Eco Velocity 2012

For 1600px versions of all these images, go here. Some of them are a bit blurry around the edges, though...

Earlier this month, I went to the second ever Eco Velocity car show (read about the first one here). There were a few distinct differences this year, such as having a roof over our heads and a much longer test drive route - three "First Impressions" reviews inside - but it didn't quite live up to last year's show for a couple of reasons. Chief among those reasons is Kevin McCloud. Nevertheless, it provided an opportunity to get to know environmentalist motoring today. So I did. Mostly...

First of all, as you may notice when comparing photos with last year's show, it was a somewhat smaller affair this year, despite running for twice as long as originally planned due to popularity. I'm not sure whether that's what caused fewer manufacturers to bring their latest green models, or if it's the other way round, but either way, you get the feeling it had been shrunken down by "Grand Designs Live", a show I have literally zero interest in, which took up at least two thirds of the hall at London ExCel used for the two shows. Our EV12 tickets also let us into the bigger show for free (and vice versa if you were more interested in looking at futuristic skirting boards and sliding glass for three hours), but I didn't see the point. As far as I'm concerned, this setup only allowed people not interested in cars to wander around getting in the way and considering the interior design of the Vauxhall Ampera more than the very important range-extender powertrain.

Actually, on that note, I'd just like to say that I wasn't able to test drive the Vauxhall Ampera (or its Chevrolet twin, the Volt) because, unlike every single other car at the show, you had to be 25 years old to book a test drive. This annoyed me greatly. Is it dangerous? Is £30,000 too valuable for under 25s to handle without definitely definitely smashing it into things? Come on! I had no problem driving the Nissan Leaf - a direct rival in many ways - at last year's show, and I was a year younger then! The woman at Chevrolet said it was for insurance reasons and probably just because it's American, and they took out a much more serious/protective insurance policy. Damn you overcautious Americans!

I could at least be trusted to open doors and sit in one that wasn't switched on without melting it or being sued for leaving finger marks or something. It was all pretty standard for a Prius-sized 5-door hatchback, although the instrument display had been replaced by a plasma screen about the size of two smartphone screens stacked together in landscape. A similarly-sized screen sat in the dashboard, which is true of most new cars of this size by now. Still, why would an electric car be better with more screens? Surely that uses more electricity than traditional dials? Or maybe they didn't want anything traditional in this "giant step forward"? Anyway, that's not what's in the picture. What you can see is a pair of buttons in the lower part of the driver's door of an Ampera. It's pretty clear that they let you switch between pure battery power and engine-assisted battery power. Could this be the future equivalent of a manual transmission? Manual drive-mode selection? Who knows. Oh, if at this point you're not entirely sure how the Volt/Ampera works, it's an Extended-Range Electric Vehicle (E-REV). 50 miles of zero-emissions is then extended by another 300 miles by burning dead dinosaurs. The way it works is very similar to diesel-electric train locomotives or TopGear's "Hammerhead-i EagleThrust", in that the engine doesn't power the wheels at any point. This is still a purely electric car in terms of putting your foot down and sending power to electric motors which directly drive the wheels. What the engine does is hum into life when the electric car needs more juice, either just charging the battery or providing a power boost as well (the latter function is definitely true of the Fisker Karma, another E-REV, but I can't remember if the Volt/Ampera does that too).

It's important that you know this, because E-REVs - or whatever version of the acronym other car makers use - are the next big thing. They're much better than a Prius-style hybrid, because while a Prius is an engine-powered car aided by a (nickel) battery, E-REVs are battery-powered cars aided by an engine. Vauxhall's slogan for this car is "Driving Electricity Further", which in a way is exactly what the car's doing, as the engine extends the range far beyond the 30-40 miles of a Nissan Leaf or such like, while consuming much less fuel than even a Prius because the engine isn't working nearly as hard to provide the power. It just spins quietly at a constant rpm, completely disconnected from the wheels at all times. In a way, this progress is like making a car "quit smoking". The first nicotine patches were battery-assisted engines, and now we're onto the second stage of weening the car off engine power ["smoking"], so to speak. Of course, lots of companies still "smoke" because all the cool people are doing it and it's expensive and will-requiring to "quit". Alas, it's only a matter of time...

Also at the Vauxhall stand was the RAKe concept (either pronounced "rake" or "rackee", your choice), a tandem two-seater for the city with 48bhp from an electric motor. To be honest, while VW and Audi have also done one of these recently, I don't see the point of a dinky little commuter pod with no luggage space in it. Yes, small cars in cities make sense (otherwise Japan wouldn't have Kei cars), but after a point you have to consider whether it would just be much cheaper and easier to walk or cycle instead. Maybe get a motorbike if it's speed you need in cities. I'm pretty sure you can get electric bikes these days. Or maybe take the solar-powered monorail to your office job in the future metropolis?

For now though, we drive cars. Cars that are quickly becoming electric, as Mark Goodier (a famous music person who was the first UK Nissan Leaf owner and knew his stuff) discussed to a crowd that should really have been bigger. Likewise for the talk where a car company was put "under the spotlight". Said company was Tesla, but Elon Musk probably couldn't afford to fly there what with all the tremendous debt Tesla are in, so a UK spokesperson answered questions about the Model S, Model X and future endeavours. Tesla aren't looking into an E-REV, but might look into hydrogen in the near future. If they're still around then...

Much like last year, I test drove three cars around a test route, but instead of just doing a lap around the edge of the area, we could actually use a real road or two, with traffic lights and roundabouts... and speed limits. Still, being able to hit 30-40mph was much better than staying in 2nd gear the whole time. My dad also drove the Ampera (what with being over 25 and all...) and a Honda Jazz Hybrid, which I can attest is very bouncy in the back when going over those loathsome black and yellow speed bumps, which there was a whole row of outside the loading areas/coach parking. According to him, the Honda hybrid moves off much more smoothly than London's new hybrid buses do. As I've mentioned already, there were fewer manufacturers taking part this year, and I reckon that that subsequently caused test drive slots to fill up faster. Even before lunch, Peugeot were fully booked up to 5PM! This meant I couldn't get a go in the brand new 208 hatchback unless I wanted to be in the same small hall for well over 6 hours. I did not. Clearly the serious folk knew to book in early, and we did too, turning up at about 10:30 and almost immediately going to Honda, as they were the first thing you saw upon walking in. More about my choices (and how good they were) very soon.

Test Route (Click to embiggen)

First, a quick look through the test route. We start indoors, in a room lined with cars and barriers, which is best described as Very Grey. Driving slowly out onto the upper loading area (the White area door for those of you keeping score), we head down a ramp and immediately have to stop at a T-junction, so you get a feel for the brakes early on. We turn right and basically go where the yellow line goes in the image above, before returning, driving past the back doors of the ExCel centre before turning left and making a U-turn to climb up to the upper deck again. On the way into the building, there are a series of temporary speed bumps, put there to test...... your spine. The concrete ramp back up again proved to be quite a test for one of the cars I drove.

So now, without further ado, the First Impressions tests:

Honda Civic 1.4 i-VTEC SE
No, this is not a hybrid or electric car. That's because I've already driven the CR-Z (see last year's article) and I was already going to get a ride in the Jazz Hybrid. I'm intrigued by the new Civic anyway. The pre-facelift car looked like an '80s spaceship, which was great, whereas the looks have been slightly toned down for this new one. I think the 2008-11 version looks better, but hey ho, apparently this one's better to drive. I was given the basic 1.4 to play with, because it's capable of many, many miles per gallon. That's not the first thing you think about, though. The first thing you think about is the dials. They're pretty. Super-clear, futuristic and positioned so you can see the important stuff without looking down from the road. When dials are a highlight of a car, it's either time you give the dial design team a pay rise or time to add some pizazz to the rest of the interior. That said, it all felt very solid, and I like the layered thing (which again is mostly to do with the dials). They get better too - at the sides of the upper dial are digital kerbs. They start off a visually soothing blue, but if you change into a higher gear, they go green! No more hypermiling techniques - your car will just show you when you're being a good boy/girl. To make sure it stays green, there are six gears even in the basic 1.4 petrol model, meaning I could shift into 6th gear for the first time ever! Despite being in top gear at about 30-40mph, it pulled well enough, not feeling like you needed to kick down a gear at any point (although I was hardly pushing it). Certainly, it never felt as sluggish as my Punto and had noticeably more direct steering that felt more connected, but still felt very much power-assisted. That'll be the power steering.

