|
FUN TIME!
|
 |
|
Scuderia SW hosts The Motorsports Gathering at Gainey Ranch as well as drives, track days and dinners. The non-car club, car club... SSW. No drama! No meetings! No egos! Just fun with cars!
|
|
|
No Drama! Just Fun with Cars!
The Exotic Car Club for Enthusiasts, by Enthusiasts
|
Our season is in full swing and I've been able to get away from work to get enough track time to keep me happy. Well, just enough! I could always use more.
Aside from our monthly 'Gathering', there are a couple of annual events that I'm sure you won't want to miss. On February 13th, Peter Volny is putting on the Concours in the Hills. Last year they had over 400 cars around the fountain. All proceeds benefit the Boys and Girls Clubs of Phoenix.
After that, we have our annual variation on the 'Gathering' of cars on the lawn at Windgate. That takes place on March 12th.
In this issue I've got reviews on a couple of special cars: First the new Porsche Boxter and second the Lamborghini
Hurricane Spyder. Rambo is calling it their 'lifestyle' sportscar. Whatever that means, I don't care. It's very cool.
In case you missed the Rolex 24 at Daytona, I've got a recap.
See you at an event soon!
Until next time...
Ciao...
Dino
|
|
|
FOC/AZ Schedule
February 2016
- 2/6 Motorsports Gathering
- 2/20 Southside C&C
March 2016
- 3/5 Motorsports Gathering
- 2/12 Windgate Festival of Speed
- 3/19 Southside C&C
For more information send me an email.
JOIN THE FOC!
Follow the FOC on Facebook to keep up with the latest goings on.
FOC Facebook
|
|
2016 Concours in the Hills
REGISTER HERE
|
|
Windgate Festival of Speed
It's that time of year again. The birds are singing and the flowers are blooming. That's right. Its time for a morning of the best exotics on the lawn at Windgate! Save the date of March 12th for a great morning of cars and good friends. See you there!
|
|
Rolex 24 at Daytona
ROLEX 24: ESM Honda P2 powers to Daytona victory
Remember this name: Pipo Derani. It belongs to a 22-year-old Brazilian who had never seen Daytona International Speedway before a practice session a few weeks ago, and has never raced in the U.S. before.
The No. 2 Extreme Speed Motorsports Honda Ligier P2 was fast when Scott Sharp and Johannes van Overbeek were driving, but when they put Derani behind the wheel, it turned into a rocketship. He steered the car to Victory Lane a full 26 seconds ahead of the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Chevrolet Corvette DP, which was ahead of the No. 90 Visit Florida Corvette DP. Gentleman driver Ed Brown, who helps finance the No. 2 Tequila Patron-sponsored team, also drove a brief stint.
This is the first win for a P2 (Prototype 2) car, which is different from the Daytona Prototype cars that finished second and third. "With a P2 car, you are sort of a red-headed stepchild," Brown said, regarding the amount of publicity and support the cars receive.
As for WEC racer Derani: "I have no words! Just to be here, it's kind of unreal. The last two and a half hours were pretty tough and intense, with the Taylor brothers pushing us hard," Derani said. "I have to thank my team for the great car they gave me."
If that sounds anticlimactic, it was, but the excitement was more than compelling in the GT Le Mans class when Oliver Gavin and Antonio Garcia, in the Nos. 4 and 3 Corvettes, went at it right to the checkered flag, where Gavin won by a fender. Third was the No. 912 Porsche 911 RSR.
Gavin shared the win with teammates Marcel Fassler and Tommy Millner. Their fight over the last 15 minutes of the race was so close that for a while, it looked like third place might be the best spot, but the teammates kept it close but clean. "I knew I had a battle on my hands," Gavin said. "It's fantastic."
His strategy? "Don't let him by!" he said. "We're teammates, the cars are very equal, and we are good friends. I've raced with him for many, many years. I knew he was going to be looking for a weak spot and pounce at the right point."
In GT Daytona, Rene Rast nursed the No. 44 Magnus Audi R8 LMS GT3 to victory with an almost-empty gas tank, just ahead of the charging No. 540 Porsche 911 GT3 R, and the No. 93 Dodge Viper GT3-R.
