Archive for Cars

Mitsubishi quietly revealed a high-powered version of the Mitsubishi L200 (known as the Triton here) at the 2008 Paris Motor Show with the “2.5Di-D High-Power” designation.

The 2009 L200 2.5 Di-D High-Power features a 2.5 liter engine that produces much more power than in its 136 PS standard form. In fact, the figures are even higher than the recently launched Triton 3.2L!

The new engine gets a 29% power boost up to 178 PS at 4,000rpm and 400Nm of torque at 2,000rpm for manual versions or 350Nm of torque for automatic versions. Fuel consumption is 8.5 liters of diesel per 100km while CO2 output is 223g/km.

The 2009 L200 also gets better sound and vibration insulation, additional side airbags for the Club Cab varaint, side and curtain airbags for the Double Cab, and a new front seat design with improved cushion and side support.

If you pair this new high performance engine with the Walkinshaw Performance Sport Pack Upgrade, your L200/Triton will surely be a riot! The upgrade pack (an estimated £2,595.00 - RM16k - inclusive of installation) replaces the L200’s rear solid axle with a multi-link rear suspension featuring coil springs.

Other enhancements in the Walkinshaw pack include PU performance bushes for increased axle control, rubber performance chassis bushes for reduced road noise transmission, Koni performance shocks for the front and rear as well as a stainless steel twin tailpipe performance exhaust.

The Perodua Kelisa has been the cheapest automatic car in the UK for quite some time now but according to Nissan, the upcoming Nissan Pixo is likely to take away that title, with an expected price tag of under £6,500 (RM40,000). Other cheap automatic small cars include the Kia Picanto which is priced over £7,500.

The Nissan Pixo is a badge engineered Suzuki Alto and comes standard with safety features such as ISOFIX points for child seats, dual front SRS airbags and ABS brakes on every model variant including the baseline “Visia” trim level. The high-spec “Acenta” model will feature side airbags as well as other creature comforts such as power front windows, a split-folding rear bench and foglamps.

You cant really load much with it so don’t expect it to be able to take a family and luggage for balik kampung trips as its capacity is only 129 liters with the rear bench up and in use. The Pixo measures 3565 mm long, 1470 mm tall and 1600 mm wide with a 2360mm wheelbase. It weighs about 855kg.

Suzuki’s 1.0 liter inline-3 engine sits in the engine bay emitting only 103g/km of CO2 on average with a fuel economy of 4.6 liters per 100km on the combined cycle for the version with the manual transmission. It produces 65 PS at 6,000rpm, and 90Nm of torque at 4,000rpm. It is mated to either a 5-speed manual or a 4-speed auto.

Look after the jump for more photos of the Pixo.

Click here to read the rest of Nissan Pixo: UK’s cheapest automatic car?

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Perodua has put up a preview teaser site for the new Perodua Myvi SE facelift. It’s quite a multimedia-heavy effort, and it seems that they’re spending alot on the internet, with even an Adsense campaign going online this week.

On the teaser site, you basically travel down some city streets and you pass signboards with teaser images of the new Myvi SE. You have to click on the signboard to view each teaser image. The images appear shrouded, but you can move your mouse around to uncover bits of the image. The countdown timer on the site indicates the car will be unveiled in approximately 6 days and 17 hours time at time of publishing.

That’s 6PM, Thursday October 9 2008.

Look after the jump for unshrouded versions of the teasers.

Click here to read the rest of Perodua Myvi SE Facelift Teaser Goes Online!

The Proton MPV Naming Contest is now closed and Proton says they received a total of over 251,000 entries, or about 11,000 a day consistently. A team of professional auditors have been appointed to audit the selection process and the winners will be notified sometime in October 2008.

“This is a historic moment for us and we would like the public to play a big part in naming the new MPV. We hope the MPV will be Malaysia’s Preferred Vehicle in terms of style, price and utilization,” said Proton managing director Datuk Syed Zainal.

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I’m sure that somewhere along the way inside Mitsubishi’s headquarters a bunch of people have been telling their design theme that the whole shark nose theme (Mitsubishi calls it a “Jet Fighter” grille) that the Lancer has going on won’t work on a small car.

