Categories
Volkswagen

First Volkswagen Scirocco R arrives in Australia

Volkswagen Scirocco R

Back in March AUSmotive exclusively revealed news that the Volkswagen Scirocco could be imported to Australia under Federal Government’s Specialist & Enthusiast Vehicle Scheme. Under the conditions of the limited approval only two models of Scirocco are eligible, the top of the range Scirocco R and the Scirocco 2.0T.

As the image above shows the first Scirocco R to be imported to Australia under this scheme has now arrived in Sydney. The car was shown at an invitation only preview this morning at Scuderia Imports in conjunction with City Performance Centre.

AUSmotive could not be there but thanks to readers Eddie and Nathan we can bring you these pics. The Scirocco is a fantastic looking car and one has to question why Volkswagen Australia continues to sit on its hands in regards to official imports of this model.

As to the future of this first Australian Scirocco R, AUSmotive understands the owner has big plans for the car. Once it’s ready to go, expect to hear about it—it should be very special and definitely unique.

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Categories
Formula 1 McLaren

Check out Jenson’s blocked sidepod

Jenson Button

Jenson Button’s Monaco Grand Prix came to an abrupt end on his second lap due to a blocked radiator air intake on his car’s left sidepod. The offending item has a small hole in the middle and is normally used in conjunction with a blower to help cool the car when stationary either in pit lane or when forming up on the starting grid. However the hole is not large enough to allow the car to operate at optimum condition at full race pace and this caused Button’s engine to overheat and fail.

Thanks to some sharp work by Ross Harper you can see an image of Jenson’s car showing the blocked sidepod by following this link to Flickr.

Categories
MINI Challenge

Points amendment for MINI Challenge

MINI Challenge

MINI Challenge organisers have issued a press release with a revised points table following a post-event decision from CAMS. The third race of the Round 3 meet at Queensland Raceway was red flagged short of full race distance due to Sarah Harley’s accident.

CAMS officials have contravened the Stewards’ original decision now stating that the race leader did not complete 75% of the full race distance. Therefore only half points can be awarded. Chris Alajajian and Paul Stokell remain in the first two places on the points table, but Sean Carter replaces Peter McNiven in third.

The statement from MINI, along with a revised championship ladder, is available after the break. MINI Challenge action resumes at the Townsville 400, 9–11 July.

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Categories
MINI Challenge

Team Australia set sights on Spain’s MINI Challenge

MINI Challenge - Team Australia

The MINI Challenge has many great aspects about it. One is the fact you can buy a MINI John Cooper Works from your local MINI dealer that is pretty damn close in performance to the track-only racecars. Another is that the series is run in a number of countries. This aspect provides opportunities for cross pollination of competitors.

In addition to the Australian championship there are MINI Challenge competitions currently held in Germany, Spain, UK, Brazil and Saudi Arabia. And it is MINI Challenge Spain we focus on here. Next month at the Jarama circuit near Madrid Paul Stokell and Chris Alajajian will combine forces to form MINI Challenge Team Australia.

Paul and Chris, normally direct competitors, earned the right to represent Australia due to finishing first and second in the 2009 Australian MINI Challenge championship.

The guys leave for Spain at the end of this month and will prepare for a three race program starting on 5 June. At the wheel of their specially designed Team Australia MINI each driver will compete in a 20 lap sprint race on the first day of racing. On day two they will share duties in a 50 lap enduro.

Chris Brown, Marketing Manager MINI Australia says there is more to come as well, “These money-can’t-buy opportunities to race overseas are key benefits of being involved in an international category like MINI Challenge. This is only the beginning of a broader international outlook for MINI Challenge.”

Alajajian is excited to be working with Stokell, “Normally Paul and I are the greatest of rivals so it will be different working as a team but I think this will give us an opportunity to learn from each other, driving the same car for the same team.”

“The main objective is to be consistent and show pace and I think if we both have that same objective we can offer a great package for MINI Challenge Team Australia. I really like the style of this ‘teams’ racing format, it makes me even hungrier to get out there and post some top results,” Alajajian said.

Both Alajajian and Stokell are in good form leading the 2010 championship table and here’s hoping the lads can put in a good effort for Team Australia in Spain. In exchange it is hoped a Spanish team will take place in the final round of the Australian MINI Challenge at Homebush in December.

The full press release from MINI can be viewed after the break. Also available is a YouTube video of a 2009 MINI Challenge racecar competing in the recent CER Jarama event.

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Categories
Lotus Motorsports Video

Green hell

Green hell

Ever wondered what you would do if your car caught fire and you didn’t know until it was almost too late. Imagine some Benny Hill music with this clip from last weekend’s Nürburgring 24 hour race and you could almost consider it amusing at first. That is, until you put yourself in the shoes of the driver, Evo journo Richard Green. This is one lucky escape and thankfully Green suffered no lasting effects from his dramas. The same can’t be said for the Lotus Exige, though, which ended up a molten mess.

