Freitag, 30. September 2011

Please help my mate Rusty...

Source: http://www.metrof1.com/blogs/metrof1/2011/09/please-help-my-mate-rusty.html

Giovanna Amati George Amick Red Amick

Citroën C4 Aircross teased

Citroen has released the first teaser image of the C4 Aircross, ahead of its debut on October 7th.

Source: http://feeds.worldcarfans.com/~r/worldcarfans/Jxfz/~3/_qSvhMz0gG0/citron-c4-aircross-teased

Geki Olivier Gendebien Marc Gene

AMT's Corvair kit

It looks as if every time AMT reissues its 'Vair kit, they keep including a few more stock parts and a few more custom parts. I remember building my 1st one back in the late '70s, where the only wheels you got in the kit were aluminum mags and a custom rear hood which was turned up along the back.

Then came the "Prestige" reissue, complete with stand and pen holder... the pen holder was a little over-the-top, but at least this one offered you a choice of the custom or stock hood.

The one which was out a year or two ago finally included stock hubcaps, plus a turbocharger if you wanted to build it as a Corsa. I built mine as a Monza, and painted it light metallic turquoise for the true classic 'Vair look.

Maybe the next reissue will offer a choice of dash-mounted T-shift for the automatic version instead of just the floor-mounted stick? 8-D

Source: http://cs.scaleautomag.com/SCACS/forums/thread/936028.aspx

Clemente Biondetti Pablo Birger Art Bisch

Marussia Virgin MVR-02 Launch pictures (7th of February)

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/F1InsightAFormula1Blog/~3/8QADREG6WOE/marussia-virgin-mvr-02-launch-pictures.html

JeanClaude Rudaz Eddie Russo Paul Russo

2012 BMW 5-Series Active Hybrid 5

BMW Active Hybrid 5 combines a 3.0 liter twin-turbo six-cylinder petrol with an electric motor for a total system output of 250 kW (340 PS / 335 hp) and 450 Nm (332 lb-ft) of torque.

Source: http://feeds.worldcarfans.com/~r/worldcarfans/Jxfz/~3/WhbOMGH2-JA/2012-bmw-5-series-active-hybrid-5

Kevin Cogan Peter Collins Bernard Collomb

Vettel underlines title credentials with sublime drive

At Spa-Francorchamps

Sebastian Vettel and his Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber finished one-two in the Belgian Grand Prix after drives that can compare with many of those that have entered the annals of Formula 1 history from the famous Spa-Francorchamps track.

The two men went into the race on Sunday well aware of their team's concerns that their front tyres could fail.

Red Bull design chief Adrian Newey said it was "one of the scariest races I've been involved in", and the mind boggles as to the bravery of the drivers in that situation.

Spa's high-speed sweeps are arguably the biggest challenge a grand prix driver can face. Although safety has improved immensely at the circuit in the modern age, it remains an old-school race track, on which there are places "you wouldn't want to go off," as Webber put it in his BBC Sport column last week.

The drivers sounded phlegmatic about it after the race, but they were well aware of the potential seriousness of the situation. "We took quite a lot of risk," Vettel said. But, he added, "when there is a chance to win, we go for it".

Of all the many qualities that make grand prix drivers different from ordinary mortals, this has to be one of the most striking.

Call it bravery, call it lack of imagination, but Vettel and Webber went into the race, committed themselves to the 180mph rollercoaster ride through Eau Rouge, having put their lives in the hands of calculations by their engineers about how long their tyres would last.

The height of concern was in the early stages of the race, when the cars were running on tyres that Newey said Pirelli had told them "were very marginal and at five o'clock yesterday they wouldn't say after half a lap or five laps but they were going to fail".

Vettel and Webber's one-two in Belgium continued Red Bull's domination of this year's championship. Photo: Reuters

Red Bull's engineers had calculated that they could be pretty sure Webber's tyres would last two or three laps, and Vettel's five - which is when the two men made their first pit stops.

