The Car of the Year 1997

The first monovolume from the middle class Renault Megane Scenic was chosen to be "The Car of the Year 1997" by a jury composed of 55 journalists, specialists in this field from entire Europe.

Megane Scenic obtained 405 points in front of Ford Ka(293), VW Passat (248), Skoda Octavia(230), Audi A3(199). After Renault 16(1966), Renault 9(1982), and Renault Clio(1992), Scenic is the forth model produced by the french company that is awarded this prize.

Lotus Elan from KIA

Under the name KMS II the south-korean company will produce a roadster almost identical to the well known Elan. KIA will offer a 1.8 litre(140 H.P.) engine. The KMS II roadster weights only 1,070Kg and the manufacturer announce a 8 seconds acceleration from 1 to 100 km/h, and a maximum speed of 230 km/h. The price of the car will be about 50,000 DM.

Silver Spirit is Dead! Long Live Silver Dawn!

Rolls-Royce Silver Dawn is an almost identical model to its predecesor, having the length of 5.4 metres and the width of 3.16 metres. The engine is a turbo version of the well known V8 of 6.7 litres and has 300 H.P. At this model a special system of ligthting the headlights when the light intensity decreases under a preset value was adopted. The new Rolls is proposed at the price of 1,101,922 F.F.

M Class Mercedes

Like C, E, or S Classes the future "all activity vehicles" from Meercedes AAV will have the name of M Class (M being the abbreviation from mobility).

Good-bye Volvo 440/460!

Although initially the production of the new series S40/V40 was annnounced to continue along the old series 440/460, Volvo officially said that during October the production of the old series was stopped.

A 3 litre Audi

Audi A1 is still a prototype. It will have an alluminium body like A8, this determining the decrease of its weight to less than 700Kg. A1 will be lighter than Cinquencento or Rover Mini, bot however 3.2 metres in length and 1.6m in width. The model will be very well equiped.

A1 will have the 3 cylinder TDI engine that has 70 H.P. A1 will be produced starting with 1999 at an approximate base price of 24,000 D.M.

Healey is coming back

Healey Motor Company presented the model Lightweight, a model inspired by the well known Healey 100. The model is a sport one, with little equipment, and has the weight of 940Kg. The propulsion is asured by a V8 engine manufactured by Rover an engine that has 190 H.P.

The production in reduced series of this model is very likely to happen, and an estimate of the price is 67,000 D.M.

Peugeot for 2010

Peugeot presented for the first time at Paris two prototypes that could be future automobiles :Asphalte and Tuareg. The first Asphalte weigths 850Kg and has a 1.6 litre engine that gives 90 H.P. taken from Peugeot 106. In 9.5 seconds Asphalte reaches 100 Km/h and the maximum speed is slightly over 200 Km/h.

Tuareg is the second prototype and is clear answer to the nowaday crisis of the environment and its link to the automobile industry. Tuareg is a little 4x4 and has 50 H.P. which are produced by an electric engine central disposed. The autonomy is of 300 Km. The body is of course made of carbon fibre.