Holden HSV coming to Singapore!

Forget about German uber sedans. The ultimate man's muscle car, a very hairy chested brawns more than brains type, is Australian. Word is out that plans to market souped up HSV badged Holdens will materialize in Singapore by November 2010. HSV (Holden Special Vehicles) is what Holden is to BMW's M or Mercedes-Benz's AMG or Audi's RS-line cars. Models planned for sale in Singapore is a 435bhp 6.2-litre LS3 V8 powered GTS four door sedan. The Maloo ute, powered by the same power corrupting engine is also rumored to be in the plans. Prices are rumored to be in the region of SGD 250,000. If word on the street is correct, the Singaporean distributor will be Harvest Automobile Pte. Ltd., the current distributor for Skoda in Singapore.

The range of Holden HSV models will be based on the recently facelifted VE generation E3-series Commodore sedans. The HSV Maloo is one of the fastest pick-up trucks in the world. But it is not a pick-up truck in a conventional sense. In fact, the Aussies call it a ute rather than a truck. A ute, is defined by the Aussies as a truck that is based on a passenger car, has a monocoque body rather than a ladder frame chassis. Not sure if the Maloo HSV still holds the fastest truck title as I think the Ford SVT F-150 Lightning is one of the contenders to the title.

Maloo HSV ute

The LS3 V8 that powers Holden's HSV models is the same engine under the hood of the Chevy Camaro (which by the way whose GM-Zeta platform was engineered by Australians at GM-Holden) and Chevy Corvette.

But Holden is keen to point out that the while their HSV models are targeted at the ballsy crowd, it is not exactly an all brawn and no brains of a car. It stays true to the muscle philosophy but where necessary, some pretty advanced technology were incorporated into the HSV. The headline grabber will be a Nissan GT-R style data logging interface that the driver can record and download performance related data like G-force, lap times (using GPS), throttle opening etc etc, should you fancy to play the role of a race engineer at the weekend. Holden calls it EDI, short for Enhanced Driver Interface. It was developed in partnership with motorsports specialist MoTec. The recorded telemetry data can then be downloaded via USB.






The other is a blind spot indication warning system which Holden calls it SBZA, short for Side Blind Zone Alert. However the system is not as fancy as the BLIS used by Volvo, as that is a far more sophisticated radar based system while SBZA is an ultrasonic based system. Basically a reverse sensor adapted for side use.

In this time of eco-consciousness, it would not be politically correct for some to be seen in such cars. Holden offers a LPG-petrol bi-fuel variant of the HSV which the company calls it LPI, short for liquid propane injection. The Holden HSV LPI system has very little in common with the NGV / CNG kits used by taxis or fleet cars. This is a performance oriented system whose trump card is a set of 8 injectors in the inlet manifold to deliver LPG in liquid form (rather than conventional gas form).

So near yet so far, the HSV is a tempting bruiser of an option. Doubt if any of these will end up on this side of the causeway as prices will be exorbitant after you load in the taxes from Singapore AND Malaysia. Australia's strict vehicle export regulations make it an unlikely source for parallel imported cars. If you are rich enough, there is nothing to stop you from buying one and keeping it across the causeway.


The HSV range - GTS in red, Maloo ute in green, R8 Tourer estate, entry level ClubSport R8 in white, Senator Signature in the middle and the long wheel base luxo-cruiser muscle Grange in the background.

Toyota settles lawsuit out of court, but action puts dealers on alert

The famous crash involving the family of an off-duty California Highway Patrol officer in a Lexus ES, that sparked off the entire "Toyota-gate" has been settled out of court between Toyota and the families of the deceased.

“Through mutual respect and cooperation we were able to resolve this matter without the need for litigation,” Toyota said in a statement late Friday, without disclosing the terms of the settlement.

The amount of compensation was not disclosed. However, we know that the details of the settlement did not include co-defendant Bob Baker Lexus, the Lexus dealer that provided the loaner car that would later accelerate out of control.

"Toyota has sought to protect only its own interests. They decided to cut out their own dealer," the paper quoted Larry Willis, attorney for Bob Baker Lexus, as saying. The glaring omission of the Lexus dealer implies that an option is open for Toyota's lawyers to push the blame to the dealer. There are still more than 300 lawsuits on sudden acceleration related crashes / injuries against Toyota. Better be on your toes if you are a Toyota / Lexus dealer in America. It looks like Big-T is still insisting that there are no problem with its cars, and that the problem is with the dealers.

