racing modifications car is given to any vehicle that has been altered from its original state. The term denotes a car that has been significantly altered for the purpose of appearance or for increased engine or handling performance, the process by which this is carried out is known as car tuning. The term is generally used in reference to modern vehicles that have been altered, and not typically used to describe other types of racing modifications cars such as Hot rods
I'll admit, being brought up on a balance of TopGear, Gran Turismo and Formula 1 hasn't really given me much love for American cars. The very competitive and aggressive-defensive American car fans on the internet that try force-feeding them to you don't help either, because they make you not want to like them. Nevertheless, the ones that stand out tend to be big V8 muscle cars. It's hard to ignore or resist that cartoon-character quality that a massive, stripy, shoutier-than-your-car Shelby GT500, Dodge Challenger SRT8 or Chevy Camaro SS has, and then you get the internationally-designed Ford GT40 and this, the Chevrolet Corvette. Be it a C5 or C6 generation, something about a Velocity Yellow-coloured Z06 does it for me, and this video of just such a car being shown a good time at Monaco's Grand Hotel Hairpin (to use its Formula 1 name) to explaining why.
Of course, while I like the childish appeal of a muscle car, some people are uptight enough that they just find them crass and vulgar, which to be fair is how I feel about most American cars, particularly the church-sized pickups and SUVs they have (after a point, a pickup's no longer big merely to suit a purpose), but I digress. The point is, the kind of people who turn their nose up at a muscle car are probably the kind of people who live in Monte Carlo, by the sea with a delicately-finessed Ferrari or Maserati, or "just" a Veyron. So I wonder what onlookers thought of this guy burning rubber like some ignorant hooligan tourist? Actually, some might just compare it to the other hooligans in AMGs and Koenigseggs...
Of course, technically, the Corvette is actually a sports car, but I wouldn't exactly buy one over a Porsche GT3 or a Nissan GT-R, whatever YouTubers vomit in defence about 'Ring times. I wouldn't mind one of these (or a blue C6 ZR1) for cocking about in though, like this guy is doing. It's like Homer Simpson: big, daft and bright f***ing yellow, and yet you just kind of love him for it. One thing should be made clear though - he didn't try drifting around the entire corner, he waited until the coast was clear and then slowed down afterwards (not that you have much choice about slowing down in those corners). In other words, he was hooning his very vocal 'Vette responsibly.
Weaving between lanes at high speed isn't cool. It's dumb. So is powersliding through traffic lights or street racing (unless you're 14, in which case it's awesome). This kind of thing is OK though, within reason, although any more than this and you'd better be on private property of some sort, ideally a track or car park. And so, with far more text than a 40-second video deserves, I leave you with three words: Always Hoon Responsibly.
While 99% of cars in recent years (leccy cars aside) have used reciprocating piston engines of some sort, the efficient-yet-inefficient rotary engine, devised in the 1920s by Felix Wankel, has powered NSUs, motorbikes, and, all the way up to yesterday, Mazda sports cars. The idea of converting pressure into rotating motion rather than reciprocating motion (i.e. pistons going up and down in a cylinder) creates a significantly higher power output per litre of displacement, so while a 1300cc piston engine in your little hatchback might make around 70bhp, the 1300cc "13B RENESIS" rotary engine in the RX-8 makes 230bhp. Because there's no huge force bouncing up and down repeatedly, it's also a much smoother engine than a piston unit, one that can rev higher and weighs a lot less, owing to its diminutive size. So what are the drawbacks? They are threefold. Not only do they not produce very much torque, but they suffer from two inherent flaws that the modern motoring world can no longer tolerate: poor fuel economy and emissions. As such, the RX-8 was killed off the the UK when the new Euro V emissions rules came in revently (the same rules that axed the 5-cylinder Ford Focuses and the FN2 Honda Civic Type-R), and has now reached its end globally due to a lack of sales. Thus, it seems somewhat doubtful that we will see them again as regular engines in regular cars. After 45 years of proudly standing by their clever and unusual engines, the Mazda rotary is dead...... right? I could go on and give you a short history lesson on how Felix Wankel started developing the engine with NSU in the 1950s, and how when they built a complete engine without him knowing he said to them (in German) "You have turned my race horse into a plough mare." I could then go on to say that as NSU came and went, giving us the advanced-but-chronically-unreliable Ro80 in the process, motorbike companies like Norton and Suzuki used the light, smooth-running rotary engine, and that when they were all done with it, only Mazda was left, proudly championing their RX models and putting a three-rotor unit in the Eunos Cosmo (think Lexus SC or Merc E-Class Coupé), eventually bringing the Wankel engine its crowning achievement in 1991 with the tremendously loud and fast 787B, winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans that year, before finding favour with tuners in the turbocharged RX-7 and ending up in the odd-but-cool-but-slightly-underpowered RX-8, its final resting place, but... oh, I think I just did. Well now you know. At any rate, the benefits of this engine couldn't be ignored over the years, but then by the end, neither could the disadvantages of fuel economy and emissions. It has also become to Mazda what 2-strokes and V4s were to SAAB - their way of being proudly different - except that Mazda's engine was actually successful for quite a long time.
Smint, Spirograph, spinning. Simple.
But how does it work? Well, it follows the same basic principles of a four-stroke piston engine, but does it differently, and using much fewer parts. As the gif on the left shows, fuel goes in at the top, gets compressed by the big rotor that looks like a Smint, is then ignited by the spark plugs and the resulting explosion forces itself out of the exhaust exit, propelling the rotor as it does so. The constant spinning of the rotor as opposed to the jerky up-down reciprocating of pistons means that rotary engines are inherently smoother and can rev to 8500-9000rpm with relative ease, which is good, as they have to be revved high to get to peak power. Compared to direct-injection turbo piston engines, they feel pretty gutless if you don't, as there's little in the way of torque. Of course, turbocharging a Wankel goes some way to sorting this out. Either way, you'd think the compactness and lightness would be good in an equally compact and light MX-5, but Mazda has never made such a car before. Previously their excuse would probably have been that it would encroach on the RX-7/8, but that car is now dead, so now there's no excuse! Oh wait, yeah, emissions...
So it won't be going in an MX-5 then (not officially, anyway, but it's a somewhat common engine swap among MX-5 tuners), and the RX-line has officially reached its end this week. So is that just it? Well not entirely, as there are other applications for Wankel engines, like in snowmobiles, where they appreciate the fact that a failing rotary engine is much less sudden than a failing piston engine, or in aeroplanes. A more unusual use for it is as a seatbelt pre-tensioner in VWs and Mercedes-Benzes, as this patent shows. Rather than running the whole time, it's driven by and explosive charge when the seat belts need pre-tensioning (i.e. in a crash).
But surely Mazda aren't giving up on their USP? In 2007, the strange-looking Taiki Concept featured a ~1600cc engine dubbed "16X", a proposed replacement to the long-serving 13B that featured a lengthened stroke and reduced-width rotor housing - making it taller and thinner - along with direct injection and aluminium side housings instead of cast iron ones. The results of these Various Things being added were a supposed jump in fuel economy (by 20%) and more torque across the rev range. What's more, the one in the Taiki Concept is said to be capable of up to 350bhp. Crikey. Unfortunately, budgetary constraints have meant that not long afterwards, 16X was put on the back-burn, and since then Mazda has become preoccupied with its new Skyactiv technology, which in a nutshell is all about efficiency through lightweight engineering and engine witchcraft. They have said that the money they gain from this technology - which has already been rolled into the surprisingly not-lame CX-5 crossover and will henceforth appear across the range - will be partially rolled into 16X along with, supposedly, a smaller rotary engine for use as a range-extender. For an explanation of an Extended-Range Electric Vehicle (E-REV), click here and scroll about halfway into the fourth paragraph, but the point of using a rotary engine in such a vehicle is that the aforementioned benefits of simplicity, compactness and lightness are teamed with the fact that not only is the lack of torque negated by the engine never powering the wheels, but Wankels are very efficient when running at a constant rpm, which a range extender does (if you've driven a GM Volt/Ampera or a Fisker Karma, that's what that monotonous humming is), so in many ways it's the ideal power plant for such a vehicle. Assuming E-REVs catch on then, this would be an ideal avenue for Mazda to pursue, as they're the rotary experts nowadays and they could benefit hugely from a rotary E-REV. Of course, it's all if's and when's at the moment, though.
