Staying faithful to his 1990 Miata

Cars are.

John Moore is a self-confessed car nut, but when he made the move from Montreal to Toronto, he dumped two of his cars — an Audi A4 and a Jeep Grand Cherokee, but he couldn’t part with the third — a 1990 Mazda Miata.

“I remember it coming out. I remember reading a review of it and liking the look of the car right away. I still remember the review. It said, ‘with a backside so cute you want to pinch it.’ People were just nuts about it back then,” says Moore, who worked in radio at CFRB’s sister station in Montreal before moving to Toronto.

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Flash and dash for cash

Auckland car auction firm Turners is holding one of its largest auctions of luxury cars with more than $1 million worth of top-range cars going under the hammer on Saturday from midday.

Many of the cars are on sale after their original owners defaulted on repayments. A number of the cars have been repossessed from finance companies – it would appear that not all of the people driving cars at the luxury end of the market could afford them.

Top makes at auction include Bentley, Aston Martin, Ferrari, Mercedes Benz, Porsche, Land Rover, Audi, BMW and Chrysler.

One of the examples up for grabs on Saturday is a 2005 Bentley Continental GT. For the first time at a Turners prestige auction, bidders will have the choice of two of these grand touring machines.

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409 km/h ? The automobile refiner 9ff breaks the world-record for

Graduate engineer Jan Fatthauer, creator and also test pilot of the 9ff proprietary development GT9, accelerates and speeds up from the full banked corner on the Papenburg oval course. Accompanied by a sound spectacle of automobile top class, the 964 Newton metres torque push down on the asphalt and vehemently thrust the car forward. At the end of the four kilometre long straight, the display of the satellite-supported time measurement shows an incredible 409 km/h. With such a result, the 9ff GT9 does not only becomes a member in the elitist 400km/h-Club, no, it even takes the first place and also breaks the new Vmax world record for road-going vehicles. The source of power Even as impressive as the maximum speed are the acceleration values of the rear-wheel driven car. It accelerates to 100 km/h in only 3.4 seconds, to 200km/h in only 8.2 seconds and the digital display of the instrument panel shows the 300 km/h in unbelievable 16.4 seconds.

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Alois Meir Sets Fastest Time On Day 2 Practice At Oschersleben

Across the two sessions, it was difficult to conclude which cars are likely to go well on the difficult, tight Oschersleben circuit. The Corvette certainly looks like a good prospect for a race win – there were two in the top four of the first session, and three in the top seven of the second session, consistency no other car could match. The No. 10 Aston Martin was in the top two of both sessions – but no other DBRS9 could do better than eighth. Despite the extra ballast they must now carry, the Ford GT trio went well, with all three being in the top fourteen of both sessions. Of course, there is no telling who was really going for a quick time today, who found a clear track, who was using the best tyres; tomorrow morning’s qualifying sessions should be a better indicator… as long as the weather co-operates!

Alois Meir – No.

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Joe Lombardi: ‘Big Joe’ starts a new adventure in the Herald

Since then, IMCA racing has become a big part of my summers and when the Killeen Daily Herald invited me to share thoughts and opinions on the cars and drivers that go in circles a quarter-mile at a time, I thought about it for at least a half-second before shouting “YES!”

But why the title “Back Seat Driver?”

It’s because that’s what I am when it comes to racing. I tried it once in a so-called celebrity race and concluded that it’s much better for me to talk about it than do it. My wife, Sherry Hoffpauir, actually suggested the title, since she says there’s no one who can tell her which turns to make while she’s driving better than me, since she won’t let me behind the wheel when we’re in the car together. She also said this column would be a good move for me, since I’m not bashful about offering opinions.

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Magny Cours: The technical challenge

The Grand Prix circuit includes an interesting variety of challenges for drivers and cars alike: three high-speed corners at the start of the lap; a very slow hairpin at Adelaide; two enjoyable high-speed chicanes; and more changes of gradient than the flattening eye of television shows. As always, the ideal set-up will be about finding the right compromise to achieve the R28’s optimum performance at every point of the circuit.

