Articles by Rod Halligan

Jobs for GM is what Thomas Friedman is calling for in his NYTimes column. And unlike many others I totally agree. Matt Hardigree at Jalopnik thinks Friedman is on crack for the suggestion, because Steve Jobs knows nothing about the car industry.So…. obviously many of the current CEOs don’t know much about their own industry anymore. It has been changing for years, and like everything these days, at a rapid pace. Unfortunately the big manufacturers are full of inertia and there is nowhere near enough torque in the teams driving them to change direction.To quote Friedman; “somebody ought to call Steve Jobs, who doesn’t need to be bribed to do innovation, and ask him if he’d like to do national service and run a car company for a year. I’d bet it wouldn’t take him much longer than that to come up with the G.M. iCar.”While I think Jobs may need just a bit more than a year to turn things around ….. maybe two years. He is the man for the Job.Would he want to do it … who knows. His job at Apple is done. So he can relax. Retirement has been spoken about, as well as his premature demise in a leaked pre-prepared obituary. The analyst’s estimation of the effect on Apple upon his death or retirement is 20 billion dollars. Not bad to know what you are worth.The trouble with current global business model is that there are not enough Steve Jobs and too many Sol Trujillos. One is paid less than his worth and returns a profit. The other is paid virtually more than the company he runs makes. Imagine if Jobs took his traditional $1 salary plus share deal in GM. Also we would get to see Wagoner being shown the door… a CEO made responsible and shown consequences…. That is something we don’t see enough of.The automotive industry has had its fair share of great leaders. But there aren’t many around at the moment…. and it would appear none of them are in America. Germany has the family Piech, France has Ghosn and Italy has Montezemolo. If we look at Ferrari individually it has had far more than its quota of 1000hp individuals and 1000nM teams. Ferrari himself, Montezemolo, Todt, Schumacher…. All amazing team builders and powerful individuals. What has happened to all the great American leaders? There are Jobs and Obama. Who else?So I’ll add to Friedman’s call and raise with – “if he doesn’t take the job, GM is as good as dead.”Here in Australia that will mean Shanghai Motors Holden.

From racing to the classic car scene, my interests are broad. My father started buying Matchox cars before I was born. We still have them, along with a growing collection of 1;18 scale models. I started collecting car magazines when I was 10, so that means 36 years of Motorsport, Autocar, Road and Track etc etc etc. My wife does not bother opening the door to my study. I also have all issues of Cavallino, which my wife wants me to sell as I once made the mistake of telling her what they are worth.Beside my 1967 250SL Pagoda, which I got my licence in and have been driving for the past 29 years, my main car-related hobby is building 3D computer models.Essentially I use the same technology and software that Pixar used to build Lightning McQueen and the other characters in Cars. However my interest lies more towards photo-realistic modelling of real cars.If you are looking at getting into a car-related hobby and have a reasonable computer I can highly recommend it. 3D modelling has two significant advantages over all other hobbies relating to cars.It is free and it takes up no room in the garage.. so there can’t be any complaints from the wife.After my magazine and model collection I have no room left.And I’ve precious little expendable income left, either.Luckily, one of the best 3D applications around is a free open source program called Blender (download it from www.blender3d.org). The initial learning curve is steep but perseverance pays off. There are many free on-line video tutorials and Googling 3D car modelling tutorials will deliver more than you could possibly ever need.Just to the right you can find a link to a gallery one of my early models. It's a 1954 Ferrari 375 Plus. One of the images is a rendering in the livery of the Carrera Pan-Americana entrant. This was the first model I built using the box polygon method. Previously I was using a technology called NURBS, which stands for non-uniform rational b-splines and while very accurate is as big a pain to use as its name suggests.Here in Australia, there is a very active community of modellers, and a number of them use their models for race-car sims (which is a whole world in itself).If you are interested in race car sims you could visit rfactor.net where you can find the best non-game race car simulator around. At rfactorcentral.org you can download everything from a GTHO to the V8 Supercar grid and highly accurate models of most Australia race circuits. Bathurst can be found in the Hall of Fame section.So I am sitting on one of our fabulous trains typing this, at least it hasn't broken down yet. I guess I'll just continue modelling the Zonda I am working on ..... that will kill the next 45 minutes it takes to travels the final 10 kilometres to the office.