Another comparison I made to my Punto is interior noise. It was quiet... too quiet. Sure, the lack of tyre and wind noise made it feel refined, but I'm used to hearing my car's engine and feeling it vibrate, and that element of communication was somewhat absent in the plush new Civic. This is something I reckon to be true of all new cars, at least ones not built down to a price. It subsequently meant that I forgot to change down for quite a while, so the revs stayed pretty low! While the gear stick was close to the wheel, I found it to be too far back, meaning a lot of wrist-bending to get it into 4th and 6th. Another thing to check out was rear visibility. Just how much does that telephone handset they call tail lights obstruct the view out? A little bit. I think it's lower in this facelifted one to give you more rear window, but I reckon it would be a bit Marmite to live with - you'd either get used to it or it would become a constant niggling irritation. The ride felt fine, with impacts feeling well-softened (dampened? Probably).

Overall, a good, solid, efficient car that drives well. With AWESOME dials.

Mia L
I actually booked the third car in long before this one, but despite doing so before noon, I had to wait until 3:40, so I queued up for this in the meantime, having realised that I'd gone to an eco car show and not yet tried an EV. This little car intrigued us last year, mostly because of its McLaren F1-style seating and the sliding doors. It's called the Mia, and is made by... Mia. Mia Electric, to be precise. On the face of it, the Mia is what a G-Wiz would be like if it was actually a car and not a safety-dodging "quadricycle", but actually a lot of this French commuter box is well thought out, like how it's 95% recyclable and made out of single-component, biodegradable materials. The Mia is available in two sizes, a 1+2 seater or this longer 1+3 seater "Mia L", which adds 32cm to the length, all of which is gained in the wheelbase (a 1+0 seater panel van is also available for if you're selling flowers or something). Featuring 420 litres of luggage space and an 8kWh battery - or a 12kWh one as an option, which adds 50kg onto the 800kg kerbweight - the Mia L can reach a claimed top speed of 100km/h (62mph). That technically means it can set a 0-60 time, but I wouldn't want to be the one to test it...

Despite the central driver's seat, this is not a hard car to get into, because the doors slide back to reveal a cutaway in the floor, so you put your foot in there and just climb in like you would in any car. It's little things like that which you appreciate, even upon the first time of driving it. I actually rode in the back as my dad had a go too, and the red seats were nicely soft and squishy. They weren't leather though (that's an optional extra), and the texture was smooth but slightly rubbery. This was another particularly unpleasant car to be in the back of going over speed bumps, but I later found out that it wasn't particularly pleasant taking them in the front either. When my turn came around, I got a fake carbon Mia L with red wheels, just like the one pictured. The supervisor was a French gentleman - while the event organisers hired in third-party professional drivers for the other manufacturers, Mia seemed to have brought their own people - who was sporting an excellent walrus moustache and knew about as much English as I know French, which to be fair is at least some.

The view from the right passenger seat.
Being  a 1+3 meant loads of rear legroom

He asked if I knew French, I said "some", so he proceeded to explain everything in French. It was OK though, because it was pretty straightforward. There's a button on the left of the dash bar (like a dashboard but a bar) that puts in into forward, park or reverse, a handbrake, and two pedals. Simple. I just had to remember to keep my left foot away from the brake, thus remembering one thing more than my dad did. Unlike the Nissan Leaf I drove last year, there's no built-in 'crawl' to make it feel like an automatic car, so when I took my foot off and nothing happened, I was a little confused. The accelerator also has to travel at least a coin's thickness before you start moving anywhere as well, but eventually we set off. I complained that the Leaf felt like a car in my hands and the seat of my pants, but a toy at my feet. This felt like a toy at my feet and in my hands. The 'wheel felt cheap and provided slightly rubbery steering, with a surprising amount of lock required to turn in making it feel quite vague. Being electric, it had instant torque and accelerated quite happily until you reached 40mph or so, at which point the thrust really started to drop off. It was also louder than the Honda Civic at speed, simply because it isn't as chunky or well-insulated, something that wouldn't be difficult to explain if the Mia didn't cost more than the Honda (£20k upwards, or £17k for a cheapo one). The price of technology, I guess. We had to take a shorter route in the Mia, turning back at the first roundabout, which was perhaps preparation for the world of short-range motoring you would enter with a car like this. Visibility was good, although there's only one rear view mirror (on the right), whereas the equally-central-seated McLaren has two, one for each direction.

Not only did the top speed of 60mph start to seem optimistic, but the brakes on the one I drove were squeaking horribly, adding one more element of hatred whenever we approached a speed bump, at which point the rear wheels would literally attack the bump and jar the whole car unpleasantly as we bounced upwards. After an assault on ears and back, we got to the concrete ramp near the end, which rises a storey high in about 40 or 50 metres. I'm not sure you'll even be surprised to hear that the Mia struggled here, almost treating it like a mountain climb. The squeaky brakes and rubbery steering made the Mia L feel unfinished, which, considering Mia launched in the UK this month, makes me hope for their sakes that I was in an overworked pre-production car.

In summary, the Mia has its pros, but it also has definite cons, like a lack of speed and range. Much better (and probably much safer) than a G-Wiz, but no Nissan Leaf rival, it's probably best in the flat and level cities it was designed for. Roomier and greener than a Smart car, too.

Citroën DS3 e-HDi 90
The second-booked, and final car of the day was the Citroën DS3, a car I've been interested in for a good long time. It's one of the few small hatchbacks that I actually want, deep down inside (the others being a Mazda 2 and a Fiat 500 TwinAir... or maybe the Abarth version). Citroën are the only company in the world who make a car that for which "funky" truly is the best word, and that's particularly true within its DS premium range. When I say premium, the cheapest diesel with the DStyle kit to make it look like the one pictured (and the one I drove) costs exactly £16,000, although the one at the show also had plenty of ICE in it as well like Bluetooth, Sat Nav, MP3 connectivity and so on, bringing the price up past £17,000 according to the supervisor, who was a real actual racing driver! I can't remember his name, annoyingly, but he competes in ADAC GT3, "GT Supercup" and apparently has done some BTCC recently. He's a car guy, so we got along well. Dad squeezed in the back for this one, which wasn't as arduous as I first imagined (don't take that the wrong way, if you're reading this), but the DS3 still pulled really well coming out of roundabouts. Despite having only 90 horsepower, the 1.6 turbo diesel had nearly twice as much torque, at 170lb/ft, so when you pressed the accelerator, off it went without hesitation. It was a lot of fun. It also smelt GREAT. New leather will do that.

I actually learned to drive in a previous-generation C3, so the driving position was very familiar. Unfortunately, this subsequently meant that it felt like I was sitting on top of the seat and not in it, with the gear stick seeming very low down compared to the Civic. I ratcheted the seat down as far as possible and still felt slightly too high. Other than that though, it was my favourite car of the day. The steering wheel felt really good in smooth leather (in crossection, the wheel rim wasn't quite round, and seemed to fit in my hands better as a result), it felt refined, comfortable and airy, and aside from the clutch having a high biting point and a little too much travel when compared to my Punto, driving it just felt natural. It did what you told it to do and felt happy to be driven. I'd be happy to have one, I reckon. Also, the base diesel can (and has been proven to) get over 70mpg, even with one cog less than the Civic, so it'd be nice and cheap to run as well. I might swap the arrest-me red for dark blue, though.

