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

Want a GT3 in your garage?

911 GT3

Well, I don’t know about you, but I certainly would be happy to push the Daihatsu Mira into the street and put a new Porsche in my garage. (It has been a long time since a 911 was my daily drive car, but those years are never forgotten.)
For me, it is no surprise that Porsche’s development head, Wolfgang Hatz, said, “The performance figures will really surprise you. But it is not the performance figures that make it so memorable. It is the emotional appeal. It gets under your skin.” I could not agree more. Anyone who has ever owned a 911 and currently without one, will describe themselves as being “between Porsche’s.”
The new third-generation 911 GT3 is no ordinary 911 Carrera S. Unique touches include a deep new front bumper with a trio of sizeable air ducts and prominent splitter, a further duct ahead of the bonnet to reduce air pressure and smooth airflow over the car, new exterior mirrors as well as a subtle sill element beneath the doors. The rear is dominated by a giant glass fiber and carbon fiber wing complete with a ram air intake for the rear-mounted engine and a new rear bumper with vertical air ducts either side to relieve pressure within the rear wheelhouses along with a diffuser element to provide a smoother flow of air beneath the car at speed.
The basic bodyshell is shared with the 911 Carrera S, with the adoption of aluminium for the fenders, roof, doors and engine lid claimed to have reduced the weight of the structure by 13 per cent over the second-generation 911 GT3, while additional strengthening measures bring about a massive 25 percent increase in torsional rigidity. It is larger by 118 mm in length and 44 mm in width, and the new 911 GT3 hits the scales at 1430 kg, 35 kg heavier than the previous model.
At 2457 mm, the wheelbase represents a considerable 93 mm increase over the old 911 GT3, while the front and rear tracks are up by 54 mm and 31 mm in width at 1551 mm and 1555 mm respectively, giving it a much wider stance.
Gear lever goes into drive without the need to depress a clutch pedal. The dual clutch gearbox automatically picks up first, second and then third as required.
The new engine produces 350 kW some 250rpm below the point where the old 911 GT3 unit was redlined at 8250rpm. Torque is up by 10 Nm, reaching 440 Nm at 6250rpm.
Porsche’s latest road racer returns a 0-100 km/h time of 3.5sec, eclipsing its predecessor by an impressive 0.4sec. The revised gearing also means its 315 km/h top speed is achieved in seventh gear - not sixth, as with the 911 Carrera S.
In keeping with previous incarnations of the GT3, the new model receives a largely unique chassis. The layout, with a MacPherson strut front and five-link rear suspension, is carried over from other new 911 models, but the individual components have been extensively modified in a move that brings about a 30 mm lowering in ride height and 3.9 kg reduction in weight for reduced unsprung mass.
The new GT3 gets revised wheel bearings, altered hubs, a new transverse control arm, lighter springs and aluminium tube dampers are among the developments found up front. The rear gets a similar list of measures, together with a hollow aluminium subframe casting that provides a more rigid mounting structure. A variable damping system (PASM) with two levels of firmness is part of the standard equipment, as is torque vectoring (PTV Plus) that includes a locking differential. The standard fit center-lock, forged-aluminium 20 inch wheels have increased in diameter but are claimed to be marginally lighter than the 19 inch items used on the old GT3. They are now 9.0 inch wide up front and 12.0 inches wide at the rear and come shod with 245/35 and 305/30 profile Dunlop Sport Maxx tyres respectively.
The steering is also completely new and rather special. The front electro-mechanical system is a development of the arrangement used on the 911 Carrera S but receives its own individual mapping and a revised mounting process to provide added rigidity to the rack. As on the upcoming 911 Turbo, it works in conjunction with an electro-mechanical rear-wheel steer system, which has been set-up to provide 1.5 degrees of steering angle at the rear. Up to 60km/h, it operates the rear wheels in the opposite direction to those up front, providing added low speed maneuverability by providing a virtual shortening of the wheelbase by 150mm. Above 80km/h, the rear wheels are operated parallel to the front wheels, resulting in a virtual lengthening of the wheelbase by 500 mm for added longitudinal stability.
To experience this car at its best you need a circuit, because its ability to carry big speeds through corners without any premature breakaway on road legal tyres is quite remarkable, as exemplified by Porsche’s claim that the new car has already successfully lapped the Nurburgring in 7 min 25 sec - two seconds faster than the even more heavily focused 911 GT3 RS 4.0 which it effectively replaces.
The brakes provide fantastic stopping power with superb levels of modulation and impressive feel even before they’re up to proper operating temperature. Porsche has given its new race bred coupe standard carbon-ceramic discs with six pot aluminium calipers up front and four-pot calipers at the rear. They’re now 350 mm in diameter all round and have been modified with altered ventilation holes for improved heat dissipation in a process brought over directly from its motorsport activities. There are also additional brake cooling ducts on the rear axle.
A day driving the new 911 GT3 reveals a significantly faster, even more responsive yet more accessible and astonishingly user-friendly car. But at the same time, it has lost none of the customary race track derived qualities when you switch into sport and give it all it is worth on a deserted country road.

