Mercedes-Benz has introduced a limited edition version of its V8-powered C63 S coupe, called the Mercedes-AMG C63 S Coupe ‘Aero Edition 63’,for the Australian and New Zealand market.
As the ‘Aero’ in its name implies, the limited-edition model stands apart from the regular C63 S offering with the fitment of an exclusive AMG Performance rear spoiler and front lip apron.
Mercedes-Benz says these items have been wind-tunnel tested to deliver downforce and grip.
Aside from the aerodynamic bits, the Aero Edition 63 comes with an exclusive trim combination of Magma Grey and Black Nappa leather upholstery with yellow stripes for the front and yellow stitching lining the rear seats, centre console, dashboard, and doors.
Adding to that, the Aero Edition 63 comes specified with the otherwise optional front ceramic composite disc brakes, AMG performance front seats, and interior carbon package.
Just 63 examples of the AMG C63 S Coupe ‘Aero Edition 63’ will be built, each priced from $188,600.
Considering that it is $17,200 more than the base asking price of a standard AMG C63 S Coupe, and around $5000 to $6000 cheaper than a similarly-optioned example, that is relatively good value for those in the market for AMG’s V8-powered C-class coupe.
The 2020 Formula 1 championship starts this weekend in Albert Park, free to air on Channel 10. But while watching home round on the box is about as straightforward as it gets, catching up with the rest of the calendar requires a lot more research. Luckily for you, we’ve done the spadework so you don’t have to. Here’s how you can catch every minute of every race.
Free-to-air
While Foxtel owns the exclusive rights to Formula 1 broadcasting locally, anti-siphoning regulations mean the Australian Grand Prix must be shown on free-to-air television. Channel 10 is showing Friday’s two practice sessions on 10Bold, while Saturday and Sunday’s running will be on Ten.
While the other races won’t be shown live, Channel 10 will air one-hour highlight packages after each grand prix.
Kayo Sports
The newest addition to the local sports streaming landscape, Kayo Sports will have every session and race of the 2020 Formula 1 championship on offer both live, and on demand. The service costs $25 a month, and offers two logins. However, the service can only be used on mobile devices, with television viewing restricted to Chromecast.
Foxtel IQ
While this is the most expensive option, costing at least $68 a month, Foxtel’s IQ package offers the best quality footage. For 2020, Foxtel will air F1 in glorious 4K HD. Every session and race is shown live, with the broadcast lifted from Sky in the UK. This means high-quality pundits offering the best pre- and post-race analysis. Foxtel’s portable streaming app, Go, means you aren’t just restricted to the lounge room either.
Foxtel Now
Almost identical to Foxtel IQ, Now, is a cheaper service at $54 a month, but comes without 4K HD capability, and is restricted to mobile streaming only.
F1 TV
Unfortunately, Formula 1’s own streaming service, F1 TV, is unavailable in Australia… for now. We’ve been promised that it will be turned on eventually, but fans will likely have to wait until the current Foxtel deal runs out, which isn’t until the end of 2022. However, Aussies that have a VPN are able to trick the system into giving them access, for a price of US$8-12 (A$10-15). Not that we could possibly recommend such a course of action.
UPDATE 12/3 – Here’s what you need to know about the Australian Grand Prix, due to start in Melbourne tomorrow. With ‘stop f1 australia’ trending online, there is a groundswell of dissension about the state government’s reluctance to reschedule or cancel the Australian Grand Prix for 2020 in the face of the growing COVID-19 virus pandemic.
The World Health Organisation has now formally identified the outbreak as a pandemic, while the NSW state government is set to announce that the Royal Easter Show – one of that state’s biggest annual events – will be cancelled for 2020, along with other mass-attendance events.
The second round of the F1 championship in Bahrain will be held behind closed doors, while the Veitnam and China rounds have been postponed.
Meanwhile, the MotoGP motorcycle championship has now cancelled or postponed the first for rounds of its 2020 season.
The United States has also just declared a 30-day ban on all travellers from Europe except the UK, which will throw world travel plans into chaos.
