Hyundai Genesis Coupe Formula Drift Car for 2013

The flock of drift race cars scheduled to compete in the 2012 Formula Drift season just got a lot more interesting with the introduction of Rhys Millen’s prized steed.

Over the past few years, Millen has competed in Formula Drift with a Hyundai Genesis Coupe & now that the latter has a refreshed 2013 model, it was only right for Millen to get his own race tuned, drift spec Genesis Coupe.

“I’m pleased to have Hyundai’s ongoing support for the 2012 season,” Millen said. “This begins the fourth year of our racing relationship with Hyundai, & we want to continue to build upon our success in both developing & racing Hyundai’s race proven products.”

So here it is, fellas. Unbeknownst to a lot of folks, the car carries a 2013 Genesis Coupe body shell with all the mechanical components being modified by Rhys Millen Racing. The result is a pretty bad ass Korean drifting machine capable of producing a very impressive 600 horsepower.

How will Rhys Millen fare against the competition? With a car like this by his side, there’s no doubt RMR will be making some serious noise in the 2012 Formula Drift season.

Lewis Hamilton clinches pole in Malaysia

Lewis Hamilton & Jenson Button maintained McLaren's 2012 qualifying superiority as they repeated their Melbourne grid result & filled for the front row for the Malaysian Grand Prix.

Michael Schumacher produced the best qualifying performance of his Formula 1 comeback as he took third for Mercedes, while world champion Sebastian Vettel chose to run the harder tyre & will start fifth for Red Bull.

Just as had been the case in Australia, Hamilton's first pole shot in Q3 was sufficient to secure the top spot, as his 1m36.219s proved unbeatable.

Button was second fastest after those runs, but was pushed back by Schumacher. Mercedes had left it late in Q2 & looked in danger of being eliminated before surging into the top 10, & then went for just one run in Q3.

That meant Schumacher was back in the pits by the time Button launched his retaliation, the McLaren edging the Mercedes off the front row by just 0.023 seconds. Schumacher beat his team mate Nico Rosberg by five places & a little under 0.3s.

The Q3 battle was incredibly close, with just 0.4s covering pole to eighth place.

Red Bull was not a pole threat again   Q1 pacesetter Mark Webber qualifying fourth, & Vettel choosing the harder Pirelli & setting the sixth quickest time. They were split in the results by Kimi Raikkonen, but the Lotus   which was fastest in Q2   will drop to 10th on the grid due to its five place penalty for a gearbox change. Raikkonen's team mate Romain Grosjean was seventh quickest.

Against the team's own expectations, Fernando Alonso got Ferrari into Q3   although he could only manage to beat Sergio Perez's Sauber to ninth. Felipe Massa was closer to Alonso's pace than he had been for most of the Melbourne weekend but he missed the Q2 cut & was 12th.

Several of the underdog stars of Melbourne qualifying fell back into the midfield in Malaysia. Pastor Maldonado briefly got into the top 10 despite an early trip through the gravel in Q2, but he was pushed back to 11th as the Mercedes delivered their late laps. Maldonado will start two places ahead of Williams team mate Bruno Senna.

There were no Force Indias or Toro Rossos in Q3 this week either. The closely matched Paul di Resta & Nico Hulkenberg claimed 14th & 16th for Force India, just 0.013s apart & split by Daniel Ricciardo, whose Toro Rosso team mate Jean Eric Vergne locked up in Q1, flat spotted a tyre & consigned himself to 18th. Kamui Kobayashi's Sauber brought up the rear of the Q2 pack.

Both HRTs made the 107 per cent cut this time, & will not even start last, as Heikki Kovalainen's penalty for passing under the safety car in Australia will drop the Caterham from 19th to last.



