Wednesday, February 29, 2012

55 Suburban panel 4x4

here is my 55 suburban. The body is a Jimmy Flinstones resin body. The frame suspension tires wheels and engine is from a soreal concepts chevy truck. The interior and the trim and grille are from the 55 chevy stepside kit. heres the pics

Franзois Hesnault Hans Heyer Damon Hill Graham Hill Phil Hill

Swedish Speed Merchants

Denny Hulme James Hunt Jim Hurtubise Gus Hutchison Jacky Ickx

Name That Shifter, No. 65

It’s Monday, and that means it’s time to present this week’s shifter. You’ll have until mid-day Wednesday to identify the make and model of the vehicle from whence this shifter came. The first person to respond correctly in the Backfires section below will win a Save the Manuals button and sticker*. Good luck! (* Offer [...]

Jim Hall Duncan Hamilton Lewis Hamilton David Hampshire Sam Hanks

Photos: Monday at Daytona International Speedway

PHOTO CREDIT: NASCARMEDIA

Narain Karthikeyan Ukyo Katayama Ken Kavanagh Rupert Keegan Eddie Keizan

Matt Kenseth wins Daytona 500 after fire and rain

Max Jean Stefan Johansson Eddie Johnson Leslie Johnson Bruce Johnstone

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

NASCAR in Heels: It's raining, it's pouring...

Gimax Richie Ginther Yves Giraud Cabantous Ignazio Giunti Timo Glock

Father Time?

Innes Ireland Eddie Irvine Chris Irwin Jean Pierre Jabouille Jimmy Jackson

Vans.......ford and chevy

I am looking for a 1973 chevy drag van and a 76-77 ford van "denimachine", and 1/20 scale ford "supervan". I know these are rare kits. Does anyone have any of these vans and willing to sale?

Hubert Hahne Mike Hailwood Mika Hдkkinen Bruce Halford Jim Hall

1964 NASCAR Dodge: Interior Completed

 Hi everybody!

 I'm converting a Lindberg 1964 Dodge Ramchargers into a NASCAR. Although it will not be a super detailed build, I'm adding important details such as double shocks at  all four corners, roll cage and basic wiring and plumbing to the engine and chassis.

I've done a lot of research -web and scale auto back issues- but haven found the exact location and kind of fuel pump and coil, so any help will be appreciated. 

Hope to post some pictures this weekend.

 Thanks in advance for your help and happy model car building! Big Smile

Gil

Ernst Klodwig Kamui Kobayashi Helmuth Koinigg Heikki Kovalainen Kevin Harvick

Monday, February 27, 2012

2012 Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix

Out! Pet Care Toyota Jason Leffler David Carl Allison Gregory Jack Biffle David Lee Blaney

How good is Bruno Senna?

Bruno Senna describes sealing a drive at Williams in 2012 as "the start of my Formula 1 career for real". It is a date that could have come three years previously, had events turned out slightly differently.

In the winter of 2008-9, the nephew of the Formula 1 legend Ayrton Senna was on the verge of being signed by the Honda team after impressing in a test alongside Jenson Button.

But then Honda pulled out of F1, team principal Ross Brawn was forced to spend the winter desperately trying to save the team, and when he did so at the 11th hour, he thought it better, given the circumstances, to stick with the experience of Rubens Barrichello rather than the promise he had seen in the younger Brazilian.

Now the wheel has turned full circle, and it is Senna who has deprived Barrichello of a seat in F1. But it has been a long time coming.

Bruno Senna posing with a Williams logo

Bruno Senna drove for HRT in 2010 and spent most of 2011 as a reserve for Renault. Photo: Getty

While Button went on to win the world title for the reconstituted Brawn team in 2009, Senna was left to scrape around for a drive in sportscars, biding his time before another chance in F1 came up, before landing a drive with the nascent HRT outfit in 2010.

The dream turned into a nightmare as the team limped through their maiden season, and for Senna it was a relief to leave, even if it again meant he did not have a full-time grand prix drive.

He spent most of 2011 as a reserve driver for Renault, doing very little driving, before being drafted in to replace the sacked veteran Nick Heidfeld for the final eight races of the year.

The fractured nature of his brief F1 career so far reflects that of his rise up the junior formulae and means it is very difficult to assess the quality of a driver on whom, realistically, a post-restructure Williams will depend to revive their failing fortunes, given the erratic form shown by his team-mate Pastor Maldonado in his debut season last year.

Senna's path to the Williams seat was eased by a substantial sponsorship package from Brazil, a situation that will inevitably see him labelled in some quarters as a 'pay-driver'.

This is quite a stigma in F1 - it traditionally means the driver needed to bring money to make him attractive to team, the implication being that his talent on its own was not enough.

