evolution of Chinese made cars

China made cars are playing the catch up game and the rate which they are catching up is scaring other car companies in Japan and Korea. Recently Chery hired a top designer from Porsche to design their new car. They followed the route which Kia took by hiring the Audi top designer. The result is obvious the new Chery car looking European and with a modern look.

The car's appearance is no longer boring and square. The new design makes the car look sophisticated, elegant and modern. Kia enjoyed tremendous success doing this and Chery looks set to see more success in the near future.

Other China car companies have also invested a lot to play catch up by hiring German engineers to help develop engines and drivetrains. Great Wall Cars recently introduced their 1.5 litre turbo engine pushing out 150ps which is commendable for a first effort. The history of Great Wall Cars is relatively short in comparison with Proton and yet it took them less than 8 years before coming out with their very first turbo engine while Proton took over 20 years!

Big names such as Borg Warner, Getrag, Monroe, Bosch and Delphi are now heavily involved in China to develop cars with China car companies. The technology transfer and collaboration is moving at such as fast pace that with each passing motorshow, so many new models are hitting the showrooms. Each model looking better than the previous and more technology being used.

It won't be long before China cars will be able to give Hyundai and Kia a run for their money and soon after that the Japanese cars. China car companies are cash rich and are able to buy technology to close the gap. The next step is to see the improvement in build quality and reliability.

It still remains a mystery if China car companies will enter motorsports to develop their technology and build their brand but with the high sales figures in China domestic market alone, they may just need to keep buying technology to move forward. Motorsports and racing may just not be necessary.

future of motorsports in Malaysia

The future of motorsports seem very bleak in Malaysia with numerous events calling it quits after 2013. The Super GT from Japan had its last event in 2013 with the organiser losing more than USD1 million, the Formula Drift Asia is also destined to end since the 2013 event was rained out and the organizer was not paid the sponsorship money causing the company to close down. The KL International motorshow also did not perform well with 6 car manufacturers missing from the event. Some of the reasons why the events have come to an end is to do with the cost of organizing the event where Sepang F1 track owner (SIC) charging a large sum for certain event making it not financially feasible for organizers to hold events that can make any profit.

Speedcity in the south of KL has also closed down bringing an end to a drift venue for grassroots drifters to practice and compete. 

The Youth and Sport Ministry which is suppose to be in charge of motorsports has done nothing for motorsports. The KL Motopark which was suppose to be a scaled down race track meant for circuit racing and drifting had the ground breaking ceremony many years ago but nothing has happened since then. It is unsure if the project ground to a halt due to political reasons or someone has siphoned off the money.

Malaysia is in need of 2 more small tracks with about 3km in length that is suitable for touring car racing capacity. A track similar to that of Tsukuba in Japan will suffice and encourage the development of motorsports in Malaysia and also keep the street racers of the city streets. Motorsports fans are yearning for more events and would like to see the development of the motorsports industry. There is definitely no shortage of motorsports fans but due to limited venue and events, it seems like the future of motorsports is remain bleak for the foreseeable future.

Direction of the Automotive industry in Malaysia

The automotive industry in Malaysia looks almost certainly lost in the sense that the Malaysian govt has been procrastinating about their National Automotive Policy. When they first mooted the tax exemption for hybrid cars it opened pandora's box and a flurry of hybrid cars entered the country at much lower price due to the tax exemption. This of course meant that the govt earned less tax from these cars. The Malaysian Govt did not anticipate the sudden surge in sales for hybrid cars which affected the sales of local cars.

There is rumour that the govt will end this exemption for all hybrid cars and only allow locally assembled hybrid cars to enjoy the hybrid tax exemption. This means that only the Honda Jazz will benefit from the exemption. The sales of the locally made cars especially Proton has seen a decline as more and more Malaysians are shying away from buying Protons in search for better quality cars. Proton has not made any improvements and their latest Suprima S model only received lukewarm response.

The Govt is trying to make a balancing act by protecting Proton while trying to encourage investment from foreign car companies. The constantly changing automotive policy has left many car companies guessing and most has lost confidence in investing more than they should in Malaysia. The knock on effect of this minimal or no growth for the automotive industry in 2014. With the already high taxes imposed on cars and the constantly rising cost of living, it is unlikely that we will see any growth at all.

supercar benchmark

Every new supercar is claiming to produce more power and torque with the aim of beating their rivals to the coveted title of being the best and the fastest. It seems that in the last decade there has been a massive paradigm shift with the supercar development. From the 500hp level supercar to now 900+hp. the jump in power figures has been tremendous. The new Mclaren P1 is pushing the technology envelope with electric power assist and Porsche's 918 is also using hybrid power. this has started to make the Bugatti Veyron look old when comparing technology.

