HONDA CR-Z IS AUTOCAR ASEAN CAR OF THE YEAR

The Honda CR-Z has been crowned Car of the Year and Best Hybrid in the Autocar ASEAN Car of the Year Awards 2012 in Malaysia. In its ninth year the awards aim to recognize and award the best new cars in Malaysia as chosen by a panel of expert judges. The Autocar ASEAN Car of the [...]

HONDA’S NEW CIVIC HATCH HITS LOCAL SHOWROOMS

Honda have announced the all-new Honda Civic Hatch is now on sale in Honda dealerships around Australia. Honda Australia's Director and General Manager Sales and Marketing, Mr. Stephen Collins said, “We are proud to launch the all-new Civic Hatch to Australia to take up the fight in the small hatch market. "With European heritage, the Civic Hatch has superior styling, dynamic handling and practical features. Priced from just $22,650* it offers exceptional value for money. "We are very confident customers will love the Civic Hatch," Mr. Collins said. The Civic Hatch is available in two variants; the VTi-S and the VTi-L. Both feature an improved 1.8 litre four cylinder i-VTEC engine delivering maximum power of 104kW at 6500rpm and 174Nm of torque at 4300rpm.

HAMILTON DRIVES SENNA’S McLAREN HONDA

GT’s JUST SUPER FOR SUBARU

The exciting Japanese based SUPER GT series is that countries most popular form of motorsport, and if Subaru Australia had it could be down under as well. Nick Senior, Subaru Australia Managing Director told In Pit Lane at the Australian International Motorshow in Melbourne that he would very much like to see the class racing in Australia and right across the Asia Pacific region. "We'd love to be in motorsport, but unfortunately the Australian Rally Championship is not an avenue that's getting mainstream appeal" he said. "I've been looking for some time now at this series in Japan that has amazing mainstream appeal... fans love it, it's got great audiences and I think the cars are pretty wild and special looking but they are based on production cars so that's what excites me.’ Mr Senior said that with so may Japanese manufacturers already involved in the series it would be a great showcase for their companies technology. "Right now those companies are alienated from motorsport here in Australia." Mr Senior said. Despite the move by V8 Supercars Australia aimed at attracting new manufacturers through it's "Car of the Future" project, Mr Senior said that the local series had "no appeal" He said that his vision for SUPER GT championship would be a regional approach, perhaps starting in New Zealand, working it's way across Australia, before moving into other South East Asian Markets before finishing up back in Japan. A feature of the Subaru stand at the Motorshow was the Liberty B4 GT-300 racer, and Mr Senior was hoping that the cars appearance may fuel some interest, not only from fans, but with other manufacturers. "we're contemplating seeing if we can call a meeting of them, (The Japanese Manufacturers) and see if there's any interest in this... I think that a South East Asian series with perhaps 10, 12 or 15 races with cars from distributors in each market and you could have 25 or 30 cars on the grid." Mr Senior said. With moves by both SUPER GT and the DTM to closely mirror each others regulations, European manufacturers like Audi, Mercedes and BMW may also be attracted to such a series.

SENNA: A review and an unforgettable life experience

A race against time, like the Great Man setting his pole position laps around the world, I race to arrange an opportunity hundreds of kilometres away in a different state. An opportunity I wouldn’t want to miss for the world. The opportunity to view the result of Asif Kapadia and Manish Pandey’s project simply [...]

AUDI STRIKE BACK WITH SILVERSTONE POLE

Audi have struck back as popular Scottish driver Alan McNish takes pole for the Autosport 1000 kms at Silverstone, first round of the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup. Both Audi R15+ TDI cars will start into the 1000-kilometre race at Silverstone (Great Britain) from the front row. McNish and his Joest Racing Audi team again showed their tactical superiority over arch rivals Peugeot, timing their run at pole perfectly to take full advantage of the best conditions in Saturday's Qualifying session. “The car had a good balance and the engineers know the track well, except the new part. What can I say? That I am very happy to be on pole!” said McNish. Fellow Audi driver Timo Bernhard will start alongside McNish with the best of the Peugeots, the car of Nicolas Minassian and local hero Anthony Davidson next, over a second of the pole time. "My car was quick through the fast corners, but I lacked a little grip and suffered from understeer through the tighter turns. I span at the start of my first flying lap. My tyres didn't suffer, but then I found myself in traffic. The balance of the car isn't at all bad, though, and I am confident for the race," Minassian said.

