Retro-themed liveries are becoming quite a theme at Bathurst. Following Dick Johnson Racing’s recent announcement that its cars will run in a Shell-inspired colour scheme to celebrate 20 years since the Queensland crew’s last Bathurst win, Nissan has unveiled its warpaint for the 2014 running of The Great Race.
To celebrate 30 years since George Fury took pole at the 1984 Bathurst 1000 with the Nissan Bluebird Turbo, the Altima of Michael Caruso and Dean Fiore will carry the same colour scheme of pure white with red and blue diagonal stripes.
Fury’s effort marked the first time a manufacturer other than Ford or Holden had secured pole for the Bathurst 1000, and was also the first time a turbocharged car started from the top slot.
To further commemorate the occasion, Fury will drive demonstration laps in the pole-winning Bluebird Turbo, which has recently been restored by race car collector Brian Henderson and Gibson Motorsport.
This current retro craze began in 2012 as part of the 50th anniversary celebrations of The Great Race, with the Holden Racing Team, Triple Eight Engineering, Dick Johnson Racing and Ford Performance Racing all using iconic race paint from years past.
Dick Johnson Racing continued the theme in 2013, unveiling an FG Falcon painted in the celebrated Greens-Tuf that adorned Dick’s Johnson’s XE Falcon in 1983 and 1984.
This year’s Bathurst 1000 will take place on October 12.
Video courtesy of Australian Autosport Community
PERFECTLY timed for Summer Down Under, the new BMW M4 Convertible is the newest big stick in the 4 Series shed, the hardtop-equipped model powered by the same snarling 317kW 3.0-litre twin-turbo six as its sedan and coupe brethren.
While there’s no open-top Mercedes C63 AMG, the Audi RS4 Cabriolet is the M4’s closest rival, but it’s no longer on sale here, with a new Audi A4, the car it’s based on, due in 2015.
The M4 Convertible takes the M3 sedan and M4 Coupe mechanicals and melds them with the open-top body, which is already on sale in lower-spec models.
The fifth-generation M4 Convertible follows the previous E93 M3 by using a metal roof, which takes 20 seconds (previously 22 seconds) to open or close at speeds up to 18km/h.
The fabric lining is even more insulated, and the packaging for all 4 Series Convertibles includes a button that lifts the roof from the boot to help place luggage in the back. Still, the 370-litre boot loses 75 litres over the Coupe, and that roof storage gives it a longer, more elegant bootlid – even if the folds result in a less than seamless silhouette.
The rest, on the outside, follows the M3/M4 formula: chrome-bordered blacked-out grille, aping front bumper and twisted side skirts, and a menacing stance on its 18-inch alloys.
The new six-cylinder powerplant offers a significant improvement in claimed fuel economy (8.9L/100km against the old 4.0-litre V8’s 12.3), but at idle with the roof down, it’s clear that the M4 Cab misses out on that metallic rustle that both the V8 and older six-cylinder engines deliver. But select first on the brilliant seven-speed M-DCT (double-clutch technology) gearbox and the M4 Cab provides the occasional cackle and pop.
With the roof up, the M4 Cab is impressively quiet; the driving position is near faultless, with brilliantly supportive leather seats and classic white-on-black dials backed up by a crisp head-up display.
Give the throttle a strong dose of right foot and the M4 reacts quickly, but it’s not a neck-snapping supercar-like answer, more a competent GT car’s polite willingness.
Yet this machine is bloody fast: its 0-100km/h time is 4.4sec, a mere 0.3sec behind the Coupe and 0.7sec better than the old E92 M3 Coupe. What helps is the massive 150Nm of extra torque, with 550Nm on tap from 1850rpm through to 5500rpm. This enables the M4 Cab to push hard even beyond 200km/h on a German autobahn.
At slower speeds, through a spaghetti-like series of turns, the Convertible’s additional 253kg over the 1537kg Coupe simply can’t be ignored, even if it’s 60kg lighter than the car it replaces.
While there’s precise steering that weights up quite a lot in Sports and Sport Plus modes, the body roll in Comfort mode shows up a talented car that lacks that final edge to its execution. It is compromised in its dynamics, despite a compliant, comfortable ride on well-maintained German and Austrian test roads.
Road-holding and change of direction are superb, and the tyres will become vocal long before you have to feed the wheel any adjustments out of a bend. The electronic rear diff helps, too, and in isolation the M4 Cab is a quick machine but it just can’t escape its heft.
Is it a proper M-car? BMW thinks so, citing that every generation of M3 has a convertible, but its biggest market (the US) isn’t known for its choosiness in terms of dynamics.
