After carefully releasing the flow of information about its all-new Rio hatchback, Kia has opened the floodgates to reveal full specs and pics ahead of its official launch at this month’s Paris Motor Show.
Due to hit Australian showrooms in January, the new Rio is bigger than the current model and, like the new Hyundai i30, has found straighter, European lines to broaden its appeal.
The front has the Korean company’s characteristic Tiger grille, but it is narrower than the previous model but with a wider smile that leads to new-look headlights with U-shaped LED running lights. It has a lower roofline, but all other dimensions have increased a little – it’s length grows by 15mm to 4065mm, width increases by 5mm, and the distance between the front and rear wheels widens by 10mm.
Inside this translates to decent legroom growing to 1120mm in the front and 770mm in the rear, while shoulder space increases to 1,375 mm in the front and 1355 in the back seats. Despite the 5mm shorter height, front and rear headroom increase to 1021mm and 966mm respectively.
The cabin offers more storage space than before, including a centre console with open double storage tray for mobile devices – an improvement from the previous model. It will be surrounded by seats available in a choice of black or grey cloth seat upholstery, or with black or grey fake leather. A ‘Red Pack’ will give buyers black with red fake leather-trimmed seats.
Boot space also grows 37-litres from 288 litres to a reasonably practical 325 litres which can be expanded via the split-folding rear seats.
The new Rio features a split-level boot floor, which enables owners to change its height so you can store items under it to prevent them rolling around, or keep them out of sight. If you want a spare tyre you’ll have to pay extra or make do with a tyre mobility kit that comes as standard.
The Rio will be sold as a five-door model in Europe, with no word on whether there will still be a three-door version available here.
The Kia Rio has always been a good budget new-car buy, but now its new premium looks will be matched by plenty of optional new technologies such as advanced driver assistance systems and connectivity.
This includes Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB) with pedestrian recognition and lane departure warning. There will also a park assist option.
Infotainment will be controlled via a 5.0-inch ‘floating screen’ that sits outside dashboard, with an option for a 7.0-inch screen. The new media system supports Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, and Kia’s new Connected Services (optional), powered by TomTom, which includes live traffic updates and alerts, and weather forecasts.
The Rio will come with a choice of small three- and four-cylinder engines in Europe, including the three-pot turbocharged 1.0-litre TGD1 and the four cylinder 1.25-litre MPI unit – available here in the Picanto – as well as the 1.4-litre four-cylinder turbo diesel and 1.4-litre four-cylinder petrol engine.
Engine options are yet to be conformed for Australia, though the 1.4-litre petrol available in the current range will remain, mated to a four-speed automatic transmission or six-speed manual.
More information about Australian variants, options and pricing will become available after the Paris Motor show launch early October, 2016.
ANGUS MacKENZIE samples some serious metal as Ford finally reveals its latest Falcon. His verdict? Holden should be worried.
First published in the October 1998 issue of Wheels magazine, Australia’s best car mag since 1953.
“It’s really only once every 10 years we get the chance to make a big change to the Falcon.”
Ian Vaughan, Ford Australia‘s vice-president of product development, and the man responsible for the new AU Falcon, is a master of understatement.
Big change?
If you’ve driven Falcons before, there’s a lot about the AU that will seem familiar.
Although it looks tighter, tauter, smaller than before the AU retains the current Falcon package size inside and out, plus or minus a few millimetres here and there.
Base engine is still a 4.0 litre inline six- with the same bore centre spacings that every Falcon six has had since 1960 – driving through BTR’s electronically controlled four-speed auto. It’s quieter and smoother, but close your eyes and the AU still sounds like a Falcon.
And yet … slide in behind the wheel and you immediately notice you’re sitting lower in the car. A virtually brand new floorpan – only parts of the cowl support and the rear rails on the sedans are carried over from the EL Falcon – means Ford has been able to drop the H-point of the front seats, making this the first Falcon you sit in rather than on.
On the road you’ll also notice the steering response is more linear, the engine revs harder and the ride is more comfortable. At first acquaintance – and we have only driven the car at Ford’s You Yangs Proving Ground – the AU takes traditional Falcon values and adds a big dollop of refinement, quality, efficiency and flair.
As we revealed exclusively last month, there are no fewer than four differently styled front ends and two different dash panels.
There are also seven different engine packages – five levels of tune for the six-cylinder engine, including a fully integrated LPG version, and two for the 5.0 litre V8- plus three different rear suspension layouts, including an independent double wishbone layout that is standard on Fairmont Ghia and optional on all the other sedans.
Driver’s airbag, power steering, remote central locking – this has been standard fare for the traditional Aussie six for the past few years now, and AU Falcon conforms to the norm.
