Painting The Car World Green

Newcastle Herald

Saturday October 11, 2008

Brent Davison

SOMETHING old, something new, something borrowed, something blue.

Forget everything in that list except for "new" because there there is nothing old or borrowed at this year's Australian International Motor Show and the only "blue" description can be used to describe the hues of some of the cars.

In fact if a colour were to be invoked it would undoubtedly be green, such was the ecological attitude being shown at this year's premier automotive event.

Toyota roped in TV talking head, garden supremo and environmental champion Jamie Durie to showcase its three "reveals", which showed the present, the future and the more distant future with the wraps coming off a hybrid Toyota Supra race car, officially the first hybrid ever to win a sanctioned car race.

Also revealed was a North American hybrid Camry sedan that looked remarkably similar to our conventional Camry and apparently looks a great deal like the hybrid sedan Toyota will build and sell here in 2009.

The more distant future? Concept X, a small hybrid with a more advanced petrol-electric drive system than the current Prius hybrid and showing what the next (or the one after the next) Prius might look like.

Toyota's Lexus division went for the "bob each way" approach, showing a hybrid concept car, the LF-Xh, with a remarkable resemblance to the current RX production SUV and described by Lexus chief executive John Roca as an "RX pointer".

Of a more here-and-now nature were the new IS family, headlined by the raunchy (for Lexus) IS F, a direct competitor for BMW's hot M3 and Mercedes-Benz's hotter AMG C63 four-door sedans, and underlined by the IS250C, a seductive coupe-cabriolet, here early next year.

Surprisingly, it was Australian company Holden the company that once delighted in showing off high-powered six-cylinder engines and higher-powered V8s that turned out to be greener than Kermit, with a range of engine technologies.

At Holden the talk is all about energy diversity.

Which means that diesel, liquefied petroleum gas and even active-fuel-management V6 engines (engines with electronics able to shut down a number of cylinders when there is little or no load) are all either available now or set to be made available very soon.

Engines able to operate properly on the green E85 fuel (85 per cent ethanol made from plant waste and 15 per cent unleaded petrol) are being developed and will be made available as E85 is rolled out and the piece de resistance for Holden the Chevrolet Volt, a mid-sized car with a small petrol engine to generate power for its four electric motors, will be on sale here by 2012 according to company president Mark Reuss.

It wasn't all green, of course, and purists will not leave the show feeling cheated. In Supercar Corner the ogle factor is put into overdrive courtesy of a Gemballa-modified Porsche called (probably aptly) the Avalanche, plus Koenigsegg's $2.1 million CCX coupe, Pagani's $1.5 million Zonda, a Bufori (although no one knows how it qualifies as a supercar), a Morgan, the delightful Chamonix 550 Spider (a fairly faithful retro rendition of Porsche's legendary Spider) and Bolwell's $190,000-plus Nagari.

Holden Special Vehicles-owned Elfin added to its range with the new Clubman Type 5, a modern take on the old Clubman, for $56,000, with the mechanical brio to take it from zero to 100 kmh in 3.5 seconds, faster than most Porsches.

And what would any motor show be without a Ferrari? And what would AIMS be without the new Ferrari California, a mid-engined two-seater with a folding metal roof that makes it either a coupe or convertible in 14 seconds?

A true charmer, it harks back to the old 365 GTB in some of its styling hints and, says Ferrari Australia general manager Kevin Wall, has the potential to broaden the market potential of Ferrari.

It must, because the car that made its world debut in Paris 10 days ago already has its order books under siege and 50 per cent of those orders are from people who have never owned a Ferrari before.

Many of them are women.

Suzuki, making every post a winner with a range of small cars and SUVs that have allowed it to increase its sales by 200 per cent since 2004 (while the national market has grown only 10 per cent), announced that a new small car, the Indian-made, five-door, 1.0-litre, three-cylinder Alto, spun off the Astar concept car, will be its next family member.

It also chose AIMS as the place to give its Kizashi 3 concept car its southern hemisphere unveiling.

Kizashi 3, obviously the third (and last) of three Kizashi concepts, is a sleek four-door sedan with a bulbous nose, short tail and modest front and rear overhangs and with a 3.6-litre V6 engine under its bonnet.

If there was one thing noticeable at AIMS this year it was the failure by some manufacturers to make an appearance. Porsche, BMW, Audi, Mercedes-Benz, Fiat, Citroen and Mini were all no-shows and the Chinese brands set to storm onto the market next year GWM and Chery were also notable by their absence.

© 2008 Newcastle Herald

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