October 2009 Straightline Archives

The 2009 Formula One season will conclude this weekend at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi (yes, I too had to look it up.) But with Jensen Button already wrapping up the Drivers' Championship in Brazil on October 18, and the Constructors Championship already awarded to Brawn GP, this last race of the season loses at least some of its excitement.

Button and his F1 colleagues rely on many vehicle components to carry them to victory each race weekend.  The main performance areas of the car include engine, aerodynamics, and chassis dynamics. But perhaps the biggest contributor to quick lap times is the tires.
 
Although each of the ten entrants must build their own chassis and there are only five engine suppliers, there is but a single tire supplier: Bridgestone.  So although tires may be the most important performance component, at least each F1 entrant is on equal footing for this parameter.

2009 saw the return of slick tires in F1 after 10 seasons on grooved tires. Teams have a choice of three types of tires depending on weather conditions: dry slick, intermediate, and wet.  There are two specifications of dry slicks at each event, one intermediate specification, and one wet tire. 

Continue reading...

Categories: Motorsports

Here's the ultimate Dodge Challenger drag machine as envisioned by Mopar, or maybe you already guessed that from the name.

2009 SEMA Show
 
 

Categories: Classic Cars,Coupes,Dodge,Motorsports,SEMA Show,Tuners and Modifications

GM has decided to delay the launch of the 2011 Cruze compact sedan until late next summer to ensure quality according to a report in the Detroit News. The car is already on sale in other world markets.

According to GM's spokesman, the delay "will give GM time to produce all variations of Cruze models." We assume he means all the engine, transmission, options variations for the Chevrolet Cruze sedan.

Detroit News: Launch of GM's Cruze dalayed 3 months

Categories: Chevrolet,Future Vehicles,Sedans

Yes, a Ferrari theme park. What you thought those Italians would stop at Ferrari joysticks, Ferrari telescopes and a Challenge Stradale skateboard?

Due for completion next year, Ferrari World will be the largest indoor theme park in the world. It's also supposed to have the world's fastest roller coaster, but that hasn't been verified just yet. We'll have to wait until the official Ferrari radar gun comes out to check on that one.

CAR: Latest News and Pictures

Categories: Ferrari

Aptera has resubmitted its application for federal loan money after the Obama administration extended its Advanced Technology Vehicles program to include three-wheeled vehicles. The Aptera 2e is a lightweight, electric vehicle that is expected to sell for around $25,000. The company plans to start producing the vehicle next year if it can secure an additional $75 million from the government.

Green Car Advisor: Aptera Resubmits Application for Federal Manufacturing Loan for 3-Wheeled EV  

Categories: Future Vehicles,Green Tech

You may have seen some of these before. Rich guys like to show off you know. Regardless, these ultimate garages still stir the soul in a way only serious car enthusiasts can truly appreciate. There's a 25 page string on Luxury4play.com if you want to see more.

Luxury4play

Categories: Aston Martin,Bentley,Bugatti,Chevrolet,Classic Cars,Ferrari,Lamborghini,Luxury Cars,Maserati,Maybach,McLaren,Pagani,Porsche,Rolls-Royce

Hope this guy got paid for this gig.

Categories: Chevrolet

We've been told on various occasions that there will be no M version of the latest Z4. Something about poor economic conditions or something like that. But that hasn't completely stopped development on a hotter Z4.

This prototype was spotted lurking around the Nurburgring recently and it shows signs of a few mild tweaks that indicate BMW is working on some kind of enhanced sport package for the hard top convertible.

A deeper front air dam, reshaped rear fascia and a more aggressive set of wheels and tires are the most visible modifications. Whether there will be any upgrades under the hood is debatable. Seems like it would be easy to turn up the boost on the twin turbo six, but that would also make for a far more complicated project, exactly the kind of capital intensive project BMW was trying to avoid.
 

Categories: BMW,Convertibles,Future Vehicles,Spy Photos

Selling six-figure supercars like the McLaren MP4-12C might sound easy. Just find a few hundred rich guys who are bored with thier F430s and you're done right? Problem is, you can't exactly sell them mail order, you need dealers, and persuading dealers to make a long-term commitment to a one model lineup isn't easy.

