Blast from the past - Mercedes-Benz A38 AMG

Think the 2013 Mercedes-Benz A250 is the raciest A-Class with its 211PS engine? Think again.  Before the world has gone crazy of creating a concept car with a hybrid engine with a very emotional 30 km/h of top speed,  Mercedes has commissioned a special twin-engined A-Class, and they are called A38 AMG. It was created back in the late nineties when McLaren Mercedes F1 cars driven by Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard were the chase rabbit round the F1 track,  So special that only four are only ever made, where two of those went to, guess it right, the two drivers above.

The A38 AMG is based on the normal twin-floor sandwich platform Mercedes A-Class where the 1.9L in-line four cylinder engine producing a meagre 125bhp lies underneath the hood. However, AMG engineers have installed an identical unit at the back of the car, practically between the rear wheel, beneath where the boot lies. Combined, 1.9L makes 3.8L (hence the A38 name) and produced 250bhp  and 360Nm driving all four wheels via 5 speed manual gearbox governed via some electronic clutch trickery. This package is sufficient to drive the Mercedes-Benz A-Class with new dimensions of speed whereby it can reach the 100km/h milestone in 5.9 second and a 230km/h top speed.

To enable the installation of the transverse 1.9L engine at the back, the rear end of the A-Class has been redesigned and utilized a lot of bracing made by carbon fibre. Meanwhile, to cope with the added muscle, AMG parts bin of its larger siblings have been raid and AMG has fitted the front brake of E55 AMG to the A38. Measured 334mm in diameter, the 32mm thick ventilated disc is supported by the solid 258mm disc. With the aid for ABS and EBD, ESP and BAS, braking distance from 100km/h is less than 37m, which is great by the standard at that time. The car rolls on 18" alloy wrapped in Bridgestone Potenza tyres of 225/35 R18.

More photos of the Mercedes-Benz A38 AMG can be found after the jump.

Blast from the past - Renault Initiale

Renault Initiale Concept was introduced back in September 1995. At that time, Renault was very well-known for its concept car that adopted controversial but distinctive styling. The avant-garde looking Initiale was more than just a styling exercise. It portrayed Renault quest in entering executive saloon market. Also, it set Renault design language for years to come, especially with the similarly avant-garde looking car such as Renault Avantime and Renault Vel Satis. These two cars similar kind of rear end treatment, with wacky upright rear screen wrapped by big hatchback. To certaint extent, the second generation Laguna did resemble the Initiale rear styling, especially at the C-pillar area and its intersection with the hatch.

Renault Initiale Concept was powered by a detuned Formula 1 engine, in this case it was RS6 3.5l V10 modified by RenaultSport division. In this application, the F1 engine pumped out 392bhp@8000rpm and 360Nm@6200rpm. Channeling the drive via 6 speed sequential gearbox to all wheels, the engine catapult the big saloon to 305 km/h. Very detuned indeed.

To emphasize further its intention in moving upmarket, Renault has assigned Louis Vuitton to design a custom luggage set for the Initiale. As can be seen above, the luggage matched the car even in its color scheme, and typical to the customized luggage, the storage capability was maximized due to deletion of dead space. Read more after the jump.

PROTON MSX - What could have been.......

Recently, there was a spy photos of Chinese Youngman SUV, strongly resembling Lotus APX/Proton MSX. Adding more to that, apparently, Proton boss, Dato Syed Zainal admitted that Proton, through Lotus is indeed providing consultancy to Youngman for their SUV based on Proton platform. It was also mentioned that there is a possibility of buying back that model and rebadged it to become Proton SUV.

More juicy details after the jump.

Blast from the past - Sogna supercar of 90's

90's is the time zone when super and hypercar rules. This is the era of excessive power, extremely flashy design and explosive (not necessarily controllable) performance. Cars from this era makes current crops of supercar appears tame, clinical and nerdy.

One of the most interesting looking is this car, Art & Tech Sogna, which is based on Lamborghini Countach.

Read more after the jump.