Weekends Just Race By

Newcastle Herald

Wednesday September 3, 2008

By BRENT DAVISON

YOU have to admire a car maker that has an active motorsport program and you have to admire that company even more if it is getting its customers involved at the business end of that program.

Which makes Audi's latest effort, a "customer car" race variant of its R8 supercar, extremely admirable.

The cars are being set up for next year's various national and international GT3 racing programs around the world which means the all-wheel-drive road car has been made into a rear-wheel-drive race car with a new six-speed sequential racing gearbox.

Suspension is basically production but toughened up for racing and there is a huge wing attached to the rear bodywork. Engine development? Audi is playing that one pretty close to its chest.

Audi Sport has developed it, racer Frank Biela has tested it, the first cars will be sent to customers late this year and a full race program starts next season.

Radical MX-5 remake

MAZDA'S all-new MX-5 is at least three years away but with a revamped version of the current car set to be revealed in Paris in early October word is the new car due in 2011/2012 will be no softie.

Mazda's new head of design, Lauren van den Acker, has told British magazine Autocar that the new car has to be be more dramatic.

All Mazda will say is that the 2012 car will remain as a small, rear-wheel-drive roadster.

Milestone for Holden

WHAT better way to mark an anniversary than to achieve a personal best and that is just what Holden has done, clocking up 7 million locally-made cars over 60 years.

Highlights of Holden's log book includes:

? November, 1948: the first car (48-215) goes into production.

? October 1962: the one-millionth Holden, an EJ, is built at Dandenong, Victoria.

? March 1969: the two-millionth Holden, a HK, emerges from Dandenong.

? June 1974: the three-millionth Holden (a HQ) comes out of the Pagewood (Sydney) factory.

? June 1981: Holden's four-millionth car, a VC Commodore, is built at Dandenong.

? August 1990: the five-millionth car, a VN Commodore, is built at Elizabeth, South Australia.

? June 2001: Holden number 6 million, a VX Commodore, rolls out of Elizabeth.

? August 2008: the seven-millionth car, a VE Commodore, is built at Elizabeth.

Any guesses for the eightmillionth?

Electrics on slow charge

BRITISH electric car maker NICE (it stands for No Internal Combustion Engines) believes the world's big car companies will take a long time to get serious about electric vehicles.

"It's easy to get caught up in talk of an electric car revolution, however we'd be very surprised if many of the all-electric sports cars and other models that have been making headlines hit showrooms within forecast time frames," NICE co-founder Evert Geurtsen said.

© 2008 Newcastle Herald

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