Another boost to the local vehicle production

Suzuki Alto.

News through this month of another new car from Suzuki’s Rayong plant. Following on from the downsized engined Suzuki Swift eco-car, comes word of the Suzuki Alto, an even smaller vehicle which will also be eligible as an eco-car. Currently the Alto is built in India, but the production will shift to Thailand after next year.

Projected prices for the Alto are below 350,000 THB, and with the 100,000 THB rebate for first time car buyers, this puts motoring within the reach of more people, and along with the increase in the minimum wage, expect roads full of Alto’s.

Whilst this is all good news for the new car buyers and the new car dealerships, the same cannot be said for the used car industry. With so many new eco-cars under 450,000 THB, how much is a second-hand car going to be? You will be seeing some bargains coming up very soon.

True stories!

Even boats fall off trailers!

Having been involved in motor sport for far too many years, I have seen some of the funny situations that have occurred.

Getting race cars to the circuit always produces some whimsical moments as well. An incident happened with one crew on the way to the Mt Cotton hill climb circuit. They arrived and got out to drive the car off the trailer - except there was no car on the trailer! They knew they had put it on the trailer, so they hurriedly retraced their route and there it was, sitting in the middle of the road at a set of traffic lights. Obviously they had not tied it down and it just quietly rolled off backwards after they had taken off. Fortunately no damage, and nobody had hit it.

Motor racing may be serious, but the people involved in it are all “characters” in one way or another. By the way, all the following tales are totally true.

One relates to one of the top motor racers in Australia, who brought his Holden sedan racer from Sydney to Brisbane to compete against the best that the Brisbane teams could offer. On paper, the cars were very similar in all respects, but the Sydneysider was quickest after the first practice. It was then that one of the local crews spotted the opposition sawing off the end of the exhaust pipe. Being a quick thinking young lad, he noted that the other team had dropped it in the rubbish bin and retrieved it. Rushing off to his team, they sawed exactly the same length off their exhaust pipe, this obviously being some sort of demon tweak. However, while they were doing it, the Sydneysider came past. “Why are you doing that?” he asked. It was then that he also revealed that the reason they had sawn the end off theirs was they had changed trailers and the exhaust pipe was sticking out and catching on the side of the trailer!

This next one happened to one of my team members, and I was the witness to it, and we still laugh about it. We had been invited to do some promotional laps at the local dirt speedway with our four car team, running them between each race. Our fourth member was running late and rocketed in with just five minutes to spare. “She’ll be right,” he said, after releasing the tie-downs holding the car on the trailer, and then neatly reversed the race car off his trailer, but he had forgotten to put the ramps in position, and it jumped off the end. Luckily no damage, despite its one meter drop-off.

The next true (and amazing) tale happened when I was on a Porsche club rally, and we were coming back from Adelaide, a 3,000 km trip. Australia is a big place! We had pulled into a motel for the evening, and we were 11 cars, every one a Porsche 911. I got out, pushed the locking button down on the driver’s door and swung the door shut. As it clicked into place, to my horror, I saw that the keys were still in the ignition. What to do? Porsches are just about thief-proof, and none of us were accomplished car thieves like Nic Cage in the great movie “Gone in 30 seconds”. In desperation, I asked for the other 10 driver’s keys and tried them in my door lock. Amazingly, the keys from the 911 parked closest to mine opened my door! And just as amazingly, my key would not open his, though his would open mine. But neither key would operate the ignition of the other car. I was certainly lucky that evening.

The final story is about a motorcycle racer who used to travel to meetings with his race bike in the sidecar of his outfit. It blew a piston on the way to a meeting but the resourceful rider turned up a new piston out of hardwood, fitted the rings, fixed a metal plate to the top of the piston and carried on motoring! That’s what we call ‘bush’ engineering.

The new Viper - fangs and a sting in the tail

Viper - a man’s car.

