Prac Three: Sutil does it again for Force India

Saturday 12th September 2009

There seems to be no stopping Adrian Sutil this weekend in Italy as the Force India driver finished his second successive session quickest of all.

Force India came to the fore at the previous race in Belgium where Giancarlo Fisichella finished on the podium. But with Fisi having left the team it's been up to Sutil to continue the attack, which the German has done with gusto.

Sutil set the fastest time in Saturday's final practice where not only was he quicker than Jenson Button and Nick Heidfeld on the softer option tyres through the final five minutes but he also had the measure of Lewis Hamilton's McLaren when Hamilton was on softs and Sutil was on the harder tyres.

As for Fisichella, he crashed his Ferrari F60 at the turn in to Parabolica and finished at the very bottom of the timesheets.

Report: Sunny skies and hot temperatures greeted the drivers at the start of the final practice session for the Italian GP. Tonio Liuzzi and Sebastien Buemi got proceedings underway as the field ventured out for their standard installation laps before returning to the pits.

Giancarlo Fisichella and Jaime Alguersuari headed out for the first timed laps of the morning, joined by Buemi, who is using a new engine, and Liuzzi. Fisichella crossed the line with a 1:28.402, taking 1.3s off his time on his second lap. Buemi, Luizzi and Alguersuari lined up behind the Ferrari driver. Liuzzi improved to first place with a 1:26.268 while Kimi Raikkonen took second place. Nico Rosberg went sixth. Liuzzi continued lapping and dropped the benchmark to a 1:25.332. Buemi went second and Adrian Sutil fourth. Raikkonen returned to the P1 slot with a 1:25.309.

Lewis Hamilton was the next to lead the way as the McLaren driver clocked a 1:25.180 on his very first flying lap. Impressive pace from the MP4-24. His team-mate Heikki Kovalainen went sixth ahead of Alguersuari and Nico Rosberg. Hamilton improved his time with Kovalainen jumping up to second behind him. The duo, though, were soon split by the arrival of Timo Glock into second place. Sutil moved into fourth.

The yellow flags came out when 27 minutes into the session, Fisichella crashed his Ferrari F60. The Italian, who is making his debut for the Italian marque, wasn't able to stop the car heading into the Parabolica, which sent him on a trip over the gravel and into the barriers. Fisichella claimed unaided from the car and trudged back to the Ferrari garages.

With the flags lifted Fernando Alonso was quick to pounce as he took third place while his team-mate Romain Grosjean went sixth ahead of Jenson Button and Kazuki Nakajima.

Mark Webber finally ventured out with 26 minutes remaining in teh session. Red Bull are limiting their drivers' running due to the fact that both are running out of fresh engines. The Aussie, though, was slowest of all with his team-mate Sebastian Vettel P19.

Strapping on the softer tyres, Hamilton improved his benchmark time to a 1:23.929, however, he was soon cut down by Sutil, who despite using the harder option tyres took second place, just 0.179s behind the World Champion. Sutil continued lapping and took the P1 slot off Hamilton with a 1:23.735. And all this on the harder tyres!

Button climbed to fifth place and then third as he too lapped the Monza track with the harder tyres - and no KERS. Liuzzi took seventh, then sixth and Raikkonen eighth. Vettel improved to 18th place and Webber 16th, leaving Trulli and the crashed Fisichella at the bottom of the timesheets.

Grosjean put his Renault into a impressive slide but managed to get back on track. A few minutes later he was off again and onto the gravel, leaping over the grass before heading back to the Renault pits.

With five minutes remaining, the drivers ventured out for their final runs. Kovalainenn moved up to fourth, Barrichello fifth, Liuzzi sixth, Trulli eighth, Sutil improved his benchmark time, Barrichello second, Alonso third, Kovalainen second, Button took first with a 1:23.404, Sutil quickest with a 1:23.336, Hamilton third and Heidfeld third.

Times
01 A. Sutil Force India F1 1:23.336 21 laps
02 J. Button Brawn GP 1:23.404 21 laps
03 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:23.490 18 laps
04 R. Barrichello Brawn GP 1:23.575 20 laps
05 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:23.633 18 laps
06 H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:23.803 20 laps
07 V. Liuzzi Force India F1 1:23.849 21 laps
08 F. Alonso Renault 1:23.915 17 laps
09 T. Glock Toyota 1:23.959 21 laps
10 R. Kubica BMW 1:23.996 18 laps
11 R. Grosjean Renault 1:24.197 15 laps
12 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:24.302 20 laps
13 J. Trulli Toyota 1:24.326 17 laps
14 K. Nakajima Williams 1:24.392 20 laps
15 S. Buemi Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:24.572 23 laps
16 N. Rosberg Williams 1:24.621 21 laps
17 M. Webber Red Bull 1:25.154 13 laps
18 S. Vettel Red Bull 1:25.244 16 laps
19 J. Alguersuari Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:25.791 10 laps
20 G. Fisichella Ferrari 1:25.951 10 laps

Source : Planet F1

Belgian Race Report: What A Race, What A Result

Sunday 30th August 2009

Kimi Raikkonen claimed the victory in the Belgian GP, just managing to hold off Force India's Giancarlo Fisichella - and what a race it was.

After Valencia's tedium and snores, Spa-Francorchamps delivered the exact opposite with no fewer than four drivers, including Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton, crashing out at Les Combes on the opening lap.

This brought out the Safety Car with Fisichella, who had started from pole position, leading the way ahead of Raikkonen. But three laps later, with the debris clear and the Safety Car coming in, Raikkonen launched his attack, easily taking the lead from the Force India driver.

Game over - or so many thought...

Race Report
With no rain predicted for the race, in bright sunny conditions, Giancarlo Fisichella led the drivers round on a very slow parade lap. The ambient temperature was at 16C with the track at 30C.

As the lights went out the man in P4 on the grid was immediately in trouble, the anti-stall mechanism on the Brawn kicking in and Rubens failing to get underway for the third time this year and everyone streaming past him on the grid.

Into La Source and Kimi Raikkonen was forced out wide by the gaggle of cars at the apex, while further back Jenson Button also took that route. Polesitter Giancarlo Fisichella had got away cleanly into the lead, but behind him P2 man Trulli was overtaken on the inside by Nick Heidfeld and on the outside by Raikkonen.

Heidfeld, once past Trulli, effectively into P2 or P3 by now, was slow away from La Source and Trulli ran his front wing into him, loosening it but thankfully it remained in place. Heidfeld's lack of pace on the exit was seized upon by Robert Kubica who swept through on the inside and into P2.

Down the hill they charged: Fisichella, Kubica, Raikkonen (joining from the run-off) followed by Heidfeld, Trulli, Glock and the two Red Bulls.

Further back Adrian Sutil had taken a tightish line into La Source only to find Nico Rosberg inside him and Fernando Alonso inside Rosberg. Contact with Rosberg spun Sutil around and as the Williams driver escaped, Fernando Alonso ran over Sutil's front wing.

It seemed as though Alonso had got away with it, but events later in the race would prove otherwise.

Down the hill to Eau Rouge they charged, the rest of the pack trampling over Sutil's front wing. Kimi Raikkonen, using the Ferrari's KERS button, was straight onto the tail of Kubica and easily outdragged him up the hill to Les Combes, although the Ferrari driver was tentative on the brakes into the corner and took a narrower angle than the normal racing line. Slow on the exit, he was almost punted up the rear by Kubica.

Behind them, Nick Heidfeld missed his braking and went over the grass on the inside, losing a place to Glock and Trulli straight away and subsequently Mark Webber.

Behind them, Jenson Button had got a reasonable start and was P11 (from P14) through Eau Rouge. Going up the hill to Les Combes he got on the inside of Kovalainen and was able to outbrake the McLaren on the outside to take P10 - at which point Romain Grosjean's Renault - trying to follow him through- hooked a wheel inside of his and spun the BrawnGP car into the barriers, wrecking his own car against the Armco in the process.

Lewis Hamilton had got a poor start with the anti-stall almost kicking in and was coping with Barrichello coming up on the outside at Les Combes when he was clattered into by the Red Bull of Jaime Alguesuari. Four drivers out in one corner. The stewards decided they would investigate both incidents after the race.

Something they didn't investigate, but surely must, was Rubens Barrichello's overtaking of a pack of cars using the outside escape route at Les Combes. Barrichello recovered maginificently from last place on the grid and dodged round a few cars at La Sourceand in the run down to Eau Rouge. Up the hill into Les Combes he was alongside Hamilton on the outside, realised he wasn't going to make the turn and took the escape road, dodging all the frantic action involving the four wrecked cars.

With four cars out and debris at La Source it was an easy decision to call out the Safety Car. So as Giancarlo Fisichella led everyone over the line the race order was: Fisichella, Raikkonen, Kubica, Glock, Webber, Heidfeld, Rosberg, Vettel, Alonso, Kovalainen.

Vettel was soon on the radio complaining that Rosberg had overtaken him under Safety Car conditions while Trulli, Barrichello and Sutil headed for the pits. Trulli and Sutil needed new front wings and Barrichello took the opportunity of taking on more fuel under Safety Car conditions - the Brawn having gone the lightest in qualifying.

The race was restarted on Lap 5 but already the major dramas were over. Fisichella didn't manage to shake off Kimi Raikkonen in the corners before the start and as the Ferrari followed the Force India car through Eau Rouge, KERS power was easily able to take him past before Les Combes.

From that point on it was assumed that Raikkonen would open a gap to Fisichella in his cruise to his fourth Belgian GP victory - especially when he set the Fastest Lap on Lap 8 with a 1:47.749. It didn't happen.

