An Aussie local has taken out the top spot in the automotive section of this year’s Australian International Design Awards.
GM Holden and its VE Sportwagon won the Best Overall Design award in the automotive and transport category. It finished ahead of five other cars, a Ford-based hearse and VW’s seven-speed DSG transmission.“With the Holden VE Sportwagon, the family wagon stereotype is completely reconsidered with such great packaging and finishes,” said the judging panel.“The innovative tailgate and a solid rear tray offer excellent access and other changes are subtle yet intelligent.”The Sportwagon design was another successful brainchild of VE Commodore and Efijy designer Richard Ferlazzo.This year, 43 Australian International Design Marks and 30 Australian International Design Awards were handed out across the board.The Design of the Year award went to the Qantas A380 Economy Seat by Qantas Airways, Marc Newson Ltd and Recaro Aircraft Seating (pictured below).The other major automotive awards were handed out to the Volkswagen Passat CC for Best Exterior Design, and the Peugeot 308 Touring was awarded Best Interior Design. Watch for the full article in a future issue of Wheels magazine.
Winners – Automotive and Transport category
Holden VE Sportwagon Australian International Design Award Wheels Automotive Design Award Best Overall Design
Passat CC
Australian International Design Award Wheels Automotive Design Award Best Exterior Design
Peugeot 308 Touring
Australian International Design Award Wheels Automotive Design Award Best Interior Design
ALLONGÉ GSB (hearse)
Australian International Design Mark
Audi A4 and A4 Avant
Australian International Design Mark
Ford FG G series G6, G6E, G6E Turbo
Australian International Design Mark
i30 CW
Australian International Design Mark
7-speed DSG transmission
Australian International Design Mark
Most of GM’s bondholders have unsurprisingly refused to exchange the carmaker’s piles of debt for shares of dubious value, ruining any last-ditch attempt to re-finance the company’s coffers.
It is proof of how far the General has fallen, with debtors preferring a devalued repayment of the loans through the court rather than take up stock in the company. The official filing is expected in the next few days.The Obama Administration will fork out up to US$30 billion on top of the billions already donated (and lost) to keep the company breathing through the bankruptcy, which is expected to take several months at best. GM lost over US$30 billion last year alone.In the end, the US government will own whatever remains viable and profitable out of Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet and GMC trucks, while Hummer, Opel/Vauxhall, Pontiac, Saab and Saturn may prove saleable or inevitably disposable.Locally, Holden’s own government grants, Daewoo Korean alliance and reasonably independent operating structure should keep it ticking along, despite the current economic forecast and drop in car sales across the board.UPDATE:Holden’s Mark Reuss will also address the media at 9am tomorrow morning at Fisherman’s Bend, following the announcement from The White House and Henderson. Stay tuned to Wheelsmag.com.au for all the goss.General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM) President and CEO, Fritz Henderson, will host a press conference, beginning immediately following President Obama’s media briefing. According to a White House media advisory, President Obama will begin his remarks at approximately 11:55 a.m. EDT. Mr. Henderson will address media separately from New York following the President, beginning at approximately 12:15 p.m. EDT.
Ecclestone must be performing his victory jig right about now… news is that four teams have signed up to receive the Cosworth ‘cut-price’ factory engine for 2010.
Ferrari and Renault are still crying foul about the price caps, and Mercedes is enjoying the kudos of having its engines in current championship leaders Brawn (ironically ex-Team Honda) as well as their own. So the signed teams are essentially fresh faces.British scribe Peter Windsor, who writes for the USF1 team, confirmed at the last round in Monaco that the new Team America has indeed signed the dotted line. To enter the F1 in 2010, you must have an engine, and USF1 have reportedly paid the ‘bargain’ rate of 2.5 million euros to enter the capped program.Auto Motor und Sport claims that three others have signed the deal, and points towards Campos Racing and Epsilon Euskadi.In forty-odd years, Cosworth was behind 176 race winners, second only to Ferrari. They bowed out in 2006.
There are elements of compact military vehicle in the styling of Kia’s Soul. And it is a car on a mission: to prove there’s more to the world’s fifth-largest car maker (Hyundai-Kia) than stodgy soft- roaders, pedestrian people-movers and ho-hum hatches and sedans.
That’s why Kia Oz will be satisfied to sell the mere 400 units forecast for 2009. As long as it’s helping change perceptions of the brand.In the time we spent with it, none of the punters who saw it, liked it. But at least they saw it. Admittedly, they weren’t Gen Y, the Soul’s target demographic.Forget how it drives for now, because hey, factors like the Mini-esque range of features and accessories available are much more important, kids. Houndstooth pattern or full-body dragon decals and ‘sound-sensitive’ mood-lit speakers (as part of the top-spec audio) are just a few. And there’s some tasteful stuff, too.After you’ve spent hours at www.notwosouls.com crafting your own brand of four-wheeled urban chic and go for a test drive, you’ll be pleased to discover the Soul is actually quite fun. Its ability is all stiff-springs-‘n’-dampers (rather than inherent chassis genius) but body roll is minimal and it’s entertaining enough to hook into corners with verve. Just don’t push too hard, because even the top-spec 18in rubber gives up early. Poor roads ultimately reveal the lack of chassis polish, where ride quality degenerates and suspension noise intrudes.You wouldn’t call Kia’s hydraulic power steering state-of-the-art, but this, the company’s first electric-steer system, is a reasonable effort, despite a quirk that saw the first example we drove feel leaden and unassisted in the initial few degrees of lock. The characteristic wasn’t as pronounced in other examples and once more lock is wound on, the Soul points with fair accuracy and weight.The turbo-diesel is an agricultural unit, especially when worked hard, but in the context of the Soul’s rugged looks, the soundtrack isn’t entirely unwelcome. The oiler at least offers the mid-range shove sadly lacking in the 1.6 petrol version, which slogs hard pulling 1250-plus-kilograms. Faced with any sort of incline, the petrol auto hunts for a mechanical advantage. If you prefer to select ratios yourself, the four-speed slusher offers only a ye-olde top gear lock-out and the option of pulling the lever back to second.It’s not about to reset any benchmarks for dynamics or driver appeal, and the jury’s still out on where the Soul fits into the automotive hierarchy of cool. But at least it’s got people talking, and that’s more than the Magentis ever did.Kia Soul2 Engine 1582cc inline 4, dohc, 16v, t/d Max Power 94kW @ 4000rpm Max Torque 260Nm @ 1900rpm Transmission 5-speed manual 1-100km/h 11.5sec (estimated) Price $26,690 On sale Now
It goes without saying that a product like the BMW Z4 roadster – a not-inexpensive slab of self-indulgence – is a long way from an obligatory purchase, especially in times when descriptions like financial meltdown and crisis are common.
