There have been three people confirmed dead by fire-fighters in a Melbourne tunnel crash involving up to 4 cars and two trucks. Eyewitnesses state that one truck lost control, striking another truck causing a massive fireball that engulfed many surrounding vehicles. The Burnley Tunnels emergency systems were immediately activated according to CityLink spokeswoman Jean Ker Walsh despite many eyewitness claims that the sprinkler system was not engaged.
Traffic has been chaotic at the scene all day, with the accident causing a total gridlock in much of the surrounding road network. Tunnel occupants were forced to leave their vehicles after the accident due to the dangers of fire and smoke, with mist vehicles still running as people fled the scene for safety.
Traffic is not expected to resume for some time with all motorists urged to avoid the area at all costs.
Avid Ford fan and driver John Bowe will be breaking a record long held by the late Peter Brock by getting back behind the wheel for the 213th time.
“This has been an incredible start to the season for me – I’ve joined a great new team at PCR, set records, announced my retirement... and we’ve only done one round!!," said John Bowe.
“In round one in Adelaide, I was fortunate enough to equal Peter Brock’s record of 212 Australian Touring Car / V8 Supercar Championship starts.
“This weekend, I will take the record outright and I’m very pleased that a significant milestone like this is now firmly in Ford land.
“I’ve enjoyed 28 years of racing in WA; I claimed my first Touring Car pole position at Wanneroo in 1986 and had two wins with DJR... It’s hard for me to really grasp that this is my last V8 Supercar event on the West Coast.”
John Bowe will breaking that record when the V8 Supercars take to the Western Australian track of Barbagallo for the second round of the V8 Supercar Championships. FPR driver Steven Richards will be trying for a hat-trick at the event, claiming the checkered flag for the last two years in a row.
After last weeks Top Gear Fans scare, Jeremy Clarkson has in fact officially announced that he will returning for another season of four wheeled driving antics.
Rumors have spread after quotes from Clarkson had contradicted BBC’s announcement of a ‘summer special’. Clarkson had believed that there would be no summer special, making the comment “After last week's Top Gear, the continuity announcer said the show would be back in the summer. Can I just say, here and now, it won't be.”
Automotive internet forums and blog sites every reported the news last week of Top Gear’s Demise much to the horror and dismay of Top Gear fans. Fear not, YouTube will continue to host ripped Top Gear episodes for us all to watch. Hooray!
Those wanting to head down to Drag Tag to see what all the fuss is about should do it this Thursday and Friday night with AutoTek jumping on board sponsoring both the nights of high octane drag and burnout action. There will be some great prizes up for grabs with AutoTek giving away some Momo gear to drag and burnout comp winners.
Drag Tag is also giving away a free a Drag Tag T-shirt to anybody who scrutineers their car before 7:30pm, valued at $20.
For those who are unsure just what Drag Tag is all about, it is a high-tech indoor drag racing facility that enables drivers to race their mates totally regardless of weather conditions. Cars are strapped to the Drag Tag dyno and then the drivers pilot their own car through a virtual drag strip via the massive display screens. Drag Tag also features Australia’s largest burnout pad, perfect for high speed drifts and massive power skids.
Gates open at 6pm with qualifying kicking off from 6:15pm. Burnouts kick off at 8:00pm so grab your car and a handful of mates and make the trip down to 20 Ainslie Rd in Campbellfield, Victoria for big night of four wheel fury.
Telstra have just launched a new service available to their Next G customers that allows them to gain access to finding out just who has the cheapest petrol prices in the area. The new service called My Fuel reports petrol prices from all capital cities and compares them which then reports back to the phone holder just who has the cheapest petrol prices in your current area.
Telstra Consumer Marketing and Channels Executive Director, Rosie Simpson, commented that the My Fuel Service offers a convenient way to keep track of fuel price changes and prevent the consumer from being ripped off.
