You can’t keep a good man down for long. A few months ago, Australia’s three-times world champion Sir Jack Brabham, was ailing and not remotely inclined to participate in any of the fun motorsports events that he normally likes to play in all over the globe.

But now he’s fighting fit, and his doctors have given him the green light to drive in the four-day 2008 Classic Adelaide tarmac event.The enthusiastic 82-year-old Formula One legend, will pilot a white Mercedes-Benz SLK 55 AMG roadster. Not coincidentally, Brabham’s 265kW V8-powered SLK will carry the coveted number one plate.Following Sir Jack in car number two will be the winner of the 1983 Le Mans 24-hour race Vern Schuppan. The South Australian native and former Formula One and Indycar racer will feel at home in the 386kW SL 63 AMG roadster on roads he knows well. Schuppan’s spectacular driving style in previous years has delighted the spectators, and Mercedes-Benz Australia predicts he will make good use of the car’s brutal power.Joining Australia’s four-wheel racing legends in the Mercedes-AMG team will be the five-time grand prix motorcycle world champion Mick Doohan who is tagged to drive some sizzling Merc AMG models in rotation with Wheels magazine.One of the impending delights is the 336kW C 63 AMG.Spectators will see not only the sell-out saloon in full flight; they will also get to see a matching estate version, the first of its kind to arrive in Australia. The C 63 AMG estate packs the same V8-powered punch of the sedan version but with more load space. The special order C 63 estate officially goes on sale next month.Two of 32 limited-edition CLK 63 AMG Black series coupés will be campaigned in this year’s 12th annual Classic Adelaide. Based on the Formula One Safety Car, they boast a unique-to-Australia specification, belting out 373kW of power and an impressive 630Nm of torque, resulting in a zero-100km/h time of 4.3 seconds, along with commensurate sports handling and braking.With AMG-designed hand-built engines, subtle bodywork enhancements and polished light alloy 19-inch wheels, these two AMG specials will be easy to spot.And they should be real weapons on the magnificent driving roads around Adelaide.Pocketing more frequent flyer points than anyone driving in the world-renowned event is the British Ferrari crew of Sir Paul Vestey and Doug Nye.The pair has entered what they call “the finest event of its type anywhere in the world” every year since it started in 1997, all but one in a selection from Sir Paul’s stable of historic racing Ferrari sports cars.Their mount will be a Ferrari 275GTB/C, which is sure to delight spectators as it races through the scenic Adelaide Hills, Barossa Valley, Southern Vales, Fleurieu Peninsula, Victor Harbor and McLaren Vale regions with the same 12-cylinder roar that accompanied it to a GT Category win at the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans.The Vestey Ferrari’s competition days are over and it will run in the Thoroughbred Touring category.“The great attraction of Classic Adelaide to us is the gorgeous road surface and scenery,” says Nye, an author and historian. “Most European and US events are run on remote roads which see little use, which normally means they are poorly surfaced, badly marked and very bumpy – so, not much fun.”In other Classic Adelaide developments, the new Mitsubishi Lancer developed in Australia for tarmac rally drivers will make its public debut as the flagship of Mitsubishi’s 12th year as official vehicle supplier to the event.The TMR SST Club-Spec version has a role leading the cars participating in the Regularity category across 34 special stages and more than 1000km of South Australia’s most challenging roads.Developed by Team Mitsubishi Ralliart (TMR), it features extensive modifications for competition, while retaining its suitability for normal road use.Based on the standard Evolution sedan with TC-SST twin-clutch, six-speed transmission, the Club-Spec has an 248kW upgraded engine, TMR exhaust , lowered, progressive-rate springs, competition brake pads, 245R18 R-Spec tyres, bolt-in (removable) roll cage, modified front seats with six-point harnesses, and two fire extinguishers.The 2008 Classic Adelaide rally starts on Wednesday (rally prologue) and ends on Sunday, November 23.

Weeks after the death of Frank Gardner, Australian motor sport took another body blow with news of the passing of John Youl, who was a classy open-wheeler star of the 1960s as well as being a driving force in the creation of the Symoons Plains racing circuit on his farm near Launceston.

