Proton Satria Neo Rally Car in Japan

Malaysian car maker PROTON and Japanese Manufacturer Carrosser Co. Ltd. (CUSCO) has formed a partnership to sell the Proton Satria Neo Group N rally car in the Japanese domestic market.

The pictures here are from a Shakedown event last month at the Maruwa Autoland Nasu in Togichi.

Five Japanese professional drivers, from various racing backgrounds, were invited to test drive the cars (Group N Rally car, Neo Standard and the Neo Concept car) and share their experience with the media present.

The cars were put through the paces and covered over 250km on gravel roads in 2 days without any mechanical issues. Overall the Neo was rated as having very good handling and balance when driven at high speed, by the experts.

At the same event, the Neo raced a Mazda 2 rally car and the Proton car beat the Mazda, clocking in a time of 1 min and 19 seconds, ahead of the Mazda by 6 seconds over a 1km stage.

PROTON and CUSCO will be participating in the Asia Pacific Rally Championship 2011 under the Junior Trophy category. The category will be introduced for the first time this year in the APRC, to increase opportunities for young talented drivers within the Asia Pacific region.

Sorry about the low resolution pics. Will try to get some higher resolution pics later.

The Bridgestone Eco-Rally 2010

The Bridgestone Eco Rally is a convoy of alternative-fuelled vehicles (cars, bikes, scooters, taxis and limousines) taking place on Wed 7th July 2010. It will start from Brighton’s seafront all the way to London’s Hyde Park.

This is the 4th year of the event and the convoy will be lead by F1’s Ross Brawn. Other celebrities confirmed so far include Eddie Irvine, Oliver Heath, Quentin Willson, Gail Porter, Lisa Rogers and F1's Patrick Head and Nico Hulkenberg.

Major manufacturers taking part in this year's event include Lotus, Tesla, TH!NK, MINI and Honda, who will be showcasing their new CR-Z said to be the the world’s first sporty hybrid.

Go to the Bridgestone Eco-Rally for more information.

New Racing Lancer

Image released by Mitsubishi

Here's the new 'Racing Lancer' developed for the 2009 Dakar Rally. It has the codename MRX09, which stands for 'Mitsubishi Rally 'Cross Country'('X'). The suffix 09 stands for year 2009.

The Lancer (known in Japan as Gallant Fortis) takes over the competition baton from the Pajero/Montero and the Pajero/Montero Evolution.

It has been developed in compliance with the FIA's Group T1 regulations (modified cross-country rally cars) which also complies with the new rules due to come into force in 2010.

The MRX09 features a new, multi-tubular steel frame and will be powered by the 3.0-liter V6 turbocharged diesel engine, which is wedded with a Ricardo manual five-speed sequential transmission.

The engine is currently being tested on qualifying rounds of the 2008 Dakar Series and the 2008 FIA Cross-Country Rally World Cup.

BTW, Mitsubishi Motor has a new corporate communication tagline : 'Drive@earth'.