Author: Liam

Categories
Motorsports

Repco Rally Australia rocks on despite cancellation of SS6

Australian Rally 2009 - Sebastien Loeb at SS4

Repco Rally Australia began in earnest yesterday. That’s good news for the people of the Northern Rivers region of NSW right? A World Rally Championship event on your doorstep, doesn’t get any better than that, surely!

Not according to the “No Rally” group who forced the cancellation of Special Stage 6 this morning, with reports claiming protesters took to the course waving yellow flags. This caused competitors to slow down and drivers soon became aware that the flags were being waved by protesters, and not race officials. Just three cars had started the stage near Byrrill Creek before it was abandoned.

Apparently the protesters had also cut fences releasing livestock onto the course. More alarmingly, it has also been said that some protesters were throwing rocks at the cars.

This followed other protest activities on liaison stages, where competitors transit between Special Stages using public roads. Supporters of “No Rally” formed convoys and travelled at speeds of around 20km/h. With sufficient numbers they made it virtually impossible for competitors to get past.

Five-time World Champion Sebastien Loeb is quoted as saying, “Some people don’t like us in front of their house but I didn’t ask to come here. I can understand why some people don’t like the rally but I have to do my job.”

After SS6 was cancelled competitors were able to proceed to SS7 and the rally continued.

UPDATE: The coppers are not happy with the rock throwing protesters! […more at Autocar]

[Source: goldcoast.com.au & Eurosport]

Categories
Audi Green Machines

Audi R8 electric shock?

Audi - electricity untamed

Now that we have whet your appetite for Audi R8 production, fancy an electric powered supercar? Well, the rumour doing the rounds is that Audi will be releasing a “e-version” of the R8 at the upcoming Frankfurt Motor Show.

This rumour was given new legs with the recent launch of Audi’s electricity untamed microsite. At the moment, the site includes a bunch of trivia and a few oddball videos. However, it also makes this bold claim (screen grab below): “…on September 15, 2009, electricity, and all its force and power, will run wild and free and completely untamed.”

That doesn’t sound like the precursor to a wussy city run about does it?!

Continue reading “Audi R8 electric shock?”
Categories
Audi

Inside look: How to build an Audi R8

Audi R8 production line

If you’re a bit of a car nerd like me you love any opportunity you can get to see the inner workings of car factories. Here at AUSmotive we given you an inside look at Golf VI and A4 production. Now, it’s the turn of the Audi R8.

A short behind the scenes video can be seen after the break, courtesy of Audi tv.

Continue reading “Inside look: How to build an Audi R8”
Categories
Ferrari Formula 1

Fisi to Ferrari

Giancarlo Fisichella to drive for Ferrari

It now seems an eternity ago that Felipe Massa paraded the F60 Ferrari F1 car with such optimism. But, with the injured Massa now ruled out for the rest of 2009, it only seems a few moments ago that Force India boss Dr Vijay Mallya denied F1’s worst kept secret. That is, Giancarlo Fisichella will take Massa’s seat at Ferrari for the rest of the season.

Mallya confirmed on the Force India website, “Giancarlo and his management team approached me yesterday with the proposal from Ferrari. For any Italian driver, a Ferrari race seat is a long-held dream and for Giancarlo it was no exception. No one should stand in the way of this.”

Fisi replied with gratitude, “I am very grateful to Vijay Mallya for allowing me this opportunity to drive for the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro team. It is true that it has always been an ambition to do this, and for Vijay to have allowed it to become a reality is very generous.”

Fisichella showed strong form at the Belgian Grand Prix last weekend, claiming pole position and finishing the race in second, behind his new teammate Kimi Raikonnen. It was the first ever podium finish for Force India F1.

Fisi’s first race for Ferrari will be just under two weeks away at the Italian Grand Prix. Nice timing! Naturally, Giancarlo is quite excited about this.

