International automotive supplier, Continental has recorded a record first quarter in terms of sales and EBIT (earnings before interest and taxes), with more than €8.3 billion (RM32.8 billion) and €766 million (RM3.02 billion) recorded respectively.

That, according to Continental is a year-on-year increase of 13.3 per cent in sales and 21 per cent increase in EBIT.

Besides the increase in sales and earnings, the company has also reported a reduction in net indebtedness of €764 million (RM3.01 billion) as compared with the same quarter last year.

Despite the increase in first quarter sales figures, Continental says the figure could have been much higher if the Automotive Group wasn’t weighed down by the higher costs of rare earth metals, and the Rubber Group didn’t suffer from the recent spike in oil prices.

The first quarter also saw Continental creating around 3,400 new jobs, increasing the company’s total employment to 167,000.

Continental’s sales improvements are charted in both the Automotive Group and Rubber Group, with the Automotive Group registering a 12 per cent increase and the Rubber Group having an increase of approximately 15 per cent, Continental hopes to increase their sales to over €32 billion (RM126 billion) by the end of the year.

Naza Italia, the exclusive importer of Ferrari cars in Malaysia, has introduced the world’s first mid-engine sports car with a retractable hardtop, the 458 Spider.

More than just retaining the coupe’s 567hp 4.5-litre V8 engine and dual-clutch transmission combination, the 458 Spider also maintain much of the coupe’s immaculate lines and beautiful shape.

Its performance isn’t that far off from the coupe’s figures too, as Ferrari claims that the 458 Spider is able to hit 100km/h from a standstill in as little as 3.4 seconds and top out at 320km/h.

Even though the 458 Spider sports a hardtop to keep the elements out Ferrari says that the aluminium hardtop is 25kg lighter than a traditional folding soft-top, and takes only 14 seconds to open or close.

Even with prices of the 458 Spider starting at RM1.9 million before customisation options, which can bump the price up by another RM300,000 to RM400,000, Naza Italia says that they have sold out their allocation of cars for this year.

According to Datuk SM Faisal SM Nasimuddin, joint group executive chairman of the NAZA Group of Companies, Ferrari would closely monitor their buyers and prioritise the delivery of cars to customers based on their Ferrari ownership history.

Along with the launch of the 458 Spider, Naza Italia took the opportunity to highlight Ferrari’s Tailor-Made personalisation programme, which allows Ferrari buyers to customise their new Ferrari to their exact taste at Ferrari’s factory in Maranello, for a hefty sum worthy of the added exclusivity of course.

So far Naza Italia has entertained the request of two to three customers for the Tailor-Made programme.

Eminent Century, the official importer of Lamborghini cars in Malaysia, together with their sole dealer, JH Italia, announced their participation in the inaugural Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo Asia one-make race series with the launch of the Team Lamborghini Kuala Lumpur JH Italia race car.

The racecar will be driven by Rizal Ashram Ramli, who has over 20 years of experience in motorsports, and will be competing in a field of 18 factory prepared Gallardo 560-4 Super Trofeo race cars.

The Super Trofeo race car is a standard Gallardo 560-4 supercar stripped of all creature comforts and prepped with mandatory safety bits to make it comply with safety regulations.

Its 562hp 5.2-litre V10 and four-wheel drive system is maintained but reworked in the Super Trofeo to prepare it for racing, while 110kg has been stripped off from the regular road going Gallardo.

According to JH Italia, the race team was able to get the race car to lap Sepang in 2 minutes 9 seconds during practice.

The Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo Championship started in Europe in 2009 and was marketed as the ‘fastest one-make series in the world’.

Malaysia is the first destination of the Asian tour, which will take place at the Sepang International Circuit on May 26 and 27.

From there the series will continue in Fuji, Ordos, Zhuhai, Penbay, and will conclude in Shanghai in November.

The 2012 season will see teams from Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, and mainland China.