While Holden VT Commodore offers electric seat height adjustment across the range, AU Falcon’s key surprise and delight feature – as the marketing mavens like to call them – is steering wheel mounted audio controls as standard equipment on all models.
Ford is also offering an optional ‘Mobile Office Pack’ which includes a small table designed to fit over the automatic transmission holder and cupholder recess to form a stable working surface for your laptop computer or paperwork, a mobile phone holder in the centre armrest, extra 12 volt power outlet, and aimable front seat reading lamps.
The decision to go with Forte was made quite late in the program – replacing the GLi name was not broached until last November, and approval to use Forte not given until January, recalls marketing vice president Holly Kramer – but
it makes a lot of sense from a marketing perspective.
Where Ford has been extra clever has been to give each of the AU variants a unique visual identity by mixing and matching a handful of key components, in addition to adding a bit of brightwork to the upmarket versions.
In simple terms, all cars share every panel apart from the bonnet. Forte, Futura and the XRs feature a bonnet which drops down in the centre, while Fairmont and Fairmont Ghia are fitted with a raised centre bonnet that will ultimately also appear on the long wheelbase Fairlane and LTD due next year.
Headlights are common – except on XRs – but the grille inserts are all dramatically different. The new Fairmont twins feature a more prominent evolution of the current Fairmont design, while the Futura has been given a relatively conservative narrow-mouth grille with a single chrome cross bar. But in the metal it’s the toothy Forte grin which gives the AU the strongest, freshest look.
“You have to get within five feet of it to see all the design detail. The Falcon is a graphic car. You can see it 100 yards away and know exactly what it is.”
He’s right. Big lights front and rear, and a roofline that sweeps in an unbroken arch from cowl to bootlid give the new Falcon a bold, distinctive look. Compared with the current Falcon, the base of the windscreen has been moved forward about 40mm, while the rear end is some 45mm higher.
The AU is also 10mm shorter overall, with front overhang cut by 14mm, and 20mm taller.
While slightly smaller on the outside, Ford claims the subtle recasting of Falcon’s proportions has actually increased interior space – headroom is up 17mm at the front and 2.5mm in the rear; luggage space is up 1.4 litres.
There’s a hint of New Edge in the details – the way the front and rear lights are delineated, for example – but some of the more subtle creases in the surfaces have more to do with managing airflow over the sheet metal than making it look pretty.
Vehicle refinement and aerodynamics supervisor Clive Humphris says more than 350 hours of wind tunnel work have gone into honing the Falcon’s shape to the point where he claims the AU has a drag co-efficient of just 0.29.
In Forte and Futura the dash follows convention in placing the instruments and controls in a built up area around the driver and rolling away to a soft, gently raduised crash pad in front of the passenger. In the Fairmonts there’s a totally different crash pad which is taller, more formal and features an insert of plastic wood.
Basic interior hardware is coloured medium graphite (light grey). A dark graphite is offered on the Fairmonts and XRs; it’s not quite black, but the closest we’ve seen on an Aussie car in 20 years, and it looks terrific.
As mentioned already, all cars feature steering wheel mounted audio controls (seek and volume) and Futura and above come standard with a large, user-friendly double DIN audio head unit which is CD and mobile phone compatible. Fairmont comes standard with a single CD player; Fairmont Ghia gets a six-disc stacker.
Forte and Futura get large rotary HV AC controls. The Fairmonts also feature high-mounted push button climate control with a display screen adjacent to the trip computer.
Falcons have always had strong showroom appeal, but Ford claims the AU will also be cheaper to own and run.
The cumulative cost of scheduled services at 90,000km has been reduced by five percent, and 10 percent at 150,000km.
Holden should be worried this Falcon is going to give the VT Commodore a hard time, although we predict the two will be so closely matched that picking the better car will come down to a model by model, dollar for dollar comparison.
The irony is that, like the VT, the AU is a far superior car than it was ever originally planned to be, albeit for vastly different reasons.
Indeed, in a quiet moment Broadmeadows insiders will admit that at one stage there was never going to be an AU Falcon at all; that was when Jac Nasser arrived in late 1989 to grapple with Ford Australia’s bloated costs and structural inefficiencies. The intention was to shut down local manufacturing altogether and replace Falcon with an import.
It was Nasser’s successor, John Ogden, who turned around the case for Falcon. Through 1993 Ogden persuaded senior brass in Dearborn that Ford needed Falcon in Australia, if for no other reason than his realisation that moving to front-wheel drive would be commercial suicide and Ford didn’t have a suitable rear-wheel drive substitute elsewhere in its global product portfolio.
Though Alex Trotman’s radical restructuring of Ford’s global operations would ultimately make AU the car it is, initially it was almost Falcon’s death warrant.
