French Grand Prix this weekend
Magny-Cours
The Magny Cours Circuit has an
interesting history. In the mid-eighties, an initiative by
the then President Mitterand saw the Circuit Jean Behra near
Nevers updated and modernized and renamed the Circuit Nevers
Magny-Cours. The circuit had begun life as a small kart
track, started by Magny-Cours’ mayor, Jean Bernigaud. The
kart circuit grew into a proper track which was inaugurated
on May 1, 1961; and ten years later, it was lengthened from
two kilometers to 3.85 km.
In those ten years, Magny-Cours had become home to Tico
Martini’s racing car company and France’s first race driving
school. The decision in 1986 to upgrade the circuit to Grand
Prix standards saw Guy Ligier move his Formula One team to
the circuit and the new track was opened in 1989. Two years
later, it hosted its first Grand Prix, and the French GP has
remained there ever since.
The French GP starts at a sensible hour for us - 7 p.m.
Sunday (Qualifying is 7 p.m. Saturday). I will be watching
from my roost at Jameson’s Irish Pub in Pattaya (next to the
Nova Park serviced apartments) in Soi AR (also known as Soi
Sukrudee). Join me at 6 p.m. for dinner and a natter before
the red lights come on.
There is a new leader in the World Championship, with
Poland’s Robert Kubica on top after his win in Canada two
weeks ago. The table looks like this:
1 Robert Kubica BMW
Sauber
42
2 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 38
3 Felipe Massa Ferrari
38
4 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari
35
5 Nick Heidfeld BMW Sauber
28
6 Heikki Kovalainen McLaren
15
7 Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault
15
8 Jarno Trulli Toyota
12
9 Fernando Alonso Renault
9
10 Nico Rosberg Williams-Toyota
8
11 Kazuki Nakajima Williams
7
12 David Coulthard Red Bull
6
13 Timo Glock Toyota
5
14 Sebastian Vettel STR-Ferrari
5
15 Rubens Barrichello Honda
5
16 Jenson Button Honda
3
17 Sebastien Bourdais STR-Ferrari
2
18 Giancarlo Fisichella Force India
0
19 Nelsinho Piquet Renault
0
20 Adrian Sutil Force India-Ferrari
0 |
The Asian motorsport future
With Asia having become more involved with motor sport and
new purpose-built F1 tracks in Bahrain and Turkey along with
Malaysia, Singapore, Japan and China, Asian circuits
currently represent 33 percent of the F1 races in 2008.
India is coming, and even more by 2010. Bernie Ecclestone,
the F1 supremo, has made no secret of the fact that he
believes the future for F1 is in Asia! Believe him.
Globalization is Go! So if the future is here, this goes a
long way towards explaining why the local Asian series in
the other categories are attracting overseas entries as
well.
So back to the smallest formula first, that of BMW Pacific,
and out of the 14 drivers racing in this Asian series, there
are two from South Africa (including a female driver), Hong
Kong is represented, a Korean American, five Malaysians, an
Indian (who is the protégé of Narain Karthikeyan, the first
Indian driver to make it into F1), a Filipino, a Colombian
and a Japanese driver. That is certainly a broad spread
globally.
The Porsche Carrera Cup is equally international in its
Asian series. It has five drivers from Hong Kong, four from
Singapore, three from Australia plus Germany, UK, Indonesia,
Malaysia and Sri Lanka. With Singapore having made the
investment in its own F1 race (and the first to be run at
night), it comes as no surprise to me to see four drivers
from the island state.
What is even more interesting is the nationality of the
entrant teams, with three Chinese, three Australian, three
from Hong Kong, plus Indonesia, Sri Lanka and five
Singaporean cars. Again the effect of F1 on motor racing in
that country is all too obvious.
With motor racing being a global phenomenon, it really needs
the respective national governments to pick up the tab, bite
the bullet and build the circuits, which in turn will
increase the number of cars and drivers competing. Thailand
and the Philippines have local series, but the tracks need
upgrading to a higher international standard to allow their
national drivers to compete against overseas drivers on
their own soil. It is significant that whilst there is the
talent in the Asian countries, the sponsorship investment to
get the Asian drivers better represented on the grids is not
there. There have been a handful of Thai based drivers, for
example, but they have been basically self-funded, finding
it very difficult to get backing nationally.
Autotrivia Quiz
Last week I mentioned the film The Graduate and
Guidobaldi Trionfi of Brescia had much in common. Guidobaldi
won an Alfa Romeo which starred in the movie, after giving
the model its name. What did he call it? He called it the
Duetto.
So to this week. How did famous body builder Pinin Farina
get his name?
For the Automania FREE beer this week, be the first correct
answer to email [email protected]
Good luck!
Ban Chang’s classic car
collection
An amazing collection of cars was made available
for public viewing last weekend, and at the same time, a
young burns victim from Buriram benefited from charity
donations pledged at the event.
