Archives for May 2010

An inside view of CCTCC

May 31, 2010 by Gary Grant Leave a Comment

While many think all the excitement of a car race happens out on the track, they would be a bit off the mark. The action happens on the track, but there are few places that reach the excitement level of the mock grid. You can almost feel the excitement in the air as drivers prepare to head out into battle. Some are winding themselves up, while others are so intent on calming down that they actually go to sleep in the car.

On the Victoria Day weekend, I spent some time on the mock grid with the Castrol Canadian Touring Car Championship teams capturing images of the driver’s as they prepare to roll onto the track. My apologies to those that I’ve missed, I’ll get you on another weekend.
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Honda Delays New Civic

May 30, 2010 by Tom Williams 1 Comment

Honda is notorious for being tight-lipped about upcoming and redesigned cars, but if there was one thing you could always count on was a consistent life-cycle of their cars. The current Civic, now in its eighth generation, was introduced in the fall of 2005 as a 2006 model, and received a mild refresh for 2009. It would be safe to assume an all-new, ninth generation Civic would show itself this fall, but Autoweek reports that is not going to happen in an interview with American Honda’s Executive VP John Mendel.

Mendel blames changing market conditions, and tougher fuel economy and emissions standards as the reason for the delay, but signs of trouble bubbled to the surface at last year’s Tokyo Auto Show, where Honda said the redesign had been altered. When Honda set out on designing the next generation Civic, the plan called for a larger car, but it appears that the company has instead decided to stay with a car similar in size to the current car. For those keeping track, the current Civic is just 2″ shy of the third generation Accord sedan.

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Getting back to the basics in The Garage

May 30, 2010 by Gary Grant 4 Comments

Having worked in the car industry as long as I have, I’ve always wondered what prompts people to do things like change their own oil in the middle of winter. Really, the labour component of any oil change is usually somewhere between 8 to 12 bucks. Is the self satisfaction of changing one’s own oil really that great or are you just that cheap. I suspect there is a bit of truth to both. Personally, I’m cheap.
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2011 Ford Mustang launch montage

May 29, 2010 by Gary Grant 1 Comment

When Ford launched the completely revamped 2010 Mustang, there were many who decried the carryover of the old drivetrain which was less of a performer than the 2010 Camaro. The product folks at Ford promised that more juice was coming for the 2011 model in the form of a new V-6 and the return of the 5.0 name.

That new V-6 puts out 305 horsepower, almost as much as the previous V-8, while the 5.0 puts out a whopping 412 ponies. That means the aluminum block twin-cam churns out close to twice as much horsepower as the original 5.0. Oh yes, it also creates a whopping 390 ft/lb of torque. If those numbers are impressive, then get ready for the 5.4 in the GT500. 550 horsepower. 510 ft/lb of twist. This thing should have a PTO it makes so much power!

After driving all of the new Mustangs back to back with a couple of Camaro’s on the track and the acceleration and braking strip, it is pretty clear that the folks at Chevy have some tuning to do as Ford has raised the bar.

We’ll go into more detail about the different variations in another post, but for now we’ve got a gallery of images from the launch. We’ve also got a short video montage of the action at Calabogie Motorsports Park.
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Kia rolls in the Soul with some bad ass hammies

May 28, 2010 by Gary Grant 2 Comments

I must live in a cave or something, because it seems that I’m the only person alive that didn’t see David&Goliath’s award winning hamster ads for the 2010 Kia Soul. The ads were so well received that Kia’s newest campaign is features the lovable rodents complete with a vintage hip hop back beat.

Taking viral advertising to a whole new level, Kia will be launching Hamstar Clothing, allowing fans to get some cool threads just like the furry little rappers.

Video after the break
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Ford Planning to (finally) Kill Mercury?

