Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Jaguar XF Wagon
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We absolutely just love talking about wagons that we’ll never get to see on our side of the pond. Wait, scratch that. It actually sucks to hear that Jaguar has finally confirmed the XF Wagon and Europe will be one of the few that will actually revel in its luxurious five door space. It’s not their fault that the British brand is going where the wagon demand is at its highest nor that we decided bigger was better before giving these in-between vehicles a chance, but we’re still a little envious.
Details on the future XF Wagon are more than scarce considering we don’t even have a possible debut date on our hands, but Andrew Whyman, XF Vehicle Engineering Manager for Jaguar, has said: "I can’t say when or how much, but it is on the cards." Well, Whyman, it’s been in the cards since about 2009 so can we speed this up a bit? Our best guess is that we will see this wagon rolling in around the same time as the next generation XF scheduled for release in 2015, maybe as a 2016 model.
Whyman also said that we can expect something special in terms of the design: "Ian Callum [Jaguar design chief] will do something different with this. It will be slightly different, with character and panache."
When Jaguar finally does get around to building the XF Wagon, it will target models such as the Audi A6 Avant and the BMW 5-Series Touring, which have had the wagon market on a tight hold thus far.
UPDATE 11/29/2011: Jaguar has released a couple of images of the future XF Sport Brake testing! Check them out!
UPDATE 12/08/2011: Jaguar has found its holiday spirit and used it to tease the upcoming XF Wagon in a very cool Christmas card. Santa sure has some pull; it seems he’s ditching the sleigh this year in favor of the unreleased Jaguar XF.
Stay tuned for more details on the Jaguar XF Wagon!
Jaguar XF Wagon originally appeared on topspeed.com on Thursday, 8 December 2011 15:00 EST.
Hamilton decision-making under the microscope
 Lewis Hamilton has come in for criticism |
Andrea Montermini Peter Monteverdi Robin MontgomerieCharrington Juan Pablo Montoya
1975 Ferrari 312T (Niki Lauda)
Here goes nothing.........I decided to go back to four wheels after my last build which was a two wheeled variant but I really wanted to stick to kits that belong on the race track not your everyday rides.
Anyway I'm going to tackle Hasegawa's 1/20 Ferrari 312T " 1975 Monaco GP Winner". I got the kit for a bargain and it came with Hasegawa's own photoetch detail set which was a bonus.......isn't that right TJ
Here is my purchases........
Over Christmas Break I also bought this.......I think the 312T is going to be it's first victim of getting some upgrades.
Cheers for looking
Jas
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
To prime or not to prime...
Since I joined up and have been reading around I have to ask the question...why prime ?Except for a recent foray into automotive urethanes I have never had a problem with airbrushing just about any type of paint without reacting or crazing the plastic. So, why prime ? What are the benefits ? I would have thought that adding another layer of paint will just make it harder to keep fine details,emblems etc. Does priming help to make a color more correct ? i.e. dark vs light primer.
Maserati 4200 Evo Dynamic Trident by G&S Exclusive
Dubbed the 4200 Evo Dynamic Trident, tuning company G&S Exclusive in Albstadt Germany has presented their tuning program for the Maserati 4200 GT Cambiocorsa (aka Maserati Coupe).
William Ferguson Maria Teresa de Filippis Ralph Firman Ludwig Fischer
Barrichello back in Williams frame
Formula 1 always goes a little quiet over Christmas, but one team that has been making waves - both publicly and behind the scenes - are Williams.
The team that dominated F1 for much of the 1980s and 1990s are one of only two outfits still with an obvious vacancy in their driver line-up - the other being back-of-the-grid HRT.
And it seems that Rubens Barrichello, the veteran who has driven for the team for the last two seasons, is back in with a chance of staying with them for 2012.
Rubens Barrichello had been tipped to vacate his Williams seat. Photo: Getty
Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado is staying on in one of the cars after an up-and-down rookie season in 2011 - his position in the team is secure thanks to a multi-million sponsorship deal with his country's national oil company.
But the second seat is still up for grabs, and while Williams are not the attractive proposition they were in their glory days, they are the only decent choice for a whole host of drivers wishing to continue their F1 careers.
These include Barrichello, German Adrian Sutil, Brazilian Bruno Senna, Toro Rosso rejects Jaime Alguersuari and Sebastien Buemi and Italian Vitantonio Liuzzi.
Sutil, who had an impressive second half of the season for Force India, has been the favourite for some time, but the situation appears to have shifted recently.