So on basically the final corner of the season, the World Championship was decided and it went to Lewis Hamilton over Fellipe Massa. Am I happy about this? No….. But it is great for the sport. The race was fantastic, with a superb drive from Massa to win the Brasilian GP.We won’t find out what actually happened to Glock. One minute he was maintaining enough speed to stay in position, the next Hamilton was overtaking him for the fifth place finish he needed to secure the championship. The rain hadn’t increased. He complained about how hard the car was to drive on slicks on the semi wet circuit. But it wasn’t affecting him much until the last couple of hundred metres. Fellipe’s father thought his son had won the world championship for a minute, the Ferrari garage were dumbfounded when Glock slowed to virtually a stop.Anyway – it was an interesting year in F1. So was the year before. Next year promises to be even more interesting with more unknowns. The introduction of KERS throws the game wide open.Actually the next five year promise to be incredibly interesting for both F1 and V8 Supercars.-          In F1 we have the on-going stupidity of Mosley still pushing for a standard engine. Engines having to last initially three races and then five or even ten-          In V8’s we don’t even know if there are going to be rear wheel drive V8’s in 5 years.It’s a time of big change in the short term future.Congratulations to Lewis Hamilton.Congratulatiuons to you Poms – you finally won something. Even if you had to rely on Germans to power your win.The star of the show though was Vettel – Ferrari should make him an offer right now if they haven’t already. Don’t go near Alonso for the future, he may arguably still be the best driver around, he is just such a whinger he would destroy the Ferrari team.And finally, all the best to David Coulthard who has entertained with considerable style over the many years.Rod Halligan

Over the past few weeks we have seen reports of BMW building engines for Mercedes, Mercedes supplying engines to Aston Martin, Aston Martin designing the new Maybach platform and a Chinese Roewe re-badged as an MG and launched in Chile. On top of that, as we know BMW own Rolls Royce, VW own Bentley, Bugatti and Lamborghini, Porsche are close to taking over VW. Mercedes are trying to off load their remaining twenty percent share in Chrysler, which for accounting purposes they currently value at - well nothing. GM may pick up Chrysler or maybe Nissan will. Ford may unload Mazda; they have already sold Rover and Jaguar to India.There is however one constant - Ferrari. What has happened of note in the world of Ferrari lately? - Well they have expanded their model line by one, putting it now at five. They have introduced the California to cater to the emerging Indian and Chinese markets and don't kid yourself, the Global Financial Crisis will have no real impact on the Ferrari market. As we know during times of financial crisis there are a certain percentage of people in a position to take advantage of others misfortune. Many of the truly rich will get richer. The percentage of these who happen to be Ferrari enthusiasts added to the established that don't rely on share income, out number the annual car build in the Ferrari business model. In other words demand will continue to outstrip supply.Why is this so? We could simply put it down to the fact that it is Ferrari - enough said. The history, the style, the quality - the cars. The brand value is enormous. Sort of like Apple really. Also sort of like Apple, they know their market, they are not trying to take over the world by buying their competitors, in fact Fiat gave Maserati to Ferrari to pull into order and when they did that what did they do? - They gave it back. Did re-establishing an old competitor hurt them? - hell on, it just put a complimentary brand out there. It gave the parent company a way to expand into niche markets while not having to dilute the Ferrari brand by having them do it. So clever.Also like Apple, Ferrari is profitable, maybe not quite up there with Apple this quarter. If you haven't seen the figures Apple made a net profit of 2.4b on and income of 11.6b adjusted for the iPhone subscription model. This now gives them 24.5 billion of cash reserves in the bank, which is probably more than most banks are currently worth. Ferrari made 79 million Euros on an income of 450m Euros, an increase of 41.1 percentage over the same period last year.. not bad.So if Ferrari is like Apple, where does that put MG? - do you know those beige boxes you can buy in those Chinese shop fronts that have 1gb of ram and Vista. Sort of like that really.Rod Halligan

