RackandOpinion on hold

Sorry for the inactivity over the last month. This old place has taken second fiddle to something that I have been working on.

I hope to be back with more automotive jabber very soon.

The backlash begins here?

Cars, so often symbols of status, wealth and power, have become the new flash point in reactions against the percieved excesses of the 'wealthy' in the lead up to this new recession.

Political motivations and anger at symbols of wealth is spreading, and in Germany this looks like it might be taking the form of attacks on luxury cars.

From Bloomberg

"When Berlin resident Simone Klostermann returned from vacation and couldn’t find her Mercedes SLK, she thought it had been towed. Police told her the 35,000- euro car had been torched.

“They’d squirted something flammable into the car’s engine block in the gap between the windshield and the hood,” said Klostermann. “The engine was completely destroyed.”

The 34-year-old’s experience isn’t unique in the German capital. At least 29 vehicles were destroyed in arson attacks this year, most of them luxury cars, according to police. The number is already about 30 percent of the total for 2008. The latest to go up in flames was a Porsche, on Feb. 14, two days after a Mercedes was set alight in a public car park"

The recession is prompting anger across the world, and every country has its own hallmark. Germany, so famous for its automotive heritage and luxury products, is feeling the pinch in a very particular way.

A group has already claimed responsibilty for many of the attacks, in a protest "against a protest against the world economy and rising rents.”

It seems obvious that this anger would manifest itself in some way but this seems localized in certain 'up and coming' neighbourhoods in Berlin, for now.

New Donington F1 Track Simulated

The BBC website is now showing a computer simulation of the new, revised Donington F1 circuit. The circuit will inherit the British GP for a 10 year contract from 2010.


See page here.

You might have thought car 'shoes' were tyres...

...yes, so did we.

Though currently a figment of Photoshop, I have to say if these don't pique your interest in shoes, then happily, nothing will.



Thanks to Jalopnik and Tim Cooper for the heads up and artwork respectively.

What a Shot: 911 GT3 Drift

Drifitng round an airfield corner in a 996 GT3 you may just be able to make me out (if you enlarge the pic) in the passenger seat as Steve Hall (excellent photographer/driver/nutter) actually talks me through the slide... mid slide.

Impressive stuff.

click to enlarge

Audi R8 V10 Reviewed

Hot on the heels of the debut of the R8 LMS GT3 class car Automobile mag are apparently the first to review the hotly anticipated new Audi R8 V10.

Eye, eye Robot

Packing 525bhp from its 5.2 litre engine it seems as if the car's potential wasn't limited in the end, thankfully. We did imagine that Audi may keep the R8 as bridesmaid to avoid stepping on the burly bride Gallardo's toes.

In fact Lambo may still take a hit from this car's potential buyers even though it has tried to elevate the Gallardo into an new stratosphere with the LP560-4. It may well be that in the current crisis that the ostentatious Lambo proves too extravagant to be palatable.

Back to the Audi then. The first pictures indicate that the car will look suitably stunning with a few subtly mods to the front airdam and trademark Audi oval exhausts keeping the addenda to a minimum. This is no bad thing when the 'base' model is one of the most alluring on the road.

Check out the review HERE.