A1 e-tron and Audi's Rotary Engine History

Last week, Audi is the latest manufacturer to send a fleet of small electric powered city cars into urban use trial. 20 units of the electric powered Audi A1 e-tron will go on trial in the German city of Munich. Similar to what BMW has done with the MINI-E. However there is an interesting twist to Audi's effort, as the A1 e-tron is a range extended electric vehicle (REV), ala Chevrolet Volt. The A1 e-tron is not only powered by a lithium ion battery pack but it also carries along its own generator to recharge the batteries. The Li-ion battery pack is good for around 50km, after which a the generator kicks in. But again, here is another twist. Instead of a small conventional piston engine like the Chevy Volt the Audi uses a single rotor rotary engine. Anyway as usual, this blog is not interested in repeating what is already available in the press release, which can be found here.


The interesting thing is Audi's decision to use a Wankel rotary engine instead of a regular small 3-cylinder 4-stroke piston engine, the default option for most manufacturers. Conceptually it may be purely a technical decision due to the packaging benefits of a compact Wankel rotary engine. It certainly suits a small car like the A1.


Mazda have shut all debates about reliability of rotary engines by winning the 1991 24 Hours of Le Mans in the Mazda 787, the only Japanese manufacturer to ever win a Le Mans and also the only and the last rotary engine car to win Le Mans as FIA have since banned entries of rotary engine cars. It was a political decision but that's another story. However the challenge still remains that it cost a lot more to maintain a rotary engine and it requires pretty exotic materials in its manufacture. Not to mention that rotary engines use a lot more fuel than a comparable reciprocating piston engine of similar output.

So the question remains, why choose a rotary engine? Even Mazda, the rotary engine evangelist wisely only fit its niche models like the RX-8 with a rotary. The company have wisely backed down from its earlier plans to fit rotary engines on a wide range of its high volume cars. Plus Mazda have significantly backed down from its previous rotary evangelist stance in the 80s and instead choose to focus more on its Zoom-Zoom philosophy in its marketing. Could it be possible Audi sees the short operating period of the rotary engine in a range extender EV will off-set a lot of the disadvantages of a rotary? But still, the logic doesn't sound very convincing, either on a technical or a commercial view. Interest in rotary engines peaked in the 70s but since then all manufacturer except Mazda (which cultivates a quirky but innovate brand image so rotary still have some value to the company) have since abandoned the concept. GM tried the Corvette XP series concept, Mercedes tried the C111 Concept and both have since abandoned the technology.

Mercedes-Benz C111 rotary engine concept, 1969


Chevrolet Corvette XP rotary engine concept, 1973

We later found out that the rotary range extender engine not developed by Audi, but by an Austrian engineering consultant called AVL. AVL is offering a compact packaging hybrid solution to OEMs with its rotary range extender, and choose to work with Audi to showcase the concept. Most people associate rotary engine technology with Mazda, but truth is that the first mass produced rotary engine car was produced by Audi, or more accurately, the NSU brand which was part of the greater Auto Union, the forerunner of the present day Audi.

In the 1936, Felix Wankel was a self-thought engineer who never went to college. He was 22-years old when he invented the rotary engine concept. What were you doing when you were 22?! By the 1950s, Felix Wankel convinced NSU to support his invention. The first working rotary engine was started on a NSU test rig in 1957.

The origin of NSU can be traced back to 1873, founded by Christian Schmidt and Heinrich Stoll was a knitting machine manufacturer. NSU is short for Neckarsulm, NSU's founding city. The origin of NSU reminds me of Toyota - both started as knitting / fabric machineries maker. Like Peugeot, NSU began expanding to manufacture bicycles when the bicycle boom started. When the motorcar was invented, NSU was played a critical role at this turning point of history. The little known fact was that NSU was the one who built Gottileb Daimler and his technical partner Wilhelm Maybach's Stahlradwagen (steel-wheeled car) chassis.


NSU would later go into motorcycle manufacturing (like BMW) and go on to become the largest two-wheeler manufacturer in the world and largest motorcycle maker in Germany.
NSU bikes

In 1963, NSU showed the single rotor NSU/Wankel Spider to the public for the first time at the Frankfurt Motor Show. The car went on sale a year later. Mazda would release its first production rotary engine car, the Cosmo in 1967. By 1968, NSU released its second rotary engine model, this time a high volume large sedan called Ro 80. Initial impression of the car was so good that it was voted the 1968 Car of the Year.