“It wasn’t a help,” admits Ian Vaughan. “In fact it nearly bowled us out. We had to re-state the business case all over again.”
Quite simply, Falcon – and Ford Australia, for that matter – didn’t fit with Trotman’s strategy of centralised vehicle development centres and a reduced number of global platforms. But once more Dearborn was forced to conclude that while Falcon volumes were too small to influence the Big Picture, they were simply too big to be ignored.
Falcon survived, but Ford 2000 triggered the single most profound change in the way Broadmeadows operated since Jack Telnak set up the local design centre in the late 60s – all key AU design and development decisions would be controlled by Ford’s large vehicle centre in Dearborn, rather than local management.
Ian Vaughan, who had been moved into head the local AU Falcon development team, would now report directly to large vehicle centre chief Ken Kohrs in the US, as well newly appointed Ford Australia boss David Morgan.
But as Ford 2000 evolved into a strategy of optimising global vehicle development resources rather than commonising vehicle hardware globally, the Australian design and engineering teams effectively became the Falcon specialists within the large vehicle centre, electronically co-located with their colleagues in Dearborn via Ford’s private satellite network.
The substantial revisions to the 4.0 litre six – now dubbed Intech – precisely illustrate just how the AU Falcon has benefitted from this process. Ford was always going to have to use the inline engine – the cost of a new engine plant was simply prohibitive – but with the support of global engine chief Jim Clark, the man responsible for the ohc modular V8, it ended up spending twice what it had originally planned on upgrades and improvements such as the new structural cast alloy sump with its integral cross-bolted main bearing support.
“It expanded our vision,” says Lindsay Dawson of a process which resulted in what is virtually a brand new engine.
“We didn’t believe we could get as good a result as we did.”
Ford engine engineering supervisor David Mitchell claims the six has been transformed. Greatly improved is a more accurate descriptor.
The Intech engine revs harder, and there’s much less harshness above 3000rpm, but it’s no BMW; despite a lot of work to reduce friction it still feels like there’s a heavy rotating mass whirring around up front.
Part of the problem may be the BTR four-speed automatic, which seems a bit languid in its response.
The base Intech six develops 157kW at 4900rpm and 357Nm at 3000rpm-just like the old engine, but manages to use less fuel doing so.
The LPG version, engineered by Tickford, matches it for torque, and only loses out in terms of power above 4500rpm. There’s a high performance (HP) version of the Intech for the entry level XR6 which develops 164kW at 5000rpm and 366Nm at 3150, and then two stages of tune for the Tickford developed variable camshaft timing (VCT) version – 168kW at 5300rpm and 370Nm at 3500rpm for the engine fitted to the Fairmont Ghia, and 172kW at 5000rpm and 374Nm at 3500rpm for theXR6 VCT.
The standard 5.0 litre V8 now has six percent more power – 175kW at 4600rpm and two percent more torque – 395Nm at 3200 – thanks to upgrades flowing through from the engine’s fitment to the Explorer in the United States.
The Tickford massaged XR8 version still develops 185kW, but the power peak now occurs 500rpm up the range at 5000rpm. However torque has been boosted 10Nm to 412Nm at 3500rpm.
“I got told time and time again to take it out; that the customer doesn’t need it,” says Ian Vaughan. Ironically,
Vaughan believes eight out of 10 drivers probably won’t be able to tell the difference between new IRS and the well-proven Watts link live axle setup that’s standard on all but Fairmont Ghia – and within the clinical confines of the You Yangs, we’d probably have to agree – but that didn’t stop him pushing for the relatively expensive double wishbone layout.
“I didn’t want to do a trailing arm 20 years after everyone else,” he says.
Yes, we know the VT has a trailing arm rear end.
Dialling in the IRS also caused a few headaches in the AU chassis development program. Suspension ace John Mole was brought across from Tickford at the beginning of 1996 to finesse the system.
A former racer and the man behind the XR and GT suspensions, Mole found the original method of mounting the rear crossmember (to the inside of the chassis rails) allowed the whole suspension to move slightly under hard cornering, which provoked a subtle waddle at the rear, just like – he says – a BMW 528i. A new crossmember which mounted on the outside of the chassis rails well ahead of the axle line solved the problem.
Until March the IRS cars also had an 18mm rear roll bar, but this was removed after Ford’s global product chief,
Richard Parry-Jones, complained of oversteer during quick test session just prior to the Australian Grand Prix.
Parry-Jones wanted more linear, progressive handling on the limit and did not like having to wind off lock – even slightly – mid comer as the rear end came around.
The roll bar was removed and Parry –Jones subsequently drove IRS prototypes in June to ensure the chassis balance was to his satisfaction before signing off on the car.