The motor racing pioneer and prominent Tasmanian grazier was 77.International motor sports writer and commentator Peter Windsor said he is saddened by Youl’s death after a lengthy illness.“One of the fastest and most elegant racing drivers I’ve ever seen,” commented Windsor. “I popped in to see him a few years ago. Lovely man.”Youl was not as well-known as many of his contemporaries from the ’60s, but raced against many of the greats including Jack Brabham and Jackie Stewart.Competing against the likes of Bruce McLaren, Brabham, Denny Hulme, Graham Hill, Frank Gardner and so on, Youl was fifth in the standings in the first year of the eight-race Tasman Championship Series in 1964.Other career highlights were winning the 1963 Horden Trophy at Sydney’s Warwick Farm and placing second to Bruce McLaren in the 1962 Australian Grand Prix in Western Australia.“I really respected John for doing what he did on a much more limited budget than many of those around him,” recalled ABC motor racing commentator Will Hagon.Symmons opened in 1960s and has been a championship venue to this day.Youl was an inductee into the Tasmanian Motor Sport hall of Fame.John Youl had four children – Simon, Richard, Fiona and Andrew – from his first marriage. He had three step-children, James, Robert and Emma – from his second marriage, to Anna.Wheels extends condolences to his extended family.

A 20-year-old Melbourne driver has come up with an imaginative if ultimately unsuccessful excuse for driving at 62km/h above the 50km/h speed limit in suburban Templestowe.

The female driver told police who pulled her over for speeding at 112km/h that she was wearing high heels and her foot slipped on the throttle of her mum’s borrowed BMW coupe. Cough.The rozzers were unimpressed (just like her mother, no doubt), handing her infringement notices in relation to traffic offences.The BMW was impounded for 48 hours under the anti-hoon legislation and the driver’s licence has also been parked for a time.

The cancellation of the ’09 Bahrain round of the V8 Supercar Championship means that Jamie Whincup can now drive at Race of Champions (RoC) meeting in Beijing from November 2-4.

This allows Whincup to get back to Oz in time for the championship race which replaces Bahrain – The Island 300 – on November 7-8.He is one of 16 drivers from a variety of motorsport disciplines, who will participate in the annual star-studded event, which this year will be held at The Bird’s Nest Olympic stadium.His rivals are famous names in motor sport, including Michael Schumacher, Jenson Button, Mikko Hirvonen, plus other leading touring car stars, NASCAR drivers and more.The 26-year-old defending V8 supercar champion will compete in several different machines across the duration of the meeting, but none remotely similar to his racing Vodafone Ford Falcon. The catalogue of cars will include Ford Focus WRC, KTM X-Bow (the bike maker’s first-ever car), Abarth 500 Assetto Corse, RoC custom car and RX 150.Whincup will be the just the second four-wheel star from Australia to take part in the RoC in its 21-year history. Neal Bates finished a handy third in the 1997 International Race of Champions.“It’s going to be an awesome event,”; declared the Gold Coaster. “I will get to race some amazing cars against the likes of (Michael) Schumacher and (Jenson) Button which is incredibly exciting”.“It will be great to mix it with these guys and find out what makes them tick.Drivers will race on identical custom-created tracks built within the stadium. A knockout-style format will see them progress through various divisions before two finalists go head-to-head in the ‘super final’.

Is there anything this man can’t do?

Taking home the gold at with his first Rally GB win and securing the manufacturer’s championship for Citroen (he won the Driver’s Championship by Rally Japan), Sébastien Loeb stayed in England to compete in last weekend’s Race of Champions at London’s Wembley Stadium – and won.

Despite an early crash, Loeb smacked down fellow freakazoid and previous RoC winner Michael Schumacher, World Touring Car Champion Andy Priaulx, DTM drier Mattias Ekstrom. and newly-retired F1steerer David Coulthard.“When you are on the start line, you want to win, but with this event there is not too much pressure. It’s a very tight track and you have to give everything you can. I didn’t get as much experience as some of the others, as I only did one ROC Nations Cup race (see below for details), but it was a good weekend for me.”Loeb won by 0.3secs.The six-hour championship transforms Wembley’s oval into two kilometre-long parallel tracks, made up of 4 tonnes of asphalt and underlay, and crowned with a 100-tonne cross-over bridge in the centre. Competitors race side by side in the same car to ensure fairness.Ironically, one of the cars used in the spectacle is a Ford Focus WRC car, allowing the Citroen driver a unique insight into the Ford car’s inner workings. On tarmac, anyway.Other cars that featured were the RoC buggy, an RX150 buggy, an Abarth 500 Assetto Corse, and for the final best-of-three showdown with Coulthard, a KTM X-Bow.There were also several demo laps by Lewis Hamilton in his McLaren F1 car, and Andy Priaulx in his triple World Touring Car Championship-winning BMW.Teams of two from the same country also go head-to-head in a round-robin knockout elimination called Nation’s Cup.Team Germany retained their title with defending champs Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel at the wheel, beating Team Scandinavia’s impressive pairing of seven-time Le Mans 24 hour winner, Tom Kristensen and DTM champ Ekstrom.