My sources tell me that Barrichello, who appeared to be out of the running as his 19th season in F1 drew to a close in November, has come back into the frame and now has a reasonable chance of a Williams drive in 2012.
Barrichello has been arguing for some time that, with the huge ructions going on at Williams through 2011 and over the winter, it would make sense to have a known reference in the drivers.
"With all the changes for next year on the engine side and engineers," he said at the season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix, "it would be clever from the team to keep the drivers and keep on going. I'm not pushing them, I'm just trying to show them that is the way to do it."
You can see his point. The team are changing engine suppliers, replacing Cosworth with Renault, and have undergone a wholesale restructure of the design department, with a new technical director, head of aerodynamics and head of engineering.
New tech boss Mike Coughlan is admired as being very clever, but his last role as a technical director was with the now-defunct Arrows team, who collapsed in 2002. As chief designer of McLaren after that, he was involved in the spy-gate scandal that engulfed the team in 2007 and for which he was sacked.
The technical changes at Williams were made even more seismic when it emerged on New Year's Eve that not only was co-founder Patrick Head stepping down as director of engineering, he was also resigning his position on the F1 team's board, thereby cutting all his ties with the sport.
It had long been known that Head, one of the most respected engineers in the history of the sport, would no longer have an active role in the day-to-day F1 operation, but it was a surprise to hear he was not going to be on the board of directors.
Head has insisted that his decision to end his day-to-day F1 role was based on feeling his relevance in F1 was diminishing.
In Brazil, he said: "I certainly didn't have an ambition to stop my involvement in Formula One with a season like this last one we've had behind us.
"But when I have a look at what specifically I can do to assist Mike Coughlan and (chief operations officer) Mark Gillan and (head of aerodynamics) Jason Somerville, I came to the conclusion that it isn't really enough to justify me carrying on doing the same thing."
He will still be involved at Williams through their subsidiary company Williams Hybrid Power and remains close to team boss Sir Frank Williams, who will doubtless be turning to him for advice on a regular basis.
All the same, many will consider it unwise that a team in such flux, and with such a grave need to improve, will not have on their board the guidance and wisdom of a man who not only co-founded the company but who was directly responsible for seven drivers' championships and nine constructors' titles.
Why will he not be there? Williams and Head were both unavailable for comment on Monday. I'm told, though, that his difficult relationship with chief executive officer Adam Parr was a part of Head's decision to step down.
Ironically, Head's departure may ease Barrichello's path to a return.
Head is forthright character and I'm told he had grown tired of the Brazilian's complaints about the team's difficulties.
With the 65-year-old no longer involved, that on the face of it is one less barrier to Barrichello being in the car again.
It seems, though, that all the driver hopefuls will have to wait. Williams are in the process of sponsorship negotiations with the Gulf state of Qatar, and they take primacy over a final decision on drivers.
With more than a month until the start of pre-season testing on 7 February, there is plenty of time to sort out drivers. After all, it's not as if Williams are struggling for choice.
What went wrong for the back of the grid?
Help me understand
http://public.fotki.com/corvettemike/general-motors/corvette-builds/generation-6/2005_corvette_c6/
The top link is my 2005 Corvette Roadster built from a painted snaptite kit. At shows it has recieved in the neighborhood of 4 1st and 2nd trophies as well as an appearance in Contest Cars 2010. Also when I pull it out I recieve tons of questions about it from my fellow builders and nice compliments.
http://public.fotki.com/corvettemike/general-motors/corvette-builds/generation-3/1972-corvette-lt1/
Now we have my 1972 steel cities gray Corvette that has everything but the kitchen sink on it (even keys and the owners manual) yet it has never gotten a photo card, trophy, or comment at a show. Can anyone see a reason I'm not that the superdetail would be ignored so much including the snapper beating it every time in side by side competition?
Mercedes battle to match past glories
Red Bull have raised the bar in Formula 1 over the last two or three years, heaping pressure of one kind or another on all their major rivals.
McLaren's inability to produce a car that can consistently challenge Red Bull and Sebastian Vettel had a clear effect on Lewis Hamilton's equanimity last season, introducing new pressures into that team as the Englishman struggled to cope with his on-track disappointment and difficulties in his private life.
At Ferrari, a technical director has lost his job and his replacement has felt under pressure to take significant risks this year as F1's most famous team seeks to produce a car that can do justice to Fernando Alonso's abundant talents.