Now built in Germany, the latest Z4, needed to be a better car than its predecessor. And it is.This new Z4 takes aim at a broader buyer base than the rather narrow ‘purist’ positioning of the superseded model launched in 2002. It had to retain the roadster heritage that the marquee holds dearly, and yet meet the challenge of changing market including buyers wanting more sophistication and comfort along with a vigorous driving experience.An elegant yet aggressive new exterior and glam cabin – the work of two young female designers – hands the latest Z4 a forceful kerbside presence missing from the fussy Bangle-flavoured predecessor, and the Z3 before it.Sure the long bonnet, long wheelbase and short overhangs – roadster characteristics all – are retained, but now the Z4 it has grown up manfully with the right looks, improved engineering, a new engine range, optional seven-speed dual-clutch auto transmission, and a hike in performance.Up against smart and increasingly sophisticated rivals such as the Mercedes SLK, Porsche Boxster, and Audi TT, the new Z4 range has risen to the challenge, hitting back at those who claimed with justification that its cabin was too claustrophobic, that today’s drop-top sports cars can and should have a sophisticated metal folding roof, and that there should be unlimited places for odds ‘n’ sods, and that its character should be adjustable to meet the mood of owners, the majority of whom hail from the right side of the tracks..The gender split of the outgoing Z4 was 71 per cent male/23 female/six per cent unknown.With female stylists to the fore, hotter performance, and greater comfort and sophistication it’s anyone’s guess how the sexes will balance up with the new model, which is priced from $120,400.The new two-piece folding retractable aluminium turret works smoothly and swiftly (20secs) but importantly also meets the aesthetic requirements – with roof closed, the Z4 looks like a sleek coupe and with the top dropped, it is nothing but a true roadster. Many buyers will appreciate the steel roof’s greater security.Weight is up considerably over the old model, with the new roof and its mechanism contributing to much of the increase. The new car is also lower, longer and wider, though the wheelbase 2496mm) is within a frag of the old one.The $120,400 Z4 sDrive 35i 3.0-litre twin turbo is the toughest of the three straight sixes offered (there is also a base 150kW 2.5 litre called 23i) and an atmo 3.0, badged 30i). We know and love the twin-turbo from the 1- and 3 Series. It’s a ripper powerplant with 225kW @ 5800rpm and lashings (400Nm @ 1300-5000rpm) of fat torque from just above idle. Even in the heavier chassis, this engine helps the Z4 to handy acceleration and overtaking times.Pushing it hard early in the morning on the irresistible Great Ocean Road, Wheels noted a hint of understeer, quite neutral behaviour across the face of a corner, and then excellent power-down traction when the accelerator gets used on exit. No complaints about brake pedal modulation and performance either.BMW makes the claim that the Z4 sDrive35i with paddle shifting seven-speed auto (in Sport + mode) will punch from standstill to 100km/h in 5.1secs, or 0.1sec faster than the manual version. The previous Z4 3.0si had a 0-100km/h time of 5.7secs for the six-speed manual and 6.0secs for the six-speed auto.With no interruption in power delivery, the paddle shifting seven-speed auto (a $3500 option) is also familiar to us from the likes of the 335i and we like everything about it bar the ambidextrous paddles (same on either side – push away from down; pull up for a higher ratio). (Way better are the traditional paddles reserved for M cars – the left one for down and the right for up…)All Z4s get Dynamic Driving Control which gives the driver the choice of three settings influencing throttle mapping, engine management, DSC stability control response, power steering control map and shift response (in the case of the seven-speed auto). Dial up one of Normal, Sport and Sport +. The latter removes any DSC intervention. Dynamic Driving Control also manages damper control mapping for the optional (an eye-watering $2600) Adaptive M Suspension.We tried it but struggled to see the value. In Normal mode, the ride comfort on less than brilliant road surfaces is acceptable, although the electric steering is a little light. In the Sport and + modes, the steering weight improves to more to our liking but the firmer shocker settings can occasionally unsettle the 35i.Still, overall, composure on different surfaces is excellent, even on damp roads. Here the chassis competence and the optional 19-inch Bridgestone Potenzas combine wonderfully to present sure-footed grip. The $1400 wheel/tyre package also looks right under the guards.The Z4 is equipped with standard run flats and they can sharpen the ride on uneven surfaces. But there is no scuttle judder. None.The exhaust note, while a little muted due to the turbos, is a pleasantly refined sound.Pleasing too is the cabin ambiance, practicality and room. Even bigger people enter the attractive cockpit way more easily than before. There’s good elbow, shoulder and head room. Visibility is improved by 40 per cent.Hammering the 1580kg twin-turbo Z4, we noticed the consumption of the 98 RON jumped to around 14 litres/200km. But, later, in a mix of spirited and easy freeway use, the fastest and most powerful of the new Z4 range was good for 10.1 litres/100km.There will be a hotter M version down the track.