On the ground in Melbourne, WhichCar has learned that there are six or more F1 personnel who have been quarantined after showing symptoms of the virus, up from the single McLaren and pair of Haas F1 team members confirmed as being under quarantine after attending the on-site coronavirus testing facility at Albert Park.
Renault and Alfa Romeo both cancelled their media events with their drivers on Wednesday, while it’s a wait-and-see situation for the rest of the paddock, according to insiders.
What you need to know
As of Thursday 1200hrs, the Australian Grand Prix is still going ahead as planned, and a press conference is expected to be held today.
F1 has announced that that autograph sessions have been cancelled, to be replaced by q-and-a sessions, while the practice of drivers meeting and greeting fans on the walk to the F1 paddock will be banned.
Parking is at a premium at the venue, and public transport is still being suggested as the best method of travel to the event.
More to come./Tim Robson
UPDATE 9/4 – Andrew Westacott, the CEO of the Australian Grand Prix Corporation, has said that there is “not a chance” that this weekend’s season-opening event will be held behind locked doors, as Ferrari and Alpha Tauri (formerly Toro Rosso) cars land in Melbourne.
The news comes despite the announcement that the second round of the series in Bahrain will be run in front of empty stadiums after government authorities there announced a ban on public gatherings.
Other sporting events around the world, including high-level soccer games in Europe, are also being played behind closed stadium doors. However, the AGP looks set to go ahead as planned.
“Not a chance,” Westacott told SEN when asked if the race could be held behind closed doors. “When you look at 86,000 at the MCG last night [for a cricket match], and the [AFL] footy the week after, we’ve got to go around things sensibly and keep moving on through life while taking the necessary precautions.”
Fifteen cases of COVID-19 have now been confirmed in Victoria, but Professor Brendan Murphy, the Australian government’s chief medical officer, told Fox FM he would not be worried about going to the AGP this weekend.
“There is no evidence of community transmission in Victoria at the moment,” he said.
The arrival of the Italian-based cars comes after that country is on the verge of announcing a quarantine state that could affect up to 16 million people in the north of the country, including those in Ferrari’s home province of Modena.
2020 Ferrari SF1000 during pre-season testing
Travellers from Italy who have arrived in Australia are subject to additional screening procedures but aren’t required to self-quarantine for 14 days. It’s thought that the majority of F1 personnel are already in Australia ahead of the AGP, which kicks off on Friday./Tim Robson
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UPDATE 05/03/20 – Prime Minister Scott Morrison has this afternoon announced increased screening measures for travellers arriving in Australia from Italy, but has stopped short of applying either a total travel ban or a quarantine period for passengers arriving into Australia from the European nation where more than 2500 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed.
This measure firms up the chances of the Australian Grand Prix running as scheduled next weekend, as it allows team staff from Italy to arrive as planned – albeit via longer journeys to skirt past travel ban-affected areas like the Middle East.
A travel ban on Italian passengers was within the government’s purview, as shown by it banning travellers from South Korea, one of the worst affected countries outside China.
The additional detection measures that passengers must undergo include temperature screening at check-in and upon arrival, as well as more rigorous questioning about their whereabouts in recent weeks.
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The worsening coronavirus pandemic could threaten the Australian Grand Prix, with industry and health experts warning that an event cancellation needs to be considered.
Currently both Formula 1 and the Victorian State Government support the March 15 event proceeding as planned, but if the global health threat worsens, this stance could change.
Globally, cases for the COVID-19 virus have been worsening, with Europe, where many F1 teams are based, now being heavily affected.
Health experts from around the world now predict a global pandemic could be declared, while this week Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced the Government would activate a pandemic plan in preparation.
This doesn’t mean a pandemic has been declared in Australia just yet, but does mean the Government is prepared to do so should more cases arise, with preparations under way to establish fever clinics, aged-care home lockdowns and increased medical stockpiles.
More than 80,000 people in 50 countries have been infected with the coronavirus, with nearly 2800 deaths.
University of Queensland professor Ian Mackay told The Australian that it was unrealistic to expect COVID-19 to be contained.
“We’re likely to have the virus become what we call an endemic virus, or a virus that’s just with us for life,” he said.
