoiler (you lose the full bodykit of the 206 Bestari)
• New design Peugeot-badged 14 inch alloy wheels
• 206 Premium badging, Peugeot sill plates, door visors, hood insulator
• Reverse sensors

The interior leather is done up in orange, meant to be the same colour as the dashboard lighting. With more Peugeot badges around the car including on the alloy wheels it should be cheaper and easier for you to Peugeotize this car, which is what most people do. You get a 5 year warranty with 3 years free service including parts and labour.

The 206 Premium comes in 4 colours - Quick Silver, Aegean Blue, Svelte Grey and Onyx Black. Look after the jump for photos of the rear and the interior.

Click here to read the rest of Naza 206 Premium now on sale for RM71,888

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German Motors Sdn Bhd is a new independent service center for Mercedes-Benz, Smart, BMW, VW, Volvo and Audi cars in Malaysia, though Mercedes-Benz cars are their speciality. The service center is located near the Tun Hussein Onn Eye Hospital in PJ and is equipped for full diagnosis and rectification of Mercedes-Benz and smart cars complex electronic systems. They can also carry out a pre-sales inspection of any Merc or smart you want to buy or sell.

Managing director Fritz Imbacher was previously with Hap Seng Star (previously known as Si Khiong Star) and was responsible for the setting up of their Bandar Kinrara service center. He spent his entire career in Mercedes-Benz, starting as a technical apprentice with the Daimler Benz branch in Ulm in 1975. His contract ended in September 2007 and he continues his involvement with the three pointed star brand with this new workshop.

Proton’s Our Pride and Joy campaign for the Proton Persona by McCann Erickson Malaysia has won the Gold Dragon award at the 2008 PMAA Awards. The Gold Dragon was for the Best Brand-building Campaign category. Another Proton campaign, the Proton Sneeze campaign won the Silver Dragon in the Best Cause of Charity Marketing Campaign.

Look after the jump for a few sample ads from the campaign.

Click here to read the rest of Proton Persona “Our Pride and Joy” campaign wins 2008 PMAA Gold Dragon award

The Nissan Lightfoot Quest 2008 was held over the weekend and produced some very impressive results. A total of 40 Nissan owners joined the competition. Participant cars included 12 Nissan Latio, 6 Nissan Latio Sport, 16 Nissan Grand Livina and 6 Nissan Sylphy.

The record holder for mileage during the competition was a Nissan Grand Livina 1.8 automatic which only used 3.19 liters for the 180.5km journey from Holiday Inn Glenmarie Shah Alam to Impiana Casuarina Hotel Ipoh! That’s 56.5831 km per liter! The second highest mileage was a Latio 1.8 automatic which used 4.787 liters, or 37.7063 km per liter.

This shows a few things: Nissan cars can be extremely economical if you drive them a certain way (the participants were educated on how to save fuel through economic driving techniques before embarking on the journey, plus there was a monetary reward for the best fuel economy so the driving situation may not be what any of us would consider driving within reasonably normal situations), and larger engines does not necessarily mean higher fuel consumption. The Nissans equipped with the 1.8 liter MR18DE engine seemed to clock better fuel economy in the competition.

Larger, more powerful engines do not need to work as hard as smaller engines so they can end up having equal or sometimes better fuel economy as smaller engines, but you still retain the larger amount of power reserve on tap.

Proton will be collaborating with automotive component suppliers who are involved in producing hybrid components like Bosch to develop its own hybrid cars, which could be ready for the market in 2 to 3 years time. Proton managing director Datuk Syed Zainal said this would enable Proton to avoid reinventing the wheel, plus it could learn from those who already have the technology.

Bosch is currently has a 50:50 joint venture company called SB LiMotive with Korea’s Samsung. SB LiMotive Co Ltd is based in South Korea and is involved in development and commercialization of lithium ion batteries for hybrid cars. As for the rest of the components related to a hybrid system, Bosch has that covered with electronics, battery management, and motors.

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Petrol prices at the pump will be switched from its current fixed price of RM2.70 per liter to a floating amount according to the month’s average current market rates with a fixed subsidy of RM0.30 per liter. This floating amount will be capped to a maximum of RM2.70 per liter (current price), which means the 30 sen subsidy will increase to cover the higher cost of fuel if it increases over RM3.00 per liter.