But they didn’t listen, so here you have the Mitsubishi Colt major facelift for the 2009 model year. Mitsubishi claims only 35.1% carry-over parts from the pre-facelift Colt.

The new Colt also introduces the new Clear Tec brand that indicates which Colt variants are especially friendly to the environment, which will also include a Flex Fuel vehicle that will probably be able to run on petrol or a mixture of ethanol and petrol.

The Mitsubishi Colt CZT hot hatch receives a new name - the Mitsubishi Colt Ralliart, and is now available in both 3-door and 5-door form. It continues to have a 1.5 liter turbocharged engine putting out 150 PS. The suspension has had 8 different changes in different points including a thicker front stabilizer bar to reduce body roll.

Non-Ralliart engine options include a 1.1 liter inline-3 petrol engine with 75 PS and 100Nm of torque, a 1.3 liter petrol engine with 95 PS and 125Nm of torque and a 1.5 liter petrol engine with 109 PS and 145Nm of torque. These are mated to either a 5-speed manual or an AllShift automated manual gearbox.

Note that other markets come with a CVT transmission instead of this AMT transmission, including the ones we have in Malaysia. The diesel Colt has been discontinued as the pre-facelift sales mix consisted of only 13% oil burning Colts.

Look after the jump for plenty of hi-res photos of the new Colt.

Click here to read the rest of 2009 Mitsubishi Colt unveiled: details and photos!

You could say that Nissan’s workhorses are equally as iconic to the company as their 4WD sports cars. The C22 Vanette is still very popular for businesses and is still begin produced in Malaysia. Though most contractors still love the Hilux more, the basic Nissan Frontier is popular choice as a workhorse and remember how many small businessmen used the Nissan AD Resort as their workhorse and family vehicle at the same time? Such is the versatility of stationwagons but somehow the Malaysian car-buying public has forgotten about this bodystyle.

The old Nissan 1400 single cab pick-up truck also served its buyers well and up until recently it was still sold in South Africa, which gives it a total lifespan of 37 years. It can now finally retire with the unveiling of the new Proton Arena-style Nissan NP200 utility vehicle based on the Dacia Logan pick-up. The front rides on MacPherson struts while the rear has a H-type torsion beam.

It has a modern engine that’s vastly different from the 1400’s old carburetted 1.4 liter engine. Instead, a 85 horsepower 8 valve 1.6 liter engine is used, with 128Nm produced at 3,000rpm. This is quite weak for a 1.6 liter but Nissan has shortened the first three gears of its 5-speed manual to give the NP200 better acceleration and more pulling power away from a stop when fully loaded up to its maximum payload of 800kg.

It tailgate supports up to 300kg of load, and the load-bed has 16 anchorage points comprising of 4 bed surround fasteners, 2 safety hoop hooks and 6 rings on the bed floor. Load area is 1,200 liters while the load length is 1.8 meters.

The interior features a 300 liter storage compartment behind the two seats. It has a power steering and an optional radio. In South Africa no air conditioning is available but there is a heater and a 4-speed fan. No ABS or airbags either but future high spec version for other markets may feature all these creature comforts and safety equipment.

Look for more photos of the NP200 after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Nissan NP200 ute based on Dacia Logan pick-up

In efforts to make it easier for more people to enter the world of rally motorsports, Renault Sport Technologies have created a new variant of the Clio R3 Maxi called the Renault Clio Renaultsport R3 Access.

In countries with relatively weaker currencies such as ours, motorsports can be even more prohibitive to the grassroots, with only the rich with tons of disposable income being able to participate in races and the rest of us having to contend with trafficlight sprints and rempiting on long straights in the middle of the night.

The R3 Access Clio aims to open up “access” to motorsports to a wider range of people with a pre-tax price of €32,600 (RM158,000) and a calculated average competing cost of €17 (RM82) per km. If one wants to upgrade to R3 Maxi specs later they can easily do so via a “Premium kit” which will upgrade the chassis, brakes and engine up to R3 Maxi specifications.