The story goes that the first Aussie ute was designed by Ford engineer Lew Brandt in 1934 at the request of a farmer’s wife in Victoria.
Fast forward 75 years and the ute has grown into a fair-dinkum Aussie icon: every tradie and cocky from Hobart to Broome has one in the garage, we’ve got race series dedicated to tray-backs and ute musters that number in the thousands.
But Wheels has been a bit remiss recently by overlooking one crucial stoush: SS v XR8. So we threw the swag in the back and headed to an all-Aussie festival of horsepower to see how these new-gen utes are received in the Ford and Holden heartland – do they carry cred with the faithful, or are they just tray-backed sports cars for cashed-up city slickers? So welcome to the Kandos Street Machine Show. Think of it as a downsized Summernats: a celebration of blowers, burnouts and beer.
Rolling into the showground-cum-campground on Friday in ‘my’ shiny new blue Ford XR8 ute, I accidentally venture onto Hawkesbury Holden Streeters turf, a car club where Holden is God and Fords are as welcome as an enema. A broad-accented bloke with a terry-towelling hat and a can of Jack Daniel’s leans into the window. “A farkin’ Ford? You’re bloody kiddin’, aren’t ya!? This is Holden country mate – piss off.” Rivalries run deep out here…Kandos lies about 230km north-west of Sydney, but choking Friday afternoon peak-hour traffic meant it was a four-hour haul out west. Plenty of time, then, to appreciate the more sedate virtues of the modern ute. Both the XR8 and SS are surprisingly refined over both smooth urban freeways and coarse-chip country roads. Tyre roar is muted, wind noise hushed and both offer hugely comfortable seats.The SS offers a superior driving position (you sit 40mm too high in the Ford), but the XR8 better soaks up road acne at low speeds. Turn up the wick on typically patchy country roads, however, and the XR8 gets a little skittish. The live-axle rear end bucks under hard braking into corners and power-down exits. The Commodore’s multi-link IRS rear, on the other hand, inspires confidence by simply grippin’ and goin’.But this was never conceived as a traditional test; we entered both utes in some of the driving events to see whether it’s the General or the Blue Oval that really walks the walk.Andrew Walker, who’s been running the show for eight years, had kindly agreed to waive the entry fees for Wheels on one condition: “I want to see smoke when you warm the tyres up. I want to see a skid.” What’s a bloke to do?The show itself is set in a sprawling grass sports complex. The camping area forms a ring around a football field which hosts the show ‘n’ shine and grass driving events. In the north-west corner, a concrete burnout pad and dragstrip has been painted black with rubber. After settling into camp, we take a walk among the campers and cars. It’s quickly clear that Holden is king out here. There’s dozens of VKs, VLs, and VPs scattered among the tents; Toranas range from old LCs to lovingly restored A9Xs. HRs, HTs and HXs are everywhere. Ford’s presence is largely represented by XDs and XEs, but a few GT-HO replicas, a couple of mint XB coupes and a Cortina with an idle like a Blundstone to the skull also share real estate with camp chairs and eskies.Our XR8 pulls a surprising amount of attention, simply because it’s brand new. Steve from Gulgong wanders over, but it seems he’s never been told that comprehensible speech requires pauses between words.“Whaddashegolikeay?”“Excuse me?”“Whaddashegolikeay?”“Um, the dunnies are over there, mate.”Bob from Lithgow has a better grasp on communication. “I don’t really like the way she looks. Bit soft, really. Needs to be blunter and tougher, particularly around the headlights. The VE looks much better; stronger and tougher.”The rest of the night is spent talking cars, swapping stories and enjoying a few tinnies. Tomorrow, we’ll line up at the go-to-whoa.The campsite begins to stir just after dawn. Unshaven blokes wobble towards the shower blocks, red-eyed and grumbling. Mums chase kids between the cars, faces flashing between gleaming blowers and chromed injector hats. By 6:45am most of the camp is up and moving. The whirring of starter motors cracks the morning air, followed by the deep sonic boom of dozens of V8s cranking into life. Soon the camp is filled with petrol fumes and bent-eight burbles.By 8:30am the place is buzzing. Blokes tinker under raised bonnets, fiddling with carburettors, adjusting throttle cables and grunting to one another. A tangible sense of excitement and expectation ripples through the showground.The go-to-whoa is simple and self-explanatory. You start at one end of the ‘chute’ (the corridor of concrete that incorporates the burnout pad), ‘warm’ the tyres, then drag start from the Christmas tree lights. About 250m along the track is a marker, where you’re required to stop within a 40cm area. The fastest time wins.The XR8 is up first. Left foot hard on the brake, throttle mashed to the firewall. The rear tyres groan as they try to overcome the grippy, rubber-painted surface. Eventually the rears light up, the tacho hovering at 4500rpm. Smoke swells from the rear and the crowd gives a cheer. Engine loaded up against the brake, staging lights flash from yellow to giddy-up.Stomp the loud pedal, rear tyres chirping as the blue ute surges forward. But the long-stroke V8’s comparative lack of mid-range torque (a complaint we’ve levelled at the Boss V8 since the BA Falcon) means I’m near