Features

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

Tesla’s Electrorocket

Tesla S

Tesla Motors has unveiled an all-wheel-drive (AWD) version of its Model S sedan, returning staggering performance from the all-electric drive train.
The Model S is a rear-wheel-drive car, which has hurt sales in snowier European and American climates. The new ‘D’ variant from Tesla adds a second motor to power the front wheels that produces acceleration figures of 0-60 mph in 3.2 seconds, absolutely in supercar territory.
The new AWD version has a top speed of around 250 kph, compared with 210 kph for the current version. Elon Musk described the modes available with the car as luxury, sport and “insane.”
Paint us keen.
There are new autonomous features that can detect red lights, stop signs and pedestrians so it can stop accordingly. The radar that detects it can work through fog, rain and snow between speeds of 8 kph and 240 kph, though what is the driver doing at 240 kph in poor visibility!
Another autonomous feature is Self-Park allowing you to step out of the car when you get home and it will park itself in the garage on its own. It can also connect to your digital calendar and be waiting for you when it knows it is needed.
Though already breaking cover with this variant, dates of availability and the price have not been revealed.

Wottle she do?

World’s Fastest Ford GT Road Car.

Anyone who drives any sort of performance car will have been asked “Wottle she do, Mister?” Welcome to the Texas Mile.
The Texas mile has been held each March and October at the Goliad airstrip since 2003 and it has now attracted a national following and a global reputation for beckoning the man on the street to “Drive in Your World, Race in Ours!”
In essence, anyone can enter and it is an opportunity to run your street registered motorcycle or car down the measured mile without the fear of speeding tickets and jail time and the aim of the exercise is to see what speed your vehicle is doing at the end of the mile.
Over the last Texas Mile, there were 891 total runs on Friday and Saturday, 53 of which were over 200 mph! Check out the records and highlights below.
Fastest driver over the weekend: The fastest speed of the weekend was 227.1 mph achieved by Tim Siachitano in his 2003 Porsche 911 Turbo.
Fastest Motorcycle of the weekend: Nelson Pupo was the fastest motorcycle rider of the weekend achieving a top speed of 225.6 mph on his 2007 Suzuki Hayabusa. Nelson went over 204 mph a total of 4 times over the event weekend.
Fastest Female Motorcyclist: There were some very fast female motorcycle riders this event. Top honor went to Jennifer Robertson who achieved a top speed of 214.0 mph on her 2005 Suzuki GSX 1300R.
Congrats also to Valerie Thompson who achieved a top speed of 200.4 mph on her 2012 BMW S 1000.
Congrats, also to Rebecca Ebert who went 195.6 mph on her 2008 Suzuki Hayabusa GSX 1300R.
Fastest Corvette of the weekend: David Ghiselin and team LaQuay Motorsports left the Texas Mile maintaining their title as the fastest corvette. David achieved a top speed of 213.2 mph in a 2002 Corvette Z06 topping his previous speed from October 2013 of 206.3 mph, not quite besting his previous March 2013 record of 216.3 mph.
Previous records have been set by cars like the Lamborghini Gallardo TT which ran 255 mph (408 kph). This record was then smashed by a heavily modified Ford GT which ran 266.9 mph (426 kph). The car was built by Heffner Performance, and was both driven and owned by Ray Hofman, the president and CEO of Peak Completions from Midland, Texas.
The yellow Ford GT was equipped with a standard 6-speed manual transmission, runs a stock engine block and heads, retains its air-conditioning, power windows and power door-locks, and it also has an original, completely stock body with no aerodynamic modifications other than removing the rear view mirrors.

Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne’s five year plan

Sergio Marchionne’s current five year plan finishes in 2018 and Marchionne states that he will not be standing for the CEO position after that. “I will not do the next plan. It’s impossible, right. There’s a point in time in which you leave the room for young punks,” Marchionne said recently.
He noted that in 2004, he was the fifth CEO at Fiat in two years. He and Fiat Chrysler chairman John Elkann have agreed they will “never allow that to happen again” as they do extensive succession planning.
“People, they come on the list. People come off the list,” Marchionne said. He noted that he spends almost two months a year reviewing the career tracks of nearly 2,000 employees at Chrysler. “All organizations fail because of bad leadership choices. I am a very firm believer that bad businesses are caused by bad leaders.”
Marchionne said the company is focused on making sure the next generation is in place. “I can replace a lot of things. I cannot replace a great leader.”
Elkann was asked if the company would agree to be part of the auto industry consolidation. Both he and Marchionne said Fiat Chrysler doesn’t need a partner to survive.
“If there was the right opportunity, definitely that would be something that we would look very seriously at,” Elkann said. Marchionne said the company needs to be “very, very careful” before it took on another partner.
“It took us five years to create the right environment to get here,” Marchionne said of the Fiat Chrysler merger. “I think the next one would have to be equally thought through about execution - because the trick is execution.”
There is no doubting that Marchionne has turned Fiat Chrysler around, so one hopes he does find his successor by before he leaves in 2018.