NSU/Wankel Spider



NSU Ro 80


Mazda Cosmo

However problems began to surface almost as quickly. It soon became apparent that there were serious design flaw with the engine, mainly caused by insufficient field testing and the choice of rotor tip material was not suitable. Problems began to appear by 15,000km and some engines required complete rebuild by 50,000km. The problem was eventually solved but the financial woes suffered by NSU was already too serious to correct. NSU was a relatively small company to begin with, and have even less resources to do the sort of development work required to refine the rotary concept. NSU could not weather the financial storm well and the Dresdner Bank, NSU's main shareholder urged NSU to find a larger partner. Eventually VW would take over NSU in 1969 and the company was merged with VW's subsidiary Auto Union GmbH, to form Audi NSU Auto Union AG.

Decades earlier, Auto Union was devastated after World War 2 as most of its production facilities was located in the now separated East Germany. BMW suffered a similar fate but Daimler-Benz was lucky to avoid this fate. In the post-war years, Daimler-Benz wanted to enter the lower segment market. Pouring huge capital in uncertain economic time to develop a new model is risky so Daimler-Benz purchased Auto-Union GmbH and the company's DKW Junior model was doing brisk sales for Daimler-Benz.

DKW Junior

However the good news didn't last long. Mercedes customers weren't too happy that their cars are associated with the humble DKW from Auto Union. Daimler-Benz received its first lesson in managing a multi-brand model line-up. Daimler's board was afraid of losing their core customer base. At the same time, Daimler-Benz's truck operations, which was quite profitable but its existing plants in Mannheim and Gaggenau was in urgent need of expansion. Daimler was offered an opportunity to purchase a new plant at Rhine but didn't have the finances to secure it. Daimler then decided to sell Auto-Union GmbH to Volkswagen by 1966 to raise funds. Out of the deal, VW got the DKW F102 developed largely with Mercedes fund. VW also decided that all Auto Union cars from this point onwards will be sold as an Audi.

DKW F102
It was only in 1985 that Audi NSU Auto Union AG was renamed to Audi AG, matching the brand and the company name as a single concept. This was not an easy task due to historical legacy. Auto Union was formed in the difficult post-Great Depression years with the merger of Audi, DKW, Horch, Wanderer and later NSU. Ironically, 30 year later Audi would return to pose a strong challenge to Mercedes, the company that once owned Audi.

It should also be mentioned that Audi did preserve much of NSU's heritage. The original NSU plant is now one of Audi's flagship plant. The Neckarslum plant makes Audi's flagship cars like the R8 supercar as well as the A8 sedan. It is also the one of the few car plants in the world that can weld aluminium.

Audi A8 with aluminium space frame technology and NSU TT, NSU Ro 80 in the background.

Toyota Recall-gate Spreads to Hilux

In the latest wave of recall afflicting Toyota, the invincible Hilux is the latest casualty. Under extreme driving conditions, the brackets holding the propeller shaft might give way. Affected models are those made by Toyota Motor Thailand's plant between January 2005 and February 2010.

Toyota however claims that the problem is only "unique to Australian driving conditions." Of all the markets that sourced the Hilux from Thailand, Australia is the only market to issue a recall. The Hilux in Europe are sourced from South Africa.

In Australia, product recalls are governed under the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) and a vehicle recall code of practise is drafted by the Australian Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government.


As required by Australian vehicle recall regulations, all recalls must be reported to the government. Public advertisement as well as notification of owners must be completed within 90 days.

ASEAN consumers need not check with their local Toyota distributors. It is almost certain that a follow up announcement will run along the lines of "not affecting our local cars" statement from your local Toyota offices, no reported problems. Unless of course you live in a country with a strong consumer protection court. The Hilux is the No.1 selling truck in this region. Can you imagine if a recall is to happen and how much it will cost the company? Not mention pressure on the dealers to attend to the sudden surge of vehicle traffic. Australia is different because the government will whop Toyota arse if they don't adhere to the law and the newly elected government is not going to risk any political backlash of favouring an imported product that has indirectly cost Aussie manufacturing jobs, at the expense of the safety of Australian citizens.

For more info, read here. Note the cheeky placement of a Triton ad in the article. Not sure if it is really intentional.

GoAuto's article starts with the tough environment of the Australian outback, which maybe too much for other trucks, but they don't call the Hilux invincible for nothing. Hilux goes where no other trucks dare thread. At least that used to be the case. Come on this is the Taliban and African militia's favourite technical. Many believed the last of these built to old-school toughness Hilux is the Hilux Tiger, which was discontinued in 2005. Did you know that there was even a war that was dubbed the Toyota War, the Chadian-Libyan conflict in the late-80s, which was won by the Chadians which relied a lot on Toyota pick-up trucks racing across the Northern Sahara while the Libyans relied on heavier armoured vehicles.





