Motorsports

Pickering triumphed in the recent bone-rattling Finke Desert Race, marking a record 11th consecutive class victory, and putting him in position for a Production 4WD trophy.Pickering took his Mitsubishi Pajero to first in class among a field of 99 vehicles, many of which were purpose-built offroad racers.He and co-driver Dylan Watson finished the tough 452km desert circuit from Alice Springs to Finke and back in a time of 6hr21m47s in what Pickering says was one of the toughest races in the event’s 38 years – with about half the entrants failing to make the finish line.Pickering says preparation of the barely modified 3.8-litre V6 petrol Pajero was the key to his record success. "Our Pajero was extremely strong all race and felt fantastic, even with some of the roughest conditions we have encountered on the Finke despite the welcome rain earlier in the week,” he says."When we arrived in Finke on Sunday afternoon there was virtually nothing to be done to the car. We inspected everything and did a spanner check but apart from precautionary checks there was nothing to attend to before the race back to Alice Springs on Monday morning," he said."The fact is the secret to success at the Finke is preparation as well as applying a strategy and a race pace that is fast enough to beat the opposition while ensuring you get the car to the finish in one piece,""We just set our race pace and stuck with it. We ran our own race and didn't push too hard. With the tough conditions we knew that our race pave was right and we would pick up places as the faster buggies and trophy trucks broke axles and suffered driveline problems and crashes," he added. 

Late last week, news broke that the assets of niche sports car manufacturer TVR, which hasn’t built a car since 2006, had just been sold. At the time, it wasn’t clear who the new owner was or what they planned to do with the assets, but we can now confirm that TVR will remain a sports car manufacturer for the time being.TVR’s previous owner, Russian businessman Nikolai Smolenski, had announced plans to use the company’s production facilities to start churning out wind turbines instead of sports cars. Thankfully, he ended up selling the business before the switch could happen.He sold the business to a British firm registered as TVR Automotive, whose director, Les Edgar, was interviewed recently by Top Gear. Edgar, whose background is in video games, though he also has links with Aston Martin, revealed that TVR’s new owner was keen to stay true to the brand’s roots (i.e. building raw sports cars with insane levels of performance).He also said TVR Automotive had the resources and acumen to succeed where Smolenski failed and that a lot of research was involved before the deal to purchase TVR’s assets was made.Unfortunately, the British exec couldn’t reveal any more details due to a non-disclosure agreement. Let’s hope we won’t have to wait too long until the next titbit of information surrounding TVR’s revival is revealed.www.motorauthority.com 

Pagani is on the verge of launching a new model and today released a teaser image for the car, which is rumoured to be based on the Zonda R track special and limited to a production run of just five examples.Along with the teaser image, Pagani released the statement “The Revolution is about to begin...” The words suggest that the new car is in fact the rumoured Zonda R Evolution that we first saw a week ago.  Presented to a private audience at the recent 2013 Mille Miglia, the rumoured Zonda R Evo is said to be the most extreme version of Pagani’s Zonda supercar yet and could output as much as 597 kilowatts.That’s 37 more kilowatts than the Zonda R, but in addition to having more power the Zonda R Evo is also said to weigh less and have better aerodynamics. With the Zonda R capable of lapping the Nürburgring Nordschleife in an astonishing 6:47, we wonder what a lighter and more powerful version could do.www.motorauthority.com 

Honda is heading back to Formula One racing, and the automaker is doing so with former motorsports partner McLaren. This is big news for F1 fans, as it reminds many of a truly glorious era of Formula One racing.Interestingly, McLaren has a made a bit of news as of late on the street-legal side of the road. The MP4-12C is, by all accounts, a supremely super supercar and the new P1 should prove to be even wilder. Now comes talk that McLaren wants to build a car to take on the Porsche 911.Motor Trend seems to think this might mean that Honda and McLaren are cozying up even more tightly than it would appear.Honda is showing their desire to get back into the sports car world, both on and off the track. The NSX is (hopefully) just around the model-year corner, and teaming up with McLaren for F1 could bring about exciting bits of engine technology.Perhaps this merger could lead to a McLaren designed vehicle with Honda internals. If that thought doesn't tickle your enthusiast fancy, you need to go back and watch clips of Ayrton Senna using his loafers to heel-toe an Acura NSX around the track.www.motorauthority.com 