Red Bull were not the only team to suffer blistering, but theirs was worse than any of their rivals.

The situation caused controversy because they were running their cars with a greater degree of camber - lean away from vertical - on their front tyres than supplier Pirelli recommends.

Pirelli motorsport chief Paul Hembery chose his words carefully after the race, but I understand there were strong words between Pirelli and Newey before the race, and that there may be less tolerance of any team who choose to go beyond Pirelli's advice in the future.

It is yet another example of how Newey pushes every parameter to the limit, an approach that allied with his genius for aerodynamic design, has led him to create so many dominant cars, of which this year's Red Bull RB7 is just the latest in a long line.

With everything that was involved - the bravery, the tyre management, racing and overtaking Fernando Alonso's Ferrari, it has to rank as one of the best of Vettel's 17 victories.

Both Newey and team principal Christian Horner described it as a "mature" drive, and, as Newey pointed out: "Mark's race was every bit as good."

Webber was compromised first by a poor start, caused when his anti-stall kicked in, and then by a radio miscommunication that meant he did not follow his team-mate into the pits under the safety car period that followed Lewis Hamilton's collision with Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi.

That committed him to a long middle stint on the slower 'medium' tyre, at the beginning of which he showed bravery of a different but no less remarkable kind.

On lap nine, Webber passed Alonso on the outside going into Eau Rouge, pulling alongside on the hill down from La Source, nosing in front, and refusing to concede.

The two men are good friends, and they always race hard but fair, giving each other just enough room in such situations, but this incident was right on the edge.

"That boy must have some balls to do that - on the outside into Eau Rouge," Horner said. "Phenomenal. Pass of the day.

"Fernando was professional and gave him enough room to work with. Mark was always going to brave it out around the outside. I think we all closed our eyes."

Of course, Vettel and Webber's one-two was facilitated by the huge performance advantage of their cars.

Alonso appeared to be in the running for victory until his team chose not to stop under the safety car, but he insisted that was an illusion, saying Red Bull had a pace advantage of "one second per lap, maybe towards the end of the race even more, 1.5 seconds".

This is quite a turnaround after Red Bull failed to win any of the previous three races, where McLaren and Ferrari both showed Red Bull-beating pace.

Newey ascribes this to the "very cool conditions and slightly abnormal races" in Britain, Germany and Hungary.

"Hungary we were actually quite competitive in the dry and in those early laps on the intermediate tyres we suffered," he said.

"Germany it was exceptionally cold and we suffered in [tyre] warm-up. Silverstone we were compromised because we believed we had cold blowing (of the diffuser) allowed but it was taken away on Sunday morning."

This does not bode well for what were admittedly faint hopes that one of Vettel's rivals might have a chance of stopping his relentless march to the championship.

Although Alonso starred in the early stages in Spa, the car closest on pace to the Red Bull would seem still to be the McLaren, judging by Jenson Button's remarkable drive through the field to third place on Sunday, which was full of clinical and elegant overtaking moves.

As Button pointed out, though, McLaren's weekend in Belgium was compromised by the mistakes that have characterised their season, and which they desperately need to cut out.

In Button's case in Belgium, that was a "miscommunication" over how many laps he had left in the second period of qualifying that left him stranded in 13th place.

Lewis Hamilton, meanwhile, made another of several mistakes by himself and the team this season which have made it impossible to challenge Vettel.

Without them, he would be in the fight, rather than where is now, which is 113 points behind Vettel with only 175 still available, and his title hopes over.

Alonso, who after his fourth place in Spa is in a marginally better position but still 102 points adrift of Vettel, said he would keep battling until it was mathematically impossible to overhaul Vettel.

But even he, F1's most relentless fighter, admitted Ferrari's hopes were "not in our hands, and Red Bull need to make big, big mistakes, and have big problems if we want to win the championship".