The racing series is open to ‘gentleman’ or amateur drivers who will compete in two separate 50 minute races at each stop, with each team allowed to field two drivers at most, with mandatory driver changes 20 to 30 minutes into the race.

If there are any interested individuals who want to join the Super Trofeo race series, JH Italia says that they would need to fork out €350,000 (RM1.39 million).

That said the aforementioned amount would include the car, entry into the series, tyres, and fuel, though the race car would be kept by Lamborghini themselves, and only a maximum of 18 racers are allowed per race season.

There were 10 special stages (SS), six light-core and six hard-core, spread out over two days. There was a fun-fare atmosphere at the event with most of Maran's residents in attendance and the families of the participants camped out in the field in front of the hill where the SS' was being held.

Winners of the light-core category were: in 1st place, Ismail Abd Ghani, Nor Azlan Ideris in 2nd and Abdul Halim in 3rd. For the hard-core category: 1st place went Ngo Kian Huat and his co-driver Chow Ngoh Mun; Abd Razak Othman and his co-driver Mohd Hanafi Hassan took 2nd; and finally 3rd place went to Saidi Ali Mohamed and Usop his co-driver.

According to marketing guru Seth Godin, the old marketing model is 'disrupting' the audience, interruption marketing, no longer works in our current society. Godin proposed something he coined as 'permission marketing,' loosely described as the philosophy of marketing a product by means of getting a permission from prospective customer to receive an ad. To do this, a marketer has to create a strong reason to for a customer to want to listen to your pitch, usually achieved with a creative ad that actually improves the lives of those who subscribe the ad.

To promote Land Rover credentials in tackling the desert terrain, Land Rover UAE distributed a survival guide explaining the basics for staying alive in the Arabian Desert. But there are many SAS survival handbooks in bookstores and realistically, the average chauffeur driven owner of a Range Rover is not going to mucking around in the harsh Arabian desert.

Still, people never bought cars purely because of their needs. People never buy just a cars. Instead, people buy into a brand, a status, a lifestyle, an image, a story 'sold' to them by marketers. Someone who says they bought a cheap car purely because they want an A-B transport tool is indirectly saying something about the story they into. Else, they would be taking the bus or the train.

To feed into the rough and tumble world of the Land Rover brand that customers like to think they are part of, Land Rover's survival has a twist to it - it's made from edible paper and ink.

The handbook was distributed to 5,000 Land Rover owners but demand for it was so good that Land Rover UAE is now distributing the book in a UAE region car magazine.

The STP Taisan Nissan Skyline GT-R race car (left) and Calsonic Skyline GT-R marked Nissan's dominant era when the GT-R R32 race cars won 29 consecutive victories in the Group A class of the Japan's Touring Car Championship between 1990 and 1993. The two cars are joined by their spiritual successor, the SuperGT GT500 Xanavi GT-R racer (right).

If there is one place that charts the history and encapsulates the identity of Nissan, it is the Heritage Collection, or otherwise known as the ‘Zama Garage’.

This huge priceless collection of more than 300 historical cars is to be found in a nondescript warehouse located on an industrial lot, just an hour outside Tokyo.

It is here where Nissan keeps its most distinctive and significant models in the brand’s long and storied history.

From the very first Datsun and Nissan passenger cars, to experimental prototypes, genre-defining models, one-off development prototypes, and historic race cars, the Heritage Collection stores most of Nissan’s history, if not all.

The Heritage Collection also serves as a garage for the cars where they are kept, restored, and prepared for Nissan’s own special events and activities.

But more than a historical record, the collection is also a grand display of Nissan’s diversity in the automotive world.

Sadly though Nissan doesn’t open the Heritage Collection to the general public and only a few are granted the rare opportunity to visit Nissan’s treasure trove of historical models.

We were granted such a privilege by Nissan Motor Corporation of Japan to take a gander through this unique collection.

