Towards the end of October Volkswagen announced it intended to finalise a 49.9% stake in Porsche by year’s end. This deal was confirmed overnight and Volkswagen are licking their lips at the thought of controlling the world’s most profitable car maker.
A full statement from Volkswagen AG can be read below, but here’s a small teaser, “The combination of the two companies follows a compelling strategic, industrial and financial logic.”
The release continues, “With a return on sales of 10.3 percent, Porsche AG is the world’s most profitable automobile manufacturer. Volkswagen will in future participate in this business success through its stake.
“As a result, the annual operating profit of the Volkswagen Group is expected to increase by some €700 million in the long term.”
Big news in the car game last month with numbers increasing by a massive 20% on sales registered in November 2008. Following a more moderate sales boost in October, the FCAI is shouting from the roof tops that the worst of doom and gloom is over, “This is an extraordinary result that provides further evidence that the market and the broader Australian economy are showing signs of recovery,” FCAI Chief Executive Andrew McKellar said.
Although, McKellar does acknowledge his colleagues have been given a nice helping hand, “The exceptional November figures could not have been achieved without the Federal Government’s small business tax break,” he said.
Seems as though business buyers like SUVs and light commercial vehicles, with segment figures increasing by 44% and 39% respectively. Overall new vehicle sales for 2009 tally 848,620. Despite the good news from the last two months, this figure is still 9.3% down on 2008 sales.
Nothing new to report in market leaders, so that means the top three sellers are Toyota, Holden and Ford.
Silverstone will host the British Grand Prix well into the future after pouncing on the demise of the Donington disaster. The owners of Silverstone, the British Racing Drivers’ Club, announced a new 17 year deal today.
Speaking at a news conference former world champion driver and BRDC president Damon Hill said, “The title of Silverstone as home of motor sport has come true. It is a place for all motor sport. Everyone in the BRDC loves motor sport and we are looking forward to the MotoGP as well as the British Grand Prix.”
A provisional 2010 F1 calendar has already been released and will be finalised later this week. Should everything remain as it is now the 2010 British Grand Prix will be held on 11 July.
With a secure deal in place, it is expected the BRDC will now undertake redevlopments to improve the facilities at Silverstone.
The best ideas are often the simplest, and this theory is proved by the Eko Traffic Light. Just by looking at the image above you can probably tell what it does and how to read it.
Just in case you haven’t worked it out the “ecological & economic traffic light concept” informs drivers how much time is remaining before the red light turns to green, through the use of a simple clockwise countdown system. In theory, this allows motorists to anticipate the change of lights so they can move away with better fuel efficiency. Ideally, people could turn their engines off thereby saving fuel and reducing emissions.
Pretty cool, huh. Apparently so, as the judges from the Red Dot Design Awards gave the Eko a rubber stamp in their 2009 round of back patting.
As with most good plans, though, the theory doesn’t always marry with practice. Sadly, anticipation and even basic awareness are characteristics missing by many drivers. Then, well, there’s the obvious isn’t there. It must have been the elephant in the room at Eko HQ.
Was the Eko Traffic Light really designed by someone who cares about reducing emissions and stress. Or was it just designed by a hoon who likes to zoom away at traffic lights grands prix?
The final round of the 2009 MINI Challenge saw the series arrive at a new street circuit in Sydney’s Olympic precinct. On paper, the track layout look quite bland, but in reality there’s plenty there to keep the drivers on their toes.
This was something series leader Paul Stokell certainly discovered in the first race. Needing just 24 points this weekend to wrap up the 2009 title Stokell made it hard for himself registering a DNF in Race 1.
Former Australian Touring Car Champion Glenn Seton returned to the MINI Challenge at Homebush and showed the field a clean pair of heels in Race 1. Chris Alajajian finished second, while Scott Bargwanna rounded out the top three.
Racing in the Uber-Star Car this weekend was current Le Mans champion David Brabham. Showing his adaptability, Brabham brought his MINI home in fourth place in the first race.
Race 2 was won by Chris Alajajian, with Scott Bargwanna and Nathan Caratti not far behind. Rounding out a great weekend, Glenn Seton won again in Race 3, with the consistent duo of Bargwanna and Alajajian finding their way to the podium again.
While Stokell didn’t have a great weekend, he did bag the points he needed. Scoring 54 points in all, that was enough to ecure the 2009 MINI Challenge title. Congratulations to Paul and the DecoRug team. Meanwhile, Glenn Seton and Chris Alajajian finished the round tied on 162 points, but Seton got the overall victory on account of his two races win. A mere six points behind was Scott Bargwanna in third.
You can see the second part of Race 1 after the jump, along with a brief interview featuring David Brabham. Highlights of this round will be on Channel 7 nationally on Saturday 19 December, check your local guides for details.
Don’t look now, but Guy Ritchie is heading straight at you, seemingly out of control. Well, according to the Mirror, that was the common theme among the Top Gear camera crew this week as the movie man went through an impressive four cars during his appearance on the leading motoring program.
A fan who attended the taping of the show explains that Ritchie, featuring in the Star In A Reasonably Priced Car segment, was unable to handle the wet conditions and showed a hunger for trashing Chevrolet Lacettis.
“Guy chose a really tough day to try to set a fast lap,” said the fan, “He told the show’s presenters it was a wet track and he had ended up breaking four cars over the course of the day, including destroying one of the gearboxes.”
Trivia buffs of the show will be interested to know that there were four cars on hand. To the best of my knowledge it has only ever been mentioned that one back up car exists.
