Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Beijing: so will the future MG
Less and less British, more ... China. Even the MG TF, the last bastion of the historic British brand, it seems next to fold. Compared to the voices that were chased in recent months about a possible retirement of the spiders' (former) trademark octagon, owned by SAIC, now the story seems to acquire greater substance.
We will know something more next April 25, the date of opening of the exhibition in Beijing. For the occasion, the Group noted that Chinese MG (and Rover) announced the presentation of a family of concepts that seem destined to take place over ten years of TF.
Have in common the theme of the project X210, and the basic features: compact size of sports cars, for two and a mid-engined, declined in coupe and spider.
Their names will be a revival of traditional MG. This will, in fact, the Midget, a spider with a canvas roof; the TF, a coupe-cabriolet is equipped with a roof structure similar to that recently proposed by Renault Wind, and the GT, a coupe shapes that recall , albeit distantly, some sporting a European production (Porsche Cayman, Audi TT).
As for the mechanics, which will be shared between the three versions in the coming days you will know if it is a direct derivation of the TF (the usual 1.8 DOHC 16-valve 135 hp with manual five-speed) or there will be more news tidbits.
According to the organization in fact too many blue cars circulating in Russia, and most of the time ignoring the traffic to the detriment of common drivers (in Italy CONI has proposed a cut for economic reasons). The protest action is the distribution of leaflets and stickers in more trafficked areas, accompanied by slogans such as "The servant of the people take off the sirens!" or "Megalki (flashing blue in Russian) are a disgrace for Russia."
In parallel, the Far send a letter to the institutions to demand the abolition of flashing for passenger cars supplied to the state structures, cars that are not clearly identifiable as belonging to officials of different ministries.
The protest in question stems from the widespread discontent among motorists for the sudden roadblocks and security risks whenever there is the passage of the blue car. According to Russian newspaper Vedomosti that in November 2009 had already launched online hunting with illegal flashing Megalka News website, the list of state structures that are entitled to the blue car in December 2006 amounted to 977 in Russia. Of these, at least on paper, 50 belong to the entourage of the President and 230 secret service (FSB).