Ride-along: Vauxhall Ampera
Having only sat in the back of the headlining E-REV, I can't tell you much about how it drives, but the central screen had a display of what all the clever drive systems were doing, so when you put your foot down, the engine kicks in and you can see it glowing. The Power Flow screen also shows how little charge the battery has left (I would say how much, but, well, it's a battery), while the Energy Info screen tells you what kind of mileage you're producing both on your current journey and overall, as well as the other things you can see in the picture. The touchscreen display can also be used to show navigation or infotainment. As for the car, the ride was mercifully undramatic over speed bumps, the stereo was great and at one point - according to the third-party supervisor - the car was getting over 180mpg, which isn't the limit of its fuel-sipping capabilities. That's very impressive. The Ampera also has a decent stereo and was roomy enough in the back, although boot space was of course hampered by the presence of (lithium-ion) batteries.

So that was a glimpse into the, er, present of motoring. As for the future? I'll let you know after I've test driven a Vauxhall RAKe. I'll post all the other pictures I took and caption them the next time my internet isn't being so slow. For now, see them here.

Read More

Random Thoughts - Mazda Are Cool, Not All Crossovers Suck

Hipster Dacia Duster Pikes Peak had GT-R power before Nissan thought it was cool. Also rocks of varying heaviness.

As well as cars, I'm passionate about music. I like to think the variety in my music collection is diverse, with plenty of rock (with varying heaviness), some jazz, some classical, plenty of electric music, a few soundtracks and so on, and I make a point to only listen to good stuff. I don't care (or even know) who's in the charts, because it doesn't in any way mean that it's actually good. People just love to buy crap, you see, which is why Big Brother and US sitcoms get so much airtime (and so many rehashes) on TV. Anyway, while I have my prejudices about music, you'll occasionally stumble upon a song from a pop group or some drainpipe indie band in my collection. I know music like that is all the same, unimaginative, commercialised and various other things that make it wrong and bad, but sometimes you just can't help it. Sometimes it just sounds good to me and I don't care. As long as I don't start buying lots of the same kind of music, it's not the worst thing if I get one song by Black Eyed Peas or whomever.

It's the same with these crossover SUVs. I know they're bad for a number of reasons; They're too tall and heavy to be as agile or efficient as a "normal" car (although in this extreme genre-busting age we're in, I'm not entirely sure what "normal" is anymore...), but at the same time they're too low, often too front-wheel-drive and generally not adept enough at being off-roaders either. They're designed purely to make money and not to be more fun than a hatchback or to be actual mud-pluggers, or to be any more practical than the MPV segment so strongly threatened by their uprising. They're bought by idiots who thing big chunky cars are inherently safer than others - they're not - and they're bought by idiots who want to look more "rugged" or "cooler" or richer than people who buy more appropriate cars. Basically, they're stupid status symbols. I know this, I hope you know this, and my opinion on trendy lifestyle vehicles* will take some serious brute force to be changed. But, like an actually-bearable pop song, there seems to be an exception or two...

*After writing the EcoSport article, I worked out that it's going on sale in places where not all roads are tarmac, making extra ride height somewhat essential, and that it is indeed available with AWD. But still...

The one that inspired this article is the Mazda CX-5. The key thing about the CX-5 is, like all Mazdas are to some extent, it's good to drive. Apparently. This is the point where I wish I was a motoring journalist so I could back stuff like this up with experience, but TopGear Magazine (more sensible and trustworthy than the TV show) call it nice to live with, quiet, actually-quite-fun and say it controls body roll "impressively", which all sounds great. Not too bulky, and being bigger than a hatchback but slightly smaller than, say, a Mazda 6 estate, it's decently practical too, more so than a Ford Kuga or VW Tiguan. So it's actually useful and it's actually a nice car to drive. Good. But then, Mazda are good at that kind of thing. They are one of very few car companies who actually believe in their own slogan - "Zoom-Zoom" - and make efforts to live up to it. The Mazda 2, for example, is a criminally under-appreciated car, with the platform from the current Fiesta and a focus on light weight (t'is at least 100kg lighter than the previous 2, in fact) making it zippy and fun, aiming to put as big a smile on your face as it proudly wears on its front bumper, and wears without the creepy vibe provided by the bigger Mazda 3. Of all the Fiesta/Clio/Corsa-sized cars out there, this is the one most desperately crying out for a hot version, and yet it still hasn't come, perhaps cock-blocked by parent company Ford until the new Fiesta ST180 finally arrives in 2012/3. Then, of course, there's the MX-5, which needs no introduction. The best at what it does, and arguably the only new car truly doing "what it does" by being balanced, light and rear-wheel-drive at a low, low price. Like the 2, the current one also wears a big smiley face on the front to symbolise what it wants you to feel when you drive it. I like that.

However, their crowning achievement is still the RX line. Mazda have been the only company to make a success of the rotary engine (this is the bit where I say "Wankel" and you snigger like a child), with the RX-3 being the one to end the Nissan Skyline GT-R's dominance in Japanese racing and prevent the GT-R from scoring 50 successive wins, the RX-7 (FD) being the one to win the hearts of the Gran Turismo generation with its graceful, curvaceous body and pop-up headlights (although earlier RX-7s aped the Porsche 944, they also looked good) and light sporting focus, and the epic screaming monster that is the 4-rotor Mazda 787B remaining to this day not just the only Japanese car to win the Le Mans 24 Hours, but the only one to do so without a piston engine, when the incredibly brightly-coloured 700+bhp banshee fought hard to take the chequered flag in 1991. I heard the winning car run at Goodwood last year, and it sounds like a Formula 1 car with a gooey throat. It is also LOUD. And awesome. The RX-8? Well, I liked it, and so did others, but the 4-door coupé that arguably popularised "suicide doors" for a time (where the rear ones open backwards) wasn't as nimble or as powerful as the RX-7 it replaced, due to added weight and the lack of turbo. It also used a lot of oil and depreciated like a stone. Sadly, it was axed last year, although Mazda are now building 1000 more of the JDM-only 'Spirit-R' run-out special due to popular demand, which ought to encourage them as they develop two new rotary engines, one for a sports car and one as a range-extender, where its high bhp/litre and lightness/compactness are a bonus and its lack of torque is negated by it just spinning at a constant rpm away from the wheels. Rotary units are also very efficient at a constant speed. I wish them all the best, because they more than most mainstream car makers truly 'get it'. They stick to their beliefs and make them work (more so than SAAB ever did), and that's admirable.

Anyway, I've gone off-topic. Aside from the first two Subaru Foresters (sadly the Forester has now grown into a Mitsubishi Outlander-style 7-seater "SUMPV", as it were), and the Škoda Yeti, which TopGear can explain, the other small SUV of sorts that I like is the Dacia Duster. This isn't just because of the James May Effect (not the one where saying "Hello" a certain way instantly impregnates women, the other one that's about Dacias being Great News), but because it actually serves a purpose. It isn't just some chunky box, it's a practical all-terrain family car for a low budget. When Dacia launch in the UK it'll only be £11-14,000 and will come with petrol or diesel, manual or auto, 2WD or 4WD, brown or silver paint, the lot. Because it comes across as an automotive donkey in some ways, I kind of assume it'll be adept off-road, but there's no guarantee as it's based on a Nissan Juke. That said, it does have an AWD system with locking diffs, something I'm told is useful for climbing hills. No low-range gearbox, but it'll certainly help you when it snows or you have to park in a wet field. There's something very honest about it that you have to admire. It doesn't look stunning, but it looks good enough, and aesthetically suits its purpose. Of course, it also helps that it's been entered in both Trophée Andros and the Pikes Peak Hillclimb. When this comes out, parent company Renault will have no reason to continue producing the Koleos, which I don't think I've ever seen in the wild. Like, ever...

So there. I like small crossovers. But only those ones. Oh, and the Juke-R, but I'm not sure if that counts.

Read More

Video Monday - They Think It's All Over...

