Race track

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 

Last month Pagani’s Huayra supercar set a new record for a production car around the famous Top Gear test track, which was featured during the first episode of the popular British television program’s 19th season.The Huayra’s time was an impressive 1:13.8, which was 1.3 seconds faster than the time set by the stripped-out Ariel Atom V8 (1:15.1) and 2.4 seconds faster than that of the McLaren MP4-12C (1:16.2)--huge differences for a track only 2.8km in length.This caused some to doubt the Huayra’s legality for the show’s power lap segment, which states that a car needs to be in production, be fully road legal and be capable of crossing a standard speed bump to be eligible.Fans on enthusiast website Teamspeed questioned the legality of the tires used on the test after pictures during filming showed a mysterious set of tires being used on the record-breaking car.The tires bore markings that appeared different to those of the Huayra’s regular Pirelli P Zero Corsa tires and looked similar to the racing slicks of Pagani’s non-street legal track car, the Zonda R, except that they had grooves.In addition, photos of the same Huayra taken during filming of other parts of the episode revealed the Pirelli P Zero Corsa set instead. This caused website Jalopnik to question Pagani about the situation.In response, Pagani's communications officer Luca Venturi confirmed that two separate tires were used on the Huayra during the filming of the show, the regular Pirelli P Zero Corsa tires and a set of Pirelli P Zero Trofeo tires, the latter of which was developed specially for the Huayra by Pirelli and used for the power lap test.Importantly, Pagani confirmed that the Pirelli P Zero Trofeo tires were street legal and were available on the Huayra, which probably explains why Top Gear, which actually ran the test, had no qualms airing it.www.motorauthority.com 

You saw the new 2014 Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG make its debut recently at the 2013 Detroit Auto Show, in both sedan and wagon bodystyles, and with standard 4Matic and a new S-Model trim.But now see it take to a race track, where it finally has a chance to stretch its legs. This video shows both sedan and wagon bodystyles lapping an empty race track, which despite wet conditions proves to be no concern to the Teutonic duo.In addition to its aggressive new look, the car also gets more power, improved handling and a more upmarket interior. The most potent model now is the S-Model, which gets a 577-horsepower version of AMG’s twin-turbocharged 5.5-litre V-8 that’s gradually replacing the old 6.2-litre unit in the tuner’s lineup.As we see in this video, the new turbocharged engine doesn’t quite match the vocal qualities of the old naturally-aspirated mill, though it should still scare off any bystanders when you drop the hammer. It’s also a much better performer, being able to rocket the latest E63 AMG 4Matic S-Model to 100km/h from rest in just 3.5 seconds.www.motorauthority.com 

It's not Monaco, the Nurburgring or even Oran Park - this racetrack is Sydney's best-kept secret.The privately owned road in Kulnura, on the Central Coast, is a 5.1km Formula One-style track with 22 turns, described by one motorsport champion as the second-best track in the world.The track, which is said to have cost $10 million, was built by car enthusiast and former Coca-Cola Amatil boss Dean Wills after he lost his licence for speeding on the old Pacific Highway in 1996.Mr Wills wanted to enjoy his growing fleet of exotic cars - which included the only McLaren racing car ever sold privately - without having to worry about oncoming traffic.Read full story here: The Daily Telegraph

He has a healthy 298-point lead over Frosty and just needs a consistent run at Winton this weekend to seal the deal. Seeing how competitive everyone is this season, it is really difficult to peg back points.Even if Jamie has a DNF (did not finish) at any stage in the next four races all it will do is give Frosty and me a false glimmer of hope. There are not many times he’s had two bad races in the one weekend.For me, it’s all about getting second place back from Frosty so the team can claim consecutive one-two finishes for the season. I’m pretty confident of being able to peg back the points at Winton this weekend. It’s always been a good hunting ground for me as it’s my old stomping ground.I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve raced and tested there in all sorts of race cars. Hopefully that means I have some sort of home ground advantage. It’s another circuit that I enjoy. You don’t hit the high speeds of most other circuits and don’t even use top gear, but it’s a track I know extremely well in different categories so I’m hoping it will be a good round.The format for this weekend is back to a mixed tyre round. We have to use hards and softs during both races - a  140km race on the Saturday and a 200km race on the Sunday. Hopefully we can get back on form after a couple of substandard rounds that have sabotaged our championship aspirations. It would be good to finish the year with some good results.Then it’s on to Homebush where we had a fantastic round last year and almost got the championship. I’ve already got my eyes on the prize next year with the new race cars and the introduction of Nissan and Mercedes to the category. We tested our 2013 Car of the Future last week at Queensland Raceway and we’re well on track. I only did the first half of the day as I had to shoot off to Adelaide for a Clipsal promotion while Jamie did the rest. It was quite hot out there so the times weren’t fantastic but we made some progress with lots of things on the car. That was our second and last “manufacturers test day”. The next time we take it out it will be as part of our test bank for the 2013 season, so things are getting serious. 

