Korean GP this weekend

The new Korean GP circuit.

The second annual Korean Grand Prix is on this weekend. Following a very successful first Grand Prix last year, there is quite an air of optimism this year. There was much conjecture in 2010 as to whether the Grand Prix would go ahead, as the circuit fell behind in its completion date. Many reasons were touted, including the weather and public holidays!
The circuit was designed by Hermann Tilke, the man who has sketched many of the most boring circuits in the history of motor racing. However, Korea was much better than anticipated. Unfortunately, last year the rains fell and fell and fell, so here’s hoping it will be dry.
On paper, the favorite for the front row has to be Vettel who has been on pole for the vast majority of the Grands Prix this year. He has stamped his authority on the World Driver’s Championship quite emphatically this year, with nobody able to challenge the supremacy of the Red Bull driver.
The other usual front runners will be snapping at his heels - his team mate Mark Webber, Ferrari (Alonso) and McLaren (Button and Hamilton). Last year Alonso won, Hamilton was second and Massa third. Those results will not be repeated, I am afraid.
I will be watching from my usual perch at Jameson’s Irish Pub, Soi AR, next to Nova Park for the Grand Prix. Now, important - with the time differential between here and Korea, 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.

Forget Road Rage - we’ve now got Sat-Nav Rage

Six out of 10 sat-nav users have fallen victim to Sat-Nav Rage - losing their temper with their dashboard gadget. The survey which interviewed 2,000 male and female drivers across the UK has found that millions of motorists have ended up shouting and swearing at their navigation system.
Unclear directions, annoying voice-overs, out of date and expensive maps, and taking them on unnecessary round-about journeys are most likely to test a driver’s patience. One in ten has ended up stopping the car in frustration whilst one person even admitting to throwing their sat-nav out of the window.
The majority polled get annoyed by being sent in the wrong direction and 44 percent are adamant they aren’t taken on the quickest route. Three in 10 hate having to put up with it losing GPS signal and a quarter struggle to keep the device stuck to the windscreen. But that’s left half swearing, shouting and getting worked up when attempting to get to meetings or holiday destinations, with partners often in the firing line.
20 percent of those polled say that map updates are too expensive, which might explain why a whopping 51 percent have never updated them. Interestingly, a further 11 percent didn’t know they had to update their maps.
The way of the future is smartphone navigation apps and 70 percent of those polled say that these apps will substitute dedicated sat-nav devices in the future, with 40 percent saying they’d never buy a dedicated sat-nav device again.
“The conclusion we draw from the survey is that whilst sat nav is here to stay, the dedicated sat-nav device is out of date, expensive, inconvenient and not very user friendly. It’s only a matter of time before the more convenient and wallet friendly smartphone navigation application takes the top spot.”
Whilst a quarter of those surveyed admit they blindly follow what their sat-nav says, more than half (51 percent) have tried to outwit their sat-nav with one in five having then ended up lost, and one in twenty finding themselves stuck down a narrow road.
The top 10 sat-nav annoyances:
It takes me in the wrong direction
I’m pretty sure it doesn’t take me the quickest route
The annoying voice
It often loses GPS connection
The maps are out of date
If frequently falls from the windscreen
Map updates are expensive
It’s difficult trying to input post codes
It’s slow
It’s difficult trying to get it to stick to the windscreen.
Do you have a sat-nav device? Do you agree?

Chery popping in Thailand

Chery Tiggo.

One rumor doing the rounds is that the Chinese company Chery will be assembling their range of cheap cars here. This stems from the fact that an agreement was signed in 2008 for the Chery QQ and the Tiggo SUV to be assembled in Thailand from CKD kits.
Chery already has assembly plants in Malaysia and Indonesia where they produce the Tiggo and the Cross mini-MPV.
So, despite an agreement signed three years ago, the rumor of Chery assembling here looks like just that - a rumor.
In the meantime, Chery has done very badly in the ANCAP (crash safety testing), and the western world is looking with great hesitation at the Chery offerings. Chery has a lot to overcome in the marketplace before assembling cars here, I’m afraid.

Anyone want to buy a SAAB?

Pity those dealers in the world with a showroom full of SAAB’s. Ever since General Motors gave the company the flick, it has been in diabolical financial troubles since then.
The company was then allied with the Dutch group Spyker, a company that produces luxury sports cars, but that marriage of convenience did not work, and now Swedish Automobiles (the owner of SAAB) hopes it has sold Spyker to an investment group in the US.
Swedish Automobiles also has tried selling itself to a Russian businessman Vladimir Antonov, but that fell through, but a loan given to SAAB by Antonov needs to be paid - which will be done with the proceeds of the Spyker sale.
In the meantime, SAAB can’t pay its bills, the staff can’t get paid, SAAB is staving off bankruptcy proceedings, and it is also trying to appease the Swedish government, and needs approval for financial dealings from GM, which still holds preferential shares.
So there we have it. SAAB has always produced solid, dependable motor cars, but right now it would be a brave man that buys one.