The Americans have also jumped on the bandwagon and took fast cars and made then ridiculously fast. Hennessey took the GT-R and made is push out over 1400hp and also made the Venom (based on the Lotus) with more than 1000hp. Both of these are capable of making Lamborghinis look slow.

The question remains with where will this development taper off? at 1500hp? 1800hp? or 2000hp? Are the tyre companies able to make tyres to cope with such speed? And with the road getting more congested each day, will anyone really have a chance to push these cars to their limit outside of Germany?

The effort and technology is truly admirable but is it really useful?

Toyota GT86 experience

There was a lot of hype about the Toyota GT86 as the car that was expected to re-introduce some excitement into Toyota's model line up. It was definitely a fresh look at something sporty rather than the typical bland old Toyota cars.
The promised a lot in terms of handling and it certainly performed well in this department.
Toyota kept the weight of the car low with the much preferred front engine rear drive layout. The only sad point about this car is the power or lack of it. At 200ps the car seemed flat and was not able to really perform like one would expect from the good exterior looks.
Handling alone will win it many fans but most of the owner yearned for much more power. The car had a flat spot at 4,000 rpm which can be annoying to drive especially if the driver needed to down shift the car to overtake.

A whole flurry of tuning parts have hit the market to boost performance and handling. Being an affordable sports car in many countries the Toyota 86 has sold reasonably well. It is the new toy car in Japan as can be seen in numerous car magazines from Japan.

Toyota should consider a more powerful version to cater to the demands of enthusiasts. It will definitely revive the Toyota brand in the right direction.

Proton Suprima S

Malaysian car company Proton recently launched their first turbo charged hatch back model. Hoping to shake off the image of poor quality the company has added a lot of functions to this model such as Day time driving lights, Traction control, 6 air bags, an Android powered in-car entertainment system and a turbo charged engine.

The engine is taken from the Exora model that was launched in 2012. Proton has been known to make poor quality cars from the start and they have not shaken off that image since then. Hoping that this model will be a hot hatch, judging from the performance on paper the car is nowhere near a hot hatch. The hot hatch benchmark by world standards have moved tremendously since 10 years ago with most European hot hatches pushing out 200hp while Proton only manages a 140ps performance. In comparison to the Peugeot 308 with the same 1.6 litre displacement and turbo charger the performance is 20hp higher and 35Nm more twist.

Performance may not necessarily be everything but with the way the Proton guys are marketing this car, it seems a little lost. It is not a hot hatch, it is not a warm hatch, it is in the middle of nowhere. It is still questionable about the quality of this model. The previously launched Preve promised a lot but when videos of angry customers smashing their cars at dealerships went viral, it was very obvious that Proton achieved nothing.

Now Proton is looking to launch their R3 version of he Suprima S in the hope of pushing their sporty appeal for the car. R3 is Proton's performance division similar to AMG of Mercedes or TRD of Toyota. Having a turbo charged engine means it is easy to crank out more performance but will it really live up to expectations?

It will really be interesting to see how well the car is received in the next 1 year. Being priced close to Toyota Vios and Honda City both of which are very popular in Malaysia, it will be a tough fight for Proton to wrestle customers from Toyota and Honda since Proton's reputation is not at its best at the moment.

Has Japanese car makers lost the plot?

Over the years Japanese car manufacturers have been introducing new cars with new technology but it seems that of late (in the last 10 years) it appears that the Japanese car manufacturers are losing the plot with their development. They have spent a lot of time developing hybrid technology and pushing their hybrid technology to the rest of the world. The Koreans have caught them in terms of design and also has significantly closed the gap with the Japanese in their design and development of hybrids.
The mainland Chinese have also closed the gap (the gap is still quite big but closing at a very rapid rate) in terms of design (less ugly now) and engineering. The Europeans have moved in a different direction altogether with their alternative hybrid and diesel technology.

