Williams FW34

The FW34 pictured at Jerez

The formerly all-conquering Williams F1 Team showed off it's 2012 ride in Jerez. Brazil's Bruno Senna joins the Venezualan Pastor Maldonado as race drivers in the Williams Renault FW34. Significant changes are the still very strange looking 'Platypus' nose and Renault engine (replacing last years cosworth unit).  This is the team’s 35th year competing in the sport.

The mechanical and aerodynamic design and development direction of the FW34 has been driven by a new technical leadership. Guided by Technical Director Mike Coughlan, this year’s car takes on a fresh design philosophy. Revised FIA technical regulations - of which the most significant are bans on exhaust blowing and exotic engine mapping and a drop in nose height, the FW34 carries fewer than five per cent of the parts from last year’s FW33.

The team will also race with a new driver pairing in 2012 as Bruno Senna partners Pastor Maldonado after a considered winter evaluation process. Finn Valtteri Bottas completes the driver line up as Official Reserve Driver, taking part in most of the season’s Friday practice sessions.

Williams rejoins Renault for its engine partnership. Williams and Renault enjoyed a nine-year association between 1989 and 1997 which produced four Drivers’ and five Constructors’ titles and 63 race wins. The French manufacturer’s RS27 V8 power unit is renowned for its drivability, flexibility and durability and will provide the FW34 with a strong performance platform for the forthcoming season.

Powering the team’s efforts in this year’s championship will be a broad partner group. Existing partners, including Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA), Venezuelan Tourism, Randstad, Thomson Reuters, Ridge Solutions, Hatch and McGregor will be joined by new additions confirmed today. Gillette, Embratel, Head & Shoulders, OGX and MRV, together with Michael Johnson Performance announced in January, will all be supporting the team as it works towards a competitive season of Formula One motor racing.

Frank Williams, Team Principal:
“One could say that looking at the Williams F1 Team today we are off to a truly fresh start. We have a new car, new driver line up, new engine and new senior personnel. We also have a number of new partners who have joined the team in the past few months. I’d like to take this opportunity to welcome them formally and sincerely wish that they have an enjoyable and, most importantly, a valuable experience with us. The team has had a good winter at the factory and we feel ready and strong for the fight.”

Mark Gillan, Chief Operations Engineer:
“We are really looking forward to this season and from a personal perspective I can't wait to get the FW34 on to the race track. The factory has worked extremely hard over the winter to ensure that the car met its design, build and rig test targets and we start testing with the car prepared to a high standard. We’ve worked in close co-operation with all of our partners to achieve that, including Renault Sport F1. In the run-up to Australia, we will be working hard with our exciting new driver line-up to ensure that we maximise and unlock the full potential of the FW34. It is imperative that we demonstrate a continuous improvement in our performance and deliver results throughout the season.”


Pastor Maldonado:
“I'm happy to be racing again with Williams. I have faith in the FW34 and the Renault engine and so have high hopes for the races ahead. It will be very important that we develop the car from the start of the season to the end. Now that I have a year’s experience, I can help in that area much more now. As we start a new year, it's an exciting moment for my country Venezuela and I hope we can give them some good results to thank them for their continued support. We have many new components in the team so we will need to be focussed and work together well so that we may be stronger every day. I wish everyone in the team the best for the year and welcome Renault and Bruno.”

Bruno Senna:
“I’m very excited to be back in action with the Williams F1 Team in Jerez. This is my ever first pre-season testing programme since I started in Formula One two years ago. I’m really motivated and looking forward to working hard and with everyone in the team. I hope we have a successful month testing and developing the car so we arrive in Melbourne as well prepared as possible.”

Valtteri Bottas:
“I am really excited about the year ahead and grateful to the team for giving me this opportunity. I will be driving one practice session at 15 races which will give me some proper mileage with the car. This will give me a better understanding of the car as well as an insight into what happens at a race weekend. I will still spend a lot of time at the factory preparing for the practice sessions and helping the team to develop the car over the season.”