Big spend by Isuzu

New D-Max.

Isuzu Motors Thailand is going to spend 7.3 billion baht for a new facility to produce the new D-Max pick-ups. This will be at Chachoengsao and the output will be 90,000 vehicles a year, adding to the almost 300,000 production from their other plant at Samrong (Samut Prakarn).
Tri Petch Isuzu, the marketing arm says that 40 percent of the production will go for export, mainly to the Middle East and Europe. The remainder will be for local sales, and the new D-Max range will cost between 465,000 and 994,000 baht.
The new D-Max range is scheduled to be released this month.

What did we learn from the Japan GP?

We learned that the world driver’s championship has now been well and truly won by young Mr. Vettel in the Red Bull. He has been the stand-out driver all year and he deserves the title. And I sincerely hope that now he has won, perhaps he will stop waving the index finger at every available TV camera. There is a fine line dividing youthful enthusiasm and arrogance. However, he has changed it to two fingers, one on each hand. Will somebody please tell him? He was also very lucky not to be penalized with his veering start technique to push Button on the grass. His third place in the GP was enough to clinch the crown.
Although the spoils went to Vettel, for me, the drive of the day came from Jenson Button (McLaren Mercedes) who steered his car into first place and held the position to the flag. He is also currently in second place in the driver’s championship, and now undoubtedly the “Number 1” driver at McLaren. Sorry all you Hamilton fans out there.
Another well-deserved second outright in the race by Fernando Alonso (Ferrari). He is certainly driving with intelligence, an ability which is not seen in all the current drivers.
Fourth was Mark Webber (Red Bull) who has been outclassed by his young team mate all 2011 season. If he wasn’t the “Number 2” at Red Bull before, he certainly is now.
Fifth was the controversial Lewis Hamilton (McLaren), who has seen his standings slip all year, and has become more and more frantic in his driving and botched passing maneuvers. Yet again he managed to hit Massa (Ferrari) and yet again knocked the end plate off the front wing. Some magnetic attraction perhaps? An interesting observation that came from the ex-Ferrari F1 driver Eddie Irvine (Jnr), relayed to me by Eddie (Snr) after the race, is the thought that perhaps Hamilton is sitting too low in the car and just doesn’t see the proximity of the cars around him. That might just explain it.
An observation about these ridiculous front wings on the cars this year. They are wider than the front wheelbase, so the end plates are obviously going to be the first part of the car to be hit in any close encounters, leaving shards of carbon-fiber everywhere, resulting in another Safety Car period. Am I the sole voice of reason here?
Sixth, and even a mid-point race leader at one stage, was Michael Schumacher (Mercedes). The old master seems to have a new lease of life and he has left his team mate, the young pretender, Nico Rosberg wallowing in his wake. If Mercedes team boss Ross Brawn could only deliver a car with championship winning capabilities we would be seeing the ‘Schumacher leap’ once more. Perhaps in 2012?
Despite the upbeat comments from the BBC commentators, I did not see this as a “cracker” of a race, I am afraid. Despite KERS and DRS there was a dearth of overtaking, and the final positions depended on how well your team ‘guessed’ the tyre strategy. Does Pirelli really think that tyres that fall to bits in 10 laps are a good advertisement for the brand? I don’t.
Finally, the Japanese fans were ecstatic to see Kamikaze Kobayashi seventh on the grid after qualifying, a position that he could not even vaguely defend during the race. There was some controversy about his grid position after qualifying, and I am enough of an old cynic to say that there could have been some ‘influential figures’ suggesting that the Japanese driver’s high grid slot would attract more Japanese spectators. Corruption in ‘Le Sport Pure’? Surely not?

Autotrivia Quiz

Last week I asked which company used 21 left-over carbon-fiber tubs from a failed company to produce a supercar, of which they were only going to make 21. Clue, think of the word hedonism. That was more than enough to get the Googlers going. It was the Edonis built by B Engineering, using the 21 left-over tubs of the Bugatti EB 110. It had a twin turbo V12 of 3.7 liters, developing 720 bhp and had a top speed of around 330 km/h.
So to this week. How many T/C Lotus 7’s did Colin Chapman make?
For the Automania free beer this week, be the first correct answer to email [email protected].