Categories
Toyota

Toyota 86 GTS gives you wings

Toyota 86 GTS with aero package

We’re not quite sure if you can make it out, but on the back of that Toyota 86 GTS, if you look very closely, is a rear wing. It’s part of a new factory aero package offered by Toyota dealers, available from today, the official sales launch of the 86 in Australia.

Toyota is asking $3000 for the kit, which also includes a revised front spoiler and side skirts. It’s fancy, too, using words like “dual canards” and “airflow evacuation”. For some reason these add-ons can only be fitted to the high-spec GTS model.

Despite the addition of that, let’s face it, MASSIVE REAR WING, Toyota claim the full aero package reduces drag and increases downforce. Well it would want to do the latter, that’s for sure.

We’re sure there’ll be a lot of 86 fans who think this aero package is the business. But we’re not really sure what else to say.

Categories
Motorsports Porsche

Webber to lead Porsche at Le Mans in 2014?

2012 Australian Grand Prix

Mark Webber’s driving future for 2013 has been well discussed, but this is the first rumour we’ve heard speculating on what the likeable Aussie will be doing in 2014. And speaking without any objectivity at all, we like this one. A lot.

In today’s Herald-Sun veteran journalist Paul Gover said: “If the talk is right—and it sounds solid—Webber will call time on F1 at the end of the 2013 season and slide across to head the Porsche sports car team as it returns to Le Mans.”

Okay, as a fan of motorsport and Mark Webber’s exploits, this rumour excites us. Seeing Mark leading the charge for Porsche at Le Mans: what’s not to like!

So could it happen? The first box to be ticked off is the one saying Porsche will be back at Le Mans in 2014 and chasing for outright victory. They’ll need driving talent and we think Mark would make a good fit.

Firstly, we’ve already seen Mark working with Porsche, albeit in a very informal manner discussing his 911 GT2 RS. But Porsche has already seen fit to use Webber in a marketing role, of sorts.

Certainly, fresh out of F1, Webber would have the profile to lead Porsche. And it would be an ideal post-F1 challenge. You don’t forge a long career in F1 without having huge ambition and a fair bit of talent. Headlining Porsche in the chase for a record 17th Le Mans victory would be suitable challenge, we think.

Perhaps, more importantly for Porsche, is Webber’s ability to offer feedback to engineers during car development and on race weekends. His set up skills are widely acknowledged as some of the best in F1 and you’d expect they could be translated to a Le Mans assault.

And, of course, it would bring Mark’s career full circle, if you’ll pardon the pun. Not long after Porsche won its 16th Le Mans title Webber was busy flipping a Mercedes CLR on the Mulsanne Straight. Mark’s incidents happened in qualifying and in the pre-race warm up. His car was withdrawn and he didn’t actually start the race. In other words, you could say Mark and Le Mans have unfinished business.

So, speaking as a fan once again: Porsche make it so!

[Source: Paul Gover | Pic: Red Bull/Getty Images | Thanks to John for the tip]

Categories
Volvo

508hp Volvo S60 Polestar revealed

Volvo S60 Polestar

Volvo’s performance partner Polestar has had another crack at fantasy football by stuffing 508hp under the bonnet of an S60 sedan. That’s not a typo—508hp—that’s near as damn is to swearing 380kW!

To achieve these lofty results Polestar has thrown out the standard turbo from the inline T6 engine and bolted on a kick arse Garrett turbo. Of course, a big turbo alone won’t provide smooth results, so a modified air intake and manifold have been added, along with an uprated head and cylinder chambers. A 3.5″ stainless steel exhust system rounds of the mechanical upgrades.

Power is transferred to the ground by a modified Haldex all-wheel drive system. We suspect it has to work damn hard to maintain traction while propelling the S60 Polestar to 100km/h in a claimed 3.9 seconds. Top speed is said to be beyond 300km/h, if you don’t mind.

The production-spec suspension and brakes have also been chucked out in favour of uprated gear from Ohlins and Brembo. Even the track has been widened to aid handling; 20mm at the front and 40mm at the rear.

For now this is a one off creation, but if there are enough cashed up punters screaming, “Hey, I want one too!”, then Volvo may consider building the car in limited numbers.

Categories
Audi Motorsports

2012 Le Mans 24h: Audi post-race report

Audi wins 24 Hours of Le Mans 2012

The sun has set on a remarkable 11th 24 Hours of Le Mans win for Audi and but for a minor lapse of concentration from Marc Gene in the #3 R18 ultra they would have filled the first four places. Still, seeing your team standing on all three podium steps would no doubt please those signing the cheques.

Adding to Audi’s notable list of achievements at Le Mans, the R18 e-tron quattro can now lay proud claim to being the first car to win the endurance classic using a hybrid powered drivetrain. That sits nicely alongside Audi’s first win with TFSI technology in 2001 and then with TDI power in 2006.