Another avenue that Mazda's already looked at is the idea of a Hydrogen Rotary Engine (HRE), first seen a year before 16X. When you think "hydrogen car", you might think Fuel Cell car, like the million-dollar Honda FCX Clarity, or if you're somewhat ignorant, you'll thing "Hindenburg/H-bomb on wheels", which is just silly. Would Honda put an H-bomb on the road? No. It's perfectly safe. Anyway, the fact is that hydrogen-burning engines have been tried and tested before, because of course hydrogen can be stored as a liquid just like petrol and diesel can, and combusts just as easily, in fact far more easily. The key difference of course is that burning hydrogen with air only produces water vapour. Emissions problem solved, instantly. Mazda actually leased out a small number of RX-8 H-REs in February 2006, two years before the Honda FCX Clarity came about. But what if you weren't near a hydrogen filling station? It's perfectly likely. Well, never fear, because the H-RE was actually a "duel fuel" engine, which could run on good old fashioned dead dinosaurs as well. In fact in many ways, the hydrogenability (which is now a word) of the engine was just sort of plonked on top of the normal RX-8 powertrain. A second fuel tank for H2 was added in the boot, and hydrogen was directly injected into the top of the engine using a system later adapted for 16X, meaning you could switch between regular RX-8 and hydro-powered RX-8 as and when you needed. Useful.
Yet again, this is an application where the Wankel's many advantages come into play. You see, the ease with which hydrogen combusts means that less energy is needed to burn it, so in a piston engine, where fuel is injected through the top of the cylinder right near the spark plug, the Hydrogen being injected could combust on contact with the spark plug even when it's not sparking, due to the plug's general temperature. However, in a rotary engine, the fuel is injected in the top and then combusted further round the cycle, as you can see to your left, so there's no risk of "abnormal combustion". Running a juicier fuel than petrol also means more power, as the E85-powered Koenigsegg CCX-R and Agera R prove (on that note, the mentalist Furai Concept ran an E85-powered Wankel and sounded like the bees of hell had been kicked in the groin). So if Mazda make plenty of money and a hydrogen infrastructure appears - a key drawback with H2 cars at the moment - they could end up with a hydrogen-rotary-E-REV in their range! That would be cool. What would they call it, though? RX-H-RE-E-REV? That would be silly. How about the RotER-H* (pronounced "roter eych")? Something like that.
*I know it's spelt Rotor, but the ER is short for Extended Range.
But of course, this is all potential. If potential things always happened, Toyota would've won Le Mans, SAAB would be alive and well and making brilliant innovative cars, I would've won the Euro Millions all for myself one week and, well, so many other wonderful things would've happened. For now, we can only hope that the weirdly wonderful Wankel rotary engine will one day return, revving away with pride under the bonnet of an RX-9 of some sort. Oh, and the RotER, of course. I think I might have to copyright that name so they have to buy it off me for three million pounds (or yen, whichever is more valuable by then...). I refuse to believe that after 45 years of thick and thin, Mazda will just give up on what is in many ways its crowning achievement. Cheer on the Skyactiv diesel LMP2 car at Le Mans next year, and maybe even test drive a new Mazda road car and see if that lightweight engineering and "Zoom-Zoom" spirit touches you enough to grab your heart and wallet in equal measure... for that shall revive the rotary!
So the Le Mans 24 Hours was last weekend. Toyota took the fight to Audi in a way no-one truly expected, even taking the lead of the race on-track, as this video shows.
Unfortunately, you know what happens next. If not, well, there's a video of it in my blow-by-blow report of the race. The video I originally used has been removed, so I found another copy of it in about ten seconds and used that one instead. The very next camera shot after the one at the end of this video is Toyota #8 deeply embedded in the tyre wall next to an upside-down Ferrari 458 Italia.
This triggered a Safety Car period in which Kazuki Nakajima hopped into Toyota #7 and later side-swiped the DeltaWing during the restart, taking the revolutionary SR71-style car out of the race and setting off a chain reaction in his own car as well, starting with a puncture and rear bodywork damage and eventually ending in terminal engine failure. Always check for signs of internal bleeding.
So one thing we can draw from this race is that Toyota could've won it on their first try, had they finished. The other thing we can draw from this and last year's race is that red GTE-spec Ferrari 458 Italias must never be fucked with. Allan McNish's huge crash in 2011? A red 458 he didn't see. Mike Rockenfeller's 200mph crash in 2011? A red 458 not moving over. Anthony Davidson? A red 458 turning in on him. Allan McNish spearing off into the walls at the Porsche Curves this year? Oh yes, he came across a red 458 mid-corner and overreacted. Man, they should really ban those things......
Scroll down the main page past the monowheel and you'll find revealing spy shots of Aston Martin's DBS replacement, the new Vanquish II. Actually, don't do that, because you can just look at official images of AM's new flagship - officially called the AM310 Vanquish - right here. Sadly the carbon fibre front splitter still looks tacky, and its bum still looks a little big, but to call it ugly as a result would be like calling Scarlett Johansson ugly because of a dodgy haircut. Hell, it can even pull off tan brown for crying out loud!
Curves good enough to grab
Overall the styling is sort of same-but-different-and-more, which pretty much describes the whole car. It sits on the VH platform that underpins every Aston Martin since the DB9 (except the One-77) and uses pretty much the same 6.0 V12 that has sat in every Aston Martin since the Vanquish (except for the V8 Vantage, obviously), now "heavily revised" and thus producing 565bhp and 457lb/ft of torque, 55 more than the DBS or the old Vanquish S. Weirdly though, once the updated and uprated six-speed Touchtronic 2 puts that grunt to the tarmac through 20" wheels, its straight-line performance is no better than those two cars. 0-60mph takes 4.1 seconds - 0.3s slower than the Volvo I mentioned yesterday and matching the DBS - and the top speed is a "mere" 183mph. The DBS could do 191 and the Vanquish S matched the Ferrari F40 at 201mph. Maybe top speed's just no longer a priority?
As the internet says, DAT ASS. The new tail lights are essentially One-77 tail lights that don't join up. New spoiler's proving controversial
Of course, when you're actually driving a V12 Aston Martin and not rambling about it on a blog, top speed is of very little importance. A 12-pot Aston is an unparalleled Grand Tourer (GT), designed to go fast over a long distance without giving you a cheesy bum or a sore back, even if you drive 1000 miles. Since the DB9, this has been teamed with sweet handling and steering, according to luckier folk than I. Of course, it must also sound spectacular to qualify as a "proper Aston". I suspect with a modded version of the existing V12, this will. It also has more low-end torque for added usability at lower revs/speeds.
Inside is also the same, but different, but better, once again taking inspiration from the One-77
Not wanting to sell more Cygnets than they have to, Aston Martin have also addressed the fuel economy and emissions of the trusty old V12. After making it lighter didn't work - despite lightening the front chassis and using bonded aluminium and carbon fibre in new and I'm sure very exciting ways, it actually weighs 44kg more than the DBS, although with a 50:50 distribution - they used the "Aero Duct" on the bootlid to reduce lift and some engine witchcraft. It also has a much bigger boot, at 368L (60% bigger than a DBS's piddly little luggage hole), which is nice for when you're going on holiday, taking Bond villains hostage or transporting your Premiership team mates' footballs to the training ground. The cost of all this improvement is a mere £189,995, which will most likely stretch over £200k once you're ordered to have your initials embossed in the headrests and the leather colour-matched to your trophy wife's skin. On that note, the new car also 25% stiffer than before.
