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Passion for the Prancing Horse: Ferrari Racing Days.
Scuderia Ferrari, that’s what the letters SF stand for on the emblem for perhaps the most passion inspiring brand ever. Ferrari. Sydney Motorsport Park hosted the first ever Ferrari Racing Days weekend in Australia; covering April 11 to 13 which was an ideal opportunity to showcase the brand and, as it happened, the circuit.
Essentially, the FRD weekend was to show off the brand, by virtue of building a mini showroom, exhibiting some classic cars, running a few F1 cars covering some thirty years of Ferrari F1 history and inviting some privileged owners to drive their cars on the circuit. But the sheer exposure of the black horse on a yellow shield locally and, more importantly, internationally by having a round of the Ferrari 458 Speciale Pirelli Trofeo Challenge which included drivers from Indonesia, South Korea, Japan, Australia and the USA is priceless. Two races, over two days, plus twenty odd pilots seeing a circuit they’ve never driven on and being able to take that experience back to their home cities. An added attraction was the parade of cars, on Sydney’s freeway system, from the city to the circuit, of approximately 150 cars. Infrastructure was a major part of the event; in the paddock there were two entrances joined by a red carpet, joining a children’s entertainment area that also had the genuine F1 car driven by Michael Schumacher. A showroom with five cars, some classic cars such as a F40, F50 and Enzo, development cars in the form of the FXX and 599XX plus some truly historic cars added to the spectacle. On track were examples of Ferrari history, from a 348 Testarossa to the new California and more.
A highlight of the weekend was former racer and current F1 test driver for Ferrari, Marc Gene’, running the 2009 F1 car as campaigned by Kimi Raikkonen. Also, for the first time at Sydney Motorsport Park, were more than one genuine F1 car, as opposed to the sungle RB7 Red Bull car run by Mark Webber and Daniel Ricciardo as part of the Top Gear Festival. The combination of V8, turbo, V10 and V12 cars added an incredible sight and sound sensation, complete with Gene’ signing off with a crowd thrilling burnout.
Although the weather wasn’t the best, the attraction of the brand was such that over five thousand people came along to absorb the sights and sounds of the first Ferrari Racing Days at Sydney Motorsport Park.
Biofuels – What’s Currently Being Researched?
There’s no doubt about it: there is only a limited amount of fossil fuel in the world. Even running around in hybrid or purely electric vehicles may only go part of the way towards solving the problem, depending on how the electricity used to power the cars in question is generated. If the electricity is generated by an oil-fuelled generator, electric cars merely move the issue of burning fossil fuels further along the production line. If the electricity is generated using something sustainable, then that’s less of a problem.
Enter biodiesel and other biofuels. Biodiesel is almost just like normal diesel except that it can be refined from vegetable and animal fats. At the moment, these oils are a tad more acidic than regular diesel, so biodiesel, if used pure (B100) has a tendency to wear out the rubber hoses and gaskets inside your vehicle. Car manufacturers are beginning to respond by making cars with bits that can handle biodiesel, but at the moment, only a few cars can handle pure B100. The Saab 93 Biopower is one example. Most require a blend, although this may be starting to change. Car manufacturers aren’t stupid.
The other main biofuel is ethanol, which can be mixed with petrol and used to power that sort of engine. Ethanol is an alcohol produced by fermenting suitably sugary feedstocks. It’s really popular in Brazil, which has a massive sugarcane industry and all petrol in Brazil has at least 25% ethanol in it. We use a bit over here, too, also using waste from the sugar industry, although we don’t use as much as Brazil does.
However, all is not rosy in the world of biofuels and biodiesel. Yes, a good chunk of waste bits and pieces can be used to produce biodiesel and ethanol. However, leftovers aren’t going to be enough to power the world’s fleet of vehicles. This means that feedstock will have to be grown somewhere. There’s only a limited amount of land, so feedstocks are going to compete for land and water (and other resources such as fertiliser and labour) with crops grown for human consumption and for animal consumption. This is where a lot of research is being concentrated: how can we solve this problem?