Despite the apparent lack of competition Audi Sport Team Joest is to be congratulated for encouraging their four cars to continue racing. The two Toyotas had withdrawn before half race distance and it would have been easy for Audi to tell their drivers hold station and close the race down.

Thankfully they didn’t and as a result we saw some good battles between the #1 and #2 cars at the front and fastest lap times tumbled in the dusk “happy hour”. The 80th running of the Le Mans 24 hour race was the winner.

Of course, among the euphoria there are stories within the story. Before you read Audi’s official debrief of the race we leave you with two quotes that highlight the agony and the ecstasy. First from one of the winning drivers André Lotterer and then from Allan McNish, who took an off-track excursion while leading the race into the 22nd hour, thereby costing his #2 car its shot at victory.

André Lotterer: “It’s brilliant to have won yet again! That’s an incredibly nice feeling. It was a really strenuous race. A year ago, we were battling against Peugeot and this year against Toyota at the beginning of the race. Unfortunately, our rival retired. But we contested a very fierce race against car number ‘2’ in our team as well. Audi Sport allowed all of us to give everything. It was real racing, and in your own team that’s particularly interesting.”

Allan McNish: “I’m devastated. I’m sorry for our team: Dindo, Tom, the engineers and the mechanics. They did a perfect job throughout the race. Despite a few problems we were in contention for victory up to my accident.”

Keep an eye out for our upcoming photo gallery of Audi’s win.

Categories
Motorsports Toyota

2012 Le Mans 24h: Toyota post-race report

Toyota TS030 Hybrid at 24 Hours of Le Mans

While compiling this gallery of images and general tale of woe from Toyota, we kept wondering just what could have been. Perhaps, with a limited development program, expectations of a strong finish for Toyota were always optmistic. Yet, with all four Audis stumbling off track at some stage during the race, it would have spiced things up nicely to have had a TS030 Hybrid in there at the end throwing a few punches.

Nevertheless we know with more experience and test data behind them the Toyotas should have what it takes to further ruffle Audi’s feathers in 2013.

We leave the final word for Toyota’s 2012 Le Mans assualt to Team President, Yoshiaki Kinoshita: “Right now our emotion is one of sadness. Our best wishes are with Anthony, who is a fantastic colleague and a positive force in our team. We strongly hope he recovers very soon and we’re sorry we could not provide a result to cheer him up from the #7 car, which suffered firstly an alternator problem and then an engine failure.

“After all the hard work to get to this point, it really hurts to see both cars retire early. But in the next days we will look back on the first six hours of the race and feel great pride that we could lead Le Mans in our very first race.

“That is a remarkable achievement with such pioneering technology and this motivates us to push harder than ever to bring home some trophies in the remainder of the season.”

Categories
Audi Motorsports

Audi dominates on way to 11th Le Mans win

Audi R18 e-tron quattro wins 2012 Le Mans 24 hour race

The #1 Audi R18 e-tron quattro (Fassler/Lotterer/Treluyer) has led a dominant Audi 1-2-3 victory at the 2012 Le Mans 24 Hour. In doing so, Audi becomes the first manufacturer to win Le Mans with a hybrid powered car, and they did it in style with the #2 R18 e-tron quattro (Capello/Kristensen/McNish) finishing in second place.

It’s the second win for the Marcel Fässler/André Lotterer/Benoît Tréluyer crew who have gone back-to-back and successfully defended their 2011 victory.

Coming home in third place was the #4 R18 ultra (Bonanomi/Jarvis/Rockenfeller). Upsetting a clean sweep of the top four places for Audi was the Lotus sponsored #22 Rebellion Racing Lola (Prost/Jani/Heidfeld). Just one lap behind, in fifth place, was the #3 Audi R18 ultra (Dumas/Duval/Gene).

A special mention for the sixth placed car, too, the #22 JRM HPD ARX03a-Honda featured Australian David Brabham.

While the history books will show Audi dominated the 80th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans it was far from smooth sailing. All four cars spent time off the track to varying degrees. The two most notable incidents came with just under three hours to go when Marc Gene driving the #3 car, in fourth place at the time, crashed into the barrier on the exit to one of the chicanes on the famous Mulsanne Straight.

More drama followed moments later when Allan McNish, leading the race in the #2 car, went off the track at the Porsche Curves, while attempting to lap a slower Ferrari 458 Italia GTE entrant. And with that went the race win.

Both Audis limped back into pitlane where some efficient repairs had both cars back out on track inside 15 minutes. Alas, neither car could regain the positions lost. McNish’s crewmate Dindo Capello was celebrating his 48th birthday in what is expected to be his final Le Mans race. Meanwhile, Tom Kristensen missed out on his chance to add to his all-time Le Mans record of eight race wins.

