Japanese GP this weekend
Suzuka
circuit
One of the greatest tracks used in
Formula One today, Japan’s Suzuka circuit is a massive test
of car and driver ability. Built by Honda as a test facility
in 1962, the track was designed by Dutchman John Hugenholz,
the Hermann Tilke of his day. A huge theme park was also
constructed at the track, including the famous big wheel
which dominates the Suzuka skyline.
At Suzuka the race has provided the scene
for many nail-biting end-of-season deciders, including the
infamous collisions involving Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna.
This week, will it be Lewis Hamilton and ????????
Suzuka includes some of the Grand Prix
calendar’s most challenging corners. Among the drivers’
favorites are the high-speed 130R taken at over 300 km/h and
the famous Spoon Curve taken at 140 km/h on the way in and
coming out at 180 km/h.
With the results from Singapore still in
everybody’s minds, will Suzuka be a firecracker or a fizzer?
With a circuit that encourages passing, it would have to be
a better race than Singapore, and I don’t care how many
“celebrities” Bernie invites.
I will be watching from my usual perch at
Jameson’s Irish Pub, Soi AR, next to Nova Park for the 53
laps GP of the 5.8 km circuit. Now, important – with the
time differential between here and Japan, the race on Sunday
starts at 1 p.m. Thai time. Qualifying on the Saturday is 12
noon. Join us for lunch and a couple of jars before the red
lights go out.
Are male
drivers better than female ones?
New research has shown that, if nothing
else, three year old boys are better drivers than three year
old girls.
The experiment involved over 70
pre-school boys and girls who took part in a series of
controlled tests. The research was conducted using electric
Roary the Racing Car ride-ons at world-famous motorsport
circuit, Brands Hatch.
Women
Drivers!
Results were analyzed based on
concentration, spatial awareness, dexterity, control and
overall speed in a series of three trials. The examination
included a straight race from start to finish, a reversing
test and a maneuvering challenge around cones. The findings
showed that although girls were slightly quicker off the
mark at the start of the race, boys were 34 percent better
at concentrating and demonstrating visual-spatial skills
whilst driving in a straight line. Although, girls overall
speed was five percent faster than boys when racing
straight, boys were 20 percent better than girls at
maintaining their line.
According to child psychologist, Donna
Dawson, boys and girls develop significant differences in
brain structure, hormones, and are influenced by culture and
society a lot more after this age.
Surprisingly, the reverse test revealed
that the boys were 17 percent better than girls at doing two
things at once such as moving and steering whilst looking
over their shoulder. However, the pre-schoolers were too
young to find it necessary to apply lipstick at the same
time as driving.
Natter
Nosh and Noggin
Where do the local
car/bike/racing/enthusiast chaps go to chat amongst
themselves? The next car meeting will be at Jameson’s Irish
Pub on Soi AR next to the Nova Park development. The monthly
meetings are on the second Monday of the month, so this week
it is on October 11 at Jameson’s at 7 p.m. This is a totally
informal meeting of like-minded souls to discuss their pet
motoring (and motorcycling) loves and hates. Many
interesting debates come from these evenings. Come along and
meet guys who have a common interest in cars and bikes, and
enjoy the Jameson’s specials, washed down with a few beers.
A great no-pressure evening. We would certainly welcome the
local enthusiasts who enter the Autotrivia Quiz, and anyone
wanting more details on the British Chamber event on
Thursday 14.
Cruzing
electrically
General Motors has announced it has a
demo fleet of electric Chevrolet Cruzes to research the
market in Korea.
Electric
Cruze
The project involves a fleet of electric
vehicles based on the Chevrolet Cruze. The electric Cruzes
will operate in South Korea’s capital, Seoul, and they are
the result of shared development with GM Daewoo, LG Chemical
and LG Electronics.
The project will provide real-world data
on customer acceptance of battery electric vehicles,
studying driving patterns and charging behavior while
sharing costs and resources.
The Cruze EV demo fleet will be powered
by batteries from LG Chemical and propulsion systems
(motor/inverter) from LG Electronics.
