Sunday, September 10, 2006

Ford to sell Aston Martin...?

As much as I love Aston Martin, I was shocked when I first heard the news that FORD were taking over as the new owners being a solid 200% Holden Fan.
Recently noted in the weekend paper is the Ford are now looking to sell AM saying it has been approached by several potential buyers and that it would be the quote "...logical one to sell" Peter Cooke 'professor of automotive industries management at Nottingham Business School'.
Aston Martin were made big in the 1960's as British Secret Agent James '007' Bond's car of choice and still to this day marvelled by many celebrities and spoken very highly of by the Top Gear crew.
I have to admit that under FORD they did bring out the very impressive DB9 which I still drool over as it drives down the road and am very interested to see if sold what the new owners can bring to the Aston Martin Badge.

Michael Schumacher to retire, Kimi to replace him.


7 times Formula 1 world champion Michael Schumacher will retire from Ferrari and F1 at the end of this season. He is currently 2 points behind reigning champion Fernando Alonso and is targeting an 8th world championship before he steps out of the red car for good at the end of the season.

Kimi Raikkonen currently of McLaren Mercedes has been confirmed with the Ferrari team for 2007, 2008 an 2009.

Fellippe Massa has been confirmed for 2007 and 2008.

Next race is in China in 3 weeks time.

Saturday, September 09, 2006

2007 Porsche 9ff 911 Turbo


Stat's:- A Twin-Turbo Flat 6 engine with 640bhp that hits 0-60mph in 3.5 seconds hitting a top speed of 213mph

As we know, porsche update their cars regularly saying that they are very different from the previous model with all new body kits, yet to the naked eye its as if they traced the previous model and maybe smoothed out a view edges and lines. To this picture there seem to be some kinder supple changes with the most prominient being the wheels. This is the attention seeker in my opinion and quite like them as they carry the most recent edition to the 911 motoring ahll of fame.

Friday, September 08, 2006

Peter Brock 05 RIP


It is sad to see that my favorite Australian motor racer Peter Brock has passed on after a vehicle accident. Brock was participating in a rally in Western Australia when he lost control of his vehicle and hit a tree.

I always enjoyed watching Brock kick ass in the 05 Holden's at Bathurst.

Peter Brock's adoption of the number 05 was to highlight the Victorian Governments 05 blood alcohol limit to the public. So from 1975, Brock maintained 05 as his car number even when as Australian Touring Car Champion, he was entitled to use the number one.

He raced Fords for a short period and also raced Volvo, but he will best be remembered as the King of Mount Panarama in the 05 Holden's.

One word.... Bugger.

The guy was a legend.

Sunday, September 03, 2006

BMW Z10 supercar


BMW'’s last supercar was the M1 back in 1979. That car was the first car produced by BMW Motorsport, which makes the M badged cars like M3, M5 and M6. The BMW M1 had a 3.5 litre inline 6 24 valve engine that made 277hp at 6500rpm and 324Nm of torque at 5000rpm. Tuned versions could make up to 850hp. This engine also powered the first generation M5 and M6 vehicles.

Now with it's involvement with F1, BMW naturally would like to do what the other car manufacturers in F1 are doing, and make a Supercar. Toyota has it'’s Lexus LF-A and Honda has it's new NSX coming out soon, not to mention Ferrari and McLaren Mercedes. BMW'’s new Supercar is expected to be called the Z10. BMW has set development targets for the Z10 to be a rear/mid-engine Supercar powered by a V10. The V10 would be likely a tuned up version of the advanced M5 V10 5 litre engine that won the 2005 Engine of the Year award. Targeted performance figures are 550hp and a curb weight of 1200kg which gives the car a power to weight ratio of 458bhp per ton. The V10 is likely to make 550hp in the M6CSL which may or may not be made shortly, so expect even better performance from the Z10.

The Z10 looks very Ferrari esk in this photo. I would go as far as saying that the Z10 is a spectacular looking automobile, and if built it will certainly have fantastic build quality, performance and reliability.

BMW what are you waiting for?