What’s so special about the 1981 British Grand Prix? It was the first race won by a car with a carbon fibre composite chassis.
That car was the McLaren MP4/1, on that day it was driven by John Watson. In the video below you can hear the car’s designer John Barnard talk about his creation and its lasting effect on the safety of the F1 cars we watch today.
Before Donut Media got morphy with the BMW 3 Series they went all blurry-eyed with the Porsche 911. If ever there was a car made for such an animation it is the iconic 911. Well done lads, well done!
[Source: Donut Media]
The very clever chaps at Donut Media have given us the morphtastic animation of the BMW 3 Series. We applaud them and thank the for sharing it with the world.
If you’d like to buy a poster charting the lineage of the 3 Series the Donut lads have you covered there too.
[Source: Donut Media]
Project Binky is back and that means AUSmotive awakens from its slumber. Back to Binky; after 11 episodes, spread across two and a half years, Nik comes out with this pearler: “It’s at this point that things start to get a bit tricky.”
This episode covers a lot of material, mostly to do with the underside of the car. As always it’s a masterclass in how to build a project car.
In the name of the P1, the 918 and the holy LaFerrari.
It’s the video we’d all been waiting for. After a bit over two weeks it’s racked up more than 1.2 million views. It’s Chris Harris in three of the most desirable cars ever made.
At almost one hour long the recipe couldn’t get any better. Throw in an empty and excellent Portimao racetrack and, well, yeah, the recipe does get better. And this video is great viewing, it really is.
But is it as good as you were hoping?
Nik and Richard send us into the Christmas break with the eleventh instalment of their epic Project Binky crusade. This time we see the lads working on the steering geometry and transmission setup. As ever it’s an episode filled with pitfalls and problem solving leading to complicated and clever engineering solutions.
As for AUSmotive, well it’s no shock to anyone here that things have slowed down a little. This is partly a result of my new job, which has had more of an impact on my available time and motivation than I thought. That said, after eight years of having a pretty serious and often time consuming crack at this gig for basically no monetary gain perhaps a change in perspective hasn’t been a bad thing for your resident editor.
For now, the site will still plug along. Let’s just hope we’re not going two months between posts. Yikes!
If nothing else, thank you to Bad Obsession Motorsport and Project Binky for relighting the AUSmotive candle.
Fifth Gear—yes, that’s still going—has come up with a 21st century Prost v Senna battle by getting Nico Prost and Bruno Senna to race each other in a hot hatch track test. It’s son of Alain in the Renault Megane RS275 Trophy R and nephew of Ayrton in the Audi S3. The track is Snetteron and this is what happens…
[Thanks to Tim for the tip]
The Queen of the Nürburgring, Sabine Schmitz, was sent out to lap the Nordschleife in a new Porsche 911 GT3 by the folks from RSR Nürburg. Her conclusion is not really much of a surprise, but the clip is worth a watch nonethless. And for the females viewing, make sure you catch Sabine’s pro-tip for tackling the Karussell.
Chris Harris interrupts the bad news from Volkswagen to take for a spin in the updated and softer Mercedes-Benz A45 AMG. Don’t worry, that’s softer in a good way, as he explains.
You lot obviously don’t watch Harris’ motor show videos enough so he has spliced his A45 review in among his walk around the Frankfurt Motor Show.
Prof Dr Martin Winterkorn, Volkswagen AG CEO, offers up this mea culpa in response to noxgate; the diesel NOx emissions issue which Volkswagen says affects up to 11 million vehicles worldwide.
In a new statement Volkswagen says all new diesel vehicles which meet EU6 emissions are not affected by this scandal. However, if your diesel powered Volkswagen or Audi A3 is powered by an EA189 2.0 TDI engine then your car is right in the middle of the deceit which Volkswagen has overseen.
For some technical explanation as to why Volkswagen might have thought cheating emissions tests was a good idea, check out this reddit thread.
This is going to be a very sticky mess for Volkswagen to extricate itself from.
If you own a car affected by this deceit please tell us below how you feel. Can Volkswagen ever win back your trust?
If an Italian family of coachbuilders with a history of working on Ferraris can’t be immune from the Porsche disease then who can be?
There’s nothing spectacular about this latest video from Petrolicious, but it captures the intangible feeling revheads from across the globe have for their cars. And who wouldn’t love to have a Porsche 356 Speedster in their family?!
When I was a young lad my lovely grandmother introduced me to the delights of rhubarb and custard. And now, some decades later, Chris Harris has given me a whole new appreciation.
I always thought the Bugatti EB110 was a bit fugly and so it never really resonated with me; I was too busy going gaga over F40s and McLaren F1s.
Turns out I might have missed a pretty special boat. But at least I’ll always have my granny’s dessert.