As I sit here writing this, we’re around three hours from the end of Le Mans. Porsche is leading with the #2 Audi catching them at a pace fast enough to take the lead. Can Porsche hold on and claim a Le Mans victory in it’s first tilt in 14 years? It’ll be an outstanding achievement if they can.
But I wanted to share a little of Porsche’s media output during the race.
I recently gained access to Porsche’s press area and having spent a little time in this sphere myself, I have to say I’m super-impressed with the timeliness of their reporting. They must have a well-staffed, well-resourced media team on the ground at Le Mans. And given that the emails I’m receiving are from Porsche Cars Australia, I assume they’ve got all their regional PR people on point this weekend, too.
As I said, super-impressive.
I got a press release after qualifying and so far I’ve received a video and a press release during the race.
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The press releases are accompanied by bundles of high quality photos from the event and they’re landing in my inbox as the event is happening.
It’s only a small example, but this is one of the reasons that leading car companies are leading car companies. Attention to detail, quality product and a relentless drive to exceed expectations.
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[dropcap]C[/dropcap]ould Formula E be the turning point for interest in electric vehicles amongst car guys? The FIA-sanctioned racing formula will race for points for the first time in September, but this coming Monday, January 6, will see the first public demonstration of the vehicles in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The fully-electric race car completed its successful test debut earlier this year and will now be showcased to invited guests, media and the public during a special event at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino – driven by former F1 driver Lucas di Grassi.
Formula E, as the name suggests, is the Formula 1 equivalent for electric vehicle racing. This could be a tide-turner for those who remain ambivalent about electric vehicles, those who don’t see an application for them in their own lives. This is an electric vehicle ‘event’ that they can get interested in.
A quick primer on the series.
The Cars
Teams will be encouraged to pursue their own design within parameters set by the FIA, but the first series will see a common vehicle used. The vehicle has been developed by Spark Racing Technology, out of France, using the expertise of several well known companies as contributors. These include McLaren Electronics Systems, Williams, Michelin and Renault.
The cars have a minimum weight (with driver) of 800kg and a maximum battery weight of 200kg. The engines will make a maximum of 276hp, though full power is only available at certain times through race using a ‘push to pass’ function where permitted. Regular race power is 180hp, so the ‘push to pass’ function is a real boost when available.
Here’s the car in an early media event. Warning: you won’t find this overly inspiring, but bear in mind that this test vehicle was limited to just one quarter of the power that the race cars will have. This was just a media event to prove the concept, get some buzz and shoot some photos.
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Teams will have two drivers each and there will be two cars per driver.
Races include pitstops where the driver changes into the second car.
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The Series
The Formula E season will start in September 2014 and continue through to mid-2015. There are 10 races scheduled in this 9-month period. As with Formula 1, there will be a drivers championship and a constructors championship.
The series will see races in the following cities:
Beijing, China
Putrajaya, Malaysia
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Punta Del Este, Uruguay
Buenos Aries, Argentina
Los Angeles, USA
Miami, USA
Monte Carlo, Monaco
Berlin, Germany
London, England
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The Teams
Ten teams have been tentatively approved by the FIA for participation in the Formula E series. Final confirmation is yet to come but these teams have been publicised on the Formula E website, so it’d be surprising if they’re not there in September.
Drayson Racing (GB) – Formed by a former UK Science Minister, Lord Drayson. I hope they use similar T-shirts as the ones used by Lord Hesketh’s team back in the 70’s. They’ve already built one electric racer using a Lola chassis and claim a record for the fastest speed set by a lightweight electric vehicle.
China Racing (China, duh) – This team has grown out of the former Chinese A1GP team. Not much else known.
Andretti Autosport (USA) – The Andretti name should be familiar to all racing fans, even if you’re not familiar with the details of the family’s success. This team is headed by Michael Andretti and they have teams in multiple racing series in the USA right now.
Dragon Racing (USA) – Another Formula E team from the USA featuring another famous surname – Penske. It’s not the more familiar Roger Penske, however, but his youngest son, Jay. Jay made his money in publishing and we’ll see if he squanders it in Formula E. You know how to make a small fortune in motor racing, right? Start with a big one.
e.dams (Fra) – How surprising, a French team named after cheese 🙂 . e.dams was co-founded by Jean-Paul Droit and a guy named Alain Prost, who I’m sure knows absolutely nothing about racing but plenty about cheese. OK, more seriously, Droit has led his Dams team to wins in multiple different race formulae and Prost won 4 F1 World Championships and 51 Grands Prix. They know their stuff.
