Mazda has a history of innovation and pushing new technology and it seems now that they intend to take their efforts to the safety arena. Safety is good, I know we as car guys often complain about the added weight and added costs but at the end of the day it is nice to know you are protected in the case of an accident.
Sep 27
Lewis Hamilton to leave McLaren for Mercedes
According to the telegraph Lewis Hamilton is on his way out of McLaren and headed to Mercedes. The contract is to the tune of 100 million dollars and three years. This probably means the end of the line for the greatest driver of all time Michael Schumacher.
Sep 27
Chrysler fleecing dealers $25,000 to sell the new Viper
Chrysler is probably the least business savvy of the big three which is why they are nearly constantly on the verge of collapse, or atleast it seems that way. So what they have done is create a masterpiece in the new Viper and after building tons of hype for the car they have decided to limit who can sell it. STUPID STUPID STUPID!
So here is the deal, if you are a Chrysler/Dodge dealer and you want to sell new Vipers you have to pony up $25,000 to corporate just to be able to do so. Now we know that there will only be 2,000 Vipers to go around the first year so it’s exclusive but it seems the strategy here is to ensure those of us who do not live in a giant metropolis never actually see the new Viper on a dealer lot.
This defeats the purpose of a Halo car. You see Halo cars are cars that the average person will never own, but might come in to the dealer to check out. While they are at the dealer they will see the other cars the company makes and maybe guy one of those. It has worked for decades and is why cars like the Vette, Viper, Ford GT, etc exist.
It will be interesting to see just how many dealers pay the premium to sell the Viper. It is entirely possible that only a handful of dealers pony up the price and then those dealers will specialize in Viper sales.
Sep 26
FPV GT
A couple of weeks ago, we had a World Car Reviews/Blacksands Racing drive day. The members of World Car Reviews that are from Victoria, Australia got together with Blacksands Racing to discuss driving techniques, to explore some fantastic roads together and in general have an enjoyable day. The theme for the day was “Aussie Built”. All of the cars assembled were Australian made.
This is the first article in a series that looks at the cars we drove that day. They are not full reviews, but more brief drive impressions. Enjoy.
The GT is the big hitter out of our assembled vehicles. It has the most power, the most torque and is (arguably) the most sport focused model. It’s also the priciest car on the day. With it’s $71,290 pricetag sitting just above the $69,990 Holden Caprice.
From the outside, the GT is all obvious aggression and muscular purpose. From the “squirrel cheek” headlight clusters, to the big bonnet lump, the gaping front radiator intake, the big wheel and tyre package and the race-inspired rear wing.
It’s the typical Aussie muscle car look. Fleetmobile sedan given lashings of anger.
Sep 26
The fastest IRS car in the world
In the drag racing world live rear axles rule and it’s pretty rare to see an IRS car once someone gets serious about knocking off some time. However Mark Carlyle has decided to see how far he can take his Vette on stock IRS suspension. That’s right, stock suspension.
The results are astounding with a time of 7.094@212MPH on the stock suspension. Amazing. That is a world record.