27/5/12, 4:10, 78781 views (when posted)

The Indianapolis 500, the self-proclaimed "greatest spectacle in racing" (although frankly F1 cars at Monaco make for a much greater spectacle despite the general lack of overtaking IMHO) and part of motorsport's "Triple Crown" along with the LM24 and the Monaco GP, has seen plenty of action in its 101-year history. Even last year, when a rookie was all set to win, he let go of it at the very last corner of the 500-mile race when he ran wide to pass a backmarker and slammed into the wall, allowing Dan Wheldon through to take the win. This year, it was similarly dramatic in the closing stages, as former BAR-Honda/Super Aguri F1 driver Takuma Sato tried pulling a cheeky move on Dario Franchitti at the 796th of 800 left turns. Click play to see the result.

Read More

Video Sunday - 30 Years Since An Epic Conclusion

24/4/07, 2:23, 103567 views (when posted)

So the 70th Monaco Grand Prix came and went today, with rain threatening but never really arriving until the chequered flag was waved. I won't spoil the result if you haven't seen it, but let's just say that it was more tense than it was action-packed towards the end, and that a record was broken. At any rate, thirty years ago at the 1982 Monco Grand Prix, the race winner seemed obvious... and then it wasn't. Several times over. I'll let Murray Walker and James Hunt take you through it.

Read More

Formula 1 - Spanish Grand Prix 2012

Circuit de Cataluña

Five things about the race:
> Without knowing the starting grid, you'd never guess who won.
> Pit strategy proved more important than DRS at the front.
> Lotus are still fast.
> McLaren struggled, with Jenson Button complaining of a lack of balance.
> Schumacher vs Senna not as enticing a battle as it sounds on this occasion.

The topsy-turvy nature of the 2012 Formula 1 season continued at round 5 of 20, the Spanish Grand Prix at the Cataluña Circuit in Montmeló, near Barcelona, where Venezuelan driver Pastor Maldonado managed to be second-fastest in Friday Practice... and then again in the final qualifying session, a session he never reached last year in his first ever F1 season. After Lewis Hamilton was disqualified from qualifying altogether because his last (and fastest) lap was done with too little fuel in it, Maldonado was then promoted to become the first ever Venezuelan pole-sitter in the sport. This after qualifying 21st and failing to finish at the previous race in Bahrain. Was it chance? Has the Williams FW34 come on leaps and bounds during the in-season test week at Mugello? Does the aero balance just happen to be best-suited to this track? It was something of a mystery. Less of a mystery was Fernando Alonso outperforming his car again to start 3rd on the grid at his home race (although it's a proven fact that being at your home race adds around 30bhp to your car), only to be bumped up to 2nd following Hamilton's demotion to last place before the race had even started.

It looked easy for the Spañard - when you can go from 4th to 1st at the start of the Spanish GP in a competitive car, surely overtaking a relative newbie who's considered a "pay driver" (rather than a "skilled driver") in a midfield team is as easy as getting your team mate to move over for you? Hmm...

The Grid:
1st - P Maldonado, 2nd - F Alonso, 3rd - R Grosjean, 4th - K Räikkönen, 5th - S Pérez, 6th - N Rosberg, 7th - S Vettel, 8th - M Schumacher, 9th - K Kobayashi, 10th - J Button, 11th - M Webber, 12th - P di Resta, 13th - N Hülkenberg, 14th - J-E Vergne, 15th - D Ricciardo, 16th - F Massa, 17th - B Senna, 18th - V Petrov, 19th - H Kovalainen, 20th - C Pic, 21st - T Glock, 22nd - P de la Rosa, 23rd - N Karthikeyan, 24th - L Hamilton (PEN).

As the five red lights went on, Pastor Maldonado controlled his nerves as Fernando Alonso finished absorbing energy from the home crowd and got ready to go, along with his 23 opponents of course. As the lights went off, the Ferrari quickly drew alongside the Williams, with both Lotuses pressing hard into the first corner as Alonso squeezed past Maldonado to take the lead of his home Grand Prix and make the crowd go wild at Turn 1 of the 66-lap race. Meanwhile, Sergio Pérez had made a great start from 5th to get in-between the Lotuses, only to have his left-rear tyre sliced open by Romain Grosjean's front wing and send him very wide at Turn 3 and right back to the grid, where Hamilton no longer was, having made it up to 19th by the end of Sector 1. Five places in three corners sounds good until you remember that four of them are Marussias or HRTs and the fifth is someone with a puncture. Nico Rosberg had been busy in the manic scramble for positions as well, getting from 6th to 4th as Grosjean and Pérez separated in Turn 3, and somehow Kamui Kobayashi had got himself ahead of Sebastian Vettel, only to be re-overtaken at Turn 5. As Jenson Button then overtook Kobayashi as well, the Japanese driver returned to 9th place, ahead of Jean-Eric Vergne. Michael Schumacher was 6th (behind Grosjean) by the time the field ploughed into Turn 10.

After Lap 1:
1st - F Alonso, 2nd - P Maldonado, 3rd - K Räikkönen, 4th - N Rosberg, 5th - R Grosjean, 6th - M Schumacher, 7th - S Vettel, 8th - J Button, 9th - K Kobayashi, 10th - J-E Vergne, 11th - F Massa, 12th - M Webber, 13th - P di Resta, 14th - N Hülkenberg, 15th - D Ricciardo, 16th - H Kovalainen, 17th - B Senna, 18th - V Petrov, 19th - T Glock, 20th - L Hamilton, 21st - C Pic, 22nd - P de la Rosa, 23rd - N Karthikeyan, 24th - S Pérez.

The following lap, Michael Schumacher tried to pass Romain Grosjean into Turn 1, to no avail (DRS isn't activated until the end of lap 2, and the DRS Zone is about two thirds of the long main straight). Lewis Hamilton, who had to get past Timo Glock a second time, started to battle Bruno Senna for 17th place. Ayrton's nephew against Ayrton's biggest fan. Lewis chased Bruno for a few corners before diving down the inside at Turn 7, a corner where there's only one line to take, and beating him to the apex, snatching the position off him. Unfortunately though, the race calmed down very quickly compared to the rest of the year's races. Red Bull Racing weren't terribly calm though - with their drivers in the middle of nowhere, they pitted Mark Webber for tyres as early as lap 7 and Sebastian Vettel a lap later, in order to get them in clear air (this makes the cars work better and go faster, and the places lost would be made up when everyone else pits later). Like Sergio Pérez when he finally got the limping car in for four working tyres, both RBR drivers went from Option to Prime tyres.

Lap 10 saw pit stops starting properly, with Nico Rosberg, Jenson Button and Paul di Resta all coming in for Prime tyres. Jenson came out behind Sebastian Vettel, meaning their effective positions were unchanged, as Lewis Hamilton passed Nico Hülkenberg and ended up in 8th place, having not pitted yet. Five more cars pitted the following lap, including Grosjean, Schumacher and Fernando Alonso, who was in and out of the pits in under 20 seconds, rejoining in 3rd place, while the other two exited the pits just ahead of Sebastian Vettel with Lotus ahead of Mercedes-AMG in 9th and 10th respectively. The front-runners pitting early meant that not only had Pastor Maldonado now inherited the lead for a time, but Heikki Kovalainen's Caterham was up in 6th place, followed by Bruno Senna's Williams (why have there been enormous gaps between team mates this year? It's probably about who can use the tyres best). Pastor and Kimi Räikkönen both pitted in on lap 11, dropping back one place each as Alonso surged past and gained a slight advantage over them both. Slightly disheartening for the Williams driver... but then his team mate was having a worse time of it. Not only did Nico Rosberg get past him with DRS on lap 12, with Romain Grosjean squeezing past at the same time and bumping into him (breaking off part of Grosjean's front wing end plate), but a lap later, he encountered Michael Schumacher.

