Alfa Romeo Promotes MiTo GTA With Track Footage

After details and first shots of the Alfa Romeo MiTo GTA were released at the 2009 Geneva Auto Show, the Italian automaker has now followed up with a promotional video showing off the sporty hatch.

The MiTo goes head to head with a Giulia GTA (another vehicle that features the Gran Turismo Alleggerito badge) on the track, but stops right in front of the finish line to let the elder GTA win. Benny Benassi echoes in the background as Alfa Romeo gives us a preview of the MiTo's handling and acceleration in Valencia.

This lightweight compact has a variety of carbon fiber parts and is powered by a 1.7-liter turbocharged four-cylinder that makes 240 horsepower. It also gets a lowered suspension and an aluminum braking system to help cut weight.

Not like we need another reason to hope for Alfa's return, but here's another. Write By : Mike Lysaght

Volkswagen Maps Out a Major China Expansion

The Volkswagen group is planning to double its vehicle sales in China to 2 million by 2018 by expanding its product portfolio and dealer network.
The new 10-year blueprint indicates VW wants to maintain momentum in China during a global struggle for survival.
VW said it will launch four models each year in China over the next decade, using its major Audi, Skoda and Volkswagen brands. It also plans to double the number of China dealerships to 2,000.
"Although the global economy and auto market are full of uncertainty, we remain confident about China's auto industry as well as our long-term development here," said Winfried Vahland, president and chief executive of Volkswagen's China operations.
Vahland said earlier that Volkswagen will invest $3 billion in China from 2008-'10 to develop new products, technology and networks. Volkswagen currently has a 19 percent market share in China, compared with 12 percent for GM and 7 percent for Toyota.
Last year, Volkswagen boosted sales by 12.5 percent to 1.02 million units in China. But that growth rate was down from 28 percent a year earlier as the slowing economy curbed vehicle demand and competition intensified with General Motors and Toyota.
China's total market expanded 6.7 percent last year, the slowest pace in a decade, to 9.4 million vehicle sales.
GM posted sales growth of 6.1 percent to 1.09 million in 2008 and Toyota sold 585,000 units, an increase of 17 percent.
VW said China became its second-biggest market last year, and it is just a matter of time before China replaces Germany as its biggest.

Times have changed dramatically since the days when VW commanded more than half the China market, but the German automaker aims to keep moving forward.

Write By : Vivian Jin

Nissan to Enter GT-R in 2010 FIA GT Championship Series

Nissan has announced that the R35 Nissan GT-R will officially be participating in the 2010 FIA GT series. The vehicle will also hit the track as a non-championship entry in four races in the 2009 season to help develop the car and get a feel for its performance.


The CEO and managing director of Nissan Motors Australia, Dan Thompson, made the announcement to media at the 2009 Melbourne Auto Show.

For 2009, Gigawave MotorSport, a racing team based in Essex, England, that has been competing in the FIA GT since 2007, will be partnering with Nismo for the four non-championship races. The Nismo/Gigawave car is expected to be piloted by Nismo driver Michael Krumm and Gigawave's Darren Turner.
Nismo, Hasemi Motorsport, Team Impul and Kondo Racing will each be entering a car in the Super GT series, making a total of four participating GT-Rs in the GT500 class. Satoshi Motoyama and Benoit Treluyer will be behind the wheel for Nismo, Ronnie Quintarelli and Hironobu Yasuda are the drivers for Hasemi Motorsport and Tsugio Matsuda and Sebastien Philippe will race the Impul Calsonic GT-R. João Paulo de Oliveira and Seiji Ara will hit the tarmac in the HIS Advan Kondo GT-R with Yokohama rubber.
The GT500-spec GT-R will have an improved air cooling system and a paddle-shift transmission. It will also have to conform to the new regulation changes that require a shorter vehicle overhang.

