Beginning in the engine bay, Novitec made adjustments with the full range of gasoline and diesel engines available, to squeeze out an extra 15-30 horsepower depending on the model.  Additional features include stainless steel sport mufflers, wheels with diameters of up to 20 inches and an aerodynamic-enhancement package.

The front of the vehicle will undergo some changes that will result in a reduced lift on the front axle, the rear will be fitted with a bumper with integrated diffuser and the side skirts will create a more sleeker appearance.

Alfa Romeo Giulietta

Renault has packed the hatch with a 2.0-litre turbocharged four producing 246 horsepower and 251 lb/ft of torque. Other features include  a panoramic glass roof, 19-inch alloys, red Brembo brake calipers and bi-xenon headlights. The interior shows off a black-and-white leather trim with white accents on the center console, dash-strip, and door handles.  The Pearlescent White paint, in which the car is currently only available, reflects its exclusive status.

Unfortunately the limited edition hatch is only available for the Australian market.

Justin Hocevar, Managing Director Renault Australia has stated that “this incredibly luxurious version of the Mégane R.S. 250 will appeal to lovers of hot hatches who don’t want to compromise on their everyday creature comforts.”

Ever looked at a VW Polo and thought, “Hmmm, that thing is just far too large. I wish Volkswagen made something much smaller.” No? Me neither. But if tiny cars are your thing, you’re in luck, as VW has confirmed that new up! (yes, lower case and exclamation mark are part of the model name) will be on sale in Europe by the end of the year.

Gallery and Specs after the jump.

This car is properly small, at just 3.5 metres long, it’s a whole 2 metres shorter than an Audi Q7 or Mercedes S Class, for instance. It is billed as a four seater though, and I must admit looks pretty good as well, immediately recognisable as a four seater.

The up! (typing that exclamation mark is going to get annoying) debuts with two brand new, 3 cylinder petrol engines, developing 44kW and 55kW depending on the model variant you may choose. Fuel economy is exceptional, there’s no hybrid or EV trickery here, just good old fashioned frugal fuel use. VW claims 4.2l/100km on the combined EU cycle (highways and city mixed).

This is the first small car to feature emergency automatic stop, named City Emergency Braking. An additional option, the system is active at under 30km/h and uses a laser to detect imminent collisions. It will bring the car to a complete stop depending on the driver inputs or lack thereof.

The infotainment system is also pretty nifty. The entire system is wirelessly connected to a removable touch screen, which clips onto the dash (see images). The system can be plugged in at home and you can download, wait for it, apps for your car. Yes, the age of the car app is upon us.

There are no prices for the SA market as yet and sadly VW SA has said there are no plans to bring it here, but I will eat my new pair of Levi’s if they don’t, because to be honest with competition from Toyota’s Aygo and the Hyundai i10, they would be terribly silly not to.

Ciro De Siena – OverdriveTV

I’m one of those people who’s always liked the French.  Their lack of sentimentality, and hence lack of diplomacy has always rubbed me up the right way.  I was on the Paris Metro once and being a bit lost, was waiting in line at an info kiosk to ask for some assistance.  In front of me was an American Family. The American Family.  The American Family with fanny packs and fat where other people from other nations don’t have fat.

AMERICAN FATHER (I won’t say American Dad, because that’s a great show):  ”Where’s the Arch of Triumph?  Excuse me.  Do you know where the Arch of TRY-UMPH is?”

The Frenchman behind the glass just gave a wonderful Gallic shrug.  I loved his reaction even more because I had just come from outside and the Arc D’Triomph was literally meters to the left up on the pavement.  But he wouldn’t budge, he just shrugged and I loved it.

What irritated me the most was that the American made absolutely no attempt at “hello” in ANY language, never mind French, and just launched a terrible attempt at pronouncing their most important landmark.

I approached the glass after the Americans wandered off muttering, and after a very bad Bon jour asked if I may proceed in English.  “Of course,” said the same guy who minutes earlier had been Jean-Pierre Le’Shrug.  He gave me directions in perfect English merely because I had made an effort – in his country – to converse with him. Like any nation, the French want you to understand them. To acknowledge them on their own terms.

So I was prepared to love the new Citroen C4 on its own terms. I was ready to be enveloped in its Frenchness.  I was ready to be smitten by the utterly daft, peculiar beings they can be.  I was ready to love it.  And at first I did.  Sitting in it, everything worked, but was a bit…off.

The gear lever looks like the top of a wine opener. Fittingly, because the man who made the gearbox was drunk and on leave apparently when he designed it via fax from a vineyard.  But more on that in a minute.  The level of luxury in here is truly exemplary.  There’s a French suaveness about it all.  The seats massage you, the display is brilliant and everything seems to work like it should.  It’s like learning the Parisien Underground. Once you’ve got it, you’ve got it.

