What did we learn from the Monaco GP?
Well, we learned that Mark Webber’s win
in Spain was no fluke, with another totally dominant win in
Monaco. The first Aussie driver to win at Monaco for over 50
years. He now leads the driver’s championship, but there’s a
long way to go, so Australia shouldn’t be firing up the
barbies yet! His running mate, young Sebastian Vettel,
although coming second, is beginning to have a pout at being
upstaged by his much older partner.
Rooby baby in the Williams threw more
than his toys out of the pram at Monaco. The very expensive
steering wheel (20,000 euro) getting the old heave-ho as
Barichello vented his anger at his car, Frank Williams and
all who sailed in her, after the rear suspension collapse
threw him into the wall. The media are calling for his head
on a plate, but Barichello has always worn his heart on his
sleeve and was undoubtedly very angry. Since I once threw my
helmet at a flag marshal for giving me a black flag, I can
sympathize with Rooby Baby, but I cannot really condone this
behavior at the Formula 1 level. His running mate Hulkenberg
did not have a great time either, with a front wing failure
throwing him into the wall in the tunnel on the first lap.
We also saw that Schumacher remains the
wily German he always was with a hugely opportunistic move
on Alonso at the last corner to take sixth place - only to
be penalized by the stewards and relegated to 12th.
One of the stewards was Damon Hill, no friend of
Schumacher’s. Since the green flag was shown by the flag
marshals, this means “racing is on” and I think the German
should be reinstated. Mercedes have appealed so we shall see
in a week or two! Alonso should also understand
“opportunistic” moves after his one on his team mate Massa
going into the pits in China. And speaking on Massa, he was
there, he finished, but he did not shine. Massa will be out
of Ferrari by the end of the year. Scuttlebutt has Kubica
alongside Alonso next year in a prancing horse. It makes
sense.
Lada/Renault had a great result with
Kubica’s third place, with the Polish aerodynamic nose
heading for Ferrari come December. Despite the team saying
Vitaly Petrov was unlucky at Monaco, Petrov was actually a
second a lap slower than Kubica, and is showing his colors
as a true ‘pay driver’ ($14 million). His sponsors will have
to dig deep if Petrov will be on the grid next year.
McLaren did not have a good weekend at
the Monaco GP. Described as a “human error” by the team, a
cooling cover was left over the radiator, instead of being
removed, in Jenson Button’s car. Overheating was one
consequence. A vacancy for a race mechanic will be the other
consequence. Come on chaps, this is F1, not the Retro series
at Bira! Hamilton did also not have a great race being told
by the pit wall to take it easy on the car, with Hamilton
replying “What do you want me to do? Race or save the car?”
Jarno Trulli in the Lotus found a new
method of overtaking Karun Chandhok in the Hispania. Rather
than going around either side into the Rascasse hairpin, he
went ‘over’. True ‘over’taking. While doing this interesting
maneuver they almost ruined the race for Mark Webber who
fortunately had enough space to squeeze through on the
inside.
That was the action. The rest of the race
was a giant bore.
The world’s fastest road car - 267 mph (426 km/h) after one
mile
There is another form of motor sport,
which has arisen in the US. In some ways similar to drag
racing, this classification is known as One Mile Racing. The
performance is measured as the speed through the traps at
the end of a measured mile, from a standing start. Remember
that drag racing is only over quarter of a mile.
World’s Fastest Road Car
If you thought that this title would be a
shoe-in for the Bugatti Veyron, think again. The Bugatti
Veyron finished the standing mile at just over 200 mph (320
km/h).
The first record fell (and remember this
is by a street legal, road-going, car) when a Lamborghini
Gallardo TT ran 255 mph (408 km/h). This record was then
smashed by a heavily modified Ford GT which ran 266.9 mph
(426 km/h). The car was built by Heffner Performance, and
was both driven and owned by Ray Hofman, the President and
CEO of Peak Completions from Midland, Texas.
The yellow Ford GT is equipped with a
standard 6-speed manual transmission, runs a stock engine
block and heads, retains its air-conditioning, power windows
and power door-locks, and it also has an original,
completely stock body with no aerodynamic modifications
other than removing the rear view mirrors.
The Texas mile has been held each March
and October at the Goliad airstrip since 2003 and it has now
attracted a national following and a global reputation for
beckoning the man on the street to “Drive in Your World,
Race in Ours!”
In essence, anyone can enter and it is an
opportunity to run your street registered motorcycle or car
down the measured mile without the fear of speeding tickets
and jail time and the aim of the exercise is to see what
speed your vehicle is doing at the end of the mile.
Autotrivia Quiz
Last week I wrote to try and beat the
Googlers - which automaker made this car? Clue - it wasn’t
Mazda. It was Daihatsu! The model was called the X 021.
