Articles by Stuart Innes

The CAMS Australian Targa Championship for tarmac rally cars will kick off with the new Supaloc Classic Targa Adelaide in September. Supaloc Classic Targa Adelaide replaces the former Classic Adelaide Rally that ran into financial difficulties two years ago. The new event is being run by promoter Octagon which has won its reputation with Targa Tasmania. A portfolio of Octagon's events has been linked together and it was announced in Adelaide yesterday the series had won CAMS endorsement to become an Australian championship. The championship for classic cars will include the Adelaide event in September, Targa High Country at Mt Buller, Victoria in November, Targa Wrest Point in Hobart in January and Targa Tasmania in April. A championship for modern cars will be held over the latter three, Octagon's managing director Sean Nicholls confirming yesterday there was no plan to add a modern competition category to the Adelaide event. "The targa format of rallying has been going from strength to strength over the past three years, growing out of Targa Tasmania," Mr Nicholls said. "Mote competitors will be attracted to it now that it has the backing of CAMS." CAMS president Steve Papadopoulos said the Australian Targa Championship would be a significant title in Australian motorsport. "Tarmac rallying is a real growth area of Australian motorsport," he said. Mr Nicholls said 100 entries had been taken for the Adelaide event so far and a further 100 were anticipated. The Adelaide event would have a prologue on Wednesday, September 14 followed by three days of competition, although that could grow to four days next year. The Adelaide event has drawn naming rights sponsorship from steel building system Supaloc - an SA firm run by Kevin Weeks who is a three-time winner of the former Classic Adelaide Rally in his 1974 Porsche RS and who won Targa High Country last year in a modern Lamborghini.

Diesel has made enormous inroads into SUVs but there are still buyers who seek the relative silence and smoothness of a petrol engine, let alone the cleaner refuelling process at the servo, especially in a premium brand often used by soccer mums.Audi, for its big Q7 all-wheel-drive wagons, offers just one petrol engine in the four-model range. As you might expect from a modern German motor, it's a good 'un.The Q7 is well-credentialled as a large SUV that doesn't mind going on to the dirt; the three-litre V6 supercharged petrol engine makes a classy way of doing it.VALUECompared with their sedan, let alone coupe, cousins on the showroom floor, you get a lot of vehicle when buying big SUVs with premium brand badge, The Audi Q7 with this V6 petrol motor at $93,814 is second-cheapest in the Q7 range ($88,614 - $254,814). The A6 sedan with a matching V6 petrol engine, for example, is $114,500. The Q7 V6 petrol includes quattro AWD, eight-speed tiptronic transmission, climate control, leather interior, reversing camera, parking sensors, power front seats, 11-speaker sound system and downhill assist. TECHNOLOGYWe're concentrating on the engine here. It's a three-litre, direct-injection V6 with supercharger and intercooler of an almost V8-like 245kW power and 440Nm torque, able to accelerate a 2.3-tonne biggie 0-100km/h in 7sec yet rated at 10.7 litres/100km fuel use (we averaged 11.2). It makes a good marriage with the intelligent eight-speed tiptronic automatic. Two-stage ESP is clever, too. It has a lavish information and car set-up screen.DESIGNAt over 5m long and 198cm wide (plus mirrors), the Q7 has presence and lots of interior space. Two pop-up seats make a third row. But for a large luxury vehicle the middle spot of the regular second row of seats is firm and unwelcoming. A 100-litre tank will give good range for Aussie touring but it has a space-saver spare wheel.SAFETYEight airbags, brake assist, ABS, daytime, running lights and ESP with an off-road mode stack up well. ANCAP's only test of a Q7 was five years ago when it scored four stars.DRIVINGYou won't enjoy the size of this SUV in tight car parks but the interior space is welcome away from there. So much space that tyre noise rumbles slightly through the cavernous interior. Driver and passengers enjoy good room.The V6 supercharged petrol engine easily copes with the Q7's weight. But continual stop-start thick traffic motoring will ruin fuel economy. On the open road, fuel economy is tolerable, as it sits on 1950rpm at 110km/h.The eight-speed tiptronic shifts down automatically on no throttle - a help for engine braking and ready in the right gear to accelerate away.Off the bitumen it has 204mm ground clearance and a 21-degree approach angle but no low-range gearing although 55-profile tyres are more suitable on dirt than many on luxury SUVs. We liked the off-road mode for the ESP, allowing a certain amount of wheelspin; not intrusive yet helping the big thing to charge around corners on gravel as if on rails. The centre diff can direct up to 65 per cent power to the front wheels or up to 85 per cent to the rear. Ride is pleasant enough.Including a hills-country outing, we averaged 11.2 litres/100km but more thick traffic and it would have been worse.VERDICTIt's simple: if you like the Audi Q7 as your choice of big, premium SUV and you prefer petrol over diesel, then this V6 TFSI is the one, indeed the only one.AT A GLANCEAudi Q7 3.0 TFSI quattroPRICE: $93,814WARRANTY: Three years, unlimited kmRESALE: est. 59 per centSERVICE INTERVAL: 15,000km/12 monthsSAFETY: Four-star ANCAP (2006 test)ENGINE: 245kW/440Nm three-litre, dohc, 24-valve, supercharged V6 petrolFUEL: 10.7 litres/100km, on test 11.2. Petrol 95RONCO2 EMISSION: 249g/kmBODY: Five-door wagonDIMENSIONS: 5089mm (l), 1983mm (w), 1737mm (h), 3002 (wb) WEIGHT 2240kgTOWS: 3200kgTYRE SIZE: 255/55x18SPARE TYRE: Space saver

