Montag, 25. Juli 2011
Vettel vulnerable as Webber leads the way in German GP afternoon practice
Button Steps Up Pre Season Training With Lance Armstrong
Leslie Thorne Bud Tingelstad Sam Tingle Desmond Titterington
Sonntag, 24. Juli 2011
Why Michael Schumacher Could Win The 2011 World Championship
Gaetano Starrabba Chuck Stevenson Ian Stewart Jackie Stewart
Red Bull under the spotlight
 Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel celebrate with Red Bull boss Christian Horner on the podium |
Samstag, 23. Juli 2011
Info about Revell Anglia kit
Can anyone provide me with any historical info about the Revell Anglia kit?
I have the most recent Model King release of it, and it doesn't feel like a 1960's/ 70's vintage Revell kit. Especially, the engine feels to have come from a different era of kit production.
I understand that the beautiful big decal sheet is a Model King addition, but I'm surprised to see what appears to be significant changes to the plastic.
Does anyone know if Revell did any updates to the "Skipper's Critter" kit since the old days? I see that it was labeled as a Street Rod on the box art at one time, and that doesn't seem to fit with the Ford SOHC that is currently in the kit. Also, the hood cutout appears to have been a later change, and the doors don't seem to need to use the clunky hinges that I see on a lot of older builds.
Does anyone know if/how the kit has evolved over the years?
Thanks,
Rick
Vic Wilson Joachim Winkelhock Manfred Winkelhock Markus Winkelhock
Bernie Ecclestone - No plans to put the brakes on
 |
The way I feel at the moment, why stop? I do it because I enjoy it. And yesterday is gone. I don't care what happened yesterday. What else would I do? People retire to die. I don't get any individual pleasure because we don't win races or titles in this job. I'm like most business people. You look back at the end of the year and you see what you've achieved by working out how much money the company has made. That's it.
.57 Vette into Boatail Buick..."It's Finished"....7/16
I am doing it again. I am taking a 57 Vette and a 65 Vette to make a 57 boatail Buick ...............
Chandhok in for Trulli
Freitag, 22. Juli 2011
2012 Mercedes SLK55 AMG to have 416 hp - report
According to a recent report, the 2012 Mercedes SLK55 AMG will feature a naturally-aspirated 5.5-liter V8 engine with 416 hp (310 kW / 314 PS) and 398 lb-ft (539 Nm) of torque.Johnnie Tolan Alejandro de Tomaso Charles de Tornaco Tony Trimmer
Bijan's Bugatti Veyron gets vandalized in Beverly Hills
Before his premature death four months ago, world famous fashion designer Bijan Pakzad was famous in a number of circles, including both the fashion and auto industry.
Speaking of the latter, the Iranian Pakzad boasted an impressive stable of exotic supercars that have captured the world’s attention for their striking black-and-yellow paint schemes.
Turns out, one of them - his now famous Bugatti Veyron - has been vandalized by some unruly idiot a few days ago. After his death, the Bijan Veyron remained parked in front of his store in Beverly Hills as a way for fans and consumers to admire the car. Unfortunately, one person took his admiration too far, shattering the glass window on the passenger side of the car. Even more amazing, the ridiculous act of vandalism happened in broad daylight, at least according to a source who to spoke to TMZ about it.
Further details behind the incident are being withheld by the police, but if you’re in the area, there’s a good chance to you might see the Bijan Veyron in the same spot it has occupied for a few months now, albeit with a lot of yellow tape wrapped around its perimeter.
Lord knows that prompted the perpetrator to damage such a car that’s owned by somebody who’s already dead, but whatever his intentions are, it’s something that shouldn’t go unpunished.
Bijan's Bugatti Veyron gets vandalized in Beverly Hills originally appeared on topspeed.com on Friday, 22 July 2011 09:00 EST.
Alejandro de Tomaso Charles de Tornaco Tony Trimmer Maurice Trintignant
2013 Mercedes-Benz BLS/CLC prototype spied
New four-door coupe model will be based on the next-generation A-Class/B-Class platform.AMT 55 NOMAD
I have begun building this amt 55 nomad and so far i have done the chassis and part of the motor. as i am lazy at sometimes it will probrably take quite a while to build it. anyway here are a few pics of it so far.
The wheels and tyres are from the AMT 55 belair street machine
so is the engine manifold,carburetor and air cleaner and the rocker covers are parts box.
let me know what you think.
Donnerstag, 21. Juli 2011
Webber: Horner would ?shut race down? for me | F1 Fanatic round-up
Christian Horner: ?It would be absolute stupidity to allow them to race??