Both he and Williams were at pains to emphasise on Tuesday that they had put their new driver through a rigorous assessment programme before signing him up - and that any talk of money had followed only once they had established to their satisfaction that he was good enough.

"We had an extensive driver-evaluation programme with a handful of drivers," said chief engineer Mark Gillan, "and we made the final decision based on raw pace, consistency, tyre management, technical feedback and mental capacity - and most importantly the potential impact they would have on the team.

"In all those areas it was very clear that Bruno has not had a lot of experience in single-seater racing, but has consistently shown improvement and real talent."

Of course, Gillan would say that - Williams chief executive Adam Parr spent a long time last year trying to convince the world that Maldonado was not a 'pay-driver', despite the sponsorship deal with Venezeula's national oil company that accompanied him to the team.

Maldonado has talent - he out-qualified team-mate Barrichello at Monaco last year, for example - but it is fair to say that he would not be in an F1 car without that help.

Senna is a different case.

Ayrton Senna once said of Bruno: "If you think I'm good, wait until you see my nephew." That, though, was when Bruno was cutting his teeth in karts in Brazil as a child. The great man's death brought Bruno's fledgling career to a shuddering halt at the age of 10.

His family forbade him from racing, and it was not until 10 years later - very late for a man to start a career in single-seater racing cars - that Bruno was able to take it up again.

It has meant a career on fast-forward, and the necessity to soak up vast amounts of information and experience much quicker than his rivals.

Ayrton Senna

Ayrton Senna once said of Bruno: "If you think I'm good, wait until you see my nephew." Photo: AP

Inevitably, that has led to mistakes, but there have also been flashes of real talent, even if it has remained difficult to form a conclusive judgement.

At HRT, the car was awful, the team struggling just to survive and his team-mate Karun Chandhok was then an unknown quantity.

At Renault last year, the qualifying scores between Senna and team-mate Vitaly Petrov - who had not only been in the car all year, but was also in his second season in F1 - were four apiece.

But of the four races where Senna was on top, two of them were the Belgian and Japanese Grands Prix, held at Spa-Francorchamps and Suzuka, two of the three toughest tests for a driver in the world, the other being Monaco. At Spa, on his debut for the team, Senna qualified a brilliant seventh, directly in front of double world champion Fernando Alonso's Ferrari, no less.

With a young driver, especially an inexperienced one, the key is always to look for the highs. The bad points, the crashes, the occasional clumsiness, can be ironed out. But without inherent pace, a driver is going nowhere.

They know a decent driver when they see one at Renault, who have been renamed Lotus for 2012. Trackside operations director Alan Permane has worked with Michael Schumacher, Fernando Alonso and Robert Kubica and he says his impressions of Senna were largely positive.

"I don't think there's any doubt about his pace," Permane says. "What lets him down - and he knows it - is his consistency. But he didn't get a chance to show it. He had eight races with us but a lot of them were compromised by car problems."

Permane admits that it is difficult to be sure exactly how quick Senna is because Petrov is not exactly a proven top-level benchmark.

"Bruno was at least as quick as - if not quicker than - Vitaly," Permane says. "It's difficult to say whether he's going to be an Alonso/Kubica/Schumacher character, but some drivers take a long time to come along.

"Look at Jenson Button - when he drove for us, Giancarlo Fisichella destroyed him, and Fisi would be the first guy to admit he's not a mega. He was a very good number two. But now Jenson's fantastic. Can Senna do that? Only time will tell.

"He's very confident, very relaxed, almost performs better under pressure. The cars these days are trickier to drive (than they used to be) for someone who jumps in cold. And I think he did a brilliant job to do that.

"There's definitely something there. He definitely can be there on merit."

Backed by a budget or not, then, Senna more than deserves a chance to show what he can do.

Leo Kinnunen Danny Kladis Hans Klenk Peter de Klerk Christian Klien

Q and A: Atkinson on his WRC comeback

Former Subaru star Chris Atkinson returns to the WRC with the Monster World Rally Team on next month's Rally Mexico. AUTOSPORT caught up with the Queenslander to hear about the challenge ahead, driving a Ford for the first time and some Monster Ken-speak... Q

Georges Grignard Bobby Grim Romain Grosjean Olivier Grouillard Brian Gubby

2013 Ferrari F620 GT Revealed: First Photo of 599 Successor Hits the Net [Geneva Auto Show]

Forget the teaser images and videos Ferrari released earlier this week. This appears to be the real deal, the 2013 F620 GT in the metal. (Or perhaps clay, as it’s difficult to tell if what we see is more than a detailed styling model). A reader at GTSpirit.com snapped the above photo at a presentation [...]

Roberto Guerrero Maurнcio Gugelmin Dan Gurney Hubert Hahne Mike Hailwood

Special Edition Under the Spotlight: Cup Series Underdogs to Watch in 2012

Phil Hill Peter Hirt David Hobbs Gary Hocking Ingo Hoffmann

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Blomqvist joins McLaren?s programme

British driver Tom Blomqvist has joined McLaren's Driver Development Programme, the British squad said on Wednesday.