Related link :
Thoughts on Toyota's recall

The Chinese will determine what you drive in the future

In 2009, China passed the US as the world's largest car market. A direct result of this is that preferences and subjective taste of Chinese consumers will invariably exert a lot of influence on the future direction automotive design. Up until now, the design and construction of cars are very much influenced by the demands of the largest group of consumers - depending on the manufacturer, this could be North Americans, Western Europeans, or Japanese.

We are slowly starting to see the result of Chinese consumer demands influencing the direction of many recent models - and I am not referring to models from Chinese domestic manufacturers, but in relatively global cars sold across many markets, cars that you are likely to buy in the future.

So what defines the Chinese taste in automotive design? GM, the second largest foreign car brand in China after VW summarizes it as having a preference for roomy rear cabin, hi-tech features especially ICE, lots of chrome, long wheelbase and having strong road presence. It's really not that different from American preferences. Internally, GM designers call it the C-factor.

Below are some examples of Chinese market special vehicles. Some of these are only limited to superficial paint jobs while others incorporate quite significant features unique to the Chinese market.

Ferrari 599 China Special Edition


No the car does not have a case of cracked paint. The paint job is supposed to mirror traditional Chinese ceramic art. It is a one-off special made for auction. It was finally auctioned for 1.2 million Euros to an anonymous Chinese bidder. While this may be a one-off car, don't be too naive to think that Ferrari is not gauging public response for a Chinese art inspired Ferrari design theme.

Bentley Continental GT Design Series China


The gaudy colour is called Orange Flame. The late Enzo Ferrari calls the late Sir Walter Owen Bentley's cars as racing lorries. If he was alive today, he probably would have call it one very fast racing mandarin orange.

Lamborghini Murceilago LP670-4 Super Veloce China Edition


Quite a mouthful of a name. Launched in the 2010 Beijing Auto Show, only 10 of these will be made. Other than the usual numeral plaque on all limited edition cars, the lucky owner of this particular Murceilago will have his / her name engraved on the plaque.

BMW M3 Tiger Edition

250 units of these Fire Orange Metallic painted M3 coupe will be made specifically for the Chinese market, in conjunction with the BMW M3 25th anniversary and the Chinese lunar calendar Tiger year celebration.

The models mentioned above only have superficial changes made to them. The ones below however have their wheelbase stretched and tricked out with many unique features that might not even be available to European buyers. Consumers in other parts of the world might snigger or even wonder why on earth does anyone want a stretched premium C-segment model like the Audi A4, or at the end of the extreme, a Rolls Royce Phantom is already big enough, why do you need an even longer version?


A long wheel base Audi A4 will make sense the moment one experiences the gridlocked traffic of Beijing / Shanghai. In fact, even in congested cities like Bangkok, Jakarta and Manila it is not uncommon to see a chauffeur driven BMW 3-series. BMW is a little late in the capturing the whole chauffeur driven premium C-segment market but expects to catch up for lost time by 2011, when sale of a long wheel base BMW 3-series commences in China.


The demand for a stretched Phantom is the same as the logic for a stretched Hummer or even a Mercedes S600 Pullman - eccentric demands of eccentric rich people with nowhere else to put their money into. The Phantom Extended Wheelbase was created mainly to cater to the Chinese market. Rolls Royce Cars' current largest market, in America perceives the Rolls Royce Phantom EWB to be a bit too eccentric. However after seeing the success of the Phantom EWB in China, Rolls Royce Cars' said that "quite a number" of orders for a regular Phantom were converted to the Phantom EWB.

There are many other stretched long wheel base models of European models, specially made for the Chinese market.

BMW 5-series Long wheel base 


Audi A6L, with some fancy mobile office and entertainment setup. Note the longer rear cabin. 



Mercedes E-class long wheel base


Volvo S80L.


The bits below are the more significant models when discussing about influence of Chinese consumer demands on the direction of high volume global models.