But should you buy one over a Ferrari F12 Berlinetta? That can't be out-accelerated by a tweaked Volvo, you know. It also has nearly 200 more horsepowers, which is important if you're Jeremy Clarkson. Alas, it is also uglier, far more expensive and less practical. You could consider an FF instead, but that's even uglier and just as expensive as the F12. Both will inevitably have a harsher ride than this - even if it has been tested at the Nürburgring - and neither have quite the same broad appeal as a V12 Aston Martin. Some poseur can blast past in their Fezza, sure, but I ask you, is that really cool? Fun to do and cool are two different things. For instance, playing Pokémon is fun... but it doesn't make you as cool as the guy sipping Martinis in a tuxedo.
So a couple of years ago, Polestar, Volvo's in-house tuning and racing company who builds the C30-based STCC entrant, made an odd-looking but otherwise unspectacular C30 into a 400bhp, All-Wheel-Drive super hatch and then said that Volvo weren't going to build it. Everyone got all excited at just how awesome the blue bombshell was, and how great a car it was, before being disappointed that it would never be produced. Well now, they've made a new car, the Polestar S60 (based, as it happens, on the odd-looking but otherwise unspectacular Volvo S60). I would like to think that this time, buoyed by how well received their C30 was, they would consider at least limited production to take on established performance saloons. Alas, they've said that the car you see here is a one-off made "for a special client", so I'm not even going to hope for it. You can if you want though. I might be wrong. At any rate, the new blue bullet uses a 3.0-litre straight-six from the normal S60, but with modified cylinder heads, combustion chambers, inlet manifold and intake, strengthened connecting rods, a 3.5" Ferrita stainless-steel exhaust system and a Garret 3171 turbocharger, which I assume is better than the turbo it already had in many important and I'm sure very interesting ways. The result of all these words is a pair of very exciting numbers; the Mondeo-sized Volvo is now packing a serious 508bhp (515PS) and 424lb/ft of torque (up by 208bhp and 99lb/ft). Over five-hundred horsepower in a Volvo saloon! Thanks goodness it has all those clever safety features.
To make sure that immense grunt doesn't put you head-first into a tree, the Front-Wheel-Drive has been unceremoniously ditched for a Haldex Gen4 "Cross-Wheel-Drive" (XWD) system, which I assume is a clever way of saying torque-vectoring All-Wheel-Drive. Meanwhile, it's got new boots, brakes and ankles to make sure it actually goes round corners well. Polestar lowered this S60 30mm over 19" wheels (shod in Michelin Pilot Super Sport tyres) thanks to Öhlins sport suspension with three-way adjustable springs and dampers, with said wheels being further apart by 20mm up front and 40mm out back for a mean stance and better cornering grip. Bringing proceedings to a halt are 380mm six-piston Brembo brakes. 380mm is big in brake world, the kind of disc size you get on a Porsche Cayenne Turbo or a McLaren-Mercedes SLR. However, there's nothing to suggest they're carbon ceramic affairs. Perhaps this is good, as they need time to get up to temperature before they work properly and feel right. Well, I say "feel right", but my Punto doesn't exactly have a set of carbon ceramic Brembos, so I can only pass on opinions of luckier people here.
It's important that they work, those big brakes, because despite being a Volvo, the Polestar S60 (or Volvo S60 Polestar Performance Concept, to give it its full name) can get from 0-60 in 3.9 seconds. Three point nine! That's a tenth off a Ferrari F40! The excitement doesn't stop there by any means, as the top speed is officially "over 300km/h", or in other words an Aston Martin DBS-matching 190mph. Aiming it at the BMW M3 and Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG might actually be aiming a little bit too low, as those figures would trouble an M5. Of course, the "XWD" system has a lot to do with that 0-60 time, as four driven wheels mean twice the bite when you dump the clutch - which is connected to a six-speed manual gearbox, thank goodness - but a top speed like that is hard to argue with. The chassis has also been stiffened to ensure it's not bent out of shape by all that brute force.
Indoors, the seats are body-hugging grey alcantara affairs, to match the grey alcantara gear stick and, if it's anything like the C30 PPC, a grey alcantara dashboard too. Perhaps deliberately making the interior dull will force you to look outside at the scenery hurling towards you faster than it typically would in a Volvo, not least because it's 90kg lighter than the US-spec S60 T6 it's based on. But will you be able to find out for yourself? Well, the official line is that if Volvo gets enough interest, or "market response", they'll seriously consider series production (numbered limited edition). Unfortunately, if that's more than just a line to calm down excited journalists and bloggers, they'll still need more than words of excitement and recognition. The Polestar C30 got that much and never appeared. That said, the M3-grade market is pretty big and who's to say that there aren't enough people out there who want to stand out from the crowd? Koenigsegg employees might want to drive them to work when it's snowing, for example. Plus there are just some people out there who think a bloody fast Volvo is one of the coolest things ever. A stealth car of sorts (loud blue and 19" wheels aside), without a showy badge on it or any chrome and just going Fezza-fast in any direction you tell it to. In fact, Volvo is probably the least sporting brand you can think of right now. Go on, think of one. Toyota? They're racing at Le Mans and were in F1 for a while. They also make a RWD sports coupé now. Dacia? 850bhp Pikes Peak car. SAAB? Dead, aside from maybe some electric 9-3s in a year or two. Lexus? LFA. Volvo? This. Well, STCC as well, but that's it.
Normal Volvos are uncool safety-laden school buses. This isn't. This is a prime example of Swedish awesomeness, the likes of which only Koenigsegg is putting into (albeit small) production. If Volvo started up the Polestar performance brand akin to AMG or NISMO that they're considering, launching it with this would be a brilliant way to put Volvo on the map as something more interesting than a five-cylinder box. They've even stopped making them boxes! They looks pretty cool now, in their own way, particularly the C30 shooting brake of sorts and the S60, which has a cool "night time signature" when you follow it at night (with LEDs, which this one doesn't appear to have). At any rate, it would be so cool of Volvo to make this. Alas, that doesn't necessarily mean that the bean-counters will let them......
UPDATE - This very car has been sold for a whopping $300,000 to someone who can only be described as A Person. Pistonheads kept the seats warm in the meantime.
We've seen the AMC in The Man With The Golden Gun doing a barrel roll. We've - well, a couple of dozen people have - seen Fifth Gear do a loop-the-loop in a Fiat 500. But answer me this: have you ever seen a car do TWO loop-the-loops? I bet you haven't, unless you've already hit play and seen TopGear Live doing Exactly That at a show in Durban, South Africa yesterday instead of watching Le Mans. I think that's probably a good enough excuse.
The only question is, how are they going to top it? By using a Reliant Robin instead of what appears to be a Rage buggy? By doing two loop-the-loops at the same time somehow? Or backwards? Or by using loops that are literally On Fire? Who knows. We don't know. All we know is, this is the greatest TopGear stunt...... In The World. Probably.
Full spotter's guide. Click to embiggen (open in another tab for 4000px).
So it's here again, and this time it doesn't coincide with Formula 1. The Le Mans 24 Hours is being run for the 80th time, and without Peugeot, it's down to Toyota and their updated TS030 hybrid (pictured below) to take down the dominant Audi team in their first LM24 since 1999. Meanwhile, the much-lauded DeltaWing-Nissan is running outside of the rules - and therefore won't be classified in any classes - to showcase a completely different way of making a racing car, featuring a 300bhp 1.6 turbo engine derived from that of a Nissan Juke and a much lower weight than the other competitors, as well as a distinctive Batmobile-esque body that's extremely narrow at the front before growing outwards at the rear (Fun Fact: The body is so aerodynamic that when ACO made them add fixed mirrors instead of cameras, it made an 8% difference to aero performance!). The name "DeltaWing" is derived from the shape, used to mean aeroplanes with triangular wings, like a Vulcan bomber or Concorde. It's certainly an intriguing proposition that qualified level with mid-running LMP2 cars, so how will it get on? Let's find out...
