The 2011 Mazda 2 debuts as this Japanese automaker’s new entry-level car. Available in several worldwide markets as the Demio, the 2 offered in the United States and Canada is a 4-door hatchback. It comes in Sport and Touring trim levels. The sole powertrain teams a 100-horsepower 1.5-liter 4-cylinder engine with a 5-speed manual or 4-speed automatic transmission. Available safety features include ABS, traction control, antiskid system, curtain-side airbags, and front-side airbags. Air conditioning, power windows/locks/mirrors, remote entry, and 60/40 spilt-folding rear seat backs are standard on all models. Standard on the Touring are cruise control and steering-wheel audio controls. This evaluation is based on preview test drives.

When the Mazda3 first came out in 2004, everyone wanted one. Well, at least a good number of people my age wanted one. It was a class shaker, a model that showed that a compact car can be sporty, practical, affordable and fun.

Can the new Mazda2 do the same?

Strictly speaking, it took quite a while for the Mazda2 (or Mazda Demio in other markets) to officially arrive, especially since this 3rd generation model has been in production and on sale in other countries since 2007. Mazda waited until their new plant in Thailand was complete for the production of the Mazda2. Is the wait a bad thing? Well, no, because in that time, the Mazda2 has already undergone a redesign and garnered the World Car of the Year Award (WCOTY), besting some very stiff competition.

So what do you get for PhP 795,000? Well, for starters, you get a great looking little subcompact car. Perhaps it’s the petite dimensions, or the smiling 5 point grille or even the cute looks, but there’s a sporty, friendly atmosphere around the Mazda2. The design looks taut and ready to go, great points for a light, fun car.

The 8C Competizione is a sports coupé with searing performance, sensational styling… and a £100,000 price tag. Originally debuting in concept form at the 2003 Frankfurt Motor Show, the car is ready to order for delivery in a year’s time. And to see what those lucky buyers can expect, Auto Express was first to get behind the wheel.

When Alfa took the wraps off the 8C, few people thought it would make production unchanged. But, as you can see here – and as visitors discovered at last week’s Paris Motor Show – it retains all the concept’s amazing details.

It gets better when you hear the 4.7-litre V8, too. The way it snaps into life with a sharp stab of revs and settles to a bassy, dense idle is reminiscent of a Vanquish. Despite being four cylinders down on the Aston it actually sounds even fiercer – the tight howl a million miles away from the mellow, easy-going note you often associate with V8s. Prod the throttle and the engine snarls as the revs soar, then the exhausts pop and bang as they die away. Maybe that ‘Competizione’ tag isn’t just a sop to the marketing department.

So what is the 8C? Well, in essence it’s a bitza. But it’s a bitza of undeniably noble stock. The engine is similar to that of the Maserati Quattroporte/GranTurismo (meaning it’s built at the Ferrari factory), but it’s been bored and stroked to 4.7 litres and punches out 450bhp at 7000rpm. Expect to see it in future Maseratis, and perhaps the new ‘baby’ front-engined V8 Ferrari. The engine drives through a six-speed paddleshift transaxle ’box (the engine is behind the front axle, the box just ahead of the rear axle, thus concentrating all the masses within the wheelbase). The double-wishbone suspension shares its basic architecture with the Quattroporte (although the 8C is much shorter in wheelbase), but with 8C-specific bushes, geometry and springs and dampers. Interestingly, Alfa chose to ditch the ‘Skyhook’ adaptive dampers to give the 8C a more ‘mechanical’ feel.

The KTM X-Bow is the first car to be developed by Austrian motorcycle manufacturer KTM, in partnership with Kiska Design, Audi, and Dallara. The X-Bow uses a turbocharged direct injected TFSI engine manufactured by Volkswagen Group, which produces 177 kilowatts (237 hp) at 5,500 rpm and 310 newton metres (230 lb·ft) of torque between 2,200 and 5,500 rpm.

The X-Bow (say ‘crossbow’) is quite unlike any other small sports car because it is built around a carbonfibre tub. It’s a beautifully finished tub too, the ordered weave on show beneath a clear matt lacquer, while its curves and angles have been designed and developed by renowned race chassis experts Dallara. Adding to the cachet and Italian feel are brakes by Brembo, seats, such as they are, by Recaro, and ride and handling refined by Dallara and Loris Bicocchi, the chassis ace whose credits include the Bugatti Veyron, Pagani Zonda and Koenigsegg.