... who can sell the same car for thousands of dollars less, and do not have to provide a warranty. The Motor Trade Association of Australia in a submission ahead of the May Federal Budget urges that the inequity be sorted out, and that the separate luxury car tax (LCT) be abolished because too many normal family cars are now being caught in the LCT net. "A used car bought privately, from a private seller's driveway, is not subject to GST but an identical car bought from a dealer does attract GST," Richard Dudley, MTAA chief executive said yesterday. "It's inequitable." He said private sellers did not have to provide the same level of consumer protection as did a licensed dealer which had to give a warranty, which meant the GST put a dealer at a further competitive disadvantage. A three-year-old Holden Commodore, for example, might be valued at $20,000. A GST of 10 per cent applies to that, taking it to $22,000 at a dealer. But a private seller does not have to pay GST. Some dealers say they tried to absorb as much as possible of the GST cost to try to be competitive with private sellers who would pocket that 10 per cent if selling at the same price. But that strategy, too, affected the dealers' business. "The dealer loses one-eleventh of the selling price to GST to the government," one dealer said. Mr Dudley said the MTAA was not a tax expert and did not know how the inequity would be resolved. "The simplest solution would be not to apply GST to car sales at dealers," he said. "But that's unlikely." He admitted a private seller could not reasonably be expected to handle GST and pay it to government. Also, the MTAA wants the luxury car tax abolished. A 33 per cent tax applies to the value above $57,466 (or for fuel-efficient cars bettering 7 litres/100km, above $75,375). "A family with six kids which needs a Tarago or someone who buys a Subaru Liberty Outback doesn't have to pick many options to find themselves above the luxury car tax threshold," Mr Dudley said. "There is no luxury tax on other items like a 40-foot yacht or a $40,000 wristwatch. If they can't abolish the LCT then at least lift it to a reasonable figure."

