Month: January 2009

Categories
McLaren News

Dream car sells for dream price

McLaren F1 sells at auction for £2.5M

Bit of a catch up post this one. Last October this 1997 McLaren F1 sold at auction in London for £2.5M (AU$5.4M). The sale price was a new record for a McLaren F1 and almost double the estimated sale price. Given the doom and gloom that has followed since you’d reckon the result should remain a record for quite some time.

I’m sure I’m not alone in holding the Macca F1 up as one of the greatest cars ever made. When the car was released I was seduced by its looks, its performance and its aura. Little has changed in the decade and a half since. The F1 still has awe inspiring performance that few cars can match.

I was holding off on posting this article on the off chance my wife had bought it for me for Christmas. Maybe the car has been held up in customs?

Source: autoblog and RM Auctions

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Categories
MINI

Beds are burning

MINI Cooper S convertible catches fire in western Sydney

Ever wondered what happens if you drive your car over a mattress and just keep on driving? Well, wonder no more, as a thoughtful MINI Cooper S Cabrio owner has done the experiment for you.

As you can see from the pictures the result is not pretty (there’s two more pics after the jump). The owner had not long collected the car from a western Sydney dealer when she reportedly drove over a mattress of some description. Not realising something was wrong she kept on motoring. Soon enough, though, there was a distinct smell of smoke. The driver pulled to the side of the road and within minutes her new car was in flames and just as quickly it was a smouldering wreck.

An eyewitness speaking to ninemsn said, “She was agitated, bewildered and very, very emotional. Everyone thought someone was dead. She was pretty lucky. I told her she should go buy a lottery ticket.”

Source: ninemsn and MINI2.com

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Categories
Formula 1

Donington Park revival gets the rubber stamp

Donington Park

You may remember news from last July that Silverstone is to be stripped of its Formula One rights after the 2009 British Grand Prix. From 2010 the race is set to be held at Donington Park, after a new 10-year deal was struck with Bernie Ecclestone. However, the North West Leicestershire complex needs a radical revamp to bring it up to modern day requirements. The last Grand Prix held at the circuit was in 1993, won on a rain soaked afternoon by Brazilian legend Ayrton Senna in a McLaren.

The rubber stamp for the new works has just been granted and the £100M (AU$215M) project is about to begin. There are just 17 months to go until the 2010 British Grand Prix.

Owner of Donington Park, Simon Gillett, is raring to go, “It starts in earnest now, and time to start focusing on 2010 and delivering the best grand prix in the world. That is what I’ve always said we would deliver, and that is what we are going to do.”

Interestingly, part of the deal with Gillett and his local district council is to create a sucessful traffic management plan to allow for easy access for fans. The current site is not well served by public transport and this is something that will need to be resolved. If Gillett fails to appease the council they have the power to impose an injunction thereby stopping the race.

Gillett plans to implement various park’n’ride initiatives in the Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire areas to bring racegoers to Donington Park. He will also limit the amount of on site parking available.

As with most decisions made in F1 these days there seems to be a fair amount of backroom politics going on, so it will be interesting to see how smoothly this development runs over the next 17 months.

Source: TimesOnline

Categories
Motorsports News Nissan

Nissan GT-R to lead touring cars, again

R35 Nissan GT-R

The good old days of the Nissan GT-R leading the best Australian touring cars in the land are coming back. The GT-R will be leading the way for the V8 Supercar field during 2009 after signing on to fill the vacant Safety Car position following the departure of the Chrysler 300C.

I know what you’re thinking, and no, the GT-R probably won’t be quicker than the purpose built racing Falcadores. That said, it’d be kinda fun if we were given a chance to see just how close a $150K Nissan would go against cars from the premier Australian racing category.

Rumours that Jim Richards will be driving the Safety Car in 2009 remain unconfirmed (more info after the jump).

Source: CarAdvice

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Categories
News Rolls-Royce

High Rollers raise stakes

Rolls-Royce - Spirit of Ecstacy

Rolls-Royce is bucking the trend of financial disaster in this carpocalypse now era. Yesterday, the Goodwood based company proudly announced a 20 per cent growth in sales during 2008. Last year 1212 Rollers found new homes, up from 1010 in 2007. That marks their fifth consecutive year of increasing sales.

“This is a tremendous result and particularly gratifying considering the challenging economic environment manufacturers faced in the second half of 2008,” said Tom Purves, Chief Executive Officer, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. “Once again much of this success lies with the highly skilled and dedicated workforce that we have at Goodwood”.

Given the gravity of the financial meltdown in the United States some may be surprised to learn that almost 40 per cent of Rolls-Royce deliveries headed Stateside. Northern Europe and the Middle East also saw big spikes on 2007 figures, up 95% and 48% respectively. Even Australia did its part in boosting BMW’s balance sheet in the RR column, with sales also growing here.

It will come as no surprise that the most successful Rolls-Royce dealer worldwide is in Abu Dhabi. While Beijing, Beverly Hills, Dubai and London rounded out the top five.

