Features

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

Range Rover Sport conquers desert ranges

Desert Rover

As a publicity exercise, Range Rover ventured into the Saudi Arabian desert to demonstrate the versatility of the new Range Rover Sport. For a vehicle most often seen outside school playgrounds at 4 p.m. this was a radical departure.
The desert, known as the Empty Quarter in Saudi Arabia, is the world’s biggest sand desert and one that even the locals are wary about venturing into. The crossing was done in record time, traveling east to west across the desert over the 850 km route in just 10 hours and 22 minutes. The only non-standard equipment was a skid plate for the underside of the vehicle. Other than that, it was just like the Range Rover Sport that you see parked in the forecourt of a Bangkok luxury hotel.
The Sport has a choice of four engines: a 190 kW 3.0 liter TDV6 diesel, a 215 kW SDV6 diesel, a new 250 kW 3.0 liter V6 and 375 kW 5.0 liter V8 - with a 250 Kw 4.4 liter diesel version also due to arrive soon with all mated to an 8-speed ZF auto transmission.
In the fastest Range Rover Sport, the V8 Supercharged, this means 0-100 km/h in just 5.3 seconds with the performance figures resulting from 420 kg trimmed from Range Rover Sport with extensive use of aluminium in both the body and suspension.

FIA backs double points for the final race

Despite loud condemnation of the new regulation that will see the drivers earn double points at the season finale in Abu Dhabi, FIA boss Jean Todt has downplayed the significance of the new double-points rule for the 2014 season finale saying there are bigger and more important changes to focus on.
The rule will be implemented in the hope of spicing things up in the season finale and, unless someone has already won the title, give drivers a massive incentive.
The rule, though, has not gone down well with followers of the F1 season with World Champion Sebastian Vettel labelling it “absurd.”
However, FIA president Todt backs the concept. “Many things have been said but it really is not a dramatic change,” he told Spanish newspaper AS. “For me a much more important introduction is the new 1.6 liter engine with 40 percent fuel saving. Our priority is to reduce costs; doubling the score in a race is not a revolution, it is a small change, nothing more. I don’t understand why people are talking so much about a small change rather than things that are important to the sport.”
Quite frankly, Todt is talking nonsense. Far from reducing costs, changing the engines will cost the teams millions of dollars, and to talk about fuel saving is quite farcical.

Is Honda Thailand’s best seller?

The final figures are not out, but it would appear that Honda has outsold arch-rival Toyota in 2013 for passenger cars. However, there is a snag - just what is a “car” and what then is a “commercial vehicle”?
It should be a simple matter, but it isn’t! According to figures from Toyota Motor Thailand passenger car sales figures do not include models such as the Honda CR-V or Mazda CX-5, which Toyota classifies as commercial vehicles and not cars.
However, both the CR-V and CX-5, although called sports-utility vehicles, are taxed by the Thai authorities as passenger cars.
The passenger car total after 11 months has Honda as the leader in the segment with sales of 178,973 units, while Toyota was second with 172,916 units, but if the CR-V is included that gives overall sales from January to November of 198,005 units, over Toyota’s 172,916.
As end of year figures are still not in as we went to press, the new Yaris, which is proving to be very popular, might be enough to get Toyota back on top again in the passenger car market.
However, adding both passenger car and commercial vehicles together, has Toyota well in front at 33 percent of the sales, including the popular Hilux, giving Toyota the number 1 slot it has held for many years. Honda with no pick-ups remains in second position overall at 16 percent and Isuzu third at 15 percent.
 

Nitto 3K calendar for Bira 2014

The dates for the Nitto 3K series have been released, so diaries open and pencils sharpened.
March 9
May 25
August 3
September 7
November 9
December 21
The dates above are only Sundays. Other series at Bira include the Pro Racing Series and the Thailand Super Series and the OMP series.

Is the writing on the wall?