Pos  Driver                Team                 Time         Gap

1.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren Mercedes     1m36.219s

 2.  Jenson Button         McLaren Mercedes     1m36.368s   + 0.149

 3.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes             1m36.391s   + 0.172

 4.  Mark Webber           Red Bull Renault     1m36.461s   + 0.242

 5.  Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus Renault        1m36.461s   + 0.242

 6.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull Renault     1m36.634s   + 0.415

 7.  Romain Grosjean       Lotus Renault        1m36.658s   + 0.439

 8.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes             1m36.664s   + 0.445

 9.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari              1m37.566s   + 1.347

10.  Sergio Perez          Sauber Ferrari       1m37.698s   + 1.479



Q2 cut off time: 1m37.477s                                   Gap **

11.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams Renault     1m37.589s   + 0.874

12.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari              1m37.731s   + 1.016

13.  Bruno Senna           Williams Renault     1m37.841s   + 1.126

14.  Paul di Resta         Force India Mercedes 1m37.877s   + 1.162

15.  Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso Ferrari   1m37.883s   + 1.168

16.  Nico Hulkenberg       Force India Mercedes 1m37.890s   + 1.175

17.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber Ferrari       1m38.069s   + 1.354



Q1 cut off time: 1m38.437s                                   Gap *

18.  Jean Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso Ferrari   1m39.077s   + 1.905

19.  Heikki Kovalainen     Caterham Renault     1m39.306s   + 2.134

20.  Vitaly Petrov         Caterham Renault     1m39.567s   + 2.395

21.  Timo Glock            Marussia Cosworth    1m40.903s   + 3.731

22.  Charles Pic           Marussia Cosworth    1m41.250s   + 4.078

23.  Pedro de la Rosa      HRT Cosworth         1m42.914s   + 5.742

24.  Narain Karthikeyan    HRT Cosworth         1m43.655s   + 6.483

Jenson Button storms Gonna Australian GP victory

Jenson Button opened the 2012 Formula 1 world championship with a commanding victory for McLaren in the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.

World champion Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) managed to get up to second from sixth on the grid, fending off pole sitter Lewis Hamilton's McLaren & the second Red Bull of Mark Webber.

Fernando Alonso salvaged fifth place from Ferrari's difficult weekend, having proved much more competitive in the race.

Button claimed the lead at the start with a better getaway than his pole sitting team mate, & then quickly established a lead of three seconds, which stayed stable through the opening stint.

The two Mercedes occupied third & fourth initially, but Vettel overtook Nico Rosberg on the second lap, & Michael Schumacher's run in third lasted only until lap 10, when he retired with a gearbox problem. That elevated Vettel into third, but the champion was 12 seconds down on the McLarens by then & could make little impression.

Third place qualifier Romain Grosjean (Lotus) dropped to sixth off the line, & was another early retirement when he clashed with Williams's Pastor Maldonado on lap two. Maldonado would lose ground with a trip through the Turn 6 gravel three laps later, but rejoined in ninth.

The gap between the McLarens grew to 10s at the first stops when Hamilton emerged behind Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus) & Sergio Perez (Sauber), who were running extremely long first stints.

That allowed a train of cars to develop for second, as Vettel gained & brought Alonso who made a great start then jumped Rosberg in the first pitstops with him, & Rosberg, Webber & the recovering Maldonado closed in too. Webber had initially fallen back with a poor start & a first corner clash with Force India's Nico Hulkenberg, who had to retire.

The lead order remained static until Vitaly Petrov's Caterham brought out a safety car by stopping on the pits straight with a steering problem in the middle of the final pitstop sequence.

The McLarens had both just stopped, whereas Vettel had not, & the Red Bull was able to get in for its tyre change under the safety car & get back out between Button & Hamilton.

Vettel was still no threat to Button, though, as the 2009 champion confidently pulled away from his successor at the restart & left the Red Bull to fend off Hamilton through the final stint.

Webber also benefited from pitting under the safety car to get in front of Alonso at the last stops. The Ferrari could not keep up with the Red Bull thereafter, & as Webber chased Vettel & Hamilton home, Alonso had to focus on successfully defending fifth from Maldonado who made the task easier when he crashed heavily on the very last lap.