At an estimated $180K for either the six-speed manual or the double-clutch model when it lands here later this month, it’s an expensive way do an M-car when the Coupe is faster, better sorted and cheaper.
And, while the roof opens up the Baritone vocals of the engine, which sounds purposeful and mean, it’s shot to bits by the RS4’s V8 soundtrack.
It is, for now, the best car in its class, but it’s an exclusive class that adds cost and compromise for little reward over its fellow M cars, and less theatrics than its predecessor.
Model: BMW M4 Convertible Engine: 2979cc 6cyl, dohc, 24v, twin-turbo Max power: 317kW @ 5500rpm Max torque: 550Nm @ 1850-5500rpm Transmission: 7-speed double-clutch Kerb weight: 1790kg 0-100km/h: 4.4sec (claimed) Price: $180,000 (estimated) On sale: Mid-September 2014
It’s new, hardcore RC F doesn’t hit Aussie roads until early 2015, but Lexus is already planning ways to make it faster.
Speaking to Wheels at the RC F’s launch in New York, chief engineer Yukuhiro Yaguchi confirmed a hotter, even more powerful variant is currently under development.
“We are already thinking about some changes to make for next year,” he said. “We think we could get a little more power out of it.”
With “more than” 330kW on tap – official power figures are under embargo until 1pm Friday – the RC F is officially the most powerful V8 Lexus has ever produced. But Yaguchi said the upgrades aren’t just designed to give the RC F more grunt.
“It’s to make the car more fun to drive,” he said. “If you make the car go too fast then a human being won’t be able to catch up with it. It’s more about accessible performance for more people to enjoy the car regularly.”
Pitched to take on the new BMW M4 and upcoming Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG and Audi RS5, Yaguchi confirmed the RC F, which replaces the iconic Lexus LFA as the brand’s performance flagship, will undergo continual development throughout its life cycle.
“It will be a different approach from other manufacturers,” he said. “We see their components and our components are quite different … and really it all depends on what sort of technology will evolve at the time and have to match the pace of that.
“As you know the IS F had some model changes each year of its life so the RC F will likely have the same.”
As for whether future variants of the RC F could use hybrid power or a new, turbocharged engine, Yaguchi remained tight lipped.
“We don’t know about the future yet but at this point we don’t have any plans for that,” he said. “In order to put the hybrid on track it still needs a little more development. If we used a current configuration hybrid we’d drain the batteries too fast.
“We’re currently studying the application and looking at the data from the Toyota TS040 Le Mans car and we can’t say it’ll never make it into a production car, but we have no immediate plans.”
LEXUS plans to expand its hard-core F model line-up to further take on the iconic performance arms of its German rivals.
Speaking in New York at the launch of the RC F, the brand’s new performance hero, F brand chief Yukuhiro Yaguchi said he sees real potential for growth.
“We definitely would like to see F models grow with various models within the line-up,” he said.
“We don’t reveal future product plans, but at this point the next logical F car will be the new generation IS F at this point. What we have is the RC F, which is a coupe, so do we need an IS F or do we need to expand more in other areas?”
The news was welcomed by Lexus Australia box Sean Hanley, who told Wheels any new F brand models – which stands for Fuji Speedway, where Lexus tests its hardest and fastest models – would sell well in Australia.
“I think there’s a significant opportunity for Lexus to expand on the F brand and the F Sport brand,” he said. “We see an opportunity in Australia and I’ll tell you now, if we have any F Sport models made available to us, we’ll take them straight away.”
Hanley said the F brand is already a proven entity Down Under.
“Our sales mix for F Sport is going through the roof,” he said. “It’s clearly since we switched to this new design, the big spindle grille. And the harder F models have a big following, too.”
Like BMW and Mercedes, Lexus offers a less hard-edged pack (F Sport) across most of its range, which sits below fully blown track-focused F brand models.
Yet, despite the brand’s increasing popularity, Lexus has resolutely refused to build a high-performance SUV to rival the Audi RSQ3 or the bigger BMW X5M.
“No, not at all,” Yaguchi said. “To have an F badge, a car needs to have a characteristic to run on the race track, therefore it doesn’t really have it to have an SUV as an F model. We might have F sport models in the SUVs, but as far as a full F model, no.”
Don’t expect an F version of the little Lexus CT, either, with Yaguchi saying any future F brand models won’t be smaller than an IS.
“I’m not interested in doing anything with a front-wheel-drive platform, or anything below a V8 at this time.”
While a new-generation IS F is most likely to be the next F brand car, there’s also talk of a GS F, possibly with a twin-turbo version of the 5.0-litre V8 used in the RC F and IS F.
“We have no plans at this time, but it is possible to turbocharge that engine, yes.”
