FINISHED PICS!! The 'Never Wuz' wagon--AMT '65 Continental

Hi guys,

Benn a while since I've done some cars; I've been busy doing some Armor, but am back for another go with the shiny stuff!

This build has been tempting for some time now; what caught my eye was the boxtop that shows a panel-sided station wagon that reminds me of my Dad's old faux-wood-sided Country Squire. We had those cars to carry around the litter of my siblings and I for at least ten years. It's a sweet spot i my memory.

Trouble is, this vehicle never existed. There's no documented evidence of it, no photos. It seems to be a completely conceptual car designed by AMT. Still, I'll take it--there is no 70's era Country Squire that I know of, and this one will have to do. OK, 'nuff talking.

Here's the kit and what you get in the kit.

And here's the parts you use after clean-up.

Source: http://cs.scaleautomag.com/SCACS/forums/thread/936231.aspx

Brett Lunger Mike MacDowel Herbert MacKayFraser Bill Mackey

The latest from Bahrain

Thousands of protesters have gathered at the Pearl Roundabout in Bahrain, just on the outskirts of Manama. The security forces in the city seem to be holding back at the moment, no doubt trying to avoid the kind of confrontations that have caused two deaths and dozens of injuries in the last 36 hours. The [...]

Source: http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2011/02/15/the-latest-from-bahrain/

Cliff Griffith Georges Grignard Bobby Grim Romain Grosjean

NASCAR: NASCAR looks to limit two-car draft

NASCAR looks to limit two-car draft By Diego Mejia Tuesday, February 15th 2011, 09:21 GMT NASCAR has introduced technical changes to the cooling system on Sprint Cup series cars in the hope of limiting the two-car tandems that prevailed during Saturday's Budweiser Shootout at Daytona. Effective for Thursday's Gatorade Duels, which will complete the starting order for the Daytona 500, the dimensions of the front-grille opening on the cars will be reduced to a maximum of 50 square inches and also a pressure-relief valve set at 33 PSI will be fitted to radiators. The move will drastically reduce engine cooling, hoping drivers will have to look for 'clean air' much more than they did during Saturday's event, thus reducing the number of laps a car can push another one before water temperatures peak on their gauges. Related posts:
  1. NASCAR lowers age limit for regional touring series DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- NASCAR has lowered the age limit...
  2. 2011 Daytona 500: NASCAR seeks ways to limit two-car pushing at Daytona Kurt Busch Wins Wild Budweiser Shootout Denny Hamlin was...
  3. NASCAR opts for current restrictor plate at Daytona’s Budweiser Shootout despite speeds DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- NASCAR officials will continue the have-at-it-boys...
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Source: http://doxcar.com/nascar-nascar-looks-to-limit-two-car-draft/

Dennis Taylor Henry Taylor John Taylor Mike Taylor

BMW K 1600 GT and K 1600 GTL


BMW has unveiled today the new K 1600 GT and K 1600 GTL. motorcycles that come with a supreme, impressive and equally distinctive appearance, creating a desire to travel at first sight.

The two models are powered by a new 6-cylinder in-line engine that develops a total of 160 HP and a maximum torque of 175 NM. The rider of the K 1600 models has three different engine characteristics directly available at the press of a button at the right-hand end of the handlebars so as to be able to adapt to different uses such as touring on the road, riding on wet surfaces and sporty, dynamic motorcycling - the modes "Rain", "Road" and "Dynamic".

The K 1600 GT is has a very extensive range of standard features ex works consisting of xenon headlamps, heated grips and seat, cruise control and on-board computer. In the K 1600 GT, the body colours of Light Grey metallic and Vermilion Red metallic create a fascinating contrast with the frame and wheels in Ostra Grey and the engine in Platinum metallic matte.

UPDATE 02/15/2011: Prices for the BMW K 1600 GT and K 1600 GTL have finally been released. The K 1600 GT is priced at $20,900, while the K 1600 GTL will have a base price of $23,200. If you want to further customize your bike, then you can also opt for the Standard Package. This package is only offered on the K 1600 GT and is priced at $23,045. Further customization can be found on the Premium Package which is available on both models and priced at $24,540 for the K 1600 GT and $25,845 for the K 1600 GTL.

Press release after the jump.

BMW K 1600 GT and K 1600 GTL originally appeared on topspeed.com on Tuesday, 15 February 2011 16:15 EST.

read more




Source: http://www.topspeed.com/motorcycles/motorcycle-reviews/bmw/2012-bmw-k-1600-gt-and-k-1600-gtl-ar97581.html

Henri Louveau John Love Pete Lovely Roger Loyer

Kubica?s replacement?

My colleagues at crash.net have revealed that they believe that Robert Kubica thinks that the Lotus Renault GP team should pick Tonio Liuzzi as his replacement, rather than Nick Heidfeld. Kubica has had discussions with various team members since his accident, including Eric Boullier and Gérard Lopez, and it seems that he has made his [...]

Source: http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2011/02/15/kubicas-replacement/

Jesús Iglesias Taki Inoue Innes Ireland Eddie Irvine

A great talent awaiting a great car

It is an awful irony that it has taken Robert Kubica's horrific crash in a rally car on Sunday to bring him to the attention of the wider world.

