Articles by Kevin Hepworth

Rather than spelling the end of performance V8s in M-cars, BMW's new-found fascination with turbocharging will open even greater possibilities, according to the company's new Australian boss.Stavros Yallouridis, who took the reigns of the Australian operation last month, is adamant the throaty burble of a performance-tuned V8 will remain a BMW fixture."We see with the new generation of the V8 engines in the M3s what a great success those engines are," Yallouridis says. "While we may see an M car with a six cylinder engine again in the future, I think at the moment we will continue to concentrate on performance V8s."Yallouridis says the search for a balance between power and fuel efficiency is one of the reasons turbocharging has become an attractive option.BMW has set non-M performance standards by bolting twin turbochargers to its brilliant 3.0-litre six and it will not be long before the M division gets in on the force-fed action."In the very near future we may even see V8s with twin turbos on them ... the X6M and the X5M are heading in that direction," Yallouridis says."It is a lot more horsepower ...""We are already experiencing better than 500hp from a V8 engine on the test bench and there is still a lot of testing going on."What you shouldn't expect from the maestros at the M garages is a return to the company's two engine extremes."I really don't think we will see another 4-cylinder M engine but I also don't think there will be another 10-cylinder engine either. What we really want, though is a good balance — we want good fuel efficiencies with a good power result but without going overboard."Yallouridis is also quietly confident that the Australian new car market will be able to weather the global financial storm in as good, if not better, condition than overseas markets."If the total car market stabilises at a 20 per cent drop for the year I think all of us in the Australian car market will be satisfied," Yallouridis says. "We have seen erratic market movement across the world and thats varies from 10 or 15 per cent in some markets up to 60 per cent in others."In Europe it appears markets are travelling at an average of 30 per cent down while in Australia it is around 21 per cent."The premium market in Australia is around about 17-18 per cent down and we (BMW) are performing at around about 11-12 per cent down."Yallouridis believes the premium segment of the market has been better insulated from the full effects of the downturn than other more mainstream segments."We are speculating that we should see a stabilisation early next year."New product is obviously an insulation in times like this. Product is a big part of any success story at the moment."While BMW has just launched the new 7 Series and the Z4 and will have the much-anticipated X1 baby SUV late in the year Yallouridis acknowledges that the effect of these models — along with the 5 Series Grand Tourismo and all new 5 Series late in 2010 — will not be felt until next year."We knew going back five years that 2009 was going to be a dip as far as new product was concerned and in a strange way that has actually helped us with regard to circumstances from the economic crisis," he says."The availability of fresh and new product as the economic gloom begins to lift next year will give us a strong competitive boost."

GM Holden will be shipping at least 2500 2.8-litre versions of its Australian-made Alloytec V6 engine to the Ramos Arizpe plant in Mexico where the 2010 SRX is manufactured."I guess that means there will be a little bit of Aussie heart in those Cadillacs," GM Holden Australia boss Mark Reuss says.The fillip for Holden's export aspirations couldn't have come at a better time as the company is still reeling from a disastrous six months at the hands of the global financial crisis.So far this year plans to sell a Pontiac version of the VE Ute to the United States were canned, then Pontiac itself fell over the in GM global restructure taking with it more than 30,000 potential Commodore-based G8 exports.And to top it off sales of the VE into the Middle-East have also taken a hit as economic reality bites. "When you lose that sort of percentage (around 70 per cent) of half of your production it is always going to hurt," Reuss conceded at the recent launch of the Cruze small car.However, the news of the Cadillac order is just the sort of pick-me-up the local manufacturer needs. "It (the engine plant) won a GM global quality award and on the back of that came the order for 2500 of the engines for Cadillac," Reuss says. "That is pretty pleasing."There is no indication whether more orders will be forthcoming but that is a distinct possibility. Reuss says that following meetings in Detroit he is comfortable that the action plan for GM Holden will give the company the best chance of coming out the other end of the global restructuring as a working entity."We feel very good about what we have done here and where we are in the future (of General Motors)," Reuss says. "There are no guarantees in any of this. None at all ... and we have treated it that way from day one."However, he says he believes that the Holden operation and its historic position in the Australian market makes the company far more attractive to GM as an internal asset rather than as one to be auctioned off."I think it has huge value internally (to GM). Holden is a very powerful tool as a product and branding standpoint ... I would say if anything this (situation) has focussed our business on what we need to do to be a good company in Australia first and anything we do outside that as an exporter is a great thing but to have any entity fully dependent on export markets in this world we are dealing with today is probably not the right business model."Reuss says that the company has not run a survival scenario that does not include Commodore. "That is not something we have studied. We are still the best selling car here and we think the things we are going to do to Commodore over the next few years maybe makes us potentially the only game in town. Some of our competitors have revealed some questions about future business plans on their products ... and I am overjoyed (with that)."

