Month: November 2008

Categories
Carmageddon GM Holden News

Holden to slash production by 15,000 vehicles

Holden's Elizabeth manufacturing plant - press shop

The Global Financial Crisis is biting hard on the home front, with news Holden will start 2009 with a series of production line closures from January through to March. This will affect as many as 3,400 workers, although they will still be eligible to claim a wage equivalent to four and a half days work during their down time. The closures amount to around 15,000 less vehicles being produced.

At this stage, Holden’s top brass are saying no permanent retrenchments are on the horizon. In tough times like this, and with parent company GM in all sorts of financial bother, I’m sure these claims mean little to GM’s Australian workers. With sales of the traditional Aussie big 6 cylinder falling, one has to wonder just how much longer our car industry will remain viable?

More information, audio and video on this story can be accessed from ABC Online.

Categories
BMW News Volkswagen

Golden Steering Wheel Awards for BMW and Volkswagen

Golf VI wins Golden Steering Wheel Award

The BMW 1 Series Coupé and the Volkswagen Golf VI have both joined Audi’s Q5 in the Golden Steering Wheel winners circle. The Golden Steering Wheel Awards, run by German newspaper Bild am Sonntag, were founded by Axel Springer 33 years ago and have been awarded every year since.

An expert jury from Bild am Sonntag honoured the best new releases of the year, among them the 6th generation Golf, for a “superior win in the compact class”.

“The win of four categories confirms that the whole Group took the right course. We offer an incomparable spectrum of models and an enormous variation of design and technology. We make the perfect cars for everyone”, says Prof. Martin Winterkorn, chairman of the Board of management at Volkswagen AG.

BMW’s result was based on a readers’ poll in which the 1 Series Coupé two-door received 26.4 per cent of a total of the 220,000 plus votes cast. Australian buyers have also been enamoured with the two-door BMW coupé since it went on sale in May, with over 500 customer deliveries.

A BMW TV commercial likewise won first prize in the 2008 Golden Steering Wheel. The ad, for the Night Vision system on the 5 Series, can be seen below in a clip from BMW-web.tv, which also includes a brief interview with Ian Robertson, Board Member for Sales and Marketing.

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Honda Motorsports News

Honda wants to try Schu on the other foot

Michael SchumacherHonda have reportedly offered seven-time F1 World Champion Michael Schumacher a factory backed seat in the 2009 World Superbike Championship. Schumacher has been riding a Honda in the German IDM Superbike series and, according to comments by Honda Racing’s Carlo Fiorani, if Schu wants the SBK gig, it is his for the taking. Quoted in Gazzetta dello Sport, Fiorani said, “For the moment he has not asked us to race in the 2009 world championship. But if he wants to, there is a way for him (to do it). All he has to do is ask us.”

Currently, John Surtees is the only man to win both a Formula 1 and motorcycle world championship.

Source: autosport via autoblog

Categories
Top Gear

Top Gear – Series 12, Episode 3

Top Gear - Series 12, Episode 3

A bit of a meat and veg episode of Top Gear this week. Not particularly outstanding, but thoroughly enjoyable all the same. The James May/Mika Hakkinen segment was the highlight for me. Getting an insight into Finnish driving culture was quite interesting—some tips for Australian authorities there, no doubt. Top Gear is often described as a dream job and James May has now had personal tuition from Sir Jackie Stewart and Mika Hakkinen. Nice work, if you can get it.

Richard introduced us to Toyota’s i-REAL. A funky wheelchair-like contraption. Not sure if it will take over the world like Toyota reckon, but we’ll see.

The news segments in Series 12 have really picked up and, even if scripted more than it may look, they are running along very smoothly with great interaction and humour between the cast. Mark Wahlberg was the guest, a bit cheeky, and very aggressive on the track.

Then, the challenge, a homemade Evo. The guys had to take an unknown donor car and try to make it as quick as an Evo X around the test track (1:28.2). The car? A Renault Avantime. A curious thing. Odd, it has to be said, but with a 3.0 V6 maybe it had the legs?

Categories
Top Gear Australia

Top Gear Australia – Series 1, Episode 8

Top Gear Australia - Series 1, Episode 8

The final episode of Top Gear Australia Series 1 has just gone to air. Tonight’s episode started with a great concept, ‘The Ultimate Drive’. Pick your ideal car, and add some truly great driving roads. The lads headed to Tasmania, including a closed road run on a Targa Tasmania special stage. Charlie in a Porsche 911 Turbo, Warren behind the wheel of an Aston Martin DB9, and, finally, Steve in a Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera. The footage was good enough, the cars were fantastic, but… it was an opportunity missed. Maybe it’s too harsh to compare the home grown effort against the British original. I’ve cautioned against it myself. But, eight shows in, it’s probably okay to do so. This, is how it should be done.

