Category: Cars

If you’re seeing this on Facebook and you only click one of my posts now and then, this is the one for you.< Set aside 30 minutes for this video and you'll see car design and manufacturing on a whole new level. I first met Christian von Koenigsegg at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 2009. Back then, he was the face and name fronting a group that intended to buy Saab Automobile from General Motors. That deal fell through due to decision makers involved dragging their feet and the Koenigsegg Group becoming frustrated as they watched Saab's value swirling down a sinkhole of bureaucracy. In 2010 I visited Koenigsegg whilst on vacation in Sweden and I received a day-long tour much like the one you'll see compressed into this 30-minute video. It's a stunning insight into the vehicle design and manufacturing process and if you get the chance to see it up close and personal, even a boofhead like me can gain an understanding of the science behind the engineering. They take meticulous precision to a whole new level in the pursuit of automotive perfection. Proof? Just listen to the explanation behind the door hinges. Race cars are built to go at astounding speeds for maybe up to eight hours at a time before being torn down and rebuilt. Koenigsegg cars are built to go at astounding speeds for months at a time between services. They really do amazing, mind-blowing things. I'd love to see regulations change to allow them to compete in endurance races like LeMans. I reckon they'd go very nicely indeed. I'm so glad someone with the right camera equipment (and the confidence to do it) had a chance to record a tour like this. Well done to the Drive guys.

I hope you get two things out watching this: 1) an appreciation for how complex this industry is, especially at the hypercar level, and 2) a sense of just how down to earth and dedicated CvK is to his profession. He’s an incredible guy.

Grab a cuppa and a biscuit, sit back and enjoy the ride.

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And for those who want a bit more, here’s my own ride with Christian in a CCX, back in 2010. There’s a shortened version, too, but the longer one’s got more conversation as we drive from the factory down to the airstrip. At just 7 minutes, it shouldn’t tax your schedule too much.

Zero to 200 and then back to zero – with no hands 🙂

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Here’s one for the Saab people to think about…..

Take Christian’s brains, his dedication to finding and executing the right solutions and combine all that with a dedicated designer in Bard Eker and the funding they had behind them from other members of the Koenigsegg Group.

Apply all of that to a timely sale of Saab back in 2009.

The Swedish Government and GM have a lot to answer for. Yes, the Koenigsegg Group did make some errors along the way, but they were there and they were ready. It’s a sign of their seriousness in this deal that they felt compelled to pull out when their target deadlines were continually being pushed out.

What might have been.

I’ve been receiving a few submissions for the “Best car I’ve ever owned” series. I haven’t had time to reply yet, or post them on site, but will get to that in due course. Thanks very much to those who have sent stories and pictures in. You’re ace.

In the meantime, maybe we can spend a moment considering a pair of vehicles that might make it onto future all-time favourite car lists.

Toyota have caused a stir here in Australia by announcing that their new sports coupe, simply called the 86 here in Oz, will be available for a hair under A$30,000. That’s a few thousand cheaper than expected, so people are very happy.

The car’s been getting very good reviews, too:

Yes, the Toyota 86 is as good as you dared to dream it would be.

It’s a sublime driver’s car that handles beautifully, responds to your every input and is damn quick too.

That’s perhaps the most glowing. You can judge for yourself whether Car Advice were a bit over the top, but they gave it 5 stars out of 5.

CarsGuide were willing to tone things down (by the tiniest bit):

The 86 is the most enjoyable drive you will find without jumping into a Porsche, combining brilliant grip and balance with a sublime ride and steering that keeps you totally in touch with the road.

It can feel a little underpowered, and the dub-dub-dub exhaust note on start-up is a constant reminder that Subaru was a 50:50 partner in the car, but there is a huge amount to like in the 86 and very little to complain about.

So, apparently it’s a pretty decent drive.

We don’t have pricing details here for the Subaru BRZ yet, but I’ll pose the question anyway – Given proximate pricing on the part of Subaru, which would you choose – the Subaru BRZ or the Toyota 86?

I have to admit I’m a bit of a badge snob and the idea of buying a Toyota, no matter how good, just doesn’t appeal to me.

On the other side, the Subie looks the goods and has a brand rep that I’m more tuned in to. Plus, it’d probably feel more genuine to me as it’s a Subie engine under the hood of both cars. And I prefer blue.