Bud Tingelstad Sam Tingle Desmond Titterington Johnnie Tolan
Ferrari 458 Spider to receive folding hard-top - rumors surface again
According to a report, Ferrari has solved problems related to a folding hard-top roof for the upcoming 458 Spider.Exhaust saga finally ended as Ferrari, Sauber sign up
67 Olds Toronado....Front Seat Done......7/20
Got most of this kit from a friend and I guess it's time to build it...............................
More coming soon............................
Mittwoch, 20. Juli 2011
Corvette ZR1 from Revell
Hello! 
It's been a while that I'm out of town for work so I don't have time for my hobby. This Vette is the latest one after I come back. It's Revell Corvette ZR1 painted in yellow. The color is custom blend. For the roof section, I applied the aftermarket carbon-fiber decal on it and clearcoating.
Since the supercharger sits too low, I use a plastic sheet to rise it up. The proper height is approximated by test fitting. The only thing I'm not happy about the kit is how the body and the chassis attach together. Only the rear diffuser is snap to the body. I need to glue on the side of the body so it can stick with the chassis. That's all about this build. Hope you enjoy.
also thanks for the comments!…JOE
Graham Whitehead Peter Whitehead Bill Whitehouse Robin Widdows
'55 chevy stepper wip.
The reason I am posting this here is because its going to be more of a hotrod/shop truck style build rather than just another pickup.
so here we go.
trying to figure out a stance, I mocked up the box suspension and it just didn't work for me. The truck sat to high and the suspension sat to low.
How do you beat Vettel?
At Silverstone
Sebastian Vettel surveys Formula 1 serenely from a dominant position at the top of the world championship as he heads into this weekend's British Grand Prix, where the Red Bull driver is the hot favourite to win for what would be the seventh time in nine races.
The German's record has been rooted in the dominance of the Red Bull car and it is expected to be as tough to beat as ever at Silverstone, where the track layout could have been designed to suit its superb aerodynamics.
But Vettel is not unbeatable - as McLaren drivers Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button have already proved this year. If the German is going to be stopped this weekend, or at any other race this year, this is how it is likely to happen.
CHANGE THE RULES
Undoubtedly the biggest talking point ahead of the British Grand Prix is the decision to ban the use of off-throttle blowing of diffusers. This is a technology with which teams blow exhaust gases over the rear floor of their cars even when the driver is not pressing the accelerator, smoothing the airflow and increasing downforce and stability in corners.
This ruling will affect all the leading teams, and it remains to be seen whether it will change the pecking order. Intriguingly, though, it may also affect Vettel in comparison to to team-mate Mark Webber.
Red Bull and engine partner Renault were the pioneers of the technology last year, when they introduced it mid-season. But the run of form that put Webber top of the championship, including dominant back-to-back wins in Spain and Monaco, was achieved before it was introduced.
At that time, Red Bull were blowing their exhausts over the diffuser, but not when the driver was off the throttle, a practice that can lead to instability as the downforce comes off the car just when the driver needs it most - when he lifts off to enter the corner.
Webber found a driving style that minimised the effects of this more effectively than Vettel managed.
The Australian admitted to me that this "might have been a small part" of the reason why he was stronger than Vettel early last summer.
I asked him if he felt, therefore, that the new ruling could work in his favour in his attempt to beat Vettel for the first time this year.
"I don't think it can hurt," he said. "We're going to have a big change in how the cars are probably going to behave - I don't see that as a bad thing, mate."
Vettel adapted incredibly well to the new Pirelli tyres this season, while Webber has struggled to get on top of them - it is one of the reasons the German has dominated so far.
But as Webber says: "It's another start for both of us. You hope it's the other way around for me so I go, 'Bosh'. I might drop on to this a bit nicer than he might."
GET AHEAD OF HIM AT THE START
Vettel has based most of his wins this season on a simple strategy -put the car on pole, lead from the start and control the race.
The only way to stop him doing this is to either out-qualify him - as only Webber has managed to do this year, and then only once - or beat him off the start.
This was achieved by the McLarens in China - a race Hamilton went on to win - and Ferrari's Fernando Alonso in Spain.
Do that, and Vettel is suddenly out of his comfort zone.
The limiting factor in races this season has been the sensitivity of the new Pirelli tyres - they lose grip quickly and if you abuse them, you are in trouble.
So leading at the start allows Vettel to treat the tyres gently while building up a small cushion.
He seeks to build a lead of about five seconds to enable him to respond to any attempts by rivals to use what is called "the undercut" - pass him by making an earlier pit stop and using the pace advantage of new tyres to get ahead.
