The Defender lands in HK The new Land Rover Defender (right) has arrived in Gloucester Road and looks just right for rugged trips to Wellcome - and the odd Landie club run to Sichuan. Land Rover Hong Kong will import 90 soft top, 110 station wagon and 110 crew cab pickup 3 series models, says the dealer's spokeswoman, Maggie Wong. 'The early arrivals have already been ordered by customers, for HK$390,000,' she says. Nissan's designs on young talent The Nissan Design Forum & Exhibition last week brought the Japanese marque's designers and local students together for the first time at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Jointly organised by the marques, its local dealers Honest Motors, the Hong Kong Design Centre and university, the five-day event was attended by Tsunehiro Kunimoto, Nissan's head of global design management and the marque's clay designer (below). The forum, which finished on Sunday, was organised to let Nissan's designers 'share the processes of automotive design with design students and participants', says Honest Motors managing director Alex Lee. 'This was also a platform to use the 1/4-scale model cars [of Tiida, GTR-Proto, March and 350Z] and design process explanation tools to elaborate the design concept and process of automotive design of Nissan.' Scuderia's here Ferrari dealers Italian Motors unveiled the new Ferrari 430 Scuderia at its Ap Lei Chau base on Tuesday. The two-seater (below, left) is based on the F430 and drinks 15.7 litres of petrol per 100km on a combined cycle and belches 360 grams of CO2 per km, but we'll have to agree it looks gorgeous. It is said to hit 100km/h in 3.6 seconds, thanks to a 4308cc V8 that thumps 510 horsepower at 8,500 rpm. The first deliveries of the car are expected in the spring, says Italian Motors group general manager John Newman. 'The 430 Scuderia is as quick as an Enzo,' he says. 'Ferrari is particularly proud of the car's power to weight ratio of 2.45kg/hp' The engine is an evolution of the F430's 90? V8 which features a number of modifications to boost its power output from 114 hp/litre to 118 hp/litre. The model is fitted with the latest F1 software - F1 Superfast - making 'it's gear change time is as quick as Schumacher's 2005 F1 car,' says Newman. Minis rev for Santa Bravo to the Hong Kong New Mini Club (above) for helping Operation Santa Claus, last Sunday. The cars looked terrific in Causeway Bay. Christmas cheers Finally, Happy Christmas, and please don't drink and drive.