TEAMS

Team Germany Michael Schumacher Sebastian VettelTeam Autosport Great Britain Jenson Button Andy PriaulxTeam Allstar Jaime Alguersuari Troy BaylissTeam France Yvan Muller Sebastien LoebTeam Scandinavia Tom Kristensen Mattias EkstromTeam USA Carl Edwards Tanner FoustTeam F1 Racing Great Britain David Coulthard Jason PlatoTeam Ireland AdamCarroll GarethMacHale

Here’s the deal. if you are one of the army of Mark Skaife fans interested in being the first on your block to secure a first-off copy of his comprehensively illustrated history book, you’ll need to get yourself to Mount Panorama for the running of the Bathurst 1000.

Limited numbers are being printed for sale at the track where Skaife triumphed no fewer than five times. Further copies will become available in major bookstores from late October.Retailing at $65, the 210-page coffee table collector edition, called “Mark Skaife…The Racing Years” is the first pictorial collection of Skaife’s racing deeds covering his heralded race career including his early days of the one-make Ford Lasers in 1986, the technically brilliant Nissan GT-Rs of the early 1990s, and the factory Holdens of the last decade.With lots of pictures, it’s sure to appeal to the V8 racing fraternity gathered at the Mountain for the October 11 two-make enduro.Skaife has broken his retirement, Melba and Farnham style, to join fellow multiple winner Greg Murphy at Sprint Gas Racing for a shot at victory number six.

The IAA (Internationale Automobil Ausstellung), or the Frankfurt motor show, is undoubtedly the largest motor show on the planet.

Alternating with Paris on the motor show calendar every year, the Frankfurt show in the heart of German’s car industry is the be-all and end-all of ‘bahn-storming sports and luxury – though the Japanese and Americans also hike across the water to crash the Euro party…

Enjoy our top picks form this stellar auto exhibit, direct from the show floor.Frankfurt by the numbers:

• 11 halls
• 170,000 square metres of total floor space
• 71 press conferences
• 135,000 attending media
• 700 Exhibitor stands
• 2000 cars on display
• 120,000 litres of wine consumed

VW Australia’s new boss, Anke Koeckler, has confirmed a Golf wagon will go on sale in Australia for the first time ever early next year.

The German executive also confirmed the freshly-minted Golf R will make it’s way Down Under sometime in the first half of next year (we’re betting early June) and that the slick Scirocco coupe is under fresh consideration for Australian residency.

Speaking to Wheels in VW’s hometown of Wolfsburg in Germany, Koeckler confirmed the new Golf model will join the hatch range sometime in the first quarter. Called the Golf Variant in its native Europe, VGA’s latest edition will be known as the Golf wagon when it rolls into Aussie showrooms. While VGA isn’t expecting huge volumes from the wagon, it does believe it will attract new buyers to the brand and is confident there will be little cannibalisation between the Golf hatch, wagon and Tiguan SUV.“The people who want to buy SUVs will continue to do so.

This isn’t an SUV competitor. What it does is offer buyers, maybe small families, extra space and practicality compared to the hatch without the size and weight of an SUV.”The Golf wagon pitches into a niche segment with only one real competitor; the Peugeot 308 Touring. VW Australia plans to keep the wagon model range relatively simple and won’t offer the full range of engine and transmissions that are available in the hatch. While Koechler wouldn’t be drawn on exactly which drivetrain combos will be available, the short money lies with two petrol models (the 1.4 turbo and supercharged TSI and 2.0-litre naturally aspirated model) and a 2.0-litre turbo-diesel. NOTE: check these engines and add power and torque.Enthusiasts, however, will be frothing at the mouth at confirmation that the hi-po R model will be here soon and that the Scirocco coupe could make it to Oz.The 2.0-litre, 199kW turbocharged Golf R was revealed at the Frankfurt show just a few days ago as the successor to the V6-powered R32. While the new Golf VI GTI doesn’t go on sale until November 1 this year, our first overseas drive revealed a hugely competent and accomplished car, but one that could use a bit more mongrel. Enter the R. Low, wider, stiffer, faster and meaner than the GTI, the all-paw R should be a genuine threat to Subaru’s STI and Mitsubishi’s Evo sedan when it lands here mid-2010.But what about the Scirocco, why isn’t it already in Oz? What’s the hold-up? According to Koeckler, the key problems are pricing and how to position it against the GTI to ensure they complement each other sales-wise. There’s also the issue of which models to import as the slick-styled coupe is offered with a raft of petrol and diesel engines in Europe. While Koeckler has ordered a fresh round of analysis to try and make the business and positioning case work, if the car does make it to Australia it won’t be less than 12 months away and will certainly be priced above the GTI’s $40K tag.A diesel-fed model is highly unlikely for Australia, but one possible strategy, says Koeckler, is to import just the flagship R model (2.0-litre turbo petrol, 190Kw/350Nm, all-wheel drive) and price it at a significant premium over the Golf GTI as the range-topping sports model. The problem with this approach is the high cost of homologating just a single model, as well as stocking spare parts, when volumes will be very small.Well, fingers crossed that VGA’s bean-counters and strategists find a way to get the Scirocco into Australia, because it’s simply a fantastic-looking car. Go on VW, just do it already.

