Monaco GP this weekend
The annual parade of the film stars, rock legends and the rich
and powerful is on this weekend in the tiny principality of
Monaco. The harbour will be wall to wall expensive yachts
and the villa car parks will have all the Lambo’s, Ferrari’s
and Maserati’s you would ever wish for.
Somewhere
in the middle of all this excess wealth (me, jealous?) is a
supposed motor race. I say ‘supposed’, because the circuit
is now totally unsuitable for today’s F1 cars. Passing is
impossible, and other than waiting for the guy in front to
stick it in the wall, you can forget about passing,
especially if your name is David Coulthard or Ralf
Schumacher. Even if your name is Michael Schumacher, it’s
still difficult!
Renault will have everything crossed for this one, as it
will be important not to let Schumacher in the Ferrari get
in front during qualifying. Meanwhile, you can be sure that
the gnomes in Bridgestone have been busy. Schumacher (M) is
a past master at this circuit, so even if he is not on pole
after Qualifying, do not write him off. Ever!
I will be watching from my perch at Jameson’s Irish Pub, Soi
AR, going there at 6 p.m. for dinner before the race at 7
p.m. Why don’t you join me?
They do have
racing on the left hand side of the Atlantic
While F1 is still, in my opinion, the epitome of
“le sport pure”, it should not be forgotten that there is a
very strong motor racing following in the USA, with their
own indigenous championships, and it is difficult to find a
competition with more mystique than the famous “brickyard”,
the Indianapolis 500 mile race. This year’s Indy 500 on May
28 is the 90th running of the event. That is a real
competition history.
With the speeds of the cars these days, a 4 km lap is
covered in around 40 seconds, and they keep that up for 200
laps. The cars are so closely matched, timing is done to
four decimal places! In practice this month, Sam Hornish
clocked 40.1104 seconds with Helio Castroneves a close
second behind his teammate with a lap of 40.2879, followed
by Scott Sharp at 40.3058; 2004 Indy winner Buddy Rice at
40.3777; and defending champion Dan Wheldon at 40.4286.
To show that this closeness goes all the way through the
field, female sensation Danica Patrick, who began drawing
attention to herself last year when she regularly ran
fastest in practice, endured another frustrating day,
posting the 20th quickest lap at 40.9975. “It was a tough
day in the Argent Mortgage Honda,” she said. A tough day,
for sure. Zero point eight seconds behind and 19 cars in
front!
A little Monaco history
Since 1929, the Monaco GP has always run through the
streets of Monte Carlo. It is a slow circuit, demanding on
both car and driver. The presence of kerbs and walls leaves
little room for even small mistakes.
One of the men behind the original race was Louis Chiron,
who last drove at Monaco in 1955, when he was placed sixth
and, at 55 years and 276 days, was the oldest driver to
start a World Championship Grand Prix (so there’s hope for
me yet)! Chiron continued as Clerk of the Course up to his
death in 1979.
There have been small changes to the circuit over the years,
but it has retained its essence and frequently provides some
of the more spectacular crashes in the calendar. Two drivers
have managed to finish up in the Monte Carlo harbour.
Alberto Ascari in 1955 and Paul Hawkins in 1965 - in neither
case was the driver badly hurt. There was a third excursion
in the harbour, in the classic movie, Grand Prix, but that
was staged for the movie.
Autotrivia Quiz
Last week I mentioned that two of the
Maserati brothers had the same name, and I asked, how did
this happen? This was easy (especially for the Googlers).
There were seven Maserati brothers (born to Rodolfo Maserati
and Carolina Losi), Carlo b 1881; Bindo b 1883; Alfieri b
1885 (who died in infancy and his name was given to the next
son) Alfieri b 1887; Mario b 1890; Ettore b 1894 and Ernesto
b 1898.
So to this week. I mentioned the third race car to go into
the harbour at Monaco, which was staged for the movie Grand
Prix. What was the movie race driver’s name who played the
part, and what was the car?
For the Automania FREE beer this week, be the first correct
answer to email [email protected]
Good luck!
Luxury Lexus Hybrid hits
the general market
The Lexus GS450h – “h” for hybrid – is
the company’s first performance hybrid. It is also the first
among the luxury marques to deliver an economical, yet
enormously powerful luxury sedan, and that perhaps is the
real measure of the inroads Lexus has made. It started out
following the pack, now Lexus leads it, and with oil certain
to touch $100 a barrel by the end of this year, Lexus is
providing the well-heeled set justification for their
expensive choice. Not only that, but in some markets, the
hybrid GS 450h is being priced under the GS 430, which
shares body and mechanicals, other than the power train.
Lexus
GS 450h
The GS450h has a 3.5 liter quad-cam VVT-i V6, plus two
highly efficient water-cooled variable voltage electric
motors mounted within the sequential-shift CVT transmission.
For the techno folk, the V6 and the first electric motor
(MG1) are linked by a planetary gear set that splits the
petrol engine power to propel the vehicle and drive MG1 to
create electricity. MG1 also fulfils the role as starter
motor for the V6. The second electric motor (MG2) provides
motive power and power to act as a generator for the
regenerative braking system. It sounds complex but the whole
operation apparently works seamlessly.
The GS450h has both power and performance, with the combined
electric and petrol engines developing 254kW. This is 22 per
cent more combined power than the 208kW V8 GS430.
Notwithstanding the impressive power output numbers, the
hybrid also manages to deliver 275Nm of instantaneous torque
from the electric motor.
The GS hybrid has been designed to deliver the performance
of a V8 with the economy of a six cylinder, and with a zero
to 100 kph time of under six seconds, this hybrid is
certainly no slouch. The powerful electric motor delivering
high levels of torque during mid-acceleration, for
impressively quick overtaking manoeuvres. The combined
output of both the V6 and hybrid system is 254kW with the
MG2 itself developing 147kW/275Nm from standstill.
With
the hybrid in tandem, the GS450h delivers instantaneous
torque right across the rev range. Apart from fuel economy
gains, the hybrid technology ensures that the GS450h has one
of the industry’s lowest emissions ratings.
The hybrid has all the active and passive safety features of
the rest of the GS range with 10 airbags, variable gear
ratio steering, adaptive variable suspension, pre-collision
system, active radar cruise control, traction control and
vehicle stability control, vehicle swerve control, brake
assist and vehicle dynamics integrated management.
Like other Lexus vehicles, the standard equipment list is
long and detailed, running to climate-control, parking
sensors, rain-sensing windscreen wipers, Bluetooth
compatibility, 14-speaker Mark Levinson CD stereo, sunroof,
power boot, climate-controlled front seats and navigation
system.
On the inside there is little to distinguish the hybrid
except for the visual power/economy readout and a kiloWatt
power meter to marked to 275kW, which replaces the
traditional tachometer.
Apart from the car’s high-tech and luxury attributes, the
Lexus also delivers fuel economy of 7.9L/100km, giving it a
32 percent greater fuel range than the GS430 and 13.5 per
cent greater range than the GS300.