Cliff Griffith Georges Grignard Bobby Grim Romain Grosjean Olivier Grouillard

Blomqvist joins McLaren?s programme

British driver Tom Blomqvist has joined McLaren's Driver Development Programme, the British squad said on Wednesday.

Casey James Mears Juan Pablo Montoya Joseph Francis Nemechek III Ryan Joseph Newman Kyle Eugene Petty

A Look at Volkswagen?s New MQB Platform for Front-Wheel-Drive Cars

Danica claims Nationwide pole position

Peter Hirt David Hobbs Gary Hocking Ingo Hoffmann Bill Holland

Mikkelsen takes early Azores lead

Reigning Intercontinental Rally Challenge champion Andreas Mikkelsen took a narrow early lead over 2010 title-winner Juho Hanninen as the 2012 series got underway in the Azores this afternoon. Last year Mikkelsen produced a breakthrough challenge for victory on this event - then held in the summer - before Skoda requested that he hold position behind works driver and rally leader Hanninen.

Al Herman Hans Herrmann Franзois Hesnault Hans Heyer Damon Hill

Saturday, February 25, 2012

1960 Ford Starliner mild custom

Another project on the bench, A 1960 Ford Starliner, i am not to sure what i want to do with this yet but i shaved the door handles and top body line trim and finished the chassis.

Terrence Lee Labonte Randy Joseph Lajoie Kevin Paul Lepage William Ashton Lewis Jr Sterling Burton Marlin

Today?s Headlines

MTA Bus Driver Kills Pedestrian at Notoriously Dangerous Flushing Intersection (Post)
MTA Bus Driver Kills Pedestrian at 125th Street and St. Nicholas (DNA)
Michael Grimm: House GOP Leadership Should “Go Back to Drawing Board” on Transpo Bill (NY1)
Cuomo Gets to Work Greenwashing the Transit-Free Tappan Zee (NYT)
DOT Study: Improving Safety Is Imperative on Houston and Delancey (DNA)
Carlton [...]

Oswald Karch Narain Karthikeyan Ukyo Katayama Ken Kavanagh Rupert Keegan

Bahrain Unrest continues Daily...

Marc Genй Elmer George Bob Gerard Gerino Gerini Peter Gethin

Dartz Prombron Black Dragon Debuts for 12 Lunatics in China

Dartz, the Latvian company behind the world’s most nucking futs SUVs, has one-upped itself yet again. The $7 million Prombron Black Dragon edition?12 units, offered only in China to celebrate the Year of the Dragon?gilds an already gilded lily. Beyond the expected baroque detailing, there’s a lead-door package offered with “memories of Fukushima.” We couldn’t [...]

Kamui Kobayashi Helmuth Koinigg Heikki Kovalainen Kevin Harvick Armour Vienna Sausage Kroger Chevrolet

Karthikeyan Makes Surprise F1 Return With HRT

Narain Karthikeyan has made a surprise return to Formula One after being announced as one of Hispania HRT’s drivers for the 2011 season. The Indian driver was unveiled as the first racer to be working with the Spanish based squad, who look likely to enter into a second season of racing despite on-going financial concerns. [...]

Dave Kennedy Loris Kessel Bruce Kessler Nicolas Kiesa Leo Kinnunen

Friday, February 24, 2012

Spied: 2013 Porsche 911 GT3

More than any other carmaker, Porsche knows how to play the game of derivatives and special editions. The 911?which currently includes the 997 and its successor, the 991?comes in 18 variations here; in Germany, that number is 22. This rear-engined sports car is quite rightfully considered the quintessential Porsche. But what?s the quintessential 911? Some [...]

Jean Pierre Jarier Max Jean Stefan Johansson Eddie Johnson Leslie Johnson

Patrick unhurt in last-lap wreck, apparently unshaken – just ticked

David Lee Blaney Michael Duane Bliss Kurt Thomas Busch Kyle Thomas Busch Jeffrey Tyler Burton

Bud, Daytona shuffle Speedweeks sponsorships

Jeffrey Michael Gordon Charles Robert Hamilton IV Charles Robert Hamilton V Kevin Michael Harvick Virgil Ernest Irvan III

Five ways to improve F1


Emerson Fittipaldi in his heyday © Sutton Images
In an interview in the Times, former world champion Emerson Fittipaldi?s outlined his five-point plan to enhance Formula One. Cut costs ?They spend a fortune in wind-tunnel testing alone. Reduce costs and the slowest teams would catch up and make it more even.? Limit downforce ?They need to reduce enormously the downforce in the cars, the only way to bring back overtaking. We need more mechanical grip so that you have longer braking areas, can set up the car coming out of a corner, get in the slipstream and then overtake.? Close the pitlane ?When the safety car goes out they should close the pitlane. Now it?s just a lottery.? Lift ban on team orders ?It is a very stupid rule. It?s why they are called teams, it?s why they have two cars. If a driver is leading in the championship, everything has to go in his favour. What is wrong with that? It?s so easy for teams to camouflage their orders anyway. All they need to do is tell one guy on the radio he has a problem with his brakes. They can bend the rules very easily. In the old days they would even swap cars, so why do we have this ban now?? Retain traditional grands prix ?These places are the soul of racing. The Americas are under-represented. We have Canada back, but there is no USA, no Argentina, no Mexico. We need to stay in the heartlands.?