On the smooth new handling track at the You Yangs the benefits of IRS are indeed difficult to detect. But on the old durability road – which dates back to the 1960s but is still better surfaced than most Australian country roads – we noticed better ride over small, sharp bumps and softer feel on full compression, although in the Fairmont Ghia the ride benefits were masked somewhat by the stiffer sidewall 16in Goodyear Eagle GA Plus tyres.
Late in the day John Mole took us over to a new bump track in the centre of the high speed oval where four up back-to-hack tests in a Futura and IRS Fairmont (which had similar profile 15 inch Michelin tyres) revealed markedly less side-to-side tossing of occupants and no wheel hop in the IRS car.
Regardless of rear end, the Falcon’s basic handling characteristic is understeer. It’s probably a touch more than we’d like, but we’ll have to wait until we put in some serious kays over real world roads before we make a definitive judgement.
At a total development and investment cost of $700 million, this is the most expensive Falcon ever. And yet, in a business where most new car programs are casted in billions, Ford Australia has delivered a bargain.
By any objective measure, the AU Falcon is, at first acquaintance, a world-class car with remarkably few compromises. Australia’s once unfashionable and uncompetitive car industry has again proven that with the right support it can do more with less.
In the new, globalised Ford Motor Company, that’s a message that won’t go unnoticed. But importantly, it’s one Australian drivers will quickly appreciate.
Want more? Check out our 56 years of Falcon!
We ride shotgun as the AMG GT R tackles its spiritual home.
THE motor industry might adore the Nurburging, but the feeling isn’t universal. In recent years the Nordschliefe – basically the old circuit – has becomes the ultimate playground for chassis engineers, and the place where the laptimes that are increasingly used to establish bragging rights in performance car segments are set.
Yet it’s worth remembering the Nordschliefe was widely hated by those who had to race on it during its later years of top-flight competition, when Formula 1 cars had become far too fast for its minimal safety. This is where Niki Lauda had the fiery crash that scarred him for life, and which Jackie Stewart detested so much he coined the phrase ‘Green Hell’ to describe what it was like to drive there. His description was subsequently claimed by the circuit’s fans, making it both appropriate and slightly ironic that the AMG GT R that brings me here is finished in the streaking frog shade of green known officially as Green Hell Magno. I hope Sir Jackie is getting a fee.
High speed passenger rides like these usually operate along the same principal as rollercoasters: lots of thrills but with a well-trained professional in the hot seat meaning little chance of spills. But the Nordschliefe adds a definite edge to proceedings; even the best crash here. I visit only a couple of months after a Koenigsegg One:1 had a very heavy off when rehearsing for its own record attempt. An inspection of the barriers on the section of track next to the pitlane confirms that Armco rarely has a chance to get old round here.
Former DTM racer and Nordschliefe specialist Thomas Jaeger is going to be driving, and the plan is for him to introduce me to the GT R’s various dynamic systems as we do our allotted two laps. It’s a nice idea, although not a very realistic one in the absence of an intercom. Even as we rumble onto the track the combination of the AMG’s outrageous exhaust note and helmet padding makes communication beyond thumbs-up pretty much impossible. Jaeger puts in a couple of big steering inputs before we reach the first turn, seemingly checking everything is pointing straight, and then drops the hammer.
This definitely isn’t going to be a blow-by-blow account of how the GT R deals with each of the Nordschliefe’s corners. Other than “bloody quickly” I couldn’t get more detailed; it’s a sensory overload. Watching Jaeger work is mesmerising enough, he’s wrestling the big Benz into the slower corners with some surprisingly jagged steering inputs, his right hand flicking occasionally to the rotary switch that controls the variable traction control in search of the optimum setting for different parts of the track.
The video games that have featured the Nordschliefe give a good idea of the shape of the track and the order of the corners, but – like Bathurst – they give little preparation for just how three-dimensional it feels in real life. Or, indeed, how close the barriers feel in the faster sections. It’s not just up-and-down, this has to be one of the bumpiest tracks in the world – mid-way through the first lap I see that Jaeger has turned the GT R’s dampers to their slightly softer “Sport” setting, Sport Plus being too firm.
Having two laps and a stopwatch function on my watch also means I get to run some unofficial timing to see how hard Jaeger is pushing. Timing from the bridge on the long Dottinger Hohe straight rather than the official start-finish gives a full flying lap, and I hit “stop” to reveal a time of 7:46; easily the fastest I’ve been around the Nordschliefe and not bad considering the ballast being carried in the passenger seat.
