I spent a few years as a kid in the Snowy Mountains, just as the construction of what was then the world’s biggest civil engineering project was coming to an end.
So, instead of sharing a classroom with a mob of white-bread snot-noses who thought a bad day was a flat tyre on their Malvern Star, I went to school with kids whose parents had fairly recently fled post-war Europe and had a slightly different take on what constituted hardship.
One of those kids was a Hungarian nipper named Tamas (which quickly became Tommy) who’d been pestering his dad for a colour TV like (some of) the other families had. Now, Tommy’s old man was new to the whole TV thing, not just the colour angle.
Fact was, Tamas Senior hadn’t had a dream run of things generally. Back in Hungary in the 40s, a good day was one when the Germans weren’t parking a tank on his grandad. And things didn’t improve dramatically once the Russians marched in and started making the Krauts look like comedians.
So you can understand why Big Tamas didn’t put an especially high priority on a TV set with more than black, white and grey on board. But like most dads, he wanted little Tommy to be happy, he just went about it in a Russian-occupied, Eastern-Bloc kind of way.
Figuring colour telly was just black and white telly with more, um, colour, Tamas taped a piece of green cellophane over the top half of the screen and a blue piece of the same stuff over the bottom half. As a kid, it never occurred to me that he might have been taking the piss. I’m still not sure. Hell, maybe he wasn’t.
To be honest, if you were watching a documentary about lakes surrounded by mountains, old Tamas kind of nailed it. But for every other kind of TV show, it blew. Newsreaders looked like muppets, the weather girl looked like she must have been seasick and standing in a bucket of ice and, if you were watching a show about farming in the outback, it looked like the world had gone teacups-up.
Little Tamas wasn’t impressed and foolishly expressed as much.
“Okay,” says Big Tamas, “is TV, yes?”
“Y-e-s,” Tommy replied, sensing a trap.
“And has colours, yes?”
“Yes,” Tommy reluctantly agreed.
“Zen iss colour TV. Haff you chopped wood yet?”
End of.
It’s an argument that’s right up there with “…and if your auntie had balls, she’d be your uncle” (which was once an irrefutable statement in the pre-transgender–revolution era I’m talking about).
It’s getting worse, too. Back in the 60s and 70s, a Falcon GT was not a 500 with a few tack-ons. Nope, they were up on power, had firmer suspension, a range of cosmetic stunts and, in extreme cases, a goddam air intake poking through the bonnet. Can’t imagine Toyota bolting a shaker onto a Camry to make a Sportivo, can you?
Without a local industry to keep the imports honest, we’ll all be driving bland-burgers, despite what the badge wants you to believe.
Big Tamas would disagree with me, of course: “Is car, yes?”.
“Um, y-e-s.”
“And has GT betch, yes?”
“I guess so.”
“Zen iss GT car. Haff you painted fence yet?”
Nissan Australia has confirmed it will bring the 370Z Nismo to market late this year as a follow-up to the GT-R Nismo – and the Juke Nismo hot hatchback is in its sights as well.
Although the first Nissan Motorsport (Nismo) production model available on our shores was the stratospheric $299,000 plus on-road costs GT-R Nismo, local boss Richard Emery reveals to MOTOR that more affordable performance models were now on the way.
“So obviously GT-R has kicked off, GT-R NISMO [and] I think we haven’t firmed it up with the public but the 370Z Nismo will be in the market by the end of the calendar year [2017], and then we’re just looking at what else can be added to that,” Emery says at an event in Melbourne.
There is an example currently being tested in Australia, Emery tells, but no word on the price hike over the already expensive $57K plus on-road costs 370Z.
“Zed will be next, and in 2018 we’ll look at at least one other car and a few over the next couple of years,” he continues.
But Australia is gunning for the most powerful and highest performing version of Nissan’s oddball small hatchback-cum-SUV, Emery then confesses.
“When you decide to go for one, you might as well go for the one that you can bring the most there in terms of performance, so that would be my going-in position,” he explains.
The specs for the fastest Juke Nismo RS read more like a cross between the Clio RS and Megane RS from Nissan’s alliance partner Renault.
Given the current Juke tops out at $34K plus on-road costs, a sub-$45K pricetag would have to be on the cards. But Emery adds, “We haven’t got that far with Juke yet”.
