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

Bernie threatens to quit Monza in 2017

Bernie Ecclestone does it again - threatening to omit Monza, one of the iconic F1 circuits, from the 2017 calendar.
Of course, Bernie, the patron saint of money movers, may just be doing this to put the squeeze on the Monza people to extract more from them in annual fees, than he currently is getting. Devious? Not our Bernie, surely? The mere fact that he did this to Silverstone, doesn’t mean that’s his modus operandi. Or is it?
The Monza track north of Milan has been host to the Italian Grand Prix since 1922 and it has held every race since 1950 with the exception of 1980 when it was staged at Imola.
Ecclestone and Monza promoters signed a new contract back in 2010 that will run until the end of 2016, but it looks like the circuit will get the chop after that.
“I don’t think we’ll do another contract, the old one was a disaster for us from a commercial point of view. After 2016, bye bye...”
Bernie has no soul.

What did we learn from the British GP?

Well, we learned that Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) was lucky and benefited from the bad luck experienced by his team mate Nico Rosberg. Rosberg had pole after qualifying and was able to keep Hamilton around four seconds behind him during the race - until Lady Luck deserted him and his gearbox gave him a fist-full of neutrals, gifting the win to Hamilton.
However, the star of the race was Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso (6th) in his battle with Red Bull’s German driver, formerly known as The Finger. Their battle was intense and had everyone on their toes, with the fight showing that Alonso has huge cojones and The Finger is now also the Whinger, moaning over the radio that Alonso was using too much track, and saying at one stage, “I almost crashed into him”. However, it took many laps before Alonso had to concede the position, his car being 10 kph slower on the straight than the Red Bull, letting Vettel through into 5th.
Alonso’s team mate Raikkonen stepped out of an enormous crash (47 G force) on the first lap caused by a foolhardy return to the track after an excursion through the boonies, resulting in a red flag. The impact with the Armco fencing was such that repairs had to be done before the race could get underway again. It would not surprise me if we do not see Raikkonen again this year - he has already been operated for back problems and this accident would be enough to exacerbate the condition. It has also been obvious that Raikkonen has no fire in the belly any more and would retire at the end of the year, so why not now?
Valtteri Bottas (Williams) has shown that he has a great talent and he deserved his second place, after starting way down the back after a right proper stuff-up by the team during Qualifying. His team mate, Felipe Massa did not have a good weekend, and getting involved in Raikkonen’s antics denied him a re-start.
Once again, Ricciardo finished in front of his team mate at Red Bull, with a well driven third place. Even Christian Horner’s Red Bull team has admitted that they didn’t think the young Aussie would be as good as he is. And he is good!
Sentimental favorite Jenson Button tried for a podium but had to settle for fourth. The none too subtle bollocking by Ron Dennis seems to have worked! Button’s rookie team mate Magnussen was also in the top 10 and just over 10 seconds behind, with another excellent drive.
Hulkenberg (Force India) again drove with one stop only, nursing his tyres to the finish, in another heroic drive. Hulkenberg should have been snapped up by Ferrari at the end of last year. They will have a second chance when Raikkonen fails to front up for work on Monday.
Russian rookie Kvyat was in the points again (9th), and is another stand-out new driver with a good future in front of him.
It was an exciting Grand Prix, however, once again we have ridiculous penalties being handed out by the stewards. Alonso was half way out of his grid box at the original start and receives a five second stop and go penalty. But that was for the first start which was then red-flagged, meaning Alonso got no advantage at all for the second start. So why an additional penalty?
The next GP is the German at Hockenheim next week. Let’s hope we have another blinder.