the finish line before the Falcon really hits its stride. I stamp the brakes and the XR8 pulls up strongly, but I’ve been too conservative and pull up 10cm short. There’ll be no silverware for Ford today.Next, the VE. Now nicknamed ‘Kermit’, the Holden puts on a stronger smoke show. After the initial struggle to break traction, the tacho rips to redline, bouncing off the limiter as the tray disappears in swirling smoke. The crowd loves it, drawing first blood to the Commodore in our Ford versus Holden war.The lights flash green, but the SS bogs down slightly off the line. The Chev-sourced donk punches hard in the mid-range, though, piling on pace as I roar down the chute. Red mist in the eyes and tyre smoke in the nostrils, I brake much later this time … and skid straight past the line. Disqualified. Driving duties completed, the rest of the day and most of the night is spent like everyone else here: examining cars, talking V8s and soaking up the atmosphere, much of which comes in cans labelled ‘beer’.Service at the makeshift bar stops at midnight and the lights go dim. The crowd gets restless. We all know what’s going to happen next.“Let’s fuggin’ brawl!” yells a bloke in a faded blue singlet with the southern cross inked into his shoulder. A bar stool goes whistling into the crowd and fists fly, along with more bar stools. It sounds hairy, but I swear most people are actually enjoying the blue. Still, I reckon it’s best to return to camp before someone stuffs a chair down my throat.But there’ll be no sleep tonight. The Queensland Fightin’ Juice (otherwise known as Bundy rum) is flowing in rivers, car stereos pump at full noise and Steve Earl’s ‘Copperhead Road’ is still on high rotation at 2am. Other noises ricochet in the valley, too. Small blocks, big blocks, supercharged Chevs, stroked Windsors and turbo sixes bellow into the night like a herd of Tyrannosaurus Rex roaring challenges to each other on some prehistoric battleground.I manage to catch a couple of hours’ shut-eye towards dawn, nodding off wondering how the utes (and myself) will cope with the grass events.‘Toss a Spud’ is up first. Six ‘gates’ are marked out with Day-glo orange bollards, horizontally opposed at slight angles, meaning you need to reverse into every second gate. Beside each gate are two stacked tyres. The co-pilot holds six styrofoam ‘spuds’. The aim is to get the spuds into the tyres; each miss means a time penalty, and the fastest total time wins. After the show’s MC helpfully announces that I’m here representing Wheels magazine, I gun the VE into the first gate. My tosser duly misses (and later proves he couldn’t hit the broadside of a barn with an HT sedan), so I grab reverse and hit the throttle … only to completely misjudge the angle and leave us stranded halfway into the gate. The crowd erupts into laughter and jeers, my face glowing redder than a set of exhaust headers.I avoid any more disasters for the rest of the course, but smooth it ain’t, and my tosser hits just one solitary target. Our final time falls somewhere in the order of an Olympic marathon. Trundling over to the motorkhana course, I vow to redeem myself. This event is almost identical to the spud tossing, but minus the spuds and including a constant-radius circle halfway through the course, with the goal to do a lap as sideways as possible.I manage to restore some semblance of credibility by nailing all the gates and hanging Kermit out in a languid dirt-churning drift. It’s still not nearly the fastest time, but I’m feeling a little better and the VE’s throttle response and crisp, tactile steering are impressive.Now the Ford. Wheel-spinning off the line, I just manage to sneak into the second gate (kissing the left-hand bollard with the wing mirror), but from there the run is looking pretty good. Until gate four. I misjudge the angle (again) and we end up looking like a beached whale (again). And we miss all but one spud (again). The crowd thinks it’s hilarious.Onto the motorkhana in the Falcon, and things improve infinitely – meaning I don’t make a total goose of myself. But the Ford feels noticeably nose-heavy compared to the Commodore, lacking the inherent balance of the Holden. The SS wins the steering battle, too, feeling sharper and more responsive.When the pain finally stops and I can park both cars, the SS has taken a win in each discipline. And the VE has won more hearts among the Kandos punters. But according to Gazza from nearby Rylstone, there’s only one competition that matters. “The burnouts, mate, the skids. It’s all about who pulls the biggest skid. And the Commodore flogged the Falcon.”Clearly, the people have spoken.
Ford Falcon XR8 Ute
Body steel, 2 doors, 2 seats Drivetrain front-engine (north-south), rear drive Engine 5408cc V8 (90 ), dohc, 32V Power 290kW @ 5750rpm Torque 520Nm @ 4750rpm Transmission 6-speed automatic Size l/w/h 5127/1934/1453mm Wheelbase 3104mm Weight 1840kg 0-100km/h 6.0sec (estimated) Price $39,990 On sale Now
Holden Commodore SS Ute
Body steel, 2 doors, 2 seats Drivetrain front engine (north-south), rear drive Engine 5967cc V8 (90 ), ohv, 16v Power 270kW @ 5700rpm Torque 530Nm @ 4400rpm Transmission 6-speed automatic Size l/w/h 5040/1899/1480mm Wheelbase 3009mm Weight 1798kg 0-100km/h 5.6sec (estimated) Price $41,990 On sale Now
It had its rival on the ground: an awesome automotive force, a twin-turbocharged, all-wheel drive powerhouse that has already sat the most revered of European rivals flat on their rear ends.