And while he is still living and is not quite the stature of Coburn or McQueen I expect there will still be significant interest.The cars are also not in the league of the Coburn Ferrari California Spyder or the McQueen.Ferrari Lusso,  however the 1968 Shelby 500GT Mustang Convertible should bring a significant price over market value as it is quite unique. Willis reportedly had the car build up from a less than perfect example to be his own interpretation of the McQueen Bullit car. It is a very tastefully modification of the classic. This along with the combination of the auction being held at The Petersen Museum in LA should deliver a good result. I am sure there are still a few collectors left that haven’t lost everything in the stock market crash.The Bruce factor should add a bit as it does provide added value for collectors when the ownership has been for a reasonable amount of time, if the owner is a recognised "Car Guy" ie; Leno, Letterman, Seinfeld and a number of others known well in the classic car community it helps, but not as much as being a Hollywood Legend and being dead.The classic car market has now matured to the point it is a viable alternative to the art and property markets. Governance, pedigree and condition are the driving factors for price.On another Classic Car market and auction note, the sale of one of the worlds most significant collections of Lotus Race cars takes place here in Sydney on the 16th of November. I fear with the current price of the Australian dollar we will loose a number of the cars to the British and American market. Details are on the Bonhams site.Recent celebrity car auction prices:Coburn’s Ferrari 250GT California Spyder sold for & million Euros early this year.McQueen’s Ferrari 250GT Lusso sold for 2.3 million US mid last year.Rod Halligan

The power brokers of F1 have reached agreement on some cost cutting measures for the 2010 season and while Mosley is convinced a single engine supplier is a great idea, thankfully it is not part of the deal. Also thankfully he won’t be around much longer. So the main points for what has been agreed so far are; Engines will now have to last three races. Manufactures are to make 25 engines for purchase by non-manufacturer teams. Further details are still be agreed relating to; Testing limits. Chassis cost cutting measures Introduction time for KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System)  Beside the fuel limits and the associated efficiency improvements this is the first major Greening Technology for F1. It looks like sanity is prevailing and we won’t be seeing any significant changes that could be potentially damaging to the sport. While in an ideal world I would like a no holds barred F1 Championship where technology and ingenuity are not fettered by monetary restrictions, it just can't happen. Too much money spent in F1 is like performance enhancing drugs in the Tour de France – it just ruins it for all and brings the public perception of the sport into disrepute. The new regulations ratified so far not only meet the two major requirements the public and the sport need to see; reduction of costs and the greening of the technologies, they also increase the team factor. Formula 1 is already the ultimate showcase of teamwork with the broadest requirements of skills while still being predominantly a sport for individuals. The three race engine rule is going to have significant impact across the board.   The engine supply deal is perfect and thankfully will allow the colour of the independents to continue. 2010 promises to be yet another interesting year in the history of Formula 1. Rod Halligan  