Sorghum – a potential FFF plant.
One thing that is being researched in this area is finding suitable plants that are multipurpose – the so-called FFF (Food, Fodder and Feedstock) varieties. There’s been some pleasing results with varieties of sorghum, a grain used widely in Africa, where the grain is used for people, the leaves are fed to cattle and the sugary stems are used for ethanol production. Research is looking into which varieties are the best and whether or not breeders can come up with the perfect variety. Sweetcorn is another potential FFF plant. Along the same lines, they’re looking into plants that can be grown on not-so-hot land and thus taking up fewer resources – a recent paper published in the specialist journal Biotechnology for Biofuels proposed agave cactus as a possibility.
Another strand of research is looking into finding bacteria that do a great job of fermenting waste material and turning it into ethanol. If they can find some really good strains that can ferment just about any plant material, then this widens the scope for what can be used as feedstock.
The Jatropha bush.
On the biodiesel side of things, as well as hunting for crops that produce decent oil but don’t compete for resources too heavily. So far, the best crop is the jatropha shrub, which doesn’t mind drought, is poisonous enough to not have many pest problems and produces a really oily nut. The leftovers after the nut has been pressed for oil can be used for other bits and pieces, such as pesticides, medicines (yep) and as an ethanol feedstock. The issue here is that jatropha wasn’t originally a crop plant, so they’re working on finding good varieties that grow well on marginal land but produce a whacking big crop.
Also on the biodiesel front, they’re looking into algae. Some algae are oilier than you might think and could be used to produce biodiesel. The good thing about algae is that they can be grown on land that’s useless for farming other things, and they can be grown on wastewater – settlement ponds at the local sewage works are looking very promising so far. Of course, they’ve got to find the right strains of algae that produce the most oil, improve the extraction and harvesting process, and find a way to do all this commercially.
Algae even looks green.
Bad Car Paint Jobs
Customised paint jobs. They can be a fun way of personalising your car and making it look one of a kind. One of my husband’s friends has given his station wagon a customised home-made paint job, all in camouflage. He made a pretty good job of it and it’s good to be able to spot that car trawling around town and know at a distance that there goes Trev. OK, the camo job would have been even more appropriate on a big 4×4 – a Jeep, for example. Except then people would think it was the military in town.
Not all customised paint jobs go so well. Some are absolute shockers, and I don’t just mean because the paint job was done at home with a paint brush and leftover roof paint. The paint may have been applied well and evenly, but what has been painted on the car is tasteless, garish or tacky. Thankfully, the place I’ve seen these most often has been online rather than in the actual metal – with the probably exception of some of those Wicked Campers campervans that sometimes have some rather adult humour painted all over them – not what you want to be stuck behind with a car full of children who are old enough to read but too young to really have that sort of thing shoved in their face (right, stop the rant there).
So steel yourselves. Here comes the hall of shame. You have been warned…
Fake bloodstains to make it look as though you’re a homicidal maniac behind the wheel. Or a tampon on wheels. I feel sick.
Lovely classic Rolls-Royce. The yellow would have been an insult enough to such a fine piece of engineering but the Gypsy/Indian artwork?
What have they done to this poor Beetle?
If you drive this Mini, don’t expect to impress any woman with even half a brain. It makes me want to yell “Grow up!”
Apparently, this leopard-print Audi R8 is the latest folly of Justin Bieber, replacing the mirror-plated wheels of the past. Audi owners, start weeping now.
Part of me confesses to almost liking what they did to this Honda. Almost.
This is not Smart at all.
This isn’t a Smart idea either, although the BMW bike beats Hello Kitty hands down.
Mercy on us… time for Goodbye, Kitty.
Another one that gets the reaction “Grow up!” The actual paintwork looks badly done into the bargain. Where did I put that sick bucket?