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Categories
Fifth Gear

Fifth Gear will be back on UK TV screens in June

Fifth Gear is coming back

Rumors of Fifth Gear‘s return to TV screens first surfaced last December, just a few months after it was confirmed the show had been axed. It’s now official, Fifth Gear will be back on UK television screens in a few weeks time.

According to the Channel Five website the new series will premiere on Thursday 3 June. However, the futures of former presenters Tom Ford and Tim Shaw appear uncertain. A snippet from the Fifth Gear website reads, “The 17th series of the show will see your favouite hosts Tiff Needell, Vicki Butler-Henderson, Jason Plato and Jonny Smith return to your screens.”

As far as Tim Shaw is concerned AUSmotive hopes there is no comeback, but Tom Ford would be a loss. Aside from that the comeback episode sounds promising with Lewis Hamilton taking time away from mssaging his ego to test a new supercar—gee I wonder what that could be.

Vicki and Tiff will be showing their talents in a hot hatch test featuring some mighty fine machines. They’ll be taking to the track in the Ford Focus RS, Mégane Renaultsport 250, Mazda3 MPS and Volkswagen Scirocco R.

However, the test AUSmotive is most looking forward to is Jason Plato’s review of the new Ferrari 458 Italia. Regular followers of the AUSmotive twitter feed will have already seen a preview of his thoughts. Can’t wait to see the full story.

Having Fifth Gear back is a good thing. At its best Fifth Gear provides a credible and genuine alternative to the bells and whistles entertainment of Top Gear. Fingers crossed the new season of Fifth Gear can find its best form. No drivel from Tim Shaw will be a fine start.

[Source: Five.tv]

Categories
Formula 1 Red Bull Racing

Sir Frank says, “No bull, I was wrong about Webber”

Mark Webber, Red Bull Racing

Thanks to dominant wins in Spain and Monaco, Australia’s Mark Webber is riding a the crest of Formula One’s wave right now. It’s a fickle place to be, certainly, but when the plaudits come in this sport you take them. Sir Frank Williams has endured a few disappointing years, and there are no signs of real improvement. Sir Frank has recently reflected that he may have got his assessment of Mark Webber wrong. He also reckons Webber is now the real deal.

Mark drove for Williams in 2005 and 2006, at the time it was seen as a great career move. Unfortunately for Sir Frank and Mark, as well, the results didn’t come. Webber achieved a single podium in his first year (third at Monaco) and he could only muster a miserable seven points in the entire 2006 season. Williams was happy to let Mark go believing the Australian was part of the problem. Now, he’s not so sure.

“When we had him obviously our car was a disappointment and we felt he was part of the problem. He probably wasn’t actually, with hindsight. The major point was that the car had problems,” Williams said.

Sir Frank also senses that Mark has matured as a driver, “He always used to put himself under too much pressure, but now I don’t see any evidence of that at all. He looks pretty calm in himself and what you’re seeing is real.”

Does Williams think Webber has the pace to beat highly fancied teammate Sebastien Vettel over the entire year? Well, he’s sitting on the fence there, “The end of the year will show it, they’ve got equal cars. Mark’s obviously on top form, and assuming Vettel is on top form, it’s pretty even stevens.”

[Source: ITV]

Categories
Aston Martin

One-77 multiplied by 10

Aston Martin One-77

Word on the interwebz is that some cashed up dude has put in an order for 10 Aston Martin One-77 hypercars. An order of that magnitude represents 13% of the car’s total production run. A bit greedy, perhaps?

Even if I could, I’m not sure I would. But then, if I did have a lazy $20M or so burning a hole in my pocket I’m not sure I’d spend it all on a a bunch of One-77s. I guess that’s the point, though, Mr Greedy Bunch, if he does actually exist, probably has a lot more Middle Eastern oil money to burn than you or I could ever imagine.

Apparently Aston Martin say they have pre-orders for 65 One-77s. They won’t confirm the order of 10 cars is true, so we can only speculate if the 84% that are already spoken for includes the bulk order.

[Source: Top Gear]

Categories
Audi Volkswagen

Volkswagen says, “No Polo R for you!”

No Polo R for you

Just last week motorauthority.com brought us this Polo R rendering. It looks great, too. Speculation of a new hot Polo from R GmbH had been building for some time. However, according to a new report plans for a Polo R have been shelved, if they ever existed.

Talk of a 160kW Polo R certainly sounded enticing. However, Dr Ernst Linder, Polo’s technical boss, poured cold water over that idea, “I would say there have been some ideas about, but more in the press than the company itself because we have our GTI and within our company Audi has an S1.”

