Month: March 2008

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Chevrolet Nissan Porsche Targa Tasmania

Three icons to make world debut at Targa Tasmania

The iconic nameplates of Porsche GT2, Nissan GT-R and Corvette Z06 will all make their worldwide tarmac rally debuts at the 2008 Targa Tasmania, held from 15-20 April. The newly launched R35 Nissan GT-R, to be driven by Tony Alford, is one of the most keenly anticipated new cars in recent years and Australia is very lucky to be having the car running in such a high profile local event.

The Corvette will be driven by Neil and Daniel Ford, and there will also be a second Z06 to be used as a support vehicle. I wonder how many spare parts will be removed from that car before the event is over!

The other big name, the Porsche GT2, will see Targa Porsche stalwarts Jim Richards and Barry Oliver in the cockpit. Expect this experienced team to be fighting for outright honours. The GT2 and GT-R will most probably be duelling in this event just as they have been trading Nürburgring Nordschleife lap times. Just another interesting sidenote to this year’s Targa.

Stay tuned for some detailed reports on the event from AUSmotive, more on that later.

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Top Gear

TopGear t-shirts

TopGear t-shirts

If you’re not a fan of the BBC’s TopGear, then you should be. To show that you are, get yourself one of the great official t-shirts available from Amber Promotions. I have three t-shirts from their range and they are well made and of a very high quality. Delivery to Australia is no problem and if you can get a group of mates together bulk ordering and discounts may be available as well. I dealt with Doug at Amber Promotions when coordinating the purchase of around 25 shirts in 2006 and he was excellent to deal with. If you’re keen on some of these shirts, shoot Doug an email and tell him Liam from Australia sent you.

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Formula 1

David Coulthard’s Melbourne Grand Prix outburst

The 2008 Melbourne Grand Prix was a bit of a procession with Lewis Hamilton sweeping all before him. One highlight, for those enjoying the view from their couch, was David Coulthard’s outburst towards Felipe Massa after the two collided, forcing Coulthard to retire from the race. DC’s spray was captured live by ITV, and here it is for your viewing pleasure (language warning applies).

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Fifth Gear

Fifth Gear – Series 13, Episode 8

Fifth Gear 13x08Episode eight rolled off Fifth Gear‘s production line last night. Starting off at Anglesea, as usual, was another pointless comparison, as usual. This week saw a Porsche Cayenne GTS against a BMW X5 4.8 V8. And just in case you want to know which SUV is quickest around the track, which of course you do, then get the Porsche.

Quite why the producers didn’t set Vicki on the track with the new Honda S2000 GT and Nissan 350Z GT is anyone’s guess. Actually, it was probably a good call as it was as plain as day that we’d be told the S2000 would make the best accessory du jour for all high street hairdressers.

Chemmy Alcott can ski better than she can drive. And at least when she is skiing she’s not making an arse of herself.

Citroen have bottled it and tried to make a German C5, so expect that to sell as well as the outgoing French one, even if Tom reckons it’s a quantum leap forward.

Jonny and Tiff actually do a damn good job of making NASCAR seem interesting with their Daytona 500 report. If only the cars turned right from time to time.

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MINI Challenge

R56 MINI Challenge makes worldwide racing debut in Australia

This weekend saw the world racing debut of the new R56 MINI Challenge cars. The 2008 Australian series kicked off at Sydney’s Eastern Creek and Neil McFadyen from the M3 Motorsports team has taken the round win. McFadyen claimed the chequered flag in Race 1 and Race 3, with Race 2 being won by Grant Denyer. The first clip above is the intro segment from the TV coverage, broadcast just before Race 3 went to air.

See below for clips of the race.

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Fifth Gear

Fifth Gear – Series 13, Episode 7

Fifth Gear 13x07The seventh episode of Fifth Gear‘s thirteenth series aired in the UK recently. Crumbs, this latest installment really was scraping the bottom of the barrel. As usual, Vicki kicked off the episode by punting a couple of cars around Anglesea, this week’s thrashings were the Vauxhall Corsa SRi and Ford Fiesta ST. Is it ever bloody dry at that track?! And they really need to ditch that damn it’s new but is it any good segment, or at least, spunk it up a bit with some moderately interesting cars.

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