Articles by Paul Gover

The compact SUV has been an Australian favourite since it arrived, despite a premium price against Korean contenders, and is not getting its first facelift.It's not as big in the makeover stakes as the Passat, which gets a major tweak later this month, and the only real signs of change are around the nose and tail. Latest pictures from Carparazzi have the front-end disguise that points to a major change, as well as a revision around the rear end.Carparazzi sources say the updated Tiguan will pick up the new Volkswagen family grille and cleaner lines around the lamps, which are   expected to include LED running lights for the first time.Engines are expected to be much the same as today, but with efficiency improvements for reduced fuel consumption and CO2 emissions.

Opel is targeting Australia as part of a major export push and the move will dovetail with a significant growth plan being finalised at Fishermans Bend.Instead of competing with Holden's price-driven imports from Korea - including the baby Barina and Captiva SUV - the European models will provide a second sales drive and help plug a number of vacant sales posts, from a sporty coupe to a compact SUV and beyond.The first sign of the new move is the great looking GTC Paris concept unveiled by Opel at the Paris Motor Show as a teaser to the next Astra coupe. It is almost certain to spearhead the new push into Australia.The head of General Motors Europe, Nick Reilly, confirms the plan and is bullish about the potential for sales in Australia."Watch this space," Reilly tells Carsguide as he prepares to unveil the GTC coupe. "We're looking at it, and quite seriously. We're optimistic we'll be able to do something."GM Europe has supplied a range of cars to Holden over the years, from a pre-Korea Barina to a variety of Astra models - most recently the convertible - and even the Vectra.The Vectra was regarded as the best chance for success, but never fired because of the price penalty of shipping from Europe and paying the bill at a time when the Australian dollar was running low. Slow sales saw the Vectra dropped and Holden quickly shifted its focus, as part of a global development and production plan, to Korea. Relatively low production costs quickly made it the first-choice source for local cars, with Holden engineers and designers taking the lead on a number of projects.But GM's global revival has changed the rules and Holden is now looking everywhere for the cars, commercials and SUVs it needs to fill its showrooms. Reilly refuses to go into detail but it's clear he is close to a deal with the new Holden boss, Mike Devereux."Whenever we have something to say, we will. I'd rather not go into the details."But Reilly is bullish about the prospects for GM Europe's two brands, Opel and Vauxhall, during the unveiling of the GTC coupe."The brand renewal is giving us fresh drive," he says.

The three brands are all gearing-up for a major attack on next year's new-age world championship, which will be open to smaller cars with smaller 1.6-litre turbocharged engines.Downsizing in the series means Citroen is switching to its C3, Ford is moving from the Focus to the Fiesta, and Mini is coming back to rallying for the first time since the 1960s with its Countryman.Ford already knows it has a winner in the Fiesta, which claimed the Monte Carlo Rally this year without a turbocharged engine. It is shown in Paris just a week before Ford begins testing for next year's championship, when it will try to snap Sebastian Loeb's six-year run as world championship with Citroen."Countless hours have gone into the Fiesta RS WRC to reach this point, and for the car to be unveiled in public for the first time is a proud moment for us.  We are right on track with our development and the team is delighted with testing to date," says Ford's rally boss, Malcolm Wilson.Its Citroen rival is already testing and picks up the basic mechanical package from the successful C4, with aero tweaking to the DS3 body including wider guards, a giant rear wing and cooling vents in the body.  But the rally star in Paris is the Mini, which is unveiled by FIA president and former rally co-driver Jean Todt.“The response to our announcement that Mini will return to the world of rallying next year was very positive. The FIA World Rally Championship is the pinnacle of rallying, making it the ideal platform for demonstrating the competitive spirit of our brand," says Mini's global marketing boss, Ian Robertson.The Countryman is massively tweaked for rallying and is displayed in Paris with giant front and rear wings, a bank of bonnet-mounted spotlights and a stripped-out cabin.The car is developed by Prodrive, the British motorsport operation that also runs Ford Performance Racing in the V8 Supercar championship, and has already run well in testing.  But Mini is unlikely to challenge Citroen and Ford in the early events of the 2011 WRC, which begins in Sweden in February.