May 27, 2010 by Tom Williams 1 Comment

An article from Bloomberg today reports that plans are underway to wind down sales of Mercury automobiles in the United States (Ford pulled Mercury out of Canada in 1999). For the past few years, the question has not so much been “Will Mercury live on?” than “When will Mercury be put out of its misery?” Since current Ford CEO Alan Mulally joined the company in 2006, rumors have swirled that killing off Mercury was a part of his agenda, but faced opposition from the Ford family.

The writing is on the wall, and apparently the Ford family are beginning to accept the reality of Mercury, a brand created by Edsel Ford in 1939 as a premium brand above Ford, but positioned below Lincoln. Sales of Mercury cars and trucks have fallen 74% since 2000. Mercury only sells four models in 2o10, as the Mercury Sable, sister to the Ford Taurus, was discontinued after 2009. The future looks more ominous when you consider after 2010, Mercury loses two more models. The full-size Grand Marquis will be discontinued, as will the Mercury Mountaineer. The Mountaineer is sister to the Ford Explorer, which will be all new for 2011-and looks to be going solo.

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A ride Mr Toad would approve of

May 25, 2010 by Gary Grant 3 Comments

I have been fortunate to drive some pretty exciting machinery over the past couple of decades, but not a single one of them prepared me for the ride I took this weekend. A handful of writers and photographers were asked if they wanted to go for a couple of hot laps in a World Challenge car. There was Kuno Wittmer in the Viper, Peter Cunningham in the Acura and I was more than happy to ride shotgun with Randy Pobst in the K-Pax Volvo S60.

First off, I have to mention that there is no fear involved. I have met Randy before and he is a friend of Gary Faules. I’ve seen enough in car footage to know that he is nothing short of a world class driver. Fear doesn’t even enter into the equation.

Perhaps shock and awe would be a better description.
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Review: Jeep Liberty Limited

May 24, 2010 by Tom Williams 1 Comment

The Liberty joined the Jeep family in 2002, replacing the old, but well-loved Cherokee. While the Liberty brought new buyers to Jeep with its softer styling, diehards decried the ‘cute ute’ looks. In 2008, Jeep redesigned the Liberty, with a more squared-off appearance. Now in its second year, the second generation Liberty is a true small SUV existing in sea of crossovers. Is the Liberty still relevant today, or is it obsolete against its crossover competition? Read on…

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Ron Fellows is still the Mayor of Mosport

May 24, 2010 by Gary Grant Leave a Comment

Long before the invention of Four Square and other location apps, Ron Fellows had been dubbed the Mayor of Mosport by his fans. After a red eye flight from a race at Laguna Seca on Saturday, Big Ron showed just why he has that title.

Early morning qualifying put Fellows’ Carlisle Companies/Cragar Wheels Chevrolet Corvette on the front row alongside The K-Pax Volvo S60 of Randy Pobst. Off the start, Pobst’s all wheel drive Volvo took an early lead, with Kuno Wittmer in the Viper in 2nd. It took less than a lap for Fellows to pass Wittmer and begin hunting Pobst.
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Driven: Audi R8 4.2 Quattro

May 23, 2010 by Tom Williams 2 Comments

Our Ã¢â‚¬Å“DrivenÃ¢â‚¬Â series highlights the several cars I was able to sample at IMPAÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s Spring Brake 2010 event. These short takes are summaries of my driving impressions of the cars on the roads surrounding Bear Mountain State Park in Rockland County, New York.

Given my involvement in automotive journalism, I spend a great deal of time reading what others have to say about cars. And I confess, there are times when I simply get tired about reading about a particular car. The Audi R8 was one of them-everything I read just heaped praise on the car, and regardless of where I turned, the opinion was the same. The car is simply great.

When a Phantom Black R8 rolled into the parking lot shortly after our day began, I put the car on my ‘must-drive’ list. And, I should add, my counterparts are correct-the R8 is simply an awesome car. By now, you may have seen the TV commercial where an R8 is ran out of Maranello (home of Ferrari). I now fully understand that ad.

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