But instead of our normal co-drivers we have internationals. I would love to be driving with Warren Luff who was my co-driver at Sandown and Bathurst where he didn’t put a wheel wrong.He drove within his and the car’s limits at all times and has the same feel for the car as I do. It would be great to have Luffy at Surfers Paradise, but now the focus is on getting my co-driver Richard Lyons up to speed as quickly as we can.The main thrust is for him to bring the car home in one piece. This place is lethal if you put a wheel wrong. It will cut you up and spit you out with those concrete barriers just ready to slice and dice a wayward car.Going into Surfers Paradise, Jamie and I are the ones with momentum in the championship. I may be 160-odd points adrift but so long as I still have four wheels and a steering wheel I’ll push ahead and give it my all.With Frosty just a handful of points behind me I would not discount him, especially on the streets of Surfers Paradise where he won last year, but I think it’s game over for Will Davison. He is unfortunately heading in the wrong direction from a great start to the year and it’s going to be difficult for him to turn that around.I know how hard it has been trying to close down the deficit since Tasmania so I think he has a very slim chance of getting back into contention with only five rounds to go. That’s got me thinking about the end of the season and the end of the Holden V Ford era.With only five rounds to go that exclusive era of two brands will soon be over and that’s sad. I am looking forward to having the Nissans and Mercedes on the track with us in 2013 and Bathurst will definitely have a whole new flavour next season.I don’t believe there will be another brand in the line-up by next year’s Bathurst as the teams have just about got themselves sorted out for 2013. But if they do, my tips would be Audi and BMW. It would certainly enhance and strengthen our category. 

I know, I said the same thing this time last year after Bathurst. Then I was catching Garth Tander with better tyres and more speed, but ran out of laps to pass him.This time the two lead drivers were running on fumes at the end while I had enough in the tank to run on full power and probably could have caught and passed them with one more lap.But “could have” doesn’t win races. Still, we are delighted with third place considering the issues we had to overcome throughout the day -- such as car handling, tyres and the incredibly frustrating issue of double stacking in the pits.You don’t lose a lot of time when you are stacked, but you lose valuable track position and then you spend the next session trying to get back to where you were. We played catch-up all day. In the end the car balance in the last run was sensational.The track came to us and I was able to push the tyres for that whole run. We didn’t have any of the issues most teams had early in the day with tyres. We think that may have been caused by running the left wheels over the kerbs at Griffins Bend, Skyline and maybe the Chase.Jamie Whincup and Paul Dumbrell did a sensational job, but I think everyone acknowledges that the drive of the day went to David Reynolds and Dean Canto. It was also the drive of their careers so far. Dave has been showing great pace in qualifying all year but hasn’t been able to get a good race car balance and has had some bad luck.I think we’ll be seeing a lot more of him on the podium in the future.There is talk about relaxing the rules on co-drivers which would allow Jamie and me to team up again. I think it’s a great idea to have that flexibility, but it would be mad for us if Jamie and I were challenging each other for the title again. However, teams that are outside of the championship race could put their best drivers together and make a big impact at Bathurst and salvage something out of the year. For us, the Bathurst result means we leapfrog Frosty into second and are now within striking distance of the title. 

The city of Atlanta has turned down a request to rename a street Ferdinand Porsche Avenue, because of the Porsche founder’s early association with the Nazis – for whom he designed the ‘volks wagen’ (people’s car) that later became the VW Beetle.The street name request was made as Porsche prepares to build a huge new US headquarters – including a test track -- in Atlanta on the site of a former Ford factory, and wanted the street it’s on renamed from the current Henry Ford II Avenue to Ferdinand Porsche Avenue.To their credit, Porsche has not tried to conceal their founder’s Nazi association in Germany's darkest days, which included him heading up Hitler’s tank commission and designing military vehicles, according to a report on the Atlanta CL website."It is highly regrettable but true that Professor Porsche had some direct contacts with the immoral dictators who ran Germany during those terrible times, as did every other prominent German business leader," a Porsche spokesman is cited as saying in a statement to CL.However the statement also points out the measures the carmaker and its parent company Volkswagen have taken to make amends after the war, including leading the formation of and funding for organisations that made reparations to those who worked as forced labourers, and their surviving families.“Today's Porsche AG, like most major German companies, contributed significantly to those funds. The Volkswagen group of companies has been widely acknowledged by numerous organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League, as the world's leader in atoning for those darkest of times," the statement says.Acknowledging the reparation, a compromise will be reached on renaming the street, but it will not bear the name of Ferdinand Porsche. Instead, Atlanta is likely to waive current legislation that bans the use of corporate names (rather than the names of people who founded them), and Henry Ford II Avenue will be renamed to just ‘Porsche Avenue’.