TOPS NEWS – September/October 2006
With the projected retirement of Martin Grant Peterkin, Gunnar
Elmgren and John Quenby, from the FIA
Historic Motorsports Commission, there will not be a representative who
understands historic cars. Carol Spagg
would make a good replacement, why not ask her to look after your
interests?
contact@historicmotorracingnews.com
Two weeks after the HGPCA are to run an historic race meeting at
Donington in 2007, GPLive, of which Sir Stirling
Moss is patron, will run their event on May 18 – 20. “A stylish display that recaptures the golden days of grand prix
motor racing, giving unprecedented access to the fastest cars and the greatest
stars and featuring what will probably be the largest gathering of former grand
prix cars in the world" said backer Richard Morgan.
A government commission has recommended that parking fees be charged at
shopping centres to try and encourage shoppers back to the High Streets.
Fuel duty will not be increased in the September budget due to instability
in oil-producing parts of the world.
There are 1.55m untaxed vehicles in Britain. 3 out of 4 untaxed vehicles are thought to
be used by criminals. If you refuse to
pay your vehicle tax you only have a 1 in 40 chance of being caught, according
to Whitehall’s spending watchdog.
New Zealanders have been registering their cars as hearses to avoid paying
full road tax. A Christchurch woman
told a radio station she only paid £19 to register her car, instead of the
usual £60. She had registered it as a
"non-commercial hearse" which would be used to carry dead animals.
(Chickens from the supermarket). The authorities are investigating.
Mercedes Benz have a new museum in Stuttgart.
Porsche has announced that the Panamera four-door sports coupe will be built
in Leipzig. They will invest €120m and
create 2,000 jobs. Porsche is setting
up a new import sales and service subsidiary in Switzerland and is also
building a Museum at their HQ in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen. They are expected to increase their stake in
VW to 25.1% a.s.a.p. VW meanwhile
continues to be under investigation for accepting kick-backs from the French
automotive parts supplier Faurecia whose majority shareholder is PSA, (Peugeot
and Citroën).
Under proposals from the DVLA, drivers aged 75 and over could soon
be forced to sit cognitive tests every five years to prove they are fit to
drive.
Austrian police are
testing a Porsche 911 as a traffic control car to help prevent motorists from
speeding. A spokesman said the £65,000
sports car, which can do 177mph, had
been a major success and they plan to buy more……..
There have been 858 accidents during driving tests
and 386 near misses with 348 verbal and 33 physical assaults on examiners.
(DOT- no time period given)
Alan Joyce, from Dorset has had a £75 fine for flicking his cigarette
ash out of his car window.
BMW is to fit its cars with cameras which can read speed limit signs.
A parking warden has been criticised for writing out a ticket for a VW
Golf which had just been involved in a crash.
The stranded car was given another ticket the next day by the same
warden.
A parade of 30 topless porn stars riding motor bikes down
the main street of New Zealand's biggest city received Auckland City Council
approval and 4,000 spectators. The
council had been unable to find a legal reason to stop the "Boobs on
Bikes" parade despite concerns by some councilors that granting it a
permit would add legitimacy to the "Erotica Expo" event.
The London congestion charge is to be replaced from 2009 with
‘intelligent tolls’ which will vary according to time and emission.
The Desmoullin whorl snail, the size of a match-head, had a
special £250,000 site constructed for it by the Highways Agency when it was
found on the proposed route of the A34 Newbury by-pass. It is now thought to be extinct at this site
due to its demanding living conditions.
A number plate which shatters when removed from the car is being
introduced to try to reduce number plate theft – now 33,000 p.a.
A driver doing 102 mph escaped a ban by complaining he had been
intimidated by an unmarked police car.
Alfa Romeo will build a Junior car to compete with the Mini Cooper
S.
The Fiat 500 has been named the world’s sexiest car by magazine Top
Gear.
In many parts of Britain the number of speed cameras is now greater
than the number of police traffic patrol cars.
The JCB team set a new diesel land speed record at Bonneville Salt
Flats. W/Cdr Green completed a first
run with a speed of 365.779 mph and returned at 335.695 mph. The previous
record was 236 mph set in August 1973.
Sir Anthony Bamford has said JCB would be interested in buying Jaguar
from Ford if they split it from Landrover.
Aston Martin has also been put up for sale by Ford. The company has been controlled by the
Detroit giant since 1987. Aston Martin
has been profitable for the last couple of years and thus is more attractive to
buyers than the struggling Jaguar.
Restoration and re-painting work progresses well at the Reims
circuit.
From next January, car manufacturers have a legal responsibility to provide
a “free take back” service to the last owners of life-expired cars. There are now only 1200 officially
sanctioned dismantler’s sites compared with 3000 in 2003.
Kirklees
Council has spent £2800 chasing a driver for an
unpaid 10p parking charge but has now made the car park free.
There
are now 4978 sets of traffic lights in London.
Thousands of driving tests were cancelled when examiners went on
strike over job cuts.
Jose Orono, an Argentine pensioner, is suing a garage who claim they
have been fixing his Fiat 600 for the past six years. The car needed painting and some minor mechanical work.
Both the helmets of Adrian Newey and Dario Franchitti were crushed at the
back in their accidents at Goodwood.
This appears to have been exacerbated by the lack of padding on their
roll-over bars. Both drivers
suffered concussion.
A love-struck Serbian man hired a fleet of cabs to spell out his
wedding proposal by painting one letter on each cab – it worked!
TOPS NEWS will remain as A4 rather than reducing to A5 which would
have kept the postage down.
A 28-year-old Croatian who posted a photograph on the Web of himself
speeding on a motorbike was tracked down and fined by the police.
The FJ Lurani Trophy series is in doubt for next year as are some of the
Duncan Rabagliati organised Formula Junior races, due to FIA interference and
their new interpretation of Appendix K.
Letters of protest are winging their way to the FIA.
TOPS NEWS is an abridged version of one
section of the TOPS magazine sent to members.
Trisha Pilkington