The unofficial auto thread

[Lisnpuppy]

 

The F1 race was AMAZING! I haven't seen a race like that in a long time.

Mark Webber had just stupid pits...IDK why it seemed the tire bolt gun was working for Vettle but not Webber? And fortunately that man hit by the loose tire is alive...broken bones but alive.

If Kimi had just had one more lap...ha ha I know that is what they all say. Seriously though...great results for Lotus and Kimi. Great to see him back on the podium with his teammate...who surprisingly ran a great and clean race. I think Kimi will have some more wins before the year is out.

 

 

 

 

F1 Race Spoilers...don't expand if you don't want to see yet!

[Vindekarr]

A big weekend in the auto world; the end of two icons, a fantastic German GP, and some major shakeups in global manufacturing.

 

First off, the last ever BMW M3 coupe rolled off the production line today. From now on the M3 nameplate will be attached to a cut-price diesel saloon, while the traditional 2-door super-car stomping coupe will be rebadged as the M-4, following BMW's pointless reshuffle of all it's car's names. The M4 will feature a turbocharged six petrol and twin-turbo clean diesel(TSI) engine, with the flagship TSI becoming the first diesel sports car ever produced. Love it or hate it, diesel engines ARE a lot more efficient than petrols, and if Audi's Le Mans prototypes give any indication, the new M4 should not only have stump-pulling low-rev power, but a great sound as well.

 

Meanwhile Lamborghini defiantly announced they would buck the trends of smaller, and turbocharged engines for as long as was financially tenable. For now, that's until 2017 when the Lamborghini Urus hyper-SUV goes on sale and brings a new 6.5 litre twin-turbocharged V-12 along with it. They also confirmed the successor to the outgoing Gallardo would feature some form of V-10, most likely an upgraded version of the existing Audi Ti 5.2 litre V-10. It's traditional for Lamborghini to send-off retired models(assuming they were successful) with a truly insane, "nothing held back" ultimate edition, and as the most successful car they've ever made-and the car that turned Lamborghini from a cottage factory in Sant'Agarta into the highly successful brand it is today, that they Gallardo is going out with a helluva bang. Expect extra power, less weight, a bonkers body kit, and probably a stupidly high price.

 

On the F1 front-that was one of the most nailbiting and thrilling races I think I've ever seen. THAT kind of thing is why I love F1. The championship just got that bit more interesting. I also finally have some hard-data specs for the 2014 rule changes:

 

Current layout: 2.4 litre short-stroke V-8, 18000 RPM redline, naturally aspirated via diffusion intake, no EFI, 710 horsepower. Fourth-generation "KERS" boost system reclaims braking energy to provide 80 horsepower for 4 seconds. 100 kilos of fuel per race.

 

2014 layout: 1.6 litre short-stroke V6, 14000 RPM, single-scroll turbocharger (mounted between the cylinder banks) limited EFI system, approximately 600 direct horsepower. First-generation ERS; ????(Not officially ruled upon yet, currently believed to be 150) horsepower for 40 seconds a lap, energy collected from engine heat, brakes, and "various other sources" 50 kilos of fuel per race.

 

NOTE: Anyone who's ever owned a turbocharged car will know they passionately hate getting off the line. This is called turbo-lag. The lag is the result of the turbo, which is a turbine which uses the exhaust gas exiting an engine to spin a large turbine that compresses the air going into the engine, doesn't actually do anything when the engine is idling. A car engine needs to be doing around 2000-3000 revs to really get any benefit from a normal turbo, so the drivers will need to be a lot more careful to keep the RPM up, or else the turbo will proverbially go to sleep, producing a huge power-loss.

 

In addition to the threat of turbo-lag essentially halving your engine output if you make a mistake, you've also got the issue of starts. You either do a full throttle start and risk shredding the clutch(AND lose time to wheelspin) or you do a normal start and spend a couple of seconds going nowhere while the turbo lags. To alleviate this the new ERS system can help cars off the line-part of it's function is trying to alleviate the lag that's the inherent weakness of any turbocharged engine.

 

The replacement of KERS with ERS is the biggest mechanical change. KERS is an extremely simple device in the car, it's basically just a small battery that's mounted under the fuel tank, a motor, some wiring, and the actual kinetic recovery system-the actual device itself is about the size of a motherboard. ERS is a much, much larger, more sophisticated system and is believed to be mounted IN the engine bay itself. The current ERS modules weigh in around the size of a large hardcover book.

 

Final note: One of the big advantages these new engines bring is a huge jump forward in fuel efficiency. Every lap worth of fuel adds about 1 tenth of a second a lap in lost time. As Martin Brundle said in Nurburgring, that adds up to SIX SECONDS over the whole race(and several positions) By halving the carried fuel, you could well see a significant improvement in lap times, since the cars themselves will have a massively lower weight in 2014.