Either way, it’s a matter of when the Juke Nismo, 370Z Nismo and GT-R Nismo all sit beside each other in Nissan showrooms. The local boss is acutely aware that with Pulsar and Altima ditched from its passenger car lineup, the Japanese brand needs to push the sporty barrow.
“That’s one of the reasons we go motor racing and one of the reasons we think Nismo still holds quite a strong branding position in Australia, despite the fact that we’ve never really officially sold Nismo here, so it has this latent appeal.
“We think that Nismo can provide that little bit of an edge that perhaps other brands don’t have.”
Four years, 36,000 pieces of Lego, some LED lights and a passion for Ferraris. Oh, and a lot of patience. That’s what it takes to build something like this.
Usually, when we see a Lego build that involves a car, we get pretty excited. This time, we were in awe.
It’s a Ferrari dealership, which he says took him four years to build.
Its creator says the building alone used up about 23,000 pieces, with a transporter made from a further 5000, and 8000 being used for the cars.
“I incorporated 3rd party LED lights to illuminate the interior of the building, which can be seen lining the ceiling.
“From the early stages of this build, I knew I was going to incorporate LED lighting… I was able to build all of the wiring into the ceiling, wrapping around and meeting at one side in the centre.
It’s massively impressive, but we figure it’s better to let the pictures and his own description do the talking.
Mazda has given its popular CX-3 its first update which has improved ride refinement and road noise and adds auto braking across the range. Here are eight things you didn’t know about it.
- At the time of launch, the 2017 CX-3 was the only small-SUV in its class to offer autonomous smart city braking across the range.
- Diesels make up for just three percent of CX-3s sold in Australia.
- The most popular CX-3 variant in Australia is the Maxx petrol FWD with automatic transmission.
- An eighth colour, ‘Eternal Blue Mica’ has been added to the 2017 CX-3 range.
- Mazda, which doesn’t believe in change for change’s sake, didn’t make one exterior design alteration to the 2017 model.
- ‘Natural Sound Smoother’ is used to help make the CX-3’s diesel engine quieter by finely tuning the combustion timing to cancel noise frequency of the piston vibration. The process works similarly to noise cancelling headphones.
- Mazda engineers where able to improve rear suspension refinement by simply changing the angle of the rear damper bushes by just 12 degrees – from 45 to 33.
- The Mazda CX-3 was Australia’s most popular small SUV in 2016, with almost 40,000 sold since it first launched in 2015.
- Extensive ergonomic research led Mazda set the driver’s eye point to 1250mm to provide a clear and unobstructed view by items such as guardrails.
Persistent speculation that Sebastian Vettel has already signed the paperwork to guarantee a move to the Silver Arrows next season won’t be officially confirmed…however Niki Lauda has not bothered to dampen ongoing reports that the four-times champ has a deal with Mercedes.
Asked about Vettel, Lauda told Auto Bild: “He’s the best at the moment. He knows what he wants, he knows the points where he has to find something within himself to get the maximum performance.
“Just an incredible guy,” added Lauda.
It was talk not guaranteed to shore up Valtteri Bottas’s self-confidence. Bottas is on a one-year deal.
A day later, Lauda had changed his tune a little. “Bullshit,” he replied to Sky News television when asked could Vettel land at Mercedes. “Makes no sense. He’s winning at Ferrari; why would he change?”
The grapevine has been abuzz with rumours that should Vettel switch from red to silver, then Max Versappen will be lured to Ferrari.
Over at Red Bull, tough-talking Helmut Marko has pre-empted such speculations declaring that the Dutch rising star won’t be switching to Ferrari or anyone else, simply because there is no performance “get-out” clause in his contract.
Even if Verstappen is tempted, and this year’s Ferrari is a better car than his Red Bull Renault, he is locked in tight. “If we do not release him, he cannot switch to Ferrari,” Marko added.
QUESTION – VERA (QUESTION FROM 4/4/2017):
Can I ask you how the Suzuki Vitara compares with the Honda HR-V and the Mazda CX-3. Which of these three would you prefer? I know I will need to increase my budget but I want to make sure I make the correct decision.BUDGET:
$25,000
ANSWER – NATHAN PONCHARD:
All three of those SUVs hold genuine appeal. The HR-V is the clear winner for space utilisation – it smashes the CX-3 for boot and rear-seat flexibility, for example, but it doesn’t steer or perform as crisply, and its front seats are fairly average for cushion support.The CX-3, updated in May, is the sportiest of the three, and the most fun to drive. It also offers the broadest model range and the option of AWD at a lower price point.
