Aussie Motoring

If the name doesn’t mean much to you then just think of the world’s fastest production sports car

Meet a production sports car with a top speed that’s only limited by the tyres. That’s right, with the best tyres that Bugatti can find they’ve wound the Bugatti Veyron up to around 405 km/h and there’s still something left in reserve.

You can have one … if you have the money and can find one for sale. Only 300 were built and they sold for around $US1.5 million - each. One recently sold at auction in London for a reported 1.5 million pound.

The Bugatti Veyron is powered by an 8 litre double V16 motor fitted with 4 turbochargers and 10 radiators. In this car if it’s fluid then it has at least one radiator for cooling and could have as many as three.

It has a 100 litre fuel tank and at full power you will burn through those 100 litres in about 20 minutes. I’ll leave you to do the conversion.

You can see more of this beautiful vehicle at the Bugatti website

11,584 VE and WM sedans and wagons to be recalled

This recall affects all VE and WM model Commodores built prior to 11 September 2006 because of a potential problem with rear seatbelt buckles. A spring within the assembly could be bent and this may cause the belt to release when in use.

Holden says that owners of the affected Commodores will be contacted directly by mail and advised of the problem and where to take their car to have the problem rectified.

Some drivers will still never see them

Queensland Police is about to trial two high visibility general duties police cars following a promise made by the Beattie Government to maximise the visibility of marked police cars to serve as a deterrent to motorists.

Police Minister Judy Spence said the first two prototypes of the new high visibility marked cars are being put through their paces over the next three months in the NorthCoast and Southern Queensland police regions.

“The two general duties white marked police cars have more highly visible blue and white reflective decals with the added addition of either orange or yellow fluoro markings,” Ms Spence said.

“Highly visible policing has a proven deterrent factor on motorists, as it makes people slow down and obey the road rules.”

Ms Spence said the vehicles will undergo an evaluation process over the next three months, which will involve testing for durability, visibility and feedback from the public and police officers about their markings.

“Once the evaluation period is over, the results will be analysed and used as the basis on which the new markings will be rolled out across the police vehicle fleet statewide. This will occur over the next three years,” Ms Spence said.

The new markings are part of a $1.5 million commitment to increase the visibility of police cars on the road, and fund a further 10 bright red high performance police highway patrol cars.

Ms Spence said the new highway patrol cars - which will also be introduced over the next three years - will double the existing fleet of highway patrol cars.

But obviously not in time to help Ford

Motor vehicle sales in Australia have rebounded over the last month thanks to surging demand for light cars and encouraging sales of family sedans and sports utility vehicles (SUVs).

VFACTS results released today by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) show that October sales were up 5.0 per cent over the same month last year.

“The October result suggests that the motor vehicle market may be pulling out of the slight decline of results in recent months and tallies with our prediction of a stronger fourth quarter following important new model releases,” said FCAI Cchief Executive Peter Sturrock.

Year to date the automotive market is down by 23,148 vehicles or 2.8 per cent and the FCAI is projecting an end-of-year total of 970,000 - which would be the second highest on record.

Sales in the Light passenger car segment rose by 2382 vehicles or 31.3 per cent over October last year, partly at the expense of the larger-sized Small car segment, sales of which fell by 1328 or 7.0 per cent.

The Medium car segment also performed well, jumping by 1479 sales, while Large car sales were just 398 vehicles off the total in October last year.

“The Large car segment is starting to feel the positive effect of the new Holden Commodore and the industry looks forward to the segment receiving a further boost this month when the new Toyota Aurion goes on sale,” said Mr Sturrock.

He said it was also notable that sales of four-wheel drive vehicles appear to be recovering slightly.

“A rise of 11.3 per cent in SUV sales last month suggests that some consumers may have set aside their concerns about the petrol price spike that occurred over winter,” he said.

Sales of Light Commercial vehicles rose slightly in October (2.3 per cent), although the segment is down for the year to date by 2.8 per cent.

The FCAI says the automotive industry has begun a huge end-of-year sales push.

“Last week’s opening of the Australian International Motor Show in Sydney began an intense period of sales and marketing activity running up to Christmas, and we believe that November and December sales will be strong,” said Mr Sturrock.

Three weeks ago while the spotlight was on Mitsubishi and the leaked plan to close their assembly line here in Australia Ford Australia quietly announced that it would be reducing production at its plants in Victoria.

Today it has announced that it wants to reduce its workforce by around 600 before Christmas and has urged workers to accept voluntary redundancies.

Ford blames competition and reduced demand in the large car market for the drop in demand.

600 jobs represents a workforce reduction of around 10% and makes interesting reading in the light of what I said here. It’s also an interesting announcement to make in the middle of the Victorian election campaign.