Bahrain this weekend?

After much indecision and frightening silence from the FIA decision makers, it has been finally stated that the Bahrain Grand Prix will go ahead as planned. Last year the race was initially postponed and then later cancelled.

The complex cost USD 150 million to construct, and Bahrain hopes to become the driving force of motor racing in the region. Fat chance. Read those numbers again - USD 150 million.

The race in 2010 was universally boring, with passing almost impossible. Perhaps with the new DRS system it might improve; however, most drivers will be looking over their shoulders wondering if there are any RPG’s out there.

But now that we know it is ‘on’, we will be watching as usual in front of the big screen at Jameson’s Irish Pub (Soi AR, next to Nova Park - turn right into Soi 4 Pattaya Second Road at the Bangkok Bank and follow it round to the right and Nova Park and Jameson’s is on your left). We have the dedicated F1 channel from the UK, with no adverts during the GP and Martin Brundle as the anchor man. The GP begins at 7 p.m. but we will get there well beforehand and enjoy the Jameson’s specials and some liquid lubrication before the race.

Carroll Shelby does it again

Wheel-standing Shelby 1000.

The same iconic chap who shoe-horned V8’s into AC sports cars to produce the wonderful Cobra series and the Shelby Mustang of the late 60’s, has now done it all again, with 1000 horsepower V8’s in the new Mustangs.

At the New York International Auto Show, 50 years after the company made its debut, Shelby American, Inc., a division of Carroll Shelby International, unveiled the world’s most powerful series of muscle cars. Named the Shelby 1000, the street-legal car is the high performance dream of founder Carroll Shelby. The Shelby American team enhanced the power, braking and handling of the 2012 Ford Shelby GT500 to create a hyper-performance muscle car available in both street and competition versions.

“We launched Shelby American with the Cobra at the 1962 New York Auto Show,” said Carroll Shelby. “The 289 Cobra was considered pretty radical at the time. For our return 50 years later, I wanted something just as incredible that will show how far we’ve come and where we’re headed for the next 50 years.”

Having just achieved 800 horsepower with the famed Shelby GT500 Super Snake, he believed that they could enhance Ford’s well-engineered car even more.

Shelby himself was actively involved in every aspect of the Shelby 1000’s development, from the design to the testing and ultimately his final approval.

The Shelby1000 will be offered in both street and Shelby 1000 S/C “off-road” track versions. The street legal, pump gas version dyno’s out at approximately 950 BHP, while the track oriented version is rated at over 1,100 BHP.

Shelby’s enhancements didn’t stop at the engine. “This car is the total package,” noted Gary Patterson, vice president of operations. “It was conceived as the ultimate Shelby and honed during substantial testing. It’s the most powerful Shelby based on a Ford Mustang that has ever been built at Shelby American.”

The brakes include 6 pistons in front and 4 pistons out back. The driveshaft is a stronger unit while the suspension includes new struts, sway bars and bushings. The hood, rear panel and splitter are functional pieces for performance.

The result is a Shelby with subtle, yet substantial changes. From the interior touches to the hood, wheels and aerodynamic styling, the car is stripped to its bare essence. In keeping with its 50th anniversary theme, a limited production of 100 Shelby 1000s will be built. Each will be numbered and documented for the Shelby registry.

Shelby American is now accepting orders for the limited edition Shelby 1000. Those interested in reserving a car should contact the Shelby American Sales team at www. shelbyamerican.com.

And the price - and this is in the USA, the Shelby 1000 starts at $149,995 and the track S/C version starts at $154,995, but that is not including the base GT500. A completed Shelby 1000 is then expected to be approximately $200,000 (six million THB), but that is in the US. I would hazard a guess at 18 million THB landed here in LHD form.

Autotrivia Quiz

Last week I asked you to look at the photo - I wanted the car, the year and why did they build it? It was the Mercedes-Benz T80 built for the Land Speed Record in 1939, but Adolf’s bunfight stopped it having a crack at it on the Bonneville salt flats.

So to this week. Why did the Doctor’s Coupes of the 1920’s have high rooflines?

For the Automania free beer this week, be the first correct answer to email [email protected]

The wash-up after the Bangkok International Motor Show

Chevrolet Trailblazer.

The 2012 motor show will be heralded as the ‘best ever’ with 1.9 million people attending and 57,058 orders for new cars taken at the show. That is actually quite astounding when you think about it.