Details on the vehicle should emerge soon. Expect an astronomical power-to-weight ratio.
Write By : Mike Lysaght

Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG

Mercedes-Benz won't be bringing its new 2011 SLS coupe to the 2009 Geneva Auto Show this week. However, talk of the modern-day resurrection of the iconic 300SL Gullwing is sure to be on everyone's lips, following a decision by Mercedes' revered AMG performance-car division to reveal mechanical information about its new two-seater sports car.
To be unveiled in production car guise at the 2009 Frankfurt Auto Show later this year — with North American sales to start around this time in 2010 — the 2011 SLS is the first stand-alone series production model to be wholly designed and developed by Mercedes-Benz's AMG division.

Styled to evoke memories of the 300SL Gullwing, the SLS is planned to enter the Mercedes-Benz lineup as a replacement for the SLR and as a rival for the Ferrari 599. Production will kick off at McLaren's showcase assembly plant in Woking, England later this year. Alongside the coupe, pictured in prototype guise here, Mercedes-Benz is planning a convertible version of the SLS with a traditional cloth roof. The convertible is not likely to go on sale until 2012, according to Inside Line sources.

The SLS pioneers a new aluminum construction technique that Mercedes-Benz has developed and is planning to use on the next-generation SL, due out in 2012, as a means of lowering weight and providing a more sporting drive. Eschewing traditional steel construction, its 531-pound floorpan and body structure is made out of a combination of forged, cast and sheet aluminum.
Powering the coupe is a heavily revised 563-horsepower version of AMG's 6.2-liter V8 engine, set well back in the engine bay. With 479 pound-feet of torque and over 120 individual changes, including the adoption of dry sump lubrication, it gets its own unique internal code name: M159. Channeling the drive to the rear wheels is a newly developed seven-speed double-clutch gearbox mounted at the rear in a classic transaxle layout — providing the SLS with a 48:52 front-to-rear weight distribution. The fancy new gearbox also comes with a choice of four different driving modes, from comfortable to extremely sporty, as well as a RACE START function.
High-performance composite brakes (ceramic composite brakes with larger discs are optional) and light-alloy wheels shod with 265/35R19 rubber in front and 295/30R20s in the rear are also present.

Standing-start performance is on par with that of the SLR; the sprint from zero to 60 mph is claimed to take less than 3.8 seconds. Top speed is put at 196 mph. Underpinning the new car is a unique aluminum-intensive double-wishbone suspension with a 106-inch wheelbase along with a 66.1-inch front and 64.9-inch rear track.
Pricing for the 2011 Mercedes SLS AMG is expected to be in the $250,000 range.

The final styling has not yet been revealed, but it's already clear that Mercedes-Benz's modern-day Gullwing is much more than a tarted-up SL.

Write By : Andreas Stahl

Toyota and Subaru join forces???

Toyota and Subaru join forces for New Sports Coupe

Japanese car makers collaborate on new sports car for 2011, to be designed by Toyota and powered by Subaru. JEZ SPINKS reports.

Toyota and Subaru are joining forces to build a new compact sports coupe that will launch in 2011.
The rear-wheel-drive sports car will be marketed and badged separately by each car maker and will be designed by Toyota and built by Subaru.
An all-new Subaru platform will underpin the coupe and Subaru’s signature flat four-cylinder ‘boxer’ engine will provide the power.
The model was confirmed yesterday as part of an extended collaboration between the two Japanese car makers, with Toyota paying about $320 million to double its stake in Subaru’s parent company Fuji Heavy Industries – from 8.7 to 16.5 per cent.
It ends a sports-car drought for both brands. Subaru hasn’t offered a coupe since the SVX (last sold in Australia in 1997), while in recent years Toyota has discontinued three two-door vehicles: Supra, MR2 and Celica.
Toyota CEO Katsuaki Watanabe said at the news conference that the coupe would be sold in Japan and overseas and that pricing would “not [be] prohibitively high”.
The joint development will significantly reduce production costs and industry speculation suggests the coupe could start at the equivalent of $40,000 in Europe, the same price as a Subaru Impreza WRX.
“I think there is high potential for this car,” Watanabe told media. “We (Toyota) haven’t had a sports car for a long time. This is a long-awaited model.”
Toyota and Subaru have confirmed that the new coupe will start production in late 2011 at a new Subaru plant to be built in Japan.
Details of the 2.0-litre four-cylinder Subaru engine’s power output haven’t been revealed, although rumours suggest a turbocharged, all-wheel-drive version will also be made available.
Toyota Australia has previously told Drive that it is keen to re-introduce sports cars locally, while Subaru Australia says the coupe’s rear-wheel-drive layout means it’s not necessarily a shoo-in for its future model line-up.