Barring a disaster of catastrophic proportions, then, Vettel will win a second consecutive world title this year, and long before the end of the season.

After performances such as that at Spa on Sunday, and many others this year, he fully deserves it.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2011/08/vettel_underlines_title_creden.html

Ricardo Zonta Renzo Zorzi Ricardo Zunino

Former Indy winner charged with DWI, reckless driving

Source: http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/09/29/1527425/former-indy-winner-charged-with.html

John Barber Skip Barber Paolo Barilla

Ferrari Launch Their 2011 Car The F150

Ferrari have become the first team to launch their 2011 Formula One car – named the F150. Thw F150 name comes from the fact it is 150 years since Italian unification, the flag bearer for the nation decided it was important to increase exposure of the major event in the country’s long history. �The cars [...]

Source: http://f1fanatics.wordpress.com/2011/01/31/ferrari-launch-their-2011-car-the-f150/

Giorgio Bassi Erwin Bauer Zsolt Baumgartner

Donnerstag, 29. September 2011

Vettel underlines title credentials with sublime drive

At Spa-Francorchamps

Sebastian Vettel and his Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber finished one-two in the Belgian Grand Prix after drives that can compare with many of those that have entered the annals of Formula 1 history from the famous Spa-Francorchamps track.

The two men went into the race on Sunday well aware of their team's concerns that their front tyres could fail.

Red Bull design chief Adrian Newey said it was "one of the scariest races I've been involved in", and the mind boggles as to the bravery of the drivers in that situation.

Spa's high-speed sweeps are arguably the biggest challenge a grand prix driver can face. Although safety has improved immensely at the circuit in the modern age, it remains an old-school race track, on which there are places "you wouldn't want to go off," as Webber put it in his BBC Sport column last week.

The drivers sounded phlegmatic about it after the race, but they were well aware of the potential seriousness of the situation. "We took quite a lot of risk," Vettel said. But, he added, "when there is a chance to win, we go for it".

Of all the many qualities that make grand prix drivers different from ordinary mortals, this has to be one of the most striking.

Call it bravery, call it lack of imagination, but Vettel and Webber went into the race, committed themselves to the 180mph rollercoaster ride through Eau Rouge, having put their lives in the hands of calculations by their engineers about how long their tyres would last.

The height of concern was in the early stages of the race, when the cars were running on tyres that Newey said Pirelli had told them "were very marginal and at five o'clock yesterday they wouldn't say after half a lap or five laps but they were going to fail".

Vettel and Webber's one-two in Belgium continued Red Bull's domination of this year's championship. Photo: Reuters

Red Bull's engineers had calculated that they could be pretty sure Webber's tyres would last two or three laps, and Vettel's five - which is when the two men made their first pit stops.

Red Bull were not the only team to suffer blistering, but theirs was worse than any of their rivals.

The situation caused controversy because they were running their cars with a greater degree of camber - lean away from vertical - on their front tyres than supplier Pirelli recommends.

Pirelli motorsport chief Paul Hembery chose his words carefully after the race, but I understand there were strong words between Pirelli and Newey before the race, and that there may be less tolerance of any team who choose to go beyond Pirelli's advice in the future.

It is yet another example of how Newey pushes every parameter to the limit, an approach that allied with his genius for aerodynamic design, has led him to create so many dominant cars, of which this year's Red Bull RB7 is just the latest in a long line.

With everything that was involved - the bravery, the tyre management, racing and overtaking Fernando Alonso's Ferrari, it has to rank as one of the best of Vettel's 17 victories.

Both Newey and team principal Christian Horner described it as a "mature" drive, and, as Newey pointed out: "Mark's race was every bit as good."

Webber was compromised first by a poor start, caused when his anti-stall kicked in, and then by a radio miscommunication that meant he did not follow his team-mate into the pits under the safety car period that followed Lewis Hamilton's collision with Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi.

That committed him to a long middle stint on the slower 'medium' tyre, at the beginning of which he showed bravery of a different but no less remarkable kind.

