Here’s
a bit for the patriotic Brits out there. The royal motor fleet is
certainly not parked on the street outside Buck House - the Queen’s
State and private motorcars are housed in the Royal Mews. For official
duties there are eight State limousines, consisting of five Rolls-Royces
and three Daimlers. They are painted in Royal maroon livery and the
Rolls-Royces uniquely do not have registration number plates. Bet Liz
doesn’t get done for what would be a heinous offence by you and me!
The most important State car is the Rolls-Royce Phantom
VI, presented to The Queen in 1978 for her Silver Jubilee by the Society
of Motor Manufacturers and Traders. The oldest car in the fleet is the
Phantom IV, built in 1948, 5.76 litre with a straight eight engine and a
Mulliner body. There is also a 1987 Phantom VI and two identical Phantom V
models built in the early 1960s. These cars all have fittings for the
shield bearing the Royal Coat of Arms and the Royal Standard.
The Queen has her own mascot for use on official cars.
Designed for her by the artist Edward Seago in the form of St George on a
horse poised victorious over a slain dragon, it is made of silver and can
be transferred from car to car as necessary.
So there you go, if you get passed by a maroon Phantom
VI with St George doing the shish kabob on a dragon, remember to wave your
Union Jack.
Autotrivia Quiz
Last week I forgot to include the quiz! Sorry about
that, all you Autotrivialists, so thumb through your past editions of the
Pattaya Mail to two weeks ago when I wrote about the great American race
car driver Barney Oldfield who was given his start in motor racing by
Henry Ford, who had built two 18 litre monsters in 1902. Barney Oldfield
took over the second car, raced and won at the Grosse Point fairground. I
asked what was so remarkable about Barney Oldfield’s first race? The
answer was simple - he had not driven a car before! He said that it
wouldn’t be too difficult as he used to race bicycles! Seems he was
right.
By
1910 Barney Oldfield was a legend in the USA and even held the world land
speed record, set at Daytona in a Benz at over 130 mph. By 1928 the
benchmark had been set by Sir Henry Seagrave at 203 mph in his twin engine
1000 bhp. Up stepped an American, Frank Lockhart, in a Stutz Black Hawk.
This was a radical car, with a twin supercharged V16 engine. This engine
was the smallest capacity to ever attempt the record being only 3 litres.
On its first timed run it did 203.45 mph, but it did not do the necessary
run in the opposite direction. The question this week is why?
For the Automania FREE beer this week, be the first
correct answer to fax 427 596 or email [email protected]
You wanna go racing?
At long last, there is the opportunity for you to have
a lash at driving a purpose built racing car round our local purpose built
race circuit, the Bira International. The Taki Racing School has finally
got off the ground here in Thailand, using the very successful Concept
Series racing cars.
I
met up with Taki and Shinya, his chief instructor, about six months ago
and was impressed with the way they methodically and correctly went about
setting up a business in this country. Both speak excellent English and
Taki is a true “international” with racing schools in Europe and
driver management organizations in Japan, Europe and America.
There are three levels of courses, beginning at only
9000 baht for the “Experience” half day, toe in the water starter for
those who just want to be able to say, “I did it”, get the photo and
lie about it for the rest of your life - “Here’s me at Le Mans...”
You do get a total of 16 laps behind the wheel (and behind the race school
instructor as the ‘pace’ car) after the mandatory classroom work (and
that’s not “The Classroom” in Pattayaland 2 either)!
The High Performance course is naturally more expensive
and takes a complete day. In this you are taught the basics of high
performance driving, including how to “Heel and Toe” and smoothness
behind the wheel. After classroom work and 6 laps behind the pace car to
find the correct lines around the circuit you will get another 24 laps on
your own and unrestricted. You will be supervised from the track edges by
the instructors and advised on any problems you may feel you are having,
or any problems they may see you are having! This is an excellent course
for anyone who has any pretensions of being a “sporting” driver, or
anyone who drives a car with some sporting abilities (like the BMW 323 for
example).