In all this, the new Nissan GT-R R35 road car was replaying the scene from 17 years earlier, when its forebear – the legendary Skyline GT-R R32, christened by Wheels as ‘Godzilla’ – charged head-on into a black wall of downpour on lap 144 of the Tooheys 1000 at Mount Panorama.The R32, for all its supposed all-wheel-drive superiority, was simply hosed off the track along with Ford Sierras, Commodores and BMW M3s. But in the wash-up, a countback of the previous lap gave the race to the controversial Japanese supercar.It was a final cigarette before execution.The victorious Gibson Motorsport team-mates Mark Skaife and Jim Richards had spent the first half of 1992 locked in battle for the Australian Touring Car Championship in their Winfield-liveried GT-Rs. It was the wily, supernaturally talented Kiwi against the 25-year-old wunderkind who had largely driven the R32’s development.With their shared Bathurst victory in chassis 5, the final R32 built by Gibson, Skaife crowned a record-breaking 1992 season. He had also become Australia’s youngest Touring Car champion and took the Australian Driver’s Championship in his SPA-Formula Brabham single-seater. The latter two titles were sealed on the very same day at Oran Park.And here we were today. Storm clouds. Oran Park. And a pair of thundering, clawing, blood-red Nissan GT-Rs, book-ending 17 years.Mark Skaife OAM, Australia’s most successful touring car driver, retired from full-time racing last October. But as he stepped into a more understated Holden race suit and pulled on the familiar yellow and red helmet for his Wheels GT-R assignment, he admitted he might dabble in the enduro rounds. “I won’t be able to go cold-turkey, because I love driving too much,” he shrugged. “Even things like today; I just love getting into the car and speeding around.”He’s been a Holden man through-and-through since 1993, of course, when V8 Supercars killed Godzilla. And the last time he’d driven chassis 5 was when he’d last handed the car over to Richards at Mount Panorama, under gathering clouds.These days, he said, “I can drive any car that starts with ‘H’, ends with ‘N’ – and isn’t a Hillman.” But 12 years of comparative product testing with HSV and Holden have kept him well up to date with rival products.He hadn’t seen a GT-R R35 in the metal before. “I think it’s a super spunky-looking car,” he nodded, knowing a thing or two about tough road cars (his daily driver is an HSV GTS). “I love the wheel offset, I love the aggression, but it’s got that tough look about it. Tough-looking car. And value for money, absolutely.”We gave Skaife a quick rundown on the GT-R’s transmission and suspension R-modes and ESP switches. With ‘R’ on and ESP off, Skaife burbled the chiselled red supercar down Oran Park’s pit lane. Its pert tail disappeared beyond the fast kink of the full-length GP circuit. When the nose bobbed up again over the bridge, it was already travelling at a clip.Skaife was feeling out the traction, experimenting with the boost, car and driver squirming around as they became acquainted through the cresting-left Suttons and over the Dogleg. The red wedge disappeared again into the hard-leaning hollow before BP corner. And when it came past me on the straight – whooshing like an F-18 fighter, right-side mirror reaching for the wall – this performance party was already on.Skaife trail-braked scary-late into the kink, the GT-R getting quite squirrelly as he firmly and rapidly massaged corrections into the wheel. Watching from the pit wall, I figured Skaife had probably caught it four times, in the second-or-so it would take most people to realise they were losing it.I’d driven the R35 on the road in Germany, and had been gobsmacked by the way it masked its 1740kg kerb weight. But plenty of hard-edged road cars show up soft on the racetrack; surely, not Godzilla?Skaife did five or six thundering, hard-working laps. I forgot to count, amid the train-sized cylinder of dust and air and chemical stench of brakes blasting past me on the straight, the brake lights Morse-coding deep into the kink, the rear end twisting and torquing as Skaife mastered its momentum. But then the GT-R was cruising, cooling its turbos, before the stinking, tinking R35 was stopped before us in the pits.If I’d been expecting some awe-struck rice-boy’s reactions, or a hard-headed Holden V8 fan’s ruthless critique, I’d have been surprised. Skaife delivered a verbal data-download on everything the R35 had been doing. And how one might go about improving it.“From a geometry and stability standpoint, it’s quite nervous on the way to the corner,” he explained. “When you first turn it, it’s nervous, and that restricts your entry. Then, when you get it to what I call segment two to three, bringing it back to the apex, it’s actually got mild understeer. That [right] front tyre there has copped plenty.”Skaife went on to describe the yawing and corner uneasiness we’d been able to see clearly from the outside. He had been busy.“At places like Suttons [a left-hander with a dip on turn-in, and a crest after the apex], the car’s quite nervous,” he went on. “You brake it, turn it, oversteer – and when you’ve got it caught, it gets back on the front wheel and just starts to understeer. And then finally when the understeer goes away, when you get back onto the throttle, it’s got enough sniff to drive itself out pretty straight.“A lot of the characteristics are similar to the R32, when it first happened,” he smiled. “The amount of drive grip they’ve got is just extraordinary. When you can get into the throttle, it’s just unbelievable.”Skaife added that the early throttle response was too tardy in letting him shift the action rearwards. I wondered aloud whether he’d been spoiled by 17 years of V8s, too long away from turbos. “No, you could definitely change the mapping to give you a bit more for your money there.”The front tyres, whose shoulders weren’t new when we started, underlined Skaife’s point about the GT-R’s two phases of understeer.“It’s actually front grip-limited, at some point,” he mused. “The nervousness really comes from an unstable rear, and the instability gives it that initial oversteer – but the natural balance of the car is mild entry understeer.”He’d been impressed by the brake feel, but the car’s weight had contributed to bad fade after just three or four laps. He asked the kerb weight, and we told him: 1740kg.