Next year’s race calendar in Thailand

The 2002 season for the Thailand Grand Touring Cars kicks off on May 4th and 5th with Round 1 of the series. Round 2 will be on June 22nd and 23rd, Round 3 August 24th and 25th, Round 4 October 5th and 6th and the final round on December 7th and 8th.

Sport Grand Champion cars

These meetings, promoted by AIM Racing are the most professional and slick racing events in Thailand and will also feature the Concept 1 race cars and the Sport Grand Champion series.

More about these meetings next year, but you can pencil those dates into the 2002 calendar now.

Your first car?

If you are a motoring person, you will remember your first car, almost like your first girlfriend - mine was called Edith Simpson, and she had a lisp. I think we were about five years old, but I digress.

My first car was an 11 year old 1949 Austin A40 Devon sedan. In Australia, the A40 tourer was all the rage with the young bloods, but I couldn’t afford the ragtop variant. It cost me 155 Australian pounds and I had saved for two years to get the money together. You know the usual things - pumped petrol at the weekends, refused to take girls to the movies (unless they paid) and was generally tighter than a fish’s anus.

The A40 was black, with pale leather upholstery and red carpets. I called it “Geronimo” because it made engine noises (“injun” - get it?), generally from piston slap, but the timing chain was a bit rattley as well.

I had only had it a few weeks when I managed to fold a piston. On stripping the engine, it needed a rebore, 4 new pistons with rings and new bearings. A valve grind was also in order, all well beyond the means of a starving medical student.

However, in every cloud there is a silver lining. Walking mournfully past the local garage, the old mechanic I knew asked what was wrong. I told him the sad tale and he said he would come round that Sunday morning. He arrived, complete with tow rope and dragged Geronimo to his house, where he had a mountain of second hand bits. These were parts taken from customer vehicles - used, slightly worn, but still serviceable.

I worked with him every night for a week and my A40 left at the end of the time with four new (second hand) pistons, valve grind, new(er) timing chain and ticking over like the proverbial Swiss watch.

With the warning from him to take it easy, Geronimo was unmercifully thrashed for the next two years, living on a strange brew of crude petroleum and ether that I used to concoct in biochemistry classes and smuggled out, 1 litre at a time, in the pocket of my lab coat. In retrospect, it must have been a helluva low compression engine to survive that diet. But ah, the things we do to keep driving, despite a spectacular lack of ready cash.

The next car was a 1953 Ford Customline, a side valve engined giant heap of metal and after that the first of my long line of MG’s - an MGTC. Open air motoring at last!

So what was your first car? If you have some anecdotes about your “first” drop me a line to [email protected]

Autotrivia Quiz Last week I asked about a company that was established in Japan in 1907 to manufacture and sell internal combustion engines. In 1930 it began producing 3 wheel vehicles and in 1951 changed its name to - what? I said that the company was still going strong today and vehicle sales were over 10 million. What was the name of the company? It was Daihatsu - that’s who! By the way, the quiz Ferrari a few weeks back really got some people doing the research. Sean Jehan from the Channel Islands even finding one in his home town. Well done, Sean. So to this week. Take a look at the picture. This car was launched in Turin at the Motor Show in 1984. It featured a magnesium cased Hewland transaxle and something else about its transmission to make it a very notable road car for the Ford Motor Company. What is the car and what was so notable from FoMoCo’s point of view about the transmission? For the Automania FREE beer this week, be the first correct answer to fax 427 596 or email [email protected]

Lexus SC 430

Our Down-under correspondent, John Weinthal, has long been a fan of the Lexus brand. A few weeks ago I ran his report on the small Lexus - here is the top of the range, as sold in Australia. You can get an LS 430 (the sedan model) in this country at a tad under 8 million baht, and I reckon you would have to throw another couple of mill on top to get the SC model, so start saving your satangs now! Here are the Words from Weinthal.

“Lexus’ newest star - the LS430 coupe/convertible - could justifiably grace the display cabinet of a superior jewellers or fashion accessory house. While undoubtedly meeting most definitions of a car, this AUD 162,000 supertoy, totally foregoes practicality in the pursuit of a new style of ground-based transportation for two.

“Too svelte to be a sports car; virtually bootless, thus barely a grand tourer, the SC430 creates - and more than fills - a niche which is sure to wheel its way into the carports of many of the well-heeled. It is already in mega-demand in the USA.

Lexus SC430

“This Lexus combines the highest levels of engineering excellence and safety with strikingly independent styling, exquisite detailing, subtle luxurious interior design and a build quality matched by few if any other cars. Lexus calls it the outcome of a pursuit for perfection - few will argue.

“However, as a car it is surely a dead loss in any conventional sense. For all practical considerations it is a two seater with four-head restraints. That boot-looking projection behind the cabin is simply the storage area for the folding aluminium roof. Beyond that, it just accommodated a briefcase and a couple of cameras in a soft bag.

“To be fair, a petite pair of Japanese ladies declared themselves comfortable in the rear seats, but it was more than squeezy for the two average Aussie guys up front when space was achieved even for their dainty legs. Any journey beyond about 20km would have induced severe cramp!

“But none of this mattered in the slightest over one of the most impassioned motoring weeks I can recall. Everybody - with the notable exception of my wife - voted it a magnificent manifestation of the motor car as an indulgent end in itself; elegant, classy, distinctive, supremely comfortable for two and oozing quality. Few cars have drawn more requests for a ‘quickie around the block’ - and it was a pleasure to share the experience. Into every life should come something like this - if only for a fleeting moment.

“One could bore on over engineering specifications and gadgetry. I shan’t. A sublimely silken 210kW 4.3 litre quad cam V8 engine drives the rear wheels through an ultra-smooth five-speed automatic transmission. Beyond that, let’s just accept that this Lexus has the lot, and a few more beside, like switch-opening for the coin holder, and ever so elegant powered wood grain covers for the satellite navigation and sound system controls, most of which can also be activated from steering wheel mounted switches.

“The SC430 is based on the excellent Lexus GS300 saloon platform. On the road, one can call on stunning acceleration for safe overtaking, marvel at the tenacious grip despite some minor body roll, and enjoy a serious level of hush from all sources even with the hood retracted.

“But not all is perfect, even from Toyota’s currently ultimate dream machine. Camry-familiar column controls look and feel decidedly down-market; the anything but user-friendly sat-nav system has a touch control screen which ensures that in many lighting conditions all one sees is greasy fingerprints and, while the sound system will impress most, it falls marginally short of the astounding standard set by Volvo’s best. All that means is that at near ear-splitting volume there is some minor distortion!

“The SC430 is not a sports car, but it can be decidedly entertaining and extremely rapid point-to-point, even over really twisty roads. The steering lacks the pin-sharp precision and communication level of the best from BMW; the auto’s manual over-ride impresses less than Mercedes’ remarkably simple and effective system. And a fraction less lean through fast turns should not overly compromise the superb ride.

“We can expect a sharper edge and true sports car values, undoubtedly with some comfort compromises, in the forthcoming Toyota FXS sports car previewed at the recent Tokyo Motor Show. The FXS will be powered by the same 4.3 litre engine. Regardless of these observations, please accept that the SC430 is just about as good as it gets, provided you don’t demand anything approaching practicality from your automotive experience.

“Like BMW’s delicious 330 Coupe and very, very few others, this was one of those rare test cars I genuinely regretted having to return to its owner.”