Category: News

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Formula 1 News

“Morally proper” to postpone 2014 Russian GP

Sochi Autodrom, July 2014

The official Sochi Autodrom website tells us there’s only 80 days until the Russian Grand Prix. Yet, one week on from the MH17 disaster, calls for the race to be cancelled are gathering momentum.

In addition to MH17 British-Russia relations are on high alert after a public inquiry into the death of Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko was announced. Critics from the political and academic spheres are now speaking out.

David Davis, a Conservative MP and former Foreign Office minister is one outspoken critic calling for the Russian Grand Prix to be postponed.

“If Russia continues as they have been doing, then the grand prix is one of many things that they should be denied,” Davis declared. “The morally proper thing to do is put the race on hold.

“F1 already had a problem in the past with Bahrain. Whilst I’m not particularly in favour of cancelling sports events at the drop of a hat, I think that Formula 1 should reflect the global outrage. It would be an important and appropriate response to cancel the race.”

Sir Menzies Campbell, former leader of the Liberal Democrats, weighed in saying: “Public opinion all over the world will find it difficult to accept Mr Putin taking all the plaudits for this grand prix in Russia and, no doubt, presenting the prizes.”

Further, Dr Andrew Foxall, from the Russian Studies Centre at the Henry Jackson Society, a British-based think tank, added: “Formula 1 is not, and never has been, an organisation known for morality. There are a host of reasons why this race should not go ahead.”

Previously, and unsurprisingly, Bernie Ecclestone has stated he has no problems with the race going ahead.

“We shouldn’t speculate as to what could happen,” Ecclestone told Adam Cooper. “We will honour our contract. Mr Putin personally has been very supportive and very helpful, and we will do the same.”

[Source: The Telegraph | Pic: via twitter]

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Bentley Maserati MINI News Rolls-Royce

Australian new car pricing – July 1977

Leyland Moke
Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow II

If you were after a little runabout in 1977 the cheapest new car on the market was the Leyland Moke ($2,995). On the other hand, if you were well to do, the most expensive car money could buy was the Bentley T or the near matching Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow (both $58,950).

The Moke was also the least powerful car on the market with just 37kW (50hp) on tap from its 1.0 litre four-cylinder engine. The leadfoots among you would have been more likely to have had your eye on the svelte 239kW (320hp) Maserati Khamsin, which would have set you back $44,000.

At least that’s the deal according to the July 1977 issue of Wheels magazine. You can check out the price list after the break and make sure you click on each image for larger images.

Turns out the Moke was the better buy, though. These days if you wanted to get your hands on a 37-year-old Moke you’ll likely need a lot more than the original three grand asking price. Whereas picking up a similarly aged Roller or Bentley should come in well under its original sticker price.

[Pics: Shannons | Thanks to Stu for the tip]

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Fifth Gear News Top Gear Top Gear Australia

Final word for FinalGear?

FinalGear.com take-down notice

FinalGear.com is the go to place on the internet for news on motoring shows Top Gear and Fifth Gear. That also means it has been a reliable source of information for viewers outside of the UK who want to watch new episodes as soon as possible after going to air. That information, of course, relates to illegal downloads.

FinalGear states that it “does not host any torrents or copyright infringing material” but it does provide links relating to such activities. Today, the website was issued a take-down notice from the UK’s Director Of Intelligence & Investigations Federation Against Copyright Theft which states in part:

BBC Worldwide Consumer Products, Soda Pictures has received information that the domain listed above, which appears to be on servers under your control, is offering unlicensed copies of, or is engaged in other unauthorized activities relating to copyrighted works owned by BBC Worldwide Consumer Products.

Further, the notice demands that any relevant links be removed:

We hereby give notice of these activities to you and request that you take expeditious action to remove or disable access to the material described above, and thereby prevent the unauthorized distribution of the work(s) via your companys network.

We expect the website, in particular its forums, will remain active. It’s just that people wanting to get their hands on the latest episodes of Top Gear might have to look elsewhere. Although, perhaps sufficient action is also being taken against whoever does host episodes for download in future that only officially sourced content may be available. If it’s actually possible to achieve such an aim.

