Sportec SC 200 Volkswagen Golf VI

Sportec rolled-out their latest car Sportec SC 200 which is established on the Volkswagen Golf VI 1.4 TSI. The agile Golf is here became into a actual GTI that at the same time has the commonly discreet Sportec external look. From a humble 1.4 litre cubic capability the masterful electronic handling of the Swiss vehicle mobilizes a full 200 PS with a torque of 300 Nm, which lies between 1,800 and 3,000 U/min (VW Series 160Ps/240 Nm by 1,500 U/min).

This Sportec SC 200 Volkswagen Golf VI ensures impressive driving appraises. The Sportec SC 200 shaves a entire 1.4 seconds off the 8.2 seconds taken by the VW Series for the sprint to 100 Km/h and is a full 3.2 seconds faster for the time taken to accelerate to 180 Km/h. Fuel ingestion still continues favourable: it does, all the same, demand the octane richer Superplus fuel (Super series) after its modification.

Externally the only visible signs of the increased performance can be found in the Sportec sports exhaust, which, although visually very similar to the original, with its heartier tone and above all lesser back pressure ensures increased capacity and optimum use of the combustion chamber.

Porsche Loses Independence to VW: Launches Panamera Sedan.

Volkswagen AG reached terms with Porsche SE to acquire a controlling stake in the iconic sports carmaker. The Persian Gulf State of Qatar is also part of the deal in a new VW-Porsche company, walking away with 10% of Porsche, as well as stock options Porsche holds in VW, with an eventual share in the company of 20%.

Volkswagen will pay about 3.3 billion euros, or $4.7 billion, for a 42-percent stake in Porsche’s automotive unit as part of a plan for the gradual merger of the two manufacturers.

The deal brings an end to Porsche’s long-held independence, which has for years been part of the image it boasted to investors and customers of the iconic brand. The chief guardian of that image, CEO Wendelin Wiedeking, agreed last month to step down from his post after 16 years. Wiedeking, the highest paid CEO in Western Europe, took the fall, following three years of trying to engineer a takeover of Volkswagen by Porsche through a derivative scheme that fell apart and left the company with more than $14 billion of debt to service.

Officials from both companies said the combined company would eventually overtake Toyota, the world’s biggest automaker, in sales and profitability.

“Volkswagen’s solid financial base and Porsche’s independence will be preserved,” VW’s statement said.

“That is what they are saying, but the fact is that Porsche is forever changed this week,” says Los Angeles-Based marketing consultant Dennis Keene. “It isn’t likely that Porsche fanatics will detect any loss of integrity in the vehicles, because the VW management and families controlling the company’s destiny are devoted to the brand, but the company is no longer independent.”

Poetsch said the exact capital position of the families in the new company would depend on specific criteria which would be reviewed during the process of the merger. Porsche AG is currently VW’s biggest shareholder with about 52 percent.

Porsche will become VW’s tenth brand in its portfolio, along with Audi, Bentley and Skoda. VW is also a major shareholder in two of the continent’s biggest truck makers: Scania AB of Sweden and MAN SE of Germany.

Shares of VW fell more than 15 percent on the news to euro191.72 while shares of Porsche Automobil Holding SE rose more than 10 percent to euro49.19 in Frankfurt afternoon trading.
Historic Week

Porsche is losing its independence the same week it is launching its newest, most controversial product in many years in its most important market. The Porsche Panamera, the company’s first sedan, has been unveiled at this week’s annual Concourse d’Elegance car show in Pebble Beach, Ca.

“This is the perfect stage to roll out this extraordinary car,” said Detlev von Platen, President and CEO, Porsche Cars North America. “Everywhere you look there is a spectacular California backdrop and the entire week is devoted to thousands of auto enthusiasts celebrating the beauty of classic automobiles, both new and old.”

The Panamera Gran Turismo will go on sale at the brand’s 202 U.S. dealers on October 17, 2009.

“First and foremost, the Panamera is a true Porsche,” said von Platen. “It is a race bred car that you can now share with three other people in incredible comfort and class.”