McLaren’s new P1 is out in the open, though the promotional efforts surrounding the new supercar are far from over. The latest out of Woking is news of an upcoming “online interactive experience” that will involve the P1.What exactly McLaren has planned remains a secret, although a teaser video released by the company provides some clues. It focuses on the aerodynamics of the car and the Formula One technology behind it. A statement in the video also reads, “Discovers how we achieve new levels of performance.”We’re guessing McLaren is about to launch a new P1 microsite that will allow users to highlight certain sections of the car and discover its exact purpose. It’s possible the site will also feature some kind of 3D tour. McLaren will reveal all next month, so stay tuned.The new P1 is billed as the spiritual successor to the legendary McLaren F1 launched more than two decades ago. The car features a plug-in hybrid drivetrain that combines a V-8 engine with an electric motor and provides a combined output of 664 kilowatts and 899 Newton metres of torque.This is enough for 0-60 mph (0 to 97 km/h) acceleration in under 3.0 seconds and a top speed limited--for an undisclosed reason --to 350km/h. Only 375 examples of the P1 will be built, with pricing in the U.S. starting at $1.15 million.www.motorauthority.com 

Following the series of mishaps afflicting Mark Webber’s Chinese Grand Prix over the weekend, including the inadequate amount of fuel that was placed in his car during qualifying, which led to him starting the race from pit lane, one might easily think the Aussie is ready to quit his Red Bull Racing team.There’s a lot of speculation suggesting Webber is about to do just that, along with announcing a new deal with Porsche that will see him drive for the German automaker in its assault on the 24 Hours of Le Mans next year.In fact, Radio Le Mans reported today that Webber had already signed a five-year deal with Porsche. However, nothing could be further from the truth, said Porsche R&D boss Wolfgang Hatz during a recent interview with Auto Action. "We still have plenty of time to decide our driver line up,” Hatz said. “There is a test plan, and for sure Mark Webber is not part of them.” At the same time, Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner has vehemently denied that there was a team conspiracy against Webber.He’s also revealed that investigations were underway at the Red Bull team to determine the cause of the recent problems afflicting Webber’s performance.Webber has been closely linked with Porsche for several years and even bought a 911 GT2 as one of his personal cars. He’s also no stranger to Le Mans racing, having piloted a Mercedes-Benz CLR prototype at the famous race more than a decade ago.If Webber does join Porsche for this Le Mans campaign next year, he wouldn’t be the first F1 driver to move to endurance racing. Just this season Brunno Senna went from racing for Williams in F1 to racing an Aston Martin Vantage GTE in the World Endurance Championship.www.motorauthority.com 

Overnight Radio Le Mans announced that Mark Webber had put pen to paper making the deal official, meaning he would join Porsche in their assault on the World Endurance Championship. Webber is expected to quit F1 at the end of the season, when his contract with Red Bull expires. Rumours of a move to Porsche have been simmering for some time, and the car giant last week did not deny an interest in hiring Webber for their new Le Mans sportscar program. Rumours of a move to Porsche ramped up following the controversial Malaysian Grand Prix. German publication Bild reported that Webber was is in talks with Porsche in the wake of Sebastian Vettel's ignorance of team orders by denying Webber victory at Sepang. Webber was quick to deny any rumours before the start of this year's F1 season, but is yet to make comment on the latest announcement. Porsche's new LMP1-class car will hit the test track later this year.  