The septuple world champion closed in down the main straight, but didn't make a move fast enough, so when Senna braked for the corner, Schumacher went piling into the back of him, taking them both out of the race (Senna rejoined momentarily, but the car was too damaged to make it even half way round the lap). After the race, Michael said that Bruno had moved around in the braking zone to defend, and so he couldn't avoid him - he even called Senna an idiot - but the replays showed very little movement from the Williams car, whereas Schumacher had plenty of time to move out and make a more obvious move if he'd wanted to. Thus, he's been slapped with a 5-place grid penalty at the next race in Monaco (the last place you want such a penalty). During the resultant yellow flag period, Sebastian Vettel and Felipe Massa were found guilty of not slowing down enough through the flagged area and were given drive-through penalties.

On lap 25 - with the Safety Car avoided - Pastor Maldonado pitted in for the second time, having shrunk the gap down to Fernando Alonso. In order to retake the lead, he had to utilise the extra grip of new tyres to the fullest in the short period between him exiting and Alonso entering the pits, and that's exactly what he did. The middle section of his outlap (lap 26) was 1.3 seconds faster than Alonso's was that lap, which made all the difference. Compounding Alonso's issues was a stricken Charles Pic, whose Marussia had a driveshaft problem, getting in his way at turn 1 the following lap, so once he pitted in, even Scuderia Ferrari's knack for lightning-fast pit stops couldn't stop Pastor Maldonado sailing past to take the lead by a good couple of seconds. The stewards slapped Pic with a penalty, but that became difficult to serve once his car stopped working completely and ground to a halt. If Alonso wanted to win his home Grand Prix now, he'd have to use his younger tyres to the fullest and hope Maldonado needed to pit again later.

Alonso set about wearing away at Maldonado's lead, getting it down to 4.1s by lap 41 of 66. With Alonso as determined as ever, perhaps more so at his home race, the last thing Pastor wanted was a botched pit stop. Sadly, no-one told the right-rear wheel man that. The delay didn't prove fatal to his chances though, as when Alonso pitted in three laps later, the Ferrari rejoined three seconds behind. The gap was smaller, but still big enough. However, things became a little more complicated, as Kimi Räikkönen had overtaken both of them to take the lead in his Lotus by not pitting. Could he make it all the way to the end and be a surprise victor?

No. Not only did Pastor and Fernando pass him on track, he had to pit again, but after his third stop, he would definitely make it to the end of the race, whereas a question mark hovered over the two cars in front of him, who his race engineer assures him would be making a fourth pit stop. If that happened, he would win without question. It was becoming a thinking game, this race. Depending on tyre endurance, any of the top three could win the Spanish Grand Prix. Alonso caught up to Maldonado and became able to DRS him into the first corner, making a move... that didn't stick. The next lap, Maldonado was able to use DRS to pull away from Alonso because he was a second behind backmarker Felipe Massa (and then Paul di Resta), so much like Kimi Räikkönen against Sebastian Vettel in Bahrain, Alonso had one chance, and couldn't make it happen. After that, his tyres started wearing away and Pastor soldiered on, in a team with the same budget as Force India, a car that could only qualify 21st the previous race, but on a track that clearly suited the Williams FW34 - and perhaps Pastor's driving style as well, seeing as his team mate was never inside the top 10 before being taken off by Schumacher - and so he became the fifth driver in five races to seize the chequered flag (by 3.1 seconds), as well as the first Venezuelan ever to win a Formula 1 Grand Prix. Williams ewre understandably delighted, having not won since the 2004 Brazilian Grand Prix. Alonso's worn-out Ferrari had to really defend second place at the end, as Kimi's Lotus was only half a second behind by the end. Romain Grosjean finished fourth, followed by Kamui Kobayashi, who started in 9th place.

But what of Lewis Hamilton? He was race-winningly fast in qualifying, but partly for running too light on fuel. He made up seven places in the first three laps, rising as high as fourth before pitting, but his aim of a two-stop strategy didn't pan out, and once again a chaotic left-rear wheel man (sack him!) delayed one of his pit stops, as he left the old wheel in the way of the one fitted on his McLaren MP4-27, meaning he ran over it and caused the car to jump up over it before setting off once and for all. Towards the end he was stuck behind Felipe Massa - you'll be happy to know they didn't crash into each other this time - before Massa was found not to slow down for yellow flags and given a drive-through penalty. After more overtaking moves of varying bravery, he got it up to 8th place when the flag dropped. An impressive comeback.

Sadly, the Williams celebrations were interrupted by a huge garage fire, caused by static electricity (possibly from a KERS) igniting a fuel container. They've recovered, replaced all the damaged equipment, and amazingly Bruno Senna's car - which was in the fire - only received minor damage and will be on the grid at Monaco. An amazing effort from all involved. The rest of the results and points are below. Now go watch the Monaco Grand Prix!

Read More

Mazda And Alfa Romeo Tentatively Sign Best Deal Ever

It's all about the maths, really. (8C used to symbolise AR styling, not because of the V8)

The facts are these: The Mazda MX-5 is the best cheap sports car money can buy, and pretty much has been since it first appeared in 1989 (in no small part because it was channelling the original Lotus Elan and the MGB Roadster in its design and philosophy). Alfa Romeo, nine times out of ten, make beautiful, soul-stirring cars that are beautiful, stylish, soul-stirring, pretty and, er, all those words again. Now, we hear that Mazda and Alfa Romeo have signed a "non-binding Memorandum of Understanding" to co-produce a new small FR-layout roadster each, with Mazda doing the next-gen MX-5 and Alfa Romeo putting their own engine and bodywork on top to make a "new Spider", one that won't be chubby and underwhelming to drive like the recent Brera Spider and may take inspiration from the Pininfarina 2uettottanta Concept. Can you see a downside here? I can't.

Of course, "non-binding" is the important bit at the moment. As long as there's no hitch in negotiations, the final deal is expected to be signed by the end of the year, with Alfa Romeo saying their car will appear in 2015. Unlike the Toyobaru GTBRZ86R-S, each car will get its own brand-specific engine and "distinctly different" bodies, while Mazda - like Subaru in the aforementioned tie-up - building both versions of the new roadster at its Hiroshima plant. Which is in Hiroshima. Previous rumours about the next MX-5 have suggested it will weigh significantly less than 1000kg (originally 800kg, although I can't see that happening to be honest, so I reckon it'll be in the low-mid 900s, which would still be awesome) and could be powered be a 1.3 "Skyactiv" turbo engine, or potentially even a rotary engine. While Mazda is developing two rotary engines at present, they've so far avoided putting one in the MX-5, so what would change their minds now? The lack of an RX model? Demand from paying enthusiasts? Who knows. At present it's only rumours anyway. We'll of course find out more and more over the next couple of years, maybe even a concept car each.

Have Japan and Italy ever joined forces before, I hear you ask? Well yes, but it wasn't good. Alfa Romeo (again) teamed up with Nissan in the 1980s to make a mainstream family hatchback. In theory it was great; Alfa Romeo's Italian styling and flare teamed with Nissan's Japanese efficiency and reliability, what could go wrong? The Arna is what went wrong. Unfortunately, they got it completely the wrong way round, with 1980s Nissan doing the body and Alfa Romeo doing the mechanicals, making a rust-prone and unreliable car with square-edged, mind-numbing styling. Thus, one of the world's all-time crap cars came to life.

Happily, it sounds like they're not going to make the same mistake again. Alfa will simply let Mazda make their next MX-5 (having called Mazda "the recognised leader in compact rear-drive vehicle architectures"), and then the Italians will style their own version and drop their own engine into it, which I reckon might be the 1750cc turbo found in the Giulietta and the upcoming 4C flagship, or potentially a smaller 1.4 MultiAir unit to keep front-end weight down and maintain the 50:50 balance ever-present in the MX-5. Or how about a fizzy little TwinAir engine? Going slowly and having a blast is still having a blast, and Fiat are making a 100bhp+ version in the near future anyway. Whatever engine they put in there, Mazda promises a manual transmission (alongside an auto 'box for useless hairdressers), so hopefully Alfa will provide one too. They aren't doing on the 4C, which is disappointing to be honest. Please let us shift ourselves with joy, Alfa! This is the kind of thing you dream of but never imagine will actually happen!

