I have finished the Lotus Type 25:
Mostly stock build, cylinders wired, custom decals used, Racing Green paint from Tamiya, presented as pre-season car.
Jeff
Source: http://cs.scaleautomag.com/SCACS/forums/thread/979680.aspx
Monday, 3 October 2011
Lotus Type 25 - Completed Model
Murmurings in Austin? and Buenos Aires
There have been rumours of troubles in Austin for some time, with the locals reporting that work has stopped at the site of the planned Circuit of the Americas. The promoter Tavo Hellmund says that all is well and that the work needing to be done is not as huge as many imagine as the [...]
Source: http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2011/10/03/murmurings-in-austin-and-buenos-aires/
Sunday, 2 October 2011
Citroën C4 Aircross teased
Citroen has released the first teaser image of the C4 Aircross, ahead of its debut on October 7th.Source: http://feeds.worldcarfans.com/~r/worldcarfans/Jxfz/~3/_qSvhMz0gG0/citron-c4-aircross-teased
Eric Bernard Enrique Bernoldi Enrico Bertaggia Tony Bettenhausen
Schumacher of old returns to haunt Hamilton
Since Michael Schumacher returned to Formula 1 at the beginning of last season, he has not provided many glimpses of the man who dominated Formula 1 for so long - but that all changed at the Italian Grand Prix.
It is still not clear whether the German legend has the speed he had in his first career, despite two impressive drives in the last race in Belgium and now on Sunday in Monza.
But it was blatantly obvious in Italy that he is as willing as ever to push the boundaries of acceptable behaviour up to and beyond their limits.
Schumacher's driving in defending his position from Lewis Hamilton will split opinions - as BBC Sport's own experts proved.
"In sporting etiquette between racing drivers," David Coulthard said, "that was right on the line and he had one foot over it. He gave Lewis the chop."
But while Coulthard went on to add that he did not feel Schumacher deserved a penalty for his behaviour, chief analyst Eddie Jordan disagreed: "You cannot move twice. It's certainly questionable. If I was a judge I would have to reprimand him."
Schumacher's defence of the position over 21 enthralling - and occasionally heart-stopping - laps was certainly robust.
But there were two incidents in particular for which many will argue he was lucky to get away without a penalty.
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The first was on lap 16, when Hamilton dived down the inside of Curva Grande - taken flat out at 190mph - and Schumacher pushed him on to the grass.
The second was four laps later, when Schumacher appeared to change his trajectory twice while defending from Hamilton out of the second chicane and into the first Lesmo corner.
Article 20.2 of sporting regulations says: "Manoeuvres liable to hinder other drivers, such as more than one change of direction to defend a position, deliberate crowding of a car beyond the edge of the track or any other abnormal change of direction, are not permitted."
It should be no surprise that Schumacher is prepared to drive like this - after all, he did it so much in his first career that his dubious tactics are remembered just as strongly as his results, which takes some doing when you have won nearly twice as many races as anyone else in F1 history.
What is perhaps more surprising is that he was not punished - particularly for the 'two moves' incident. Although this looked less dramatic, it was probably the one that further exceeded the boundaries of acceptability.
The blocking move into Curva Grande was, as one veteran F1 observer put it on Sunday evening, "a bit naughty but entirely predictable" - and Hamilton was anyway a bit optimistic in trying to go down the inside there from as far back as he was.
Race director Charlie Whiting warned Mercedes about Schumacher's driving - and team principal Ross Brawn was fully aware of how close they were to being penalised. He went repeatedly on to the radio to warn Schumacher to give Hamilton enough room.
Back in Malaysia in April, Hamilton was given a 20-second penalty after the race for changing his line twice while defending his position from Fernando Alonso. Many will look at Schumacher's behaviour in Monza and conclude it was at least as bad, if not significantly worse.
Hamilton himself was clearly unimpressed. "I thought you were only allowed one move!" he said in exasperation over his radio.
After the race, though, he kept his counsel in public. As he had made it clear he wanted to stay out of trouble to try to end the tumultuous run of events that have derailed his season, that is perhaps not a surprise. It remains to be seen whether it stays that way.
Ironically, it was the first of those two incidents that led to Schumacher losing what at the time was third place, a position he found himself in after his customary superb start, and then taking advantage of Hamilton being caught napping at the re-start after the safety car period that was prompted by a first-corner crash involving backmarkers.