The Mazda2 sedan and Ford Fiesta sedan have recently made its way to ASEAN markets. But not many realised that these are essentially Chinese engineered products with a Japanese / European badge. The Mazda2 sedan and Ford Fiesta sedan were the result of intense lobbying from Changan Ford Mazda Automobile Corp., the Chinese partner of the recently terminated Ford-Mazda alliance. In China, consumer preference is towards sedans rather than hatchbacks. Though we will never know the amount of work done by Ford-Mazda's Chinese counterparts. Don't forget that unlike our local so-called national car MANUFACTURER Perodua that uses tax payer's money to subsidize the richest car company in the world Toyota, Changan is a full fledge car manufacturer with capability of designing AND building cars from the ground up completely on their own. Both the Ford Fiesta and Mazda2 sedan were probably considered for other developing markets outside of China but there was no public announcement of such a commitment to the plan. So one can only guess that the introduction of the Mazda2 sedan and Ford Fiesta sedan was only possible once the principal holders were convinced of the business plan after seeing the success in China.

The same story goes for the Chevrolet Aveo sedan / notchback. It is a big hit in China although sales in this region have been lackluster.



The Peugeot 408 is another model that was originally planned for China, but eventually made its way into other developing markets. Despite what the name might suggest, the 408 is not a replacement to the current D-segment 407 sedan, but rather it is a sedan version of the 308 hatchback. Peugeot will rename its existing 400-series mid-size sedan model line as the 500-series; the upcoming 508 will be a replacement for the current 407, while the 607 model programme will be terminated. Though PSA's official statement was worded in a more diplomatic manner - rationalization of both the 407 and 607 into the 508. Large French cars have never achieved much sales success. In Europe, they can't shake off the fleet rental car / taxi image normally associated with large Peugeots. After 2 generations, the 600-series model line will be terminated.


It's same thing with the 207 sedan. Which is essentially a 206 sedan reskinned with 207 front fascia and updated with 207 features. The 207 sedan maybe developed with significant Chinese input, but the history of car, dating back to the 206 sedan actually started in Iran, with Peugeot's Iranian partner Iran Khodro. The 206 sedan eventually made its way to China and as expected, became a much bigger success than Peugeot can ever hope to achieve in Iran, especially with the current trade sanctions imposed by many UN, EU and USA.


The Nissan Teana maybe a Korean designed car with a Japanese badge. It is essentially a rebadged Samsung Motors SM5 / SM7. But the Teana was created with a lot of focus on Chinese consumers. In fact, Nissan chose the 2009 Beijing Auto Show for the Teana's global launch. And Nissan's CEO Carlos Ghosn went on to say "The Teana is a Chinese product...Without any doubt, the Chinese consumer now is becoming a big target for a lot of products that we are developing.”


Chinese market Ford Mondeo, note the unique to Chinese market rear fascia and LED tail lamps. European models only get conventional tail lamps but with less gaudy chrome.

Both the Chevrolet Cruze and Ford Mondeo are other similar examples. In the case of the Ford Mondeo, Ford see it necessary for the Chinese Mondeo to feature a different tail lamp cluster, chrome lining surrounds on the windows. Like the Americans, the Chinese love chrome. Chinese consumers also demand the most for their money, doesn't matter if they need the feature or not. European Mondeo owners are very satisfied with the Mondeo's conventional tail lamps with LED-like effects. Chinese consumers however will have none of that, they demand real LED tail lamps. A separate tail lamp cluster is designed specifically for the Chinese market. The Cruze is the first C-segment car to feature a 6-speed automatic transmission. Again, thank the picky Chinese consumers. Of course, there are many other factors that motivated GM-Daewoo's decision on the powertrain.

It was the Chinese (plus overseas Chinese) market that spurred the growth of a new MPV sub-segment; the "business-class luxury MPV." It is markedly different from the type of people movers or minivans that Europeans and Americans are accustomed to. Outside of Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong and more recently China are the main markets for the Toyota Alphard. Though it must be added that the concept was first pioneered by the Nissan Elgrand. In China, the Alphard is a newbie there and the default choice for Chinese businessman is a Buick GL8 MPV followed by the Mercedes-Benz Vito. You can see it often in major cities and business centers of China. It was a rather bland design but GM China is resting on its laurels. GM's Chinese engineers at the GM Pan-Asia Technical Automotive Center (PATAC) have developed the Buick Business MPV Concept that was unveiled at the 2009 Shanghai Auto Show. In reality it was a thinly disguised replacement for the 2011 model year Buick GL8.




So what is the future of Chinese design theme? Citroen's Metropolis Concept, unveiled at the 2010 Shanghai World Fair, provides a hint. It was penned by Citroen's Shanghai based designers, made to appeal to Chinese consumers. It's avant-garde, it's grand, it's big, exactly the way the Chinese (and the nouveou rich in the rest of the world) likes them.



Even domestic Chinese car makers are rapidly improving their talent at a staggering pace. Below is the Geely GT Concept.


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