[Source: FinalGear]

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Audi Bentley Bugatti Lamborghini News Porsche Seat Skoda Suzuki Volkswagen

Volkswagen Group tipped to rebrand as Auto Union

Auto Union badge

Here’s a rumour from GoAuto that has grabbed our interest, according to its report Volkswagen Group is considering a name change to Auto Union.

A possible theory for the change would be to establish a greater sense of independence for each of the brands under Volkswagen’s control, by removing the Volkswagen name from the umbrella company.

Volkswagen Group controls or owns outright the following marques: Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Ducati, Lamborghini, MAN, Porsche, Scania, Seat, Skoda, Volkswagen and Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles. In addition, the group is also the largest shareholder in Suzuki, with a 20% share.

Auto Union is not a new name in the motoring world and was the precursor to what we now know as Audi. Originally formed in 1932 and consisting of four companies—Audi, DKW, Horch and Wanderer—Auto Union was essentially dissolved by the Soviets after WWII.

However, soon after, in 1949, Auto Union came back to life building two-stroke DKWs. Daimler-Benz took a majority shareholding in 1958 and saw a return of the Auto Union brand and investment in the company’s Ingolstadt factory.

In 1964 Daimler-Benz began to offload its shares and later that year Volkswagen assumed control after it bought the rights to the Auto Union name and the Ingolstadt site. The Audi brand was revived in 1965 and remains as the sole survivor from those Auto Union days.

[Source: GoAuto | Pic: CarType/John Lloyd]

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Auctions & Sales Formula 1 News

Rushing to buy movie props

Rush movie replica Niki Lauda Ferrari

If you loved Ron Howard’s F1 movie Rush—and let’s face it, who didn’t—then you might love to buy yourself a souvenir from the film. Up for sale right now are a series of props from the movie including the replica of Niki Lauda’s Ferrari you see above—click here for the full catalogue of items.

While that replica Fezza has a five figure asking price (although a surprisingly small one), many of the smaller items are well within reach of the average punter. There is a 15% buyer’s premium and they do offer global shipping (prices quoted separately).

So, get to it, see what you can get your hands on!

[Source: Speedhunters | Thanks to Tiaan for the tip]

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Formula 1 News

“He is not in a coma anymore”

2012 European Grand Prix

A long time has passed since we last had any news on the health of Michael Schumacher. But we’re pleased to report his family brings us an update via a statement published by manager Sabine Kehm. As much as it can be, this is bloody good news:

“Michael has left the CHU Grenoble to continue his long phase of rehabilitation. He is not in a coma anymore.

“His family would like to explicitly thank all his treating doctors, nurses and therapists in Grenoble as well as the first aiders at the place of the accident, who did an excellent job in those first months.

“The family also wishes to thank all the people who have sent Michael all the many good wishes to Michael. We are sure it helped him.

“For the future we ask for understanding that his further rehabilitation will take place away from the public eye.”

All the best Michael, all the best.

[Source: Autosport]

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Formula 1 News

Three generations

Sir Jack Brabham tribute by SkySports

A couple of weeks on from the passing of Sir Jack Brabham here’s a couple of off-site pieces we think you should check out. The first is a short video from SkySports which features interviews from Jack’s son David and grandson Sam.

Once you’ve watched that settle into this longer audio interview with Ron Tauranac produced by local F1 chaps Box of Neutrals.

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News Video

/DRIVE shifting to pay TV

Drive NBCSN promo

Back in December 2011 we were given our first taste of the YouTube channel /DRIVE. Since then it’s given the world countless hours of quality content. And all for free. Zero dollars. Nada. Just free.

Here at AUSmotive we’ve not been too proud to feature pretty much anything published by Chris Harris. He’s one of the best at putting you in the car with him as he tells us why a car is so good, or bad, not just that it is. He was doing this long before /DRIVE came to be, but his latest venture has broadened his exposure greatly and that’s about to increase again.