The government said June 2008’s subsidy was an average of 64 sen per liter as crude oil averaged at US$132 during the month, but it has peaked at US$149 recently. According to calculations provided by the dailies based on August 1st’s crude oil price of US$128.19 per barrel of 159 liters, the price of RON97 petrol could have dropped from RM2.70 per liter to RM2.64 per liter (RM2.62 production cost based on crude oil price + transport, commission and misc cost of RM0.32 per liter - subsidy of RM0.30 per liter).

It’s time to monitor August 2008’s average monthly crude oil price closely. What we want is for average oil prices to drop to USD128 and below, then we will be able to see a nice reduction in petrol prices on the 1st of September.

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This is the MEM Proton Satria Neo Super 2000 Rally Car by Mellors Elliot Motorsport. The Super 2000 Rally was proposed by the FIA because of the rising costs of running World Rally Cars and competing in the World Rally Championship.

The following are the specs for a Super 2000 Rally Car:

• 3, 4 or 5-door models with length over 3900mm
• Generic 4X4 transmission without active differential from Sadev or Xtrac
• 2.0 liter normally aspirated engine from either a base engine used in any model from the manufacturer, or a engine licensed from another manufacturer with 2,500 units minimum production per year
• Engine must comply to BTCC/ETC specs with 8,500rpm rev limit
• Minimum weight - 1100kg tarmac, 1150kg gravel
• Maximum bodywork and wheel arch extension width 1800mm

The MEM Satria Neo S2000 complies to these specifications, measuring 3905mm long, 1800mm wide with a 2440mm wheelbase and a weight of 1150kg. Its chassis is based on the road-going Neo and has been strengthened to comply with FIA regulations and the components of a S2000 rally car. It is fitted with a rollcage built from 35 meters of Chrome-Moly Steel Tubing.

Its 4-cylinder 1998cc DOHC normally aspirated engine is based on the 1.8 liter Renault engine in the Waja. It produces 280hp at 7,800rpm and a massive 271Nm of torque at 7,000rpm, and is installed transversely at the front of the car. This engine is mated to an Xtrac 6-speed sequential transmission with Alcon clutch and 3 player LSD.

Brakes are also from Alcon, with 300mm discs with 4 piston calipers at the front and 300mm discs at the rear on gravel. For asphalt, the front brake discs are uprated to 350mm. Wheels are 18 inch alloys for tarmac and 15 inch alloys for gravel. The car’s electronics system runs on the GEMS Multiplex System with Power Management, Data Logging and a Glass Dash Display

Look after the jump for more hi-res photos.

Click here to read the rest of MEM Proton Satria Neo Super 2000

Proton celebrated its 3,000,000th car to roll off the assembly lines at the Proton Technology Week during the weekend. The 3 millionth car is a silver Proton Saga, and will not be sold. It was autographed by the PM and will be kept for memories in a museum.

The first car to roll off Proton’s assembly line was the first generation Proton Saga back in 1985. It’s been 23 years since. That means slightly over 130,000 cars per year.

View a video of the ceremony after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Proton produced 3,000,000 cars since 1985

I had expected to see a blue 200 DARPA Urban Challenge Lotus Elise covered with sensor equipment but the autonomous Lotus Elise that is on display at the Proton Technology week had a different coat of paint and less equipment. It also had its top off.

The car guides itself around with a combination of laser measurements sensors, high accuracy GPS, and radar. It actually doesn’t work as well than it should have here in Malaysia because alot of the sensor equipment had to be removed because they were classified as sensitive equipment and was not allowed to be exported out of the US.

The vehicle followed a path very slowly around a little “track” formed with cones. After awhile it stopped and seemed to require some reprogramming, which allowed us to see what lied under its bonnet at the rear. The Lotus engineers plugged in a Dell notebook and did some magic and the car was able to self-drive again soon after.

Have a look at what’s under the Elise’s hood after the jump, together with a video of the car on the cone track.

Click here to read the rest of A Lotus Elise that drives itself!