Race track

Porsche gives some racing drivers a steer of its upcoming 918 Spyder hybrid supercar, around the Yas Marina F1 circuit in Abu Dhabi.  

Enough pictures, enough video, enough stats and press releases. Someday soon, by the beard of Jupiter, we want to experience the Alfa Romeo 4C in the flesh -- and it's likely to be a couple of years before it makes it to Australia. Still, the videos aren't terrible, as the subject in question is more than easy on the eyes.The latest clip released from Alfa Romeo shows the 4C being hustled around the Balocco Racetrack, which is located in the Piedmont region of Italy (wine fan alert!). This video shows 4C ripping through corners, and apparently breaking out into a sweat, because the rest of the clip shows sunny skies.It's still a tease though, and a bit of a cruel one. At the very beginning we're treated to the car starting up, but the pending exhaust and engine noises give way to overly dramatic music. That's not what we want to hear. If the car is shown powersliding around a corner, we want to hear rubber being murdered, an engine orchestrating mayhem, and an exhaust barking angrily at the tarmac as it passes over it.Oh, well. I guess we just have to wait for our own time behind the wheel. For now, we'll try to remain content with the aforementioned stills, videos, and stories being sent out. Time to go back and watch that clip again... for the 35th time or so.www.motorauthority.com 

In an inspired move, Holden has taken one of its utes to the famous Nurburgring circuit in Germany, where it has posted a lap record. In fact, Holden is claiming a world record for the fastest lap of the treacherous 20km circuit by a commerical vehicle.With Holden Dynamics Engineer, Rob Trubiani, at the wheel of the 270kW VF SS V Redline Ute the Aussie icon posted a sizzling 8m 19.47sec lap,  faster than many exotic sports cars costing several times more than the Ute."We came up with a plan to tackle the Nurburgring and break the world record for a commercial or utility vehicle but when we did our research it seemed one didn't exist, so we decided to set a record instead!" Mr Trubiani said."Without a lap record to break, we sat down and calculated what we thought the Ute could do and targeted around 8min 30sec. Initial practice sessions at the track confirmed that was a stretch target so that's what we aimed for.""To slash 11 seconds from that time with an 8m 19.47sec lap was incredible. There may not have been a utility-vehicle record before but I'm proud to say the VF SS V Redline Ute is now the Nurburgring benchmark!"The record lap time was set during a full run of the Nordschleife section of the Nurburgring, a total of 20.8km. The treacherous circuit has more than 170 corners with huge elevation changes and multiple surfaces and there is no tougher test for a car and its dynamics.Stock standard apart from a small amount of additional negative camber dialled into the front wheels (but still within production tolerances) and the removal of the speed limiter, the Ute ran flawlessly for seven days and 35 gruelling laps in total.The only components that required changing during the entire program were tyres and brakes. The ute is fitted with the widest wheels and tyres ever fitted to a mainstream Holden and the first split front and rear tyre arrangement, with 19x8.5-inch front (245/40/R19) and larger 19x9-inch rear wheels (275/35/R19)."If a vehicle can handle The Green Hell it can handle anything and proves yet again that Holden's testing and development processes produce world-class cars with world-class handling," Trubiani said."Being surrounded by mostly European manufacturers at the industry days, the Ute really stood out and I was getting plenty of thumbs up. Plus a few of the more expensive European cars on the track got a shock as this red Aussie Ute flew past them!"Watch the Holden VF Ute vs The Nurburgring -- Part 1: The MachineWatch the Holden VF Ute vs The Nurburgring -- Part 2: The DriverWatch the Holden VF Ute vs The Nurburgring -- Part 3: The Ring 

Australian Formula One ace Mark Webber will quit F1 racing at the end of this year and drive for Porsche in the LeMans 24 Hour race and sports car series from next year. A statement from Porsche issued tonight said Webber has signed “a multi-year contract” with the German car maker.Webber, 36, has already raced at Le Mans twice but his campaign was overshadowed by a dramatic crash that saw his car do a backflip at 270km/h.Since he began his Formula One career in 2002, Webber has achieved 36 podium places, nine race victories and has started from pole position 11 times.He finished third in the 2010 and 2011 F1 championships and is current ranked fifth in this year’s F1 championship. His teammate Sebastian Vettel of Germany has won the F1 championship for the past three years and is leading this year’s series.“It’s an honour for me to join Porsche at its return to the top category in Le Mans and in the sports car World Endurance Championship and be part of the team,” Mark Webber said in a Porsche statement.“Porsche has written racing history as a manufacturer and stands for outstanding technology and performance at the highest level. I’m very much looking forward to this new challenge after my time in Formula 1. Porsche will undoubtedly set itself very high goals. I can hardly wait to pilot one of the fastest sports cars in the world.”  Webber is yet to talk in detail about ending his F1 career. Originally from Queanbeyan near Canberra, Webber started racing karts at the age of 14. He won the New South Wales state championship in 1993, and moved into the Australian Formula Ford Championship after his father bought him an ex-Craig Lowndes car. Webber finished 14th in his debut season. In 1995, Webber scored several victories, including a win in the support race for the Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide and finished the season in fourth place. He moved to England at the end of that year to race in Formula Fords there. During the 1996 British Formula Ford Championship, Webber took four victories on his way to second place overall.In 1997 he was approached by Mercedes-Benz to race sports car for the German car maker, and drove for them in the 1998 and 1999 LeMans races and sports car series. He got his break into F1 in a two-day test in December 1999 driving for the small Arrows test team. His chance in the F1 championship came via Minardi in 2002 before switching to Jaguar in 2003 and 2004. He raced for Williams F1 in 2005 and 2006 before switching to Red Bull Racing in 2007, where he has been ever since.This reporter is on Twitter: @JoshuaDowling 