In backing off after being forced onto the grass at Curva Grande, Hamilton was overtaken by team-mate Jenson Button, who used his momentum to close rapidly on Schumacher and pass him in a brilliantly audacious move around the outside into Ascari.
Button said his own move on Schumacher was one of the bravest he has ever pulled, but another earlier in the race surely surpassed it - when race-winner Sebastian Vettel passed Alonso for the lead around the outside of the Curva Grande and into the second chicane.
Alonso edged Vettel far enough to the left for the Red Bull to have its left-hand wheels on the grass while flat out in top gear. But Vettel kept his foot hard down, controlled what must have felt like a scary wobble, and nailed the Ferrari down the inside into the chicane.
It puts to bed any unfounded criticisms that Vettel cannot win from behind - and the world champion elect was still a little wide-eyed about it after the race.
"I was on the grass there," he said to Alonso with a smile as they waited to go out on to the podium. "Yeah," the Ferrari driver responded.
It was a heart-in-the-mouth moment, certainly, but was this as bad as Schumacher's chop on Hamilton into the same corner a few laps later?
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Schumacher appeared to turn in early on Hamilton and gave him no room at all, and the McLaren driver had no choice but to take to the grass with at least half of his car. Vettel, by contrast, had the option to back out of the move, but chose not to.
This was almost certainly because - as with team-mate Mark Webber's pass of Alonso into Eau Rouge at the last race in Belgium - he knew Alonso would be hard, but could trust him to leave him just enough survival space.
It was mighty close. "Very hard but fair," was Vettel's post-race verdict
What was particularly impressive about Vettel's decision to commit was that he did not need to - as he himself said, he could easily have waited and got him in one of the zones where he could use his DRS overtaking aid that lap or the next.
Vettel has such a huge championship lead that he does not need to take any risks - and yet his hunger for victories, to stamp his absolute authority on this season that surrendered to him months ago, remains as intense as ever.
This was his eighth win of the year and one of the most impressive, and suitably it brought him to the brink of his second title.
Vettel will be crowned the youngest double champion in history - taking the honour from Alonso, ironically enough - in Singapore if he wins and Alonso does not finish third and Button or Mark Webber do not finish second.
On current form, that is entirely possible, and even if he doesn't do it there, Vettel will certainly tie it up sooner rather than later.
At the age of 24, he has 18 wins to his credit, a second title in the bag, and 25 pole positions. Schumacher's records - 91 wins, 65 poles, seven titles, which seemed unbeatable when he set them - look within reach, unless the other teams can do something about Red Bull's superiority. And perhaps even if they do.
Vettel's remarkable progress prompted superlatives from Coulthard after the race. "Are we witnessing one of the true greats - one of the legends of the sport. It's always difficult to judge when it's so early in someone's career but his results are remarkable."
To truly judge Vettel, he needs to go up against another great - Hamilton or Alonso or perhaps, on current form, Button - in an equal car. But there can no longer be any doubts that he is right up there.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2011/09/post_2.html
Elio de Angelis Marco Apicella Mário de Araújo Cabral Frank Armi
Alonso hoping strategy will play into his hands
Fernando Alonso says he?s not disappointed to be only fifth on the grid in Singapore, and the Ferrari ace remains convinced that he has a good chance of making progress in the race. Alonso believes that the fact that his … Continue reading 
Source: http://adamcooperf1.com/2011/09/24/alonso-hoping-strategy-will-play-into-his-hands/
Lost parts
I am in the process of building a Testors Coupster from around 2001. Got it all done, paint turned out great, but the headlights are lost. Any ideas on where I might get some headlights that will work on it?
Source: http://cs.scaleautomag.com/SCACS/forums/thread/980310.aspx
Saturday, 1 October 2011
Formula 1 Memories: Lewis Hamilton wins soaked Japanese Grand Prix! (Video)
It is the Japanese Grand Prix in just over a week, so we are looking back at races gone by. Yesterday we looked at 1988, today we are looking at 2007. Enjoy…! [There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.] Click here for the�Singapore�Grand [...]
