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McLaren

McLaren P1 returns to chase Nürburgring glory

McLaren P1

McLaren is chasing lap record glory at the Nürburgring, with this P1 hypercar seen in full attack mode on the Nordschleife on Wednesday.

In early September a rumoured lap time of 7:04 was posted by the hybrid McLaren. Even if true, for two reasons, it’s not fast enough. Firstly, Ron Dennis has said the P1 will break the 7-minute barrier at the famous track. And secondly, Porsche has since published video of its 918 lapping the Ring in 6:57.

Officially, a McLaren spokesman said the ‘XP2R’ P1 was at the Green Hell, “for final damper tuning and calibration—our engineers and technicians are never happy, despite what they’ve achieved”.

However, those trackside during the week reported the presence of a sizeable pit crew with representatives from Pirelli on site as well. The P1 rides on specially developed Pirelli tyres tailored to suit the car’s performance and handling characteristics.

One thing is sure, the dick waving we’re going to see from Porsche, McLaren and Ferrari over who has the fastest hybrid hypercar on the planet is going to be fun to watch. So, strap yourself in and enjoy the show.

[Source: Car]

Categories
Porsche

Porsche keeps Macan preview rolling

Porsche Macan

There’s still 33 days to go until the Macan is officially launched, but Porsche is keeping the previews coming. A series of photos showing the baby SUV without camouflage have been posted to Facebook.

As you can see the front-end styling differs enough from the Cayenne to have its own identity, while being similar enough to be part of the family. The rear tail light cluster, for one thing, isn’t the incoherent mess you see on the Cayenne.

Overall, the Macan seems to have a much more pleasing aesthetic than its bigger brother and while we do in some small way still lament the fact that Porsche is even in the SUV market, the fact remains they make excellent products and they need to play the game in order to keep pumping out 911s, Caymans and Boxsters.

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Categories
Formula 1 Red Bull Racing

Darren Heath sticks up for Red Bull

2013 Singapore Grand Prix

After the Singapore Grand Prix a rumour, or story of sorts, emerged about Red Bull using a traction control system. The story came from the observations of former F1 team owner Giancarlo Minardi.

Adding intensity to the speculation was Minardi’s observation that Sebastian Vettel’s car sounded different to all other cars in the field, including Mark Webber’s. Perfect fuel for conspiracy theorists. Several outlets picked up on the story and good summary was published by Jalopnik.

Darren Heath, though, is having none of this conspiracy and savaged much of the coverage the story received, while taking aim at sites like AUSmotive along the way:

Tapping voraciously into their well-worn computers, F1 reporters – who really should know better – rapidly informed the world of the Italian’s ridiculous accusations, their words immediately jumped upon by that wonderful cabal of ill-informed fools so prevalent in society these days – the amateur hacks.

Give a man a keyboard and access to the internet and a whole world of pain is coming your way.

F1_know_it_all.com, grand-prix-expert.net, formula_insider.co.uk et al (names changed to protect the guilty) feed like a pack of ravenous dogs on this rubbish, telling their literally hundreds of readers how it was, how it is and how it shall be.

Sitting in their armchairs thousands of miles from the race track in question, and never having set foot in an F1 paddock, just doesn’t appear to matter to these goons. They’re going to tell you, me and the world what’s going on.

Ouch! That little rant aside, Heath returns to the subject at hand saying Red Bull is winning because they work harder than any other team and that young Vettel is actually a damn good driver. Moreover, the engine sounds which Minardi referred to have been audible all year and there’s nothing to see here, as Fernando Alonso pointed out.

Follow the source link below for the full article, it’s well worth reading.

[Source: Darren Heath | Pic: Red Bull/Getty Images]

Categories
Porsche

Mark Porsche reflects on his old man’s car

1963 Porsche 911

At the Godwood Revival this year Porsche recreated its 1963 Frankfurt Motor Show stand to honour the 50th anniversary of the 911. Mark Porsche, son of Ferdinand Alexander Porsche—designer of the original 911, talks about the car and what his father would be thinking today.