Mark Skaife yesterday revealed there are another three car manufacturers lining up to join the newest player on the V8 grid after the Holden chairman and Supercars' commissioner announced Volvo would to take the fight to Holden, Ford, Nissan and Mercedes next year.On another landmark day for the sport that will ensure the category's long term viability, Volvo yesterday committed to becoming V8 Supercars' fifth manufacturer, with the Swedish giant joining Garry Rogers Motorsport for a two-car assault on the championship.But Skaife said there could be more than two V8 Volvo S60s on the grid from 2015, with the former champion revealing he is still in talks with another three manufacturers about joining the series.News Limited understands BMW and Chrysler are two of the interested parties."I can say that I am in discussion with three,'' Skaife said, "We have held talks and we will continue to, going forward. They have all said they are interested but whether or not they come and play I don't know.""Either way, we have to make sensible decisions to gain factory-backed support for race teams currently not receiving that support. This is about the viability of our sport.''With five manufacturers now committed to the series next year, Skaife said the sport could only sustain a couple more entries, with the new teams chasing success in an already competitive field."I think the clever way to go about it is to say will have five manufacturers for 2014,'' Skaife said.

Volvo will once again try to change its staid image and bring an end to Volvo jokes by joining the V8 Supercar racing series in 2014 -- even though it does not sell a V8 car locally.The Swedish brand’s arrival brings the number of car makers competing in the Australian V8 championship to five, joining Holden, Ford, Nissan and Mercedes-Benz.Unlike the Mercedes deal which is privately funded, the Volvo race program is being backed by the factory, albeit paid for by Volvo Australia. Volvo will develop a V8 in Sweden especially for the race series even though it no longer offers a V8 in its passenger car range.Melbourne-based Garry Rogers Motorsport, formerly a Holden-backed operation, will run the two-car Volvo team. There are no plans to change the current driver line-up Scott McLaughlin and Alex Premat, the team says. Volvo Australia said it is a “multi-year” deal but would not disclose how exactly how many years.When asked if this would finally put an end to Volvo jokes -- after earlier racing campaigns, which included the late racing legend Peter Brock, failed to break perceptions -- the boss of Volvo Australia Matt Braid said: “I think we’re already there. That heritage has disappeared. I think there is some residual in older age groups … but times have changed and I’m sure the V8 series will enhance it.”Volvo said the racing campaign shows the company is “competing on the track and in the marketplace”, although its sales are down 10 per cent in a market that  is up by 4.5 per cent so far this year. Not having a V8 to sell to the public will not backfire on the brand, says Volvo, “because there isn’t a racing series in the world that’s tied to production cars these days”.The rule-changes to V8 Supercars this year mean the race cars no longer need to technically resemble their road-car cousins. The formula appears to be working. Last season four drivers from two teams shared 30 race wins. So far this year eight drivers from five teams have shared 19 race victories.Volvo's announcement coincides with Volvo’s unveiling of a high-performance sedan powered by a turbocharged six-cylinder engine, called the S60 Polestar and valued at $109,950.This reporter is on Twitter: @JoshuaDowling 

If you want to know why we’re so crazy about AMG’s new compact range of performance cars, just take a look at this quick video.It shows the A45 AMG hatch being put through its paces at the legendary Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari race track in Italy, otherwise known as Imola.Behind the wheel of the car is AMG’s own driving instructor Lance David Arnold, who quickly goes through some of the car’s main performance features. His favourite attributes are the car’s emotional driving pleasure, powerful performance and everyday usability.Under the hood is a turbocharged and direct-injected 2.0-litre four-cylinder engine, which develops 265 kilowatts and 450 Newton metres of torque. Drive is sent to all four wheels via an AMG SPEEDSHIFT DCT seven-speed dual-clutch transmission and according to Mercedes, the car needs just 4.6 seconds to reach 0-100km/h. Top speed is limited to 250km/h.The A45 AMG will be priced from $74,900AUD and arrives in Australia in September. The CLA45 AMG will arrive soon after. www.motorauthority.com

