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Motorsports Porsche

Onboard with Craig Baird at Highlands NZ

Craig Baird

Craig Baird spent last weekend behind the wheel of a Porsche 911 GT3 R while racing in the Australian GT Championship at Highlands Motorsport Park in New Zealand. We’ve got two videos to show you the good and bad points about motor racing.

First up Baird carves his way to 1 minute 33 second lap during qualifying, claiming pole position and easily beating his original 1:41.9 lap record along the way.

In the second clip Baird cops a tap from a slower car and crashes off the track. As you’ll see this impact happened at the worst possible place on the figure-eight style circuit. Thankfully, everyone walked away unharmed.

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Formula 1 McLaren

Sergio says: McLaren has struggled with reality

2013 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

Reports suggesting McLaren will replace Sergio Perez with Kevin Magnussen are gathering momentum, with expectations an official announcement will follow after this weekend’s United States Grand Prix.

That’s given Perez the unwanted freedom to comment on what he calls “probably the worst season in history” for McLaren. While Perez is one of only three drivers to finish every race so far this year, along with teammate Jenson Button and Marussia’s Max Chilton, the 23-year-old Mexican can only count the modest return of fifth place at the Indian Grand Prix as his best result.

He currently has 35 world championship points; a long way off the 66 points and three podiums he recorded last year with Sauber.

“I’m very disappointed,” he told Brazil’s Totalrace. “I think when your goals are much higher than your results, you get disappointed. And that goes for both sides.”

Figuring he has the talent to do better, Perez is placing the blame for his poor results squarely at McLaren.

“It’s a great team, I have no doubt of it, with a very capable crew, but I think it lacked organisation and a little bit of humility to face the reality,” he said. “During the season, being a great team, McLaren took a long time to recognise the reality of where we were, which was scoring points on a good weekend, and not winning races.”

Facing the prospect of an off-season looking for a drive Perez doesn’t have too many options, with Force India perhaps being his best bet. Although, Paul di Resta and Adrian Sutil might have something to say about that.

[Source: Motorsport.com | Pic: Vodafone McLaren Mercedes]

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Porsche

Porsche planning to repeat 911 Speedster

Porsche 911 Speedster

Perhaps because they made such a hash of the arse on the 997 version (above), Porsche is reportedly readying itself to give the world another 911 Speedster.

It’s due in 2015, according to Auto Bild, and where the previous 911 Speedster paid respects to the 356, this new one will honour the 550 Spyder. As such production will be limited to 550 cars.

The 550 is one of the best looking cars Porsche has ever made, but you’ll forgive us if we don’t hold out much hope that the 991 911 spin-off will reach the same heights.

Apparently the 991 911 Speedster will feature shaved door handles, a lower windscreen and a fabric roof limited in function in much the same way we saw on the Boxster Spyder.

[Source: Auto Bild via Autoblog]

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Audi

VIDEO: Audi S3 and Sport Quattro eat some dust

Audi S3 v Sport Quattro

Audi has dusted off former rally aces Hermann Müller and the real Stig—Stig Blomqvist—and given them a new Audi S3 and an old Ur-Quattro to play with. The result is predictable and presented in a manner which lacks the inspiration and passion the subject matter warrants. But it’s still nice to see a Quattro in action, in this instance on the gravel roads of San Remo.

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BMW

BMW M4 spotted in Sakhir Orange

BMW M4

We’ve already seen a new BMW M3 in Yas Marina Blue, now here’s your first look at the M4 coupé in Sakhir Orange.

The new M3/M4 will be offered in a total of eight colours, listed below with their corresponding codes:

  • Alpine White (300)
  • Mineral Grey Metallic (B39)
  • Black Sapphire Metallic (475)
  • Sakhir Orange Metallic (B50)
  • Silverstone Metallic (A29)
  • Austin Yellow Metallic (B67)
  • Mineral White Metallic (A96)
  • Yas Marina Blue Metallic (B68)

Remember, the full reveal of the M4 is still a little while away, with expectations we’ll see the full monty in early January at the Detroit Auto Show.

[Source: Carscoops | Pic: Carpix]

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Formula 1 WRC

Formula 1 return “nearly impossible” says Kubica

2013 Rallye de France-Alsace

On the eve of his debut in a WRC car Robert Kubica says a return to Formula 1 following injuries sustained in a rally crash in February 2011 remains a dream for him, even though he says such an outcome is unlikely.

“It’s a dream, a target, but for now, it’s very difficult, I would say nearly impossible,” Robert told the BBC when asked about a return to F1. “I will never take the opportunity if I don’t feel 100% ready. If one day things improve, for sure we will see. For now, I am concentrating on rallying.”

Kubica still has an open diary for 2014 and after wrapping up the WRC2 championship last month a full-time rally gig would seem a natural progression.

“Driving on gravel is very demanding. There are lots of movements on the steering wheel which put a lot of stress on my arm and my hand,” he said. “If I stay in rallying next year, I would like to do a whole season. But to do all the rallies in one year is quite a big challenge.”