John’s
immaculate red 1965 Ford Mustang won the best presented car
in Thailand award last year.
The car collection is owned by John Richardson, the MD of
the UTS steel fabrication company and a car enthusiast, who
these days is keeping a team of three auto restorers in full
time work, returning the old cars to their former pristine
glory. This they do so well, that John’s immaculate red 1965
Ford Mustang won the best presented car in Thailand award
last year.
Amongst the collection of more than 20 vehicles were some
American muscle cars like the Pontiac Trans Am and Mercury
Cougar, plus classic Europeans such as the Alfa Romeo Spyder
(famous as the car used in the movie The Graduate), the
Porsche 928 (the V8 front engined Porsche) and four Mercedes
Benz (500 SEC, E 220 AMG, S 500, SL 450) plus some
significant British sports cars in the Mk II MGB and the
Triumph Spitfire Mk III and a brace of V12 XJS Jaguars and a
Lotus Elan Turbo. John also has an Austin Healey 6 and a
couple of Armstrong Siddeleys (1947 Hurricane and 1951
Whitley) under restoration at present. Incidentally, when
the hood lining was peeled back on one of the Armstrongs,
the wood across the top of the windscreen was still intact,
complete with chalked on date of the actual build. Those
were the days of hand-built cars - while these are the days
of hand-built restorations!
All the cars were found in Thailand, and John is to be
congratulated on making sure that auto history is being
preserved locally.
John Richardson and his family also took the opportunity to
donate 100,000 baht to the Charity Club of Pattaya, which
was then equaled by Frank Lawton and family from the
Australian Wearside Constructions, and this was presented to
Christina Boden. The 200,000 baht will be used to allow
further plastic surgery to continue in Bangkok on the young
burns victim from Buriram.
Get ready - oil $250 a
barrel in 2009
You can glean more information on what is going
on in the automotive world from the daily financial pages
than you can do from many auto publications. Little snippets
such as Alexei Miller, the head of Russia’s Gazprom,
predicting crude oil to be $250 a barrel next year. At that
rate you will need to take out a loan to buy fuel at the
weekend.
However, the head of BP, Peter Sutherland, did not agree,
and had some good news in the fact that his company said
that oil reserves would meet current production for the next
41 years. So much for the “about to run out of fossil fuels”
movement! My Daihatsu Mira will be pleased.
BP boss Sutherland also said that the main factors for the
increase in price were “increased demand, a shortage of
investment in developing new oil and gas resources and
political instability risks in production areas such as
Iraq, Venezuela and Nigeria.” I find that very interesting,
as the oil companies are currently recording their greatest
profits ever, but are apparently not reinvesting the money
in developing new oil and gas resources, thus keeping the
price of oil up. Hmmm!
Hybrid production for
Thailand
The automotive world seems to be caught in the
fuel price spiral, and several manufacturers are putting
forth hybrid gasoline-electric vehicles as the answer to the
cost of running factor. Foremost amongst these is Toyota,
with its Prius being the most successful hybrid available in
the world.
The hybrid technology is being extended into more of the
Toyota (and Lexus) range and the very popular Camry will be
next to be offered with a hybrid propulsion unit.
Toyota have confirmed that Thailand and Australia will be
the next two centers to produce the hybrid Camry, with line
modifications for the new Camry’s already started.
The Australian government has been pushing for the car to be
built there and has even given Toyota $35 million (around
one billion baht) as an incentive.
Australia’s prime minister Kevin Rudd flatly rejected
assertions that the $35 million given to Toyota was a
subsidy and said it was important to encourage new
technologies. “It’s not a production subsidy,” he said.
“It’s about setting up a new business. Good for motorists,
good for fuel efficiency, good for the car industry in
Australia, good for the environment.” All very
philanthropic.
However, the president of Toyota, Katsuaki Watanabe, said
the $35 million was very much appreciated but he was unsure
how to spend it! He suggested it could be used to subsidize
the cost of the car, despite what the Aussie PM had to say
about the money not being a subsidy. “It was only recently
that we heard about the amount so we are not sure how we
will use it,” he said.
Both the Thailand and Australian hybrid lines will be
producing around 10,000 hybrid Camry’s each year, beginning
in 2010. It is rumored that the hybrids will cost around
another 150,000 baht over a regular gasoline engined Camry,
though this may be well off the mark.
At the same time, the financial pages were reporting the
joint venture between Toyota and Matsushita Electrical
(Panasonic) to go into full scale production of lithium-ion
batteries in 2010 for the hybrids. Nissan and Mitsubishi
have also joined with NEC and Yuasa to produce lithium-ion
batteries for their yet to be released hybrids. 2010 looks
to be an interesting year (and I predict that by 2011 there
will be replacement Chinese knock-offs as well)!
Toyota Prius
