Some V8 competition at last!
At last! I can see some wider interest building in the V8 Supercars, particularly for those of us who enjoy a V8 rumble that’s not necessarily burbling from underneath the bonnet of a Holden or Ford. For over a decade, Holden and Ford have been the two marques battling it out for supremacy in the V8 Supercars Championship. Thankfully, the pin has been pulled on only allowing Ford and Holden to race in this championship and we’re going to see other cars entering into a very competitive V8 racing series.
Nissan has had big success in past years when the regulations for the racing allowed Turbo power and AWD. The Nissan GTR cleaned up in the early nineties. Authorities changed the format soon after Nissan’s success, only allowing Class A racing to encompass Australian-produced Holden and Ford 5.0-litre V8s to race each other. Class B racing included 2.0-litre cars that observed the FIA Class II Touring Car regulations. In my view, the spectacle was never quite as good. I enjoyed watching Volvo’s and Commodores battling it out alongside a BMW 635 CSi, M3 and Jaguar – to name a few of the cars involved in what was a highly entertaining series. I guess, that just shows my age!
Engine downsizing: Increasing efficiency and performance
For fans of large, naturally-aspirated engines, the writing has been on the wall for a while. As a society we have become more aware of our effect on Mother Nature, so we have been increasingly moving towards a greener future. Just what that means is yet to be clearly defined, with myriad opinions on the best way to move forward, however there is one area where everyone appears to agree: We need to reduce our reliance upon finite, ‘dirty’ resources to fuel our energy consumption.
This has not escaped the attention of the automobile manufacturers, who have reacted with massive investment in researching alternative fuels while simultaneously refining their production of petrol engines.
All The Fun Of The Motor Show
The Geneva Motor Show was all on last week and, as usual, was a real drawcard for motoring enthusiasts all over Europe and beyond. One wee post isn’t going to be enough to bring you all the cars that were revealed to the world. But one of the things that we all enjoy about motor shows is seeing the things that the designers have come up with but just aren’t going to make it onto the road for real. This is a great improvement over motor shows in the bad old days when the only thing that the companies could come up with to attract viewer attention was draping scantily clad young ladies over their latest offerings. Now they have to use a bit of imagination.
Once again, the Geneva Motor Show of 2013 didn’t disappoint, and the designers came up with the weird, the wild and the wonderful. It seems as though no company is too staid and conservative to come up with something quirky. Whether these offerings are bizarre or beautiful is a matter of opinion… see what you think.
The danger of too much in-car information
Nissan’s almighty GT-R has long been referred to as a car for the ‘PlayStation Generation’. Its level of technology leads to performance, traction and handling capabilities so alien that the car may as well be from Mars.
Despite this, several sections of the motoring press have relayed their overall disappointment with the GT-R. These detractors follow the same line of criticism: “Too clinical. The GT-R doesn’t involve the driver enough in the process of driving.” The sophisticated all-wheel drive, dual-clutch automatic gearbox, effortless twin-turbocharged V6 engine, and massive brakes were simply deemed too competent for the car’s good.
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