Jean Pierre Jabouille Jimmy Jackson Joe James John James Jean Pierre Jarier

2012 Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix

Ken Kavanagh Rupert Keegan Eddie Keizan Al Keller Joe Kelly

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Lotus pulls out of Barcelona test

Lotus has pulled out of the Barcelona test with immediate effect as a result of the problems it encountered with its chassis this morning. The team has decided to abandon running in order to fully understand the problem with the chassis that manifested itself on chassis 2, which ran for the first time today.

Narain Karthikeyan Ukyo Katayama Ken Kavanagh Rupert Keegan Eddie Keizan

Bayne relieved to make 500 field

Last year's Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne said securing a spot in the 2012 field without having to rely on a Duel result was a huge relief - and now hopes he can find more sponsorship to prolong his 2012 season. The Wood Brothers driver did not have a guaranteed Daytona start as his car was not within the top 35 in last year's Sprint Cup owners' points standings.

Brian Gubby Andrй Guelfi Miguel Бngel Guerra Roberto Guerrero Maurнcio Gugelmin

NASCAR Fantasy Fusion: Be the TopDog in Your League

Bruce Kessler Nicolas Kiesa Leo Kinnunen Danny Kladis Hans Klenk

Action at Blackbushe

The work being done for the Formula 1 movie “Rush” is pushing ahead at Blackbushe Airport, where much of the filming will be done this summer. The film crews have already constructed a double-sided pit garage set, with a straight on either side, in order to simulate different race tracks, one is likely to be [...]

Ingo Hoffmann Bill Holland Jackie Holmes Bill Homeier Kazuyoshi Hoshino

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Toyota Teases B-Segment FT-Bh Hybrid Concept with Pics, Video [Geneva Auto Show]

Toyota is bringing the funky-looking FT-Bh small hybrid concept to this year?s Geneva auto show. The automaker released some teaser images and video of the FT-Bh, as well as a few morsels of info. The concept’s name stands for ?Future Toyota B-segment hybrid,? which pretty much sums up what you need to know: The FT-Bh [...]

David Carl Allison Gregory Jack Biffle David Lee Blaney Michael Duane Bliss Kurt Thomas Busch

Button Steps Up Pre Season Training With Lance Armstrong

Jenson Button teamed up with record breaking cyclist Lance Armstrong, as he continues to prepare for another Formula One season. The McLaren driver excitedly tweeted that he would be riding with Armstrong, the 7 time Tour de France winner, in Hawaii. Armstrong responded via Twitter “I hope he doesn’t ride as srong as he drives [...]

Kevin Paul Lepage William Ashton Lewis Jr Sterling Burton Marlin Mark Anthony Martin Jeremy Allan Mayfield

Protests raise fresh concerns over Bahrain GP

Fresh doubts have emerged about the viability of this year's Bahrain Grand Prix after a human rights group in the Gulf kingdom called on the Formula 1 teams to boycott the race in the wake of continuing civil unrest.

It is the first public intervention by an interested party on the subject of the wisdom of holding the race since F1's governing body the FIA confirmed Bahrain's place on the 2012 calendar last month.

Bahrain's inclusion on the official schedule raised eyebrows. That's because unrest continues there, despite pledges by the ruling royal family to increase human rights and democratic representation in an attempt to move on from the disturbances that led to the cancellation of last year's race.

The call for a boycott - by the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR) - became public two days after police were accused of beating a leading opposition activist on the back, neck and head at a rally on Friday.

Bahrain GP

Bahrain's Sakir International Circuit has not had a Grand Prix since 2010. Photo: Getty

That man was the vice-president of the BCHR, Nabeel Rajab, who also happens to be the man who gave the interview calling for the boycott of the race.

Rajab told a leading Arab business magazine: "We will campaign for... drivers and teams to boycott. The government wants Formula 1 to tell the outside world that everything is back to normal.

"Formula 1, if they come, they are helping the government to say [it is normal]. We would prefer it if they didn't take part. I am sure the drivers and teams respect human rights."

F1, then, appears headed for another long-running saga over whether the Bahrain race can go ahead this year - just as in 2011, when it was four months between the outbreak of civil unrest and the race finally being cancelled.

