Want a ’67 Mustang convertible?

New 1967 Mustang shell.

Ford has just revealed yet another body shell for their favored muscle car, but this time, it’s for the 1967 Mustang Convertible.  The price for the beginning part of your 1967 Mustang rebuild project stands at $15,995.

This new ’67 convertible body shell was manufactured by Dynacorn International who worked not only to replicate the original ’67 convertible, but make it better.  For this, the body panels were made from modern automotive-grade virgin steel and, for better strength, the panels were assembled using modern welding techniques.  There are also newly engineered reinforcements in known stress areas to add strength and rigidity to the body.

“These days, the chances are fairly slim of finding a restorable, rust-free ’67 Mustang that has never been wrecked,” said Dennis Mondrach, Ford Restoration Parts licensing manager.  “As the value of classic Mustangs has increased over the years, garages, barns and scrap yards have been picked clean.”

Unfortunately, the cost of shipping a body shell out here, on top of the almost half a million baht purchase price for the shell, makes this a not very practical project, but it sure is attractive!

Want to join the E30 race club?

BMW E30 racer like this one.

The yellow E30 4 door that runs in the Retro Nitto 3K F5 and F6 classes is for sale.  Fitted with a 3 liter Toyota 2JZ (normally aspirated) it certainly has a powerful engine.  Those who have looked at it closely say the car is a little rough, but nothing that some TLC won’t fix.

It laps Bira around the 1min 14’s and normally in the top three in its class.  Opening bids for this E30, ready to go with wheels / tyres etc., is only 300,000 THB.  Difficult to beat this for performance at the price.  Contact Gavin Charlesworth for more details chaving@yahoo.com.

Shocking road toll figures (again)

165 lives were lost and 1,782 people injured from 1,605 road accidents in the first three of the New Year Festival's “seven dangerous days” according to the Road Safety Centre.

Four helmets out of five ain’t bad, I suppose.

Places to avoid during any holiday period are Buriram with the most deaths with 14 people killed, while the most accidents were recorded in Chiang Rai (61) and Nakhon Sawan (56).  These provinces also had the highest number of people injured, with 62 and 57 respectively.

On Saturday Dec 31, there were 650 road accidents nationwide, which was 34 cases fewer than last year, with 71 people killed (one less than last year) and 731 injured (15 more than last year), Probation Department deputy chief Chalong Atikanit told the media.

Here’s the important statistics - most accidents - 81 percent - involved motorcycles, she said, and most resulted from drunk driving - 44 percent - or speeding - nearly 22 percent.

Over half (59 percent) occurred on straight stretches of road and about a quarter (27 percent) took place between 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.  Over half of all casualties were of working age.

To attempt (not very successfully) to halt the bloodshed, police set up 2,463 checkpoints, and stopped 754,068 road users.  Some 105,144 motorists were found to have broken traffic laws - mostly for failing to wear helmets (32,659) or not carrying a driver's license (29,644), she said.

The total of 1,605 accidents in the first three days was 91 fewer than last year, while the cumulative 165 deaths was an increase of 14, although total number of people injured - 1,782 - was down by 29, Chalong said.

One does not need tertiary qualifications in statistics to see that the people most killed ride motorcycles, probably under the influence of alcohol and are young adults.  Those are exactly the same causes as last year.  What are the police going to do?  Checking for driving licenses has not worked.  How about using their speed guns on the straight roads?  Breathalyze the motorcycle riders at their checkpoints.  Insist on helmets that meet international standards.  Those three items will produce a decrease in deaths over Songkran as well.  But will they try it?  What do you think?

An interesting vehicle

1991 MR2 automatic in pearl white.  This car was imported from Japan and has a Thai registration.  Designed by Lotus with the original Celica 2000 twin cam 16 valve 163 hp engine.

Bodywork and engine in very good condition with regular services and replacement parts all fitted by Toyota specialists.  Optional T-bar roof, electric windows and mirrors, electronic alarm system, 2-way adjustable steering wheel, Bazooka sound system with pioneer radio and CD player.

This car is the only Lotus design and model in Thailand.  The owner is 73 and has a genuine but reluctant reason for parting with his pride and joy.

For a quick sale and a bargain for any purchaser the price is THB. 450,000 o.n.o.  Please no time wasters.  Alan 083 753 6782.

Proton to sell Lotus? 