... for the 2011 V8 Supercars Championship and let the title slip from his grasp as it did last year.The 2008 and 2009 champion was deeply hurt that despite winning more races than any other driver last year he had to watch James Courtney lift the championship trophy after minor things went wrong for Whincup in certain events, including the deciding final weekend of the year, in Sydney.In the first four races of 2011 Whincup, driving his TeamVodafone Commodore, has two first places, a second and a third. This gives him 567 points to Orrcon Falcon driver Mark Winterbottom's 423.That 144-point gap is almost worth one race win (150 points) and has been established so early in the season.But Whincup is well aware of what happened last year, when he won all four races at the start of the year - and that there are still 23 more races to go in 2011.He said even after his Clipsal 500 win he would not be backing off to play safe for the championship."I am here to win races," he said of his philosophy. "I was in a similar (leading) position last year and got mowed down and spat out the back. We need to keep our heads down this time."Garth Tander (Toll-HRT, Commodore) is third on points with 363. After a win in Adelaide on Saturday over Whincup and a fifth place on Sunday, the 2007 champion is still more than 200 points behind Whincup.TeamVodafone remained at Adelaide's Victoria Park pit garages yesterday preparing Whincup's and Craig Lowndes' Commodore for the three V8 Supercar races at the Melbourne GP this coming  weekend - races which will not count towards their championship.The cars were due to leave on their transporters last night.Meanwhile, Lowndes has headed to Bathurst, outside Sydney, to try his hand today in the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes Formula One car on  Australia's most famous race track.Lowndes raced in Formula 3000 open-wheelers in 1997 in UK-Europe but it will be a huge change stepping from his V8 Holden on the Adelaide street circuit to a Grand Prix F1 racer at Mount Panorama.In the exchange, Jenson Button, winner of the past two Australian GPs in Melbourne, will drive a V8 Supercar around the Bathurst track and is greatly looking forward to it.

But as the youngest ever to do so he's looking ahead more than back. "I feel like there is a fair bit left in me; another 150 would be nice," says the 31-year-old who races a black Jack Daniel's Holden Commodore in the family Kelly Racing outfit. Todd Kelly started in V8 Supercars in 1999 in Holden's Young Lions team, then joined Kmart Racing and on to Holden Racing Team to partner then-king, Mark Skaife, the pair sharing the win of the Bathurst 1000 race in 2005. He went to Jack Daniel's Racing, then run by Larry Perkins in 2008 before Kelly Racing was formed. In his 149 events so far, Kelly has done 330 races for six poles, 19 wins and 26 podiums. He still is the youngest winner ever of a V8 Supercar Championship race - in Canberra in 2000 when he was 20 years and 8 months old. "Over the 150 starts I've been fortunate to have a go at a bit of everything," he said yesterday as he made final preparations for track action at the Clipsal 500 from Friday. "The only reason we race is to be successful. So when I've had race wins, pole positions and things like that I obviously remember. But once those boxes are ticked and you get a pole or a win, a lot of drivers will hang their hat off that for six months; where for me that's fallen out the other end of my brain by the next morning and I turn to working on how to do it again. So I'm 99 per cent looking forwards, not really one that's looking backwards just yet." Kelly is only the 16th driver to clock 150 events in the history of the 51-year Australian Touring Car Championship, more lately known as the V8 Supercar Championship.