Toyota TS030 Hybrid (final car)
The First Three Hours: The 80th running of the prestigious Le Mans 24 Hours got off to a smooth start, with the only Audi R18 not to out-qualify the two Toyotas quickly passing Stephane Sarrazin's #7 TS030 through turn 4, at the hands of Allan McNish, who crashed spectacularly at the very same corner last year. McNish then started to drop back behind the other Audis to hold up the Toyotas and let the Germans get away, which didn't work for long. That's not to say that Sarrazin got back past him, though. As Toyota kept applying pressure, the #4 Audi R18 Ultra came in with technical problems and fell back. The Toyotas got up to 3rd and 4th as the Audis suffered from more problems, with the #2 Audi R18 e-Tron quattro also dropping back, allowing the TS030s to reliably ascend to 2nd and 3rd places, now at the hands of Nicolas Lapierre and Sébastien Buemi (former Toro Rosso F1 driver). The leading e-Tron quattro hybrid will be hard to catch though, especially as it becomes 4WD above 120km/h (75mph), which will give it a major advantage if it rains.
On that front, it drizzled lightly about 10 minutes in, but stopped pretty quickly, failing to catch out the front runners but seeing a few LMP2 drivers panic and pit in. P2 is actually a more competitive class, with plenty of privateer teams running Lola or Oreca chassis with a Nissan, Judd, Toyota or Honda engine. Martin Brundle is in a team with his son and GT Academy winner Lucas Ordoñez (Greaves Motorsport) and are currently running in 15th overall and 5th in class.
The DeltaWing was holding on to its qualifying place of 30th place overall (out of 56), reaching 25th place before an "air shift" gear shift actuator - fitted by regulation - failed and put them in the garage for a good 20 minutes or so. They fell to stone dead last, but have now got back up to 52nd, a whopping 15 laps behind the leader (#1 Audi R18 e-Tron quattro driven by Benoit Tréluyer). The only retirement so far has been a Lola-Nissan being run by Gulf Racing Middle East, who spun out and hit the wall before the final chicanes. Well, you know, money doesn't buy you skill.
The GTE classes have been fiercely competitive so far. Earlier, Darren Turner of Aston Martin Racing was fighting toe-to-toe with Tommy Milner of Corvette Racing, swapping the lead for GTE-Pro lap after lap for over 10 minutes, before Turner made a mistake on the exit of Mulsanne Corner and dropping back, having to defend from the #51 AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia, who then spent a couple of laps battling and passing Turner. Leading the class for a while due to a long range, the Ferrari has now pitted in and switched drivers to former F1 driver Giancarlo Fisichella. At this point, Corvette closely leads Aston Martin, while in the GTE-Am* class it's a Porsche 1-2-3, with the Flying Lizard team leading the amateur-driver class.
*There's no difference between the cars in Pro an Am class, but in Pro, you're allowed one or two of your three wheelmen to be professional drivers. The Corvette and AMV8 engines sound fantastic!
DeltaWing-Nissan DeltaWing (show car)
4th-6th Hours: The Toyotas pushed hard at this point. That didn't stop Romain Dumas (#3 Audi R18 Ultra) getting back up into 3rd during pit stops, passing Nicolas Lapierre's #7 Toyota TS030h. The lead Toyota then had a minor exterior glitch, as the leading edge plate for the right side of the rear wing (the curved bit) came loose about 4h48m into the race, flying off when Lapierre reached the Mulsanne Straight. This doesn't seem to have affected him much. While this was happening, the #99 Aston Martin V8 Vantage spun off at the Porsche Curves and into the gravel. He continued on. At 5h15, the DeltaWing team had a leaky fuel rig, but that didn't hinder their progress as they continue on, now up into 46th place.
All fairly ordinary, until this happened [I'm downloading these so I can re-upload if they're taken down for copyright]:
Running Time: 3:35
For those of you who have YouTube blocked where you are, this is Roamin Dumas being a real racing driver. Following a Flying Lizard Porsche 997 GT3 RSR, he hit oil and slithered into the tyre wall at the first chicane of the Mulsanne Straight. After a few seconds of panicking, he leapt to action, getting out of his car (you're still in the race if you stay within 30ft of your car) and ripping off the dislodged bodywork like a surgeon removing scar tissue or a gangrenous foot... with his bare hands. Having removed the dead skin, as it were, he then jumped back into his R18, strapped in and set off, despite having only one working front wheel! He got it back to the pits and although he's now 8 laps down, he is still running after Audi restored the front suspension and put a new nose piece on. Fantastic.
Alas, this section has to be dominated by Toyota. Nicolas Lapierre chased down the lead Audi of Benoit Tréluyer, getting right up to the back of him as the 5th hour closed in. Nose-to-tail coming out of the second chicane on the Mulsanne Straight, Lapierre had a look down the inside of the Audi heading into Mulsanne corner, but braked too conservatively to make a move, perhaps due to the two LMP2 cars ahead. Nevertheless, he drew alongside after the exit and started to overtake, staying right and even brushing the grass briefly as two flat-out right kinks came and went, followed by a quick dab for a slower right kink and then a full braking zone, down three gears for Indianapolis, a 90° left-hander for which Tréluyer was on the inside. He retook the lead, but coming out of the following corner the difference in hybrid recuperation systems became clear. While Audi's Williams Hybrid Power-designed flywheel recuperation system is more adjustable about how the power is delivered to the front wheels, Toyota's capacitor-based system (which is more like F1's KERS), just dumps the full 120bhp of extra boost onto the rear wheels in one blast, which a very excited Eurosport commentator described as "like an explosion". Sure enough, the TS030 overtook the R18, and Toyota became race leaders at the Le Mans 24 Hours in a brand new car, having passed a refined version of last year's winner. Fantastic!! ...... And then, all of a sudden, not fantastic:
Running Time: 2:07
Not a minute after Toyota #7 took the lead, Toyota #8 collided with a GTE-Am Ferrari 458 (#81 AF Corse) heading into Mulsanne corner. The car bounced over a kerb, and as soon as air got under it, the car flew upwards and back-flipped, landing on the rear wheels and slamming hard into the wall. The kink heading into the braking zone is flat-out in an LMP1 car, so Anthony Davidson will have been doing around 200mph when the Ferrari piloted by Piergiuseppe Perazzini drove into the side of him, and as such the impact with a tyre wall four deep wasn't enough to stop the Armco bending completely out of shape where the Toyota hit it, while the Ferrari also slammed into the tyres hard enough to turn himself upside down. He got out and walked away, telling an interviewer that he couldn't tell how far away Davidson was and said "it's impossible to overtake there". Erm, no it isn't, mate. With a car's width, Ant would've done so without breaking sweat. The visibility thing can definitely be a problem though, as Ferraris and leading LMP1s demonstrated last year, although it wasn't exactly night time and the Toyota is considerably louder than the Audi...
Nevertheless, Davidson was taken by ambulance to the Medical Centre for check-ups. He was walking and talking, but shaken up. Toyota say he's in shock and has back pain, and will now be taken to hospital. At least he can swap notes with Mark Webber after the race. As the Safety Car(s) came out for over half an hour while marshals rebuilt the barrier afoot the Mulsanne Straight, the two leaders pitted in for a driver change and new tyres. Audi serviced the car faster than Toyota, putting R18 e-Tron quattro #1 back in the lead, now piloted by Marcel Fässler. Kazuki Nakajima, former F1 driver who wasn't that great if we're brutally honest, took the wheel of the sole remaining Toyota as they rejoined to follow the safety car, stuck among slower cars. When the race restarted, Nakajima and the two Audi e-Trons jostled for position among LMP2s and the DeltaWing (up to 48th place), and going through Corvette Corner (the last left before the pit entry), Nakajima accidentally bashed into the DeltaWing, sending it off and into concrete walls. Nissan SUPER GT driver Satoshi Motoyama stayed in the car, and I think it's still running. It's not like there's a lot of bodywork to fly off, so as long as it's structurally OK - which it should be - they could continue. The live timing says they're still running in 48th place, but that's not to say it's telling the truth. Commentators say the car is still in the wall with extensive damage, but they're trying to get it going again.
