Is this the ultimate wind in the hair?
Mercedes-McLaren SLR
The Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren in a roadster form will be
released in Europe next month. Built in the same factory
that makes the Mercedes McLaren F1 cars for Lewis Hamilton
and his unhappy Spaniard team mate, these could be the
ultimate in open-topped motoring.
With an AMG supercharged V8 producing 626 bhp (460 kW) and
780 Nm of torque, the top speed is quoted as 332 kph and the
acceleration quoted includes zero to 100 kays in 3.8
seconds.
The bodywork also follows F1 practice and is primarily of
carbon fiber, as are the front-end and rear-end structure,
the passenger cell, the upswinging doors and the bonnet.
Compared to steel, the high-tech material represents a
weight saving of around 50 percent, which is why the
Electrohydraulic braking system employs massive brake discs
made from carbon-fiber reinforced ceramics. There’s even an
airbrake in the boot lid that extends automatically when you
hit the anchors at high speed.
A high standard of safety is ensured by unique carbon-fiber
crash structures, steel-reinforced A-pillars and two fixed
rollover bars. Other safety features include adaptive
airbags, knee and sidebags, seat belt pre-tensioners and a
tyre pressure monitoring system. The exclusive standard
equipment includes semi-aniline-leather-upholstered
carbon-fiber bucket seats which can be individually adapted
to the driver and front passenger by means of differently
sized seat pads; dual-zone automatic air-conditioning; a
high-quality BOSE premium sound system; a multifunction
sport steering wheel with gear-change paddles, and a
navigation system with integral radio and CD-changer.
The press release did not confirm whether a pneumatic blonde
in the passenger seat would be supplied ex-factory, or you
would have to supply your own.
Autotrivia Quiz
Last week I said let’s try you on
Speedway. I asked who were the people in this pic? The clue
was 1951. The correct answer is Jack Biggs, Jack Young and
Split Waterman at the 1951 World Speedway championship, won
by Aussie Jack Young. For some real trivia, I met Jack Young
in Scotland at the Meadowbank Speedway in 1952.
So to this week. In 1901 an enterprising British
manufacturer built a four wheeled car with one wheel at the
front and one at the rear and one on each side. What was
this car called? Clue: think Japan!
For the Automania FREE beer this week, be the first correct
answer to email au [email protected]
Good luck
MG and Rover get together again
A look at the Chinese business pages came
up with the interesting information that China is seeing
amalgamation of its auto companies, much in the same way as
America did some decades ago. The latest is Shanghai
Automotive Industries (SAIC) and Nanjing Automobile.
Nanjing
MG
SAIC took the designs of the British Rover 25 and 75 from MG
Rover, and is now selling its own branded “Roewe”
(pronounced “Rover”) in the marketplace.
Nanjing bought the MG side from MG Rover and has relaunched
MG. The tie-up with SAIC would then bring the two British
marques back together.
However, it is much more interesting and incestuous than
that! SAIC is also the local partner in China for GM and
Volkswagen, while Nanjing is the local partner for Fiat. The
conglomerate of GM, VW, Fiat, Roewe and MG sounds fairly
disastrous to me, but probably just as (un)workable as Ford,
Volvo, Aston Martin, Landrover and Jaguar!
Nice Things for presents
It is not often I mention such mundane
things as auto memorabilia in this column, but I stumbled on
a place on Third Road called “Nice Things”. Opposite Hans
restaurant, about 300 meters from Pattaya Tai, heading
towards X-Zyte, it has car and bike posters, models, toys,
LED pictures and other bric-a-brac.
Run by a lovely young lady called Ern, you can find more on
the website www.nicethingspattaya.com.
Electric drag bikes taking over
KillaCycle
The big news in the US, the home of drag racing, is the
advent of the electric drag bikes. This should really come
as no shock, as electric motors are much more efficient at
developing torque from zero revs. And what many car
enthusiasts do not really appreciate is that horsepower
figures (bhp or kW) may sell cars, but it is torque (ft/lbs
or Nm) that wins races!
According to a report from AP, currently the fastest
electric drag bike in the USA is ridden by Scotty Pollacheck
who covers the quarter-mile (400 meters) in 8.16 seconds and
is doing a tad over 240 kph at the end.
Apparently, electric vehicles are making their presence felt
at amateur drag races across the US, challenging gas-powered
cars and motorcycles.
Pollacheck and his bike - dubbed the KillaCycle - are part
of a growing movement that is exploiting breakthroughs in
battery technology and could soon challenge the world’s
fastest-accelerating vehicles in the US$1 billion (35
billion baht) drag-racing industry.
“In professional drag racing I expect to see the electrics
eventually pass up the fuel dragsters,” said Dick Brown,
president of AeroBatteries, which sponsors White Zombie, the
world’s quickest-accelerating street-legal electric car
based on a 1972 Datsun 1200.