Alain de Changy Colin Chapman Dave Charlton Pedro Matos Chaves
NASCAR?s Tony Stewart, F1?s Lewis Hamilton to swap cars
AVONDALE, Ariz. -- Barring an unforeseen scheduling hiccup, two-time NASCAR champion Tony Stewart and 2008 Formula 1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton will swap race cars in an exhibition later this year, Stewart-Haas Racing spokesman Mike Arning confirmed Saturday. Hamilton Stewart The seat swap comes at the hands of Mobil 1, a mutual sponsor for the two drivers, and is expected to take place at Watkins Glen International sometime during the summer.The cars involved will not be show cars. Related posts:- Tony Stewart: NASCAR’s clampdown on criticism OK SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Count two-time NASCAR Cup champion Tony Stewart...
- Police in Australia question NASCAR driver Tony Stewart SYDNEY -- NASCAR star Tony Stewart has been questioned but...
- Tony Stewart returns to North Dakota for dirt track race WEST FARGO, N.D. ...
Source: http://doxcar.com/nascars-tony-stewart-f1s-lewis-hamilton-to-swap-cars/
Senna ?convinced? Suzuka will suit Renault better | 2011 Japanese Grand Prix
Bruno Senna says Renault will fare better in Suzuka after their worst result of the season in Singapore.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/f1fanatic/~3/xzT0sOLzEWE/
Colin Chapman Dave Charlton Pedro Matos Chaves Bill Cheesbourg
A picture of the new McLaren factory!
Last week I briefly touched on McLaren’s expansion plans in the years ahead, as the company bids to become a multi-billion dollar enterprise. In addition to an expanded racing team, the McLaren Automotive car company and its electronics division, the main thrust of the expansion will come from the McLaren Applied Technologies division, a company [...]
Source: http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2011/09/29/a-picture-of-the-new-mclaren-factory/
Eugene Chaboud Jay Chamberlain Karun Chandhok Alain de Changy
50' Ford F-1
Hello all! This is a quick build I did recently. I've got so many projects in various stages of completion I felt the need to start and finish something box stock and simple. This took a little over a week with few issues. The only thing I added to it was a blanket for the seat I made using the thread and scotch tape technique in one of this year's Scale Auto issues. I'm sorry I can't remember which one. If I think of it I will try to find it. You can see a bit of the blanket in the view from of the rear. The paint is Testor's One Coat "Blazing Black". I really like the way that line of paints sprays straight from the rattlecan.
Oh yes, I do realize I put the trim on the side of the hood on backwards, but I didn't notice until a week or so after I built it. I don't really care enough to risk messing up the paint to turn them around.
Source: http://cs.scaleautomag.com/SCACS/forums/thread/979976.aspx
Friday, 30 September 2011
WIP: "SAMSON" Monster Truck
I know, don't adjust your monitors, I am building a Monster Truck! I took my son with me to work one morning, and we got to surfing the 'net and came across Samson's awesome website. There are tons of high res chassis shots, action shots, trucks under construction, everything. At first I knew I wanted to try and build one, then after researching for a week or two, I decided to actually attempt to do Samson.
Here's a few pics of the real Samson to give you an idea of what I'm up to here.
Source: http://cs.scaleautomag.com/SCACS/forums/thread/974545.aspx
Luki Botha JeanChristophe Boullion Sebastien Bourdais Thierry Boutsen
Vettel underlines title credentials with sublime drive
At Spa-Francorchamps
Sebastian Vettel and his Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber finished one-two in the Belgian Grand Prix after drives that can compare with many of those that have entered the annals of Formula 1 history from the famous Spa-Francorchamps track.
The two men went into the race on Sunday well aware of their team's concerns that their front tyres could fail.
Red Bull design chief Adrian Newey said it was "one of the scariest races I've been involved in", and the mind boggles as to the bravery of the drivers in that situation.
Spa's high-speed sweeps are arguably the biggest challenge a grand prix driver can face. Although safety has improved immensely at the circuit in the modern age, it remains an old-school race track, on which there are places "you wouldn't want to go off," as Webber put it in his BBC Sport column last week.
The drivers sounded phlegmatic about it after the race, but they were well aware of the potential seriousness of the situation. "We took quite a lot of risk," Vettel said. But, he added, "when there is a chance to win, we go for it".