“I’m in seventh heaven,” Fisichella told the Ferrari website. “I still can’t believe it that the dream of my life comes true and I want to thank Ferrari and Chairman Luca di Montezemolo. Over the last week some really incredible things happened to me: the pole position and then second place at Spa and now I’m called by Ferrari to race the last five races of the season for them.”

It is understood that Fisichella will remain with Ferrari in a test driver role next year. But with the rumour mill suggesting Raikonnen could be returning to McLaren in 2010, is Fisichella about to give his 14 year career the most amazing of second winds?

[Source: Force India F1]

Categories
News

Mac mini

Gordon Murray's T.25 city car - seating plan

Gordon Murray, designer of the legendary McLaren F1, is up to his old tricks again with his new T.25 city car. As shown above, the seating plan for his T.25very closely mimics that of the F1 supercar. Although, early sketch plans of the T.25 show this wasn’t always the case. Now, though, the “iCentre” layout is the way forward.

Each of the six seating and packaging layouts shown are able to be configured within 30 seconds. In terms of human cargo, the T.25 has been designed to accommodate up three adults, or in geek speak, up to three “95th percentile occupants”. Marjorie Dawes‘ Fat Fighters need not apply, then.

At just 2.4m long and 1.3m wide the T.25 clearly hopes to knock the Smart Fortwo off its perch as the nifty little shopping trolley that could. Indeed, Murray has previously declared his hand saying the T.25 will be “funky, iconic and fun to drive”.

Speaking of shopping trolleys, when in single person mode Gordon Murray Design say the T.25 will be able cram in up to six trolley’s worth of goodies. Or to quantify that, there is 750 litres of cargo space.

GMD won’t build the car itself, rather it has developed an “iStream” manufacturing process and the company plans to license production to a third party. The T.25 is scheduled for launch in 2012.

Continue reading “Mac mini”
Categories
Green Machines

A greener shade of pale

How green are electric cars?

Electric powered cars—the green and sustainable future of motoring right? Well, that all depends on where the power is sourced to recharge the battery.

GoAuto have an interesting article that scrapes the surface of this sometimes heated and controversial subject. In the Australian market can an electric car genuinely claim to be a zero emissions vehicle?

Dr Peter Pudney from the University of South Australia, an independent expert on electric vehicles (EVs) and their infrastructure, spoke to GoAuto and said it is difficult to establish how clean an EV really is on account of Australia’s varied methods of sourcing power. He did say this, though:

“If you are using brown coal (to generate electricity for your EV) you would be slightly worse off than a comparable vehicle using traditional fuel.”

There is more to it than that, of course, so follow the link below and read the article in full. You’ll quickly realise there is a hell of a lot more to this issue than the car manufacturer’s PR departments would have you believe.

[Source: GoAuto]

Categories
McLaren

A face full of win

Autocar drive McLaren F1 GTR

It might not look like it, but that pic above shows a face full of win. Dopey, startled and goofy it may look, you would want to be doing what he was doing when that image was captured.

So, just what was Autocar journo Steve Sutcliffe doing at the time? He was at the wheel of Nick Mason‘s road going McLaren F1 GTR.

Here’s a few figures: insured value AU$4.8M, 6.1 litre V12, 940kg, 620bhp. Yeah, see, all of sudden that face makes a lot of sense.

You can watch the video after the jump.

Continue reading “A face full of win”
Categories
Hyundai Mazda VFACTS reports

New vehicle sales report – August 2009

FCAI banner

Word on the street is that private buyers are starting to buy more cars. Sales data from VFACTS reports 73,287 vehicles drove out the door in August, a drop of 5.2% (4,036 vehicles) from the same month last year. August sales are also down 2,046 vehicles on July 2009.

Despite the comparative fall, sales in some market segments showed strong growth. This includes a very healthy increase of 19.2% for the luxury SUV market. Solid improvements for commercial vans (8.2%) and small cars (7.2%) were also posted.

“These figures indicate that private buyers are regaining confidence and re-entering the market,” FCAI Chief Executive Andrew McKellar said.