On lap nine, Webber passed Alonso on the outside going into Eau Rouge, pulling alongside on the hill down from La Source, nosing in front, and refusing to concede.

The two men are good friends, and they always race hard but fair, giving each other just enough room in such situations, but this incident was right on the edge.

"That boy must have some balls to do that - on the outside into Eau Rouge," Horner said. "Phenomenal. Pass of the day.

"Fernando was professional and gave him enough room to work with. Mark was always going to brave it out around the outside. I think we all closed our eyes."

Of course, Vettel and Webber's one-two was facilitated by the huge performance advantage of their cars.

Alonso appeared to be in the running for victory until his team chose not to stop under the safety car, but he insisted that was an illusion, saying Red Bull had a pace advantage of "one second per lap, maybe towards the end of the race even more, 1.5 seconds".

This is quite a turnaround after Red Bull failed to win any of the previous three races, where McLaren and Ferrari both showed Red Bull-beating pace.

Newey ascribes this to the "very cool conditions and slightly abnormal races" in Britain, Germany and Hungary.

"Hungary we were actually quite competitive in the dry and in those early laps on the intermediate tyres we suffered," he said.

"Germany it was exceptionally cold and we suffered in [tyre] warm-up. Silverstone we were compromised because we believed we had cold blowing (of the diffuser) allowed but it was taken away on Sunday morning."

This does not bode well for what were admittedly faint hopes that one of Vettel's rivals might have a chance of stopping his relentless march to the championship.

Although Alonso starred in the early stages in Spa, the car closest on pace to the Red Bull would seem still to be the McLaren, judging by Jenson Button's remarkable drive through the field to third place on Sunday, which was full of clinical and elegant overtaking moves.

As Button pointed out, though, McLaren's weekend in Belgium was compromised by the mistakes that have characterised their season, and which they desperately need to cut out.

In Button's case in Belgium, that was a "miscommunication" over how many laps he had left in the second period of qualifying that left him stranded in 13th place.

Lewis Hamilton, meanwhile, made another of several mistakes by himself and the team this season which have made it impossible to challenge Vettel.

Without them, he would be in the fight, rather than where is now, which is 113 points behind Vettel with only 175 still available, and his title hopes over.

Alonso, who after his fourth place in Spa is in a marginally better position but still 102 points adrift of Vettel, said he would keep battling until it was mathematically impossible to overhaul Vettel.

But even he, F1's most relentless fighter, admitted Ferrari's hopes were "not in our hands, and Red Bull need to make big, big mistakes, and have big problems if we want to win the championship".

Barring a disaster of catastrophic proportions, then, Vettel will win a second consecutive world title this year, and long before the end of the season.

After performances such as that at Spa on Sunday, and many others this year, he fully deserves it.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2011/08/vettel_underlines_title_creden.html

Peter Collins Bernard Collomb Alberto Colombo

HRT F111 unveiled in Barcelona (photos)

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/F1InsightAFormula1Blog/~3/8usS4ADII74/hrt-f111-unveiled-in-barcelona-photos.html

Derek Warwick John Watson Spider Webb

U.S. private equity firm buys Spyker cars

North Street Capital will buy the specialty Dutch automaker from Swedish Automobile, which also owns Saab.

Source: http://feeds.worldcarfans.com/~r/worldcarfans/Jxfz/~3/jymw9Gg4rlY/us-private-equity-firm-buys-spyker-cars

Ian Scheckter Jody Scheckter Harry Schell

Johnson favored on Sunday

Source: http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/09/28/1525520/johnson-favored-on-sunday.html

JeanDenis Deletraz Patrick Depailler Pedro Diniz

VINTAGE: Microbuses Stall In Las Vegas

So what happened to the big run up in Volkswagen bus prices that brought us the $200,000 sale at Barrett-Jackson Orange County?

