The Best Miata Video Ever...

Pigna, Rijeka Croatia.

(For a classic "Miata Moment" click here!)

New M3 delivery

One of the great perks of being a snarky motoring journalist aside from say... getting to drive the odd Porsche RS Spyder, must be getting early deliveries of hot new cars you might have ordered. Let's live vicariously though Autocar's Chris Harris and these two videos of his brand new white BMW M3.

The first clip reminds me of Stee. He is just that way, when he sets his mind on something it has to be "just so"!

The second one reminds me of when CG and I were at the 'ring except with better tires and a cheaper car. Even though I suspect editing on the camera friendly powerslide moments, hats off to Harris for having the honesty to admit he actually left the DSC on and for recording a very track-tard like review of the new M3...

NOTE: Apparently Vimeo is having some issues today, if the clips do not work try reloading the page or checking in later. Sorry for the inconvenience.


E92 M3 Delivery from Axis on Vimeo.


New M3 at the Nürburgring from Axis on Vimeo.

Ham on a Stig

CG raised a good point about the hyper-publicized appearance by Lewis Hamilton on Top Gear this Sunday:

"...will Clarkson pull a "Peter Windsor" and stage everything to glorify the Ham-ego and allow him to beat the Stig time or will Clarkson be honest to his cynical roots and just beat the crap out of the self centered kiddo in the interview?"

Are you kidding me? Let's look at the BBC's very press release:

Hamilton gets behind the wheel of the Suzuki Liana - the same car that the other F1 stars Mansell, Button, Hill and Webber have previously found themselves in - to find out if he can beat our Stig's blisteringly quick time of 1.44.4.
The only difference being that Lewis has to deal with not only water but also oil leaked from Jeremy's VXR8 on track earlier in the day.

sure....blame the Vauxhall in case he does not beat the time!

Speaking of choking, Hamilton has been running around London with Naomi Campbell* again, last time the well travelled supermodel was near the Ham was at Interlagos...need we say more?

* If you remember, we told you about the Naomi-Lewis-Flavio connection in September...

"...I'm just a little bit talented"

"No, I'm just a little bit talented" that's how Michael Schumacher answered the starstruck interviewer who asked him if he considered himself "a genius" after the seven time world champion won Felipe Massa's karting invitational in Brazil.

Would you not love to see the old guy show a little bit of that talent on the kart?
Have no fear, Oversteer is here!!

At the beginning of this GloboTV clip we see Schumacher asking his assigned mechanic for some wrenches and, ever the perfectionist, doing some work on the accelerator pedal of his kart.

It's a great race with lots of action even after Schumi makes a perfect pass on Luca Di Grassi for the lead and checks out, kind of like he did in F1. At the back Massa, Di Grassi, Burti and Barrichello look like they are having a ball with Massa being especially feisty.

I'm not too sure why Shumacher starts fourth on the grid since he had gotten the fastest time in qualifying, perhaps he got penalized once again for being naughty? It's just amazing how much faster he is than the other guys on equal machinery, I guess those fourteen years he spent driving karts in Karpen helped a little!

The race is about twenty minutes long so sit back and enjoy the show.

Grandpa strikes again: Schumacher sets new kart record and wins race!

Grandpa Schumacher is at it again, he set a new track record in qualifying at the Florianopolis karting track in Brazil. Schumacher qualified with a 41"075, over two tenths ahead of Nelson Piquet Jr and race organizer Felipe Massa. The International Challenge of Go-Kart Champs is being run today.





UPDATE: Michael Schumacher won the race as well! He came in ahead of Nelson Piquet Jr and Luciano Burti in the 32 lap race. Massa came in seventh.