“We already have four of these coronaviruses, mostly causing colds. We get them every year. They peak during winter but they still move around between us during the rest of the year as well. So it’s likely this might become one of those.”
The coronavirus has earned a reputation for its ability to spread rapidly, prompting quarantining worldwide.
There have been 322 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in northern Italy, with 12 deaths recorded as of earlier this week.
Two Formula 1 teams –Ferrari and Alpha Tauri (nee Toro Rosso) – are located near the outbreak.
Engine supplier Honda is keeping key personnel in Europe at the conclusion of Formula 1’s pre-season testing, instead of sending them home to Japan, where all schools have been closed and confirmed cases tally in excess of 200.
Formula 1’s chief executive Chase Carey remained confident the first three rounds of the championship would go ahead as planned.
“We’re heading to Melbourne, heading to Bahrain and heading to Hanoi,” he told reporters.
Construction of the Albert Park grand prix circuit has been under way for the past month, ahead of the Australian Grand Prix’ 25th running since moving from Adelaide.
Victorian sports minister Martin Pakula said yesterday the Australian Grand Prix – which was attended by an estimated 324,100 people last year – would go ahead on March 15.
Meanwhile, the chief executive of the Australian Grand Prix Corporation, Andrew Westacott, said that any decision to cancel the event would be made by the Government.
“We take guidance from the chief medical officers in Australia and ultimately from government,” he told reporters. “Government and health officers will look at things medically and economically and assess risk.”
The Victorian Government invests a significant amount of money in the Australian Grand Prix – $60.2 million last year.
Felicia Mariani, the chief executive of the Victorian Tourism Industry Council, warned that the possibility of an event cancellation needed to be considered.
“The decisions around travel restrictions and how that might affect the conduct of the Australian Grand Prix will be made by government and health officials with the safety of the nation at its core,” she told The Guardian.
“We hope it will not come to cancellation, but the industry will need to be prepared for this, should it occur.”
Speaking to 3AW, Victoria’s Chief Health Officer Dr Brett Sutton said “we have to keep all options open” in relation to an event cancellation, while also downplaying any concerns that the grand prix could be called off. He also told reporters it was “very likely” that a pandemic would be declared.
“If it’s a very mild pandemic, like the 2009 flu pandemic, then you don’t need really significant action,” he added.
“But if it’s severe and we need to do absolutely everything possible to reduce the peak, reduce the number of cases, then we have to keep all options open.
“I think we keep it under review but these huge events are planned for months and months in advance and I think it would take some extraordinary activity of the coronavirus in Australia to cancel something like this at this stage.
“I think it’s almost certain to go ahead. It’s a huge economic boost to the country, and people are harmed by economic constraints as well, so we have to bear that in mind.
“People can die as a result of really significant economic harms.”
What do you think? Should the Australian Grand Prix go ahead as planned?
Tesla has passed an important milestone as its one millionth production car rolled off the Freemont production line in California.
The red Model Y electric car was pictured by founder Elon Musk on his prolific Twitter feed, along with a picture of the production staff who built it.
It’s the fifth production model in Tesla’s range and is days away from going on general sale in the US, following on from the original Roadster, the Model S, Model X and Model 3 saloon.
It’s been a rocky road since Tesla started Model S production in 2012, and there have been many who predicted the start-up’s demise as it struggled to meet demand, master supply chains and get the quality right. Some still forecast that Tesla will struggle as it matures, with huge R&D investments necessary to replace its large cars, yet the business remains one of the most valuable car makers in the globe right now.
So far Tesla has produced all its larger electric cars in the Californian factory, and the new Shanghai plant in China is gearing up to churn out capacity of 150,000 Model 3s and Model Ys annually.
Tesla is also preparing to launch a European factory in Berlin, Germany. After many years of wayward production claims, it looks like the company might soon have the capacity to meet demand for its progressive electric cars, just as the zeitgeist ushers EVs into the mainstream.
Perhaps it won’t be too long before Musk’s EV pioneers are announcing the two millionth Tesla… Let us know if you agree in the comments below.
This article was originally published on carmagazine.co.uk
Horacio Pagani comes across as, for all the extremities of his cars, quite a subtle man. And that comes across quite succinctly in this video he hosts, looking closely at the Pagani Imola and the Pagani Huayra Roadster BC.