So far so good. I was feeling fully fluent in French.  Then I began to drive it, and this car doesn’t speak “DRIVE”. As in the part of the gearbox that makes the car go forwards consistently.

I nudged the wine opener backwards into A for Automatique I assume (you nudge it forward for reverse obviously) and the car really got moving with a hint of wheelspin.  Not bad… and then it felt like someone had half pulled the handbrake up as it wheezed its way into second.  Satellites don’t have this much delay.  It seriously felt like the car had tried to stop. It’s unnerving.

Remembering my French lessons, I automatiquelly assumed it was me making a hash of things.  I was quite obviously squeezing mayonnaise out of a tube onto a delicate croissant layered with roast beef from a tin in front of  Sarkozy’s wife while explaining why Zidane was shit and always had been.

This sort of thing had happened with my driving style before.  How can I put this.  I sometimes drive cars wrong. I drive Cadillacs like they’re speedboats at first and then realise how cool they are when you drive them like you’ve had three strokes, for instance.  Right, time for a new driving approach.  I’ll feather the accelerator, nice and smooth, none of this robot racing right foot and…second gear…clang!  I felt like the airbags should’ve deployed. It’s like you’ve driven into a shed.  Not one sturdy enough to stop you, but enough to let you know it was there.

It’s appalling this gearbox, truly appaling. I tried and tried and then eventually felt something I’ve never experienced before: Motion Sickness.  I’ve eaten left over cold pizza with a hangover on a yacht while people threw up around me from sea sickness and I scoffed at their weakness, but I actually felt ill after driving around in the C4 for a while.

Citroen claim it’s not an automatic and it’s not a manual; it’s something else.  Right. All they’ve achieved is making both types of gearbox worse.  Infinitely worse.  It seems in typical Citroen fashion they’ve blown the R&D budget on things like multi coloured LCD displays (you can choose from 8 hues of blue) and varying sounds made by your indicator instead of on things like the bloody gearbox.

Citroen’s eccentricity used to be reserved for design and that used to make them charming and cultish.  The C4 with it’s ESG auto/manual or whatever is not just annoying, it is quite literally the first auto I’ve felt was constantly about to stall, and that’s a real pity because the rest of it is everything a Citroen should be. Thank goodness you can still have a good old manual.

By Gavin Williams – OverdriveTV

These convincing looking shots of the new 2010 Audi RS5 have leaked onto the Internet a week ahead of the car’s official unveiling at the 2010 Geneva motor show. From what we’re hearing, under the hood the new Audi RS5 has a naturally aspirated 4.2-litre V8 engine that churns out some 450bhp and 332lb ft of torque, which is mated to an automatic S tronic transmission. Expected to be officially unveiled sometime on March 2nd, the 2010 Audi RS5 will be available as a soft-top version at first, with a sportier coupé (pictured) coming up, soon after. As for what this beast will go for, rumors have it that in the UK it will cost you a good £60,000.

I recently took the new VW Golf VI for a ride to see how much has really changed since the Mk5. After the success of the Mk5, it was clear that the Mk6 had much to live up to.

The moment I left the driveway I could tell the ride is much softer than it was which made me a bit concerned as to whether it would have any effect on handling. I am happy to report that is not the case. The Mk6 now features VW’s EDL (Electronic Differential Lock) which works by applying pressure to front inner wheel exactly where it is needed on fast cornering to prevent spinning. This maximizes traction, reduces under steer and improves response.

The Mk6 manages to achieve a perfect and subtle blend between performance handling and comfort driving. Under intense driving the GTi has a steering pulse which alerts you that the limit of traction is about to be reached, so you don’t end up sliding into a ditch.

So handling wise the car hits the nail on the head once again, but performance was the one area where the Mk5 needed attention since it was outperformed by the other hot hatches. VW’s answer was to make the engine 3kg lighter and adding on a supercharger to the turbocharged 2.0l engine increasing the power output to 155kw and 280Nm torque, with the torque kicking in at 1800rpm. This launches the GTi from 0 – 100km/h in 6.9 seconds and takes it to a top speed of 240km/h. In the DSG model, which is the same one I drove, you get a dual clutch semi-auto gearbox, so the one clutch is leading while the other preselects the next gear, making gear changes smoother and quicker.

As both a family and performance car the Golf GTi is an absolute pleasure. With a 275 liter boot, loads of legroom and an impressive 6.1 liters per 100km, it’s a perfect blend of the two. You can really point its nose in the direction you want to go and shoot at it. Safety features include ABS, EBD, ESP, adjustable whiplash optimized head restraints and 7 airbags, making the GTi one of the safest cars ever built and giving it 5-star Euro NCAP rating.

