One manufacturer we missed out on

Volkswagen

Thailand has been touting itself as the Detroit of Asia for some years. We have managed to attract several Japanese manufacturers, and get Ford Motor Company back to these shores. However, we have not done as well with the European manufacturers.

At the end of December came the information that Volkswagen, which had been looking to set up a Joint Venture in SE Asia has chosen Malaysia, and bypassed Thailand.

Christian Klingler, Member of the Board of Management of Volkswagen AG, and representatives from the partner company DRB Hicom have signed an agreement for local vehicle assembly in the presence of Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak. Passat models are to be assembled from the end of 2011 with a view to the long-term development of the Malaysian automobile market.

“Developing the market potential of the ASEAN region is of major significance for the Volkswagen Group’s long-term growth strategy,” said Christian Klingler in Kuala Lumpur. He added that the Malaysian automobile market in particular, where more than 570,000 vehicles were sold in 2010, played an important role in the Group’s strategic planning. “We will be using existing structures and capacities at the DRB Hicom plant in Pekan to systematically extend our presence in the Malaysian market of the future,” he said.

It is planned to build further Volkswagen models for the Malaysian market on the basis of a local full scale production in a second expansion phase from the end of 2012. This CKD assembly will have an initial annual capacity of several thousand vehicles and will be successively increased. The Volkswagen Group had signed a memorandum of understating to investigate local vehicle production with the Malaysian partner DRB Hicom back in August 2010.

The partner company DRB Hicom has the largest automotive production network in Malaysia and builds passenger cars and commercial vehicles at its plants in Pekan and Melaka. With a nationwide sales network, DRB Hicom is moreover an important automobile dealer and importer in Malaysia.

With VW being one of the largest manufacturers in China as well as Europe, we should not have let this one get away!

Spoiled for choice

Thumbed through an Antique Automobile magazine the other day (thanks Jerry) and when I came to the classifieds I could have cried. Americans are spoiled for choice! And those choices are generally under 500,000 THB. In fact some are less than 150,000 THB, such as a 1950 Studebaker Champion (that’s 60 years old) with new exhaust, fuel pump, brakes and battery for US$4,975 (around 150,000 THB).

Or how about a Continental Mk III with everything original, concourse winner, always covered and stored inside for 300,000 THB? On another page was a 1953 Chrysler for 180,000 THB and in excellent condition. If you want to spend a little more, then there is a 1946 Chevrolet Fleetmaster two door coupe with 37,000 miles on the clock with everything in perfect running order and it’s yours to drive away for 420,000 THB. For that sort of money here, you will get a very run down pick-up, and that’s all. As I stated - the Americans are spoiled for choice!

Continental Mk 111

Books! Books! Books!

Fangio driving the wheels off the Maserati

The UK is a great place for books. And not for much else, I will add, and sorry if that offends any UK readers.

My eldest son and I went over to the UK in November. Yes, I know it is getting close to winter, and the weatherman even produced snow for us after the first night of minus four degrees temperature. It did warm up to plus six degrees during the day, veritable tropical temperatures.

I mentioned to my son that I have no idea why our forefathers decided that the north of Scotland would be a great place to settle in, don a hairy skirt with no undies, and go and herd sheep on the moors, which are also wet. They should have been locked up. They had lunatic asylums for nutters like them, and heaven help me, I’m descended from a bunch of loonies!

But back to books. On every trip to the UK I have managed to find some incredible book bargains, some in the new bookshops, and others in the second hand places. For example I spied a book on classic cars in Waterstones, a large British book chain, and this book with several color plates was on special at 75 percent off. I paid six pounds 25 pence plus one new penny extra to get a plastic bag strong enough to carry it. It has everything in it from the 1901 Curved Dash Oldsmobile up to the Dodge Viper, a long time favourite of mine, a car with more neddies under the bonnet than you could ever use on the road, and on the race track it was truly awesome. All the steering was done with the right foot, and I loved it.