On Lap 12 the first pit-stops started to unfold and it was assumed that the Red Bulls - who had gone slightly longer on fuel - would start to take advantage. Glock and Kubica came in first and Toyota had to switch to the reserve fuel ring for Glock sending him back down the race order from P4 before the stop.

On Lap 13 Nick Heidfeld showed his intention of getting a place back off Mark Webber by setting the Fastest lap at 1:47.738.

A lap later and both Raikkonen and Fisichella pitted together, their cars separated by an entire pitlane but the positions staying the same. Behind them, Mark Webber and Nick Heidfeld pitted at the same time. Heidfeld got away first and looked to have made up a position, but just as the BMW approached the Red Bull garage the Red Bull lollypop was raised.

It was yet another dangerous Red Bull release and though they had got away with one the race before, this time round Heidfeld had to take avoiding action and brake to avoid running into the back of Webber in the pitlane. Whether that was on the team's mind or not is unknown but Heidfeld was able to overtake Webber going into Les Combes that lap, while Rubens Barrichello pulled a fantastic overtaking move into the high-speed Blanchimont of all places.

The incident must have severely unsettled Webber because the following lap he started to block and move around in the braking zone trying to keep the Force India of Adrian Sutil behind going into Les Combes.

Red Bull team-mate Sebastian Vettel had a much better time of it, jumping Heidfeld for a place and also his team-mate in the process. It was then announced that Webber would have to serve a drive-through penalty for the team's (not his) pitlane mess-up. He emerged from the pitlane on Lap 18 back in P.13.

The positions on Lap 19 were: 1.Raikkonen, 0.9 in front of... 2.Fisichella, 3.Alonso (not stopped), 4.Kubica, 5.Kovalainen (not stopped), 6.Buemi (not stopped), 7.Vettel, 8.Heidfeld, 9.Barrichello, 10.Sutil

Lap 20 and 21 saw a remarkable feat. Luca Badoer set the timing screens to purple setting the fastest first sector on successive laps.

The Ferrari team were keen for Kimi Raikkonen to put a gap between himself and Giancarlo Fisichella, fearful that the Force India could run a lap or two longer in the middle stint. They asked him to push and try and edge him by a tenth of a second a lap (interestingly it was not Kimi's engineer Chris Dyer who passed on the message). This was duly broadcast on television and then relayed back to Fisichella behind.

By Lap 24 the gap was still only 0.7 though, the Force India easily having the legs of the Ferrari. If Force India could run longer, then they were sitting pretty.

Fernando Alonso was still in P3 and yet to have his first pit-stop. On Lap 25 he came in for what would be his solo stop of the race. However his front left tyre wheel would not accept the wheel spinner and after several seconds of wrestling, the mechanic had to give up and use a replacement.

This was the same wheel that had impacted Adrian Sutil's Force India on the first corner, a result of Alonso taking a risky narrow inside line. The delay had dropped him from P3 to a disastrous P14 and a lap later the team brought him back in to retire as the telemetry showed that the wheel might come loose. They were not going to run the risk of what had happened in Hungary.

Towards the end of the second stint Sebastian Vettel started to close on Robert Kubica's P3 and back in P5, Nick Heidfeld began to close on the pair of them. The two BMWs pitted on Lap 30 and Lap 32 while Vettel was able to stay out till Lap 35 and leapfrog past Kubica.

The biggest battle was always going to be Ferrari versus Force India in the final pit-stops. On Lap 31 the Ferrari mechanics came out into the pitlane and must have been very relieved to find the Force India crew out at the same time. Neither made a mistake and though they resumed in P2 and P3, when Vettel stopped four laps later they would resume P1 and P2.

So on Lap 36 the order with gaps in front of the next car was:
1.Raikkonen 0.8
2.Fisichella 5.9
3.Vettel 2.5
4.Kubica 2.7
5.Heidfeld 12.6
6.Kovalainen
7.Barrichello
8.Rosberg
9.Webber
10.Glock

Vettel put in a series of Fastest Laps in a vain attempt to catch Fisichella and Raikkonen but was never close enough. In the closing laps of the race the excitement was provided by Rubens Barrichello's car which started to blow smoke intermittently on lap 42 of 44 and then constantly from Lap 43 onwards. It gave hope to the following Rosberg in P8 and Webber in P9, but Rubens managed to nurse his car to the line and 7th place.

It was the Ferrari team's first win of 2009, but the biggest celebrants were Force India. Having not scored a point all year, they easily had the fastest car in the race and had scored eight in one go. What's more, they stand even more of a chance for a race win at Monza in two weeks' time.

Sebastian Vettel will be relieved to have finished on the podium again, but the Red Bull team will have been hoping for much more from the race. BMW picked up 4th and 5th through Kubica and Heidfeld and Heikki Kovalainen came home unchallenged in 6th.

Yet again it proved Spa's remarkable ability to provide a memorable race. Even without rain.

FH

Results
01 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:23:50.995
02 G. Fisichella Force India F1 + 0.938
03 S. Vettel Red Bull + 3.875
04 R. Kubica BMW + 9.966
05 N. Heidfeld BMW + 11.276
06 H. Kovalainen McLaren + 32.763
07 R. Barrichello Brawn GP + 35.461
08 N. Rosberg Williams + 36.208
09 M. Webber Red Bull + 36.959
10 T. Glock Toyota + 41.490
11 A. Sutil Force India F1 + 42.636
12 S. Buemi Scuderia Toro Rosso + 46.106
13 K. Nakajima Williams + 54.241
14 L. Badoer Ferrari + 1:42.177
Did not finish
15 F. Alonso Renault + 18 lap(s)
16 J. Trulli Toyota + 23 lap(s)
17 J. Button Brawn GP + 44 lap(s)
18 R. Grosjean Renault + 44 lap(s)
19 L. Hamilton McLaren + 44 lap(s)
20 J. Alguersuari Scuderia Toro Rosso + 44 lap(s)

Source : Planet F1

Fisichella takes shock pole at Spa

Giancarlo Fisichella took an historic and surprising first pole position for Force India in qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa.

The 36-year-old Italian veteran took his fourth career pole in an extraordinary session, though the car had looked quick through the weekend.

Fisichella - linked to replace Luca Badoer at Ferrari for Monza – kept up the tradition of old-timers following Rubens Barrichello's European GP triumph to set a time of 1m46.308s that could not be matched by Jarno Trulli's Toyota or Nick Heidfeld's third-placed BMW.

Barrichello was the top 'front-runner' in fourth position. The Brazilian is well-placed to make up ground on the championship leader and team-mate Jenson Button, who failed to make it out of Q2.

Robert Kubica was fifth fastest in the second BMW, having briefly occupied a front row slot until the final shakedown in the last minute of the session.

The Pole will start just in front of Kimi Raikkonen, who was sixth ahead of Timo Glock, Sebastian Vettel, Mark Webber and Nico Rosberg, who did well to wrestle the Williams into the top ten.

Several of the big names were knocked out in a curious Q2 session.

Trulli set the early pace in Q2 with an incredible 1m44.865s in the Toyota. He then lowered that to an even more amazing 1m44.766s.

That was good enough for much of the session, until Fisichella thumped in a 1m44.667s in the final moments. But even that was not the fastest time as Trulli managed a 1m44.503s to take the top place back again.

Then Kubica and Vettel pushed the Force India back to fourth.

All this action at the front contributed to those famous names being knocked out of Q3 – Lewis Hamilton ending up 12th, Fernando Alonso 13th and Button 14th. The Brawn driver in particular was perplexed to have been unable to match Barrichello, who of course did make it through in sixth.

Fisichella had already impressed in Q1, setting the fastest time, 0.38s faster than Trulli's Toyota.

Barrichello meanwhile was third in the opening segment of qualifying, despite running off the track at Fagnes early on, ahead of the second Force of India Sutil and the Red Bulls of Webber and Vettel.

Alonso only made it into Q2 by the skin of his teeth, having ruined his best lap after running wide on the exit of Fagnes.

Button and Hamilton also only just made it through too, in 14th and 15th positions.

Luca Badoer, who needed to find 0.5s on his final run – having set a personal best of 1m46.957s – crashed at Les Combes after going wide on the entry on his final attempt. It rendered him last on the grid.

Sebastien Buemi, Jaime Alguersuari, Kazuki Nakajima and Romain Grosjean all also failed to make it beyond the opening 20 minutes.

Pos  Driver       Team                       Q1        Q2        Q3      
1.  Fisichella   Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:45.102  1:44.667  1:46.308
2.  Trulli       Toyota                (B)  1:45.140  1:44.503  1:46.395
3.  Heidfeld     BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:45.566  1:44.709  1:46.500
4.  Barrichello  Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:45.237  1:44.834  1:46.513
5.  Kubica       BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:45.655  1:44.557  1:46.586
6.  Raikkonen    Ferrari               (B)  1:45.579  1:44.953  1:46.633
7.  Glock        Toyota                (B)  1:45.450  1:44.877  1:46.677
8.  Vettel       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:45.372  1:44.592  1:46.761
9.  Webber       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:45.350  1:44.924  1:46.788
10.  Rosberg      Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:45.486  1:45.047  1:47.362
11.  Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:45.486  1:45.119
12.  Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:45.239  1:45.122
13.  Alonso       Renault               (B)  1:45.767  1:45.136
14.  Button       Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:45.707  1:45.251
15.  Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:45.761  1:45.259
16.  Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:45.705
17.  Alguersuari  Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:45.951
18.  Nakajima     Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:46.032
19.  Grosjean     Renault               (B)  1:46.307
20.  Badoer       Ferrari               (B)  1:46.359

Source : Autosport

Qualy: Hamilton leads all-McLaren front row

Saturday 22nd August 2009

Lewis Hamilton continued McLaren's resurgence, claiming pole position for the European GP after outpacing his team-mate by 0.034s.

