TOPS NEWS – May/June 2006
Citroën is to pay the London congestion
charge for all new customers buying its C2 stop-start model. The car manufacturer is furious that the
£10,495 C2, which maximises fuel economy and minimises exhaust gases, is not
being exempted from the charge in the same way as other vehicles with low fuel
consumption such as the £17,795 Toyota Prius.
Damon Hill has replaced Sir Jackie Stewart as BRDC President. There
was much sabre rattling at the recent EGM but The Board survived a vote of No
Confidence and indicated their willingness to give more information to members,
particularly over the prospective development of Silverstone.
Richard Challen, a Surrey garage owner, has been
found guilty of deception after claiming that his Ferrari had been hit by a
lorry when he actually had an accident at Spa circuit during a Ferrari Owners’
Club test day.
Birmingham Council staff painted yellow lines in a
street of cars, even between the car wheels and then traffic wardens slapped
£60 parking fines on the windscreens.
Sean McCrory paid £100,000 at auction for BIG 1 car number plate.
After an absence of 30 years, The British
International Motor Show is returning to London in July. More than 50 manufacturers are expected to
exhibit.
Churchill car insurance says that, on average, learner
drivers require 42 lessons before taking their test.
Motorcyclist David Harris appealed against his speeding
conviction but then withdrew it. But
the CPS had flown an expert witness in from the USA and have given Harris a
bill for £4,500 for the witness’ trip.
Europe and America have accused China of imposing
illegal tariffs on imported car parts.
The Chinese government spends £21bn a year buying and
running official cars – more than China’s entire budget for military spending.
Government advice to tired drivers is to drink 2 cups of coffee and rest for
10 minutes to allow the caffeine to kick in, however new rules are forcing
garages without a licence to stop selling hot food and drink between 11pm and
5am.
The EU has issued rules harmonising vehicle testing and licensing
throughout Europe. The age limit for
driving the largest motorcycles has been raised to 24 and there will be tests
each time someone tries to move up a power category. Bus and lorry drivers under 45 will have to renew their licence
every 5 years. Motorists will have to
get special training if they want to tow trailers and when the car and trailer
weigh over 3.5 tonnes. It is not clear
whether the rules are retrospective - do you know?
If your car is fitted with Tracker Response and moved without your authority,
Tracker HQ can find and show pictures of the car’s location anywhere in
Europe.
A JCB has been built which can do 300 mph in a bid to smash the speed
record of 235.74 mph for a diesel-powered vehicle. The vehicle needs a
push-start by a truck, does 4 miles to the gallon and the tank holds just 2
gallons. It is twice as powerful and fast as an F1 car despite weighing 4 times
as much and is the first vehicle designed entirely by computer to attempt the
record. The 2 engines each develop 750 bhp at 3,800 rpm and 1,106 lb ft of
torque at 2,500 rpm.
The M6 toll route lost £30m last year and traffic has fallen 5% in a year.
GM’s head of development, Bob Lutz says that GM has avoided
bankruptcy.
There are 470 speed cameras in London.
A German taking a Ferrari 360 Modena for a test drive crashed
it into a lamp-post when he tried to impress a pretty pedestrian.
A speed camera placed temporarily at roadworks on the M62 near Leeds
caught over 18,000 drivers who received 50,000 penalty points and £1,088,000 in
fines.
3,300 petrol
forecourts have closed in England in the past five years.
Supermarket petrol prices are blamed.
In 2000 there were 13,099 forecourts, this dropped to 9,738 in 2005.
TVR was
established in 1947 by Trevor Wilkinson, later sold to Peter Wheeler and in
2004 to Nikolai Smolenski, a 24-year-old Russian entrepreneur. A few years ago TVR produced 12 cars a week
but this has now dwindled to 2 p.w. necessitating a reduction in work force and
premises.
The Government has announced that the proposed A303 tunnel past
Stonehenge will not now be built as costs have risen to £510m.
A driver who falsely claimed diplomatic immunity after he was
caught talking on his mobile phone has been fined more than £200,000 in
Germany.
Since 1998 DaimlerChrysler has sold 1.5 million flexible fuel
vehicles capable of running on E85 (ethanol). From 2008 the company expects to
sell 500,000 flexible fuel cars p.a. in the US.
Peugeot, Europe's second-largest carmaker, is to close the old Rootes Group Humber Hillman factory
at Ryton, near Coventry next year.
The FIA is to re-write the Blue book to make it easier to
understand.
Bananas
Pyjamas are riding 1,000 miles on their Harley Davidson to
raise money for disabled children in the South West.
Nigel Mansell has bought the Go-Kart track adjacent to Dunkeswell
aerodrome (Devon). His ambition is to
build a restaurant and conference room, over part of the circuit so that the
starting grid would be undercover, but he has been thwarted by the airfield
owners as it would interfere with the runway.
Nearby there is a large underground dump of “de-activated” explosives -
shells, bombs, depth charges etc., concreted over by the M.O.D.
Access Capital has secured £65m towards production
of the ‘Healey’ in Coventry plus £1.95m in grant aid. The new car will be based
on the Smart roadster technology which the Project Kimber consortium has bought
from Mercedes.
The SMMT has released figures showing a 9.1% decline on last year
in April's UK new car market. Sales totalled 163,216 units.
Lada is
to produce a military 4x4 named ‘Kalashnikov’.
Having read the entry in the Monaco Coys auction catalogue for
the 1957 Talbot Lago, it continues to surprise that these catalogues,
theoretically compiled by experts, contain so much inaccurate information and
display a serious lack of proof reading.
TOPS NEWS is an abridged version of one
section of the TOPS magazine sent to members.
Trisha Pilkington