F1 predictions come true
Those readers who follow F1 will remember I predicted that
Mark Webber would go to Red Bull at the end of the year. Red
Bull have now confirmed that Webber will join David
Coulthard in the team next season.
Adrian
Newey and David Coulthard
This is somewhat of a ‘déjà vu’ situation for Webber, as Red
Bull was the team he led when it was known as Jaguar and
owned by Ford. Consequently, he knows much about the team
organization and it will be a welcome back for the
Australian.
Webber had been prepared to stick it out with Williams, but
Sir Frank, never known to be someone who throws money
around, was not prepared to offer Webber enough to stay.
Webber said, “It’s fantastic to be joining Red Bull Racing.
It’s clear that the team is very hungry for long-term
success. I hope that with Red Bull Racing I can have my best
Formula 1 season to date and believe that we can be very,
very strong together. I’m looking forward to some great
times with David and the rest of the team.”
With a new car designed by Adrian Newey (who was once the
most successful designer at McLaren) this could be a very
interesting team to follow. It is well funded, and the
pairing of David Coulthard and Mark Webber should be very
strong. Team boss Christian Horner hailed Coulthard’s
performances saying, “It was an easy decision from both
sides to extend the relationship for 2007. He’s still one of
the best drivers on the grid and we’re delighted to have him
in the team.”
Newey is regarded as the best motorsport designer in the
world, and cars with which he has been involved at Williams
and McLaren have won six drivers’ titles and seven
constructors’ championships since 1992. Coulthard apparently
played a key role last year in persuading Newey to join Red
Bull from McLaren, where the two worked together from
1997-2004.
Webber’s arrival also raises the prospect of Renault engines
next season for Red Bull, as the Australian driver is
managed by Renault boss Flavio Briatore. It also makes
Heikki Kovalainen favourite to replace the McLaren-bound
Fernando Alonso at next season at Renault, who are expected
to miss out on Kimi Raikkonen.
Autotrivia Quiz
Last week I asked which World Land Speed
record driver was a fur broker by profession? A couple of
clues: his car was four wheel drive and an oil company was
involved. The answer was John Cobb (the Railton Mobil
Special) and Peter Eades was first across the line this
week! He had actually driven one of Cobb’s record breakers
as well (illicitly)! Well done, Peter.
So to this week. In the formulae for racing cars in 1906 and
1908, both stipulated weight regulations. The weights were
almost the same (1000 kg and 1100 kg), but what was totally
different?
For the Automania FREE beer this week, be the first correct
answer to email [email protected]
Good luck!
Kia comes out with another new one
Thailand is sitting with fingers crossed, hoping that the
Kia Rio can be brought here as the ultimate econocar, which
is reputedly going to sell for under 500,000 baht.
Kia ED
Now the company is releasing in Europe the Euro ED hatch
which is expected to be joined by a range of station wagons
and sporty high-performance three-door hatchback models from
September and December 2007, respectively.
Based on the Cee’d concept car, the hatch has been designed
with Europe in mind and will make its world debut at the
Paris motor show in September.
Kia has designed and engineered the ED to challenge the
established class leaders in Europe, namely the VW Golf,
Vauxhall Astra and Ford Focus. The ED shares its underbody
architecture with Hyundai and is tipped to replace the
Cerato in Europe.
At 4200 mm long the ED has a 2650 mm wheelbase, and Kia
claims it offers class-leading interior space, plus highly
competitive levels of equipment and state-of-the-art active
and passive safety features.
In Europe, four engines will be available including 1.4
liter, 1.6 liter and 2.0 liter CVVT petrol engines and an
all-new 1.6 liter VGT diesel engine.
Visually the hatch has strong design with kicked-up rear
window, pronounced wedge with a high waistline and
headlights that feed into the bonnet line. The ED will be
built at Kia’s first-ever European manufacturing facility at
Zilina in Slovakia.
Is this the most ridiculous road car ever?
Two ex-McLaren engineers have created the
Caparo T1, a thinly disguiser F1 racer for the road reports
Auto News.
This ridiculous example of performance car overkill carries
two people in two rows and is said to generate so much
downforce that, at 240 km/h, it could be driven upside down
in a tunnel.
Crazy
Caparo
Its makers, the global company Caparo Vehicle
Technologies Limited, employed ex-McLaren engineers Ben
Scott-Geddes and Graham Halstead - who worked on the McLaren
F1, Mercedes SLR and Formula One projects - to “create the
ultimate track day experience”.
This they surely have done, what with a power-weight ratio
(it weighs 470 kg) twice that of the astounding Bugatti
Veyron, which means it will reach 160 km/h in the same time
as a Porsche 911 gets to 100 km/h (that is about 3.6
seconds). Or from zero to 160 km/h, and back to a stop, by
the time even a quick sedan reaches 100 km/h.