01. Michael Schumacher - 21'59"406
02. Nelsinho Piquet - +5"687
03. Luciano Burti - +5"737
04. Rubens Barrichello - +8"147
05. Lucas Di Grassi - +8"218
06. Marcos Gomes - +9"090
07. Felipe Massa - +16"328
08. Thiago Camilo - +16"548
09. Ricardo Zonta - +18"736
10. Tony Kanaan - +19"107
11. Enrique Bernoldi - +22"220
12. Vitor Meira - +22"616
13. Ricardo Mauricio - +29"499
14. Cacá Bueno - +34"065
15. Popó Bueno - +34"252
16. Tarso Marques - +36"523
17. Roberto Moreno - +36"703
18. Xandinho Negrão - +1 giro
19. Gil de Ferran - +1 giro
20. Antonio Pizzonia - +10 giri
21. Felipe Giaffone - +10 giri
22. Rodrigo Sperafico - +12 giri
23. Alexandre Barros - +31 giri
24. Luca Badoer - +32 giri




(AP Photo/Maurilio Cheli)

Eye Candy of the Year

Readers of this site will be familiar with that Mas du Clos circuit though the various pictures and videos from the guys at Track4Fun in Italy. It's a fabulous looking place and no wonder EVO used it to make pretty pictures for their European Car of the Year issue.

You all buy EVO I'm certain so you know who won. If you don't....well, go and buy EVO!

I had to laugh when they describe all the cars as having been "quite amazing on the road too.." while showing a Lotus 2Eleven but in any case, enjoy the eye candy.



Evo's European Car of the Year from Axis of Oversteer on Vimeo.

Die luddites, DIE! Porsche 997 MkII with DSG in 2008

Some drivers have to push levers, some LIKE to hold sticks and some just want the best possible engineering solution to make the car as fast as possible,  it's a fairly solid rumor that Porsche have finally decided to cater to this last group with the upcoming facelifted and revised 997 coming in 2008.  Every model from the Carrera though to a new and revised GT3 MkII will have an available DSG transmission or, in Jeremy Clarkson speak,  flappy paddle gearbox.

The lineup looks awesome: all will get direct injection for better efficiency and less emissions ("I'm upgrading my Porsche because I love the Earth"  should work quite well....).  The base Carrera will get 345hp vs the current 325hp and the Carrera S, 380hp!  The cars should debut at the Geneva show and be on sale in Europe in April.

And it only gets better if you can wait,  September will see the rollout of the new Turbo and, most juicy, a GT3 mkII.  

The Turbo...we don't care, but the GT3 will have a 7 speed DSG transmission and a 435hp 3.6L Direct injection, dry sump engine.  If you missed your chance to buy a 997 GT3 the first time around,  here is your chance to get your deposit in.

Then again, why would Porsche NOT produce another run of GT3 RS...

autoblog.it

Hmm...take away traction control, give them slicks?

Interesting, wish they would give them slicks right away, anything that adds more mechanical grip is a good thing... however it's a pipedream, 2008 designs are already in essentially done and you cannot just "add slicks".

"Bridgestone will supply Formula One teams with slick tyres during the upcoming test at the Jerez circuit in Spain, the Japanese manufacturer has confirmed

It will be the first time all teams run with slicks following the introduction of grooved tyres at the start of the 1998 season.
Bridgestone, Formula One's sole tyre supplier, will supply each team with three sets of Potenza slick tyres to be used during the test at Jerez on 4-7 December.
The teams have agreed that any mileage completed during the test on slicks will be outside the scope of the testing committee agreement."
The test is aimed at looking at gathering data for the 2009 season, where slicks could return to the sport."

via autosport

Renault give Alonso an ultimatum, three years or nothing

"Three years or nothing", reportedly tired of negotiations that's the ultimatum from Carlos Ghosn, president of Renault gave Fernando Alonso. Now Alonso has to weigh a bird in the hand vs two in the Ferrari bush...

Fxx Evoluzione

You KNOW the only reason you have not purchased an FXX is because you were waiting for the "Evoluzione" package!...

This new tuning option developed using the data gathered by the customers-testdrivers cut a whole 2 seconds from the lap time at Fiorano to 1:16sec. Want tasty? The 6.3L v12 now develops 860Hp at 9500rpm, 1000rpm more than the before. The shift time has been cut by 20 ms to 60.

A new diffuser and rear wings add more downforce on the rear of the car and a claimed 25% improved efficiency. A new 9 way traction control system has been added, apparently the need for more sophisticated system settings emerged from ahem, ...test driver needs.

Finally, telemetry channels for brake pressure and steering angle were added along with the possibility to install two additional video cameras for added rear visibility without sacrificing aero efficiency with rear view mirrors!

