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AUTO MANIA: by Dr. Iain Corness
 


Sons of the fathers

There are many famous sons of famous fathers in motor sport. My reasons for this particular ramble relates to my noisy retirement from motor racing a couple of years ago. I had written, “I have had a great run in motor sport since my debut in 1965, but it is time to hang up the helmet. However, I will still enjoy driving a race car around a circuit for fun. It’s just I don’t need to ‘race’ any longer.”

Securitas Retro racing Escort

I was wrong. I couldn’t live without it. It is a disease. So with the help of friends such as Steve Graham (Securitas) and Kevin Fisher (CEA) and a whole bunch of enthusiasts like Peter Smith (AA Insurances), Shaun Burke (Cromwell Tools), Chris Lock, Michael Ganster (D2 Hotel), the Automotive Focus Group, Gavin Charlesworth (EBC Brakes), and a crew of Simon Roberts, John Moreton and Sergey Kolmakov; the Securitas Retro Race Team of a 1973 Mk1 Ford Escort hit the tracks this year, with myself as the driver, having lifted my helmet back off the peg. We proudly say we are the only Retro team in Thailand that has a Retro driver - I raced Mk1 Escorts when they were new! And it has been a great fun project.

However, when I returned home with a trophy for 4th place, my young son Evan was mightily impressed. He now thinks he might just have a go at motor racing. In the meantime I notice that he is placing his hand on mine when I go to change gears as I drive him to school. The disease is contagious.


Nürburgring’s 24-hour race

Porsche 997GT3 R

One of the most manic races in the European calendar is the Nürburgring 24-hour race. Peter Dumbreck will be driving the Falken new Porsche 997GT3 R at this year’s Nürburgring 24-hour race.

In an exclusive interview, Dumbreck commented on the race, and the Falken Porsche he will be driving. “Nürburgring is a more much relaxed and fun event than Le Mans.

The atmosphere is much more friendly and the fans in the forest are night seem to have a good time. From the racing side, our car should be right at the sharp end of the grid so me dealing with traffic is very different to my recent races in the GT2 Spyker. At Le Mans, the prototypes can be double our speed and you are constantly wary of them whereas at Nürburgring, it’s the (Renault) Clios and older cars that we have to thread our way by. With around 200 cars on track, it can be busy and nowadays with many factory cars the pace is hot so we have to be on it from the start.

“I think it is more of a family event too and it’s great they have kept the atmosphere as it has grown. They are also keeping things fair between the professional teams and the amateurs too. For instance, we all have to queue for pump fuel which is dispensed at similar rate to a regular petrol station. So we can be queuing there but it means there is less rush for putting belts on and getting settled in the car.”

What are your impressions after driving the car? “Very driver friendly and predictable. The rear is very stable even over some of the jumps. I looked down at Flugplatz to see we are doing over 200 km/h, that’s quick enough through there and the car feels good. The ABS is also really good; it’s subtle and really inspires confidence. For less experienced drivers it enables you to go harder into the corner, something that’s important in the Porsche. You can flat shift with the sequential box too, with an auto blip on downshifts, it all helps and prevents risks of locking the rears or miss-shifting.”

The ADAC Zurich 24-Hour Race at the Nürburgring has been held on the around 25 km long combination of the Nordschleife and Grand-Prix track since 1970. The route length makes a field of more than two hundred vehicles possible, which are driven by up to around 700 drivers, who take the wheel in shifts. Due to the large starting field and more than 200,000 fans along the track, the race is regarded by some as the largest motor sports event in the world. In 2011, it will be held from the 23rd to 26th June.


The Bugatti Veyron - today’s Bugatti Royale

Bugatti Veyron

Ettore Bugatti (Le Patron) decided at the start of the 1930’s that he should build the ‘ultimate’ car, even though he had made his name with small racing cars such as the Bugatti Type 35, incidentally the most successful racing car of all time with over 2,000 wins. But this was not enough for the eccentric Ettore Bugatti. He wished to be remembered for his Bugatti Royale, the Type 41.