If you have a fast car you're probably going to want to drive it quickly. You might also want to know just how well you're doing on your local track with regards to speeds and lap times.You could spend a whole lot of dough on a multitude of data logging devices, or you could find an app that has some information that you might find useful. BMW owners now have a new tool that straddles both worlds, and does so rather brilliantly.BMW has produced a new app for the iPhone (sorry Android...) called the M Power App, previewed here in this video made by the guys at Bimmerpost. What this does is tie into the system of the vehicle via the BMW Apps option and allows drivers to record a whole bunch of data while they're out on the track.When they come in for a break, they can grab their phone and pull up the app where they're presented with a scorecard. This shows the top speed, the ambient track temperature, the lap times, and the differences between each lap.After you review the scorecard, go ahead and click "Review" because there's a whole lot more information waiting for you. A satellite map of the track pops up and shows you your throttle and braking applications.From this screen you can actually replay your laps as well, and watch an car icon move along the track. This display shows your speed and steering angle throughout the replay. If you want to see how you compare on a given track, you can get your friends data and it will show your lap data simultaneously.It's a pretty amazing app, and it will be made available to BMW owners with the BMW Apps option later this summer. We're eager to get a bit more time with this app to really explore it (and any BMW machine that might come along with it).www.motorauthority.com 

A mega-dollar marketing stunt for the Holden ute at the world-famous Nurburgring race circuit appears to have backfired.Holden took a new VF Commodore SS ute to the high temple of horsepower in Germany a fortnight ago so it could become the fastest ute to lap the perilous 21km circuit known as “green hell”, and then use the achievement in advertisements.But despite its V8 grunt and new lightweight materials the SS-V Redline edition was slower than a Renault hot hatch, which has a less powerful engine and is cheaper to buy than Holden’s hero car. The new VF Holden SS-V Redline ute is understood to cost more than $48,000, while the Renault’s RRP is $42,640.Two years ago Renault’s Megane RS became the fastest front-drive production car to ever lap the Nurburgring, setting a time of 8 minutes and 7.97 seconds in June 2011.The new Holden ute set a more leisurely time of 8 minutes and 21 seconds on its first day of testingt, putting it only a few seconds ahead of a Hyundai V6 Coupe, and slower than the Chevrolet Camaro with which it shares its underpinnings. Carsguide understands it may have done a marginally quicker time on the second day of testing.When Holden was quizzed about the ute’s Nurburgring campaign, the company said the vehicle was there for routine testing. But Carsguide has learned Holden filmed the hot-laps at a considerable cost for an upcoming marketing campaign.Former Holden boss Mark Reuss, who is now the boss of General Motors North America, was behind the wheel for the mammoth exercise. Reuss, formerly an engineer for the company, is one of the few General Motors employees qualified to drive on the Nurburgring.This reporter is on Twitter: @JoshuaDowlingHolden SS-V Redline uteRenault Megane RS265 

The M135i and I are snarling in frustration as we’re forced to hold speed through the 250-degree right hander. For once it’s not entirely driver error. New Zealand’s newest racetrack, Highlands Motorsport Park near Cromwell, is a 4.8km concoction of corners designed to give man and machine no relief.The only thing that runs off this track unscathed is rainwater … and there hasn’t been any of that since the circuit opened at Easter, so a talcum-powdering of dust lies in wait to punish any deviation off the racing line. The prospect of arguing with the Armco and concrete barriers tends to give even me a degree of patience.BMW’s baby performance car is on the dregs of its massive mechanical grip but is still letting me know my steering and throttle finesse is about as subtle as Bob Katter. The M suspension can only do so much with so little talent, as the fast-vanishing M6 ahead shows.A few laps later and the base 116i hatch is even more impressive through the same sweeping turn - and all the turns that followed. Despite its skinnier rubber affording a little less grip having less grip skinnier rubber, the entry level 1 Series has 160kg less weight to worry about.As a result it clings to the corner at a similar pace, albeit with a bit more suspension-bobbing. It’s only as the lock comes off and the power goes down that you remember the engine, as willing as it is across the rev range, is channelllng about half the 135’s output. Which helps explain why the auto-equipped 116 costs $41,300 and the M135 is $75,100.The other surprise performer is the tri-turbo X5 M50d. The big SUV carries its weight like a rugby forward. It’s not the quickest of this quartet to change direction but there’s no sign of wallowing once pointed in, thanks largely to the anti-dive suspension and all-wheel-drive system that transfers torque depending on which wheel is about to let go.The monster diesel has a momentary lag as the go-pedal is mashed but then winds up like a turbine on the tiniest straight. The next corner is consequently approached at pace but  no sense this is a 2.1-tonne truck as the brakes refuse to fade despite incessant flogging.Finally, there’s the M6. Point it at a fast bit of road and the premium coupe is in its element.  A flat design and well-engineered layout help disguise the 1.8-tonne mass as the 4.4-litre V8 propels the grand tourer from corner to corner at a pace that has passengers paying to slow down.But this is a track and the M6 will hold neck-straining corner pace without complaint. When it does break loose, the traction control hands control back before the pace has even slowed.The verdict? If you have the coin, the Highlands Motorsport Park is a rewarding place to play. The same applies to the BMWs that plied its surface last week.The Bavarian company holds the global lead in the prestige stakes and that’s down to the dynamic capabilities of its cars. In Australia, it needs to fine-tune the feature/cost return to regain that lead from its arch-rival with the three-pointed star.