The Toyota was damaged at the rear right corner and suffered a puncture, so was forced into the pits. Since I started typing all this, he's pitted again and has now been pushed backwards into the garage. That doesn't mean he's out, it just means they need more than two people working on the car. So all of a sudden, just when it was coming together for Toyota, it's all falling apart......
Meanwhile in GTE-Pro, it's now Corvette versus Ferrari, as the Aston Martin has dropped back a little. They're still going at it though.
Audi R18 Ultra & Audi R18 e-Tron quattro
Hours 6-9: As night falls, the DeltaWing is definitely out. When the team boss was interviewed, he said it was too damaged and "down on one side", as well as being beached. Satoshi Motoyama made every effort he could, but a driveshaft was broken and steering shafts were smashed. It suffered most of its damage in the first impact with a concrete wall, with the second impact merely bringing it to a halt. It's a shame - and it's becoming slightly annoying/ironic that Nissan is still showing adverts for it on TV during the race - but what have DeltaWing achieved? Well, a car with only 300bhp was running at LMP2 speeds, while going eleven or twelve 8.5-mile laps on 40 litres of petrol, so all-in-all, it's been very impressive, and has proven its point. It's just a shame it was side-swiped off the track. Toyota's getting karmic retribution, though; the TS030 came out of the garage 7h14m in, only to stop at the end of the pit lane and get wheeled back in again. Nakajima had handed over to Alex Wurz - a much safer pair of hands - but when the Toyota finally rejoined the race at 8h21, the drivers had swapped back again. Since then the #7 Toyota TS030 has been running way back in 47th place (2nd- or 3rd-last). It has also had a spin at Dunlop Corner and apparently tangled with an OAK-Nissan, who are now having troubles. So if you betted on Toyota, I'm afraid you've had it...
Up front, Nicolas Prost in the Rebellion Racing Lola-Toyota (sponsored, confusingly, by Lotus) is now in 4th place, fastest of the petrol-powered cars, while the #3 Audi R18 Ultra that narrowly avoided defeat earlier has climbed up to 6th place. The top 5 are now Audi e-Tron, Audi e-Tron, Audi Ultra, Rebellion, Rebellion. Aside from the #3 Audi passing the purely petrol-powered Prost-piloted privateer prototype, it'll probably stay that way from now on.
So what about the other classes? In LMP2, the #24 OAK Racing Morgan-Judd is leading the class and running in 7th overall, with the #48 Murphy Prototypes Oreca-Nissan a mere lap behind (and currently catching, as the Morgan is in the pits). It's all very close, actually, with the first 11 P2 cars separated by three laps. Third in class is the #44 Starworks Honda ARX-03B. Other noteworthy teams in this class include the Signatech Nissan team, featuring GT Academy sequel winner Jordan Tresson. They are currently 7th in class, and so far haven't shown any signs of repeating the impressive 2nd in class they achieved despite a puncture last year, at the hands of Lucas Ordoñez. Speaking of Lucas, the "Brundle bundle" that he's racing with, the #41 Greaves Motorsport Zytek-Nissan, are in a lowly 13th in class (19th overall), so GT Academy drivers aren't getting on as well as in '11. So far, at least.
In GTE-Pro, it's Corvette, Ferrari, Corvette, Ferrari, Porsche, Aston, Ferrari, Ferrari. Tommy Milner is still leading in the #74 'Vette, followed by Gianmaria Bruni in the #51 AF Corse 458 Italia, who is around 90 seconds behind at present. The #61 AF Corse Ferrari running in GTE-Am had a spin at the end of the Porsche curves and is now in the garage.
Overall, the race is calming down and settling into the night shift. Now that it's past midnight in France, Italian Audi works driver Rinaldo "Dindo" Capello has changed age mid-race. I wonder how often that happens? Anyway, happy 48th birthday, Mr. Capello! His car, the #2 R18 e-Tron quattro, is currently running in 2nd. I'm sure a win would be a lovely birthday present!
As the race is settling down - the odd spin to one side - I shall do the same. More in the morning. Just remember, as you sleep tonight, the most famous endurance race in the world is still raging on...
#74 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette ZR1
Hours 9-20: First, a couple of updates on earlier things. Anthony Davidson officially has a broken back (vertebrae T11 and T12), and is lying in hospital. The #7 Toyota had engine problems and finally retired by hour 11, ending an emotional rollercoaster that went so high up before plunging so far downwards. LMP1 is now the Audi R18 show, with Ultra #3 regaining 4th position and probably staying there until the end, as he's 8 laps behind the leaders. It wasn't that simple though, as it collided with a GTE-Am Corvette in hour 12 and needed a new front bodywork section. If any of them run into problems now, the Rebellion Lola-Toyotas will be there to get a petrol car on the overall podium for the first time in years. Also, some footage has emerged of Satoshi Motoyama trying desperately to get the DeltaWing back on track before having to call it quits after 90 minutes of trying:
Running Time: 2:05
He looks pretty upset about it, and to be fair it wasn't his fault. The fan favourite couldn't complete the race, as we know. Meanwhile, LMP2 is still closely fought. While the two OAK-Pescarolos, both former class-leaders are having problems (one with engine and one with chassis), the #44 Starworks Honda, #46 Thiriet By TDS Racing Oreca-Nissan, #49 Pecom Racing Oreca-Nissan and the #26 Signatech Oreca-Nissan (which includes 2nd GT Academy winner Jordan Tresson) all on the same lap, meaning that any of the four cars could snatch a class win. That said, as I type the Signatech Nissan is coming into the pits with a puncture...
Martin Brundle's car (Greaves Motorsport #42) has had a difficult night. It developed a stuck throttle problem when Alex Brundle was in the car, then when Martin took over, it stuck wide open going into Indianapolis, which he described as "very scary". The car is now being looked at in the garage.
Most of the action has been in the GTE classes. In hour 11, the #74 Corvette Racing Corvette ZR1 lost a rear wheel and had to crawl back to the pits, losing three whole laps on the leaders. They put a new wheel on, but it wasn't quite that straightforward. Both Corvettes developed unrelated steering issues, and the #74 has been in the garage since 8 o'clock (UK time) having a gearbox changed and other niggles looked at. As a result, it's now Ferrari-Ferrari-Aston Martin in the Pro class, while the Larbre Competition Corvette ZR1 is at least winning the Am class. Ferrari aren't having it all their own way, however; the #59 Luxury Racing 458 Italia went off into the gravel at Indianapolis. This dropped it down to fourth in class until the Corvettes had issues. The Aston Martin is recovering from issues in class 3rd, and has been slowly catching up to the Fezzas, while the #51 AF Corse and #59 Ferraris race one lap apart (formerly one minute apart, but they've spread out in the last 8 hours). The #51 car is leading the class after Giancarlo Fisichella had a huge crash in qualifying and has effectively been rebuilt for qualifying and the race.
By sunrise, only 40 of the 56 entrants are still running. We've lost both Toyotas, the DeltaWing and plenty more besides, but the track will only get brighter and there's no sign of rain.
In hour 18, the Aston Martin's serious progress was hindered by a spin and crash into Indianapolis, where the #97 AMV8 suffered far less damage than the crash would've suggested and carried on, re-passing the #59 Luxury Racing Ferrari 458 which passed him during the off, as the Ferrari suffered a puncture. Later on, the #61 AF Corse Ferrari 458 played to the annoying stereotype of Italian supercars catching fire, as a high-speed puncture somehow lead to a fire under the left-front wheel arch. The spectacular flames were doused the the injured car was taped up by the team and sent on its way. It's now in 32nd overall, 7th in the GTE-Am class. The Level 5 Honda ARX-03 ran out of fuel at Indianapolis, dropping way back from the LMP2 class lead. They're now running 37th overall, 14th in class.
