Chinese GP this weekend
Ying Tong Iddle I Po, as Neddy Seagoon was
oft to say, but the final GP of the 2006 season is this
weekend. The Chinese GP arrives and the only map I have
managed to find shows that the circuit designed by Messrs.
Tilke and Wahl is very twisting. Last year’s race showed it
did allow plenty of room (or opportunities) for passing, and
we were pleasantly surprised to see much passing and
repassing, the one aspect of F1 that has been missing for too
long. However, since the Shanghai circuit cost 250 million
dollars to construct, this is just a little out of the reach
of most countries or race organizers.
The circuit architects Hermann Tilke and
Peter Wahl are reported as saying, “The 5.4 kilometre racing
track is shaped like the Chinese character ‘shang’, which
stands for ‘high’ or ‘above’. Other symbols
represented in the architecture originate from Chinese
history, such as the team buildings arranged like pavilions in
a lake to resemble the ancient Yuyan-Garden in Shanghai. Here,
nature and technology are carefully used to create harmony
between the elements.” (That should have put at least
another few million dollars on the price!)
The race will start (I think) at 1 p.m. on
Sunday, but as always, check your own TV feed, as I would not
like to be held responsible of you miss the start! I’m going
to be at Jameson’s Irish Pub by noon on Soi AR next to Nova
Park, just to make sure. Join me for lunch.
The final race of the season in China should be
interesting, even if just because Renault (and Flavio
Briatore) wants both the drivers and the manufacturers
trophies. Ron Dennis of McLaren has other ideas! By the way,
it is also interesting that Raikkonen has won more GPs this
year than Alonso. Alonso didn’t win the world championship -
Raikkonen lost it!
Autotrivia
Quiz
Last week I mentioned cars that fly, a
common enough concept in science-fiction books and even
featured in the cartoon TV series called “The Jetsons” in
1962. However, the auto bizz was already thinking about flying
cars in 1935 when the U.S. Bureau of Commerce’s Experimental
Division Section awarded a contract to a manufacturer to build
one. The car had a single propeller and rotor blades for
flight. The gear could be folded back over the fuselage to
accommodate ground movement. Two passengers could sit side by
side, and there was a small baggage storage area behind the
seats. For road use, the 90 bhp engine was connected to the
tail wheel by a shaft that was put in gear when the propeller
was disengaged. Testing began in 1936 and continued until the
company dissolved in the mid-1960s. The question was, what was
the name of this flying car? It was the Pitcairn AC 35. Thanks
for all the efforts that came in on this one, from all over
the world.
So
to this week. (Fingers poised over the Google button, and away
we go!) A French car company decided to expand beyond its
national boundaries and opened up a new factory in 1906. This
venture was not successful and three years later it was taken
over, and started producing cars using foreign designs and a
line of credit from several banks. This was again not
successful, so the principal creditor called in a railway
engineer to run the manufacturing business. He turned out some
very creditable designs (nothing like a railway engine), and
although still somewhat financially shaky, the company still
exists today. The question is - what was the name of the
railway engineer?
For the Automania FREE beer this week, be
the first correct answer to email [email protected]
Good luck!
Always follow the money!
Never neglect reading the financial pages
of a newspaper. You will find some interesting motoring
reading there, almost every day. The latest to be aired was
the announcement that Toyota will buy an 8.7 percent stake in
fellow Japanese automaker Fuji Heavy Industries. The interest
here is that the 8.7 percent is coming from GM which is
divesting itself of some of its shares in Fuji, the maker of
Subaru.
It is not so long ago that GM were
assembling the Zafira, badged as a Subaru Travik, for export
to Japan. The times have changed somewhat.
GM, which owned 20 percent of Fuji Heavy,
has been struggling recently, with financial houses
downgrading GM bonds in light of the fact that the American
auto industry is in disarray (not just GM) and the automaker
is lumbered with huge pension and health care liabilities and
has to address domestic sales going down, especially with the
current oil prices.
GM will sell its remaining 11.4 percent
stake in Fuji Heavy, so if you want to get in on the ground
floor, now’s the time!
Getting back to Toyota, the Japanese giant
will buy 68 million shares in Fuji Heavy and the two companies
will study opportunities for tie-ups in research and
development as well as production, Fuji Heavy said.
Fuji Heavy also said in the report that it
would end a joint-development project with GM’s Saab brand
and would book a 5 billion yen ($43.73 million) special loss
in the current business year.
However, despite revising and special
losses, Fuji Heavy still expects to make a 12 billion Yen
profit for the year.
