It seems that 2005 has seen an upsurge in
the classic car movement. These cars have always been here,
but generally left in sheds somewhere. After all, a 1924 Fiat
is hardly suitable for every day transport. However, there
have been three recent events at which the owners of some of
these older cars (not all of them are really ‘classics’)
have been able to take them out for an airing, in the company
of like-minded souls.
The
first was in the North, where Count Van der Straten organized
a rally in the hills above Chiang Mai which attracted some
interesting vehicles, including an older Rolls-Royce. (Some
trivia – Count Van der Straten’s uncle ran the VDS team of
F5000’s in 1977. These were Lola T430’s and the factory
only made three of them. I have had the privilege of running
one of those cars at Calder Raceway in Australia!)
The second outing for the older cars was
the 3rd Hua Hin Vintage Car Parade, which took place in
mid-December this year. This had backing from the TAT, the Hua
Hin Hoteliers Club and the Vintage Car Club of Thailand. The
caravan left from the Sofitel Central Plaza in Bangkok and
included a venerable Fiat and an MGTC of circa 1947 vintage.
This event was ‘discovered’ by one of our local
enthusiasts Jerry, a regular at our Jameson’s meetings each
month, and he was most enthusiastic about it.
The third event was one for rag-tops,
organized by the Classic Car Club of Thailand and featured
such wildly diverse vehicles as an Oldsmobile Cutlass, an MGA,
reported as being a 1959 model (but the photograph taken at
the event shows it to be a 1955 1500), and a Porsche Boxster.
A
few years ago I did an exploratory run around Chiang Mai and
discovered all sorts of interesting vehicles, including a V8
Tatra, a 1924 Hanomag, an MG VA, a couple of Fiat Topolino’s
and even a rag-top Chrysler Valiant circa 1973. It would be
good if we could get these cars into some sort of central
register, kept by the Royal Automobile Association of Thailand
(RAAT). I’ll see what I can do, but don’t hold your
breath! However, if you come across something old, drop me a
line if nothing else. A photo would be good too.
Last week we had the news that Michelin is
to pull out of F1 at the end of 2006. Not surprising, but
historically the tyre marketplace has seen some wonderful
competition.
The reason for this is the fact that the
tyre market is enormous. Every car has five of them, unless
you have a BMW 1 Series, a 330i or a six wheeled Panther. The
world total is estimated to be 994 million tyres, so you can
see why the war is waged. Of this, total original equipment
(OE) accounts for some 28 percent, and the market is expected
to grow steadily over the next five years. The OE growth is
mainly driven by Asia.
The
first recorded tyre war was between Michelin and Pirelli in
the Peking to Paris race of 1907. Interestingly, both brands
are still are still at it, trying to get the lion’s share of
the business in Europe. But back in 1907, Pirelli sponsored
Prince Borghese’s Itala in the race, and one tyre survived
the whole trip and then out of Paris to Pirelli’s Milan
factory without a puncture. Michelin supported Goddard in a
Dutch Spyker. Goddard was a man who had never driven a car
before the race and was seriously under-funded. He had to sell
off some of the tyres to pay for the shipping to China!
Incidentally, Dunlop was there too, supporting the De-Dion
teams.
A little earlier history. Up till 1845,
tyres were unheard of. The wooden wheels of the day having
metal bands around them to keep the wheel together, and to
give the wheel some durability. The bone-shaking ride had to
be softened, but despite leaf springs, and then later, a band
of solid rubber around the rim, more had to be done. This was
the advent of the pneumatic tyre, invented and patented by
R.W. Thomson in 1845 (not by Dunlop, as many people think).
His first design used a number of thin inflated tubes inside a
leather cover. This design actually had advantages over later
designs, as it would take more than one puncture to deflate
the whole tyre. However, despite these technological
breakthroughs the solid rubber tyre continued to be the
dominant tyre.
Forty-three years later it was left to John
Boyd Dunlop to invent the rubber pneumatic tyre and it was not
until his new design that the pneumatic tyre caught on. Dunlop
first advertised his tyres in December 1888 in The Irish
Cyclist, and in May of the following year the new pneumatic
tyre had its first breakthrough. A Belfast cycle race was won
on pneumatic rubber tyres, and by then the public were
starting to take note. Never say that advertising does not
work!
Unfortunately the original tyre had its
drawbacks. The inner tube was difficult to get at because the
tyre itself was stuck to the wheel rim. So one year later, in
1890, C.K. Welsh patented the design of a wheel rim with a lip
and an outer inextensible cover. This was now the basis for
today’s tyre.
Over the years the tyre has developed into
today’s high technology offerings. Two of the most important
technological developments were Michelin’s creation of the
radial tyre in 1948, giving a vastly superior grip, and Dunlop
coming up with the tubeless concept in 1972. Ironic that
Dunlop was the first to capitalize on rubber inner tubes, and
the first to get rid of them 84 years later!
But technology cannot be denied in the
modern tyre wars. You only have to watch Formula 1 racing and
see the technology that is put into the manufacture of tyres
today, with Bridgestone and Michelin being represented in F1
(until the end of 2006).
Just as John Boyd Dunlop invented the inner
tube because he was tired of his bicycle tyres getting
punctures, the tyre industry in the mid 90’s began to look
at ways to stop the problems caused by punctures. The
principal one being changing wheels, especially at night, in
the rain. How many of us have had this problem, sometimes
compounded by being unable to get the wheel nuts loose after
they had previously been tightened by somebody attempting to
emulate Arnold Schwarzenegger!
The answer as envisaged by the tyre
technologists was to come up with tyres you could still drive
home. Despite the puncture. This was the start of Run-Flat
Technology.
One example is Goodyear’s EMT (Extended
Mobility Tire) tyre technology that permitted the motorist to
drive up to 80 kilometres at speeds up to 80 kph on a totally
deflated tyre. EMT tyres need no special wheels and no
complicated mounting procedures by standard tyre fitting
machines.
Other tyre companies were not going to be
left behind in this race either and some amazing technology
transfers took place. For example, the Bridgestone Corporation
in Tokyo and Continental AG in Germany signed a technical
agreement to co-operate on run-flat tyre systems for passenger
cars and light trucks.
Back came Michelin with another system,
called PAX. This is a new bespoke wheel/tyre set-up with its
very own size system and technical support. So much technology
is involved that Michelin has tied up with its old adversaries
Goodyear, Pirelli and Dunlop to bring the PAX concept forward.
With BMW’s decision to fit run-flat
tyres, without option, to the new 1 Series and the 330, rapid
growth in the use of these tyres is expected. Honda and Nissan
are expected to introduce new models using run-flat rubber
next year.
I was very critical of the run-flats on the 330 I tested a
couple of months ago, but I am sure that with universal use of
this technology, the suspension systems will be developed to
cope with the harshness produced by these tyres.
If
anything, this vehicle is even more over-the-top than the 62.
Where the 62 had a 5.5 litre V12 engine putting out around 550
horsepower, in the 57 Spezial, DaimlerChrysler has called upon
another of their own ‘in-house’ brands, AMG, to produce a
6 litre V12 twin turbocharged engine developing 612 horsepower
and 1000 Nm of torque. This is the engine in the Mercedes CL
65 AMG, which I have driven, and is sensational. In the
Maybach 57 Spezial, this engine produces zero to 100 kph times
of 5 seconds, almost the next best thing to an FA 18 Tomcat
take-off. And more luxurious!