More than 25,000 tourists die every year on an overseas trip and driving is the number one risk on any major trip, according to the FIA Foundation in Europe. Driving trumps terrorism, plane crashes and infectious disease and the numbers will only get worse, almost doubling to 45,000 by 2020 and tripling to 75,000 by 2030 in line with the overall increase in road fatalities. Tourists even account for 5-10 per cent of road fatalities in some European countries.  The FIA warns against a lethal cocktail of killer roads, unsafe vehicles, dangerous driving and disorientated travellers in a new report published on World Tourism Day. "Road safety must be recognised as key element of sustainable tourism," says David Ward, director general of the FIA Foundation.  The report was written by a former head of the OECD's transport safety centre and warns that many popular tourist destinations are rated either medium or high risk for road safety. The report, titled ‘Bad Trips: International Tourism and road deaths in the developing world’, says there are many risks for foreign tourists.  “Tourists and international travellers expect and demand the highest standards of safety when they step on an aeroplane to travel on holiday. But once they leave the arrivals lounge, tourists are left to fend for themselves in an often dangerous environment," says Ward. "Unsafe roads, untrained drivers, poorly maintained vehicles - often without seat belts - this is the reality of travel in many popular tourist destinations. The governments of these countries and the international and local tourism industries can and must do more to protect tourists on the roads.  "By protecting tourists, and improving road safety, they will also be improving protection for their own citizens." Meanwhile, the world has a new symbol for road safety.  WEAR. BELIEVE. ACT. is the new rallying call for the global effort to reduce the 1.3 million deaths each year on the world's roads.  It is part of a Decade of Action, backed by 100 governments in the United Nations, that begins on May 11 next year. The new Tag is intended to become the road safety equivalent of the red ribbon for HIV/AIDS or the white wristband worn in the fight against poverty.  It was launched in New York at an all-star gala attended by former US president, Bill Clinton, and was also presented to the Safety 2010 world conference on injury in London.  The goal of the Decade of Action is to stabilise and reduce global road deaths by 2020. “The forthcoming Decade of Action is an opportunity for the world to change direction and begin to reduce global road traffic casualties. We have the tools and the knowledge to prevent so much unnecessary death, disability and suffering, if we can harness the political commitment to make it happen," says  Lord Robertson, chairman of the Commission for Global Road Safety. "The road safety Tag will come to represent the efforts of individuals and organisations around the world to make roads safe.”

VICTORIAN Brendan Reeves, 22, will represent the Asia Pacific region at the Pirelli Star Driver shootout at Rally Spain from October 21 to 24. He is one of 17 vying for up to six places in the Rally Academy in 2011 and and contest selected World Rally Championship events. Reeves began racing at age 7 and in the past five years has! competed in more than 50 rallies including seven international rallies, winning his first international title this year, the FIA Pacific Cup. He is the only representative from the Asia Pacific region to be nominated for the shootout.TV coverage of the Bathurst 1000 will feature a record 168 cameras. There will be 65 in-car cameras in 13 V8 Supercars, including a "rail" camera that can track beside the driver's seat in the Supercheap car of Russell Ingall and Paul Morris, an under-car camera for the Craig Lowndes/Mark Skaife car, a mirror camera for the Mark Winterbottom FPR car and a return of Rick Kelly's helmet camera. There will also be 52 cameras in other cars competing in support races over the October 8-10 event. Seven's coverage is on Friday 1-4pm, Saturday, 12-5pm and Sunday 7am-6pm. The Battle of Bathurst one-hour special will be broadcast on Friday at 11.20pm, Saturday at 5pm and Sunday at 6am. (NOTE: ALL TIMES AUSTRALIAN EASTERN DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME) ITEM WHILE Craig Lowndes won his maiden Australasian Safari last Sunday, Bathurst rider Ben Grabham claimed his third safari bike victory. He led a trifecta of KTMs home followed by Todd Smith of Condobolin, NSW, and Matthew Fish of Kyneton, Victoria. Paul