Well, while you are saving your pennies, let's have a listen to the old, slow FXX!

This quick video from Luke.Duke atTrack4fun.com is from their awesome track day at Rijeka in Croatia this past week end. Turn up your speakers.

Note: this is number 28, one of only two black FXX made. The other, number 30 without a stripe, is owned by Michael Schumacher.

More about Brembo and BMW: optional BBK soon.

Since some questions have been raised about the veracity of this latest evolution of the Brembo-BMW automotive partnership (Brembo has supplied BMW motorcycles for a while now and BMW Automobiles in the 80's), I went digging around the Brembo corporate site and found the following quote in their third quarter results press release dated 11-12-2007:

Brembo returns to be a supplier of braking systems, in addition to brake discs, for passenger cars to BMW Group.

During the quarter Brembo began supplying the front braking system (6-piston calliper and disc) for a top-of-the-range model of the German car manufacturer and obtained other supplies that will grant, in the mid-term, additional yearly revenues of over €10 million.
Furthermore, Brembo will supply, starting 2008, special braking kits that the final customer may choose as optional.

The Final Summit

Stee and SpencerLoBuck are the bravest among us, they went from NYC down to Summit Point West Virginia Sunday for one final run at the EMRA time trials. From the weather reports it looks like they are in for a cold nasty wet time so, to cheer them up, I thought I would dig up the archives and post some Summit Point videos from track days past. Keep it shiny guys.

UPDATE: Spencer won his class in the Time trial!!  Way to go Spence,  I put it all on the unfair advantage of you being able to drive while sitting in the back seat of that Civic!!

Summit Bombastic


A close Shave







More Video From Summit Point


Muddy Waters

Brembo announce partnership with BMW!

Finally the number one complaint about BMW from hardcore enthusiasts (after weight that is) is being addressed. Brembo has announced that it will supply BMW with both disks and complete braking systems. Brembo has recently also acquired major manufacturing facilites in the US and Mexico when it bought Hayes Lemmerz's brake division.

If we can presume the 6 piston front caliper on the 135 is in fact a Brembo piece, why the e92 M3 will retain the traditional BMW single piston is a bit of a mystery. However future models will be equipped with calipers capable of sustainable stopping power.

UPDATE: Ben, one of our readers kindly linked a photo (via 1addicts.com)of a 135i caliper where the Brembo logo is clearly visible.

Loaded. Target:7 min 20 secs.

Here is a video from the "LOADED" project. This Swedish team's goal is to make a "road legal" (somewhere) e46 M3 CSL do a sub 7:20 lap of the Nürburgring, naturally this involves a massive diet and huge infusion of forced inducted power. Our friend Ed Healey is keeping us up to date from Germany but you can also follow on the Loaded web site, where you can also find a list of modifications.... enjoy

p.s. for reference...this IS a new record, as you can see in the table below, this BMW CSL, pretty much destroyed the lighter more powerful competition!

7.22 BMW M3 CSL Loaded
7.28 Pagani Zonda F
7.28 Porsche Carrera GT
7.32 Porsche 911 GT2
7.32 Gemballa Porsche GTR
7.34 Koenigsegg CCR
7.38 Nissan GT-R
7.39 Porsche 911 GT3 997
7.40 Porsche 911 Turbo 997
7.40 Mercedes SLR McLaren
7.40 Bugatti Veyron
7.42 Chevrolet Corvette Z06
7.42 Ford GT
7.43 Lamborghini Murcielago

Forked Tongue

How can Mclaren claim they do not want to have Hamilton be declared world champion in court when at the same time their legal team demands the FIA Court of Appeal disqualify BMW and Williams from the Brazilian GP? Surely rules can be "clarified" in other ways if that is the actual interest....another massive disappointment from Mclaren.
The FIA postponed their ruling to Friday.

UPDATE: the FIA rejected Mclaren's appeal. Apparently the Woking team did not even get the clarification they maintained were after. Add this failure to their annus horribilis.

Some video of Schumacher testing.

On the day before Formula 1 might cease to have any fans ( the Mclaren appeal is set for this Thursday in London) this little nostalgia moment will be a tonic, even for the Michael Schumacher haters.

