Impreza WRX stirs debate outside Parliament
Debate at Old Parliament House in Canberra took a new direction when more than 200 Subaru Impreza WRX owners parked for a historic photo shoot. As they discussed the merits of their cars, the owners were captured on film as part of Impreza WRX Festival 2000 - the first of its kind. Coinciding with the FAI Rally of Canberra, the festival drew more than 300 Impreza WRXs to the national capital. Participants saw Team Subaru drivers Possum Bourne and Cody Crocker take honours in the Group A and Group N classes and also met the drivers during a break in the action. Subaru Australia Managing Director Mr Trevor Amery said: "It was amazing out at some of the rally stages on Saturday and Sunday where every other spectator car seemed to be an Impreza WRX. We were delighted to meet and talk with so many loyal Impreza WRX owners, who take great pride in their cars. Many of them even got up very early on Sunday morning to wash their cars in time for the photo shoot. That's what I call dedication."
Proton's First Malaysian Designed and Built Car
Proton has unveiled its first self-designed car in a glittering presentation in Kuala Lumpur culminating a project which has taken just four years from first concept to fruition and involved an investment of almost $A500 million and 1.7 million man hours of engineering. Project GX was unveiled by Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahatir Mohamad during a ceremony in front of more than 4000 people at the Shah Alam indoor stadium, with the car expected to go on sale in Malaysia in September and in Australia in early December.
The new Proton GX is a "C" class sedan similar in size to Opel Vectra, Ford Mondeo and Honda Accord and will be available initially in either 1.6 litre or 1.8 litre petrol derivatives. The new Proton used the resources of Proton subsidiary Lotus to develop suspension, body, structural integrity and to reduce NVH while delivering the highest levels of ride, handling and safety. The car is expected to go on sale in Australia for a price in the low $20,000 bracket. The new Proton GX has been designed with full SRS airbag capability, with this safety feature initially available for driver and front seat passenger when launched in Australia. With high levels of body rigidity the GX can claim NVH levels amongst the best in the world in this class of car. Proton engineers used a variety of the most respected C class cars including Audi A4, Opel Vectra, Honda Accord and Peugeot 406 to benchmark the GX in terms of handling, ride and NVH levels.
Proton also used the occasion of the launch to unveil its new corporate logo which incorporates a new shield design in colours of dark blue, green and gold featuring the new Proton identity a stylised tiger symbol.
Honda Unveils New-Generation Crash Test Dummy
Honda Motor Company - the first company to develop a human-like pedestrian crash test dummy - has unveiled its second-generation crash test pedestrian dummy, POLAR II. POLAR II has been designed to more accurately simulate the kinematics of the human body during car-pedestrian collisions. The new dummy is 175 cm tall and weighs 75kg, and will help Honda to gather accurate data on damage sustained by the human body in accidents. Honda plans to make the new dummy and the data it collects available to companies interested in Honda's world-leading pedestrian crash test methods.
In 1998, Honda developed its original pedestrian crash test dummy to identify where injuries were most often sustained. The dummy was the world's first to reproduce the kinematics of the human body. The information gained from this dummy was used to develop pedestrian safety technologies for vehicles such as the HR-V and Odyssey. Honda anticipates it has sold more than half a million vehicles equipped with the technology so far.
Honda's new pedestrian dummy has modified joint structures that resemble the human body in more detail. It also has inbuilt instruments that measure the extent of injury in eight areas, including the neck and legs. Honda paid particular attention to knee injuries - the most common and severe injuries in car-pedestrian accidents - and designed POLAR II with meniscus and knee joint ligaments to more closely resemble a human knee. Honda is using computer simulations of car-pedestrian collisions with improved finite element models to gain more accurate measurements. Honda has reproduced the human tibia in a new leg injury finite element model to gain detailed analysis of lower leg damage. Honda intends to use data from computer simulations and dummy kinematics to develop new technologies that reduce injuries to the legs and other parts of the human body.
Two Pedal Driving
Another Ford historical snippet: The year was 1956, Melbourne had secured the Olympic Games, television was launched in Melbourne and Sydney and Ford released the Customline with automatic transmission. The sexist ads of the day heralded this innovation as a wonderful thing for the 'little woman' and had headlines like 'Just think - no more stalling!' The automatics used on the early Customlines were American-sourced 3-speed units and were extremely reliable. Just four years after the introduction of two-pedal driving, Ford launched the new XK Falcon which was also available with the US-designed and built Fordomatic, 2-speed unit. The 2-speed autos were superseded in 1965 by the locally-made Borg Warner 35, a 3-speed unit which was stronger and able to take the added horsepower and torque of the more powerful Falcon engines of that era and the V8s to come in 1966.
Quickies
- Ford Credit has announced the establishment of a special finance package for the funky Ford Ka. Based on a 6.99% annual percentage rate with regular payments equalling $5 per day, the package also includes free scheduled servicing to 45,000km and free roadside assistance for three years. The finance package is based on a cash price of $16,500 with a $5000 deposit, 29 monthly payments of $151.64 - or $5 per day - and one final payment of $9085. Fees and charges apply.
- The Honda CR-V is a class leader in quality, according to the JD Power and Associates 2000 Initial Quality Survey in the United States. The survey of customers showed the CR-V had fewer faults than the Toyota RAV4 and Subaru Forester, to be named the best Mini Sport Utility Vehicle. Meanwhile, the Honda S2000 was named No.2 to the Porsche 911 in the Sports Car category.
- A world-leading Holden safety project that focuses on injury protection in side impact collisions has received the Society of Automotive Engineers Australasia 2000 Automotive Excellence Silver Award