Smith of Mepunta, Victoria, won the quads section despite stopping to help tow fellow quad competitor Colin Lawson who was bogged in heavy beach sand.AN engine failure ended the three-time Speedway Grand Prix world champion Jason Crump's season with his worst result of the year, scoring only seven points in the Italian speedway GP at the weekend. Meanwhile, Tomasz Gollob, 39, became Poland's first world champion since Jerzy Szczakiel in 1973. Crump confirmed he will contest the final event in Poland on October 9, he will undergo surgery to repair nerve damage to his left arm the following week. He had been as high as third in the series, but has slipped to ninth.FOXTEL will launch Australia's first dedicated motorsport TV channel next month. (NOVEMBER 1) Speed (Channel 505) and SPEED HD (Channel 206) will provide all-day coverage of local and international motorsport including V8 Supercars, all three NASCAR series, World Superbike Championships, the GT1 World Championship, Super X, Dakar Rally, Formula 2 and World Series Sprintcars.MARCOS Ambrose survived a gruelling 400-lap, 644km race at the Dover International Speedway at the weekend to finish 20th. The event featured long periods of uninterrupted racing with only four caution flags. Ambrose ran as high as ninth and was lapping as fast as the race leader, but the handling of his Toyota Camry degraded toward the end of the race. Jimmie Johnson won the event and leads the title chase for his fifth straight NASCAR Sprint Cup title.AUSTRALIANS have scored five wildcard spots in two classes for the Australian Moto Grand Prix at Phillip Island on October 17. Competing in the 125cc class will be Queenslander Jordan Zamora, Josh Hook of NSW, Levi Day, of South Australia and Victorian Nicholas Diles, while Alex Cudlin of NSW will compete in the Moto2 category.STEVEN Johnson will remain with Jim Beam Racing next year, his fourth year with the team. The V8 Supercars driver and son of legendary racer Dick Johnson re-signed at the start of this year under a one-year contract with an option for 2011.  "While we haven't caught too many breaks on the track this season, the team is working really well and I'm still enjoying driving," he said. "Junior" Johnson is currently in 12th in the championship. He first drove for DJR in 1994, finished fifth in the series in 2001 and was sixth last year.AUSTRALIA scored more awards than any other nation in the sixth annual "F1 in Schools" world finals in Singapore last week. Victorian team Basiliisk Performance won best portfolio, best engineered car and the "Ashes" urn for the fastest Australian or British car. Brisbane team Zer0.9 was second in the outright championship behind America. F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone and McLaren driver Jenson Button attended the awards ceremony. F1 in Schools is a multi-disciplinary engineering challenge for students aged nine to 19.INSTEAD of a one-lap qualifying dash, entrants in the Bathurst 12 Hour in February will combine their team times for their best three drivers. So pole position could go to a time of more than six minutes, rather than the usual low-two-minute category. The qualifying format has been copied from the Sepang 12-hour race. The Bathurst race is also set to have a broader field with 31 manufacturers eligible after the inclusion of vehicles from the Australian GT championship.INDYCAR driver Ryan Briscoe will drive a Bundy Red Racing Commodore at Bathurst with Andrew Thompson, unseating Nick Percat who drove for the team at Phillip Island. Briscoe will move to sister team HRT for the Gold Cost 600 in late October. He last drove a V8 Supercar in 2006 for HRT in the Sandown 500 and Bathurst 1000.AUSTRALIA has snatched the British Formula Ford Championship. Scott Pye of South Australia took the title in a dramatic finale at Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit at the weekend with a win on the Saturday and second on the Sunday. The 20-year-old racer from Mt Gambier scored 581 points, with 12 race victories, 18 podiums and 16 pole positions to finish 19 points ahead of Scott Malvern.FOUR Targa Tasmania winners will contest the annual Mt Buller tarmac rally on November 5-7. They are led by eight-time Targa champion Jim Richards driving a Porsche, plus Steve Glenney (Mazda RX8), Tony Quinn (Nissan GTR), Greg Garwood (Porsche) and 2010 Targa champion Jason White (Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera). The 849km rally, which is the first round of the inaugural Australian Targa Championship, has attracted a capacity field of 225 cars.