Of all the many qualities that make grand prix drivers different from ordinary mortals, this has to be one of the most striking.
Call it bravery, call it lack of imagination, but Vettel and Webber went into the race, committed themselves to the 180mph rollercoaster ride through Eau Rouge, having put their lives in the hands of calculations by their engineers about how long their tyres would last.
The height of concern was in the early stages of the race, when the cars were running on tyres that Newey said Pirelli had told them "were very marginal and at five o'clock yesterday they wouldn't say after half a lap or five laps but they were going to fail".
Vettel and Webber's one-two in Belgium continued Red Bull's domination of this year's championship. Photo: Reuters
Red Bull's engineers had calculated that they could be pretty sure Webber's tyres would last two or three laps, and Vettel's five - which is when the two men made their first pit stops.
Red Bull were not the only team to suffer blistering, but theirs was worse than any of their rivals.
The situation caused controversy because they were running their cars with a greater degree of camber - lean away from vertical - on their front tyres than supplier Pirelli recommends.
Pirelli motorsport chief Paul Hembery chose his words carefully after the race, but I understand there were strong words between Pirelli and Newey before the race, and that there may be less tolerance of any team who choose to go beyond Pirelli's advice in the future.
It is yet another example of how Newey pushes every parameter to the limit, an approach that allied with his genius for aerodynamic design, has led him to create so many dominant cars, of which this year's Red Bull RB7 is just the latest in a long line.
With everything that was involved - the bravery, the tyre management, racing and overtaking Fernando Alonso's Ferrari, it has to rank as one of the best of Vettel's 17 victories.
Both Newey and team principal Christian Horner described it as a "mature" drive, and, as Newey pointed out: "Mark's race was every bit as good."
Webber was compromised first by a poor start, caused when his anti-stall kicked in, and then by a radio miscommunication that meant he did not follow his team-mate into the pits under the safety car period that followed Lewis Hamilton's collision with Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi.
That committed him to a long middle stint on the slower 'medium' tyre, at the beginning of which he showed bravery of a different but no less remarkable kind.
On lap nine, Webber passed Alonso on the outside going into Eau Rouge, pulling alongside on the hill down from La Source, nosing in front, and refusing to concede.
The two men are good friends, and they always race hard but fair, giving each other just enough room in such situations, but this incident was right on the edge.
"That boy must have some balls to do that - on the outside into Eau Rouge," Horner said. "Phenomenal. Pass of the day.
"Fernando was professional and gave him enough room to work with. Mark was always going to brave it out around the outside. I think we all closed our eyes."
Of course, Vettel and Webber's one-two was facilitated by the huge performance advantage of their cars.
Alonso appeared to be in the running for victory until his team chose not to stop under the safety car, but he insisted that was an illusion, saying Red Bull had a pace advantage of "one second per lap, maybe towards the end of the race even more, 1.5 seconds".
This is quite a turnaround after Red Bull failed to win any of the previous three races, where McLaren and Ferrari both showed Red Bull-beating pace.
Newey ascribes this to the "very cool conditions and slightly abnormal races" in Britain, Germany and Hungary.
"Hungary we were actually quite competitive in the dry and in those early laps on the intermediate tyres we suffered," he said.
"Germany it was exceptionally cold and we suffered in [tyre] warm-up. Silverstone we were compromised because we believed we had cold blowing (of the diffuser) allowed but it was taken away on Sunday morning."
This does not bode well for what were admittedly faint hopes that one of Vettel's rivals might have a chance of stopping his relentless march to the championship.
Although Alonso starred in the early stages in Spa, the car closest on pace to the Red Bull would seem still to be the McLaren, judging by Jenson Button's remarkable drive through the field to third place on Sunday, which was full of clinical and elegant overtaking moves.
As Button pointed out, though, McLaren's weekend in Belgium was compromised by the mistakes that have characterised their season, and which they desperately need to cut out.
In Button's case in Belgium, that was a "miscommunication" over how many laps he had left in the second period of qualifying that left him stranded in 13th place.
Lewis Hamilton, meanwhile, made another of several mistakes by himself and the team this season which have made it impossible to challenge Vettel.
Without them, he would be in the fight, rather than where is now, which is 113 points behind Vettel with only 175 still available, and his title hopes over.
