NEW CAR MODIFICATION REVIEW

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Toyota fails to meet Prius demand

Buyers of the all-new Prius are facing waiting times of upto 9 months in Japan as the company struggles to keep up with demand for the car.

The Tsutsumi plant in Japan, the only producer of Priuses worldwide, has a global backlog of 100,000 cars as demand for the new hybrid outstrips supply.

Latest sales figures show that 1 in 10 cars currently sold in Japan is a Prius. In the UK, Toyota is quoting a wait of 10 weeks for a new Prius.

In related news, Toyota is planning a Prius coupe to go head to head with the Honda CR-Z.

The sleek, sporting hybrid is expected to be part of a Prius family, which would also include an MPV that could line up against a hybrid production version of the Honda Skydeck. Honda is keen to regain its footing in the hybrid market and Toyota, which was understood to have ditched the idea of expanding the Prius range, has been urged to respond.

The Prius coupe would use the same 1.8 litre VVT-i hybrid powertrain and chassis as the hatch version with 134bhp. A more aerodynamic body and possible weight saving would bring slight improvements to the 10.4sec sprint to 60mph and 110mph top speed.

"Lexus LFA is a monster" - Honda CEO

Hondas CEO, Takanobu Ito loves the sound of his own voice. After calling Hyundai 'awesome', the CEO has now bashed the forthcoming Lexus LFA. The supercar has been branded 'a monster' by the new chief of rival firm Honda, Takanobu Ito.

The supercar was unveiled at the Tokyo motorshow last week. It's powered by a new 4.8 litre V10 that develops more than 550bhp. The top speed is quoted at more than 200mph. It goes on sale in 2011 for £343,000 and just 500 will be made. 17 orders have been made in the UK but only 2 are serious buyers. Europe's only Lexus LFA dealership will be on Park Lane, London. In total, Toyota UK has predicted it will sell 17 cars which will be built in two batches for delivery in 2011 and 2012.

However, Ito, who worked on Honda's last supercar the NSX, isn't impressed. 'I would love to see us develop another one [supercar], possibly as a green supercar,' said Ito. 'If we do – and it is a big if – it would not look like the monster that Toyota has announced.'

Ito also hinted that a hydrogen fuel cell powered supercar could be on the cards deep into the future. "It would be lighter than a petrol car, be fun to drive and has maximum torque from zero rpm," he said.

Honda’s boss also canned speculation he was planning to bring the company’s luxury brand Acura to Europe. "The economic crash forced us to change our plans, it’s not coming for the time being and I don’t know when it will," he admitted.

Ito also restated the company’s plans to broaden its range of hybrids. He revealed plans for twin motor hybrids for cars larger than a Civic and committed the company to continue its development of petrol and diesel engines to go with them.

The long term goal for Honda though is to have a range of hydrogen fuel cell cars, but conceded that they would not be common place for at least two decades.

Motorshow: 2009 Tokyo motorshow

The recent Tokyo motorshow was home to mainly domestic car makers, since international automakers like Hyundai pulled out.

Honda revealed the production-looking e:S city-car. It'll do 70mpg combined through it's 660cc petrol-engine, mated to a automatic transmission. Stop/start technology is used to achieve superb fuel economy, alongside an overall weight of 700kg.

At the Toyota stand was the FT-86 which hinted at a forthcoming sports coupe from both Toyota & Subaru. Internal sources at Toyota suggest the coupe will go into production in 2011 using the "Celica" nameplate. Toyota's sporty & luxury division, Subaru is already running prototypes of the new coupe will goes on sale in late 2010.

Via Autobild

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Subaru Legacy B4 GT300 for Super GT

Having left the World championship on rally, company Subaru has closed many sports projects. But in 2010 the company intends to exhaust on a racing line super car Subaru Legacy B4 GT300.

The car intended for national series Super GT, equip 2,0-litre turbo motor, developing about 300 h.p. The Car will equip with a drive gear on all four wheels and six-high-speed transmission. The car debuted last month on autodrome Fuji Speedway where he without any problems has managed to overcome 300 km and to occupy as a result of 18 place.

The equipped weight B4 GT300 will make an order of 1270 kg. It will provide to a novelty good dynamics and high speed.

New Porsche Cayenne will appear in March

About that company Porsche conducts works on creation of the second generation of off-road car Cayenne, i already wrote. But here today the date of official presentation of this model became known – Cayenne II will show in March of next year on a motor show in Geneva.

And, for model statement on the conveyor Germans will be compelled to reconstruct the factory seriously. The new equipment which installation will be begun in January is for this purpose already bought. That is possible to assume that old Cayenne will stop to exhaust in December of this year.

According to preliminary data, new Cayenne become hardly less than the present car, but thus the car will appear is even more strongly focused on high-speed driving on equal asphalt. Well and under a cowl new Cayenne it will be possible to see gasoline engines well familiar to us in volume of 4,8 l which, the truth, will be seriously finished. Still there will be a diesel engine in volume of 3,0 l and hybrid version.

As to interior it will be made in style of big hatchback Panamera – between front armchairs there will be a huge tunnel on which buttons of steering by systems of the car and a powerful shift lever will be located.