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The 'Daewoo Tosca' is a mid-size car built by GM Daewoo in South Korea and marketed worldwide by General Motors mainly as 'Chevrolet Epica', but also as the 'Holden Epica'. It replaces the Daewoo Magnus and its derivatives. The Chevrolet Epica was officially launched in Europe at the 2006 Geneva Motor Show (March 2–12). The internal code for this model is ''V250'', and is unique in that it is powered transversely-mounted straight six engines. Contrary to the preceding models (V100 Leganza and V200), which were styled by Giugiaro, the V250 was designed entirely in-house. The car was also introduced to Australia in April 2007, under the name Holden Epica, replacing the Holden Vectra. The Chevrolet Epica is no longer available in Canada.

Contents

Name

Powertrains

References

Name

GM Daewoo's official press releases said that ''Tosca'' is an acronym for ''"Tomorrow Standard Car"''. ''"Tosca"'' is also a popular opera by Giacomo Puccini and this link might not be purely coincidental, as Daewoo has been using Italianesque model names before (e.g Espero, Leganza or Lacetti). The ''Chevrolet Epica'' name was previously used on V200 models sold in Canada, Latin America, China, Europe and Arabia. The car has been badge engineered as the Holden Epica for the Australian and New Zealand market.
It is also manufactured and sold in Kazakhstan under the name of Chevrolet Epica (V250) since June, 2007.

Powertrains

Powertrains are what sets the Tosca apart from other similar vehicles. The car employs Daewoo's XK straight six engine, which is a quite rarely used setup nowadays. Moreover, the V250 is a front-wheel drive car and the engines are mounted transversely - this requires the inline engine to be very compact and packed quite tight. The only other automaker currently using this configuration as of 2007 is Volvo.
The Tosca was launched with two versions of the straight six of different displacements: the 2.5 litre, which was carried over from the Magnus, and a 2.0 litre, which replaces the Holden-sourced E-TEC II 2.0 litre used in the previous model. For Korean market, 1.8 litre E-TEC II engine model with five-speed manual or four-speed automatic transmission has added since 2006.
GM also announced that in early 2007 these engines will be joined by a 2.0 litre inline-4 common rail turbodiesel, which is to make 150 horsepower and 310 newton metres of torque. The engine, co-developed by GM Powertrain, GM Daewoo, and VM Motori, debuted in the Chevrolet Captiva, and was the first diesel engine used in a Daewoo car.

Engine	Power	Torque	Transmission
1.8 L ''E-TEC II'' I4			5-speed manual/4-speed automatic
2.0 L ''turbodiesel'' I4			5-speed manual/5-speed automatic
1993 cc I6	104 kW (139 hp, 144 PS)	195 N·m (144 ft·lbf)	5-speed manual/automatic
2942 cc I6	115 kW (154 hp, 157 PS)	237 N·m (175 ft·lbf)	5-speed automatic

References

★ ''New in the mid-size category: Chevrolet Epica with a straight six'' - press release, GM Media Online

★ Daewoo Tosca page, Global Autoindex - outside dimensions

★ A report about the Tosca on Auto123.com

★ ''New Chevrolet Captiva: compact SUV debuts at Geneva'' - GM press release @ Global Autoindex - information on diesel engine

★ - engine specifications