Earlier in the race Toyota had taken the challenge up to Audi with great success. Indeed, the #7 TS030 took the outright lead in the sixth hour. Almost as soon as the #7 car took the lead the sister car crashed out dramatically after Anthony Davidson tangled with a GTE Am Ferrari 458 Italia. Davidson suffered fractures to his back, but is expected to make a full recovery.

A Safety Car period followed the Davidson crash and on the restart the #7 Toyota, with Kazuki Nakajima at the wheel, clipped the Nissan DeltaWing forcing the experimental Nissan into eventual retirement. An alternator problem saw the #7 car drop down the field, before an engine failure ended Toyota’s promising return to Le Mans inside 11 hours.

We’ll have more from Audi in the next day or so. For now you can see video of the two Audi crashes from the late in the race after the break. And a full list showing all finishing positions can be seen on the FIA World Endurance Championship website.

24 Hours of Le Mans 2012 – Top 6

Pos.CarDriversLaps
1#1 Audi R18 e-tron quattroFassler/Lotterer/Treluyer378
2#2 Audi R18 e-tron quattroCapello/Kristensen/McNish377
3#4 Audi R18 ultraBonanomi/Jarvis/Rockenfeller375
4#12 Rebellion Racing Lola B12/60 CoupeProst/Jani/Heidfeld367
5#3 Audi R18 ultraDumas/Duval/Gene366
6#22 JRM HPD ARX03a-HondaBrabham/Chandok/Dumbreck357
Categories
Opel

Opel Australia secures latest Astra for September launch

Opel Astra

Opel Australia has confirmed the latest iteration of the Astra will be sold in Australia when the car hits local showrooms in September. Included in the local lineup will be the versatile Tourer (wagon).

Bill Mott, Opel Australia Managing Director, says support from Germany has enabled production for Australian delivered cars to be brought forward to ensure the refreshed model comes our way. “The timing for our local launch could not be more ideal, in allowing us the opportunity to bring the freshest Astra face to market from the outset,” he said.

“It’s a clear sign of the importance placed on both the Astra in our model line-up, and our local launch overall, that production for Australia has been expedited to allow us to launch the updated Astra at the same time as Germany.”

It’s a shame that no word, yet, has come forward confirming the hot 206kW/400Nm Astra OPC for Australia. Although, we reckon the less exciting Tourer is still quite a nice thing.

Categories
BMW

BMW chasing magic millions

BMW 1 Series GT rendering

You’re looking at Autocar‘s rendering for the BMW 1 Series GT, or Compact Sports Tourer as it may be called. It’s biggest claim to fame is that it will be the first ever front-wheel drive BMW. It’s expected we’ll get our first official look at the car at the Paris Motor Show in September.

Incidentally, the same show will see the debut of the all-new Golf VII, one of the models the front-wheel drive BMW will be hoping to steal sales from.

Part of the reason for BMW to go against their proud rear-wheel drive tradition is to try and increase their annual sales to around two million per year. In 2011 they sold 1.6 million vehicles around the world. They believe this number is key to them remaining independent.

The trick to reaching that goal is to increase product while reducing costs. That’s why the 1 Series GT and the new F56 MINI will share so many components. And it’s also why we’ll no longer see a centrally mounted speedo on the next MINI.

BMW has platform shared before, with its 760Li and Rolls-Royce Ghost. In order to maintain as much individuality as possible most of the shared parts were under the skin, allowing each model to retain, visually at least, their key brand identity. BMW will take much the same approach with the front-wheel drive 1er and the MINI.

We’ve been critical of what we’ve termed as BMW’s dilution of the MINI brand as more and more BMW components creep in. So is BMW selling out, or doing what needs to be done to remain viable. That question has been asked and analysed by MotoringFile.

It’s certainly worth reading what MotoringFile has to say. Here’s a few snippets:

Seems like a simple concept—sell more. But it’s not. The three prongs of the BMW Group are all in the “premium” area within their segment. That means buyers tend to be more particular; materials need to be of high quality, electronics have to be the latest and greatest all while producing vehicles that are of the highest level of safety and efficiency… The solution is to offer more niche vehicles and broaden the appeal to more consumers while staying true enough to the brand’s reputation and heritage. For MINI that means products like the Coupe and Roadster on one hand and the Clubman and forthcoming Countryman Coupe on the other.

Having seen both the “F” generation MINI and the front wheel drive BMW test mules in person, I can fully attest to the outward differences. There is little in the way of shared design. If it wasn’t for the fact they are being announced as related their appearance would never lead to that conclusion…

Talking with engineers familiar with the dynamics of each car and how they perform I was told that each has an individual personality- much like siblings. The appearance and drive are directly related to the target market of each and there is little overlap… One source says that road feel is more in line with the R50 MINI while efficiency and comfort are more in line with the newer F20 1 Series. If that is even partially correct these cars will be a resounding success.