But it is about to land in Australia at the same time as it’s running headlong into an economic storm and a sales slump in the US.With global sales of the hybrid pioneer tumbling in economic hard times and falling petrol prices, the Gen III Prius is about to land in Australia.In North America alone, sales of the current car for the first three months of this year totalled just 24,277, about the same number sold in a single month last year.With the official launch of the car set for July, Carsguide this week had an early opportunity to get at close quarters with the radically changed yet still instantly recognisable Prius.In a short drive of the new vehicle, it was obvious designers and stylists had been hard at work — and less obvious just what the engineers had been up to.Inside, styling changes are obvious to anyone who has previously driven a Prius. The driver now sits in a defined "cockpit" space with a floating centre console supporting the gear lever and buttons to select Power, Eco or EV.The other big changes to the interior are greater headroom for rear seat passengers — the result of shifting the high-point of the roofline further to the rear to accentuate the car's wedge styling — and better knee and leg room from a redesign of the front seats allowing for greater scalloping in the seat back.DrivetrainThe Prius still has to make do with the carry-over nickel-metal hydride batteries from Prius II which means the full electric vehicle range is still restricted to about 1.5km at under 40km/h before the petrol engine fires up to take over propulsion and start the recharging process.The new 1.8-litre engine lifts power by 16kW to a peak of 73kW with 142Nm of torque. With an additional 27kW available from the electric motor the Prius III can get from 0-100km/h in a respectable 9.9 seconds and when carefully managed the company claim of 3.9 litres per 100km fuel economy may well be achievable.Pricing and fit-out Toyota is not giving away any clues as to pricing, only saying the car will be competitive — presumably with Honda's Insight which, while delayed into next year, is expected to reach the market at about $30,000.Exact trim levels are also being kept close to the chest although it seems certain that there will be at least two levels offered with the higher grade car winning optional extras such as LED headlights, heads-up driving display and satellite navigation.A world-first air conditioning function offers the ability to turn on a three-minute burst of battery powered air-con remotely from the key fob without needing to start the engine. Also aimed at the Aussie summer is the Prius III's 36-cell solar moonroof — which provides 59 watts of fan power to recirculate hot air out of the car after it has been sitting in the sun.DrivingA redesign of the rear suspension geometry has the dual outcome of increased boot space (an extra 30 litres) and greater rear-end stability on a chassis the engineers claim is generally far stiffer than the outgoing model.It is a claim that had to go untested on this week's short drive but there is no doubt the new model has a better turning circle and steering that feels far more direct and connected than was previously the case.

The company which has led commercial development of hybrid/electric technology with Prius and will have the Australian-made hybrid Camry in the market by the end of the year is poised to take the next big step with range-extended plug-in hybrids utilising the latest generation of Lithium-ion battery technology."The philosophy with this development step -and it is a philosophy being followed by other companies developing similar systems - is that the vehicles are made available on a lease arrangement and put into the marketplace for up to a three year term with selected users," Ashley Edwards, Toyota Motor Corporation Australia product planning manager, said yesterday."We will use those vehicles and their performance in the marketplace to gauge reaction, to gauge performance and to understand."Mr Edwards said that while there was no confirmed action plan the company was "studying" the best way to integrate the next-generation cars into a real-world testing program."I think the ultimate idea would be to provide the vehicle with enough freedom to gather really valuable information from the community ... so government personnel or an electricity infrastructure provider would be a good starting point."Mr Edwards said that while an ideal list of candidates had not been finalised it was possible that a testing program could be implemented by next year."While the cars are not available right at this moment I would envisage 2010 ... It could be a 2010 program."Lithium-ion battery technology has several major advantages over the current industry-standard nickel-metal hydride batteries with greater range, less weight and longer active life but they are far more expensive."Toyota is continuing to develop its Lithium-ion technology but at the moment I think there is a real downside in the global economic crisis ... what I think that has done is push back some of the payback in terms of sales and volume," Mr Edwards said."Toyota is obviously looking at a complete arsenal of products in this area, starting with the Prius but moving through other developments such as the PHV (plug-in hybrid vehicle) and beyond."Mr Edwards said that Toyota was taking a "watching brief" with regard to the VTG (vehicle to grid) developments where an electric vehicle can be used to "feed" unused electricity back into the grid."In regards to that kind of infrastructure integration we are observing what Australia is planning and we are involved in a working group with the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries to discover the best way of formulating the infrastructure to serve the mobility solution," Mr Edwards said."We haven't really got a position on it yet but we are looking at options available to us and using the working group to help understand those options."