IRC BARUM CZECH RALLY ZLIN ACTION THIS WEEKEND

With four events of the 2010 Intercontinental Rally Challenge season remaining, the battle for the title is tightly poised as the series heads to Czech Republic next week for the 40th running of the all-asphalt Barum Czech Rally Zlin. Juho Hanninen tops the drivers' standings after eight rounds but his lead over Skoda Motorsport team-mate Jan Kopecky has been trimmed to just seven points. And Kopecky, a recognised asphalt specialist and the winner in Zlin last season, knows victory on his home event would erode Hanninen's advantage still further after he outscored the Finn on the last IRC round in Madeira. Kopecky is relishing the opportunity of competing in front of the Czech spectators, who traditionally flock to the event in huge number. However, he is the first to admit the rally is one of the most difficult on the IRC calendar due to the proliferation of high-speed blasts through forests and woodland, sections of broken Tarmac and the bumpy nature of some of the roads. Considered daunting by some drivers, the rally demands huge commitment and extremely accurate pacenotes. A mainstay of the IRC since its inception in 2007, the event gets underway with a superspecial stage through the streets of host city Zlin on Friday 27 August. Run at night, the course is effectively three laps of the city's central area and crosses over a railway line. Crews are released from the start in regular intervals, which means there will be approximately seven cars on the concrete wall-lined course at any one time.

PEUGEOT POWERS BACK IN PORTUGAL

After playing second fiddle to the Peugeot factory team for most of 2010, the Oreca Peugeot team of Stephane Sarrazin, Olivier Panis and Nicolas Lapierre have won the Algarve 1000 kms in Portugal, the third round of the 2010 Le Mans Series. It was a dominant performance by the works assisted team, winning the race by five laps after starting from pole. "It's good to win!." said Sarrazin after the race. "The team did a super job. We were under a little pressure but we did what we had to. The refuelling stops were excellent and we dove the right kind of race - a good pace and no mistakes. It's also worth underling the way the team's matured since the Le Castellet 8 Hours. I'm delighted to taste the joys of victory again." Second place went to the Rebellion Racing Lola of Nicolas Prost and Neel Jani, It was a great performance by the team who drove their way through the field after starting the race in last place. Aston Martin was third today with Team Signature coming back strong after the retirement at Le Mans. The third place was also a great result for Vanina Ickx who shared the drive with Pierre Ragues and Franck Mailleux.

BRABHAM, PAGENAUD WIN UTAH ALMS

Australian David Brabham and team-mate Simon Pagenaud have raced to their third consecutive victory in the American Le Mans Series with a hard-fought victory in the Utah Grand Prix. Pagenaud drove the final 1:45 in the team’s HPD ARX-01c, and the Patrón Highcroft crew took advantage of a quick final pit stop to beat Drayson Racing’s Emanuele Pirro to the line by 19.116 seconds at Miller Motorsports Park. Pagenaud and Brabham haven’t lost since the Long Beach round in April and increased their championship lead in LMP to 11 points over Muscle Milk Team CytoSport’s Klaus Graf. He and Greg Pickett, driving a Porsche Spyder, were third, 90 seconds behind the winning car.

AUSSIE BRISCOE ON POLE FOR TEXAS INDY

Australian driver Ryan Briscoe will start from pole in Saturday night's Indy car race at Texas Motor Speedway. Driving for Team Penske, Briscoe recorded a four-lap average speed of 215.273 mph (1 minute, 37.3275 seconds) to earn the PEAK Performance Pole Award for the Firestone 550K race which will be held under lights at the high banked 1.5 mile oval. Dario Franchitti, seeking to be the third consecutive Indianapolis 500 champion to win at Texas in the same year, was 0.0057 of a second off Briscoe's pace. He'll start on the outside of the front row for the 228-lap race under the lights after an average of 215.261 mph. Briscoe's teammate and fellow aussie, Will Power, will be on the second row along with New Zealand's Scott Dixon.