McLaren is finding this out the hard way as it's having trouble setting up a U.S. dealer network to sell its new MP4-12C supercar. The company originally planned to bring the car to the L.A. Auto Show in December for a U.S. debut, but it's now pulled out of the show. At this point it's looking like the MP4 won't arrive in the States until sometime in mid-2010. Ferrari probably isn't disappointed in the development.

Categories: McLaren

Yesterday, Edmunds released an analysis of the Cash for Clunkers program. It concluded that each car purchased under the program cost the taxpayers roughly $24,000. You can read the full release here to see how we arrived at that number.

Well, it appears as though the White House doesn't like people going around calling its programs expensive. "This is the latest of several critical 'analyses' of the Cash for Clunkers program from Edmunds.com, which appear designed to grab headlines and get coverage on cable TV. Like many of their previous attempts, this latest claim doesn't withstand even basic scrutiny," it wrote on the official White House blog.

We have, of course, responded. Decide for yourself who's right here, we know where we stand.

Edmunds: Cash for Clunkers Results Finally In, Taxpayers Paid $24,000 Per Vehicle Sold

White House Blog: Busy Covering Car Sales on Mars, Edmunds.com Gets it Wrong Again

CNN Money: Taxpayers paid $24,000 per car
 

Categories: Auto Industry,Trends

Let's be clear about something here: The CTS-V Challenge was not, strictly a fair race. It was a publicity stunt. Cadillac acknowledges this. Still, as a publicity stunt, it was a hell of a lot more fun than basically every other car-maker publicity stunt we've attended.

And it's a stunt that a young guy, who claimed to be a Skip Barber school graduate but not a racer, won in his BMW M3. His fast lap of 2:50:424 was the fastest single lap of any driver that wasn't a ringer (Heinricy, Link and Redman). No other CTS-V could touch him.

Here, for the record, are the final lap times of the day:

Mystery Driver (Johnny O'Connell), CTS-V, ringer, 2:45:537

John Heinricy, CTS-V, ringer, 2:46:560

Aaron Link, CTS-V, ringer, 2:48:902

Brian Redman, CTS-V, ringer, 2:49:596

Michael Cooper, BMW M3, private owner, 2:50:424

Jack Baruth, CTS-V, journalist, 2:51:153

Lawrence Ulrich, CTS-V, journalist, 2:53:157

Bob Lutz, CTS-V, The Bob, 2:56:321

Michael Mainwald, BMW M5, private owner, 3:05:398

Wes Siler, Mitsubishi Evo, journalist, 3:08:126

Chris Fairman, CTS-V, private owner, 3:14:292

Archan Basu, Jaguar XF, private owner, 3:15:670

Tom Loder, Audi RS4, private owner, 3:15:702

Categories: Audi,BMW,Cadillac,Jaguar,Mitsubishi

So after the official event was over, a silver CTS-V circled the track stupid fast and occasionally sideways. He was listed on the timing and scoring screen as "Mystery Driver." Very intriguing, no?

Who was this man who posted a fastest lap of 2:45:537? Was it Cadillac's Stig? Well, sort of.

Speed TV was out filming the day's event for an upcoming program with a full crew. Yes, there was a helicopter involved. Seems the folks at Speed wanted to have a little extra angle on this event since it's been blogged to death already (trust us, we know). So they brought their own driver and refused to say who it might be. But to beat Heinricy, he'd have to be a pro.

That cover was a bit blown when we saw Corvette racer Johnny O'Connell walking out of Monitcello in a 'Speed" racing suit.

"Nice driving, Johnny," we say.

"Oh thanks, that was fun."

Categories: Cadillac,Chevrolet

No surprise here: Professional racer and retired GM engineer, John Heinricy posted the day's fastest lap at 2:46:560.

This knowledge is useful mostly for getting an idea of how fast a CTS-V is capable of running here at Monticello. Do not, however, compare that lap time (nor that of the other GM ringer), to the laps posted by the privately owned BMWs, Jag and Audi. Those were more-or-less average guys that happen to own fast cars, not professional drivers.

Categories: Audi,BMW,Cadillac,General Motors,Jaguar

Well, the put-up or shut-up moment has now passed for 77-year-old Lutz and, well, he didn't win. He posted a quite respectable 2:56:321. That was enough to blow away the privately owned BMW M5 (3:05:395) but the range of track-driving experience here today is huge. So we hesitate to read too much into those relative times.

