Buying a used car anywhere in the world is
always a problem. In Thailand it is even harder. I received
this letter the other week from an ex-pat looking for a
Peugeot.
“Dear Automania, I read the newspaper
every week and enjoy your Automania column. I have been here
in Chiang Mai for about four months and have been debating
whether to buy a car. I have been very uneasy about driving
here but am gradually getting used to it. Then there comes the
problem of finding a car here. I have visited a number of used
car yards but am much more comfortable with buying directly
from owners via classified ads. Do you have any tips for used
car buyers here? What about people who may only be staying a
year or two? Are there any lease or buy back schemes. This
might be a useful topic for your column.
I have noticed a couple of Peugeot 504 Dual
Cab pickups here in Chiang Mai. They are very unusual in
Australia (my home) and as a Peugeot and French car lover, I
would love to buy one of these if I am going to buy any car.
How do I find a car like this to buy? What do you think of the
possibility of shipping it home in about 18 months time, and
reselling it as an oddity in Australia, in an attempt to
recover my purchase and shipping costs. Does this sound like a
reasonable proposition to you?
I thank you in advance for your time in
responding to my questions.
Yours sincerely,
Hugh Stewart”
Well Hugh, if you don’t know enough about
cars to spot the dogs in the car yard, it is a case of getting
someone who does know to look at the vehicle. A couple of
thousand baht spent with the workshop people to get them to
look any car over is always money well spent. As far as
shipping it out of Thailand and selling it in Oz as an oddity
- forget it, Mate! The Aussie car market doesn’t buy
‘orphans’ and never has. They’d be worth next to
nothing, but ask someone in Australia to look up Peugeots in
Glass’ Guide to Used Car Prices, to confirm this. Lease-back
schemes with a guaranteed buy-back figure are generally only
for new cars. Happy hunting.
Autotrivia Quiz
Last week I mentioned that wings are now
commonplace in race cars of all categories, and the company
that started the craze with wings, as we know them today, was
American. This company had really begun developing and
refining an idea that had been used over a decade previously,
but not used as an aerodynamic aid for cornering. What I
wanted to know was what was the item that was the forerunner
of the wings, and what was it used for - and on what cars? The
answers were the American company Chapparal with the movable
flap at the back of the car that was used as air-brakes, but
the Mercedes 300 SLR in the mid fifties had this many years
before.
So to this week. And it is certainly
difficult to stump some of you. MacAlan Thompson has the most
incredible web-crawling spider out there! Right, here we go -
the leaping cat is the bonnet mascot associated with the
Jaguar marque, but another make used the leaping cat mascot in
1954. Clue - it was American. What was this car?
For the Automania FREE beer this week, be
the first correct answer to email [email protected]
Good luck!
Canadian GP
this weekend
The travelling Eff Wun circus has travelled
across the pond to the Gilles Villeneuve Circuit in Canada for
this weekend’s round. This is an interesting and challenging
circuit, at which more than one ex-champion has found a wall
waiting for him.
In the past, the Canadian GP’s were held
at Mosport Park, but in 1978 the new circuit was constructed
on a man-made island which had been used in the 1967 Expo.
Originally named the Ile Notre Dame circuit, the location is
one of the loveliest in Formula One with the narrow track
threading its way through lakes and parkland. It is a narrow,
medium-fast, 4.4 km circuit with 13 corners which has changed
only in minor detail since being built. A new corner before
the pits was added in 1991 and a chicane was added in 1994.
The circuit was named in memory of Gilles Villeneuve
(Jacques’ father) who was killed in 1982.
Now here’s your
opportunity to own a bit of F1
The bagpipes are sometimes described as
“an ill wind that nobody blows any good”, but the ill wind
that rushed up Tom Walkinshaw’s kilt when the Arrows F1 team
went titzup last year is going to blow some people some good.
In July, the auctioneers Wyles Hardy are
flogging off a few old cars that they found parked out the
back of the Arrows workshop. For example, there is Damon
Hill’s spare Arrows A18, and a Ligier JS41 show car,
there’s an ex-Michael Schumacher 193B, while Jos
Verstappen’s 1996 FA 17 is up for grabs in addition to a
whole host of other race cars including several Ford Capri’s
with the V6 quad cam engines and even a rice burning RX7.
You can have a look at them all at the
following web address, http://www.wyles-hardy.co.uk/equipment2.html#twr2
How quick
are the current bunch of F1 drivers?
To begin with, let’s say that this year
all of them are quick (unlike previous years when one driver
couldn’t make the 107% cut off and even had to be replaced
for a couple of races as he was too slow). However, some are
definitely quicker than others, and the litmus test is whether
the driver is quicker or slower than his team mate. The
Minardi’s might be dogs of motor cars, for example, but both
the drivers get a puppy!
The following table I gleaned from
www.pitpass.com and it shows the average difference in
qualifying times between the two drivers in each team. The
faster driver is mentioned first.
WilliamsF1 Montoya - R Schumacher 0.194
Ferrari M Schumacher - Barrichello 0.201
BAR Button - Villeneuve 0.240
McLaren Raikkonen - Coulthard 0.327
Sauber Heidfeld - Frentzen 0.338
Minardi Verstappen - Wilson 0.362
Toyota Panis - da Matta 0.422
Jaguar Webber - Pizzonia 0.684
Jordan Fisichella - Firman 1.229
Renault Trulli - Alonso 1.322
In F1 terms, quarter of a second is a long
way. At a circuit where the cars are averaging 160 kph, the
quarter of a second slower driver is losing around 15 metres
every lap. That is equivalent to being one km behind at the
end of the race.
Now look at the table and have a gander at the eight
drivers who are over 0.24 seconds slower on average -
Villeneuve, Coulthard, Frentzen, Wilson, da Matta, Pizzonia,
Firman and Alonso. What is the future holding for those guys?
For my money, Villeneuve, Coulthard and Frentzen have all
passed their use-by date. All good drivers, but both getting
on in years (in F1 terms) and won’t get quicker - just the
reverse. Wilson and da Matta are new to F1, but will have to
improve if they are going to keep an F1 seat in 2004. Pizzonia
is already under a cloud, but having the talent of Webber in
the same team must be undermining his confidence, but I say
he’s a doubtful for 2004 as well. Firman is just not making
the grade and so it will be goodnight nurse for him too at the
end of the year (unless he comes up with another huge swag of
gold to give to Eddie Jordan). The final one is Alonso. The
young Spaniard has been on the podium this year, but seems
very erratic in qualifying. He’ll still be there next year,
despite his ups and downs. The oracle has spoken!
