Cancelled at the last minute through Bangkok Floods

Pro Racing Series this weekend at Bira

The local Bira circuit is host to the Pro Racing series this weekend. This series is promoted by Grand Prix International, and is below the ‘professional’ Super Car series, but above the ‘club’ style Nitto 3K series.

Racing from around 10 a.m. on the Saturday and Sunday, and it promises to be a good meeting. Best viewing point as far as I am concerned is still on the right hand side of the track at the hairpin at the end of the straight.

The Securitas Escort and most of the other Retro cars will not be running (we’re not “super” enough), so no D2/AA Insurance Brokers hospitality tent for this meeting. However, the Bira Cafe in the pits has both Thai and European food these days.

Some people never learn.

BMW 1 Series.

I have commented before on the fugliness of the BMW 1 Series. I have commented before on the unsuitability of run-flat tyres on our roads as supplied by BMW on their cars. I was actually beginning to think I was the lone voice in the wilderness - until the release of the newest version of the BMW 1 Series and I read the following comments from readers of a national daily in Australia:
“But that pig snout really puts me off.”

“Just as long as you don’t have to wake up in the morning and look at it.”
“The 1-series is ugly as hell!!!”
“They surely can’t be serious if they think the new 1 is a good looking car.”
“They need to start by building a car that is’nt drop-dead fugly!”
“Suggest they dump the run flat tyres to start with so the ride improves.”
Now don’t get me wrong. I am not against BMW as a manufacturer, and I have enjoyed driving BMWs in the past. I respect their engineering and road manners, but when the world is telling them something about their product and they choose to ignore it, they are showing an extreme reluctance to listen and learn.
Are you listening, this time, BMW?

What did we learn from the Korean Grand prix?

2011 World Champion Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) certainly showed his class once again in Korea. From second on the grid, he stormed past pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) and just inexorably pulled away from a pack which had lots of scuffling drivers. Vettel has deserved his championship and shows no signs of just cruising to the end of 2011.

Second and third, Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) and Mark Webber (Red Bull) put on a titanic race-long battle, with both drivers showing great fighting spirit, with passing and re-passing and clean driving being the order of the day. Almost a first for Hamilton these days. He has always had the tiger and the talent, and he used them both to advantage in Korea.

The same could not be said for some of the drivers further down the field, with Petrov’s (Renault) clumsy T-bone on Michael Schumacher (Mercedes) heralding what must be the last season for the Russian, no matter how many rubles he brings to the team. By the way, the name “Renault” is being dropped for 2012, so the team will officially be called “Lotus”, while the current “Lotus” team will be called “Caterham” as the Tony Fernandez “Lotus Cars” outfit has bought Caterham, the manufacturer of the Lotus 7 replicas. Confused? Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it by half way through 2012.

Another driver who must be staring at a DCM (Don’t Come Monday) is Ferrari’s Felipe Massa. Held up his team mate Fernando Alonso for too many laps until Alonso, who is not known to relinquish a fight, finally said “I give up, I give up,” two laps from home, while chasing Jenson Button (McLaren), as he had spent valuable time locked up behind Massa. Felipe used to be fast, and can still pull out the odd ‘blinder’ in qualifying, but the race pace is not there any longer, and he always has excuses, which don’t wash any more. “I’m not pleased because small problems prevented me from getting a better result,” was this week’s one. A seat at Virgin for 2012?

The other Spaniard, Algy Wotsit in the Toro Rosso with his 7th place might just be fending off relegation, while his team mate Buemi is definitely driving on thin ice, despite his 9th place in Korea. The driver most likely to pick up the second spot at Toro Rosso is rookie Ricciardo, currently at Hispania Racing and outclassing his much more experienced team mate Liuzzi (though why anyone would want Liuzzi on their team is beyond me).

Splitting the Toro Rosso’s was Rosberg in the Mercedes. The more I see of him, the more he appears as just a journeyman, like Nick Heidfeld. No real flashes of brilliance, I am afraid, and there are other talented Germans in the wings who would like to be Schumacher’s team mate, as make no mistake, Michael Schumacher has that seat for as long as he wants it.

Scotsman Paul Di Resta (Team Poppadum) continues to be the find of the season, scooping up another valuable point for the team, while Adrian Sutil, once described as another Schumacher, is another driver who may be looking for new overalls next year.

Finally, what is going to happen at Williams? Once championship winners and now only also-rans. Rumors that Raikkonnen wants to go to Williams next year. If this is true, he should consult a psychiatrist without delay.

