Fiat Grande Punto Abarth SS

Fiat will be showing off it’s Fiat Grande Punto Abarth “esse-esse” (Super Sport, or SS) prototype at the 2007 Frankfurt Motor Show. The SS tuning kit boosts power of the basic Abarth up to 180 horsepower, up from the stock 150 horsepower that the Abarth’s turbocharged 1.4 liter engine makes.

Other enhancements include a lower stance and more powerful brakes, plus it will have SS badging around the car.

Renaultsport Laguna III a possibility

Renault is thinking about making a Renaultsport version of the new Renault Laguna III, making it the first Laguna to have a sporty tuned up performance version. There are currently two Renault models that have Renaultsport variants - the Clio and the Megane which are B-segment and C-segment cars respectively. “We are thinking about it but we have not decided yet. The chassis with four-wheel steering could be used as the base for the car.

The question is which engine would we use, and do we have enough customers who would want the car. We will see with the launch of the standard Laguna and the Coupe at the end of next year. But I would like it,” says Patrice Ratti, programmer director for Renault’s larger cars.

The upcoming yet to be launched coupe version of the Renault Laguna III will also get a new system called Active Drive that will give the car four-wheel steering capabilities. It will first debut on the coupe when it is launched in late 2008, but will eventually be available on the Laguna III sedan and estate later.

Saab plans new small car for the next decade

Once again word has surfaced on a small Saab to be positioned under the Saab 9-3 sedan. Saab’s last attempt at a sub-9-3 car was the Saab 9-2X or more fondly known as the “Saabaru”, which was a rebadge of the Subaru Impreza station wagon. Saab only sold that for 2 years - 2005 and 2006. Saab wants to try again.

“It might be the most dramatically styled. The idea is to have an iconic shape. It wouldn’t be a toy. This is not a two-seat exotic roadster. It would have a level of functionality. It could be a hatchback. We don’t know yet,” says Steve Shannon, Saab’s general manager in the US. He further added that the new small Saab would target active 20 to 30 year olds. A target release date is sometime in the next decade.

Early 2006, there was word of a Saab 9-1, a small car to take on the likes of the BMW 1-Series and the Audi A3. The Saab 9-1 was to be based on the upcoming GM Delta II platform, which will also underpin new cars like the Chevrolet Volt. You will find an artist’s impression of the new small Saab at the beginning of this post.

Lexus GS-F to debut with next generation GS

Motor Trend reports that the Lexus GS-F will only make it’s debut with the next generation Lexus GS, which would be the fourth generation since the first GS was unveiled in 1993, based on the 1991 Toyota Aristo. The current third generation Lexus GS was released late 2005 and is due to be replaced by the fourth generation in 2011, with the GS-F coming the following year in 2012. If the project gets a green light, the 2012 Lexus GS-F is expected to make it’s debut with the Lexus LF-H supercar’s V10 engine mated to an 8-speed automatic transmission. Above is an artist’s impression by Theophilus Chin of what the GS-F could look like if based on the current third gen Lexus GS. It takes styling cues from its younger sibling, the V8-powered Lexus IS-F.

Hydrogen-powered Hyundai i-Blue Concept

Hyundai’s i-Blue concept car will be the Korean car manufacturer’s first non-SUV hydrogen experiment, instead as you can see it is based on a crossover car-like platform, most probably a tribute of sorts to the Toyota Prius form factor. The i-Blue was developed at the Hyundai technical center in Chiba, Japan and runs on Hyundai’s third-generation hydrogen cell technology. Not much details have been revealed at this point on what exactly this third-gen hydrogen cell is. We’ll have to wait until Frankfurt 2007 to find out.

Facelifted E90 BMW 3-Series Sedan Spotted

The first sightings of the BMW 3-Series Sedan facelift have appeared on the internet at E90 Post, and they reveal a new bumper design which feature a central air vent with two smaller vents flanking it that feature a little bar going across them much like what BMW has done with the E70 X5’s bumper. Ignore that little orb that’s in the central air vent - it’s not some centrally mounted foglamp of sorts. That’s just the distance sensor for the Active Cruise Control, something you can already see on current BMWs equipped with it. On the rear, parts of the tail lamps are taped up, which could mean a redesign of sorts. I am not a fan of the current E90 tail lamps - something that resembles the current 7-Series facelift and the E92 3-Series Coupe would looks much better on the car and make it look wider as well. The hood also looks taped up, so it might be redesigned. It looks like BMW has decided to keep the more aggressive E92 nose job exclusively for the BMW M3 Sedan, which is a pity. But I am sure you’ll be able to do some aftermarket modification magic with the M3 sedan’s front panels and headlamps onto your vanilla 3-Series Sedan.

W204 Mercedes Benz C-Class Estate Unveiled

The second body variant of the new W204 C-Class has been unveiled by the boys of Stuttgart ahead of the Frankfurt Motor Show this month - the Mercedes Benz C-Class Estate. Like most bread and butter Mercedes Benz cars, it comes in three trim levels - Classic, Elegant and Avantgarde.

The estate rear end allows for a variable boot capacity of 485 liters with the rear seats up extendable to a large 1500 liters when the split-folding rear seats are down, an increase of 146 liters over the previous generation C-Class Estate. The largest possible cuboid item volume that can fit in the boot now is 827 litres, an increase of 66 litres compared to the previous generation. Two bag hooks and four anchor rings are included in the boot as standard. Mercedes Benz has equipped with the C-Class Estate with what it calls an EASY-PACK tailgate which opens and closes at the push of a button.