Categories
Volkswagen

Volkswagen Golf VII GTD revealed

Volkswagen Golf VII GTD

Volkswagen is yet another manufacturer to show off its wares ahead of the Geneva Motor Show, with the release of information for the new Mk7 Golf GTD. The GTD follows the same proven path as the Mk6 model, whereby they’ve pretty much taken a new GTI and swapped over the 2.0 litre petrol engine for a turbo diesel of the same capacity.

In the transition to the seventh-generation Golf, the GTD has been given a modest power increase, up 10kW to 135kW. Torque has also been boosted, by 30Nm to a new maximum of 380Nm, available from 1750rpm. All this has been achieved while slashing fuel consumption as well. Fitted with a 6-speed manual Volkswagen says the GTD will use just 4.2l/100km, while the 6-speed DSG is rated at 4.7l/100km.

The good news keeps on coming, too, with the sprint to 100km/h being reduced from 8.1 seconds to a new mark of 7.5 seconds. The new engine also meets EU6 emissions standards, which aren’t due to be introduced for a few years yet.

It’s all pretty standard fare from Volkswagen in many respects. We expect the GTD will be a very competent warm hatch able to cater to almost all the needs of its owner. And we reckon it looks pretty good as well.

There’ll probably be more details from Geneva, until then there’s some introductory guff from VW after the break.

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Porsche

See and hear the 991 Porsche 911 GT3

991 Porsche 911 GT3 prototype
991 Porsche 911 GT3 prototype

The Rennlist forum has come up trumps with some excellent, and hopefully reliable, details on the new 991-based Porsche 911 GT3. The information comes from an anonymous source who claims to have met Porsche engineers at the workshop you see above.

In dot point form here is what our new best friend was allegedly told:

  • 3.8 litre engine is a brand new engine with dry sump (not DFI 9A1 or Mezger)
  • Engine will form basis of next-generation Cup cars
  • Redline 9,000rpm, tacho reads to 10,000rpm (as shown above)
  • Power is more than 450hp (335kW), but wouldn’t confirm
  • Completely different PDK transmission
  • No Porsche Torque Vectoring (PTV) in test car pictured
  • No Porsche Dynamic Chassis Control (PDCC) in test car
  • Wide body chassis used from Carrera 4
  • Car pictured is a Clubsport version with rear cage fitted
  • Recaro seats, foldable (not one piece)
  • Rear wing is fixed and manually adjustable, similar to 997.2 GT3, but has been refined
  • Air scoop is centre feeding
  • Car retains previous three-piece muffler, side mufflers look same as before, with a new smaller centre piece
  • Test car pictured running Dunlop Sport MAXX tyres (245/20 front, 305/20 rear)
  • Wheels feature centre locks
  • New brake system, with enormous front calipers, disc is alternating drilled size
  • Rear control arms look like the ones in the 997 GT cars
  • ESC (electronic stability control), TC (traction control), sport exhaust, PDK-S (shown on the centre console)
  • Nürburgring lap times around 7 minutes 30 seconds

That all looks pretty good, we’re sure you’ll agree. And judging by the audio clip below this new 3.8 litre engine sounds the business as well. In addition, there’s a few more spy shots after the break.

[audio:http://www.ausmotive.com/audio/Porsche-991-GT3.mp3]

[Source: Rennlist]

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Categories
Formula 1 Mercedes-Benz

Hamilton fastest on Day 4 in Barcelona

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG F1 W04

In cool and damp conditions Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time in his Mercedes AMG during F1 testing in Barcelona overnight. Rain and red flags caused as many as eight interruptions throughout the day.

The 2008 world champion posted his best lap (1:23.282) in the morning session on medium compound tyres. Former teammate Jenson Button (McLaren, 1:23.633) was second quickest ahead of Jean-Eric-Vergne (Toro Rosso, 1:24.071).

Mark Webber (Red Bull, 1:27.616) could only manage the eighth quickest lap. Although, he later claimed it was still a fruitful day. “We got a lot of good stuff done today. The boys did a great job—the best I’ve seen them, I think, so all credit to them,” he said.