"Telstra's My Fuel service takes the guess work out of buying petrol and it's quick and easy to use," Ms Simpson said.
"My Fuel provides updated snapshots of the latest petrol prices, so customers can make informed decisions and pinpoint the best petrol value in their local area.
"Our customers are discovering new uses for their mobiles on a daily basis and Telstra's My Fuel service is a great way for motorists to get the most out of their Telstra Next G(tm) or 3G network."
The My Fuel service is available exclusively to Telstra’s 3G and Next G networks. The service is available free of charge other than the standard data transfer charges.
The federal finance Minister and South Australian Liberal Senator, Nick Minchin, has allegedly told the Australian media that he has doubts that the experienced climate change is linked to human’s impact.
The Sydney Morning Herald has reported that Senator Minchin has taken influences from sources such as the Canadian newspaper columnist Lawrence Solomon who promotes the work of Danish scientist Henrik Svensmark. The research of Svensmark is believed to contain methodical and calculation errors according to other scientist, making most points and beliefs invalid.
Senator Minchin also referred to a critique of the economics of global warming by Sir Nicholas Stern. One of the authors involved in the critique was retired University Professor Bob Carter whose background lies with marine geology. He is also on a research committee at the Institute of Public Affairs which is funded by oil and tobacco companies.
The Drift Australia Series is going to Mallala Motor Sport Park for the running of Round Two of the Drift Australia and Super Drift series. Head down to Mallala on the 14th and 15th of April to witness some Australian muscle go head to head with the high powered Japanese four bangers to see who can hang the rear out the furthest.
To get in to the gate on Saturday will cost $15, while Sundays entry is $25. A full weekend pass for those die hard drifters will cost $35. Children under 14 get in free and tickets are available from the gate or at their website located HERE
Here's a nice video compilation for all you drift freaks featuring some footage of the awesome FPV Drif6
The V8 Ute racing series has commenced Round one today Australian Grand Prix circuit of Albert Park. It was in qualifying that it soon became apparent that this seasons racing were going to be action packed with drivers qualifying within 1/10ths of each other. It was Luff that came out of qualifying on top of Ryal Harris in the Harris Motorspot entry.
Five SS Commodore utes rounded out the top five positions in what turned out to be a Holden whitewash. This trend continued into race one with the two top positions both wearing the Lion emblem. After a monstrous battle between two top runners Grant Johnson and Ryal Harris, it was Johnson who managed to just edge forward in the later stages of the race to take out the win. Jack Elsegood in the Coppers Pale Ale Racing entry was the top Ford runner, the only Falcon inside the top six places.
The next race of the championship takes the utes to Wakefield Park on the 30th of this month.
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Before we have bought you some awesome Ford advertisements from around the world, showing what some other countries get away with here in Australia we get stuck with boring ads limited in what they can depict.
Ford have received a few complaints about their latest television advertisement in the US selling the Ford Focus Climate edition. The reasoning be behind the complaints are just ridiculous, lowing the average human IQ substantially. The new ad features clips from the new James Bond flick, Casino Royale. This is where it all goes wrong, the basis of the complaints state that Ford should not be allowed to use the James Bond snippets because no Focus ever featured in the movie. Yes, that’s right, the whole ad is classed as misleading and the whole idea of incorporating Bond rolling in a focus in insinuating by association.
Street Fords, and its parent company Express Publications have joined forces with the Meguiars MotorEx to create the Performance Marketplace - a one-stop spot for all your car modification needs.
Spread over around 800sqm, the Performance Marketplace will house between 40-50 top name international aftermarket manufacturers and suppliers all showcasing their latest and greatest products and services, not to mention their latest demo cars.
Taking place over the weekend of June 30 and July 1, MotorEx is the ‘Academy Awards’ of indoor car shows in this country and boasts most of Australia’s big name cars and car builders all vying for prestigious Meguiars Showcar Superstar awards and Street Fords and Express Publications are proud to be associated with this level of event. Stay tuned for confirmed feature cars to be on show on the Street Fords stand!