Linder also reckons 160kW is unlikely from the 1.4-litre twincharged engine that he says will power the Audi S1, “I think with the 136kW in the Audi S1 I think the engine is reaching the borderline. I think you could get some more out of it but I don’t think anymore than 10 or 20kW.”

Hmm, so Linder has spilled the beans on the power output of the S1, at 136kW it’s a modest increase on the 132kW found in the Polo GTI. Has he told us anything else? Well, as it happens he might have. There has been a lot of guesswork in regards to the drivetrain for the S1. An Audi bestowed with an “S” badge must have quattro, right?

“If we put much more horsepower in the [Polo], we need something like four-wheel-drive. This is a technical feature that is very expensive,” said Linder. Sure, that’s not a definitive answer to the direction Audi will take, but it does tend to confirm the thoughts of those who say the S1 will be front-wheel drive only.

After all that Linder did deliver some good news for those who like a few more herbs to go with their Volkswagens. There will be a Jetta R, although he didn’t give anything away on that one. The next Jetta is still around 12 months away, so an R model could be even longer. Given the front-wheel drive Scirocco R and all-wheel drive Golf R use what is essentially the same EA113 2.0 litre turbo it wouldn’t be a long stretch to expect the same engine to arrive in the Jetta R.

AUSmotive’s educated guess is the Jetta R would be powered by the front wheels only. The Scirocco R seems to handle this task with some degree of competence and a 4motion system would rob the Jetta R of valuable boot space.

[Source: drive.com.au]

Categories
Volkswagen

Autocar drive the new Polo GTI

Volkswagen Polo GTI

UK mag Autocar are one of the first folks to get their hands on the new Polo GTI. With 132kW, a super-quick 7-speed DSG and a sub 1200kg kerb weight the baby GTI has the specs to provide one hell of a ride. But does it?

This paragraph from the Autocar review sums up their thoughts:

“The Polo will only ever partly allow disengagement of its stability control and even on the road it’s easy to trouble it. The GTI rolls a bit, grips, reaches its limit, the tyres squeal so you know about it, the body is a bit unsettled, an ESP light flashes, then you just sit it out until the corner ends and you head off again. Competent, but very sterile.”

Hmm, that’s not what we want to hear. AUSmotive will reserve judgement until it drives the Polo GTI, but the level of anticipation has been dulled a little.

You can check out the video review after the jump, or read the text version by following the link below.

[Source: Autocar]

UPDATE 26 May: A new report has been filed by Evo magazine. It’s a bit more promising, too, especially the closing line about a manual transmission. Although it is worth this directly contradicts an email conversation AUSmotive had with a Volkswagen AG representative last week that stated there is not sufficient space for a manual gearbox to fit in a Polo GTI. However, here at AUSmotive we want to believe a manual Polo GTI will be a reality, so let’s all hold hands and think happy thoughts.

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Categories
Motor Shows Skoda

Wörthersee: Skoda Fabia & Octavia vRS+ Concepts

Skoda @ Worthersee 2010

Volkswagen offspring Skoda didn’t want to be left out of the Wörthersee action, so they rocked up with a few S2000 rally cars and a couple of new vRS+ concept vehicles. The one you see above is the Fabia vRS+ Concept. The other, the Octavia vRS+ Concept, can be seen below.

Sadly, these two models have been only enhanced cosmetically. Indeed, Jozef Kabaň, Head of Design at Å koda Auto, explains the thinking behind the Fabia vRS+, “The two-colour combination highlights the car’s unique architecture – the green colour is a reference to our involvement in the IRC rally programme and the unique connection with the Fabia Super 2000. The grey represents the vehicle’s sporty expression and simplicity combined with design details.”

This was Skoda’s first appearance at the annual Wörthersee show. The twin vRS+ models are a promising start, but let’s hope they make some performance mods next year.

More after the jump.

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Categories
Audi Video

The north loop

Nurburgring Nordschleife

The Nürburgring Nordschleife (or north loop) is one of the greatest stretches of tarmac in the world. Without doubt. As you know the Nürburgring 24 hour race was held last weekend and it has kept AUSmotive HQ busy posting articles for AUSringers.

So, to help share the love AUSmotive invites you on a YouTube lap of the Nordschleife after the break. The car is an Audi R8, the driver is experienced Nürburgring racer Willie Moore. It’s one of the better clips around as Willie gives some great advice while driving the circuit.

The video was posted by Kiwi Team Nürburgring. They’re a bunch of guys that make the trek to the Ring every year to compete in the 24 hour race. This year they piloted their two Honda Civic Type Rs to a one-two class win. Well done them!

Continue reading “The north loop”