Downforce

Magny-Cours demands a much higher level of downforce than we used in Canada, which required a low-medium set-up. Magny-Cours demands a medium-high configuration to ensure the cars are competitive through the high-speed corners such as turn 3, and the chicanes at turns 6/7 and 11/12. While it is tempting to reduce wing levels in order to gain straightline speed to try overtaking into the Adelaide hairpin, this is rarely a feasible solution: the back straight is preceded by the high-speed turn three, and while reduced downforce would allow greater top speed, it would have a detrimental effect through this corner, costing speed and also making it more difficult to follow a competitor closely.

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SHAW MOTORSPORTS: Shaw Post Race Update #13

For the first and only practice, Jason reported that the new shock had given the car a push going into the corner so the crew went to work putting the previous weeks shock back on the left rear and then relaxed in the shade while waiting for the heat race to begin. Jason lined up the Nuco Ford at the front of the field on the outside of the #07 for the heat race and after taking the green flag, passed the #07 in turn two to take over the lead. The #07 must have encountered mechanical difficulties and as he drifted backwards through the field, Jason moved into a 10 car length lead by the third lap. At the half way mark, Jason was maintaining his 10 car length lead on the #56. Despite Jason not being happy with the car pushing in the center of the corner, the #82 cruised to victory.The #82 National Fire Equipment Fusion lined up 12th for what was to be a 25 lap feature if all 15 cars on the track took the green flag.

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The Pontiac from down under

When you get the car turned into a corner, you can get back on the throttle hard and, with the little grind-and-stutter of the limited-slip differential, power out of the corner with easily controllable rotation. There is, in fact, nothing wrong with this chassis and nothing a six-speed manual wouldn’t make better. Look for a six-speed and a Corvette engine in the 2009 G8 GXP. </p> <p> Steering feel is light and tight, with lots of lively feedback. The car delights in long, smooth sweepers spooled out in country lanes. The G8’s body motions are well-damped and reasonably flat, although – and this is where that extra $20,000 and BMW badge goes missing – on uneven pavement the car wants to load and unload the rear suspension, getting a bit floaty. I reckon when the more aggressively tuned GXP comes out, the laces of this shoe will be tightened.

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James May: Lighten up

A lighter car will require smaller (and cheaper) tyres for a given corner speed, will feel crisper, and will accelerate away from it more briskly. Weight is the only thing you lose when losing weight. In every other respect you win.

But still cars are too heavy. Lightweight versions of supercars, apart from costing more when they are materially less, go only half way to achieving the sort of low weight that the original should have had. My two-seat aeroplane, despite having a wingspan of 32 feet and being powered by a clunky 6.0-litre air-cooled flat four, weighs 583kg, while a two-seat pipsqueak MX-5 is getting on for twice that. So congratulations to BMW for its fabric Gina concept. With a bit more thought it might even fly.

Since I’ve mentioned the MX-5 we may as well talk about its original inspiration, the ‘62 Elan.

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Alternative Energy Vexes Autos and Utilities

Buyers are now shunning these vehicles and buying smaller cars and crossover utility vehicles. Hybrid cars, while still a niche segment — they have a single-digit U.S. market share — continue to grow in popularity despite their price, which might be several thousand dollars above that of a comparable conventionally powered vehicle.

Automakers are responding the best way they can on short notice. “It’s causing them to sharply cut production of trucks and SUVs and increase the production of cars,” says Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services credit analyst Robert Schulz. General Motors (GM), Ford (F), and Chrysler [each carries an S&P credit rating of B] are all going through the painful process of idling truck plants while trying to boost production of conventional cars and hybrids.

This difficult transition and its effect on the companies’ cash flows and prospective liquidity was the major factor in Standard & Poor’s recent placement of GM, Ford, and Chrysler’s ratings on CreditWatch with negative implications.

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