Horne is the proud owner of a rare 1937 Willys soft-top Ute which, but for a chance encounter at a northern NSW farm, would have ended up as scrap metal. "I happened to be on a run with my mate in the Chrysler club and we were up at Narrabri when he introduced me to some people up there as Brian from the Willys Club," Howe recalls. "One of the blokes sort of looked at me and said `There's one of them over on the Old Man's property ... got a bit of a rag top on it'. "At the time I suspected it had been cut down by the farmer because I didn't even know they made a convertible version of it. Anyway, we were there and thought we would go and have a look at it." "Well, when we saw it, it was completely stuffed. If it hadn't been for my wife saying how good it would look done up I probably would have left it there. "That and the fact that it was a soft-top was enough to make me want it." Howe says that while everything was there — including the framework for the folding roof — the Willys was a study in rust. "It had no floor in it, all the trim and seat materials had rotted away but at least the frames were there and he didn't want a million bucks for it." That was in the early 1980s and Horne paid $150 for the car. "I reckon he thought he got a good deal with someone paying him to take his scrap away." Three years and hundreds of hours later Horne had turned the old Willys from potential landfill into one of the very few soft-top utes still running. The history of Willys in Australia is a microcosm of the early days of automobile manufacture in this country. In common with many of the early imported models from other marques the Willys came from the American headquarters — in this case the Willys Overland company of Toledo, Ohio, as rolling chassis with varying degrees of bodywork. The finishing touches to the cars styling and construction was done in Australia by a variety of coach-building companies branching out to encompass the new age of cars. For much of the Willys association with Australia the coach-builder of choice was Holden Motor Bodies Pty Ltd, long before the company was to start manufacturing its own local product. However, in 1937 the imported chassis and panels went to a wider range of Australian companies, including the Adelaide firm of T.J.Richards where, for a single year, Ute bodies — including Horne's — were built. "It is one of the T.J.Richards cars ... and that makes it a bit more desireable," Horne says. "They only made the utes in Adelaide for one year in 1937 before they went back to being made by Holden. "I think the Richards body is a little bit better in the back. Where the Holden body has square corners — a bit home-madeish — the Richards body has nice rounded corners." In rebuilding the Willys Ute Horne made one major concession in slightly upgrading the engine. "I still have the original engine lying around in the workshop but I put a 1941, 134 cubic inch (2.2-litre) in it because that was the same as the Jeep engine and it is a lot easier to get parts for it." Despite the work he had put into the car to get it back on the road Horne was not about to make it a shed-bound showcar. "It's not bad to drive," Horne says. "I have been to Tasmania twice in it and all around the place. I built it to use it, not just to show it. "For a 50hp (37kW) engine she gets along alright. The only thing it doesn't have is top speed. At about 60 miles an hour (100km/h) she is flat out." The Ute is not Horne's first foray into the world of Willys. "I had had the cars before ... I just liked them. My third car was a 1940 (Willys) Tourer and it went really well. The only problem with it was it had side curtains instead of wind-up windows. "I wanted an open two-door car but with winding windows so I bought a write-off FJ Holden and turned that into a convertible. I still have that one." Having sold the original Tourer to finance the FJ, Horne went back to the Willys with another 1940 Tourer that he had just started to rebuild when the soft-top Ute came along. "I still have it in the shed but it has taken a bit of a back seat to the Ute. "I like it (the Ute) better than I thought, it goes better than I thought and I'm comfortable driving it. I've got used to it and I like it." The Willys will be one of a wide collection of historics on display at the American Independents Day display at Linnwood House on Sunday. The day is for the American independent makes of vehicle which include Hudson, Essex, Terraplane, Nash, Rambler, AMC, Auburn, Cord, Studebaker, Packard and Willys.  