 – while Jack is still visible in the Classic Car scene - we Australians as a bunch of hero worshipping sports nuts do not think about Jack Brabham anywhere near enough. Stirling Moss is a British legend and lauded by all (and rightly so), he won virtually everything but a world championship. Brabham won the World Championship three times in an era of many outstanding drivers and numerous tragic accidents. Even more impressive he is also the only driver to ever win a World Championship while also being team principal in his own car. That will certainly never happen again.Even though we named Sir Jack an Oifficer of the Order of Australia just this year we need to get the Brabham name back in the Australian sporting cult conscience, - we cut nuts need to ensure our sons and daughters know who Jack is and what he achieved. I know I haven’t actually mentioned Brabham to my son and daughter in any conversation, we talk about Lowndes and Brock and Schumacher but Brabham has never come up. That needs to be fixed.After Bernie Ecclestone brought and sold the Brabham team, the team and the name went through some pretty dodgy ownership periods and a number of seedy deals and legal battles. Thankfully though I believe Jack was able to eventually re-acquire the rights to the Brabham name.So here is an idea. Holden has it's relationship with Elfin through HSV and Walkinshaw. Ford Australia - wake up. Besides Lowndes and Bathurst you have nothing. There is talk of you dropping the rear-drive Falcon - here I have something for you - it's a 6 inch nail, the final one for your coffin.Now if Ford Australia were to partner with Brabham through FPV we could have another Ford v Holden war. Elfin v Brabham. Two great Australian names going head to head. This should be a more extensive deal though than the Ford America – Carroll Shelby relationship; I would like to see a competitor to the new Elfin and a second model – a competitor to the Lotus Elise. Wouldn’t that be cool - a race series for small lightweight rear-engine 4 cylinder road race cars. Lotus v Brabham.Dream on. Ford Australia won't do anything that exciting they will just continue to die a slow death and you will all soon be driving Toyotas.Back to Jack - here are some quick facts to embed in your brain for the next pub trivia quiz night;World Champion ’59, 60 and ‘6614 F1 wins, 10 second places and 7 thirds from 129 starts.On the podium 31 times or almost one out of every four races over a 15 year career13 Pole positions and 11 fastest laps. Rod Halligan

I personally thought he was beginning to lose it when he started selling off his car collection …. what?, he needs extra dollars sitting in the bank rather than being able to wander through his garage/s and appreciate his appreciating collection. So we are going to see Honda powered by Ferrari, or Ferrari powered by BMW? That would be ridiculous. The whole point of Formula One is that it is for the elite and elitist - and there is nothing wrong with that. Manufacturer's entry in Formula One is important. It provides a flow-on to the masses with technology advancement. This is unquestionable and is now more important than ever as we move to green technologies. Reliability, efficiency, safety and alternate propulsion system have a better hope through development from within Formula One. It provides unquestionable visibility, funding and marketing opportunities. Do you think we would be able to see a car hit a wall at 300kmp/h and have the driver walk away without the development that has taken place in Formula One. Far be it from me to tell Bernie how to run his business, but what is so hard about putting a cap on expenditure and some SME auditors in place to monitor it. Let the egotistical independents (and I don't mean that in any disparaging way, I love the color Mateschitz and Mallya add) buy from whichever supplier they want. This is exactly the way it is at the moment. Hell, Toro Rosso won a race this year. Don't try to fix what isn't broken. Formula One is no different to any other race series, or sport for that matter. Individuals and teams dominate from time to time, the competitors whinge that the playing field is not level and the governing body is showing favouritism. Oh well, let the political, financial and democratic forces take their natural course. The market will dictate an outcome and Formula One is still one of the world’s two largest sports. Bernie has too much say. He has done a good job over the many years, but like Howard you need to know when your time is up. Perhaps the constructors are just stringing him along to ensure their breakaway series becomes a no-brainer for all involved. If the FAI doesn’t stop this proposal I hope their head gets another good spanking (by the fans this time).  

