F1 again this weekend at the Bahrain circuit on the
sand. 57 laps of the 5 km circuit, which did give us some good racing
last year, so I hope it will again.
After
two wins on the trot for Renault, will they manage to pull off the hat
trick? On current form, this is certainly possible, but as I have said
many times, do not write off a certain team with red coloured cars
that come from Italy. Bridgestone tyres have admitted that their tyre
this year as fitted to the Ferrari’s is just not in the hunt, but I
am sure that they will have come up with something by the time the
cars are all gridded up in Bahrain. Ferrari will also be debuting
their new race car, the F 2005, so we should expect them to be much
more competitive.
Toyota was the surprise of the bunch in Malaysia,
scoring their first podium finish. If dollars get you to the front,
then Toyota are scheduled for their first win as well. Their budget is
reckoned to be the largest in Formula 1.
Both McLaren and Williams seem to be ‘almost’
there, and Heidfeld’s third place in Malaysia was no fluke result
for the team, other than the fact that Webber was going to be 3rd and
Heidfeld 4th, if Fisichella hadn’t turned his brain off at an
inopportune moment. He was admonished by the stewards of the meeting
and has been put on notice that they expect no more lapses for the
next few meetings.
The race starts at 2.30 p.m. in Bahrain, which I
think is 6.30 here - but check your TV guides. Why don’t you join
me, and the other F1 enthusiasts for early dinner and a couple of
hours of motor sport?
For my money, the star of the Bangkok International
Motor Show this year was DaimlerChrysler. This was the only automaker
to give us both new conventional vehicles, new energy-saving vehicles
and some very significant older vehicles. The ‘runner ups’ were
Ford Motor Corporation who won the Most Outrageous Rear Wing of the
Year Award with the WRC Rally Focus, gave us the new ‘road going’
Focus, both two and four doors, and a new Mustang GT in black,
followed by BMW who presented us with the new 1 Series BMW, the new 3
Series and some of the largest motorcycles seen this side of
Harley-Davidson country.
Press Day, held the day before the official
opening, had the usual Thai “press” corps all fighting to be first
in line for the T-shirts given away as ‘freebies’ after the
presentations by the various exhibitors. I am not sorry to tell you I
came back home without any! The ‘feeding frenzy’ exhibited by some
of my ‘colleagues’ is quite nauseating.
1939
Mercedes Streamliner 320
Returning to DaimlerChrysler, they had a separate
exhibit of the ‘oldies’, beginning with what I thought was the
perfectly restored 1886 Benz ‘dog-cart’ built by Karl Benz,
complete with rack and pinion steering and a ‘patent’ plate with
the date of receiving the significant piece of paper. My faith in the
restorer’s art was dashed, however, when I found another “1886”
Benz built by Karl Benz hidden up the corridor, complete with rack and
pinion steering and a ‘patent’ plate with the date of receiving
the significant piece of paper! Chatting with one of the
DaimlerChrysler chaps revealed that the factory had made about 10 of
them, for use in shows all over the world.
WRC
Rally Focus
For me, the car I was most taken with was the 1939
Mercedes Streamliner 320, known as the ‘Motorway Courier’. One of
only two examples left in the world (unless the DaimlerChrysler
‘restorers’ have got at this one too) it was fabulous in black,
with a long sweeping tail with a central ridge (like the Tatra of the
era), and spats over the rear wheels. Not a powerful car, even in its
day, with only 57 kW on tap, it was designed for the freeways and had
an overdrive transmission feature to reduce engine revs by 25 percent.
BMW
3 Series
On its own special stand, separate from the other
new vehicles in the main hall, was the E200 NGT saloon. This car is a
dual-drive, using both CNG (compressed natural gas) and gasoline
fuels. In the boot area were four CNG bottles holding 107 litres, as
well as the standard fuel tank, and amazingly there was still enough
space for luggage.
In CNG mode, the level of CO2 emissions is reduced
by 20 percent over the gasoline values. It is also a most economical
vehicle, taking 6.1 kg of CNG to travel 100 km (or in petrol mode 9
litres of 95 octane gasoline), and with the relative prices of the two
fuels, the E200 NGT will cost you around 48 baht per 100 kays in CNG
mode, compared to around 200 baht in gasoline mode.
A
Class
There are currently 26 CNG stations in Bangkok, but
only two in the provinces, though the Thai Petroleum Authority claims
it will be increasing the number of provincial stations soon. So you
can save money with the E200 NGT, provided you have enough money to
buy it in the first place!
CLS
four door coupe
In DaimlerChrysler’s new vehicle stand they had
two versions of the A Class vehicles, which are beginning to become
much larger motorcars, than the original A Class vehicles. At just
under 2 million baht for the 1.7 litre, or well over 2 mill for the 2
litre, I wonder just how many folk will be lining up for Benz’s
baby. When you can buy other (more conventional looking) small family
chariots for under 700,000 baht, it will take a true Benz enthusiast
with big pockets to buy an A Class, but one should never forget that
the three pointed star is still a great status symbol.
DaimlerChrysler also gave us the release of the
right hand drive versions of the CLS four door coupe. These are
stunning machines, with headroom in the rear that does not seem
apparent looking at the sharply dipping down rear door glass and
roofline. However, I am assured by those who sat in the rear chairs
that there was enough.
I will be featuring more from the Bangkok
International Motor Show in next week’s column.