No wonder the world is in a penurious state, if the example of Proton is anything to go by.  Proton, the Malaysian automaker that bought control of Lotus in 1996, has not made any profit from the British unit for 15 years and guesstimates are that it probably will remain in the red to at least until 2014.

Just to complicate that, now it is rumored that Proton itself may be sold off by the government, with investors such as Gan Eng Peng saying Lotus Group International is ripe for a sale.

“It will make sense for them to sell it,” said Gan, adding, “Proton and Lotus are not a good fit.  They are in different market segments, both in terms of geography and product.”  Now that may be so on the surface, but let us not forget that Tata owns Jaguar these days, and that is an even greater disparity with trucks and pick-ups and luxury sports cars.

Lotus, which has struggled to compete against Porsche and Ferrari in Europe, has hung on to relevance in the auto industry partly because of its decades-long expertise in designing lightweight frames, However, the company may need the backing of an automaker more global (and more cashed up) than Proton to survive in an industry where carmakers such as Saab Automobile are filing for bankruptcy.

Two months ago, Proton denied a report by the Star newspaper that it was selling its Lotus stake to Luxembourg-based Genii Capital.  That is interesting as Genii Capital was the main sponsor for the Lotus Renault F1 team.

Phil Gott, an IHS Automotive analyst specializing in powertrain research, agrees that Lotus technology is excellent.  Expertise in making lightweight frames, a defining area of strength since its founding in 1952 by British engineer Colin Chapman, has allowed Lotus designs to be a popular option for electric cars, Gott said.

Tesla Motors has relied on Lotus chassis designs since 2008 for its $US 109,000 electric Roadster sports car.  The Lotus Elise weighs 912 kilograms, making it the lightest performance car sold in the US, according to Santa Monica, California-based Edmunds.com.  The 2012 Porsche Cayman is much heavier while the Mazda MX-5 Miata sports convertible also weighs much more.

Tesla “Lotus”. 

Proton's stock has gained 44 percent in Kuala Lumpur trading as speculation on its sale heated up.  State-owned Khazanah Nasional Bhd., which holds a 43 percent stake in Proton, has since confirmed it has received offers.  Khazanah officials have declined to comment on Proton’s sale, however, beyond saying it received proposals of interest.  Sime Darby Motors, Naza Group, Hyundai-Berjaya, DRB-Hicom and UMW Holdings are reputedly candidates, though Sime and UMW have said they are not interested, but they might just be playing their cards close to their chest.

Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who founded Proton in 1983, said in December that billionaire Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary’s DRB-Hicom, an auto assembler, is the best candidate to buy the government stake and that Proton shouldn’t be sold to a foreign company.  Recently, Proton has been looking at joint ventures with other manufacturers, such as GM and VW, but nothing was ever signed, sealed and delivered.  For Proton, whose profit tumbled 76 percent in the last quarter, unloading Lotus may give it money to invest in production facilities as Malaysia's national carmaker faces mounting domestic competition from Toyota and Perusahaan Otomobil Kedua (Perodua).

To be a viable entity, Lotus will have to sell 8000 vehicles a year, but last year the total was 1985 units, according to its annual report.  Compare that with Ferrari, whose chairman said in September that it will probably post record sales of 7000 cars this year.

So who wants to buy a company which has lost money every year for the past 15 years, and no sign of that changing this year or next?  You would have to be very brave.

Another reason you don’t see many Honda Brios

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that the floods which hit Honda so hard was the reason the cute little Honda Brio was not the sales leader in the eco-class.  However Ron Lister, one of the readers in Chiang Mai contacted me with the following additional information.

“There is another reason why Honda Thailand failed to get Brios onto Thai roads.  Well before the floods hit Chiang Mai and then southern regions I was 'in the market' for a Brio, having tested it alongside the March and Mazda 2.

“Before the floods Honda Chiang Mai (2 dealers) informed me there would be a 6 month wait for my vehicle if I ordered it and paid a 5000 baht deposit.

“I wasn’t prepared to wait that long and considered the delay to be because of inefficiency, so I bought a Mazda 2 and only waited one day!

“At that time there was a wait of 3 months for the March!”

Thank you Ron, and if Honda is lucky they will have read this item and smartened up their delivery system in 2012.

World’s oldest car still running

This is the oldest motor vehicle car in the world that still runs, and was built one year before Karl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler invented the internal combustion engine.

