Steve Parker Motoring / The Car Nut

F1 SHOCKER! ALL-NEW BRAWN GP TEAM STARTS 1 - 2 AND FINISHES THE SAME WAY

F1's first race of the season gets underway in Australia

Two of the three oldest drivers in Formula 1 racing started one - two and finished the same way in the season-opener of the world's most prestigious and expensive racing series at the Grand Prix of Melbourne (Australia).

Drivers Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello are members of a team which didn't even exist a month ago, Brawn GP.

The two drivers are relatively old for the sport, but age also brings experience and skill, and both drivers and their team ran a smart, determined and aggressive race.

Italian Jarno Trulli took third place for Toyota, the world's largest car maker.
Jenson Button started first and finished first in the F1 season-opener in Oz

Reigning World Driving Champion Lewis Hamilton of the UK started 18th on the 20-car grid and finished fourth, by passing other cars and attrition, winning points for himself and the McLaren Mercedes team as he began defending his title.

The race saw the safety car, the F1 equivalent of the yellow flag in American racing, deployed twice.

After the race's start, Button never looked back in the 58 lap event, establishing a huge lead in the first lap.

The UK's Ross Brawn, one of the top engineers and strategists in F1, who had a strong hand in creating the glory days of F1 teams including Benetton and Ferrari, just a month ago put together a leveraged buy-out of the former Honda F1 team.

Honda, an on-again, off-again force in the sport since the 1960's, and the first Japanese company to enter the world of F1, and made an American driver, Richie Ginther, the team's star (see the movie "Grand Prix" starring Toshiro Mifuni as Mr. Honda and James Garner as Ginther).

Honda left F1 during the recent off-season, saying the huge budget which F1 demands (estimated at over $400 million annually for competitive teams) could not be justified during the worldwide recession.

In fact, apart from Richard Branson's Virgin Air, there were almost no sponsor logos on the Brawn GP cars. We predict that will change before the series' next race.
Sir Richard Branson appeared to have a good time at the F1 season-opener

OUR LIVE WebRadio SHOWS THIS WEEKEND!

Ferrari is building the race car engines for the 2009/2010 A1GP series; teams represent their home nations

F Please join us this weekend for our live WebRadio shows on www.TalkRadioOne.com.

Saturday, it's The Car Nut Show, a live, general-interest automotive call-in show focusing on new technologies and the latest cars and trucks coming down the road, as well as the current trials and tribulations of Detroit, Tokyo, Stuttgart and etc...
Honda's all-new Insight is preparing the company for a hybrid war with Toyota

What's up with the all-new, under-$20,000 Honda Insight gas/electric hybrid? Toyota is taking up the challenge, and will do battle with Honda by introducing an all-new hybrid priced lower than the popular Prius. To straighten it all out for us, our Saturday guest is Richard Truett, engineering editor of industry journal Automotive News. So the talk will be all "green;" the automotive kind and that other, more familiar, kind, too.

Each Sunday brings World Racing Roundup (which is pretty self-explanatory). Most all the major series have started their new seasons, from IndyCar to NHRA drag racing, ALMS endurance cars, World Rally, Formula One, NASCAR and all the rest.

A hot new racing series is A1 Grand Prix (www.A1GP.com), and we take you to London for a cup'a tea and a nice chat with Ann Bradshaw, one of the top executives of A1GP.

Both shows are LIVE Saturday and Sunday at 5pm Pacific/9pm Eastern. Everyone worldwide is welcome to ring us at 213-341-4353. Free podcasts are available anytime at www.TalkRadioOne.com.

And thanks for tuning-in.

 

TATA'S $2,000 NANO SEDAN COMES WITH HEAVY BAGGAGE

(This 1954 Mercedes-Benz "gullwing" 300SL was owned by the late Don Ricardo of Pasadena, CA, one of the world's premier car collectors, and was the only Mercedes to ever receive factory-sponsorship for drag racing and land speed record runs; it came with fitted luggage)

Some super-expensive cars, including Ferrari, Rolls-Royce and Bentley are available with custom fitted luggage, done-up in the same color and material which graces the car interior.

The Tata Nano, the world's most inexpensive production car, publicly launched this week in New Delhi, India, also comes with its own baggage, but not the kind which many car-buyers would want.

