TOPS NEWS March 2004
Drivers who fail
to renew their car tax on time will be sent an automatic £80 fine by the
DVLA. This new rule came into force on
January 1.
Ernie Harbon was
jailed for two weeks for refusing to pay a £60 fine after a speed camera
caught him doing 38mph in a 30mph zone in Derbyshire. The new prisons chief Martin Narey is hoping to reduce the number
of people locked up by magistrates for petty offences.
Just 36 days
after it opened the M6 toll road had two of the new motorways three
lanes closed for quarter of a mile for ‘resurfacing’. The road cost £900m to
build and is 27 miles long. It is owned
by Midland Expressway (until 2054) which is 75% owned by Macquarie
Infrastructure, an Australian investment group, and 25% by Autostrade, an
Italian toll road operator. Motorists
currently pay £44bn a year in fuel duty, road tax and VAT, while only £6bn is
spent on roads. The RAC have asked the
government to spend £20bn on roads within the next ten years. Government figures showed that road traffic
grew by 75% between 1980 and 2002.
A
ticket-less car parking system is being tested in Putney,
London. The driver calls a local-rate
number on his mobile phone and then taps in a 3-digit code identifying the area
of town (code displayed on lamp-posts).
When he returns to the car he dials again, which ‘stops the clock.’ Payment for the exact number of minutes is
then debited automatically from a pre-registered account number. Parking attendants check that the driver has
activated the system by scanning a card fixed permanently to the
windscreen. Existing time limits apply
but the driver can register to be sent a reminder by text message five minutes
before the car must be moved London boroughs
issued 4.6 million parking tickets last year, earning £140 million.
Nielsen/NetRatings
has
launched the Automotive e-Lifestyle Report which links the car brand
preferences of over 20 makes of vehicle to their owners’ choice of websites and
online behaviour. The research has
been designed to show brand owners how their customers behave online, and how
they may be able to target them more effectively. The research also shows which ‘megapanelists’ have subscribed to
receive regular newsletters from a range of companies.
The famous Bus
Stop chicane at Spa is being revised in time for this
years’ Grand Prix. Work is still in
progress on the Monaco pit complex – the Grand Prix is on May 23 but
more importantly, the historic GP is the previous week. Max Mosley is expected to drive Bernie
Ecclestone’s Brabham BT44B in the event.
He has not raced since crashing in 1969. (Do you think he will
have to pass the normal test requirements for historic licence applicants? Ed) Mosley is to move to Monaco to escape a new European law
which could see him jailed if there was a serious accident at a Grand Prix this
season. Mosley told reporters "This is not a snap decision. We
have been discussing this legislation for some time and our advice is that this
is the best protection. As long as I am
president of the FIA I will have to live in Monaco for my own safety and to
avoid a law which is not sensible when applied to Formula One. If some local police authority wants a
scapegoat for an accident at a circuit they could easily come after me or
Charlie Whiting [Formula One's racing director who is also moving]. They can come after you in your own home -
but not if I am in Monaco. Under the
European Arrest Warrant, team owners, mechanics and FIA officials could be
liable to arrest and imprisonment without trial if a driver was killed or
seriously injured on the track in Europe”.
The Complete Book
of Formula One has been released with 31 missing photographs as
they could not be found. It is
suggested that if they become available they will be able to be down-loaded
from the Internet and placed in the spaces left in the book.
Fiat has
announced that it is to shelve plans for the flotation of Ferrari
because of deteriorating conditions on the Italian stock market.
A campaign by the
FBHVC has forced the Environment Department to abandon
plans to reduce the statutory notice period given on "abandoned'' vehicles
from 15 days to 5 which could have put cars awaiting restoration on private
land at risk of removal. However the
risk is still there that someone can report your vehicle and the Council can
remove and destroy it.
UK car output
rose
1.7% to 1,657,558 million units in 2003 while exports (1,146,592, up 9.4%)
reached a record 69.2%. December's
output soared 15.4% to 112,444.
As promised, Michelin have started to replace the popular Englebert
range. So far, only the 600 x 16 size
is available – it is a radial tyre with a tread pattern similar to the
Englebert but with block size variations to reduce road noise. They have also re-introduced the TB15 race
or rally tyre which is road legal and suitable for wide rims on cars such as
Lancia Stratos, Ferrari 308 and AC Cobra.
Peter O'Flynn
has
been issued with a fixed penalty notice for allegedly driving at 346mph over
the speed limit on a Cheshire road.
Officials say it's a clerical error, but the Cheshire Safety Camera
Partnership, which issued the speeding notice, said they would still prosecute. He was driving a Peugeot 406 which has a top
speed of 129mph. "I don't see how anyone can trust this camera” said
O'Flynn.
There has been
another huge scrap metal theft in the Ukraine, less than a week
after thieves stole an entire 11-metre long bridge spanning a river. The BBC
reported that a locomotive said to be the first ever built in Soviet Ukraine
had been stolen from a museum. It is thought that thieves who hired a crane
from the State Transport Company had forged documents saying that they had
permission to move the locomotive to a new location. The engine had a scrap
value of just under $4,000. These recent heavy weight thefts are an example of
what has become a widespread problem in Ukraine. Metal thieves frequently
target cables, sewerage hatches and even statues.
The BRDC
is
re-applying for planning permission to build a hotel and management training
centre in its planned Silverstone High-Tech Park. An earlier planning
application was withdrawn after questions were raised during the administrative
process. The South Northamptonshire
Council is supporting the move.
The city
of Philadelphia has filed a lawsuit against Ford, demanding that the
car manufacturer fix its Crown Victoria police cars, which have been involved
in the deaths of at least 16 US police officers. The Fords are used by 85% of US police departments.
