AUTO MANIA: by Dr. Iain Corness [email protected]

What’s coming for Thailand?

Honda Amaze.

It has taken many years, but we are slowly being weaned off the 1 tonne pick-ups. The eco-car promotion by the governments has certainly helped here, with a proper car now costing less than a pick-up. Now add to that the First Car Buyer’s scheme, and pick-up sales have again been hit to leg. And not before time, either!
Under 1 million baht there are many choices for those with limited spending power. The ugly duckling, the ridiculously named Tiida from Nissan is being replaced by the new Nissan Pulsar, which looks much more palatable.
Mitsubishi will be launching a longer version of the Mirage, complete with four doors. This is similar to Honda’s Brio and the newly released Brio Amaze, which is basically a Brio with a boot.

Suzuki Ertiga.

Another new car will be a small SUV from Ford, built on the same platform as the Fiesta (perhaps the Kluga?), and the Fiesta will be offered with the Ecoboost one liter three cylinder engine, which has received rave reviews all over the world.
Mini MPV’s will get two new starters under the one million ceiling, with both of them built in Indonesia. These are the GM Spin and the Suzuki Ertiga, both seven-seaters to rival the now aging Toyota Avanza. However, they both look as pedestrian as the Avanza (even with its new front).
Many of these new cars will be seen at the Bangkok International Motor Show at the end of March to the first week in April.

The Audi ‘Uber wagon’

Audi A6.

One marque that has made an impact on the world recently has been Audi. Now the company has released the RS6 Avant, a wagon which has a top speed of over 300 km/h and a zero to 100 km/h time of 3.9 seconds. That puts it fair and square into the supercar category and 0.5 seconds quicker than the BMW M5.
The latest wagon features Audi’s familiar 4.0 liter twin-turbo V8 engine developing 412 kW of power between 5700 and 6700 rpm and 700 Nm of torque between 1750 and 5500 rpm. Those are serious numbers!
Some of the shattering performance comes from a lightening of the car, compared to previous models. There has been greater use of weight-saving materials like aluminium (20 percent in total), and also brings claimed benefits to handling and fuel consumption. The new model uses a claimed 9.8 liters per 100 km - down from 14 L/100 km on its very thirsty predecessor.
Fuel-conserving features including idle-stop and cylinder de-activation are fitted as standard. The latter shuts down the inlets and exhaust valves, starving four of the engine’s eight cylinders.
The RS6 is all wheel drive via Audi’s rear-biased quattro system via an eight-speed tiptronic automatic transmission with ‘Sport’ and ‘Manual’ modes and wheel-mounted paddle shifters.
Air suspension is used, which can lower the car by 20 mm, or you can order the RS6 with sports springs instead.
The RS6 is another car with electromechanical power steering system, and can be optioned with steplessly variable steering boost and ratios.
20 inch forged seven spoke front wheels with 390 mm ventilated discs with six-piston black or red calipers, and you can option 420mm ceramic units at extra cost.
RS-specific design details include high gloss black honeycomb grille and inlets, black rear diffuser with large-diameter twin pipes, flared arches, roof spoiler and special badges.
Standard features include xenon-plus headlights, LED rear lights, a tyre-pressure control system, illuminated entry sills, Park assist, cruise control, three-zone automatic air conditioning, MMI touchscreen navigation and a 10 speaker sound system.
This is truly an amazing use of technology to take a wagon and make it a supercar, and still drivable on city streets.

Am I falling in love with an X1?

New BMW X1.

I have previously, in these pages castigated BMW for its 1 Series, which I charitably called “fugly”. And it was! However, the latest X1 caught my eye the other day. A well proportioned smart looking vehicle.
The styling cue for me is the vertical grille, which seems to be across the board and certainly freshens up the frontal aspect of the 5 series as well.
Local X1’s get the 2 liter petrol engine delivering 110 kW at 6,400 RPM and 200 Nm torque at 3,600 RPM, or the turbo diesel, which is probably the best option with the eight-speed auto transmission.
The eight-speed automatic transmission Steptronic ensures soft changes and reduces background noise at high speeds, but also significantly reduces fuel consumption and includes the Auto Start Stop function.
Power steering is electric and the energy it requires has previously been extracted by Brake Energy Regeneration from the braking and kinetic energy (KERS).
For all those people who need to be close to their smartphone, the X1 has the BMW ConnectedDrive which integrates many of the features offered by your smartphone into your car via the Bluetooth interface of the X1.
The petrol X1 is just under 2.5 million list price, while the diesel is just under 2.8 million, according to the BMW information. I could be interested!