But nowhere, arguably, is the need to improve felt more greatly than at Mercedes, the team trying to make F1's "big three" into a quartet.
Mercedes are hoping their new W03 car for 2012 will herald a return to the front of the grid. Picture: Getty
The German giants enter 2012 seeking a huge step forward from a season of conspicuous under-performance. Lodged in no-man's land, some distance behind the top three and some way ahead of the rest, there was not a single podium finish for either Michael Schumacher or Nico Rosberg in 2011.
Unsurprisingly, Mercedes' vice-president of competition, Norbert Haug, describes that as "not good enough". For one of the world's greatest car companies, that is something of an understatement.
Mercedes' latest venture into F1 has only been running for two years - since the company bought the Brawn team at the end of 2009 after spending 17 years as an engine supplier first to Sauber and then to McLaren.
But the current management has a lot to live up to - the company's two previous forays into grand prix racing were considerably more successful.
In the mid-1930s, Mercedes and fellow German giants Auto Union (the forerunners of Audi) dominated with their famous Silver Arrows. And in 1954 and '55 Mercedes produced a level of domination with the great Juan Manuel Fangio that makes Red Bull's performances in recent years pale into insignificance.
Mercedes' relationship with McLaren had produced drivers' titles for Mika Hakkinen in 1998 and '99 and for Lewis Hamilton in 2008, as well as near-misses with Hakkinen in 2000, Kimi Raikkonen in 2003 and 2005 and Hamilton and Alonso in 2007.
But the decision to set up their own team was based as much on the realities of the road-car marketplace as any comparative lack of success on the track.
The poor results McLaren produced in 2009, starting the season with their worst car for 15 years, were an influence. So, too, was the relative lack of recognition for the Mercedes brand in any McLaren success on the track - inevitably the case for an engine supplier, even if it did own 40% of the team.
But when McLaren decided to launch its own supercar into a market Mercedes was also planning to enter with its SLS, such close links were no longer tenable.
In the autumn of 2009, buying the team that had just won the world championship, run by a man who masterminded all of Schumacher's world titles, must have seemed about as good a guarantee of success as you could get. Bringing Schumacher out of retirement, to rejoin the company that set him on the path to stardom and bring his career full circle, was supposed to be the icing on the cake.
Except that's not how it has worked out. The cars have been uncompetitive and Schumacher - consistently out-paced by Rosberg in qualifying over the last two years, although with improving race form in 2011 - is clearly a shadow of his former greatness.
So why have Mercedes not been able to compete at the top? The simple answer is that Brawn's world title with Jenson Button in 2009 rather disguised the reality.
That car was designed with Honda money, before the Japanese giant abruptly pulled out in December 2008. Team boss Ross Brawn had kept the company alive, but had to force through a painful 40% staff cut in 2009 to keep it going in more straitened circumstances.
The car's speed owed much to its controversial "double diffuser" - and by mid-season a lack of development caused by budgetary restrictions had seen first Red Bull and then other teams overtake them.
There is some truth, then, in Haug's consistent claims over the last two years that Mercedes are a small team that, as he put it this week, "need to learn and develop" to compete with Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren.
As Mercedes' great rival BMW proved in 2009, major car companies in F1 tend to get itchy feet if they are not winning - it poses too big a risk to their global image if they are consistently seen to be beaten. In BMW's case, a strong season in 2008 was followed by a weak one in 2009 and, with the global economic crisis gripping, the board pulled the plug.
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There is no sign of such a move from Mercedes but the pressure to perform has been plain to see. The team have been on a major recruitment drive over the last year, the biggest indication of which was the hiring of two star designers - Aldo Costa, the technical director sacked by Ferrari, and Geoff Willis, formerly of Williams, Honda and Red Bull.
There are now four men who have been technical directors at other teams all trying to work together to make Mercedes winners - Bob Bell, the man who currently holds that title at the team and who was recruited from Renault, Costa, Willis and Brawn himself.
Brawn is adamant they have defined roles and will work well together. Others remain to be convinced about the wisdom of having so many big beasts in one pride.
What this technical "super-team" does, though, is emphasise just how important winning is to Mercedes - and consequently just how critical it is that the new W03 enables the team to make a marked stepped forward over 2011.
There is no doubting the ambition.
Mercedes are the only top team to have waited until the second pre-season test to run their new car. The idea was to give them more time to find more performance in the car at the design stage, but the move carries risks. If problems occur, there is less time to iron them out before the start of the season.