Garth Tander, 33, won each of the Saturday and Sunday races of the Clipsal 500 last year for HRT.  James Courtney, 30, came second in each race and, as reigning V8 Supercar Champion, now has shifted to HRT to make a formidable combination. As if that driver line-up and Adelaide track record was not enough, they said yesterday there was more to come.  On a visit to the Holden plant at Elizabeth, the Commodore racers said they were still pushing for more. "Because we won last year doesn't mean we're going to win this weekend," Tander said.  "We can't rest on last year's results. The standard in this sport is going up year by year. "You have to get it right on tyre life, fuel, strategy - you have to be as sharp as you can be." Courtney said HRT had done intense development work in the summer break to make the cars better. "The team did about 12 months (worth of) development over the Christmas period," he said. The pair's credentials are boosted by Tander holding the qualifying lap record on  the Adelaide street circuit and Courtney the race lap record. Each driver played down any suggestion of rivalry or acrimony  between them, Tander saying that was all "made up.""The best way to get the team to work is to work together," he said of co-operation with his new team-mate. He admitted not knowing Courtney closely before but said any sport or business needed time to develop a partnership.  Courtney said he was excited about being in HRT; his comeback from Race 1 to win Race 2 at the first 2011 event, at Abu Dhabi last month, showed the strength of the team. He said he loved street circuits -especially Adelaide's and the Clipsal 500 was a great event.  Courtney said he was over any minor injury sustained in a training accident on the Gold Coast two weeks ago. He was riding bicycles with former world motorcycle champion Mick Doohan when a ute - "I think it was a Ford" - pulled in front and suddenly braked. Doohan "being a bit better reacting on two wheels" missed the ute but Courtney went into the back and underneath, his hand being hurt when the driver tried to accelerate away.  Drivers will appear in  an autograph session in Rundle Mall, city from noon today.

Rivals, and champions, of the 1970s and 1980s Dick Johnson and Allan Moffat now have their sons driving for the same team, run by Johnson. Up-and-coming James Moffat, 26, will race a Jim Beam Falcon in the Clipsal 500 Adelaide this weekend, his team-mate being Steve Johnson, at 36, a seasoned campaigner with the outfit. Moffat Jnr has earned the drive in the top level of the sport after doing well in the Fujitsu development series for V8 Supercars. The sons can only hope to get some of the achievements of their fathers ... Allan Moffat was four times Australian Touring Car Champion, had 36 race wins, 52 podiums, 39 poles and four Bathurst race victories. Dick Johnson was five-times champion, had 30 race wins, 65 podiums, 27 poles and won at  Bathurst three times. Moffat Snr says that creates an issue for James as people will expect him to live up to the surname when he has to make his own way. Allan Moffat has determined to be at the Adelaide race and then not attend any more this year. "I'll be hiding at the back of the garage this weekend," he said. "I don't want to be a distraction for the team," Moffat added of the autograph hunters who appear wherever he does. He said James had got to where he is ("this crossroads in his career, an opportunity of a lifetime") by hard work. "It's all been his doing; he's worked his backside off in every category of racing he's been in," Moffat said. Moffat Snr said the closeness of competition was now far greater than in his day, exemplified by lap timing - "in our day, girls on stop-watches timed to a tenth of a second and now they go to four decimal points because that  can make the difference in a lap time." Moffat said he and Dick Johnson while track rivals always respected each other. "We never had a scrape between us," he said. "And I can't say that about everyone in pit lane then." Dick Johnson said he had full confidence in James and Steven to perform well. James Moffat said his surname had been a help and a hindrance. "It's meant publicity for me, which I've grabbed with both hands," he said. "At the same time the surname does bring extra expectation. Dad was so successful and it's not something I can do overnight." Their Jim Beam Falcons were among the 28 V8 Supercar Championship racers unloaded into the pit garages at Victoria Park in yesterday's set-up day. Track action for support categories has begun. The championship V8s take to the track tomorrow (Thursday) for their practice sessions ahead of the 250km, 78-lap race of the 3.22km street circuit on Saturday and again on Sunday.

