EasyKart and BarterCard Charity GoKart event
The new Bali Hai Kart track is operated
by the EasyKart people (who also run the Bira Kart track),
and they have cooperated with Barter Card to sponsor a
charity GoKart event.
Bali
Hai at night
The event is for the Pattaya Media Challenge and is a one
hour endurance ‘race’ with four drivers from each media
company having to drive within the hour.
Being a charity event, rather than a true race, means that
the drivers from each media outfit do not need to be GoKart
champions. As EasyKart suggested in the regulations, “Please
consider this is a charity event, so enjoy and have fun!”
As part of that concept, the teams will also draw for their
karts on the night. Yes, Singapore has just had a night
race, but Pattaya has been having night races at Bali Hai
for some months, ever since the kart track opened!
The event begins at 7.30 p.m. on Sunday October 26 with the
action underway by around 8.30 p.m. It could be a fun
evening - and Bali Hai is a lot closer than Singapore!
Not bad for kicking
balls!
A top-of-the-range, fully equipped and customized
Bentley Arnage T, previously owned by David Beckham, is up
for sale on Auto Trader, the UK’s no 1 motoring website and
magazine.
The vehicle was built especially for David Beckham and is
the car he used when he went to collect his OBE from the
Queen at Buckingham Palace. The LA Galaxy star made the
journey from ‘Beckingham Palace’ to Buckingham Palace in
2003 to collect an OBE for services to football in the
Queen’s birthday honors list.
At the time Beckham said: “It’s not just for me but for
Manchester United, England, all of my team-mates and my
family.”
In fact, David Beckham’s old Bentley Arnage T is said to be
one of only two Bentleys pictured on the walls of the
factory - the other one is the Queen’s.
David’s old Bentley is definitely a bit of ‘posh’ spice - he
fitted more than £70,000 worth of extras, including wife
Victoria’s name embroidered into the rear centre ‘cushion
box’.
But this is just the start… Beckham ordered a huge spec for
his Bentley, which includes:
• Folding rear picnic tables
• Polished wheels
• Bespoke cup-holders to both front door pockets
• ‘Le Mans’ style wing vents
• Alpine hi-fi with sub-woofers
• Half wood/half leather steering wheel
• Roof mounted illuminated vanity mirrors to rear
compartment
• Rear fridge
• Diamond cross handles
• Televisions in the rear headrests with bespoke covers
He even had a child seat embroidered with his son’s name,
Brooklyn. In fact, Beckham ordered two child seats - one
with ‘Brooklyn’ stitched in - in a luxurious diamond quilted
‘Barley’ hide, and finished the remainder of the Bentley’s
interior in the same colour.
The car cost £170,000 brand new and has more than £70,000
worth of extra kit fitted, but you can snap up Beckham’s old
Bentley for just £99,000 - which has covered only 25,000
miles and comes complete with a full service history. I can
hardly wait!
If you are really interested it is up for sale at Motor
Village in Dudley - for more information, contact Chris
Foxall on 01384 411255
Beckham’s
Bentley
Autotrivia Quiz
Last week I noted that not all ‘replicas’
were made by other manufacturers. Sometimes the original
manufacturers built their own replicas. There was one famous
‘replica’ which began came out post WWII and the design team
and most of the mechanicals were ‘liberated’ from Germany.
This replica was very expensive and cost six times the price
of an MG TC for example. It also came third at Le Mans, and
after that effort, the factory then made its own replicas of
the Le Mans car. I asked what was the name of these cars? It
was the Frazer-Nash Le Mans replicas.
So to this week. Frederick and George Lancaster used an
all-wood unitary construction in 1922-23, but never used it
in production. Another manufacturer did 38 years later.
Which one was it?
For the Automania FREE beer this week, be the first correct
answer to email viacars @gmail.com
Good luck!
The Jetsons are coming
Ever watched the cartoon called The Jetsons?
Re-runs of the re-runs are still on the local cable
networks, but in these episodes, driverless vehicles take
the Jetson family to school and work. Are we approaching
this ourselves? Yes, says William Kates, writing for AP:
“To Jacob Roberts, podcars - or PRTs, for personal rapid
transit - represent an important component in the
here-and-now of transportation.
“It’s time we design cities for the human, not for the
automobile,” said Roberts, president of Connect Ithaca, a
group of planning and building professionals, activists and
students committed to making this upstate New York college
town the first podcar community in the United States.
With the oil crisis reaching a zenith and federal lawmakers
ready to begin fashioning a new national transportation bill
for 2010, Roberts and his colleagues think the future is now
for podcars - electric, automated, lightweight vehicles that
ride on their own network separate from other traffic.
