TOPS NEWS – March 2005
Drivers who
sent their cars to South Africa were not amused when they found that
the containers had not arrived in time for the racing at Johannesburg. However they were in time to race the
following weekend in Killarney in temperatures of 42º which had marshals
fainting and the race laps reduced.
Motor Sport
has
changed its traditional green cover to red – indistinguishable from other
magazines and replaced editor Paul Fearnley with Damien Smith.
The VSCC
has
given up Friday testing at Silverstone before its Saturday race meeting.
The BRDC
claim
that their Historic Festival scheduled for 29 - 31 July at Silverstone will be
a re-enactment of the old Christies/Coys event which was so popular.
Stuart Rolt
has
been appointed Chairman of the BRDC. He
replaces Ray Bellm who left under a cloud because he signed a British Grand
Prix contract with Ecclestone for five years (instead of the three authorized
by the BRDC Board). Three years would
have coincided with the re-negotiation of the Concord Agreement whereas five
years leaves the BRDC ‘stuck’. Jackie
Stewart has said he will remain as a figurehead President leaving the Board to
make decisions.
Donington Park
is
to have a new Pits Complex and resurfaced paddock for next year. Work is due to begin in October.
The leasehold
of
the new Rolls-Royce factory near Glasgow airport has been sold to Glen Maud, a
Sheffield businessman with a property portfolio estimated at £350 million, for
£48.3m. Rolls-Royce will continue to
operate from the factory which it leases for £2.9m p.a.
The BARC
has
acquired Mallory Park.
Caterham cars has been
sold to a group of investors financed by Corven Ventures.
The modern DTM
series
has been given permission to run on the Avignon street circuit TOPS raced on
for many years. The street race planned
for DTM in Moscow has been cancelled due to the safety requirements.
The motorway
queue
warning system is now operational on 515 miles of English motorways and is
estimated to have reduced accidents by 13% p.a. The system works through sensors in the road surface which detect
slowing traffic speeds.
Five firemen
were
charged with neglect of duty, moral turpitude and insubordination for inviting
strippers to the fire station for a nude and topless photo session. The women,
identified only as Jamie and Heather, posed with a fire truck at a city fire
station in Tampa. They were naked in some photos and wore only high heels,
firefighters' pants and suspenders in others.
Police in Bihar, India,
dish out humiliating punishments instead of taking offenders to court. For the most popular punishment, ‘Leapfrog’,
speeding truck drivers have to sit on their haunches, hold their ears and hop
for half a kilometre.
It is estimated
that
the Teams get 23% of the F1 revenues. The International Olympic Committee keeps
only 8% of its revenues whereas FIFA and UEFA (soccer) work on a margin of 18%
with 52% going on events and contributions to the teams and 25% on development
schemes for the sport. In the British Premier League the teams take away 90% of
the money raised. So the F1 teams want
more money – hence the GPWC breakaway group formation!
From 2009
all
new cars sold in Europe will automatically call the emergency services if they
crash, giving the location of the accident and whether the driver is
unconscious.
According to an article
in The Times, replacement car parts can vary by up to 517% (yes, 517%)
between independent retailers and franchised dealers, the latter often being
cheaper. A wheel bearing for a Honda
CR-V is £135.13 v £21.88. The Historic
Motorshow had plenty of incredibly reduced items in the Autojumble.
Trevor Duckworth,
60,
of Brighouse, was arrested on suspicion of manslaughter following the death of
Welsh crane driver John Owen in a motorcycling event in the Isle of Man at
which he was Clerk of the Course.
"No one was to blame, what happened was just a tragic accident.
When I was arrested it came as a complete bolt out of the blue”.
The new rules,
which
were due to come into force in February, under which unlicensed clampers would
have faced unlimited fines and up to five years in prison, have been delayed as
the Government said that dozens of clampers were still waiting for their
licences to be issued.
Triumph,
the
British motorcycle manufacturer, is forecasting profits will double this year
to over £3m.
Nissan has said
it is investing £223m in its Sunderland factory to build a new family sports
utility model. The Government is offering £5m regional assistance grant.
Ford is to recall
358,857 of its Focus cars because the rear doors do not always latch.
When BMW
re-launched
the Mini they predicted that they would sell 80,000 p.a. This rapidly rose to 190,000 and allowed BMW
to expand their Oxford operation where it is now estimated that they have the
capacity to make 300,000 p.a. Britain
is still the biggest market (43,660), closely followed by the USA, with France
at 10,800 p.a.
Michelin have
reintroduced the following tyre sizes.
Notably the long-awaited 5.50 x 16X which is suitable for AC,
Frazer-Nash etc. Also 185 VR 15 XVS and many Double Rivet for the larger
wheels. The TB range includes TB15 for use below 20º on wet or damp surfaces
and the harder TB5 for higher temperatures on wet or dry surfaces. The TB tyres can be used for ordinary
driving as well as racing. The XAS FF
range has also expanded to include 155 HR 13, 185 HR 13 and 155 HR 15.