The Japanese seems to be stuck in a time warp with their development and they appear to want to hang on to old technology as long as possible to earn as much as possible. Their Prius hybrid is still using nickel metal hydride batteries while the Koreans have introduced Lithium Ions which are far more efficient, lighter and more powerful.

The Japanese hybrids only do well in America and some parts of Asia. The Europeans do not see any benefits in the hybrids as the turbo diesels are far more efficient and offer greater fuel savings than the hybrids and there is no requirement to change the expensive hybrid battery.

The case for Japanese car makers in South East Asia seems to display their lack of direction. For example, Toyota launched their new Vios model with no improvements in terms of engineering by using the same 4 speed automatic and same engine as the previous generation. Creating a new exterior does nothing in terms of product advancement. The direct competitors from Hyundai offer 6 speed automatic transmission and power output levels that are few percent better than the outgoing model.

Japanese car makers are also using the CVT transmission that was abandoned by the Europeans. They seem not keen to take the gamble and move their development further. Everything seems to be stuck in year 2005!
If Japanese car makers are not willing up the ante with their development they will gradually be over taken by Europeans, Koreans and the mainland Chinese.

Air hybrid technology - is it better than electric?

Peugeot recently announced their air hybrid system for their cars. This is quite a shift from the conventional electric hybrid that most car manufacturers are pursuing. The fact remains that the electric hybrid is flawed to some degree as the biggest problem faced is weight and range. The electric hybrid is heavy because of the batteries and the batteries also have a limited use life which also means expensive replacement cost when the batteries are dead.

The electric hybrid also has a problem with the range. The added weight also takes a toll on the range. The more batteries the car has the more range it is suppose to provide but it also means more weight that the car needs to shift. It is quite a trade off.

Peugeot's air hybrid is not a new concept as the inventor in NZ came out with the idea of using compressed air to turn a turbine. The turbine is connected to the transmission which allows it to turn the wheels. The principle is simple in theory. The compressed air tanks are stored next to the transmission tunnel and the rear axle. During deceleration the valve opens to collect air and compress it. The whole process of recollecting the air is only 10 secs which is much shorter than the time taken for the electric hybrids to recharge the batteries.
The range provided by the air hybrids is still very short (approximately 5km) but it acts more like a range assist to the engine. With the fast recharge (air) time, the air hybrid system can cut in more frequently making the range extension function feasible. The compressed air tanks are not as heavy as batteries and also yield less potential pollution as the batteries need to be replaced and disposed off.
Peugeot claims a respectable 560km range for the air hybrid system coupled with a 1.2 Litre turbo gasoline engine.
This concept may challenge the electric hybrid's develop altogether.

China made Sportscars?

China automotive industry is no doubt booming with nearly all the automotive giants clamouring for a piece of the pie. China's own car manufacturers are also growing by leaps and bounds. China car companies have focused their efforts on designing (a bit like copying for some models) and making mainstream cars such as compact cars, mid sized sedans, small MPVs and mid sized SUVs. The car companies have also started to move towards making large luxury sedans. In more recent years they have focused their efforts on EVs which seem to be the trend these days and especially fuel prices are high in China and combined with the fact that fuel rationing takes places almost every month is various parts of China.

The question remains if China car companies will deviate slightly and start making sportscars. They don't quite have the racing heritage nor any of them engaged in racing activities. making a sportscar may be a tall order for them since markets outside China will very likely shy away from a China made sportscar. Ownership of cars is still very new to many Chinese and embarking on making a sportcar for their domestic market is also not a very wise economic decision.

However saying this, at the rate China cars are improving it is not out of the question to see a China made sportscar hit the streets in China in the next 10 years. The amount of wealthy Chinese is staggering and the lifestyle sportscar can be a lucrative venture.

Korean car companies like Hyundai and Kia have yet to even make a real true sportscar. The Genesis coupe cannot really qualify as a sportscar as it is more like a Gran Tourer rather than a sportscar. In the last 15 years Kia and Hyundai have grown the fastest and they focused more on quality, design and technology rather than outright performance.