Super Aguri (JPN) – Super Aguri was involved in Formula 1 in the mid-2000’s. The team is headed by former racer, Aguri Suzuki. I guess Super Aguri sounds more credible than Super Suzuki although the alliteration must have been tempting.
Audi Sport ABT (Ger) – Given that Audi seems to eventually dominate most forms of motorsport it enters, this might be the team to watch. The ABT Sportsline team on which this Audi team is based has won five DTM titles in Germany. Vorsprung Durch Elektrisch Technik?
Mahindra Racing – The only team based in India and built on the industrial resources of Mahindra’s global operations, including vehicles and other machinery. These are the guys I’d like to get a pit pass for – the food in the hospitality area would be amazing.
Virgin Racing (GBR) – It was inevitable that either Virgin or Red Bull would be involved in this series, wasn’t it? The statements from Team Principal Alex Tai confirm that Formula E is a perfect brand fit for Virgin and the series will provide a wonderful atmosphere – no mention of technical capability. I’m sure they’ll hook up with the right people, however, as they usually do.
Venturi (Monaco) – The food might be good at Mahindra but the razzle-dazzle will be in the Team Venturi tent. Take an aspiring French electric car company, add in a bit of Hollywood celebrity in the form of team co-founder Leonardo Di Caprio and then base the whole thing in Monaco. Venturi claim the over-all electric vehicle land speed record (495km/h) and will be shooting for 700km/h in the near future. The powertrain for that record-holding vehicle is to be a base for their own Formula E vehicle when manufacturers build their own from 2015 onwards.
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All jest aside, if Formula E can provide the advances in EV technology that Formula 1 has provided for ICE cars over the years, it’s going to be a very valuable series. If EV’s are going to become mainstream, they’ll need better battery technology in order to provide greater range. Racing can be a great proving ground for such technology.
Of course, the viability of the series will depend upon whether or not people get interested in it. Bums on seats and eyes on TV’s – that’s what matters.
I really hope they succeed. It’ll be fascinating to watch this develop.
Last weekend I had a conundrum on my hands – do I take the Alfa GTV6 I’m trying to sell out to a track meeting and risk something bad happening to it? Or stay home and do…. whatever. I ummed and ahhed about it for a few hours, worried about the possible consequences as well as the cost of buying a helmet – and of course, I did it.
I had an incentive, I have to admit. I managed to talk our youngest, Geoffrey, into coming along in his zippy little small-port Toyota Corolla. Of course, I couldn’t let the young bloke down. Our initial plan was that we’d both drive his car, so my conundrum mostly centered around whether to bring the Alfa or not.
I’m glad I did.
Regularity is probably my favourite form of motorsport. It’s on a track, so there aren’t any trees to hit. You run with only a few other cars on the track at the same time and all spaced accordingly, so there’s minimal chance of banging fenders with other cars. And finally, the objective is to be consistent, not to be first. You can go as fast as you like, as long as you’re consistently fast.
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We did timed laps in the morning so that everyone could get a feel for their speed. The objective is to determine your nominated time for the afternoon, a time that you’ll need to stick to in order to lose as few points as possible.
Resting in the pit lane during a break….
You get a point for every second slower than your nominated time. You get two points for every second faster than your nominated time. Your objective is get as few points as possible.
My timed sessions in the morning saw me post the following times (in seconds):
78 81 81 80 74 78 75 76 79 74
The trick is to nominate at the faster end of your range. You tend to get better throughout the day. I nominated 75 seconds for my lap time to match in the afternoon.
Geoffrey’s timed sessions in the morning saw him post the following times:
73 79 82 80 78 76 75 76 78 77
Geoff was feeling pretty confident so he nominated 74 seconds for his lap target in the afternoon.
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My afternoon session was marred by one incident in my third session. On the third lap I came in to the last corner a little too hot, messed up my gearchange and ended up sideways and into the dirt on the side of the track.
I decided to head straight into the pits and check out the car, just to make sure everything was OK. The decision to DNF that session cost me 23 points. Thankfully, the car was 100% OK.
I nominated 75 seconds for my lap time in the afternoon. My afternoon lap times were as follows:
Session 1 – 77 76 76
Session 2 – 76 75 76
Session 3 – 75 74 / /
Session 4 – 75 75 75 74
Points accrued – 4+2+25+2 = 33
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Geoff’s afternoon session was as smooth as a baby’s bottom. We actually took some video of him driving the car and you’ve rarely seen anyone so relaxed in charge of a car at speed. In contrast, I was wrenching the GTV6 around the track. The differences between 70’s and 80’s chassis design was never more marked.
