Round the Houses at Monaco this weekend

Monaco

Following on from the upset win for Pastor Maldonado and Williams in Spain, is there anyone willing to guess the winner at Monaco this weekend? If I were to put money down, I’d have to put B. 500 on Lewis Hamilton. After him, I have no idea. With five different drivers and five different makes winning the past five Grands Prix, will it be six?

Monaco is the Grand Prix to be seen at this weekend (as opposed to a Grand Prix to see motor racing at). It is not the GP to go to, unless watching B List ‘super-stars’ is your idea of fun. This may, of course just be jealousy on my part, not even making the D List… The harbor will be bollard to bollard expensive yachts and the villa car parks will have all the Lambo’s, Ferrari’s and Maserati’s you would ever wish for. If you go for the atmosphere, then this is the GP for you. If you go for GP racing, forget it and go to Spa. Monaco has been processional for the past decade.

The most critical part of this Grand Prix will happen on the Saturday. And that’s qualifying. He who is on pole, has a greater than 75 percent chance of winning. So who will be on P1? Once again, your guess is as good as mine.

Qualifying is at 7 p.m. on the Saturday 26 May, with the race at 7 p.m. on Sunday 27. I will be watching the dedicated F1 channel, with no adverts during the race, from my perch in front of the big screen at Jameson’s Irish Pub, Soi AR, going there at 6 p.m. for a meal and a beer before the race at 7 p.m. Why don’t you join me?

One in ten young drivers take the high road

Some interesting figures from the IAM (Institute of Advanced Motorists) in the UK. Around 750,000 people have driven under the influence of cannabis and 370,000 have driven under the influence of class A drugs.

The UK government has announced that road-side drugalyzers will be introduced this year, and is considering a new offence of driving with an illegal drug in your body. But it’s yet to be proven that limits can be set for illegal substances above which a driver is deemed to be unfit to drive.

The IAM believes that the proven ability of impairment testing should not be forgotten in any rush to provide a technological solution to the drug driving issue. Unless drugalyzers can provide proof of impairment in situations where a cocktail of drugs and alcohol may have been taken, their main role will be as detectors of the presence of illegal substances. This may in itself be a useful function but not necessarily a road safety one.

IAM chief executive Simon Best said, “Any new equipment that will allow police to make quick and accurate decisions at the roadside or at the police station on drivers who are impaired by drugs is great. In this way traffic officers can get back out onto the frontline of roads policing, where their impact is highest.

“But the introduction of a drugalyzer type test, needs to be backed up by some measure of impairment. Without this, the test could simply catch those people who have used drugs at some point, but are not necessarily still impaired by them.

“Impairment as the key factor is also essential in tackling drivers who may have used over the counter or prescription drugs, which while legal, can have an equal impact on driving ability as illegal ones.”

So it all hangs on how to show impairment, so why not use the roadside tests which are used by law enforcement agents, such as walking a straight line?

Proton delisted from Malaysia’s Stock Exchange

The local Automotive Focus Group (AFG) reports that Proton has been delisted from Bursa Malaysia, almost eight years since joining the local stock exchange, after new owners DRB-Hicom succeeded in securing 98.6 percent (as at April 26) of Proton shares, above the threshold of 90 percent required to privatize Proton.

Starting with the buying of a 42.74 percent stake in Proton from Khazanah Nasional Bhd at RM 5.50 a share early this year, DRB-Hicom then launched a mandatory general offer for the remaining shares it did not own, valuing Proton at RM 3.02 billion. With 98.6 percent now in hand, DRB-Hicom can compulsorily acquire the 1.4 percent still with investors.

Without the public eye of scrutiny, DRB-Hicom will have the flexibility to embark on long-term plans to make Proton a more profitable company, and not worry about short-term results that the stock market players are more concerned about. Approvals from shareholders on any future corporate exercises will no longer be needed once Proton becomes private.

And indeed change is in the air: DRB-Hicom Bhd managing director Datuk Seri Mohd Khamil Jamil was asked in March to assume the leading position as Proton’s executive chairman and executive director, taking over from Proton’s then chairman and director Datuk Seri Mohd Nadzmi Mohd Salleh.

The next question is the future of Lotus, which has been losing money ever since Proton bought the company a few years ago. Will managing director Datuk Seri Mohd Khamil Jamil be happy to continue in a loss-making situation?