“Yeah, it feels like it’s got quite a lot of momentum there. You have to do quite a lot of work to straighten the car up.”How does all of this tally with his more usual mounts – similarly big, V8 rear-drivers? “Well, as a consequence [of the understeer], some of the fun’s taken out of it as a purist’s car,” he said. “But the amount of exit grip and how much throttle you can get on the car, once you’ve got it neutral and you can get it off the corner, anyone who didn’t enjoy that is just kidding themselves.”Skaife recognised that the R35 is a GT-R. In his Nissan days, he had an R32 company car.“Oh, you can feel that DNA,” he smiled. Skaife should feel it; he is himself woven somewhere deep in the GT-R code. “But … I hope they don’t get upset with me for saying this: they’ve lost a little bit of the crudeness and the rawness that the original [R32] car had. It had a much nicer steering wheel – a racy wheel – a more sculpted seat, so it was more like a race car.“But, from the architecture and the engineering of the car, the way it translates to the driver, there’s a lot of that DNA… They’ve done that, but they’ve tamed it off too much. I’d be very interested to see what a Spec-V would be like.”Which brought us back to his lap time. Did he care to hazard a guess? “Honestly, I wouldn’t have a clue, because after driving touring cars around here … I would have thought it’d do a, ahh … it’d be an 18 or a 20?”In fact, on used tyres and without having sat in the car before, he had clocked a best of 1:18.08. He nodded. “If you put your head down and had some new tyres, this would be good for a 16.5 to 16.8, I reckon.”As it stands, it’s only eight seconds off the pace of a current V8 Supercar. And, more pointedly, it means the R35 would still have its red baboon-butt soundly spanked by its 17-years-older, race-bred sister.Back in 1992, the Winfield GT-R R32 – on slicks, of course – clocked a fastest race lap of 1:10.26 in Skaifey’s hands. He’d qualified it a quarter of a second quicker, but was pipped to pole by a brilliant John Bowe in the Shell Sierra.Chassis 5 is now owned by restaurateur and racer Terry Ashwood, who bought the Gibson collection lock, stock and baseball caps in 2001.Skaife slowly paced the car, hanging his head, looking upwards to admire the immaculate red, yellow and white paintwork. Its body glistened like the hull of an America’s Cup yacht.He remembers – even down to gear ratios and brake master-cylinders – his time with the GT-Rs. The first time they met was in 1990, with four road cars and several boxes of Nismo race bits.The GT-R had yet to be subjected to two, continuous years of Gibson Motorsport’s engineering wizardry. The Skyline’s story would be one of Aussie ingenuity exported to Japan for factory Group A homologation.Skaife first drove one of the Nismo kit-cars on a lonely, drenched test day at Winton.“I couldn’t believe, number one, the turn-in in the wet,” he recalled. “But the exit drive, it was unbelievable. You could get the car basically halfway around the corner and just put your foot flat.“We knew what lap-time other cars would do, based on our [Skyline HR31] times. The HR31 was a very competitive car – Jim won the championship in 1990 with that car – so we knew this thing was going pretty well.”If the helmet still looks at home in the R32’s cockpit, it’s because Skaife’s colour scheme dates back to his Winfield days. While he strapped in, owner Ashwood hooked up the external battery and fired the gorgeously finished, 2.6-litre in-line six into life.The under-bonnet view looks more street-machine than Formula One: hand-wrapped heat shielding tape, braided steel hose, polished aluminium and anodised fittings. Steel-tube “bridges” straddle the cast-aluminium cam covers to support the Inconel exhaust manifold against turbo temperatures of 1000 degrees C.Skaife reckoned the R32’s power steering to be 40 percent heavier than the R35 road car’s. The new one wasn’t pushing against slick tyres and 5.9 degrees of knock-kneed negative camber. But even the steering wheel itself was special; after all, Skaife helped create it.“There’s a bit of crudeness,” he smiled from the cockpit. “There’s a lot of stuff that was really modern for the era, and now not. Like the gear lever, and where it is. We never bent the lever and put it where we wanted it … It’s a lot more road-car-y, and that’s essentially what they were.”Skaife did three or four laps in the R32, dabbing brakes as he left the pit-lane, then giving the car an 80 percent thrashing for a similar portion of each lap. He was deferring to the car’s age and value, but owner Ashwood had also asked him to shake it down for that weekend’s Phillip Island Classic.The barking note from the side-exit pipe was a reminder that touring cars don’t need a V8 to sound great.“I felt very comfortable straight away,” Skaife grinned when he came back to the pits, remembering the familiar click-click-clicking of the American-made Electramotive engine management. “A lot of nice memories come back, from just the feel of it and the sounds and the things that were part of what made the car very special.“You know, so many of the intrinsic, engineering things that we did with that car, as soon as you get in and drive it, poof – they just come back. I mean, the way that car turns at the corner, is unbelievable. In fact, it would be the best car on turn-in that I would have driven in 10 years or more. It’s unbelievable.”Skaife admits to a special emotional attachment to this car. “When you’re a professional race driver you try not to get too attached to the cars – because you pretty easily don’t have one!” he reflected. “But definitely, cars that you’ve had great results with, and cars that have meant a lot to you…” He nominates this, and HRT chassis 45 (2002’s VY), as the two stand-outs of his career.And this car, R32 chassis 5, was the ultimate product of 10 years of pioneering experience in preparing turbocharged Nissans; experience that had made Gibson Motorsport one of the most respected Nissan racing developers in the world. And Gibson fed its findings straight back to the factory, adding to the very fabric from which the latest R35 has been cut.This is the car, and that was the race, that made the GT-R great.
Although overall newness of the ‘new’ A6 is way short of absolute, this late-life refreshment underlines why this consistently persuasive Audi should be on any executive-sedan short list.