And the Suzuki sits somewhere in the middle – not as fun as the Mazda, not as roomy as the Honda, and not as well-finished as either of the other two inside.
The CX-3’s update has addressed its noise issues (engine, road and tyre noise), and its suspension is slightly retuned for a smoother ride. The current car, which has these faults, may still be in run-out so there’s a chance you may get one with a discount.The CX-3 Maxx petrol FWD is our pick for value, but its RRP (not including on-road costs) is $24,390. Its driving position is also lower than the Vitara/HR-V, and its boot is small. But it will likely have the best resale value of the three.
And at the previously mentioned price ($24,990 driveaway for the RT-S auto), the Vitara is good value, too.If the size works, go for the CX-3. Otherwise, either of the other two are solid bets.
To see Vera’s initial question, click here.
Let’s get one thing straight. It’s not that we didn’t agree with your assertion that the Ford Falcon XR6 Sprint is Australia’s greatest ever muscle car. It’s just that we thought we’d give the assorted bunch of experts, malcontents and closet anoraks in the Wheels office their say on what they thought should carry off the crown.
Being rather useless at building suspense, I can let you know that it’s the Holden LX Torana A9X.
Brock was such a force at the helm of the A9X that he still holds the record for the largest winning margin at the Great Race – 6 laps in 1979, with a lap record on the last one. Underlining its Mt Panorama pedigree, the A9X also has to its credit two Australian Touring Car Championships and dozens of individual race wins.
Only 100 genuine A9X two-doors were produced and about 60 of those are believed to survive. They’re thin on the ground but our staff loved this True Blue muscle car from the golden age of the Aussie chrome bumper more than any other.
Sharing the remaining five votes amongst them were the HT Monaro GTS 350, the VK Commodore SS Group A, the HSV W427 and the HSV GTSR W1. We had a much smaller sample size than you guys with your eye-poppingly Ford-heavy selection, so we’re making no claim on this being as valid as yours, democracy manifest and all that.
MOTORSPORT can be cruel for racers and fans alike – just ask this pint-sized Kimi Raikkonen fan.
After an action packed start to the Spanish Grand Prix that saw Raikkonen crash out of the race at the very first corner after he collided with Valtteri Bottas and Max Verstappen, the television cameras cut to the crowd to show the die-hard Kimi fan – dressed from head-to-toe in Ferrari merch – bawling his eyes out.
The emotional youngster’s raw reaction struck a chord with commentators and fellow fans on social media, and it seems, someone in the Ferrari team too.
Whether it was a quick-thinking PR manager, or a stroke of genius from Formula 1’s new “fan friendly” management, plans were quickly put in place for the youngster to meet his favourite driver.
Soon the Kimi fan was back on our TV screens, this time inside the Ferrari motorhome and alongside Kimi, who posed for a photograph and gave the fan his hat.
Brilliant stuff, and we’re sure an unforgettable day for the little youngster.
Hamilton takes tight Spanish Grand Prix
Ferrari throws away early advantage
Lewis Hamilton has come from behind Ferrari rival Sebastian Vettel to win a tense Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona and close the gap in the fight for the world championship.
Australia’s Daniel Ricciardo scored the final podium spot – his first top three of the season – after a lonely drive. His useful points haul was aided by the departure from the race of his Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen and Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen after a clash with Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas in the first turn.
If Red Bull came to Barcelona optimistic that some car updates would close the gap than it was sadly misplaced. Ricciardo started sixth and finished a sobering 75.8secs away from the winner.
After firing from outside the front row past Hamilton to the lead at the start, Vettel quickly opened up a clear lead over Mercedes driver.
By as early as lap 10 the race was looming as a straight duel between Vettel and Hamilton, separated by 2.5 secs, with Bottas dropping back and Ricciardo slipping further behind.
At the end of lap 14, Ferrari pitted Vettel but in a questionable strategy play put him on soft tyres again, committing him to a final stint on mediums.
It put him at a disadvantage when the two title contenders were fighting in the closing stages.
Hamilton extended his first stint until lap 21, switching to the slower mediums for a brief middle stint before taking advantage of a virtual safety car to grab a set of softs for the crucial run to the flag.
A lap later, Vettel too made his second stop for new rubber, but had to opt for mediums, disadvantaging him in the scrap for victory.