This vehicle was sold at auction for $4.62 million, more than double the pre-sale estimate, as two bidders chased the price up in a three-minute bidding war.

The 1884 De Dion Bouton et Trepardoux Dos-a-Dos Steam Runabout drew a standing ovation as it was driven up onto the stage at Friday's RM Auction in Hershey, Pennsylvania - to prove that this 127 year old car really does run! - and attracted a starting bid of $500,000, which was immediately doubled to $1 million. 

World’s oldest running car. 

Encouraged by the applauding crowd, the bidding went swiftly up to $4.2 million then to 4.62 million including the 10 percent commission - before the car was knocked down to a unnamed buyer.

The Dos-a-Dos (Back-to-Back) Steam Runabout was built in 1884 by George Bouton and Charles-Armand Trepardoux for French entrepreneur Count de Dion, who named it 'La Marquise' after his mother.

In 1887, with De Dion at the tiller, it won the world's first ever motor race (it was the only entrant to make the start line!) covering the 32 km from the Pont de Neuilly in Paris to Versailles and back in one hour and 14 minutes (an average of 25.9 km/h) and, according to contemporary reports, hitting a breathtaking 60 km/h on the straights!

La Marquise has only had four owners, remaining in one family for 81 years, and has been restored twice, once by the Doriol family and again by British collector Tom Moore in the early 1990's.  Since then, it has taken part in four London-to-Brighton runs and collected a double gold at the 1997 Pebble Beach d'Elegance in California.

SAAB finally sinks

Early SAAB.

After months (in reality ‘years’) of desperation to find a buyer, the Swedish SAAB auto manufacturer has finally sunk under the debt which could not be overcome, resulting in the Swedish carmaker Saab Automobile filing for bankruptcy protection, ending two years of efforts to save the iconic Swedish brand.

The final desperate efforts to organize help in China were obstructed by former Saab owner General Motors (GM) over licenses for technology being used by SAAB which belongs to former owners General Motors.

All three SAAB companies are involved in the bankruptcy, including SAAB Automobile Aktiebolag, SAAB Automobile Tools and SAAB Automobile Powertrain.

SAAB’s owner, Swedish Automobile, said in a statement that “the company without further funding will be insolvent, and that filing bankruptcy is in the best interests of its creditors.”

GM’s attitude towards the bankruptcy was given by GM spokesperson James Cain who said, “Each (previous) proposal results either directly or indirectly in the transfer of control and/or ownership of the company in a manner that would be detrimental to GM and its shareholders.  As such, GM cannot support any of these proposed alternatives.”

In Sweden, daily newspaper Svenska Dagbladet reported that SAAB planned to present a plan to the court whereby the Swedish automaker would launch a technology development company in Holland, 50 percent of which would be owned by Chinese group Youngman.

New SAAB.

However, it is also reported elsewhere that Youngman, responsible for the last cash injection into the beleaguered Swedish carmaker, is now unwilling to send SAAB any further funds.

In a communiqué, Swedish Automobile confirmed Youngman pulled out of the talks following GM’s negative statement.

The attempts to sell SAAB to Chinese partners have been seen as the last chance of saving the Swedish carmaker, which was already on the brink of bankruptcy when GM sold it to Swedish Automobile at that time called Spyker, for $400 million in early 2010.

SAAB initially began in 1937 as an aircraft manufacturer, something which became evident in the aerodynamic, sporty shape of its first concept car designs built in 1947 with the first production versions produced in 1949.

The 3,799 employees had their salaries delayed now for five months after SAAB was forced to halt production in April 2011 as suppliers stopped deliveries over unpaid bills.  However, under a bankruptcy agreement the employees will be paid through a Swedish wage guarantee. 

Retirement plan for F1 pensioners?

Former World Champion Jacques Villeneuve, plus Tonio Liuzzi, Giancarlo Fisichella, Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Mika Salo, Sakon Yamamoto, Alex Yoong and Neel Jani and Indycar's Pippa Mann have all signed up for the inaugural i1 Super Series in India.

They will be competing for $2 million prize money and they will race Radical Sportscars’ SR3 roadster, which is designed to touch speeds of 250 kph and accelerate from 0-100 kph in three seconds.