Haug has been at pains to emphasise that Mercedes' current position is understandable, and that they have the time and ability to improve.
But while the form of the new Mercedes will be watched with interest at Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari, you can be sure there will be some nervous faces in the boardroom in Stuttgart, too.
Monday, February 27, 2012
2013 Ferrari 620 GT teaser #3 released [video]
We've already seen the 2013 Ferrari 620 GT, but that hasn't stopped the company from releasing another teaser video of the upcoming model. 
Better racing - but is it fake?
In Monaco before Christmas, Formula 1's governing body held a meeting to discuss one of the key and most controversial aspects of 2011 - the Drag Reduction System or DRS.
Introduced amid much controversy and no small amount of trepidation in some quarters, questions about the validity of the overtaking aid, not to mention the wisdom of employing it, decreased during the season. So much so that, at the Monaco meeting, it was decided that only small refinements needed to be made to its use for the 2012 campaign.
But while the FIA and the teams all agree that DRS has played a valuable role in improving F1 as a spectacle, they are determined to ensure it performs in the way intended. In particular, no-one wants to cheapen one of the central aspects of a driver's skill by making overtaking too easy.
Sebastian Vettel enters the DRS zone at the Spanish Grand Prix. Photo: Getty
To recap briefly, DRS was introduced in an attempt to solve the perennial problem of there being too little overtaking. After years - decades even - of discussions, F1's technical brains hit on what they thought could be a solution: DRS.
DRS does what it says on the tin. When deployed, the top part of the rear wing moves upwards, reducing drag and giving a boost in straight-line speed. In races, drivers could use it only if they were within a second of the car in front at a "detection point" shortly before the "DRS zone". The DRS zone was where DRS could be deployed, which was usually the track's longest straight.
The idea was to make overtaking possible but not too easy.
There is no doubt that racing improved immeasurably as a spectacle in 2011 compared with previous seasons. But how big a role did DRS play? And did overtaking become too easy at some tracks and remain too hard at others?
It is a more complex issue than it at first appears because it is not always easy to tell from the outside whether an overtaking move was a result of DRS or not.
In Turkey and Belgium, for example, several drivers sailed past rivals in the DRS zone long before the end of it, leading many to think the device had made overtaking too easy.
But, armed with statistics, FIA race director Charlie Whiting says appearances were deceptive. What was making overtaking easy at those two races, he said, was the speed advantage of the car behind as the two cars battling for position came off the corner before the DRS zone.
Whiting showed me a spreadsheet detailing the speeds of the respective cars in all the overtaking manoeuvres that happened in the Belgian GP.
"This shows very clearly that when the speed delta [difference] between the two cars at the beginning of the zone is low, then overtaking is not easy," he said. "But if one car goes through Eau Rouge that bit quicker, sometimes you had a speed delta of 18km/h (11mph). Well, that's going to be an overtake whether you've got DRS or not."
According to Whiting, the statistics show that if the two cars come off the corner into the DRS zone at similar speeds, then the driver behind needs to be far closer than the one-second margin that activates the DRS if he is to overtake.
"One second is the activation but that won't do it for you," Whiting said. "You've got to be 0.4secs behind to get alongside into the braking zone."
Confusing the picture in 2011 - particularly early in the season - was the fast-wearing nature of the new Pirelli tyres, which led to huge grip differences between cars at various points of the races. A driver on fresher tyres would come off a corner much faster and brake that much later for the next one. That would have a far greater impact on the ease of an overtaking move than DRS ever would.
Critics of DRS might argue that while it may be useful at tracks where overtaking has traditionally been difficult, like Melbourne, Valencia and Barcelona, for example, it is debatable whether there is a need for it at circuits where historically there has been good racing, like Turkey, Belgium and Brazil.
According to Whiting, DRS does not diminish the value of an overtaking move at tracks where it is usually easy to pass. It just means that DRS opens up the possibility for more. In other words, it works just as it does at any other track.
McLaren technical director Paddy Lowe is an influential member of the Technical Working Group of leading engineers which came up with DRS. He said people had been arguing for years that engineers should alter the fundamental design of cars to facilitate overtaking.
However, tinkering with aerodynamic design was never going to be a solution, according to Lowe, because F1 cars will always need downforce to produce such high performance, and that means overtaking will always, by the cars' nature, be difficult.
"What's great [about DRS is] at least we can move on from this debate of trying to change the aerodynamic characteristics of cars to try to improve overtaking," added Lowe.