Back in the pits, there’s the chance for a quick debrief. How hard was Jaeger pushing? “You always leave something when you do things like this, especially under braking.” He also singles the rear steering out for particular praise – “when we were developing the car we could turn it on and off; you feel a massive difference.” Jaeger reckons that a max-speed lap would be between 20 and 25 seconds faster, putting the GT R close to, if not faster than, the 7:20 that Porsche claims for the Porsche 911 GT3 RS.
Fiat’s 124 Spider Abarth will dip its toes in rallying next year, and video of its first test suggests it was made for the sport.
While it’s yet to show the same flair on gravel, the Abarth 124 Spider ‘R-GT’ has been filmed ripping up a European tarmac test, demonstrating how well its Miata origins suit this stuff.
Of course, this isn’t any Abarth 124 Spider. Destined for the newly created FIA R-GT class, the Abarth Spider R-GT scores more power, a fixed roof, and thick roll cage – thankfully, because there’s a few of those in rallying.
Unlike its road cousin, the regular Abarth 124 Spider, there’s a 224kW 1.8-litre turbo four lurking in its bonnet instead of a 1.4-litre. Those off-throttle grumbles suggest anti-lag might feature also.
Either way, it’s enough, as the driver has an easy time holding the Spider R-GT sideways in corners, before snatching more cogs from its seven-speed sequential ’box out of them.
When it takes on FIA’s R-GT class next year it’ll join Porsche 911 GT3s on the world stage, and possibly other supercars, that qualify under the category’s rules.
The FIA is yet to announce the 2017 season’s dates, but expect the Spider R-GT to complete more tests during the lead up.
Meanwhile, the road-going Abarth 124 Spider will land in Oz this October.
Every year, thousands of children are left unattended in a car. According to figures from Ambulance Victoria, a staggering 1165 children were rescued by paramedics between September 2013 and August 2014.
There are plenty of excuses as to why parents leave kids in the back seat, like distractions or running late. But, regardless of the excuse, here in Victoria the penalties for leaving a child unattended in a car are $3690 fine or six months jail.
So it’s always reassuring when we find a device like Sense-A-Life, developed to battle the issue. Two neighbours from Tampa, Florida, invented this new device which aims to remind drivers to take the kids out of the car. The innovators, Fadi Shamma, a pharmacist, and Jim Friedman, an electrical engineer, wanted a solution to the growing problem where, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 31 children died of heatstroke in cars in 2014 in the US.
“We were tired of hearing all these sad stories and seeing the agony on parents’ faces and we decided that this is such as serious problem that could probably be solved with a simple solution,” Shamma told Fox 13.
The two-stage device uses sensors, pressure meters, car speakers and a mobile phone app. Two seat pads are connected – one to the child seat and another under a driver’s seat. One kilogram will activate the child’s seat, while the driver’s pad will detect when the driver has left the vehicle and send an audio alert asking the driver to remove the child. A second alert is sent to the driver’s phone, and when unanswered, another back-up alert is sent to a second registered phone.
Car manufacturers have already started developing similar technologies, such as this ‘rear seat reminder’ introduced in General Motor’s Acadia in the USA.
Shamma and Friedman are now looking for partners to help fund mass-production of the device and have it readily available in car seats. We’re hoping to see a technology like this reach Australian shores soon.
Want more? Check out our Child car seats safety guide.
LOOK out Volkswagen Golf GTI, Ford Focus RS, and Peugeot 308 GTi. France is set to spawn another hot-hatch sensation, in the sexy guise of the next-generation Renault Megane RS.
Slated for a global reveal at the 2017 Geneva Motor Show next March, the Renault Sport-designed and developed flagship differs from the current B95-series RS 265 and RS 275 versions by eschewing a three-door coupe-like body for the significantly larger and roomier five-door hatch configuration worn by its more mundane (and imminent) BFB-series siblings.
Check out the extra low-slung and wide-wheeled stance that suggests significantly broader front and rear tracks, while the rear diffuser has an ad-hoc pair of central exhaust pipes punching through. We’re confident that the crew from Renault Sport will flesh out the styling inside and out to match lofty expectations.
The latter, as a seven-speeder, is the only gearbox available in the 151kW/280Nm 1.6-litre GT (priced from $38,490), just as the smaller Clio RS 200 from $29,990 has to make do with a six-speed DCT.
Pricing will be interesting, as the current, three-door only Megane RS from $44,000 to $53,000 has long commanded a circa-10 percent premium over its Golf GTI nemesis.
We’re waiting impatiently to see whether the Megane RS’ switch to a five-door bodystyle will bring the two arch enemies closer together, so please watch this space.
HIDDEN deep in an industrial area in Germany sits 11 seemingly inconspicuous warehouses.
From the outside, these appear like any other bland, unadorned storage facility.
But what hides behind a single unassuming door is the most incredible car collection in the world.