The same day I read this I also saw that yet another state in America is introducing seat belts on their school buses. Are our buses and bus drivers so good that they are above what all car enthusiasts know to be a fact: seat belts save lives.If you are reading this in either Victoria or Queensland I am giving you yet another opportunity to laugh at us here in NSW. Anyone that has taken an L90 to Avalon will realise why I find this decision so mind-boggling.Try taking the bends at The Spit standing when the bus driver is trying to make up a bit of time between the three sets of speed cameras from the top to the bottom of the run. While this may be fine for me -- I'm quite fit even with the amount of beer I drink -- the flow-on affect is potentially appalling. The 70 to 90 year olds will have even less of a reason to hand their licences in. Why give up driving to be forced to stand on a lurching bus?Then again the bus service is marginally better than the train I am typing this blog on.I am crawling around the Hawkesbury at what seems like 5km/h. The tracks can't take much more. A one 65- minute drive, garage to office car park, turns into anything up to two hours, fifteen minutes on a train.At least though I can get my laptop open on the train. On a bus there isn't even the room without hitting the person in front in the back of the head. Not that it will matter for much longer, we'll all be standing.Can our transport system be any more ludicrous? Can our state government find anyone more stupid than the last four transport ministers we have had?Thank you to the people of Ryde for waking up and showing NSW Labour what we really think of their performance.Bring on the election and let’s make Roads, Transport and enthusiast’s requirements a focus.Along with Health, Education and everything else they have also stuffed.Then again, Rees is supporting the V8s at Homebush, so he does show a small spark of enlightenment. And he did get rid of Costa and Sartor, two of the most arrogant examples of humanity we have ever been forced to listen to. 

The luxury marque struggled under Ford for years and hopes that now, with the help of the XF — and under the ownership of Indian car giant Tata Motors — it can turn itself around.With the choice of four engines including one diesel, the XF range provides a good choice for all driving and lifestyles.The 2.7 litre turbo-diesel produces 152kW at 4000 rpm and 435Nm of torque at 1900 rpm. It gets from 0-100km/h in 8.2 seconds on its way to a top speed of 229km/h. The most frugal of all the variants, the diesel burns 10.4 litres/100kms.With a top speed of 237kW, the 3.0litre V6 petrol generates 175kW at 6800 rpm and 293 Nm at 4100 revs. Its 0-100km dash is just a fraction quicker than the diesel and its top speed is only eight kilometres more at 237km/h. Fuel economy starts to creep up for the first of the petrol engines at 15.8litres per 100kms.The first of the V8 units has a 219kW, 4.2 litre engine with 411Nm at 4100 rpm. It hurtles to a limited top speed of 250km/h after a 6.5-second 0-100 sprint.The biggest engine is a turbo V8 that creates a substantial 306kW at 6250 rpm and an equally large 560Nm at 3500. It will read 100km/h in a rapid 5.4 seconds but can’t go any faster than 250km/h.Both the V8s are quite thirsty with the smaller one using 17.3 litres per 100kms and the bigger of the two using a litre and a half more.All variants transfer power to the wheels via a six speed automatic transmission.Servotronic variable ratio power-assisted steering is standard on every version of XF and together with its light and rigid structure and wide track, ride and handling is well-balanced and responsive. For the SV8, that includes the adaptive damping strategy of Jaguar´s Computer Active Technology Suspension (CATS) which uses a network of sensors to monitor your driving style and road conditions and a high-speed processor that uses the data to constantly fine-tune the adaptive shock absorbers.Jaguar have taken a big design step with the XF, making it look more modern and sleeker than the stately, traditional style of previous models.The low nose, strong woven mesh grille and rising waist give this coupe-like four door an athletic appearance and an assertive presence.A very Aston Martin DB9-looking chunky rear with lipped boot lid and – like the front - wraparound lights, accentuates the cars sportiness and conjures a sex appeal that hasn’t been associated with Jags for some time.Three trim levels are available in the interior that Jaguar describes as ‘sporting luxury’. There’s not much clutter at all thanks to ‘invisible until needed’ features like the revolving air vents, the touch screen controls and the pop-up JaguarDrive Selector™.But it’s the use of real wood – more than any other Jag since the Mk II saloon in the 1960s – that shoots this interior into the luxury category at first glimpse. Satin American Walnut, Burr Walnut and straight-grained Rich Oak adorn the cabin and highlight the aluminium finishers.For