"It was one of my hardest races in my life," Rast, an Audi factory driver, said. "Somehow we won it with a big team effort."
His co-drivers were Marco Seefried, Andy Lally and John Potter. It was the first Audi race for the team, Magnus Racing, which won at Daytona in 2012, driving a Porsche.
The battle for the overall victory saw multiple leaders in the Prototype class, including the No. 0 DeltaWing (ABOVE) and the No. 60 Shank Racing Honda Ligier, both of which retired long before the end of the race. Toward the end, it appeared the Wayne Taylor Racing No. 10 Corvette DP was the only car that could challenge the No. 2, but it simply lacked the speed. It also hurt that driver Jordan Taylor was ill with a virus and was not able to close out the race, complaining of fumes in the car. Max Angelelli, 49, stepped in and took the car to the finish, but he himself was sick and was transferred to a local hospital for evaluation. The team subsequently announced on Twitter: "While Max Angelelli says he's fine, he will be kept overnight at a local hospital as a precautionary measure."
In GT Le Mans, the Corvettes dominated the closing stages, but the Nos. 911 and 912 Porsche 911 RSRs, led respectively by 24 Hours of Le Mans winners Nick Tandy and Earl Bamber, were always near the front, and Bamber's team got third in the 912. The 911 suffered an axle failure and finished eighth in class.
In Prototype Challenge, the No. 85 ORECA-Chevrolet (RIGHT, LAT photo) took the win by four laps, after having a 20-lap margin during the overnight. Driver Kenton Koch crashed on cold tires, but the big lead meant there was plenty of time to fix it. Second was the No. 52, third was the No. 20.
"It's pretty unbelievable to be able to come here and pull this off," said Koch, a Mazda ladder system graduate. "It's wonderful."
The heralded debut of the Chip Ganassi-run Ford GTs was a disappointment - both the No. 66 and 67 cars suffered early electrical issues that affected the transmissions - one locked into sixth gear, the other into first. Repairs were made and the two cars continued, and proved to be very fast when everything was working, but both had more problems, including a complete transmission replacement for the No. 67. In the end, the 66 finished 31st overall, the 67 finished 40th.
"We certainly had our share of reliability issues, and that is not uncommon in a brand new car's debut," said Raj Nair, executive vice president, Global Product Development, and chief technical officer, Ford Motor Company. "As we have said, the first time these two particular cars hit the road was literally at the Roar (Before the Rolex 24) test here a couple weeks a
go."
The two other Ganassi cars, Ford Riley Daytona Prototypes, had a disappointing day. The No. 02 "star car," which won in 2015 with IndyCar drivers Tony Kanaan and Scott Dixon, and NASCAR racers Kyle Larson and Jamie McMurray, was fast but ran into problems, including a crash by Larson that dropped the car to 13th overall at the finish. The sister 01, staffed by sports car specialists, ended up fifth overall, but was seldom a threat for the win.
Scott Pruett, a longtime Ganassi driver, left the team and joined the No. 5 Action Express Corvette DP team, the defending season champions, in search of a record sixth overall win. The car was usually near the front, but finished fourth.
Having four classes of cars, going four different speeds, with drivers who have a variety of skill levels, "It was just about survival this year," Ricky Taylor said. The race had 21 caution flags, with 18 hours, 50:11 minutes of green-flag time, and 5 hours and 10.29 minutes under yellow.
In GT Daytona, which adopted the global GT3 rules over the off-season, all eyes were on the five very fast Lamborghini Huracan GT3s, but problems - including a puzzling collision between two of them, which were running first and second - meant only one was competitive at the end, the No. 28 finished fifth in class, 18th overall. The two Mazda Prototypes, which had been saddled with uncompetitive diesel engines the last two years, debuted new, powerful gasoline engines here, but mechanical issues, including a broken flywheel, parked both cars early.
F! STILL Has the Best Grid Girls!
|
|
Supercar Review
2016 Lamborghini Huracán LP610-4 Spyder
What is it?:
You can say it's just for narcissists. Dismiss it as a boulevard cruiser while muttering about weight and torsional rigidity, if you wish. I'd even agree that there's real merit to that age-old anti-cabriolet argument for a number of purist sports cars. But frankly, Lamborghinis suck up attention like they suck up super-unleaded, and the Huracán was made to be an open-top. I mean, with those looks? And that noise?