Day 4 times were well down on the rest of the week, which saw Sergio Perez (McLaren, 1:21.848) claim the fastest lap of the week on Day 2, narrowly ahead of Fernando Alonso’s (Ferrari, 1:21.875) best on Day 3.

Speaking after Day 4 Hamilton sounded a little frustrated at the conditions, but overall he seems happy with the progress being made with his new team.

“The conditions today meant that we didn’t complete as many laps we would have done in the dry but we have gone through the test items that we wanted to achieve this week.

“We have been working on our consistency over long runs and we managed one run this morning on dry tyres; the car felt okay but the conditions were also very cool, so we cannot draw too many conclusions.

“From a personal point of view, my relationship with the team is growing all the time and it’s going really well. I’m happy working with the guys, we are working in the right direction together and I’m pushing to extract the most from the team, just like they are with me.”

Pre-season testing resumes back in Barcelona next week (28 February–3 March).

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Categories
Porsche

Porsche 911 GT3 details emerge ahead of Geneva debut

Porsche 911 GT3 prototype spied in Spain

The 991-based Porsche 911 GT3 will be revealed to the world at the Geneva Motor Show. Word on the street says a Porsche dealer with loose lips has leaked a few GT3 details.

First, the good news, of sorts. The 991 GT3 will be powered by a 450hp 3.8 litre flat six able to reach 100km/h in only 3.5 seconds. Reportedly the new 911 GT3 can lap the Nürburgring in 7 minutes 34 seconds. According to the unofficial database on Wikipedia, that would be a six second improvement over the 997.2 GT3, but still around 15 seconds slower than the Nissan GT-R.

It’s also expected the new GT3 will feature a revolutionary rear-wheel steering system. What is new and revolutionary about that we shall have to wait and see.

Now, the bad news. Earlier reports the 991 911 GT3 would drop it’s manual transmission in favour of a PDK ‘box appear to be accurate. I don’t care that I’ll never be able to afford a GT3, I’m still going to be pissed off at Porsche if they don’t offer a manual box in their most desirable car!

[Source: GTspirit]

Categories
Formula 1 Lotus McLaren

What’s going on here then?

Cheeky Lotus engineer snaps photo of McLaren MP4-28 in Barcelona

During our rounds this morning we came across this wonderful photo which was published to twitter last night by XPB Images.

It shows a cheeky Lotus engineer snapping a photo of the rear suspension on the McLaren MP4-28. What adds to the image, though, is Jenson Button watching in his wing mirror while McLaren engineers rcae down pit lane to apprehend the Lotus spy.

It’s a simple image in many ways, but has perfectly captured the sense of panic from the McLaren staffers.

[Source: twitter]

Categories
Ferrari Formula 1

Alonso fastest on Day 3 in Barcelona

Fernando Alonso, Ferrari F138

Fernando Alonso topped the timesheets in his Ferrari F138 in an industrious day F1 pre-season testing in Barcelona overnight.

Alonso’s time of 1:21.875 was set on soft tyres in the morning session. Most teams concentrated on race simulations in the afternoon and this was the first day of testing in Barcelona that saw no overall improvement in times after the informal lunch break.

Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber, 1:22.160) will be pleased with his second placing on the lap charts, he was ahead of a busy Romain Grosjean (Lotus, 1:22.188).

After his day was done Alonso said: “Today we concentrated on a comparison of the compounds, starting with the Soft and moving on to the Hard in the afternoon. The track was colder than yesterday, especially in the morning, which made it harder to adapt the car and find the right grip level.

We tried various aerodynamic configurations and for the first time, we made some set-up changes to get a good understanding of tyre behaviour and degradation. With every change we made, the car reacted as I expected and it was useful to try out the different settings, especially to understand which direction we need to go in next week, when there will be a greater emphasis on performance.

Once again this year, the tyres will be one of the crucial aspects to manage: they are softer and quicker, but also less consistent and they degrade rapidly with every lap.”

