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Mitsubishi has unveiled proper photos of the Mitsubishi Racing Lancer MRX09 in action, after previously releasing an artist’s rendering of it back in July. The Mitsubishi Racing Lancer replaces the Pajero Evolution in the Dakar rally. It has covered more than 8,000km in testing and competition in order for engineers to develop new suspension geometry to suit different weight distributions and torque characteristics.

It isn’t really based on a Lancer, instead it is built on a tubular steel frame with a Lancer sportsback-based carbon fiber “skin” put over it. It measures 4,475mm long, 1,990mm wide and has a 2,900mm wheelbase.

Powering it is a 3.0 liter V6 turbodiesel putting out over 260 horsepower and 650Nm of torque. “The diesel version is overwhelmingly easy to drive thanks to its tremendous torque which is available over an even broader rev-band. It outperforms the petrol-powered car in terms of controllability over challenging terrain, as well as when accelerating out of corners and along high-speed straights. With the right set-up it would be comfortably faster,” said Team Repsol Mitsubishi Ralliart driver Hiroshi Masuoka.

Look after the jump for two more photos of the new rally contender.

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Team Proton Axle’s Faidzil Alang beat 25 other cars and took the chequered flag today at the Bira International Circuit in Thailand, ensuring a driver’s crown win for the team in the inaugural Asian Touring Car 1500Max Series race.

This is Faidzil’s fourth win in the series, chalking up another 15 points bringing his total championship points up to 96 points. The team’s other driver Syafiq Ali is in second place in overall standings with 72 points. Looking at the current standings, it is only possible for Faidzil or Syafiq to win the driver’s title.

The Asian Touring Car 1500 Max Series race is a new regional championship for normally aspirated cars below 1599cc. Example cars that can participate include the Honda Jazz, Peugeot 206, Vios, GEN2, Satria Neo, Waja, Saga, Swift, Aveo and others.

The cars raced by Team Proton Axle are Proton Satria Neo 1500 Max ATCS cars built by Proton’s Race Rally Research division in Shah Alam. The team is managed by Alex Yoong. Other than the two main drivers mentioned (Faidzil Alang and Syafiq Ali), the support driver role is filled by Sanjeev Palar.

1500Max cars are allowed to have bodykits, a 17 inch wheel size, wings, suspension tuning and engine tuning. The engines must be normally aspirated. The race has a strict power to weight ratio rule for the cars to ensure all drivers have an equal chance of winning. Also, winning cars in each race has to have a success ballast added onto the car in the next race.

The next stop for the 1500Max race is Chengdu, China. Look after the jump for more images of our 1500Max Satria Neos.

Related Story:
MEM Proton Satria Neo Super 2000 - Specifications and Photos

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Looking at Felipe Massa this time round and the waning challenge from BMW-Sauber, by Alan Ng.

For those who read the first Formula 1 midseason report, you would probably wonder why I only mentioned Felipe Massa briefly while giving full attention to Kimi Raikkonen.

After all, the two drivers have been pretty much equally strong this season with neither gaining an upper hand for long.

I don’t know about you but being a Ferrari fan myself, I don’t really see Massa as the kind of driver I would like to support to be the champion somehow. He’s more like Eddie Irvine and Rubens Barrichello than Michael Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen. This is purely my own bias but I know I’m not alone here

I think it’s mainly because he’s not the type of driver that will raise your heartbeat level during a race. He’s brilliant when he’s in front and when the car’s working for him (think Bahrain and Turkey) but when the chips are down, so does his level of skills (at least five spins in Silverstone!!). There’s still the question of his mental strength. Being a Brazilian, Massa is a very passionate about his driving but in order to do well in F1, you really need a calm, collected and cool head to be on top of things.

Having said that, he is keeping Ferrari ahead in the constructors’ championship, delivering when Kimi hit trouble in previous races. That is why he’s only 3 points behind Kimi with much more to play for in the last seven races. But this then poses a dilemma to the Ferrari team. Which driver to back for the final push in the championship? For now, because these two guys are so equal, resources have to be split equally between the two of them.

Compared to the Mclaren team where Lewis Hamilton is much more stronger than Heikki Kovalainen, this is an obvious disadvantage to Ferrari and only time will tell if the driver equality strategy will work for Ferrari.

BMW-Sauber started this season with a very clear objective, that is to get their first win. Hence, they came out with a very revolutionary car, in terms of design, compared to the previous season. And guess what, they got the win they wanted in the Canadian GP with Robert Kubica. As a Malaysian, it feels quite good knowing that Petronas is now sponsoring a GP-winning team.

And it’s all thanks to the consistency of their Polish driver, Kubica. He was scoring consistently in 7 of the first 8 races and got that win in Canada not because he had the fastest car but because he was able to keep up and push when needed. It all paid off when Hamilton “conveniently” took Raikkonen out at the pitlane. I would dare wager that if you had put Robert Kubica in one of the top two teams in the beginning of the season, he would be miles ahead in terms of points by now, such is the rate of mistakes being made by the Ferrari and Mclaren drivers this season.