Sure, we already know a fair bit about the builds of both, the former being a five-car run of Huayras unveiled at the Supercar Owner’s Circle event in Switzerland late last year and packing an AMG twin-turbo V12, the latter a 590kW twin-turbo V12-powered topless Huayra special named for Benny Cailoa, Pagani’s first customer.
What the video does reveal to us is a little about the development, as well as some of the nitty-gritty of each car.
For example, the first thing Horacio says about the Imola is that the company needed a test bed for new materials, dynamics, and brought its customers and clients into the fold to develop the car.
After comparing the Imola’s 1240kg weight to that of a Ford Fiesta (he’s not far off, the last ST was about 50kg lighter) he says more than 700 parts of the car were machined from blocks to save weight.
He also discusses the ‘safer way’ to create downforce approximately four minutes in, before moving on to say “the car is not elegant,” happily admitting the car’s design is focused on function rather than form.
Moving on, the Roadster BC comes out, and Horacio actually says the company intended to move on after the regular Roadster was built. The next project would be ‘C10’, or the ‘New Pagani’.
Instead, customers started placing deposits for the “Roadster BC,” assuming the car would exist following from the coupe.
Not one to disappoint, Horacio Pagani decided the car must be built, 40 of them, and be a total rework of the Huayra Roadster rather than just a small tweak. It weighs just more than 1200kg, and boasts 1050Nm “just after 2000rpm.” Pagani doesn’t reveal a power output, though.
Horcio even adds that the V12 engine will remain the mainstay of the brand until 2026, and won’t go hybrid in that time.
If you have a spare 17 minutes, give the full video a watch. It’s worth the time.
It’s become a startlingly common trend, and it’s one that frustrates ‘car people’ everywhere. Fake exhaust outlets are seemingly everywhere, with faux-chrome circles applied to rear bumpers that often have no correlation to where the engine’s exhaust gases actually come out.
And it’s not just cars at the cheaper end of the spectrum that are sporting these fraudulent apertures, either. From the Toyota Corolla to the Bugatti Chiron, fake exhausts are found in all corners of the automotive landscape.
Why, then, do they exist? Over the course of my career I’ve spoken to plenty of car designers and engineers about precisely this subject, and as it turns out there are a quite a few reasons why one of my most hated car design trends has become ‘a thing’.
Reason #1 – Aesthetics
This is the big one. It turns out that when designers don’t have to consult the engineers from the powertrain division about the aesthetic qualities of the exhaust tip, it suddenly becomes much easier for them to craft a cool-looking rear bumper because the ‘exhaust’ bit can be more seamlessly integrated with the rest of the car’s bodywork.
The obvious side-effect of excluding those engineers is that they then go and do their own thing, which usually means the exhaust tip gets turned down to face the road and thus expels gases below the bumper, rather than through it.
In these circumstances, what might look like the ‘exhaust’ is actually just a sealed-off bit of black plastic surrounded by a ring of plasti-chrome, while the real exhaust’s position doesn’t even correlate.
The other scenario is that the designers do the engineers the favour of styling an exhaust tip that’s integrated with the bumper, but actually allows gas to pass through it rather than being a mere blanking plate.
In these circumstances, the exhaust pipe itself won’t touch the faux tip that’s visible to bystanders, and that has a lot to do with the next couple of points:
Reason #2 – Cost
The smallest things can result in big costs when it comes to production line efficiency, and the less time a worker spends aligning an exhaust pipe with a bumper cutout, the more cost-effective that worker becomes.
Faux exhaust tips that do actually lead through to the exhaust muffler (but don’t physically touch it) permit quite a bit of misalignment to take place without anyone being the wiser.
Beyond that, eliminating a chrome tip makes it simpler and cheaper to fabricate an exhaust, especially if the same visual effect can be achieved by finishing the exhaust area with a metalized plastic trim piece instead of real metal.
The cost savings per car may only amount to a few dollars apiece, but when a carmaker is pumping out vehicles by the hundreds of thousands every year, that adds up to a significant amount of money.