This was demonstrated in Spain - where Vettel twice tried to undercut Alonso when running second to him in the early stages of the race. It failed at the first pit stops, but succeeded at the second, demonstrating the difficulty any driver in front of Vettel will have keeping him behind when he has a faster car.
But it doesn't always work like that.
In China, Vettel was beaten away by both McLaren drivers. He easily had the pace to stick with them during the first stint, but a decision to do a two-stop strategy rather than the three of McLaren backfired - the extra grip in Hamilton's tyres in the closing stages of the race made Vettel a sitting duck.
HOPE RED BULL MAKE A MISTAKE
As well as China, this also happened in Monaco, where a mix-up at his first pit-stop put Vettel on the wrong tyres and forced him into a strategy that would have lost him the race had it not been for a later safety car.
Without that, the advantageMcLaren's Jenson Button built from what would have been a better strategy would have seen him win the race.
Even in the situation that did unfold, Red Bull's strategy might not have paid off - Vettel headed into the closing stages of the race with Alonso and Button right behind him and pressuring him hard on much fresher tyres.
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McLaren believed Vettel's tyres would wear out to the point of him becoming defenceless before the end of the race, but then Vettel had what they call "the luck of champions". A late safety car led to a red flag and he was able to change to fresh tyres for the final eight laps.
DON'T MAKE MISTAKES YOURSELF
Leaving the Spanish Grand Prix in May, the chances of Vettel facing a challenge this year still looked pretty good.
Vettel had won in Barcelona, but only after fending off a clearly faster Hamilton in the closing laps - only the difficulty of overtaking at the Circuit de Catalunya had prevented the McLaren winning.
Coming up were two races on tracks where Hamilton fancied his chances - Monaco and Canada. But instead of beating Vettel, these events turned into a disaster for the Englishman.
A decision to do only one run in qualifying in Monaco led to him qualifying ninth when he had hopes of being on pole, and in the race he collided with two people on the way to sixth place.
In Canada, Hamilton's judgement seemed to have been clouded by qualifying only fifth. After making an impromptu visit to Red Bull team principal Christian Horner to discuss his future that evening, he collided with two cars in the space of three racing laps on Sunday and retired. As Button later proved, it was a race Hamilton could have won.
So Hamilton could have been looking at a total of three - maybe four - wins instead of just the one, in which case Vettel would not be anything like as far ahead in the championship.
PRESSURE VETTEL - HE'S VULNERABLE
The vast majority of Vettel's F1 victories have come when he has dominated from the front, a situation in which he is supremely comfortable.
He is much less at ease having to make up positions or fending off pressure - as was proved in the thrilling climax to the Canadian Grand Prix this year.
After dominating in Montreal throughout, Vettel lost the win on the last lap, half-spinning while being pursued by the flying Button, who stormed through to a brilliant win.
This was not the first time he has made a mistake in a pressure situation, although in Vettel's defence, he was flawless under attack from Hamilton in the closing stages in Spain in May this year.
Nevertheless, Vettel - like anyone - can crack if pushed hard enough; it's getting into that situation that has been the difficulty for his rivals so often this season.
As Hamilton says: "You can push people into mistakes, and as long as you continue to apply pressure that's what you hope they're going to do. But for us to win this championship we have to be finishing ahead of them."
MAKE YOUR CAR FASTER
All of the above is all very well, but the reality is that Vettel's pursuers are fighting a losing battle as long as he has a fundamentally faster car.
"It is difficult to think about how to beat Vettel without a big improvement in our car or in McLaren's car for Jenson and Lewis," says Alonso, the man who was narrowly beaten to the title by Vettel last year.
"Their car so far is too dominant. It is a dominant position that maybe we don't remember since 2004 and Michael (Schumacher)'s time.
"Hopefully here in Silverstone we can see a turnaround of this situation in terms of performance. There is always the motivation to win a race but we need a step forward."
Alonso was not the only man at Silverstone on Thursday to liken Vettel's domination this year to Schumacher's seven years ago, when he won 13 races on the way to the most dominant of his seven championship victories.
So what does the great man himself think? Can Vettel be beaten this year?
"Difficult," Schumacher said.
Dienstag, 19. Juli 2011
Mercedes-Benz CLS program by Lorinser previewed with pics
German tuner will offer a subtle aerodynamic kit for the 2012 Mercedes-Benz CLS as well as performance tuning to be announced later.Hamilton looking to get back on track
In Valencia
Lewis Hamilton knows as well as anyone that the best way to answer criticism is to come back stronger and prove the naysayers wrong.