... the sounds, such as birds singing, and the aromas, for example when you are near a woodfire chimney. Driving is more alive in the open air compared with being cacooned in fabric-and plastic-lined steel. Mark Webber chooses to do it for a living, doesn't he? The very first motor car as we know it - the Benz of 1886 - was an open carriage. Ever since then open-top cars have existed, despite the demands of safety, practicality and mankind becoming softer and less adventurous. That's not to say the convertible of 2011 is unsafe, impractical and takes a hardy adventurer to operate it. The modern convertible has a weather-proof roof for the heaviest rains. Manual soft-tops can be opened or closed in a few seconds. The automatic, press-button soft or hard-tops are a wonder of articulation and on some cars can be opened even as you approach the car. Some convertibles have little rollover hoops that pop out if the car senses it's tipping over. And they have the full safety kit of their fixed-roof cousins - ABS brakes and stability control to help avoid a prang in the first place and airbags to help if there is one. I once owned a Moke, the utilitarian runabout based on the BMW-Leyland Mini. Why? Because it was the cheapest open-top reasonable car I could get. The fun of driving in the fresh air has not waned. When I joined the classic car brigade, the first criterion was that it had to be an open-top sports car - so a Bugeye Austin Healey Sprite it was (and still is). Then when I bought a brand new car a few months ago, guess what? It's another convertible sports car. In the time I've had my latest sports car, I have driven it with the roof up only when it rained. Even on the chilliest of winter nights, it's roof-down open motoring. A little bit of heater, a warm jacket and, if particularly cold, a neck scarf and hat is all you need. More expensive sports cars even have warm air directed around the neck, as well as having heated seats and steering wheel. I keep sunscreen, hat and sunnies in the car for other days. Even in the suburbs you hear the birds chirping. Get beyond the suburbs and there's the sweet smell of the countryside on a fresh morning or at sunset. Even the alluring waft coming from a country bakery. You get all those joys, even in a four-seat convertible cruiser. But if you get a decent little two-seat sports car, there's the driving joy as well. Their light weight brings nimble handling and braking, the low centre of gravity aids strong G-force cornering and that peppy exhaust completes all the sensations and dimensions of driving as it should be. Are you converted?

A University of Adelaide laboratory opened yesterday has been purpose-built and will focus on pedestrian crash impact testing. It will be the official testing facility for the pedestrian component of the Australasian New Car Assessment Program, (ANCAP). NCAP scores pedestrian protection as well as vehicle occupancy protection to help motorists select safer cars. The university's highly-respected Centre for Automotive Safety Research (CASR) will use the new laboratory - the only one of its kind in the nation - to do bullbar testing and development, impact testing of energy-absorbing materials, vehicle interior impact testing, crash reconstruction plus high-speed film and data acquisition. "Pedestrians make up a significant proportion of all road casualties, accounting for 16.5 per cent of all road fatalities and 8.5 per cent of all serious injuries," CASR director Professor Mary Lydon said yesterday. "This testing will assist the design of more pedestrian friendly vehicles." She said testing would check the protection given to pedestrians by different vehicle structures. It would allow improvements in safety to be measured. ANCAP chairman Lauchlan McIntosh said the new facility would improve ANCAP's internationally-recognised crash sting regime in the interest of all Australian road users, including pedestrians.

But the Ford race legend will be in a GM product - a 2008 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 which means it comes complete with seven-litre V8 engine.My plan is to exercise caution," says Johnson, now aged 65.His Dick Johnson Racing outfit, having taken James Courtney to be reigning V8 Supercar Champion, has its two Jim Beam Falcons in the hands of Steve Johnson and rookie James Moffat, to hit the track at the Clipsal 500 Adelaide three weeks from now after which he prepares for Targa Tasmania, April 5-10.Johnson will drive the Corvette coupe at the invitation of its owner Neill Ford who is a long-time Targa competitor and whose business Yellow Cab is a DJR sponsor in V8s.Three-time winner of the Bathurst touring car race and twice Sandown 500 winner, Johnson will be having his fourth drive in Targa Tasmania, which uses public roads closed to normal traffic over long competitive stages twisting through hills."It's a great event to participate in," Johnson said.  "I drove a Maserati Marchetta which was an open-top car  I have never been so cold and wet in my entire life. This time, thankfully, I've got a roof."Asked if he would be doing any pre-event testing to get familiar with the powerhouse Corvette, typically jocular Johnson said "It depends how far it is from aif parc ferme aifto the start line."Fellow touring car champion (with four titles) Jim Richards, a former race circuit rival of Johnson, has become the king of Targa Tasmania with a string of victories in Porsche cars.