Honda Racing this weekend at Bira
Civic traffic
jam Bira hairpin.
This round of the Honda Racing Fest 2009
is being held this weekend at the Kaeng Kaachan race circuit
up in Petchaburi. These Honda meetings are always well
attended, and they will let you in the car park, even if you
do drive a Toyota!
The One Make/Model events are always very competitive (Jazz
and Civic) generally with lots of leaning on each other in
the corners, especially the corner at the end of the
straight.
Toyota looking very
critically at North America
Having fought to get itself up to Number 1 in the
world, Toyota is back pedaling as many of its manufacturing
bases are not profitable during this economic crisis.
Yoshimi Inaba, president and CEO of Toyota Motor America and
chairman and CEO of Toyota Motor Sales USA said the company
was reviewing its entire operation in the US, including
whether to close a factory in California and whether it
should open a factory in Mississippi.
American
Toyota Avalon
Inaba said Toyota is not profitable in North America despite
cost cutting in the organization, but he said he hopes the
company could be profitable in its next fiscal year in North
America.
Toyota’s sales have fallen 38 percent in the first six
months of this year - down to 770,000 cars and trucks from
nearly 1.25 million vehicles in the first six months of
2008, a fall even greater than the U.S. industry average
auto sales that fell 35 percent in the first half of the
year.
California is one of the best states for Toyota sales in the
US, and Toyota has had a factory there which employs 4,700
people, and is a joint venture with General Motors, but
during its stay in bankruptcy court, GM have pulled out.
Consequently, Toyota is looking at whether to keep open the
25 year old New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. (known as
NUMMI) assembly plant in Fremont, California, but is hoping
for an incentive package from the California state to assist
in keeping the plant open.
Examining the downturn in sales, Inaba acknowledged that
Toyota vehicles had often lacked “passion” and that the
company’s vehicles must be “more exciting, more nimble.” In
fact, many people, me included, have always described Toyota
vehicles as being “dull”, but that has not stopped me buying
two in the past four years.
How to sell motor cars
In this financially depressed time, it must
be hard to sell cars. However, you can’t sell anything
sitting behind a desk and not talking to potential
customers. That lesson is yet to be learned by car sales
‘executives’ here.
Needing another car we began visiting dealerships. After
getting nowhere, other than a reluctantly handed out
brochure in one, I even ended up accosting one manager
saying, “Excuse me, do you sell cars here?” I wonder if
these people really understand what a precarious state
the car sales industry is in world-wide?
Of course, I had to take time off work for these trips,
as Sunday, my day off, is the dealerships day off as
well. These people are failing to understand ‘Marketing
101’ every week.
It was on one of these fruitless trips to the new car
dealerships where all we accomplished was to leave
greasy nose prints on the showroom glass, that we
spotted one of the cars on our short list in a second
hand yard. And, guess what? It was open for business.
Our next few Sundays were taken up with going around the
second hand car yards in the local area, and most of
them were manned (or more usually young lady-d) and we
were well looked after, and found the model we wanted,
which was also well looked after. They arranged for the
finance (at competitive rates too), took the vehicle to
the dealership to be serviced, cleaned up any minor
scratches and even allowed my wife to drive it for a
couple of hours to make sure she was happy with it.
The upshot of all this is really the fact that we bought
a car from an outlet that gave us service. The
manufacturer lost a new car sale because we didn’t get
service. The price was not the deciding factor as we
were going to finance the new acquisition anyway.
So is there any hope for the Thai auto sales figures for
2009? I would sincerely hope so, but it is obvious that
the major players in this competitive business have to
be more proactive. The sales people have to do what they
were hired for - and that is to “sell”. That is
something they are not doing right now.
Electric Benz Supercar
Following on from the tie-up between
Mercedes-Benz and Tesla, the American electric car
maker, comes the news that Mercedes-Benz is developing a
zero emission, electric SLS AMG Gullwing supercar with
AWD. This in addition to the new gasoline SLS AMG
Gullwing.
There are four in-wheel electric motors and sources at
Mercedes-Benz have said that with a combined total of
392 kW of power and a stump-pulling 880 Nm of torque,
the electric version of the AMG will be almost as fast
as the 6.2 liter V8 version and will cover the zero to
100 kph in approximately 4 seconds, making it a true
supercar. The gasoline V8 version covers the zero-100
kph in 3.8 seconds.
Volker Mornhinweg, the CEO of Mercedes-AMG GmbH, had to
say the following about the first all-electric Mercedes
production car: “With the SLS AMG with electric drive,
we wanted to redefine the super sports car. For us, it
is not just about responsibility. We attach just as much
importance to excitement and classic AMG performance.”