The Royale was huge. The 13 liter engine was the most powerful ever installed in an automobile. It was fitted into a motor car more than 6.4 meters long. It sat on 38 inch wheels. Its radiator cap was a statue of a performing elephant, designed by his brother Rembrandt.

However, it appeared in 1932, in time for the Great Depression and not even one royal family purchased a Royale. It remained an automotive anachronism of which only six or seven were built (nobody knows the exact number) and most remained unsold. The white elephant mascot was prophetic.

However, after the Bugatti firm went into liquidation, and having numerous successive owners, Volkswagen AG decided to revive the legendary Bugatti name, purchasing all trademark rights, and Bugatti Automobile S.A.S. was founded as a Volkswagen France subsidiary in Molsheim, Alsace, the town where the Royale was built. History was about to repeat itself.

In 2000, VW announced the Bugatti Veyron concept to the world; however, the first production model was not shown until the Tokyo Motor Show in 2005, to cost $1 million, develop 1,000 horsepower and attain 400 km/h.

The enormous W16 engine with its four turbochargers did indeed develop 1001 horsepower, but reaching the target speed of 400 km/h was not so easy. Aerodynamic instability was the problem. One prototype was destroyed in a crash and another spun out during a public demonstration at Monterey in America.

However, by May 2005, a prototype Veyron tested at a Volkswagen track near Wolfsburg, Germany, managed the magic 400 km/h (249 mph). In October, 2005, the final production version of the Veyron reached a top speed of 407.5 km/h (253.2 mph)! But the cost to build each car was far more than the one million USD ticket price. VW has had to sell each Veyron at a loss.

The Veyron in its final form is certainly not a French tour de force. The seven speed gearbox is made by Ricardo in the UK, and the unique 16 cylinder 8.0 litre engine comes from the Volkswagen engine plant in Salzgitter in Germany. The tyres - the first production tyres homologated for speeds above 400 km/h - are a joint development with Michelin. The carbon bre monocoque is built by ATR in Italy, the front and rear-structures in forged aluminium by Heggemann in Germany and the bespoke carbon-ceramic brakes by AP Racing in Great Britain. The paintwork is German, the leather Austrian, and the windscreen is manufactured in Finland. So much for its French heritage!

The end result is a vehicle which will reach 100 km/h in 2.5 seconds. It reaches 200 and 300 km/h in 7.4 and 16.7 seconds respectively. It gulps fuel at 125 liters per 100 km, and at full throttle empties its fuel tank in 12.5 minutes. Just as well, as the tyres will only last 15 minutes at top speed.

Max Born, the 1954 Nobel Prize winner in physics, said of space travel that it was “a triumph of intellect but a tragic failure of reason.” He could have been talking about the Bugatti Veyron. Certainly a triumph of engineering, but equally a failure of reason. It has no place in the automotive world. Today’s Bugatti Veyron is the reincarnation of the Bugatti Royale! All that is lacking is the white elephant mascot.


Electrifying performance for RAC Future Car Challenge

With little over a month since the announcement of the second RAC Future Car Challenge taking place on Saturday November 5 this year, the opening list of vehicles is growing in this competition for low-energy vehicles.

The first entries received for the 2011 event includes a line-up of EV sports cars from Radical, Tesla, Delta, Vortex and Vince Nemesis, many of whom we have never seen.

The Radical SRZero supercar EV entry is from Imperial College London. In 2010 they drove the all-electric Radical from Alaska, down the Pan-American Highway, finishing at Ushuaia in Argentina, the world’s most southerly city, passing through 14 countries in 140 days. The team used the journey to demonstrate that electric vehicles have outstanding performance and that they are a viable low-carbon alternative to combustion engine vehicles.