Shelsley Walsh is to be floated on the stock exchange to try to raise £1.5m to save the
hill for competition use.
A South African
farmer who was forced into his car by two robbers, drove
them off a cliff. The 73-year-old and
the two robbers survived the 30ft drop from the cliff in the Eastern Cape. The farmer was watching television at home
on his farm when two armed men wearing masks gained entry. They tied him up and robbed him of a small
amount of cash and goods before kidnapping him and forcing him to drive them
away in his vehicle. The two robbers
fled after the cliff fall and the farmer walked to a neighbouring farm and
called police. No arrests have yet been
made.
Harry East, 76,
who
won almost £3m on the Lotto, says he won't get rid of his clapped-out Volvo
car. "It's knackered, and I love
it. Now I've got some money I can get the oil leak fixed. It's so reliable I
just want to keep it", said Harry, a retired chauffeur.
Thousands of MG
Rover workers have the right to a job for life following a court
ruling. The judgement means that MG Rover must honour an agreement struck
between unions and the car group’s former owner, BMW, in 1997 even though the
business is now independent and a fraction of its former size. The company is
appealing against the decision. A
spokeswoman said “It is not appropriate to comment on the case in detail. But
in today’s competitive market place it is unrealistic for any company to offer
its employees a job for life.” MG
Rover will come under public scrutiny next month when the Trade and Industry
Select Committee holds an inquiry into the car industry. Concern has been expressed about the amount
of money the directors are due to receive from what was a loss-making business.
Despite this MG Rover showed two new models in Geneva - the 4.6 Rover V8 to
retail at £35,000 and the MG Xpower SV-R to sell for £65,000 to 82,000.
Bob Bateman,
a
Labour Party councillor who was caught speeding four times on the same day on
the same stretch of road, urged colleagues to make its road signs clearer. He collected 11 penalty points on his
driver's licence and the equivalent of £250 in fines after breaking the speed
limit of 30mph, four times in two
hours. The speed limit on that stretch of road previously had been 50mph
"I was furious," he said at a council meeting "I went from
having zero points to 11 points in one day.”
Dozens of speed
cameras are to be replaced with electronic signs (SID)
showing the speed the car is doing. SID
will be used in places where the police can no longer justify having a speed
camera because there is no recent history of crashes. Last year an estimated two million drivers caught on
camera were fined £60 and given three penalty points. The signs cost £2,500 each compared with a Gatso at £50,000.
CD Bramall car
dealership has been bought for £230m by rival Pendragon, making
it the largest UK car-dealer.
Thousands of
giant steel gantries may be installed on Britain’s
roads under plans to impose tolls on lorries.
The system of charging vehicles for every mile travelled is expected to
be extended to the country’s 25 million cars once it has been successfully tested
on the 430,000 lorries on Britain’s roads.
Road building
schemes which were rejected by the Government as too damaging to
the environment are being resurrected under different names.
The new
Thunderbirds film is using a Ford instead of a
Rolls-Royce for Lady Penelope as Rolls-Royce did not feel that the film/car
would properly convey their image. The
Rolls-Royce FAB 1 which was commissioned by Gerry Anderson for publicity
purposes in the 1960s was licensed by Rolls-Royce and later bought by Peter Nelson
who said “Rolls-Royce offered me an awful lot of money for FAB 1 when I had
just restored it in 1994. Eventually
the man admitted that they were going to destroy it.”
Swiss designer Frank
Rinderknecht's two-seater ‘Splash’, a car which can drive on land, sail on
water and”fly”was unveiled at the Geneva motorshow.
A driver who
crashed into a lamp-post while twice over the legal
drink-drive limit begged another driver not to get the police – unfortunately
he was talking to a Chief Inspector.
A motorist
had
his £60 parking fine quashed after an independent investigator ruled that NCP
had faked the photographic evidence against him.
In January
Coys of Kensington (Sales) Limited ceased trading with debts of
£1.65m following its auction on
December 4. This company was
formed in 1997 and changed its name in December 2002 to Motoring Marketing
Limited – it reverted to the original name in January 2003 and back again
to Motoring Marketing in January 2004. Coys Limited continues to trade and has
set up a Client Protection Account.
There are six companies, with Coys in their title, registered at Queens
Gate Mews. The postponed creditors
meeting for Coys of Kensington (Sales) Limited is due to take place on March
17.
Ford
has announced that it is sponsoring
authors to include current car models in their stories. e.g. a 28-year-old
woman out on the town with her friends should drive a Ford Fiesta. Novelist Fay Weldon was thought to be the
first author to receive sponsorship for her book, The Bulgari
Connection.
Rolls-Royce displayed an open-top experimental car at the Geneva Motor Show. Called the 100EX the car is a four-seater
powered by a 9 litre V16 engine. The
car is not likely to be put into production!
DEFRA, as
part of its programme for greater access to open countryside, has proposed that
newly discovered ancient horse and cart tracks should be reclassified as
Restricted By-ways in order to prevent motorised vehicle users (particularly
4x4s) from using these tracks.
Triumph and Tragedy The 1955 world sports car season. This
fine new book by Yves Kaltenbach is published by Flavien and Vanessa Marçais’ company and features excellent photography, some
in colour, drawn from many sources. It
is understandable that some space is given to the Le Mans tragedy of 1955, as
it had a profound effect, then and later.
Well researched, the book includes analysis of the competing cars,
detailed race results, team strategy and preparation, as well as covering many
minor events of this busy season. This
was a time when sports car racing was at least as important as F1, if not more
so.
TOPS NEWS is an abridged version of one section of the
TOPS magazine sent to members.
Trisha Pilkington