I'll try to keep tabs on this as and when any developments arise, but as I say, that actual agreement won't be signed for a few months yet.

Read More

Video Sunday - A Bit One-Sided

14/5/12, 8:27, 59936 views (when posted)

The oldest race track in the world is Brooklands in Surrey, England. Opened in 1907, it was used not only to hold motor races, but for record attempts as well, be it top speed, average speed, or anything else that can be done on a big oval with a straight going up the middle (the latter element also making it one of Britain's first airfields). In 1939 it was closed and became an air base in the second world war, as plane factories popped up. Sadly a combination of bomb damage and neglect - including later aero factories cutting through the track or building hangars on it - have lead to it becoming an incomplete relic, with companies buying out defunct buildings and turning part of the track into a car park and even some houses being built on it. I hate that...

Europe's second-oldest track is the Autodromo Sitges-Terramar near Sitges in Spain, which opened in 1923. Unlike Brooklands, the simple oval layout remains unscathed in its 89 years, save for some plant life sprouting up and the un-restored road surface becoming even bumpier than before (neither track was smooth or had barriers, making speed record attempts all the more dangerous and unbelievably ballsy considering the machines used). This means that the first track ever to hold a Grand Prix is still drivable, if you're brave enough to try beating the old course record.

Of course, having a modern racing car with a rear wing you could serve dinner on does help deal with the unnerving road surface, but the video above still shows the Audi R8 LMS jumping over some of the track surface because it's so bumpy. It would be far too scary to race on in an age when deaths are avoided at all costs, as just going over a bump on the very steep banking could send you flying over the edge at tremendous speed. Hence, he's flying solo. Enjoy some grade-A bravery. Then consider doing it in an enormous plane-engined monster on bike-width crossply tyres. With no seat belt.

Read More

Obscure Japanese Sports Car Of The Week: Vemac RD200

Vemac RD200

First off, I may have posted a picture of the Vemac RD200 in last week's entry on the Tommy Kaira ZZ and said it was the ZZ-III you get in Gran Turismo 2. It is not. That's because it's the RD200. By Vemac. But who are Vemac? It may sound like a vacuum cleaner company, but they actually make this little Honda-powered sports car, once again in the mould of the Lotus Elise/Exige, once again built in England but technically a Japanese car (sold primarily in Japan, as it happens), and once again something that entered the GT300 class in SUPER GT, except that this car is - I think - still going. I'll try to pick something a little different next week...

Vemac is a subsidiary of Tokyo R&D, a Japanese consulting firm that builds concept cars for major Japanese car manufacturers and carbon fibre composite parts for rockets. Chairman Masao Ono has a CV remarkably similar to that of Lotus founder Colin Chapman, as he's a former F1 and Le Mans racecar designer who started his own company to help cutting-edge technologies get into everyday road cars.

Styled to look like the Ferrari 250 LM, the Vemac RD200 features the naturally-aspirated Honda K20A two-litre four-cylinder engine used in the Integra Type-R (DC2) producing 217bhp, a tad more than the ZZ/Garaiya, but then it also weighs a tad more at a still-anorexic 890kg. The original RD180 had a B18C1 from a lesser Integra. The extra weight and power over the ZZ mean this is more easily comparable to the Lotus Elise/Exige, and it's not often you can say that. In fact, the Exige S (pre-V6) had the same weight and power, give or take 40kg and 2bhp, so with capable air conditioning as standard and composite body panels wrapped around a spaceframe chassis, on paper it's a rival to the class benchmark. Sure enough, evo magazine tested the two together on Japanese mountain roads and found that in most cases the Vemac made the supercharged Exige S feel tame. Crikey. The extra little bit of weight means that people who are 6' 4" can fit comfortably inside, although no matter what height you are, you will probably find the right-handed gear stick in this RHD-only car to be a little confusing at first. Less confusing is a neutral balance provided by the mid-mounted K20A (mated to a quick and slick 6-speed manual 'box from a Civic Type-R), which can be enjoyed thanks to light but very communicative steering and fine-tuned to suit you thanks to fully adjustable Showa dampers. 0-60 happens in 6.3 seconds - notably slower than the Exige S, although once it's up to speed it keep up with the Lotus), and the RD200 can go all the way to 136mph.

So with all these pros, where's the con? Well, some aren't that keen on the 250LM-cum-Lotus-Europa flat rear deck (well, almost flat), but the really prohibitive bit is the price. The ¥8,673,000 domestic price tag converts directly to £37,300 or so - well, it did in 2007 - but once in the UK it becomes over £40,000, which is roughly £5000 more than the Exige S for a car nobody's ever heard of with the gear stick on the wrong side. As a result, the Vemac RD200 remains in obscurity outside of Japan. Inside Japan, however...

...it competes in the highly competitive GT300 class of SUPER GT, and has done since 2002. The RD200 is built like a racing car and then made road-friendly, but if you skip the last step and instead add wings, spoilers and canards instead of air con and leather interior trim, you get the RD320R. Catchy. Featuring the C32B 3.2-litre V6 from an NSX, the racing version weighs more to meet regulations, at 1150kg, but the bigger engine makes around 300bhp, so it actually has a higher power-to-weight ratio (about 260bhp/tonne vs 243 for the RD200). The NSX power didn't last for long though, as a year later it got updated bodywork and a 3.5-litre Zytek V8 (which soon grew to 3.9 litres) to become the RD350R. After successes in GT300, "R&D Sport" decided to take their Vemac into GT500, giving it a 4.5-litre V8 making over 460bhp at 8250rpm (which isn't actually any higher than the RD200 road car could rev, as the manic Honda Type-R power meant it went all the way to 9000rpm!). Alas, after four years, they were back in GT300 for 2009, and remain there today, now using a 3.6-litre Porsche flat-six engine and currently 13th in the championship out of 24.

Of course, being an R&D company, they've designed a hybrid racing car, except that, unlike Audi and Toyota, they did it six years ago. The RD408-H features a 4.0-litre Mugen [Honda] V8 and two liquid-cooled DC electric motors. Amazingly, the result is a combined output of 800bhp and 686lb/ft. The 1175kg kerbweight gave it a staggering power-to-weight ratio of 681bhp/tonne, making it so fast that it couldn't be entered for anything. Still, as a technology demonstrator it's pretty impressive.

Tokyo R&D VEMAC RD408-H

And so, you now know about the Vemac sports car. Use this knowledge wisely, less ye become the destroyer of worlds. Or something. The Spanish GP report will appear this weekend.

Sources: This Page, evo, Supercars.net, Supercarworld, Luxury4Play.com (two RD200 reviews), also Ketchup is a good one, although I had it on pizza once and it was weird.

Read More

GREAT NEWS!!!

GREAT NEWS!

The New Dacia Dokker is about to go on sale in... Morocco!

But wait... THERE'S MORE!!

The Kangoo-based Dokker will also be available as a van!

MMMM, nice!!

So anyway, Toyota's in-house racing team Gazoo Racing has fitted a turbo AND a supercharger to the GT 86 to make a concept car which LITERALLY... has a silly name. Nevertheless, the Toyota GRMN Sports FR Concept features 320bhp and some go-faster bodywork. It will also remain as a concept. People have been trying to guess since the BRZ/86 came out which forced induction device will eventually appear (even though neither company has actually said that will happen), so Gazoo Racing have decided to spite them by putting both types on for a 60% power increase. Kinda cool. Also, at least three articles are on their way... at the same time. Sort of.

Read More

What Makes British Transport Design Unique?

The first and last Minis ever, separated by 41 years.

I wrote this for my final major project for college, and thought readers might be interested:

It's easy to spot a classic British car. As well as instantly-recognisable icons like the Mini, Jaguar E-Type, Aston Martin DB5 and the Land Rover Defender (not to mention the black taxi and Routemaster bus), our cars have always had a distinct look about them. But what is that look? What makes British transport design unique?