During that time, it became clear that F1 commercial boss Bernie Ecclestone was keen for the event to take place, despite the concerns of many both inside and outside the sport that holding a race would send the wrong message.

Those concerns remain alive today.

Ecclestone was unavailable for comment, but I understand he and the FIA are still determined to hold this year's race.

At the season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix six weeks ago, he told BBC Sport: "It's on the calendar. We'll be there. Unless something terrible happens to stop us."

Asked if he had any concerns about the race becoming a magnet for problems in the kingdom, he said: "No, I don't see that."

On Monday, the race organisers insisted the race should go ahead, pointing out that the government had already started down the path to reform and insisting that the race was "supported by an overwhelming majority of people from all sections of society in Bahrain and represents a symbol of national unity".

But within F1 teams, there are murmurings of unease. No-one will publicly comment on the situation, let alone call for the race to be boycotted, but some insiders do believe there is a strong chance the race will be called off.

For the teams and ot

Mears Adds B?laster Corp., as Associate Sponsor for Daytona 500

2012 Kia Soul Red Rock Special Edition Announced (It?s Brown)

Kia has announced that a new special-edition of the Soul, the Red Rock, is now available for purchase. It’s based on a “concept” that was first shown at last April’s 2011 New York auto show to debut the 2012 Soul’s refreshed interior, exterior, and powertrain lineup. After spending nearly a year deliberating with customers on [...]

Andrй Guelfi Miguel Бngel Guerra Roberto Guerrero Maurнcio Gugelmin Dan Gurney

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

IndyCar teams still learning safer, faster cars

Zaxby s Chevrolet Brad Keselowski Ruby Tuesday Dodge Carl Edwards Copart Ford

Gascoyne gets expanded Caterham role

Mark Smith has taken over control of the Caterham F1 team's technical department after Mike Gascoyne's was promoted to chief technical officer of the entire Caterham Group. Gascoyne, who joined the team before it made its Formula 1 debut in 2010, will now be responsible for proposing, supporting and coordinating technical initiatives in Caterham Group's F1 and GP2 team as well as Caterham Cars, Caterham Composites and Caterham Technology & Innovation. Smith, who as the team's technical director, takes over the day-to-day control of the technical side of the F1 team

Dan Gurney Hubert Hahne Mike Hailwood Mika Hдkkinen Bruce Halford

Red Bull will be challenged in 2012

Hi all, thanks for your many and varied questions about the 2011 season. I've answered a number of them as well as giving my thoughts about how the season panned out and what I think will happen in 2012.

In order to see this content you need to have both Javascript enabled and Flash installed. Visit BBC Webwise for full instructions. If you're reading via RSS, you'll need to visit the blog to access this content.


If you are outside the UK, you can watch the video here.

Murray

Ken Kavanagh Rupert Keegan Eddie Keizan Al Keller Joe Kelly

F1 pre-season testing provides poor guide to form

So, after four days of testing and nearly 3,500 laps of running at Jerez in sunny southern Spain, what has the first Formula 1 pre-season test revealed about the season to come?

The simplest answer – as ever – is “not much”. Testing – or the “winter world championship”, as McLaren chairman Ron Dennis famously described it – is a notoriously poor guide to form.

Or at least it is if you look only at the headline lap times. At the end of last year’s test in Jerez, the fastest man was Williams driver Rubens Barrichello – and his team were about to embark on the worst season in their once-illustrious history.

Likewise, if anyone thinks Lotus driver Romain Grosjean is going to win this year’s world championship after setting the pace in Jerez this week, they will be waiting a long time for those pigs to fly in front of that blue moon.

Fernando Alonso

Ferrari's Fernando Alonso set the fastest time on the final day of the first Formula 1 pre-season testing in Jerez, in Spain with a time of 1.18.877. Photo: Getty

Nevertheless, it would be wrong to say that Jerez has revealed nothing.

First of all, it has become clear the teams dislike the look of the new cars as much as anyone.

For them, the ugly step on top of the noses of all cars apart from the McLaren is an unfortunate necessity in the pursuit of the best possible aerodynamics, following a rule change requiring lower front noses.

"Performance comes before aesthetics," as Red Bull design chief Adrian Newey put it.

The teams head back to their factories with a mountain of data, on which decisions will be based about the direction in which to take the development of their new cars.

These gleaming machines are prototypes for their entire lives, but in terms of maturity right now they are still in the post-natal stage.

Nowhere, it seems, is that more true than at Ferrari, whose decision to start with a clean sheet of paper after a chastening year in 2011 has left them with a lot of work to do.

Fernando Alonso may have left Jerez with the fastest time from the final day - and the second fastest overall - but no-one was fooled by that.

