Year: 2013

Categories
Volkswagen WRC

Sebastien Ogier wins 2013 Rally Mexico

Volkswagen WRC team, 2013 Rally Mexico

Sebastien Ogier’s decision to take leave from the WRC in 2012 to help develop the Volkswagen Polo R WRC appears to have been a masterstroke as he notched up his second win in succession by taking out Rally Mexico on the weekend.

Winning in Sweden was one thing, but the domination of Ogier in the altitude of Mexico’s mountains was actually a little bit scary. By rally’s end Ogier was almost 3 minutes 30 seconds ahead of his nearest rival, Mikko Hirvonen, the bloke who was supposed to takeover from the great Sebastien Loeb and run away with this year’s championship in the hitherto unstoppable Citroën team. Ford driver Thierry Neuville, enjoying his first ever WRC podium, was more than 4 minutes behind.

Ogier and co-driver Julien Ingrassia topped the times in 16 of the 23 special stages and racked up the extra points on offer in the power stage as well. Ogier has finished second–first–first in the opening three events of 2013 and has accumulated 74 points, which is 44 ahead of third placed Hirvonen. Loeb is still in second on 43 points, but will only compete in two more rallies for the year.

As you can imagine Ogier is over the moon with his flying start to the year. “What a fantastic feeling. The Polo R WRC was perfect for every single minute of the Rally Mexico. I can only thank my team for that,” Ogier said. “This victory at our debut on gravel is very special and will always have a special place in my heart. We will definitely celebrate it in style tonight.

“We take every win as it comes. This morning I took an extremely cautious approach on the first special stage and steered around every stone. However, from midway through I put my foot down again. We obviously have a big lead now in the World Championship, but there are still another ten rallies to come.”

While Ogier was sunning himself in his winning sombrero teammate Jari-Matti Latvala looks like he’s having one of those years you just want to forget. On the third corner of the rally proper Latvala clipped a rock damaging his suspension and ruining his chances of victory or even a podium. The rest of the rally became little more than a development exercise for him, although he says he is now feeling better about the the car.

“No sooner had the rally started than things took a turn for the worse for us. We had to give up after a matter of metres on Friday, due to suspension damage we received when we hit a stone. After that, we tried a few things with the car and I worked on my driving style,” Latvala said.

“By the end of the rally, I felt more comfortable than ever in the Polo. I now have a better understanding of the handling characteristics. That gives me a lot of motivation ahead of Portugal. Winning a point on the Power Stage was obviously a nice way to finish.”

Australia’s Chris Atkinson finished the rally in sixth place in a one-off drive for the Citroën Abu Dhabi Racing team. He did well to recover after also collecting a rock and damaging his suspension on the opening day. A late charge saw him take sixth place from megastar Ken Block on SS21.

The WRC resumes for Rally Portugal from 11–14 April.

Continue reading “Sebastien Ogier wins 2013 Rally Mexico”
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McLaren Mercedes-Benz MINI Mitsubishi Motor Shows Nissan Opel Pagani Peugeot Porsche Renault Rolls-Royce Seat Skoda Subaru Tesla Toyota Volkswagen Volvo

2013 Geneva Motor Show in pictures – part 2

2013 Geneva Motor Show

You can have your fancy pants limited-edition Lambo, or your stonking new LaFerrari, even the McLaren P1; we’re not really interested. The car of Geneva, for us, is the Porsche 911 GT3. That’s the one we’d like to take home and get intimate with. And so begins the second and final part of our Geneva Motor Show image gallery. There’s over 120 new  images to see and enjoy.

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Alfa Romeo Aston Martin Audi Bentley BMW Bugatti Chevrolet Ferrari GM Gumpert Honda Hyundai Infiniti Jaguar Kia Koenigsegg Lamborghini Motor Shows

2013 Geneva Motor Show in pictures – part 1

2013 Geneva Motor Show

The Geneva Motor Show is still underway over in Europe and while we’re sure almost all of our readers would love to be there we’re doing the best we can to bring you a little closer to the action. Here is the first installment of over 250 pictures from the show, from Alfa Romeo to Lamborghini, which includes some of the great and not so great models on display.

That Lamborghini’s not getting any prettier is it.

Continue reading “2013 Geneva Motor Show in pictures – part 1”
Categories
Ferrari

Chances of LaFerrari ownership worse than 2-1

2013 LaFerrari

When Luca di Montezemolo officially launched the LaFerrari in Geneva a few days ago he said there were already 700 written expressions of interest for the car. It’s now being reported that the order list has grown to over 1000.

That means if you’re lucky enough to have cash to seriously put your name on Luca’s wish list that you have a worse than 2 to 1 chance of landing one of the 499 models to be made.

