Asian Festival of Speed

The Thailand rounds of the Asian Festival of Speed have been and gone, and it was certainly an “interesting” weekend. As one wag put it - he went to the fights and a motor race broke out! This was because after Round 9 of the Asian Touring Car Championship a decent scuffle ensued in the pits between two drivers, which ended up with a couple of exclusions, a USD 1000 fine and a two race suspension for both. Actually, they were very lucky. A similar episode in Oz would have seen the guy who landed the first punch getting a 12 months holiday from the sport.

Series leader Nattavud

The class act of the weekend was Nattavud in the Peugeot 306 entered by W.K. Longman Racing. Over half a second quicker than anyone else after qualifying he literally just ran away and hid in Round 9. He could have stopped for tea and biscuits he was so far ahead, almost 30 seconds at the flag. 2nd was local Bira driver Apathorn in the Honda Civic, while Lo in the Honda Integra was third after a storming drive from way down in the field after a disastrous qualifying session.

Round 10 saw Apathorn anticipate the start by only about 5 seconds to lead the surprised field away, while Nattavud was shunted down the order to be 12th at the end of lap 1. With his huge “lead”, Apathorn could not be headed, but the 60 second penalty applied by the stewards brought him back to the pack. Nattavud methodically carved his way through the field and ended up convincingly winning Round 10 as well as Round 9. Since he was already the joint leader after Round 8, this has left him with a good lead in the Championship for the final half of the series. Nattavud is the current Thailand Touring Car champion with the Toyota Corolla and is a really nice guy, as well as being an excellent driver, and I hope that he can pull off the Asian series as well.

Rounds 9 and 10 of the Asian Formula 2000 open wheeler series were also run at Bira, with Nazir and Chandhok being very close all weekend. Nazir was marginally quicker in qualifying and was hounded all the way to the flag by Chandhok in Round 9. Round 10 looked to be a repeat performance, with Chandhok all over the back of Nazir, however, with three laps to go they came across a lapped car and Nazir was momentarily baulked and Chandhok was through and sailed off into the distance. At the post race conference Chandhok was openly critical of his rival for the AF2000 championship, claiming weaving and other obstructionist tactics had been used, and after watching some deliberate movements on the straight, I would have to agree with the young Indian driver.

Autotrivia Quiz Last week I recalled the TV series called “The Saint” with Roger Moore. The Saint’s vehicle was a Volvo P 1800, remember? The producer was Sir Lew Grade and he wanted an E Type Jaguar to be the Saint’s transport, and I asked why did Roger Moore end up with a Volvo instead? That was an easy one. At that stage Jaguar could sell every E Type they managed to build, and Sir William Lyons was not interested in handing over a free one to a TV producer, even if he were to become another knight of the realm. Volvo, however, jumped at it and the P1800 has become a collectors item ever since. E Type Jaguar So to this week, and let’s stay with the UK. 15 years before the Audi Quattro there was a GT high performance car built in the UK offering 4WD and the revolutionary Dunlop ‘Maxaret’ braking system. It was hailed as the safest high performance car in the world. What was it? For the Automania FREE beer this week, be the first correct answer to fax 427 596 or email automania@pattayamail.com By the way, Sean Jehan from the Channel Islands in the UK has been racking up “First Ins” as well as Eric Servaes from Belgium and MacAlan Thompson just outside Bangkok has had a couple of near misses (and a win) as well. As these columns are written well ahead of deadline it is not possible for me to acknowledge the lucky winner of last week’s quiz in this week’s Automania, however, I do acknowledge the winners by personal email. So if you didn’t get a personal message - you weren’t first in!

Toyota also Russian for the red roubles New player, Toyota Motor Russia, capitalised at $1 million, is gearing up to start operations in Russia in the spring of 2002. The target is for 20,000 vehicles annually, accounting for about 10% of the total expected 200,000 vehicles imported. Last year, Toyota’s share of the Russian import market was a fairly insignificant 3% with only 2,307 units sold. The Japanese made Land Cruiser 100 and RAV4 and British made Avensis models are currently imported into Russia and sold by Toyota Tsusho and Japanese trading house Sumitomo Corp., with 11 sales outlets; however, Toyota has operated service centres in Russia since 1991, with currently 21 of them.

James Bond is back in Aston Martins

Following on from my piece in last week’s Automania regarding the (now Ford owned) Aston Martin Vanquish, MGM must have been reading it on the web because they have decided that in the new James Bond movie, to be made in the UK’s Pinewood Studios, the hero will be Aston Martin mounted. Pierce Brosnan as the oh so cool Bond will be driving the Aston Martin Vanquish, forsaking the BMW’s that have been used for the past three Bond movies, after a reputed $30 million had changed hands.

Aston Martin Vanquish

After what must have been a master stroke or some other coup, Ford Motor Corp have scooped the pool with the new movie, with even the “baddie” in a FoMoCo product, driving one of the latest offerings from Jaguar.

This is the fourth Aston Martin driven by British secret agent 007, starting with a DB5 for the 1964 film Goldfinger that was fitted optional extras like ejector seats and rockets. Alas, private owners could not get these “extra” options!

Wolfgang Reitzle, who heads Ford’s exotic car division, said the film-going public associated Bond with Aston Martin. “When people think of James Bond, the first car they think of is Aston Martin. For all of us that love the 007 films, it is great news that Bond is back driving an Aston Martin, this time our latest and most sophisticated model ever,” said Reitzle, who was pushed out of a senior position at BMW in 1999 and went over to join FoMoCo. It was not reported as to whether Mr. Reitzle was blowing raspberries at the time!

The new film is to be released next year with Pierce Brosnan in the starring role for the fourth time. Production is to begin at Britain’s Pinewood Studios in January.

Happy days ahead for Hyundai? South Korean automaker, Hyundai is pre-empting the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) with plans to expand in SE Asia to take advantage of the presumed implementation of AFTA in 2003. Hyundai Accent Hyundai already have assembly plants in Malaysia and Indonesia and the company now wants to venture into the Philippines and Thailand with smaller CKD operations. Indonesia is the company’s biggest market in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), but Hyundai’s director for Asia operations, Kim Kwan Jong said Hyundai has been unable to invest in the region as much as its Japanese rivals due to financial problems in South Korea. “Japanese carmakers have invested so much here. I think it (AFTA) will give us a good chance to start from scratch as long as we efficiently plan our future strategies,” he said. Under AFTA, tariffs among the most developed ASEAN members are due to fall to below five percent at the start of 2003; however, Malaysia has obtained a two-year reprieve for its fledgling auto industry, postponing its entry till 2005. This year, Kim said Hyundai projected global sales to rise to 1.7 million units, up from 1.4 million last year. It forecast a global turnover of 19 billion dollars this year, about 30 percent higher than 2000. In further expansionist moves, Hyundai Motor said it would export 70,000 compact passenger cars to Russia over the next five years via CKD to be reassembled there. Hyundai’s Russian partner Doninvest Corp would assemble the compact Accent models for sale within Russia. Hyundai also said it would begin sales of its Santa Fe and Terrano sport-utility vehicles, new EF Sonata sedans and its Matrix minivans in Russia after unveiling them at the Moscow Motor Show this year.