It will be interesting to see how the automotive industry will shape up in the next 10 years. The real companies to keep a look out for are:
- Volkswagen - their MQB platform is expected to be a real game changer for platform and component sharing
- Hyundai / Kia - further improvements in quality and bold steps in technology and design
- China car companies - big investments in luring top designers and engineers from Europe to improve car design, refinement and quality

Many of the Japanese car manufacturers are too conservative in their approach and this will be their Achilles heel. American car companies will continue to suffer as their quality standards have yet to see major improvements and being too US centric their cars are not sold in right hand drive countries which will limit their sales. In order for any car company to be strong it has to be a global player catering for both left and right hand drive markets.

Hypercars

These days we hear the new term hypercar as the supercar term is outdated. It all started with the sportscar which then became the supercar in the 1990s and then hypercar in the last 5 years. All these terms just signify the direction of the car development which sees the car manufacturers push the performance envelope.

The few car manufacturers that are consistently pushing the limit are Ferrari, Bugatti, Pagani, Mclaren, Mercedes Benz, Koenisegg, Lamborghini, Lexus, Porsche and more recently Hennessey which is a relatively new comer to this scene but has rocked this fraternity with its Venom!

Ferrari is about to release its new hypercar code named the F150 (actual name to be announced soon). This model is expected to push the power level beyond 700hp. The development was not centered around high horsepower only but also usable torque. This model is claimed to offer maximum torque from 1,000rpm which is incredible for an naturally aspirated engine. The engine's redline rev limit is 9200rpm making it one of the highest of any engine exceeding 6,000cc in capacity!

With Bugatti holding on to the 400km/h speed record, all the other car manufacturers are working hard at showing what they can do to beat the Veyron. It is about bragging rights rather than making money from selling these cars. In the case of Lexus with its LFA, they actually lose money on each money they produce as so much time and research went into the LFA but having only produced a limited quantity, Toyota knew it would never recover its investment for the LFA project.

In the case of Hennessey their development approach is somewhat different compared to the full fledged car manufacturers as its development was focused around efficiency in performance meaning keeping the weight low by using a light weight chassis and squeezing out as much power as possible from the engine to achieve the best possible power to weight ratio which will provide amazing performance. In the eyes of Hennessey the Bugatti Veyron can be called fat as the Veyron is a much heavier car than the Venom and the Veyron is far more complicated to build than the Venom.

It will be interesting to see where the hypercar development is headed with more new technologies are made available.

Big wheels and big tyres

As the years go by the wheel sizes have steadily increased with each new car model released. One of the main proponents for using big wheel is BMW. The wheels on their cars have grown significantly since the 1990s. The BMW 3 series in the 1990s were using 15" wheels and the current model F30 3 series is using 18" and 19" wheels.

The big wheels craze we driven by the after market sector where tuners started using large wheels to accentuate the looks of the car and also to improve traction after modifying the engine for more power. The real large wheels craze started to take off in early 2002 where 22" wheels were seen fitted on tuned cars. This lead to further large wheels craze and the size increased to 24"!!

In the US, big SUVs were fitted with massive wheels to fill up the big wheel arches. The sizes of the large wheels were approaching the point where it became ridiculous as tyre manufacturers were struggling to keep up. Wheel manufacturers were able to make big wheels but tyre manufacturers didn't have the tyre sizes to fit these large wheels. The tyre manufacturers needed to justify their investment in making large tyres and with low demand the tyre cost will be extremely high.

In the picture above the SUV is fitted with 32" wheels and the wheels manufacturer had to make their own tyres to suit this massive 32" wheel as other tyre manufacturers either didn't make them this big or there were very limited selection.

In terms of practicality the massive 32" wheels were down right useless as they were susceptible to damage from potholes. The massive wheels were purely for cosmetic appeal. It would not serve any purpose for traction.
With the super low tyre profile the tyres would also wear out much faster than normal tyres. In comparison a typical low profile tyres of 40 series profile would last about 1 year (20,000 to 25,000km) when used normally on a car but on a large 32" wheel with ultra low profile tyres the tyres itself would last no more than 6 months (10,000km). 

Lotus cars

Lotus was founded by a man whose passion led his engineering mind to create many iconic cars. Colin Chapman's creativity was second to none during his era. Lotus created the Esprit (which was featured in James Bond film), Elan and more notably the Elise which surprised the motoring world with its simplicity by proving that light weight cars can be more fun than big heavy cars with massive horsepower.