“Electric gives you instant torque whereas gasoline you have
to build up,” Brown said. “As we learn to manage it, you’re
going to see some really amazing performances.”
The KillaCycle runs on 990 lithium-ion battery cells that
feed two direct current motors, generating 350 horsepower.
The bike accelerates from zero to 60 mph (96 kph) in just
under a second - faster than many professional liquid
fuel-powered drag motorcycles and within striking distance
of the quickest bikes that run on nitromethane.
Bill Dube, KillaCycle’s owner and designer, likens the bike
to an oversized household appliance. “This is like a giant
cordless drill with wheels,” said Dube. “We have a chance of
actually taking away some nitromethane records, perhaps the
overall record,” said Dube.
The National Electric Drag Racing Association holds just
four races a year. But electric drag racers are increasingly
showing up at drag strips across the U.S. to show what they
can do.
Their vehicles are posting faster and faster times at
amateur meets, but they still have a ways to go before
matching professional world record times. The fastest
quarter-mile (400 meters) time by an electric vehicle is the
KillaCycle’s 8.16 seconds - but that is 2.36 seconds off the
nitromethane world record for drag bikes set by Larry
“Spiderman” McBride last year.
Not everyone in the gas-powered crowd is convinced electric
vehicles are the next big thing. “I certainly don’t see them
challenging for professional records in the near future,”
said Graham Light, senior vice president of racing
operations at the NHRA. “We don’t have a blind eye to new
technology, new innovations and new methods of doing things
but at this point I don’t see a strong movement toward
electric cars.”
But electric vehicle racers say people like Light are out of
the loop. They say rapid advances in battery technology will
give electric vehicles a shot at drag-racing records.
“This is a disruptive technology and there is a lot of room
for improvement in this area,” said Ric Fulop, founder and
vice president of business development for A123, the maker
of KillaCycle’s batteries.
In December, the KillaCycle will receive a second-generation
battery pack that will have twice as much juice as its
current 374 volt system, giving it close to 1,000
horsepower. Fulop said he believes the KillaCycle can break
the drag racing motorcycle record within the next year.
Experts say lithium-ion batteries that will power a car tens
of thousands of kilometers over their lifetime and deliver
more horsepower are on the horizon.
Dube and other EV racers say electric cars are not just
about two cents a kilometer transportation, lessening
reliance on foreign oil or curbing global warming. They’re
also about performance.
However, as far as the mass market is concerned, Dube does
not feel that it will need the backing of the tree huggers.
“For electric cars to matter people have to buy them,” he
said. “If you have a car that is faster than everyone
else’s, if it’s electric so be it, but people will buy it.”
Rattles and squeaks
There is probably nothing more annoying than a squeak or
rattle in your car. You spend hours bashing the dashboard
trying to locate exactly where the noise is coming from. In
desperation you take the car and its rattle to the service
center, and guess what? The rattle disappears and you feel
like a right proper goat.
However, the smart chaps have come up with the answer. The
Rattlebuster, a UKP10 CD that plays vibration-inducing tones
through your car stereo. Mimicking several different road
travel frequencies, the Rattlebuster lets you track down
loose bits and pieces once and for all, with your car
stopped.
Many factors can cause an annoying interior rattle or
vibration. Loose interior trim, grommets, screws,
trim-clips, tie-clips, poorly-fitted after-market
accessories: satellite navigation systems, hands-free phone
kits, iPod audio adapter kits, tracker devices and so on,
are all common offenders.
RattleBuster is an audio CD comprised of five digital
“Power-Tones” (each four minutes in length) developed in a
professional studio. Each tone mimics a different type of
road vibration and is played in a stationary vehicle with
the engine off. The driver is then free to move around the
vehicle enabling them to listen for and pin-point the
rattle, vibration or dashboard buzz.
By altering the exact amount of vibration generated, using
the bass, volume and fade controls on the CD player, the
vibration can be induced and located, allowing the motorist
to take either steps to fix the problem themselves or be
able to easily reproduce the rattle to the supplying car
dealer in order to fix.
Best second-hand buy?
The Mini has topped the retained values list for second-hand
automobiles in the UK for the second year running, beating a
long list of seemingly far more prestigious vehicles. The
“Lex listing” (carried out by the UK’s largest leasing
company) looked at how much each model will be worth in the
second hand market after a typical three year or 100,000 km
contract and the Mini had the highest retained value at 54
percent, taking out top single car honors. Viewed by brand
name, Audi was the most coveted used car brand with second
and third places on the list being the Audi TT and A5.
The top 10 were as follows:
Mini 54 percent
Audi TT 52 percent
Audi A5 51 percent
Range Rover Sport 50 percent
Mercedes Benz SLK 49 percent
Mercedes Benz C Class 49 percent
Audi A3 48 percent
BMW X5 47 percent
Volvo C30 47 percent
Landrover Freelander 47 percent
Other vehicles of interest to us here were the Honda CRV (46
percent) and the BMW 3 Series (45 percent).