So to this week. What car when shown for
the first time generated 22,000 orders on the first day of
the show?
For the Automania FREE beer this week, be
the first correct answer to email [email protected]
Good luck!
Who made this
car?
Top shelf
Bentley - a very expensive VW
The new top shelf Bentley Mulsanne sedan
(owned by VW, remember) was revealed in Australia in May,
but a queue of 15 potential Aussie buyers has already formed
for the eight to ten cars expected to arrive here in the
next 12 months, and its official drive-away price is A$
695,000 (19 million baht at current exchange rate, but does
not include duty and excise, which would bring it to around
50-60 million at a rough guess). The A$ 695,000 price tag is significantly
up on that of its predecessor, the Arnage, as well as the
Mulsanne’s most direct rival, Rolls-Royce’s upcoming Ghost,
on-road pricing for which was originally also announced at
A$ 695,000 before being trimmed to A$ 645,000 in January
this year. Now that’s what you really call a discount.
Bentley Mulsanne
This new Mulsanne will also cost almost
twice as much as Bentley’s entry-level four-door, the Flying
Spur sedan, which opens the Continental range at A$ 368,134
(around 12 million baht at exchange rates).
The list of Mulsanne options - or their
prices - have not been announced but is expected to be
extensive and expensive, with each vehicle said to take 450
hours to build - including more than 170 hours on the
interior alone - resulting in a six month wait from order to
Australian delivery.
“If anything, it is a more
labor-intensive process to produce the Mulsanne than it was
the Arnage,” said regional manager for Southeast Asia, Ed
Striebig.
“Everything that looks like metal on the
car is metal, where safety permits,” he said of the Mulsanne,
for which Bentley has concentrated on the quality of trims
such as softer leather and thicker wood veneer as well as
the careful assembly of each car.
The hides of no fewer than 17 cows (half
a herd) go into each Mulsanne and the example on display had
optional carbon-ceramic disc brakes and 21inch (instead of
20 inch) wheels.
The 2585 kg Mulsanne, measuring 5575 mm
long and 1926 mm wide, is the first stand-alone large
Bentley sedan since the company was absorbed by Rolls-Royce
in 1931.
Its twin-turbocharged 6.75 liter pushrod
V8, which develops 377 kW at 4200 rpm and 1020 Nm of torque
at 1750 rpm, is said to return 15 percent lower fuel
consumption and CO2 emissions than the Arnage by employing
new technologies such as cylinder deactivation, which allows
it to run on four cylinders in light-load conditions.
Still, although the Mulsanne will be
sportscar-quick with 100 km/h arriving in a claimed 5.1
seconds from rest, the R-R Ghost is quicker at 4.9 seconds
while also being more efficient. Its BMW-developed
twin-turbo 6.6 liter V12 returns a claimed 13.6 L/100 km -
versus 16.9 L/100 km for the Bentley. However, when you are
paying multi-millions for your car, do you worry about fuel
consumption? The only ‘green’ thing these people know are
American dollars.
The Mulsanne is equipped with an
eight-speed ZF transmission with steering wheel-mounted
paddle shifters to drive its rear wheels, plus
all-independent adjustable air suspension and a monocoque
chassis that Bentley says is unique.
Geely promises its IG will be cheaper than Nano
Chinese car maker Geely claims it will
produce the ‘world’s cheapest car’, offering the production
version of its IG concept in India from 2012 - or earlier -
at a price that undercuts the $2500 Tata Nano.
Cheap IG from Geely
The Chinese manufacturer, which recently
bought Volvo, is reportedly preparing to make a major
assault on the Indian market with an IG-based model against
Tata’s Nano.
Shown at the recent Beijing motor show in
2+2 configuration the IG had gullwing doors and,
significantly, a production-oriented 88 kW electric motor. (IG
stands for ‘Intelligent Geely’.)
While Geely has plans to put the
full-electric powertrain into mass production inside three
years, the company said in its official literature at the
show that the vehicle also had “the availability of a
1.0-litre three-cylinder gasoline engine powertrain with
CVVT, providing outstanding fuel economy while maintaining
dynamics”.
Unlike the SLS Mercedes, the gullwing
doors are not expected to appear on the production version,
but Geely said the model complies with its ‘Safety First R&D
theory’ and, with a strong body and the fitment of
‘multi-functioned’ airbags, was designed to achieve a
four-star crash-test rating under Chinese NCAP.
Tata’s Nano also seats four but uses a
smaller (rear-mounted) 24kW 624cc two-cylinder engine paired
with a four-speed manual gearbox. Average fuel economy is 5
L/100 km.