Geoff nominated 74 seconds for his lap time. His session times for the afternoon were as follows:
Session 1 – 75 75 74
Session 2 – 74 75 75
Session 3 – 74 74 73 74
Session 4 – 75 75 75 74
Points accrued – 2+2+2+3 = 9
Remember, this is a guy at his first ever track event. Geoff’s consistency was outstanding and it didn’t go unrewarded.
Geoff actually took out third place for the entire event!!!
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We had a great time. Both cars and both drivers made it home in full operating condition and plenty of fun was had along the way.
Club Motori Italia will host a hillclimb at the same track in the near future. I’m pretty sure we’ll both be there. I don’t think I’ll have the GTV6 at that time, but I’m sure there’ll be something in the garage that’ll make the event memorable.
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I didn’t have much time for photos, as you can see.
The only car I took shots of, aside from one shot of my own and a few shots of Geoff, was this wonderful little Fiat X1/9. The owner has had the car for around 20 years and has done a wonderful job preserving it. He had a ball, too.
I love Targa Tasmania. I love the celebration of driving and cars and petrol and all that caveman stuff. This year’s fleet was on show in Launceston last night and as I’m currently working in the north of the state, I thought it wise to pop in and have a look.
This year is unofficially dubbed (by me) as the Year of Renault. There are always plenty of Porsches at Targa and a good smattering of your modern Japanese REXEVOs but it’s rare to pick up a third dominant thread of cars. That changed this year with Renaults making a prominent mark.
There are at least five current model RenaultSport Meganes in the fleet, one RS Megane of the previous generation, as well as a couple of absolutely gorgeous vintage Renaults from a few decades ago, one of which is an Alpine. I went a bit overboard taking photos of the older Renaults so please forgive me if French metal isn’t your thing, but hopefully you’ll agree they were pretty compelling.
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It would be remiss of me to not acknowledge the tragic death of a Targa Tasmania competitor earlier today. This is the first Targa death in 17 years. A driver, age 71, died when his Porsche Cayman came off the road and hit a tree. His 26 year old navigator was severely injured and is in hospital.
This is very serious, very active recreation with very real risks.
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BEST IN SHOW…. goes to the aforementioned Renault pairing. It’s a Renault 5 Turbo2 and an original Renault-Alpine A110.
Renault 5 Turbo2 and Renault-Apline A110
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BEST PRESENTED….. goes to the awesome work done on this Mazda RX-7
Mazda RX-7 Targa Tasmania
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MOST QUESTIONABLE…. not only is this Porsche a most un-Targa-like Panamera, it’s also Left Hand Drive.
Porsche Panamera Targa Tasmania
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MOST AUTHENTIC…… goes to this Datsun 1600. I’d be surprised if his Targa preparation amounted to anything more than a change of oil and plugs.
Datsun 1600 Targa Tasmania
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MOST AUSSIE….. All that’s missing is the yobbo in a wifebeater with a tinny. Seriously Australian piece of machinery.
Holden Monaro Targa Tasmania
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MOST LIKELY TO MAKE MY MATE MATS SPIT HIS CORNFLAKES ALL OVER HIS KEYBOARD….. Don’t know if it’s original, but this Porsche 914-6 sure would be fast. Looked great with the flares, too.
Porsche 914-6
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MOST SENTIMENTAL FAVOURITE….. This Jensen CV8 is here every year and always looks awesome.
Jensen CV8
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MOST IMPRESSIVE CARBIES…. on this Datsun 260Z.
Datsun Triple Carbs
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BEST USE OF A DISPLAY CAR AS A DINNER TABLE BY ‘MODELS’ HIRED TO STAND NEXT TO IT….. The same Datsun. Launceston’s not quite Hollywood, ya know. The concept of hiring girlies to stand next to show cars is quite new to Targa. At this rate, I hope it doesn’t catch on.
Datsun 260Z
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The rest of the Gallery is below. Lots and lots of photos, including a few too many of those gorgeous Renaults.
Not so much a Saab event, but a Trollhattan event…..
Last night I popped up to the Saab Museum, which was the start and finish point for the Grense Rallyt, a smaller regularity rally.
There were only 18 vehicles in the field, but it was nice to see them come back to the museum and cross the finish line. I thought I’d share some of the photos from the event with you here.
