Step 1 - get dirty old wheel
Step 2 - put wheel in dishwasher
Step 3 - Spray wheel
Step 4 - Mount tyre
Spraying wheels
Take one can of Ford dark metallic silver spray paint and four Cossie lattice alloys.
Step 1 - get dirty old wheel
Step 2 - put wheel in dishwasher
Step 3 - Spray wheel
Step 4 - Mount tyre
Step 1 - get dirty old wheel
Step 2 - put wheel in dishwasher
Step 3 - Spray wheel
Step 4 - Mount tyre
Lamborghini Insecta Concept
It’s a Lambo with extra bite! Meet the Lamborghini Insecta Concept, the brainchild of Romanian design student Iulian Bumbu. The Milan-based designer claims the car is a fusion of the Italian carmaker's current design language and the exoskeletons, or body armour, found on insects.Insects to be the inspiration for future Lamborghini’s? That’s what one industrial design enthusiast was thinking about when he turned up this design study of what a future Lamborghini might look like. This supercar is still the concept car and is cleverly dubbed the Lamborghini Insecta and is structurally made of carbon fiber.Rumours said,this supercar, is to be powered by the same V10 powerplant that powers the Gallardo though we’re hoping it’ll feature more power, after all, insects are capable of some pretty amazing things.
And the two-seater mid-engined supercar certainly has a bug-like quality to it – with it’s tightly-wrapped carbon-fibre bodywork, wide-set eyes and winged scissor doors.
Iulian Bumbu, the industrial design enthusiast of Romania explains in pure designer language, “The idea was to create an extreme race-oriented supercar with a style that introduces softer and more organic lines and integrate them into the geometrical style of Lamborghini.”
Apparently the exoskeletons of insects gave Bumbu the idea for the external structure of the car. According to him, he tried ot to deviate too much from Lambo’s new design language but what will really be interesting is the response from Lamborghini Brand and Design Director, Manfred Fitzgerald.
Supermarket offers discount cars
By DAVID HASSALL
Red spot special: German supermarket chain Lidl is selling discounted Opel Corsas online.
German supermarket chain begins selling cars online for more than 25 per cent off
ONE of Germany’s leading discount supermarket chains has started selling cars on its website, offering discounts of more than 25 per cent on two popular German cars.
Aldi rival Lidl – one of Europe’s biggest chains with 7000 stores and ambitions to expand to Australia – is offering any online buyer in the EU a three-door 1.0-litre Opel Corsa for €10,570 ($A20,840), which it claims is €3940 ($A7770) cheaper than an similarly equipped Corsa in Germany – a saving of 27.1 per cent.
Buyers wanting something larger and more highly specified can select a five-door 1.4-litre Volkswagen Cross Polo for €13,645 ($A26,900), a saving of €4775 ($A9410) or 25.9 per cent in Germany.
Lidl spokesperson Petra Trabert told Associated Press the company was launching the car sales in conjunction with German car distributor ATG-Automobile.
“Lidl and ATG-Automobile work with the same target audience,” said Ms Trabert. “We are geared toward the customer who seeks quality in conjunction with a favourable price.”
However, Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer, the director of the Center for Automotive Research in Gelsenkirchen, said previous efforts to sell cars online and through supermarkets had faltered.
“I think it will be very difficult for Lidl,” Mr Dudenhoeffer predicted.
“People don’t want to buy high-value products from a discount grocery store. Germans like to go to the dealership.”
Mr Dudenhoeffer said Quelle, a German online marketplace, tried to sell cars online about five years ago, but “it didn't work, even though their site was visited fairly heavily”.
He said Germans might be unwilling to forgo haggling over the price of a car.
Nevertheless, Lidl believes it can succeed selling cars and make a profit, despite the fact that Germany is in recession.
British-based retail industry analysis company Verdict Research believes that Lidl's latest initiative is a shrewd and highly opportunistic move to exploit Germany's fiscal stimulus program, but will not last.
Verdict predicts that once the German government’s €2500 ($A4920) scrappage incentive for trading in old cars – which boosted new car sales by 21 per cent in February – inevitably expires, Lidl will withdraw its offer of selling cars online and concentrate on its core business of grocery retailing.
The government set aside enough for 600,000 scrappage applications and, after 85,000 applications were filed in the first four weeks, has already received 217,693 applications this month, raising the prospect that the fund will be exhausted long before the program expires at the end of the year.
Red spot special: German supermarket chain Lidl is selling discounted Opel Corsas online.
German supermarket chain begins selling cars online for more than 25 per cent off
ONE of Germany’s leading discount supermarket chains has started selling cars on its website, offering discounts of more than 25 per cent on two popular German cars.
Aldi rival Lidl – one of Europe’s biggest chains with 7000 stores and ambitions to expand to Australia – is offering any online buyer in the EU a three-door 1.0-litre Opel Corsa for €10,570 ($A20,840), which it claims is €3940 ($A7770) cheaper than an similarly equipped Corsa in Germany – a saving of 27.1 per cent.
Buyers wanting something larger and more highly specified can select a five-door 1.4-litre Volkswagen Cross Polo for €13,645 ($A26,900), a saving of €4775 ($A9410) or 25.9 per cent in Germany.
Lidl spokesperson Petra Trabert told Associated Press the company was launching the car sales in conjunction with German car distributor ATG-Automobile.
“Lidl and ATG-Automobile work with the same target audience,” said Ms Trabert. “We are geared toward the customer who seeks quality in conjunction with a favourable price.”
However, Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer, the director of the Center for Automotive Research in Gelsenkirchen, said previous efforts to sell cars online and through supermarkets had faltered.
“I think it will be very difficult for Lidl,” Mr Dudenhoeffer predicted.“People don’t want to buy high-value products from a discount grocery store. Germans like to go to the dealership.”
Mr Dudenhoeffer said Quelle, a German online marketplace, tried to sell cars online about five years ago, but “it didn't work, even though their site was visited fairly heavily”.
He said Germans might be unwilling to forgo haggling over the price of a car.
Nevertheless, Lidl believes it can succeed selling cars and make a profit, despite the fact that Germany is in recession.
British-based retail industry analysis company Verdict Research believes that Lidl's latest initiative is a shrewd and highly opportunistic move to exploit Germany's fiscal stimulus program, but will not last.
Verdict predicts that once the German government’s €2500 ($A4920) scrappage incentive for trading in old cars – which boosted new car sales by 21 per cent in February – inevitably expires, Lidl will withdraw its offer of selling cars online and concentrate on its core business of grocery retailing.
The government set aside enough for 600,000 scrappage applications and, after 85,000 applications were filed in the first four weeks, has already received 217,693 applications this month, raising the prospect that the fund will be exhausted long before the program expires at the end of the year.
Small jobs
I replaced the cone style air filter intake with the standard Ford airbox with a K&N panel filter. I also rigged up a cold air feed from in front of the intercooler using a flexible alloy ribbed pipe and gaffer tape. This should ensure that the engine is fed with cooler air. Here's the aftermarket air filter, now removed. The second shot shows the engine bay with the Ford airbox in place. Note the cheap and cheerful adjustable strut brace:
I have also decided to go back to original size wheels. For now this means using the Sapphire Lattice alloys that I have. Maybe when I have some spare cash I'll buy a set of Pro Race 1 wheels in the same diameter and offset. These are not in great condition so job one was to put them in the dishwasher. I'm planning on painting these dark grey before I fit them.
I have also decided to go back to original size wheels. For now this means using the Sapphire Lattice alloys that I have. Maybe when I have some spare cash I'll buy a set of Pro Race 1 wheels in the same diameter and offset. These are not in great condition so job one was to put them in the dishwasher. I'm planning on painting these dark grey before I fit them.
Cleaning the car
Cleaned the car inside and out. First race is in 10 days. We all know that clean cars go quicker!
Testing at Brands
Had a day at Brands and had a few problems with the car but we got the front suspension adjusted OK and did a few laps. I discovered that one of the front hubs I fitted has a bent plate which causes one of the front wheels to wobble so I need to sort this out before the first race.
Here's a pic in the paddock showing the dream team - Charlie left, Joe right.
Some technical stuff: We set the front tracking to 1.5mm toe out measured at the tyre wall. I drove with the dampers set at full stiffness and the car kangarooed down the straight at Brands. Then we went for half stiffness with an improvement - the car felt less inclined to power slide on exit from corners. We finished the day with the car set at 25% stiffness - halfway between fully soft and the mid point. The dampers have 18 clicks of adjustment on the front and around 44 clicks of adjustment at the back. For the front we wound 14 clicks back from the stiffest setting. On the back we wound back to full softness and added 10 clicks.
We set the front and rear ride heights roughly but need to take a measure from a point on the ground to a point on the car to make sure this is accurate. Currently I feel the rear suspension is too low, we'll test this with the thermometer which should tell us if we have too much camber.
Thanks again to Joe for taking notes.
Here's a pic in the paddock showing the dream team - Charlie left, Joe right.
Some technical stuff: We set the front tracking to 1.5mm toe out measured at the tyre wall. I drove with the dampers set at full stiffness and the car kangarooed down the straight at Brands. Then we went for half stiffness with an improvement - the car felt less inclined to power slide on exit from corners. We finished the day with the car set at 25% stiffness - halfway between fully soft and the mid point. The dampers have 18 clicks of adjustment on the front and around 44 clicks of adjustment at the back. For the front we wound 14 clicks back from the stiffest setting. On the back we wound back to full softness and added 10 clicks.
We set the front and rear ride heights roughly but need to take a measure from a point on the ground to a point on the car to make sure this is accurate. Currently I feel the rear suspension is too low, we'll test this with the thermometer which should tell us if we have too much camber.
Thanks again to Joe for taking notes.
Audi TT RS
A supercar manufactured by Audi,the Audi TT RS is to be officially revealed at next month’s Geneva Motor Show but the power of the internet again prevails as we now have official shots and an audio clip of the TT RS.This supercar will be powered by a 2.5-liter five cylinder turbocharged powerplant. Officially Ingolstadt’s hottest ever TT model, it is also a tribute to the spirit of the original Quattro model of the 80’s.
The new addition to the RS line up is good for some very impressive numbers - 340hp and a max torque of 450Nm, 0-100 in under five seconds and an electronically limited top speed of 250km/h. All that power is channel to all four wheels - or Quattro all wheel drive system in Audi lingo - through a six speed manual gearbox.
On the outside, the TT RS gets a rather subtle treatment over the 272HP TT S model that includes slightly larger front air vents, a distinctive rear diffuser, a fixed boot spoiler and twin-spoke alloy wheels. Inside, there’s a leather multifunction sports steering wheel and sports seats in a combination of Alcantara and leather. Check out the gallery below, more details on this next week.
