Another Nitto 3K meeting at Bira this weekend

The Retro cars hard at it.

The laid back Nitto 3K event rounds 5 and 6 are being held at the local Bira circuit this weekend. Qualifying and races on Saturday and races on the Sunday. In addition to the usual categories, these meeting host the Retro (pre 1985) series and the top car is the B-Quik Porsche 944 Turbo of Henk Kiks, closely followed by the EBC Brakes BMW E30 of Gavin Charlesworth and the BMW E36 of Urs Schonenberger. Our Securitas Escort Mk 1 will be mixing it in the midfield, and in fact there is racing all the way down the order.

The best place to watch the races is the outside of the hairpin at the end of the straight, where you can watch the cars coming into the corner under brakes and then up the hill, and then coming back down through the sweeper behind you. To get there, come in the ‘back gate’ entrance (200 meters before the main entrance) off highway 36 heading towards Pattaya. You then go through the tunnel under the track and turn immediately right and park where you can near the big trees. If you come on the Sunday, look for the red AA Insurance hospitality tent. Come and say Hello. Some cold drinks will be available and a sausage sizzle put on by our friends at the Sausage King. Our races for the Securitas Escort will be around 11 a.m. and again around 3 p.m., though they never seem to get the timetable right.

The latest Ford Mustang

Shelby GT500 Mustang

The face-lifted Ford Mustang was displayed at the Los Angeles motor show in November. An ‘evolutionary’ model it has updated styling, more on-board technology and a 320 km/h Shelby GT500 variant.

The front has a more aggressive look and LED signature lighting is joined at the front by fog lights while at the rear restyled smoked tail-light clusters also employ LED technology.

The update has new alloy wheel designs including polished and painted aluminum finishes in sizes ranging from 17 inch to 20 inch.

For those who want to know just how they are doing behind the wheel there is an instrument panel display featuring a ‘track apps’ function that measures G-forces, acceleration and braking times.

The optional six-speed automatic transmission now features a manual mode to make it even more of a performance machine.

However, the real muscle car is the Shelby GT500, with a claimed top speed in excess of 320 km/h.

Ford claims the title of the world’s most powerful production V8 for the 485 kW/812 Nm supercharged 5.8 liter engine. This features a more efficient supercharger, cross-drilled engine block and cylinder heads, updated camshafts and a new carbon-fiber driveshaft from the upgraded dual-disc clutch and transmission to the revised rear axle.

With cooling obviously a worry for the Ford engineers, a larger cooling fan plus a 36 percent bigger heat exchanger volume and high-flow coolant pump for the supercharger are used.

Braking is provided by six-piston Brembo front brake calipers and larger rotors all round, while 19 inch front and 20 inch rear alloy wheels with Goodyear Eagle F1 tyres.

Ford’s performance division, SVT, revised the electronic stability control and traction control systems, which can be tailored to the conditions and level of driver skill.

SVT chief engineer Jamal Hameedi said a “completely different” approach was taken with the new car. “Nearly every system the driver interacts with can be tailored to his or her situation, including the Bilstein electronic adjustable suspension, launch control, AdvanceTrac and steering assist levels.”

This new Shelby Mustang is one any performance enthusiast would want in his garage. I’d even leave the Daihatsu Mira outside if I had a Shelby!

Natter Nosh and Noggin

The next car club 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 Monday December 12 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. We have even had a couple of F1 scrutineers with tales from the Parc Ferme. I am sure one of our regulars, Ken Gibson, will bring his new toy (a Maserati BiTurbo) down for the evening. Might even see if I can bring the Securitas Mk1 Escort Retro Racer down as well.

Gas Guzzlers

Read some interesting figures on fuel consumption, so if you believe all the scaremongering that the world is about to stop spinning when we run out of crude oil, then you’d better not buy a Bugatti Veyron.

Why? The Veyron is the biggest gas guzzler for sale anywhere in the world with official consumption figures of 23.5 liters of fuel for every 100 kilometers it travels. And remember that at full noise you get about 15 minutes out of a full tank in your Veyron.

At the other end of the scale the Mitsubishi i-MiEV battery-powered city car is effectively rated at just over 2.1 L/100 km worked out by some weird and wonderful formula that says there is an equivalency because it takes fossil fuel to recharge its battery. (EPA mathematics again.)

Next most frugal is the all-electric Nissan Leaf (rated at 2.4 L/100 km) and the electric-with-petrol-generator-backup Chevrolet Volt rated at 3.9 L/100 km.

The Toyota Prius is the most economical hybrid car to run in the US, pegging an average fuel use of 4.7 L/100 km, while the best conventionally engined cars are the Audi A3 and the Volkswagen Jetta, both powered by a 2.0 liter turbo diesel engine, that returns an average of about 6.9 L/100 km.

Of the two hydrogen fuel cell vehicles available in the US - the Honda FCX Clarity and Mercedes-Benz’s B-Class-based F-Cell - the Honda betters its German rival by 0.5L/100km to peg an official fuel use rate of 3.9L/100km.

However, since we will not run out of oil in my lifetime I wouldn’t worry too much. If you can afford the duty on a Veyron, you can afford the petrol.