I have to confess that I don’t know much about this event and where it fits into any larger schedule of historic rallies here in Sweden. It felt like it was part of a larger series, however, given the number of officials and sponsorship that was present.
Regularity rallying is not your full-tilt type of rallying. Regularity involves completing stages as close as possible to a designated average speed. It requires precision calculation and communication between driver and co-driver, rather than flat-out speed and handling. That’s why you’ll see some cars below with minimal modification.
It’s fantastic that a sponsor like Teknikens Varld magazine was able to support the event and I hope there were more people there in the morning to see the vehicles and the level of support provided by Teknikens. Motorsport needs this kind of sponsorship to survive, so it’s great that they were able to help out. The white Porsche is a Cayman R that they’re currently road testing.
This is pretty exciting stuff for a Saab nut. I’m always keen to see how people run their older Saabs and it always puts a smile on my face when I see something like this.
My first correspondence with Bertil Sollenskog was last year (2010), when he had a failed first attempt at Bonneville. He had some mechanical issues last year that couldn’t be sorted out at the flats themselves, so he brought the car home to fight another day. He wasn’t discouraged, however. Having been told that it usually takes at least two failed attempts before people can get close to a record, Bertil vowed to himself that the second time would be charm.
And so it was.
Bertil is an expat Swede living in the US and he runs his own engine-building company, preparing competition engines for various VW and Toyota racing formulas.
He saw a Saab Monte Carlo for sale 4 or 5 years ago, bought it, and has been playing with it ever since. After helping out a friend at Bonneville Speed Week in 2007, Bertil got the speed bug and decided it was time to make the Monte Carlo sing for its supper.
Last year’s run might have failed to produce a record, but it did a lot to teach Bertil about the harsh conditions on the flats and how well prepared you need to be in order to have a realistic chance of setting a record there. Consequently, Bertil took a team of five along to the flats this year, as well as two engines.
I’ll let him take up the story:
About 400 cars and 100 motorcycles come to Speedweek every year, representing many different classes. My 1966 Saab Monte Carlo is entered in class JPRO, which means it has to be stock on the outside and modified for safety on the inside. Engine tuning is “free”, but all basic engine parts must be from the Saab family.
The engine is 750 cc, water-cooled, 3 cylinder and 2 stroke. It is now tuned to 97 hp at 6500 rpm. (The standard is 52 hp at 4500rpm.)
The salt flats are unique, with temperatures up to 110 F, humidity down to 11% and altitude of 4500 ft. This makes it difficult to adjust the fuel mixture properly ahead of the time trials! Luckily there is up to 2 hours wait between runs, which allows for adjusting.
After many runs, never breaking 100 mph, the first engine melted a piston. The second engine was installed and modifications were made on the car (i.e. lowering the ride height).
After several more runs and tweaking, the Saab averaged 107.5mph on two runs with a flying start. The previous record of 103.9 mph was broken! I thought the engine could produce more, so we kept on trying. Ultimately, we reached 110 mph, our final record for 2011 Speedweek.
Bertil already has plans for a return with a faster car next year. The engine is strong enough, but gearbox and suspension modifications are in the works.
Note – the salt flat photos below are from this year, but the engine and interior photos are from 2010 and the engine is his ‘street’ engine with three downdraft carbs. The engine used at the flats has three side-draft carbs and delivers 20hp more than the street engine.
Following is a video from the historic class, the flat-out version of the rally that doesn’t feature quite so many Saabs, but does feature a lot of action.
Enjoy your viewing.
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My apologies to a few of the Saab drivers that I missed. My camera was running so low on battery power towards the end that I was turning it off between cars. Sometimes it didn’t start up again quickly enough. There were at least two Saabs that I missed – a 99T and one or more 96’s.
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Going to the Midnight Sun Rally was a ton of fun. You’d need to be well organised to get to spectator points on a number of different stages, but once you’re there it really is like old-time racing.
People spill out and walk along the track in between cars. They’re gathered on the hills, some of them having picnics.
And then there’s the driving, which as you can see is pretty exciting stuff. Many of Sweden’s top drivers were there, including Kenneth Backlund from the Saab Performance Team, former Saab champ Stig Blomqvist as well as eventual winner, Kenny Bräck.
If you have an opportunity to get along to one of these historic rallies in the future, I recommend that you do. You’ll see some outstanding machinery, some ace driving and you’ll have a whole lot of fun doing it.