The Cruze EV is equipped with a 31 kWh
battery that generates maximum power of 150 kW. The
demonstration fleet will be monitored closely to determine
the amount of real-world range achievable by a vehicle of
its size. On specific test schedules conducted by LG
Chemical, the demonstration vehicles may achieve a range of
up to 160 km. The vehicles can go from 0 to 100 km/h in 8.2
seconds with a maximum speed of 165 km/h, all of which look
perfectly suitable for normal commuting.
On a standard household 220-volt outlet,
the Cruze EV can be fully recharged in 8 to 10 hours. Part
of the demonstration fleet’s task is to test a “quick
charge” application that could reduce the charge time
significantly.
Autotrivia
Quiz
Last week I wrote that a famous F1
designer built a sports car which had 15 forward gears and
five reverse. I asked who was the designer, and what was the
name of the car? It was Gordon Murray, the designer of the
McLaren F1 and car was called the Light Car Company Rocket.
The transmission incorporated a two speed differential with
five speed sequential gears.
So to this week. What was the only wicker
bodied car to go into production in 1924? An easy one! And
it’s not the 1897 Hugot or the 1928 Chevrolet.
For the Automania FREE beer this week, be the first
correct answer to email [email protected]. Good luck!
“Speed
Kills” – or does it?
Having been involved in motor racing for
45 years at a rough count, I do get rather tired of the
assertion by legislators that “Speed Kills”. The modern F1
car shows that “speed” does not necessarily “kill” at all.
However, some statistics have come to
light in the UK which throw a new light on road fatalities
and counters the “Speed Kills” mania. The latest figures
from the department of transport reveal 2,222 people were
killed on UK roads in 2009. 95 percent of crashes do not
involve exceeding the speed limit and 83 percent of deaths
(around 1,844 people) occur within the speed limit.
Speed
kills?
The 17 percent of deaths where exceeding
the speed limit was ticked as a ‘factor’ are of course a
significant number, around 378 people. However we must
remember that a ‘factor’ is very different from a ‘cause’
and officers are instructed to tick the ‘speeding’ box even
if the vehicle that caused the crash was not speeding but
another vehicle involved was or might have been.
What we are not told is just how many of
these 378 deaths are caused by sober, otherwise legal,
drivers travelling a few miles per hour above the speed
limit and how many were caused by drunk, drugged,
unlicensed, drivers of stolen cars or those travelling at
reckless speeds.
The prime target of UK road safety policy
at present is licensed drivers exceeding speed limits by a
small amount. These make up the vast majority of camera
prosecutions. The Association of British Drivers (ABD) has
called upon the authorities to reveal exactly how many ‘over
speed limit’ deaths are caused by such drivers. Only when
the full facts are revealed can we tell if current policy is
correctly targeted or should emphasis be shifted. The ABD
has tried for many years to obtain true figures on this
issue and have continually met with obstruction. We have
called for an independent road accident investigation board
manned by ex-marine and aviation industry accident
investigators. Perhaps with a new government in charge we
may see a more honest approach?
In a Sunday Telegraph interview, Paul
Garvin, then County Durham Chief Constable, said, “Having
looked at the accident statistics in this area [County
Durham], we find that if you break down the 1,900 collisions
we have each year only three percent involve cars that are
exceeding the speed limit. Just 60 accidents per year
involve vehicles exceeding the speed limit. You then need to
look at causes of these 60 accidents. Speed may be a factor
in the background but the actual cause of the accident
invariably is drink-driving, or drug-driving. The cause of
accidents is clearly something different than exceeding the
speed limit and we ought to be looking at those other
factors”.
It would then seem that politicians, the
world over, do not understand statistics in any way
whatsoever. Take the annual carnage in Thailand, called
Songkran. 80 percent of the deaths over the Songkran
holidays come from motorcycle accidents, in which, in the
vast majority, no helmet has been worn. This would surely
give the authorities the direction in which to go to be able
to decrease the road toll. But no, just like the UK, the
authorities will find the wrong tree to bark up.
Motorcycling in a Kombi van
Received some pictures from Jerry in the
USA of some very different sidecars. This one in particular
appealed, with its scaled down VW Kombi van alongside the
motorcycle.
Others included a scaled down army tank, a red
mini-Ferrari, a large Red Bull drink can, a small WW2 plane
and a narrow Citroen 2CV.
A
different Kombi
