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

Supercar for anyone?

Supercar.

The lid has certainly come off the supercar pot, with news of thousands of exotics being examined to see if they have compliance plates, and do the modification shops actually screw cars together from spares?
The government records are actually very good, with my mate Ken Gibson being asked for the papers for his Maserati. A Maserati that is 20 years old.
I also wonder how many of the ‘hot’ supercars have ended up in the Thailand Supersports Series? A perfect place to hide a supercar.
I am told that there are queues of supercars heading to Thailand’s borders, looking for a quick ‘export’. No questions asked!

Another stunner from Maserati

Maserati Ghibli

The Maserati Ghibli name has returned and in a stylish four door guise, very reminiscent of the Quattroporte.
YouTube user The MAXIMUMCARS also happened to film the car and we are fortunate enough to watch.
It gives us the chance to see the Ghibli in motion, with its daytime running lights and brake lights on. We also get to hear the growl of the car’s twin-turbocharged 3.0 liter V6.
The number plate indicates that this is the more potent Ghibli S, which develops 410 BHP and can accelerate from 0-100 km/h in 5.0 seconds. The “410” in the number plate represents the car’s 410 horsepower rating.
The Ghibli will also be offered with a 242 kilowatt version of the turbo V-6 engine and overseas buyers will also have the option of a 202 kilowatt V-6 turbo diesel. All of the Ghibli’s engines are built by Ferrari and all of them come matched to an eight-speed automatic transmission.
When will we see one in Thailand? Depends on who wants to pay import duty, I suppose!

New BMW X5 to be released in Frankfurt

New BMW X5.

The third-generation BMW X5 will be sold with 2.0 liter four cylinder diesel engine and optional rear-wheel-drive which results in an SUV with claimed combined cycle fuel consumption of just 5.6 liters per 100 km. BMW also quote the emissions, but to be honest I have never met anybody who gives a damn (but if you do, it’s 149 g/km).
The decision to expand the choice of engines with the new BMW luxury SUV to include a four-cylinder engine is similar to Mercedes-Benz which has done the same with its latest ML Class.
The new X5 is a typical BMW evolutionary approach that sees it retain its upright profile and traditional features such as its two piece tailgate.
Distinguishing touches include a bolder front end with a more prominent kidney grille, LED imbued headlamps that butt up against the chrome surround of the grille and a more heavily contoured bumper with so-called air curtain ducts on the lower outer edges that help to channel air more efficiency through the front wheel houses to a vertical duct sited behind the front wheel arches called the air blade, as seen on the recently introduced 3-Series GT. Whether or not these actually work at built up road speeds is a moot question, but I am sure they do on the unrestricted autobahns.
Prominent tall windows remain a key design feature - following on from the original model (codename E53) launched in 1999 and second-generation model (E70) in 2008.
This new X5 is fairly large, at 4886 mm in length, 1938 mm in width and 1762 mm in height, and is 32 mm longer, 5 mm wider and 14 mm taller than the current X5. It shares its 2933mm wheelbase with the current X5 but the front and rear tracks have been shortened by 4mm both front and rear to 1640mm and 1646mm, endowing it with a slightly smaller footprint.
Inside, the new X5 has a more luxurious interior with the option of two rear seat configurations: a fixed 40:20:40 bench arrangement and a newly developed bench configured in a 70:30 arrangement that adjusts lengthwise to free up leg space for an optional third row of seats that now come with a so-called comfort seat option.
Boot capacity for the new X5 is up by 30 liters at 650 liters, rising to 1870 liters when the second and third seat rows are folded away.
This coming X5 comes with a long list of advanced optional extras. Included is a head-up display, night vision with human and animal detection and a spot light function, lane departure warning, lane change warning, road sign recognition, a 360 degree surround view parking assistant with longitudinal and lateral guidance and collision warning and pedestrian warning with an automatic braking function.
Infotainment features includes full internet access, in-car use of Facebook, Twitter and other on-line services as well as a dictation function with speech recognition for e-mails, SMS text messages.
For a standard xDrive30d guise, BMW claims a kerb weight of 2070 kg - 80 kg less than the outgoing model despite the slight increase in external dimensions and more flexible interior appointments.
Buyers will be able to choose between four different suspension tunes: a basic steel sprung set-up and three optional suspension set-ups with air springs - comfort, dynamic and professional. The latter two come with adaptive damping and also receive BMW’s Dynamic Performance Control system, as seen on the X6, with a mechanically operated torque vectoring system on the rear axle for added agility.
The new X5 will be sold with the choice of three engines. All will come mated to an updated version of BMW’s eight speed automatic gearbox with new stop/start and coasting functions, bringing about improved performance credentials and reduced combined cycle fuel consumption that sees them meet the upcoming tough new EU6 emission regulations due to come into force in September 2014. All diesel units receive urea injection for reduced nitrous oxide (NOX) emissions. Four-wheel-drive will remain standard on all but two models.
The engine range includes a turbocharged 4.4 liter V8 petrol unit that produces 330 kW in the xDrive50i, a turbocharged 3.0 liter in-line six cylinder common rail diesel with 190 kW in the xDrive30d and BMW’s triple turbocharged 3.0 liter in-line six cylinder common rail diesel producing 280 kW in the performance orientated xDrive M50d, which is claimed to hit 100 km/h from standstill in 5.3 seconds, reach a top speed limited to 250 km/h while returning 6.7 L/100 km.
Other engines available includes the turbocharged 2.0 liter diesel producing 160 kW. This new base engine will be available in both the four-wheel-drive xDrive25d and, in a first for the X5, rear-wheel-drive sDrive25d.
Also planned is a powered up version of the turbocharged 3.0 liter in-line six cylinder common rail diesel with 230 kW in the xDrive40d and a turbocharged 3.0 liter in-line six cylinder petrol engine with 225 kW in the Xdrive35i.

