The Canadian Grand Prix—Mark thinks of a great atmosphere in the city, beautiful restaurants, and his teammate’s front-right wheel in his sidepod. Or something like that, anyway. Webber is back with his regular Grand Prix preview, this time at Montreal and with three overtaking opportunities per lap he will have to keep his wits about him. Although the early money is on a McLaren victory this weekend. Long straights and their effective F-duct system should give them an advantage.
Following the earlier news about the Subaru Impreza WRX STI here is a behind the scenes look at Subaru’s time at the Nürburgring. The clip runs for just under four minutes and gives a bit more insight into the STI sedan setting a new Nürburgring record for a four-door car.
Volkswagen Australian have just announced official details for the Golf GTD. These confirm the car’s status as a “diesel GTI” with its body kit, interior and suspension all heavily influenced by the highly regarded GTI. For the GTD, this also includes 15mm lower suspension and the Extended Electronic Differential Lock (XDL).
The GTD will only be available in a five door layout in Australia and list pricing starts at $39,290 for the manual and $41,790 for DSG. Both transmissions are six speed.
With 125kW and 350Nm on offer from the common-rail 2.0 litre turbo diesel engine the GTD can accelerate to 100km/h in 8.1 seconds. Fuel consumption for the manual is rated at 5.5l/100km, while the DSG consumes 5.8l/100km.
In line with the Australian GTI range the GTD is available in the following colours: Candy White, Tornado Red, Reflex Silver metallic, Carbon Steel metallic and Deep Black pearl effect.
More info is available below, including options pricing. Full specifications for the GTD are available for download in this PDF (74kb). For a closer look at the GTD, check out the image gallery posted earlier in the week.
Volkswagen US is preparing for a live online launch of the all new Jetta. In real terms this car is simply a Golf sedan. However, while the two cars will share many components, this new Jetta shapes to be Volkswagen’s best attempt in recent years at making a clear difference between the two models.
Back in January the svelte and classy looking New Compact Coupé was released by Volkswagen at the Detroit Auto Show and it is expected this will be the inspiration for the new Jetta. Indeed, US-based Kilometer magazine were quick to prepare a four-door rendering of the NCC, and, it still looks quite sharp with the extra doors thrown in.
The unveiling of the Jetta is scheduled for 11:25am Eastern time (US) Tuesday 15 June. If my calculations are correct that should be 1:25am on Wednesday 16 June on Australia’s eastern seaboard.
[Source: The German Car Blog]
The factory backed Peugeot 908 HDi FAP machines are all set to defend their 2009 Le Mans 24 hour crown. But seeing as the French team have demoted Australia’s David Brabham from the winning car to the LMP2 category AUSmotive’s full support will be behind the Audi R15 TDI.
Of course, Peugeot won’t care about that too much as they’re far too busy preparing the 908 for its fourth and final outing at La Sarthe. Indeed, Peugeot Sport’s Technical Director, Bruno Famin is expecting a close race with the R15s from Ingolstadt, “This is the 908 HDi FAP’s fourth and final year of competition. It is an outstanding car and I think we can look forward to an incredibly thrilling Le Mans 24 Hour; I believe it will be very close from flag to flag.”
Famin also explains a bit about the changes made to the car since its 2009 success, “Our work initially focused on adapting the 908 HDi FAP to the new 2010 regulations, which essentially meant the engine and bodywork. The only aerodynamic change is the result of having to adjust to this year’s new engine power levels.
“We have endeavoured to recover some of the power lost because of the rule changes, which involved working with Bosch on improving engine combustion, reducing power losses through friction with Total and improving the flow efficiency of the intake and exhaust systems with Dow.”
There’s more from Peugeot and their three-car team after the break. For Australian readers television coverage of the 2010 Le Mans 24 hour race will be provided by One HD on free to air, and the EuroSport channel on Foxtel will also have extensive coverage of the race, including practice and qualifying sessions. Check your local guides for details. A live online radio broadcast, with English commentary, is also provided for free by Radio Le Mans.
Subaru brings us news that Tommi Mäkinen has driven an MY11 Impreza WRX STI sedan around the Nürburgring Nordschleife in 7 minutes 55 seconds. Which is a new (unofficial) lap record for a four door car, beating the previous best time of the Cadillac CTS-V by four seconds.
Speaking after the lap Mäkinen said, “The car was controllable with precise and faithful handling even on tricky corners. I could easily predict the car’s behaviour. That is exactly what Subaru is offering: confidence.”
Interestingly, the same car was seen at the Ring a few days before the record was set (16 April 2010) by Dale from Bridge to Gantry.
A couple of extra pics can be seen after the jump, along with the all important video. Slightly better quality footage is available direct from the Subaru Global website as well.