Can sales continue to grow for a sixth consecutive year? I can’t imagine the chaps at Goodwood are banking on that. However, preparations are underway for the introduction of a brand new model series, currently named RR4, due later this year (design sketch images below).

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Categories
Ferrari News

Cristiano Ronaldo’s fortunes take a dive

Cristiano Ronaldo is a prat

Cristiano Ronaldo. He earns eleventy squillion dollars a minute, has a stable of auto exotica that would make any captain of industry blush and has the world’s best footballers at his mercy. But plenty of people say he is a prat, and worse, they say he is a filthy diving cheat. If you happen to think that is the case, then you’re probably indulging in a touch of schadenfreude and relishing this chance to get one up on a guy who seems to think he can do no wrong. For he has done wrong, very wrong, by writing off his new Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano in a Manchester tunnel. (What is it about these cars?)

Of course, like any good footballer it wasn’t his fault and he is protesting his innocence to the ref by claiming there was oil on the road that caused him to lose control.

Ronaldo was on his way to a training session for Manchester United when the crash took place. He was uninjured in the incident and given a lift to United’s training ground by teammate Edwin Van der Sar who was following Ronaldo as he put the Ferrari into the wall. Apparently Ronaldo was all smiles as he drove home in his Bentley Continental GTC.

I think those people could be right (looks like they read guardian.co.uk).

Source: Telegraph.co.uk

Categories
Motorsports News

Jacques Villeneuve wanted by Supercheap Racing

Supercheap Auto Racing chase Jacques Villeneuve

Melbourne’s Herald-Sun newspaper is reporting that Supercheap Auto Racing is chasing 1997 F1 World Champion Jacques Villeneuve to fill the seat left vacant by Paul Morris.

Morris is the team principal of Supercheap Racing and he thinks the Villeneuve deal might just come off, “This is real. Absolutely. He is pretty keen to do it,” Morris said.

“It would be the full season. Not just one race. If we can make a bit of a buzz about it then I think it can definitely happen.

“We would have to write about $2 million in sponsorship so we could run the car and pay him to drive.”

Paul Morris knows ex-Aussie Barry Green, a key member of Villeneuve’s management team, and the topic of Villeneuve in a V8 Supercar came up midway through 2008. The newspaper report claims Villeneuve was offered a drive at last year’s Bathurst enduro race but time commitments saw it fall through.

However, Morris, who is travelling to the United States next week, is keen to talk to Green again to see if a deal to bring Villeneuve to Australia can be worked out. “The next step would be to get him out here to drive the car,” he said.

Watch this space. If Villeneuve was to race in the V8 Supercar category he would certainly attract a broader motorsport audience to the series.

Source: Herald-Sun (Thanks to Chris for the tip.)

Update 10 January: There’s some great attention seeking quotes HERE from Paul Morris—he was just getting started when he said this, “We need people in there who have got profile. The current crop of drivers are more worried about where their sunglasses are sitting on top of their hat; they are all as boring as bat shit and not many of them have any real personality.”

Categories
Video

Armygeddon – They don’t mention this in the ads

Summernats 22 has come and gone and our fair city of Canberra has returned to normal. One of the star attractions, I’m told, was Armygeddon, and here it is in action on the burnout pad.

Armygeddon is a heavily modified six-wheel drive Land Rover powered by a 7-litre supercharged Chevy V8. The Army chaps claim it is good for 700bhp. That’s a lot of ponies, so they’re using 3 modified Nissan Patrol axles, with 10.5 inch diffs to get the power to the ground. Armygeddon was built by a combination of army and civilian trades and the clever chaps have wired up those three diffs so the car can do burnouts using any combination of the six wheels. That’s kind of cool. Well, if you’re into that sort of stuff.

When on show the six-wheeler has 144 inches of chrome wheels (that’s 6 x 24″) running 1890mm tyres (6 x 315mm), although when burning rubber the 24s are replaced by more modest 15 inch steelies.

Speaking to Army—The Soldiers’ Newspaper CA Lt-Gen Peter Leahy said Armygeddon was an amazing piece of machinery, “Anyone can do a normal burnout, but this vehicle can do what others can only dream about. Driving any wheel, or wheels, while holding the others still.

“I am very proud to say it is one of the Army’s newest and coolest recruiting tools,” he said.

Click below for another clip with more detail on Armygeddon.

Source: RiotACT and The Army newspaper

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Categories
Nissan

Nissan GT-R Spec V details announced

Nissan GT-R SpecV

Details of Nissan’s GT-R Spec V were released today, as reported on AUSmotive in early December. Full marks to the chaps who originally broke that story, even their predicted date for today’s announcement was bang on!

While some details have been confirmed today, nothing official has been mentioned on increased power figures.

