Harry Merkel Arturo Merzario Roberto Mieres Francois Migault
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Sebastian Vettel: ?We are not where we want to be??
Sebastian Vettel has qualified sixth for the second consecutive race after taking a gamble that might pay off on Sunday. Thanks to a penalty for Kimi Raikkonen Vettel moves up to fifth, and he will start the Malaysian GP on … Continue reading
Formula One Goes High Definition
This week FOM, the Formula One Management company run by Bernie Ecclestone, has announced it will be providing native High Definition Formula One coverage for the very first time. �This heralds the entrance of the sport into the super clear broadcast territory. High Definition television has been available for some time now in the United [...]
Bahrain and Formula 1
So a bunch of Formula 1 people have got together at a function in London and have said that Bahrain is a fine place to go; that there are no real problems there and that the media is to blame for the current situation. They say that protests are just being caused by a few [...]
Conny Andersson Mario Andretti Michael Andretti Keith Andrews
37 Ford Convertable FINISHED 29/3/12
My new project i have been starting this off and on for a while now, i have filled the side trim areas and have used a loovered hood off the 40 Ford custom, the grille has been de-chromed this will painted the same as the body. Have not yet had any ideas for body colour may be black with red interior.
[View:http://cs.scaleautomag.com/SCACS/themes/sca/utility/
Front view
[View:http://cs.scaleautomag.com/SCACS/themes/sca/utility/
View with roof on
[View:http://cs.scaleautomag.com/SCACS/themes/sca/utility/
Have got to fill in some area's around front of hood and grille. the wheels will be the ones that come with this kit, but the car will be lowered.
Any comments welcome
Graham
Rob Schroeder Michael Schumacher Ralf Schumacher Vern Schuppan
Red Bull under the spotlight
 Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel celebrate with Red Bull boss Christian Horner on the podium |
69 Z28 Camaro WIP
It's been a year since I was at the work bench. Work and night classes have kept me very busy!! Here what I have been working on over the Christmas break.
I've completed alot more and hope to more pics posted soon.
Thanks for looking!
George
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Toyota GT 86 TRD caught on video
Toyota introduced the GT 86 TRD at the Tokyo Auto Salon, but a new video has surfaced showing the car in action.
Chico Serra Doug Serrurier Johnny ServozGavin Tony Settember
Shelby 1000 announced for New York debut
Shelby American has announced the most powerful Shelby yet will debut at the New York Auto Show next week. 
The Playland Penny Arcade Diorama
The Playland diorama represents an old penny arcade building that's being gutted before demolition. It's in a neighborhood that's seen better days: The building beside the arcade has already been demolished and the arcade is next. No doubt, the apartment building next to it will be slated for destruction, too. The diorama will show old arcade games being loaded into a truck. Here's a roughed-in composition taken during the early stages of construction...
Fast forward to the latest progress. The buildings and pavement are almost done...
I used LEDs to illumninate the alley, hallway & some of the rooms on the upper floor of the apartment building..
To see the entire in-progress series of photos, follow this link to my Fotki album:
http://public.fotki.com/khamilton/models/playland_penny_arcade/
Thanks for looking. I'll post more details later.
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.
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Robert Kubica Hospitalised Following Rally Accident
UPDATE ON KUBICA’s CONDITION: �http://wp.me/p3uiu-11K Renault Lotus F1 driver Robert Kubica has been airlifted to hospital following a car accident while competing on a rally. The incident, described as a high speed accident, left the Pole injured and he had to be airlifted to hospital. �His co-driver Jakub Gerber was uninjured in the incident. While [...]
BMW and Toyota will co-develop lithium-ion batteries
BMW and Toyota have announced plans to co-develop next-generation lithium-ion batteries. They will look work together to look for ways to increase their performance and capacity. 
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