Pirelli intend to spice up Formula 1 in 2012

Pirelli motorsport chief Paul Hembery spoke to the BBC about the changes the company has made to the F1 tyres this year. He said: 'At the end of last year, if anything, we were being slightly criticised for being a bit conservative, which was strange after the start we had. So we had to make some changes to the slick tyre in particular. We've got three new compounds, new hard, medium and soft tyres, much more aggressive, softer in the direction of performance, a new profile, which gives a larger footprint. That means putting a lot more rubber on the track and allows us to use those softer compounds and hopefully (re)create some of that excitement from earlier in the season.' Hembery said the idea was to spice up the racing even more than in 2011. 'I think we'd all like to see closer racing at the front. The midfield battle was fascinating. If that could transform itself to the front, we're in for an exciting season because then the differences in tyres can come through in a much more determining fashion. They've got to work with the strategies, the drivers can have a big impact on the performance of the tyres, the degradation and the wear life.'"

Range Extended Electric vehicle becomes first to Finish Gruelling Dakar Rally

The Oscar eo in action

A Latvian Rally team has stunned the Motorsport world by conceiving, building and then finishing the most gruesome and gruelling of all the worlds motorsport events in an electric vehicle. 

The 5,600 miles between Mar del Plata in Argentina and Lima in Peru represent some of the most hostile terrain that any vehicle could face. 742 competitors started the Dakar this year, and with the OSCar eo finishing an impressive 77th place overall. Although, there isn't as yet a category for fuel efficiency, the OSCar would have surely won it!

A series hybrid configuration was chosen as the most appropriate for the rally. A single 235 kW / 800 Nm permanent magnet electric motor was coupled directly to a 6-speed transmission which produced enough torque to negotiate the huge sand dunes as well as allowing a satisfactory maximum speed of 120 km/h on off-road terrain. A 60 kW range extender was in constant operation during the rally to maintain the charge level of the 52 kWh Li-ion battery pack from Winston Battery. Range extender’s petrol tank was sized at 240 litres, giving the overall autonomy of up to 1000 km. The team recorded 50% reduction in fuel consumption relative to the conventionally powered rally-raid cars. A significant contributor to this economy was the regenerative braking function of the electric motor, operated by a dedicated hand-lever in the cockpit.

The eO team was thrilled to have completed the rally with no major electrical problems, despite the extensive and harsh loads and the ambient temperatures often in excess of +40C. The well-prepared and robust technologies allowed the crew to focus on the driving duties. Reaching the finish of each leg was indeed no mean feat as even the leading drivers noted that the organizers had laid out an exceptionally difficult route this year.

Finishing the last stage of the rally Māris Saukāns, the project initiator and OSCar eO pilot, said: “This is a great achievement for the whole team and is likely to have implications of a global scale. Motorsport has once again successfully demonstrated new applications of alternative energies and has identified new directions for development.”

Andris Dambis, the technical director and OSCar eO co-driver, agreed: “This is a new highlight in my motorsport engineering career. I am excited to be leading such a rapid development of the future technologies.”

The brand name Drive eO has earned its recognition during the Dakar rally and further public appearances are planned for the near future. The OSCar eO vehicle will showcase its technologies at motorsport, trade and public events. The company is also currently completing its first road-going electric vehicle conversions as part of a larger programme to develop and market electric drive solutions.

Force India VJM05 Launched - Caution may make you wince

Paul Di Resta Force India VJM05 - Silverstone

On Friday the 3rd February 2012 Paul Di Resta and Nico Hulkenburg launched the all-new Force india VJM05 in front of a selection of journalists and invited guests (click the title of this article to see video footage of the car from Silverstone).

The VJM05 (designated after Force India owner ViJay Mallya) is the latest car launched to follow the 'Platypus' nose trend, but this one looks quite cute fetching a rolled up carbon fibre newspaper in it's mouth - awww sweet. The sidepods look to have a more tightly curved lower edge and seem to be slightly shorter too, other than that the car is visually similar to last years VJM04.