Ryuji Nakayama from Nissan Motor's global marketing strategy division introduces visitors to the 1933 Datsun 12 Phaeton, one of the first cars produced by the Kwaishinsha Co, and the oldest exhibit in the collection.

The collection even keeps the last Austin A50 (right) to roll off the company's production line in 1959. Nissan did a technical tie-up with British Austin Motor to produce Austins in 1953 after the end of World War II. This Austin is placed alongside the company's collection of Cedric and Gloria models through the years.

The 1938 Nissan 70 (left) may be the first car to bear the "Nissan" name, but the huge 1937 Nissan 80 van is where the "Nissan" name first appears. The "Datsun" name was used for smaller models while the "Nissan" name was reserved for the company's larger models.

The 1966 Nissan B10 was the first car to carry the "Sunny" name. The B10 has been credited with triggering a boom in private car ownership in Japan.

The 240Z on the left is the very car which snatched the overall win at the 1971 Safari Rally, while the other is the 3rd overall finisher of the 1972 Rallye Monte-Carlo, both still in their race livery and scars from the rally.

This R390 GT1 Le Mans racer (left) was one of three cars Nissan entered into the 1997 24 Hours of Le Mans, sadly it retired completing 139 laps due to mechanical failure. The blue car next to it is the road going version which was built to satisfy homologation rules, though never marketed Nissan says it would have worn a price tag of 100 million yen (RM3.85 million) had it been put on sale.

Wedged among the row of cars is the Type 2 MID4 concept car which made its debut at the 1985 Frankfurt Motor Show. This concept car had a 3-litre mid-mounted V6, with four-wheel drive, and was orignally planned to take on the likes of Ferrari and Porsche.

Like the road going version of Nissan's R390 GT1 Le Mans racer, this 1996 Skyline GTR LM was also the result of Nissan taking advantage of the ruling, which required one road going example to be built to homologate the car for Le Mans racing.

The 1975 S10 is the first car to feature the 'Silvia' name, and is the ancestor to Nissan's series of light-weight rear-wheel drive coupes.

The 1982 March Super Silhouette racer (Left) was built by NISMO and featured a relatively tame 158hp 1.5-litre engine. The Silvia Super Silhouette, which appeared a year later had over 562hp produced from a twin-carburetor 2-litre engine. The Super Silhouette racers were the result of Group 5 regulations, which only required the racers to use the same engine block as the production versions. This meant the racers just carried the bodies of production cars with Formula racing engineering underneath.

Long before the all-electric Leaf came along, Nissan was already experimenting with all-electric car. This roofless 1991 President Electric car was lent out for special events, such as victory parades for sumo wrestlers. Since real-world performance wasn't a top priority, this 5.2-metre long roofless limousine has a top speed of 40km/h with a 100km range.

Those who haven't yet take the leap cited difficulties in charging or refueling, cost and lack of choice of alternative fuel vehicle. "With the United States and the european Union pressing ahead with sanctions against Iran, the world's fourth largest oil producer, it seems unlikely that oil prices at the pumps will ease significantly in the near future." said GTIM managing partner Datuk N K Jasani.

GTIM is a global professional services network of independent accounting and consulting member firms which provide assurance, tax and specialist advisory services (SAS) to privately held businesses, public interest entities, and public sector entities.

From left: Adnan and Mansoor holding the keys to the Malaysian Global Drivers Fuel Challenge.

Volvo Malaysia anounced last Wednesday that it was searching once again for the best Malaysian trucker to represent the country in the third Global Drivers Fuel Challenge in Australia. Volvo's Fuelwatch Challenge will tests the drivers ability to achieve maximum fuel efficiency through vehicle optimisation and maintenance, performance monitoring, safety measures, driver behaviour and driving ability.

Participants will have to go through a drivers training, briefing and a written test to prepare and qualify for the challenge. The champion of the Malaysia Fuelwatch Challenge will receive RM 5,000 BSN voucher and the chance to compete in Australia against truckers from across the globe. His employer will receive a voucher for RM 10,000 worth of genuine parts from Volvo and a trip to Australia to watch the Malaysian champion compete for the world title.