To the polls!! Favourite cars of all time start tomorrow.

[poll id=”4″]

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My post from yesterday – Subjective Question: What’s the best car you’ve ever owned – yielded some absolutely wonderful stories about people and their cars. Your stories spoke of the type of car culture that I worry about losing given the current generation of kids and their preference for smartphones over a set of smart wheels.

Thanks so much for your responses.

I think it’d be great if some of you could share a bit more about your favourite car. I’d love to see some photos and read some of the stories in greater depth.

So, if you’d care to share a little more, I’d be happy to receive your photos and stories for publication here on the site.

If you’ve only got old film-based photos, you can either scan them or take digital copies. You’ll be amazed at the reproductions you can get from a digital camera, or even just a phone, nowadays. This photo of my grandmother and my dad was taken with my SonyEricsson Xperia and is a carbon copy of the paper photo. You might even find it’s a good opportunity to digitise some of your paper-based pics.

I’m always interested to hear the virtues of cars I’d otherwise overlook. Being a habitual used car buyer, stories like these are always good fuel for a few hours searching the classifieds.

And some of the stories are great, too. I’m really hoping Jimmy has some pics of that old $100 Chevy Caprice on one of it’s 3 cross-continent road trips.

So, if you’ve got a mind for sharing, please get some pics organised and a few stories about your favourite. My email address hasn’t changed – swade99-at-gmaildotcom – so please send your stuff in and let’s share the love.

On paper, the Saab 9-3 Viggen is the best car I’ve ever owned.

It’s the one I paid the most money for. It had the most powerful engine, the highest level of equipment, the best interior, the best paint (color and finish) and the highest safety rating.

It’s close. Top 3, even. But it’s not the best car I’ve ever owned.

‘The best car I’ve ever owned’ is not just a statement about the car. It’s a statement about relative time, the way the car was used, the payback it gave and the impression it left on me.

Cars make impressions for different reasons. One might mean so much to you because of the work you did to resurrect it, or to bring it up to a standard. Another car might hold it’s place in your heart because you never expected it to be so good. Yet another might have carried you on a wonderful trip to a favourite place or simply provided you with a wonderful ownership experience.

So with the Viggen in third place, what other cars could be above it?

What’s the best car I’ve ever owned?

Continue reading Subjective Question – What’s the best car you’re ever owned?

I was going to write about just one of these films, but then I figured why not turn it into a list? There have been some absolutely brilliant motorsport films in the last few years. Here, in no particular order, are my Top 5 Car Movies.

Note: All these films are documentaries. As is pointed out in comments, there are many fiction/action movies featuring cars. I haven’t considered them for this list. Maybe that’s for another time 🙂

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Truth in 24 II – Every Second Counts

This is at the top of the list as it’s the movie I just finished watching. If you’ve seen Truth in 24 then you’ll know the drill for this one. It’s basically an 83 minute ad for Audi’s TDI endurance racing team and their campaign at LeMans.

Don’t let the fact that you know the drill put you off watching it. It’s compelling viewing. The quality of the Audi racing team is apparent for all to see and it’s little wonder they’ve won 10 LeMans races in 12 years.

BONUS: iTunes users can get access to Truth in 24 II, in high definition, for free. I just watched it tonight via my little Apple TV box. Free access is available in U.S., United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.

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Continue reading My Top 5 Car Movies (documentaries)

I haven’t been this excited about a coming motor vehicle for some time, but yesterday’s press release stating that Mazda and Fiat would be combining their resources to produce both the next generation MX-5 and a new Alfa Romeo Spider is music to my ears.

Fiat Group Automobiles S.p.A. (Fiat) and Mazda Motor Corporation (Mazda) have signed a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the development and manufacturing of a new roadster for the Mazda and Alfa Romeo marques based on Mazda’s next-generation MX-5 rear-wheel-drive architecture.

The study calls for both Fiat and Mazda to develop two differentiated, distinctly styled, iconic and brand-specific light weight, roadsters featuring rear-wheel drive. The Alfa Romeo and Mazda variants will each be powered by specific proprietary engines unique to each brand.

The project assumption is that both vehicles will be manufactured at Mazda’s Hiroshima, Japan, plant with production for Alfa Romeo envisaged starting in 2015.