The #1 Audi R18 e-Tron quattro found itself facing the wrong way in hour 14, needing a long unscheduled pit stop to get back in the running. This meant the #2 car piloted by birthday boy Dindo Capello took the lead. In the last hour or so, the #1 car has caught up and started really racing the sister hybrid for the race lead, dicing for position and even going off at the first Mulsanne chicane after out-braking himself. Neverhteless, the #1 car now piloted by Benoit Tréluyer is in the lead, around 2 seconds ahead of Allan McNish, who's now piloting the #2 car. The #4 R18 Ultra is four laps down, in 3rd place.
2012 is the last year for the Porsche 997 GT3, which has served very well in Porsche's bid for GT dominance over the last 7 years or so, and if they could win a class at Le Mans in their final year, it would be fitting, as 911s have been a key part of GT racing for decades. Soon, a 991-based car will take over. Currently, the #67 IMSA Performance Matmut 911 GT3 RSR is second in the GTE-Am class having lead for a time, now ~30 seconds behind the Larbre Corvette, and the distinctive Flying Lizard #79 a few laps down in class 4th.
By hour 20, the #38 Jota Zytek-Nissan has spun hard at the last of the Porsche Curves, mashing the rear end. They got it going again, but it was crabbing horribly as the bent rear end was all out of line. Nasty. Needless to say, they're in the garage.
Benoit Tréluyer and Allan McNish are still dicing for the lead, weaving through traffic all along the bottom section of the track, with Tréluyer even putting two wheels on the dusty hard shoulder to pass a slower car before McNish. This put three cars between them, until McNish cleared them all by the end of Indianapolis. Tréluyer in #1 has pitted, allowing McNish in #2 a fat lap in clear air to try and jump him in the pits, F1-style... and it hasn't quite worked. They're now 16 seconds apart after McNish's stop.
It's taken most of hour 21 to type this, and not a great deal has happened, but come back after the race for the final bit. The Strakka Honda (former P2 leader) is out, and it now looks like whoever can save themselves a pit stop at the end of the race will come out on top...
Circuit de la Sarthe map
Hours 21-24: OK, so I don't muddle it all up, I'll do it via time stamps for the final three hours.
20:57 - Benoit Tréluyer had a surprising and bizarre entry to the pits, locking his rear wheels and pitching the #1 Audi R18 e-Tron quattro into a quick spin. Whether this was caused by a pit speed limiter coming in strongly or the hybrid system messing with the rear brakes, it's unclear, but he lost about 3 seconds to McNish. Audi then had plenty more drama, as the #3 R18 Ultra had exactly the same accident it had yesterday evening, hitting oil mid-way round the first Mulsanne chicane and crashing into the tyre wall, ripping off front bodywork and, this time, damaging the front-right suspension in the process. He and the marshals pulled off the loose bits and he hobbled off to the pits, having 3/4 of a lap to travel with one very loose wheel.
21:15 - Before he got it back to the pits, the leading car of Allan McNish, the #2 e-Tron quattro, has smashed into the wall on the outside of the first left-hand Porsche curve. It turns out he came across a red Ferrari 458 Italia mid-corner and overreacted, spinning off left, hitting the inside wall and bounding off for a hard impact with the outside right wall. The front wheels were straight on the #2 car, so once he reversed backwards, he got it to the pits relatively quickly, and was back out in 7 minutes. Gené came into the pits a couple of minutes after McNish, and left the pits just 6 minutes later, despite needing a suspension rebuild. Beat that, Edd China!
21:42 - The Safety Cars - all three of them - are off the track after McNish's accident left too much debris strewn across the high-speed left-hand corner. McNish lost a lap and a half to Benoit Tréluyer, and Marc Gené in R18 Ultra #3 is now tasked with passing and catching the Rebellion Lola-Toyota that inherited third place from him. Andre Lotterer now pilots the lead car.
(The #67 IMSA Performance Matmut Porsche 911 GT3-RSR (997) is now leading GTE-Am)
22:38 - The #97 Aston Martin Racing AMV8 Vantage determinedly catching the two Ferraris for the lead of GTE-Am is reportedly losing fluids from the rear. Still going though, so it's probably minor.
22:51 - The #40 Race performance Oreca-Judd went for a skip across the gravel at the Ford Chicane (last corner) and is now in the pits.
23:00 - One hour to go, and the teams are just trying to hang on at this point. Not that they aren't still vying for class wins. LMP1:1st) #1 Audi, 2nd) #2 Audi, 3rd) #4 Audi, 4th) #12 Rebellion Lola, 5th) #3 Audi LMP2:1st) #44 Starworks Honda, 2nd) #46 Thiriet Oreca-Nissan, 3rd) #49 Pecom Oreca-Nissan, 4th) #26 Signatech Nissan, 5th) #41 Greaves Zytek-Nissan GTE-Pro:1st) #51 AF Corse Ferrari, 2nd) #59 Luxury Racing Ferrari, 3rd) #97 AMR Aston Martin, 4th) #73 Corvette Racing ZR1, 5th) #71 AF Corse Ferrari GTE-Am:1st) #67 IMSA Porsche, 2nd) #50 Larbre Corvette, 3rd) #57 Krohn Ferrari, 4th) #79 Flying Lizard Porsche, 5th) #70 Larbre Corvette
23:30 - All teams holding station atop their respective classes, Audi #3 doesn't look to be catching the Rebellion Lola for 4th place. If only it were for 3rd...
23:41 - Porsche have lost the lead of GTE-Am to the #50 Larbe Competition Chevrolet Corvette.
23:47 - The four Audis have found eachother and are racing in formation. With 2nd place now a lap down, they're not going to play silly buggers at the last corner or anything like that. They're just going to cross the line in position order (1-2-4-3 in 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 5th places) nice and neatly.
23:56 - The #67 IMSA Performance Matmut Porsche 997 that just lost the GTE-Am lead now has a puncture. Anthony Pons is crawling through the Porsche curves and getting it to the pits so he can do the final lap, take the flag and hopefully finish 2nd in class.
23:59 - The Audis arriving two-by-two hurrah, hurrah...
23:59 - The #50 Corvette atop GTE-Pro had to pit and change driver, because Pedro Lamy had reached his time limit. Drivers are only allowed 4 hours at a time.
24:00 - Aaand that's it! Audi take yet another win at the Le Mans 24 Hours. That's 11 wins now at the most famous and prestigious motor race in the world, and their third in a row. It sucks that Toyota didn't make it to the end, especially as they showed clear race-winning pace just before it all fell apart. There's always next year, when Porsche will also be back, to protect their all-time Le Mans record of 16 wins. Rebellion Racing kept their foot in and finished ahead of one of the dominant Audis, teaming Toyota engine and Lola chassis with the son of four-time F1 World Champion Alain Prost and two other solid drivers. Lola are in administration at the moment, but surely 4th at Le Mans, part of the fastest privateer team and a key provider of race car chassis for so very long in sportscar racing (pre-dating the GT40, in fact) can't go out of business altogether.
Apart from the GTE-Am lead change I mentioned, the top 5 in each class are the same as they were an hour ago. Full results below (click to enlarge):
A summary/review will appear when I'm not busy with college work.
The Cholmondoley Pageant of Power (pronounced the Chumley Pajent of POWARR) is where all things weird, wonderful and indeed powerful meetup in The North to smoke brown ale using mahogany pipes specially attached to beards using vintage-grade motor oil. Remember the Brutus that raced a pre-war Bentley on TopGear last series? Yeah, cars like that. Why doesn't it get more coverage again?
At any rate, making an appearance at the Pageant this weekend is the... vehicle you see here. It's the 1910 Edison-Puton Monowheel, featuring a motorcycle frame and a 150cc De Dion engine inside a giant wheel. It looks a little awkward to drive, what with there being a huge wheel hub in your way the entire time, and as it has to be "transported" from the Auto & Technik Museum in Sinsheim, Germany, chances are it either doesn't run any more or is too delicate to just fire up when you feel like it. Gyroscopic balancers stop you mimicking a tired-out hamster in a fast-moving wheel and subsequently turn this from elaborate killing machine into wonderfully odd-looking solution to personal mobility.