GOOD news for track day fans: KTM’s road-legal, track-focussed X-Bow is finally making its way from Austria to Australia.
The rapid X-Bow – pronounced “crossbow” – is built in Graz, Austria and has been on sale since 2008 in Europe, where it is regarded as a convincing alternative to the Caterham Seven and Ariel Atom.
Its spec includes a carbonfibre tub developed by Dallara, a 2.0-litre turbocharged Audi engine with 221-265kW and 400Nm, and a six-speed manual gearbox.
The X-Bow weighs about 800kg – 200-300kg heavier than its rivals – but can still accelerate from 0-100km/h in a scorching three seconds or so.
To distribute the X-Bow Down Under, KTM is partnering with Sydney-based Simply Sports Cars, a Lotus main agent, performance tuner and lightweight track-car specialist.
Simply Sports Cars managing director Lee Knappet is currently working through the Australian Design Rule (ADR) homologation process in an attempt to make the X-Bow road-legal in Australia.
This is far from a certainty, and will dictate not only how the car can be used, but when it will go on sale.
However, if all goes to plan, we’ll hopefully see X-Bows sticking strictly to the speed limit on the motorway and tearing up Bathurst in 2015.
No model range or pricing structure has yet been confirmed, but three derivatives are available in Europe: the entry-level X-Bow R, the even more hardcore X-Bow RR, and a more ‘luxurious’ X-Bow GT (with a windscreen, side windows and fabric roof).
Pricing starts from €79,900 in European markets, and an official range of performance upgrades is also available.
Fingers crossed those ADR officials have a sense of humour.
AFTER three previous seasons when he couldn’t quite crack it, Toowoomba’s Will Power is finally an IndyCar champion – Australia’s first ever.
The monkey is off his back, the ghosts of previous stumbles buried deep.
While Power didn’t finish off his rivals with a sabre-rattling flourish, having stumbled at the final hurdle in past efforts, he played the caution game to perfection.
He avoided contact, didn’t overdrive, kept his cool and, importantly, avoided upsetting the officials.
His controlled conservatism may not have enthralled the fans, but Power did what was necessary to finally be crowned the champ.
There was an anxious time in qualifying when Helio Castroneves, his most serious rival for the title, grabbed pole for the decider at Fontana, while Power qualified a season-low 21st in a 22-car line-up, after he nearly crashed.
Castroneves earned one bonus point for the pole and went into the double-points, 250-lap, 500-mile season finale giving Penske teammate Power a handy but not insurmountable 50-points start.
This time, there were no mistakes.
Tony Kanaan won the race, but he was a bit player on Saturday night. In the bigger championship battle, Power did more than enough by finishing ninth.
A pit-lane penalty cost Castroneves any shot at another crown, pushing him back to 14th and out of contention. And an emotional Power clinched Roger Penske’s first IndyCar championship since Sam Hornish Jr won the 2006 title.
“It was a great year for the whole team,” remarked a drained Power. “I feel with the two teammates, Juan [Pablo Montoya] and Helio, they gave good feedback, and we were a very strong combination. Full credit to the team.
“That was one of the hardest races ever. I was crying over the line. It’s surreal to be champion, man. I can’t believe it.”
With the pace on from the start, Power worked his way forward into the leading 10. After the only restart of the race, he even moved into the lead, but a front wing adjustment at his final pit stop left his car handling poorly and, without pressure from Castroneves, he stayed out of trouble as he eased off.
Power won the title on merit; he was victorious in three rounds (including on an oval) and led far more laps than any other driver. But he fell foul of officialdom during a tumultuous season marred by blocking violations, spins and pit-lane penalties.
“I’m so mentally exhausted now, and my hands are like numb from holding the wheel so tight,” Power said afterwards.
“The last 14 days have been the worst in my life. Just mentally and emotionally so bad – not sleeping and stressing. I feel bad for my wife, keeping her up at night.”
Liz Power’s not complaining now. Her man is the king of IndyCar racing.
While we salute Will Power’s title triumph, we should also acknowledge Mark Webber’s financial backing to get his fellow Australian into American racing after opportunities dried up in Europe.
FORMULA RENAULT 1.6: De Pasquale Fires at Zolder
IN EUROPE, Victorian teenager Anton De Pasquale continues to dominate the Formula Renault 1.6 NEC Championship, his great recent form extending to a win and a fourth in two rounds held at Zolder, Belgium at the weekend.
Boosting his already robust prospects for this and the remaining rounds of the 2014 championship, De Pasquale received a welcome sponsorship boost from the CAMS Foundation, a system that financially assists talented young Australians on the international stage.