A successful outing for Citroën in Wales Rally GB this weekend might begin to offer some clarity for next year. For now Kubica says he doesn’t have the strength to race a single-seater. Although, he isn’t ruling out a return to the track, where he has previously tested a Mercedes-Benz DTM car.

“One option is to come back to circuit racing. For sure, it won’t be single-seaters, but I haven’t got it clear in my mind what I will do.”

[Source: BBC]

Categories
MINI Toyota Video

VIDEO: Episode 2 of Project Binky

Project Binky

Bad Obesession Motorsport is back with Episode 2 of its Project Binky experiment, where the aim is to fit a Celica GT4 drivetrain into the shell of an Austin Mini.

Actually this episode was first published a few weeks ago and we just remembered to check on progress. And the good news is that means we’re already much closer to the next update.

If you need to catch up we recommend you go back and watch Episode 1, where the team ends with the revelation that the Mini’s front-end doesn’t fit around the Celica’s engine. Who’d a thunk it! So, in this episode you’ll get to see how project leader, Nik Blackhurst, goes about getting his own way.

These guys deserve a much wider audience, so we reckon it would be a good thing for you to spread the word.

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Formula 1 McLaren

McLaren set to ditch Perez for Magnussen

Kevin Magnussen

The Formula 1 silly season is in full swing with word McLaren will replace Sergio Perez with reserve driver Kevin Magnussen, who first tested with the team at Abu Dhabi in 2012.

Magnussen has just collected the Formula Renault 3.5 title and looks set to follow the path of Robert Kubica and Giedo van der Garde as former champions who have made the progression to Formula 1. The 21-year-old Dane would also follow the path of his father, Jan, who made his F1 debut in a one-off race with McLaren in 1995 and also drove for Stewart in 1997 and 1998.

Officially, the word from McLaren Team Principal, Martin Whitmarsh, is: “The fact is at the moment we haven’t confirmed our driver line-up, we haven’t signed contracts with drivers.” But Autosport reports a deal with Magnussen has been agreed and awaits official sign-off.

It’s worth noting, British driver, Oliver Gavin, who races with Jan Magnussen at Corvette Racing in the American Le Mans Series has sent his congratulations to his teammate via twitter:

A lack of consistency is understood to be behind the decision to release 23-year-old Sergio Perez, who joins Pastor Maldonado as another current driver looking for work in 2014. With Nico Hulkenberg still the favourite to replace Kimi Raikkonen at Lotus, there’s not much on offer if you don’t have seat secured in 2014.

[Source: Autosport]

Categories
MINI

VIDEO: F56 MINI Cooper S teaser

F56 MINI Cooper S

With less than a week to go until its full reveal, MINI has released an official teaser video for its forthcoming F56 model. And it goes a little something like this:

This is the self-preservation society
Jump in the jam jar gotta get straight
Hurry up mate don’t wanna be late
How’s your father?
Tickety boo
Tickety boo
Gotta get a bloomin move on

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Categories
Bathurst 12 Hour Fiat

Fiat Abarth 695 Assetto Corse to race at Bathurst

Fiat Abarth 695 Assetto Corse

This feisty looking Fiat will be racing at the 2014 Bathurst 12 Hour. Pretty cool, huh! The car’s full name is the Abarth 695 Assetto Corse. It was first announced in 2011 and Fiat will be competing with a pair of them in the Mount Panorama endurance race.

The Abarths will race in Category F when the action starts on 9 February and will be lead by Luke Youlden and Paul Stokell. The driving roster will be complemented by motoring journos Josh Dowling, Toby Hagon, Paul Gover and Mike Sinclair.

Alan Heaphy from Performance Parts and Engineering will prepare the cars and Fiat says the Italian pocket rockets have already “proven their potential by setting competitive times in the wet during track testing at Phillip Island.”

When first revealed the 695 Assetto Corse boasted 152kW (205hp) thanks to a 1368cm3 turbocharged engine. We’re not sure if Heaphy and his crew will be able to liberate more power, but at least the Assetto Corse should be fairly light. That’s due to its very small size, of course, but also measures such as using Lexan panels to replace the glass windows.

Fiat will reveal the livery of the cars later this year and we’re expecting to see something pretty cool.

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Subaru

This is disappointment

WRX Concept
2014 Subaru WRX

After seeing the leaked images revealing the 2014 Subaru WRX we thought we’d place them alongside the stunning WRX Concept we saw earlier this year.

We’ll let the pictures do the talking.

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Subaru

2014 Subaru WRX images leaked

2014 Subaru WRX leaked image

Subaru revealed an official teaser image of its all-new WRX overnight (after the break), which means, of course, leaked images soon followed. It’s the leaked image you see above which, at first glance, is something of a let down after hopes soared high on the back of the 2013 WRX Concept.

Although, these unofficial pics (there’s another one below) do seem accurate to the WRX test mules we’ve been seeing in recent times. The WRX prototypes have never seen to be a good match to the sleeker lines shown in the concept model.

The new WRX will be revealed in full at the 2013 LA Auto Show at 5:30am (AEDST) on Thursday 21 November.

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