Reason #3 – Safety
Exhaust gases are hot. REALLY hot if the engine is working hard, and most plastics used in vehicle bumpers tend to melt into a polymer goop when exposed to high heat.
Ergo, having an actual exhaust pipe come in close proximity to a rear bumper is a no-no, especially at the sort of clearances that modern car designers typically favour.
Don’t forget that heat makes metal expand quite significantly, so the position of an exhaust tip when a car being driven with a hot engine versus when it’s parked and cold can differ markedly.
If there’s not enough space around the exhaust to account for that dimensional growth, then there’s the risk of hot metal making contact with plastic and causing damage. It’s often just easier to make the exhaust hardware physically separate from the hole in the bumper.
Reason #4 – Cleanliness
This one applies to diesels most of all. Accumulation of exhaust soot on a car’s back bumper can make even a brand-new whip look like a haggard old hack, but there’s an easy solution: point the exhaust tip down at the road instead of straight back.
That directs most of the dirty exhaust out of the swirling airflow behind a car, lengthening the amount of time that the back bumper stays soot-free. It’s a minor reason, but one that makes a difference to the long-term ownership experience.
And there you have it – there is both rhyme and reason behind the proliferation of the pretend exhaust tip. And now that you know they exist, you’ll be looking for them everywhere…
Geared like it’s ready for a jaunt through the desert is the creation of famed Pfaffenhausen-based Porsche tuner Ruf Automobile.
Originally destined to be unveiled at the now-cancelled 2020 Geneva Motor Show, the Ruf Rodeo Concept eschews the company’s usual track-focused creations for something a little more country.
Though it evokes the memory of Porsche’s Paris-Dakar rally cars, the Rodeo was inspired by more opulent settings on the other side of the world, namely the Rodeo Drive Concours d’Elegance of Beverley Hills.
Designed by Estonia Ruf, wife of the company’s founder, Alois, the Rodeo takes much of its design cues such as its Navajo art-inspired seat upholstery and generous application of saddle leather, from their time living and studying in the United States’ mid-west.
The Rodeo is no gussied up 911 either. Under its matt paintjob and leather wrapped bits, the Rodeo is built on Ruf’s carbon-fibre monocoque chassis that underpins the CTR Anniversary and SCR, and equipped with the tuner’s fire-breathing 368kW/465Nm 4.0-litre naturally-aspirated flat-six.
As befits its off-road looks, the Rodeo is fitted with a four-wheel drive system, bigger all-terrain tyres, and long-travel suspension to give it a little more off-road capability than your run of the mill Ruf product.
Even Toyota admits it is a good problem to have, but the sales success that is the next-gen RAV4 is causing headaches within the popular marque’s supply chain.
As a worst-case scenario, waiting times for the RAV4 Cruiser Hybrid remain at seven-to-eight months between order and delivery, with an average of about five-to-six months.
Despite this, the all-new RAV4 jumped to second place in the February VFACTS results with a staggering 3375 registrations, which equates to a 105 percent jump compared to the same month in 2019.
What’s more, the RAV4 is now nipping at the heels of the all-conquering, chart-topping Hilux, falling just 46 sales short of the venerable dual-cab ute (includes 4×2 and 4×4 variants).
Although a Toyota spokesperson shied away from stating that the RAV4 could soon be Australia’s top-selling car, stating that “it’s much too speculative and early to start predicting it outselling the Hilux”, before highlighting the fact that “RAV4 supply and demand need to even out first”.
Therefore the jump seen in February (the RAV4 accounted for 2290 sales in January 2020) is more about supply catching up with the initial influx of orders and the fact there hasn’t been an all-new model in nearly 10 years.
“It’s not like there has been a sudden surge in demand … it’s just that we’ve had more stock free up which has allowed us to fulfil a lot of the demand that existed from the year before,” the spokesperson said.
Further proof of the hybrid RAV4’s success is that the petrol-electric variants accounted for 62 percent of SUV’s sales.
With 2097 registrations in February, it’s the first time a Toyota hybrid variant has surpassed 2000 sales in a month in Australia.
The company says that as much as it doesn’t want customers to be delayed with deliveries and that an increased shipment has been approved for 2020, Toyota is still “pretty chuffed” with the February sales result.