According to Autocar readers the Lancia Delta Integrale is the hottest hatch of all. The poll opened in April and 3500 votes were registered. Following the Lancia in second was the Peugeot 205 GTi, with the Mk1 Ford Focus RS in third.
Chas Hallett, editor said “It’s no surprise Autocar readers have voted for the Lancia, when launched back in the 80’s it very quickly acquired a large and enthusiastic fan base founded on its rally success. Interestingly, it is the oldest car in the Top 10 – proving age is no barrier to desire.”
Except it wasn’t the oldest car in the top 10, because in fourth place on the poll was the 1970s Mk1 Golf GTI.
The full top 10 list is available after the jump with the Autocar press release. In the comments section why don’t tell us which you think is the best hot hatch ever.
As a special bonus, too, there’s a bunch of Lancia Delta images to help you reminisce when it was hip to be square. Not all images are strictly HF Integrale models, but, when you have to trawl the archives beggars can’t be choosers.
A new sales record for the month of May was set this year. New vehicle sales totalled 89,218, and improvement of 578 sales from the previous May record set in 2008.
“This is a record May result and shows the new vehicle market is maintaining a strong sales momentum,” said FCAI Chief Executive Andrew McKellar, “All vehicle segments increased during the month, demonstrating a genuine recovery in the marketplace.”
Once again the SUV segment was the leading category, followed by passenger cars and light commercials. There has also been an increase in private buyers taking delivery of new cars in the last month.
As usual Toyota sits atop the sales charts, followed by Holden and Ford. So far in 2010 a total of 422,446 new vehicles have been sold. A boost of almost 20% on 2009 figures.
Unconfirmed Australian pricing for the Volkswagen Golf R has been published on the VWWatercooled forum. And, if you’re in the queue for the latest and hottest performance Golf the news is good. Very good. This is the alleged list pricing:
3 Door Manual – $48,490
3 Door DSG – $50,990
5 Door Manual – $49,990
5 Door DSG – $52,490
Given the previous list pricing of the old R32 (3dr manual $54,990) and the current Audi S3 (3dr manual $66,403 $68,000) – the S3 is the car the new Golf R is largely based on – that’s some very sharp pencils being used by Volkswagen Australia. Although it is worth noting that those Golf R figures do not include any on road or delivery costs.
Basic specification and options pricing for the Golf R emerged on AUSmotive back in March shortly after a three door model was spotted in Fremantle. It now appears the full pricing for the Golf R range is available prior to official launch (summarised below).
The photo above was taken in Tasmania earlier today and forms part of a Golf R and Golf GTD fleet which will be used for the national media launch over the next few days.
[Thanks to Mick & Ben for the tips]
Like the all-paw Golf R the Golf GTD is about to be set free in Australian showrooms (they’ve been here since early May). To help those who are waiting on the “diesel GTI” here’s some pics sourced from the Volkswagen UK press archives. Some details seen in these pics might differ from GTDs sold locally. There are currently no plans to sell a three door version of the GTD in Australia. Apart from that, this is pretty much what we’ll be getting in Australia.
Remember, with the GTD being such a new kid on the block, it is not covered by Volkswagen’s current free on roads promotion which expires at the end of this month. (Thanks to Ben for this tip.)
As for tips, here’s one for our Tasmanian readers. Expect to see a few Golf Rs and GTDs roaming the roads of your state in the next day or two.
UPDATE 9 June: Unconfirmed Australian list pricing for the GTD has surfaced this morning:
6spd manual – $39,290
6spd DSG – $41,790
(5 door only, plus delivery fees and on road costs)
Mark Webber’s series of track previews filmed from the Red Bull Racing simulator have been a great insight before each Grand Prix this year. What we haven’t been given is a closer look at the simulator itself. It’d be every gamers dream to have a rig as complex and realistic as the RBR machine seems to be. If that’s you, well, you’re in luck.
With this clip Webber takes us behind the scenes look at Red Bull’s driving toy. Don’t worry, its not like F1’s newest perfect match Mark and Sebastian get all the fun. Shown above is young Aussie driver Daniel Ricciardo and the Scuderia Toro Rosso team also get their time behind the virtual wheel, as well.
Stay tuned for Webber’s preview of the Canadian Grand Prix, which should be online in the next day or two.
This video review of the Volvo C3 Polestar Performance Concept is a welcome complement to the text based feedback we got last month. Seeing the car move around the track and hearing its exhaust note bring a new dimension to the madness that is this car. Mike Duff from Autocar was the lucky one who got to throw the C30 around Volvo’s Gothenburg proving ground. It wasn’t long until he started throwing around words like “Evo” and “GT-R”. Meanwhile, here at AUSmotive HQ, we’ve started throwing around words like “build it Volvo” and “now”.
Oh, at idle that 400bhp five pot sounds a bit ordinary. But once the C30 is moving and the engine is snarling it sounds superb.