Tata is one of the biggest manufacturing concerns in India, and its size allows the company to sell Nano, at least initially, for either a small profit or a loss. Depending on the Indian Rupee's exchange value, 100,000 Rupees makes the car a good buy as it hits showrooms throughout the subcontinent. Right now, the retail 100,000 Rupee cost equals about USD $2,000.

Nano has been a positive for Tata worldwide, but more of a negative within India.
(Protesters in West Bengal, where Nano was slated for production, burn a Nano effigy on the day of its public introduction in New Delhi)

But good press can equal bad press, too, and positive media coverage about the car has been offset by Tata's political and social problems in its home country.

Reuters India reports that, "Tata Motors on Thursday unveiled its 'People's Car', the 4-door Nano, which will be the world's cheapest car with a dealer price of 100,000 rupees.

Following are some details on the car, which was presented at the Auto Expo in New Delhi.

* Length: 10.17 feet

* Height: 5.25 feet

* Width: 4.9 feet

* Engine: Nano has a throbbing (my little joke) 33-horsepower engine and is rear-wheel drive. The 2-cylinder, 623 cc, multi-point fuel-injection petrol engine is rear mounted. Tata said it was the first time a 2-cylinder gasoline engine was being used in a car with single balancer shaft.
(Ratan Tata, chairman of Tata's board of directors, introduced the Nano at a media event in 2008)

* Safety: Tata said the Nano has an all sheet-metal body, with safety features such as crumple zones, intrusion-resistant doors, seat-belts, strong seats and anchorages, and the rear tailgate glass bonded to the body. Tires are tubeless.

• Environment: Tata said tailpipe emission performance exceeded current regulatory requirements, and the Nano had a lower overall pollution level than two-wheelers made in India. It said high fuel efficiency (20 km/litre) ensured low carbon dioxide emissions." (end of Reuters report)

AIG V. DETROIT - AND RENEGOTIATING CONTRACTS

(A 2010 Mustang Cobra - wrong car, wrong times)

Here's just one example of how bad things are for the Detroit Three: GM announced Wednesday that they have more than 14,000 orders for the new 2010 Chevrolet Camaro. That's a nice, round number for an eagerly-awaited car which has just gone into production.

But at the SEMA automotive aftermarket trade show in Las Vegas during the first week of November, 2008, GM officials told me then the company had 8,000 orders for the new car. This means Chevy has received only 6,000 orders for the new Camaro in the past five months. Not a good number.

Now that we've seen AIG CEO Edward Liddy "in action," so to speak, it's appropriate for an update to our most recent post about the differences in how Washington has treated Detroit and Wall Street. Edward Liddy was formerly the CEO of Allstate - so I guess we're all in "good hands" (he wrote sarcastically).

Many Americans have a "let them die" mentality when it comes to the Detroit Three, and you really can't fault them, at least when they're talking about these companies' products.
(New 2010 Camaros readied for shipment to dealers)

Someone, though, has to stick up for those companies, and it might as well be me - at least for now. Those of you who follow this blog know that my support of Detroit is very complex, and mostly based on my fervent desire to not add another three to four million Americans to our nation's vast assembly of the unemployed; nor the many more millions worldwide whose jobs can easily disappear, overnight.

Wednesday, Liddy told the congressional committee AIG "retention bonus" contracts are inviolate, permanent and unbreakable.

A congressperson told Liddy, "Contracts are changed every day in America."

Liddy responded with, "Yes, a contract can always be changed as long as all the parties involved agree to it."

But in this case, we can bet that one of the parties involved - i.e., those who got some of the more than $160 million in recent AIG bonuses - will probably not agree to any change. It's a pretty safe bet.

Heck, would you? A few mil can get you that house on the golf course in Palm Springs or Bal Harbour.

And Liddy's explanation of the differences between "retention bonus" and "incentive bonus" held little, if any, water with us.

If a company wants someone to stick around, then what is the difference between the two? In fact, we found out today, many of the folks who got these retention bonuses have already left AIG for greener (and probably more virgin) financial pastures.
(AIG CEO Edward Liddy testifies at a congressional hearing, with a little inspirational help from Code Pink)

DETROIT GETS JUST 10% OF WHAT AIG GOT FROM TAXPAYERS

(Here's someone you don't want to have to answer - Rep. Paul Kanjorski, Democrat of Pensylvania, asks questions of AIG Chairman and CEO Edward Libby at congressional hearings)

General Motors and Chrysler have received a total of around $17 billion in loans from the government; Ford wants to be able to draw on a $10 billion government credit line if and when they need it.