I’ve never owned an Alfa Romeo Spider but I have owned several Alfa Romeos in the past and currently own a 1985 Alfa Romeo GTV6. Alfa is one of those marques that most people have at least a small affection for. It’s said that even Enzo Ferrari Henry Ford used to tip his hat when an Alfa went by, such was his respect for his fellow Italian racing competitors. Like many storied brands, however, Alfa’s impeccable racing pedigree is mostly a distant memory. Whilst recent models have maintained Alfa’s penchant for beautiful styling, they haven’t always delivered in terms of driving experience.

I’ve also owned a Mazda MX-5 in the past, albeit for a short time only. My MX-5 ownership suffered from the fact that I sold a beautiful Alfa 33 16V in order to buy it and I missed the Alfa too much to really enjoy the MX-5. It was quite a fun car and well suited to the old automotive cliché about go-kart handling. The early models were somewhat underpowered, however, and whilst more recent models have more poke on paper, they’ve also gained a considerable amount of weight. I’ve read elsewhere that Mazda are hoping to bring the next generation MX-5 back under 1,000kg and I think that’s a fantastic move.

The prospect of taking Mazda’s proven MX-5 handling and build quality and adding some Alfa styling and powertrain pizazz to it is enough to put some steam in a man’s strides. It’s a partnership well worth exploring and I can’t wait to see what the two companies come up with.

I’ve been quite concerned about Alfa Romeo’s future over the last few years. Fiat closed the Alfa museum in Italy a year or so ago and it’s never reopened. Whilst they’ve announced firm production plans for the boutique 4C model recently, the current Alfa range is limited to just the MiTo and the Giulietta. They desperately need a larger car in the near future and whilst this new Alfa Romeo Spider doesn’t fill that need, it does provide some reassurance that Fiat are serious about building the Alfa Romeo brand.

Time for a Snoopy dance!

Last weekend was interesting (for me, at least. Hopefully for you, too): I took my Alfa Romeo GTV6 to Baskerville Raceway for the Club Motori Italia 2012 Regularity event.

This was my first event in the GTV6 and the regularity style of competition was the perfect format for what I wanted to do – learn how to drive my car better.

There will be a few Saab blog readers who might be familiar with the term ‘regularity’ as it’s one of the classes used in the Midnight Sun rally in Sweden. This is a little different, however.

In the Midnight Sun type of regularity event, the drivers have to drive each stage at an average speed nominated by the event organisers. In recent years it’s been an average of 60km/h, if I recall correctly. So, each stage has to be driven to that average and variations from that average count against the competitors’ stage and overall times.

The regularity event I participated in on the weekend is based on the entrants’ own nominated lap times. You do timing runs in the morning and based on those times, you nominate a lap time that you think you’ll be able to drive consistently during the afternoon. Capisce? You’re not competing against anyone else. The only objective you have is to match your own nominated time.

I had three timing sessions in the morning. The lap times in each session were as follows:

1st session: 83 seconds, 89s, 82s
2nd session: 79s, 78s, 77s
3rd session: 78s, 77s, 79s

The first session, as you can probably tell, was a ‘getting to know you’ session for me, the car and the track. The second lap was slowed by a very fast Honda CRX blowing an engine as it passed me. Not fun for him. Even though I’ve driven this track before, it’s always been with an instructor and I had to get used to picking the right line on my own, which took some effort.

The benefits of the first session came through in the times for the second and third, as you can see. I got to know my braking and shifting points a bit better, as well as getting a little more familiar with the proper ‘racing’ line.

I got some good advice from the guy who ended up winning the event: pick one of your faster times as your goal for the afternoon. The theory behind this is that as you get to know the track better, you’ll get faster and hopefully more consistent in your ability to achieve the nominated time.

Based on my times and Rob’s advice, I picked a target time of 77 seconds for the afternoon sessions. And Rob’s theory about the potential for improvement turned out to be true.

The one thing you can’t have enough of when it comes to driving around a racetrack is confidence in your car. I didn’t have that at the start of the day but as I got more laps under my belt, I began to get a feel for how the car moved, how it responded to different inputs. I learned how late I could brake, where the tyres would start to break traction, and I got a feel for the speed I could carry through various corners. By the end of the day I’d had an absolute blast throwing the GTV6 around the Baskerville track.