Edited July 8, 2013 by Vindekarr

[Vindekarr]

Some big F1 news today; following the pitlane incident ALL of the pit-lane changes to be introduced in 2014 and instead being introduced next race, and they are as follows;

 

Only mechanics and martials can stand in the actual working pitlane. All camera people and reporters are being moved either into the garage or onto the pit wall.

 

Anyone in the active part of pit lane has to wear an FIA-homologated and approved helmet.

 

The pit lane speed limit is now standardised across all rounds instead of being set by the individual tracks; it will be 80 KMH, a slight reduction, and more importantly, it's the same now across all tracks, removing some confusion.

 

Additionally, the FIA has fined Red Bull 30,000 euros and also required them to write a step-by step, comprehensive report as to how exactly this occurred and how to prevent it ever reoccurring.

[Lisnpuppy]

I know their wheel got loose but seriously...and no disrespect. That guy was standing there, his back to a bunch of stuff....he really seemed like he wasn't paying attention. Now I am not saying that they didn't have some malfunction as they clearly did...but pit lane is not a place to be lollygagging. (*grin*)

 

Everyone else there wears helmets and safety gear so everyone really should. Most of the places that are off limits were already off-limits. Folks that report on the race still go and not go the same places as before (like Will Buxton that does the at-race reporting for NBC here.) I guess this mostly effects the FoM people that film the race can't stand in Pitt lane and film.

 

I do think they have over-reacted a bit but it was getting silly how many people and cameras were in the lanes. I am surprised someone hasn't gotten hurt before. Just goes to show you how competent those pit teams usually are.

[Vindekarr]

Saw something beautiful on the way to work today, a genuine Peter Brock Holden Torana A9X.

 

The Torana being probably the best muscle car Australia made, and Peter Brock being the race driver who made it famous. This one was recently sold at auction in Melbourne, turns out it's ended up near where I live. Australia had a lively tradition of muscle cars, but the Torana always was the best; a cheap, light, nimble hatch armed with a gigantic Chevy V8. Quite a thing to see. And because Australian racing rules of the time dictated that race cars had to be road legal, this one was just out driving around.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bu-ROOflTfY

 

For me, the Torana is not only the best out of a plethora of good aussie muscle cars, it's also one of the best sounding cars ever made.

Edited July 12, 2013 by Vindekarr

[Vindekarr]

Only a minor F1 update this weekend given we're still two weeks away from the next race, with 8-speed seemless-shift gearboxes being confirmed for next season. The new 8-shifter should help alleviate the Turbo's struggles at low RPMs by allowing the drivers to hold the car within it's powerband-crucial with any sort of forced-induction vehicle.

 

In other news the Australian club racing scene suffered a blow with a fatal accident in the Queensland International Rally. Beyond the accident itself however, the situation has been made worse by the actions of a particular journalist. This man for some reason decided to devote the report to pushing an aggressive environmentalist agenda, and several completely inappropriate jokes at the expense of the killed co-driver and his family-and the racing community in general. CAMS, the Australian authority that overseas all club racing, has made a point of ignoring the statement, though it's badly offended virtually every racer I know.

 

It's also been a big weekend for me, there's been a bit of a restructure at work, and I've finally been moved off field mechanic duties, and into an office position-this is great news, since I don't need a big truck to carry tools and generators. As a result I'm more than likely going to buy an Impreza(just an ordinary one) as my new family car-I want something safe, which my girlfriend can drive easily, and the Impreza is just insane value for money right now. The other option is a Honda Accord, but it may be a bit bigger than what I want, time will tell.

 

I've also been able to secure a fairly low mileage 1999 Skyline off a friend who's moving overseas-since Skylines depreciate like toilet paper, and this one's very much a project car, they let me have it for a couple of hundred bucks. Me, I've always wanted a GT-R, and the R34 was always one of my favourite models. Sure, it's going to need an engine, and a new set of brakes, but I can fairly easily get my hands on. It'll be a fun project, and give me a few months, it'll be great.

[Vindekarr]

In breaking F-1 news, struggling outfit Sauber have announced a vast new partnership with the Russian government, specifically, with the Russian Institute Of Aeronautics who will become title sponsors, aswell as a plethora of new corporate sponsors mostly from Eastern Europe. This is excellent news for Sauber and a great choice of sponsor, since RIA has been announced to be providing significant aerodynamic design help. They've also announced the sacking of their driver, Esteban Gutierez, to nobody's great surprise.