The Tesla Roadster is one that is well-known as the first production electric sports car as well as being one of the fastest, but it has a close competitor in the shape of the Vince Nemesis.

British built Vince benefits from a similar lightweight structure to the Tesla but uses a different cell and motor arrangement for an equally-impressive turn of speed - 270 kph makes it possibly the world’s fastest electric vehicle.

Their rival comes in the shape of the Delta E4 Electric Coupe which has a high-tech carbon fiber design with impressive performance on electric power: not only is it capable of over 320 kays on a single charge but can also carry four people and accelerate to 100 km/h in less than five seconds - all with zero tailpipe emissions.

Although these confirmed entries are electric, the RAC Future Car Challenge is also open to hybrid, hydrogen and low-emission internal combustion engine cars and light-commercial vehicles. Last year’s entry list included one-off prototypes and future production vehicles from Honda, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota, Nissan, Vauxhall, BMW, Skoda and Volkswagen, as well as current production cars offering the highest levels of efficiency regardless of their powertrain.


What did we learn from the Spanish Grand prix?

Well we learned that Alonso’s Ferrari had the start of the century from fourth on the grid. If I were a scrutineer I would be looking for where Ferrari had hidden the jet engine, and forget about its illegal rear wing!

Boy Vunder Vettel in the Red Bull really did have to work for his win, and all credit to him. He had Hamilton (McLaren) up his exhaust pipe for the last 20 laps and was never pressured into making a mistake. He will retain his world championship crown.

We also saw that despite all the predictions of doom and gloom, and ‘retire now’ calls (including mine) for Michael Schumacher, he confused us all by coming home sixth in the Mercedes and comfortably in front of his team mate Nico Rosberg. Rosberg complained that his radio was faulty, and I sympathize with him, I have the same problem with the Daihatsu …(joke)!

After the success of the Drag Reduction System (DRS) in Turkey, it turned out to be a dismal flop in Spain. Catalunya is well known for its processional racing and it was hoped that this would be reversed by the DRS. I did not see anyone manage to use it successfully, as the area of the track where the DRS could be used was too short. With all the facilities and expertise in the FIA, surely they could get that right? However, knowing the history of the FIA in its regulations, it does not surprise me one bit.

One of the drives of the day was that of Heidfeld (Renault) who started stone motherless last and ended up eighth. His mate Petrov has improved to the extent that he is no longer running in the demolition derbies but this time had to bow to Heidfeld.

Di Resta (Poppadum Team India) continues to impress. Beating his experienced team mate Adrian Sutil once again. The fresh-faced young Scot has a great future ahead of him and will undoubtedly be snapped up by one of the top teams.

Four drivers were called in front of the stewards for not slowing down when a yellow flag was displayed. These were Hamilton and Button (McLarens), Webber (Red Bull) and Algywhatsit (Toro Rosso). Hamilton’s explanation deserves to be included in a book of Murray Walkerisms - “We all abide by the rules, and we slow down for the yellow flags, but you have to do that without losing any time.” Er, yes, Lewis!

Poor showings in the race by Webber once again, despite a brilliant qualifying run. This will be his last season in the Red Bull camp. Another poor showing by Massa (Ferrari) as well, and despite Ferrari saying that Massa has a contract to the end of 2012, remember how they got rid of Raikkonen and his contract?

Monaco this weekend. I expect another brilliant qualifying by Webber, but a better result by Vettel.


Autotrivia Quiz

New quiz car.

Last week’s quiz car.

Last week, hoping to confound the ‘Googlers’ I asked what was this car which was a trendsetter then, and still is today.

Parts of it’s concept are in the Mitsubishi i-Miev, and that’s all the clues you are getting.

Some of you are just getting too good! It was the 1902 Lohner-Porsche with its in-wheel motors (as used by the i-Miev) and hybrid power.

So to this week. I want to know what is this car and what is its year?

For the Automania free beer this week, be the first correct answer to email [email protected].


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