Alonso, who after his fourth place in Spa is in a marginally better position but still 102 points adrift of Vettel, said he would keep battling until it was mathematically impossible to overhaul Vettel.
But even he, F1's most relentless fighter, admitted Ferrari's hopes were "not in our hands, and Red Bull need to make big, big mistakes, and have big problems if we want to win the championship".
Barring a disaster of catastrophic proportions, then, Vettel will win a second consecutive world title this year, and long before the end of the season.
After performances such as that at Spa on Sunday, and many others this year, he fully deserves it.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2011/08/vettel_underlines_title_creden.html
Thursday, 29 September 2011
Honda NT700V
 |
The Honda NT700V touring bike won’t scream intimidation to high heavens, but it can take you from point A to point B in a trendy and fashionable way.
The rich pearl black and silver polished finish of the NT700V makes for an attractive two-wheeled ride, and when you combine that with an impressive 680cc liquid-cooled 52� SOHC, four-cylinder V-twin engine that produces tidy horsepower, then you have the perfect everyday commuter. The bike also comes with a 41mm telescopic fork front suspension and a single shock with remote spring pre-load adjustability rear suspension plus dual 296mm front disc brakes, and a single 276mm rear disc brake.
The NT700V also features a fully-equipped fairing, interlinked saddlebags, a 45-liter rear trunk, an inner bag-trunk, a lower rear trunk pad, a wind deflector set, a knee pad set, heated grips, a tank pad, and an outdoor cycle cover.
It’s not the most powerful bike on the market, but as far as everyday commuting on a two-wheeled cruiser is concerned, the Honda NT700V has all the elements to make for a no-frills everyday bike that you can take anywhere you want to go.
Honda NT700V originally appeared on topspeed.com on Thursday, 29 September 2011 23:00 EST.
Source: http://www.topspeed.com/motorcycles/motorcycle-reviews/honda/2011-honda-nt700v-ar113472.html
Eugenio Castellotti Johnny Cecotto Andrea de Cesaris Francois Cevert
dads 55 almost done
not sure if this is the place to do this one at but this is it so far. alot more work to do.
was a stock 55 kit, put in a somewhat wired chevy BB, wheels are off a 66 chevy kit. black chevy paint and chevy spiced orange. i only use auto piants. gotta get the rest of the chrome on but turnin out so far so good. heres some pics now, What you'll think?
Source: http://cs.scaleautomag.com/SCACS/forums/thread/979904.aspx
Alonso the new favourite
 Fernando Alonso is the new favourite for the title |
?He is the man with the momentum and, on the same basis that I backed Mark Webber to win the title before Korea, is now my favourite to claim the world title in Abu Dhabi on Nov 14. ?When the cars are so evenly-matched you have to back the man in possession. Especially when that man is a two-time world champion and arguably the finest driver of his generation.?The Mirror?s Byron Young drew comparisons between Alonso and seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher as the Spaniard bids to become the sport?s youngest ever triple world champion.
?Like Schumacher, Alonso accepts no opposition within his team. Ultimately he fell out with McLaren over their refusal in 2007 to bring Lewis Hamilton to heel. ?He returned to Renault on condition he was No.1, only to be at the centre of the Singapore cheat scandal - engineered to hand him victory. ?The Spaniard has always denied involvement but at the German GP in July he was brazen enough to radio Ferrari to rein in team-mate Felipe Massa so he could start the winning streak that has taken him to the brink of history.?
Source: http://blogs.espnf1.com/paperroundf1/archives/2010/10/alonso_the_new_favourite_1.php
Saying goodbye to Europe
Welcome to this week's blog, the final blog from a European race for 2011, which feels very strange indeed.
I can scarcely believe I'm writing that; where is my life disappearing to?
Firstly, let me apologise for the lack of a blog after the Belgian Grand Prix.
The only holiday I've managed to grab this season was the week after Spa and I would have been in serious trouble with Harriet, my wife, if I'd spent the first of our five days away writing a blog.
Anyway, back to last weekend, and the end of my love affair with a truck for another season. OK, you're probably thinking a love affair with a lorry is rather strange, but it's more than that, it's our European home.
You see, for the grands prix that are referred to as 'fly-away' - the long-haul races outside Europe, that is - the circuits provide the hospitality suites for the teams and the production offices for the television stations.
