What did we learn from the British GP?

Well, the first thing we learned was that today’s F1 can put on a crackerjack of a race, provided it has the infrastructure for good racing. Great racing with a truly nail biting finish, in which Alonso (Ferrari) deserved the win. Forget the Red Bull pit problem for Vettel (no fingers today), Alonso ran away with it (and set fastest lap).

Webber in the other Red Bull is still smarting after being told to hold station when it was obvious he could have taken Vettel and the second place. However, I have to agree with the team call. Vettel is obviously the number one driver, being 80 points in front of Webber. Sad but true and Mark will just have to swallow it.

McLaren is suffering from lack of direction and discipline. A championship winning team should not release their driver (Jenson Button) without the front right wheel nut (or any nut, for that matter). They should also be able to calculate by now, how much fuel a car needs (Hamilton) to finish. McLaren have the cars and the drivers - it is the pit wall that needs attention.

Hamilton showed his absolute aggression in the last corner clash with Massa (Ferrari) and was very lucky they had a Brit (Our Nige) in the stewards’ room. In fact I was surprised that Massa, known for the odd whinge or two wasn’t more vocal.

Sauber had a mixed day with Kamikaze Kobayashi being clouted by MS, being released into the path of another car in the pits, getting a stop-go penalty and finally an oil leak. Sergio Perez in the other Sauber showed great pace and grit. These two will continue to be a thorn in the side of the big teams.

Renault did not have a good day. Heidfeld finished in the points but was never in the front bunch, whilst Petrov lost his way, but at least brought a complete car home. Quote of the day from the Russian, “My speed was not too bad, I was quite quick but I felt helpless out there.” We have news for you Vitaly. You were useless.

Rosberg (Mercedes) should ask his team to paint his car in a color that can be seen. This was again a race in which he finished in the points, but totally escaped the notice of the TV cameras. Or perhaps the antics of his illustrious team mate uses up all the Mercedes air time. When Schumacher gets through a race without clobbering someone he could finish on the podium. In the meantime he serves as light relief.

Star of the future, Paul Di Resta (a Scot despite the Italian name) in the Force India had his 6th place after qualifying completely nullified by pit stop stuff-ups, with the team ready for Sutil and not him. His day will come.

I must make mention of the BBC coverage of the race. Entertaining and innovative, with the introduction of Jake Humphrey, David Coulthard and Eddie Jordan pedaling around on a tandem plus one bicycle and the jet ski item wonderful TV. The Beeb makes all other coverage amateur in the extreme.

For those who are unsure, the governing body of F1 has the acronym FIA. At the Silverstone meeting the casual observer would have been excused for thinking that this stands for Frighteningly Incompetent Asses (euphemism). With dithering and counter dithering and last minute reversals over highly technical aspects of the engine design, this left the designers angry and frustrated, the drivers bewildered and the spectators bamboozled. The time to change design rules is at the end of the season. Not 24 hours before the Grands Prix.

SuperCar meeting at Bira this weekend

V8 Supercar

The big cars are out again, with the New Zealand V8 Falcons against the best that Thailand can throw at them. Top of that list has to be Thomas Raldorf in the Subaru Impreza, and following some dyno sessions this car now has some prodigious horsepower. However, the sheer grunt of the six liter V8’s will be difficult to toss at Bira, where if they get in front on the straight it becomes very difficult to pass them on the rest of the fairly tight Bira circuit.

Other supporting races during the day will include the Super Touring division with Tony Percy in the Pizza Company a front runner.

Racing generally starts about 10 a.m. on the Sunday, and good cheap meals can be found in the pits at the Bira Café. We watch from the hairpin at the bottom of the straight.

No Retro cars this meeting, I’m afraid, and the next round on the calendar for the pre-1985 group is at Kaeng Krachan (Petchaburi - on the way to Hua Hin) on August 5, 6 and 7.

Japanese investments in Thailand get a 7.6 billion baht boost

CVT transmission

With the pressures on Japanese business in Japan from the strong yen and the recent earthquake/tsunami, it is to be expected that many will look at relocation, and Thailand is poised to benefit from the Japanese industrial fallout.