While ‘electric’ was the buzz word of the show and every major manufacturer had an electric or hybrid vehicle front and centre, Renault’s road-ready ZE (for zero emissions), foursome was easily the most impressive.

Particularly impressive was Renault’s demonstration of its battery swap technology. All four cars have their battery packs positioned so a swap for a fresh unit (or when you want to upgrade to the latest-gen battery tech) takes under five minutes with a specially developed, automated hoist system.

While there was no confirmation that Australia will see any of them (particularly since our mostly coal-fired power grid largely defeats the purpose of a zero emissions vehicle), a Renault engineer confirmed all four vehicles will be built in left- and right-hand drive and all markets are under consideration.Twizy ZE Easily the wildest of the four, the Twizy is a 1+1 electric city runabout that, incredibly, Renault says will be in production virtually unchanged in 2011. At just 2.3-metres long, the driver sits in front of the passenger and, no, it doesn’t have any doors and nor will it in production. The rear-drive Twizy is, like all four of Renault’s conceps, powered by an electric motor running on lithium-ion batteries. The batteries live under the feet of the occupants and the electric motor is good for 15kW and has a range of 100km.ZOE ZE Running the Twizy close in the ‘out there’ stakes was the ZOE concept. Also due in 2011, it’s very much a concept car (so don’t expect the suicide and scissor doors to reach production), but the ZOE does preview Renault’s take on a Clio-sized electric hatch. The rear-drive concept is powered by a 70kW electric motor good for 141km/h, says Renault, and can travel up to 160km/h before needing to be plugged into the wall for a recharge. And it is a French car remember, so a new climate control system was developed with cosmetics company L’Oreal which “sprays essential oils” into the cabin and can rehydrate the air to prevent skin from drying out. Ah, the French, they’re just like a croissant sometimes – flaky and a little bit gay.Fluence ZE This one is a closer to reality. Based on the recently revealed, petrol and diesel-powered Fluence sedan that goes on sale in Europe next year, this five seater runs the same 70kW electric motor and lithium-ion battery pack as the ZOE and has the same 160km quoted range. Solar cells on the roof help recharge the battery and take some of the load off the alternator and air-con system.Kangoo ZE Here’s one for the eco-conscience tradies… Based on the current Kangoo light commercial vehicle, the electric version again uses the same 70kW motor and battery pack and is due for production in 2011. The Kangoo ZE is packed with plenty of tech that won’t reach showrooms, however. Like the double-layer body work that cats with the same principle as a thermos to regulate temperature inside the car and solar panels mounted into the roof.

If you’re the flint-hearted pragmatist type you’ll wave it away as an expensive irrelevance. And you could accuse the Reventon Roadster of being nothing more than a Murcielago drop-top in drag, but what a dress it wears and no other road car at the show got the juices flowing like this big, bad bull.

Less than 20 will be made, and you’ll have to fork out somewhere in the region of $2.2 million for the privilege, but you’ll be buying a car of rare presence. You’ll also have front row tickets to the open air theatre that is its mighty V12 engine. The all-paw Reventon Roadster borrows the Murcielago LP670-4 SV’s 6.5-litre V12, so it’s good for 0-100km/h in a claimed 3.4sec and you’ll have 493kW of wailing, snarling, gnashing ecstasy sitting just centimetres behind you. The sonic onslaught should almost be worth the price of admission alone.

Elsewhere, the matt-grey, fighter-jet inspired bodywork is all sharp creases, wide hips and tarmac-scraping stance for a car dripping with visual aggression. Have I mentioned that I like this car yet? Bar the doors, the entire body is fashioned from carbonfibre and keeps kerbweight to an acceptable, if not exactly lithe, 1690kg.The instrument cowling is milled from aluminium and every other surface is swathed in lightweight Alcantara. For those lucky few with pockets deeper than the Atlantic, the Reventon Roadster is on sale from next month. Lucky bastards…