The Brit, coming to Valencia off the back of his Hungarian GP win, crossed the line with a 1:39.498 and appeared to have the pace to better that before opting instead to pit having already secured the coveted grid slot.

Heikki Kovalainen, who is use the old McLaren chassis that is reported two-tenths slower than the shorter wheel-based chassing being used by Hamilton, finished in second place, 0.034s behind his team-mate.

Rubens Barrichello claimed third place for Brawn GP, also less than a tenth off Hamilton's time while Sebastian Vettel qualified fourth and, importantly, ahead of Championship leader Jenson Button.

Kimi Raikkonen was next in line, P6 for Ferrari, with Nico Rosberg and Fernando Alonso completing the top eight.

Meanwhile, Luca Badoer's first qualifying session in a decade didn't go according to plan as the Ferrari test driver finished P20, almost three seconds off the pace.

Full report to follow...

Times
01 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:39.498
02 H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:39.532
03 R. Barrichello Brawn GP 1:39.563
04 S. Vettel Red Bull 1:39.789
05 J. Button Brawn GP 1:39.821
06 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:40.144
07 N. Rosberg Williams 1:40.185
08 F. Alonso Renault 1:40.236
09 M. Webber Red Bull 1:40.239
10 R. Kubica BMW 1:40.512
11 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:38.826
12 A. Sutil Force India F1 1:38.846
13 T. Glock Toyota 1:38.991
14 R. Grosjean Renault 1:39.040
15 S. Buemi Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:39.514
16 G. Fisichella Force India F1 1:39.531
17 K. Nakajima Williams 1:39.795
18 J. Trulli Toyota 1:39.807
19 J. Alguersuari Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:39.925
20 L. Badoer Ferrari 1:41.413

Source : Planet F1

European Grand Prix Preview

Cut the elevator music, it's time to go racing again. The summer break is over, but thanks to the incident-packed Hungarian Grand Prix, we haven't had four weeks of tumbleweed blowing through the F1 news.

There's little doubt that Renault wouldn't have been facing the ludicrous penalty of a one-race ban had Massa not made connection with Rubens Barrichello's flukily bouncing rear spring on the Saturday of the last GP weekend.

Pit-stops cock-ups happen all the time, but it takes the mind of a Machiavelli to think that Renault might have deliberately sent Alonso back onto the track knowing that he would lose a wheel.

Thankfully common sense has now prevailed and the Renault team are allowed to race in Valencia, but it took an act of blatant stupidity to impose such an inappropriate penalty in the first place. Presumably FIA Race Director Charlie Whiting will now face similar charges for failing to black flag Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari after he drove round with a flailing exhaust chimney at the French GP in 2008.

The excitement at the prospect of seeing Schumi race again, in Massa's stead, was very real while it lasted. Presumably the former World Champion wanted to drive the current machinery to check out whether his 'secretly fractured' neck would stand up to the strain. When various teams - including Williams, who owe him at least one pie in the face - vetoed a ride in an F60 he must have calculated that the risk of failure was too great.

In his place Luca Badoer will face a tough test at a circuit he doesn't know, in one of the few Ferraris he's had little time in. Certainly the car that he'll be presented with on Friday will be a quantum leap forward from the one he drove in pre-season testing.

It wouldn't be a surpise to see Kimi Raikkonen put a whole second between himself and the Massa replacement. Ferrari are in a bit of a dilemma right now. There are stories doing the rounds that Raikkonen is going to be offered a lot of money not to race for them in 2010 so they can bring Alonso on board.

What they can't know is how Felipe Massa will react to his big accident. Williams' Patrick Head is fond of the theory that after drivers have experienced major accidents they are never quite as fast again. Amongst those he cites are Ralf Schumacher who had a big testing accident at Monza while he was with Williams.

It hasn't seem to have deterred Robert Kubica after his titanic shunt in Canada in 2007, but Patrick's seen enough drivers to know what he's talking about. Ferrari will have to make a decision about 2010 before they can know the true state of Massa's recovery.

Back at the World Championship Brawn should have had enough time to analyse the data from Hungary and work out why they weren't fast on a hot track that was supposed to favour them. Button is good on street circuits and if he can nudge his Brawn in front of the two Red Bulls in Valencia and the following race at Spa, which is a track at which he excels, then he can start to feel less nervous.

The good news for Jense is that Mclaren are looking good for back-to-back wins, with Hamilton supremely strong at the Hungaroring and Kovalainen being given the hurry up from the team. Raikkonen is also looking quick and on home soil Alonso rarely disappoints.

So if all that lot are in front of the Brawn GP cars and the Red Bulls, then Button will not be at all worried. If Red Bull are in front, but Brawn are behind, then it's very bad news indeed. Team orders are an easy call for the Brawn team but for Red Bull any intervention is still a long way off.

With a fine win in Hungary and yet more swanky new parts for the McLaren, Lewis Hamilton will be looking to make it two wins on the trot at the European GP. What's more, he and Raikkonen have the advantage of the KERS boost button which they both used to their advantage on the similarly tight confines of Budapest. Ferrari and McLaren may have given up their Championship-winning ambitions, but they'd both like to finish third in the Constructors' title.

Williams will also be looking to join in the fun and demote either the Red Bulls, or more likely the Brawns down the order, while Toyota will be struggling to hold back the tide of Ferrari and McLaren development and retain fourth in the Constructors'.

Both Fisi and Adrian Sutil are good on street circuits and Sutil in particular will be pitching in there for Force India's first points. Surely his luck has to turn sooner or later. After all, Mark Webber's did.

Romain Grosjean will be making his debut for Renault and all eyes will be on him to see if he can close the gap between the two Renauts. This is probably not the race to do it, though. Don't expect an exhilarating overtaking fest from the dock side - sorry, harbourside - circuit of Valencia, but whatever happens, there will be some significant action.

Source : Planet F1

Prac Two: Alonso delights Spanish fans

Fernando Alonso delighted his Spanish fans by finishing Friday's practice in the P1 slot despite a bit of a coming together with Nick Heidfeld.

Alonso proved to be there and there about throughout the session, often going quickest before dropping a few places only to then rise to the top. But, with 15 minutes left on the clock, the Spaniard locked his brakes, sending him into the side of Heidfeld's BMW. The damage put Heidfeld out of the session although a new front wing saw Alonso put in a blistering 1:39.404.

The Renault driver's time was a staggering 0.774s up on Jenson Button's best while his Brawn GP team-mate Rubens Barrichello was third quickest.

Meanwhile, Romain Grosjean finished in 13th place, Luca Badoer 18th and Jaime Alguersuari 19th. As for Lewis Hamilton, he was P20 after a minor coming together with the barriers ended his session.

Report: Sweltering conditions and a track temperature of 44'C greeted the drivers as Sebastien Buemi, Nico Rosberg and Jaime Alguersuari led out the field for their installation laps. While most pitted after one lap, Buemi stayed out to set the afternoon's first time, a 1:43.726 and was quickly joined by others. Mark Webber went second, Alguersuari third and Luca Badoer fourth. The timesheets changed, though, as Lewis Hamilton went quickest with a 1:43.214. Fernando Alonso took fourth place with Heikki Kovalainen seventh and Kazuki Nakajima eighth.

Hamilton put his McLaren into a spin and stopped facing the wrong way, not the greatest feeling as one of the Toro Rosso's came speeding past him. The Brit, however, quickly through another spin to face the right way and continued lapping. Meanwhile, Alonso overhauled his time by half a second to go fastest. Kovalainen went second with Adrian Sutil putting in another great lap to take third place. His team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella went fifth only to be dropped by Jenson Button.

Buemi moved up to second place, Rubens Barrichello took ninth and Romain Grosjean tenth as the French racer continued to impress in his debut outing. Nico Rosberg slotted in to second place, 0.449s off Alonso's best, with Barrichello behind him in third. Grosjean also found some pace, taking eighth place, less than a second off Alonso's time. Nakajima moved up to the order, going third behind his team-mate, who had closed the gap to less than a tenth to Alonso. Webber climbed to third.

At the back of the pack, Badoer continued to battle for pace, 3.8s slower than the lead driver. Not a great start to the Ferrari man's first weekend as a Scuderia driver. His team-mate Kimi Raikkonen improved to fifth place while moments later Badoer left the bottom of the timesheets to take P19. Barrichello moved into the top three before he was overhauled by Sutil.

Meanwhile, Hamilton was left sitting in his garage after it emerged that he had damaged his car during his earlier spin. The McLaren driver actually broke a piece, a 'hanger' off the front of his car.

Rosberg took the P1 slot off Alonso while his team-mate Nakajima went second quickest. Jenson Button moved up to eighth place moments before Heidfeld took 13th. The BMW driver's rise up the order meant that once again Badoer was slowest of all. Vettel climbed to second place, 0.039s off the pace.

Button was the next to lead the way as the Championship leader clocked a 1:41.534 to edge Rosberg by 0.054s. Barrichello went third while Alonso improved his time but stayed sixth. Heidfeld shot up the order, moving into second place, 0.046s off the pace. But he was soon dropped as Rosberg went quickest. Buemi moved up to fifth place while Kubica took 11th. Alonso resumed his place at the top of the timesheets with a 1:41.324.

Button and Barrichello moved up into the 1-2 with Jarno Trulli taking third. However, the Brawn duo soon swapped over as Barrichello outpaced his team-mate. Raikkonen went from 12th to fifth while Kovalainen moved up from 18th to 11th. Alonso returned to the front as the Spaniard continued to impress at home. Heidfeld took the long way around, running wide and using the run-off to get back to the track.