The Access model features a Clio Renaultspot bodyshell strengthened with a welded roll cage featuring more than 40 meters of tubing. The 2.0 liter high revving engine derived from the Clio Renaultsport 197 produces 200 horsepower at 7,500rpm and 214Nm of torque at 5,250rpm. It goes on to a redline point of 7,800rpm at which you will shift to the next cog of the Sadev 6 speed dog-teeth gearbox with a ZF LSD.

The wheels are identical to the Maxi spec version featuring 17 inch Speedline alloys wrapped with Michelin rubber. The car rides on Bilstein dampers at all four wheels and has the 4-pot Brembo brakes standard on the Clio Renaultsport 197.

Look after the jump for a few more hi-res photos.

Click here to read the rest of Renault Clio Renaultsport R3 Access

The Renault Megane Trophy that competes in the World Series gets updated for the 2009 model year. It may look like a Megane but it is actually built on a multi-tubular steel chassis with a semi-stressed engine and gearbox.

The styling for 2009 has been updated to match the look of the new Megane Coupe. Only the front and rear light units as well as the windscreen are from the road car.

Renault-Nissan’s venerable 3.5 liter V6 engine is mounted in a mid-rear position driving the rear wheels, mated to a sequential six-speed semi-automatic gearbox with steering-mounted paddle shifts. It produces 360hp and 390Nm of torque, with rebuild intervals of 5,500km.

Brakes are 356mm vented steel discs with 6 pistons at the front and 330mm vented steel discs with 4 pistons at the rear. Wheels are 18 inch one-piece aluminium alloys wrapped with Michelin tyres. The car rides on double wishbone suspensions on both the front and rear, with an anti-roll bar at the front.

Existing Megane Trophy owners will be able to upgrade to this new engine and look thanks to a kit that will go on sale by end-2008. Modifications required to adapt the existing chassis to the new bodywork will be performed by Renault at its Alpine factory.

Look after the jump for more photos.

Click here to read the rest of Renault Megane Trophy Race Car

Volvo has unveiled a “greener” version of the Volvo XC60 SUV that emits less than 170g/km of CO2 emissions. The new variant of the XC60 reduces fuel consumption and emissions by having a front wheel drive drivetrain instead of a heavier all-wheel drive system and an improved Euro5 compliant 2.4 liter diesel engine.

The new diesel engine has an additional 12 horsepower and 80Nm of torque over the previous version for a total of 175 horses and 420Nm of torque. This is thanks to reduced internal friction and pumping losses in the engine, increased pressure in the intake and exhaust system, increased injection pressure and a refined fuel-injection system thanks to new Piezo injectors.

Lamborghini has just released an official press release and hi-res photos of the Lamborghini Estoque. Interestingly, Lamborghini makes no attempts to call the Estoque a 4-door coupe, instead it refers to it as a 4-door 4-seater super sedan.

It’s quite a large monster, measuring 5150mm long, 1990mm wide and 1350mm tall, with a wheelbase of 3010mm. The wheels are 22 inch five double-spoke alloys at the front and 23 inchers at the rear. The boot is said to be able to store a few golf bags.

No photos of the interior have been revealed but Lamborghini says it fits 4 comfortably despite the low stance thanks to a relaxed seating position. The interior is done up in the highest quality Nappa leather, and the driver gets to enjoy a large LCD display showing vehicle and route information. This LCD can show information in either analog with virtual circular meter dials or digital form.

Mounted at the front behind the front axle for optimum weight distribution is a range of engines, one of which will be the V10 from the Lamborghini LP560-4. The 5.2 liter direct injection normally aspirated V10 produces 552 horsepower and 540Nm of torque.

Lamborghini says that this will not be the sole engine option. A turbocharged V8 derived from the V10 is one alternative, while a “greener” option could either be a V8 with a mild hybrid motor or a high-performance TDI turbodiesel that can be easily obtained from the Audi and Volkswagen engine stables.

Look after the jump for a hi-res gallery and a video.

Click here to read the rest of Lamborghini Estoque Official Details and Photos