Despite four and a half seasons in Formula 1, the 26-year-old Pole was not exactly a household name. Such is the lot of a grand prix driver who does not find himself in a front-running car.

But Kubica is very different from the other men pounding around in the midfield, to whom the wider TV audience pay only scant attention while focusing on the big names battling it out at the front.

This is a man who is increasingly regarded as one of the very finest racing drivers in the world - someone who, as David Coulthard put it on Monday, can be talked about in the same breath as the likes of Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton and the new world champion Sebastian Vettel.

Kubica has won only one grand prix - a superb drive for BMW Sauber in Canada in 2008 - but there was an ever-growing number of F1 observers awaiting with increasing impatience the time he would get his hands on a competitive car.

The signs have been there for some time, little snapshots that made you sit up and take notice that this was someone out of the ordinary.

In 2006, his pace as BMW Sauber's test driver effectively ended the career of 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve - when the Canadian fell out with the team, they needed no encouragement to sack him and replace him with Kubica, knowing that he was not only cheaper, but significantly faster.

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Despite zero experience, Kubica was brilliant in the second half of that year, immediately out-pacing his team-mate Nick Heidfeld, a veteran of more than six seasons, and taking a podium finish in only his third grand prix.

Kubica's driving style - turn in early and on the brakes, demanding a lot from the outside front tyre - meant he was affected badly by the switch to a single tyre supplier, and consequent lower grip levels, in 2007.

But he bounced back with a bang in 2008, driving with stunning consistency and pace to lead the championship after that win in Canada mid-season.

What happened next rankles with Kubica to this day.

BMW's plan was to use 2008 as a building year for a full title assault in 2009, and they stuck to it resolutely, easing off development of their race car just as they had got themselves to the top of the pile, in order to concentrate on their next model.

Their logic was that the car was not really quick enough to win the title against the superior machines of McLaren and Ferrari, that they were only leading the championship because Kubica had been more consistent than his rivals - and that the top teams would eventually get their act together.

Robert Kubica crashes his BMW in the 2007 Canadian Grand Prix

Kubica missed only one race after emerging unhurt from this crash in 2007. Photo: Getty

Kubica didn't see it that way - he saw a team giving up a golden opportunity to win the championship. Even with BMW's decision, he ended up finishing third, in contention until the penultimate race.

BMW's intransigence - matched, it has to be said, by Kubica's stubbornness - fatally damaged the driver's relationship with the team, and is almost certainly one reason behind his generally lacklustre 2009 season, when Heidfeld more or less matched him.

Even then, though, there were flashes of genius from Kubica, and last season, following his move to Renault, the doubters became less and less.

The 2010 Renault was not a great car, and had no business mixing it at the front with the Red Bulls, Ferraris and McLarens.

But Kubica performed miracles to qualify it in the top three at Monaco, Spa and Suzuka, the three tracks where a driver's input is most important, where a great driver can transcend the level of his car.

How good is he?

Among his fellow drivers, there has never been any doubt about Kubica's quality. Hamilton regards him as a future world champion - Kubica was the Englishman's main rival in their karting days as teenagers; Alonso has been quoted referring to him as the best driver in the world.

It is also a little known fact that, when Vettel was an inexperienced BMW test driver in 2007, Kubica was an average of about 0.4secs quicker than him.

At Renault, they adore him - technical director James Allison was effusive in a profile of Kubica my colleague Mark Hughes wrote for this website last season.

Allison, who has also worked with Alonso, described Kubica as "one of those very, very top guys where you know that if the car is not running at the front it's because of the car, not him", adding that he was "incredibly fast, won't make mistakes under pressure and will plough on for lap after lap at a really good pace".

Ferrari, too, have noticed his ability. He came very close to replacing Felipe Massa when the Brazilian suffered a fractured skull in a crash in Hungary in 2009, missing out only because he was too big for the car.

The interest remains. And before Sunday, most in F1 expected Kubica to replace Massa eventually, either at the end of this year or next.

Even a Ferrari drive, you suspect, would not change him. Kubica is totally unaffected by fame, has a complete lack of interest in self-promotion and is unimpressed by the razzmatazz of F1.

It now remains to be seen whether he will ever sit in the Ferrari that appears to have his name on it.

F1 drivers are renowned for their near-miraculous ability to recover from terrible injuries - they are to a man very fit and tremendously determined. And as someone close to him said on Monday, Kubica is also "totally stubborn". He will need all his single-mindedness to fight back after this.

But he has done it before. After breaking his left arm in 13 places when a passenger in a road-car crash early in 2003, doctors said he would be out for between six months and a year. Three months later he made his Formula Three debut and won.

Equally, after surviving virtually unscathed a horrific barrel-roll in the 2007 Canadian Grand Prix, doctors advised him to sit out the US Grand Prix seven days later. He was back for the following event in France, and qualified and finished fourth.

On Monday, the initial prognosis was about as positive as you could expect in the circumstances. Nevertheless, with such serious injuries, it seems likely that Kubica will be out for most of the season and replacing him is going to be impossible for Renault. There are simply not any drivers of comparable quality around.