It is essentially to cut down on costs so the huge team 'paddock palaces' aren't transported the other side of the world.
But at the European races, we take a truck, which we occupy from the first European race in Spain to the last one in Monza.
It's a dressing room, edit suite, production offices and kitchen all rolled into one. It has even been known to accommodate the odd overnight stay if someone's working particularly hard and late in Monaco and can't face the drive back to our hotel on the way to Nice.
But now our European adventure is at an end for another year and so it was with a heavy heart on Sunday evening that we waved off Pete D'Lemos and the trusty silver truck he looks after; we'll see him next in Spain in eight months.
It feels like two minutes since I walked into that truck for the very first time in 2009. It was the same one ITV had been using, but their presenter Steve Rider's office had been turned into an edit suite so I couldn't quite say I was walking in his shoes.
Talking of getting his job, remarkably it is three years ago this week that the then BBC head of F1 Niall Sloane offered me the chance to be the presenter, and what a learning curve it has been.
I can still remember the fear and apprehension as I walked into the F1 paddock in Australia for the first time, and the nerves as I started listening to 'The Chain' down my earpiece, hoping the words would come out in the right order.
The good news is that doing this job never becomes 'normal' or mundane and I still cherish every moment.
For that reason, I asked someone to follow me with a camera this weekend as in years to come I'll fondly look back on what it was like to share the pit lane with Eddie Jordan and David Coulthard as a 30-something guy, lucky enough to see the world and follow the sport I love.
I managed to capture Paul di Resta's Force India while taking this shot of the Monza track from a gate near the pits
I've posted a selection of pictures with this blog. Have a look through and see what you think. The one I'm most proud of is the one directly above - and it doesn't actually feature much apart from a big silver gate!
You see, one of the oddities of this job is that I very rarely see a car actually on the track.
We must be out of the pit lane with 15 minutes to go before qualifying and the race and so by the time the cars are track I'm in the paddock and there is nothing to see.
An hour before we go on air and Eddie Jordan, Ted Kravitz and I have to cram ourselves between Ferrari and McLaren's motorhomes to get our gear on for the show
One of the most common requests I get is from people who have tickets to the race asking to get into the paddock. I tell them they would soon be bored of sitting around drinking coffee and would see more in the grandstand.
Anyway, in Monza on Sunday, I walked out of the paddock and along the back of the garages and the photo is testament to how tricky it is even for me to get to the track during the action - I always say that in front of the TV you get the best seat in the house and this is proof!
And why am I so proud of the photo? Well, Paul di Resta's Force India is passing by me at full speed and somehow I managed to press the button at just the right time - trust me, it was far more luck than judgement.
Talking of luck, some people may well think that Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel has had his fair share of it over the course of the year, but perhaps in Monza he finally put the doubters to bed by doing something a few were questioning - pulling off a cracking overtake!
Vettel knew he had to get past Fernando Alonso's Ferrari for his race strategy to work, he managed it really early on, then delivered the lap times and the consistency to take another win.
I think that perhaps it was the race that finally broke his challengers and since then we've seen a few of Seb's rivals declare that he has now won the title.
Spa and Monza were the races where McLaren and Ferrari were expecting to challenge Red Bull, but Vettel won both. As for Seb's team-mate, Mark Webber, well, he only managed to collect 18 points to Vettel's 50.
So, with that in mind we had a meeting back at BBC HQ on Wednesday to discuss how we tackle the Singapore race weekend.
Our mantra is 'fail to prepare, prepare to fail'. With that in mind, we need to fly into Singapore fully ready to do justice to Vettel if he manages to win the title there.
I always enjoy Singapore. And if you want to read about how strange it is for us as a production team, as we stay on European time, which is eight hours behind where we are, my blog from 2009 will tell you about the perils of trying to get dinner when the city is asleep.
Before I sign off, I'm sure that there will be plenty of people reading this who are keen to know about our plans for the 2012 F1 coverage.
As soon as there is something concrete to announce, I know that the BBC will do that. However, I can tell you I am committed to helping the BBC make its F1 coverage next year as compelling as it has been for the last three years.
And thanks for your continued loyalty - all 5.8m of you who watched the race with us on Sunday.
Jake.