Ferrari were clearly struggling to understand their new F2012 and spent most of the four days doing aerodynamic assessment tests.

The car, they said, was behaving inconsistently in the corners, and so far fixing its behaviour at one stage - the entry, say - messes it up at either the mid-corner or exit, or both.

This is not an especially encouraging sign for a team whose 2011 season came off the rails at the final pre-season test, when new parts that they expected to bring a chunk of speed actually made the car worse.

It turned out this was a result of a lack of correlation between the results that were being created in the wind tunnel and the actual performance of the car out on the track - a major problem in a sport where aerodynamics are critical to performance.

Ferrari spent most of last season trying to get on top of this, and by late summer they insisted they had. Yet when they introduced an update to the car at the Belgian Grand Prix in August, that too did not work.

Were they not concerned about this, I asked an insider a little later in the season. No, he said, they knew why it had happened - the wind tunnel correlation was fine.

Yet on Thursday this week, there was technical director Pat Fry admitting that there was still a small problem in this area. "There's reasonable correlation," Fry said. "I certainly wouldn't say it was perfect."

Despite that eye-catching lap time from Alonso, then, Ferrari's potential remains unclear.

"That time was on soft tyres," a source close to the team said. "It was not so special. The feeling is they are waiting for a lot from this car - but they don't know how to get it. It is impossible to say what will be the future."

But it is not just Ferrari. Over at McLaren, Lewis Hamilton has said his first impressions of the car were "all positive". But the more he talked, the more you wondered.

They had not found the best set-up yet, he said - unsurprising, perhaps, so early in testing.

"It feels like an evolution of last year's car in many ways but also there are some things that are not so good," he added. "The downforce on the rear for instance, is not as good through the high-speed corners as it was last year, but I'm sure we'll get that back."

Again, this was to be expected given the ban on exhaust-blown diffusers, from which all top teams gained huge amounts of rear downforce last year - and Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel also noticed a similar experience in his car.

But perhaps Hamilton's most revealing remark was this: "You never know what fuel loads people are on. I think we've been quite aggressive with our fuel loads."

A translation of which seems to be that McLaren are running with less fuel on board than they might normally be expected to - which will make their lap times look more impressive.

Despite that, the car looked as if it was not quite as fast as the Red Bull, which Hamilton effectively admitted. "I think you can see the Red Bull looks quick," he said.

The Red Bull indeed appeared to do its times with relative ease, both in the hands of Mark Webber and, later in the week, Vettel.

Just as much of a concern for their rivals will be that pictures suggest the car seems to have retained what most believe to be its crucial secret.

That is getting the front wing to run closer to the ground than any other car, a critical aerodynamic advantage.

This is despite design chief Adrian Newey saying they had had to reduce the rake on their car following the ban on exhaust-blown diffusers and despite the introduction of a tougher front-wing deflection test.

And yet even Red Bull clearly have work to do. After three pretty much trouble-free days, an electrical fault appeared on the final morning, and Vettel lost an entire morning's running while the team fixed it.

In summary, then, Red Bull again look like the team to beat, and there is a mixed picture from McLaren and Ferrari.

Just as it did in 2011 when the team were Renault, the Lotus has left a good initial impression.

Toro Rosso and Williams also appear to have decent cars, while Force India fell back after a promising start, almost certainly because of losing a day to reserve driver Jules Bianchi's crash on Thursday.

There follows a 10-day break before the teams reconvene at Barcelona on 21 February.

The Circuit de Catalunya's mix of long corners of varying speeds have long been the ultimate test of an F1 car's all-round capabilities, so more pieces of the jigsaw should fall into place there.

Michael Duane Bliss Kurt Thomas Busch Kyle Thomas Busch Jeffrey Tyler Burton Richard Allen Craven

Edwards leads Daytona 500 qualifying; Biffle 2nd

Eddie Johnson Leslie Johnson Bruce Johnstone Alan Jones Tom Jones

Monday, February 20, 2012

2012 Holden Colorado revealed

Holden has released the first details about the 2012 Colorado, ahead of its launch later this year.

James Hunt Jim Hurtubise Gus Hutchison Jacky Ickx Yuji Ide

Lotus: It?s very difficult to know where Raikkonen should be

Team order rule needs a re-think

Comparison Test: 2012 Audi A6 3.0T Quattro vs. 2013 Lexus GS350

There are sports sedans, and then there are sports sedans. Strictly defined, only a select few cars?the BMW M5, the Porsche Panamera, the Cadillac CTS-V?deserve the italics. They deliver exalted levels of grip, power, structural rigidity, and responsiveness, all in family-friendly packages. But most sports sedans are less tightly focused; they may have evolved from [...]