The Panamera has the engine in the front, like most sedans. Porsche is known for rear-mounted engines in its cars. It has been built on an all-new engineering platform, and is powered by a 400-horsepower 4.8-liter V8 in base models, a 500-hp version in the Panamera Turbo. The price range for the car is from $89,800 to more than $132,000.
The sedan was the brain-child of Wiedeking, though it is hard to say iof Volkswagen would have seen the value in developing a Porsche sedan given the fact that VW sells competititors to the Panamera from its Audi and Bentley showrooms.

Driving impressions of the car haven’t been logged yet by the leading auto testing magazines. But one criticism of the design so far is a bulbous back end roof-line, which were specifically designed to create a comfortable rear-seat space for full-sized adults.

Rock Balboa Drives a Volkswagen

Stallone may look tough and sure he went through 12 rounds with a tattoo artist for this tattoo he is so proud to show but at the end of each day he hops in his black Volkswagen Jetta to make his way home to Beverly Park.

Rocky, lets think about a new car, even if it is just the around the town car.

2010 Alfa Romeo MiTo – Coming Stateside!

Alfa has impressed us wildly with their 8C Competizione supercar and now all enthusiasts’ eyes are on the MiTo, a name just confirmed to us by our contacts deep inside the Turin offices. The Mini and future Audi A1 (and next Volkswagen Polo sharing with the A1) ought to watch their backs for this speeding and stunning little Italian. Alfa is making it no secret that the priorities for the MiTo are to get uttered in the same breath with Mini as a B-segment leader worldwide, and then to spoil the launch party later this year for the A1/Polo.
Sources also confirm to us that development on the MiTo has been maniacally painstaking in order to arrive in exactly the form Alfa would like in order to make the biggest impact right away. The key words in Turin have been comfort, performance, and sophistication. That means being seen as premium and image-conscious with the hippest car-buying crowd.MiTo is built on the same chassis used by Fiat’s Grande Punto and the GM’s Opel/Vauxhall Corsa, a chassis that was developed with a ton of cash during the brief marriage between Fiat and General Motors. It is reported that this chassis can give as good as it takes and the Opel Corsa OPC at 189 horsepower and 170 pound-feet of torque (197 pound-feet overboost), or the Grande Punto Abarth SS at 178 horsepower and 201 pound-feet of torque from the 1.4-liter turbocharged T-jet engine, are just the tip of the iceberg. Horsepower for the MiTo with a new turbocharged 1.8-liter direct-injected gas motor with variable valve timing as sophisticated as BMW’s Double Vanos is intended to begin at 180 horsepower and will eventually be made available with up to 230 horsepower.Other engines ready at launch will not be new, but will include both the scorching 1.4 turbo gas T-jet in the Grande Punto and the Abarth versions, plus a turbo 1.6 diesel. There will reportedly be no gas engine smaller than 1.4-liter, and we’d be surprised if a psyched up 2.0-liter direct-injection turbo gas T-jet and the existing 1.9-liter mJTD diesel don’t show up in the lineup a year after launch. Additional sources say that a Delta version perhaps with a 280-horsepower tune of the planned 2.0-liter would not come as any surprise.MiTo is also getting pumped up to assume an even larger role for Alfa since it has been confirmed that the successor to the 147 (also on this chassis we’ve been bandying about, but larger than the MiTo) will be offered only as a four-door hatch. This means the MiTo is destined to take on several guises, including the sinister two-door hatch you see here. Expect a four-door hatch as well for MiTo, as well as a four-door sedan, a wagon, and convertible.

Though the rear suspension is the fairly unsophisticated torsion bar setup and not state-of-this-segment multi-link, the dampers as used on the Fiat Grande Punto Abarth sister car have shown us that Fiat Automobiles knows what its doing.The name MiTo is taken from the two cities that have formed the history of Alfa Romeo, Milan and Turin (“Torino” to the locals). The pleasing design as seen here, in fact, has been led by a team recently relocated back in the semi-abandoned traditional Alfa headquarters in the town of Arese northwest of Milan. Should the MiTo set the car world aflame as its smaller sibling the 500 has done, maybe that tattered factory can once again hit the full-on switch.MiTo goes on sale in late autumn of this year after it’s Paris motor show debut in September and….plans are in the works to take the MiTo truly global by bringing it to North America as a 2010 model. Pricing will be right in the ballpark with Mini.