Odd, then, that in Valencia the McLaren driver has seemed uncertain about his intention to draw a line under a difficult month with a strong performance at this weekend's European Grand Prix.
In a television interview, Hamilton talked confidently about "turning over a new leaf", adding: "I'm looking forward to another opportunity to score points this weekend."
A few minutes later, Hamilton's mood towards the weekend had U-turned as he shrugged: "If it's another bad one, it's another bad one and there's nothing you can do about it."
It didn't look like being a bad weekend on Friday, as Hamilton finished the day as the second fastest man, just 0.2 seconds behind Fernando Alonso's Ferrari.
But when he got out of the car to face the media, Hamilton again sounded flat and when asked whether he could win his first pole of the season he answered: "I'm not going to get my hopes up, that's for sure."
It is hardly surprising that Hamilton finds himself with conflicting emotions. The last two races in Monaco and Montreal have been little short of disastrous for the 2008 champion.
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It began with road rage on the streets of Monte Carlo, where Hamilton criticised the race stewards and called his fellow drivers "ridiculous".
Hopes that the fall-out from his outburst could be assuaged at the next race in Canada - a favourite track where he has twice won - were quashed when Hamilton sent Mark Webber's Red Bull spinning before crashing out as he tried to squeeze past his McLaren team-mate Jenson Button.
Former Ferrari driver Eddie Irvine has claimed Hamilton has "lost the plot" while three-time world champion Niki Lauda went as far as suggesting the Englishman's aggressive driving could "get someone killed".
As if that wasn't enough to take on board, Hamilton has had to face questions about his future after a tete-a-tete with Red Bull boss Christian Horner in Montreal led to renewed speculation Hamilton was actively looking for a way out of McLaren.
While Horner may have played down his keenness on Hamilton in Valencia, there has been plenty of support for the embattled driver.
McLaren have backed him to win this weekend, and some of the F1 fraternity - including Alonso, Webber and driver-turned-BBC analyst Anthony Davidson - urged Hamilton not to change his driving style.
Hamilton himself seems to be flip-flopping between emotions in his response to the criticisms and questions about his future.
The concept of 'backing yourself' may be an adage of former England cricket captain Michael Vaughan but it might just be the best way of Hamilton seizing control of the spiralling situation.
Hamilton is regarded as a naturally fast racer who is capable of pulling off overtaking moves with flare and control - and it is those positive attributes the 26-year-old knows he has to focus on, following chats with Button and McLaren bosses Ron Dennis and Martin Whitmarsh.
"I've stood back and had a look at things," he reflected in Valencia, on the back of his joke that it had taken only "one night out" to recover from Canada.
"The team are always supportive, as are Ron, Martin and Jenson, but when you have tough days in the office you have to try and analyse things and take a step back.
"I like the way I drive but you can always have better judgement and make better calls in the future.
"We are still in the middle of the season and the most important thing is to motivate my team and myself to do better."
McLaren and Hamilton - who has finished second in every European GP staged around Valencia's harbour - have every reason to be confident they will again be competitive this weekend.
The team have demonstrated superior race pace over rivals Red Bull and Ferrari in the last three grands prix and McLaren arrived in Valencia with an upgraded aerodynamic package.
But the momentum within McLaren has, for the moment, swung in Button's favour after the 31-year-old battled his way to victory in Canada and moved up to second in the championship, with Hamilton slipping from that position down to fourth.
Hamilton is already 76 points behind Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel in the title race - and that's more than the equivalent of three race wins.
Hamilton may have stopped short of saying it in so many words in Valencia but, with a deficit like that, the future has to start now.
UPDATE, 1730 BST, SATURDAY 25 JUNE
Hamilton says he plans to think twice before making any potentially risky manoeuvres in the European Grand Prix.
The 26-year-old is not aiming to tone down his natural racing instincts - he just wants to finish safely inside the points.
After four collisions at the last two races in Monaco and Montreal, a relaxed looking Hamilton says he will use his judgement to ensure he is on the podium, at the very least, in Valencia.
Hamilton qualified third behind the Red Bulls of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber. He started in exactly the same position last season and from there he took second.
The Englishman has a good record around the Marina Circuit - he's actually finished as runner-up in the all three races European GPs held here - and if McLaren can manage the tyres in hot race conditions he has every chance of keeping up his good record.
Jacques Swaters Bob Sweikert Toranosuke Takagi Noritake Takahara
Ë-Auto Ë-Mobile gets 10 year waiting list
The demand was so overwhelming that the company received 51,188 orders on the first day and more than 100,000 orders within a week.