David Hobbs Gary Hocking Ingo Hoffmann Bill Holland Jackie Holmes

F2 announces rookie prize

Formula 2 will introduce a Rookie of the Year prize this season, with the winner being awarded two free days of winter testing. Drivers who have competed in less than two F2 rounds are eligible alongside those who have never raced in the series before

Brad Keselowski Ruby Tuesday Dodge Carl Edwards Copart Ford Denny Hamlin

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Lewis cracks China

Paco Godia Carel Godin de Beaufort Christian Goethals Paul Goldsmith Josй Froilбn Gonzбlez

Report: Caterham working up all-new sportscar

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Caterham TBA

There's little question that Caterham is on the rise. The British automaker may still be known primarily for building continuation models of the classic Lotus Seven, but under the new ownership of AirAsia chief Tony Fernandes, it is expanding in a big way.

The company teamed up with Lola for the SP/300.R, one of the only vehicles Caterham has ever made that was not based on the Seven. Caterham now also has its own F1 team, and has promoted the team's technical director Mike Gascoyne - a longtime F1 engineer and chassis designer - as chief technical officer for the entire group, overseeing the road car division, the advanced composites operation, the new R&D center and the motorsport division.

That's not all, though. Caterham has been rumored to be working on a new model line - to be developed and built in-house completely separate from the Seven and SP/300.R - details of which are just beginning to emerge. Although Caterham has reportedly considered going mid-engine with its new model, it is likely to stick with the traditional front-engine, rear-drive setup, with a monocoque chassis built around an F1-style tub, but likely not made of carbon fiber.

Caterham is reportedly intent on keeping both price and weight to a minimum, but the new model is being designed with more creature comforts than its existing stablemates. Both coupe and convertible versions are envisioned from the outset, and while powertrain is still being negotiated with potential suppliers, a supercharged version could be in the cards as well. Discussions are repprtedly also underway with various design studios, but one thing's for sure: this one won't be designed by Colin Chapman.

Continue reading Caterham working up all-new sportscar

Caterham working up all-new sportscar originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 17 Feb 2012 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Silverado Sport Truck

The kit:

Engine:

Chassis:

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2013 BMW 3-Series Touring rear end styling revealed in patent photos

Great news! The 2013 BMW 3-Series Touring will have a tailgate, possibly this one!

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Friday, February 17, 2012

Dodge seeks balance in Sprint Cup

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Ferrari Launch Their 2011 Car The F150

Massa threatened with jail over team orders


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Brazil?s F1 fever may have overstepped the mark after a local prosecutor threatened Felipe Massa with a six-year jail term if he ?defrauds? the sporting public by letting Ferrari team-mate Fernando Alonso past at Sunday?s grand prix. The story, reported by a local paper and picked up by the Daily Telegraph, is the latest of several anti-Massa reports to emerge from his home country since the team orders controversy at the German Grand Prix earlier this year. The Daily Telegraph's Tom Cary reckons that Massa simply isn't living up to his home crowd's high expectations.
?A public raised on a diet of Emerson Fittipaldi, Nelson Piquet and Ayrton Senna were simply appalled and saddened in equal measure by Massa?s apparent lack of ambition.?

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Future Audi Assistance and Lighting Tech to Include Stop-and-Go Lane Keeping and OLEDs

Audi recently threw open the doors to its research facility to demonstrate some of its latest safety technology, much of it fed by advanced sensors and enhanced by digital networks. The long-term target of all premium carmakers, like it or not, is a car that gives its driver the choice to drive themselves or leave [...]

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2012 NSCS Daytona Media Day Q&A with Toyota Motorsports Driver, Michael Waltrip

Michael Waltrip. - Photo Credit: Jason Smith/Getty Images for NASCARMICHAEL WALTRIP, No. 40 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota Camry, Hillman Racing What makes winning the Daytona 500 difficult? “It’s just a special race, it’s hard. Everybody brings their best stuff. They’ve had a couple months to tweak on it. Everybody’s mind set is win at any...more»

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Thursday, February 16, 2012

Official: GM reports 2011 profit of $7.6 billion

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General Motors today reported its earnings for last year and the fourth fiscal quarter of 2011. The automaker's profits for 2011 totaled $7.6 billion, up from $4.7 billion in 2010.

While the news was excellent for the full year, fourth quarter net income was only $472 million, or about the same as Q4 2010. While that makes eight straight quarters of positive numbers since the company emerged from bankruptcy in 2009, the earnings were weighed down by losses of $562 million in Europe from GM's Opel subsidiary.

There were also a number of one-time events that affected earnings in the fourth quarter, without which GM's profit would've nearly doubled to $900 million.

Still, the company counts 2011 as a successful year, and the stats tend to agree. TrueCar.com reports that GM increased its sales by over 13 percent, increased market share by half a point, grew average transaction prices by over $1,100 and lowered incentive spending by five percent. Based on that performance, all 47,500 hourly employees will receive profit sharing checks of up to $7,000. Check out The General's official press release after the jump.

