Categories
Volkswagen

Volkswagen Golf brochure – 1980

1980 Volkswagen Golf brochure

Earlier in the year I posted an old Australian-spec Mini brochure, this time, it is Volkswagen’s turn. After the break you can view a full 24 page brochure on the 1980 UK-spec Mk1 Golf.

As with any car brochure that is around 30 years old there are some selling points highlighted that, today, seem rather quaint. For example, “Anatomically designed front seats padded with a new full-foam material that absorbs and diminishes the effect of bumpy roads.”

Or, let’s not forget the luxury of a heater! “No matter what the temperature outside, you can control it inside with Golf’s three speed blower, mixing heat and ventilation in just the right proportions.”

It’s quite amazing, however, that just a few years after the Mk1 Golf was launched the bold claim of 3 million sales was already being made when this brochure went to print (August 1979).

The brochure includes specs from all the models offered to UK customers at the time, including the all conquering GTI model. Other models presented are the Golf L/LD, Golf LS/GLS and the Golf GLS Auto.

From a design point of view, it is worth observing that these were pre-Photoshop days. In the GTI spread above, for example, the image has been flipped to make the car appear to be a right-hand drive model. Tell tale signs are the placement of the fuel cap and GTI front grille badge which are shown on the opposite sides to where they actually are.

Mind, some poor bloke in pre-press did a pretty good job of cutting out the film of the GTI badge so that the letters at least read the right way. Although, that was too difficult a task to do for the shot of the internal gauges in the lower centre console, as the larger 2000px super image reveals.

Categories
Formula 1 Motorsports News

Jean Todt – It’s good to be the king

Jean Todt

Mel Brooks has just been voted in as the new President of the FIA. Okay, that’s not entirely true, but Brooks’ look-alike, former Ferrari F1 chief, Jean Todt, is the new top dog at the FIA.

Todt easily beat former world rally champion, Ari Vatanen, to the highest office in motorsport and, for what it is worth, he has Bernie Ecclestone’s approval, for now, “As far as Formula One is concerned, Todt’s the right man for the job,” Ecclestone has been quoted as saying in The Times. “He knows all our problems and I’m sure he is not going to interfere at all. Jean is calmer than Max and is good for everyone, although Max did a very good job and we are going to miss him.”

The former Ferrari connection at the FIA might get even stronger with reports suggesting seven time F1 world champion Michael Schumacher could be courted by Todt to fill a management role in Formula One.

The end of Max Mosley’s reign as FIA President won’t be causing too many tears I don’t think, but the jury remains out on Todt’s potential. His record in team manager is impeccable, but how will he go when his responsibilites are not so insular? We’ll just have to wait and see.

[Source: FIA & TimesOnline]

Categories
News Top Gear Top Gear Australia

Top Gear Australia – now with Nine speed box

Top Gear Australia moves to Channel 9

Viewers of Top Gear Australia will be tuning into a new channel in 2010 after it was confirmed today that Channel Nine has negotiated the rights away from SBS. The switch of channels completes a quinella for PBL Media, publishers of Top Gear Australia magazine.

Little surprise, though, that Nine supremo and Australian television heavyweight David Gyngell is excited by the new deal with BBC Worldwide, “We are absolutely delighted to be working together with one of the world’s great broadcasting powerhouses on a program of this quality and wide appeal,” he said.

“Top Gear is quite simply an outstanding television product.”

Details of the cast members following the channel move are undecided, although it appears the Shane Warne rumour was false. Steve Pizzati, a host under the SBS regime, has given little away on his twitter account, other than to say “RE: TGA – Will let you all know when there is something to report. Promise.”

The new Channel Nine deal also includes the rights to the UK series of Top Gear, which is expected to begin Series 14 on UK screens from 15 November. Details and scheduling are yet to be confirmed for Australian audiences, but it is expected Nine will start screening episodes of Top Gear early next year.

[Source: ABC Online & The Motor Report]

Categories
Honda

Honda Civic Type R MUGEN announced for UK

Honda Civic Type R MUGEN

Customers in the UK are set to get their hands on one of the most exclusive Honda Civics ever made. MUGEN Euro have finalised development of the Civic Type R MUGEN and will be producing a limited run of up to 20 cars.

Exclusivity doesn’t come cheap, however, with driveaway pricing set at £38,599 (AU$69,100).

