Michael Schumacher

Formula greatest legend. The statically greatest driver. Yes he is Schuey, after a three year break he is back to a different formula 1 that was his playground just few years back. From his chief mechanic to the team principal, from a red car it changed to a silver arrow. He came back to a 6th place finish in the season opener in Bahrain. However his younger teammate Nico Rosberg was running rings around him. With so many changes it really changed from his personal playground to an unfamiliar ground. Some of the people back him up while others run him down on his lackluster performance in the 2010 season. A determined Schuey is gunning for the 2011 title trying to forgo his lousy 2010 season. Jeson Button the current defending champion said that the 2010 w01 was designed for him instead of Schuey. So i believe in him that he will deliver results next year. Go Schuey!!!

Lotus Evora

This is a picture taken from Autocar.co.uk. Since i did not want to focus too much on Audi and i saw a post on autocar i thought this would be an apt post on my blog. This is not the same Evora that was launched a year ago but it is a s version that is re-worked and a beefed up model that is going to be officially launched at the upcoming Paris motor show. The base model was using a Toyota 3.5litre engine while the upgraded one would be one with a additional supercharger. This actually shows something, even though Toyota does not produce a car as fast as this or at this level it further reinforce the point that Toyota is capable of whipping up a fast car. The LFA is a good example. It is comparable to the likes of Ferraris and Lamborghinis. Now Lotus are also using their engines to produce fast car. Lotus also used a 1.8litre engine sourced from Toyota to power the Elise, ironically the same powerplant powers the environmentally friendly Prius hybrid . The Elise is also one hell of a machine. Thus Toyota is capable of producing fast cars.

Land Rover build outside Europe?

Land Rover is going to build factories in India and China. It is no surprise as the China market already exceeded Japan for the second spot and the sales of luxury cars in China is growing rapidly. It is believe that annual sales for luxury cars in China alone would reach 1.1m. Which is a lot. It is also not surprising as many car makers operate joint ventures or open factories to cope with the demand. Examples would be the likes of Audis and Bmws. It also did not come as a surprise to built a factory in India as India is a growing market and Land Rover is currently owned by TATA group would belongs to a Indian conglomerate. But what took me aback was that Land Rover is leaving the option of exporting the cars to other countries. It has never been done by the premium brands even though they have factory in China. As they were worried by the quality control there even though the operating cost is enticing. For a brand like Landie, a trustworthy and reliable British brand who never stepped out of Europe is going to export cars overseas from China. If they really do it would people still buy a expensive car that is made in china? Perhaps they would if people really like Landies and the quality is not compromise.

Bugatti Veryon Super Sport

People must be bored as my blog revolves around either Audi or Volkswagen group, which owns Audi by the way. But this is an exception i did not use this because it belongs to the same parent company as Audi but because it is the world's fastest production road legal car. It achieved north of 400km/h at a test track that belongs to volkswagen. If it travels at this speed for an hour you would have reached KL, Malaysia, from Singapore. It is phenomenal imagine yourself traveling at this speed in a car. Everything would appear blurry to you. But guess how much it cost? A whopping 3.4m us dollars perhaps. Add in the taxes it would cost nearly 15m(note it is a estimation) Singapore dollars to put it on a Singapore road. You have not count in the maintenance and the cost of a tire that needs regular changing. A tire alone cost $3000. The car produces 1200 bhp which is 6 times that produced by a Audi 2.0T engine which is fast enough for you to collect a ton of speeding fines in Singapore easily.

Porsche 918 Spyder

Though this car is not in production yet but it is given the green light to start manufacturing the car. It is believed to be launched as a limited edition. It showcases Porsche's hybrid technology which is called the Porsche.Intelligent.Performance (P.I.P). P.I.P started with the Cayenne Hybrid which it powered by a 3.0 turbo taken from an Audi S4 coupled with a electric motor followed by a Panemera Hybrid and the third installment is the 918. Powered by a 3.4 V8 racing engine and three electric motors. Combined will produce a whopping 700 horsepower. The car was first launched at the Geneva motor show and it came as a surprise as no one expected Porsche to come out with a new car so soon. They have also been quiet about this as no early information leaked out. It is a beauty but expect a 500,000 euro price tag.

Speeding fine in Switzerland

If you think speeding fine in Singapore is crazy you have not met Switzerland. They have been giving record fines and it is common knowledge that they do not tolerate speeding. Recently a unlucky Swedish male got caught for traveling at 300km/h. He was unlucky as the old radar capturing models were not able to capture a car traveling at this phenomenal speed but no one can escape the long arms of justice. He was eventually taken down by 21st century technology, a new camera. The police dispatched a car to catch him and guess what he said. " oh i didn't know i was traveling so fast the speedometer is spoiled". He must have thought that Switzerland police were all three year olds or he is a bad lier. The speed was so fast that even a Mercedes SLS, a technology advanced car equipped with good brakes needed 500m to come to a halt. In the end he was fined 650,000 pounds. The police said that no one has been recorded traveling at such speed in Switzerland coupled with his income, it explains his fine.
( Attached is a Mercedes SLS)

Vintage cars

This might seem out of place but i got a explanation for it. I was reading emily of emerald hill for literature recently and i was inspired by my english teacher to write an article about the cars used in Singapore in 1930s. I thought it was an excellent idea as i was not only able to talk about the book but also at the same time about a car company. The book is about a rich Perenakan family
which in Singapore means "the local people" thus i was thinking about a luxury car company. It struck me that Horch would be a good choice as it fits in my theme of Audi and it was a luxury car manufacturer. About Horch it was set up by August Horch but later August Horch had problems with the CFO thus he came out to set up Audi. During the Great depression four car companies merged to keep them afloat. Thus Aud, Horch, DKW and Wanderer merged to create Auto-union and the four rings you see on audis are actually representing one of each of the brands. Back to the topic i have chosen a 1938 Horch 830 cab to talk about. It used a v8 engine which is powerful. All Horch was ahead of its time the powerful engines that are seen in modern cars. The interior was also clas leading at the time like Audis of the present. It was also a cabriolet so Emily can "makan agin" in the car with his "big strong sonny" Richard.
Picture from wikipedia

audi a7

I understand that people would be criticizing that this blog is just a blog about audis and not news about the automotive industry. But audi's interior is just a notch above their the rest aided by their powerful turbo-charged diesel and petrol engine there is no debate that they are just the market leader and mercedes-benz and bmw are just playing catchup. Back to the audi a7. In short it is just identical to the concept car they showed back in 2007. It comes with a few v6 which has adequate power to power this four door coupe. The interior is identical to the new a8 interior. It has the cosy chairs with the beautiful stitching and the pop-up screen. It is sure to steal majority of the market share for this niche market that used to be dominated by the only choice, the mercedes-benz cls.