Behind, a huge battle between the Saubers of one stopper Perez & Kamui Kobayashi, Rosberg's Mercedes which fell back with tyre wear & early pitstops & Raikkonen also ended in last lap drama, as Kobayashi emerged with sixth ahead of Raikkonen & Perez, while Rosberg's Mercedes tumbled to 12th.

The final lap chaos ahead allowed Toro Rosso's Daniel Ricciardo to pick up his first F1 points at home with ninth place, despite having lost ground in a first corner clash with Bruno Senna (Williams), which also sent Jean Eric Vergne off the road in the sister Toro Rosso. Paul di Resta completed the top 10 for Force India.

Felipe Massa briefly made it into the top 10 in the second Ferrari, but struggled with poor pace & high tyre wear, making three stops & falling back to 13th before retiring with damage following a collision with Senna.

Classified:

Pos Driver Team Time

1. Button McLaren Mercedes 1h34:09.565

2. Vettel Red Bull Renault +2.100

3. Hamilton McLaren Mercedes +4.000

4. Webber Red Bull Renault +4.500

5. Alonso Ferrari +21.500

6. Kobayashi Sauber Ferrari +36.700

7. Raikkonen Lotus Renault +38.000

8. Perez Sauber Ferrari +39.400

9. Ricciardo Toro Rosso Ferrari +39.500

10. Di Resta Force India Mercedes +39.700

11. Vergne Toro Rosso Ferrari +39.800

12. Rosberg Mercedes +57.600

13. Maldonado Williams Renault +1 lap

14. Glock Marussia Cosworth +1 lap

15. Pic Marussia Cosworth +2 laps

16. Senna Williams Renault +4 laps

Fastest lap: Button, 1:29.187

Story autosport.com

Kobayashi is fastest as the Barcelona test ends

Kamui Kobayashi put Sauber at the top of the timesheets as Formula 1's second pre season test closed.

The Japanese driver managed a 1m22.312s on Pirelli's soft compound in the final hour of the morning, the fastest time set over all four days in Barcelona.

Having ended the morning fastest, Kobayashi's time came under little threat in the afternoon as teams followed the established pattern of focusing on long runs.

The same was true of Pastor Maldonado, who got within a quarter of a second of Kobayashi in the morning before focusing purely on long runs in the afternoon   in the process racking up 131 laps over the course of the day.

Paul di Resta was the only driver to move up the order in the final session, as a switch to supersoft rubber produced a 1m23.119s   enough to demote Jenson Button & claim third.

Di Resta brought about one of the day's three red flags when he went off into the gravel on the outside of Campsa during the morning. The second & third came in the final 15 minutes, as a result of 'out of fuel' runs for Sauber & McLaren respectively.

McLaren driver Button was the last driver to get within a second of Kobayashi, although the Briton set his fastest time relatively early on in the morning on hard tyres.

Like Button & the three drivers ahead in the timesheets, Felipe Massa's lap chart also broke into triple figures. The Brazilian ended the day fifth fastest in the F2012, & completed several runs of around 13 laps each in the afternoon.

Mark Webber & Jean Eric Vergne both added to their lap counts in the afternoon, but with neither improving their times, stayed sixth & seventh, separated by just 0.018s.

Nico Rosberg achieved 139 laps during the day, second only to Kobayashi, after completing a full race simulation in the morning & several shorter runs in the afternoon.

The German ended the day eighth fastest, ahead of Heikki Kovalainen in the Caterham CT 01.

The Finn's day was interrupted by an electrical problem that forced the team to make an engine change, but he was eventually able to complete 70 laps. His best time came late in the afternoon.

A suspension problem meant Marussia was unable to complete a lap on the final day of testing for its 2011 car; the new MR 01 set to be unveiled in time for the third & final pre season test.