“We never say never (with any product),” says Subaru Australia spokesman David Rowley, “but as far as Subaru Australia is concerned, for the foreseeable future our commitment is to the four-wheel drive and boxer engine format.
Subaru has enjoyed a successful period of growth locally since it decided in 1996 to sell only all-wheel-drive models.
Rowley says the effectiveness of its all-wheel-drive focus means the company would take some convincing to alter its marketing approach, though he did offer some hope to driving enthusiasts who would be interested in an affordable rear-wheel-drive Subaru.
“Of course we look very closely at future products as and when they are available to us and we’re interested to see these developments,” he says.
“We really need to do a lot of product planning exercises before we committed (to the car). The reality is that we’re looking quite a long way down the track (for this coupe).”
Toyota also announced that it will supply Subaru with a compact car and a ‘mini-vehicle’ – the Coo from Toyota-owned Daihatsu – as part of the expanded collaboration.
A Toyota press release said the two cars were expected to allow Subaru to focus its research and development resources on its main vehicle products.

Toyota-Subaru Rear-Wheel-Drive Coupe in the Works

As if paying homage to Subaru, Toyota is co-developing a new lineup of rear-wheel-drive sporty coupes employing a revised version of the Subaru Impreza's platform, boxer engine and transmission. Toyota's largest contribution to the mix will be product planning and its impeccable quality control.

The Toyota model, still to be named, will be sold exclusively in Japan, while the Subaru-badged model will be marketed worldwide. The mechanical package will be identical, but both Toyota and Subaru will create exterior designs to differentiate their cars from each other. The basis for this new radical project is to take Subaru's well-known 4WD powertrain and modify it to create a new rear-wheel-drive setup. Slated to be built at Subaru's Gunma plant in Japan, both Toyota and Subaru models will employ a revised version of the naturally aspirated boxer 2.0-liter unit generating around 220 horsepower at 6,500 rpm, mated to a six-speed manual gearbox from the current Impreza WRX STI. Surprisingly, the joint Toyota-Subaru R&D team has chosen the out-of-production, front-wheel-drive Honda Integra Type R as its benchmark, because its styling, performance parameters and dimensions mirror what the development team wants to create. Expected to ride on a 103-inch wheelbase, the 2,866-pound coupes will use a 2+2 seating configuration. Slated for a late 2011 debut, the coupes are expected to be priced starting just under $20,000. What this means to you: Good times on the horizon for fans of low-end rear-wheel-drive coupes.

Write by : Peter Lyon

RWD Toyota/Subaru Sports Car Put On Hold

Like a schizophrenic love affair, the on-again, off-again Subaru/Toyota rear-wheel drive coupe is apparently off again. That morsel of sobering news comes via Detroit Free Press columnist Mark Phelan, who says that both automakers now admit that the project has been put on hold. The inexpensive 2+2 sports coupes had been the subject of much speculation and a seemingly infinite number of renderings, and in fact what looked to be an early prototype had been spotted last year.
Many enthusiasts were hoping that the car would signal Toyota’s intent to return to the performance heritage of the AE86 Corolla, while Subaru stood to benefit from having a sportier-bodied, less expensive coupe than the WRX (although the car’s RWD configuration was seemingly at odds with the company’s all-wheel drive ethos).
In any case, the goal of a pair of 2011 sports coupes has evidently fallen by the wayside as yet another victim of the global financial crisis. Despite this development, Toyota maintains its small stake in Subaru, and the two automakers will continue joint production of the Camry in Subaru’s American facility.
Write by : Chris Paukert