Two reports, appropriately in Italian and in German. Both stress how Schumi eagerly went out at 9:02 am, a fact probably highlighted in the official release. Also surely in the release, that Michael spent two weeks strengthening his neck for the test and that he will not in fact take part in the next set of tests at Jerez ( don't want to make the kids nervous?)

No matter, the old man delivered and the lurid sliding you can glimpse on the video bodes well for 2008... but will anyone still be watching if Hamilton has his lost Championship handed to him in the court room?

Michael Schumacher

Pull my finger!..

Given that in his first time in an F1 car since he retired at the end of 2006, Michael Schumacher was fastest at today test in Barcellona I feel compelled to trot out this picture again.

Schumacher was faster than Badoer, De la Rosa, Paffet, Kubika, Heidfeld, Kovaleinen, Trulli, Rosberg, Nakagima, Vettel and Bourdais. So the old man is possibly only slower than Kimi, Massa, Hamilton and Alonso....possibly.

"Villeneuve drank my pee..."

This is going to go over big in the NASCAR pit lane. Appearing as guest on a Brazilian talk show, Felipe Massa told of the time during a 2005 race week end when, faced with an urgent physiological need and no chance to get to a proper restroom, he was forced to relieve himself in a bottle found in the Sauber garage he shared with the Canadian. Massa only later discovered who it belonged to because Villeneuve went on a rampage after taking a nice long sip. "... to this day he does not know who did it" chuckled Massa.

No wonder Jacques always made such pissy comments....

F1 Re-Evolution, Alonso joining Honda a possibility?

As you heard by now Ross Brawn is joining Honda in 2008 and Jean Todt steps (or is stepped) down from the Ferrari Gestione Sportiva handing the keys to Stefano Domenicali. Todt will continue as Ferrari CEO.
Its not surprising Todt stepped down, I was always under the impression he stayed this year only to provide some continuity to a team that had just lost both Michael Schumacher and Ross Brawn. Holding down the Ferrari F1 and the Ferrari SpA jobs cannot have been easy. It could also be that Monsieur Todt just has had enough, he certainly has been in motorsports a long time and with incredible success.

The whole Alonso musical chairs business becomes more interesting now as Todt was always the most outspoken critic of a possible Ferrari-Alonso future. Is this why Alonso has been holding out? can we imagine an Alonso- Raikkonen pairing as soon as next season? I doubt it.



And what a present for the beleaguered Jenson Button! After getting battered by the Hamilton effect and having stoically suffered a horrid car in 07 this must feel like early Christmas...




But the bombshell could be another, voices of a Brawn-Alonso package have been around for a while as have voices of an imminent retirement for Rubens Barrichello and of course there is the prospect of Renault getting a Mclaren sized fine... Maybe Honda, who is sponsorless at the moment, will be the the recepient of the giant sponsor package behind Fernando? We all remember what happened last time Ross Brawn joined a two time world champion at a beleaguered team.

The world's biggest balls

So imagine you are in a WRC car, tarmac rally, maybe Col de Turini or even better Corsica. Cliffs on one side, rock walls on the other you are probably averaging 50mph.

Now take away the car, the safety equipment and two wheels, raise the average speed to almost 130 mph and add sections where the road is lined with posts and barbed wire. That's the Isle of Man TT, the most awesome race event on the planet.

We talk a lot about the Nürburgring but for the last 100 years the TT's 37 mile course has been making the "Green Hell" seem like child's play. We have two videos, one is an overview from BBC coverage of the 2007 TT and the second is almost a complete lap onboard, with telemetry. It is a bit fuzzy however you can clearly see the speedo and it is terrifying. See if you can last the 15 minutes or so and then think that these guys do that six times, with practically any error meaning certain death. It takes a distinct lack of imagination and huge balls.

You can purchase DVDs and downloads of the TT from Duke Video

Wear and Tear Pt.II

We looked at my cracked wheel recently now lets play video mechanic and diagnose the nasty noise coming from Stee's rear end.....ah...I mean Stee's Boxster rear end on right turns. Feel free to share your theories and we will have the answer tomorrow.


Crunch on the Bumps from Axis on Vimeo.