Glock climbed to fifth place ahead of Kubica before moving up one position more as he overhauled his team-mate Trulli. Badoer improved to 18th place, leaving Alguersuari and Hamilton in his wake.

Problems for Alonso and Heidfeld as the two parties came together at the final corner with Heidfeld's BMW actually being launched into the air before landing heavily. Damage as well to Alonso's Renault, which appeared to lock up as his braked, causing him to hit Heidfeld.

Nakajima went quickest with Trulli taking third place and Raikkonen seventh. Barrichello was the next to lead the way, Rosberg going second, Button third and then second, Kovalainen went sixth.

Alonso, back on track with a new front wing, put in three fastest sector times on his way to a 1:39.404 which put him quickest. Button went second, 0.774s behind.

Times
01 F. Alonso Renault 1:39.404 33 laps
02 J. Button Brawn GP 1:40.178 33 laps
03 R. Barrichello Brawn GP 1:40.209 34 laps
04 N. Rosberg Williams 1:40.385 39 laps
05 K. Nakajima Williams 1:40.503 35 laps
06 A. Sutil Force India F1 1:40.596 23 laps
07 R. Kubica BMW 1:40.643 34 laps
08 G. Fisichella Force India F1 1:40.681 31 laps
09 S. Vettel Red Bull 1:40.723 33 laps
10 H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:40.738 31 laps
11 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:40.739 39 laps
12 J. Trulli Toyota 1:40.770 32 laps
13 R. Grosjean Renault 1:40.787 35 laps
14 M. Webber Red Bull 1:40.956 37 laps
15 T. Glock Toyota 1:40.985 30 laps
16 S. Buemi Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:41.156 34 laps
17 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:41.350 29 laps
18 L. Badoer Ferrari 1:42.017 37 laps
19 J. Alguersuari Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:42.089 34 laps
20 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:43.214 3 laps

Source : Planet F1

VIDEO: Fantastic and fanciful old-timey explanation of the differential

This is another interesting subject - differentials. A lot of us don't really understand what it is and how it works (including me really) but we pretend to know and it's fun to talk with your petrolhead buddies how it affects the driving. One thing is for sure, it helps. Here is an explanation and video on how it works. Enjoy.

Variable Valve Timing explained

A lot of people know about variable valve timing and they've heard of VTEC, MIVEC, VVT-i, DVVT and all sorts of T's but do they really understand what it is and what it does or how it's done? I have a vague understanding myself. I found this article on the topic and thought that it would help a lot more people to understand it and hopefully aids in the maintenance of our cars. There's also a video on the subject and the link is here.

Schumacher gets £12,000 crash helmet

Since Massa's accident and Henry Surtees' death, there's been a lot of talk about safety in open wheel cars. It seems that there is nothing much can be done but to upgrade some safety equipment such as the helmet and pray for the best.

Schuberth, the F1 helmet manufacturer has come out with a new helmet design for Michael Schumacher to debut in Valencia. This new helmet costs a bomb and has an upgraded visor as explained below:

"The area around the visor, where Massa was hit by the spring, has been strengthened on Schumacher’s helmet with titanium. - James Allen"

It also has seven stars to denote his seven world championships.

How McLaren turned a dog into a winner

It's quite surprising and exciting that McLaren have managed to fix the problems with their car, the MP4-24 turning it essentially from trash to cash. It not only improved but won the race in Hungary outright. It's fast, sticks in corners and is as reliable as ever. How did they do it? Well, head on to Youtube to find out more here.

Hungarian GP Report: Hamilton Returns To The Top

Sunday 26th July 2009

Lewis Hamilton claimed his first grand prix victory of the season in Hungary as McLaren put their early season woes behind them to return to winning ways.

Starting from fourth on the grid, the defending World Champion put his KERS to good use, easily sliding his way past his rivals and up into second place by the end of the first lap.

From there it was just a case of chasing down Fernando Alonso, which he easily did, taking the lead as the Spaniard pitted.

Alonso's pit stop, though, proved to be the Renault driver's downfall as his front right wasn't secured properly and came off on his out-lap.

With the wheel hurtling across the track, F1 proved for the second time this weekend that its safety standards still need to be improved. The damage from driving back to the pits on three wheels resulted in Alonso retiring on the next lap.

Meanwhile, with Hamilton pulling away from the chasing pack, it was left to Kimi Raikkonen and Mark Webber to settle the podium with the Ferrari driver taking second place off the Australia.

However, in yet another strange occurrence of the weekend, Raikkonen could lose his eight points as he will be investigated by the race stewards after the race for his incident with Sebastian Vettel at the very start of the race. So what were the stewards doing for 69 3/4 laps?

Nico Rosberg put in yet another solid performance for Williams, coming home in fourth place ahead of Heikki Kovalainen and Timo Glock. Jenson Button could only manage seventh place with Jarno Trulli completing the points.

Full report to follow...

Results
01 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:38:23.876
02 K. Räikkönen Ferrari + 11.529
03 M. Webber Red Bull + 16.886
04 N. Rosberg Williams + 26.967
05 H. Kovalainen McLaren + 34.392
06 T. Glock Toyota + 35.237
07 J. Button Brawn GP + 55.088
08 J. Trulli Toyota + 1:08.172
09 K. Nakajima Williams + 1:08.774
10 R. Barrichello Brawn GP + 1:09.256
11 N. Heidfeld BMW + 1:10.600
12 N.Piquet Renault + 1:11.500
13 R. Kubica BMW + 1:14.000
14 G. Fisichella Force India F1 + 1 laps
15 J. Alguersuari Scuderia Toro Rosso + 1 laps
16 S. Buemi Scuderia Toro Rosso + 1 laps
Did not finish
17 S. Vettel Red Bull + 41 laps
18 F. Alonso Renault + 55 laps
19 A. Sutil Force India F1 + 69 laps

Source : Planet F1

LEWIS WINS IN HUNGARY

Finally, a race worth watching. And what a race. The supposedly boring Hungarian GP turned otherwise. Alonso who was on pole and looked to have at least been on the podium ended up DNF because of a loose wheel which came off flying in a dramatic way.

Sebastien Vettel also retired due to a problem with his car and Mark Webber really didn't have the pace although he did end up 3rd. Rosberg quietly finished in 4th and Kovalainnen got some more points for McLaren in 5th. He really is no match for Lewis even with the same car.

The 2 Toyotas were surprising finishing 6th and 8th after a poor practice and qualifying. The Brawns seems to have lost some steam with Button 7th and Barrichello 10th. Looks like Rubens won't be racing next year.

The race was watchable, I'd definitely watch it again. The start was nail biting, there were some overtaking moments and McLaren are back.

Ford’s baby cat is getting ready to pounce

I never liked Ford, any model but this new Puma Coupe' is just too hot, wished it was another brand like Honda that came out with this design.

"Boasting nearly 180bhp, the hot Puma would be able to do 0-60mph in around six seconds and accelerate on to a 140mph top speed. Allied to a even sharper chassis with a subtle ST-style bodykit, uprated brakes and figure-hugging Recaro seats, it could be a successor to the revered Racing Puma." 180bhp? Woohoo!

Aston Martin One-77

Aston Martins have always been sexy supercars and they have had good exposure in the James Bond movies. But this particular model, the highest in their range and set to rival the Bugatti Veyron is just incredible. Incredible in looks and specs. To read more about it click here. Here's a selection of pictures courtesy of EVO to whet your appetite.

Mitsubishi FQ-330 SST

Great news for Evo lovers, as paddle-shift reaches more powerful Mitsubishi Evo X

Here at Evo Towers we’ve blown hot and cold over the tenth version of our namesake Lancer, primarily because of its technical advancements and more polished finish. As a ground covering tool it would be hard to find anything more efficient and there are fleeting moments of greatness, but we miss the interaction and rally-raw feel of the old Evo IX.

The optional SST twin-clutch gearbox introduced with the X did little to help the new car’s case. Up until now, however, the SST ’box was only available on the basic FQ-300, which led us to conclude that it wasn’t beefy enough to cope with more power. Well, apparently it is, as now the 324bhp FQ-330 can be ordered with it too, and the great news is that it makes for a far more intriguing package.

The bias of the Evo’s four-wheel-drive system is rearward and here it has enough power to give the driver more options, with both power and lift-off oversteer on the menu. The blink-and-you’ve-missed-it gearshifts are more in keeping with this new-found feistier character too. The great news for Evo lovers, then, is that some of the missing spirit has returned.

Source : EVO UK

Bugatti Veyron and Nissan GT-R

Ever considered what would happen if you pit the mighty Veyron against the GTR? Well, click here to find out. Of course, it is easy to know that the Veyron would chew up the GTR and spit it out but even with the GTR given a rolling start, the Veyron still caught up with it and overtook. Incredible.

AUTO NEWS - Used-car sales expected to drop

Probably in 3 months time, it would be a good time to go shopping for a used car.

GEORGE TOWN: The sales of used cars in the country are expected to drop by 10% this year from 450,000 units sold last year.

Federation of Motor and Credit Companies Association of Malaysia president Datuk Tony Khor said that from 2004 to 2008, the sales of used cars had been between 400,000 and 500,000 units per year.

“But because of the global recession this year, we expect a decrease of about 10%,” he told StarBiz.

Khor said that since last October, the drop had hit double digits every month.

“In May, due to the launch of the Proton Exora, the decline in sales improved to single digit.

“We expect the Exora, coupled with the dip in interest rates, to drive up sales for Proton to enable it to become the number one car company in the country, overtaking Perodua, which has been the leading national car company for the past 12 months,” he added.