An SUV with attitude

Mercedes-Benz ML 63 AMG.

The world seems to be heading towards SUV’s (other than Thailand where the pick-up reigns supreme), but the plebeian workhorse variety is being superseded by SUV’s with attitude. Amongst these are vehicles like the Porsche Cayenne Turbo, but now Mercedes-Benz has joined to upscale SUV market with the new ML 63 AMG that goes on sale mid-2012.

The new ML 63 AMG has a twin-turbo V8 with 386 kW of power and 700 Nm of torque and covers 0-100 km/h in 4.8 seconds. This new V8 has a more powerful 5.5 liter twin turbocharged unit teamed to a seven-speed auto, instead of the previous 6.2 liter V8. However, if the performance is not enough, you can specify the optional “Performance Pack”, which boosts the outputs even higher to 410 kW and 760 Nm.

Standard equipment for the all-wheel-drive ML 63 AMG includes performance brakes, 20 inch wheels, adjustable suspension and a new anti-roll system that aims to keep the car level through corners. Inside are a number of unique AMG items, including sports seats, a sportier leather-wrapped steering wheel with shift-paddles and leather upholstery.

Mercedes-Benz Australia has not yet announced pricing for the ML 63 AMG, but I would expect around 8-10 million in Thailand.

Kimi comes back to F1

Raikkonen is returning to F1 to drive for Lotus Renault, which will be called “Lotus” next year. Blurb sent out by Renault includes Kimi saying, “I’m delighted to be coming back to Formula 1 after a two-year break, and I’m grateful to Lotus Renault GP for offering me this opportunity,” Raikkonen told the official Renault website.

“My time in the World Rally Championship has been a useful stage in my career as a driver, but I can’t deny the fact that my hunger for F1 has recently become overwhelming. It was an easy choice to return with Lotus Renault GP as I have been impressed by the scope of the team’s ambition. Now I’m looking forward to playing an important role in pushing the team to the very front of the grid.”

If you believe Kimi Raikkonen said that, you’ll believe anything. Kimi is practically monosyllabic. Remember his sparkling repartee in post race press conferences? You don’t? That’s because a monotone grunt was about his level of public speaking. However, it will be interesting to see what he can do with the “Lotus” in 2012 considering how poor the 2011 model performed.

Mercedes-Benz kills off the overly expensive Maybach

Dying Maybach.

An article, published by US news site Autoweek, quotes a “high ranking Mercedes-Benz source” as saying that the brand thinks it better to “cut our losses with Maybach than to continue into an uncertain future with a brand that has failed to live up to original sales expectations”.

And that, it certainly did, but in fairness, the Maybach’s were priced to over the moon figures. 100 million baht was on the ticket in Thailand when they were displayed at the Bangkok International Motor Show in 2004.

The Maybach name was resurrected by Mercedes-Benz in a fit of pique when they failed to get the Rolls-Royce and Bentley marques (BMW and VW outbid them). However, the Maybach behemoths were quite ugly, as well as being ridiculously expensive, and did not sell.

The unnamed source was quoted by Autoweek as saying, “Plans are already in place to fill the void left by the axing of the Maybach 57 and 62 with the next-generation S-Class, which will be offered in three wheelbase variants and six different body styles, including a top-of-the-range S600 Pullman.”

Top ‘overtakers’ in F1

In an attempt to make F1 more exciting, the FIA introduced KERS (Kinetic energy retrieval system) and DRS (Drag reduction system), to facilitate passing. Some say that this produced an artificial situation, but others say that these were just two variables that the drivers could use to their advantage when necessary.

Overtakes were classed as follows in 2011:

Normal/DRS/Slow Cars (referring to HRT, Lotus, Virgin, as the strategic value of these overtakes is different)/Team-Mates (one driver can choose to let another pass)/Damage/Lap One.

In 2011 there were 1436 overtaking maneuvers in all categories.

Excluding overtakes categorized as ‘Lap One’ or because of damage, there have been 1180 maneuvers. The combined total of ‘Normal’ and ‘DRS-assisted’ moves - the indicator of what most observers consider to be ‘clean’ overtaking - is 804 overtakes. This gives an average of 45 normal and DRS overtakes per race.

The highest number of clean overtakes were recorded in Turkey (85), Canada (79) and China (67). The races with the fewest were Monaco (16), Australia (17) and India (18).

So which driver was the top overtaker in 2011? Buemi made a total of 112 overtakes in 2011 - closely followed by Michael Schumacher (111), Kobayashi (95), Alguersuari (90) and Perez (89).

And who has been the top starter in 2011?

The top starter was Michael Schumacher, who has gained a total of 34 positions; next up come Buemi (29), Kovalainen (28), Liuzzi (20) and Kobayashi (19).

Who has gained most positions on the first lap in 2011?

Michael Schumacher, Buemi and Kovalainen also lead this table, having gained 40, 30 and 26 positions respectively on lap one.

And who has done the most overtaking in the races after lap one?

This is headed by Perez and Buemi, both with 82 overtakes. They are followed by Button (77), Webber (76), Alguersuari and Michael Schumacher (71).

(Source - Mercedes GP)