There are a couple of other cars to choose from in the same price class as the Mk6 GTi, but for a balanced combination of speed, luxury, reliability and practicality I’d say the GTi is certainly one of the best.

Article by Dewildt Smith

Finally a straight challenge for the Mini has been released; it’s called the Citroen DS3, and its Citroen’s version of the legendary Mini. Unfortunately Citroen SA has not yet approved the car for import, so for now we can only hope it will reach our shores soon.

The new DS line will have three versions to choose from, although the other two will only be released at a later stage. For now the DS3 will be available in one of five CO2-efficient Euro V engines, two of them diesel and three will be petrol, with the latter being co-developed by BMW. The two HDi diesel engines will produce 90bhp and 110bhp and will have Citroen’s DPFS, which stands for diesel particulate filter system. The three petrol engines will produce from the VTi 95bhp and 110bhp, and the THP will produce 150bhp.

The car will also have some premium features to it, like a colour contrasted floating roof, “shark fin” B pillar and LED headlights, with the floating roof being available in a choice of four colours, black, white, blue or red, very similar to the Mini. Mirrors and body ding strips will be available in chrome or personalized colours as well as some variations in wheel finishes. With the interior there will be leather and fabrics available in a variety of colours and the gear knob can be tailored in a choice of five ways.

Citroen promises that the DS3 will be spacious even though it is the smallest car in its class, measuring 3.95m long, 1.71m wide and 1.46m high. Citroen also claims they have made space for five people in full sized seats by raising the fascia to provide more leg room and the boot will take 285 liters and the seats can fold 60.40. There will be loads of tech too, Satnav with Bluetooth and audio features compatible with WMA and MP3, and an amplified subwoofer mounted in the boot. An indicator will let the driver know of optimal range in which to change gears for the lowest CO2 emissions, as well as cruise control with speed limiter.

All in all the DS3 sounds like a decent good competition to the Mini, with all its stylish features and accessories, and even though it’s not due for us yet, it is sure a car to keep an eye on in the motoring market.

Article by Dewildt Smith

Also interesting is that the new Nissan 370Z is going to feature two new transmission options including a six-speed manual with an optional rev-matching feature (automatically blips the throttle on downshifts) and a seven-speed automatic.

On the inside it promotes luxurious materials that scream comfort and exquisiteness from every single part: amazing stereo, leather-trimmed sport seats, navigation with with iPod connectivity.

On the outside and spec-wise Nissan 370Z should include a double-wishbone front suspension, a wider body (1.1 inches), front and rear spoilers, Nissan Sport brakes (sport package), boomerang-style headlights and taillights, and a antilevered roofline.

Starting at $29,930 for the base version (6-speed transmission), the 370Z Coupe hops at $31,230 if you’d like the 7-speed automatic brings the total to $31,230. The other version the car will be offered in, the Touring model, starts at $34,460 with the 6-speed manual or $35,760 with the aforementioned automatic.

Oh and if you think that’s not enough, then there’s a stylish package that should tune it up really nice. We’re sold. How about you?

The exterior of this glass roofed 911 includes LED daytime running lights, LED taillights and smaller fog lights. The focal point of this Porsche’s interior is the new Porsche Communication Management  3.0 (PCM 3.0) touch-screen which provides easy operation of the audio system as well as the HDD navigation system (optional). Other functions of PCM 3.0 include Blue-tooth connectivity, IPOD port, USB port, satellite radio and XM NavTraffic capability.

The 911 Targa goes on sale in the UK and USA this October.

Prodrive has made changes to the suspension, interior, exterior as well as including a new exhaust system. Their main aim was to refine the Brera’s handling and this was achieved with new stiffer springs and dampers and the car was also slightly lowered (-10mm).

According to Peter Cambridge (Prodrive Project leader), the result is “a car that ‘shrinks’ around the driver and delivers all the fun and engagement of a sports car driving experience on A and B-roads. Yet, on motorways, offers a compliant and composed ride.”

The exterior of the Brera S boasts lightweight 19″ alloy wheels with Pirelli PZero Nero Tyres ispired by the Alfa 8C Competizione, the new supercar flagship for the Alfa Romeo range. The interior of the Brera S is dressed in black leather completed with red stitiching and the centre console is accentuated with a dark finish. The headrests include a limited edition Brera S aluminium plate featuring the British and Italian flags.

Hopefully for the lucky 500 the one year development at Prodrive will pay off and this car will be more go than show due to the weight reduction.