The Latest Tuned GTR - by PowerHouse Amuse

The living legend of the Nissan GTR has been witnessed by all for quite some time now and numerous tuners out there have been working on it since day one to make it invincible.
Mine’s, Top Secret and Garage Defend had already come up with their first version of aftermarket GTRs. The latest tuned GTR that comes out of Japan is by PowerHouse Amuse.

The Indonesia International Motor Show 2008

We’ve been doing quite a bit of running around Asia this year, from Japan for the Tokyo Auto Salon to Thailand for the Bangkok Motor Show, Singapore for the Formula Drift, and just last week, Jakarta for the Indonesia International Motorshow (IIMS). It’s fun, a lot of fun, but the work involved to be the one of the first media in the world to feature post-event coverage is no easy feat, the flights, the hotels, the traffic jams and the lack of internet connection can bring a leading automotive website to a halt, but not us

NICE MyCar two-seater electric car
July 21, 2008 at 11:14 pm · Filed under Cars, International News
The other production car from NICE that will be displayed at the 2008 British Motor Show in London is the NICE MyCar, a two-seater “coupe” with a 65km/h top speed, 65km range and a 6 to 8 hour charge time for its maintenance-free lead acid battery.
The NICE MyCar is priced at £8,995 (roughly RM57,607) and is exempted from London’s congestion charge, road tax, and in certain locations even parking. It is built on a steel tubular spaceframe chassis with independent suspension for both the front and rear axle. It will go on sale in Autumn 2008.
Standard equipment includes electric windows and mirrors, a radio CD MP3 player, 14” alloys, remote central locking, and storage areas under the bonnet, in the boot and in the glove compartment. Optional is a glass roof or a removable fiberglass targa top.

Renault Megane R26.R 450 unit limited edition
July 23, 2008 at 12:57 pm · Filed under Cars, Renault
A limited edition 450 unit run of the Megane R26 was unveiled at the 2008 British International Motor Show called the Renault Megane R26.R. The Renault Megane F1 Team R26 was used as the base car, undergoing various modifications (such as the removal of the car’s rear seats) that resulted in a kerb weight lighter by 123kg.
On the interior you have Sabelt bucket seats and aviation-style six-point harness belts. There is also an optional four-point roll-cage for track use. The suspension has been modified with uprated spring rates and dampers (13.4mm to 14mm/100kg at the front, 15.1mm to 16.2mm/100kg at the rear). One of the bushes between the front suframe and lower arm has been stiffened.
Other parts sacrificed in the interest of weight reduction includes all airbags except the driver airbag, automatic climate control, rear wiper and wash, foglamps, headlamp washes and most of the soundproofing material. The bonnet is now made of carbon fibre (saves 7.5kg), as with the seat shells (25kg). The quarterlights and rear screen are now made of polycarbonate which saves 5.7kg.
The 312mm front brake discs are grooved instead of cross-drilled and are stopped with 4-pot Brembo calipers. Tyres are Michelin Pilot Sport 2 tyres in 235/40R18 size, with optional Toyo Proxes R888 in 225/40R18 available.
The complete drivetrain has been carried over from the R26 including the 6-speed manual and LSD. The engine is a 2.0 liter turbocharged inline-4 producing 230 horsepower and a peak torque of 310Nm, with 90% of the peak torque available from 2,000rpm to 6,000rpm. 0 to 100km/h takes 6 seconds, and a Nurburgring lap takes 8 minutes and 17 seconds, which Renault says is a record for front wheel drive cars.
The 450 cars will be divided between Great Britain, France, Switzerland, Spain and Germany. Each country gets 26 units except for Great Britain and France which get 230 and 126 units respectively.

ETCM plans to bring in Nissan electric cars in 2015
July 23, 2008 at 11:23 pm · Filed under Cars, International News, Nissan
Despite also working on hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, Nissan will go for electric first. Nissan is planning to sell electric vehicles (EVs) around the world by the year 2012 (with production version fleet tests beginning 2010), and the Nissan Denki Cube Concept displayed at the 2008 British International Motor Show is an example of such an EV.
Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn said that to remain cost effective (Nissan wants an immediate profit upon EV introduction), electric cars will have to be modular and be configured differently according to each country’s needs. He gave an example: an EV in the US would need a range of at least 160km to be practical but an European market EV would do fine with an 80km range. Different communities also have different tolerances for how long they have to wait to recharge their car.
He stressed on the fact that Nissan’s new cars would be pure electric vehicles. “I don’t want a range extender. I don’t want another hybrid. It’s not going to be zero emissions in certain conditions. It’s going to be zero emissions.” The Nissan electric drivetrain will also be shared with Renault. Renault and Nissan aim to jointly sell 1 million electric cars a year, though they did not mention by when they hope this goal can be met.
In the US, Nissan would begin its EV trials in the state of Tennessee in the year 2011. Nissan is now working with the Tennessee Valley Authority electricity company to study and develop the infrastructure needed to support electric vehicles. This infrastructure included the possibility of charging stations being set up around the state so you could charge your car (and pay for charging it) anywhere other than home. Similiar deals have also been signed with Portugal, Israel and Denmark. Talks are being held with other parties in North America, Europe and Asia.
Nissan’s BIMS 2008 concept car (shown above and after the jump) takes a standard Nissan Cube and replaces its 1.3 liter internal combustion engine with an electric motor hooked up to lithium ion batteries located under the floor and seats. The batteries are from Automotive Energy Supply Corp, a JV company between Nissan and NEC.
Edaran Tan Chong Motor executive director Dr Ang Bon Beng said that ETCM is in talks with Nissan to offer a range of Nissan electric cars here in 2015, three years after the EV range’s planned 2012 global launch. Hopefully our automotive market will be more “liberalised” by then so these can be enjoyed by the public at affordable prices. JPJ also needs to figure out road tax for electric motors.

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Team toyo Drift Competition Round 2 2008 - Shah Alam

Another awesome weekend for drift aficionados at the Team Toyo Drit Competition May 2008. Exploding barriers, mangled cones and shattered bumpers all in 1 action packed afternoon.