Once again the Sahara Force India cars will be powered by the Mercedes 2.4 litre V8 engines with gearbox supplied by McLaren Applied Technologies. This will be the second season with the Mercedes KERS. Here's what the key team members had to say at the launch.

Paul Di Resta
“Seeing the new car built and complete for the first time is always an exciting moment. It’s when you realise that all the waiting is finally over and the season is beginning for real. I’ve had a good winter and I’ve recharged my batteries, but now I’m fully focussed on 2012 and looking forward to the start of testing. There’s a really positive feeling in the team, good stability and hopefully we can pick up where we left off at the end of last year.”

Nico Hulkenberg
“I saw the new car in the wind tunnel a few times and followed its progress during the winter. It looks aggressive and fast, but we won’t know where we stand until we get out there and compete against the others. Preparations for the new season have been full-on with simulator sessions and lots of fitness training. I feel ready to get back to racing and I’m excited to find out what the new car feels like next week.”

Otmar Szafnauer - Chief Operating Officer
“The new car has come together nicely over the winter. We don’t know what our competitors have done, but we’ve made some gains over the winter and believe we’re in reasonable shape. It’s going to be difficult in the midfield, but our focus is on starting strongly and improving our position from last season.”

Dr. Vijay Mallya - Team Principal and Managing Director
“We have set our sights on challenging for fifth place. To do so we will need to begin the new campaign by delivering the kind of form we showed in the second half of 2011. I believe this is a realistic goal and that we have the talent and determination to realise these ambitions.”

A Duck-billed platypus delivering it's carbon newspaper

Ferrari F2012 launched - Another hideous nose job!

2012 Ferrari F2012

Ferrari's launch was cancelled due to snow at Maranello, so instead they published these shots on their website. 

Personally, what with the Caterham being launched in F1 Racing magazine and now the Ferrari being launched on their website, I'm beginning to think that no want wants to see these cars in the flesh.... errr Carbon! Maybe I'm getting overexcited, perhaps these are the post-crash test photos? Even Ferrari are un-complimentary about their own car -  

"The nose has a step in it that is not aesthetically pleasing: with the requirement from the regulations to lower the front part, this was a way of raising the bottom part of the chassis as much as possible for aerodynamic reasons".

  Ok, they're here, they're (very) queer, we're going to have to get used to them, I guess.

Ferrari, say the F2012 is redesigned in virtually every area, with the front & rear wings and the engine being the components least changed. Visually, the rear of the car appears to taper less dramatically initially, then seems to be much more tightly packaged around the gearbox, and the side-pods have undergone a redesign. Ferrari aim to be at the first tests with the F2012, and then we will get some idea of the relative performance of all the challengers.

Who 'nose' what the 2012 season will bring, let's hope they all run into each other at the first corner and wipe off their ugly front ends! 

Mclaren unveil 2012 Formula 1 car - It's still red & silver!

2012 Mclaren MP4-27

After last year's car arrived quite late and was then assembled in front of a live online and street audience in Berlin, Mclaren chose their own Mclaren Technology centre to reveal the MP4-27 to the world, and thankfully it doesn't have the hideous nose that Mike Gascoyne predicted we would see on all this years contenders!

The teams work hard every year trying to create the best performance package, and whilst it will be some time before we know who has done the best job on track this year, Mclaren seem to have once again created a good looking car. The rear bodywork is more tightly waisted around the engine and gearbox and the distinctive L-shaped sidepods from last year have gone, to be replaced with a flatter creation and the nose from certain angles seems to have a mini 'ski-slope' !

Mercedes-Benz 95kg 32 valve, 2.4 litre V8 will once again push the Mclaren forward. The car will make it's debut on the track at Jerez in spain for the first of the winter tests with Jenson Button behind the wheel on Tuesday the 7th February, with Lewis Hamilton getting his first taste of the new car on Thursday the 9th.

So does the lack of hideous carbuncle nose mean the Mclaren is going to be woefully off the pace? Are we going to see the two Caterhams fly off into the distance leaving the prettier, but ultimately nose-hampered Mclaren trailing? Let's wait and see what everybody else has come up with shall we?