Ruddspeed
is
to build 25 Aces with a modern drive train.
In 2004 Mexico signed a 5-year Grand Prix deal with Formula One Management for
the ‘yet to be built’ 940 acre site near Cancun, cost estimated at $200m. However, the land does not have planning
permission – an interesting conundrum.
Drive-in brothels are due to appear across Germany
after the country's first one proved a huge success. The brothel was set up in 2001 in Cologne and includes eight
garages or "performance boxes", which clients can drive their cars into
to do business with the women. There are also containers for customers who do
not own a car.
More than 30,000 drivers lose their licences each year according to the RAC who
are suggesting that persistent ‘speeders’ have their cars fitted with a ‘black
box’ which would record the car’s speed and be checked periodically by the
police. Similar boxes are due to be
installed on more than 400,000 lorries by 2008 under Government plans to
introduce a charging system for each mile driven.
Laurie Motherby, 77, wrote to police saying he had
sold the Toyota Corolla shown in the speeding photo - and it was clearly not
him pictured as it showed a man in his 20s, however he still has to appear
before JPs at Beverley, East Yorkshire.
A Peugeot 205 which was illegally parked in Sale, Greater Manchester,
was given a parking ticket – it now has £1680 of tickets and this will continue
to rise unless the DVLA tow the car away as an abandoned vehicle.
Kwik-Fit owner CVC Capital Partners is understood
to be looking at a potential £1 billion sale or flotation of the car parts
retailer later this year. Kwik-Fit
operates 670 service centres in the UK and 1,100 more across the rest of
Europe. It runs 200 mobile tyre-fitting vehicles and has expanded its range of
financial services.
VSCC Secretary Stuart Pringle is to run the London Marathon to
help raise money for CLIC (Cancer and Leukaemia in Childhood). He hopes to raise £2000. To make a donation http://www.justgiving.com/stuartpringle
Heidi Brown was told she could park her new scooter outside the
vehicle registration office while she waited to get license plates but police
in Ipswich blew it up in case it was a bomb.
Charles Morgan has resigned from the Board of his
company.
The Corporation of London has granted permission for the
Square Mile's first official classic car event on 3rd September
starting from the Guildhall Yard, down past Mansion House, Finsbury Circus,
Trinity Square Gardens and Smithfield market. Prize-giving will take place on
the steps of the Royal Exchange. 240
veteran, vintage and classic cars will take part, with proceeds going to the
Lord Mayor’s Appeal.
Margaret Gray, a granny from Middlesbrough, has
left her cleaning job for a new career driving 75-tonne dumper trucks.
Licencesaver claim their laser jammer and radar detector is legal to
use. The RMR transmits an infra red beam which is legal as there are no laws
against the transmission of infra red.
It scrambles all police laser guns, gives 200m warning of Gatso cameras
and 2000m of Pro Laser. RRP £429.99. If
you are found with a radar detector in the car in France the car may be
confiscated.
Toyota has
filed with the US patent office for rights to a vehicle on which the
headlights, windscreen and exterior panels could change colour or appearance to
convey happy, sad or angry moods.
Martin Leach, the British chief executive of Maserati, has left the
troubled Italian car maker. The announcement came as plans to break Maserati’s
links with Ferrari and align it with Alfa Romeo were made public. Maserati has declared losses of £144m in the
past five years, with even its latest model, the bestselling £75,000
Quattroporte, losing £19,300 on each car sold last year. But the losses are
dwarfed by those of its parent company Fiat which lost more than £500m last
year.
On average ten cars a day returning across the English Channel
break down due to the weight of duty free alcohol they are carrying.
Robert de Crittenden has refused to pay all his £30 penalty
tickets on the grounds that that they are unlawful under the 1689 Bill of
Rights where no-one may be fined or financially penalised unless they have been
convicted by a court. The Road Traffic
Act of 1991 gave traffic authorities the right to levy automatic fines for
parking offences, thus ignoring the Bill of Rights. According to Crittenden, if councils obey the law as it stands
they cannot impose parking tickets without taking the motorist to court. If he is correct this also applies to the
Inland Revenue which imposes an automatic £100 penalty on anyone late with a
tax return.
Maurice Trintignant - 1917 -
2005
Maurice made his racing debut in
1938 at the Pau Grand Prix and continued racing until 1963. His father was a prosperous vineyard owner
whose farm was occupied by the Germans. They failed to find his 2.3 litre
Bugatti – however the rats did – resulting in his friend Wimille nicknaming him
‘Petoulet’ (rat-droppings), a name which was to remain with him and which he
later used for his own wines. He was
six times Champion of France and drove Gordini, Ferrari, Cooper-Climax and BRM,
Porsche, Maserati, Aston Martin and Simca. Maurice was a charming man, always
ready to talk to you. He leaves a wife
Laurette and son Morgan, whom he fathered when he was 73.
TOPS NEWS is an abridged version of one
section of the TOPS magazine sent to members.
Trisha Pilkington