And few have declined the opportunity. Andy Warhol, Frank Stella, Ernst Fuchs, David Hockney and Australia's own Ken Done have all taken up the brush and palette to be part of the Art Cars collection.When South African artist Robin Rhode was invited to join the elite collection he decided to bring something very different to the table."For all the other artists the car was the canvas," BMW Australia's general manager of marketing, Tom Noble, said. "For the new Z4 Rhode decided to use the car as the brush."The result is a vast canvas almost the size of a football field on which a driver under strict choreography instructions from Rhode has swirled and spun their way through a storm of vibrant primary colours to produce An Expression of Joy.Organising the artwork was a nightmare of practical logistics with each colour applied by a fresh set of tyres from a paint reservoir mounted to the rear axle and remotely activated by the artist as the car performed its motorised ballet on the canvas.To record the moment Rhode was joined by young British director Jake Scott — son of highly-acclaimed director Sir Ridley Scott (Alien, Gladiator and the new Robin Hood film).Rhode and Scott completed the one-take, no-repeat performance in just 12 hours capturing both the essence of the art and one of the most complex and artistic television commercial campaigns BMW has ever planned. To make sure nothing was missed during the performance Scott used 45 simultaneous cameras.

BMW's Z4 could be forgiven for being just a little confused. The sharp-edged drop-top, which had been tasked with sweeping away the ‘hairdresser’ image of the marshmallow-soft Z3 when it was originally launched in 2003, has now been toned down to make it more widely accepted. Whether it was the intention or not, the result of the BMW Z4's reinvention is a softer, more gentle creature ... something in the nature of a frontal lobotomy for what was once a a bit of an edgy wild child with attitude. "The original Z4 — while being very successful and selling over 180,000 world-wide — was youthful, dynamic and polarising ... targeting a very niche part of the market," BMW Australia managing director Stavros Yallouridis said at the car's Australian launch this week. "With the new Z4 we still wanted to attract those customers but also win new customers who put more emphasis on elegance, quality, practicality and comfort." To that end two of BMW's brightest young female designers set about knocking the rough edges off Bangle's original design. Juliane Blasi and Nadya Amaout applied a gentler and more modern eye to the exterior and interior respectively to sweep up those customers who may have found the original car too confronting. That is not to say the new generation roadster — for that is how BMW now refers to the convertible it has given a folding tin-top — is soft. Far from it, but certainly more polished and with a little less character than the original car which burst onto the scene with a "love me or loathe me" attitude and a look to match. Exterior The first thing that is diminished is the sharply divisive "flame" surfacing that gave the Z4 it's Chris Bangle stamp of individuality. The original blend of convex and concave surfaces were nothing if not confronting and yet when viewed on the move gave the impression of a wraith or changeling — you just couldn't be certain from glance to glance just what had caught your eye. The result of the sheetmetal changes are that this car looks bigger, wider and shows a real family resemblance to the more up-market 6 Series coupes. In a world of homogenised motoring design that is apparently the target ... and BMW has hit it. Drivetrains The only models on offer for the Australian launch drive were the naturally aspirated 3-litre, 190kW sDrive30i ($98,100 for the 6-speed manual or add $3300 for the 6-speed sports automatic) and the range-topping 225kW bi-turbo version of the same proven inline six cylinder powerplant at $116,900 or $120,400 for the 7-speed automated manual. Sadly there was no sign of the entry-level — if you can really call an $86,200 two-seater entry level — 2.5-litre sDrive 23i. Interior Cabin space is impressive. There is ample shoulder, elbow, leg and headroom for a pair of economy-sized passengers who need not spend the day looking nervously at each other as gearchanges lead to unwanted hand-leg contact. The Z4 gains a huge win in that its i-Drive control centre is the far more practical and intuitive revision unveiled in the latest generation of the top-end 7 Series limousines. With less layers of complexity and most functions signposted by a select array of buttons the new i-Drive is not only less intimidating it has the elegant simplicity that can only come with a couple of generations of tweaking — both by BMW and some of its rivals. Yet, with that box ticked it is a disappointment to find that against the trend of almost every other convertible of note the Z4's roof can only be raised or lowered when the car is stationary and Park engaged. The practical advantages of being able to close the roof on the move — and there are plenty of manufacturers who offer this — are manifest. The niceities in the cabin extend to a much-improved range of storage solutions — from folding door bins to storage nets behind the seats and a ski hatch from the boot, sun-reflective leather which absorbs up to 20 per cent less heat, a 15gb music storage capacity on the iDrive and 40 per cent improved vision and 50 per cent less noise intrusion thanks to the folding hardtop. Safety, chassis and dynamics While the exterior design has been softened, it would be much fairer to describe the work done under the skin as refinement. The Z4 rides better, it is less nervous than the original and the general feel is of a car that has had far more thought put into it — from both the point of view of driver enjoyment and driver comfort. The full suite of safety acronyms are standard across the range with dynamic stability control, cornering brake control, four airbags, a rollover safety system and cruise control with brake function. Also standard is dynamic drive control (DDC) which can be set at one of three stages — normal, sport or sport plus — and modifies sharpness in throttle control, steering and shift patterns on the automatic gearbox. On cars fitted with the optional Adaptive M Suspension, the DDC control extends to mapping for the electronic damper adjustments. There is little new about the Z4's suspension architecture — a double-joint tiebar front axle and independent centrally guided rear axle with a high proportion of aluminium components — yet it is all well balanced and well suited to the rear-wheel drive sports car. Driving The ride is both controlled and compliant with confidence inspiring stability both on turn-in and mid-corner. The electronic power steering has a nice solid feel to it with adequate feedback — not benchmark but at the better end of the scale. All three engines are proven performers and the two we were able to test at the launch were both a good match to the Z4. The naturally aspirated 3-litre six coupled to the six-speed auto is a well balanced unit capable of a 6.1 second 0-100km/h sprint but there is no doubt that the hero of the family is the force-fed version of the same engine. The bi-turbo punches out a very respectable 225kW but it is the 400Nm of torque on tap from 1300rpm right through to 5000rpm that gives the engine its outstanding character. Raw figures — 0-100km/h in 5.1 seconds and top speed of 250km/h — don't start to tell the story. With the meat of the torque just a tap of the throttle away the true charm of the 35i is its tractability. Price: from $86,200 to $120,400 Engine: 2.5L/6-cylinder 150kW/250Nm; 3.0L/6-cylinder 190kW/310Nm; 3.0L/6-cylinder bi-turbo 225kW/400NmTransmissions: 6-speed manual, 6-speed automatic, 7-speed automated manual; rear-wheel driveEconomy: 9.2L/100km (sDrive23i), 9.2L/100km (sDrive30i), 9.8L (sDrive35i)  