it’s coupe like exterior there is lot of room inside the XF – enough for five large adults to sit comfortably. There is plenty of storage too, including three cup holders, storage pockets in each door and two lidded compartments in the centre console. Not to mention the boot which holds over 500 litres.There are several other features to make driving simpler and more enjoyable like satnav, TV, a camera for rear park assist, a premium sound system, Bluetooth and iPod capabilities, soft blue illumination for the instrument cluster, cruise control and voice recognition.A comprehensive airbag package heads a long list of safety features for the Jaguar XF, including Electronic Brakeforce Distribution, ABS, Dynamic Stability Control, Electronic Brake Assist, Cornering Brake Control, Understeer Control Logic and Engine Drag Control.The XF is a beautiful car, to view and to drive. It is everything a Jag should be; original in design, instantly recognisable to the cognoscenti as a Jag, feline in stature and demeanour, masculine in nature while maintaining feminine appeal. My wife loved it and her taste is showing a shift away from 4wds and small to medium sedans to larger family coupes and stylish performance four-doors. Thank god.Ford did a great job of getting a product line together it could sell. Wehope Tata does a good job of custodianship of the marque. Personally we would have liked to have seen Ford keep Jag and cut some of the other crap from their own product line. Selling Aston was a good decision and it is in good hands, especially if the partnership with Mercedes proceeds. We worry for Jag though.The only negative comment on the interior came from a rear row passenger who pointed out the back of the front seats is just an ugly plastic. He was right but we hadn't looked as it is hard to take your eyes away from the dash, which is simply the best designed dash - period. The use of timber is superb, with a pale ash that looks modern and a great breakaway from the traditional burled walnut that the try-hard Japanese "prestige" models use to try to imbue some sense of style.The V6 in the test car gives ample power for most, but Jag is a performance marque so we would opt for the V8. The extra 10-20 bucks (driving style dependent) a week in fuel is a small trade-off on the enjoyment stakes. The handling is dynamic and we couldn't find any vices.Driving this is a joy, an event, something that anyone who is contemplating buying a car that is more than transport is really after. Its competition is Audi, Mercedes, BMW and to a certain extent Citroen, Jag with the XF can now hold its head very high in this company.Now let’s hope Tata does take Jag back to Le Mans and commissions one of the great design houses to build a true descendant of the E-type. We would go with the newly re-established Touring… bring it on.For - Style, driving dynamics, designAgainst - the back of the front seats should be leather and not plasticNot only is this the make or break car for the prestige Pommy – scratch that – Indian marquee, but it is a new modern direction in styling for Jag. And that has been lacking for quite some time in the brand.It’s a standout from its very DB9 rear, along its high waistline crease and down to the low slung nose. It’s already clear that Jaguar have bitten the bullet and started from scratch with this big, impressive car. It’s sleek and sporty but in a firm handshake, dinner suit kind of way. Very modern, but still retains the look you associate with the brand’s history.The XF has one of the best interiors we have ever seen, touched and heard. They have combined Jaguar tradition with the necessary mod cons and plush new surfaces beautifully.It’s roomy without losing intimacy, and the designers have kept the long, wide sweeping centre console that have featured in Jags for decades. A large brushed-metal dial, together with a multi-function display, controls nearly everything in the car. So there is no clutter except for stereo and air-con buttons. Even the air vents are hidden until they revolve into life when the engine is turned on.Another eye-catching feature was the woodgrain panelling. The over-varnished cherry coloured monstrosity, that we see far too much of, is nowhere to be seen in the XF. Instead it’s replaced by real wood that actually looks like something you’d choose to make your dining table with.The seats are comfortable and supportive and there is very little wind or tyre noise.On the road at slow speeds, the Computer Active Technology Suspension eats up ruts and blemishes. Acceleration and gear changes in the V6 were timely and smooth. We never longed for extra power but still want to give the V8 a go just hear what sort of noise it makes.The XF performs like many cars half its size when its legs are stretched on winding, hilly roads. Cornering is fun and the car is agile thanks to the suspension firming up and sticking the tyres hard to the tar.We just hope under new ownership, this brave new attitude is nurtured.