Some amusing automotive quotes

I was sent these quotes, but they should be taken with a grain of salt, but they still make fun reading.
“Aerodynamics,” scoffed Enzo Ferrari, “are for people who can’t build engines.” It’s a good thing Enzo is no longer around!
“I am prepared to sell you one of my Aston Martins at cost,” company owner David Brown told a regular customer who was trying to screw down a special deal, “but are you really happy to pay so much more than the normal price?”
Ettore Bugatti is often quoted as describing Bentleys as “the fastest lorries in the world.” He also defended the woeful brakes of his own race cars, saying, “My cars are designed to go, not to stop.”
This next one is my favorite, and I believe it is true. “You can’t make a silk purse out of a pig’s ear but you can make a mighty fast pig.” Attributed to Carroll Shelby, who made some amazingly fast pigs.
Sir Alec Issigonis (famous as the designer of the Mini and definitely not a committee man) is cited by some as originating the phrase, “A camel is a horse designed by a committee.”
Henry Ford I supposedly stated that customers could have any color they wanted, as long as it was black; however, 11CV and 15CV Citroens were also only available in black, but that was 1945-1952. Ford’s autobiography, My Life and Work, states “In 1909, I announced one morning, without any previous warning, that in the future we were going to build only one model, that the model was going to be ‘Model T’ and that the chassis would be exactly the same for all cars and I remarked: any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black.”
In 1953, General Motors boss Charles E. Wilson was offered the position of Secretary of Defense. When asked if this represented a conflict of interest, he told a congressional committee, “What is good for the country is good for General Motors and vice versa.” That one seems to be genuine!
Even Ernest Hemingway gets into automotive history by saying, “There are only three real sports: auto racing, mountaineering and bullfighting. The rest are games.” (I’m with you, Ernie!)
George Best supposedly said, “I spent 90 percent of my money on women, drink and fast cars … the rest I wasted.” The automotive equivalent, ascribed to Pink Floyd’s Nick Mason, is, “If I could get back all the money I’ve ever spent on cars, I’d spend it on cars!”

Steer-by-wire

It was over eight years ago, in this section of this newspaper, that I made the prediction that “European cars, because of their smaller sizes and lighter weight have utilized electric steering sooner than across the Atlantic, but I expect electric power steering will replace traditional hydraulic power steering units within the next five to seven model years.” It now seems that I was right when I looked into my crystal ball. (Unfortunately, it does not give out lottery numbers!)
Since hydraulically activated power steering has been around since 1951 when the Chrysler Crown Imperial was the first car offered with the new concept, we should have got it right by now. And we have got it right, to the point that we have developed another system which uses less energy than hydraulic pumps, and in today’s energy conscious environment, less energy used is savings at the petrol pump.
Today’s systems use electronics and electrics and has dispensed totally with the hydraulics. This was first seen in the Honda NSX sports car and Honda again introduced the system on the S2000 sports car. Smaller, lighter electric units are also used on Honda’s Hybrid Insight sedan (petrol saving, of course).
However, Honda was not the lone pioneer here, as Saturn used electric power steering on the Vue SUV and the Ion sedan. GM’s 2004 Malibu used Delphi’s new E*STEER unit. Dephi’s system was also used in the 2000 Fiat Punto and Volkswagen’s 2001 Lupo 3L TDI. Other OEM vendors of electric power steering systems are Visteon with EPAS used in the MGF and ZF Freidrichshafen AG with ZF Servolectric.
Auto engineers know there are many advantages with electric/electronic systems in automobiles, and one significant savings lies where electrical and electronic components actually replace conventional mechanical and electromechanical components. Such is the case with electric power assisted steering systems, steer-by-wire, and active steering systems, including electro-hydraulic power steering, magnetic power steering, intelligent steering systems, active rear-steer systems, four-wheel steering systems, steer-by-wire, and multi-axle steering systems. This is a complex area of engineering that covers active, passive, and semi-active suspension systems, electromagnetics, damper suspension, digital suspension control, and vibration and handling control systems.
Whilst the driver has not become obsolete (yet), driving-by-wire is certainly making huge inroads into safer driving dynamics. It has been a long drive since the Chrysler Crown Imperial, but our reduction in pure mechanical controls overseen by the driver, to the situation of the driver’s physical control overseen by electronics is an excellent example of the application of modern technology.
 

Autotrivia Quiz

Last week I stated that four brothers competed in a famous race in Italy. One of them won the race and all four of them drove one make of car. Who were they, what was the race and what make of car did they all drive? It was the Marzotto brothers at the 1950 Mille Miglia, and they all drove Ferrari.
So to this week. A manufacturing firm in Europe sold 1,500 ‘voiturettes’ in 15 months, and hundreds of tricycles and engines. Which firm, and what year?
For the Automania free beer this week, be the first correct answer to email [email protected].