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AUTO MANIA:
by Dr. Iain Corness |
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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 4 th
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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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