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Inside TrackThe online diary by the people behind MSN Cars
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20 noviembre I crashed my friend's Lotus Dan Trent writes: Fresh from nearly flipping my Clio I feel this chap's pain. Out having a go in a mate's Lotus Elise he was unfortunate enough to spin it and do £3,500's worth of damage. Ouch. He's now, as he puts it, "hustling for cash to pay off a power-slide that went badly wrong" by paying off the repair as a 'micro job man', selling his time for £35 a pop for any number of odd jobs and figuring that if he manages to 'sell' 100 micro jobs he'll be able to pay the Lotus's repair bill. Genius! Services offered include painting, furniture assembly, website construction and maintenance and, apparently, "vehicle handling testing"! If you want to show your support or book him for a micro job you can contact him via his website, which also includes a very amusing reconstruction of the notorious spin. Dan --- Links: I crashed my friend's Lotus Clios in a spin at Oulton --- Share It
Clios in a spin at Oulton Pic by www.zzzone.co.uk Dan Trent writes: You'll have seen me alluding to a 'motivating factor' for swapping my wheels over at Oulton on Tuesday. So what was that then? Well, mainly the fact that they were full of gravel after the following incident...  Pic by Riad Ariane ...which could well have ended up very differently. As it stands the fact I only have a set of pebble-dashed alloys (and a small stain on the driver's seat) to show for it is a blessing because I could well have ended up on my roof. Still, it made for a spectacular pic and my thanks to Riad Ariane for sending me the amazing photo above.  Pic by Riad Ariane Yes Dan, you idiot, that's well and truly beached... Anyway, I take some comfort from the fact that that there were several 172 Cups like mine there and I think at some point or other during the day I think each of us ended up in the same gravel trap! The marshals certainly got used to the sight of blue Clio 172s spinning off there. This wasn't the only action either, the following shots showing one owner doing a good impression of using his Clio Williams as a plough as he surfs across Oulton's turf... That won't go down well with circuit owner Jonathan Palmer!    Pics by www.zzzone.co.uk If you need any further evidence of quite how slippery it was the following video from a chap in a very rapid (it would be, seeing as it weighs just over 800kg and has a 2.0-litre engine from a 172 in it!) Mk1 Clio, or 'Valver' as they're known in Renault circles. Look out for a cameo appearance from yours truly at 3:16 - that's me in the white Megane 250, having wisely parked the 172 Cup and taken something with ABS and ESP for the rain-soaked afternoon session... (Parental advisory: contains language appropriate to spinning your treasured project car off a race track and nearly wiping out into the armco!) Thanks to fOxy for the video. And entertainment! Suffice to say, the ESP systems in modern Renaultsports are about the best in the business and very welcome when it's as slippery as that! Dan --- Links: Lose an inch, gain a mile Oulton park track photography by zzzone Clio Mk1 172 'hybrid' project --- Share It
New Porsche racer walks 'most ridiculous spoiler' contest Dan Trent writes: If racing were a simple matter of 'my wing's bigger than yours' the new Porsche GT3 R would be off to a head start from the word go. And if you see a lot of crumpled looking shirts among the staff at Porsche's competition department you've got the reason why in front of you - someone seems to have bolted the ironing board to the back of a ruded up 911 racecar and left it at that.  The latest in a (very) long line of badass 911 race variants, this GT3 R is an uprated version of the GT3 Cup one-make race series car, itself a development of the GT3 RS which isn't too far removed from the standard GT3 which- oh, you get the idea.  Beneath that giant rear wing the engine has been boosted from 3.8 litres to a round 4.0 litres, power climbing from the Cup's 450hp to 480hp as a result. The six-speed sequential racing gearbox gets auto throttle blipping, much like the 370Z's Synchro Rev Control feature, to aid driveability and make the GT3 R suitable for what Porsche calls the 'ambitious amateur racing driver'. The ambitious amateur racing driver with €279,000 (plus VAT), it should be added. Suitable for running in the popular GT3 category, the rush of ambitious amateur racing drivers upgrading to the new 911 GT3 R from the previous GT3 Cup S will no doubt help swell Porsche's coffers, these off the peg racers being a very profitable part of the firm's business. Nice to know it's not just Cayennes and Panameras keeping Porsche afloat though. Dan --- Links: New GT3 RS revealed Nissan 370Z first drive --- Share It
19 noviembre BMW 5 Series E60 – we salute youTom Evans writes: It is a mark of a great car that even in the last throes of its lifespan, it still looks and drives as if it were newly launched. And so we must say goodbye to the BMW 5 Series, 2003 to 2010, AKA E60/61 for the anoraks among us. On November 23, the next 5 Series will be unleashed on the world, and the current one will move into history. Design-wise I think the E60 is easily the most successful of the Chris Bangle era BMWs, with fluid, exciting lines that evoke speed and performance even standing still; the flame surface, flambéed to perfection. The ‘fan’ rear lights – a subtle design feature – have grown on me over the years, as has the car in its entirety. And today, it still looks as fresh as it did when it was first unveiled over six years ago. Better than the Jaguar XF, miles better than the yawn-inducing Audi A6, and at least as sharp as the new Mercedes E-Class.