Jatco, a Japanese maker of automobile transmissions, will build a 7.6 billion baht plant in Chonburi that is scheduled to open in 2013. Projected annual production is 500,000 continuously variable transmissions (CVTs), making it the first CVT manufacturer in Thailand. Automakers supplied by Jatco includes Nissan (Juke and March) and Suzuki (Swift).

Takashi Hata, president and chief executive of the parent company said, “It will become an important base for Jatco to further expand its business and become a truly global company. Jatco is also determined to contribute to the environment by manufacturing environmentally friendly CVTs in ASEAN.”

Thailand is Jatco’s third international location, after Mexico and China, and it is expected that Jatco (Thailand) will employ 1,300 staff by 2014, providing another boost for the Eastern Seaboard.

New F1 engines in 2014

F1 engine

After much grumbling from the engine manufacturers and F1 teams, the new “environmentally friendly” F1 engines will not be seen until 2014. Quite frankly, for F1 to talk about being environmentally friendly is a total farce. The amount of carbons or CO2 or whatever released by 24 cars over an entire weekend would come nowhere near that thrown into the atmosphere by Bangkok busses in a morning.

Race organizers were also not in favor of the new engine, which was initially to be a 1.6 liter four cylinder. Their worry was that the same noise, and attraction, would not be present in the smaller engined cars.

The decision to switch from four cylinder 1.6 liter engines to be mandatory in 2013 to V6s of the same size a year later was made by F1 bosses last week and following a fax vote the switch was ratified by the World Motor Sport Council. “The new power plant will be a V6 1.6 turbo unit with energy recovery systems,” read the World Motor Sport Council statement. “This new formula will come into effect as from the start of the 2014 FIA Formula One World Championship season.”

Bernie Ecclestone (the power behind F1) was against the switch to the new engines from the current 2.4 liter normally aspirated V8s, as he said there would be a lot less noise and as a result be less exciting to watch.

In a move to quell Ecclestone’s and the race organizers’ fears that such a measure will see a drop in attendance figures, the maximum rev limit of the engines will be increased to 15,000 from 12,000. Amazing!

Once again, the FIA shows its ineptitude. The current engine formula has produced engines that will last several races before being refreshed. The power is adequate. The noise is fine. Why can’t they just leave things alone?

Some of the worst cars of the last 50 years

Austin A 40 at speed

A friend of mine sent me an item about the 10 best cars in the past 50 years, and obviously there would be many different ideas from the enthusiasts. Unfortunately, for many people, they are only guessing, because just how many of the readers have actually driven a Porsche GT3, or even a Porsche Targa?

My friend, of course, was having a gentle, but not so subtle, dig at me for being a motorist for too many years. I have to admit that I started driving in the 1950’s, and I also have to admit that it was my father’s car, and he didn’t know about the mischief I would get up to when my parents were away for the weekend. The car? A 1939 Austin 12, made at the beginning of the war. Remember that war? That was the one the Germans lost, so they could come back later and take over Rolls-Royce, Bentley and Mini. What was left, like MG and Rover ended up in China.

But back to Dad’s Austin 12. It was a large four door family saloon produced by the Austin Motor Company and was launched in August 1939 and produced until replaced in 1947 by the similar sized but larger engined Austin A70 Hampshire. With beam axles front and rear and mechanical brakes, it was more comfortable at rest than when in motion. It would not pass any of today’s design rules. Definitely one of the worst cars I have ever driven.

The first ‘real car’ which was mine and mine only, was a 1949 Austin A40 and was 10 years old when I took ownership. It was not a good buy, blowing up after two weeks. These days I would be more careful in pre-ownership checks; however, it was repaired and did serve me for the next 10,000 miles without too many hiccups. But it was painfully slow.

The A40 was actually considered a power machine in its day. A 1.2 liter straight 4 OHV engine produced 40 bhp (30 kW) at 4200 rpm. It also had coil sprung front independent suspension but retained a rigid axle and semi elliptic leaf springs at the rear. The Girling brakes with 9 inch (229 mm) drums were operated hydraulically at the front and mechanically at the rear.

An A40 tested by The Motor magazine in 1948 had a top speed of 70 mph (110 km/h) and could accelerate from 0-60 mph (97 km/h) in 37.2 seconds. Read that again - 37.2 seconds! To record those sorts of times, I think they probably had to use a calendar! Another in the ‘worst car’ category? Well, certainly in the slowest car category.