“Each Type R MUGEN will be an exclusive, hand-built race car for the road,” says Hiroki Toyoda, Vice President of MUGEN EURO. “When we launched the Civic Type RR saloon in Japan, we sold out of all 300 units in just six minutes. Given the interest we have already had from car enthusiasts in the UK and abroad, we hope to repeat that achievement.”

Power is boosted to 240PS courtesy of mild engine work, including new camshafts, revised air intake, uprated pistons, a custom stainless steel exhaust, and, of course, a tweaked ECU to maximise all the modifications. As well as power being up by around 20%, torque also benefits with a 10% improvement across the rev range.

But there’s more! The extra power is reigned in by a limited slip diff and revised suspension. Four-pot brakes also help bring things to a halt when required.

There’s a few cosmetic tweaks to the body kit, too, but the only thing you’ll really notice is the take no prisoners rear wing. It is massive, and, to be honest, just a wee bit daft. Although, I’m sure an engineer somewhere has created some figures to justify its existence.

The cars will be available in one colour only—Honda’s traditional Championship White and are set off nicely by forged alloy wheels, which tip the scales a smidge under 8kg.

Okay, we’ve already established that the Civic Type R MUGEN is a lot of money, but here’s the best part. Once you have signed your life away you get the opportunity to work with MUGEN Euro during your car’s production. You can have your selection of options from the Honda product brochures and you can also nominate your driving preferences to the MUGEN crew who will remap your ECU accordingly.

You can get a quick teaser of how the car drives over at Autocar.

Categories
Ferrari Motorsports

Vicki Butler-Henderson all set for Ferrari race debut

Vicki Butler-Henderson

It’s only a few days since the demise of television show Fifth Gear was announced, but former presenter Vicki Butler-Henderson has already found something to do in her spare time. This weekend VBH will be making her Ferrari race debut in an F430 Challenge in the GT Cup finale at Brands Hatch.

Sounds like she’s a bit excited, too “This is a dream come true! To race the F430 Challenge with FF Corse at Brands Hatch in the Finale of the GT Cup is incredible! It will be my first race in a Ferrari but thankfully I know my way around Brands Hatch so I’m very confident I’ll be challenging for a strong finish,”said Vicki.

Nice work, if you can get it. More after the jump.

Categories
Audi

Let’s get physical

Audi tv - Lightweight

It’s no secret that as modern cars get “better” they get heavier. Airbags, ESP systems, pyrotechnic seatbelts and the like are all wonderful things, but, for all their life saving abilities they are counter productive to maintaining efficiency and reducing fuel consumption. Of course, today’s market demands mean you can’t simply drop such essential items. Forget about the engineering reasons, the marketing department simply wouldn’t allow it.

So, if a manufacturer decides that reducing weight is an outcome they would like to achieve they need to start thinking a bit harder. This brief video from Audi tv shows some of the techniques and methodologies they are employing to help produce lighter cars.

Obviously, weight is the enemy of cars developed for motorsport and the A3 24h Street (shown above), over 200kg lighter than its production counterpart, is spoken about towards the end of the film. Featuring a 2.0 TFSI engine, this car is based on the package prepared by Audi for the Nürburgring 24 hour race.

Enjoy the clip after the jump.

[Thanks to Chris for the tip]

Categories
Lexus

Lexus LFA photo gallery

2010 Lexus LFA

If you’ve got a spare AU$600K (€368K) you could be one of the 500 owners of the newest Japanese supercar, the Lexus LFA. That’s right, you’ll need 600 large and worldwide production is limited to just 500 examples. Wow, that’s a lot of dosh for a first supercar effort from a Toyota that’s a little bit fancy. You could almost buy a new entry level Corolla every day for a month with that money. Hmm, on second thoughts, then, the LFA seems like the value proposition.

Okay, so well over half a million bucks—what do you get for that money? Well, first of all you get a slightly edgy looking coupé. Despite likely first impressions, I reckon this is one car that will look better in the real world, rather than the virtual one you are seeing now. You also get 412kW (552bhp) and 480Nm from the 4.8 litre V10. There’s a six speed sequential box and liberal smatterings of carbon fibre, inside and out. Stopping power is provided by carbon ceramic brakes.