 

Caterham CT01 becomes first 2012 F1 car launched.....

2012 Caterham CT01

The first of the new seasons Formula 1 cars to burst into the limelight, the Caterham CT01 isn't a very pretty baby, maybe the Doctor slapped it's nose instead of it's arse and broke it ?  Worse still, if designer Mike Gascoyne is correct, they're all going to look similar in the nose department....... oh dear! 

Team owner Tony Fernandes wants to be regularly pushing the midfield runners this year, and would like to grab the occasional point or two, the team is eager to see it's 2012 challenger hit the track, when it will find out what sort of pace can be expected, Tony said of the launch :

" Yes, it's been a pretty good week. I am thrilled that we broke cover first and that the CT01 is the first example anyone has seen of a 2012 car. I think I am riding on some very good energy at the moment!

 

I am pleased that we were able to release pictures of our new car so soon. Riad, Mike, Mark and the whole team did a fantastic job getting all the homologation and crash tests out of the way early, and keeping on track with the car's build schedule. I am very proud that we are able to take the covers off first and I think it looks fantastic.

 

This car represents another step forward for us. The detail right across the whole package is light years ahead of where we were when we first started out, and we are all excited about seeing what it can do when we get on track. I'm also very pleased that we were able to show our fans the car so soon".

All the 'must have' components are present Renault RS27-2012 V8, Red Bull Technology gearbox, AP Racing Clutch, Mike Gascoyne designed chassis, so it would be good to see the team progress further into the midfield, the Tony & Mike show has been refreshing in their approach to the media, and I can't help liking Tony Fernandes, but it's such a hideous looking car, I really don't want to see it at the front....sorry chaps! 

Avis order 100 MG6 cars for their rental fleet

MG's new 6 model

Rental company AVIS have just taken delivery of 100 MG6 GT fastbacks and MG6 Magnette sports saloons, in an exciting first for the new MG Motor company. 

Anthony Ainsworth, commercial director of Avis Rent a Car, said: ‘We are extremely pleased to see the iconic MG marque back again and know that our customers will be delighted to be offered the chance to drive an MG when they hire a car from us.’ 

The 1.8 litre turbo model, will join Avis’s national car hire fleet.

The cars are designed & engineered at MG Motor’s 69 acre plant at Longbridge where final assembly also takes place. The MG6 range starts from £15,495.00 on the road.

Watt's our driving future?

The Nissan Leaf - all electric

I know you don't want to hear this, but the oil is being used up fairly rapidly, and depending on who you listen to, will affect your view of how long it will last. argue, curse me, whatever - it isn't going to last forever. 

So, we're going to have to face it sooner or later, we need a new way to power our personal transportation systems (or CARS, as they are known here) - internal combustion of fossil fuels is going to have to start tapering off, the price of it has become ridiculous anyway, so let's explore this brave new world.

Our options currently seem to centre around: 

1. 100% electric power
2.  Hybrid Petrol/Diesel PLUS Electric
3.  Hydrogen/Electric 
4. Compressed Air

There are rumours of various other work-in-progress power sources, but things like mini-nuclear and hydrogen from water seem a bit sci-fi at the moment (if you can tell me differently, be glad to hear from you!). 


Right then, lets start with Leccy (Electric to you Sir!) 

The Nissan Leaf is one of many 100% electric zero emissions cars, on sale or due to be on-sale this year, and as electric cars go, it looks kinda like, well .... a car, which is a good start!  The perennial problem with electric cars has always been their range, (ask your milkman!) combined with a long wait for re-charging. Nissan is putting rapid charging stations at all their dealers to help overcome this problem. The rapid chargers will take just 30 minutes to bring the batteries back to 80% of their maximum charge. The home charger (16 amps) will take 8 hours, and the street charger (10amps) 12 hours. However the Leaf costs a massive £30,000 in the UK ($33,000 in the US), with a £5,000 government incentive bringing the price you pay to £25,000. Nissan claim a range of 109 miles and a top speed of 90mph. Cold weather has an effect on the distance you are going to be able to travel, and of course you might just want the heater on too, but this is going to impact the leaf's range (maybe by as much as 25 miles!), and if that cold weather journey needs to be at night then you might just want to have the lights on perhaps?...........hmmm. A new phrase is rapidly entering the english language - 'Range anxiety' - the feeling that your charge is going to be spent before you reach your destination. Premature capitulation anyone?  