Source: http://automotive.speedtv.com/article/vintage-microbuses-stall-in-las-vegas/

Tony Rolt Bertil Roos Pedro de la Rosa

Ex-Indy 500 Winning Crew Chief Dies...

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/nofenders/zbjv/~3/AeIHcQjcRdY/ex-indy-500-winning-crew-chief-dies.html

Alan Stacey Gaetano Starrabba Chuck Stevenson

Johnson favored on Sunday

Source: http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/09/28/1525520/johnson-favored-on-sunday.html

Ray Crawford Alberto Crespo Antonio Creus

Willy T joins the Blogger Craze...

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/nofenders/zbjv/~3/wFmmcX08u8Q/willy-t-joins-blogger-craze.html

Gus Hutchison Jacky Ickx Yuji Ide

Mittwoch, 28. September 2011

Harvick promises 'good attitude' for Charlotte race

Source: http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/09/27/1522233/harvick-promises-good-attitude.html

Maurício Gugelmin Dan Gurney Hubert Hahne

Red Bull boss: Let?s finish it off in style

Christian Horner has called upon his Red Bull team to finish off the 2011 season in style. Click here to see Sebastian Vettel’s lookalike – do you agree?! After the Singapore Grand Prix, Sebastian Vettel is all set to secure the world title in Japan later this month, the same weekend Red Bull can win [...]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Formula1Fancast/~3/lJjcy07dvTs/red-bull-boss-lets-finish-it-off-in-style

Roy Salvadori Consalvo Sanesi Stephane Sarrazin

welding truck

i built this truck as a replica of my 1:1 that i drive for work.  the cab and chassis are from a snap kit that i had from when i was a kid.  the bed and everything in the back are scratch built using sheet plastic and the bottles are made from a sharpie marker cut in half.  enjoy

[View:http://cs.scaleautomag.com/SCACS/themes/sca/utility/:550:0][View:http://cs.scaleautomag.com/SCACS/themes/sca/utility/:550:0][View:http://cs.scaleautomag.com/SCACS/themes/sca/utility/:550:0][View:http://cs.scaleautomag.com/SCACS/themes/sca/utility/:550:0][View:http://cs.scaleautomag.com/SCACS/themes/sca/utility/:550:0][View:http://cs.scaleautomag.com/SCACS/themes/sca/utility/:550:0][View:http://cs.scaleautomag.com/SCACS/themes/sca/utility/:550:0]

Source: http://cs.scaleautomag.com/SCACS/forums/thread/959454.aspx

Paul England Harald Ertl Nasif Estefano

Ford Mustang Boss 302 Laguna Seca 'School Bus Yellow' Edition


The 2012 Ford Mustang Boss 302 Laguna Seca has had plenty of visits to various auction houses in the past year, including one that was sold in January at Barrett Jackson for $450,000.

Ten months later and another special edition Boss 302 appears to be headed under the hammer, this time at the Ford Motor Company Conference and Event Center in Dearborn, Michigan on October 15, 2011. This particular model, nicknamed ’School Bus Yellow’, is a complete one-off edition of the Boss 302 and will be signed by no less than legendary race car driver, Parnelli Jones.

The word is that this particular model could very well be a preview of the 2013 Boss 302, complete with the ’School Bus Yellow’ color scheme and all the corresponding graphics that are similar to that of the 1970 model. Under the hood, this Boss 302 will carry a 5.0-liter V8 engine with 444 horsepower and 380 lb/ft of torque mated to a six-speed manual transmission.

Other features of this special edition Mustang Boss 302 include six-way adjustable Recaro racing seats with "Boss 302" stitched on them and a new gauge pack that measures 0-60 mph times, lateral Gs, and braking performance.

Proceeds from the sale of this one-off Mustang Boss 302 Laguna Seca ’School Bus Yellow’ will benefit the Henry Ford Health Systems so if you’re willing to shell out serious wad for a good cause - and a great prize, at that - you’re going to need to make serious bids for the opportunity.