Lotus was sold to Proton in the 1990s and the company was almost run into the ground by Proton as Proton only used Lotus's engineering department to develop Proton car's suspension and chassis. Lotus was left floundering and only sold the Elise to survive. The Exige model was introduced in several years later but did not really make any impact on the Lotus car sales. Lotus's business direction was going in the wrong direction as the world economy started to take a nose dive and sports cars were second priority to most car buyers.

Lotus until today only have sports cars for sale and did not ride on the luxury sports saloon wave where Porsche and Aston Martin were making good money. Lotus also did not develop any SUVs like Porsche did. By limiting the models to only sports cars the sales volume will always remain low.

Lotus's reputation for a sports car manufacturer alone would not guarantee its survival. Lotus did not have the racing pedigree reputation like Ferrari which the brand value alone was worth billions of dollars. Lotus needs a car that would appeal more to the masses that was capable of selling in large numbers globally in order for it to survive in this difficult economic climate. Sacrifices need to be made by cutting back on sports car development and focus on luxury sports saloons and SUV model that could be sold in key markets such as US, Japan, China, India and Middle East.

One major downside for Lotus is that is does not have its own engine and transmission. Transmission aside, the engine was a major component that was missing. Transmission wise Lotus can always work with reputable manufacturers such as Aisin, Borg Warner or Getrag. Lotus have gone from working with Rover and then Toyota for engines however, Lotus really need to have their own engines to truly call the car their own.

Lotus's current owner DRB-Hicom can only inject a limited amount of money to keep Lotus afloat. Drastic changes in management direction has to be made in order for Lotus to survive beyond 2020.

tokyo auto salon

The Tokyo Auto Salon which is held every January in Tokyo is by far one of the best automotive shows to visit. This event showcases the craziest and most innovative tuning technologies as well as heavily modified cars that we don't usually see on city streets. Nearly all the famous Japanese tuning houses will display their best tuned cars and their latest products. This show is ever popular with car enthusiast. This year's show boasted an attendance of 280,000 people spanning 3 days.

This event is also used by car manufacturers to launch new models and also face-lift models. The whole event is centered around tuning, modifications and product innovation.

This year's event was much a Toyota GT86 / Subaru BRZ show as most tuning companies displayed their tuned version of the Toyota GT86 and Subaru BRZ. This car has taken Japan by storm as the car of choice for an entry level car for tuning. Different versions of tuning ranging from supercharging, turbo charging and NA tuning styles were on display. There were over 40 different types of bodykits on display for this car.

This year's Tokyo Auto salon is by far one of the biggest spanning 11 exhibition halls. A big difference compared to last year's show that only filled up 8 halls. Despite being the biggest show in several years some of the major tuning companies were absent from this show. Big names such as HKS, M7, Apexi, Pivot and Spoon were missing.

The D1 drifting team also did exhibition drifts in the rear carpark for spectators to enjoy. Big names in drifting were there to show their skill and meet the fans.

The Tokyo Auto Salon is truly one of the coolest event to attend for any car fanatic.

How much torque is too much?

While the Japanese were busy working on their hybrids the Germans have been busy pushing the performance envelope with the turbo diesel engines. Previously a turbo diesel would give good torque figures but this concept has gone out the door. The new age German turbo diesels easily yield more than 300Nm from their high tech diesel engines. These are from ordinary passengers cars. The high powered performance diesels now easily offer well over 600Nm to 800Nm!

This is enough twist to tow passenger planes! The incredible performance is from the clever use of new age turbo chargers to provide gearbox destroying torque. With high torque the car is able accelerate without much effort giving the impression similar to riding on a wave. This also enables the car to pull heavier weights without stressing the engine.

A simple comparison is like putting 4 adults in a Honda Civic Type R with 240hp and 200Nm climbing a hill slope and compare it with a Hyundai Elantra 2.0 CRDI with 140hp and 300Nm with the same 4 adults climbing a slope. The Hyundai will easily climb the same hill slope with less fuss compared to the Honda which will be screaming its guts out and struggle with the hill climb.

Muscle cars are known for their massive torque rather than horsepower. The high torque nature of the engines allow the cars to accelerate from any gear and at any speed. In the movie "Fast and Furious", Vin Diesel drove a muscle car at the end of the movie which was able to do a wheelie was a good demonstration of massive torque. The torque from the engine was able to lift the front end of the car like a dragster.

No one will ever give a figure on how much torque is too much as the more torque you have the more fun it will be but there is a limit on the durability of the transmission.