Parx Super Car show 2012

INK Group presents Parx Super Car Show 2012, organized by the Super Car Club (SCC) in association with Autocar India, took off to a roaring start with excited Mumbaikars vying for a glimpse of the super cars displayed at Mahalaxmi Race Course. The auto beauties then paraded the city’s arterial streets, covering Bandra Worli Sea Link and the Western Express Highway amidst a round of applause from visitors at the show.


Gautam Singhania, Chairman & Managing Director of Raymond Ltd. and Founding Chairman of the SCC led the entourage of supercars. Trophies were handed over to the most desirable cars at the end of the show.

Valentino Balboni, former test-driver from Lamborghini was one of the guests present at the event.

The first-of-its-kind series of events in India, the Parx Super Car Show was first conceptualized and organized in April 2009 to enable auto enthusiasts and general public to view some of India’s best super cars, including multiple Ferrari 458 Italias , three Lamborghini Aventadors, Aston Martins, Numerous Porsches, the Ariel Atom, Bentleys, Rolls Royce’s, BMWs, Mercedes AMGs amongst others

Parx Super car Parade is coming

It’s time for the fourth edition of the eagerly awaited Parx Super Car Parade, presented by the INK Group in association with Autocar India. This time, the event will be held in Mumbai on Sunday, January 22, 2012. Scores of super cars, like Ferraris, Lamborghinis, M-powered BMWs, Merc AMGs, Porsches, Maseratis, Bentleys and Rolls-Royces, will parade the streets of the city.

The Parade will be flagged off from Mahalaxmi Race Course at 10am sharp. You can catch these dreams on wheels pass by Nariman Point at around 10.15am, reach Teen Batti by 10.45am and head to Worli Sea Face by 11am. The cars will then drive up to the Domestic Airport Junction and return to the Race Course via the Bandra-Worli Sea Link.

Expect whoops, howls and blares from exhausts, full bore launches, the works – the Parx Super Car Parade has it all. Last year over 50 of the most exotic cars in the city collectively pumped out more than 22,000bhp, sending the crowds into a frenzy. This year, expect to see even more cars and a lot more horsepower!

Toyota confirms Etios one-make series for 2013

Toyota has formally launched its Indian motorsport effort under the moniker ‘Toyota Motor Racing’ by unveiling the race-prepared Etios and Liva at the Auto Expo. Although the series was widely expected to kick off this season, Toyota plans to launch the full-fledged series only in 2013. However, a few exhibition races will be held in 2012, with the opening event just three weeks away on January 28 to be held, surprisingly, in Chandigarh. Since the city doesn’t have a purpose-built racing circuit, it is safe to assume that the race would be held on a temporary street circuit. The main series, however, will focus on the three race tracks in India - the Buddh International Circuit, the Madras circuit and the Kari Speedway in Coimbatore.

A tentative grid of 25 cars will be made up of drivers aged between 15-24 years with a multi-tiered selection process. Step one for racing aspirants would be to apply online, with entries opening January 15 and closing on February 15. Basic training camps will follow in March and June with the applicants being shortlisted based on their performance. The shortlisted lot will then go through simulator and karting evaluations before getting behind the wheel of the Toyota race cars. The final 25 will be selected and trained by specialised coaches using Toyota’s global racing curriculum.

To make the Etios and Liva cars race-worthy, both cars will undergo modifications with the process being well underway at the Red Rooster Racing facility in Bangalore. The proximity to Toyota’s Bidadi plant is no coincidence, and the process is being supervised by Toyota. Apart from the usual myriad of safety-related and aesthetic modifications, the 1.2- and 1.5-litre engines will be massaged to release more horsepower with performance suspension and wheels headlining the dynamics department. Toyota is expected to partner with MRF Tyres as the official tyre supplier for the series, drawing parallel with the only other manufacturer-backed one-make series, the JK Tyre-Volkswagen Polo Cup.