UK viewers will be able to see Ritchie’s shenanagins in the fourth episode of the current series, which airs on UK screen in just a few hours.
This week Audi launched its latest fat saloon, the A8. Some might describe the A8 as ‘the third way’, avoiding the default choice of BMW’s 7 series and the big Benz S Class. Arguably, the A8 isn’t even a third way any more, Audi having craftily ensured that a variety of Variety starlets are caught by paps, sans knickers, stepping out of the Ingolstadt liner in front of waiting cameras at every opportunity. Left of centre is now the mainstream and certainly this is how Audi want you to think about it.
In the three horse race that the large executive car market really is, it’s actually then in last place, and it’s hard to describe it as anything less than stuck behind the barriers while the S Class trots around the winner’s enclosure. Audi knows this, which is why they try so fah-king hard to make you interested in the A8. Cutting edge Bauhaus design has dominated Audi cars for a decade or more now but then, just as they begin their colouring in of the new design, the new Jag XJ arrives and takes the beauty crown. Fretting, the Audi exterior design team put down their crayons and gave up, leaving it identical to the last one. Instead the designers threw whatever budget they saved on outside design on the gadgets inside, shoving touch screen this and widescreen that into every soft touch surface that you’d care to look at. A few gadgets will surely get the punters in.
Remember the name Daniel Ricciardo, it could be the next Australian name in Formula One if the 20 year old Western Australian’s career continues on its current trajectory. Earlier this year Daniel won the British Formula 3 title with the Volkswagen powered Carlin team. He dominated the series winning seven of the 13 races.
Surprisingly, Ricciardo also dominated the time sheets on day three of F1 testing at Jerez where he was driving an RB5-02 for Red Bull Racing. Completing 77 laps in all his best time of 1:17.418 was almost one second faster than the rest of the field. Not only that, it is the quickest lap recorded at Jerez for all of 2009.
“These last three days have been an incredible experience for me,†said Daniel. “I would like to thank Red Bull for giving me this great opportunity, which has made me even more determined to make it into Formula 1 one day. I know it was just a test, but seeing my name on the top of today’s timesheet was really something special.”
Red Bull were testing aerodynamic components for their 2010 machine and who knows, maybe it won’t be long until Mark Webber has a mate atop the F1 podium.
More pics from Daniel and Red Bull Racing at Jerez can be seen after the jump. For background info there is also a press release from Volkswagen Motorsport announcing Ricciardo’s 2009 British F3 success.
Kimi Raikonnen will take part in 12 of the 13 rounds of next year’s World Rally Championship. The news was confirmed earlier today by Citroën Sport, who announced Raikonnen will form part of their Citroën Junior Team racing in C4 WRCs.
According to Kimi this deal fulfils a life long ambition, “I always wanted to compete in rally, especially in the World Rally Championship at some point in my career.
“Thanks to Red Bull, I have the opportunity to drive the best car of the series with the Citroën C4. This is a new but very exciting challenge. For the moment we have a one-year contract and we will see how it goes for the future. I am really looking forward to testing the car and taking the start of the first rally.”
Raikkonen took part in the Rally of Finland earlier this year, behind the wheel of a Fiat (pictured above) and, well, things didn’t exactly work out for the best. Here’s hopeing he keeps it shiny side up in 2010.
Next Thursday marks 20 years since the first Victorian Government funded TAC commercial was broadcast on television screens. You can see that ad above, which is just as powerful now as it was two decades ago.
To mark that event, and to honour the lives lost on our roads, Victorian Premier, John Brumby, is asking motorists “Shine a Light on Road Trauma” by switching on their low beam headlights.
Some 8,200 lives have been lost Victoria’s roads since the TAC campaign was launched and Brumby is asking for you to do your bit, “We need the community’s help to reduce these devastating numbers,” he said.
“Drivers, passengers, cyclists and pedestrians can all play a part in being responsible when on the roads. I call on all Victorians to turn on their headlights on Thursday 10 December to show your commitment to reducing road trauma.”
Earlier in the week the FIA released the full list of teams that had been signed off for the 2010 season. At that time Peter Sauber had nothing to smile about as his team was not on the list. He remained confident, though, that his team’s pit lane access would be granted. And so it has been, as the brief statement from the FIA below tells.
For his part Sauber can’t wait to get on with the job. “This is excellent news for the workforce in Hinwil. After many weeks of uncertainty, we have finally secured our place on the grid for 2010. Now we can enter into concrete negotiations with drivers and sponsors,” he said.
BMW’s conditions of sale dictated that the deal could not be finalised until the newly formed Sauber team was given a spot on the grid. Expect further details on the confirmation of the BMW-Sauber sale to be announced shortly.
The Renault quitting F1 rumours first emerged around a month ago. But, then… silence. Until now. According to autosport.com Renault execs have been discussing the company’s future in Formula One, with the very high possibility that the team will be sold to Dave Richards’ Prodrive outfit.
Prodrive have been flirting with the idea of joining the F1 posse for some time now, and perhaps all the planets are about to align for them. With Richards owning a stake in Aston Martin there is even a slim chance that we could see a team under the Aston Martin banner in F1. That would be something!
A Prodrive spokesman put their wishes in very clear terms, as reported on autosport.com: “We cannot comment on the Renault situation, but it is well known that our intention is to get back into F1.”
Despite increasing speculation Renault’s F1 team are busy working on preparing the car for the 2010 season, being one of the many teams currently testing in Jerez. Several staffing issues have also been finalised in a bid to improve its chances for success next year.