/DRIVE will soon feature on pay TV station NBC Sports in the States. It’ll be a slow start with the first episode airing this weekend, but then nothing more until July. The full detail was explained yesterday by Spinelli on Jalopnik:

We’re announcing today—right here, in fact—that /DRIVE is bringing its car-enthusiast programming to cable television, on the NBCSN, which will televise 10 episodes of a new show, called /DRIVE on NBC Sports, through the remainder of the 2014 calendar year.

The first episode sounds like a Top Gear rip off, although Spinelli promises, “we’ll stay true to the kind of programming /DRIVE’s audience expects”. Which means there should be a broader gamut of material focusing on motoring as entertainment, rather than entertainment as motoring.

Further, the /DRIVE–NBCSN partnership will produce a new F1 show called Off the grid, to be hosted by Will Buxton and Jason Swales.

Well done to the /DRIVE team, we wish them all the success they so richly deserve.

The guys have promised that their YouTube content will continue, but as Chris Harris hinted at via twitter yesterday it could become user pays.

In response to such a suggestion there has been many whingers criticising Harris and his mates for taking the pay TV route. Thankfully, there’s also been plenty of support and encouragement.

To the freeloaders out there, get a bloody grip, these guys owe you exactly what you’ve been paying to watch their content until now. Nothing.

Now, let’s all enjoy the show (there’s a preview after the break).

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Formula 1 News Video

Remembering Sir Jack

Sir Jack Brabham

Perhaps the only good thing to come from the passing of Sir Jack Brabham is a greater realisation of his enviable, and in many ways unmatched, stature in the world of Formula 1 and motorsport in general.

Equally happy with a spanner in his hand as he was with a steering wheel, Sir Jack excelled in an era where graft and wherewithal were as influential as bundles of cash are today. As Australian F1 fans we should be very proud of his achievements—especially his 1966 championship, won in his own car—and his family doubly so.

It’s no surprise that the tributes have been many since his death. Over the last couple of days we’ve assembled a collection of material that both honours Brabham’s legacy and helps to serve his reputation. Be sure to check out the videos and photos after the break, too, you’ll be glad you did.

Mark Webber: I was very fortunate that I was introduced to Jack before I left Australia and to be in his presence as a 17 or 18-year old as I must have been at the time, just blew me away. He provided me with endless support and advice over the years and became a close confidante—even right up until the last couple of years when, after hearing the rumours that I might move to Ferrari, he told me he would be very disappointed if I went there because for him, it was the absolute betrayal because they were his motivation—the ones he wanted to beat in his day!

Alan Jones: Jack will be the remembered as the greatest Australian racing driver. He is not only the greatest driver this country has produced but is one of the world’s best.

Dan Gurney: A fierce competitor, an outstanding engineer, a tiger of a driver, an excellent politician and a hands-on creator and visionary; he opened the rear-engine door at Indianapolis and raced there. He was a doer, a true Aussie pioneer!

Derek Bell: Above all he created cars in Formula 2 and 3 which allowed numerous young drivers to drive safe fast cars and make names for themselves, myself included. They might not have always been the quickest, but overall the cars never let you down and if not always winning they would always be there at the end!

Edd Straw (Autosport+): What is remarkable about Brabham is that it doesn’t matter that, in terms of pure pace, he was not quite on the same level as a Moss or a Stewart. What Brabham did is unequalled in history, winning the world championship in a car of his own. When greats like him are lost, it seems trite to reflect that we won’t ever see their like again. But in the case of ‘Black Jack’—a nickname he wasn’t fond of—it’s absolutely true.

Peter Windsor: A self-starter, a racer who enjoyed tinkering with damper rebound as much as he enjoyed flying his own aircraft and racing anything on wheels (from F1 cars to sports cars to touring cars to Indy cars), Sir Jack at heart was just a straightforward Aussie who loved motor racing first and the glamour and the publicity just about last.

Further reading

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Formula 1 News

Sir Jack Brabham 1926–2014

Sir Jack Brabham

The world of motorsport has lost a pioneer and true great with the passing of Sir Jack Brabham. The three time F1 world champion died peacefully at his home on the Gold Coast this morning.