It's a mix of motor shows, motorsport, new-car arrivals and showroom selling silliness.  Already we've got news of new price leaders from Ford and Volkswagen, with a bottom line of $16,990 for the updated Thai-built Fiesta and a $21,990 Golf.But the real action this week is in Paris, where the world's carmakers are gathered for the biggest motor show of 2010. Detroit in January was reasonably solid, and Los Angeles in November promises to be optimistic, but the Paris Auto Salon is all about the ongoing recovery of the big brands and the design enthusiasm of the major European makes.Electric cars top the bill but there are also newcomers from Ferrari and Lamborghini and Maserati, all sorts of city runabouts, and technology that highlights the improvements we can expect over the next 10 years.  Carsguide has a full coverage of the show next week, with early news on www.carsguide.com.au, but by then we'll be into the build-up to The Big One at Bathurst.This year's Mount Panorama classic promises to be an all-action event and no-one is betting against a sentimental victory by veterans Mark Skaife and Craig Lowndes. The pair have already won the traditional Bathurst 1000 curtain-raiser at Phillip Island and have everything they need to take the V8 Supercar grand final.But there are at least another six crews who are capable of fighting through the final hour, with James Courtney promising something special in his Jim Beam Falcon and two-time champion Jamie Whincup doing all he can to take maximum points in his fight for a third straight title with TeamVodafone.Just days after the Bathurst 1000 the motoring spotlight shifts to Sydney and the first running of the Australian International Motor Show.  The first truly national show is looking like a boomer, with all sorts of previews and new releases. The calendar is so crowded that Toyota will reveal its show star, the FT-86 sports coupe concept, on Monday of show week, a full five days before the public opening.Once the show is done the action gets back on track with the Gold Coast 600, a new-age V8 Supercar contest that promises to re-write the rules. Nineteen of the world's top drivers are coming to take guest spots with the the teams - including former world champion Jacques Villeneuve and transplanted Aussie stars Will Power, Ryan Briscoe and David Brabham - in an event that will revitalise what was previously the Gold Coast Indy event.While all this is happening, Mark Webber is out fighting for the world championship.  The long-time Formula One underdog finally has a winning car in 2010 and has been doing plenty of good stuff, even salvaging third place - and defending his title lead - in the Singapore Grand Prix despite a weekend he describes as the worst of the season.Webber is basing himself in Australia for the next few weeks, to make an easier time-zone transit to races in Korea and Japan, and is looking more and more like our first world champion since Alan Jones.

The latest mishap follows a crash earlier in the year when a Volvo crashed into a truck instead of braking automatically to avoid it.  This time the Pedestrian Detection system failed to trigger as the latest V60 approached a humanoid dummy during a demonstration at Verona in Italy.The incident also reveals that Volvo engineers discreetly modify the inflatable dummies to ‘trick’ the car’s radar system into detecting a pedestrian.  More than 650 demonstrations passed without incident during the V60 press preview in Italy but things went wrong for the Aussies.“I am very sad this has happened. We know the technology works, but I am not happy with the demonstration methods we are using," says Jonas Tisell, Volvo’s head of active safety.Volvo believes the failures, which saw the dummy struck a number of times, occurred because a small plastic panel covered in aluminium foil that sits in a sandbag at the dummy was not installed correctly.  Volvo also suspects a tractor and trailer directly behind the dummy – but some distance away – has confused the pedestrian warning system.“The radar goes straight through the air-filled plastic dummy so we put some aluminium inside in the sandbag at the dummy’s feet so the radar could detect it,” says Tisell.“The reflector was not facing exactly the right way and instead the system detected the tractor directly in line of sight in the background.  The camera told the system that there might be a pedestrian there because it detected the shape of a human, but when the radar went to search for it, it only picked up a faint signal for the dummy and got a more solid signal for the tractor.”Tisell also defends the way the demonstration is run.  “The problem with an inflatable dummy is that it’s plastic and has air inside. The radar needs an echo, it looks for the body mass, and the radar doesn’t bounce off an inflatable dummy."It cannot see it. It sees through it. So we added a radar reflector – a 10cm piece of plastic covered in aluminium foil – in the sand bag at the feet of the dummy.  The system works on humans. With humans you have a mass the radar can detect.”Tisell says he has took the place of the test dummy during development of the system, although Volvo does not let journalists repeat the experiment.  “You never know what can happen. Driving towards a human being, if something goes wrong, it will be a very difficult situation to handle,” he says.Tisell insists there is no need to make any changes to the calibration of the pedestrian warning technology, but Volvo will review its public demonstration procedures for its crash avoidance systems.The 5000 dummies identical to the one at the centre of the latest bungle – distributed to Volvo dealers worldwide – could be updated with an aluminium belt that will help the system detect the dummy.