Salute to the Rolls-Royce Merlin Engines

Spitfire

From a Rolls-Royce Handlye Special to a Spitfire and a high-tech speedboat, Salute to Style gathers the many applications of the original Merlin engine, a piece of British history and engineering excellence.
The trio of displays, Salute to Style, was at the Hurlingham Club, presented machines that shared the same historic powerplant to propel them on air, road and water.
A hand-built Handlye Special Rolls-Royce, sporting the 27 liter Merlin engine originally fitted to a Hawker Hurricane during WWII joins a hand-built unique Spitfire aircraft, created using original parts from other Spitfire planes and based on copies of the original Spitfire drawings from the archives of the RAF Museum, Hendon.
Both car and aircraft were displayed alongside an original Merlin engine and a newly-produced model of the Aeroboat super-yacht created by powerboat design studio Claydon Reeves, which is to be powered by the famous Rolls-Royce V12 engine.
The Rolls-Royce is a Phantom II whose chassis carries the Merlin engine, and it is usually heard before it is seen in its natural habitat, whether at Brooklands, Dunsfold or on a driving holiday to France. It is the product of over 25 years of painstaking hand-building by its owner, Robin Beech, at his Handlye Farm workshop - hence the name. Two engines were purchased in 1985, a Merlin 3 and a Meteor Mk1: it took Robin Beech two years to create one functioning engine out of the two, for “fast road competition” purposes. The next 23 years were spent building the car.
In its current configuration, the Rolls-Royce produces about 900 bhp with 1550 lb ft torque and has a fuel consumption of three miles per gallon. “However, when we are careful, we can stretch to four,” laughs Robin Beech.
The immortal lines of the famous Spitfire fighter was built from original parts over twenty years, the static display belongs to Terry Arlow of ‘Simply Spitfire’, and is inspired by the original MK805 produced by Vickers Armstrong in 1944.
Those same lines are echoed in the stern and tail of the Aeroboat model which is also displayed at Salute to Style, though the futuristic speedboat’s main materials are carbon-fiber and Kevlar instead of aluminium.
The Merlin engine stands as an engineering monument, kept alive by enthusiasts such as Handlye and Arlow.

World record auction price

Expensive Ferrari 375 Plus.

The sale of the Ferrari 375-Plus at the Goodwood Festival of Speed was a world auction record for a Ferrari sports racing car. It went for 18.3 million USD.
The brutally-fast 375-Plus was Ferrari’s ultimate weapon to win the 1954 Sports Car Championship, with just five made.
Fitted with a 4.9 liter V12 engine developing 330 BHP, the car was entrusted by the Scuderia Ferrari works racing team to only the most skilled racing drivers.
These included Argentinean Jose Froilan Gonzalez - AKA the Pampas Bull - and the renowned Italian road racer Umberto Maglioli.
This car was the 1954 works entry driven by Maglioli in the Mille Miglia, then piloted to victory by Gonzalez at Silverstone.
In later years, long-running title disputes broke out over the car between two families, which Bonhams helped to resolve.
It was sold with a spare period works block engine and its original body panels, still bearing traces of the 1957 Cuban Grand Prix race colors.
Peter Kantor, Bonhams’ head of motor cars for mainland Europe, said it was rare for a Ferrari team works car with continuous history and undisputed identity to come up for public auction.
Last year a world record price for any car sold at public auction was set at Goodwood when Bonhams sold the former Juan Manuel Fangio Mercedes-Benz W196 for STG 20 million.

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 July 14 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 only on the second Monday of the month (not every second Monday)!

For once, I agree with Bernie

Bernie has come out and said it would be better if cash-strapped outfits quit F1 and are replaced by third cars from the bigger outfits.
The future of the struggling Caterham team has made headlines in recent weeks with its sale, but Ecclestone admitted that he would be “happy” if they had closed down.
The F1 commercial rights holder has now gone a step further by saying he would prefer it if the back-markers disappear from the grid and are replaced by third cars from some of the sport’s bigger teams.
“They should stop,” he told Italy’s Gazzetta dello Sport. “If they do not have the money, they should close. I am ready for a Formula One with eight teams and three cars each. Is it better to see a third Ferrari or a Caterham? Ferrari might find new sponsors in America and an American driver. Great. The same for the others.”
This is a sensible suggestion, as Ferrari, Mercedes, McLaren, Red Bull (already fielding four cars in actuality) could easily field three cars each.

Autotrivia Quiz

Last week I asked what cars were these? Production began in 1902 with four cylinder engines. In 1906 they added a six cylinder engine, and by 1914 they dropped the four cylinder engine altogether. These were notable in the fact that they were air-cooled engines and they had a dummy radiator up front, to look like most other vehicles in those days. By 1929 they were making 14,432 cars per annum, but with the stock market crash the company was out of business by 1932, having made only 360 cars that year. So what was this car company. Hint - American. This was the long defunct Franklin Motor Company in the US.
So to this week. Born in 1970 of mixed parentage (Italian and French) with a top speed of 229 KPH. Who am I?
For the Automania free beer this week, be the first correct answer to email [email protected].