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Car of the Year shortlist revealed

Shortlist for Car of the Year 2009 is announced today By Tim Pollard Motor Industry 02 October 2008 00:27 The European Car of the Year shortlist is announced today – and it looks like being a close-run battle this year. Take a look at the contenders below and have your say who should win by clicking 'Add your comment' at the foot of the story: Alfa Romeo MitoCitroen C5Ford FiestaOpel/Vauxhall InsigniaRenault MeganeSkoda SuperbVW GolfThat means that numerous contenders have fallen by the wayside; BMW's new 7-series, the Ford Kuga, Jaguar XF and VW Scirocco were deemed unworthy by the jury of top-flight journos from around Europe.And this year, CAR has its jury place back – editor Phil McNamara is now one of the UK's handful of judges for Car of the Year.

Lotus sues Dany Bahar for £2.5 million

Lotus are suing ousted CEO Dany Bahar for £2.5 million to recover the cost of his expensive lifestyle billed to Lotus. It seems DBR-HiCom, new owners of Proton (which own Lotus), took one look at the mess in Hethel and dumped Bahar, replacing him with engineer Aslam Farikullah to try and re-focus Lotus on its core products and engineering instead of pursuing Bahar’s fantasy of churning out the biggest range of luxury supercars of any car maker on the planet. That ousting led to Bahar issuing proceedings against Lotus for £6.7 million in August for wrongful dismissal (which gives you some idea of Bahar’s estimate of his own worth).

Peugeot Unveils Hybrid Le Mans Racer

By Ben Whitworth Motor Industry 07 October 2008 13:03 Peugeot used the final round of this season’s Le Mans Series at Silverstone this weekend to show off its new hybrid-powered 908 HDi FAP racer, which features a similar kinetic energy recovery setup to next year’s Formula 1 system.The 908’s ‘HY’ undertook a number of demonstration laps in front of the packed grandstands and showed how Peugeot’s passenger car technology is filtering through to its motorsport activities.Over the weekend, the Automobile Club de l’Ouest – the company that runs the Le Mans series – announced a raft of aerodynamic and air-intake changes to next year’s regulations to even out the advantages of diesel over petrol. But rather frustratingly for Peugeot, there were no moves to incorporate hybrid powertrains in the 2009 season.But Peugeot claims that it will enter the 908 HY into next year’s Le Mans Series as a ‘Double Oh’ non-competitor to further evaluate the car’s hybrid technology.The HY’s layout comprises three key components - an 80bhp gear-driven electric motor-generator which replaces the conventional starter motor, 10 lithium-ion battery stacks to store the recovered power (six in the cockpit instead of the conventional battery and four on the left-hand side of the floor pan) and an electronic power converter, located in the rear part of the front left wing, which controls the flow of energy between batteries and motor.The result is a 3-5% mechanical energy recovery – and the associated economy and performance benefits. Over a single lap of Le Mans, for example, the system will recoup lost energy for up to 30seconds.This is then converted into a 20second 80bhp kick can either be meted out automatically by the car’s electronics to bolster acceleration throughout the lap or be selectively used by the driver using a ‘push to pass’ boost button.The additional and modified components add a further 65kg to the car’s weight, but Peugeot’s engineers claim the racecar will still easily meet the minimum regulated weight. “As a car manufacturer we can use motor sport as a research and development tool for the Peugeot brand as a whole,” said Michel Barge, Peugeot Sport’s director.