Archive for July, 2012
Wild Rides I Have Known
The move “Road Warrior” introduced the world to Mel Gibson and his wild ride, the Ford Falcon “Interceptor.” After seeing that movie a dozen times, many a youth tried unsuccessfully to reproduce that marvelous, totally Australian creation. Australia today may be the last bastion of the innocence of hot-rod automobiles, sort of like the USA was in the fifties and sixties, but with a very modern flair and mechanicals. There isn’t any vehicle available in Australia that hasn’t felt the hands and wrenches of tuners looking to extract the maximum from the running gear. There are probably more websites here that promote performance modifications than in any other part of the world.
I grew up in the USA during the heyday of performance enhanced cars and I have owned and driven a few wild rides myself. Some of the most fun cars I have owned or had available for my driving pleasure were during the era of 1960-72. Exceptions were the five Ford Mustang Cobras that graced my garage, from 1996 to 2003, all very exceptional vehicles; fast, fun and good handling.
Several cars come to mind when I think about my automobile past:
1968 Mercury Cougar XR7G – To create a Mercury version of the Ford Mustang Shelby GT350, Mercury Division built 619 special Cougars. Most of these included a 390 CID 4V Interceptor engine of 325 horsepower, special styled steel wheels, an electric sunroof, huge exhaust stacks coming through the valance under the rear bumper, racing type of bonnet pins and identification badges on the B pillar and low on the side of the front fender. My employer, a major car rental concern, had 22 of these limited production cars in their Los Angeles fleet and I drove one for the better part of a year. Awesome.
1968 American Motors AMX – A shortened, two-seat version of their Javelin, V-8 powered; 290, 343 and 390 CID, with automatics or four-speed transmissions. My same employer had several hundred of these little speedsters. They were very quick, but the very short wheelbase made them a little “squirrely.”
1964 Ford Fairlane “Thunderbolt” – This was a special order car assembled by Ford’s Racing Division, specifically for drag racing. The power was supplied by a 427 CID 8V engine with a rating of 425 horsepower. This rating was understated because we dyno’ed one and it hit over 500 horses with no modifications. The car had fiberglass front fenders and bonnet, no heater or rear seats, fixed front racing bucket seats, competition lap belts and shoulder harnesses and rubber floor mats, no carpeting. One of these sponsored by a Los Angeles Ford dealer won the 1963 and 1964 National Drag Racing competition for the A-Factory-Experimental class. I was a sales manager for that dealer and got to drive one of these on occasion.
I’m sure that someday I will be rocking on the front porch of the old-folks-home, smiling as I recall my auto adventures. It’s been a fun ride so far.
Drop those kilos!
If you want to make your car more fuel efficient, what’s the next best thing to a more efficient engine? You make the car lighter. Design engineers working in the field of car body construction work overtime to create lightweight materials for the modern motorcar. Often new materials have been used from other transportation industries like aeronautical engineering, which is a field that always pushes the boundaries.
Spare a thought for these engineers because while on the one hand the demand is for more fuel efficient cars, from the other side there is the push to make the car as functional and practical as possible, which equates to the requirement for more space and bigger cars – usually a recipe for gaining weight.
Safer cars need stronger frames and more systems on-board, and this only leads to more kgs. More luxury, and more bells and whistles, also adds to a car’s overall weight, so we can see why automotive engineers are working overtime to combat the growing trends. I’m trying not to sound like a ‘Jenny Craig’ sales rep suggesting we all should slim down and lose the kilos.
Motor racing is a fun and exciting way of trialling new materials and engineering designs. You’ll find that the cars involved in Formula One, European Touring Car racing and Aussie V8s will use the new materials available to make their cars lighter and faster.
The Automotive Circle International group (http://www.automotive-circle.com) is a European body who gathers expert engineers together to collaborate progressive ideas and discoveries in the field of new automotive materials and design. These are just some of the bright gurus behind making the cars we drive better and better.
Recently, Mazda engineers have found a new material which is light and strong. They have applied this new material in the new Mazda CX-5. In collaboration with Japan Polypropylene Corporation, Mazda has developed a new plastic resin which is lighter and thinner than the previous resin used in the formation of a car’s bumper.
BMW has placed its bets on carbon fibre reinforced plastic as the material for a successful automotive future. Ferrari insists that aluminium is superior. Ferrari believes they can whittle down the thickness of their aluminium sheet metal from 1.5 mm to 0.8 mm. Ferrari’s way of keeping the lightweight aluminium sheets strong is by reinforcing it with ceramic fibres. Incredibly, this could drop the weight of their cars by 15-to-20 percent.
Reducing a car’s weight is next to gaining mpg directly from the engine. There’s, obviously, a lot happening behind the scenes that, maybe, we’re not so aware of.
Rego Revolt
Last month we revealed plans from the NSW State Government to follow the lead set by the WA and SA governments by ceasing to send out the annual windscreen rego sticker, as it was no longer necessary. Other states are expected to join them. We looked at the pros and cons and called for your reaction.
The initiative has been billed by the respective premiers as an efficiency measure that will save money and please the public. They expected the motorist to agree, and warmly welcome the move.
But, gauging the reaction from our readers, that may not be the case! We’d heard of rumblings from the West with some motorists lobbying to ‘restore the sticker’, and it is apparent now to us that they are not alone in arguing for its retention.
Gay lives in WA, where the sticker was withdrawn a couple of years ago. But she has left her old sticker on the windscreen “so I still get the reminder of the month it is due every time I drive”.