"We've found something much more authoritative, much cheaper, easier and more effective, and adjustable from race to race."
Whiting thinks DRS worked as expected everywhere except Melbourne and Valencia.
Valencia's DRS zone could be extended for 2012. Photo: Getty
So for next season's opening race in Australia, he is considering adding a second DRS zone after the first chicane, so drivers who have used DRS to draw close to rivals along the pit straight can have another crack at overtaking straight afterwards. As for Valencia, traditionally the least entertaining race of the year, the FIA will simply make the zone, which is located on the run to Turn 12, longer.
There is potentially one big negative about DRS, though.
There is a risk that its introduction could mean the end of races in which a driver uses his skills to hold off a rival in a faster car. Some of the greatest defensive victories of the modern age have been achieved in this way. One thinks of Gilles Villeneuve holding off a train of four cars in his powerful but poor-handling Ferrari to win in Jarama in 1981, or Fernando Alonso fending off Michael Schumacher's faster Ferrari at Imola in 2005.
The idea behind the introduction of DRS was for a much faster car to be able to overtake relatively easily but for passing still to be difficult between two cars of comparative performance. In theory, if that philosophy is adhered to rigidly, the sorts of races mentioned above will still be possible.
However, once an aid has been introduced that gives the driver behind a straight-line speed advantage that is an incredibly difficult line to walk, as Whiting himself admits. "You've got to take the rough with the smooth to a certain extent," he said.
1974 Ford Pinto
Here is a kit l have had for 4 years l decided to build. It's an AMT 74 pinto l bought on ebay. lt's painted with Dupont Hemi Orange and is a almost perfect match to the factory orange when compared. lt has Dupont clear. 2.3 cyl engine is painted with model master ford engine blue. Interior is painted with model master sand beige. l hope to post my 76 of my first car in time. All comments are welcome. You just don't see these built anymore...Slusher
Still have to install the radiator hose...
Range Rover Evoque Convertible Concept
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Land Rover was the first to unveil a coupe SUV and it turned out to be a smart move. However, they are not the first to offer a convertible SUV - that move was already made by Nissan with their Murano Convertible - but since the Evoque is enjoying such great success, Landrover figured they’d capitalize on it with a little model expansion. When the British company hits the Geneva showroom floor, they will be ready with the Evoque Convertible Concept, a preview of the company’s future model.
Based on the three-door Evoque, the convertible version comes equipped with a fully retractable roof system with a roll-over protection system. Land Rover said that minimal changes were made to the car’s weight and torsional rigidity, but they are far from being done if they plan on developing a production version.
The interior offers the coolest technologies out there, including leather seats, a Meridian audio system, surround cameras, Park Assist, and an infotainment system with an 8-inch display.
Land Rover Design Director, Gerry McGovern said: "The Evoque lends itself beautifully to the idea of a convertible. This study is not a traditional convertible design execution ? instead we have worked with the balance of the Evoque’s lines to retain its distinctive shape and create something that is unique and, we believe, highly desirable."
Is this Evoque suicide or the next logical step? We figure it depends on how conventional the market is and what the weather is like.
Range Rover Evoque Convertible Concept originally appeared on topspeed.com on Friday, 24 February 2012 18:00 EST.
Pedro Matos Chaves Bill Cheesbourg Eddie Cheever Andrea Chiesa
Schumacher and Rosberg excited by new W03
Sunday, February 26, 2012
78 Dodge Pickup Down Low.....It's Been Foiled......2/26
I have a lot of odds and ends so I will try and do a 78 Dodge pickup. The frame is a 66 Riviera so watch and I hope to get er done.......................
More coming soon......................................
Karthikeyan Makes Surprise F1 Return With HRT
Promolite Resin 1959 Buick LeSabre.....
This is my current build. Its the Promolite Resins 1959 Buick LeSabre kit. Tom Coolidge produces a top notch product. This kit fits like a plastic kit! Scribes and details are top notch as well. I would recommend Tom's product highly! This one is Fawn metallic and will be getting clearcoat. The interior will be fully detailed and there will be full BMF trim. The stance wont be quite this low once finished. Thanks for looking!
2013 Volvo V40: more images leaked including first interior shots
Full details are expected to be released within the next few days before the scheduled debut at the Geneva Motor Show next month. 
Huub Rothengatter Basil van Rooyen Lloyd Ruby JeanClaude Rudaz