Archive for April, 2015
Cook Cruzes in Impressive BTCC Debut
After a long winter of silence, the BTCC exploded back onto the scene in the opening round at Brands Hatch last weekend. For Josh Cook and the #RacingForHeroes team, it was the first time to see the results of their immense efforts over the close season with the Power Maxed Chevrolet Cruze. The Saturday saw Cook setting the early pace in tricky practice conditions. From an eventual 20th in qualifying, Josh gave an outstanding performance throughout race day, proving that #RacingForHeroes were not to be taken lightly in the 2015 season.
Conditions on the Saturday were at best, problematic with bursts of rain throughout the morning before drying up into the afternoon. The opening practice session saw #RacingForHeroes leading the way for many of the other teams, with Josh setting consistently competitive times, ending the session in an outstanding 3rd place outright. As qualifying rolled around, Cook would find himself battling a misfire throughout the session, yet still managed to plant his Chevrolet on 20th for race day with a time of 49.517. To only be a second off the pace is a true testament to the immense talents present in both the team and Josh as a driver.
As the day dawned on race day tensions were high, the first race of the season in any series is often explosively unpredictable and the BTCC is most definitely no exception; it is the only time of the year when no driver has success ballast on the car and most importantly, nothing to lose and everything to prove. With Cook starting in 20th, many would say he was out of the danger zone at the front and could get his head down and drive his way to a strong result.
Josh was on fighting form throughout the weekend
The first race saw Josh Cook drive nothing short of an exceptional race, fighting his way up from 20th to 13th. From the outset there was nothing but undeniable pace from Cook as he powered his way through the ranks. Among those taking the flag behind him were big names such as Rob Austin, Sam Tordoff and the other Power Maxed driver Dave Newsham. On top of these successes was Cook’s convincing win in the Jack Sears Trophy by a whopping 13 seconds over AMD man Bushell.
New rules for 2015 mean that the starting positions for race two are determined by the fastest lap set in the first race, which saw Cook line up 17th. The television screens focused a great deal of attention on the battle that raged up front, but what they missed was the near twelve car nose-to-tail train in the mid-pack. As part of this group, Josh took advantage of the apparent weakness of the soft tyre and made some strong passes including on winner of the first race Rob Collard who was sinking like the Titanic down the order. As the chequered flag dropped, the #RacingForHeroes crossed the line 14th ahead of Newsham, once again taking the Jack Sears win by 13 seconds.
The superb success of Cook was brought to an end in the final race of the day when a problem with the car caused him to retire during the safety car period. The biggest shame was that the team had worked out a strategy to deal with the problems with grip drop-off from the soft tyre. It was not all disappointment for Power Maxed; Dave Newsham got a superb 9th overall, giving the team its first top 10 of the year.
The only way is up for Cook and #RacingForHeroes
After a strong first race weekend, #RacingForHeroes left Brands Hatch with their car having secured two Jack Sears victories alongside a 13th and 14th outright. Josh Cook now lies second in the Jack Sears standings to Bushell, while 18th in the overall driver’s championship. If it was not for the problems that hampered Cook in the final race, he would have likely had a clean sweep of Jack Sears wins. For a rookie it is truly an outstanding achievement to become instantly competitive and be battling with some of the long established name in the BTCC game.
Moving forward to Donington Park, the only way is up for #RacingForHeroes. With such success in their opening weekend, it is only a matter of time before Cook cracks the top ten and even fights for a podium. Power Maxed and #RacingForHeroes form a fiery combination that will drive for nothing except victory, and will not stop until they get there.
And remember, with very turn of the wheel, every apex and every overtake; Josh Cook and #RacingForHeroes are racing in support of all our injured veterans and Help For Heroes. This is the time.
Don’t forget to follow the progress of #RacingForHeroes on social media:
Twitter: @racingforheroes
Facebook: www.facebook.com/racingforheroes
This is #RacingForHeroes. Driving For Change
For all my usual motoring madness, don’t forget @lewisglynn69 on Twitter
Keep Driving People!
Peace and Love!
![H4H CHARITY_PARTNER[1]](http://blog.privatefleet.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/H4H-CHARITY_PARTNER1.jpg)
All photos credited to: #RacingForHeroes / marekp.co.uk
Private Fleet Car Review: 2015 Ford Falcon XR8.
Australia has had a long love affair with the V8 engine; be it homegrown or imported, it’s been a big part of our automotive history. In 2014, Ford Australia’s FPV division was shut down and the popular XR8 name resurrected. A Wheel Thing spent a week with a living dinosaur.
Powersource.
The 5.0L V8 was once a staple item for Holden; Ford has, largely, stayed with it and in this case, it’s a blown block too. The numbers are impressive: the “Miami”
335 kilowatts and 570 torques hit the road via a six speed manual (a real man’s transmission). Air is breathed in and breathed out via 32 valves, four for each cylinder, with that air forced into those eight cylinders via a huffing and puffing Harrop supercharger.