Renault have two 'third drivers' in Bruno Senna and Romain Grosjean, but both are inexperienced and unproven, just like Kubica's team-mate, the Russian Vitaly Petrov. Will a team with aspirations of winning a couple of races this year feel they can go into a full season with a driver line-up like that?

The other option is to take someone experienced. They could potentially try to buy 2010 Williams driver Nico Hulkenberg out of his reserve driver contract with Force India. And Italian Vitantonio Liuzzi, rejected by Force India this season despite having a contract, is also available.

But the obvious contender is Heidfeld, F1's Mr Consistency, who may not set the world on fire, but can be relied upon to be decently quick and score regular points.

Whoever it is, they have a tough act to follow.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2011/02/it_is_an_awful_irony.html

Jim Rigsby Jochen Rindt John RiseleyPrichard Giovanni de Riu

Di Resta out to prove winning potential

Paul di Resta has bumped up the British numbers racing in Formula 1 this year by finally signing for Force India.

But unlike his compatriots, McLaren drivers and world champions Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button, Di Resta is out to prove he deserves his place on the grid.

The likeable 24-year-old Scot, whose promotion has been expected for some time, has plenty of reasons to feel confident about his first season in F1.

Over the course of 12 months as Force India reserve in 2010, Di Resta has already managed to galvanise the team's support.

His manager Anthony Hamilton, father of Lewis, revealed: "There hasn't been anything negative from the team. Paul has done a great job and they love him."

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The team were so smitten by Di Resta that his seat does not depend on sponsorship - in stark contrast to 2011's other rookies, Pastor Maldonado of Williams, Virgin's Jerome D'Ambrosio and Sauber's Sergio Perez.

In fact, to partner Di Resta with German Adrian Sutil, Force India will have to pay a financial settlement to Sutil's 2010 team-mate Vitantonio Liuzzi for breaking the firm contract the Italian had for this season.

Force India must be certain Di Resta has something worth paying for.

The son of racer-turned-businessman Louis di Resta and cousin of three-time IndyCar champion Dario Franchitti, Di Resta has described having racing "in his blood".

After winning the 2010 German touring car championship (DTM) for Mercedes on his weekends off from F1 duties, Di Resta arrives as a proven champion.

In his junior career, the Scot raced against future F1 world champions Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel, notably beating the German to the Formula Three Euroseries crown.

Di Resta recalled in a 2008 interview: "Sebastian was my team-mate in 2006. I definitely beat him on far more occasions than he ever beat me.

"I'm not saying that I'm a faster or better driver than him but you'd have to say there's at least parity between us.

"As for Lewis, when we had the same machinery we were equally good."

In terms of raw talent Di Resta may well be a match for two of F1's fastest men but it will be difficult for him to prove it when he rejoins them on track.

The laidback Scot's first task will be to adapt his racing mindset from DTM's slower 'tin-top' cars to F1's open, single-seater speed machines.

The difference between driving a touring car with 500bhp and an F1 car charged with 750bhp and tonnes of downforce can be compared to handling a family estate car and a supercar.

"It requires a different style to drive both [cars] on the limit; it's not easy," explains McLaren reserve and driver Gary Paffett, who was one of Di Resta's Mercedes team-mates in the DTM last year.

"But if you can win in DTM it puts you in a good position to do a good job in F1. Paul will do a good job - but how good?

"If you're used to winning you might have to get over the fact that you're not going to be beating the McLarens and Ferraris week in, week out or beating your team-mate 100% of the time. That's something you have to learn."

In eight first practice sessions over grand prix weekends for Force India last season, Di Resta was only able to out-pace either Sutil or Liuzzi, who alternated in the other car, once.

Improving that niggling statistic will be a target for the Scot when the season begins with free practice in Bahrain on 11 March.

Beyond that, barring a major surprise Di Resta will not have the machinery capable of reigniting his teenage rivalry with Hamilton and Vettel, Red Bull's reigning champion.

Force India finished seventh in the constructors' championship last season with Sutil collecting best-place finishes of fifth in Malaysia and Spa. In terms of pace, both drivers failed to qualify inside the top 10 in the final six races of 2010.

The development of Force India's 2011 car has had to absorb some unsettling changes at the team's Silverstone factory, with two technical directors, James Key and Mark Smith, as well as chief designer Lewis Butler leaving for rival teams in the space of a year.

Force India intend to fine-tune the new VJM04 car in the wind tunnel before introducing it at the second pre-season test in Jerez - a policy also adopted by McLaren, but not by Red Bull, Ferrari, Mercedes, Renault and Williams, who will all have new cars ready for the first test in Valencia next week.

After the flashbulbs and fanfare of being unveiled as an F1 driver have died down, Di Resta will start the process of making his opportunity count in Valencia driving a modified 2010 car.

Di Resta may still have everything to prove in F1 but like the rest of 2011's rookies he also has nothing to lose.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/sarahholt/2011/01/paul_di_resta_has_bumped.html

Jack Fairman Juan Manuel Fangio Nino Farina Walt Faulkner