The theory sounds good. Let’s hope the practice remains true the individual BMW and MINI brands.

[Source: Autocar & MotoringFile]

 

Categories
Audi

Audi SQ5 TDI revealed at Le Mans

Audi S Q5

Audi has used its winning turbo diesel heritage at Le Mans to unveil the SQ5, powered by a twin turbo 3.0 litre V6 TDI. Helping it keep pace with the threat posed by BMW’s X5 M50d, the SQ5 has peak numbers of 230kW/650Nm and can reach 100km/h in 5.1 seconds.

As you’ll hear from the videos after the break, the first Audi S model to be powered by a TDI engine sounds as good as it looks. With dual twin-tipped exhausts that’s just as well. One of those fancy new sound actuators ensures the sound is piped inside the cabin.

The SQ5 is fitted with an 8-speed tiptronic transmission and Audi say it can use diesel fuel at the rate of 7.2l/100km on the combined cycle. Of course, an all-wheel drive quattro system is standard equipment.

We’ll find out if/when we can expect the SQ5 in Australia, in the meantime there’s a brief press release from Audi and a selection if images for you after the break.

UPDATE: Audi Australia tell us they’re very keen to secure the SQ5 for local sale. We expect they will, but for now, nothing has been confirmed.

Categories
Motorsports Toyota

Davidson survives horror crash at Le Mans

Toyota driver Anthony Davidson crashes out of 24 Hours of Le Mans 2012

Toyota driver Anthony Davidson can consider himself very lucky to have walked away from this sickening crash, which ended a promising debut for the TS030 Hybrid at the 2012 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The crash happened after the #81 Ferrari F458 Italia (GTE Am) driven by Piergiuseppe Perrazini clipped the back of Davidson’s #8 Toyota (LMP1) near the end of the high speed Mulsanne straight.

Davidson’s Toyota was sent into the air where it flipped before crashing heavily into the tyre barrier. Perrazini’s Ferrari also impacted heavily with the barrier and ended on its roof.

Thankfully, it has been reported that Perrazini is okay. Meanwhile, Davidson, initially thought to be fine, is now in hospital where he has been found to have a broken back, suffering fractures to his  T11 and T12 vertebrae.

Davidson is alert and has tweeted, “Well that was a big one! Lying in a French hospital with a broken back wasn’t what I had in mind at this stage in the race…”

Footage of the accident can be seen after the break. Both drivers are very lucky men. We must pause to acknowledge the safety regulations placed on cars and thank the track officials who assisted the drivers.

In Hour 11, the second Toyota TS030 Hybrid retired with engine problems.

[Source: Autosport]

Categories
Motorsports Nissan Toyota

Toyota punts Nissan DeltaWing out of Le Mans

Nissan DeltaWing crashes out of 2012 Le Mans

The 2012 Le Mans 24 Hour race is now deep into the night and has just past the 12 hour mark. Sadly the morning brings bad news for the Nissan DeltaWing. Driven by Satoshi Motoyama at the time of the incident, he was pushed off track and into the wall by Kazuki Nakajima in the #7 Toyota TS030 Hybrid.

There was heavy traffic when the crash took place, caused by the field being bunched up following a restart from a period under Safety Car conditions.

Perhaps the only positive from the impact is that it gives Nissan some real world feedback on the safety of the lightweight chassis.

After the break we have a couple of videos showing the before and after. Ultimately the little Nissan that could was forced to retire.

Categories
Motorsports

2012 Le Mans 24h: Live streaming guide


Live 24 Heures du Mans 2012 : lemans-tv.com by lemans-tv

NOTE: As you can see above, we’ve added the main feed from the dailymotion link (see below) so you can watch the race right here on AUSmotive. If you follow that link you can choose from 11 onboard cameras to view the race as well.

The 80th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans is not too far away (11pm AEST). Here’s a list of options for watching the race online. Australian viewers can also watch the rice live on Foxtel’s Eurosport channel.

Unfortunately it does not appear that any free to air networks in Australia will be offering any live coverage of the race, so this online guide should serve you well. Also listed below are links to live timing, audio and twitter.

Don’t forget to download a free Spotter Guide, too, if you want a better idea of who is who in the 56 car field.

2012 24 Hours of Le Mans live steaming

2012 24 Hours of Le Mans live timing

2012 24 Hours of Le Mans live audio

2012 24 Hours of Le Mans twitter feeds

UPDATE: Thanks to Andy for adding some extra links to live streaming; these have now been added above. And apologies for stuffing up the start time. The race starts at 11pm eastern Australian time.