 

Gutierez underperformed horribly during his first season, with the english commentators making frequent mention of his inability to even hold the car properly on the racing line. Gutierez was chosen for financial reasons rather than his ability to drive; Carlos Slim, the world's richest man, offered Sauber a massive payment in order to sign Gutierez-as part of Slim's attempt to promote Mexican driving talent-though Gutierez, who's never legitimately out-driven his team mate, made a very poor showing this season so far to say the least.

 

His replacement will be Russia's Sergey Sirotkin, a 17 year old rookie currently doing quite a decent, if not spectacular job in Formula 3. Sirotkin's probably got plenty of talent, but I am concerned by Monisha Kaltenborn's(Sauber CEO) shear inability to hold driver contracts-Sauber currently seems to be rifling through the available drivers and then getting rid of anyone who doesn't immediately provide an improvement, and given how inexperienced the drivers they've been using are, I don't think her expectations are reasonable.

 

In other F1 news a new record has been set for the most expensive car ever sold at auction; a 1954 Mercedes-Benz W169R "Silver Arrow" Formula One car, which sold for THIRTY-TWO MILLION(and a half) AUSTRALIAN DOLLARS(which is about thirty-two million American dollars(!)) The reasons for this are three fold. One, this isn't a restored Silver Arrow, it's in original condition-a little dirty, a few bumps N bangs, which vastly enhances it's value. It's in the condition it was in when it finished it's last race. Second, this specific W169R was raced by one of the greatest racing drivers of all time, Juan-Manuel Fangio, and took two wins.

 

And thirdly the W169R itself. It's kind of a big deal. The W169R(such a catchy name, that) was the first Grand Prix racer Mercedes made after returning to what was by now Formula One in 1954; it was an awesome machine, dominantly fast, incredibly high-tech, and simply in a different league to other cars of the time. It was the Red Bull of it's day in any possible sense, and of all the handful that survive, this one is one of the nicest. Dunno who bought it, but that is one hell of a car, and I dare say, maybe just worth a few of that thirty-odd million quid.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:KlingK-MB-W196-1976.jpg

 

Just look at the lines on that. They don't make 'em like they used to.

[Vindekarr]

Well, today's big news is from Ford America, who released the details of the next-generation Mustang. And before you go and glaze over, it's big stuff. Like, essentially the end of the Mustang as we know it.

 

So the most fundamental change is, instead of being designed for the American market, Ford's followed Chevy's lead and let the Europeans design it(as worked so well for the C-7 Corvette and Camaro Z28 Generation-Three coming next year) And the Germans have worked some MASSIVE changes into the next gen model. The first change is the engine lineup. The V-6 is gone, replaced by a highly-tuned Eco-Boost straight-four turbo. From then, the next step is an all-new, high-power twin-turbo V6(similar in power to the current Skyline GT-R) and then a new, aluminium-block V8.

 

The next and most obvious change is the chassis. Ford's dumping the current retro styling in favor of something a new styling package that's more along the lines of a current Aston Martin or Audi. The chassis will be totally new, and it will be the first Mustang NOT TO FEATURE the Live-Axle rear setup that so reduces the performance of the current model. The body will adopt Aluminium panels, significantly reducing weight, while the ultra-modern styling vastly enhances aerodynamic performance.

 

This is the Ford Evos, it's a design-study and nothing else, but it does highlight Ford's new styling trends-the ones the Mustang will inherit.

 

http://www.themotorreport.com.au/content/image/f/o/ford_evos_concept_03a-4e5d791878007.png

Edited July 16, 2013 by Vindekarr

[JimboUK]

http://www.planetf1.com/driver/18227/8831359/Pirelli-Change-or-find-someone-else

 

Pirelli appear to be getting fed up with the lack of testing and I don't blame them, they haven't exactly covered themselves in glory this year but they're not really being given the chance to get things right. They've been asked to come up with tyres that fall apart but they're not being given the test time needed. Their association with F1 isn't doing their reputation as a company any good at all, who could blame them for walking away? If they were to walk away who in their right mind would step in as supplier? I look forward to watching the 2014 cars going around on their rims.

 

@ Vindekarr That's good news about Sauber, they were in serious financial trouble, they couldn't even afford to pay Hulkenberg.

[Vindekarr]

It's doubtful we'll be seeing Kamui Kobayashi again. He was doing a demo race in Russia to try and hype the Russian people/social media/mainstream media up for next year's Russian GP(in Sochii) and it was immediately clear he couldn't even handle the classic Ferrari he'd been put in charge off. He struggled to even keep the car going straight, before stomping the throttle mid corner, sending the Ferrari F2007 head-first into a concrete wall, destroying $27,000,000,00 worth of car, and Kobayashi's reputation... again.