Known within the company as Heilige Hallen, the Holy Halls, one of the only ways a mere mortal like you or I could see inside the hallowed walls would be via an invite from a Mercedes-Benz board member.
Wheels has a world exclusive feature on that tour in our latest issue. But for now, you can enjoy these glorious photos.
The vast open spaces of the warehouses hide some of the most secretive and rare cars ever created. In fact, the world’s most expensive car (insured at $94 million) sits hidden somewhere between the rows of vehicles.
It would be impossible to put a dollar value on what is held in the Holy Halls, with several one-off racing cars, along with championship winners, record holders, rare special editions, and concept cars all sitting side-by-side.
While many of us will never experience the joy of seeing this collection with our own eyes, now you can sit back and take a moment to enjoy these wonderful photos which captured our time in the Holy Halls.
NICO Rosberg has retaken the lead from Lewis Hamilton in the Formula One world championship, but his biggest threat in a nail-biter Singapore Grand Prix was not his Mercedes-Benz teammate. Instead, it was Australia’s Daniel Ricciardo, who finished less than half a second behind.
Rosberg successfully held off Ricciardo’s stirring late charge and now leads his unfriendly teammate by eight points after a strangely lacklustre Hamilton took third.
Bafflingly, the renowned night owl Hamilton never looked a chance under the mega-wattage of the Singapore street circuit. He struggled right from the start on Friday when he lost track time with a hydraulic failure. He then qualified only third behind Rosberg and Ricciardo.
After the final set of tyres, Ricciardo rejoined almost half a minute back from Rosberg with 16 laps to run. But the Australian quickly went into attack mode, carving huge chunks out of the gap.
Rosberg hung on, doing a smart job of managing fading brakes. The final margin was frustratingly tight for Ricciardo, but it may prove telling in the title duel between the Mercedes drivers.
“It was close today,” said a satisfied Ricciardo. “We did everything we could and I thought it was pretty much a perfect race. The only thing that would have been better was to get Nico at the start. Then throughout the race I wasn’t really thinking about what happens when I catch him, I was just focusing on trying to catch him and put some pressure on.
“Obviously we came here to win and we didn’t but I felt we left it all on the track.”
Red Bull’s team principal Christian Horner commented: “Tyres and strategy were always going to be key and in the end opting to go to a three-stop strategy with the tyres that we saved from earlier in the weekend brought Daniel tantalisingly close to Nico.
“Lewis triggered the final round of pit stops with Kimi covering him and then us in turn covering Kimi. That gave Daniel roughly 27 seconds to hunt down Nico who did a good job to manage his pace to the end but Daniel drove an outstanding race to finish 0.5 seconds behind him, splitting the two Mercedes. Overall a positive weekend; we’ve extended our [margin] over Ferrari in the Constructors’ Championship, we’ve scored another second place finish and produced an enthralling end to the grand prix.”
One fascinating vignette during the race was Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat’s vigorous defence against Max Verstappen, the driver who usurped his place in the main Red Bull team this season. After some tough exchanges, Red Bull pitted Verstappen to give him some track space. He finished sixth.
“The weekend started perfectly with a good qualifying session. Then, I had a good start and was able to keep the Red Bulls and the Ferraris behind me – both of which had beaten us comfortably last year. It was a bit tight at the end after Daniel did a clever pit stop timing-wise.
“If I would have also pitted I would have come out behind him because I was stuck in traffic on my in-lap, so we chose the best strategy to stay out and a big thanks to the team for that. It’s great that we learned from our mistakes last year and won at what is clearly a Red Bull track.”
Supercars: Tander and Luff win dramatic Sandown 500
Garth Tander and Warren Luff have overcome the weather gods, a damaged Commodore and their Holden Racing Team’s problematic future to win the Sandown 500 endurance race, staying cool to keep a purposeful Shane van Gisbergen at bay in the run to the chequer.
As well as the threat of van Gisbergen, Tander also had to deal with the front guard on his car blowing out, and potentially attracting unwelcome attention by race officials who could have disqualified him for damaged bodywork. It’s Tander’s first-ever Sandown 500 victory, and the second-closest Sandown 500 in history. It was also the first time the race has been red-flagged.
“I wanted this one on the CV; I didn’t have it yet.”
The win was Tander’s first in Supercars for two years and way more satisfying given Holden’s recent decision to end the factory support from the team we have known for years as HRT. The team’s last win was at the Clipsal 500. Tander’s own driving future is also unknown but the great win at Sandown certainly gives the veteran some bargaining power.
After a contest of many dramas including a huge race-stopping crash involving Supercars’ rookie James Golding on the opening lap, Red Bull Racing’s van Gisbergen’s second place means he has moved seven points ahead of his teammate Jamie Whincup in in the close battle for the 2017 championship.