Over the course of the weekend, you’ll have the chance to crown the Street Fords ‘People’s Choice’ award by voting for the best Ford in show, not to mention see some of this country’s greatest examples of the model up close and personal.
In addition to this, the Street Ford stand will boast a ton of merchandise, DVDs and magazines that will be on sale over the weekend, as well as the Street Ford team who’ll be on hand to say hi and stink the place up.
So be sure to write the dates June30/July1 into your diaries and get down to MotorEx in Homebush Olympic Park to catch all the action.
The days of bagging the hell out of the front wheel drive buzz box Hyundai’s might be numbered. Hyundai have announced that they will be using the New York Auto Show in April to unveil a new large rear-wheel-drive concept. Word is that the vehicle is believed to be the much-rumored “Equus” prototype that has be spotted a few times out last year by prying photographers.
It doesn’t end there either. The Korean car giant is expected to be offering an optional V8 power plant to give its new model some serious kick. One can only wonder what this is going to do for the Holden Vs Ford rivalry onshore, I mean imagine the dismay that it would cause being beaten by a Hyundai at the lights only to have it sound better than your XR8.
Having said all that, I would be pretty keen to see Hyundai enter the high performance V8 arena with the big boys, giving it all in an effort to do better drifts, bigger burnouts and beat us to the finish line on that quarter mile strip.
Bring it on I say!
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It seems that there is great confusion on whether or not the automotive show that everybody knows and loves will or will not be returning to the BBC for another season of four wheel shenanigans.
Clarkson is reported to have told the UK’s Sun Newspaper that the show will not be returning for another season, and in the last episode of the season Clarkson stated that he is unsure when the show will return.
However, the BBC seems to think differently by stating that Top Gear will return for a summer special and will in fact start a new season in autumn.
There have been rumors circulating about rows that have arisen between the hosts and the producers of the show, with the producers allegedly wanting to have more celebrity appearances on the show with even less of a focus on the automotive aspect. That’s right, a car show all about celebrities and little about cars. Those British sure know how to make sense.
The independent climate change organisation, Beyond Zero Emissions, has launched a comprehensive analysis website that is dedicated into breaking down the main political parties’ policies on climate change prevention and directly compares them in order to help voters decide on which party has the better stance.
The organisation believes that all parties should use the Blair government’s 30% reduction by 2020 in the UK as a starting point for all policies, except for the Greens to aim to reduce all emissions by 50% between now and 2020.
"Until now, no one has put the various climate policies side by side - so we've taken the critical step to lay out what each party has announced on climate change issues and let the parties speak for themselves," said Adrian Whitehead, BZE Lead Campaigner.
"Other environment groups have provided aspirant policy statements through websites like environmentelection.org.au and use of an 'Enviro-Meter' to provide the running commentary on single issues. At VOTECLIMATE.ORG.AU, we've compiled a straightforward table that compares the varying levels of commitment that parties are bringing to the election agenda," said Mr Whitehead.
To view the website and compare all the political parties policies on climate change, click HERE
The town of Ann Arbor in Michigan is a place that houses many car nuts that enjoy cars of all different backgrounds and style. This pic of an old school Falcon Cobra was taken back in 2005 when they had a car show right on Main Street which featured many rare cars from around the globe such as a Delorean, Vector and even a stretched C4 Corvette Limo.
This Cobra was one of two that were on display, the other one being an immaculate XB GT.
Recently our Northern Territory open speed limits were abolished in the interest of road safety. NT residents everywhere were devastated to learn that the open desolate roads were soon to be capped and would have the usual highway wollopers to enforce the change.
The Autobahn is a road recognised throughout the world as having an open speed limit where you could constantly see Porsches and a vast array of Italian muscle flex their legs in the high speed lane that would make other traffic look as though they were traveling backwards. An EU official has just gone on record suggesting that Germany that should cap speeds on their beloved road, but this isn’t in the interest of road safety, this is all about combating the effects of climate change. They figure that the lower the average speed on the road then the lower the emissions level will be, therefore Mother Nature ends up racking up a win.