Year to date sales figures total 603,843 vehicles, which is 100,151 fewer sales than at the same point in 2008. Toyota remains in the top sales position for August with 15,994 vehicle sales, ahead of Holden with 9,505 and Ford with 7,623.

UPDATE 4 September: Brag sheets from Mazda and Hyundai added below.

Continue reading “New vehicle sales report – August 2009”
Categories
Ferrari

VIDEO: Michael talks Ferrari 458 Italia

Mikey might have a sore neck, but he still found the time to jump in the solarium to prepare for his little chat about the Ferrari 458 Italia.

Categories
Porsche

VIDEO: Porsche 911 Sport Classic

Here’s a brief promo clip of the Porsche 911 Sport Classic. Sounds nice, too, in a Porschey kind of way.

Categories
Porsche

Porsche 911 Sport Classic

Porsche 911 Sport Classic

It’s not very often that the hero photo shows the rear of a car, but for this model, the Porsche 911 Sport Classic, it is the view that best informs what this car is about. The Porsche PR department was a bit light on with pics of beancounters smoking a post-coital cigarette, even though that would have been appropriate for this story.

That’s because, essentially, the 911 Sport Classic is a grab for cash. There will only be 250 of these cars made, ever, so demand will be high. That said, the Sport Classic is based on the Carrera S, which costs around £70K in the UK. However, once the lads at Porsche Exclusive have had their fun making this car Porsche is asking almost double the Carrera S asking price for the 911 Sport Classic. Yep, that’s right, £140,000. That makes it the most expensive 911 on sale, even more than a GT2.

So, what does the P-car enthusiast get for all that extra cash. Well, as the pic above shows you get old skool touches in the form of a ‘ducktail’ rear spoiler and ‘Fuchs’ style 19″ alloy wheels. There’s also the Carrera GT inspired domed roof and a revised front spolier, too. I have to say, these touches look absolutely brilliant!

But it’s not all cosmetic add-ons, the engineers have their fun too. The bodywork is taken from the all wheel drive 911s, so you get a wider rear track. A bit of extra thought on the intake manifold increases power from the 3.8 litre flat six to 408bhp (up from 385bhp). That’s 300kW for those of us who speak 21st century. The suspension has been fiddled with, resulting in a 20mm drop. You also get an LSD and your choice of transmissions. Well, that’s assuming you would choose a six speed manual. The zero to one hundred dash takes just 4.6 seconds.

There’s a few other tasty morsels thrown in too, all of which are covered in the Porsche UK press release. (It was much longer and detailed than the one sent out by the fatherland, so the UK notes are the ones you’re getting.) Right at the end of the press release is a tidbit about Porsche Classic. If you do happen to be a P-car nut, then you probably already knew about this off shoot to the Porsche website. If not, make sure you check it out and knock your cotton socks off when you see you can download parts catalogs for pretty much every Porsche from the early 356 models up to the 993 911 series.

Plenty of pics after the break, too. Oh, do take the time to have a look at the 911 Sport Classic microsite as well. It’s pretty cool.

Continue reading “Porsche 911 Sport Classic”
Categories
Audi Drive Thru Reviews

Drive Thru: Audi S5 4.2 V8 FSI

Audi S5 4.2 V8 FSI

When I started my test drive in the Audi S5 quattro, fitted with a 4.2 litre V8, the last thing I expected to come to mind was the West Indies cricket team from the 1980s. But that is exactly what happened.

More on that later, though. First, let’s take a look at the S5’s lines. It’s a stunning coupé with a good mix of flowing curves and understated aggression. When I first saw photos of the A5 coupé shape I was critical. I thought its swooping shoulder line was at odds with the rest of the car. However, in person the car’s profile makes a stunning statement. In traffic the A5 looks sensational, standing out with Audi’s familiar LED daytime running lights. And, I was wrong, that shoulder line does work. It dominates the car’s stance and leaves you wondering just how well the big two door will cover the road.

Continue reading “Drive Thru: Audi S5 4.2 V8 FSI”