Got a Mini Cooper EV? Perhaps park it outside a neighbour’s house and run fast.
Please don’t say we didn’t warn you.
In the latest news from the wonderful world of electric mobility, which enables the building of new capabilities to enrich customer experiences and deepen loyalty, BMW is recalling 140,000 electric Mini Coopers because the car might catch fire or – as the mini meisters call it, “cause a thermal event”.
There’s no recall in Australia yet so if you are driving a Mini don’t park outside your house. If you have a neighbour who really annoys you, I’d park it in their driveway and run.
A few weeks ago, BMW also recalled 26,491 Minis and Alpina Xs because of electric problems with the brakes. That might explain why the BMW Group is celebrating 45 years of its hydrogen adventure.
Hydrogen is used as rocket fuel and was the best lifting gas. If you wanted to take passengers and cargo on your airship, say from Friedrichshafen, Germany, to Lakehurst, New Jersey, hydrogen had double the range and lifting capacity. It did have some other issues.
And in a sign of how crook things are, the environmental darling of the liberal, well educated, upper middle class, Birkenstock set, the Chinese-owned Volvo have given up on their target of being all electric by 2030.
Luckily fans of the real Volvo can see the ex Jim Richards Bathurst-winning Volvo S40 competing in the V8 Sleuth Heritage Revival between October 10 and 13 on Mount Panorama. Happy 77 for last week Virgo Jim.
As the bible of this country’s regional rural settlements, Sh*t Towns of Australia, says: “Bathurst exists for one reason only: as the location of the Bathurst 1000 otherwise known as Bogan Christmas.”
Anyway, things aren’t going well for European carmakers. Volkswagen is looking at closing factories in Germany for the first time in its 87-year history. Here’s another metal maker that’s a victim of the EV devolution and its stupid decision to stop making the VW Beetle in 1979.
Better news for Aston Martin, with F1 design genius Adrian Newey joining the Gaydon, SDL (soap dodger land) firm next year. Adrian will be doing it tough after leaving Red Bull. His pay envelope will only contain $36m a year with overtime included.
Canadian billionaire, Lawrie Sheldon Strulovic (aka Stroll) owns 25 per cent of the biz. Just to show you the incestuous nature of the auto industry, guess who the second biggest individual shareholder is? Yup it’s Irish lad Eric Li Shufu, the owner of Volvo owner Geely.
Of course, rounding out the podium is another billionaire, Ernesto Silvio Maurizio Bertarelli, formerly of Italy but now of gnome land. Unlike the Swedish wussies, Lawrie, Eric and Ernesto make real cars for real men, women and others.
Yup in 2025 for a tad under a million dollars, you’ll be able to buy the “back from the dead” Aston Martin Vanquish. Twenty readers, one friend and the only family member who reads the daily diary of the metal lovers’ dream, the eco version of the family friendly touring car has a 605KW twin-turbo V-12 and a top speed of 344km/h.
But eco fans, for only $5m more you can buy the hybrid collaboration between Aston Martin and Red Bull Racing, the Valkyrie. Yes, it’s designed mainly by Adrian Newey. And all 150 have been sold. And it will race at Le Mans next year.
Moving back to the V8 Sleuth Heritage Revival (for reasons that will become obvious in a sentence or two) the grid will see 55 old racing sedans of all sorts of brands. In the last real Bathurst 1000 in 1998 there were Audis, Beemers, Toyotas, Nissans and an Alfa.
Here it comes. Talking of Alfas, today’s car of the week is a 1973 Series 2 Kammtail Alfa Romeo Spider Veloce. Can you believe I am plugging an Alfa? It’s for a friend.
Pete Matthews has three strikes against him: 1. He owns an Alfa. 2. He lives in Queensland. 3. He is a friend of mine. One good thing? He is selling his Alfa. It’s a multi award-winning 1973 Series 2 Kammtail Alfa Romeo Spider Veloce with perfect matching numbers and correct paint colour. Full resto including back-to-bare-metal repaint. Overseas this is a $175k car: in Queensland good buying at $100k.
Talking of Italy: a very brief report on the F1 Gran Premio d’Italia 2024!
McLaren could have won but stuffed it up again. Ferrari had a one stop strategy. McLaren made their drivers do two stops. Lando clipped a sign on the way to a pit stop. Ozzie Oscar killed the start and drove the race of day, was very sad at coming second but he led for 32 laps and he wasn’t happy with Lance Stroll: “You had Stroll driving like it was his first go-kart race. I don’t know what went through his brain when he saw his blue flag, but that cost another second.”
Many drivers said many rude words on their radios during the race and in the end their engineers joined in. Chuck Leclerc, who is a frog person, spent 10 minutes after crossing the line speaking in Italian. Kev Magnussen brought back the biff at Monza and got a one race penalty.
Results from the much more interesting women’s FI at Clogland: Backed by Alpine (the cars not the menthol ciggies) and leading the point scorer is soap dodger Abbi Pulling. First at Zandvoort last month puts her on top for the season this year.
Next is the pocket rocket, backed by Merc, 20-year-old frog Doriane Pin. My star of the series is 19-year-old US driver Chloe Chambers supported by Haas. Started karting at eight. At 16 she set a Guinness World Record for the fastest vehicle slalom in a 2020 Porsche 718 Spyder, navigating 50 cones in 47.45 seconds.
Chambers was born in China but was adopted by Americans Matthew and Shannon Chambers at 11 months. Her siblings are also adopted. Her younger sister Emma is also from China and her younger brother, Oliver, is from Ethiopia.
Talking of soap dodger land, head to F1 The Exhibition London at the xCel Centre now. It says: “Tracing the influences of Enzo Ferrari and Ayrton Senna to the unprecedented impact of Netflix’s Drive To Survive series, the exhibition combines an unprecedented mix of historic and modern-day race cars, previously unseen film and interviews, artefacts and interactive elements including racing simulators.”
We say: heaven for metal heads and their kiddies. Usual heavy soap dodger credit card charge of $100 for peasants, $140 for ego maniacs and narcissists. Seven F1 cars, one replica, six real. Includes the most successful F1 car ever until Red Bull spoiled it – the Ayrton Senna 1988 McLaren MP4/4.
Lots of memorabilia but limited vegan and gluten-free catering options, and strobe lighting is used during the exhibition which may affect customers who suffer from photosensitive epilepsy or a huge night out.
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