The torque figure is the important one; it kicks in from 2200 and stays there until 5500 rev, just below the point where peak power is delivered. These numbers combine to provide a virtually seamless level of acceleration and almost unrivalled overtaking ability.
Playing with six speeds manually is delightful, made even more so thanks to a smooth clutch, a light one at that considering what it has to deal with and a gearbox that’s largely free from recalcitrance. It’s a pretty smooth and well weighted mechanism, a clearly defined gate and a decently balanced pickup point for the clutch. It’s a bit jerky and stuttery from cold but warms up and smooths out quickly. Quite simply, it made using that mammoth torque an utter delight.
The Suit.
See my review of the XR6; apart from the bonnet bulge now extending through to the windscreen compared to the previous XR8 and FPV models, different 19 inch alloys and the addition of four exhaust tips, there’s no difference…..not exactly shouting that this is a hero model, sadly.
Kerb weight is a not inconsiderable 1861 kilograms, however…
On the Inside.
Identical, down to the lack of keyless start, to the XR6. Bar, of course, the fact that there’s a clutch pedal and a manually operated gear selector….
On The Road.
It’s here that the 8 differentiates itself from the 6. It’s a combination of using flint to start a fire and 21st century explosives. The whole procedure is pretty simple; sit in, strap in and, in the words of Russell Crowe in “Gladiator”, unleash hell.
Although the lack of a starter button somewhat diminishes the experience, the half dozen or so revs before the whoomph from the rear end is a pointer to the demon that lurks within. It rapidly settles down into a quiet, restrained rumble, a hint of blower belt whine from the ….a gentle stab of the accelerator, a lift of the clutch and 500 odd torques move the beast forward.
Given its druthers, the 5.0L will shrink the horizon, collapse eyeballs and shatter the laws of physics, leaving a mix of supercharger wail and a snorting, bellowing roar from the quad tipped exhausts behind. The somewhat notchy gear lever is moved rapidly through the gate, the engine revving slightly as it comes off the clutchplate.
Under light throttle, there’s a hesitancy to start moving, especially when cold, before the revs pick up and the torque again makes its presence known. In 5th gear around town, there’s barely a need to change gear, with a simple flex of the ankle being all that’s required to move along.
It’s a razor sharp, yet user friendly setup, as is the chassis. Although wafer thin sidewalls clad the alloys, the suspension rarely allows a harsh ride through, such is the work on the suspension and it provides an immense measure of confidence, as does the almost thought activated steering.
The Wrap.
Compared to the somewhat lighter yet more lethargic XR6, the XR8 is a revelation thanks to the quad cammed monster bolted between the front shock towers. It really is a case of “What do we need? More powerrrrrrrr” to extract the most from the chassis, long regarded as a highlight for Falcon. It’s no wonder that around a third of the current sales figures are of the V8.
Although the interior is ancient, in design terms, the electronics are simple to use, easy to read and that engine lights the candle. Long live the XR8.
For details: http://www.ford.com.au/cars/ultimate-falcon/specifications/spec-options
Thoughts On Night Driving
Daylight Savings has come to an end in New South Wales and all the other states crazy enough to fiddle around with clocks for no real reason. This means that a lot of us are going to end up doing a bit more night-time driving.
It’s hard to say whether driving at night or driving during the day is better. During the daytime, you don’t have the issue about out-driving how far you can see (you know – the situation where your stopping distance is, say, 100 metres and you can only see 90 metres: not good). However, during the night, you are less distracted by billboards and other things on the side of the road that compete for your attention when you really ought to have your eyes on the road ahead.
Driving when it’s dark has other advantages. Because most other drivers have their headlights on, you can spot them more easily at a distance. It’s particularly good when you’re coming up to an intersection: you can see the lights of an oncoming car approaching from the side even if there is a whacking big fence that would normally block your view of the other road. Similarly, you also get a hint that something’s coming up the other side of the hill or around the corner, especially if there’s a wee bit of a haze in the air.
However, headlights have their hazards. For one thing, it can be a bit tricky to estimate the distance of an oncoming car when all you have to go by is a bright light and next to no parallax for your binocular vision to work on. If you’re a more cautious driver, like me, you tend to think that things are much closer than they really are so you don’t overtake and end up waiting for ages and thinking that you could have nipped past that slowpoke with the caravan anyway. If you’re over-confident, then you end up having some very close calls when you realise that what you thought was an oncoming vehicle so far off that the two lights looked like one was actually a motorbike.
You also have the problem with being dazzled. Modern headlights are beautifully bright and don’t use an awful lot of power to produce plenty of lumens (that’s the official unit of how much light something gives; candelas and lux are other options but that’s beside the point). That’s great if you happen to be the driver of a vehicle with said modern headlights. If you are the driver of the car facing the other way, you’re left blinking and dazzled. And that’s even if the headlights have been dipped in some cases. If they haven’t been dipped, you’ll be seeing nothing but the headlights and then the greenish after-images for some time afterwards. Not good if you’re keeping an eye out for your turn-off.