Lee McKenzie looks on as EJ and I check comms. It involves talking to each other while the team in the gallery talk at the same time to make sure the sound levels are workable
Roger Bines, our rigger, is our unsung hero. We wouldn't be on air without him and I've spent the past three years with him in the pit lane. He retired after 15 years in F1 on Sunday. We'll miss you, Rog!
Two minutes to on-air and Rob Smedley, Felipe Massa's race engineer, pops over to say hello and have a chat.
Post-race and I am busy noting down the race finishing order, the championship standings and any other notes I need close at hand for 45 minutes of unscripted, unplanned post-race analysis
I love this snap.. Eddie Jordan doing what he does best... having an opinion!
Whil you at home are watching the top three drivers' interviews, we decamp to the paddock, where Toro Rosso's Jaime Algersuari pops over to see what we thought of his charge into the points
This photo sums up the job for me, and I love it. The team, all four of us, owning the paddock as we go looking for stories. On screen it just seems to flow
The last photo I took on my way out of the circuit. The Monza banking is a reminder of how much has gone before us, and that F1 will continue to evolve long after we've left
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/jakehumphrey/2011/09/saying_goodbye_to_europe.html
Wednesday, 28 September 2011
Rally WRX.. Finished 9/25/11
Bought this kit back in 2007 when I was in Korea, never started it till now.. well, a few weeks ago.. Its the Tamiya Rally WRX, and its basically box stock with some minor color changes
Some WIP pics of the interior:
Source: http://cs.scaleautomag.com/SCACS/forums/thread/979817.aspx
Pedro Matos Chaves Bill Cheesbourg Eddie Cheever Andrea Chiesa
Jeff Gordon wins the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Phoenix International Raceway
Jeff Gordon Ends Drought Jeff Gordon snaps 66-race winless streak by taking the Subway Fresh Fit 500 at PhoenixJeff Gordon Ends Drought AVONDALE, Ariz. Related posts:- Jeff Gordon wins at Phoenix to snap 66-race drought Jeff Gordon Ends Drought Jeff Gordon snaps 66-race winless...
- NASCAR’s Jeff Gordon gets new spotter starting at Pocono CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Jeff Gordon will have a new spotter...
- Jeff Gordon confronts and shoves Jeff Burton after crash in Texas Gordon-Burton Post Sound Jeff Gordon and Jeff Burton talk...
Source: http://doxcar.com/jeff-gordon-wins-the-nascar-sprint-cup-race-at-phoenix-international-raceway/
Ernesto Brambilla Vittorio Brambilla Toni Branca Gianfranco Brancatelli
MattHT takes Predictions Championship lead with perfect score | Predictions Championship
MattHT leads the F1 Fanatic Predictions Championship by a single point.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/f1fanatic/~3/HTs_WMhmLVQ/
Vettel underlines title credentials with sublime drive
At Spa-Francorchamps
Sebastian Vettel and his Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber finished one-two in the Belgian Grand Prix after drives that can compare with many of those that have entered the annals of Formula 1 history from the famous Spa-Francorchamps track.
The two men went into the race on Sunday well aware of their team's concerns that their front tyres could fail.
Red Bull design chief Adrian Newey said it was "one of the scariest races I've been involved in", and the mind boggles as to the bravery of the drivers in that situation.
Spa's high-speed sweeps are arguably the biggest challenge a grand prix driver can face. Although safety has improved immensely at the circuit in the modern age, it remains an old-school race track, on which there are places "you wouldn't want to go off," as Webber put it in his BBC Sport column last week.
The drivers sounded phlegmatic about it after the race, but they were well aware of the potential seriousness of the situation. "We took quite a lot of risk," Vettel said. But, he added, "when there is a chance to win, we go for it".
Of all the many qualities that make grand prix drivers different from ordinary mortals, this has to be one of the most striking.
Call it bravery, call it lack of imagination, but Vettel and Webber went into the race, committed themselves to the 180mph rollercoaster ride through Eau Rouge, having put their lives in the hands of calculations by their engineers about how long their tyres would last.
The height of concern was in the early stages of the race, when the cars were running on tyres that Newey said Pirelli had told them "were very marginal and at five o'clock yesterday they wouldn't say after half a lap or five laps but they were going to fail".