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Categories
Chevrolet

Chevrolet Camaro Z28 laps Nürburgring in 7:37

Chevrolet Camaro Z28

The Americans are again keen to prove they have discovered corners by continuing to test their automotive products at the Nürburgring. And it turns out they’re getting quite good at making cars handle well, as this video from Chevrolet shows.

The 2014 Camaro Z28 has lapped the Nordshcleife in 7:37.47 and we have the visual evidence to prove it. There’s one or two loose moments and with rain beginning to fall late in the lap driver, Adam Dean, took a very ginger approach through Galgenkopf, leading onto the Döttinger Höhe straight. Indeed, Chevrolet is keen to highlight their claim that Dean cold have gone as much as six seconds faster if the conditions were dry for the full lap.

Powered by a 376kW 7.0 litre LS7 V8 the Z28 sounds fantastic, of course, although the audio in this video is sounds a little artificial to our ears. Have a look and see what you think.

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Categories
Toyota

Toyota planning 86 sedan debut for Geneva

Toyota 86 sedan rendering

Toyota may have pulled the distributor cap off the 86 convertible but the latest rumour is they’ll have an 86 four-door saloon ready in time for the 2014 Geneva Motor Show next March.

Riding on a wheelbase 100mm longer than the Toybaru sports car it’s expected the styling of the 86 sedan will set it apart from the 86 coupé. The front-end should come in for the heaviest treatment with a katana-inspired grille.

It’s likely the saloon will keep the Subaru-sourced 147kW 2.0 litre four cylinder boxer engine, but higher-end models may be complemented by a hybrid system taking combined power to around 200kW.

[Source: TopSpeed | Rending: Theophilus Chin | Thanks to Scott for the tip]

Categories
Formula 1 Honda McLaren

Listen to Honda’s 2015 F1 engine

Apparently this YouTube video gives us an early preview of what Honda’s 2015 Formula 1 engine will sound like. We’re not totally convinced of its accuracy, so perhaps treat it as part entertainment value for now.

Remember, next year F1 will switch to 1.6 litre turbocharged V6 engines and Honda will reunite with McLaren for the 2015 season.

This is the second audio preview we’ve been given of F1’s new world order after Mercedes AMG published an audio clip back in August.

UPDATE 18 October: Sounds like the above audio clip was fair dinkum after all, as this official clip from Honda (below) shows.

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Categories
Motorsports Porsche

Sean Edwards 1986–2013

Sean Edwards

British racing driver Sean Edwards was killed today in an accident at the Queensland Raceway. He was participating in a private test session and was a passenger in a 996 Porsche 911.

The 20-year-old driver suffered life-threatening injuries and is currently in intensive care at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital.

It’s believed Edwards was killed instantly when the car left the circuit and crashed into a tyre wall. Rescue crews took three hours to remove the driver from the wreckage.

Edwards is the current leader of the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup series, a support category to Formula 1, and drove in the winning Black Falcon crew at this year’s Nürburgring 24 Hour Race at the wheel of a Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3.

The 26-year-old Brit was the son of Guy Edwards, who was one of the first on the scene at Niki Lauda’s crash during the 1976 German Grand Prix. Sean worked as a consultant for the movie Rush and also played the role of his father in the film.

He was well liked and numerous motorsport identities from a wide cross section of backgrounds have expressed their sorrow at his passing, including David Brabham, Martin Brundle, Sebastien Ogier, Jason Plato and Mark Webber.

Our thoughts are with his family and friends.