The Stunning Lightning GT

But all is not doom and gloom, enter the Lightning GT, depending on your perspective it's stunning, a piece of automotive art. And the technology is clever too, Lithium Titanate batteries (a relatively new development  allowing ultra-rapid battery charging) cleverly integrated into the chassis, a 400BHP equivalent dual rear drive motor system, with 60MPH being achieved in sub 5 seconds. The makers, The Lightning Car Company, claim a 150 mile range, but as we've already seen, the cold, driving with the lights, heater on etc will surely limit the range (If the good people from Lightning want to prove me wrong, with a loan car, that's really fine!) Those Lithium Titanate batteries are key to the Lightning's effectiveness as a distance swallower, with a claimed re-charge in only 10 minutes! If that's the case, this car really is a game-changer. Imagine a business trip from Newcastle to London, stop half way for a cup of coffee, steak and balsamic shallot sandwich, and a battery re-charge - (that'll be a fiver Sir) then waft silently into London ignoring the congestion charge (FREE for zero emission cars) and park free for four hours! Tempted? Then get your cheque book ready, it's due this year and was reported to be around the £120,000 mark.

Hybrid/Range extended vehicles

The Hybrid has been around for quite some time now, the Toyota Prius celebrating  a remarkable 10 years on the road, and from owner accounts they are proving lovable and reliable, and Toyota claim over 70MPG for the latest version, although in the real world this seems to translate to around the 50-55MPG mark, similar to a current generation Diesel car. The Fisker Karma (above) is on stream and has the rear wheels powered by dual electric motors AND a 2 litre turbo petrol engine, giving this car a 6.3 second 0-60MPH time and a limited top speed of 125MPH. The Karma has an all electric range of 50 miles, thanks to it's Lithium-Ion batteries, a full solar roof, gives a total range of 300 miles. Fuel consumption is over 60mpg equivalent in all electric mode, with the petrol only figure at a fairly poor 24 MPG. So, Hybrid's have a place but they need to do much more to be a real alternative and at best can surely only be seen as a stop-gap.

Hydrogen/Electric

Honda FCX Clarity

A real breakthrough when it was made available to lease in the Unites States, Honda's Hydrogen car, sounds like the answer to all our problems. Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe and Honda have very cleverly managed to produce a car with a fuel stack which converts Hydrogen into electricity to power the FCX Clarity's electric motor. It was highly thought of when James May tested the car for the BBC's Top Gear programme. Now here comes the BUT, and it's a very big capital BUT, there is currently no Network of Hydrogen filling stations and naturally enough, that's a problem. Producing sufficient quantities of Hydrogen takes a lot of energy and that has to come from somewhere! So maybe this particular solution is still a long way off, but hopefully somebody is working on the problems with this idea.

Compressed Air

I've covered compressed air power in an article posted earlier on this site about the MDI Air pod, an interesting proposition that shows ingenuity and a lot of merit.

The conclusion then is that we still have some way to go, before we find a true replacement for our much loved and loathed Internal (Infernal!) combustion engine, not forgetting that the combustion engine has had over 100 years of development thus far, another 20? 30? years of Hybrid or Electric should see us a long way down the road towards Oil freedom.  Let's just hope the stories of peak oil and energy shortage aren't quite as dire as some commentators would have us believe.

Time for the Racy ladies to show their F1 class?

Maria DeVillotta

It's been nearly 20 years since we last saw a female competitor in Formula 1, and that's a great big fat shame, although with a little bit of luck, all that may soon be about to change! Maria De Villota, daughter of former F1 driver Emelio De Villota is rumoured to be close to signing a deal with Renault... errr...Lotus....Renault as one of their reserve drivers for 2012. Maria recently completed the necessary 300km required in an F1 car to qualify for her superlicence and the indications are that she will be having a further run in a 2009 spec Renault F1 car at the Circuit de Catalunya on the 4th December.