“I’m glad they let it run,” he said. “Alex (Premat) had really great speed so we moved forward early.
“I am glad they didn’t black flag that [HRT] car because they typically would have. It wouldn’t have been a nice way to win if they did. It would have been a fun battle if there had been one more lap.”
The 2017 edition of the 500 was compelling from start to finish. Making his first Supercars start, the 20-year-old Golding hit the tyre wall at 149km/h in the Volvo driven this year by James Moffat. He walked away unhurt. The other Volvo shared by Scott McLaughlin and David Wall finished fourth.
The race resumed after repairs to the barrier, with the remaining 25 cars scrapping spectacularly whilst dealing with occasional showers messing with team strategies and also turning the already slippery surface into shiny, dark grey treachery.
Many drivers had tales of woe to relate afterwards. In a few cases, the co-drivers brought in for the enduro were at fault.
Whincup went into the Sandown 500 in the title ahead in points but lost the lead with a poor 13th place finish after co-driver Paul Dumbrell was slammed with a drive-through penalty for popping his seatbelt early when entering the pits.
It certainly wasn’t our day,” Whincup recalled. “We win as a team and we lose as a team.
Defending champ Mark Winterbottom’s title fight may be over too after his offsider Dean Canto, on slicks, slipped off the greasy track one lap before the end of his stint. They finished 24th.
Prodrive Racing Australia’s Chaz Mostert, sharing the Supercheap Auto FGX Falcon with Steve Owen, was pleased with yet another consistent result – fifth and first Ford – after being forced to double-stack.
The unpredictable weather brought some good and bad calls by teams. The DJR Team Penske Ford of Fabian Coulthard/Luke Youlden came up with a hard-fought sixth place finish after the MightyMite Special Falcon started 11th with Youlden at the wheel and he ran a double stint. A bold strategy call to put Coulthard on slicks on a wet track paid off as the track dried and put the #66 Ford back into contention.
But the day belonged to Walkinshaw Racing’s HRT and Tander and Luff. Just.
Sandown 500 results 1. Garth Tander and Warren Luff (Holden) 2. Shane van Gisbergen and Alex Premat (Holden) 3. Will Davison and Jonathon Webb (Holden) 4. Scott McLaughlin and David Wall (Volvo) 5. Chaz Mostert and Steve Owen (Ford)
Supercars Championship standings 1. Shane van Gisbergen (Holden) – 2248 points 2. Jamie Whincup (Holden) – 2241 (-7) 3. Craig Lowndes (Holden) – 2091 (-157) 4. Scott McLaughlin (Volvo) – 1989 (-259) 5. Mark Winterbottom (Ford) – 1902 (-346)
WEC: Webber and his mates win in Texas
Reigning world endurance champs Mark Webber, Timo Bernhard, and Brendon Hartley have taken a hard-fought victory in the Six Hours of COTA, in Austin, the multinational trio scoring a third consecutive WEC win after a gruelling race held in challenging, tropical conditions.
Race six of nine championship rounds quickly slipped into an exciting strategic battle between all of the LMP1 prototype manufacturers, Audi, Porsche and Toyota. Ultimately, all three were represented on the podium with the #8 Audi of Lucas Di Grassi,/Oliver Jarvis/Loic Duval claiming second and the #6 Toyota Gazoo Racing TS 050 Hybrid of Mike Conway, Stephane Sarrazin and Kamui Kobayashi took third.
Testing drivers and mechanics, the race started at 5pm Texas time with ambient temperatures soaring beyond 35 degree Celsius.
A day earlier the Audis had blocked out the front row, with the #7 R18 of Marcel Fassler/Andre Lotterer/ Benoit Treluyer nailing Audi’s third pole position in a row with an average lap of 1m45.842, just 0.141 ahead of their teammates in the #8 car.
The Audis relished the heat early, building a lead of more than 45 seconds in the opening 90 minutes. But when conditions cooled after sunset, the Porsche 919 Hybrid came on strong.
This year’s Le Mans winners, Romain Dumas, Neel Jani and Marc Lieb, experienced a rather mixed race in their #2 Porsche, finally taking fourth but banking enough points to stay in the lead in the tight drivers’ championship fight. They are 37.5 points ahead of the best Audi trio, Duval/Jarvis/Di Grassi.
The mid-season hat trick of wins for the #1 Porsche marks a dramatic turnaround in fortunes after a demoralising start to the 2017 championship campaign.
“It was tough racing with fair battles today and Timo’s and Brendon’s drives were awesome,” said Webber afterwards.