More disturbing was Russell’s tale of woe. He relates that his daughter was fined $600 by the Victorian police for not displaying a rego sticker- but she, and her car were from South Australia, so didn’t have one. Obviously an error was made but it still takes time and effort to correct it.
Chris worries about the poor guy who services the unregistered car, takes it for a test drive, has an accident (that may not be his fault), but he still cops the liability as he is (unknowingly) driving an unregistered car.
The Police Force seems to have problems with the doing away with the rego sticker. David is a serving Highway Policeman in NSW. He thinks it’s a BAD idea. It makes it harder to detect unregistered vehicles. He sympathises with drivers who have to drive vehicles that are not their own, as they now have no real proof-or even indication, of liability, and feels the label itself is a final reminder for ANYONE.
David also tells us that the vast majority of police vehicles is not, and will not be equipped with number plate recognition equipment (ANPR). So he believes the unlawful use of unregistered cars will increase wherever the sticker is withdrawn. That, of course could wipe out any potential savings to the state. It seems that police in NSW have been against this ever since it was proposed by the RTA.
David is strongly supported by other serving and ex police officers on our blog.
On the other hand there are some votes in favour.
Daniel lives in WA and he thinks the arrangement works well, that it saves money, and he wants to say goodbye to the wretched sticker for ever.
He is supported by BrianH who would love NOT to replace that ‘infernal’ and ‘ugly’ sticker every year. He thinks there will be enough reminders put in place to ensure the ‘forget factor’ is overcome.
ShaunH is from SA, has not had to take off/put on a sticker for a couple of years and sees no problems with this.
But perhaps the last word rests with David the Policeman who relates this very sobering tale.
“I attended an accident about 10 years ago involving a mature woman who ran up the back of a tradies’ ute. Not a particularly serious accident, but unfortunately this woman had moved 2 years before and not let the RTA know. The rego renewal, along with a 1 month later “If you’re not going to register it where’s our plates” letter went to the old address and her rego label from when it was last renewed (when her BMW X5 was new!) was still firmly attached to her rego papers out of sight in the glovebox. Now initially the two tradie types in the ute seemed fine and both said they were uninjured. But somewhere after I had told the woman that as her car was unregistered, she had no greenslip insurance, and her comprehensive insurance, although current, wouldn’t be honoured by her insurer as her car was unregistered, and they, seeing that she garaged her BMW in a nice north shore address, these two tradies came down with a bad case of ‘Mediterranean Neck’. This was apparent, as I recieved a summons to give evidence at a civil claims court hearing about 5 years later, and it seemed that they could no longer work due to some pain in both their necks and backs. The amount offered by the Motor Accidents Autority’s fund was insufficient for them, and each now sought some astronomical sum to compensate them for not ever working again. I asked the woman’s solicitor to keep me posted on the outcome of the court case and I understand this poor woman lost her house.
This is one reason why registration and taking care of your personal business is important.”
Nuff said.
What do you think?
Is The Day Of The Dealer Dead?
Subaru have dropped a bombshell on their dealers with the launch of their new sports car-the BRZ.
They’ve told their dealers that they can’t sell it, as it’s only available over the internet.
They call it a ‘World First’. The BRZ will be the only car not to be sold through a dealership, as the potential customer is ‘able to complete the entire purchase on-line’ said Nick Senior, MD of Subaru Australia. About half the established dealers will be allocated a demonstrator, and a delivery fee will be paid to the suppling dealer, but customers still have to book their test drives on-line. And what happens if they aren’t on the internet? Subaru says they will have to borrow a connection or go into a dealership and use theirs. But what if they have a trade-in? Well, says Subaru, the on-line purchasing process will allow buyers to arrange a trade-in valuation if required.
In fact the whole process will be completed on-line by the customer, including choosing a colour, specifications, and choice of preferred dealer to arrange collection or delivery.
This is a very brave initiative by Subaru, and is clearly taken from a position of strength, in that there is very limited supply of the new and fashionable BRZ sports car.
But there is a very close competitor in the wings. The Subaru BRZ is virtually identical to the new Toyota 86 GT. They are made in the same factory in Japan by Subaru and are only distinguishable by cosmetic differences and varying specifications.
Toyota sells its basic model for just over $34,000 on road. The Subaru BRZ sells for $37,150 on road but is equipped with a number of extras such as auto on/off headlights, alloy pedals, dual-zone air-conditioning and 17″ alloy wheels to justify the premium. Topping out the range is the Toyota 86 GTS, which also boasts sat/nav and other goodies, and comes in at around $40,000 for the auto.
But the Toyota is sold in the normal way through nationwide dealerships (but still in very limited stocks for the short to medium term).
Other manufacturers, franchise holders, dealerships and importers will be looking on very keenly to see if this game changing step by Subaru works. Initial reaction has been incredibly successful, and the Subaru marketing team will be basking in their own success, having seen the whole of this year’s allocation of BRZ’s selling out to an eager public in 3 hours, even though buyers had to overcome website glitches that occurred due to very high traffic.
If it does continue to work (and this is an ominous start), will that mean that discounts, deals and car brokers are a thing of the past?
Does that mean that that you never need to talk to Private Fleet to get the best deal? Jeez, are we out of a job??
Or is this just a passing fad, used to get a bit of publicity for a car that’s virtually unobtainable right now anyway?
Have they shot themselves in the foot? Are Subaru dealers happy? Will it catch on and is it a sign of the future? And are you happy to miss the dealer experience? Oh, and what’s going to happen to the 50 demonstrators that some dealers will have on their forecourt, but with no cars to sell?
Let’s have your say below.
Level 2, 9 Help Street