Subaru is taking a factory team to the Nürburgring 24 hour race this year (21-24 May). They will be entering a single Impreza WRX STi and have stated they are chasing a class win (SP3T).
Check out AUSringers.com for more detail.
Author: Liam
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Its a gas gas gas
Volkswagen will be sending a pair of natural gas powered Scirocco GT24s to race at the Nürburgring 24 hour race in May this year. They will be joining a trio of petrol powered GT24s.
The 130 RON compressed natural gas race fuel suits the turbo engines in the Scirocco and the cars are good for a smidge under 300bhp. The CNG powered cars will be headed by German touring car ace Klaus Niedzwiedz.
For more detail, check the full story at AUSringers.com.
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One in seven million
It is now 18 years since Volkswagen and Å koda merged and the Czech icon recently sold its seven millionth car since 1991.
Å koda returned to Australia in 2007 and with the strength of the Volkswagen dealer network behind the brand things are looking up Down Under. Sales, while modest, are up 11.7% on 2008 figures, year to date.
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Ron Dennis quits Formula One
A restructure of the McLaren Group, lead by Ron Dennis, has seen the 61-year-old walk away from F1 completely. This follows January’s news that Dennis handed over the running of the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team to Martin Whitmarsh.
In his role as Executive Chairman of McLaren Automotive, Dennis will lead the the new sports car business. Effective immediately, Dennis has handed his responsibility as Chief Executive Officer of McLaren Racing to Martin Whitmarsh. This is in addition to Whitmarsh’s role of Team Principal of Vodafone McLaren Mercedes.
Dennis, pictured above, at the McLaren Technology Centre with Richard Lapthorne, Non-Executive Chairman of McLaren Group, reflected on his F1 career at a press conference earlier today, “I admit I’m not always easy to get on with. I admit I’ve always fought hard for McLaren in Formula 1. I doubt if Max Mosley or Bernie Ecclestone will be displeased by my decision. But no-one asked me to do it. It was my decision.
“Equally, I was the architect of today’s restructure of the McLaren Group. Again, no-one asked me to do it. It was my decision.
“I feel enormously enthused about the prospects for the McLaren Group and for McLaren Automotive, and have no qualms about leaving Martin to report to the board regarding matters connected with Formula 1.”
[Source: BBC & McLaren.com]
Car enthusiast heaven, otherwise known as the Autostadt, in Wolfsburg, Germany, recently saw its 18 millionth visitor through the turnstiles. Visitor numbers are nine years ahead of schedule. The Autostadt opened its doors on 1 June 2000, with predictions of 1 million visitors per annum. A figure which, in reality, has turned out to be 2 million visitors each year.
The Volkswagen Auto Group theme park has unique pavilions for all of the marques in its stable. That’s Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Seat, Skoda and, of course, Volkswagen. Also included is general auto museum featuring notable cars from outside the VAG history books, as well.
It’s a pretty amazing place, dominated by the twin glass car towers where buyers can collect their new cars from. You can get a taste of that experience from this previous AUSmotive article. If you get the opportunity I highly recommend a visit. Volkswagen’s press release can be read after the jump, along with a few happy snaps of my own from my visit in 2006.
Further information can be read at autostadt.de and volkswagen.com.
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Nissan GT-R claims new Ring record
Hot off the presses, Nissan is claiming a new Nürburgring Nordschleife record for the GT-R. The new time is 7 minutes 27.56 seconds. And there could be more tomorrow. Nissan’s statement is available at AUSringers.com.
No these are not three wax dummys, they are in fact the three well known Top Gear presenters, Richard Hammond, James May and Jeremy Clarkson. But, they might very will find themselves stuffed and propped up when their very own exhibition opens in June.
BBC Worldwide and the National Motor Museum (UK) have signed an agreement for a ‘World of Top Gear’ exhibition to be housed at the Beaulieu tourist attraction.
The exhibition will feature actual vehicles from the show’s ambitious, and generally foolhardy, challenges over the last 12 series. Included will be their amphibious cars and their attempts at creating unique limousines. Behind the scenes action and interactive highlights will also feature.
A financially responsible version of Top Gear is due to return to UK screens soon, with Series 13 scheduled for June.
A press statement on the ‘World of Top Gear’ exhibition can be read after the jump.
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Volkswagen Tiguan R Line
Information in from the UK this morning that Volkswagen is adding to its ‘R Line’ range with the introduction of a Tiguan model. Based on the Tiguan Sport the R Line extras consist of a body kit, 19″ wheels and moderately flared guards.
Internally there is a flat bottom R Line steering wheel and sport seats, featuring Volkswagen’s familiar ‘R’ logo.
The Tiguan R Line will be in UK showrooms in June and is available in five colours, Candy White (featured), Reflex Silver, Deep Black, Biscay Blue and Mountain Grey.
AUSmotive will investigate to see if/when Australian readers can expect to see this model.