“The Audis in front were extremely quick in the heat, but this was no surprise. We knew we had to do a clean race and if they had stayed that strong we would have pushed them over the line. But then Audi had a problem and we have been lucky when the timing of a full course yellow played into our hands.
“Despite the heat, our guys in the garage did a great job again in the pit stops.”
It was the seventh WEC win for the three amigos, Bernhard/Hartley/Webber, and the third consecutive win at CotA.
Bernhard, Webber and Hartley completed one more lap than 2015 – 186 versus 185 laps. The trio set a record last year for the most consecutive wins in a row in the FIA WEC: four. They can equal that record with another victory at the next round at Fuji.
Land Rover’s most significant new model is almost upon us, with the all-new Discovery 5 due to make its debut at the end of the month before appearing in public for the first time at the Paris Motor Show.
What can we expect from Land Rover’s next-generation large 4×4? Here’s what we know:
1: Land Rover has been slowly trickling out photos and videos in the lead up to its big reveal, but we’ll see the Discovery 5 in its entirety at its official unveiling on September 28. Unfortunately, its anticipated arrival in Australia is slated for mid-2017 – global demand is likely to delay its local introduction.
2: It’ll be a massive departure from the Discovery 4 that it replaces. A brand-new platform lies beneath it using a light weight construction with plenty of aluminium to bring mass down, improve performance and reduce fuel consumption. How light? The Range Rover-derived alloy architecture that’s underneath the new Disco is said to shave a huge 400kg off its kerb weight, though it means the Discovery will no longer have a rugged steel ladder frame as its skeleton.
3: The Discovery’s trademark stepped roof is still there, but it’s more subtle than ever. Fit a roofrack, and it’s virtually hidden. It’s still a functional part of the Discovery 5’s design though, allowing third-row passengers to sit higher and see over the first and second rows.
4: It’ll be packed with technology, including – but certainly not limited to – a phone app that will allow owners to remotely check the car’s fuel status, find its location on a map, wind up the windows, switch on the air conditioning and even raise or lower the second- and third-row seats from virtually anywhere on the planet. Gimmicky? Maybe. Cutting edge? Definitely.
5: Parents rejoice: the new Discovery will be equipped with up to nine USB ports and offer secure storage for four regular-sized iPads! Keeping your kids entertained on long trips is about to get easier, and with seven seats it’ll be able to transport even the biggest of broods.
6: While previous generations of the Land Rover Discovery were pitched at the outdoors-loving everyman, the Discovery 5 will take a slightly more premium posture. It’ll still boast a rugged, go-anywhere character, but expect sumptuous cabin materials and an exterior design that’s less about surviving the bush and more about looking flash on the school run.
7: The Disco 5’s range of engines will likely encompass four- and six-cylinder diesels and six-cylinder petrols, though a plug-in hybrid is rumoured. Don’t expect that last one to be available from the get-go, however.
8: A powerhouse Discovery SVX variant is reportedly part of the product plan, with enhanced off-road capability over and above the cooking-grade Discovery range. High-tech features like a “see-through bonnet” (a camera image of the ground ahead of the car is projected onto the driver’s head-up display) may even make it to production, endowing the Discovery SVX with exceptional offroadability.
Lexus has dedicated part of its Paris Motor Show display to a whacky chair design fit for a spider-like college-student superhero.
Despite all appearances, the Kinetic Seat concept is not a result of a new Lexus-Ikea partnership. It’s an existing Lexus concept which shares some similarities to the Herman Miller Sayl chair and looks like it’d be more at home in a home office than the front seat of a car.
Using a strong and flexible material for the back and under-thigh support of the chair, it mimics a spider web which is supposed to “closely fit body shape, dispersing the load to help make it possible to sit comfortable for prolonged periods” and “helps to stabilize the head and thus helps to ensure a high level of support.”
Basically, that’s a whole lot of Lexus-speak for explaining how a chair works as a chair. Albeit a chair that that looks as cool as that time a woman named Mandy designed the Acapulco chair out of string-like wicker.
The spidey-web backing is made from a material called QMONOS – a synthetic spider silk developed by a company called Spiber Inc using protein as the main component. It’s created through microbial fermentation and, as though by a spider, is then spun into this new shock absorbing material.
Lexus’ release also states the seat is slimmer and lighter and thus reducing the overall weight of the car. Although, we’re not sure a slimmer seat is going to be suitable for everyone’s backside – mine included.
We’re also questioning the practicality of a seat full of holes and gaps – there’s nothing there to stop our food crumbs dropping under the chair, which will ultimately be a nightmare to clean.
You’ll be able to watch a live stream of the Lexus Press Conference in Paris on September 29 at 1:30pm CEST.
Lexus will also be displaying its UX concept car, the new Lexus IS, Lexus NX Sport Edition and LC Coupe.