Interest rates on loans for national cars have recently gone down from 4.1% to 3.5% and 3.65% for a five-year and seven-year period respectively, and 3.75% for a nine-year period.

On the sales of non-national cars, Khor said the hike in interest rates to about 3.4% from 2.4% and the impact of a slow economy had affected sales. He urged Bank Negara to lower the rates.

Sales of 1.6-litre capacity and below vehicles had taken about 85% of the market share in the country last year, Khor said, adding that about 48% of the cars were sold in Selangor, while about 10% were sold in Penang and Johor respectively.

Source : The Star

AUTO NEWS - Porsche axes CEO, sets stage for VW merger

Wendelin Wiedeking, CEO of Porsche SE posing for the media before the start of the company's annual news conference in Stuttgart on November 26, 2008. He was forced to step down today, a casualty of the power struggle over Porsche's future. - Reuters file photo

STUTTGART, July 23 — Sportscar maker Porsche conceded a months-long power struggle to mass-market rival Volkswagen by axing its CEO and said it would raise at least €5 billion (RM29.13 billion) in equity as the two prepared for a merger.

Porsche said Wendelin Wiedeking, Germany’s best-paid executive and its CEO for the past 16 years, and finance chief Holger Haerter would quit the group immediately.

Before Wiedeking’s departure, the Piech and Porsche families which control Porsche approved his proposal to raise fresh equity – either in cash or through a contribution in kind – and endorsed talks to sell a stake to Qatar.

“This should lay the foundations for the creation of an integrated automobile group consisting of Porsche and Volkswagen,” Porsche said.

The families had been at loggerheads for months over how to resolve Porsche’s debt woes and the role VW would play. VW chairman Ferdinand Piech has pushed for VW to take over Porsche, on condition that Porsche fixes its finances first.

Porsche SE, the holding company that controls sportscar maker Porsche, needs to bolster its finances after accumulating more than €10 billion in debt through its botched attempt to seize control of VW.

“What is good news is that decisions have at least been prepared. However, still a huge amount of questions (are) open which are decisive for valuation,” said MM Warburg analyst Marc-Rene Tonn.

It remained unclear whether Qatar could take a stake in Porsche, in Volkswagen, or in both. It was also not clear what form a possible combination of the two companies could take.

On Tuesday, sources said that Qatar was primarily interested in an investment in Volkswagen, though a participation in the capital increase will also give it a stake than 25 per cent in Porsche.

The issue was due to be discussed by Volkswagen’s own board of directors at an extraordinary session on Thursday in Stuttgart, where Porsche’s Zuffenhausen headquarters are based, rather than its own headquarters in Wolfsburg.

CONTRIBUTIONS IN KIND

Sources told Reuters that Porsche, as part of the capital increase hopes to raise €2 billion cash by selling a stake of less than 25 per cent to Qatar, the first time a family outsider might gain voting rights in the company.

It was not clear whether the Porsche and Piech families, which trace their origins back to VW Beetle creator Ferdinand Porsche, would participate in the capital increase, but analysts said they believed the families could bring in the assets of their Salzburg-based Porsche Holding instead of cash.

An analyst who asked not to be named agreed: “I cannot think of another asset the families have.”

Porsche Holding holds the exclusive distribution rights for all Volkswagen group brands in Austria as well as central and eastern Europe. It had sales of €13.7 billion last year.

At 1139 GMT (7.39pm, Malaysian time), Porsche shares were down 0.33 per cent, while Volkswagen’s were down 2.5 per cent, compared with a 0.5 per cent fall in the DJ Stoxx auto index and a flat German market.

Wiedeking, who opposed selling Porsche to Volkswagen, will be succeeded by Porsche’s production head Michael Macht, the board said in a statement early on Thursday.

The duo’s hasty exit will be sweetened by severance deals of €50 million and €12.5 million. Wiedeking, who had been criticised by German media for his fat pay check, said in a statement his after-tax payoff would be used for charity.

Porsche was forced to abandon attempts to win control over 75 per cent of VW, leaving it with a stake of nearly 51 per cent. The failed takeover attempt opened the door to VW chairman Piech, himself a part-owner of Porsche, to turn the tables on Porsche.

Porsche is entering the final stretch of negotiations with Volkswagen to create what both sides have called an “integrated” auto group, in which Porsche would essentially become the 10th brand in Volkswagen’s sweeping automotive empire. – Reuters

Batman replica motorcycle leathers (Batpod not included)

by Alex Nunez on Jul 19th, 2009 at 1:31PM

The San Diego Comic-Con kicks off later this week, and as is the case each year, there'll be no shortage of giddy, costumed fanboys and girls roaming the halls. There's no denying that some of the getups people wear to the con are pretty spot-on, but fans of Batman might be interested in this one, which looks to be dead accurate, as well as being somewhat functional.

Universal Designs is developing a set of motorcycle leathers that's an exact replica of the Batsuit donned by Bruce Wayne in The Dark Knight. Included in the leather-and-kevlar suit are the jacket, pants, boots and gloves. You even get the ninjatastic arm gauntlets. How cool is that?

You'll need to supply your own cape, cowl and helmet (having a trustworthy butler, billions of dollars, plus an inventor friend and colleague with a healthy sense of discretion will help immeasurably). For maximum impact, you should probably build a fully-functional Batpod in your garage, too. Just think of the entrance you can make in San Diego.

Source : Autoblog

PitroadM M-Golden Hayabusa GTO

PitroadM M-Golden Hayabusa GTO Ver.3 [Z16A] From OPTION [Dec. 2006]

Despite its satisfactory sales and sporting a style which swayed away from the domestic tradition, the Mitsubishi GTO still stamps a highly notable presence in the tuning world. Being supported by many GTO fanatics to this date, Mr. Morishita attempts to build the fastest straight-line drag GTO out there.

A potent arsenal of 3.1 liters + T88-38GK It all began 6 months ago when Morishita received a video letter from one of his acquaintance in the United States. That video included an astonishing clip of a stateside Mitsubishi 3000GT (GTO in Japan) pulling off an impressive 9 second pass on the quarter mile. Morishita replied “I was in utter shock. Seeing a stock bodied GTO breaking the 10 second barrier was something that we have never seen. Our best time was 10.7. I watched that amazing pass many times, even rewinding the tape and measuring with my own stop watch from start to finish.” That machine was just an extension of a street vehicle, with an extreme case of weight reduction performed. Morishita was further stunned to learn that the foreign machine was mostly fitted with PitRoadM components and made consistent 9 second passes. As a competitive tuner in the DSM world, Morishita's fire was lit. Determined to achieve a higher status, the 10.7 second achieving 6G72 engine fitted with forged internals with TD06L2 turbine that made 600 horses was tossed out. They decided to build another engine. The new bottom end consisted of 1mm oversized forged 92mm pistons with H beamed connecting rods which increased the displacement to 3100cc. The crank was only balanced and not modified since Morishita believed that it wasn't necessary to as long as they didn't force the motor to over rev. Next was the head assembly. Custom strengthened valve springs accompanied the intake and exhaust high lift camshafts of 272 degrees. Since the 6G72 engine produces plenty of torque without having to spin it to the higher RPMs, there's no need to rev that high. Building the engine to achieve a 8500 RPM redline can be a disastrous decision, with rocker arms flying off and spinning connecting rod bearings in no time. The absolute limit for these engines should be 8000 RPMs at the most. The correct tuning approach should be to modify the combustion chamber and the intake ports to increase midrange torque; which PitRoadM started doing. The turbine should be matched to the mid range torque to add that much needed punch. The twin turbos were tossed out to make room for the monstrous single snail. The intake manifold was reversed to make room for the exhaust manifold. The entire assembly is regulated by an Fcon Vpro, achieving 920 horsepower at 7500 RPMs. 672 ft/lbs of torque is produced from this beast. “Now we should be able to break the 10 second barrier with ease. We can't be losing to the boys in the US all the time.” Claims Morishita. The vehicle is planned to be tested this winter. Holding the pride of the nation's number one GTO tuner, he cannot afford to lose to this game. SPECIFICATIONS • ENGINE & DRIVETRAIN Modified 6G72 3.1 liters, Special port & polish, modified combustion chamber, M-SPL MFR92mm forged pistons, H-beam connecting rods, 1.5mm headgasket & intake manifold, Trust T88-38GK18L turbo & Type C wastegate, M-SPL MFR camshafts (IN&EX:272 deg), strengthened valve springs, custom original surge tank, 90mm throttle body, 1000cc injectors x6, HKS F-CON Vpro, Trust Profec, M-SPL 3 row intercooler, 3 row radiator • SUSPENSION M-SPL Suspension (F:16kg R:8kg), M-SPL camber arms, M-SPL brake kit & hoses & pads • WHEELS & TIRES GY Eagle (FR:265/35-18), RAYS Gram Lights (FR:9.5J-18) • INTERIOR & EXTERIOR Veilside steering wheel, Recaro SP-G x2, Trust gauges, Autometer, M-SPL Falcon aero kit, M-SPL carbon doors & rear hatch & hood, LED tail lights, acrylic windows ENGINE The 6G72, an unfriendly engine to the aftermarket tuning parts industry. At PiRoadM, tons of research and development have gone into this platform, producing a mass of engine components. The payoff and the proof is the engine shown to the left, a high boost 3.1 liter 6G72. SUSPENSION The suspension is an Aragosta base, which was modified to withstand and provide traction. 16 kg springs for front, and 8 kg for the rear was set. The rear is equipped with a custom camber arm. The suspension was set meticulously and carefully. BRAKES In order to bring the large sized body to a stop, oversized brakes were installed. The front and rear was fitted with a modified Greddy brake kit. 6 pot caliper with 355mm rotors for the front, 4 pot 330mm brakes for the rear. The brake pads are a custom as well. INTERIOR Driver and passengers are seated in the Recaro SP-G seats. On the middle of the dashboard, Trust water temp, oil temp, oil pressure, intake temp, fuel pressure gauges are lined up. In addition, a Tomei AFR gauge with an Autometer gauge was set. BODYWORK The rear seats have been deleted to remove unnecessary weight however all the other trim pieces remain in tact. A custom chromoly 5 point cage was welded in. On top of that, the front and rear tower bars add extra rigidity to the chassis. COOLING A twin pipe 3 row intercooler was mounted having a diameter of 100mm for each pipe. The 3 row radiator and 16 row oil cooler are also a shop original item. The water pump pulley adds support when producing big horsepower numbers. AERODYNAMICS The M-SPL Falcon body kit was produced for the early model GTO with the looks of the later generation styling. The headlight assembly is turned into an air intake duct, and the windows were all replaced with acrylic units to save weight. The doors, rear hatch, and the hood are made of carbon fiber to achieve a 3300 pound vehicle.