The i1 Super Series consists of 10 races over five weekends with the opener taking place at the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia on January 22.  That will be followed by races in Bahrain (Feb 4), Qatar (Feb 11), Delhi (Feb 26) and Abu Dhabi (March 10).

SR3 mobility scooter.

The i1, which also known as the Indian Racing League, is based on the successful Indian Premier League and is sanctioned by the FIA.

The new series was launched at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi in December and nine city-based franchise teams - Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Pune, Kolkata, Goa - will take part and teams have one international and one Indian driver.

Technology just around the next corner

Here’s what is in store for the motorists in the next decade.  These examples are not “concepts”, but the technology is here now.  For many OEM’s, the integration of the new technologies is the only item slowing its adoption.  That and the price, of course.  In the competitive marketplace of today, the base cost is always a dilemma.  The answer, however, is to make all the new technological applications delete options.  And since the new car buyer is not really aware of what is coming, this makes it easier for the automaker.

One group at the forefront of the new technology, and its application to the vehicles of today is the Continental Corporation in Germany, one of the world’s biggest suppliers of safety, interior and powertrain innovation.

If your car is equipped with a form of emergency brake assist, it already knows when it is too late for late braking.  The technology is simple.  It is easily programmed into the vehicle for it to appreciate how much traction it has, as well as how many meters it is going to take to brake in time to avoid an accident.  However, if you are still too fast, further braking is too late.  But this is where Emergency Steer Assist (ESA) comes in.

In this mode, the system does not take over and steer for you.  Designed to compliment emergency braking systems, ESA works with your electric steering rack to vary the torque by direction, thus very convincingly “suggesting” the proper steering wheel motion.  Suppose you need to swerve left - the torque in the clockwise motion is greatly increased (resistance), but it is very easy to turn the wheel counterclockwise.  Similarly, during the maneuver recovery phase (you may know this as a tank slapper), the inverse is true, the steering working in tandem with ESC (electronic stability control, mandatory on all cars in Europe in 2011) to control the after effects of the swerve.

Another application is the Active Force Feedback Pedal.

The more information being relayed to the driver, the more confusing things can be.  Continental’s philosophy is the right one: instead of bombarding the driver with signals on an already crowded cluster or creating ever more beeping noises, they’ve turned to haptic feedback systems.  Ones that respond to your inputs physically to give information directly to your muscles.

The force-feedback pedal is pretty self-explanatory: The foot pressure can be varied instantly, from super-stiff to feather-light and, in addition, the pedal can pulse back on your foot.  Think of the potential uses: In today's increasingly eco-friendly cars, the pedal pressure could become stiff when you’re driving like a hooligan.  It could pulse twice quickly for an upshift or downshift, and it could even assess traffic conditions ahead to discourage unnecessary acceleration.  In the near future, your car will pick up an emergency stop warning from the car ahead - kilometres ahead - and can alert you to the forthcoming danger with the pedal.

The future sees the automakers bringing apps to your dashboard.  Continental showed its AutoLinQwith partners such as Navteq, Navigon, Shazam, Pandora and more lined up to bring the perks of your smartphone to your car.

Continental’s system is Android-based, which means that developers will be free to create whatever applications they want.  Naturally they’ll need approval by Continental.  AutoLinQ is able to read things such as email or rss feeds aloud, in an attempt to reduce distraction.  The company is working on text-dictation software, too, so the entire system will be zero- or one-click - your eyes will not need to leave the road.  The initial connectivity is with Deutsche Telekom, but count on a U.S. deal before the system is released.  The cell provider will offer a package price, not unlike what you get with an iPad now, until wireless infrastructure becomes pervasive enough to be a viable option (that is, both roadway-mounted and ad-hoc car-to-car communication).

Looking at motor racing as a hobby?

Here is a way to start in motor sport without the capital expenditure of buying a racing car.  Called the Formula Taki Championship, this is a series devised by former racer Taki and uses their own formula car, derived from Formula Renault but updated.  There are information and register days on March 2 and 3 and you can get more details on 086 836 6504.  Taki is advertising this as an ‘arrive and drive’ deal for 35,000 THB per meeting.  Could be worth looking him up and getting more details.  Taki has been involved in racing schools in Japan, Europe and Thailand before.

Loved this billboard

Brilliant marketing.

Sent over by Kevin Maguire was a selection of billboards erected in the US.  This was the first one, and I loved it.  With apologies to all the Volvo drivers out there.  All three of them.