Kia launches the K9 - do you want one in your kennel?

Kia K9.

Kia has released their flagship, known as the K9 in Korea. For all the dog lovers, it will get another name for its export markets. The Kia Kitty perhaps? (Pussy was rejected on obvious grounds.)

Currently on sale in Korea, the model has more than a passing resemblance to the BMW 6 Series, for my money. It has the prominent grille reminiscent of the 6 series, LED headlights and a dual exhaust system. Overall, it measures 5090 mm long, 1900 mm wide and 1490 mm tall with a wheelbase of 3045 mm.

It is Kia’s first modern rear-wheel drive vehicle which combines stylish design with luxurious comfort, engaging driving dynamics and advanced high-tech features, so you can see who they are aiming at.

The cabin is equipped with premium leather upholstery, metallic trim and an infotainment system. Features include a 12.3 inch full size Thin Film Transistor (TFT) LCD cluster, a HUD (head-up display), twin 9.2 inch monitors to entertain rear seat occupants and a 17 channel, 17 speaker Lexicon (by Harman) sound system and Smart Cruise Control (SCC) which adjusts the vehicle’s speed to maintain the distance from the vehicle ahead.

Other technical features include a lane departure warning system, a blind-spot detection system and an around-view monitor with four cameras.
“K9 is all about elegant simplicity, balanced proportions and simple surfaces,” says Kia’s Chief Design Officer, Peter Schreyer. “The class-leading long wheelbase, the prestige distance, large wheels, sharply upright short overhangs and a long sweeping shoulder line all work together in a harmony to give K9 a sporty, athletic proportion and a confident stance quintessential to a premium large rear-wheel drive vehicle.”

“While embodying a new generation of Kia design, K9 is a clear signal of our intention and determination to compete head-to-head with the European luxury brands (read BMW in there). And for Kia, our customers, and for me - this car is like a dream come true,” concludes Schreyer.

The K9 is powered by a 3.8 liter MPI V6 that produces 213 kW (286 hp), with the more powerful 3.8 liter GDI V6 with 246 kW (329 hp). Both engines drive through an eight-speed automatic transmission that sends power to the rear wheels.
Four driving modes (Eco, Normal, Sport and Snow) enable the driver to choose a preferred set-up of suspension, steering, engine and transmission ideal for various road conditions or driving styles.

With Korea’s Hyundai doing very well on the world automotive stage, Kia obviously feels that the time is right to expand as well. It will be interesting to see just how the K9 performs on the same world stage.

BMW E30 for anyone?

Gavin Charlesworth’s wide-body E30 - pic credit Dr. Jeff Harper.

The Retro Championships have been flooded with BMW E30’s this year. The drive(r) behind this is Gavin Charlesworth from EBC Brakes who presented six E30’s at the Nitto 3K Retro meeting at the beginning of this month.
These were:
BMW E30 Wide body - 4.0 V8 M60 - Gavin (Team EBC Brakes)
BMW E30 Wide Body - 3.0 6cyl S50 (M3) - Frank (team B-Quik Racing / EBC Brakes)
BMW E30 - 2.7 6 cyl M50 - Peter (Team EBC Brakes)
BMW E30 - 2.5 4 cyl M10 - Vinay (Team EBC Brakes)
BMW E30 - 2.0 4 cyl M44 - Kaz (Team B-Quik Racing)
BMW E30 - 2.0 4 cyl M44 - Pong (Team Grilliku Gulf / EBC Brakes)
After the first meeting, I received an email from Gavin saying, “A fantastic weekend was had by I think all. As always at the beginning of the season there were some gremlins in the cars that had to be chased away leaving us very little time for practice on Friday.
“We qualified in the wet on Saturday morning which allowed us to brush up on our car control skills. We have a clip up on You tube of most of the field going either in the wrong direction or parked in the woods.
“Saturday afternoon dried out putting us back up to speed for Retro and open RWD and Sunday amazingly stayed dry too.
Here is a link for some You Tube channel clips from Gavin’s V8 and Peters straight 6 E30’s.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHgdcrZ20wU
It is worth a look at the clips which were taken through the windscreen of an E30 and will give you the driver’s eye view of the twisty Bira circuit.” (You will also catch a glimpse on a couple of clips of a certain white Securitas Mk1 Escort fighting with some rather quick newer race cars.)

What did we learn from the Spanish GP?