There’s going to be some very expensive tantrums thrown by the looks! Look on the bright side, the high demand should be good for resale.

[Source: Motor Authority]

Categories
MINI

MINI’s Plant Oxford turns 100

MINI Plant Oxford turns 100

It seems everyone has a big birthday this year. Lamborghini turns 50, Aston Martin turns 100. On a smaller but no less significant scale the Porsche 911 turns 50 as well. Even my home town turns 100 this weekend. And so MINI is joining in the fun to celebrate the 100th birthday of what we used to know as Cowley and now know as MINI Plant Oxford.

The site was originally home to the Oxford Military College, which closed in 1896, and was given a new lease of life when William Morris took over the site in 1912. According to MINI, the first car, a ‘Bullnose’ Morris Oxford, rolled off the line on 28 March 1913.

Since then a surprisingly varied number of models and manufacturers have called Plant Oxford home. Almost 12 million cars have been made on the site. That includes 2.25 million MINIs, which began production under BMW’s watch in 2001. Prior to that the classic Mini was also built in Oxford from 1959–69.

There’s a more detailed history of the plant from BMW after the break, including some fascinating historical photos.

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Categories
Formula 1

19 races confirmed for 2013 F1 calendar

DateCountryGrand Prix
March 17AUSGrand Prix of Australia
March 24MYSGrand Prix of Malaysia
April 14CHNGrand Prix of China
April 21BHRGrand Prix of Bahrain
May 12ESPGrand Prix of Spain (Barcelona)
May 26MCOGrand Prix of Monaco
June 9CANGrand Prix of Canada
June 30GBRGrand Prix of Great Britain
July 7DEUGrand Prix of Germany
Jul 21EURNo race scheduled
July 28HUNGrand Prix of Hungary
August 25BELGrand Prix of Belgium
September 8ITAGrand Prix of Italy
September 22SGPGrand Prix of Singapore
October 6KORGrand Prix of Korea
October 13JPNGrand Prix of Japan
October 27INDGrand Prix of India
November 3UAEGrand Prix of AbuDhabi
November 17USAGrand Prix of USA (Austin)
November 24BRAGrand Prix of Brazil
Correct as at 9.3.13

 

There will be 19 races in the 2013 Formula 1 season after the FIA’s World Motor Sport Council met and confirmed there would be no substitute race for the postponed Grand Prix of New Jersey.

In early December last year the FIA rescheduled the 2013 F1 calendar to make space for another European-based Grand Prix. There was talk that Turkey might be reinstated, but nothing has come to fruition.

The short statement from the WMSC concerning Formula 1 read:

FIA FORMULA ONE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

It was noted that the negotiations over the Concorde Agreement were proceeding positively in order to be concluded in the near future.
The 2013 calendar was confirmed with 19 races.

Categories
Alfa Romeo

Listen to the Alfa Romeo 4C

Alfa Romeo 4C

The place to be before the Geneva Motor Show opened was outside the doors into the venue where the cars are driven in. One punter was there and captured this video of the Alfa Romeo 4C. It’s not the highest quality clip you’re ever going to see and the sound of the engine isn’t the most definitive you’ll ever hear either, but it does bring us closer to one of the most currently anticipated cars on the planet.

[Thanks to Craig for the tip]

UPDATE 9 March: New video from floor of Geneva has been added below.

Continue reading “Listen to the Alfa Romeo 4C”
Categories
Ferrari

The LaFerrari in video

LaFerrari video

Ferrari has complemented its release of the LaFerrari with a suite of six videos. They are a bit nerdy in parts, but it’s also fascinating to get a closer look at the production techniques and technology used in Ferrari’s fastest ever road car. You can check them all out after the break.

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Categories
Ferrari

Seven little Australians want the LaFerrari

2013 LaFerrari

The strictly-limited LaFerrari hypercar has reportedly been sold out, although we suspect what that really means is that there’s sufficient interest in the car for Ferrari to follow its usual form of hand picking the punters deemed suitable to collect a set of keys. In the case of the LaFerrari they’ve got 499 happy phone calls to make.

One catch for local buyers is all 499 examples of the LaFerrari will be built in left-hand drive, which makes it tricky getting the car approved for local registration. However, that hasn’t stopped seven Australians from submitting expressions of interest in buying the LaFerrari.

Giving a clue to at least one potential owner, perhaps, was the response given to AUSmotive by Ferrari’s Australian distributor who said the LaFerrari would only be suitable for, “use abroad or for non-public road use in Australia at, for example, track days or their own private road systems.”