What is this woman thinking? It’s got to be a woman in this car… surely?
Stop, stop! Enough already! Time for some relief in the form of paint jobs that are different (to say the least) but at least show a touch of imagination and a sense of humour.
As advertising for a zoo goes, this eye catching bus is a winner.
Here’s hoping the dorsal fin helps the aerodynamics.
This might not be to everyone’s taste but would be good for a professional florist.
Garish and over the top, but this road hog Beetle puts a smile on a few people’s faces.
Should You Teach Your L-Plater To Drive?
It’s a scary moment in any parent’s life: the moment your teenager first gets their learner’s licence and you stick the L-plates on the car so you can set off on that first rather tentative drive around the block. It happened to us last week. It wasn’t as scary as it could have been. But that may have been because we were in the automatic Ford. Behind the wheel of my husband’s manual Nissan work ute things may well be different.
Not all teenagers are the same behind the wheel when they first get there. Some are tentative and nervous and just about freak out as soon as the needle creeps over 30. Others are the reverse and go at everything like a bull at a gate, making the hapless parent in the front seat long for a set of dual controls like a professional driving coach and sit there with their hand on the handbrake just in case. (Not for them the sort of “handbrake” you find in some of the new Infiniti models: it’s operated by the driver’s foot. However, most of us probably wouldn’t put a teenager behind the wheel of a luxury vehicle for the first drive just in case.) Others take it in their stride, especially if they’ve had a go behind the wheel in fields, riverbeds or just up and down the driveway.
The question has to be asked: should parents teach their children to drive? There are pros and cons to teaching your own teenager to drive, and you have to consider both.
On the con side, if a parent has bad driving habits, these will be passed on to the next generation (see the earlier post by one of my fellow-bloggers on this topic). Driving teachers are able to pass on correct habits – well, at least they should. What’s more, when parents teach teenagers to drive, things can get emotional the way they don’t get with a driving coach. The driving coach has only seen your teenager as a young person of 16 or so. You, however, can still remember seeing your kid as a four-year-old just about whizzing onto the road on a tricycle. It cuts the other way, too, as your teenager might still be grumpy at you about some domestic issue when he/she gets behind the wheel. There’s no emotional baggage or contempt bred by familiarity with a driving coach.
Defensive driving courses are excellent, but they can backfire a little on nervous nellies. All that talk about how to get yourself out of a hairy situation can produce a sort of road paranoia, where every single other driver is perceived to be heartless monster who is out to Get You. Some of those road safety messages and stats might make a sensitive teenager too scared to get behind the wheel just in case.
On the other hand, a teenager can get a lot more practice in if parents take the opportunity to give their L-plater the wheel as often as possible. With a driving coach, there are bookings and budgets to consider. Few driving coaches offer night driving skills or long-haul driving skills, but handing your teenager the wheel for a shift while driving interstate will provide these opportunities. The other thing about teaching your teenager to drive is that it’s one of the few areas these days where parents can and do pass on skills to the next generation. The flip side of that is that a know-it-all teenager is put in the position where they are forced to realise that they don’t know it all and that the olds actually do have a few tricks up their sleeves.
So should you teach your L-plater to drive or should you leave it all up to the professionals? I say yes, teach them, although a few lessons from a professional certainly wouldn’t do any harm. Good, if anything. I’d keep the following guidelines in mind, though:
- Don’t make/let your teenager drive if either of you is in a snot.
- Don’t micromanage every single metre of the drive or every single intersection. Give guidance only when you need to. This will change as time goes by as your teenager picks up more skills.
- Do provide a variety of contexts for your teenager to drive in, rather than just handing him/her the wheel during the easy bits.
- Do stay focussed, even if your teenager appears to be a confident driver.
- Do be prepared with soothing words of encouragement for nervous drivers or a ready hand on the handbrake for the charging bulls.
- Do teach good driving habits!
Level 2, 9 Help Street