[Source: News Ltd]

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Caterham F1 in pictures Ferrari Lotus McLaren Mercedes-Benz Red Bull Racing Toro Rosso

2013 Japanese Grand Prix in pictures

2013 Japanese Grand Prix

On the surface Sebastian Vettel’s win at the Japanese Grand Prix looked to be a solid victory crafted with determination and a solid strategy. The conspiracy theorists out there would suggest Red Bull’s decision to keep Vettel on a two-stop strategy, while switching Mark Webber to a three-stopper, was all about providing an opportunity for Seb to forge a win from third place, while harming Mark’s chances of a first win for season 2013.

Certainly, Vettel’s own radio calls late in the race asking the team to keep Mark away from him would lend support to that theory. But former Red Bull driver David Coulthard is having none of that, suggesting if it were true that Mark would be telling the world all about it.

All we can do is wonder what would have happened if Mark was able to bully his way past Romain Grosjean with the effectiveness which Vettel did. Instead, it took Mark seven laps to find a way around the Lotus driver by which time any chance of a challenge to Vettel’s lead had been lost.

Which means our regular F1 pictorial update gives us yet another opportunity to look at that bloody finger!

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Categories
Citroen WRC

Robert Kubica earns WRC drive in Wales Rally GB

2013 Rallye de France-Alsace

Former F1 driver Robert Kubica is on track to win the WRC2 world championship. Driving a Citroën DS3 RRC he’s won for of the six events he’s entered this year and needs only a second place finish in the Rally RACC Catalunya to secure the title.

Unsurprisingly, his excellent results have not gone unnoticed, and with the goodwill of Sheikh Khalid Al Qassimi and the blessing of the Citröen World Rally Team, Robert will drive a DS3 WRC at the season-ending Wales Rally GB in mid-November.

Kubica and co-driver Maciek Baran, will drive Khalid Al Qassimi’s car who will stand aside from the event to make provide the opportunity.

“This one-off outing for the works team is a great opportunity for me, but it’s also a huge challenge,” revealed Robert. “Wales Rally GB wasn’t part of my original programme, so I’m very happy to be able to have this precious experience. I would like to take this opportunity to thank my partners, and especially the Lotos Group and Citroën Racing for having made this possible.”

Earlier this year Robert said his sights were firmly set on securing a return to Formula 1, we wonder if the promise of a full-time WRC drive, were it to be offered, would make him reconsider his career ambitions?

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Categories
Porsche

Derek Bell drives the Porsche 956 at the Nürburgring

Derek Bell drives the Porsche 956 at the Nurburgring

Earlier this year the memory of Stefan Bellof was honoured with the renaming of Pflantzgarten II to the Stefan-Bellof-S at the Nürburgring. During qualifying for the 1983 1000km race Bellof clocked a lap time of 6:11.13. More than 30 years later, it’s still the fastest ever lap recorded on the Nordschleife and the only lap to average over 200km/h.

To mark the naming of the Stefan-Bellof-S, Porsche wheeled out its 956.007, the very car Bellof drove in the 1983 1000km race at the Ring. On hand for driving duties was Porsche legend and all round nice guy Derek Bell.

After the break you can ride with Bell on a bridge to gantry lap of the Ring. It’s a comparatively sedate ride, although Bell still gets around at a pretty respectable pace. Your day will be better for watching this!

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Categories
Accessories & Tech MINI

MINI reveals F56 driver assist technology

MINI F56 driver assist systems

Ahead of its mid-November launch MINI has released information on the driver assistance technology to be found inside the all-new F56 model. In doing so we get a small preview of the car’s interior, at least the central screen in which much of the technology is viewed or accessed.

For the first time MINI will feature a head-up display. This will be projected onto a small folding screen in front of the driver, rather than on the windscreen as seen in similar systems.

Other technology includes collision and pedestrian warning with city braking function, speed limit info, traffic sign memory and no passing info, video-based speed and distance regulation, park assist, rear view camera and digital headlight assist.

Much of this technology relies on inbuilt cameras interpreting signs on the side of the road and filtering it into the driver’s in-car viewing. We wonder how accurate or useable these systems will really be.

More detail and pictures can be found after the break.

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