Alternatives

Alternative fuels are today’s buzzwords. In the past 12 months we have seen the price of crude per barrel go over $100, literally doubling. What about next year? We must find an alternative, and soon.
The impetus propelling us towards alternative fuels is then price. As cost of gasoline goes up we look to see what else we can use. Gasohol is one of these, but it is not a new form of fuel. In 1985, its use was put forward in Thailand, so gasohol is about 30 years old. Wrong! I date gasohol back to 1960.
Gasoline was still very cheap, so why would anyone look to inventing the gasoline/alcohol mixture, which would become known as ‘gasohol’? Surprise, surprise, the impetus was still cost, despite the cheapness and availability of gasoline. There were those who could not afford it. I was one.
In 1960, I was the proverbial starving medical student. I had an 11 year old car (an Austin A40) and lived in a cheap flat. My car represented two years of celibacy as women cost money (they did then as they still do now). Money supply was minute.
I was forced to attend biochemistry classes once a week, and it was in the bichem laboratory that I saw these huge carboys filled with crude petroleum and crude alcohol. In my impecunious state, I suddenly saw salvation. It was one of those ‘Eureka!’ moments, that would later change the entire history of the world. If I could get my car to run on a mixture of crude petroleum and crude alcohol, I had a free source of ‘petrol’ every Thursday.
The plan was hatched. Every Thursday I would park as close to the front door of the biochemistry lab as I could, and would remember my white lab coat. The pockets were large enough to carry one 500 ml flask in each, and it was a simple trip down the stairs and empty the flasks into the waiting car.
Now those with a modicum of biochemical knowledge will know there is a problem with water being released when you mix the two and you have to have a drying tower. I did not have access to dehydration drying columns, but I did have access to 100 percent ether, which I knew could absorb the water. The final mixture that was laboriously dispensed and poured into my fuel tank had a 50:50 mixture of petroleum and alcohol with one liter of ether in every five liters of mixture. Thursday afternoons were very busy, filling 500 ml flasks, trotting down the stairs and keeping a record of how many flasks of each I had appropriated. My car ran, it could go one complete week on the biochem lab mixture, and I had, without knowing it at the time, invented ‘Gasohol 50’.

Autotrivia Quiz

Alfa Romeo Tipo A ‘Bimotore’.

Last week, I asked which racing car had two six cylinder engines mounted side by side with the crankshafts rotating in opposite directions? It was the Alfa Romeo Tipo A ‘Bimotore’, which was also known as the ‘Porco Rosso’ (red pig). A frightening car to drive with two gearlevers, one for each gearbox, in behind the two engines.
So to this week. What car won a very prestigious race in 1939 and again in 1940, third in 1946 and third again in 1947?
For the Automania free beer this week, be the first correct answer to email [email protected].