It seems that Germans aren’t very fond of the idea, with millions of German websites now featuring the slogan “free driving for free citizens” in an effort to voice their disapproval. A more logical approach I suggest would have high performance vehicle manufactures develop more fuel efficient ways of reaching such speeds rather than take away the drivers freedom of speed.
Drag Tag are hosting one of their car park meets tonight at 20 Ainslie Rd in Campbellfield, Victoria. All Hot Rods, Street Machines and Customs are welcome to come along and show off their rides or take part in some state-of-the-art indoor drag racing. If burning rubber is more your thing, Drag Tag has Australia’s largest burnout pad will be open for business tonight so make sure you round up a few mates and give Drag Tag a go.
To get an idea on how big the burnout pad actually is, Drag Tag has a video on their site which can be seen by clicking HERE
With the ever increasing technology that is being introduced into the hands of the NSW Police Force to aid war against speeding drivers, it gives the humble motorist very little in the way of contesting any conviction even when even when they know for 100% that they are in the right. Good luck when rocking up to the judge and trying to convince him that you are a good honest bloke and that big dollar Police radar got it very wrong.
This scenario happened to Sydney driver Michael Simotas when Police allegedly clocked Michael traveling at 85km/h in a 60km/h zone. So now Michael has to front up to court and try to convince the judge that the Police radar that was used to measure his speed is inaccurate and that he was traveling within the speed restrictions for that section of road. Lucky for Michael that he had a GPS unit fitted in his vehicle that had the capability of recording and storing trip data such as vehicle location, direction of travel and of course, vehicle speed. When the data on the GPS was reviewed it was found that the vehicle that Michael was driving in fact only reached a top speed of 61km/h when the Police had aimed their hairdryer at Michael’s vehicle.
During the appeal, a GPS expert gave his corroborating evidence and elaborated on the pinpoint accuracy of the GPS’s speed measuring capabilities and had attested to the unit’s inability to have its data altered and that all the readings are true.
Michael had won the appeal and marked the first time in NSW that a GPS system has been used as evidence to successfully contest a radar measured speeding charge.
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Michael Goodwin was yesterday convicted of murdering Mickey and Trudy Thompson and was sentenced to serve two consecutive life sentences despite Goodwin’s constant claim of innocence.
The murder was arranged by Goodwin to have a hitmen kill Mickey and Trudy Thompson over a business partnership that went sour. Sister to Mickey, Collene Campbell, has led a 19-year legal battle to get conviction of her brother’s murder. Police claim the case still remains open until the two gunmen are bought to justice.
For those who are looking for another car to add to the collection and are searching for something a little different, I just may have stumbled across exactly what you’re looking for. THIS clean little 1934 Ford Pick-Up is not something that you would see everyday, and features a whole lot of goodies that would make this thing one hell of a drive.
Powered by a quad cam 300HP Lexus V8, the ’34 Pick-Up has just about every custom modification you could think of. Custom wheels, custom bone leather interior, custom adjustable rear end and front plus rear tilting tray and bonnet. My guess is that this guy would have spent an absolute mint making this baby, so at a measly asking price of $85,000, why not buy yourself that car you have been waiting for.
Don’t have $85k? Don’t worry, most people don’t either. If only it was legal to sell organs on eBay…
Ford have got a few new special edition models up their sleeves thanks to the Melbourne International Motor Show, and here is another one you can add to that list.
Meet the Ford Falcon XR8 Rip Curl edition Ute. So what differs this baby with the XR8 Ute you have sitting in the garage you ask? Well, this one here gets fancy Rip Curl decals on the sides, Rip Curl embossed waterproof seat covers, a fully-sick spec upgraded audio system and unique 18” alloys.