The 2011 Midnight Sun Rally ended just over a week ago and there were a lot of Saabs entered in the event. If you haven’t seen the Midnight Sun Rally photo album yet, then make sure you click on that link and check it out.
Most of the Saabs at the event competed in the Regularity Class. This is not full-tilt rally driving as you might know it. Regularity, as the name suggests, is all about driving to a regular schedule and being consistent in that. In the case of the Midnight Sun Rally, this meant driving to achieve an average of 50km/h over every stage of the event. Cars incur penalties for being outside the 50km/h average target.
This video shows most of the Saabs competing in Regularity this year. Because I was filming on some longer, straighter sections, this is more like a chance to see and appreciate the vehicles than to see some sideways action (that’s coming in another video a bit later!). Regularity is more about teamwork and precision than it is about flat out speed. It’s also less expensive than flat-out rallying, allowing greater access to a wider group of people.
Enjoy the cars! You’ll see a great range of Saabs here from the Saab 92 right through to late model Saab 99s (entries in the rally have to be at least 30 years old).
I’ve got a swag of photos from the Midnight Sun Rally, held around Västerås last weekend. I don’t have any of the cars on the dirt, though. I only shot video there, which I’ll post very soon. These stills were taken at Rally HQ in Västerås, where the cars would assemble at the end of each day.
I’m not sure if I got everyone, but I got a lot of them! Here’s a selective collection of larger images, with a more complete gallery below. Click to enlarge.
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This blue 99Turbo is the latest car built by the Saabs United Historic Rally Team. It’s a replica of Stig Blomqvist’s 1981 car from the Swedish Rally.
Many of you heard that would-be Saab investor Vladimir Antonov was entered for the race, which would have been the second year in a row for him. This is the team he would have driven in.
The three cars were prepared by Historic Rally Racing Service in a record time of just three months. All three cars feature sports suspension but are running non-turbo, single-carb engines. There’s scope for more performance in them, but for this build (in this timeframe), reliability was the goal. Also, competing in regularity, reliability is more crucial than performance.
The insides of one the cars, complete with chequered flag trim 🙂
Mr Antonov’s place was taken by a friend, Alex Fogilev and the Saab Museum’s Peter Backstrom was drafted in as co-driver.
This Sonett II certainly looked (and sounded) the part. I’ve always wondered why there aren’t more of these in historic rallying, but I guess their relative rarity and fibreglass bodies might have something to do with it. Should still be good for regularity class, though.
Lasse and Sibylla have competed in the last four Midnight Sun rallies. They always compete in period costume. The regularity class is at relatively slow speeds and there is no requirement for racing suits or excessive safety modifications (which is why they can carry suitcases on the roofracks and dolls as passengers in the back seat!). This is the first Midnight Sun they haven’t finished, suffering with a broken driveshaft on the final day.
This early Saab 96 was one of the most immaculate racing vehicles I’ve ever seen. You could eat your dinner off any surface you looked at. Incredible.
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Below is a larger gallery, featuring all the photos above and a bunch more (a few non-Saabs, too. How often do you get to see not one, but two Lancia Stratos?)
Click to enlarge.
Coming soon we will have some video of the Saabs in regularity class, plus all the other vehicles (and a few Saabs too) in the full-tilt historic class.
A few days ago, I posted an article here on Inside Saab, written by a friend of mine in Boston named Pierre Belperron (a guy I’ve previously referred to as “the second-hardest working man in all Saabdom” due to his diligent work as Service Manager at Charles River Saab). The article was called Bare Naked Saabing (highly recommended reading) and the subject of the article was a hillclimb project car built by two of Pierre’s sons, Pascal and Marcel.
The car, a Saab 900, was finally used for it’s new purpose on the weekend in a hillclimb event called Climb to the Clouds. Here it is, being driven by Pascal. It looks like a good run, especially for a first up event for a car that’s just been completed.
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I have a very personal love for watching Saabs participating in motorsport events. As many of you know, Saab built their reputation in the 1950s, 60s and 70s on the back of multiple rallying successes, back before rallying turned into a mega-budget event.
Today, old Saabs are riding a wave of popularity in Sweden and other parts of Europe as historic rallying gains more and more prominence around the continent.
Later next month we will cover the Midnight Sun rally in Sweden, where there are dozens of historic Saabs entered in the event. It’s going to be an absolute blast.
Congratulations to Pascal and Marcel (and team) for their efforts at Mt Washington last weekend!