Handyman’s Special?

Opel Rekord

Handy with an electric welder? A little rust doesn’t daunt you? Want a project for those long summer evenings? Well here it is - an Opel Rekord two door coupe, and probably 1953, is my best guess. A 60 year old snippet of German motoring life in the 1950’s. This little gem sits waiting for someone to come along and claim her. It is on Soi Siam Country Club, opposite Soi 11.

Actually, I have seen cars in poorer condition than this be restored. I did lift the bonnet and the engine looked suspiciously like a 1972 Toyota Corolla.

It does have number plates, so it was registered until probably 20 years ago, and no, there’s no blue book. But it is just sitting there, waiting for its new owner.

MG to be built in Thailand?

MG6

A proposed joint venture between MG’s Chinese owner, Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC), and the Charoen Pokphand Group, a Thai industrial conglomerate, is looking towards getting a go-ahead to build MG’s in Thailand.

Thanakorn Seriburi, the vice-chairman of Thai-based Charoen Pokphand Group, is saying his company and SAIC are working on a feasibility study for a joint-venture factory to make at least 50,000 cars a year in Thailand. These would be right hand drive vehicles for Asian countries including Australia. The right hand drive MG6 is already on sale in Britain, where it is assembled in Birmingham from CKD kits made in China.

SAIC bought the bankrupt MG-Rover group in 2006, initially building re-badged cars on the outdated platforms, including the cheekily named Roewe brand (which the Chinese pronounced as “Rovah”).

A Thai factory would relieve pressure on SAIC’s plants in China, where SAIC - China’s biggest motor manufacturer in partnership with General Motors and Volkswagen - is under pressure to meet local demand.

Toyota, Honda, Holden, Ford, Mazda, Nissan, Isuzu and Mitsubishi already import vehicles from Thailand to Australia, helped by the FTA signed between both countries, with Thailand now rivaling South Korea as the second-biggest source of vehicles for Australia behind Japan.

Lada arrives at the end of the road

The Late Lamented Lada.

Russian automaker AvtoVAZ has announced the cessation of its Lada brand after 40 years on the Russian roads. Once a prized possession, Russians waited for many years to be able to purchase one.

The Lada’s were manufactured following a deal with Fiat, with the first Lada Classic 2101 produced in 1970, based on the Fiat 124 four-door sedan which was popular across Europe.

The Classic (Zhiguli as it was also known in the former Soviet Union) was a big hit in post-war Russia where car ownership itself was a status symbol and Western brands were not on sale.

Vyacheslav Lysakov, a member of parliament and the head of a motorists’ association, Free Choice, explained that it was a case of national affection. “For many years in Soviet times the Classic was an unattainable dream for many men. It was very hard to get hold of one and people waited in queues for years,” he said.

AvtoVAZ halted production last month of the seventh model in the series, the 2107, leaving only the 2104 Classic station wagon in production. The company said it was also ceasing production of that model by the end of this year.

AvtoVAZ said the seven cars in the Classic series had sold more than 17.75 million vehicles. In its heyday, the Lada was also exported to Vietnam, where I had the pleasure of being ferried about in an elderly Classic, held together with baling wire and determination.

Lada sales fell 15 percent year on year in the last quarter and AvtoVAZ is recalling nearly 100,000 new Ladas because of technical faults, including 70,000 Lada Kalinas, a model Putin promoted by driving it 2,000 km across Siberia in 2010.

The decline in the national car industry is the reverse of the car sales industry in that country where Russia is on track to become Europe’s biggest car market by the end of the decade, with the increasing affluence of the Russian population. Car sales are expected to grow about 6 percent this year to 2.8 million vehicles and reach 4 million by 2015.

Renault, General Motors, VW, Hyundai and Ford are among global players in the early stages of expanding production into Russia to satisfy the growing market.

Autotrivia Quiz

Last week I mentioned that Count Louis Zborowski built aero engined cars. One he drove at Brooklands only once and then it was used for touring in the Sahara. I asked what was the engine in that car? It was an 18.8 liter Benz aero engine.

So to this week. What is the connection between a famous perfumery and Reliant cars in the UK? That should stump the ‘Googlers’, I hope!

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