“The Fuelwatch Challenge is more than a driving competition. We, at Volvo, aim to create better understanding and awareness on fuel efficiency, safety, maintenance, vehicle optimisation and driver behaviour.” said Mansoor Ahmed, President, Volvo Trucks Group, Region Malaysia.

Volvo also elected last year's Malaysia fuelwatch Challenge winner, Adnan Laili, asthe official 2012 ambassador for both the challenge as well as the club. "Adnan has been a certified truck driver for the past fifteen years. We believe that with Adnan's experience, knowledge, passion and mentorship capabilities, he can spread our cause across Malaysia." said Mansoor.

Porsche reports that they have begun prototype testing of their upcoming flagship supercar, the 918 Spyder.

Instead of hiding the prototype behind camera fooling psychedelic patterns, Porsche proudly displays the matt black prototype wearing a simple livery which pays tribute to the 1970 Le Mans winning Porsche 917k Kurzheck endurance racer.

As promised with the 2010 Geneva show car, the 918 is being developed as a plug-in hybrid supercar, with two electric motors, a 90kW motor mounted up front for the front wheels and another 80kW one mounted in the drive line for the rear wheels, and a big 4.6-litre petrol fed V8 engine in the middle which produces ‘more than 570hp’ for good measure.

The 918 prototype’s 6.8kWh lithium-ion battery pack is said to provide enough juice to give drivers more than 25km of tailpipe emission free driving, and a top speed of above 150km/h in pure electric mode.

That is considerably slow as compared to the 0-100km/h time of ‘under 3 seconds’ and a top speed of above 325km/h Porsche promises the final production version would do.

Porsche promises that the resulting supercar, whose production date is set for September next year, will boast more than 770hp while returning an average fuel consumption figure in the region of 3L/100km, and CO2 emissions in the 70g/km region.

Also the production 918 will come with a carbon-fibre monocoque, fully adaptive aerodynamics, adaptive rear-axle steering, and an upward venting exhaust system.

Occupants will still get to frolic in the sun with the 918 as it will still sport a two-piece targa roof.

If anything the prototype proves a more tantalising glimpse at Porsche’s eco-friendly supercar than the concept car was.

Even though BMW recently announced the introduction of the muscle-bound F20 M135i hatchback, Munich has announced the 135is variant for the previous generation 1-series coupe and convertible (E82 and E88).

As BMW aficionados might already point out, the ‘is’ tag at the end is used to mark out models with a little bit more brio than usual.

The 3-litre TwinPower Turbo N55 engine from the 135i now produces 320hp and 430Nm of torque, an increase of 20hp and 30Nm respectively.

All of which were achieved without the penalty of increasing fuel consumption and CO2 emissions, according to BMW.

To allow for more spirited driving characteristics, BMW set a higher threshold for the 135is’ electronic safety net, also its differential is said to come from a new generation of final drives optimised for fuel efficiency and refinement.

Of course a higher-spec variant isn’t complete without the unique accessories on board.

To stand apart from the rest the 135is comes with 18-inch rims, gloss black kidney grilles, black wing mirrors, special exterior badges, M Sport Package components, stainless steel pedals, special interior badges, and blue stitching on the standard sport seats.

Customers would get a choice of either the standard 6-speed manual or the optional 7-speed dual-clutch transmission.

BMW mentions that the 135is Coupe and Cabriolet will go on sale in America towards the end of the year sporting a price tag of USD 44,145 (RM137,710) and USD48,845 (RM152,380) respectively.

That is a big USD4,845 (RM15,100) and USD4,745 (RM14,800) premium over the MSRP of the 135i coupe and cabriolet.

Though the 135is might be a fitting last hurrah of the first generation 1-series, there is little indication if the 135is is on sale anywhere outside America, and for now it only seems like it would stay that way.