As of right now, AIG has taken-in $170 billion from taxpayers.

Why does Detroit get 10% of what the banks and Wall Street have been loaned, and without doubt more cash headed their way?

Why were Detroit and UAW leaders grilled sternly and publicly in testimony before congress, while executives from Wall Street and the banks have been able to avoid that spectacle?

Why does Washington think a 100-year old manufacturing industry, which employs between three and four million American workers, and arguably was the single-greatest creator of our middle class, isn't as important or critical as industries which produce, essentially, nothing but numbers on paper?
(At last year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Veags, GM's Rick Wagoner presented a Chevrolet Volt protoype along with CES chief Gary Shapiro)

OUR WEEKEND WebRadio SHOWS LINE-UPS! (Latest posts start immediately below this one)

(Honda's new Insight hybrid will sell for less than Toyota's Prius; we'll find out exclusively Toyota's sales and marketing strategies to combat the Insight on our Car Nut Show this Saturday on TalkRadioOne.com)

"Tune-in" to www.TalkRadioOne.com at 5pm Pacific time/8pm Eastern, on Saturday for THE CAR NUT show, our general-interest live automotive call-in show and Sunday at 5pm Pacific for World Racing Roundup, which is sort of self-explanatory.

Both shows are LIVE and the call-in number worldwide is this US number: 213-341-4353. Join in on the fun and information and make your own contribution or ask your question of our experts. Both shows are available as podcasts about one hour after the live shows are completed. Download and listen at your convenience!

Our guest Saturday will be Doug Coleman, Toyota's US marketing manager for the Prius gas/electric hybrid. We'll talk about a new certified used hybrid program the company has just announced, and how Toyota plans to do battle with the new Honda Insight hybrid, which Honda said this week will be priced below $19,000, much less than a new Prius. Toyota just sold their millionth hybrid worldwide, but does any car company make any profit on any hybrid? What's the break-even point?
(Is this the next-generation Toyota Prius --- appearing here as a plug-in hybrid? Tune-in to The Car Nut Show Saturday at 5pm Pacific when we talk with the Prius' national marketing manager and find out along with us)

Our guests Sunday at 5pm Pacific on World Racing Roundup: Big Willie Robinson, the legendary founder and president of the International Brotherhood of Street Racers and Fred Roggin, well-known NBC Sports reporter and host (he hosted boxing from the Beijing Olympics), who is executive producer of the NBC automotive and racing enthusiast show, Whipnotic. It's the first network show in the US to be produced bilingually, which shows in English at 5pm Saturdays on KNBC/TV4 Los Angeles, and En Espanol Sunday mornings at 9am on KVEA/TV52, the Los Angeles Telemundo station.
(Big Willie Robinson and NBC's Fred Roggin join us on our Sunday show this weekend)

(This is what's left of a Ferrari after what Newport Beach, CA police say was an illegal street race between this car and a Porsche earlier this week; the Ferrari's driver was killed. The Porsche's driver was being held on $2 million bail for DUI, illegal street racing and manslaughter because of the death of the other driver; a female in the Ferrari suffered broken bones and will recover and a woman passenger in the Porsche was held for public intoxication but later released)

Street racing is a bigger problem than ever worldwide, with a founder of Mixed Martial Arts killed just this past week during what police are saying was a an illegal street race between his Ferrari and a Porsche in Newport Beach, CA. Big Willie Robinson has the proven answer to the street racing problem --- if only politicians will listen.

Hope to "see" you there!

OBAMA ENDS BUSH'S DANGEROUS US/MEXICO "CROSS-BORDER" TRUCK PROGRAM

(Bush was allowing Mexican trucks and their drivers unfettered access to the continental US)

By his signing today of the $410 billion bill which will keep the federal government in business until September 30, 2009, President Barack Obama also ended one of the Bush Administration's most blatant attempts at union-busting, a plan which was already endangering our country and all our people.

The "cross-border trucking program," which would have eventually allowed almost all Mexican trucks and drivers full access to US highways, was one of the most contentious issues to arise out of the 1993 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

Before 2007, Mexican trucks had been limited to a narrow zone, about 25 miles, north of the border, where they transferred their cargo to American big rigs.