For the most part the latest A6 is essentially the same wholesome package launched here in 2004. Time and familiarity haven’t dimmed the mid-size Audi’s handsome, clean-cut lines, nor its classy presentation throughout.However, fine and dandy though the cosmetic and detail changes may be, the updated engines steal the show with their invigorated performance and improved fuel economy. Audi claims an outstanding 12 percent reduction in consumption across the six-engine A6 sedan line-up.For example, teamed with front-drive and Multitronic CVT transmission, the carry-over petrol 2.0-litre four cylinder turbo engine again cites 125kW and 280Nm outputs, but now boasts test-cycle consumption of 7.7L/100km, or 0.7 less than before.From May, there’ll also be two front-drive, Multitronic turbo-diesel A6s: a 2.0-litre TDI four with 125kW and 350Nm, and a 2.7-litre TDI V6 offering 140kW and 400Nm. Officially, they respectively sip just 5.8 and 6.4L/100km.The remaining three engines share quattro AWD and six-speed Tiptronic autos. Progressing from its previous iteration, the 3.0-litre V6 turbo-diesel sees its outputs lifted from 171kW/450Nm to 176kW/500Nm while slashing consumption from 8.5 to 7.1L/100km.The 2.8-litre FSI petrol is developed from the outgoing model’s V6 of the same capacity. Variable intake valve timing (Audi Valvelift System, or AVS) and direct injection contributes to a hike of 8kW, taking it to 162kW, while peak torque is unchanged at 280Nm. Importantly, fuel consumption drops 0.7 to now rate 9.0L/100km.The preview on the roads of northern Victoria left no doubt that, aside from some light wind rustle and noticeable coarse-chip road drone, the A6 2.8 FSI is a sweet cruiser.Likewise the hero model, now a supercharged 3.0-litre TFSI V6. The pressurised V6 gives the A6 genuinely gung-ho acceleration (0-100km/h in 5.9 seconds, claimed) and effortlessly long-legged cruising. And it’s officially good for 9.5L/100km.However, the new (-ish) A6 is about more than the updated engines alone. Externally, the facelift is identified by rectangular fog lamps, revised air inlets and the grille’s more pronounced horizontal bars. At the other end, the tail-lights have become two-piece LED units and the remodelled bumper hosts a broadened diffuser.The switch to larger diameter front shock absorbers benefits both ride comfort and handling dynamics while revised springing has improved the suspension response characteristics.Inside, the A6 is as roomy, comfortable and superbly finished as ever. The revised rear seat affords improved support, and its headrests, like the fronts, better guard against whiplash.Heightened equipment levels bring 17-inch alloys to the base model, and 18s beyond, with 19s optional. Besides all the many and varied usual options, the A6’s temptations now extend to adaptive headlights, high-beam assist, Audi side assist and Audi lane assist.In summary, then, the refreshed A6 comes across as a good thing well improved; a car as enjoyable (and comparatively economical) to drive as it is pleasing to the eye and touch.Audi A6 3.0 TSFI Engine 2995cc V6, dohc, 24v, s/charger Max Power 213kW @ 4850-6800rpm Max Torque 420Nm @ 2500-4850rpm Transmission 6-speed automatic 1-100km/h 5.9sec (claimed) Price $112,500 On sale Now
For the first time the FPV All-Ford Day – something of a must-do for blue oval addicts – is heading to Sydney’s Eastern Creek Raceway this Sunday, May 31.
It threatens to be massive. Lured by the tantalising prospect of what will probably be the biggest All-Ford Day this country has seen, 30,000 enthusiasts are expected to pack the raceway.
Supported and sponsored by Ford Performance Vehicles (FPV), the show will feature a display of more than 1000 vehicles, pulling a bigger crowd than the V8 supercars ever managed there. Holden fans are even welcome to check out the brand that has been doing all the winning in the V8 supercar championship series this year…The only Ford-designated event (car show) in Sydney this year will be based around participation of no fewer than 20 Ford-aligned car clubs.Of course FPV is on a roll at present, having moved ahead of HSV in short-wheelbase sedan sales. Year to date (to end of April), FPV has sold 425 Falcon-based sedans to HSV’s 412 Commodore sedan models.Admission for adults is hot-value $2 and kids under 12 are free. The family friendly FPV All Ford Day is an alcohol-free event. Gates open at 9am Sunday.
Were this a normal year, the new Chevy Camaro would be proof positive that GM has its mojo back. The Camaro delivers on the promise of its competent and refined Zeta platform, GM’s punchy V6 and V8 engines, and Korean-born designer Sang Yup Lee’s show-car styling. But 2009 is anything but a normal year. As the global economic meltdown threatens to tip what was once the world’s mightiest car company into bankruptcy, the Camaro is the right car at the wrong time.