Ford Mustang Boss 302 Laguna Seca 'School Bus Yellow' Edition originally appeared on topspeed.com on Wednesday, 28 September 2011 16:00 EST.

read more




Source: http://www.topspeed.com/cars/ford/2012-ford-mustang-boss-302-laguna-seca-school-bus-yellow-edition-ar116710.html

Len Sutton Aguri Suzuki Toshio Suzuki

No Fenders joins the Kindergarden Brigade...

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/nofenders/zbjv/~3/oFmNPW6IJ_M/no-fenders-joins-kindergarden-brigade.html

Eddie Sachs Bob Said Eliseo Salazar

Life in the pit lane


The Mercedes pit crew prepare for Michael Schumacher in Singapore © Getty Images
Away from the world of multi-million-pound car development laboratories and drivers whose small change takes care of the Monte Carlo harbour fees, another drama will play out in Singapore this week. The Independent's David Tremayne joins F1's unsung heroes.
These are not select millionaires but up to 16 ordinary, yet gifted, guys; team mechanics who have worked their way up the system and often migrate from team to team, are paid real-world wages of between �30,000 and �50,000 a year, are drilled to perfection ? and whose split-second synchronisation brings their teams huge rewards.

Source: http://blogs.espnf1.com/paperroundf1/archives/2010/09/life_in_the_pit_lane.php

Fritz d Orey Arthur Owen Carlos Pace

Mercedes highlights the 5.5-liter V8 in the SLK 55 AMG [video]

Dubbed the M152, the engine is based on the twin-turbo 5.5-liter V8 (M157) but features a new air intake, bespoke cylinder heads and an optimized crankcase.

Source: http://feeds.worldcarfans.com/~r/worldcarfans/Jxfz/~3/-Oa93DpGcTw/mercedes-highlights-the-55-liter-v8-in-the-slk-55-amg

Mike Beuttler Birabongse Bhanubandh Lucien Bianchi

Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Models Rev Up Need for Speed: The Run

If you are one of those gamers that have circled November 15, 2011 in red ink on your calendars then this next bit of news may rattle your composure some more. The new version of the famous Need for Speed game has just gotten itself another teaser trailer, but this one is not showcasing hot sports cars. This teaser trailer shows off the assets of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit models, Irina Shayk and Chrissy Teigen.

Apparently, these two young ladies were given the SIMS treatment and will be getting behind the wheel and battling it out in the illicit $25 million cross-country race from San Francisco to New York. They aren?t your allies, but some damn good-looking competition. We?re not sure what type of driving skills these girls have, but anyone that has seen the original Cannonball Run can get a pretty good idea as to how they will handle the competition. Have we mentioned their assets?

"There are only a few companies that deliver upon the promise of excitement and innovation with every new product launch and EA stands at the top of that list. This is why it is very exciting that SI Swimsuit will be part of the latest edition of the Need for Speed franchise," said Frank Wall, vice president and publisher of Sports Illustrated. "I’m sure that the millions Swimsuit fans will be excited to see Irina and Chrissy behind the wheel and millions more will be introduced to franchise in a fun and unexpected way."

Sex sells (even in cartoon form) and EA, as well as SI Swimsuit, aren?t shy about pimping out their contacts.

Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Models Rev Up Need for Speed: The Run originally appeared on topspeed.com on Tuesday, 27 September 2011 18:00 EST.

read more




Source: http://www.topspeed.com/cars/car-news/sports-illustrated-swimsuit-models-rev-up-need-for-speed-the-run-ar117035.html

Jack Brabham† Bill Brack Ernesto Brambilla

Dienstag, 27. September 2011

Vettel underlines title credentials with sublime drive

At Spa-Francorchamps

Sebastian Vettel and his Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber finished one-two in the Belgian Grand Prix after drives that can compare with many of those that have entered the annals of Formula 1 history from the famous Spa-Francorchamps track.