As you can see in this picture of it at the museum being piloted by a philosophical-looking youth wearing far too much make-up, the wheel is in fact made of wood, with a very narrow band of rubber for touching the road sitting on a raised ring of wood. That means no suspension travel at all, in a vehicle that's basically a giant wheel with steel tubes and a hard saddle for you to sit on. Comfort must not have been a word in 1910 Paris's vocabulary. It works by the engine directly propelling the outer loop (i.e. the wooden bit), and it stays upright using the same principle as a bicycle. Anchored by the engine and driver, the faster you go, the more stable it is. Alas, slowing and turning are not so pleasant, as it obviously gets harder to use as you slow down and doesn't have a steering wheel, so to speak.
As such, it makes far more sense in several ways to have two small wheels, so the monowheel is merely an attention-grabber, and an awesome one at that. I still have hope that they'll catch on, though. Otherwise, why would General Grievous have one in the future? Because he's a hipster who hates hover bikes? Now you're just being silly...
There's really not much more to say about it, but I just want you to know that it exists. Because it's awesome. Also, if you look, all the mechanisms for making a monowheel move are in the lower third of the wheel. Maybe if someone scaled the whole thing down, we could have ring-like "hubless wheels" like you get on cars in sci-fi movies? That would be pretty cool. In fact, I'm going to design it myself and make squillions of monies selling it to car companies, like SAAB, for instance, who are saved yet again.
Aston Martin has been rehashing the DB9 for long enough now. The DBS from Casino Royale is essentially a Need-For-Speed DB9. The AM Rapide concept was essentially a DB9 with four doors and a chess board in the boot, and the Rapide production car that followed was only set apart by being longer and having different headlights. AM then put those headlights and a new front bumper on a lightly tuned DB9 to make the new Virage. The smaller AMV8 was mainly different in its proportions (oh, and having four fewer cylinders), having basically the same interior as all the above cars. Well it's time to move on. Except that that must be difficult. How on Earth do you follow the DB9? It essentially looks (and sounds) perfect.
Well, start with the 2004 shape and modernise it. That's what they did when they came to Concourso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este - which in plain English is the poshest motor show in the world - with the One-77 two years ago, and now again with the AM310, which looks (and sounds) like this:
27/5/12, 3:41, 283834 views (when posted)
So they've added a lot more styling to it. This is dangerous, and sure enough the wavy front splitter that makes the AM310 looks like it's carrying Pringles in its mouth is not to my liking. In bright red with those wheels it looks slightly overdone. However, in the video up top, where it's a much more elegant colour and features skinnier spokes and a toned-down splitter, it looks a lot better. Below are some spy photos of what will apparently be a new Vanquish to replace the DBS.
As you can see, the Rapide/Virage headlights remain, as does the overall profile, but the waistline is now clearly defined by a flowing crease, a bit like on the Audi A5 or, more relevantly, the One-77. You can see the beginnings of the front splitter and where they've covered off the edges of the grille and windows, as they are slightly different from before. They didn't cover up the lower and taller side vent though, or the new wheels (although actually that would probably be impractical).
This side crease joins up with a very Lotus-Evora-like rear spoiler, now pointed up at a sharper angle for downforce, and a curvaceous derrière. Silver duct tape covers up the new full-width hole running underneath said spoiler. The tail lights are a more sophisticated shape, but are still a stretched half-oval of LEDs. They don't stretch as far towards the centre as they did previously, which makes it look a little wider. So yes, darling, your bottom does look a little big in these tail lights.
Little is known at this point about the mechanicals of the Vanquish, but expect it to be based on the DB9 to some degree. Mercifully, it still has a V12. What we do know is that it's being tested at......
...The Nürburgring!
James May will not be best pleased about this...
UPDATE:More recent spy shots of it at the 'Ring see it swap silver for gold. Gaudy. The splitter will become black of carbon fibre, but will probably still look overdone. WCF say it'll be on an updated version of the current platform with a 6-litre V12 making 550bhp and an 8-speed ZF auto.
So Euro 2012 has gripped the televisions of homes and pubs alike. England drew 1-1 with France recently, so as a deliberately coincidental post, I've decided to do a short profile on a car that shows how England and France are level in another way: our love of hot hatches. You see, they love making them (205 GTi, Renault 5 Turbo, AX GT, DS3 Racing, Clio 200, Megane 250, 306 GTi-6, etc.) and we in Britain love buying them. In fact, in 2005, the UK was buying 50% of all Renaultsport products, and so the makers of arguably the greatest hot hatches of modern times rewarded us with a UK-only special limited edition of the Clio 182: the Trophy. Like a Cup, but more expensive, shinier and better. The Trophy is set apart from the 182 Cup (itself a lighter, stiffer version of the Rneaultsport Clio 182) by a bigger Clio V6-style rear spoiler, different Recaro sports seats that are lower and improve the driving position and interior space, race-spec dampers with their own oil reservoir, 10mm less ride height and stiffer springs (by 20% up front and 15% out back). These upgrades better control the 182bhp 2.0-litre Inline-4 when it gets going, giving the Trophy more grip and better chassis control, according to reviewers. You even get a little numbered plaque like in a Clio Williams. All this comes together to make one of the most highly-rated hot hatches ever made, with racing experience and technology combining with light weight and a manic, high-revving engine that reached peak power at 6500rpm and went on to 7250rpm before you change gear manually. In fact, when it landed seven years ago, it beat the likes of the then-new Lamborghini Gallardo to evo magazine's Performance Car Of The Year award.
They're cheap, too. Brand new, they were about £15,500 (£1700 more than the Cup), but now they're about £5000, whereas non-Trophy 182s are dipping as low as £2000. This is largely because Renault only made 550 of them - with only 50 of them going outside of the UK, all to Switzerland. Find one that's been maintained properly and reliability will outstrip interior build quality, which isn't great. There's a full buyer's guide here for all that stuff though. The point is that this car was the only hat hatch of its time from the old school. It was light, simple, precise, chuckable and a little rough. Handbuilt in the old Alpine sports car factory, nothing contemporary could match the 172/182 for 205 GTi-style visceral entertainment. It didn't understeer like you might expect a powerful FWD car to do, because it borrowed technology and much expertise from the Clio Cup racing cars that race during BTCC weekends. In fact, you could even take this little French hatchback on track days and not feel embarrassed. In many ways the Trophy run-out special is the Carrera RS 2.7 of Renault Clios. And now you can buy into all that for a mere £5000. Oh yeah, and an insurance group of 17. I always forget that part...
Speedline alloys finished in anthracite paint, Capsicum Red paint and a little silver 'Trophy' badge ID the ultimate FF Clio.
Twin exhausts run through the spare wheel well. Did you really need a spare wheel anyway?
I haven't driven one, but this guy has. He loved it to bits. See? England and France can get along after all. It just takes some hot hatch wizards turning a student's car into a semi-Touring Car.
The above video is double world champ Sebastian Vettel on an American talk show hosted by an old bloke trying desperately to be funny. That's not the interesting bit of this article by any means, but in the interview - which includes an F-bomb and the mentioning of "balls" - David Letterman asks him several times at once to explain Formula 1's KERS and DRS gadgets, and makes it needlessly complicated. So, just in case you're new to the sport and/or haven't quite worked it out yet, I'm going to explain it in a way that hopefully is not complicated, because really, they're not that hard to explain. You just have to be given half a chance before some shouty pensioner butts in yet again...
Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) KERS is Formula 1's hybrid system, and their first attempt to make it easier to overtake in cars with so much downforce that many corners only really have one line and don't require significant deceleration. It works in two phases, the first of which is essentially the same as "Regenerative Braking", like you get on a pious hybrid road car. Kinetic energy that would otherwise be wasted during braking is "harvested" by a Special Thing on the rear axle, which transmits the energy into a battery - or a flywheel - as electricity. On electric cars, this is/would be a particularly useful addition. Need a sip of extra juice? Slam the brakes on at high speed. The insurance companies will understand...