One word that springs to mind when looking at the iconic designs is "tradition". The Mini tried deviating from its 1959 styling in the 1970s with the square-nosed 'Clubman' and, like New Coke, it failed to strike a chord with fans and they reverted to the original, with a couple of mechanical modernisations (although "modernised" is a relative term in Mini world). The Morgan Roadster has been on sale with basically the same design for 57 years, and still finds buyers today, typically those who want an old-school British sports car, without so many frills and electronic complications - "infotainment" is not a word in Morgan's vocabulary. The same can be said for the more focused and even simpler Caterham 7 (originally a Lotus), which has also been around since the 1950s. All these cars, as well as the London taxi and Routemaster bus, have round headlights, a rounded bonnet and - in most cases - a fair share of chrome brightwork on the outside. We consider heritage very strongly in this country.

These designs have arguably become traditional simply because they've been around for so long. Because the designs and engineering are normally so good (even if build quality frequently didn't match up), that it's a case of "If it ain't broke, don't fix it". The Mini was so far ahead of its time that it went on to live right through it's time until the year 2000, at which point it was Germanised. The same is true of the trusty Routemaster, which only went out of service in 2005 after 50 years of service. For the upcoming London Olympics, a design competition was held to update this particular icon to look modern in the 21st century. How do you modernise something like the classic Routemaster? In the end, the winner was Thomas Heatherwick, whose design isn't quite as retro a many entries, perhaps instead asking "what if the Routemaster was devised today?". Thus, the engine is at the back, not the front, and it's a diesel-electric hybrid for environmental reasons. Characteristics such as the round headlights, the arch in the back of the roof and the walk-on platform at the rear (including the rear staircase) have been retained, but a new asymmetrical style has been added "to reflect passenger circulation", with glass sloping down on the left side, where passengers get on and off. Black has been used where glass would be impractical to make the effect clear. This works better at the back, where the glass follows the path of the staircase.

I like it, particularly the way the windows around the back and on the right-hand side follow the path of the two staircases. The question is, does this less traditional Neo-Routemaster of sorts still look intrinsically British? Well let's go by the checklist above first. Round headlights? Check. Rounded bodywork? Well, it's round for a bus, so check. Chrome? Absent, but that's not strictly a requirement anyway. Rationally, then, it does look British. The fact that it's a red bus in London boosts its Britishness somewhat anyway, and the clever, modern, glassy design is in some ways akin to the Gherkin building, another recent piece of (increasingly) well-known British design (designed by Foster & Partners, who submitted a design for the "New Bus For London" competition, but didn't win). The environmental consciousness of its diesel-hybrid powertrain is more a sign of the times than some example of British thinking.

So we've been able to bring a traditional British design into the 21st century, but should we as a nation be sticking so rigidly to traditional ideas of "Britishness" in the first place? Jaguar did for a number of years, but it's only now they've eschewed traditional designs for a more modern interpretation of Jaguar's "Grace, Space and Pace" philosophy that their newer cars (like the new XF and somewhat controversial XJ) have, in my opinion at least, become particularly stylish and cool. It's fine to lust after the XK150s and E-Types and Mk.IIs of yesteryear, but to try and make a modern car look like one didn't really work, and the Jags of the '00s pandered to a very stereotypical image of Britain in order to please Americans, who [Ford] owned Jaguar at the time.

It does seem to be our thing though; we more than anyone else keep successful designs of the past in production for a very long time, such as the Land Rover Defender (aesthetically very similar to the 1948 original), Lotus/Caterham 7, Morgan 4/4 roadster (since 1955) and the London Taxi, which post-redesign still looks very much like the original, only with modern bumpers and a smoother bonnet. We don't always stick to tradition though, and that's where Concorde comes in.

BAC Concorde in formation with the Red Arrows display team

There are one or two historical references in the exterior of the Concorde - the triangular 'Delta Wing', er, wings also appeared on the Vulcan bomber, and they're mounted low-down on the fuselage like on the iconic Spitfire (partly to keep them out of the way of the windows and doors), but in reality, this collaboration between the British Aircraft Company (BAC), who devised the shape, and Sud Aviation of France was completely forward-thinking, and remains the only supersonic passenger plane ever made and used by airlines. Its one and only crash caused the cripplingly-expensive plane to be taken out of service in 2003 after 34 years of service as the pinnacle of air travel, reserved for those lucky few who could afford it. The signature pointed nose was designed for aerodynamic efficiency, penetrating the air as smoothly as possible and blending into the deliberately-narrow fuselage to minimise drag (air resistance), while being able to droop downwards when landing the plane to improve pilot visibility. While it suits its purpose, it also combines with the wing shape and equally pointed tail end to make probably the most elegant and streamlined-looking plane in the world. The end result looks every bit as fast as it is, and is instantly recognisable in the same way as an E-Type Jag or an Aston Martin DB5.

Powered by four Rolls-Royce Olympus turbojet engines (which also appeared on the Vulcan bomber, in a lesser form), this smooth body and the huge amounts of thrust allowed Concorde to achieve "Supercruise", or cruise at over Mach 1, which required incredible engineering to stop it tearing itself to shreds and killing everyone on board. In fact, the heat involved in breaking the sound barrier is such that the body actually gets about 6 feet longer! The fact that it can break the sound barrier regularly and safely while passengers relax quietly in luxury on board is really what seals it as one of the greatest aeroplanes ever made. Small wonder the Bugatti Veyron, which can exceed 250mph (~400km/h) without breaking a sweat, is compared to the Concorde so often.

So when we break away from tradition, we often make more of an impact. It's all very well making a building look like a Tudor abbey, and historic buildings like Big Ben are a great asset to us, but when you can make it like The Gherkin or the Olympic stadiums, why not be original? Otherwise, we'll be limiting ourselves forever. Jaguars, for example, would forever be designed to look like cars from the 1950s/60s, which wouldn't make sense in the future when they're powered by hydrogen or can fly. The counter argument is that our iconic designs are the enduring classics from decades ago that evolved very slowly over time, and to ignore them would be to do them a terrible disservice and ignore our heritage. Perhaps combining the two, like the "New Bus For London" mentioned above, is the best combination, reimagining a successful and/or iconic concept to suit the 21st century, combining much-prided tradition with progress and real innovation.

Read More

Williams Garage On Fire After Spanish Grand Prix (No Race Spoilers In Article)

Bruno Senna's Williams-Renault FW34, possibly a write-off.

 NOTE - the race winner is mentioned in the linked articles and the video. Don't click if you haven't seen it yet!

After the eventful Spanish Grand Prix, the Williams F1 garage caught fire after a KERS explosion caused what's suspected to be a fuel fire. Members of numerous teams rushed in to help as the blaze caused acrid black smoke to billow out of the Williams garage at both ends, helping to control the fire before emergency services arrived. Bruno Senna's car - the only one in the garage at that time for reasons I'll describe in the race report at some point later - was caught in the fire and suspected to be destroyed.

There were nine injuries in total, none serious. Sir Frank Williams - celebrating his 70th birthday - was with others in the team motorhome across the way, quelling any rumours that it was caused by 70 birthday candles being lit at once. However, one engineer at Force India F1 has been taken to the medical centre for smoke inhalation (but is said by the team to be OK). Caterham F1 say that "A couple of our guys got injuries, burns and maybe one broken wrist", and apparently one Williams team member also has minor injuries. According to this article, nobody in the upstairs hospitality area was injured due to the concrete construction of the garage.

You can get live updates on a custom Twitter feed thingamy here.

Here's a video from the BBC F1 Forum... until it's taken down for copyright reasons:

13/5/12, 6:32, 305 views (when posted)

As the extent of the injuries don't get worse than one case of smoke inhalation, one possible broken wrist and one person with burnt legs, it's not as bad as it could've been, and I hope those who came off worse recover quickly. No drivers or bosses were involved.