Another book purchase was found in a second hand gift shop on the quay at Exeter. This is a wonderfully detailed history of motor racing from 1894 (yes, 1894) until 1989. Cost? Seven British pounds ninety five new pence, or around 350 Thai baht. For that small sum I have gleaned such details as the win by Christian Lautenschlager in the 1914 French Grand Prix. His Mercedes had a 4.5 litre engine with four cylinders. Two inlet valves and two exhaust valves with an overhead cam shaft - not bad for 1914. His winning time was seven hours eight minutes for the 700 km race. It makes our present day over-pampered race drivers seem like a bunch of girlies. Maybe I shouldn’t be so tough on them, but they are a bunch of over-paid pansies.

The 1957 GP at the Nurburgring is given many pages, as it deserves. This was the race won by Juan Manuel Fangio in the 250F Maserati, coming from behind after a 56 second pit stop for fuel and tyres. Hunting down Mike Hawthorn and Peter Collins in Ferrari’s, Fangio took 24.2 seconds off the lap record. You read that correctly, 24.2 seconds. Nobody had ever done something like that before, or since. After the race, the respected journalist Gunter Molter wrote, “Fangio’s younger colleagues will now look up to him as someone unsurpassed, the grand old master of GP racing who can drive like no-one else.”

The 1967 Italian GP was also memorable, with Jim Clark in the Lotus losing one complete lap in the pits, to then chase the field, drive through it and take the lead, only to run out of fuel on the last corner and was passed by John Surtees and Jack Brabham. Surtees won by half a car. And his car? It was the Honda RA 300 with a 48 valve V12 developing 405 bhp at 10,000 rpm. Such wonderful history, and here we are in 2011 and Honda withdrew from the sport in 2009. Shame!

As I turned the last page of 1989, there was another shame. It was a list of all the Formula 1 cars of that year. There were 20 different makes of cars. These days we are lucky if we get 20 cars on the grid, let alone 20 different teams. For interest, here they are: AGS, Arrows, Benetton, Brabham, Colloni, Dallara, EuroBrun, Ferrari, Ligier, Lola, Lotus, March, McLaren, Minardi, Onyx, Osella, Rial, Tyrrell, Williams and Zakspeed.

The Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Lungo

Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Lungo

The immediately pre-WW2 era brought out some beautiful cars, with production numbers so low, they could not be built today. Take the Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Lungo for example. The factory produced only around 10 of them between 1937 and 1939, and they were extremely high priced.

The 8C series began in 1931 and were designed by Vittoria Jano (who went on to design the post-war F1 Lancias of 1955). The first of the series had a 2.3 liter engine and they were straight eight, twin-supercharged engines. These cars were highly competitive in their day, and the capacity was progressively increased until by 1936 it was up to 2.9 liters.

Six of these road racers, known as 8C 2900A, were constructed with three entered in the 1936 Mille Miglia. The new cars were immediately successful and held the first three places at the finish. In 1937, the 8C won again.

With the winning cars as a base, 10 road going customer versions were built. Called the 8C 2900B, the road car featured a de-tuned engine, but other than that was very similar to the racer.

Two versions were available, the 2800 mm short wheelbase (Corto) and 3000 mm long wheelbase (Lungo). Most of these were sent to the body builders ‘Touring’ to be fitted with Berlinetta, Spyder and Roadster bodies. Being very similar to the competition 8C 2900A, it was no surprise the 8C 2900B’s were also raced. After the two 8C 2900A victories in 1936 and 1937, another two victories were scored by the 8C 2900B in 1938 and 1947.

Autotrivia Quiz

Last week I asked which famous GP driver struck a bird at Indianapolis suffering head injuries which left him partially paralyzed? The answer was Rudi Caracciola, who recovered and raced again very successfully. Felipe Massa hit a spring (or the other way round).

So to this week. What was this car before it got a sari? For the Automania free beer this week, be the first correct answer to email [email protected].

Good luck!

Take the sari off this car

Natter Nosh and Noggin

The next car club meeting will be at Jameson’s Irish Pub on Soi AR next to the Nova Park development. The monthly meetings are on the second Monday of the month, so this week it is on January 10 at Jameson’s at 7 p.m. This is a totally informal meeting of like-minded souls to discuss their pet motoring (and motorcycling) loves and hates. Many interesting debates come from these evenings. Come along and meet guys who have a common interest in cars and bikes, and enjoy the Jameson’s specials, washed down with a few beers. We even had a couple of F1 scrutineers.