For many American unions, drivers and big-rig truck owner/operators, the true purpose of the program was to allow American trucking companies access to the Mexican drivers, who often are paid less than half of prevailing US wages, and allow them access to trucks maintained to much more lax safety standards than those in the US, further reducing costs for American trucking companies hiring Mexican trucks and their drivers.
(President Obama at today's $410 billion bill signing)

Another major safety question concerning the program was if non-US drivers would have to keep the same types of logbooks and be mandated the same amount of rest periods of US drivers between driving stints, safety regulations which had already been weakened for US drivers during the Bush presidency.

Last year I interviewed an over-worked California Highway Patrol truck inspector working the border area who told me, "If this program becomes reality, the only Mexican trucks we're going to be able to inspect are the ones which have already been involved in accidents on the US side of the border."

The safety of the Mexican trucks, their drivers' training and record-keeping, questions about their insurance coverage and many other factors had the Teamsters and other unions and lawmakers from both sides of the aisle opposing the program since its inception as a demonstration project under Bush (the name "Teamsters" originally referred to those who drove teams of horses when moving freight).

But in spite of those questions, the Bush administration granted many Mexican trucking firms wider access to US roads under a "demonstration program."
(Union drivers protest the Bush/NAFTA project at a border crossing in 2007)

As Senator Obama, the president had voted to block Mexican freight haulers from operating throughout the US, and as a presidential candidate he called for renegotiating NAFTA.

EXXONMOBIL AND THEIR "HYDROGEN PLAN" FOR US

(GM's EV1 was the world's first modern production EV from a major car maker and found instant public acclaim  ... until the company decided the cars weren't quite ready yet, so they sent trucks to pick-up every EV1 from its owners - Well, from its lessees, actually; EV1's were available only at Saturn dealers - remember Saturn? - but couldn't be bought, only leased, so in case they didn't work - or maybe if they did - the company could find them if and when they wanted them back. Shown are some of the reclaimed EV1's brought to this parking lot of a GM tech facility in Burbank, CA, slated for destruction)

Have you seen the latest ExxonMobil TV spot promoting how the corporation is "advancing hydrogen technology" for the cars of the future?

Visually, the spot is typical - boring, even - of what you'd expect from a super-conservative politically-motivated multi-billion dollar quasi-governmental conglomerate using 19th-century ad agency techniques.

But if viewers not just watch, but also listen to the audio track, they're more than likely to be offended; to be perhaps surprised, but certainly not shocked.

On-screen are lush, green, leafy trees, fancy computer-generated schematics of these proposed "hydrogen cars" of ExxonMobil's future and of course beakers, burners and other laboratory equipment.

A somewhat corporate-though-casually-clad (loose tie, suit jacket open, dorky glasses, some facial hair) non-threatening, male, friendly-looking engineering-type (identified as one "Nazeer Bhore, Engineer") in dulcet and just-oh-so-Indian-accented-tones sings the praises of ExxonMobil's apparently very sincere desire (trust us) to save us from ourselves and our history.
(Hey! It's the Cadillac Converj concept car from January's Detroit Auto Show! GM says it uses the same "extended-range hybrid technology" slated for the Chevrolet Volt. Both cars are "kind-of" EVs ... they use "on-board generators" to make electricity powering electric motors in the wheels. What does the generator run on? Gasoline. Oh)

While ExxonMobil tells us of the bright hydrogen future (always a nebulous, undefined "future"), we find that, although hydrogen is the most plentiful element in the universe and can be hydrolyzed (separated) and retrieved from almost anything, including water and natural gas, ExxonMobil's plan is for the fuel-cell cars of the future to get their hydrogen fuel from ... gasoline.

Here's a transcript of the spot:

We see the words: "ExxonMobil on advancing hydrogen technology"

Then a Mr. Nazeer Bhore, ID'd as "Engineer."

And Mr. Bhore says, in a bit of a stilted, halting fashion and with not the best grammar (can you imagine the hours ExxonMobil's lawyers billed for this spot's script?):

"Most people think ExxonMobil is a company that supplies gasoline to the gas station around the street corner. But we also are working with partners to develop a new energy-saving technology for future decades that takes gasoline and converts it into hydrogen on-board a car with significant lower greenhouse gas emissions. Our on-board hydrogen system on a fuel cell car could enable about 80% better fuel economy than the car you and I drive today."