Read More

Video Sunday - XXX Ferrari Action

10/5/12, 7:23, 59204 views (when posted)

I'm not sure this video needs much of an introduction, frankly. The Ferrari Corse Clienti program allows owners of their extreme 'XX' models to have a track day together, this time at Monza. Featuring the FXX, FXX Evoluzione, 599XX and 599XX Evoluzione with active aero which I can't tell if it's working, this is an aural delight like precious few other things, as it exclusively features semi-racecars revving ~800bhp V12s past 9000rpm. Enjoy!

Read More

Porsche 918 Spyder Spotted In Skin-Tight Retro Camouflage

                             Porsche 917                                                                                         Porsche 918

The Porsche 917 needs no introduction. Nor does the phenomenon of global warming. Modern times mean we can't all scoot around in V8 sports cars and such like, so Porsche has injected some conscience into its successor to the epic Carrera GT, as well as showing a rare bit of retro love by calling it 918 and referencing the 917 (see what they did there?) with some 1970 stripes on the matte black camo. If you haven't heard of the 918 Spyder yet, where the hell have you been? Don't worry though, all will become clear in a few paragraphs' time.

First, some back story, and a quick introduction to the 917. The car that effectively owned early '70s sportscar racing, starting with Le Mans 1970 and ending with a 1600-horsepower CanAm car in '73. People who are more into movies than motorsport might recognise it from the Steve McQueen film Le Mans, which featured a pair of Gulf-liveried 917Ks dicing it out with Ferrari, after Ford's previous dominance had subsided. As well as famous victories, there were the famous liveries. I've mentioned the iconic Gulf livery and you can see the white-on-red one above, but how about a psychedelic Martini paint job or the "Pink Pig" that showed the various pork cuts on its body for reasons that are beyond me? Of course, the regular Martini stripes are also an iconic livery as well. It's a shame most sponsors these days just want their name all over it and don't consider a whole paint job. Only Red Bull springs to mind as a company who carries this on. At any rate, despite the minor flaw of generating large amounts of lift at 250mph down the Mulsanne straight, the 917 set such a significant distance record at the 1971 LM24 that the following year the track organisers put chicanes into the 4KM straight at La Sarthe the ensured it wasn't broken until 2010. An all-time motor racing great, and Porsche engineering legend Hans Mezger's crowning achievement. I would go on, but you probably know a thing or two about the 917 anyway, and it's not actually the focus of this article.

Nevertheless, you should now know why it's so significant for Porsche to build a car called 918. It means as much to them as the upcoming "F-Type" means to Jaguar. That means it can't just be a four-cylinder hybrid Boxster. It has to be something immense. So what has Porsche made here? Well the original 918 Spyder Concept from 2010 showed a car that let you have your cake and swallow it whole without choking. The clever hybrid system meant a whopping 94mpg (78mpg US), but the 218bhp electric motors teamed up with a 3.4-litre, 500bhp racing V8 to give you 718bhp and torque-vectoring all-wheel-drive. It also looked great, with references to classic road and racing Porsches of the past mixed in with a few new touches and a roof akin to the Carrera GT.

Then came the 918 RSR Concept last year, which took the Le Mans reference onto another level with orange on pale blue (à la Gulf), racing aero, a fixed roof and something that looks like the cooling fan on the 917's monstrous flat-12 engine. The hybrid system - designed by Williams Hybrid Power, a subsidiary of the F1 team - was also revealed in more detail, with the strangely leathery racing interior featuring what appears to be some kind of doomsday device. Basically the flywheel accumulator spins at up to 36,000rpm and accumulates the otherwise-wasted kinetic energy from the brakes to use later, much like KERS except bigger. The energy then gets sent to the front wheels for up to 8 seconds before it needs recharging. The system in the coupé has seen service in an orange and white 911 GT3-R Hybrid, which won the 2010 Nürburgring 24 Hours, and similar set-ups are now being used by some Le Mans prototype teams like the Toyota TS030 and Audi R18 e-tron quattro (the latter car came second in the recent Spa 6 hours, having shown a clear advantage in the wet but suffered with understeer in the dry, allowing a non-hybrid R18 to lead a 1-2-3-4 win for Audi), so clearly they're on to something. The specs improved, with a direct-injection V8 making 555bhp at a screaming 10,300rpm and total power jumping up to 757bhp as a result. Unlike the Spyder Concept, this has no electric-only mode. Because Race-hybrid.

And so we come to 2012, and the production car has been given its body and is being tested and tuned to perfection like only Porsche does. One noticeable change is the absence of side-exit exhaust pipes (which somehow look fake anyway), as a clever and complicated exhaust system now exits right behind the occupants' heads, sticking out of the top of the engine and inches behind the rear window. An interesting touch, which presumably saves weight while pleasuring the ears of those inside, which all supercars should do.

See? Certainly an interesting idea. It limits rear visibility though, but then this is a supercar. Not only is there possibly a rear view camera for reversing, but you never have to look behind you when you've got 718bhp. This also means that, like in the McLaren MP4-12C, the rear diffuser has room to work properly. The prototype here has 911 (991) tail lights, by the way, which is why they don't fit properly. They still look good though. Like the V10 banshee that was the 2003-8 Carrera GT, the production 918 Spyder will have a two-piece removable roof and a full-width pop-up spoiler. Unlike the C-GT though, this 200mph Porsche supercar will do over 80mpg and supposedly lap the Nordschleife in under 7:30. The report by Autocar (where these spy shots come from) suggests that the V8 engine has grown to 4.6 litres, presumably so it doesn't have to rev past 10,000rpm and also to get more torque for extra driveability. The two electric motors will now control an axle each, with one at the front and a rear motor mounted in the gearbox housing. The total power has inched up again, from 757 to 762bhp, giving a 0-60 time of just 2.8 seconds, while still promising to return up to 94mpg (imperial) and emit only 70g/km of CO2. To put that into perspective, your precious Toyota Prius C will do about 60mpg if you're careful, emits 90g/km of CO2 and only makes 99bhp. So there. This is better in every single way except boot space and rear seats. And price; the 918 Spyder will be £621,600 "at current exchange rates", which makes it roughly €770,000, or a nice round $1million. Think how many V6 Mustangs that is!

The 918 will finally come into the world finished and ready to blow everyone's minds in the 18th September, which, using the backwards American dating system, is 9/18. See what they did there? Also, they'll be building a grand total of...... 918 cars! It's a wonder it isn't $918,000 as well. Maybe it was going to be but development of this wonder-machine got a little expensive.

At any rate, I really want this to be all it promises, because it really is a truly amazing car. I just love the idea that over 700 horsepower can also do over 90mpg (although probably not at the same time, as there are four drive modes to switch from Green to Go). If you had suggested that in 2003 when the Carrera GT was around, nobody would believe you, probably not even Porsche. To top it all off, it looks stunning and could pave the way to a new Ferrari-challenging supercar rumoured to be called 960 (as in one after 959) that'll sit between this and the eventual 991 911 Turbo. Despite the Cayenne, Cajun and Pajun (a "baby Panamera" that'll effectively be a posh Audi), Porsche are still being awesome in a way that matters. Long may it continue.

The other four pictures from Autocar are below:

The proportions are ever so slightly different for packaging reasons.

The car was spotted near Porsche's Weissach headquarters, sporting 1970 stripes from its spiritual predecessor.

This being a Porsche, the 918 will be equally at home on road or track.

Odd exhaust pipes will make topless motoring an aural delight... unless you put it in all-electric mode.

I cannot wait for this car, even though I will never own one.

Lastly, will the Le Mans references be as unfounded as Ferrari putting a GTO badge on a car never designed to race? Nope! As of 2014, Porsche will return to endurance racing. They dominated in the '70s with the 917, they dominated in the late '80s with the 956/962 and won again in 1998 with the half-a-911 GT1, and now that Audi is looking to run four rings around their record number of LM24 victories, they'll be snatching some chequered flags in this decade too! Keep being awesome, Porsche.

Edit: More pictures have popped up, and you can see them here.

Read More