Of course with the floods of 2011, sales of new vehicles were down for the last three months of the year, and this will have spurred on sales for the first quarter of 2012. Figures are now available from the exhibitors, and the top sales day (8,537 units) was the final day of the show, April 8, with people realizing this was their last chance to pick up some of the bargain extras being offered for show purchases.

Easily top seller was Toyota with 12,694 orders, almost double the next best which was Honda at 7,539.

Rolls-Royce.

Third place went to Mitsubishi at 6,406 units, and I am sure many of those were the new Mirage eco-car, whilst Nissan was pushed down to fourth at 5,479 orders.

Isuzu sold very well in fifth at 5,007, well clear of Mazda at 4,117 and Chevrolet at 4,045 and Ford at 4,008. Isuzu, with only pick-ups and their SUV is a surprisingly good result over Chevrolet and Ford with their complete ranges of cars. Suzuki with 3,140 orders shows that eco-cars suit the current budgets.

Large drop to BMW (1,439) in 10th place and Mercedes-Benz (1,271), closely followed by Hyundai at 945. This does not surprise me at all as the Hyundai people are doing well all over the world.

After Hyundai, the sales figures for the rest of the manufacturers just fell away, with next best being VW at 181, outselling Volvo (173) and then a big drop to Lexus (118), Peugeot (109), MINI (105) and then SSanyong at 100.

Amongst the surprises was the fact that Mitsuoka (16) outsold Jaguar (12).

Others who did well (relatively) looking at their prices were Porsche (10), Lotus (5) and Lamborghini (4). Finally, Bentley did sell one example, but Rolls-Royce went home with the four cars they brought.

The main message from the figures was that whilst Toyota is still top dog, Mitsubishi, Nissan and Hyundai were the big movers.

What did we learn from the Chinese Grand Prix?

Well, we learned that Nico Rosberg in winning his first race does have it in him, can withstand the pressures, physical and mental and drive to give Mercedes-Benz their first win for decades. Congratulations are due.

We also found that the race was somewhat like the old Snakes and Ladders game, go so far up the ladder and then be swallowed by a snake and go backwards. Since this factor in the racing was caused by tyres which last less than 10 laps, I call this “Rubber Roulette”. This resulted in some teams opting for a two stop strategy and others a three stopper.

Back to Mercedes and their hopes of a 1-2 which were shattered when one wheel on Michael Schumacher’s car was not correctly tightened on the hub. Probably has been shot at dawn on the Monday. However, the pressures that the pit crews are under are enormous. Change all four wheels under five seconds, and see if you don’t sweat a little. Team principal Ross Brawn said, “It’s just a tragedy that we had the problem with Michael because he would have been in great shape too. We have started a new adventure, I have been lucky to have a lot of special days and this is certainly a special one.”

McLaren had a win almost in their grasp, with Jenson Button, Mr. Smooth, gliding his way to the front, only to have a wheel problem in the pits delay him by several seconds, enough to allow Rosberg to run away and leave Button with second only. Hamilton in the other McLaren drove a heady race and was involved in much wheel to wheel action, all very clean, and his third place was well deserved.

In fourth was Mark Webber (Red Bull) after sneaking past team mate Sebastian Vettel in the last few laps. Webber did his usual atrocious start (can’t someone take him out to a vacant parking lot and let him practice a lot) and then tried to get his pilot’s license renewed with an enormous ‘wheelie’ after sliding off on one corner. He described the GP as, “It was an interesting race, enjoyed most of it. It was different strategies playing against each other - utter chaos.” And it was chaos from the spectator point of view - one minute your favorite driver was third and the next he was 13th.

Vettel did not have the happiest of races finally coming home fifth, and he has found that it is more difficult when you are not driving the dominant car, such as Red Bull was last year.

Grosjean in the “Lotus” survived a complete Grand Prix and finished sixth, after team mate Raikkonen’s tyres just gave up working and he slipped from fourth to 14th over the final laps.

Seventh was Bruno Senna in the Williams, just beating his team mate Maldonado and the top 10 was rounded out by Alonso (Ferrari) and Kobayashi in the Sauber. And Alonso’s Ferrari stablemate Massa? Thirteenth, I am afraid and once more out of the points. I do not believe Ferrari will put up with this all year, and a DCM is on the cards (Don’t Come Monday).

Plenty of close running all the way down through the ranks, though the DRS did not seem to have the effect it is supposed to.

Bahrain GP this weekend, let us hope the threatened violence does not eventuate.