Every major carmaker at the biggest European car event of 2010 is planning some sort of electrification, from city runabouts to full-on supercars.At the bottom end of the business, Kia is building its Paris display around the tiny plug-in POP. It's a three seater and unlikely to make it to Australia, but already set for production - with less extreme bodywork - for Korea within two years.French brands have also plugged into the electric action, with Renault doing more compacts and Peugeot going all-out on a battery supercar called the EX1. Peugeot says the radical looking EX1 has 'lightning acceleration' thanks to a pair of electric motors with 240 Newton-metres of constant torque and an all-wheel drive system. The French concept is a full 177 centimetres wide but only 90 centimetres tall to cut its drag.Even Infiniti, the Nissan luxury brand set for an Australian comeback within two years, is using Paris to showcase something special. It is an electric vehicle which taps the program that has already produced the Nissan Leaf, a sell-out in Japan and promised eventually for Australia.Even scooters are involved in the electric action with both Daimler and BMW Group revealing battery-powered two-wheelers at the show.BMW is badging its two-wheeler as a Mini, and pushing the design edge with the British connection, while Daimler is using Smart to push its first scooter. The Smart has a similar safety cell to the ForTwo and is powered by a 48-volt lithium-ion battery pack that gives a range of around 100 kilometres.

Bolwell, a success on racetracks and in showrooms in the past, has turned from its V8 sports cars and Kenworth truck bodies to new-age caravans.  It is unveiling a multi-function tow-along called The Edge and using the Melbourne Leisurefest from September 30 to spread the word. The Edge is an aerodynamically-style van made from moulded composite, designed for off-road work and suitable for towing by something as compact as a Subaru Outback.  It's the work of Vaughan Bolwell, a designer with experience in everything from racing bicycles to trucks. Bolwell RV claims the van combines low weigtht and low drag with aerodyamic stability. It is constructed from moulded fibreglass reinforced with carbon fibure. Bolwell began working on The Edge in 2008 and the final result has a number of claimed innovations. The body is bonded, not riveted or screwed, and is fitted with Bolwell's own SureFoot independent trailing-arm suspension. Leisurefest runs at Sandown Racecourse from September 30 to October 3 with a wide range of activities, from off-road towing training to a license course for recreational boating. There is a also an off-road track run by experts from Four Wheel Drive Victoria. The Bolwell name first hit the road in the 1960s That's when Campbell Bolwell, just 16, began making sports cars in his parents' garage.  His company began operating in 1962 and over the next 20 years more than 800 cars were produced, some as complete 'turn-key' cars and others as kits that were assembled by their owners. The most famous is the Nagari, which could be powered by a range of V8 engines and was raced successfully around Australia.  Campbell decided to produce another sports car in 2005 and by 2008 he had a concept Nagari that was re-born as a carbon fibre-bodied speedster. But Bolwell's big business in recent years is in the commercial world, where it does everything from building cabins, hoods and fairings for Kenworth trucks to repairing Boeing 737 jet engine plenums.