Sir Jack was 88 years old and leaves behind his wife Lady Margaret and three sons, Geoff, Gary and David and their families.

Brabham’s first two world championships were won in 1959 and 1960 at the wheel of rear-engined a Cooper-Climax. It marked the end for front-engined cars which had previously dominated the sport.

In late 1960, in partnership with Ron Tauranac, he formed the Brabham Racing Organisation and the pair designed and built their own cars. In 1966 Sir Jack secured his third world title driving the Brabham BT19 making him the first and only man to win an F1 title in his own car.

When interviewed in 2012 Sir Jack described this as his most satisfying title. “It was effectively Australia against the rest of the world, and to win with that package and group of people behind it was a huge thrill,” he said.

The following year Denny Hulme won the world championship with Brabham. The team collected constructors’ titles in 1966 and 1967 as well.

Tauranac bought out Brabham’s share of the team in 1971 before selling the team in full to Bernie Ecclestone in 1972. Under Eccelstone’s ownership Nelson Piquet won drivers’ championships in 1981 and 1983.

Brabham was knighted for services to motorsport in 1978 and became the first racing driver to receive such an honour.

His racing legacy lived on with his sons and continues today with grandsons Matthew and Sam who are currently forging professional careers.

[Source: brabham.co.uk | Pic: LAT Photographic]

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Ferrari Formula 1 McLaren News

Nigel Stepney 1958–2014

Nigel Stepney

Nigel Stepney, the key figure in the 2007 Formula 1 spygate ordeal, was killed on Friday after being hit by a truck on a British motorway.

Stepney had stopped his vehicle on the hard shoulder and had stepped out of the car before being hit. A statement from Kent Police reads:

For reasons yet to be established, the man appears to have entered the carriageway and was then in a collision with an articulated goods vehicle. He was pronounced deceased at the scene.

Ferrari’s Technical Director Ross Brawn left the team at the end of 2006 and Stepney, formerly Ferrari’s Race and Test Technical Manager, had publicly declared his dissatisfaction with the role he was given after the team restructured its operations ahead of the 2007 season.

Stepney was later found guilty of leaking 780 pages of confidential information to his friend Michael Coughlan then the chief designer at McLaren. Copies of the documents were made by Coughlan’s wife at a copy centre. Staff from the copy centre thought something wasn’t right and contacted Ferrari and formal investigations began. Stepney was handed a 20 month sentence by an Italian court, although he did not serve any jail time. He didn’t work in F1 again.

Since 2010 Stepney had been working as the Race Team Manager and Technical Director for JRM who compete in endurance racing, including the LMP1, GT1 and GT3 categories. A team statement can be read after the break.

Stepney started in F1 in the late 1970s with the Shadow team and made his name at Lotus working alongside Ayrton Senna in the mid-1980s. He was later part of the Ferrari dream team, along with Brawn, Rory Byrne and Michael Schumacher, who combined to end Ferrari long championship drought before dominating the sport in the 2000s.

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Formula 1 News

Being James Hunt

1974 Hesketh 308

James Hunt may have lived too fast and died too young, but didn’t he have a good time while he was alive! Those times were perhaps best exemplified early in his career when he gained attention with Hesketh Racing, where professionalism appeared secondary to reverie.

Now, you have an opportunity to live a little like James by buying one of the Hesketh 308 F1 cars he raced with to such good effect. We can’t guarantee you’ll land the ladies, or party like it’s 1974, but  you can at least look the part in one of F1’s most uniquely styled cars from one the sport’s most unique teams.

If nothing else it’s just great admiring a car which, by today’s standards, looks so simple and outdated. Yet, the simplicity and purity of the car tended to be reflected in the racing of the time.

Chassis 308-1 is will go under the hammer with RM Auctions on Saturday 10 May. Alan Jones also drove the car, which helps add to the car’s provenance. There’s a pretty wide expected sale price of €350,000–650,000, so start saving and you never know your luck!

[Source: RM Auctions]

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