The 18-year-old former Australian Formula Ford champion had another strong qualifying at Zolder – second-quickest for race one and pole for race two.
In the dramatic first race, he was in contention for the win but was jumped at a restart and finished fourth.
He made amends in the second race, winning by a few seconds to extend his championship lead to 53 points. It was his sixth win in 10 starts in the Renault series, demonstrating why he is very much the man to beat in this year’s championship.
CAMS Foundation chairman Geoff Morgan is an admirer of De Pasquale: “Anton has demonstrated what is possible for a highly talented young Aussie abroad, and the CAMS Foundation is really pleased to be able to contribute to Anton’s genuine and committed attempt at winning this championship.”
Mark Larkham, who is managing DePasquale’s career via his Australian MotorSport Academy, is already engaged in discussions with top European Formula Renault 2.0 teams for next year.
Two rounds remain in the current championship, with Spa Franchorchamps in Belgium coming up on October 5.
MOTOGP: Marques (of course)
REIGNING world champion Marc Marquez returned to his spectacular winning ways in the British MotoGP at Silverstone, plundering his 11th race success of 12 this year, proving his last-round in Czecho was merely an aberration.
Marquez and fellow Spaniard Jorge Lorenzo thrilled the Brits with a titanic, on-the-edge duel across the whole race, the two separated by no more than fractions throughout.
Lorenzo made his usual lightning start, with Marquez stalking the Yamaha star into the second part of the race, before swooping by in his imperious way.
But a mistake five laps out handed the lead back to Lorenzo. From then it was a fight to finish.
With three remaining, Marquez pounced aggressively, the two twice getting very close as the Honda hero forced an “excuse me” path back to the front.
That made it 12 GP wins from 12 for Honda this year.
Lorenzo’s team-mate Valentino Rossi worked hard for third.
Another Marquez – Marc’s little brother Alex – contributed to a less-than satisfactory outcome at Silverstone for Australia’s Moto3 title aspirant Jack Miller.
The typically manic Moto3 race was won by Honda’s Alex Rins on the final corner, with Alex Marquez (Honda) and KTM’s Enea Bastianini also on the podium. The winning margin was a whopping 0.011sec.
Miller (Red Bull KTM Ajo) was sixth, which shrinks Miller’s championship lead over the younger Marquez to 13 points, with Rins 16 points further back. The Honda men are coming hard at Miller…
Anthony West finished 22nd in Moto2 at Silverstone.
NASCAR: Smoke return the talk of Atlanta
IN A race weekend that marked the return to competition of Tony Stewart after he skipped three races following the controversial incident that resulted in the death of Kevin Ward Jr, the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Atlanta was not short of prurient interest.
“Smoke” Stewart ended his self-imposed seclusion after a three-week spell away to grieve, delivering a statement at a press conference before qualifying. With a quivering voice, Stewart said the death of Ward will “affect my life forever”.
“I’ve taken the last couple of weeks off out of respect for Kevin and his family and also to cope with the accident in my own way,” he said.
“It’s given me the time to think about life and how easy it is to take it for granted. I miss my team, my teammates and I miss being back in the race car, and I think being back in the car this week with my racing family will help me get through this difficult time.”
Ward, 20, was killed when he exited his wrecked sprint car after contact with Stewart and walked on to the track (in a black racing suit), apparently to show his displeasure to the three-time NASCAR champion. He was struck by the rear right tyre of Stewart’s car. Investigators have said Stewart has no case to answer.
Stewart qualified 12th in Atlanta while Marcos Ambrose struggled to 32nd.
SEPANG 12 HOUR: Aussies out of luck
BATHURST 12-Hour star team Clearwater Racing has again showcased its international credentials with a crushing victory in the 2014 Sepang 12 Hour.
The team’s familiar Ferrari F458 crewed by Mok Weng, Alif Hamdan and Gianmaria Bruni won by a lap from pole position.
Completing the team’s dominance, Clearwater’s other F458 driven by Craig Baird/Richard Wee/Keita Sawa was second.
The Craft-Bamboo Aston Martin V12 Vantage of second-fastest qualifier Warren Luff/Frank Yu/Stefan Mucke held a strong third position until the 11th hour, when it lost a lap due to a wheel hub failure.
Returning to the track, Mucke charged hard, slicing the gap to the third-placed Audi to just five seconds at the chequered flag.
Underscoring the reliability of today’s sports cars, 22 of the 28 starters made it to the finish.
Luff immediately jumped a plane back to Australia for two days of testing with the Holden Racing Team. He will share a Commodore with Garth Tander in the enduros.
