SOMETIMES a car manufacturer's strength is matched by important market trends and this has certainly been the case for Suzuki.

This Japanese firm has always been an expert in smaller cars and the trend for drivers to downsize has been a winner for the brand. But another important factor has been the rise of the smaller capacity petrol engine and herein lies one of Suzuki's greatest strengths.

The stats certainly prove it because the manufacturer enjoyed its best ever sales result in 2014. But it is not resting on its laurelsand weighs in withnew technological developments that will attract more customers to the brand.

The first is a new 1.4-litre petrol engine which is a 140ps direct injection turbocharged unit which offers 4per cent more torque than the larger 1.6-litre engine it replaces plus 17 per cent more power and four per cent improvement in fuel economy on the new Vitara S it powers.

The new Vitara S comes seven months after the launch of the latest Vitara which is Suzuki's compact SUV.

Giving a more sporting character to the Vitara line up, the new car is produced at the Magyar Suzuki plant in Hungary and comes with some showy visual touches including black painted alloys.

The secret of the amazing efficiency of the Vitara's new engine is Suzuki's Boosterjet technology which gives an impressive amount of power. At its heart is a small displacement, high-torque turbocharger.

The Boosterjet system controls the wastegate valve which closes to create higher boost pressure during heavy load operations and remains open during normal driving,so reducing what is known aswhat is known as pumping loss.

This achieves both high levels of power and fuel-efficiency, factors which some years ago were considered irreconcilable.

The new engine also manages to steer around the modern phenomenon of turbo stall after the throttle has been closed and quickly reopened by fitting an air by-pass valve.

Capable of maximum speed of 124mph and a 0-62mph sprint of 10.2 seconds, the Vitara S was one of two new vehicles launched at an event at the Croft racing circuit in the North East of England.

The other new development was the TCSS version of the S-Cross Crossover.

TCSs stands for Twin Clutch System by Suzuki and is available on the upper range SZ5 model as a £1,350 option.

It is an automated manual transmission with hydraulically-controlled clutch and gearchange facility.

This provides much faster gearchanges than can be achieved with a conventional manual and a paddle change system is provided.

Altogether it is an insight into the way Suzuki is progressing. At one time a marginal player in the UK it is moving fast towards becoming one of the big hitters in the UK market.