The two men went into the race on Sunday well aware of their team's concerns that their front tyres could fail.

Red Bull design chief Adrian Newey said it was "one of the scariest races I've been involved in", and the mind boggles as to the bravery of the drivers in that situation.

Spa's high-speed sweeps are arguably the biggest challenge a grand prix driver can face. Although safety has improved immensely at the circuit in the modern age, it remains an old-school race track, on which there are places "you wouldn't want to go off," as Webber put it in his BBC Sport column last week.

The drivers sounded phlegmatic about it after the race, but they were well aware of the potential seriousness of the situation. "We took quite a lot of risk," Vettel said. But, he added, "when there is a chance to win, we go for it".

Of all the many qualities that make grand prix drivers different from ordinary mortals, this has to be one of the most striking.

Call it bravery, call it lack of imagination, but Vettel and Webber went into the race, committed themselves to the 180mph rollercoaster ride through Eau Rouge, having put their lives in the hands of calculations by their engineers about how long their tyres would last.

The height of concern was in the early stages of the race, when the cars were running on tyres that Newey said Pirelli had told them "were very marginal and at five o'clock yesterday they wouldn't say after half a lap or five laps but they were going to fail".

Vettel and Webber's one-two in Belgium continued Red Bull's domination of this year's championship. Photo: Reuters

Red Bull's engineers had calculated that they could be pretty sure Webber's tyres would last two or three laps, and Vettel's five - which is when the two men made their first pit stops.

Red Bull were not the only team to suffer blistering, but theirs was worse than any of their rivals.

The situation caused controversy because they were running their cars with a greater degree of camber - lean away from vertical - on their front tyres than supplier Pirelli recommends.

Pirelli motorsport chief Paul Hembery chose his words carefully after the race, but I understand there were strong words between Pirelli and Newey before the race, and that there may be less tolerance of any team who choose to go beyond Pirelli's advice in the future.

It is yet another example of how Newey pushes every parameter to the limit, an approach that allied with his genius for aerodynamic design, has led him to create so many dominant cars, of which this year's Red Bull RB7 is just the latest in a long line.

With everything that was involved - the bravery, the tyre management, racing and overtaking Fernando Alonso's Ferrari, it has to rank as one of the best of Vettel's 17 victories.

Both Newey and team principal Christian Horner described it as a "mature" drive, and, as Newey pointed out: "Mark's race was every bit as good."

Webber was compromised first by a poor start, caused when his anti-stall kicked in, and then by a radio miscommunication that meant he did not follow his team-mate into the pits under the safety car period that followed Lewis Hamilton's collision with Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi.

That committed him to a long middle stint on the slower 'medium' tyre, at the beginning of which he showed bravery of a different but no less remarkable kind.

On lap nine, Webber passed Alonso on the outside going into Eau Rouge, pulling alongside on the hill down from La Source, nosing in front, and refusing to concede.

The two men are good friends, and they always race hard but fair, giving each other just enough room in such situations, but this incident was right on the edge.

"That boy must have some balls to do that - on the outside into Eau Rouge," Horner said. "Phenomenal. Pass of the day.

"Fernando was professional and gave him enough room to work with. Mark was always going to brave it out around the outside. I think we all closed our eyes."

Of course, Vettel and Webber's one-two was facilitated by the huge performance advantage of their cars.

Alonso appeared to be in the running for victory until his team chose not to stop under the safety car, but he insisted that was an illusion, saying Red Bull had a pace advantage of "one second per lap, maybe towards the end of the race even more, 1.5 seconds".

This is quite a turnaround after Red Bull failed to win any of the previous three races, where McLaren and Ferrari both showed Red Bull-beating pace.

Newey ascribes this to the "very cool conditions and slightly abnormal races" in Britain, Germany and Hungary.

"Hungary we were actually quite competitive in the dry and in those early laps on the intermediate tyres we suffered," he said.