The last M3 coupe

The Last M3 Coupe

The German manufacturer signaled an end to one of its most iconic models last week when a fitting Fire Orange number rolled off the production line, ending a 26 year lifecycle.
The M3 nameplate will now be reserved exclusively to the flagship 3-Series sedan, while the next-generation coupe and convertible will fall under a new M4 series.
The M3 coupe dates back to the original E30 model line produced in 1986. The current fourth-generation E92 has been produced since 2007, with more than 40,000 units sold worldwide. An additional 10,000 sedans and 16,000 convertibles have also been rolled out.
The next generation M4 coupe will feature a twin-turbo six-cylinder engine producing around 335 kW and 550 Nm of torque, up 26 kW and 150 Nm respectively on the current 4.0 liter V8.
The new M3 sedan will be launched at the beginning of next year, with the all-new M4 coupe and convertible to follow months later.
The current M3 convertible will remain in production until September, while the next generation M3 sedan is expected to debut at the 2013 Frankfurt motor show in September. The M4 Coupe and Convertible will be revealed at the 2014 Geneva motor show next March.
There will be many people hoping that they will be on show at the Bangkok International Motor Show next March as well.

World Car of the Year

Ford Fiesta 1.0L EcoBoost

The votes are in and the overall winner was the Ford Fiesta 1.0L EcoBoost. This does not surprise me as this engine has been winning awards for the last two years.
The class winners were:
Family Car:
1st - Audi Allroad
2nd - Volkswagen Golf
3rd - BMW 3 Series
Luxury Car:
1st - Range Rover
2nd - Mercedes Benz SL550
3rd - BMW 6 Series
Sports Car:
1st - Porsche Boxster S
2nd - Audi RS 5
3rd - Toyota 86/Subaru BRZ
SUV:
1st - Mazda CX-5
2nd - Hyundai Sante Fe
3rd - Nissan Pathfinder
Economy Car:
1st - Ford Fiesta 1.0L EcoBoost
2nd - Kia Forte
3rd - Toyota Prius
Unfortunately, many of these world car award winners are not available in Thailand. But the situation is improving, with many of these vehicles actually now built in Thailand.

Should you carry a 300 mm iron bar?

I know of one driver who kept a 300 mm iron bar beside the driver’s seat as a motoring aid. He was a chap I knew in London. A two meters tall Jamaican.
Eddie was a really nice, peaceful guy who lived in Beulah Hill SE 19, an area of London. He was married to an English girl who was just under two meters tall. They made for a fairly imposing couple. However, both of them had such a hard time growing up, they made the conscious decision not to have children, who most likely would have vied for the title of the world’s tallest person.
Eddie drove a Triumph TR2. Remember them? Four cylinder British sports car of the 1950’s. A standard Vanguard engine with an extra carburetor hung on the side. His was one of the early models with the recessed grille. Being so tall, he didn’t really fit into anything, but by getting the seat racked back, and the back of the seat almost horizontal, he looked like an ordinary mortal in the TR2. Of course, in the UK in those days, dark Jamaicans were not as prevalent as they are today. In fact, you could go so far as to say they stuck out like a sore thumb, and were not universally popular with the English public.
Eddie had to put up with being abused at the traffic lights. “Go home coon,” was the cry hurled by other motorists. This was not the ‘politically correct’ times of today, but the late 1960’s. There was no PC legislation to protect Eddie, so he had to provide his own, and yes, you guessed it, the protection was a 300 mm iron bar he kept beside the seat.
Let me tell you, I have witnessed the verbal abuse at the traffic lights, which made cricket’s ‘sledging’ seem like kindergarten chats. Eddie would put up with so much, and then two meters of Jamaican with a 300 mm iron bar in his hand would unwind from a Triumph TR2, and in his best Jamaican voice, Eddie would reply, “What you want, white man?”
The reply was never more abusive words from the London motorist, but a Morris Minor (or similar) would ‘kangaroo’ through the traffic lights, irrespective of the color and quickly disappear. That round definitely went to the 300 mm iron bar.

Autotrivia Quiz

Last week, I mentioned a road legal, 104 cm high, 66 cm wide and 132 cm long. I asked what was it? It was a funny thing called a Wind Up.
So to this week. In 1961 this front engine car ran in a Grand Prix. What was it?
For the Automania free beer this week, be the first correct answer to email [email protected].