With his six-second lead wiped out, Vettel aggressively rejoined with Hamilton alongside. But in a no-prisoners move, the Ferrari driver muscled to the front, edging the Merc off the track. Vettel stayed up front for a few more laps, defying the pressing attentions of the man on better rubber.
On lap 44, though, Hamilton blasted by on the straight and though Vettel pressed on in the vain hope that the Merc might burn up its Pirellis, the Briton was never seriously threatened in the final laps.
“I loved it; this is why I race. This is what made me get into racing in the first place. This is what the sport needs to be like every single weekend.”
It was Hamilton’s 55th GP victory, his second this year and his second at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. His victory ended a sequence of 10 different winners there in 10 previous races.
The Force Indias of Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon took fourth and fifth in a constructors’ championship-boosting result. Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg was sixth.
Fernando Alonso, who remarkably pushed aside his frustrations with the Honda’s unreliability to drag his McLaren up to seventh-fastest in qualifying, finished his first race of the season, though out of the points, in 12th. The Honda, he claims is 50 horses down on the Mercs and Ferraris. It is certainly 13km/h off in straight line speed at Catalunya.
Sauber’s Pascal Wehrlein, pinged five seconds for going to the wrong side of a bollard at the pit entry. One-stopping, Wehrlein crossed the line seventh but was relegated to eighth by the penalty. It was still a terrific result for struggling Sauber.
Stoffel Vandoorne has been handed a three-place grid penalty for the next race in Monaco after colliding with Felipe Massa.
Vettel (104 points) leads the drivers’ championship from Hamilton by six points with Bottas third on 63.
Will Power dominates Indy Grand Prix
Breaks his season’s duck in 500 tune-up
Will Power had to endure a frustrating start to his 2017 IndyCar season but the Australian came good with a vengeance on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s road course.
Power was nigh uncatchable all weekend in his Team Penske Chevrolet. He won the pole Friday and only gave up the lead twice Saturday – both at pit stops – racing away for his 30th IndyCar career victory in an ideal confidence booster heading in the next race, the Fernando Alonso-flavoured 101st Indianapolis 500 on May 28.
It took Power five races to secure his first win of the season after twice going close in early rounds.
On the Indy road course, though, Power reigned supreme, his dominance evident in the bare race stats – he led 61 of 85 laps in a race that was green from start to the chequer.
He comfortably held off Brisbane-born Scott Dixon’s Ganassi Honda to win by 5.283 secs, his points haul spring-boarding him up two places in the championship standings into fifth.
“After a frustrating year, we had the perfect strategy, today,” reported Power.
“I’ve been around motorsport long enough there are good days and bad days, and that the good and bad times never last long.”
Pagenaud retains a 10-points lead over Dixon after five of 17 races, with Team Penske drivers Josef Newgarden, Helio Castroneves and Power holding the third through fifth spots, respectively.
Matt Campbell on podium in Barcelona Supercup
We knew the kid was good.
German Michael Ammermüller has won the first two races of the 2017 Porsche Supercup in Barcelona, jumping to an early points lead in arguably the world’s most competitive one-make sports car championship.
But Aussie Matt Campbell shocked the Euros with a pair of poles on Saturday.
Campbell, 22 – last year’s Porsche Carrera Cup Australia champion and enduro driver with Red Bull Australia – is driving for Swiss-based Fach Auto Tech, the team with whom now-Porsche works Le Mans driver Earl Bamber won the 2014 Supercup crown.
The likeable and grounded country boy from Warwick, Queensland, made a dream start to his Porsche Supercup campaign, topping qualifying in Barcelona on Saturday.
Now in its 25th year, the nine-round Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup runs as a support category for the FIA Formula One World Championship and visits iconic locations such as Barcelona, Monaco, Monza, Silverstone, Spa-Francorchamps and the season finale in Mexico City.
The Walkinshaw split with Burgess
When love turns sour
Motorsport is a brutal business, especially when things are not going well.
After a frustrating race weekend in Perth for the Walkinshaw-owned HSV team, Ryan Walkinshaw on Friday announced that his operation has terminated of the contract of highly regarded team principal, Adrian Burgess, effective immediately.
Reputations count for nothing in a results-driven business. Friendships are sometimes at risk.
The poor results in WA were the latest in what has been a struggle for the team and drivers James Courtney and Scott Pye. The always candid Courtney described the team’s Perth performances as “embarrassing”.
