1Malaysia F1 and the details of this company

Finally some details from the horses mouth – the 1Malaysia name apparently shares nothing more in common with Najib’s 1Malaysia administration other than the similiar name, as a tribute most likely.

• The government announced yesterday that it has no equity directly or indirectly in the 1Malaysia F1 Team.
• Proton will license its Lotus brand to 1Malaysia F1 Team.
• The team will be called Team Lotus.
• It’s actually run and funded by Litespeed, Naza, and the Tune Group.
• The scope of Proton’s involvement will hopefully go beyond licensing the brand and will include technology transfer, marketing rights and employment opportunities.
• Petronas (so far) will come in through its Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, which will collaborate with the team together with UTM to help develop future Malaysian engineers, etc.
• Composites Technology Research Malaysia (CTRM) will somehow be involved. CTRM is a composites manufacturer with clients like Airbus. It is owned 92% by the government’s Ministry of Finance and 8% by Petronas. They make the composite body shell for Lotus Europa S, and are the official repairer for the teams participating in the Formula BMW Pacific.

So far no concrete mention of Proton or government money being used so far. It doesn’t even look like Lotus will be running the team, instead expertise will come from Litespeed, which is a team participating in F3 founded by ex-Lotus employees Nino Judge and Steve Kenchington. In fact we’ve already readabout this team since June.

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Maserati Sponsors Debutante Ball

The UK's first drive of the Maserati GranCabrio in 2010 was won in a charity ball auction undertaken during the revival of the Queen Charlotte's Ball. Said Queen Charlotte founded the Ball over 250 years ago to raise funds for mothers and babies. The Ball went back to London after a 12-year absence. The event marks the traditional "coming out" ceremony also known as the Debutante Ball which was also used to mark the beginning of the season.

Beautiful young ladies wearing Pronovias white gowns entered the Durbar Court venue in chauffeur driven Maserati Quattroportes. Their Mikimoto diamonds and pearls made them look even more radiant. HRH Princess Katarina of Yugoslavia, HH Princess Olga Romanov and Their Graces The Duke and Duchess of Somerset were there to receive the classy girls.

Maserati GB and its London distributor HR OWEN Sports Cars supported the Ball during which £60,000 was raised. The money is earmarked for the Wolfston and Weston Research Centre for Family Health at the Hammersmith and Queen Charlotte's Hospital site of Imperial College London. About £500,000 a year is needed to help in the research of premature birth, miscarriage and infertility, so if you can donate a little bit go ahead.

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Wallpapers Cool Cars and Girls

For all the people out there, who are looking for the wallpapers of hot girls and hot cars, here is the place for you. some of them are being provided here down under, have a look at them and enjoy.

Cool Car- Cars Cool - Girls And Cars

Usually whenever a new car is introduced into the automobile market, their owners tend to show them off in the auto exhibitions held in the world. During this shows we will be able to see both together.



Here a collection of few pictures comprising of sexy girls and hot cars are being displayed. This include wallpapers, pictures, pics and others. Many girls achieved status of star models by campaigning for cars.









Having beautiful girls around cars always increases the beauty of the cars. Here are the few pictures of this sort. Its really cool to watch them together. Have a look at them.

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Tata to Close Jaguar or Land Rover Factory in UK by 2014

Tata Motors announced today plans to close one of two Central England Januar Land Rover facilities within the next five years. The Indian-based Tata said they will likely close either the Jaguar plant in Castle Bromwich, where 2,000 people work, or the Land Rover plant in Solihull, which houses 5,000 jobs.

The official announcement, and which facility is cut, will be announced by July 2010. The two sites are separated by about eight miles.

It was not all bad news for the two English brands. The company owns a factory in Halewood, Northwest England, which will begin expansion by 2011. That site was chosen to be the home of a diminutive SUV supposedly based on the Land Rover LRX concept, which was confirmed for production today.

2009 has been a particularly bad year for the firm. 2,500 jobs have already been cut at Jaguar Land Rover, while production has been decreased by over 100,000 units in 2009 alone.