Right now, GM needs the Chevy Cruze – the 1.4-litre turbo-powered four-door sedan based on the new Global Delta architecture – and the much-hyped Chevy Volt hybrid more than it needs the Camaro. And not because either will be hugely popular or profitable, but because these cars are precisely what the politicians in Washington want to see GM building. To the po-faced apparatchiks on Capitol Hill, the Camaro is the sort of automotive frivolity on which GM shouldn’t be wasting taxpayer’s money.Enthusiasts, however, should rejoice. Because the new Camaro is good. Very good. It might be the last to America’s 21st century pony car party – Ford’s McQueen-cool Mustang, comprehensively freshened for 2009, was originally launched in 2004, while Dodge’s lovingly detailed homage to the 1970 Challenger appeared last year. But the Chev is easily the most sophisticated and mature of the three.You know the basics. Engineered here in Australia, the Camaro is based on an evolution of Holden’s Zeta architecture. The Camaro’s wheelbase is 63mm shorter than that of the VE Commodore sedan, but overall length is a sizeable 145mm less, and overall height is down a hefty 90mm. Overall width is up 18mm. Those numbers don’t tell the full story – a key change was a decision to move the front axle centreline a further 50mm forward of the firewall, specifically to give the Camaro the long dash-to-axle ratio the designers wanted.In fact, design priorities drove much of the Camaro’s development. The boot opening is tiny because a wider one would have put the cut-lines in a less attractive place. No matter which wheel you specify – 18-, 19- or 20-inch – the outside diameter of the tyre is always 729mm, ensuring a constant relationship with the wheelarch opening. The aggressive rear quarters are the largest, most complex single panels GM has ever pressed, says Gene Stefanyshyn, the American in charge of the Camaro program. It took 113 passes through the computer before the manufacturing guys figured out they could actually make them.Three engines are available: GM’s 3.6-litre V6, now with direct injection, and two versions of the 6.2-litre V8, all driving through either six-speed manual or automatic transmissions. The V6 powers the entry-level Camaro LS and mid-spec LT, but it’s far from a penalty box. Output is 227kW at 5900rpm and 370Nm at 5200rpm, enough to propel the LT to 60mph (97km/h) in 5.9sec with the Aisin AY6 six-speed manual transmission and 6.0sec with the Hydra-Matic 6L50 auto in US Motor Trend tests. Not bad for a car that, because of the portly nature of the Zeta hardware, tips the scales at a less-than-svelte 1710kg.The V8 Camaros are badged SS. Automatic versions, which use the Hydra-Matic 6L80, are powered by a revised version of the L99 V8 (298kW at 5900rpm and 556Nm at 4600rpm) which features Active Cylinder Management to improve fuel economy. The manual cars, which use the Tremec TR6060 six-speed, are powered by the LS3 version of the 6.2, which delivers 318kW at 5900rpm and 569Nm at 4600rpm. Despite the power differences US testing has shown the automatic is faster to 60mph (97km/h) than the manual – 4.6sec vs 4.7sec – primarily because of its 29.6 percent lower first gear. By the time the cars fly through the end of the standing 400m, however, the more powerful manual car is comfortably ahead.GM offers launch control on the SS manual. The protocol involves pressing the traction control button twice, then flooring the accelerator pedal. The engine management computer pegs the revs at 4000rpm, and you simply sidestep the clutch, leaving the computer to automatically feather the throttle in response to wheelspin. An experienced driver will beat the computer by 0.2 to 0.3sec over the standing 400m, say US road testers, but the system will be a boon to bracket racers at the run-what-ya-brung drags, who have to predict their quarter mile times in advance and, to stay in the competition, not go faster.Ah yes, the drags. With the exception of the Trans-Am racers of the late ’60s, Camaros have been pretty much crap at corners. The new Camaro changes all that. It’s quick and composed though the twisties, no matter the road surface. Default handling mode – at least in the Pirelli P Zero-shod V6 and V8 versions we drove – is mild understeer at the limit, but the Camaro changes direction with alacrity and is unfazed by mid-corner lumps and bumps. Although V6 and V8 versions differ in their suspension settings – the V6s get FE2 suspension, while the heavier V8s get FE3 suspension with stiffer spring and anti-roll bar rates – both perform remarkably similarly when pushed hard. With less weight over the front wheels, the V6s are crisper on turn-in, though the V8s punch harder out of the corners. Both cars offer a ton of mid-corner grip.The base Camaro LS, which comes with the six-speed manual and 18-inch wheels shod with 245/55R18 BF Goodrich tyres, starts at just US$22,995 ($31,865). But the smart set-up is the LT with the RS package, which includes 20-inch wheels, the Pirelli P Zero tyres, and the quad gauge arrangement on the centre console. All in, this top-of-the-range V6 will retail at about US$28,000 ($38,800), and it’s an absolute steal, cheaper and better than Hyundai’s recently launched Genesis 3.8 Coupe, and in a completely different league compared with the lumpen, lacklustre Mustang and Challenger V6s.The SS is also terrific value for money – our manual transmission tester cost less than US$36,000 ($49,900). It comes standard with the 20-inch wheels and super-sticky Pirellis – 245/45R20 front and 275/40R20 rear – plus four-piston Brembo brakes all around. And, of course, 318kW.The new Camaro is the best reinvention yet of the pony car. It captures the spirit of a uniquely American automotive genre (although we kept the notion of American muscle alive in Oz long after soaring insurance premiums killed it off in the US, the Aussie interpretation had moved to sedans rather than coupes by the 1980s) but wraps it up in genuine 21st century handling and refinement.But having finally figured out how to build a truly world-class American performance coupe, GM’s financial crisis means it may never be able to do it again – there’s currently no plan to replace the Zeta architecture. Worse, although a right-hand-drive version of the Camaro was in the product plan from the outset, GM’s cash crunch means it’s been put on indefinite hold. “The car is fully engineered and ready to go,” says Gene Stefanyshyn. “There’s just no money to build it.” He is optimistic – “we might still do it” – but that’s the pony car enthusiast talking. Realistically, it’s not likely to happen.Talk about a cruel irony: Australia made it possible for GM to build one of its most exciting and compelling sports coupes ever, and now us Aussies may never get the chance to drive it.Chevrolet Camaro SS Body steel, 2 doors, 4 seats Drivetrain front-engine (north south), rear-drive Engine 6162cc V8, ohv, 16v Power 318kW/298kW @ 5900rpm (man/auto) Torque 569Nm/556Nm @ 4600rpm (man/auto) Transmission 6-speed manual or 6-speed auto Size l/w/h 4836/1918/1377mm Wheelbase 2852mm Weight 1755kg (manual), 1779kg (auto) 0-97km/h 4.7sec (manual), 4.6sec (auto)