The Falcon isn’t the only car manufacturer in the world that is using the Rip Curl branding to promote a special edition model; Renault has already released a Rip Curl Clio. In a recent poll on the Autoblog.com website, 83% of voters would prefer rocking up to the beach behind the wheel of the XR8, rather than the Clio. We had guessed as much.
Ford Performance Vehicles are celebrating the 40th anniversary of the legendary GT by releasing a special limited run FPV GT. The 200 only built 40th anniversary model gets awesome jet black paint with gold Shelby inspired stripe package to tell it apart from the rest, while more additions lie underneath that sexy glossy veneer. The old GT suspension is ditched in favor of some R-Spec track suspension that has been developed by Delphi at the request of Prodrive.
These special limited edition GTs also get new 19” alloy wheels with colour coded accents, while the power output remains the same with FPV wanting to work on handling rather than outright go.
You had better be quick in picking one of these up, as with only 200 ever to be produced, they won’t be lasting for long
It is a well known fact that Top Gear loves giving American, or basically anything non Euro a hard time when it comes time to road tests and the recent episode on where they pit the new GT500 against an older model is certainly no different.
The new Shelby GT500 is names as such due to its engine power figure, so the 500 in its name is referring to fact the 5.4-litre supercharged V8 is putting out 500 horsepower. Top Gear decided they would but this to the test and roll the Shelby onto an engine dyno where the mighty ‘Stang reeled off a decent and on-par 447 horsepower. What Top Gear had failed to mention was that the dyno power figure was obtained at the rear wheels, so factoring in those nasty driveline losses and you would be getting around 500 horsepower at the engine. You can see the video on YouTube by clicking HERE, or that’s until they remove it due to copyright violations.
05/03/07 Ambrose finishes in fifth position in Mexico NASCAR race |
Marcus Ambrose has pulled off a remarkable comeback in the NASCAR Busch Series after a spin on lap 64 saw the Aussie get pushed back into 24th position. After pushing the Ford Fusion hard in the dying laps of the race, the two times ex-V8 Supercar champ managed to squeeze back to fifth position overall, even passing seven cars in the final two laps of the race.
"Today was a really long day", said Ambrose.
“We fought all day. When we had clear track the worked nicely but when we went back into the pack after being spun the car couldn’t quite do what I needed it to do. We got our first top 10 in the Busch Series, we’re still well inside the top 10 in points and we are still the leading rookie. So life is definitely good at the moment.
“Those last two laps were just a mess. It’s just what you get in those green-white-chequered situations. We just had to try and finish as well as trying to pass as many cars as possible.
The BF Falcon V8 Supercar has made an impressive start to the season at the Adelaide street circuit over the weekend by featuring three times in the top five cars in Race one and four out of the top six cars in Race two.
It was a weekend for James Courtney finishing second place behind Todd Kelly in the first race, and was only one second behind the pace. Team Vodafone entry Jamie Whincup finished just behind Courtney and Mark Winterbottom finished in fifth spot to round out the top five. Lowndes ran into some bad luck and struggled to come to grip with the new setup of the Falcon the day but still managed to finish in thirteenth place just ahead of the HRT car of Mark Skaife.
The second race saw four Falcons finish behind the two front runner Kelly drivers which places Courtney as the fastest Ford runner yet again. Whincup slipped back to fifth position which let the Caltex Racing car of Russell Ingall move up a few spots. Lowndes’ luck continued with Craig finishing the race in eleventh position.
The next round in the 2007 V8 Supercar Championship will take place in Western Australia at the Barbagallo circuit on the 23rd of March to the 25th.
02/03/07 Ford on the front row for Race one in the Clipsal 500 |
It’s and all Ford front row for the running of the first race of the V8 Supercar Championships tomorrow with Jen-Wen Motorsport’s James Courtney taking pole position along side the number 88 Falcon of Jamie Wincup.
