Monthly Archives: July 2011

Sky sports to take half of BBC F1 airtime

Only half of next season’s formula one races will be shown on free-to-air television in Britain.

It emerged on Friday morning that subscription channel Sky Sports has won joint rights with the BBC to televise grands prix between 2012 and 2018.

All sessions will be shown live on Sky, while the BBC will only have live qualifying and race coverage of ten “key races” including Silverstone, Monaco and the season finale.

The BBC’s sports director Barbara Slater billed the news as good for British fans, despite their unprecedented loss of free-to-air coverage.

“With this new deal not only have we delivered significant savings but we have also ensured that through our live and extended highlights coverage all the action continues to be available to licence fee payers,” she said.

I think she can butter it up as much as she wants, the fact of the matter of is the majority of motor sports fans will now be missing out.

The Hindhead Tunnel in Surrey

The £371m Hindhead Tunnel under the Devil’s Punch Bowl in Surrey is to be officially opened today after a four year construction project.

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The hand built turbo-charged Suzuki Hayabusahe boasts 1,000bhp and reaches an incredible 60mph in 2.4 seconds and took a mile to slow down…I’m guessing this model is not road legal then.

Hamilton ecstatic

Lewis Hamilton’s tense but emphatic win at the Nürburgring on Sunday could not have come at a better time for the driver or his team. His aggressive driving style has been criticised and McLaren’s management questioned in recent weeks but an authoritative drive and perfect stops yielded a rightly acclaimed victory.

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Are your belongings locked away?

Research from Elephant.co.uk has calculated which days of the week are most popular with the criminals, with the weekend being the highest time for car theft and car break ins.
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Going somewhere Obama?

The London Congestion Charge has caught its biggest fish yet with the news that the most powerful man in the world has been handed a £120 penalty notice for not paying the £10 fee.

London mayor Boris Johnson had wanted the £10 congestion fee to be paid for the President’s armour-plated limo – dubbed “The Beast” – and all other cars during his visit in May.

Mr Johnson is understood to have raised the issue with Mr Obama at a Buckingham Palace banquet during his visit.

Despite travelling in a fleet of vehicles, there is just one fine to pay because the President’s convoy drove so close together that the ANPR cameras only picked out a single vehicle. Crafty.

Presumably Transport for London also had some issues with notifying Mr Obama about his penalty as the political heavyweight fled the country on his private jet not long afterwards.

Of course the President’s fine is just the cherry on top of a £5m unpaid congestion charge bill that the US Embassy has been running up for years and has been using the same lame excuse- “Diplomatic immunity.”
Alright for some!

The next iteration of the Porsche 911 is set to debut at this year’s Frankfurt Motor Show. With the unveiling just a few months away, Porsche have decided to release this teaser of the new 911 being hot weather tested in South Africa.

The Bluebird

The official date of Bluebird Electric’s speed attempts at the Pendine Sands, South Wales, has been set of the weekend of August 13th to the 14th. Last month the attempt was aborted when a vital bespoke component that was being manufactured in Europe was not delivered on time, but things are now looking good for the attempt.

The UK record is not the ultimate goal however, as the team is using this run as an opportunity to test batteries and hardware for an attempt on the world speed record for an electric car in 2013, when they hope to break the 500mph mark. That would comfortably pass the 307mph set by the Buckeye Bullet 2.5 team in August 2010, and would also beat the wheel-driven record, which stands from 2001 at 458mph.

The team would have to relocate to the Edwards Air Force base in California should they go for the overall record, Which if all goes well in the UK, they just might do.

Not the car you want?...we can buff that out.

The Bugatti Veyron is a 8-liter 16-cylinder supercar that produces 1,000 horse power and boasts a top speed of over 260mph. This makes it the fastest road-legal car in the world, and it has a price tag of a whopping $1.5 million. Which if your joe average might be a smidge out of your price range. That is, unless you’re 25 year old Mike Duff, from Florida who decided to build his very own Bugatti with his bare hands.

Starting with a complete 2002 Mercury Cougar coupe, Duff set to work transforming the vehicle’s entire exterior into that of a world-class supercar. He used fiberglass and composite material to create the Veyron’s iconic lines, and laid it all over a tubular steel frame. After a professional paint job and plenty of buffing, the car was ready for the showroom, but Duff wasn’t done yet. He then took to the Cougar’s interior, covering everything from the seats to the dashboard in genuine leather.

Under its gorgeous exterior, the “Cougatti” is equipped with its original 2.5-liter V6 engine that produces roughly 170 horsepower and currently has the vehicle up for sale with a price of £54,000.

Duff has done an incredible job and to be fair the car does look fantastic, but for £54k, Sorry Mike….I think I’d just have a Porsche.

Marco Simoncelli leads the way after an eventful first practice at Sachsenring

The ninth round of the 2011 MotoGP World Championship gets under way on Sunday with the German Grand Prix at the Sachsenring.

Championship leader Casey Stoner took his debut GP podium here in 2003 the 125cc class. The Australian discussed the importance of establishing a solid set-up with his Repsol Honda to deal with the technically demanding layout, as he bids to defend his 19-point lead at the top of the standings.

“Sachsenring’s very tight and technical, and in the first half of the track you have to get your lines right and make sure the bike’s set up well to turn in the corners with the throttle open,” said Stoner, who took a podium in the German GP last year. “The last part of the track is fast and flowing so it’s a difficult one. It’s a challenge to get the bike set up and competitive, and you spend a lot of time on the left-hand side of the tyre.”

Stoner also hopes that the Mugello test day that followed the MotoGP round at the Italian track will help.

“At the Mugello test we tried to concentrate on the shock that we hadn’t tried since Sepang (Test) this year, and also tried a couple of things with the swing arm, so hopefully at a circuit like this it will have helped to get some more understanding.”

Sitting alongside Stoner at the press conference was his closest rival in the standings, Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo, who with a victory at the last round in Italy gained a huge boost in confidence.

“The victory at Mugello gave us more confidence and now we are more focused on trying to win races, before we were playing a little bit – fighting for the podium,” said the reigning world champion.

“Now we know there is a big possibility to fight for the win in the next races. I’ve never won here so it would be a good change to finally win here. We know it will be tough though – I’m very excited to get out on the bike. I like this track, it changes a lot through the different sectors and is very tricky.”

Valentino Rossi continues to search for the ideal set-up on the Ducati, and the Italian made his comeback from injury at this track last season.

“Last year was very emotional to come back and ride after the crash, and I have very good memories because I was fast and had a great battle,” said Rossi.

“We have to try the same this year. This isn’t a good moment for us, we have to work to be closer to the top guys. Sachsenring is strange, very tricky but I like it, I’ve had some good races here in the past.

Rossi was right, in the practices this morning there were five crashes with Simoncelli dominating much of the session despite the strong wind and a 16ºC track, this should make for interesting race.