Meanwhile, the best Mark Webber (Red Bull, 1:23.024) could manage was ninth quickest, over 1.1 seconds from Alonso’s best. But the popular Aussie was still happy with his 108 laps completed.

“We had a pretty good run today, we’re learning plenty, so a positive outing for us,” said Mark. “Overall the car ran smoothly and once again we amassed a huge amount of data for the guys back at the factory to go through. We’d like to get a bit more mileage tomorrow in the dry, but that doesn’t look like it’s going to happen, it looks like it will be wet.”

Webber reinforced Alonso’s earlier comments regarding tyre degradation and said it’s still too early to tell who will be the team to beat in 2013.

“As usual at tests, the question of the pecking order comes up all the time but, honestly, I have no idea,” Webber said. “There are a few quick cars out there, but in winter testing it’s so hard to say if anyone’s better than anyone else, especially with the tyres going off the way they are—you’re losing four or five seconds over the course of a stint, so figuring out who’s doing what is pretty difficult. All we can do is keep pushing, keep developing and keep our eyes fixed on the first race.”

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Categories
Porsche Video

It’s got an appetite for it!

Chris Harris reviews the Porsche Cayman S

The Porsche Cayman S is very close to the top of our Lotto wish list. Chris Harris, in perhaps not his best review ever, does a pretty good job of explaining why.

You’ll enjoy this one.

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Categories
Audi

Audi RS Q3 revealed

Audi RS Q3

Audi has released information on the production-ready RS Q3, which will debut in Geneva next month. It’s the first of Audi’s Q series to wear RS badging and overall it looks pretty good, that’s if a balls-out smallish SUV floats your boat.

The RS Q3 is powered by Audi’s noted 2.5 litre inline 5 cylinder turbo, also found in the TT RS. Although in Q3 guise the five-pot has been reined in to produce 228kW/420Nm, down from 250kW/450Nm in the TT.

Despite a porky 1730kg kerbweight Audi says the RS Q3 can reach 100km/h in 5.5 seconds and, if you potter about slowly in front of your child’s school showing off to the other mums, you can sip fuel at just 8.8l/100km. That task will be made a bit easier, too, thanks to the standard 7-speed S tronic.

Last year Audi presented the RS Q3 concept and sadly from that model we’ve lost an exhaust tip and some power. The single oval tip doesn’t work as well in our opinion. Having said that, the styling of the RS Q3 is smart and straight from the Audi RS playbook. It’s squat appearance, accentuated by the 25mm drop in ride height, gives the RS Q3 a sense of purpose; even if it may not actually have one.

The RS Q3 is coming to Australia early next year and while Audi Australia is keeping mum about the price they have revealed it will be the first RS model sold here for less than $100,000.

Pencil in a starting price of $99,990 then.

We never did get around to finishing that review on the Q3 2.0 TFSI quattro we drove last year (shame on us), but up to about seven tenths the Q3 surprised with its general handling capabilities. Beyond that things became a little mushy. We expect the engineers from quattro GmbH will have sorted those issues to a degree, let’s hope it hasn’t come at the expense of general comfort.

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Categories
Formula 1 McLaren

Perez fastest on Day 2 in Barcelona

Sergio Perez, McLaren MP4-28

Sergio Perez is finding his new digs at McLaren to his liking after putting the MP4-28 in the spotlight in Barcelona overnight.

The Mexican ace set the fastest time in testing on a one lap dash in the afternoon (1:21.848), which was posted on Soft compound tyres.

Once again Sebatsian Vettel and Red Bull were the team to beat in the morning (1:22.197), only to be pipped for the day’s best time in the afternoon session.

Kimi Raikkonen ate ice cream and watched his Lotus mechanics faff about with his gearbox in the morning before being rudely awoken to run 43 laps in the latter part of the day. He still managed the third fastest time (1:22.697).

It’s interesting to note the times from Day 2 are more spread out than yesterday’s, which saw Nico Rosberg head a quarter spread by only 0.35s.