The modifications made to the Spec V that can be confirmed are, the addition of plenty of carbon fibre bits—including leather covered Recaro bucket seats, lightweight 20″ forged aluminium wheels, carbon brakes and, of course, a titanium coated exhaust. Until we get confirmation otherwise, we have to run with the 9kW increase mentioned in December’s leak. The increased power will be accessible from a boost control device, which increases boost for greater torque at mid-high revs. Interestingly, the press blurb doesn’t actually say this makes the car faster, but rather “a more powerful feeling of acceleration”.

To aid the weight loss program the rear seats have been removed. Erm, so why didn’t they lose the massive rear speakers too?

The GT-R Spec V is available in the usual GT-R colours, but also gets a unique hero colour called Ultimate Black Opal, as featured in the bulk of these pics.

At this stage the GT-R Spec V is only scheduled for Japanese sale, so that rules Australia out obviously. Japanese buyers will have to visit one of seven specially selected dealers in February to get their hands on a ‘V’. When they get there they’ll need to shell out a lazy Â¥15,750,000. On today’s exchange rates that’s about AU$242,00—remember the regular GT-R, available in Australia in two specifications, starts at AU$148,800 or AU$152,800 for the GT-R Premium.

I wonder how long we have to wait until Nissan torments Porsche by revealing GT-R Spec V’s best time around the Nürburgring Nordschleife.

Extensive image gallery (click on each pic to load a 2000px super image) and Nissan Australia press release after the jump.

Update: Make sure you check out AUSringers for this video of the Spec V in full flight around the Nürburgring.

Update 9 February: You can also access information about the Spec V from Nissan Global. If your Japanese is up to scratch, why not go directly to the GT-R Spec V page on the Nissan Japan website.

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Categories
Porsche

Here comes another one, just like the other one

Der Neue Porsche 911 GT3

Der neue Porsche 911 GT3 RS has been spotted in the French Alps. Sure, it looks just like the old model, but those zany Zuffenhausen engineers sure know what they are doing when it comes to building a track focused road car.

The 3.6-ltre flat six, donated from the regular GT3, will get some loving to see it has a few more ponies under the bonnet, erm boot, and should bring the car’s 0-100 sprint time to a mere 4.2 seconds. They say v-max will be a comfortable 310km/h.

Just like the last model there will be a plastic rear window, plenty of carbon fibre bits and factory built roll cage. A splash of colour will be thrown around with some retro stickers along the bottom sill, no doubt, and some matching paint will find its way to the wheels and wing mirrors.

Sure, the GT3 RS is no HSV, I mean it doesn’t even have enough cylinders for that, but still … I just want one!

Source: Wheels24.co.za

Categories
Bentley

Bentley Continental GTC Speed

Bentley Continental GTC Speed

The Continental GTC was first released in 2006, now Bentley has given things a bit of an extra nudge by releasing details and images of the GTC Speed. Power output of the 6-litre twin turbo W12 is now a mammoth 447kW (600bhp). It is Bentley’s most powerful convertible ever and commenting on the GTC Speed’s character, Dr Ulrich Eichhorn, Member of the Board, Engineering, said “The GTC Speed offers supercar performance, superb refinement, comfort and unrivalled craftsmanship all in one car. It perfectly evokes the spirit of the original Bentley ‘Speed Model’ of the 1920s.”

With the roof up Bentley claims the GTC Speed can top 200mph (322km/h), although, in order to keep sir’s toupé in place the top speed is more sedate 195mph (312km/h) when the roof has been lowered. The 0-100 dash is over and done with in just 4.5 seconds, which is very bloody quick it has to be said.

The Continental Coupé Speed, released in 2007, has become the highest selling Continental model and Bentley expects two in three GTC models sold will be a Speed variant.

Just released in the UK, the GTC Speed retails for £145,000 (AU$300,000). Ouch. What financial crisis!

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Categories
Audi

Audi A1 Sportback image gallery

Audi A1 Sportback Concept

The Audi A1 Sportback Concept was first revealed at the Paris Motor Show last October. Here, in all its teutonic glory is an image gallery of the car featuring 23 images, all of which can be viewed as 2000px super images by clicking on a picture to load the larger version. The styling and execution of the A1 Sportback pure Audi and the result is simply stunning.

Ths show car features a hybrid drive 1.4 TFSI which uses a separate electric engine to supplement power to the tune of an extra 20kW and, more impressively, 150Nm of torque during acceleration. Or the electric power can be used to drive the car on its own for a limited range of around 100km. The use of the supplementary electric engine, in copnjunction with energy regenration technology, brings total fuel consumption down to 3.9 litres per 100km and emissions are a very low 92g/km.

The infotainment and mulitmedia capabilities of the car can be viewed through the dash display and are accessible via the steering wheel controls. The press blurb says it best really, “As well as the virtual, large circular dial of the analog speedometer, which is always visible on the right-hand side of the instrument cluster, numerous other displays can be called up on request, and can be selected via control buttons on the steering wheel. These include infotainment, classic navigation by pictogram or map, a rev counter, information on how to drive as efficiently as possible and a current status report on the hybrid drive.”

More information and images after the jump.

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