We all know that we’re supposed to dip our headlights but there is a bit of confusion about exactly when to dip them. Ok, the official rules say that you have to dip them when you’re 200 metres behind the vehicle in front or if you’re 200 metres away from an oncoming car. But how do you tell 200 metres in the middle of nowhere when you’ve got nothing much to estimate distance by? It’s not exactly time to start counting the white lines in the middle of the road and using these as a rough estimate. It’s probably best to dip them sooner rather than later out of courtesy – the chances that there’s a roo or a pedestrian on the road in that little gap between where your lights reach and where the other driver’s lights reach are pretty low.
Even 200 metres behind may be too close in the case of some drivers. I remember vividly the time that a large 4×4 came up behind the Ford Fairmont I had at the time and kept the lights on full beam even though he/she was much closer than 200 metres. Even fiddling around with the rear vision mirror didn’t stop me getting dazzled – grrr!
What do you do if you’re dazzled? Ideally, you’re supposed to pull over until your eyes clear (here’s hoping there isn’t a car or a signpost between you and the kerb or the shoulder of the road that you can’t see thanks to being dazzled). You can also avoid being dazzled by an oncoming car if you look to the side of them (i.e. to the left lane ahead of you). This is easier said than done, seeing as the human eye naturally locks onto light, especially in the darkness.
Of course, the real problem with Daylight Savings changeovers and with night driving in general is the problem with fatigue. If you feel yourself getting light headed while your eyelids get heavy and the corners of your mind fill with red fog, don’t be a stupid berk. Pull over and have a catnap.
Safe and happy driving,
Megan
New York International Motor Show….And A Little More.
It’s car show season and one of the biggest is the New York International Motor Show. Just about every major brand uses this event for their big reveals.
Jaguar recently unveiled the new XF via a most spectacular method in London, however the official showing is at the NYIMS. The engine and transmission range will consist of: 132kW 2.0-litre diesel automatic; 177kW 2.0-litre petrol automatic; 221kW diesel automatic; 250kW and 280kW 3.0-litre petrol automatic. The designations will be: Prestige, R Sport, Portfolio and S. An extended wheelbase provided 15 mm more legroom, 24 mm kneeroom and up to 27 mm more headroom for the rear seat passengers, important with a medium sizer.
Cabin changes see a new 10.2 inch touchscreen, called InControl TouchPro. It will offer connectivity with Apple’s iOS and Android; power a 17 speaker 825 watt Meridian digital sound system and will work alongside a reconfigurable 12.3 inch dash display with four themes and full screen navigation.
FCA US (Fiat Chrysler Alfa Romeo) are also unveiling a raft of cars; chief of the Italian family is the Alfa Romeo 4C coupe, complete with 1.7L turbo four, 0-100 in a touch over four seconds, a carbon fibre monocoque chassis and killer looks. There’s the mini SUV Fiat 500X, based on the popular 500 series small car. From Jeep, Chrysler and Dodge come a new Renegade, updated 300C and the eagerly anticipated Challenger, complete with 392 cubic inch V8 plus the performance divisions Challenger and Charger, from SRT. Expect something on the region of 700 horsepower and buy some tissues as they won’t be coming to Australia…
It’s also been announced, seperately, that Dodge will be shipping their Ram trucks to Australia after reaching an agreement with Walkinshaw Engineering, known for working with Holden, to engineer the big beasts for right hand side drive. Current release dates and pricing are estimated to be year’s end and $120K in Aussie dollars.
Mitsubishi will be bringing a facelifted Outlander; there’s a reasonable amount of plastic surgery having been performed, both inside and out. Notable is what’s called the “Dynamic Shield” exterior, with the front and rear having a substantial makeover, with the nosecone looking somewhat more muscular. The interior has been given a freshen, with a new design for the steering wheel, higher grade materials for the seats and trim plus substantial, unseen, engineering work.
Kia has released its 2016 Optima, widely regarded as one of the prettiest cars to grace the roads. Featuring a slightly extended wheelbase and width (10 mm and 25 mm respectively), there’s also a couple of US specific models. For Australia, it’s not yet confirmed which specifications will be winging their way down under.
The exterior is evolution, not revolution, staying with the svelte, almost Jaguaresque profile but further refining and tightening the lines. We may see, at the front, the bi-functional headlights, allowing extra lighting coming into turns.
Holden will be selling an updated version of its small small car entry, the Barina Spark, by year’s end. It’s been dropped by 40 mm and the wheelbase has been extended, with the end result being a slightly more sleek design. Pillars have also been streamlined, adding to the fresh look but also providing more glasshouse for visibility. On the inside, the hip points, where a human’s hip would be situated, have also been relocated in order to keep the headroom the Spark is known for.
2015 will be a big for the Australian car market; there’s already rumours about a manufacturer changing their timeline in regards to a range they sell. Private Fleet will keep you up to date.
Level 2, 9 Help Street