Once you've topped up the battery, the energy is there to be used as an 80bhp (60kW) power boost. Each lap, you're entitled to 6.7 seconds of boost. When you cross the line, you're allowed another 6.7 seconds' worth. Commentators sometimes say that the battery graphic shows the KERS "recharging" as they cross the line, but of course it's actually harvesting electricity every time you brake, regardless of how much you've used or got left - until it reaches the maximum storage capacity of 400kJ of energy - and the graphic actually just shows how much of the allowed amount they've got left, which resets as they cross the line.
So it saves up energy to give you a momentary-but-noticeable power boost. Use it coming out of corners rather than halfway down the straight for maximum effect. Simple.
Drag Reduction System (DRS) As the video shows, DRS can get more complicated the more you explain it, so to put its general purpose simply, I'll do it Q&A-style:
What's The Point? Wings on an open-wheel car create a lot of downforce, giving extra grip and thus allowing higher speed in corners, but they also create lots of drag, which is basically air resistance. That affects the straight-line speed and lowers the top speed. Also, the air coming off the car is very turbulent, so F1 cars can't follow each other closely, because while slipstreaming (like in NASCAR) does work up to a point, when they get to a certain distance to the car ahead, the turbulent air coming off the back of an F1 car stops them drawing in any closer. DRS solves this by "stalling" the rear wing.
How Does It Work? In a DRS Zone, the top part of the rear wing is raised up, stopping it from making any downforce, and minimizing drag. This adds about 10-15mph of top speed (depending on how long you use it for and how long your 7th [highest] gear ratio is), allowing you to catch up to and draw alongside the car ahead. This hopefully puts you in a prime position to pass the other car at the next corner. The difference in acceleration is noticeable when it's activated, and in contrast to KERS, it works best at high speed (when much more air is hitting the car).
How Do They Use It? Currently, in practice and qualifying sessions, you can use it whenever you want (i.e. all the straights and some very easy/mild flat-out corners), but in the actual race, you have to be less than a second behind the car in front when you go over the DRS "Detection Line" on the track. When this happens, you're entitled to activate the system using a button or switch once you go over the "Activation Line". The wing flap closes automatically when you brake (unless it fails, like Michael Schumacher's did during the Canadian Grand Prix this year thanks to a hydraulics issue). DRS is allowed when it's dry, and after lap 3 during Grands Prix. If it was allowed on the first lap, 23 out of 24 cars would use it and the whole thing would be pointless, and royally piss off the race leader. If it was allowed in the wet, everyone would spin out. You can't use DRS in corners because cutting out drag also cuts out rear downforce, meaning the car would just spin out backwards as soon as you turned in.
Visual Explanation
Some argue that these overtaking devices - particularly DRS - has made the racing "artificial". Sure, there were teething problems, and the idea of a "Double-DRS Zone", where there are two consecutive activation points one, did lead to two cars swapping places and then swapping back again at circuits like Abu Dhabi, which was annoying, but the major pro is that it allows faster cars to get past slower cars without being held up for lap after lap. For example, at the 2010 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Fernando Alonso came out of the pits behind Vitaly Petrov, and was stuck behind him from then on, allowing Sebastian Vettel to win on points and secure his first Formula One World Driver's Championship. If DRS had existed in the sport back then, then Fernando would've got past Petrov in one lap and could very well have got to a championship-winning position and secured his third WDC. The FIA have learned a lot from last year, and aim to set it at each track so that you have enough space to set yourself up for a pass, but not complete the entire manoeuvre before you even brake, which would arguably be "artificial" as you've just breezed past someone by pressing a button.
So there it is. Was that so hard? I hope not. Now you can tell your friends and watch their faces... get bored.
Why is post #201 about the Ferrari F40? Because 1) It goes 201mph, 2) it's awesome, and 3) if you somehow haven't heard of it or don't know all about it, you desperately need educating. The last road car that Enzo Ferrari was alive to see, one of only two turbocharged Ferrari road cars ever (to reflect the Formula 1 engines of the time - maybe there'll be a turbo Ferrari after 2014?) and the first road car ever to break the fabled 200mph barrier, the Ferrari F40 is a landmark in supercar history, still considered by some to be the greatest supercar ever made. That should be reason enough, I reckon. In 1984, Enzo Ferrari wanted to compete in Group B (a circuit series rather than Group B rallying) and beat the Porsche 959/961, but after making an 'Evoluzione' version of his then-halo car, the 288 GTO, the FIA decided to kill off the formula, leaving him with five new racing cars that had nothing to race in. So, he decided to take on the 959 road car instead, as well as the Lamborghini Countach. He knew the end of his days was drawing near, and it was approaching the company's 40th anniversary, so it had to be special. The 2.8-litre Twin-Turbo V8 was enlarged to 2.9 litres (2936cc to be precise), and was dropped inside an entirely new body designed with a strong focus on aerodynamics and featuring panels made of Kevlar, carbon fibre and aluminium.
The result was a lightweight car (~1100kg) punching out 470bhp and 426lb/ft of torque thanks to IHI turbochargers making 16psi of boost... and terrible turbo lag. Turbo lag is caused when the exhaust gases aren't flowing through the turbo fast enough, so it isn't compressing and forcing air back in at full capacity. When it does all start working properly, it happens very suddenly as the turbo springs into life. Needless to say, many black lines were left on the roads in Modena at the hands of the F40 - so called because it was launched in conjunction with Ferrari's 40th anniversary in 1987. The car became a legend, a poster child for boys in the '80s who didn't already have a Countach poster and a fitting car for its internal purpose of celebrating Enzo Ferrari and his amazing car company.
Fighting the technological tour de force of the Porsche 959 with light weight and racing technology/attitudes, the F40 could go from 0-60 in as little as 3.8 seconds, which is still supercar-fast today, as is a 0-100mph time of 7.6 seconds and 0-120mph (200km/h) in just 11 seconds. While the heavier Porsche could only manage 198mph, the F40 broke a world record and became the fastest road car in the world, achieving a top speed of 201mph. Not 200, 201. Very Italian. The aerodynamic body that got it there wasn't traditionally stylish (sound familiar?), but the exceptionally low nose, NACA ducts, numerous louvres and the pram-handle rear wing have become an iconic shape from the '80s and early '90s that the rounder F50 couldn't quite beat when it appeared 10 years later with a V12 and a body that now looks dated, even compared to the older F40. The three exhausts were an interesting touch - the outer two were connected to four cylinders each, while the smaller middle one was a wastegate for the turbos. All told, 1315 were produced from 1987-1992, all in red. The lively handling means that sadly, 25 years later, not all of them survive. Some were raced, after being modified into "LM" or "Competizione" versions, but never had massive success. Here's something for you to read about one that was for sale (opens in another tab).
The great ambassador for supercars, TopGear, adores the F40, calling it the greatest supercar ever made. As such, it's appeared frequently on the main show, and a few times besides in Jeremy Clarkson's numerous videos/DVDs. Here are some clips:
Happy Jeremy - 1/11/09, 3:12, 1,249,766 views (when posted)
Head-To-Head With the Porsche 959 - 20/7/11, 7:56, 550631 views (when posted)
[There should be a clip where he compares the supercars of 2004 (F60, Zonda S, Carrera GT) to supercars of the '80s, but very annoyingly, it's not on YouTube]
OK, so you get the idea. Here are a few pictures to go with it, of my second F40 in GT5, which is painted dark blue and looks surprisingly good. Click to embiggen.
Some wallpaper for you
Weirdly, the F40 had both fixed and pop-up headlights.
Pop-up headlights are very '80s, though, so it looks pretty cool, and suitably "Look at me" for a turbocharged Ferrari.
This car is child-friendly, in that there are many holes and grilles for you to peer through in order to see the oily bits that make the thunder.
This is what 470bhp (478PS) looked like in 1992.
And so there it is. Regular posts to follow soon-ish.
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