So here it is. Meet the Huracán LP610-4 Spyder. Of course, it has identical running gear to that of the existing coupé, so behind your ears is a throaty 5.2-litre V10, which streams its 602bhp to all four wheels via a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox.
The fabric hood goes up or down in 17 seconds, at the touch of a button and at speeds of up to 30mph, but the inevitable extra mechanical gubbins needed to lift the lid have increased weight to 1542kg - around 100kg more than the coupé.
What's it like?:
So, does it feel fat and wobbly on the road? Er, no. Not remotely. On the roads around Miami, which, granted are not best suited to testing the limits of this car, it feels strung taut. There's barely a whiff of body flex, regardless of the size of pothole or undulation. Essentially, unless you're blessed with regular track access, it's unlikely that what small compromises in rigidity there are will even encroach on your consciousness. Not even a little bit.
Our car was on standard dampers, which are really effective. The car bucks and shimmies over really scruffy roads, but it never corrupts the tyre contact with the road or resorts to the wince-inducing, wooden-feeling bump absorption that some hardcore sports cars can suffer from.
What could well annoy you is the rear visibility, since the rear deck of the Huracán Spyder is so high that the rear-view mirror barely shows you the roofline of the car behind. Other niggles could be that taller drivers will want for a big more leg room, but let's face it, by any supercar standards, and particularly by Lamborghini's standards, this is a car you really could live with every day.
Even with the roof down, the clever aero work - which includes buttresses behind the trailing edge of the window to suck the air back across the deck rather than letting it recirculate into the cabin - keeps things civilised. Put the roof up and you can see from the silhouette of the car that the airflow will be fairly uninterrupted, and sure enough, wind noise is impressively subdued. You still get a fair amount of rumble from those fat tyres, and the exhaust echoes gently in the background, but you could live with this.
In fact, anyone driving a Huracán is going to wallow in the noise. It's a vehicular amphitheatre - an acoustic bonanza of popping, burbling, crescendoing, ravening V10 engine noise. It's not an exhaust note; it's an overture, and opening the roof only lets you enjoy it more.
The powertrain is a delight to use in everyday stuff or in more spirited use. Twitch the appropriately large manual paddles and you feel instantly in charge of the gearbox, as it quick-fires up or down a gear, letting you make the most of the V10 with its joyous lack of inertia and free-revving nature.
Maybe there isn't the detonation of gut-wrenching mid-range acceleration that you get with the turbocharged McLaren 650S or Nissan GT-R, but there is real, deep satisfaction in using the long, crescendoing rev range of this engine. And whatever you compare it with, give it everything in a Huracán and it feels savagely, hilariously fast.
But there is a niggling sense of something missing in this car. And that, unfortunately, is in the handling. For a start, and as we've already established in the coupé, the variable-ratio Dynamic Steering that was fitted to our car is definitely one to avoid.
On top of that, the four-wheel drive system delivers the same edge of disappointment that there isn't a little more life to it. Sure, in virtually any normal road use, the Huracán Spyder feels easily edgy enough to satisfy the majority of supercar owners. Dull, it isn't.
But when you get the opportunity to push harder, to find out what it can do, it starts to reveal its slightly nannying tendency to understeer earlier than you'd like - to not respond to throttle feathering with the sort of elegant, millimetre-perfect adjustability of a Ferrari 488 or a McLaren 650S.
Even with all that, the Huracán is fun. Just looking at it is fun, let alone driving it. But this is not a car that ever feels completely unfettered by the veil of electronic interference. It never shrugs and says: "You think you're man enough? You go for it."
Should I buy one?:
This brings us right back to our original point about what this car is going to be used for - who's going to drive it, and where, because, for a lot of people, the sense that it's there to thrill but is a few notches more manageable than its rivals could be exactly what sells it.
That Lamborghini launched the car at Miami Beach says it all about the sort of person and lifestyle at which this car is aimed. And do you know what, we're going to take a reality check and not look down our purist, enthusiast noses at that.