The first trailer for the long-awaited biopic about legendary Formula One driver Niki Lauda has been released, confirming that the upcoming movie, Rush, looks to be just as dramatic and captivating as 2011’s brilliant Senna.The new movie, which hits cinemas nationwide in September, has been directed by two-time Academy Award winner Ron Howard and features actor Daniel Brühl (Inglourious Basterds) in the lead role and Chris Hemsworth (The Avengers) playing Lauda’s nemesis, James Hunt.It centers on the epic battle between Lauda and Hunt in the 1976 Formula One World Championship and was filmed in historic locations in the UK, Lauda’s native Austria and even at the Nürburgring race track in Germany where Lauda suffered his famous crash that almost killed him and left him scarred for life.Following the crash, Lauda, driving for Ferrari that year, got back behind the wheel after missing just two races to challenge Hunt, who was with McLaren.In the final race of the season, in Japan, Lauda chose to retire from the race due to heavy rainfall and his own safety concerns (he was unable to blink because of facial burns from his fiery Nürburgring crash), essentially handing the title over to Hunt who successfully completed the race, and ultimately won the championship.Lauda’s career resulted in vast improvements to F1 safety, including the end of competition on the Nürburgring (races are now held at the separate GP track). While Lauda himself suffered permanent and disfiguring injuries, there’s no way to estimate the number of lives he ultimately may have saved by helping to modernize the sport of motor racing.The life story the three-time world champion is well worth the read, from the days where he needed to finance his own participation in motorsports with bank loans, right up until his later years in the commercial airline business. Amazingly, Lauda is still involved in F1, serving as a senior exec at the Mercedes AMG team.www.motorauthority.com 

Following the conclusion of the controversial Malaysian Grand Prix a fortnight ago, the rumour mill has been working overtime with news Red Bull Racing driver Mark Webber may quit Formula One at the end of the current season in order to join Porsche for its 24 Hours of Le Mans campaign in 2014.Webber didn’t hide the fact that he was upset with the outcome of the Malaysian race, where he was passed by team-mate Sebastian Vettel despite team orders directing both drivers to maintain their current positions, though he's made no suggestion he was considering quitting the sport.It was Germany’s Bild that first reported Webber had been in contact with Porsche about possible interest in the new Le Mans campaign. In addition, Red Bull boss Dietrich Mateschitz is reported to have said that it was possible Webber could leave the team, although the Australian had his full support for a 2014 seat at Red Bull.Webber has been closely linked with Porsche for several years and even bought a 911 GT2 as one of his personal cars. He also sampled Porsche's last Le Mans winner, the 1998 911 GT1, at a Red Bull event in 2012.Of course, Webber is no stranger to Le Mans. Piloting a Mercedes-Benz CLR prototype during practice at the 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans, Webber’s car spectacularly become airborne, back-flipping during both practice and race-day warm up events.Should Webber end up leaving his Red Bull seat, we are sure there will be no shortage of drivers eager to replace him. Some of the possibilities hinted at in the past have included current Lotus driver Kimi Räikkönen as well as fellow Aussie Daniel Ricciardo of Torro Rosso.www.motorauthority.com 

There is no boot, no back seat, no radio and no way you could drive one on the road.  It's closer to a ground-bound missile than a family-friendly Toyota Camry.A Top Fuel car will shoot from a standing start to 160km/h in a barely believable 0.8 seconds, subjects its driver to five times the force of gravity at take-off, can top 500km/h inside 400 metres, needs parachutes for braking, and guzzles fuel at the rate of 45 litres for those same 400 metres.The fuel itself is closer to dynamite than regular unleaded and costs around $6.50 a litre. But that's what it takes to make a genuine 8000 horsepower - 5885 kiloWatts - from a comprehensively supercharged 8.2-litre racing V8 engine that shoots three-metre flames from its exhaust pipes.The noise is genuinely deafening and the ground shakes when a pair of cars leaves the starting line together. The Top Fuel numbers make a Formula One car look slow, until you remember that it can only run in a straight line and only on a desert-try track that does not break the traction of its fat slick back tyres. Oh, and it will run dry after 400 metres.I've driven all sorts of very fast cars, from Porsche turbos to an F1 Renault, and a Top Fuel car is the only one that genuinely scares me. I've never been tempted to take the wheel.But Larry Dixon does it for a living and loves it, even though he spun through 360 degrees at more than 250km/h last weekend when an axle snapped during a run at Willowbank Raceway in Queensland."It makes everything else look like you're pushing around a wheelbarrow,'' Dixon tells me. Somehow Dixon, the second-most successful Top Fuel driver in American racing history, bounced back from the near-disaster to re-set the Australian records in his first visit to Australia.For the record, he clocked 4.543 seconds for the standing 400 metres, hitting a top speed of 534km/h.This reporter is on Twitter @paulwardgover