Category: News

The doors have closed on the 2009 Melbourne International Motor Show. That brings down the curtain on individual shows for Melbourne and Sydney, with a new era set to begin in 2010.

Around 160,000 visitors attended MIMS this year. That figure is down on other years, but Motor Show director, Russ Tyrie is talking things up, “In any other year, we would be disappointed with a crowd of 160,000. But considering the impact of the global economic slowdown and with households watching every cent, achieving this number of visitors is encouraging for an industry feeling the pinch.”

Following the joint venture agreement between the Melbourne and Sydney motor show organisers there will be no major Australian motor show until the latter half of 2010.

With such a long break between events the next “Australian International Motor Show” is sure to be one you cannot afford to miss.

This wild looking thing—the Frazer-Nash Namir—has its roots back in 1920s England would you believe. The Namir, arabic for Tiger, apparently, has been revived by Italdesign-Giugiaro. Frazer-Nash was a sports and racing car manufacturer which made cars from the 1920s–1950s and also had links with BMW and Porsche.

The car has been styled by Fabrizio Giugiaro, and built at the company’s Turin design and engineering centre. It has a carbon-fibre monocoque chassis with honeycomb panels. But, the really cool thing about this car is that is has around 370bhp and can get to 100km/h in a mere 3.5 seconds, or, if you dare, 0-200km/h in 10.4 seconds. Must have a pretty special engine to put down those numbers, right?

Well, here’s the thing, it’s as crazy under the bonnet as it is on the outside. The Namir is powered by a hybrid powertrain, which combines an 814cc endothermic rotary engine with four electric motors with an equivalent output of 370hp. And, being a hybrid, the car can travel for 39km on a litre of fuel, emitting less than 60g/km of CO2.

The rotary engine runs on petrol and acts as a generator that charges the lithium polymer power cells, and a 50-litre fuel tank capacity gives a total autonomy of almost 2,000km. “It was an interesting and profitable collaboration that resulted in a unique vehicle with very exciting performance levels in terms of speed and pick-up, above all in terms of low fuel consumption and CO2 emissions,” said Fabrizio Giugiaro.

As nice postscript to this project, the original Frazer-Nash company has bona fide DNA in this 21st century supercar, despite not making a car since the 1950s. A successor firm to the original manufacturer has played a major role in the project—Frazer-Nash Research is now part of the Kamkorp group and specialises in developing electric drivetrains for hybrid cars and mass transit systems.

The AUSmotive crew will be at the Melbourne International Motor Show tomorrow. However, not having the resources of some others there’ll be no live updates. I won’t be back at head office until Sunday, so until then keep an eye out on the official MIMS website.

If you’re considering going to the show, gates open to the public tomorrow from 5pm. Apart from the regular cars on show, there will also be a few other goodies on offer. See the Event Timetable for more info.

If the MIMS website doesn’t satisfy your curiousity for the happenings tomorrow, then best you check out other independent sites such as CarAdvice or The Motor Report.