RALLY: Bjorn Waldegard 1943-2014
BJORN Waldegard, the inaugural world rally champion in 1979 and one of the tough enduring men of the sport with a career spanning 30 years, died on August 29.
The Swede took his first international victory at the wheel of a Porsche 911 on the 1969 Monte Carlo Rally, while his last WRC success came for Toyota on the 1990 Safari. At 46, this made him the oldest driver to win a WRC event, a record that still stands.
He was always hard to beat in the gruelling African Safari Rally, an event he won on four occasions.
In all, he won 16 WRC events – driving for Porsche, Mercedes, Lancia, Ford and Toyota.
He rallied at the top level until 1992, when a broken arm suffered during a crash in the 1992 Safari Rally forced his retirement.
Waldegard, who was 70, died from a malignant shoulder melanoma.
Waldegard rallied in New Zealand and Australia, and also visited Perth in December 1989 to help Toyota present its new Celica GT-Four to the local motoring media.
Toyota Australia’s long-serving PR man Mike Breen remembers the big Swede as an amazing character.
“He arrived in the morning from Germany, then spent most of the day taking journos for rides in the street-stock GT-Four,” recalled Breen.
“He kept complaining it wasn’t a ‘real’ rally car. Later, it became local hero Neal Bates’ first Toyota rally car.”
Breen drove Waldegard from the rally stage directly to the Burswood casino, where they enjoyed a pleasant dinner.
“Bjorn then said he would stay at the casino for a while, that I should go back to the hotel and that he would catch a cab later.
“Next morning I went to the hotel lobby at 7am and there he was, sitting there in the same clothes. He hadn’t been to bed all night. Bjorn was indestructible. No wonder he won so many Safari rallies.
“He then went to the airport and caught the plane back to Germany.”
Holster your cheque books. The swooping F80 Concept sculpture sending car fans loony is nothing more than a rendered design.
It’s no way affiliated with Ferrari and has no plans to even go near production.
Named simply as the ‘F80 Concept’, the futuristic design, by Italian designer student Adriano Raeli, is an artist’s impression on what the LaFerrari’s successor would look like.
The F80 Concept was designed to be the pinnacle of performance, taking inspiration from Formula One and NGAD fighters – concept stealth jets. And you can tell, its air cheating shape hides push-rod suspensions arms, it’s flanked by F1-style side-pods and its tyres run an extremely aggressive tyre profile.
If it were real, the F80’s two passengers would be harnessed in a tandem-style seating arrangement (like the NGAD jet fighters), and behind them, mounted mid-ship, would be a twin-turbo V8 – that spins to 16000rpm – coupled with a KERS system.
The power unit is fantasised to make 895kW and push its 800kg to 100km/h in 2.2sec before making its way to a 500km/h top speed. And while there are Disney films more believable than such figures, the car’s visual punch makes it at least half coherent.
Raeli’s website suggests the F80 would be aimed at buyers like Pink Floyd drummer and well-known car nut Nick Mason, based on his “unparalleled personality”.
However, if the next LaFerrari looked like this we’re sure Ferrari wouldn’t have to look far to find keen cash-laden customers. The F80 Concept sculpture has arrested the automotive world’s attention with little surprise. It’s simply stunning.
Held over two performance filled days at the Winton Motor Raceway, Victoria, 22 bargain bullets were put through a rigorous on-track boot camp in order to find Australia’s best value new performance car.
AUSTRALIAN buyers of the special, limited-production version of the new XC90 will pay the highest price ever asked for a Volvo in this country, $120,000. If there are any Australian buyers…
Volvo will sell exactly 1927 examples of the XC90 First Edition exclusively through an online store at www.volvocars.com which opens to the entire world from 16.00 hours Central European Time on 3 September.
It will be first come, first served, and Volvo marketing, sales and customer service chief Alain Visser anticipates a quick sell out. The odd number of First Editions being built references the year Volvo was founded, by the way.
Special features of the First Edition will feature numbered tread plates, a special tailgate badge, 21-inch wheels, air-suspension, Nappa leather seats and a charcoal leather covered dash with walnut inlays.
For Australia, the First Edition will be equipped with the T6 All-Wheel Drive drivetrain. The engine is the most powerful version of Volvo’s new Drive-E four-cylinder engine family. The supercharged and turbocharged petrol-burning 2.0-litre delivers maximums of 236kW at 5700rpm and 400Nm from 2200 to 4500rpm.
The transmission is the same eight-speed automatic used in all XC90 models, while the all-wheel-drive is an on-demand system. Volvo claims a 0-100km/h time for this version of the new XC90 of 6.9 seconds.
It will be interesting to see whether the XC90 can go from on sale to sold out as quickly.
