PREAMBLE To the non-Chinese like us, the name ‘Zhongxing’ sounds outlandish – to say the least, if not a tongue twister! But do you know that Zhongxing Automobile [that completes its ‘full name’] is a leading Pick-Up Truck & SUV manufacturing plant located in Baoding, Herbei Province, China. Zhongxing manufactures both the SUV called the Landmark and the Pick-Up ...
CHOCOLATE MILK-SHAKE PERCEIVED AS ‘ALCOHOL’? Snippets and the good wife docked in at our favourite, trendy ‘Not-So-Common’ restaurant on Flower Road. Yours truly was famished and so duly tucked into a grilled beef with pepper sauce followed by relishing one of those must-have-once-a-month, ‘Chocolate Milk-Shakes’! It was past 10 pm when I slipped my Ford Ranger into Drive and headed ...
In the early 1930’s Prof. Dr. Ferdinand Porsche started design work on the “people’s tractor” right along with the design work of the “people’s car”. Eventually, both designs materialized into historical products that are still enjoyed by thousands of people many decades later. This very early and unbelievable unique design for the tractor from day one (1934) already included a ...
Bavarian Cruiser - BMW 320i Convertible For BMW, the 3 series line is nothing less than its lifeblood. Over the last 30 years this line of compact executive cars has been one of the cornerstones of BMW’s business plan, going from strength to strength not only because more and more buyers want to own a BMW but also because they ...
BACKGROUND AND HISTORY To see an older car in pristine condition is an enthusiasts dream and such examples always elicit more than a second glance from any motoring aficionado. We feature one such car in this issue owned by an avid reader of the magazine and a budding BMW enthusiast Rukshan Jayawardena. The car featured is an absolutely immaculate ...
Anyone who has watched even a little bit of Cable TV in Sri Lanka will probably have noticed the commercial (aired on Indian channels) that advertises the Mahindra Xylo. Entitled “Happy Legs”, it showcases a day in the life of fashion photographer Atul Kasbekar and 5 of his incredibly tall female models. The point of the ad of course is ...
Dominic Ang couldn’t have given himself a better 23rd birthday gift than the victory of the 2012 Malaysia Merdeka Endurance Race (MMER). Driving for the PETRONAS Syntium Team in the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3, Dominic successfully defended the title with team-mates Nobuteru Taniguchi and Masataka Yanagida, both Japanese GT champions. Bringing back the same two SLS AMG GT3s that the ...
Honda’s CBR250R is big; in terms of power, technology, specification. The CBR250R from Honda is the biggest and the most ‘wanna have’ in terms of Indian manufactured two-wheeled machinery among the super-sports rider fraternity. We at Motor had for long been awaiting with open-mouthed expectation the arrival of Honda’s CBR250R on the local motorcycling scene. Stafford Motor Company (Pvt) Limited, ...
GERMAN-BUILT FORD FOCUS TITANIUM 2012 SEDAN Germany is a synonym for A1 Quality cars: that’s proven. So when I was asked to test drive the all new German-built Ford Focus 2012 model I didn’t let this opportunity pass by. After all it’s not every day that a car-nut like me gets an opportunity to get aboard and cruise along in ...
In a market full of lookalike sedans, where most designers seem to be in a grip of conservatism and most notably where the Japanese designers have gone into slumber, it is quite refreshing to see a fresh faced product that comes along from Korea, in the form of the Hyundai Elantra 2011. The new Hyundai Elantra, sports a bubbly ...
The PV series Volvos had a production run from 1947 to 1965. The Volvo PV is generally a referral to two nearly identical automobile models, the PV444 and PV544. Volvo held a reputation for manufacturing dependable, fine automobiles since their beginning in 1927, but the defining moment for solid durable vehicles really began with the PV444′s introduction. Knowing that ...
In the midst of God tipping his bath water and unleashing turbocharged thunder claps on us during the whole week, a welcome ray of sunshine emerged in the form of the latest incarnation of the Audi A6 dubbed the C7, which is the subject of this test. The A6 was the worthy successor to the Audi 100 and is ...
The 105 series Giulia Coupes are often considered by experts as one of the most desirable post war Alfa Romeos ever; one that epitomizes what an Alfa should be. That is, light weight, small rear wheel drive and technologically ahead of the competition with an enviable racing pedigree. The coupe of the Giulia was launched as way back as ...
For the last 20 years or so, Nissan’s products have been known for great engineering, practicality and reliability, some of them have even been extremely good fun to drive. But can you call to mind a mainstream Nissan product of recent times that has been visually striking? Go on, think about it for a bit… Nothing comes to mind does ...
Dyan: During the last few months I have been busy interviewing some talented young, emerging motor racing stars of Sri Lanka such as Kaushalya Samarasinghe, Praveen Madugalle and now you. Both Kaulshalya & Praveen had their different motives and catalysts that sparked off their passion to race cars. What triggered off your racing craze? Emdad: It was five years ago ...
Introduction The full size E class cabriolet returns after a foray into the C-Class based CLK convertibles of the last two generations. The last proper E-Class convertible was the W124 series and similarly, the all new E-Class Cabriolet is based on the new E-Class platform. This leaves room for the new C-Class Cabriolet in Mercedes Benz’s bid to out-niche ...
Volvo’s S60 of the previous generation, was always a car that was something of an “in between” in its market positioning, rather like its bigger brother the S80. Introduced as a 2000 Model, it was just a little bit bigger and more spacious than the BMW 3 Series, Audi A4 etc that it was priced against and offered a slightly ...
What is it? This is Peugeot’s budget family sedan entry. It is a compact, booted four door in the same vein as the Renault’s Dacia Logan where it features simple, robust materials and design to be both cheap to manufacture and low cost to maintain in emerging markets. In the local market it intends to compete with the likes of ...
The Buick Motor Car Company was formed in 1903 by David Dunbar Buick. In 1907, over 725 vehicles were produced and one year later, it grew drastically to over 8,800 with the help of the ever-popular Model 10. By 1940, Buick had moved into the higher end and larger car range. Even though over 16,500,000 cars use the Buick name, ...
A look in a dictionary and you will probably see the word Subaru under the term All-Wheel-Drive (AWD). Okay that’s probably not true, but in the automotive world the term AWD is never too far away from Subaru. This is because Subaru has stubbornly stuffed an AWD powertrain in every one of their cars in recent history and to ...