There’s no comments from Perez on McLaren’s official test report, but the team, statement explained the day like this:

“As usual, the morning kicked off with a series of shorter runs, aimed at gaining the engineers a better understanding of the car’s track-to-tunnel aero correlation and its reaction to a series of mechanical set-up changes.

“Into the afternoon, the team ran through a number of longer runs – these were aimed at providing Sergio with a better understanding of the methods and systems that will be used by the race team during a race weekend, including cockpit switch adjustments and understanding radio messaging.”

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Categories
McLaren

McLaren P1 hypercar to boast 903bhp

McLaren P1

Ooh, it’s so exciting. The McLaren versus Ferrari road car bitch fight is going to be epic to watch.

Earlier today we brought word the forthcoming Ferrari F150 will be bloody expensive, bloody powerful and bloody exclusive. Now, we can fill you in on some details of the McLaren P1. Like the F150 it uses a hybrid system and all told the P1’s oily and electrical bits combine to produce 903bhp (916PS or 673kW).

How do the McLaren boffins do it? Well we’re glad you asked. The magic of two turbos helps to give the 3.8 litre V8 petrol engine 727bhp, while the lightweight electric motor provides a further 176bhp. All told there is 900Nm of torque to play with as well, 260Nm of that is available instantly thanks to the electric motor.

Of course, we’re not allowed to call it just an electric motor—Ron wouldn’t be so plain—rather  we must refer to it as the Instant Power Assist System. It has its own steering wheel button. Also on the wheel is a DRS button which has been inspired by its F1 namesake and reduces drag by 23%.

As you can see from the image above the battery pack for IPAS is mounted forward of the engine. It weighs 96kg and is enveloped by the P1’s carbon fibre MonoCage chassis, helping McLaren keep the system’s overall weight to a minimum.

It looks like we’ll be getting at least one more official P1 update from McLaren before the car makes its full debut in Geneva early next month.

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Categories
Ferrari

Seven-figure Ferrari F150 already sold out

Ferrari F70 teaser

Ferrari F70 teaser

We’re yet to officially see the new Ferrari F150, the much anticipated successor to the Enzo. It’s expected Ferrari will produce only 499 F150s and according to Fiat CEO, Sergio Marchionne, the car is already sold out.

Not a bad effort for a car which will likely have an asking price of €1 million. That equates to $1.3 million of our money. Although, should any F150s find their way down under expect the driveaway price to be much closer, or even beyond, $2 million. Scary!

Still, in exchange for your seven figures Ferrari will oblige with an intoxicating 900hp supplied by a 6.3 litre V12 and HY-KERS electric hybrid system. Hmm, that sounds very tempting, shame they’re all sold.

[Source: Automotive News Europe]

Categories
Formula 1 Mercedes-Benz

Rosberg fastest on Day 1 in Barcelona

Nico Rosberg, Mercedes-AMG F1 W04

Nico Rosberg has put Mercedes’ underwhelming efforts from Jerez behind him, along with everyone else, to put the F1 W04 on top of the timesheets after the first day of pre-season testing in Barcelona overnight.

It was close at the top, though, with Rosberg (1:22.616) narrowly edging out Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus, 1:22.672). Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) enjoyed his first day behind the wheel in 2013, racking up 110 laps and the day’s third best time. While Sebastien Vettel (Red Bull) kept in touch, fourth quickest, some 0.35s off Rosberg’s best.

It’s probably also worth noting that the best four lap times were set on Pirelli’s medium compound tyres.

Pastor Maldonado’s first day out in the new Williams FW35 was not too shabby, finishing fifth best, although over 1.1 seconds off the pace.

Rosberg’s day didn’t start that well, with concerns over his car’s gearbox. You get the feeling it could be another mixed bag for Mercedes in 2013.

“We had a mixed day today with some laps lost this morning. However we were able to work through a good program this afternoon and, of course, it’s always nice to be quickest at the end of the day,” Rosberg said. “In general, I feel happy and comfortable in the car and it feels better than the last time we were here at this track. There is still some work to be done on tyre degradation and our program this afternoon was helpful in understanding that.”

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