Toyota Yaris

According to the Automotive Focus Group (AFG) blog, Toyota is to shift some of its Thai output base to Indonesia.
Toyota Motor Manufacturing Indonesia (TMMIN) has started producing its all-new Vios at the company’s plant in Karawang, West Java, as it gradually moves its production base from Thailand to Indonesia.
Up till now, Toyota exported the new Vios from Thailand, but the company has now spent 2.5 trillion rupiah (6.7 billion THB) in initial capital on its expansion in Indonesia.
According to TMMIN president-director Masahiro Nonami the company plans to produce 1,000 Vios sedans every month.
“Currently, we have approximately 100 auto-part suppliers, with local companies constituting some 20 percent of the suppliers, while the remaining 80 percent are made up of Japanese and joint-venture companies,” he said.
Toyota wants to shift its production base gradually from Thailand to Indonesia and hopes to complete the move some time next year.
The car manufacturer also plans to start producing the new Toyota Yaris, which it also currently imports from Thailand, in Indonesia next year.
President-Director Masahiro Nonami also said, “Although Indonesia is a very attractive market for automotive products, some problems in the country, such as traffic gridlock, high production costs and increasing minimum wages, need to be addressed to attract more automotive companies here.”
And as a veiled threat to the Indonesian government he also added that Toyota might double or triple its annual car production in Indonesia if the country improves its infrastructure, for example, by improving port efficiency.

Two wheels, 500 cc and no brakes!

Jawa Speedway

We have all had many ambitions in our lives. Me? I wanted to be a speedway rider!
I can blame my father for this (which is why we have fathers - to be the recipients of ‘blame’) as it was he who took his young son to Meadowbank Speedway in Edinburgh to watch the Saturday night’s competition under floodlights. The sound of the straight through single cylinder speedway bikes, the smell of Castrol R and the shoulder to shoulder racing enthralled me.
I even became a lifetime member of the Meadowbank Speedway Supporters Club. Not that my life membership has done me much good, since they tore down the speedway to build the arena for the Commonwealth Games of 1970. But even tearing down the track did nothing about stopping my ambition to be a speedway rider.
When I was 17 I was undecided as to whether I should enter medical school or take up speedway racing. My parents made the decision for me and it was books, bones and scalpels. I would make the same decision for my children, so I do not hold a grudge.
However, that desire to go speedway racing remained with me, despite graduating as a doctor. I came to know the speedway racers, the engineers, crew and riders. They all became my patients, as I was probably the only doctor in Australia who understood their love of the sport. But I had never swung my leg over a speedway bike.
Speedway bikes are motorcycling minimalism taken to the extreme. A very light tubular frame with a small fuel tank and even smaller seat, fitted with a 500 cc engine, no brakes and no gears. An ignition cut out is fitted on each bike tied around the rider’s wrist to operate when the rider leaves the machine, which they do frequently.
And back to the story - I was rung one Saturday morning by the race engineer for one of Australia’s top professional riders, John Titman. John had cut the tendons in his left hand in an industrial accident on the Friday and he had been operated on and was in hospital, where he was to stay till the middle of the next week. There was only one problem, John had to ride at the speedway that night, or he had to drop out of any chance of the world final later in the year. Could I get him out of hospital, and get him OK to race?
This was a big ask, but by early afternoon we had designed and fabricated an aluminium ‘glove’ which stopped him moving his middle, ring and small fingers, but still would let him grip the handlebar.
John rode below his best, naturally, but placed well enough to go through to the next round of the world championship (where he finished sixth in the final).
When he returned to Australia after the world final he came to see me to thank me for my part in getting him there. “What do I owe you, Doc?” My reply took him aback somewhat. “A ride on your speedway bike!”
And so it happened. 30 years ago, a 42 year old novice swung his leg over a world championship speedway bike. A 500cc methanol burning bike with no brakes. My boyhood ambition was finally realized. I was never going to set the dirt tracks alight, but I had done it. And before you ask, I didn’t fall off either.
 

Natter Nosh and Noggin

The Pattaya car club meets at Jameson’s Irish Pub on Soi AR next to Nova Park. The next meeting is on Monday January 13 at Jameson’s at 7 p.m. A totally informal meeting of like-minded souls to discuss their pet motoring (and motorcycling) loves and hates (plus lies and outright exaggerations). Come along and meet the guys who have a common interest in cars and bikes, and enjoy the Jameson’s specials, washed down with a few beers. A couple of the members were scrutineers at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, so they may have some scuttlebutt about the F1 scene. Always a fun night. Be prepared to laugh a lot at some of the antics of the members (when they were younger)! The Car Club nights are always on the second Monday of the month (not every second Monday)!

Autotrivia Quiz

Last week I asked what is the connection between King Neptune and automotive spark plugs? That was really easy. King Neptune carries a trident, the trident is the symbol of Maserati, and Maserati used to make spark plugs before the Maserati brothers began building cars!
So to this week. What car am I? Built 1924, 1100cc dohc engine developing 130 bhp at 6,000 RPM, top speed recorded at Brooklands being 128 MPH. There were only 40 of these cars made (so it’s not a Bugatti).
For the Automania free beer this week, be the first correct answer to email [email protected].