GM also owns 20 percent of Suzuki Motor
Corp. and about 8 percent of Isuzu, while Toyota has ties with
Daihatsu and Hino Motors.
Currently, by the number of cars produced,
Toyota is the world’s number two, but when you look at
profitability, Toyota is the clear world leader. There is a
message there, which America and Europe have yet to address.
Grand welfare schemes may attract the workers, but if the
company cannot afford the pension schemes in the long run,
there is a serious accounting deficit to be met.
Why are pick-ups relatively
so cheap?
The answer is simple - it is because of
differential government rake-off, AKA “excise tax”. Did
you know that even after recently re-adjusting the tax scales,
passenger cars are taxed between 30-50 percent? Under 2 litres
is the cheapest at the 30 percent level, while passenger cars
developing more than 220 BHP or in engine size greater than 3
litres attract the maximum 50 percent impost.
Now look at pick-ups. A ‘standard’
pick-up attracts three percent duty, a double cab gets 12
percent, while the PPV’s (passenger pick-up vehicles) are at
20 percent. No wonder these vehicles represent good value in
the marketplace.
However, there is an interesting segment
waiting to be exploited, and that is the energy-saving
vehicles. Hybrids get 10 percent tax, while Natural Gas
Vehicles (NGV) or those burning 20 percent ethanol (E20 fuel,
as opposed to the Gasohol 95 which is here already) are taxed
at 20 percent. Ford Motor Company was ready to step in with
their new E20 compatible Ford Focus, but the government has
had a late rethink and delayed the excise tax reduction till
2009, claiming that there is no E20 fuel refined or produced
here.
What happened to our cheap
ECO car?
After years of debate, the government
finally killed off the ECO (sometimes called ACEs car)
project. This was an auto project to be fulfilled by
Thailand’s auto manufacturers, which was for a small, fuel
efficient car no more than 1.63 meters wide and 3.6 meters
long and to retail for less than 350,000 baht.
The idea was that this would stimulate the
auto-economy in this country, in the same way that the
one-tonne pick-ups did, but it seems the thinking was flawed,
right from the outset. While the marketplace wanted
one-tonners, it was not so receptive towards mini-cars. The
auto manufacturers also did not like the specifications being
handed down to them, with a “do it our way, or don’t join
the game” approach from government. The carrot being offered
was special excise tax, but it was not enough. The
manufacturers looked and also decided there was not enough
‘fat’ in the deal to make it worthwhile.
So by mutual agreement, the ECO car was
killed off.
A brief look at vehicle production figures
also tells the story. Passenger car production numbers have
contracted in the past 12 months, going down almost 13
percent. In the same period the one-tonne pick-up figures have
grown by almost one third year on year. In fact, the vehicle
industry growth has been such that industry watchers are
predicting that the one million vehicle mark will be exceeded
this year. And that is in the face of the ever-upwards oil
prices which get reflected daily at the pumps. (By the way,
local motorcycle production is expected to pass 3.2 million
units as well.)
If you are interested in passenger car numbers, Toyota is
outselling Honda 2:1 with more than 50 percent market share.
After Honda, all the other manufacturers are looking at single
digit numbers. Getting back to ECO project, with numbers like
those, why would Toyota even bother?
What did we learn from the
Japanese GP?
Well, firstly we (and Takuma Sato) learned
that nobody is going to put up with driving such as he
displayed in the GP. The end result of his kamikaze on Trulli
was that he was excluded from the results. He has already been
dropped in favour of Barichello at BAR next year (but
rebranded as Honda) and I think he will find it very difficult
to get a seat anywhere. I certainly would not be offering him
one.
Kimi
Raikkonen
The second crasher, Jacques Villeneuve,
claimed he was innocent after pushing Montoya off and into the
wall. The stewards didn’t see it that way either, and
Villeneuve was awarded a 25 second penalty for his driving
efforts. Will Villeneuve still be on the grid in 2006, in the
Sauber, to be rebranded as a BMW? Again, I certainly would not
be offering him a chance, not even behind a supermarket
trolley.
Despite the very biased and parochial
nature of the British commentators, Button did drive well, but
not as well as Webber or Coulthard, for my money. Webber had
almost his best race of the year, and his seat will be
confirmed for 2006 at Williams. Likewise, Coulthard showed
that he still has the speed, the need and the desire.
Raikkonen did a sterling job to win, from 17th on the grid,
and I think I (almost) saw the faintest flicker of a smile
from him on the podium.