Unlike mass transit, podcars carry two to 10 passengers,
giving travelers the freedom and privacy of their own car
while reducing the use of fossil fuels, reducing traffic
congestion and freeing up space now monopolized by parking.
At stations located every block or every half-mile (800
meters), depending on the need, a rider enters a destination
on a computerized pad, and a car would take the person
nonstop to the location. Stations would have slanted pull-in
bays so that some cars could stop for passengers, while
others could continue unimpeded on the main course.
“It works almost like an elevator, but horizontally,” said
Roberts, adding podcar travel would be safer than automobile
travel.
The podcar is not entirely new. A limited version with
larger cars carrying up to 15 passengers was built in 1975
in Morgantown, West Virginia, and still transports West
Virginia University students.
Next year, Heathrow Airport outside London will unveil a
pilot podcar system to ferry air travelers on the ground.
Companies in Sweden, Poland and South Korea are already
operating full-scale test tracks to demonstrate the
feasibility. Designers are planning a podcar network for
Masdar City, outside Abu Dhabi, which is being built as the
world’s first zero-carbon, zero-waste city.
Meanwhile, more than a dozen cities in Sweden are planning
podcar systems as part of the country’s commitment to be
fossil-fuel-free by 2020, said Hans Lindqvist, a councilman
from Varmdo, Sweden, and chairman of Kompass, an association
of groups and municipalities behind the Swedish initiative.
Skeptics, however, question whether podcars can ever be more
than a novelty mode of transportation, suitable only for
limited-area operations, such as airports, colleges and
corporate campuses. Detractors, mainly light-rail advocates,
say a podcar system would be too complex and expensive.”
What did we learn from
the Chinese GP?
Well, we learned that Kimi Raikkonen is not a
robot. He CAN actually smile and laugh, which he did at the
post-race conference when he was asked, “With team orders
not being allowed it is difficult not to influence the
outcome of the race, so how did you handle that?”
Kimi replied (who burst out laughing) “Like I said, I know
what the team expects and I know what we want which are
results. It is racing and I have nothing to lose or win in a
way. I am driving for the team, so it is a normal
situation.”
The post-race conference also gave us the most incisive (or
the most inept) question of the year from Jia Chen of Soccer
News China, who asked Massa, “Felipe, in most parts of the
race, you were often slower than Lewis and Kimi, even when
you were using softer tyres while they were using harder
ones. However, Kimi was often able to keep up a similar lap
speed to Lewis. What was wrong with your car?” Let’s hope he
knows more about soccer!
Actually, the race was a giant yawn. Fortunately, we turned
the volume up and that kept us awake, as the action on the
track certainly did not. Another Hermann Tilke designed
track, designed to produce boring races.
Other than Raikkonen gifting second place to his team mate
Massa, the first four were exactly as they were on the grid
before the race started. Alonso in his lonely fourth
position was not able to help Massa, despite his public
announcement that he would do anything to stop Hamilton. The
sulky Spaniard of 2008 remains the sulky Spaniard of 2007.
The Italian stallion Fisichella showed his Vindaloo special
had plenty of fire, making it difficult for anyone to pass,
but with his fastest lap two seconds adrift of the flying
Hamilton, he was never really in the hunt.
Trulli, the other Italian in the Toyota, was hit by Bourdais
on the first lap and so ended his race, whilst his team mate
Glock did manage to finish in the points in 7th place,
behind the two BMW’s of Heidfeld and Kubica.
The drivers in danger of not having a seat in 2009 did
nothing to make their team managers reconsider their fate.
Bourdais (Toro Rosso) once again hit someone, and was slower
than his team mate Vettel. Piquet was again considerably
slower than Alonso, but at least he didn’t hit anything.
Pity, it might have brightened up the race. Kovalainen
continues to less than impress. A full second slower than
Hamilton in the same car. He is not in the position to
assist Hamilton in any way. I would not be surprised to see
Ron Dennis relegate Kovalainen to test driver and bring in
someone else. How about Hulkenberg? He’s German and the
Mercedes side of the McLaren equation would be pleased. And
what about Honda? If Barichello is to get the chop as
popular rumor has it, then where is Button, who has been
consistently outdriven by Barichello?
So we go to Brazil in one week’s time, where the spectators
will probably lie down on the track if Hamilton is in front
of home-town hero Massa. Stay tuned.
Good news for Ferrari distributors
What’s the difference between a
banker and a pigeon?
A pigeon can still put a deposit on a Ferrari. |