F1 News - Webber hails a 'great' day for Australia

Monday 13th July 2009

At least one Australian emerged triumphant on Sunday as Mark Webber finally savoured the sweet taste of Formula One success.

Monday's meal with close friend, Australia captain Ricky Ponting, will not be as celebratory as planned after the cricketers missed out by one wicket on taking a 1-0 lead over England in the Ashes following a thrilling climax to the first Test at Cardiff.

But in becoming the first Australian since Alan Jones at Las Vegas in October 1981 to win a grand prix, Webber will still be hailed a hero Down Under.

Although Webber will be gutted by the result in the cricket, there was no doubting just how much his maiden win meant to him as an Australian.

"It was very, very important for me because not many Australian drivers have reached Formula One, and there are even fewer who have been successful," remarked Webber.

"It's a real message to the Australian people. I've always tried to represent my country as best as I can.

"We're a very proud sporting nation which has done well on bikes in the past with Mick (Doohan) and Casey (Stoner).

"Now this is a great day for me and Australia."

Source : Palnet F1

Brawn GP lightest of all

This should be interesting as the Brawns are light but the Red Bulls are not that heavy. The more interesting thing is the McLarens are way heavier but are on row 3 and have KERS. Plus the weather is changeable with a heavy possibility of rain and the first turn is after a long straight with a harpin. Woohoo!

Saturday 11th July 2009

In a surprise revelation, car weights post qualifying have hinted that Brawn GP's rivals have not only caught them, but surpassed them.

Brawn's two drivers, Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button, qualified second and third for Sunday's German GP, a feat that one has come to expect from the duo this season. However, what wasn't expected was how light they are.

Barrichello and Button are the lightest drivers on the grid, weighing in at 647 and 644kgs respectively, whereas pole sitter Mark Webber and his team-mate Sebastian Vettel are both coming in at 661kgs.

Lewis Hamilton, who qualified in fifth place and has already said a podium finish could be on the cards for McLaren, is third lightest of the top ten, with his MP4-24 weighing 654kgs while his team-mate Heikki Kovalainen is carrying 10kgs more fuel.

One of the biggest surprises of qualifying, though, was Adrian Sutil's performance as the German finished the afternoon in seventh place ahead of both Ferraris. And he's heavier than them as well.

Weights
01. Webber Red Bull-Renault 661.0
02. Barrichello Brawn-Mercedes 647.0
03. Button Brawn-Mercedes 644.0
04. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 661.0
05. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 654.5
06. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes 664.0
07. Sutil Force India-Mercedes 678.5
08. Massa Ferrari 673.5
09. Raikkonen Ferrari 674.0
10. Piquet Renault 676.0
11. Heidfeld BMW-Sauber 681.0*
12. Alonso Renault 668.2*
13. Nakajima Williams-Toyota 683.6*
14. Trulli Toyota 683.7*
15. Rosberg Williams-Toyota 689.6*
16. Kubica BMW-Sauber 673.5*
17. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 674.5*
18. Fisichella Force India-Mercedes 662.5*
19. Glock Toyota 662.3*
20. Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari 689.5*

Source : Planet F1

Qualy: Webber claims debut pole

Saturday 11th July 2009

What a difference a touch of rain makes to an F1 track, as Germany witnessed the best qualifying session of the season with Mark Webber claiming his first ever pole position.

The rain started to fall lightly at the end of Q1, however, it was in Q2 that the action really started with drivers sliding off the track on their outlaps before returning in full force to the pits for intermediates.

And although the rain stayed away for the final session it was no less exciting as the top five positions all changed after the chequered flag fell with Webber coming out tops with a 1:32.230. It was the Aussie's first ever pole position and a much-deserved one.

Brawn GP was the team that yet again took the fight to Red Bull Racing with Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button finishing second and third, ahead of Sebastian Vettel. This means the top four drivers in the Championship race will also be the top four on the Nurburgring grid.

Lewis Hamilton, who set the pace in the final two practice sessions, had to settle for fifth place ahead of his team-mate Heikki Kovalainen and Force India's Adrian Sutil.

Qualifying 1
Under leaden skies with the temperature down at 14C ambient and the track at 22C, all the teams scurried into the pitlane for the start of the session fearful that the skies might open and rain would become a factor.

As it was, the rain held off in the opening minutes and while the cars - which had all been fuelled up for three or more hot laps - circulated, Sebastian Vettel established the P1 time at 1:33.413 on the medium (prime) tyre.

Button edged this down to 1:32.649, Alonso reduced it to 1:31.834 before Lewis Hamilton seized the advantage with a 1:31.686 on the first of a series of three runs which took the time down to 1:31.473 (all on the super-soft option tyre).

Realising that everyone was going to be using the green-walled super-soft tyres, Vettel joined the gang and re-set P1 at 1:31.430, while Mark Webber went even better with a 1:31.257.

A rejuvenated Fernando Alonso was flying in the early stages and making the most of an updated aero package on his Renault. It looked like he would snatch P1 until he came up against the Toyota of Timo Glock trying to give himself a bit of space in the final corner. Alonso still got P2 but even if Glock wasn't in trouble with the stewards, he was in trouble on the track.

Going into the final three minutes the danger positions were: 13.Nakajima, 14.Sutil, 15.Piquet, 16.Kubica, 17.Button, 18.Fisichella, 19.Glock, 20.Bourdais.

There had been rain drops spotting the camera lenses after five minutes, but with two minutes to go it began to rain steadily, giving those in the drop zone no chance of improving their lap time. And though Kubica and Glock set off with the hope of getting into Q2, their mid-lap times were so far down that they didn't bother completing the lap.

So, out went:
16.Kubica
17.Buemi
18.Fisichella
19.Glock
Bourdais

Glock was the major casualty, but strange to say after their practice form it was more of a surprise to see Fisichella in the bottom five than it was Robert Kubica.

Qualifying 2
If the rush to get out of the pitlane in Q1 was evident, then the scramble to get out of the pits for Q2 was like the M25 on a Friday night. And the race to get track position was intense on the opening tour as the rain started to fall again and conditions worsened.

Lewis Hamilton was on the outside of a three-car battle going into one turn, while ahead of them Kazuki Nakajima showed how bad the conditions were getting by spinning his Williams-Toyota under braking.

Everyone was having fun controlling their cars, none more so than Felipe Massa who lost control of his Ferrari exiting the Michelin kurve and found himself tiptoeing round a cinder track behind the gravel trap at the run-off for the BIT kurve.

At the end of a madcap lap everyone barring Mark Webber came in to the pits for Intermediate tyres, leaving the Red Bull driver to struggle on for a fruitless lap on slick tyres.

Out they all came again on inters, led off by Fernando Alonso who set P1 at 1:43.931. This was then superseded by Lewis Hamilton at 1:42.325 with Adrian Sutil taking P2 and then Kazuki Nakajima taking P2 off him.

Everyone was having moments all over the circuit. Heikki Kovalainen passed the tentative Toyota of Trulli only to put a wheel on the white line at the exit of Turn 4 in the Mercedes Arena and spun his car with a gentle bash on the Armco that thankfully only ruined his lap time.

Nick Heidfeld was sensational in the wet at Silverstone and Spa in 2008 and he grabbed P1 with a 1:42.310, Raikkonen took it off him with a 1:41.730 and then Mark Webber put in an astonishing lap, sending the timing screen purple for three sectors with a 1:38.038.

While all this was happening, and Nakajima and Vettel were having a paint-swapping moment in the pitlane, Rubens Barrichello chose to put on dry tyres. The rain had stopped briefly and Rubens saw a gap. His lap time was sensational. He carved almost four seconds off P1 from a 1:38 to a 1:34.469.

Now the rush was to get out there again with dry tyres on.

Going into the final three minutes the danger positions were: 8.Hamilton, 9. Nakajima, 10.Sutil, 11.Trulli, 12.Piquet, 13.Rosberg, 14.Button, 15.Kovalainen

And just as soon as the cars had their slicks back on then it started to rain again. With just seconds of the session remaining, Button and Hamilton had been relegated to 14th and 15th positions. Sutil grabbed P2, then Nelson Piquet took P2 off him.

Fernando Alonso lost it under braking for the Veedol chicane but kept his car out of the gravel despite dipping his front wing in. At the same time Kimi Raikkonen started to rallycross his Ferrari F60.

Across the line they came and Heikki Kovalainen managed to get his injured car into P6, Button's last gasp attempt brought him P5 and Hamilton came home in P6. It had been the most breathtaking Q2 of the season, if not the most eventful since we moved away from single lap qualifying.