University of New South Wales sets a solar electric record

Solar electric car

Students from the University of New South Wales have designed and built a solar powered electric vehicle which recently set a new world speed record for vehicles of its type.
The Sunswift eVe is now the fastest ever electric vehicle to cover a 500 km distance, with an average speed of 106.966 km/h.
The previous record of 73 km/h had stood for 26 years before it was toppled by the 100-strong Sunswift eVe team.
The record was set back in July at the Australian Automotive Research Centre (AARC) in Victoria, with former V8 Supercar drivers Karl Reindler and Garth Walden behind the wheel. The record was formally acknowledged this month by the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), the worldwide governing body for motorsport.
Hayden Smith, a third-year engineering student who serves as Sunswift’s project director said moments like this happen rarely.
“It’s not often you can confidently say you made history before you even graduated,” he said. “If there is one thing we’ve learned, it’s that you’re never too young to make an impact,” Smith said.
And the impacts might not stop at just a speed record. Since 1996, the UNSW Sunswift team has built four generations of solar-powered vehicles that have set a number of distance and speed records both nationally and globally.
For their fifth generation, Sunswift departed from the futuristic-spaceship style of design and instead built the eVe solar car to more closely resemble a typical coupe.
They are now in the process of modifying the eVe so it can meet Australian road standards and be registered for road driving like any other car.
The Sunswift team are hoping they will be able to take a street-legal eVe out on the road within a year.

Biking at Bira

Some good news from Graham at High Side Tours (HST). On Mon 3rd and Tue 4th November 2014 they have exclusive use of Bira Circuit. They have 1 ER6N still available for hire for one or both days. 10,000 baht/day all inclusive [+ deposit].
Or you are welcome to join with your own bike for 1,200 baht. Please call to reserve as they are limiting the numbers. Please do not just turn up on the day as you may be disappointed if they have to refuse you.
For New Year they are planning a trip to Kaeng Krachan Circuit again. Probably the 29/30/31 Dec 2014 or possibly the 30/31/1. 4 x ER6 available at the moment. Contact HST for pricing packages with/without hotels, etc. Email contact is graham. [email protected]

Marchionne takes another set of reins

Fiat Chrysler CEO and now new Ferrari boss Sergio Marchionne vows the Italian team will fight back under his leadership following on from the departure of Luca di Montezemolo.
With Marchionne at the helm, some fear the return of the bean-counters and men in suits that oversaw a long, lean period in the F1 shadows that covered much of the eighties and early nineties, Marchionne appears to be taking his team’s return to the front very seriously.
“We’ve got to kick some ass and we’ve got to do it quickly. It takes what it takes. We might screw up, but we’ve got nothing to lose, right? Let’s risk something.”
“I keep getting reminded racing is not a science, that a number of factors influence performance,” he added. “Then I go to Monza and see the first six cars are not Ferrari or powered by a Ferrari engine, and my blood pressure just popped.
“A non-winning Ferrari on the F1 track is not Ferrari. I can live with periods of bad luck, but it cannot become a structural element of the brand. That continues to be my main objective in terms of Ferrari going forward.”
Unfortunately, strong fighting words from the top do not make up for personnel that are lacking, compared to their opposite numbers in other teams.
Michael Schumacher had the ability to fire up a technical group around him to make for the winning team. Can Vettel do this? Or did Vettel win the championships because he joined the best team that was already there?

Autotrivia Quiz

Quiz car

Last week I mentioned that the Mazda MX5 and the Mitsubishi 3000 GT both were released in Japan, but they had a modification in common during their production run. I asked what was that? That was easy, when released they had pop-up headlights, but later in the production life they changed to fixed headlights.
So to this week. What car is this?
For the Automania free beer this week, be the first correct answer to email [email protected].