Moto Schumi

Michael "Grandpa" Schumacher sure is keeping busy in his retirement years. On Monday he lapped the Valencia circuit on a 2007 Ducati GP7 Desmosedici, the same bike used by Casey Stoner to win the 2007 MotoGP title (and sporting the Ferrari magical number 27!)

Michael Schumacher rode for 58 laps and turning in a best lap of 1:37.89 which is only 5 seconds slower than the new track record set by Dani Pedrosa!


"An exceptional result for a 38 year old man who has never raced bikes" according to Ducati tester Vittoriano Guareschi. "What a missile! He demonstrated once again what a fantastic professional he is" were other comments from Ducati staff.

" I had not come here to score a good lap time. I had tried a Ducati before but that time I was much slower" said Schumacher referring to his 2005 test at a very cold Mugello track. "This time my times were closer to the professionals and that's not too bad."

Next week Schumacher will be in action in Barcellona testing the Ferrari F1, then he's off to Brazil for Felipe Massa's invitational kart race for charity. Then I think in December he is at Wembley Stadioum for the International Race of Champions where he will represent Germany along with Sebastian Vettel.

Not bad for and "old guy"!

Quick F1 update: Fernando's Package ad Schumi's Axis.

As F1 addicts I'm sure you already know that, perhaps as a comeback to some delirious corners of the motoring press, good old Michael Schumacher will get first crack at finding the correct "axis of oversteer" on the new 2008 spec Ferrari F1, now minus traction control.








I'll have to go back and research this but I believe that neither Raikkonen nor Massa have ever driven an F1 car without TC. Having Schumi set a baseline should be quite useful for Ferrari.

Maybe Mclaren will pick up the idea and have the freshly retired Mika Hakkinen do the same for them.




The other bit of news is that Spanish sponsors have apparently put together a €62M package to have Fernando Alonso land at Renault. Movistar, Mutua Madrileña and BBVA (banking) would pay for Alonso's salary. One problem with this scenario is that the main title sponsor of Renault is ING, another banking concern which might not accept having Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria on board.
Theoretically, Alonso should decide by the end of the day today (Tuesday) if to sign with the French team. Stay tuned.

Wear and Tear

Shop for KUMHO tires at Tire Rack.

Collectively we do a fair amount of track days during the season and readers might get the impression that everything is all just fun and smoking brake pads but the truth is that inevitably our cars suffer from the wear and tear inherent in...well, let's just say we are not especially kind to the poor things.

Sure, CG took a crow bar to his 997's fenders when he realized his new tires would not fit the day before a track day, but file that under self inflicted hardcore insanity. Parts do break on their own when street cars are run hard, so we will examine some of the issues we had and some that we'll address in the off season.

In the pictures below you can see the little surprise I got at the end of my last session of the day at Watkins Glen earlier in the year .
This SSR Comp had one spoke cracked clean through. The scariest part was that I only noticed as I was packing up the wheels at the end of the day. I have no actual clue as to when during the day this happened and I do not remember noticing anything especially wrong on track.

What had drawn my attention to this wheel was the unusual wear pattern on the tire. While my car usually wears the tires very evenly, this Kumho V710 was cupped (orange line) and especially it had an odd regular pattern of flat spots (green arrows) which I found extremely odd. I wonder if the cracked spoke caused some sort of odd vibration to occur.

In any case, the thought of what might have happened was enough to have me checking all wheels after every session since, I recommend all you fellow track rats consider doing the same at least occasionally.

Ooops, wrecking the company car...

It can happen to anyone and with the recent turnaround at Fiat, I'm guessing Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne will get a break at the Maranello body shop.

Described as a "banal highway accident" Friday on the A1 between Rothrist and Gunzgen in Switzerland, it resulted in the red Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano rear ending a Renault guilty apparently of having better brakes. Nobody was hurt.

No word if Flavio Briatore used the incident to emphasize the French automaker's superior technology in Fernando Alonso's eyes.

(photo Ansa)

Divorce, F1 style. (now with two updates!)

No cactus at Mclaren, the obvious has been finalized. Obvious since the announcement that Mercedes had decided to give up on Alonso in mid October, inevitable since Ron Dennis' commented in China that Mclaren was racing against the Spaniard.