So why has it taken so long???? Formula 1 is a sport which not only requires a driver to have great skill behind the wheel, there is also the grubby matter of financing. Even despite the RRA (Resource Restriction Agreement), Formula 1 is still hugely expensive and the teams, particularly at the lower end of the grid, have to generate as much income as possible in order that staff get their wages, materials can be purchased and the wheels can keep turning. For a talented driver making their way through the sport, the costs are still massively expensive and out of the reach of most. A friend who works for a top Formula Renault team, told me a couple of years ago, that for the privilege of making his teams car look good for a season, the driver would be required to bring €680,000. Considering that this is just one year in what will probably (if lady luck is kind!) be a 5 year (give or take) apprenticeship through the lower Formulae, the financial obstacles to success become more apparent. And with Karting being the usual feeder for car racing these days, it's normal for parents to find themselves funding these early years, at anywhere from £6,000 - £10,000 per season. And I've heard talk of people spending a great deal more.

So, the point is that, motorsport tends to appeal more to boys than girls in the first instance and wealth (or relative wealth!) is a factor in the families decision to compete, and a bit like the proverbial sausage machine, the more that goes in the top, the more that comes out of the bottom! So, with less girls taking part in the first rungs of the ladder, there are less who are competing alongside the boys in cars, and fewer still who are going to have the opportunity to progress to the very top of the sport, with only 24 drivers on the Formula 1 grid at any one time, space is severely limited!

One of the very best ladies to come through UK karting is Tiff Chittenden, daughter of tin top and sports car racer Mike Chittenden, Tiff and her talented sister Tamsin competed at the top level of UK Karting for many years. Tiff had already run a few races in Formula Renault in 2006, when she won a second British Karting title with the 2007 Rotax Max DD2 championship. Her Formula Renault season was a difficult one, with a limited budget, and a poorly funded team, it was a steeply uphill challenge. Her true class as a driver and competitor, came to the fore in 2007 with that Rotax championship, but lack of funds has meant that the opportunity her talent deserves has been sadly lacking. Outings in the Porsche supercup and Aston Martin GT4 challenge, have allowed Tiff to show her class on occasion, but what Tiff really needs is a Vijay Mallya or Ron Dennis to guide her to the big time Tiffany Chittenden.com click here if that's you!

Tiff Chittenden

Kimi Raikonnen Joins Renault... err Lotus.. Renault for 2012

Kimi Raikonen with nice new jacket

Fooled me, all the rumour suggested that Kimi Raikkonen would be joining Williams for the 2012 season, but then fooling me is not really sport!

After a couple of years competing in the WRC (World Rally Championship), Kimi is coming back to formula 1, and the noises he is making suggest he's hungry again! I truly hope so, because a motivated Kimi is a very fast Kimi, and even in a car which might not be the best, he is capable of pulling off some truly stunning drives.

Kimi started mucking around on a pedal kart at the age of 3 and later graduated to motorbikes and Karts, winning the Finnish championship twice in Formula ICA and Formula A respectively among other notable results. Moving into car racing in 1999 and competing in Formula Ford and Formula Renault, he bagan to make teams owners sit up and notice at the end of his first season racing cars when he won the Formula Renault winter series with the Manor motor sport team (now competing as Virgin or Marussia in F1 for 2012). Manor have an impressive pedigree in Formula Renault, stretching back to 1991 with a win for Jason Plato and including Lewis Hamilton and Antonio Pizzonia amongst it's many other champions. Kimi was the winner of the Full Renault season the following year and became a Sauber test driver along the way, graduating to a race seat with Sauber in 2001 and finishing 10th in the drivers championship with 9 points. Mclaren snapped him up for 2002 and that's when his raw speed was unleashed. Highlights of his career include winning his first Grand Prix in Malaysia 2003, a season in which he became a genuine title contender and finished 2nd in the championship, as he did in 2005. These were campaigns he may well have won had his cars been more reliable. His sole title came by a single point from Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso in 2007. He suffered what might be termed a 'brewers droop', given his love of partying, in the next two seasons and left for the WRC. His F1 career stands at 18 wins, 16 pole positions and 1 championship.