Next race is the inaugural Indian GP on October 30. Let’s hope it isn’t a Halloween nightmare!

CEA Race Day and Kid’s Helmets for Kids charity drive

Ready for the ride of a lifetime.

Two great ‘public’ drive days were held at the Bira circuit this month. First was the CEA (Kevin Fisher) “Race Day” on Sunday 9, followed six days later by Thomas Raldorf’s Helmets for Kids Charity “taxi rides” on Saturday 15.

These events were rare opportunities for members of the public to experience the thrills of traveling (as a passenger) in a racing car at speeds which are totally illegal on the open roads. To be able to do this, the racing cars were fitted with passenger seats and full racing harnesses and helmets were worn by the hardy passengers.

Both of these events were well attended. After getting out of the race cars, almost every passenger had the same response… “How good are the brakes! I thought I was going to die at the first corner!”

In the racing situation, the brakes are not used until the last second in the approach to a corner, much closer than you would do in the public road situation. In addition, racing cars run much larger brakes than the road-going models.
The other responses were “the heat and the noise!” and “it shook my fillings out!” No, the environment inside a racing car is very different from your road-going family chariot, but those who have now experienced it will remember it for the rest of their lives!

The racing cars included the CEA/Pizza Company Subaru Imprezza SuperCar (Thomas Raldorf), CEA Honda City (Dean Callister), Securitas Retro racing Ford Escort Mk 1 (Dr. Iain Corness), CEA Honda City (Thomas Raldorf/Tony Percy), Pizza Company Honda Civic (Tony Percy), Parker Mazda BT-50 Racing Super Pick-up truck (Michael Freeman), Audi R8 Super sports car (Jeremy), Ferrari F430 Super sports car, and a Lotus Elise (K. Kwang “Singer from AB Normal”).
The grand total raised was 60,000 baht, and the Pizza Company have said they will match it. A brilliantly successful helmet for kids project.

Thomas Raldorf thrills another passenger in the CEA Subaru.

Another passenger pleased to still be alive.

The CEA girls organized the seats.

Would you pay $ 4.5 million for an old car?

Priceless!

Well, somebody did at a recent auction in the US, to buy the world’s oldest running car for a cool $4.5 million. The car was an 1884 model De Dion, setting a new record for a car of its vintage.

The De Dion Bouton et Trepardoux Dos-a-Dos Steam Runabout - started off at $500,000 before immediately jumping to $1.0 m, with the final bid being $4.2 million but the lucky new owner had additional charges and auction house fees 10 percent on top of that to secure the transaction at the RM Auctions Hershey, Pennsylvania.

The provenance of the car showed it was originally commissioned by French entrepreneur Count de Dion, and was affectionately known as “La Marquise” after the Count’s mother. The car was one of the participants in the first car race in 1887, reaching top speeds of about 60 km/h on straight sections.

The purchaser becomes just the fifth owner of the car in its 127 year old history.

China makes cheap cars, but the Chinese have expensive tastes

The marketplace is so huge, and the ordinary Chinese are becoming more affluent, that the Chinese manufacturers no longer have to worry about the world’s taste in cars, they can’t make enough home-grown ones to satisfy their own market.

However, at the top end of the Chinese market there is a growing demand as well. The rich Chinese are growing in number every day, and the nouveau riche display their wealth by buying expensive motor cars. Top end Mercedes, Porsche, Lamborghini, Rolls-Royce and Bentley are the cars they wish to buy.
Bentley saw a 67 percent increase in sales to China in 2011 over 2010, doubling the size of increases in most of its other markets. Rolls-Royce and Aston Martin are now building more cars for China than any other country.

The Chinese also do not wish to wait to display their new wealth. They want to buy the car sitting in the showroom, and have it now.

Bentley chief executive Wolfgang Durheimer said, “The Chinese customer at present is not ready to wait for three months until you have built the car, he wants the car and if you don’t sell it to him, he goes next door and buys something else.

“For this reason, at present we are preparing to have cars shipped to dealers with a pre-specification that we think will meet customer demands. We need to prepare some cars to have in the showroom ready to sell to the customer the next day.”

In China today, you don’t sell luxury cars. People come into the showroom to buy them.

Autotrivia Quiz

Last week I asked how many T/C Lotus 7’s did Colin Chapman make? Not as many as you might imagine. Only 13 were officially built by Lotus, though many cars were later fitted with T/C engines as they became available.

So to this week. When the XK 120 was first produced, it had an aluminium body. At what number in production did they change to steel?

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