"Germany it was exceptionally cold and we suffered in [tyre] warm-up. Silverstone we were compromised because we believed we had cold blowing (of the diffuser) allowed but it was taken away on Sunday morning."

This does not bode well for what were admittedly faint hopes that one of Vettel's rivals might have a chance of stopping his relentless march to the championship.

Although Alonso starred in the early stages in Spa, the car closest on pace to the Red Bull would seem still to be the McLaren, judging by Jenson Button's remarkable drive through the field to third place on Sunday, which was full of clinical and elegant overtaking moves.

As Button pointed out, though, McLaren's weekend in Belgium was compromised by the mistakes that have characterised their season, and which they desperately need to cut out.

In Button's case in Belgium, that was a "miscommunication" over how many laps he had left in the second period of qualifying that left him stranded in 13th place.

Lewis Hamilton, meanwhile, made another of several mistakes by himself and the team this season which have made it impossible to challenge Vettel.

Without them, he would be in the fight, rather than where is now, which is 113 points behind Vettel with only 175 still available, and his title hopes over.

Alonso, who after his fourth place in Spa is in a marginally better position but still 102 points adrift of Vettel, said he would keep battling until it was mathematically impossible to overhaul Vettel.

But even he, F1's most relentless fighter, admitted Ferrari's hopes were "not in our hands, and Red Bull need to make big, big mistakes, and have big problems if we want to win the championship".

Barring a disaster of catastrophic proportions, then, Vettel will win a second consecutive world title this year, and long before the end of the season.

After performances such as that at Spa on Sunday, and many others this year, he fully deserves it.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2011/08/vettel_underlines_title_creden.html

Al Keller Joe Kelly Dave Kennedy

Official: Liuzzi announced as HRT's second driver

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/F1InsightAFormula1Blog/~3/_8LvVr2vkVQ/official-liuzzi-announced-as-hrts.html

Art Cross Geoff Crossley Chuck Daigh

Alonso hoping strategy will play into his hands

Fernando Alonso says he?s not disappointed to be only fifth on the grid in Singapore, and the Ferrari ace remains convinced that he has a good chance of making progress in the race. Alonso believes that the fact that his … Continue reading

Source: http://adamcooperf1.com/2011/09/24/alonso-hoping-strategy-will-play-into-his-hands/

Jerry Hoyt Nico Hulkenberg Denny Hulme

Williams FW33 2011 Livery pictures (24th of February)

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/F1InsightAFormula1Blog/~3/VDQ--D6KqpU/williams-fw33-2011-livery-pictures-24th.html

Johnny Dumfries Geoff Duke Len Duncan

BMW X3 M


Now that BMW is offering an M version for both the X5 and X6 SUVs, the same treatment will undoubtedly be applied to the smaller X3. There’s already been a strange looking X3 mule testing, but WildSpeed is clearing things up with their rendition of the future X3M model.

The new X3 M will join the X5 M and the X6 M in terms of boosting power, but it will not be featuring the same twin-turbo 4.4-litre V8 found in its bigger brothers. Instead, BMW has opted to use a tweaked version of the new straight six engine used for the standard M3. This engine will get a boost up to as much as 450 HP, from the standard 306 HP. It is very possible that the engine will use three turbochargers - one electric and two petrol - to get that power bump and will be mated to the usual 6-speed M Sports Automatic transmission.

Like with all the other BMW M models, the new X3 M will be distinguished by larger wheel arches, a muscular front and rear end, and a more sporty ride. The interior will get sports seats, high-performance leather, and an M steering wheel.

The new BMW X3 M will debut in 2012 and will be sold as a 2013 model.

BMW X3 M originally appeared on topspeed.com on Monday, 26 September 2011 18:00 EST.

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Source: http://www.topspeed.com/cars/bmw/2013-bmw-x3-m-ar116615.html

Vitantonio Liuzzi Dries van der Lof Lella Lombardi