What's new in wheel world?
The Age
Saturday August 8, 2009
THAT depends on your definition of "new" but here are a few things that have happened fairly recently, looked at completely dispassionately, of course.The crew at Porsche showed they could do more than produce the world's most oddly proportioned sedan (simple: take an iconic body shape purpose-designed for a short, rear-engined sports car and stretch it like an ill-fitting sock over a front-engined limousine).What former chief executive Wendelin Wiedeking and chairman Wolfgang Porsche also proved they could do was enact the world's daftest business plan.They bet the family farm and a fair bit more on a play for Volkswagen that could go ahead only if a long-standing German law was changed. The law didn't change, at least not by the time the global financial crisis made the takers-over the overtaken.Now, after its spectactular failure, Porsche will be a sharecropper on what was once its own land.Meanwhile, a motoring journalist not unknown in this parish was nabbed for allegedly driving an alleged performance car down an alleged public road at an alleged stratospheric speed.The car was impounded and more than 100 stories appeared in the international press. Almost every one included the list price, the top speed and a photo of a very shiny red example of the car in question.As Brabants Dagblad noted: "Die met 231 kilometer per uur over de weg racete bij het West-Australische Perth. Hij maakte een testrit in een zeldzame Ferrari California".You can't buy publicity like that, though every competitor will now be trying.Mark Webber's attempt to smash theall-time F1 record for competing in the most grands prix without a win came unstuck. The notoriously unlucky Queanbeyanian took the chequered flag in July after 130 or so GPs. Meanwhile, the Australian driver with the best name in motor sport, Will Power, won his first IndyCar race.Rolls-Royce, traditionally circumspect with power figures, announced the forthcoming Ghost would be good for 420 kilowatts, thanks to a 6.6-litre turbocharged V12. Crisis? What crisis?The back-from-the-grave Chrysler company relaunched its new "leaner" self with the 8.4-litre V10 Viper. Some of us liked the company better when it was dead.German motorists potentially set a record with a 259-car pile-up on an autobahn in the state of Lower Saxony.Nissan announced the Limited Edition Navara Titanium Edition, specifically for those who want an edition in addition.Ford Australia said it would slot a four-cylinder engine into the Falcon by 2011, hopefully expecting more success than Holden had with the Commodore "four". That proved only 11 per cent more desirable than tinea.Authorities in Amsterdam reported an outbreak of Smart cars being thrown in canals, just as the Italians raised a 1925 Bugatti from Lake Maggiore. It had been sunk in 1937 by a slightly confused owner wishing to dodge import duties.The NSW Government reduced the demerit points on "minor speeding offences", having realised that when drivers are disqualified you can't then continue to fine them.Scientific American reported that swearing may actually serve an important function in reducing pain €“ such as the %&$# pain you feel when you %&$# strip your %&$# knuckles trying to remove a %&$# spark plug.However, "in extreme cases, the hotline to the brain's emotional system can make swearing harmful, as when road rage escalates into physical violence".Bans were announced on smoking in cars carrying children (effective now inNSW and from the start of next year in Victoria).It should be exciting for the affected drivers: some will be using their indicators for the first time.Coalition frontbencher Tony Abbott spoke against it. "I was a child that was regularly imprisoned in a car with heavy smokers ... now, has it done me any harm?"Good question Tony. Good question.Have your say at drive.com.au/blogs
© 2009 The Age
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