The final course is for someone who wants to go racing
and over the three days of concentrated work you will be brought up to
“entry level” race car driving standards. This Professional course
will teach you starting technique (Coulthard and Hakkinen should enrol
immediately) and you do three race distance sessions on the last day as
well. In total you will get 88 laps behind the wheel and will receive very
detailed track instructions about the Bira Circuit. Your Certificate of
Competency from the Taki Racing School is accepted by the governing body
of motorsport in this country, the Royal Automobile Association of
Thailand, as showing you have reached the practical skills level needed to
go racing.
I have written about the Concept Series racecars
before, and have driven them. They are excellent vehicles, and for anyone
who has never driven a pukka racecar before, this will be an eye-opening
experience. Contact details for the local branch of the Taki Racing School
are in the advertisement this week, and the next scheduled school days are
July 20-21-22.
Auto Assembly Plants - How much money is invested?
Came across the figures for total investment, per
country, in auto assembly plants for the four years 1997 through to 2000.
There were 16 countries in which more than 1 billion USD was invested, and
only three of those countries were in Asia. One was India, with total
investment in the period of 4.6 billion USD, then there was China,
everyone’s darling of the moment at 2.7 billion and the other was
Thailand at 1.7 billion.
Now
while this all looks good for the overall region, I believe that Thailand
is actually in better shape than most. It is stable (relatively!) and the
ownership of the investment can be quantified. The Chinese investor in the
auto stakes on the other hand will find that he will end up with 49% - and
at the end of a ten year period? Probably even less. By law, non-Chinese
companies cannot have majority control of their assembly operations. Even
if like GeeEmm you invest 1.6 billion you don’t get control. Sooner or
later, all joint ventures come to an end. A rosy future? No.
As China opens up to the “free world” market, there
will be market driven forces at work to reduce the costs - and the
profitability. This is happening already, with GM finding it cannot sell
its Chinese Buick Century at anywhere near projected forecasts. Isuzu has
failed to make a profit with its joint venture to build buses in Beijing,
and long-time player (since 1985) Peugeot has also failed. Beijing Jeep
has recorded its lowest sales in twelve years, and Volvo is still
searching for a joint venture partner after five years of negotiations
with Beijing authorities. Nissan Diesel’s joint venture with Dongfeng
Motors produces fewer than 300 heavy trucks a year, a tiny fraction of the
5,000 vehicles forecast by Volvo’s feasibility study.
India? With over 600 million people there’s plenty of
cheap labour over there, but there are not plenty of that same 600 million
that would have enough money to purchase a locally assembled vehicle.
Exports? That requires a very good infrastructure for roads, transport and
communications, something that is not as good as one would hope (or
expect).
So to Thailand. This country shows growth as well as
investment. The infrastructure is here. Japan is here. Ford/Mazda, General
Motors, BMW and DaimlerChrysler are here. Through these companies
additional manufacture is happening - just look at the way GM’s Rayong
facility is going ahead with Alfa Romeo, Subaru, Isuzu (they’re coming,
believe me and probably also Suzuki). Projected figures are that by 2005,
Thailand will be the world’s fastest-growing vehicle exporter.
Production is expected to reach 700,000 units that year and Thailand’s
consumers will purchase more than 500,000 cars and pickup trucks. Things
have been tough, things will still be tough, but the future, I believe, is
here.
For interest, here is the list of world investments -
in USD billions. USA 22, Brazil 11, UK 5, Russia 5, India 4.6, Canada 4.2,
Poland 3.7, Mexico 3.5, China 2.7, Germany 1.4, France 1.7, Thailand 1.7,
Spain 1.4, Australia 1.3, Ukraine 1.1, Turkey 1.
How good are you at pickups?
Thailand is the second largest country in the world as
far as ownership of pickups is concerned. First? America of course. And
what pickups did Thailand prefer last year? Here are the breakdown figures
- Isuzu 35.2%, Toyota 25.5%, Mitsubishi 16.1%, Ford, Mazda 14.1% and
Nissan 9.1%.