Even mores to the point, it is still an utterly brilliant drive. There can’t be many cars heading out of production that are still best in class on the steering and handling front (the only other one I can think of is the current Ford Focus), let alone in the hyper-competitive executive arena – but the 5 Series for me still reigns supreme. We had a 530d in last year for a twin-test against the XF 2.7 diesel. A slightly unfair test you might argue given the puny 207hp of the Jag compared to the 231 of the BMW. But even granting that, Ian and I were amazed (neither of us had driven a 5 in a while) at how much better the BMW was at good old fashioned driving; sharp handling, superbly balanced steering, solidity – just plain class. The E60 M5 (below), with that gloriously mad screaming V10 engine would surely have been the greatest sports-saloon ever were it not for that ghastly SMG gearbox; I wish we Brits had got the manual one, like those lucky Americans. But perhaps it is paradoxically correct that the über-5 Series was a flawed masterpiece, lest it overshadow its more humdrum, yet still brilliant, brethren.
The best car in the world? When the current car’s predecessor (the E39 of 1995 to 2003) came along I recall numerous commentators naming the mid-range (petrol) 528i as the world’s best all-round car. Today, its spiritual successor, the 530d, could make a good claim for that title. Good looks, good boot, room for five, relatively low depreciation (six year-old ones will still set you back over £8,000, complete with hefty mileage), plenty of poke and 44mpg combined - can one reasonably ask for much more? Perhaps not, but I’m sure the BMW folk will be trying to make us do so from next Monday. They have one serious act to follow. Lose an inch, gain a mile Pic by www.zzzone.co.uk Dan Trent writes: The best upgrade you can have for your car? Smaller wheels. Now I know in fashion terms this is about as finger on the pulse as suggesting rolling up the sleeves of your suit jacket and unbuttoning your shirt to your waistband will make you look cool. And in an age where even hot-hatches are shipping with 19-inch wheels I realise I'm going against the grain somewhat. But hear me out.  This all comes after swapping my regular 16-inch road wheels over for my super lightweight 15-inch OZ Ultraleggeras over the lunchbreak at the Oulton Park trackday on Tuesday. There was a motivating factor in this, which I'll tell you about later... Anyway, the difference was astounding and the Clio felt like a different car. Instantly it felt perkier, more agile and the suspension was working way better than before. Stands to reason - if you're going to trim weight out of a car the best place to do it is in the wheels and suspension components, this unsprung weight (as opposed to the rest of the car) having a much bigger impact on the way the car rides and drives than anything this side of centre of gravity and weight distribution.  Thing is, even on standard 16-inch wheels the Clio is running smaller wheels than most modern hot hatches. At a smidge under 5kg the 15-inch Ultraleggeras are a very light wheel indeed (for comparison a 16-inch version is nearly 1.5kg heavier and an 18-inch nearly 3kg more) but the improvement was so dramatic I decided to leave them on for the drive home. And you know what? It was better on the road too, riding with something approaching comfort (relatively speaking) over the crumbling roads around my way. Amazing!  Pic by www.zzzone.co.uk It's the same on the new Megane 250. The press cars we drove on the launch all had the Halfords-spec 19-inch wheels on but the LHD car Renault scored for Oulton was on 18s and drove just as well on the track and looked better into the bargain. I was chatting with a chap looking to place an order and tried to tell him the 18s were the better bet but he wasn't having it. Indeed, it's a pity the Twingo Cup CJ took along is going back today - I'd be out there with the jack slinging my OZs on to see what they'd be like in place of the monster (and kerb hungry) 17s on it at the moment!  Pic by www.zzzone.co.uk The campaign for smaller wheels starts here! Dan --- Links: Oulton Park track photography by www.zzzone.co.uk Renaultsport Megane 250 first drive Megane 250 - the uncut version OZ Ultraleggera stats and info --- Share It
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