Out went:
11.Heidfeld
12.Alonso
13.Nakajima
14.Trulli
15.Rosberg

For the first time Nelson Piquet Junior had outqualified his team-mate and by a margin of almost seven seconds. Nelsinho just loves the German Grand Prix (he finished in P3 last year). Alonso looked like he had the potential to run in the top five but threw it all away due to his own misjudgement.

Trulli's exit sealed a miserable qualifying for Toyota and the recent upswing of Williams was stopped dead inits tracks.

Qualifying 3
Unlike the previous two sessions when the green light came on, this time nobody came out at all. There was 8.30 left on the clock when Jenson Button's Brawn GP car broke the silence, but seeing few others come out on track, he came straight in again.

Rubens Barrichello set the provisional pole time with a 1:32.797 and Mark Webber slotted in behind before Sebatian Vettel took P2 off him. The track was drying fast and it looked like everyone was going to save their best till last.

After the early laps, the order was: Barrichello, Vettel, Webber, Kovalainen, Raikkonen, Massa, Sutil, Hamilton, Piquet, Button (who hadn't set a time).

Out they came for either one or two final hot laps. Kovalainen consolidated his P4. Lewis Hamilton jumped to P1 with a 1:32.616, Jenson Button couldn't better it and went P2. Rubens Barrichello passed him for P2, then Mark Webber set pole at 1:32.230.

Vettel, Barrichello and Button were all on hot laps behind him. Hamilton was back in his garage. Though Button set the fastest first sector of anyone, he had a moment in his middle sector and lost 0.5 of a second.

Meanwhile Vettel crossed the line to take P2, but despite Jenson's mistake he took it off the German, and then Barrichello crossed the line to put himelf on the front row in P2 relegating Button to P3 and Vettel to P4.

Hamilton ended up 5th and Adrian Sutil a brilliant 7th for Force India - five Mercedes engines in the top 10. It was Mark Webber's first ever pole position and the Aussie is good in both wet and dry conditions boding well for the race tomorrow.

FH

Times
01 M. Webber Red Bull 1:32.230
02 R. Barrichello Brawn GP 1:32.357
03 J. Button Brawn GP 1:32.473
04 S. Vettel Red Bull 1:32.480
05 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:32.616
06 H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:33.859
07 A. Sutil Force India F1 1:34.316
08 F. Massa Ferrari 1:34.574
09 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:34.710
10 N. Piquet jr. Renault 1:34.803
11 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:42.310
12 F. Alonso Renault 1:42.318
13 K. Nakajima Williams 1:42.500
14 J. Trulli Toyota 1:42.771
15 N. Rosberg Williams 1:42.859
16 R. Kubica BMW 1:32.190
17 S. Buemi Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:32.251
18 G. Fisichella Force India F1 1:32.402
19 T. Glock Toyota 1:32.423
20 S. Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:33.559

Source : Planet F1

F1 News - Prac Two: Hamilton steals Vettel's thunder

Friday 10th July 2009

Lewis Hamilton stole Sebastian Vettel's thunder in Friday's second practice in Germany, beating the local favourite to the P1 slot.

Hamilton, who has had a miserable season with McLaren to date, showed some signs of promise as he crossed the line with a 1:32.149, edging Vettel by 0.182s.

Third place went to Brawn GP's Jenson Button, who wasn't far off the pace, just 0.2s behind his fellow Brit.

Report: With the track temperature up to 20'C and thick cloud cover overhead, Sebastian Vettel got proceedings underway in the weekend's second practice session. The German, who stopped out on track due to a loose electrical connector in Practice One, led out a string of cars as the drivers set about covering their installation laps. Vettel, though, almost came together with Seb Bourdais as he dived down the inside, looking to start the first timed lap of the afternoon.

Vettel clocked a 1:37.646 but was quickly overhauled by fellow German Timo Glock. Glock too lost out as his team-mate Jarno Trulli went quickest with a 1:37.180. Nick Heidfeld, Felipe Massa, Robert Kubica and Seb Buemi queued up behind them on the timesheets. Vettel returned to the P1 slot, posting a 1:35.577 as the first few drops of rain began to fall. Glock improved to second place ahead of Trulli, Kubica and Buemi.

Giancarlo Fisichella was the first to fall foul of the wet weather as the Roman put his car onto the wet white paint, which put him into a slide that ended with his Force India making contact with a barrier at the Michelin Kurve. Game over for Fisichella.

After a brief rain break the drivers returned to the track with Nico Rosberg taking eighth place on his first timed lap of the afternoon. The German moved up to second place on his next lap before being dropped as Heikki Kovalainen went quickest, the first driver to use the super softs. He did a 1:34.906 only to take more than a second off his time on his second timed lap.

With all the drivers out on track, excluding Kovalainen, Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen, the timesheets continued to change with Kazuki Nakajima taking second place ahead of Rosberg before Rosberg moved ahead and Massa slotted in between the Williams pairing. Fernando Alonso went fifth ahead of his team-mate Nelson Piquet but that too changed when Trulli put his Toyota into third place.

Nick Heidfeld was the next to take the P1 slot only to lose out to Mark Webber seconds later. Jenson Button went fourth and Alonso fifth. Vettel had problems going into Turn 1, forcing him onto the run-off area as he overshot the braking point. The German later moved up to fourth place, moments after Button took third.

Raikkonen improved from the bottom of the timesheets to fifth place while Hamilton moved up to ninth. The McLaren driver continued his climb up the order taking sixth place behind Glock. Glock's team-mate Trulli also upped his pace, going second quickest with Nakajima third.

The order of play changed as Button took control, going quickest with a 1:32.369, putting him 0.2s ahead of Webber while Adrian Sutil put in another stellar performance to take third place. Trulli improved to second place, 0.142s behind Button. Barrichello slotted into fifth place, finishing finding a similar sort of pace to his pace-setting team-mate's.

Hamilton was the next to put in a charge as he moved up to second place, just 0.044s behind Button before the two Brits were dropped by Vettel's climb up the order. He went quickest with a 1:32.342.

The final few minutes saw a mad rush from the 19 drivers remaining in the session with Hamilton taking the P1 slot and although Vettel closed the gap, he wasn't able to overhaul the McLaren man.

Times
01 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:32.149 23 laps
02 S. Vettel Red Bull 1:32.331 31 laps
03 J. Button Brawn GP 1:32.369 32 laps
04 M. Webber Red Bull 1:32.480 28 laps
05 J. Trulli Toyota 1:32.511 32 laps
06 A. Sutil Force India F1 1:32.585 32 laps
07 R. Barrichello Brawn GP 1:32.664 26 laps
08 F. Alonso Renault 1:32.774 24 laps
09 K. Nakajima Williams 1:32.872 32 laps
10 N. Piquet jr. Renault 1:32.992 29 laps
11 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:33.012 36 laps
12 F. Massa Ferrari 1:33.052 34 laps
13 N. Rosberg Williams 1:33.128 34 laps
14 R. Kubica BMW 1:33.161 28 laps
15 T. Glock Toyota 1:33.172 34 laps
16 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:33.182 29 laps
17 H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:33.724 27 laps
18 S. Buemi Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:33.903 30 laps
19 S. Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:34.025 30 laps
20 G. Fisichella Force India F1 1:38.877 3 laps

Source : Planet F1

F1 News - Prac One: Red Bull and Brawn resume battle

Friday 10th July 2009

The battle between Red Bull and Brawn GP resumed in Friday's opening practice for the German GP with Mark Webber setting the pace.

The Australian driver, who Jenson Button believes is the favourite to win at the Nurburgring this weekend, clocked a 1:33.082 to outpace Button by 0.381s.

Third place went to Felipe Massa as the Ferrari driver demonstrated the Scuderia's continuously improving pace.

Report: With the track temperature sitting at just 14'C, Sebastian Vettel left the Red Bull garage to put in his installation lap in front of his home crowd. He was soon joined by another German driver as Adrian Sutil ventured out, followed by a train of drivers. Within ten minutes everyone barring Lewis Hamilton and Timo Glock had completed their sighting lap.

Sebastien Buemi set the first lap time of the weekend as a few spots of rain began to fall, a 1:43.315 for the Toro Rosso driver. Giancarlo Fisichella was the next to record a time, going quickest after taking three seconds off Buemi's time. The track action, though, stopped shortly after as the rain came down a little harder.

With the rain abating, drivers ventured out again with Jarno Trulli going quickest with a 1:39.7. Fisichella dropped to second with Nico Rosberg, Heikki Kovalainen and Buemi behind him. Rosberg and Kovalainen improved their times with Kimi Raikkonen slotting into third place between the two. Raikkonen continued lapping, taking second place while Trulli lowered the benchmark to a 1:36.1. Kovalainen went second.

Halfway through the session, the top eight were Trulli, Rosberg, Mark Webber, Kovalainen, Raikkonen, Kazuki Nakajima, Nick Heidfeld, Felipe Massa. Raikkonen and Heidfeld almost immediately moved up the order while Sutil, Jenson Button, Seb Bourdais, Rubens Barrichello, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso had yet to set times.

Webber went quickest with a 1:34.4, taking a full second off his time over the course of the next two laps. Rosberg moved up to second place behind him while Sutil impressed with a 1:35.0, which put him third quickest. The German's run, though, came to an end shortly after as he car stopped on the side of the track at the exit of Turn 1.

Vettel went second to give Red Bull the 1-2 but was soon overhauled by Massa, the only driver to get within a second of Webber's P1 time. Alonso moved up to fourth place with Fisichella slotting in behind him and ahead of Robert Kubica, Rosberg and Nelson Piquet.