Well, before we even saw them line up in the grid on Sunday, we had already seen that Qualifying has become a total farce. Cars doing one lap because they have to save their tyres for the race! Schumacher has gone down on record to say that the “racing” is no longer full on, but just tyre management. I agree, and so do millions of other spectators. It is the difference between “racing” and a high speed parade.
It is impossible to write about the Spanish GP without heaping praise on Pastor Maldonado in his Williams. The Venezuelan has shown speed before, but rather erratic, but this time he drove an exemplary race, able to stay in front of Alonso’s Ferrari quite comfortably, as the Spaniard’s tyres went off song (see the opening paragraph!) and he was unable to mount a challenge. His team mate Felipe Massa may as well have been in some other team as he did not provide anything for Ferrari, other than embarrassment. Massa must go, and he should fall on his sword before he gets given the DCM (Don’t Come Monday) by Ferrari.
Maldonado’s team mate was another dragging the chain, qualifying amongst the hopeless tiddlers and finally getting rear-ended by Michael Schumacher on lap 12. This is the second time Schumacher has done this and I wonder if his depth perception is going off. Quite possible at his age. However, the stewards were not impressed and Schumi has been given a five grid place penalty for the next Grand Prix (Monaco May 27). Nico Rosberg in the other Mercedes trundled round and round finishing seventh before falling asleep.
The Williams team celebration was cut short on the Sunday night when there was a fire in their garage. The weekend was also Sir Frank’s 70th birthday. Perhaps an errant candle from the cake?
“Lotus” (nee Renault) is certainly now in the top group, with laughing boy Raikkonen keeping everyone amused with his quips in the post-race interviews. When asked what he said to Finnish viewers he replied, “It’s Mothers’ Day in Finland. I had nothing else to say to Finnish viewers.” Third and fourth (Grosjean) shows that they are now very close to a win.
Sauber had a mixed day, but Kobayashi’s fifth place was the result of KK’s usual spirited driving. Sergio Perez did not have a good day. A mechanic tripped over a tyre during a pit stop, delaying his release and then the transmission failed.
Normally front running McLaren did not have a good weekend. Lewis Hamilton was demoted after qualifying on pole as he did not return to the pits under his own power, to line up for fuel sampling. OK, so it is an FIA rule, but in my opinion, a stupid one (to add to the other hundred or so nonsensical rules) and the penalty far too heavy. Hamilton’s running mate Jenson Button had more than a bad hair day, it was a bad hair weekend. Was it the car? Was it Jenson?
And what happened to the famous Red Bull finger? Current WDC Sebastian Vettel was another of the trundling team. Always in the top 10 but not shining in any way, and collecting a drive through penalty for not slowing for a yellow flag. Team mate Mark Webber did another of his now famous reverse gear starts and then slowly made his way towards the top 11, but could not pass a Force India.
The rest were never really in the race, and Charles Pic in the Marussia won’t be getting a Xmas card from Alonso after holding the Spanish driver up for one complete lap.

Autotrivia Quiz

Last week I asked what car does the cartoon character Granny drive in the Sylvester and Tweety mysteries? Clue: ask your children under 10 years of age! The car she uses in the cartoons is a Nash Metropolitan, with those funny “cut outs” on the doors.
So to this week. Count Louis Zborowski built aero engined cars. One he drove at Brooklands only once and then it was used for touring in the Sahara. What was the engine in that car?
For the Automania free beer this week, be the first correct answer to email [email protected]

“Granny’s” Nash Metropolitan.

Ford’s Rayong plant open

Thai built Ford Focus.

The new Ford plant at Rayong has had its official opening and production has commenced of the Ford Focus and derivatives from the Focus platform, such as the small SUV Kuga.
The new Ford Thailand Manufacturing plant will have a production capacity of 150,000 vehicles a year, boosting the annual Ford Thailand production to 445,000 vehicles.
The new Rayong plant is capable of producing up to six models from the one Focus platform, with the latest Kuga compact SUV going into production in Rayong alongside the Focus from 2013.
Export Focus vehicles have been mainly coming from Ford’s Saarlouis plant in Germany, but by September, exports for Australasia will be coming from Thailand.
For Australia, this allows Ford to take advantage of Australia’s free trade agreement with Thailand, which will reduce the import price by five percent.
Ford Australia already gets its Australian-developed Ranger pick-up from Thailand, where it is produced for global markets alongside the related Mazda BT-50. These are not produced in the new plant, but are manufactured in the Ford-Mazda joint-venture Auto-Alliance plant that is also set to get a $27 million expansion to lift production by 20,000 units a year.
The Auto-Alliance plant also produces the Ford Fiesta for Australia, alongside the similar Mazda2. Initially the Thai Mazda2 was exported to Australia before Mazda Australia switched its sourcing back to Japan due to supply constraints in Thailand as a result of the flooding stopping production of the parts suppliers, even though the Auto-Alliance plant was not inundated.
Ford Asia, Pacific and Africa president Joe Hinrichs said Ford remains committed to Thailand as a production hub; however, Hinrichs has also announced a major expansion of Ford’s Chinese manufacturing operations, with a plan to double production there from the current 600,000 units a year to 1.2 million by 2015.