New Chinese car brand due on sale in Europe in 2013

What's the big deal ?

I'll tell you. Ten pints of oil per day for every man, woman and child............


We are using 165,000 barrels of oil each day in Ireland.

That's not going to last forever and that's a promise...

Looking for something you won't see on the road beside you ? How about a Qvale Mangusta

If you are the sort of person who likes being a bit different, without being labelled as so, than you will probably like the Qvale Mangusta.

What is a Qvale Mangusta? Stick with me and I’ll tell you......

The project for this car started out in Italy back in the mid-1990′s by De Tomaso, whose semi-successful Pantera model had been discontinued and its replacement, the Guara had not exactly been a sales success.
What Alejandro de Tomaso wanted was a grand touring sports car with radical styling and a proven drivetrain. De Tomaso, which in those days owned another Italian car company, Maserati, entrusted Giordano Casarini who was their technical director, to come up with a new sports car.
Casarini, who had made several business trips to the U.K. took a liking to the TVR Griffith, and visioned De Tomaso’s next car to be similar to that. Hence, the Mangusta has a multi-position roof, similar to that on the Griffith.
While TVR used modified Rover V8′s at the time, De Tomaso looked at its former engine partner Ford once again for engines. Hence the Mangusta got the 4.6-liter, V8 engine that one would also find in the SVT version of the Mustang.
For its design, De Tomaso hired Marcello Gandini famous for design work on the legendary Lamborghini Miura, Urraco, Jamara, Espada, Countach, Diablo, and the Maserati Shamal – to begin work on this new sports car.
Like the Griffith, the Mangusta was going to be a roadster with a clever roof design, only the mechanism was part power operated on this car.
The world got to see this piece of auto finement at the 1996 Geneva Motor Show, the production car didn’t make its debut until the Los Angeles Auto Show in January 2000.
What was less known at the time was the fact that the project for the Mangusta was mainly funded by Kjell Qvale, who had been the importer for Maserati in North America in the pre-Ferrari owned era.

The business relationship between Mr. Qvale and Mr. de Tomaso was however tarnishing, because both parties had different views on the future of their business. So the two split, and the De Tomaso Mangusta had become the Qvale Mangusta. Apart from the badge, nothing was changed on the car itself. Qvale, having had experience in selling low-volume, niche sports cars started marketing the car for sale mainly in the U.S.A.
The automotive press also got a hold of the car, and while their opinion on its styling was split, they all loved its performance. Having a V8 meant 320-hp which was fed to the back wheels vand was mated to a 5-speed manual or a 4-speed automatic taken directly from Ford, as were many other bits inside.
The performance numbers for the manual car were good too 0-100 km/h in just 5.3 seconds, and a top speed of  255 km/h. Enough credentials to put it in performance car territory.
Since Qvale was hardly a household name, the Mangusta did not sell in huge numbers. Still, selling 284-examples of a $70,000 sportscar that not many people knew about is not to be over-looked.

Qvale, who had put up most of the money for the development of the Mangusta was still surely going to lose money on this project. However, a deal with the MG Rover Group lead to them paying $11.2-million to buy the rights and assets to the Mangusta. MG used the Mangusta’s underpinnings when developing their own niche sports car, the MG X-Power SV in the late ninties.
So Qvale recovered its money and had made only one model, and was in the business only between the year 2000 and 2002. All the cars were made in Italy and powered by an American engine. While they are rare, it is not impossible to find a Qvale Mangusta for sale, especially in America. These days, you can pick one up for about $30,000 – which makes it cheaper to buy than a new Ford Mustang GT.
And given the choice, I’d much rather have the eccentric Italian any day.

Boxster goes to Osnabrück......Full order books in Stuttgart call for extra production at Volkswagen factory

As of today, Porsche has begun partially producing its Boxster model at Volkswagen Osnabrück GmbH. This step is necessary, as Porsche’s main factory in Stuttgart does not have enough capacity to cope with demand.

The first vehicle to roll off the Osnabrück line was an Indian red Boxster S. In attendance for the start of Boxster production in Osnabrück were Minister President of Lower Saxony David McAllister, Lord Mayor of Osnabrück Boris Pistorius, Chairman of the Board of Management of Volkswagen AG Prof. Dr. Martin Winterkorn as well as President and CEO of Porsche AG Matthias Müller.

“Taking on production of the Boxster here in Osnabrück shows that the site has established itself within the Volkswagen Group as a centre of excellence for cabriolet and small series production. I am delighted that as of today rolling of our production line here in Lower Saxony will be Porsche vehicles that stand for premium quality ‘Made in Germany’ all around the world,” emphasised Minister President McAllister.


Chairman of the Board of Management of Volkswagen AG Prof. Dr. Winterkorn said at the production start:
“The Boxster production in Osnabrück is a clear sign of the rapid coalescence of Volkswagen and Porsche. Production in Osnabrück means creating synergies that will benefit customers, staff and location alike.”
Porsche President and CEO Müller explained: “Due to the way things are in Stuttgart there is no easy way to expand our main factory. Over the next few years, we will be fully utilising our own production capacity predominantly with the 911 model. We therefore looked for a partner for producing the Boxster. The decisive factor in our choice was the great expertise of the workforce at Volkswagen Osnabrück. Our sports cars are in very good hands there. After all, we all have the same concept of quality. Osnabrück will become a part of our success story.”

Great Wall stretches to Ireland................

I.M. Automotive (Ireland), current distributors of Subaru in Ireland has announced the introduction of Chinese auto maker, Great Wall Motor Company Limited, into Ireland.

This will be the first time that the Chinese car maker has sold vehicles in Ireland and first on sale will be the Steed double-cab pick-up truck. On board is an economical 2.0 litre diesel engine delivering in excess of 30 MPG on a combined cycle. Standard equipment includes 16" alloy wheels, leather upholstery with heated seats and bluetooth. The company will take a stand at the up-coming National Ploughing Championships in New Ross where they will be able to connect face-to-face with the Irish farming community. I expect Subaru dealers around the country should double up as Great Wall dealers with the starting price of the Steed at a competitive EUR 21,995 excluding vat @ 23 %.

Details can be found at www.greatwallmotors.ie 

The Great Wall Motor Company, one of the few privately-owned Chinese car companies, has designed and built all of the European-bound models specifically to meet EU whole-vehicle type approval standards.  This will ensure that Great Wall models deliver high standards of crash-worthiness, equal to those of modern European and Japanese vehicles. 

NEW SEAT LOGO

SEAT is planning a route back from the abyss with a new logo, and first to wear the new crest will be the all-new Leon which is set to appear next year.The next generation Toledo sedan will also parade the new signature on its nose.

The in-house graphic team wanted to create a simpler crest, so the logo could be more easily identified and associated. The middle cross bar has been removed to now leave a "less than" sign sitting on a "greater than" sign.

XSdirect.com to sponsor Cannonball Ireland 2012

XSdirect.com the Irish motor insurance provider, has been confirmed as main sponsor for Cannonball Ireland 2012. The annual round-ireland charity road run will take place, for the fourth time, from September 14-16 when 150 "supercars" will travel over one-thousand kilometers from Dublin to Kilkenny via Belfast and Galway City.

This years event will raise money for the LauraLynn children's hospice in Dublin.

Full details at www.cannonball.ie