GM BANKRUPTCY COULD PRE-SAGE WORLDWIDE DEPRESSION

(Nissan's near-$90,000 GTR super-car is readied for its close-up at the 2007 Los Angeles Auto Show. The future for cars like these comes into question when the economy turns bad, but not so much as for traditionally-priced mid-level cars).

The worldwide auto industry is in danger of complete collapse, predicated by near-stopped sales and the possible terminal failure of big companies like GM. This continued circling of the drain could lead to a worldwide economic depression.

I went to a store today where I'm friendly with one of the people behind the counter. She knows what I do, so when I brought-up the possible bankruptcy of General Motors, her reply was: "Good. They deserve it."

Another consumer heard from.

Yesterday's news from GM auditor Deloitte & Touche that the car maker's viability is in "serious doubt" was not a total shock, but to anyone who's followed the US auto industry, especially for, in my case, 35 years, it came with a large measure of sadness.

Sales tanked in February with all three domestics losing between 40% and 50% each compared to February, 2008. The lack of available credit and people hanging onto whatever money they have are killing car sales worldwide.

With GM spending $68 million every day just to open the doors, turn on the coffee makers and pay the electric bill, GM doesn't have the cash to remain viable and is asking taxpayers for another $13 billion in addition to the more than $17 billion they've already received.
(Fun, tight little cars like this Chevrolet Cobalt SS are being discontinued as parent company GM enters what might be terminal cost-cutting mode).

Both GM and Chrysler have turned-in the viability reports Washington demanded, with the government's final word on them coming by March 31. At worst, Washington will call the more than $21 billion in loans already made to the two car makers. The government last month hired two law firms and one bank with extensive international bankruptcy experience to develop such plans for both companies.

Only in India is the car business in fairly strong shape (India's Mahindra just turned-down GM when they tried to sell them Saturn).

The Indian market is fairly insular and not involved in exporting their manufactured products, like cars, to an extent anywhere close that of countries like China, Japan, South Korea and the European nations.
(India's Tata car maker has started production of their Nano minicar, with a version already being developed for Europe. The car, which the company says will retail for under $3,000, has had its share of problems, including from protesters who shut-down the original Nano plant, saying the company took local land without proper compensation. Seen in the photo is Ratan Tata, company chairman, driving the car at its media intro last year).

Here's how this next disaster might play out: Today, car makers are really car and truck assemblers. They engineer, style and put the parts together on their assembly lines, but most all those parts come from other companies.

THE MAN WHO'S BUILDING THE $2 MILLION SEDAN

(DiMora Motorcar is planning to do Bugatti and their Veyron about $400,000 better with their 2011 $2 million Natalia SLS 2).

To Alfred DiMora, designing, building and selling a $2 million limited-production super-exotic sedan seemed like a good enough idea in 2007.

The economy was flush and more than enough hedge fund captains and assorted other Masters of the Universe were spending money like water and buying-up (while speculating on and often ruining the market for us regular folks) private jets, classic cars, restored steam engines, fleets of ocean-going yachts with helicopters (and landing pads) and all other manner of expensive, one-of-a-kind "transportation."

And, he says, he already has 37 orders for the "Natalia SLS 2" (Natalia being his mother's maiden name). Far be it from him to disappoint these early-adopter customers.

He's the founder of DiMora Motorcar, based in Palm Springs, CA (www.DiMoraMotorcar.com), and creator of Starbridge Systems, which developed what he says is the world's fastest FPGA supercomputer.

When we asked DiMora yesterday why, in light of the world economy, he hasn't stopped or at least delayed the venture, he told us, "Creating any car is a five-year project, and now that I'm 2 ½ years into this one, I'm determined to see it through."
(Computer rendering of DiMora Motorcar's $2 million Natalia SLS 2).

Yes, he's done something similar before.

DiMora is well-known in the auto industry for designing mid-1970's high-end, high-concept "neoclassic" cars with a 1930's-style design theme, including the Clenet and Sceptre.

Some automotive purists consider both cars sacrilege, with a retro-styled body placed over a clunky, Detroit-built, rear-drive large car platform. DiMora says they sold almost 500 Clenets and Sceptres combined, which were highly-priced for their times (up to $65,000).