Continue reading GM reports 2011 profit of $7.6 billion

GM reports 2011 profit of $7.6 billion originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 16 Feb 2012 09:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Porsche announces Cajun's real name as Macan - releases teaser [video]

Porsche has pulled a double take on us today with the announcement that their new compact SUV will be named Macan and not the previously confirmed Cajun.

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Kimi Raikkonen: ?There?s still a long way to go??

Kimi Raikkonen refused to read any significance into his performance today after he topped the time sheets in Jerez. Raikkonen got up to speed by driving a two-year old Renault in Valencia recently, and also did some slow filming laps … Continue reading

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Bahrain is still not a certainty

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Firestone extends IndyCar deal

Firestone will continue to be the official tyre supplier of the IndyCar Series until at least the 2014 season. The tyre firm returned to American single-seater racing in 1996 and has been IndyCar's sole supplier since the 1999 season.

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Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Ferrari Launch Their 2011 Car The F150

Colin Monahan Named Marketing Coordinator at Infineon Raceway

Infineon Raceway SONOMA, Calif. (Jan. 4, 2012) Colin Monahan has been named Marketing Coordinator at Infineon Raceway, raceway officials announced....

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DMACK vows to improve snow tyre

DMACK will remain in Scandinavia next week to further develop its snow tyre ahead of next year's Rally Sweden after a troubled outing in Karlstad this week. The Chinese firm was running its rubber on a World Rally Car in the snow for the first time, with leading Finnish driver Jari Ketomaa using DMACKs on his Ford Fiesta RS WRC

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RAB Racing suspends driver John Wes Townley

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Carpenter to run Chevrolet power

Ed Carpenter has secured a Chevrolet engine deal for his new IndyCar team. Carpenter, who took his first race win in the series with Sarah Fisher Racing at Kentucky last year, has established his own one-car squad for the 2012 season. Ed Carpenter Racing will be run in collaboration with veteran team boss Derrick Walker.

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Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Matt Carter Teams Up With Lone Survivor Foundation With Clear Mission; Intent

Lone Survivor Foundation (LSF)DENVER, North Carolina (February 3, 2012) – - Officials from Matt Carter Racing (MCR) announced today that NASCAR Nationwide Series veteran Matt Carter has teamed up with the Texas-based Lone Survivor Foundation, which will be his charity of choice for the 2012 season. The upcoming season commences with the season opener on...more»

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Skirts and Scuffs Predictions: Holly Strain chooses the champs

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2014 Tesla Model X Crossover: Electric Drive, a Frunk, and Silly Rear Doors

Tesla Motors has introduced a prototype of the 2014 Model X crossover, its third all-electric model behind the Roadster and the Model S sedan. The seven-passenger Model X promises to be more versatile and family-friendly than the Model S, and will double the size of Tesla?s current U.S. lineup when it eventually goes on sale [...]

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Britain preview quotes: Virgin

Timo Glock: "It already feels like it's been a great week for the team and we haven't even started racing yet. I'm very pleased about everything that is happening right now as I believe we can really start to move forward. We're very clear about where we need to get to and how we're going to do it, so I'm feeling very excited for the future of our team.

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Sunday, February 12, 2012

Webber needs to be the Bull in Istanbul

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Ferrari Launch Their 2011 Car The F150

Subway Expands, Extends Partnership with Carl Edwards

America Israel Racing Unveils Unique Paint Scheme for the Daytona 500

No. 49 America Israel Racing Robinson-Blakeney Toyota Camry -Car FrontCar will prominently display both the United States and Israel flags CHARLOTTE, NC (February 9, 2012) ? With under a month to go before the green flag drops on the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, America Israel Racing (AIR) has unveiled its unique paint scheme for...more»

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First look at Williams-Renault FW34

Williams has shown its new Renault-powered FW34 at Jerez this morning. The car is the first product of the new structure led by technical director Mike Coughlan and chief operations engineer Mark Gillan. It also sees the Renault name on … Continue reading

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Saturday, February 11, 2012

Tweaks for IndyCar rulebook

Newly appointed IndyCar race director Beaux Barfield says that he decided against a total rewrite of the series regulations for 2012, opting instead for relatively minor tweaks. "For me, it's important that certain rules make sense for my style, but being careful to not cut out too many elements that have value," Barfield said

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BMW 1-Series tuned by Hartge

Hartge has introduced a new tuning program for the BMW 1-Series (F20). It includes minor styling tweaks and a number of optimized ECUs.

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F1: 2012 Winter ?Olympics set to Begin

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Thursday, February 9, 2012

Kia Track'ster Concept revealed

Coinciding with its debut at the 2012 Chicago Auto Show, Kia has revealed the first details and images of the new Track'ster concept. Despite sharing its underpinnings with the boxy Soul, this new concept is all about high performance.

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