Having said that, BMW-Sauber is definitely looking towards the 2009 season as their pace has slowed down considerably since the win and teams like Toyota, Renault and Red Bull seemed to have overtaken them in terms of speed. I guess the team feels that with the raft of changes in the 2009 rules, it is better to concentrate their development resources in the new car and they know they can’t be caught for third place in the constructors’ championship. All these strategies are being carefully and meticulously planned and executed by team boss and mastermind, Mario Theissen.

I really can’t wait for the 2009 season to begin where for sure, we will definitely see much better racing from the teams but for now, let us sit back, relax and enjoy as the F1 circus descends on Valencia next weekend.

A quick look at the F1 season so far and its top two protagonists, by Alan Ng

The F1 season is now in its traditional summers’ break before resuming racing on the 22-24th August weekend at a spanking new street circuit in Valencia. 11 races have gone by and it’s still anybody’s guess, who’s going to be the drivers’ champion this year.

The rule changes introduced this year have really thrown up some interesting races, especially with the ban of launch control and traction control. Of course, there’s still not enough overtaking and most of the time, fans have to wait till the pit-stops before they can see some real action.

The 2009 season will be even more interesting as F1 goes back to using slick tyres and most of the aerodynamic pieces on the car (which caused the hard-to-overtake situation) will be banned.

But before we jump too far ahead, let’s assess the 2008 season so far.

Click here to read the rest of Formula 1 2008 Mid-Season Report: An Intriguing Season So Far

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Honda Malaysia has been participating in the Merdeka Millennium Endurance (MME) race since the year 2002 and held the Overall Title for 5 consecutive years. The MME is a 12-hour endurance race and will happen on the Saturday of the 30th of August 2008, 1130am to 1130pm at the Sepang International Circuit.

This year’s Honda Malaysia Racing Team consists of 34 team members (up 4 from last year’s 30), with 5 carried over from last year’s team. The rest - all 29 members - are new to HMRT this year.

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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.

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BMW Web TV interviewed Robert Kubica on the BMW Sauber F1 Team’s recent double victory at the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal, Canada. Robert Kubica finished the race first with team mate Nick Heidfeld coming in second. Coulthard in a Red Bull Racing RB4 came in third.

The BMW Sauber F1 Team is currently in second place in the contructor’s championship lagging only 3 points behind Ferrari. Kubica currently leads the driver’s championship. Watch the interview after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of BMW Double Victory at Montreal, Interview with Robert Kubica

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Mitsubishi has unveiled its 2009 Dakar rally competitor, the Mitsubishi Racing Lancer MRX09. MRX stands for Mitsubishi Rally Cross Country, and the 09 denotes the 2009 competition year. The Racing Lancer is what appears to be a 3-door version of the Lancer sportsback with raised suspension, offroad bits… are we looking at a CrossLancer here?

Well, not exactly. It uses some styling from the Lancer Sportsback but it is actually built on a tubular steel frame designed with advanced CAE analysis to optimize layout and dimensions of the tubing. The Lancer sportsback skin is made from carbon fiber. The Racing Lancer is 4,475mm long, 1,990mm wide and has a 2,900mm wheelbase.

Mitsubishi Motors says the Racing Lancer is a natural evolution for the Lancer and wants it to take over the competition baton from the Pajero and Pajero Evolution. Under the Racing Lancer’s hood is a 3.0 liter V6 turbodiesel engine that the company is currently testing during Dakar 2008 and Fia Cross-Country Rally World Cup 2008 qualifying rounds. It produces over 260hp and more than 650Nm of torque, and is mated to a Ricardo 5-speed sequential manual. Power is driven to all four wheels of the 1,900kg race car via a permanent 4WD system with an LSD.

F1 driver Nick Heidfeld takes us through a walkthrough of two of the world’s Formula 1 tracks - Montreal and Monaco. The vocal walkthroughs are accompanied by fantastic cockpit views that show us just how fast F1 cars go through the circuit.

Watch the two videos after the jump.

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Karamjit Singh did not disappoint fans at Round 4 of the FELDA-AAM Malaysian Rally Championship last weekend. Clocking 2:11:02, he and co-driver Jagdev Singh finished first place for Round 4 and also took home the Championship trophy.

Trailing behind the Flying Singh by 12 minutes and 46 seconds were Benny Lautan and Edwin Nasution from Indonesia in a Proton PERT. Karamjit’s team used a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 8. Third place went to Sutan Mustaffa Salihin and Ahmad Nadzrie Ahmad Shuhaimi in a Proton Satria with a time of 2:26:42.

“We are happy we won the Championship as we had a tough day yesterday trying to get the suspension right to suit the course. Even though we have won the Championship we will still take part in the final round (Round 5) as we are committed to our sponsors and to the organizer,” said Karamjit Singh.

Round 5 will take place in Perlis on the 8th and 9th of December 2007.

Team Karamjit Motorsports is sponsored by Aldwich, Safeguard Securicor, Bin Jarallah, ALPS Freight and Logistics and Silverstone Tyres. The team plans to take part in three rounds of the Asia Pacific Rally Championship next year in Japan, Malaysia and Indonesia if they manage to secure sponsorship for the next season.

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