“It’s a good problem to have and we are working diligently to shore up supplies.”
“We don’t want anyone to be discouraged by the wait times and ask customers to contact their local dealer to see what’s in stock,” the spokesperson said.
Would you wait up to eight months for a hybrid RAV4?
World Time Attack Challenge 2020 will not go ahead with concerns surrounding the coronavirus (COVID-19) cited as the reason.
Speaking to MOTOR, WTAC CEO Ian Baker says he’s sought advice from various sources which all suggested postponing the event until next year.
“I’ve been in contact with the government and doctors, and everyone says this is going to get bigger before it gets smaller… I asked what the likelihood of this being declared an official pandemic is and I was told it’s ‘medium to high’.
Baker says it’s not just the health concerns around the virus, but also the various other facets of the event it will likely affect.
“I had a call from the person who organises my shipping, and they told me I should be allowing for at least double the normal time it takes.
“We also insure WTAC against everything we can, even things like rain, but the coronavirus is already here and we’d be running uninsured against that.”
Baker adds that the travel restrictions heavily affect the regions many competitors travel from, naming Japan and South Korea specifically. Keiichi Tsuchiya, for example, would likely have trouble getting here if Japan’s travel restrictions remain in place, Baker says.
“On the bright side, at least Under Suzuki have another year to prep their car for 2021.”
Baker told us he thinks the event could’ve gone ahead if it was more locally focussed, but its international nature makes it ‘irresponsible’ to consider going ahead.
In terms of the financial state of the event, Baker estimated a roughly 40 per cent lower attendance rate if COVID-19 fears continued to affect large gatherings, and said a ban on events over 1000 people would render WTAC 2020 dead anyway.
Without the success of 2020’s event, he says 2021 would be much harder to organise. Instead, Baker is planning to make 2021 bigger by getting ahead on planning earlier than he’d otherwise be able to.
“I would like to thank all of our competitors, fans, sponsors and the ARDC for the ongoing support. I acknowledge that we are still a long way from October, but we need to call this now as entries were scheduled to open in less than 4 weeks,” Baker adds in a statement on the WTAC website.
Spanish carmaker Hispano Suiza has revealed another version of the car it brought to the Geneva Motor Show in 2019. This is the Hispano Suiza Carmen Boulogne, an 820kW, rear-drive, electric hypercar taking inspiration from the motorsport legacy of the Hispano Suiza brand from the 1920s.
The Carmen, revealed in 2019 (with 750kW rather than 820kW), was said to be the spiritual successor to the one-off 1938 Hispano Suiza H6C Dubonnet Xenia, so the Bolougne’s design itself is not necessarily a throwback to the company’s racing days.
Instead, the name ‘Boulogne’ is drawn from the five special H6 race cars built with shorter wheelbases and an 8-litre straight six. One was driven by French racer André Dubonnet (also a fighter pilot and the man for whom the Dubonnet Xenia was built) in the 1924 Targa Florio, reportedly before he drove it home undamaged.
Carmen says even though the new Boulogne is electric (and much heavier than the original cars), 100km/h is within reach in less than 2.6 seconds from a stand-still, in part thanks to a relatively light (for an EV hypercar) kerb weight of 1630kg.
“A product of the brand’s ‘Unique Tailormade’ operation, the Boulogne features design enhancements that reference Hispano Suiza’s racing vehicles from the 1920s, while building on the Carmen’s exhilarating performance and exceptional luxury,” the brand’s press release says.
“The Boulogne moniker dates back to 1921 and the George Boillot Cup, in which Hispano Suiza competed with a performance-focused version of the company’s H6 Coupé. The endurance race saw competitors battle for victory for more than 3.5 hours, on the roads around the French town of Boulogne.
“Hispano Suiza achieved three consecutive race wins, with drivers André Dubonnet (1921), Paul Bablot (1922) and Léonce Garnier (1923) driving specially-modified versions of the Hispano Suiza H6.”
Five Boulogne models will be built to join the 14 other Carmens to be built, with the five race-inspired hypercars asking a base price of €1.65 million (directly exchanged to AUD$2,877,000).