Claudia Karvan was the guest, and well, she’s a babe, so of course this segment went well. Mostly. If Charlie is deemed the best host for the job, I hope he brushes up on his technique during the off season.

Charlie took the new Jaguar XF for a fang. Looks like a nice car, and the piece, while not brilliant, was still pretty good.

We were also treated to another Ford v Holden comparo. This time Charlie and Steve pitted the entry level models against each other. Clearly stung by criticism of their first effort, this time they made a clear decision in the eternal Ford v Holden debate. They chose the Falcon. But, undoing all that good work, Charlie went on a poorly hashed rant about what good cars the local products are and that they are endangered species. That may well be true, but I’m not sure he needed to go to such lengths to make his point.

I can’t let the irony of the ‘What were they thinking?’ wall pass. Steve cooly posted a picture of Clarkson, Hammond and May and posed the question, ‘what were they thinking when they let us make their show’. Quite.

In closing, though, I would say the premiere season of Top Gear Australia has been, overall, both enjoyable and worthwhile. Yes, there are some flaws present, but I love the concept of the show, and I’ll continue to watch the show. The major flaws, for me, centre around the delivery of the three hosts. For the most part they’re quite good, and have improved, but their sometimes forced delivery has not really had all of its rough edges ironed out. Oddly enough, I think one of their best efforts was the first clip they filmed together, the Astra Lawn Bowls piece.

Series 2 has been commissioned, and there will no doubt be a thorough debriefing session now that Series 1 is complete. With any luck, they’ll work on the weaker points of the show, and return to our screens in the first half of 2009 with a new and improved Top Gear Australia. I look forward to finding out.

Continue reading “Top Gear Australia – Series 1, Episode 8”
Categories
Motorsports

Ireland’s North West 200

Anyone who knows what the North West 200 is will know the event was held in mid-May this year, however, I just caught a few minutes of highlights on FoxSports 2 here in Australia. I don’t know a hell of a lot about the race, but I recall seeing some highlights last year as well, and I recall how spectacular this event is. For those that don’t know about the North West 200, it is, essentially, madness on two wheels.

Think balls of steel, handlebar to handlebar action, on closed public roads. The North West 200 was first held in 1929. The current course is 9 miles in length and is run on a triangle shaped course linking the villages of Portrush, Portstewart and Coleraine.

Enjoy the clip above, which is a full lap of the circuit, filmed from an on-board camera. If you enjoy that, check out the BBC Northern Island’s NW200 website, it has some excellent information and lots of video footage to be amazed by.

Of course, racing of this nature has inherent dangers and the 2008 event will be remembered for the death of Robert Dunlop. From all accounts, he was a great bloke, and a bloody good rider, who had achieved plenty of success in the NW 200.

Categories
Motorsports Toyota

Neal Bates and Coral Taylor end 13 year drought

Neal Bates & Coral Taylor - 2008 Australian Rally Champions

Australian rally stalwarts Neal Bates and Coral Taylor won their fourth national title by claiming the 2008 Australian Rally Championship over the weekend. Confirmation of their title came after some cautious driving in difficult conditions during the Coffs Coast Rally. Bates and Taylor guided their Team TRD Corolla to eighth position in Saturday’s Heat 1 , and in doing so secured enough points to win the title with a day to spare.

The win ends a 13 year drought for the long time rally partnership. “I am absolutely over the moon,” Bates said. “It has been 13 years between championships and overall it was a very tense day as we were listening out for every noise and squeak, but the S2000 Corolla has been faultless all year and it was again today.

“Probably 80 per cent of the work in rallying is done before you get to an event so it is a big thanks to our incredibly smart bunch of guys in Canberra that have made this championship happen.”

Coral Taylor was both relieved and satisfied with their fourth Australian Rally Championship. “It is pretty amazing,” Taylor said. “I am not really sure where the last 13 years has gone since our last title but it is wonderful to win it again.”

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Categories
Audi

Audi Q5 S line image gallery

Audi Q5 S line

As a rule I don’t care much for mid-sized SUVs, but I think the award winning Audi Q5 is going to be the exception that proves the rule. Based on Audi’s MLB/MLP platform (see also A5 and A4), the Q5 offers a rare solution to its segment—an exterior design that is both in proportion and expertly styled. It is a much more successful solution than the clumsy BMW X3, and reports I’ve heard from the Q5 international dealer launch suggest the Q5 drives as well as it looks.

These images of the Q5 feature the S line exterior package. Here’s what Audi press blurb has to say:

The S line exterior package gives the Audi Q5 an even more dynamic presence in the form of a distinctive grill design, new bumpers, accentuated air inlets, a spoiler lip and a diffuser insert at the rear. All exterior add-on parts and the door trim strips are painted in the body color, and S line logos adorn the fenders and door sill strips. The cargo area trim strip is in gleaming stainless steel, and trims give the exhaust tailpipes of the four-cylinder versions a more prominent look.