... in a 12-hour showroom shootout that has drawn entries from many major manufacturers. But it's Mazda that wins at Mount Panorama, with its RX-7. This is the third straight victory for the brand and the second in-a-row for the very same car. Fast-forward now to 2010. The very same RX-7, almost untouched since it finished the Bathurst classic, is ready to go again on a special driving day for Mazda performance and heritage cars. The line-up includes a 1960s Mazda Cosmo, another race-winner RX-7 SP, a couple of pocket-rocket Mazda3 MPS turbo cars and even a tiny Mazda2 rally car. They all share the same DNA, which has evolved into the Japanese brand's Zoom-Zoom showroom war cry, from the free-spinning rotary engine in the Cosmo through to the Targa Tasmania RX-8 SP that's already hot-lapping the Wakefield Park racetrack in the hands of rally ace Steve Glennie. But there is another common connection to these cars and it's the real key to their success. His name is Allan Horsley - just plain H to his friends - and he is far more remarkable than the cars that have raced for him over the years. H has done everything from reading to rules and setting the program to building the cars and choosing the drivers, finding technology - and loopholes - to make cars quicker and then signing aces including Mark Skaife, John Bowe, Alan Jones and Dick Johnson to ensure they win. H is standing in the pit lane to keep an eye on his flock, with the familiar grumpy-old-man look that disguises a heart of gold alongside his racer's brain. He kissed race winner Gregg Hansford full on the lips after he won at Bathurst in '94 in a memorable celebration - I know because I was there - but is better known today for the tongue- lashing he delivers to drivers who step out of line. "Go easy on the old girls. They're fast but they're a bit fragile these days," H says, in a reminder that there will be consequences for anyone who makes a mistake. Later he becomes the barbecue boss, but when the cars are running he is Team Manager with capital letters. The cars are soon up and running, some fast and some slow - the Mazda2 is only a diesel and the Cosmo is dismally feebly by modern standards - with a couple of hotrod jockeys along to set the pace. Johnson is at Wakefield Park, laughing and joking with his old boss between hot laps in an MPS in full Targa kit. He was originally down to demonstrate his favourite from the Motorsport Heritage collection, the RX-7 SP he and Bowe drove to 12-hour victory in 1995, but a faulty fuel injector sidelines it. "Can you believe how quick this thing is?" Johnson laughs, halfway through my passenger lap in the MPS. He might have turned 65, and running Jim Beam Racing in the V8 Supercar championship keeps him stresses, but I'm thinking the same thing about the driver. The cars are fun and fast but there is one that is just plain special. It's the '94 Bathurst winner and I know it well after standing beside H for the full 12 hours at Mount Panorama. As I belt into the BP-liveried racer the memories come flooding back. It's everything from Horsley striding to the pit wall to separate his drivers from an early Mazda stoush, to Hansford - who died too soon in a race crash - hustling over the mountain, Skaife's look when his car's engine failed, and then the final celebration. I'm not sure what to expect, but the RX-7 is quick and composed and far easier to drive than I expect. It is relatively cushy in the suspension, which was developed to handle the bumps at Mount Panorama, and not as punchy as many modern cars despite its turbo rotary. We settle into a comfortable rhythm and we're both transported back to Bathurst, 1994. It's easy to see and feel how the car was so quick and trouble-free for a half-day of flat-out driving, as it's more like a well developed road car. Then it's time for the RX-8 SP and it could not be more different. Today's Mazda Motorsport headliner is an all-out race car, firing flames from the exhaust, lifting wheels through corners, and generally behaving like a custom-built competition machine. It's fast-fast-fast and fun-fun-fun, but not a car for amateurs. So one car is about memories, and the other is making memories. But neither of them is my favourite from the Wakefield Park pack. It's actually a stock-looking Mazda3 MPS which H has breathed on. It has competition suspension, better brakes and a turbo engine with much bigger lungs than the regular road car. I'm no fan of the regular MPS, which fights you through every turn and always wants to go feral, but this car is somehow both quicker in every way and yet more refined and easier to drive. It laps Wakefield Park with plenty of speed but surprising panache, and becomes one of my favourite drives of 2010. It also reminds me of the genius of Allan Horsley, and I only wish he could wave his magic motorsport wand over more cars in the Mazda stable and get the Japanese to build them at the factory. MAZDA MOTORSPORT HERITAGE COLLECTION 1967 Cosmo Sports 110S rotary 1994 RX-7 BP race car 1995 Mazda RX-7 SP race car 2007 Mazda2 rally car 2009 Mazda3 Diesel rally car 2010 Mazda3 MPS Targa Tasmania car 2010 Mazda RX-8 SP Targa Tasmania car.