Remember, my nominated lap time was 77 seconds. My four afternoon sessions yielded the following lap times:

1st session: 78s, 78s, 79s, 78s
2nd session: 78s, 76s, 77s, 77s
3rd session: 76s, 77s, 76s, 76s
4th session: 75s, 75s, 76s, 75s

For someone who nominated 77 seconds, I didn’t do 77 very often. And with double points lost for each second under your nominated time, I certainly wasn’t anywhere near the front of the field. In fact, I came third last in terms of consistency-based points score.

BUT…..

In terms of taking what is a new car (to me) out to a track and getting a feel for what it could do, the day was an absolute blast. When you include -in and -out laps, I probably did around 40 laps on the day and I learned more about my GTV6 in those 40 laps than I’d learned in my previous two months of ownership. I wasn’t consistent in the manner that the competition demanded, but I think I got consistently better as the day progressed in terms of knowing my car – and that feels good.

Things I learned:

• I haven’t driven RWD for around 20 years so for me, it took some getting used to. The GTV6 isn’t necessarily an easy car to drive fast for someone who’s not used to it, but it’s an intensely rewarding car when you do manage to figure it out.
• Buying a well sorted car is its own reward. My Alfa ran perfectly from the time I drove it out of the garage in the morning until the time I drove it home again. Magnificent.
• There’s nothing quite like participating with an experienced car club. They know all the bases that have to be covered in order to run a successful event. Thanks to Club Motori Italia for another wonderful outing.
• I’m really pleased I bought one with a sunroof as I wouldn’t have fit in the car with a helmet on my head otherwise 🙂

If you’ve got an interest in track days then I’d encourage you to find a) the right car, and b) the right car club to get involved with. There’s nothing else in this world that will improve your driving awareness and skill, aside from designated driver training from experts, than some good tuition and safe competition amongst experienced drivers.

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I hoped to have video, but camera 1 was mistakenly set to photos rather than video and camera 2’s audio failed.

I’ve lifted the photos used in this article from the CMI galleries on Facebook – here and here. My thanks to the photographers on the day who got some great shots of everyone’s cars.

And finally, congratulations to Rob, driving one of the other Alfas on the day, for taking first place by driving just two laps (out of 16 timed laps) outside his nominated 76 seconds. An outstanding effort.

There was some major auto advertising news yesterday: GM has decided to quit advertising via Facebook.

They will still have their various pages on Facebook, but after analysing the results of their significant ad spend, they’ve decided that Facebook ads have little effect on their consumers and they’re going to save their money for use elsewhere.

There are two big takeaways for me from this article.

First, I’ve never been a huge fan of Facebook in general. I understand and agree that it’s a valuable tool that companies can use to reach their customers, however I’ve always questioned the depth of that contact.

Continue reading GM Ditch Facebook ads – I’m not surprised

My first (and third) car was a Holden Gemini. If you missed that story, the link is your friend.

The first Gemini I owned was, shall we say, less masculine than an 18-year-old Australian boy would like. To its credit, it was a rear-wheel-drive car and Geminis could actually be quite fun to drive. BUT….. it was also Baby Blue in color. I didn’t cry too much about its sudden demise, which came courtesy of a freak thunderstorm and a rather large tree.

With the insurance payout burning a hole in my pocket, I set out in search of something that would give me a little more street cred. One of our genuine Aussie motoring icons. I couldn’t afford the most iconic version, as it turned out, but I did manage to snare myself a rather nice 1973 Holden LJ Torana.

For those who are unfamiliar, the LJ Torana can be quite a looker:

Mine didn’t look that good, unfortunately.

The picture above is of a GTR XU-1 model, a special hot edition of the Torana based on the cars that were campaigned quite successfully in endurance racing here in Australia in the 1970s. In fact, Australia’s most prestigious race, the Bathurst 1000, was won in a Torana five times during the 1970s, with four of those victories coming at the hands of the mercurial Peter Brock.

My Torana wasn’t the racier two-door model, as seen above. I had the 4-door sedan, but I also had the rear spoiler, 5-slot mag wheels and tinted windows. Unfortunately, I also had a “P” plate on the back – the sign displayed by law to show that the driver is a provisional (i.e. new) licence holder.

Continue reading Cars I’ve owned – Holden LJ Torana