Garth Tander is the first of the Commodore pilots steering his VE into third position in front of the Mark Winterbottom number 5 Falcon.
Mark Skaife is sitting in 17th position, quite a bit below Craig Lowndes who is currently sitting in 6th position on the grid ahead of last seasons Championship winner Todd Kelly.
02/03/07 V8 Supercar practice over, qualify just around the corner |
The V8 Supercars have just finished two practice sessions seeing Holden driver Mark Skaife on top of the list in the first session in his brand new VE Supercar just ahead of Ford campaigner Steven Johnson in his also fresh BF Falcon.
Practice session two witnessed a Ford one-two finish as Mark Winterbottom and Steven Johnson take out places first and second respectively with the best of the Holden drivers, Garth Tander, managing to squeeze in third position.
Qualifying begins in just under five minutes time, keep watching this space to find out who comes out on top for pole position in tomorrows Race one.
Pedders have unveiled their new look website that has been formally released at the Pedders 2007 National Conference held at Terrigal.
The new site contains some pretty trick animations outlying the 28-point suspension and safety check that Pedders has to offer. The site also features up to the second pricing and product information which is automatically updated as soon new products and prices become available.
To have a look through their website, click HERE
Motorvation would have to be one of the biggest and best car events that Australia has to offer featuring some of the hottest cars you will ever see engaging of acts of sheer mechanical torture. Those of us who were unable to make an appearance at the show need not panic as Smooth Motion films has just released the Motorvation 21 DVD.
Keeping up with the high standard of the other DVD’s in the Motorvation chapter, Motorvation 21 will not disappoint featuring in-car cameras for burnouts and cruising, high quality High Definition video in true 16:9 widescreen, massive photo gallery with access to an excusive online gallery of wallpapers, an audio switch feature meaning background music for the burnouts can be turned on or off and don’t forget heaps of ‘un-cut’ and bonus footage that will keep any revhead as happy as a pig in mud. Motorvation 21 is available now from all good auto parts stores or directly from Smooth Motion films online at www.smoothmotionfilms.com
Toll HSV Dealer Team driver Garth Tander has proven to be hot favorite to take out round one of the V8 Supercar Championships being held this weekend in Adelaide. Tander received 18 of a possible 31 votes from V8 Supercar drivers in a poll performed by Melbourne news paper The Herald Sun.
Next down the order was Ford Performance Racing’s Mark Winterbottom who managed to score six votes, with Craig Lowndes receiving only three of a possible 31.
Racing is said to be closer than ever this year, opening up the victory lane to virtually anyone in the field.
Fords official racing line up for round one
#4 James Courtney, JELD-WEN MOTORSPORT
#5 Mark Winterbottom, ORRCON FORD CREDIT FPR
#6 Steven Richards, CASTROL FPR
#9 Russell Ingall, CALTEX RACING
#12 Andrew Jones, TEAM BOC
#14 Brad Jones, TEAM BOC
#17 Steven Johnson, JIM BEAM RACING
#18 Will Davison, JIM BEAM RACING
#21 Paul Radisich, TEAM KIWI RACING
#25 Jason Bright, FUJITSU RACING
#26 Alan Gurr, IRWIN RACING
#88 Jamie Whincup, TEAMVODAFONE
#111 John Bowe, GLENFORDS RACING
#888 Craig Lowndes, TEAMVODAPHONE
Everybody should know by now that the Drag Tag facility in Victoria has the largest burnout pad in Australia, and it gets its fair share of punishment! Due to the massive popularity that the burnout sessions have bought to Drag Tag, scrutineering will now be starting at 7:30pm with the first of the tyre sacrificing now starting at 8:00pm Last burnout pad tickets will be sold at 10:30pm, so it gives burnout lovers plenty of time to get down there and sign your name on the pad.
Times to Drag Tag drag racing will be unchanged, with gates opening at 6.00pm and racing commencing at 6:15pm.