Vettel and Webber's one-two in Belgium continued Red Bull's domination of this year's championship. Photo: Reuters
Red Bull's engineers had calculated that they could be pretty sure Webber's tyres would last two or three laps, and Vettel's five - which is when the two men made their first pit stops.
Red Bull were not the only team to suffer blistering, but theirs was worse than any of their rivals.
The situation caused controversy because they were running their cars with a greater degree of camber - lean away from vertical - on their front tyres than supplier Pirelli recommends.
Pirelli motorsport chief Paul Hembery chose his words carefully after the race, but I understand there were strong words between Pirelli and Newey before the race, and that there may be less tolerance of any team who choose to go beyond Pirelli's advice in the future.
It is yet another example of how Newey pushes every parameter to the limit, an approach that allied with his genius for aerodynamic design, has led him to create so many dominant cars, of which this year's Red Bull RB7 is just the latest in a long line.
With everything that was involved - the bravery, the tyre management, racing and overtaking Fernando Alonso's Ferrari, it has to rank as one of the best of Vettel's 17 victories.
Both Newey and team principal Christian Horner described it as a "mature" drive, and, as Newey pointed out: "Mark's race was every bit as good."
Webber was compromised first by a poor start, caused when his anti-stall kicked in, and then by a radio miscommunication that meant he did not follow his team-mate into the pits under the safety car period that followed Lewis Hamilton's collision with Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi.
That committed him to a long middle stint on the slower 'medium' tyre, at the beginning of which he showed bravery of a different but no less remarkable kind.
On lap nine, Webber passed Alonso on the outside going into Eau Rouge, pulling alongside on the hill down from La Source, nosing in front, and refusing to concede.
The two men are good friends, and they always race hard but fair, giving each other just enough room in such situations, but this incident was right on the edge.
"That boy must have some balls to do that - on the outside into Eau Rouge," Horner said. "Phenomenal. Pass of the day.
"Fernando was professional and gave him enough room to work with. Mark was always going to brave it out around the outside. I think we all closed our eyes."
Of course, Vettel and Webber's one-two was facilitated by the huge performance advantage of their cars.
Alonso appeared to be in the running for victory until his team chose not to stop under the safety car, but he insisted that was an illusion, saying Red Bull had a pace advantage of "one second per lap, maybe towards the end of the race even more, 1.5 seconds".
This is quite a turnaround after Red Bull failed to win any of the previous three races, where McLaren and Ferrari both showed Red Bull-beating pace.
Newey ascribes this to the "very cool conditions and slightly abnormal races" in Britain, Germany and Hungary.
"Hungary we were actually quite competitive in the dry and in those early laps on the intermediate tyres we suffered," he said.
"Germany it was exceptionally cold and we suffered in [tyre] warm-up. Silverstone we were compromised because we believed we had cold blowing (of the diffuser) allowed but it was taken away on Sunday morning."
This does not bode well for what were admittedly faint hopes that one of Vettel's rivals might have a chance of stopping his relentless march to the championship.
Although Alonso starred in the early stages in Spa, the car closest on pace to the Red Bull would seem still to be the McLaren, judging by Jenson Button's remarkable drive through the field to third place on Sunday, which was full of clinical and elegant overtaking moves.
As Button pointed out, though, McLaren's weekend in Belgium was compromised by the mistakes that have characterised their season, and which they desperately need to cut out.
In Button's case in Belgium, that was a "miscommunication" over how many laps he had left in the second period of qualifying that left him stranded in 13th place.
Lewis Hamilton, meanwhile, made another of several mistakes by himself and the team this season which have made it impossible to challenge Vettel.
Without them, he would be in the fight, rather than where is now, which is 113 points behind Vettel with only 175 still available, and his title hopes over.
Alonso, who after his fourth place in Spa is in a marginally better position but still 102 points adrift of Vettel, said he would keep battling until it was mathematically impossible to overhaul Vettel.
But even he, F1's most relentless fighter, admitted Ferrari's hopes were "not in our hands, and Red Bull need to make big, big mistakes, and have big problems if we want to win the championship".
Barring a disaster of catastrophic proportions, then, Vettel will win a second consecutive world title this year, and long before the end of the season.
After performances such as that at Spa on Sunday, and many others this year, he fully deserves it.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2011/08/vettel_underlines_title_creden.html
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