Oh, yeah, almost forgot, the LFA has one of the coolest animated electronic dash clusters offered for sale yet.

The LFA weighs 1480kg and the front-mid engine layout offers a weight distribution of 48:52 per cent, front-to-rear. To put some performance numbers to all those facts, the LFA can propel itself to 100km/h in a very rapid 3.7 seconds before reaching a 325km/h v-max. That is properly quick!

The lads at Autocar have been lucky enough to flog a couple of LFAs around the Nürburgring Nordschleife and on public roads, as well. They reckon the car is beautifully put together and as a driving experience it is a pretty tidy bit of kit. Only its over-assisted steering lets the car down a bit.

Along with a heap of pics (click on an image to load wallpaper friendly super images) and the official press release you can also see a couple of YouTube clips, courtesy of Autocar. When you watch those you will see that perhaps the best thing about the LFA is the beautiful, beautiful noise its ripping V10 powerplant makes. Nine thousand revs have barely sounded better!

Categories
Porsche Volkswagen

Volkswagen ready to gobble up half of Porsche

Volkswagen-Porsche merger

When last we spoke about the Volkswagen-Porsche ownership ordeal it was thought that Volkswagen would only assume a 42% stake in the iconic German sports car maker by the end of 2009.

However, since that arrangement was signed off the two newly weds have been getting on so well that it has now been decided Volkswagen will up it’s stake to 49.9% by year’s end.

The full merger of the two companies is still planned to be finalised by 2011. There’s a full statement from Volkswagen AG after the jump.

Categories
Top Gear Top Gear Australia

WTF – Shane Warne to host Top Gear Australia?

Shane Warne

Wow, I didn’t ever see the day where Shane Warne would feature on AUSmotive, but the Herald Sun is reporting that Warney is set to host a revamped version of Top Gear Australia which would move from current broadcaster SBS and air on Channel Nine. Details are sketchy at the moment, although it is reported that a deal for a six episode series is expected to be signed off in days.

Watch this space!

[Source: news.com.au | Thanks to Mick for the tip]

UPDATE: According to ABC Online, a BBC exec has described the suggestion of Shane Warne fronting Top Gear Australia as “utter nonsense!”

Categories
Green Machines

Trabant makes a MINI

Trabant nt

This is the Trabant nT, a new concept car from those former East German funsters. Shaking off the old technology tag in a big, big way this 21st century Trabbie is an all electric powered beast. It even has a solar panel on its roof, which provides enough power to run the car’s accessories and so on.

The car should have a range of around 160km after being fully charged and, if you so desire, you could reach a v-max of 130km/h. Dizzy heights indeed!

I reckon it actually looks pretty cool. A theoretical production date of 2012 is possible, with an expected asking price of around AU$32,000.

There’s plenty more pics on CarAdvice, so why don’t you go and check them out.

[Source: CarAdvice]

Categories
Lexus

Production ready Lexus LF-A does mad skids

Lexus :F-A

Images and video of the Lexus LF-A coupé have been leaked hours before its official reveal at the 2009 Tokyo Motor Show.

Most recently seen in pre-production race trim at the Nürburgring 24 hour race earlier this year, the LF-A has finally had the angles of its nose revealed. Although, you did see a pretty good teaser of what was to come when the LF-A Roadster was in Australia for the Melbourne International Motor Show in February.

While that new nose isn’t shown all that well in the matt black finish above, you can see the car in its full glory in the video below. Some images are also available on the NATGROC forum.

The LF-A’s looks will most likely divide opinion, but there’s one thing most revheads will agree on and that is the sweet sound of the car’s 360kW V10. There’ll be official details of this car all over the net pretty soon, so in the meantime take the jump and see footage of the LF-A in action.

[via Autoblog]

Categories
News

Winning: The Racing Life Of Paul Newman

Paul Newman

It’s hard to believe it is now over a year since Paul Newman left us. If you’re a fan then you may enjoy reading this new biography on his racing career, Winning: The Racing Life Of Paul Newman.

Put together by Motor Trend executive editor Matt Stone and co-authors Preston Lerner and Mario Andretti the book takes you through pretty much all facets of his motoring and racing passion. There’s more info available at Jalopnik, including some very cool historical pictures.

Winning: The Racing Life Of Paul Newman is available now from Motorbooks.com.