A Sydney university team has developed Australia's first hybrid-electric car that can both be charged from a household plug and help supply electricity to the grid. The SWITCH — developed by the Institute of Sustainable Futures at University of Technology Sydney — can charge its batteries from a household supply using cheap off-peak electricity and feed any spare power it stores back into the grid at peak demand times. "This is very, very exciting," project director Chris Dunstan, of UTS, says. "There are only a handful of V2G (vehicle to grid) examples around the world but the potential is enormous. "Being able to go out and buy one of these vehicles is not going to happen next month ... it's not going to happen next year ... but when there are thousands of these out there the effect on renewable energy will be huge." Dunstan says the SWITCH prototype, the next step in the electric vehicle revolution, was adapted by the UTS research team from a standard Toyota Prius by adding extra batteries, controls and connections. While the prototype does not have the capacity to recharge its extra batteries with recovered energy — as the factory-fitted Prius system does — it is something they are working towards. "At the moment it is purely a storage system for extra electric charge which can extend the pure electric range of the Prius, but we are certainly interested in being able to gather charge from the car," Dunstan says.  

"There is no doubt that the current situation is challenging," Mazda Australia boss Doug Dickson said at the launch of the company's all-important Mazda3 this week."However, we are looking on it as an opportunity to move forward. If you just pull down the shutters and hope it is all going to go away then there is a very real danger that when you do have another look it will be too late."Mr Dickson said that while the new car market for this year was likely to be around 850,000 he was quietly confident that there would be a gradual return to the one million sales mark realised for the past two years."In real terms new cars are much more affordable, they are more reliable than ever and they still have a real `wow' factor," Mr Dickson said. "People still want to have a new car."The Australian new car market has fallen almost 20 per cent below where it was at the same time last year and is currently running at levels not seen since 2003.Mazda is one of a handful of companies that have enjoyed an increase in market share — if not real sales numbers — this year and Mr Dickson believes that with the launch of the next generation of the Mazda3, Australia's most popular small car, that situation will improve."The popularity of the Mazda3 not only makes it an important car for Mazda but an important car for the Australian new car market," Mr Dickson said.Since the launch of the original Mazda3 in 2004 more than two million have been sold world-wide with 164,000 sold in Australia. 

Despite a new car market shedding almost 20 per cent of year-on-year sales — and running at a monthly rate comparable to that of 2003 — Mazda is refusing to look beyond