Topgear News

Nissan’s participation at the 61st International Motor Show at Hanover will see the world debut of an all-new Cabstar light truck, as well as a hybrid-powered Cabstar concept vehicle, a new range of engines on the new Atleon light truck, and enhancements to the Primastar and Interstar LCVs based on Renault/GM platforms.

Nissan has set ambitious commitments for its global LCV business, one of four breakthrough areas identified under the company’s Value-Up business plan. By fiscal year 2007, the company plans to double operating profit margin to 8% and increase volumes by 40% to 434,000 units worldwide compared with fiscal 2004.

(this article was taken from cruisemidlands.com)

Those speed-crazed engineers at Brabus have done it again and come up with the world’s fastest saloon.

This time, the German loony tuners have shoehorned a twin turbo 6.2-litre V12 engine into a CLS to create a 225mph monster, appropriately called the Rocket.

The engine produces some 730bhp after Brabus has worked its magic, and it also has a whopping 974lb ft of torque.

For road use, the Rocket has a speed limiter fitted that holds it back to 350kph, or 219mph & 0 - 60mph takes four seconds, but more impressive is the 0-125mph time of just 10.5 seconds!!!

As part of a pan-European initiative announced earlier, Fiat Auto UK has now announced its new corporate identity plans with the introduction of Ikea furniture into Fiat dealerships nationwide.

The company said the Ikea furniture range now becoming available to its 170 UK dealers was “specially chosen to dramatically enhance the dealer environment, bringing a bright, modern and youthful ambiance to showrooms and other customer-facing areas”.
Dealer development director, Brian Hawkins, said: “We believe it will transform the look, feel and atmosphere of our showrooms at financially attractive rates when compared with our previous range, and we are aiming to have this new corporate identity fully implemented by the close of 2008.”

News image Volkswagen unveiled a concept off-roader earlier this year and is now busy putting production versions of the car through testing.

These computer-generated images are based around the Concept A design study and spy shots of the car undergoing trials. They give a very good idea of what the car, already christened Tiguan by Volkswagen, will look like when it arrives in 2008.

The Tiguan is based around the Golf and will slot into the line-up underneath the existing Touareg. It’s a rival for compact 4×4s such as the Nissan X-trail, Toyota RAV4, new Land Rover Freelander and forthcoming Honda CR-V that will be unveiled at the Paris Motor Show in September.

Over 20 years ago Honda Motor Co. Ltd in Japan decided to start investing in the UK with a Pre-Delivery Inspection Facility for Honda cars being sold in Europe, including those being manufactured under licence in the UK. This week, Honda held an Open Day for Swindon associates, family and friends to celebrate.

Honda’s investment since 1986 has been is in excess of £1.33 billion. Honda of the UK Manufacturing Limited (HUM) is now the centre of Honda’s European Car production. Producing the Civic 5-door and CR-V, the operation employs over 4,000 in Swindon, including 23 who originally started in 1986.

By law, any new model in a dealer’s showroom has to display information which lets buyers see how polluting a car is and what it will cost to run.

However, if the vehicle has a manual gearbox, as most do, the sticker doesn’t contain data about how much CO2 emissions will increase if the car is bought with an auto. In some cases, the rise can be as much as 55g/km. And Auto Express can exclusively reveal that for 150 mainstream models, this could see their tax rating rise by up to two bands on the scheme.

England cricket hero Kevin Pietersen is selling his Porsche on Auto Trader.

The batsman – who spear-headed England’s Ashes victory – is selling his one year old 911 Carrera 4 S through specialist Porsche dealer Autobahn.

Pietersen rose to fame for his self-styled spiky ‘dead skunk’ haircut and ruthless batting which helped steer England to their first Ashes victory in 18 years last summer.

The England star’s 179mph convertible sports car is powered by a rear-mounted 3.8-litre engine producing 355bhp, which rockets the vehicle from 0-62mph in a just 4.9 seconds.

Bought new it would cost you £79k.

Check out Pietersen’s Porsche here