The decision to close one of the Central England sites was to stem red ink. Jaguar Land Rover lost about $100 million (pre-tax) in the last quarter. Vehicle sales for the last quarter were down roughly 52% versus the previous year. Because of the decreased demand, the three factories are running at a combined total of less than 60% capacity.

In 2008, Tata paid $2.3 billion to Ford for Land Rover and Jaguar.

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Honda Develops New Personal Mobility Device

Honda has unveiled a new personal mobility concept called the U3-X.

Essentially a fancy Segway unicycle, the U3-X features the world's first omni-directional driving wheel system (dubbed Honda Omni Traction Drive System). Combined with Honda's balance control technology, the device promises to be safe and user friendly.

The U3-X "fits comfortably between the rider's legs" (it has a seat), and allows them to move forward, backward, side-to-side, and diagonally. To speed up, slow down, stop, or change directions, riders simply shift their upper body weight in the direction they want to go.

Weighing less than 10kg (22 lbs), the device is powered by a small lithium-ion battery that provides one hour of operation.

While the U3-X is just a concept, Honda says they will conduct real-world testing to verify the practicality of the device.

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Aston Martin V12 Vantage Headed to U.S. says CEO Bez

Aston Martin's CEO, Dr. Ulrich Bez, has announced the V12 Vantage will finally be offered to American consumers.

In an interview with Car and Driver, Bez said US homologation is currently underway. While he declined to say when the model will be available, he stated that the car's initial production run of 1,000 units could be expanded.

Boasting a 6.0-liter V12 engine, with 510 bhp (380 kW / 517 PS) and 570 Nm (420 lb-ft) of torque, the Vantage can run from 0-62 mph (0-100 km/h) in just 4.2 seconds. If you keep your foot planted, the car will eventually top out somewhere in the neighborhood of 190 mph (305 km/h).

In other Aston Martin news, Bez said the company is targeting 2,000 Rapide sales a year. He also confirmed the Cygnet will be launched in early 2010, 50 One-77 supercars have been sold, and the hideous Lagonda SUV concept is being "further developed" for production.

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Ferrari 458 Italia Initial Design Renderings by ASI

Japanese tunere ASI is used to taking on risky projects. They have attacked many already-high priced cars, and tried to make them better. Previous cars they have modified include the Bentley Continental GT, called the ASI Tetsu GTR, and the Ferrari 430.

Company CEO Satoshi Kondo has announced that his team of engineers are hard at work on their latest project: an aerokit for the Ferrari 458 Italia. Kondo authorized the release of these sketches, well in advance of the final prototyping, in effort to prevent future accusations of design theft.

A new front end is amongst the expected design changes, featuring with a new nose, larger hexagonal air intakes, and vents in front of the blacked-out wheels. The sketches also show a new wing mounted at the back.

If the company's mods on the F430 are any indication, do not expect a retuned engine. Instead, look for the new body parts to shave weight when compared to the old parts. The ASI F430 received a 27kg weight reduction when it was introduced in June.

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CPT’s VTES electric supercharger shows results in a Volkswagen Passat

For the longest time we’ve known the most common method of forced induction to be either supercharging or turbocharging. Supercharging uses a compressor that’s powered by the engine crank while a turbochargeruses the kinetic energy harvested from the flow of exhaust gas to do the same thing.

A company called Controlled Power Technologies is offering something new called a VTES, or Variable Torque Enhancement System. It’s basically an electric supercharger. There are alot of people who try to install fans in the middle of the car’s intake tract and try to call it a supercharger, but this is a proper compressor that can spin independently of crank speed at rotational speeds of up to 70,000rpm.

CPT has installed it on various test systems including a 1.2 liter turbocharged engine. The VTES electric supercharger is meant to complement the existing turbo. CPT reported an increase of over 50% in torque at engine speeds below 3,000rpm. I guess what it does is compensate for any turbo lag there is at low engine RPMs, allowing the turbocharger to be larger than it normally would have needed to be to spool up that quickly.

One way that VTES has been positioned by CPT is an alternative to mild hybrid systems, like the units installed in the Honda Civic Hybrid and the Kia Forte LPI Hybrid. According to CPT senior engineering manager Mark Criddle, one method that car makers have been using to boost performance of downsized engines is integrating an electric motor between the engine and transmission to create a mild hybrid, but this is a costly exercise and can be difficult to package within a small car’s front wheel drive engine bay.