Enjoy the images below, and don’t forget to click on the pics to launch a 2000px super image. Use the comments form to leave your thoughts.

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Categories
Drive Thru Reviews Skoda

Drive Thru: Skoda Octavia RS

Skoda Octavia RS

Imagine you have your (affordable) dream car and love the joy it brings you. Whether that’s behind the wheel, or simply admiring the gentle shoulder line of its three-door shape. Your car has oodles of torque that make it a delight to drive. There’s enough power to have fun, but not too much to be stupid. Fuel economy, too, is quite good, if you want it to be.

Life is good.

Then, imagine you have to sell the car you enjoy so much! Not because of financial or other outside influences, but simply because impending fatherhood is about to render that svelte three-door shape a bit too impractical for its own good.

This is a predicament a mate of mine recently faced, and while his initial quandary gave him a little displeasure, it’s nice to know that everyone looks like living happily ever after.

Steve’s dream car was his Mk5 Golf GTI (pictured below). Like myself (or my wife that should be), as soon as the three-door option for the GTI was announced by Volkswagen Australia in late 2006, he took his chance to buy the perfect complement to his near mint condition 1985 UK-spec Mk2 Golf GTI. A few months later, when his new car arrived, the first in the country in United Grey paintwork, he was smitten.

If the GTI had to go, then what would prove to be an adequate compromise between driving enjoyment and family-friendly Sunday outings? Given the picture and title at the start of this post, it’s no surprise that Steve opted for a Skoda Octavia RS sedan.

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Categories
Nissan

Video footage of Nissan’s new 370Z

Following Nissan’s release of three images, here is some video footage of their new 370Z. The footage was captured at an enthusiast get together prior to its, now somewhat obsolete, official unveiling at the LA Auto Show.

The new ‘Zed’ looks pretty good to me, although the overtly agressive head and taillights may prove to be an aquired taste. The side repeat indicator is, perhaps, as obvious as it is cool. Overall, a thumbs up from where I sit. In fact, after seeing the first official pics a couple of weeks back, whenever I see a 350Z now, it looks too angular and a bit compromised.

Source: autoblog

Categories
Nissan

Nissan GT-R V-Spec just weeks away

Nissan’s Nordschleife-busting R35 GT-R is about to get better. The upcoming V-Spec has been confirmed by Nissan and speculation suggests February 2009 for an official release, although nothing has been officially announced. It has been suggested, though, that the GT-R V-Spec could be revealed at the 12th annual Nismo Festival to be held at the Fuji Speedway later this month.

Shown above testing at Germany’s Nürburgring Nordschleife back in April, the V-Spec is expected to include the goodies from Nismo’s upgrade package, which has already been released for standard GT-Rs. The package includes undertray aerodynamic enhancements, light weight alloys and a titanium exhaust. The V-Spec will also employ carbon fibre body panels to help reduce overall weight and power is said to be increased by as much as 75kW. Such an improvement would take the GT-R V-Specto around 430kW (approx 575hp).

The regular GT-R retails for AU$148,800 and with speculation the V-Spec could be as much as Â¥15M, Australian pricing could begin around AU$240,000. That’s assuming the V-Spec gets an official Australian release.

The V-Spec looks like being an astonishing car. Porsche must be wondering what on earth they have to do next!

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Categories
News Safety Issues

Speeding drivers get a few pointers

In a country where government sanctioned shock advertising has conditioned many to think being a safe driver is as simple as keeping below the speed limit, it is somewhat of an unexpected shock to learn the NSW Government is looking to revise its demerit points system, which has been described as “unfair”. The overhaul, announced by NSW Roads Minister, Michael Daley, will be more lenient on speeding drivers.

It is expected drivers breaking the speed limit in the 0-15km/h over bracket will only attract a single demerit point, down from the current three points. On a double demerit weekend a minor lapse such as this could see an otherwise diligent driver lose half of the points on their licence.

“Three points demerit for exceeding the speed limit for somewhere between zero and 15 can lead to a situation that is harsh and unfair and I think it is time to introduce a bit more fairness,” Daley told ABC radio.

“Without pre-empting any decisions I may make, I will be having a good look at the whole demerit scheme and that is one of the things that I think should be changed, and I will do my best to change, is to reduce the points for the 0-15 bracket.”

This is a surprising move, from the same government that is trialling GPS-based speed limiting devices. It is no surprise, however, that the current NSW Government is facing a hostile electorate and trailling the opposition in the polls.

Source: Sydney Morning Herald