The basic structure of the Caparo is fundamentally F1, with
a mid-engine configuration supported at each end by
aerodynamic wishbone suspensions. The adjustable front and
rear wings work in conjunction with the ground effect
diffuser that sucks it so resoundingly onto the road.
The brakes comprise 355 mm steel race discs front and rear
with six and four-pot machined calipers used respectively at
the front and rear. The result is an ability to generate
lateral and braking accelerations in excess of 3 G and a top
speed of better than 320 km/h.
The dry-sumped, 2.4-litre aluminium V8 produces 358 kW at
10,500 rpm and drives through a six-speed sequential
gearbox.
World’s fastest earth mover
The JCB DieselMax has been created to
break the world land speed record for diesel powered
automobiles. JCB is aiming to set a new land speed record
for diesel vehicles with a super sleek streamliner car to be
driven by Wing Commander Andy Green, the fastest man on
Earth.
The
record attempt will take place on the famous Bonneville Salt
Flats in Utah during August 2006. The stunning, nine metre
long JCB DieselMax car boasts twin 4-cylinder, 5-litre
JCB444-LSR engines with the world’s highest specific power
diesel engines used in any automobile application. With each
delivering 750 hp and 1500 Nm torque, the engines are over
five times the power of the production version and at 150
hp/litre, they exceed even motorsports applications as the
world’s highest specific power diesels. At the same time the
engines retain excellent fuel efficiency and very low
emissions through the use of advanced combustion control and
diesel particulate filter technology.
The resulting JCB444-LSR engines exhibit many of the
technologies which are likely to form the basis of the next
generation of high performance, low-emissions diesel engines
in both automotive as well as heavy-duty applications.
Leading the project, codenamed H1, is Dr. Tim Leverton, JCB
Group engineering director, who put together a world-class
design team with extensive experience of Formula One, Le
Mans, advanced diesel technology and transmissions.
Mentor to the project has been Richard Noble, the former
land speed record holder, who encouraged the JCB team to aim
for 300 mph; the existing record stands at 235.756mph.
Sir Anthony Bamford, chairman of privately owned JCB, is
very clear why he wanted to build a JCB record-breaker, “I
am passionate about the importance of engineering excellence
to Britain and I see using the JCB engine for this record
attempt as a fantastic way of showcasing what British
engineers can do. The JCB444 has been acknowledged as a
remarkable piece of engineering, and this programme to build
the world’s fastest diesel-powered automobile is precisely
the sort of technical challenge that we should rise to.”
Wing Commander Andy Green, who set the first-ever supersonic
world land speed record at 763.035 mph in ThrustSSC on the
Black Rock Desert on 15 October 1997, is thrilled to have
been given another opportunity to enter the record books. He
said, “We will be following in the tradition of British
record breakers by running at the sport’s spiritual home,
the remarkable Bonneville Salt Flats. I am really looking
forward to driving another British entry in the ‘300 mph
Club,’ and a diesel-engined, wheel-driven one at that.”
The current diesel-powered land speed record stands at
235.756 mph to Virgil W. Snyder and the Thermo King
Streamliner and dates back to 25 August 1973.
In the lead up to the attempt, the JCB has topped 200 mph on
an airstrip in the UK. During two weeks of testing at RAF
Wittering, Peterborough, the diesel-powered JCB car achieved
a top speed of 201 mph and seven runs over 180 mph. However,
the runway is only 1.6 miles long compared with the nine
miles available in Bonneville so this has limited the car’s
speed to 200mph.
“I’m so impressed with what has been achieved - exceeding
200 mph really shows the potential of the car to break the
record,” said Wing Commander Andy Green. “Combined the
engines have twice the power of a Formula 1 car and it’s
remarkably easy to drive. It steers very well, the brakes
work smoothly and the chassis is extremely stiff. That gives
you the confidence you need when accelerating to very high
speeds and then coming to a stop in a limited space.”
“We’ve been working to an exceptionally tight timescale and
we’re having to learn new things every day, from engine and
transmission performance to parachute deployment,” he
continued. “It’s impossible for everything to work perfectly
when testing land speed record vehicles as you’re pushing
the boundaries but we’re on target.”
Dr Tim Leverton, the project director emphasized, “We have
learnt a huge amount about the car and the team has done a
fantastic job of overcoming the many challenges we have
inevitably faced in such a complex and demanding project. I
am really proud that we have exceeded 200 mph at this stage
of development, and now we can be more confident about
achieving our target of 300 mph at Bonneville. The car is a
testament to the very best of British engineering.”
During the trials Green has had 1200 hp available while on
the Salt Flats the engines will produce their full 1500 bhp.
The actual record attempt should be later this month.