Kimi is known as the ice-man for his cool exterior under all conditions, but stories abound of his love of wild parties, letting his hair down and extreme sports. Apparantly he checks himself in for events as 'James Hunt' to avoid attention, and also showing his admiration for the suave,good looking, womanising, jammy b*gger, party animal, budgie breeder (yes, really!) Hunt. I think we'll have to look at James's wild character another time! But back to Kimi, his web-site is well worth a look, if only for the background picture in his Rally car (you'll see what I mean when you get there!)

So, as things stand we will have an unprecedented SIX World Champions on the grid come Melbourne in March, Raikkonen is going to need time to get up to speed, tyres, aerodynamics and loads more changes to the cars plus two years rallying, will mean he has some catching up to do......

It's going to be an interesting season.

Toyota GT86

Toyota GT86

Unveiled at the Tokyo motor show, this joint venture project with fellow Japanese manufacturer Subaru, is a compact four seat GT car, similar in stature to the Mazda MX5.

The GT86 comes with a high revving 4 cylinder 2 litre 'boxer' engine producing 197BHP initially (though no doubt there will be more powerful units waiting in the wings) and from the promo pictures looks stunning. Low-ish weight (1220kg) and 53/47 weight distribution split with power supplied to the rear wheels, should ensure a lively sweet handling little sports car.

Car buff's will know that the power unit comes from Subaru, they have persevered with the 'boxer' design, and won many Rallies and Rallying World Championships using it. Although within the motor trade, those in the know reckon that Subaru engines, especially when in a higher state of tune, can be a little fragile. But, to counter, if you tune any engine, especially by increasing RPM, you risk making that engine more susceptible to failure, and given that the niche carved out by Subaru, means they market predominantly to the kind of buyer who is looking to 'enhance performance' to put it politely! well, what would you expect! I've never owned one, but love the 'burble' made when they drive by, it's something a little bit different in a world where the vast majority of engines follow the well-worn-and-slightly-dull-but-consistent in-line four cylinder path.

All in all, I, for one am looking forward to seeing the motoring magazines review of this car and it's sister Subabru BRZ. The photo below shows the Subaru, so that you can see the family resemblance.

Subaru BRZ

http://www.carrepairpreston.co.uk

1971 Steve McQueen Movie - Le Mans

One of, if not, THE greatest Motor Racing films of all time, free to view on Daily motion and not bad quality.

The film opens with McQueen driving his sleek black Porsche 911S through the country lanes of France. This same Porsche, which was delivered to McQueen on the set of LeMans, recently sold for $1.25 million at an auction in Monterey California in August this year. In the opening sequence McQeen (Michael Delaney) stops the Porsche on the LeMans track, and goes into a flashback of the previous years race where he was involved in the fatal accident of Ferrari driver Belgetti. The action footage is superb, being mainly taken from the actual 1970 Le Mans race, with scenes shot later using the actual race cars, but mostly, the iconic Porsche 917 and Ferrari 512, with Lola T70's dressed up in Porsche and Ferrari bodywork for the crash sequences. The sound of these engines is something else, and if they sound this good via Dailymotion, lord only knows what they must have sounded like for real....... I wish!

A real build-up of tension starts a few minutes prior to the race start, with the camera darting between McQueen checking his gloves and dashboard switches (in that nervy pre-race way that any racer will be familiar with) and the clock, starters flag and crowd, and at the same time, a heartbeat gradually beating faster and faster until it reaches a crescendo......then.....silence, momentarily, before the engines bellow into life and all hell breaks loose! Epic and unmissable, even if you have seen it before!!