We will say that, if you are one of said purists, a Ferrari 488 or a McLaren 650S Spider will most likely serve up more of what you're after, but the Huracán Spyder is a masterpiece in its own right; as much due to its design and acoustic artistry as for engineering prowess, but every moment in it is a riot.
Perhaps it isn't where our $305k would go, but it's easy to bask in the Huracán's entertainment value nevertheless. And in terms of what most of the paying punters actually want? Lamborghini got it spot on.
Lamborghini Huracán LP610-4 Spyder
On sale March Price $305,000; Engine V10, 5204cc, petrol; Power 602bhp at 8250rpm; Torque 412lb ft at 6500rpm; Gearbox 7-spd dual-clutch automatic; Dry weight1542kg; Top speed 201mph; 0-62mph 3.4sec; Economy 23mpg (combined); CO2/tax band 285g/km, 37%
|
New Porsche Boxter 718
Four-cylinder turbocharged engines, styling revisions and a new badge for Porsche's entry-level sports car
This is it - the four-cylinder Porsche Boxster. It's a
car we've expected for some time, particularly since Porsche introduced downsized, turbocharged flat-six engines across the 911 range.
But now it's here, and Porsche has revealed official images and details on the new models, now known as the Porsche 718 Boxster and Porsche 718 Boxster S.
Rather than an all-new car, they're a development of the existing models, granted a few styling tweaks and those new four-pot power units. Porsche is keen to link the car with a spiritual predecessor, in the form of the Porsche 718 - a mid-engined, four-cylinder sports car that achieved some success in racing in the 1960s.
At the heart of the new range is a 2-litre, four-cylinder boxer powerplant, turbocharged to produce 295bhp, or a 34bhp gain over the existing 2.7-litre flat-six. Torque has risen significantly too, with a figure of 280lb ft from 1950-4500rpm - up from 206lb ft at 4500rpm in its naturally-aspirated predecessor.
The 718 Boxster S shows similar gains over the 3.4-litre car it replaces. That car's 311bhp and 265lb ft of torque climb to 345bhp and 310lb ft thanks to a new 2.5-litre turbocharged flat-four.
Performance from both models is strong. Porsche has only confirmed figures for a car specified with PDK and the Sport Chrono Package, but it's enough for the 2-litre model to hit 62mph in 4.7sec - eight tenths quicker than before - while the new Boxster S covers the sprint in 4.2sec. Top speeds for the 718 Boxster and 718 Boxster S are 170mph and 177mph respectively.
Porsche has enhanced steering directness by 10 per cent and improved its cornering prowess through chassis changes. PASM drops the car's ride height by 10mm (20mm with the Sport Chassis option), with new settings to better balance response and comfort.
Sport Chrono too has been tweaked, with Normal, Sport and Sport Plus modes and on PDK models, a Sport Response Button for enhanced urge in 20-second bursts.
Visual changes are of the blink-and-you'll-miss-it variety, at least towards the front of the car, despite Porsche's claims of extensive revisions. Squint, and you'll perhaps note a slightly wider front profile and new headlights with integrated DRLs - Bi-Xenon as standard, with full LED units optional.
Changes are easier to spot at the back, though may not be to all tastes. First there's the badge, displaying the full Porsche 718 Boxster script in a size that probably wouldn't pass Mazda's gram strategy of universal weight reduction.
Then there's the dark accent strip on which the Porsche script sits, and the LED 'three-dimensional' lights that flank it. We'll have to see them in the metal to make sure, but on first appearance they look perhaps a little cheap.
The interior hasn't changed a great deal either, though the changes Porsche has made - an improved Porsche Communication Management infotainment system, and redesigned instrument panel elements - should be easy enough to live with. There's a hint more 918 Spyder about it too, which should appeal to owners.
Pricing begins at $61,739 for the 718 Boxster, while the 718 Boxster S starts from $75,695.
Those represent small gains over the existing Boxster and Boxster S, which begin at $60,553 and $73,858 respectively - though the extra performance (if not, perhaps, the four-cylinder sound) - should justify the extra cost.
|
|
That's our newsletter for the week. We will be putting these together several times per month. Expect events like these, as well as socials.
I hope to see you at an event soon...
Ciao...
Dino
|
|
|
