Kia has chosen April and the Auto Show from Seoul for making public its new SUV concept. The car is called KND-4 and is painted in light green, its colour being very suggestive for its eco-friendly character. Although it is perfectly functional, the SUV will never be a series product in the current shape, this being just a design exercise. But the future off road cars of compact class from KIA will borrow a good part from the elements experimented on the KND-4. The prototype is the first KIA car that speaks about its new vision “Designology”The word describes itself as a happy combination of the bold design with last hour technology and represents a new vision by which Koreans are building their future cars. KND is a concept that wants to prove the KIA capacity of conceiving and producing sophisticated cars as design and with great technological capability, wanted to understate one of Kia Motors managers.The concept has four seats and the interior is almost SF. It is dressed in light colours being enhanced by aluminium inserts and “hidden” lights. At the level of equipment, KND 4 could easily enter the IT category. The driver has a lot of road condition info, state of the vehicle, information provided by a series of sensors that “cover” the entire car.KND 4 is monitored with a propeller of 2.2 litter, diesel (with very low level of pollution). The integral traction is insured by the newest KIA transmission system, called Active Torque Transfer (ATT). The system is directing the power of the engine in conditions of loosing traction to the wheels with higher adherence.The name of the KND car comes from the entitling of the design centre of Kia from Korea which has made the project (Kia Namyang Design Centre). The number 4 means that the prototype has full traction.

RUF has announced the release of the brand new CTR3 during the grand opening of a new RUF facility in Bahrain. Twenty years ago the first CTR called the Yellow bird entered the market, followed by the second one ten years later. Both generations had the engines in the rear which makes the difference between them and the new RIF CTR3 which brings the mid engine design, but all three of them keep the feel of a pure driving machine.The new super car’ s development brings great driving stability, very good balance and agile handling through the mid engine design. The aerodynamic body-great for high speed is made of steel combined with aluminium and kevlar-carbon.Safety is very important for supercars and the new CTR 3 makes no exception from the rule and uses the latest version of the RUF Integrated Roll Cage, which protects the passenger compartment. Also, front hood and doors are made of aluminium and they have integrated side impact protection beams.With a very long experience in turbo charged boxer engines, RUF has chosen as propeller for the new supercar the 3.8 litter flat six cylinder engine which has an output of 700 bhp at 7,000 rpm and torque is 657 lb-ft at 4,000 rpm. The new CTR3 can go from 0 to 62 miles/h in 3.2 sec and can reach a top speed of 235 mph.New design has been also used in construction of the sequential shift six speed transmission which can handle a maximum of 885lb-ft.High performance, written all over the new supercar couldn’t have missed from the brake system: the two front axles use 6 piston fixed light alloy callipers and ventilated, cross drilled ceramic composite discs and each one of them has a diameter of 380 mm.The front wheels have central locking and are forged aluminium with 255/35 ZR19 tires and at the rear 335/30 ZR20 tires are mounted on 12.5 X 20 wheels. The customers can order the car with personal interior design and they can choose from lightweight finish to sporty luxury finish with special leather and alcantera.

Geneva heats again the spirit in auto world. A series of producers have already announced the models and concepts that will be revealed with this occasion, and others intend to do so. Geneva is the place where show up series cars, popular cars, but also a series of “weird” stuff or superexclusivist concepts. Some of these never reach the level of finished product and only some of the components are integrated in other models. We still do not know how the story of Bertone Roadster Concept will be finalised, but the car definitely manages in a natural way to capture ones imagination.
The model is a very refined, futuristic and aggressive one and it represents Bertone’s gift at its 95Th anniversary. The car has “pocket” sizes and it is built on FIAT Panda’s platform and the latter’s propeller of 100 HP is enough to get considerable appreciation. The Roadster can have on board 2 persons in an interior as extravagant as the exterior. The main design features come from Fiat 500 with Barchetta bodywork created by Nuccio Bertone (1947).
Why Fiat? Because there is a very strong link between the two companies, their relationship having lasted for more than eighty ears and having generated over fifty successful models concept cars (ex: 850 Spider to the X1/9, Ritmo Cabrio to the Punto Cabrio).
The result of this latest collaboration is a completely above fashion, futuristic car which although shows Bertone traditions (clean cut lines), also projects the concept of Barchetta into the future through great elegance and sophisticated irony.
Master panel beaters (still working for Bertone today) have entirely hand beaten the upper shell and the single piece of aluminium extends from the front tip of the bonnet to embrace the upper part of the sides and rear arches, terminating in the tail. Another patent of Bertone brand, the opening scissors doors are a proof of the company’s attention to the specific issue of accessibility.

Under the futuristic body there is a gear box coming from Panda and the engine that we have mentioned earlier:1.4 litres, 16 valves which develops 100 HP at 600 rpm and a driving torque of 131 NM. Panda reaches 0-100 km/h in 9.5 seconds and a maximum speed of 185 Km /h. The Concept car is expected to obtain a higher performance due to it’s very light body.

Other Dimensions: Length: 3,585 mm; Width: 1,705 mm; Height: 1,090 mm; Wheelbase: 2,300 mm; Wheels: 20-alloys; Tyres: Pirelli 225/30 R20