UPDATE: GoAuto have a story confirming the R Line won’t be available in Australia. Apparently Volkswagen Australia says the R Line name will cause confusion with existing performance enhanced R models (Golf R32, Passat R36, Touareg R50). And yet, sister company Audi manages just fine in Australia with their S Line cosmetic enhancements offered alongside their performance based S range.
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BMW X5 Security Plus
Finally BMW have faced reality and made an X5 that really is a tank. Well, sort of. You see, the X5 Security Plus is a bullet resistant beast designed to lessen the danger faced by—I kid you not—an AK47 handgun attack. Brilliant!
Powered by a 261kW 4.8-litre V8 rocket launcher, with 475Nm of torque, the X5 Anti-AK47 missile accelerates to 100 km/h in 8.2 seconds and has an electronically limited top speed of 180 km/h.
Fortunately, we live in the lucky country and BMW Australia has no plans to offer the X5 Security Plus down under. Which is a shame in some respects. You just have to love a car that has ‘Yelp’ and ‘Wail’ buttons.
There’s so much more that can be said about a bullet repelling SUV, but you’ll just have to read the rest for yourself…
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iMOTOR reviews new Golf GTI
Fans of the new Golf GTI are going to love this review from UK publication iMOTOR. Make sure you watch the video as well, it’s well worth the effort.
While AUSmotive will need to wait some time for its first drive of the Mk6 GTI, I’m going to make a bold claim and state, taking all considerations into view, including environmental issues, the Golf VI GTI will be the best GTI ever!
The Nissan GT-R, unsurprisingly perhaps, won this year’s World Performance Car of the Year gong. Most companies would think this is a pretty cool award to win. There’s certainly some media cachet waiting to be exploited. Or, so you would think. But, as far as I can tell, Nissan marketing teams on both sides of the globe are sitting on their arse doing nothing.
There’s nothing on the regular Australian or UK press outlets from the Nissan marketing machine about this news. Now, either they’re all out fannying about in GT-Rs which have just started deliveries in both those markets, or they’ve been given extended Easter holiday breaks. Either way, for car hyped so much as the GT-R this appears to be hard to believe.
So, if you’re from Nissan, please send me an official statement and AUSmotive will gladly run it. Perhaps they’re just waiting for the new Nürburgring marketing time? (Update – Looks like I was right, haha!)
Someone who does care about this award are the WCOTY folks and their press release can be read after the jump. That said, clearly they don’t give a rats about the GT-R either as they claim it has a 3.6 litre V8 engine. Haha, great work all round really!
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Zoom Zoom Zoom – The all new Mazda3
Australian pricing and specifications for the all new Mazda3 were released last week. The previous model was a roaring sales success for Mazda, it was the best selling car in the country in January, and one would expect the new 3 to keep Mazda near the top of the charts.
The range at launch is a four-prong lineup consisting of the Neo, Maxx, Maxx Sport and SP25. The hot-hatch hero Mazda3 MPS model will be launched in Australia in the second half of 2009.
Pricing for hatch and sedan models are identical and 6-speed equipped manuals start at $21,990 (Neo); $24,990 (Maxx); $27,690 (Maxx Sport); $30,690 (SP25). A 5-speed Activematic transmission is available for an extra $2060 (Neo and Maxx); $2260 (Maxx Sport and SP25).
Mazda were all too aware of the task at hand when making the new model. Program Manager for New Generation Mazda3, Yoshiyuki Maeda, said, “There was no mistaking the direction we had to take in developing the New Generation Mazda3. We wanted to exceed the expectations of customers all over the world again, just like the original Mazda3 has done.
“To achieve this we wanted to provide drivers with an exhilarating experience that they would sense directly whether they were driving the car, as a passenger or even simply looking at it.”
Which brings me to the exterior looks. After seeing the car at the Melbourne International Motor Show I concluded the car actually looks better in person than in photographs. After going through the images for this piece, I was reminded of this several times. I’ve no doubt the Mazda3 will find many fans of its visual language, however, I’m still to be won over by the somewhat cutesy pie looks. To be fair, it cuts a unique form in its segment, and that is most likely what the customers are looking for.
The Mazda3 is reasonably well specced with Dynamic Stability Control standard across the range, along with other usual acronyms including ABS and EBD, plus more. The press guff tells me that the Mazda3 is more efficient than the old model, but while the fuel consumption and emissions figures from the DOHC four cylinders in the range are respectable enough, they’re nothing too spectacular.
For example, the 6-speed manual 2.0 litre entry level Neo, with 108kW/182Nm, uses 7.9l/100km while emitting CO2 at 187g/km. The 2.5 litre SP25, with 122kW/227Nm, uses 8.6l/100km and emits 204g/km of CO2. Bump all figures up ever so slightly for the Activematic models. In contrast, the recently launched Volkswagen Golf VI, with three different engines available at time of writing, use 6.5l/100km of fuel or less with the highest CO2 emission figure being 150g/km.
A full suite of images and a brief press statement can be viewed after the jump. More detailed specs and pricing can be downloaded in the PDF below:
- Mazda3 pricing & specs (160kb PDF)