Of course those of you with a memory of the great Steve McQueen, will know that he was a racer himself, having started competing on motorcycles to fund his acting studies. He loved cars, bikes and racing and finished second in the 12hrs of sebring partnering Peter Revson.

Steve McQueen 'The King of Cool'

Click the title of this post to be linked through to the film.

www.carrepairpreston.co.uk

Steve McQueen shares his opinion!

Formula 1 in rude health?

Well, another fine Formula 1 season draws to a close and, ok, granted it wasn't an epic no-holds barred fight for the championship, as we saw in 2010, with the test of character, skill, bravery and luck that so defines a truly great season, but those outstanding seasons wouldn't be as, well, outstanding if they happened every year, would they?

As an avid follower of Formula 1 for over 30 years (I can scarcely believe it myself!), Formula 1 fans, in my view, generally fall into two categories, those who enjoy the human element, driver against driver, personalties locked in a battle of nerve on-track and off, such as Prost vs Senna, Schumacher/Hill or Hakkinen, and those who are enthralled by the technological battle which rages within the teams themselves, brilliant minds locked into a never-ending quest for performance. And even despite the numerous restrictions imposed on the teams in the last few years, such as limiting engines maximum RPM, the RRA budget cap, reductions in downforce and more, those brilliant minds (Adrian Newey being the first name which comes into my head) keep the perfomance improvements coming! And then there are those of us who love both these aspects, a technological art form fused with a human struggle for achievement and this is what makes Formula 1 or any motorsport THE sport which surely defines our era.

A bold statement for sure, and Motorsport has many valid arguments which aren't in it's favour, the extravagance, the lavish use of resources, the danger (more about that further on). But Formula 1 and Motorsport in general employs hundreds of thousands of people who manufacture, assemble and maintain the thousands of components that go into making Race & rally cars, Bikes, Trucks, Karts, hovercraft and lawnmowers?! and there are people earning a decent living from all these (not really sure about the hovercraft and lawnmowers to be honest!) branches and the many and varied sub-branches of this sport, I raced Karts for ten years and before that Motorbikes, and I know people who make a reasonable living from importing,exporting and selling Karts, Bikes, spare parts and accessories including all the racewear etc. and I say good for them! (can I have more discount now please :)) And in any case what would these guys and girls do otherwise? make weapons? ( Help us all if Adrian Newey ever turned his creative genius onto weapons.....shudder!) Formula 1 in particular also brings us many advances in our own road cars, the technologies being honed and sometimes conceived in the cauldron of competition, carbon-fibre construction and four wheel drive to name but two, Euro NCAP safety ratings spawned from the FIA in a push to bring safety advances. But to truly secure a place in the general public's heart it really needs to do more.... shouldn't F1 engines be pushing the boundaries of energy effiency?? Alternative fuel generation strategies? harnessing the air flow over the vehicle to produce power as well as or instead of downforce? Complete solar bodywork? Ok, I concur that these technologies may not be efficient enough to produce the kinds of performance generated at the moment and to the purists it would be a step back, but how long before we see these technologies producing viable gains, and with the brains of a Newey or some other brilliant designer it would probably be sooner than you think!

Formula 1 has gone through an unprecedented period in terms of it's safety, it now being, mercifully, 17 years since the great triple world champion Ayrton Senna died at the wheel of his Williams. In recent times I can only think of Felipe Massa's horrific accident in 2009, that comes close to being deadly. That's not an excuse to be complacent or congratulatory, just appreciated, because the nature of racing is inherently dangerous and unforgiving(tragically, in other forms of Motorsport, we had to say goodbye to Dan Wheldon and Marco Simoncelli and our thoughts are with their families among many others, including my friend Ben Gautry, an up and coming superstar in the British Superbike series, who was only 18 when he was killed at Cadwell park on the 29th August this year - RIP Ben you are much missed).

So for F1 and much of the racing world, the attention turns to the new season, new cars to build test and develop, radical thinking to be done and planning for success or survival. As ever, I'm hooked for life and will be following for good or bad, hope you will too.

http://www.carrepairpreston.co.uk