Interesting to see develop will be Mclaren's relations with their Spanish sponsors Banco Santander and Mutua Madrileña as it sounds like they are staying with Mclaren from the official press release. The Woking team must have the better contract lawyers as I cannot imagine the Spanish sponsors staying because of De La Rosa.... (unless Pedro got the race drive as part of the deal?)

And what to make of Alonso not announcing next year's team? Is there a real possibility Fernando might not drive in 2008? I doubt it, but if he does not have a signed contract in the bag (and why would he not announce it if he did?) he sure lost any negotiating leverage he had left. Now Alonso will have only his talent as a bargaining chip, nobody is going to hire him for his personality or because he is the reigning world champion and now, who would hire him just to take him away from Mclaren?
Sounds like a team will end up with a bargain and perhaps Alonso will seek his happiness over money for the coming years....then again he might join Toyota!

Anyway, Nano....remember when you were a happy guy kicking the great Schumacher's butt rather than kicking a can down the road sulking? Remember when you did that first test for Cesare Fiorio at Minardi? Well here's to you finding that happy version of yourself. Put it this way, even Kimi is smiling after his years at Mclaren!

UPDATE: Alonso has not lost all his sponsors, Mutua Madrileña announced that it will continue to support him but Banco Santander will stay with Mclaren.
Meanwhile the issue with Renault is said to be that Alonso is only willing to sign a short term contract, perhaps just one year as rumors of BMW's interest in the double world champion gain traction. Some voices say the Bavarians would have taken Alonso in 2007 already had his obligations with Mclaren been resolved sooner.
BMW, as much as they deny it, do need a star driver to move the team to the next level, right now there are only three top tier drivers/stars in F1 ... two are taken.

UPDATE II: The Alonso at Red Bull rumors can be put to bed, as the Austrian tema has officially confirmed their 2008 driver lineup of Webber and Coulthard.... Renault, Toyota and Williams are still in the running with Flavio Briatore apparently ready to give Alonso pretty much anything he could possibly want down to the specified bust size of his grid girl....

TrackVision 2.0 finally released!!

After keeping the faith through what seemed like an interminable wait, track video enthusiasts everywhere can finally rejoice, Apex Visualizations released TrackVision 2.0 and it's a major, major upgrade.

If you are not familiar with the program, it will superimpose a digital "dashboard" onto your video based on information from your data logger. Version 1 had been around for a few years and I think the authors would be the first to say that while functional, it was rather rough around the edges. Good news is that Version 2 is a huge step forward.
Gone are the finicky video input requirements and the limited output options. Gone is the reliance on Windows for the video codecs. The user interface is now much improved especially in preview mode.

As in version 1 you will need a video recorder and a data logger setup, we use Traqmate but there is built in support for pretty much every system on the market from AIM to Stack to even the more inexpensive "all in one" systems. Data is exported in a format Trackvision can read and translated into a graphic representation to be overlaid over the video track.

Sync is always a concern but one easily solved if you use Traqmate. Traqmate has the ability to start both data recording and video recording on a ChaseCam PDR100 at the moment it achieves GPS lock. This eliminates the need to sync, you simply drop the data and the video file into Trackvision and slave one to the other....done.

Once synced you will be able to choose a dashboard you like (you can also make your own), the start and end point of the video, and finally the output format. Big change from 1.0, you can output in many more sizes and formats, notably h.264 and support for 16x9 1440x1080 Mpeg2 HD.

As with Traqmate we were users long before TrackVision became a sponsor on this site and also like with Traqmate the team behind this product are racers and real live track-tards. They are, in fact..."one of us" and I urge you to take a look at their product. Their web site has an extensive description of all the features in Vesion 2.0 as well as a full user manual. A Demo version of the software is available for trial and there is a gallery of user videos.

A final note, while Trackvision is a Windows program (xp and Vista) it will work just as well on a Mac running Parallels which is how we run it.

The video below was made using the MPEG2 file from the ChaseCam PDR100 and data from Traqmate, it was output as 640x480 h.264 and then uploaded to this flash player.

You can download the original file HERE.


TrackVision 2.0 from Axis on Vimeo.