Vettel, having just improved his time, was the second driver - and the second German - to drop out of the session as the Red Bull racer brought his car to a standstill in almost the exact same place as where Sutil stopped minutes before. The marshals quickly pushed his car out of harm's way.

Force India's impressive run continued with Fisichella moving up to second place with Button also improving as he went P5. Meanwhile, at the back of the pack lay Hamilton, who was 2.5s off the pace with only Buemi slower. Hamilton's fellow Brit, Button, climbed the order to third place, 0.5s off Webber's P1 time before moving up to second on the next lap. Hamilton slot up the timesheets, taking seventh place, while Webber improved his P1 time.

Trulli overhauled Fisichella for third place while his team-mate Timo Glock remained down in 16th place, unable to find the pace needed to challenge at the front in his home grand prix weekend. Raikkonen put in a charge to move up from 17th to fourth place, 0.7s off the pace.

The final few minutes saw a major push from the drivers with Massa going off at the Castrol S chicane before taking third place on the following lap.

The session ended with Webber at the top of the timesheets with a 1:33.082. Button was second ahead of Massa, Trulli, Fisichella and Raikkonen.

Times
01 M. Webber Red Bull 1:33.082 19 laps
02 J. Button Brawn GP 1:33.463 18 laps
03 F. Massa Ferrari 1:33.745 21 laps
04 J. Trulli Toyota 1:33.795 23 laps
05 G. Fisichella Force India F1 1:33.839 26 laps
06 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:33.840 23 laps
07 N. Rosberg Williams 1:33.902 26 laps
08 S. Vettel Red Bull 1:33.909 13 laps
09 K. Nakajima Williams 1:33.952 25 laps
10 F. Alonso Renault 1:34.148 16 laps
11 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:34.221 25 laps
12 R. Barrichello Brawn GP 1:34.227 17 laps
13 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:34.483 14 laps
14 R. Kubica BMW 1:34.694 23 laps
15 N. Piquet jr. Renault 1:34.738 24 laps
16 S. Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:34.827 27 laps
17 S. Buemi Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:34.878 28 laps
18 H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:34.893 26 laps
19 T. Glock Toyota 1:34.911 23 laps
20 A. Sutil Force India F1 1:35.092 6 laps

Source : Planet F1

The Legend - Proton Wira - 4G92 Rebuild by Simon

Back to Year 2002 ~ My First car was Proton Wira 1.3GL.

I decided to buy this car because Proton Wira was made based on Mitsubishi Lancer Platform and plenty of modification can be done on this car .



Back to year 2004. First modification - Transplant 4G93T 1.8 GSR Engine to my car. Not much modification was done - just enjoy the stock standard 1.8 GSR which produced 181WHP dynoed that time.

At last the 4G93T Engine is blown due to overboost as my turbo actuator are faulty! After deep thinking and finally decided to do transplant to 4G63T - from Mitsubishi Evolution 2.

Modification list:
Garrett GT2835 Turbine
1.2mm Metal Gasket from Tomei
Re Map ECU with Ralliart Chip
Sard 800cc Injector
Walbro Fuelpump
Stock Internal

Pumping out 320WHP but too bad...engine blown when I tried to push it to the limit at 1.7 bar boost!! Am I crazy?!?!?!?!? (a bit la Simon - ED)



With a very tight budget and I must get my car running on the road again, I got no choice but
plug in 4G91 engine to make it running it again. I bought the 4G91 Floor Engine only At RM900, quite cheap back then.

After plugging in the 4G91 Engine, I'm using the Stock 4G93T Turbo ECU code - 5771 with stock GSR Airflow code 449 and stock GSR 390cc Injector. I have no choice but have to mix and match to get the engine started. That time the Fuel consumption is quite high as I'm using 4G93T GSR Turbo stuff on 4G91 N/A engine.



In 2006 I'm thinking out of the box, based on my experience in modifying cars, I came out with an idea - Bolt On Turbo (I think this idea was around a long time ago, sorry didn't want to offend our reader's intelligence - ED).

With all the parts taken off from my previous 4G93T GSR Engine, all the turbo parts was mod into the 4G91 engine.

Here is the modification list:

4G93T TD04L turbine
4G93T Turbo Exhaust Manifold
4G93T Engine Oil Pan
4G93T Cylinder Head



But the 4G93T piston unable to fit in as the original piston bore for 4G91 is 78.4MM and 4G93T piston are 81mm. It very dangerous to bore more than 2mm from the original block , so end up using the stock 4G91 Piston.

4G93T Piston compression ratio around 9:5.1 and 4G91 N/A - around 11:5.1 compression Ratio. Plus 4G91 N/A does'nt have oil squirter to cold the piston and damn!! I put 1.5mm metal gasket to prevent massive engine knocking and to lower the engine compression.

The Engine management system by Greddy E Manage Ultimate as piggy back ecu to control the fuel map and ignition timing. After the modification are done , the maximum boost is around 0.8Bar , and it can't go any higher, it will cause the engine blown again!!

Engine was tuned based on wide band on the road tuning but definitely its more powerful then 4G93 N/A engine but never powerful than 4G93T GSR. Sorry I don't have the dyno chart



Year 2007 - Planning to increase the power of the engine .......... after a careful planning, came out with 4G92 Mivec block interchange !!!


Reason why ???

4G92 Mivec block sharing the same piston size with 4G93T which is 81MM
4G92 Mivec block comes with oil squirter built in
4G92 Mivec con rod its shorter and stronger

This time Major modification going to start but still with tight budget, I told myself ... why people can built a powerful & responsive engine in oversea especially in Thailand but why I can't built it here in Malaysia ? ?

The piston - I modified in the Toyota Supercharger Forged Piston (Flat Type) Compression Ratio - 8:9.1

The Conrod - Ordered from RPW Australia - Billet Forged Con rod

Together with ARP Racing Stud

The Bearing - ACL Racing Bearing

1.8MM metal gasket fitted in from Mitsubishi special ordered from Japan with a help from my friend. This time I upgrade my turbine to TD05H 20G turbo custom built by Tong Turbo in Kuala Lumpur. Wastegated with Tial 38MM 1 bar spring.

Guess what ? I'm still using the stock standard turbo manifold. Engine head port polish done by Nasty Port Flow in Subang with CFM tested. Jun 4G93T Turbo High Profile Billet cam fitted in - 272 Degree 10.85mm lift for both Intake and Exhaust together with Custom made adjustable cam pulley.

Intake system using back the standard 4G93T intake manifold but ported to bigger flow. The throttle body -From 4G92 Mivec bored to 65MM.



This time Sard 800cc injector fitted in again with Walbro 255LPH in tank fuel pump. This time I'm using the Haltech E6x standalone ECU with external 3 bar map sensor ( well I'm not using the stock map sensor built in with the ecu ) and Toyota 1JZ Air Temp sensor modified to my Intake system and 2.5" Exhaust piping with R*SR Invidia muffler

After the engine running in for few weeks ..After setting and tuning .Massive 316 WHP boosted at 1.9Bar , The turbo boost control by Blitz Dual SBC Spec R. I'm pushing it to the limit at the dyno machine and can't believed it !!!!! as this just 1600cc Engine !!!!!

I'm confident that my engine can withstand the power as the modification done on the engine block!!!! But too bad, the car was stolen on 5 January 2009 at my house :(

Here is some of the photo's and the full modification chart list



Engine Modification
Mitsubishi 4G92 Mivec 1.6Liter Block
Mitsubishi 4G93 N/A Cylinder Head (Port Polish Done By Nasty Port Flow Subang)
Mitsubishi 4G93T standard turbo manifold
Mitsubishi 4G93T Intake Manifold

Aftermarket Modification
Custom Engine Wiring
JUN 272 Degree Lift 10.85 Hi Cam ( SS Racing )
Custom Made Adjustable Cam pulley
Sard Fuel Regulator (SS Racing)
Sard 800cc Injectors (Bought 2nd hand at Zerotohundred.com)
Greddy Type RS Blow Off Valve ( Tomei Autoparts )
TD05 20G Journal Bearing Turbine by Tong Turbo
Stainless Steel Intercooler Piping by Chee Wah USJ Subang
2.5" Exhaust Piping by Chee Wah USJ Subang
R*SR Invidia Racing Muffler ( Tomei Autoparts Subang )
Aftermarket 65MM throttle Body
Exedy 9" 3 Puck Racing Clutch (SS Racing)
1.8MM Mitsubishi Metal Head Gasket (WiraTakLaju Zerotohundred.com)
Walbro 255LPH Fuel Pump (SS Racing)
Greddy Type RS Blow Off Valve ( Tomei Autoparts)
Mitsubishi Evolution 7 Intercooler ( Sponsored by one of my customer )
Mitsubishi Evolution Front Twin Pot Brake System (Tomei Autoparts)
Mitsubishi Evolution Rear Disk system (Tomei Autoparts)
Mitsubishi Evolution Master Brake Pump (Tomei Autoparts)
Mitsubishi Evolution III Semi LSD Gearbox (Tomei Autoparts)
Mitsubishi Evolution front Axle and Anti Roll Bar (Tomei Autoparts)
Mitsubishi Evolution III Dashboard (Tomei Autoparts)
Mitsubishi Evolution II Door Panel (Tomei Autoparts)
Mitsubishi Evolution II 6 Pieces Cromax Glass (Tomei Autoparts)

Engine Management and Computer System

Haltech E6X Standalone engine Management system
3Bar Map sensor from Haltech
Blitz Spec R Dual Solenoid Boost Controller ( Tomei Autoparts )

**Item bought from the shop as stated in the bracket**
** Car was stolen on 5 January 2009 in front of Union Height Condominium OUG**