Lutz was about 7 seconds behind GM development engineer and Nurburgring veteran, Aaron Link. He was about 5 seconds slower than the one earlier CTS-V driven by journalist Jack Baruth. Lutz also trailed the BMW M3 by about 5.5 seconds.

Lutz was driving a CTS-V with an automatic. Link drove a CTS-V with a manual transmission.

Categories: BMW,Cadillac

You didn't actually think that General Motors was going to allow some kid from Long Island embarrass them at their own party did you? You were right to think that way.

The company's first real ringer, engineer Aaron Link, took the track in a CTS-V manual in group 3 and ran a 2:48:902, nipping the M3 by about 2 seconds. The privately owned M5 wasn't really in the hunt with a 3:05:395.

Categories: BMW,Cadillac

The privately owned BMW M3 is still the fastest car on the track after the second group of cars took their five laps.

The Mitsubishi Evo, driven by Jalopnik.com staffer Wes Siler, posted a 3:08:126. The privately owned CTS-V trailed him, posting a 3:14:292. And the Audi RS4, also a privately owned car, turned in a 3:15:702. None are close to the 2:50:424 posted by the young M3 driver.

But the fast guys, including at least three GM ringers, as well as Bob Lutz, are still to come.

Categories: Cadillac

The timed laps have begun here at Monticello and the fastest lap of the first session of three cars goes to not the journalist-driven CTS-V or, predictably, the Jaguar XF, but to the BMW M3 driven by owner Michael Cooper of Long Island.

Cooper, who has had all of five years with a driver's license laid down an impressive 2:50:424. The CTS-V automatic driven by Jack Baruth of thetruthaboutcars.com recorded a best lap of 2:51:153. The Jag pulled up the rear at 3:15:670.

Nice work by the young Mr. Cooper. Three more heats to go, including the heavy-hitter fourth heat.

Categories: BMW,Cadillac,Jaguar

Cadillac has broken the drivers into four groups for this afternoon's timed laps. So let's have a look. Lutz? Right. The dude who owns the M3 (Michael Cooper of Long Island)? Right.

Link? Who's that? He's one of GM's resident hot-shoe engineers. Heinricy? That's right Cadillac's ultimate ringer is in -- no surprise -- the last group, just in case. And who is this Redman. Oh, that would be Brian Redman, legendary road racer and Grand Marshall of Monticello. He'll also be in a CTS-V.

Good to have the home-field advantage, eh? If you put away the competition portion of this challenge, something that's easy to do in this convivial atmosphere, it will be nice to see how quickly a pro driver gets around the course in the V.

Categories: BMW,Cadillac

After brief introductions of the drivers and a few bites of Mahi Mahi, Bob Lutz took the mike to, well, to be Bob Lutz.

Here are some of his choicest quotes (the first of which is clearly a lie in every way):

"The lap times are almost irrelevant. This event is all about fun."

"If my lap times prove to be inadequate which they likely will be given my practice laps, we have a number of development engineers here to insure that we have the fastest lap at the end of the day."

"This whole idea started because I was very frustrated with our CTS-V advertising. I told the agency, 'Why don't we just say we're the fastest four-door sedan in the world?' So they came up with an idea to do an event at the Bonneville Salt Flats and do a sort-of drag race. I said, 'No, American cars have always been able to go fast in a straight line. What they haven't always been able to do is turn.' So that's how we ended up here."

"I think I should get an age-based handicap of one second per lap for every year of age over 70."

"I've seen the comments on the Internet saying, "I can't wait to see Lutz get his comeuppance.' And I probably will today."

Categories: Cadillac

It's usually true that when boys race cars, boys cheat. Women probably do too. And when nobody is found to be cheating, it's usually because they haven't yet been caught.

That's especially true when the vehicles to be raced are "stock" vehicles. To try to weed out any cheaters, General Motors has brought a Hungarian-American man by the name of Csaba Csere. Sound familiar? That's right. He's the long-time Editor in Chief of a little car magazine called Car and Driver, now retired.

As the guest of General Motors (although not a paid one, Csere hastens to point out), he's here to crawl around the competitor cars to see if something is totally amiss. It's a pretty relaxed inspection though as Csere points out there's no way if he can tell whether someone has changed their brake pads to more track-worthy pieces. Note to competitors: You should swap out your brake pads now.

So far, no cheaters have been identified.

Categories: Cadillac