We wish the seven little Australians all the best in their quest to own one of the world’s most exciting and desirable machines.

Categories
Motor Shows Rolls-Royce

Geneva 2013: Rolls-Royce Wraith

Rolls-Royce Wraith

Last year it was the Phantom family, this year Rolls-Royce has graced the halls at the Geneva Motor Show with the Wraith coupé. With 465kW/800Nm of grunt from its V12 engine it is the fastest and most powerful Rolls-Royce ever made. With a ZF 8-speed transmission in can reach 100km/h in 4.4 seconds.

Torsten Müller-Ötvös, CEO Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, ushered in the Wraith by saying, “Today we launch the ultimate gentlemen’s gran turismo, a car that embodies the spirit of Charles Stewart Rolls.

“The most powerful Rolls-Royce in history, Wraith promises the sense of adventure and speed that drove our founding forefather. But of course, Wraith’s starting point is luxury, refinement and quality, traits that remain as important to Rolls-Royce customers today as they were more than a century ago.”

Aside from those core values found inside the Wraith it also sports some very interesting satellite navigation technology. It’s been labelled by Rolls as Satellite Aided Transmission (SAT) and uses sat nav to anticipate the correct gear for the road ahead.

In the videos below the context given for the SAT system is doing a lap of the Nürburgring, where the position of the car is constantly monitored and the most appropriate gear for the next corner is loaded as if being driven by a professional race driver. If the system can truly keep up while fighting the Nordschleife then it must work pretty well. In theory.

Overall the Wraith looks kind of cool, we think, and perhaps it’s a sign of the increasing maturity of your AUSmotive Editor, but this model holds a real appeal that could turn into something tangible if we’re to be fortunate enough to fall into a massive pile of cash.

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Categories
Audi Motor Shows Motorsports

Geneva 2013: Audi RS5 DTM

2013 Audi RS5 DTM

Ahead of the 2013 DTM season Audi has rocked up to Geneva with its new weapon of choice, the RS5 DTM. Astute readers will know that DTM regulations prevented any major technical developments during the off-season, so is the move from the A5 badged racecar to the RS5 anything more than a marketing exercise?

There were around 4000 parts that could be scrutinised and optimised within the strict regulations, but has Audi achieved anything meaningful? Naturally, Dr Wolfgang Ullrich, Audi’s motorsport boss, wasn’t giving too much away on that front saying only, “Our technicians proved to be quite resourceful in the process.”

In an attempt to justify the new naming regime Ullrich added, “The abbreviation ‘RS’ stands for the sportiest Audi models. The performance data of the current RS5 and RS5 DTM are very similar. This is why we are of the opinion that both fit perfectly to one another.”

There will be eight RS5 DTM machines fighting for honours with BMW and Mercedes when the season starts on 5 May at Hockenheim.

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Categories
Alfa Romeo Motor Shows

Geneva 2013: Alfa Romeo 4C ‘Launch Edition’

Alfa Romeo 4C

Finally the long tease for the Alfa Romeo 4C is over. This, though, is the 4C ‘Launch Edition’ and it looks great in either of its two paint options, Carrara White or Alfa Red. There’s been a lot of speculation about this car and rather than rehash it all we’ll just list the facts, some of which are specific to the Launch Edition run. First, though, the all important weight of this sexy supercar has been confirmed at just 895kg!

  • 4C ‘Launch Edition’ priced from €60,000 and is ready to order now
  • ‘Launch Edition’ limited to 400 examples shared between Europe, Africa and the Middle East; 500 in the United States; just 100 for the rest of the world
  • 1750cc turbo petrol engine produces 179kW (240hp)/350Nm (80% of peak torque from 1700rpm)
  • Mid-engine, rear wheel drive configuration
  • 6-speed Alfa TCT twin dry clutch transmission
  • Carbon fibre monocoque central cell (weighs just 65kg)
  • Front and rear structures of the chassis made from aluminium
  • Roof reinforcements made from aluminium
  • Dry weight 895kg
  • 40:60 weight distribution (front:rear)
  • 3990mm long, 2000mm wide, 1180mm high, 2380mm wheelbase
  • Bi-LED headlights
  • Standard alloy wheels 17″ front, 18″ rear
  • Optional alloy wheels 18″ front, 19″ rear
  • Alfa DNA selector with ‘Race’ mode
  • TFT digital instrument display
  • Built at Maserati plant in Modena
  • Annual production capacity 3500 (1500 for Europe, 1200 for US, 800 rest of the world)
  • 0–100km/h in 4.5 seconds
  • Top speed 250km/h+

At this stage rumours suggest a sub-$80,000 price tag for the Australian market. The 4C is due on local shores in 2014.

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