Many years ago I had the opportunity to drive the first version of the Dodge Viper on a race track. Eight liters of V10 engine up front producing more horsepower than the chassis could handle, brakes an optional extra, and I returned to the pits with a smile that would have taken a team of undertakers two weeks to get rid of. Since then, along with many others, I have remained a dyed-in-the-wool Viper fan. However, a couple of years ago the Viper production was halted and enthusiasts feared the worst.

However, at the New York Auto Show this month, Chrysler revealed the fifth iteration of the Viper. With the take-over by Fiat, the Dodge Viper is now called an SRT Viper, but it is the same Viper formula. Great big engine up front (now 8.4 liters of V10 with 640 BHP), a long bonnet, strictly two seats, sidewinder exhaust system and is a real man’s car.

The new Viper will go on sale at the end of 2012 and is officially a 2013 model year car. LHD again, and we will be unlikely to see any examples on our local goat tracks, more’s the pity. I’d like to give another one a fang around a circuit.

What did we learn from the Bahrain GP?

Well, we learned that the “days of rage” did not actually happen, and despite the calls for the race to be cancelled, the F1 circus did what it does best - putting on a show and entertaining the fans. Mind you, there were not many fans in the grandstands…

We also learned that even if you have seven world titles and over 90 pole positions, if your car lets you down in the first part of qualifying you won’t make it through to Q2. Hence Michael Schumacher (Mercedes) starting at the back with the embarrassing company of HRT, Marussia and a Caterham. However, we also saw that Schumi went from 22nd on the grid to the final point-scoring position in 10th.

The Finger was waved again in Bahrain, both in Qualifying and in the race, where Vettel (Red Bull) was not headed, and other than a scare mid-race with Raikkonen sniffing his backside, it was a stroll in the desert for the current world champion, now at the top of the table.

Raikkonen (“Lotus”, nee Renault) won a huge number of fans for his dogged determination to catch Vettel and he deserved his second place. His team mate, the young Frenchman Grosjean also showed lots of tiger and was delighted with his first podium finish. “Lotus” is certainly a strong team and Raikkonen seems to have lost none of his touch following his two year stint of crash testing for Citroen.

Mark Webber did not look happy at any stage and it was a lack-luster 4th for the Australian Red Bull driver, finishing over half a minute behind Vettel. However, on the plus side, his start was OK, so all that practice on the Red Bull factory forecourt was beneficial.

Rosberg (Mercedes) was 5th at the end, but was up before the stewards for two instances of moving over on other cars that were trying to pass him. This form of blocking is far too prevalent in F1 of late (and in some other categories unfortunately). I believe that the stewards should have penalized him but their letting him off means that this dangerous behavior will continue - until someone is launched into the wall, or over the fence and into spectators. There are times when a faster car is going to pass you on the straight, there is nothing you can do about it, so just accept it and try and outbrake him at the end of the straight. Moving over to try and block the maneuver shows poor sportsmanship and is very dangerous. Rosberg went right down in my estimation.

One of the stars of the race was DiResta in the Team Poppadum Force India. Working on a two stop strategy he managed to save his tyres enough to hold off Alonso in the Ferrari over the final few laps and claim 6th. His team mate Hulkenberg (12th) is being overshadowed by his Scottish partner (though I doubt if you will find a DiResta tartan in any of the books on the Clans and Tartans of Scotland).

McLaren had a dreadful weekend, with Button expiring and Hamilton finishing in 8th after the left rear wheel problem experienced on Button’s car in China recurred on his - twice! TV pundits claimed it was a wheel nut problem, while I believe it is a hub design problem.

Massa (Ferrari), only two places behind Alonso. Has he won a reprieve? We shall see.

It was an exciting race with plenty of action as the DRS worked and helped by tyres that last less than 10 laps at racing speed. Strategy has become as important as the driver.

Autotrivia Quiz

Hupmobile Doctor’s coupe.

Last week I asked why did the Doctor’s Coupe’s of the 1920’s have high rooflines? That was too easy. It was so that the doctor did not have to take his top hat off every time he got in his car.

So to this week. What did British Leyland have to do with Hyundai in the mid-70’s?

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