The VTES system can provide a viable low cost micro-hybrid solution, significantly increasing an engine’s air charge density over the critical first 10 combustion cycles of a low speed transient. The supercharger’s speed can increase from zero up to 70,000rpm in less than 1/3 of a second. Adding 25kW at the crank at low engine speeds via VTES costs significantly less than a 25kW assist electric motor. It uses standard 12V power.

It will be featured in the HyBoost system, a project led by Ricardo and supported by the UK government’s Technology Strategy Board. It will also be used in an engine project by AVL. AVL is an Austrian-based independent engine developer. The 1.6 liter engine that you can find in the Chery Tiggo here in Malaysia was developed by AVL and they are actually pretty good. Some time ago there was news that Fiat was interested in using Chery’s AVL-designed ACTECO family engines in Fiat cars in China.

AVL previously showcased a demonostrator engine using CPT’s electric supercharger. A 2.0 liter inline-4 direct injection engine was equipped with a regular single-scroll wastegated turbocharger, and CPT’s VTES electric supercharger. It resulted in 200 PS and 400Nm of peak torque. The engine also has auto stop-start and smart alternator control. They installed it into a Volkswagen Passat and the resulting CO2 emissions were 159g/km. Comparatively, the Passat’s original 200 PS 2.0 TSI petrol and 170 PS 2.0 TDI diesel engines gave out 194 g/km and 165g/km respectively.

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Range Rover LRX Small SUV Confirmed for Production

Land Rover officially confirmed today that it will build a production version of the LRX concept. In spite of the fact that the prototype model made its debut at the 2008 Detroit Auto Show with the Land Rover badge, the production LRX will bear the Range Rover logo making it the smallest model in the luxury brand's line-up. The three-door crossover will debut in production form next year to mark the 40th anniversary from the launch of the first Range Rover in 1970, and go on sale in 2011.

Earlier this year, the Jaguar-Land Rover Group, now owned by India's Tata Group, secured a UK Government grant of up to £27 million ($44.4 million - €30 million at today's exchange rates) to help aid the development of the LRX.

Land Rover said that the new car will be built at the firm's plant in Halewood, on Merseyside, and will be sold in more than 100 countries around the world.

"The production of a small Range Rover model is excellent news for our employees, dealers and customers," said Phil Popham, managing director of Land Rover.

"Feedback from our customer research also fully supports our belief that a production version of the LRX Concept would further raise the desirability of our brand and absolutely meet their expectations," Phil added.

Gerry McGovern, Land Rover design director said: "The new vehicle will be a natural extension to the Range Rover line-up, complementing the existing models and helping to define a new segment. It will be true to the concept and have many recognizable Range Rover design cues including the signature clamshell bonnet, the floating roof and the solid 'wheel-at-each-corner' stance."

Land Rover said that more details of the new small Range Rover will be released next year.

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Tuner Boosts Mercedes-Benz E500 Coupe to 435 HP

Not satisfied with the factory Mercedes-Benz E500 Coupe but don't want to go overboard either? Well, then you may want to check out Carlsson's latest package for the most-powerful version of the new E-Class yet, which carries the name the CK50. The German tuning firm starts out by modifying the 5.5-liter V8 engine that gets a power upgrade from 388 HP and 530Nm to 435 HP and 600Nm of peak torque.

A sport exhaust system with two oval end pipes and a special air filter complete the under-the-hood mods.

To improve the CK50's handling, the tuner adds a new coilover suspension system with adjustable damping, and sport springs that lower the coupe's ride height by around 30mm.

The CK50 also rides on 20-inch alloy wheels in a two tone finish that are shod in 230/30 R20 Dunlop tires.

Carlsson has preferred to keep styling changes limited as the only aero parts available are a front apron that's optionally available in real carbon fiber and a discreet boot lid spoiler.

For the interior, Carlsson offers buyers several options including a combination of leather and suede for the gearstick knob and the steering wheel, aluminium sport pedals and specific floor mats.

Prices as well as 'real-life' photos of the CK50 are to be released within the next few weeks.

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