The tough beginning to 2017 came on the back of the team losing its factory support from Holden, and with it the legendary Holden Racing Team nomenclature.
The well-credentialed Burgess, an Englishman, had worked with Formula One teams including McLaren and Jordan before relocating to Australia in 2008 to take up a position working with rising star Courtney at Dick Johnson Racing.
Burgess and Courtney have been close for many years.
Burgess was a big factor in Courtney winning the Supercars title in 2010, but with the team struggling, he moved to Triple Eight for three seasons. He then hooked up again with Courtney to jump to the then HRT and long service incumbent Garth Tander in 2014.
The team’s performance over the past two years has been very ordinary, with both drivers too frequently qualifying in the back half of the field, making points-scoring awkward.
Tander and Courtney managed just two wins between them in 2016, the former’s win in the Sandown 500 last year being the last triumph for Walkinshaw’s outfit.
The patchy results encouraged Walkinshaw to replace Tander with Pye for this year, and now the purge has claimed the scalp of Burgess.
“It has obviously been a difficult start to the year from a racing perspective, and I came to the conclusion that a fresh start was the way forward. We appreciate Adrian’s focus and hard work over the last three years, and we wish him all the best in the future,” said Walkinshaw in a team statement.
“The entire team will continue to work hard and are extremely passionate about achieving success. It is not in our nature to step back from the challenges that racing in such a competitive category presents us.”
Time and patience had run out at Clayton. Changes had to be made even if it broke up the Courtney-Burgess partnership.
Mathew Nilsson will take on the role of acting general manager of motorsport while Walkinshaw looks for a permanent replacement.
Ryan Walkinshaw says the team needs a fresh start.
“It has obviously been a difficult start to the year from a racing perspective, and I came to the conclusion that a fresh start was the way forward. We appreciate Adrian’s focus and hard work over the last three years, and we wish him all the best in the future,” said Walkinshaw.
F1 fans swamp open pitlane in Barcalona
New open-gate policy…and the race fans love it.
Formula One’s promised drive for greater fan-friendliness and accessibility became an early reality at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya on Thursday when hundreds jammed into the cordoned-off half of the pit-lane to meet their favourite star drivers, who joined in the fun by stopping for selfies and to sign autographs.
Normally, Thursday is a quiet time at the track but new F1 owner Liberty Media has used the opening day of the first European race of the season to make good a vow for more generous fan engagement.
Bernie Ecclestone probably would not have approved but Liberty boss Chase Carey is going all out to build strong relationships with his drivers as well as those who follow the sport.
F1 legend out of hospital and back home
A Singapore hospital certainly gathered Moss, for 134 days in fact.
Sir Stirling Moss has returned home to Britain after spending more than four months in a Singaporean hospital recovering from a serious chest infection.
Moss, 87, was hospitalised on December 22 last year after travelling to Singapore for a cruise with his wife.
The F1 legend had expected to be laid up for just a week or so but couldn’t get the all-clear from doctors until earlier this month.
Moss, the winner of 16 grands prix has released a statement which said: “He is thrilled to be back where he belongs. He still has a substantial amount of recovery to undertake but says that he has determination and a great pit crew.”
QUESTION – VERA (QUESTION FROM 4/4/2017):
I want to buy a small new car but due to a back problem, I need higher clearance. I don’t necessarily want an SUV but this seems to be my only option. Are there any small cars with higher clearance? What is the best small SUV? I want auto, four door, good economy and safety features.
BUDGET:
$25,000
ANSWER – NATHAN PONCHARD:
Two options that immediately spring to mind are both from Suzuki.The smaller and least-expensive of the two is the new Ignis. Its upright design not only looks good, but packages together a brilliantly roomy hatch-on-stilts with excellent entry/egress, great vision and loads of storage. And if you opt for the up-spec GLX ($18,990 RRP with a CVT automatic, not including on-road costs), you get a sliding rear seat to prioritise either rear-seat passenger room or boot space for luggage.Besides some off-the-line lag from the continuously variable transmission (CVT), the main issue with the Ignis GLX is its firm ride. Wearing 16-inch alloy wheels, it feels firmer than the lower-spec Ignis GL on smaller 15-inch steel wheels (not available with the sliding rear seat). So if you place value on a plush ride, or you live somewhere with poorly surfaced roads, the Ignis’s ride may become irritating. Otherwise, it’s a ripper.