Yet this is an Austrian car built in Graz by a company that until now has been known principally for its off-road motorbikes. This diversification of its business is, it says, a response to dwindling numbers of motorcycle licence holders in Europe, and it’s a project of ambitious scale: KTM plans to build 500 cars this year but hopes to grow production to 1500 to 2000 per annum. For reference, Caterham makes around 500 cars per year.

For the concept of the KTM brand’s first automobile, Kiska incorporated many characteristics that are more closely associated with motorcycles than cars. Every part of the X-Bow fulfils a function, the technology remains transparent, the form is noticeably simple. The few, orange-coloured body panels are “floating elements”, like those of motorcycles, and suggest lightness and simplicity.

The deliberate reduction in all things even includes the lights: simple headlamps, embedded indicators flush with the car’s contours and round lights at the rear forego superficial, showy effects. Instead, the carbon structure also takes on design duties, meaning that components which are frequently hidden in cars, such as the silencer, suddenly serve an aesthetic purpose in addition to their usual functions.

Who said Green can’t mean fast? Definitely not Honda! Meet the new Honda Small Hybrid Sports Concept. A car designed to take care of the drivers need for speed and adrenaline whilst also taking care of the environment.

The masterpiece is designed by Honda R&D Europe, based in Offenbach, Germany. Whilst many continue to shun the idea of a front wheel drive sports car, Honda has been producing some of the best sports cars in the world in FWD format in the last 20 years.

This concept is also based around a front-wheel drive, small car platform and is powered by a Honda IMA 4-cylinder petrol/electric hybrid system driving through a CVT transmission.

The Concept model’s fluid lines are created by a steeply raked windscreen which extends back above the occupants’ heads where it meets a one piece glass roof. This in turn flows rearwards to give the car its fastback styling, culminating in a distinctive 3D floating glass design – a concave element which forms an additional vertical window.

Currently, the Insight’s legend as Honda’s first hybrid is living on throughthe Civic Hybrid and Accord Hybrid, two vehicles that changed Honda’s hybrid game. The Accord was Honda’s first performance hybrid, while the second generation Civic Hybrid was Honda’s first full hybrid. After applying its RandD team to diesel and fuel cell technology, Honda has turned full-circle and returned to hybrids with a new concept car they showed in Geneva, the Small Hybrid Sports Concept (SHSC).

As its label clearly depicts, the Small Hybrid Sports Concept is Honda’s idea of what a future hybrid sports coupe might look like. On the principle of its design and by its exterior shape and proportions, it’s easy to make a link between the SHSC and the Insight. They’re roughly the same size, though the SHSC is marginally longer, much lower and wider than Honda’s first hybrid, and both have very aerodynamic two-door sports car bodies. Honda hasn’t released any images of the SHSC’s interior, but from the looks of things it is most likely a two-seater with generous trunk space.

Vredestein and Giugiaro celebrate a decade of successful partnership, one of the main reasons for Vredestein to display the Giugiaro VAD.HO at the Geneva Motor Show this year. The VAD.HO is a concept car that matches the values and thoughts of the Vredestein brand perfectly.

The challenging “diversion” premiered in Geneva 2007 still represents a niche theme meant to be heatedly discussed: a super-sporty extreme two-seater fuelled by hydrogen to meet the increasingly pressing need to promote and develop alternative and environment friendly propulsion systems and to explore the potential challenge offered to design by a more flexible “displacement” of the chassis lay-out in new engine, mechanical, and electronic equipments.

The decision to remove the steering wheel took Italdesign Giugiaro to the creation of a highly innovative driving system: two joysticks are fixed on the armrests of the pilot’s seating and pedals unit, where all elements can be adjusted and customized to the driver’s needs. The armrest/joystick/ electrical pedals and seating unit is not connected to the chassis. This and its by-wire impulses system allow to adapt the different versions with right, centre and left driving with no onerous works once the vehicle should go into production. This system presents design – construction and performance – characteristics that prompted Italdesign Giugiaro to patent it.

Vredestein attaches great importance to a clean and healthy environment. Therefore, Vredestein only develops tyres that are completely free from oils containing PCA’s, which pollute the environment. A good example of Vredestein’s care for the natural and human environment is the new Ultrac Cento summer tyre, which will officially be introduced in April 2009. Taking the hugely popular Vredestein Ultrac as their basis, Vredestein engineers placed particular emphasis on comfort, noise, safety and handling when developing the Ultrac Cento. The tyre tread was again created by Giugiaro, adding aesthetics to the Ultrac Cento’s allure. The –SW mark on the side of the tyre means that it meets the strict European noise and wet grip requirements due to be implemented in 2012.