Interestingly, the gullwing doors and other external
aspects of the car’s design did not require
modifications to accommodate the four electric motors
and extensive battery packs. The German car maker says
that safety levels have also been retained.
The computer controlled all-wheel-drive can channel the
torque to any wheel combination at all times, giving
very exact road holding and grip.
According to Mercedes, the SLS AMG’s initial pilot phase
will use a liquid-cooled high-voltage lithium-ion
battery that has an energy content of 48 kWh and a
capacity of 40 Ah.
It was not stated whether this vehicle will be a plug-in
electric vehicle, as Mercedes states the 400 volt
battery is charged by regenerative braking (KERS) which
might be a little difficult if the batteries are flat
and the car is stationary. I don’t think standard jumper
leads would help here!
SLS AMG
Gullwing
Autotrivia Quiz
Last week I mentioned that in the UK, a
new car from a major manufacturer was going to be called the
Caprino, until some research unearthed that this was Italian
for goat poo! Instead they named the car after the winter
Olympics. I asked what was this car? Easy, it was the Ford
Cortina named after the venue for the 1956 winter Olympics,
the Cortina di Ampezzo!
So to this week. Aerodynamics has become very important in
today’s racing cars. In what year did the first aerodynamic
racer compete? Clue: “twins”.
For the Automania FREE beer this week, be the first correct
answer to email [email protected]
Good luck!
What did we learn from
the Hungarian GP?
Well, we learned that perhaps Lewis Hamilton
isn’t the one season wonder that many claimed he was. He put
in an exemplary race, did not take unnecessary chances, made
no mistakes, and was in control of the race from the minute
pole-sitter Fernando Alonso (Renault) came in for his first,
and very early, pit stop.
Massa’s accident - a brief note - it is almost impossible to
recreate accidents such as these - an object flying through
the air and a car coming towards it and the trajectories
intersecting. Millions to one chances. Methods of protecting
the driver needs some careful engineering thought and not
knee-jerk reactions. While crash helmets have become much
stronger over the years, the polycarbonate visor probably
has not. A starting point for improvement?
We also saw that fact that the wheels seem to have fallen
off the Brawn GP wagon. Championship leader Jenson Button
saying, “What’s wrong with this car?” during the race. But
neither Button, nor Barichello were anywhere near the front
all weekend. The (unpleasant) fact that Brawn GP has to face
is that the others have caught up (especially McLaren and
Ferrari), and probably have more facilities at their
disposal than the smaller Brawn GP team. Button is going to
be lucky to hang on to his World Championship hopes.
Barichello is sliding into obscurity, but will keep
complaining for a while yet.
And while mentioning wheels falling off - the Renault pit
crew really cocked up Alonso’s race, incorrectly fitting the
right front wheel (and more on that later). You can’t get
away with that and the wheel deserted, finishing the
Spaniard’s race (even though Renault is saying it was a fuel
pump issue)! It was particularly telling to see team boss
Flavio Briatore, briefcase in hand, leaving before the Grand
Prix had ended. You cannot blame him, it isn’t worthwhile
waiting around for Piquet Junior to come home, well out of
the points as usual.
Ferrari is back, with Raikkonen doing a sterling job, though
nowhere near Hamilton. Who will Ferrari have in Valencia?
Quite frankly, neither of their test drivers (Marc Gene and
Luca Badoer) have race pace. Perhaps this is the time to put
Alonso in the seat?
Red Bull were unlucky to lose Vettel, but deserving of
Webber’s third place. The energy drinks team has now got the
energy to really challenge Brawn GP.
The new recruit, Jaime Alguersuari in the Toro Rosso did
well, even finishing in front of team mate Buemi, but said,
“I have learned a lot but I have to say there are some
aspects of F1 which made me think, ‘sh*t this is tough’.” It
is, Jaime, it is!
Now then FIA, what earthly good does excluding Renault and
its Spanish lead driver from the next race in Valencia
(that’s in Spain, FIA stewards) do for anyone? They have,
with the stroke of a pen, ensured that Spanish spectator
numbers will be even less than they might have been. And
does the exclusion ensure that mistakes cannot be made by
pit crews in the future? Of course it doesn’t. Having your
car retiring from an important race is punishment enough. If
they want to make sure that there can be no danger, then
exclude the entire field. Does Renault’s exclusion fix the
Henry Surtees and Massa incidents? Of course not. Hearken
back to Ferrari releasing their car with the fuel hose
attached, would an exclusion have fixed that problem? Of
course not. Just another example of knee-jerk reactions and
inconsistent stewarding.
