Newsletter # 12 16 June 2010 RENAULT Sport & A lpine EXPO Brisbane – 9 July to 18 July 2010 What’s it all about? If you missed the earlier RSAE Newsletters and are wondering what the RSAE is all about, please go to page 16. Something Old – Renault 4CV/750 Something New – Renault Koleos In the article on the Renault Nepta in Newsletter # 7, we asked the question: How do you get in? I bet that you didn’t guess!! It is a stunning looking car, but I doubt the practicality of those doors. Still, with a show car that is not intended for production, practicality comes a very poor second to stunning appearance which the Nepta undoubtedly achieves! Now, one more question: Who was Louise Berthe Magien? For the answer, see Newsletter # 13! June 2 (Reuters) - French carmaker Renault (RENA.PA) and its Japanese Partner Nissan (7201.T) should together become the world's third-biggest car manufacturer this year, Renault Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn told the Financial Times. CYCLICAL CONSUMER GOODS Ghosn was quoted as saying that he expected the global industry to make and sell 70 million light vehicles in 2010, a slight tweak to the 69-70 million forecast he gave at the Detroit Economic Club last week. "Very likely this year, we should be in the top three," Ghosn said in the FT's Wednesday edition, predicting sales of nearly 7 million cars from Renault, Nissan and their Russian partner Avtovaz (AVAZ.MM). Renault would rank behind Germany's Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) and its Japanese partner Suzuki (7269.T), and Japanese carmaker Toyota (7203.T). The auto industry is expected to benefit from strong demand from emerging markets this year. Ghosn said he expected consolidation between car makers to accelerate. "You don't know who's going to be jumping into the laps of who and when and for what reason, but that's going to happen," he was quoted as saying. (Reporting by Caroline Jacobs; Editing by Erica Billingha The 'bling' era of massive wheels and tyres may soon be over How many of you, like me, run a car with low profile tyres? Yes? Well how many of you have bent a rim? , or two?, or three? or more? Well I must answer yes to those questions. I try to be careful but I have bent my RS Clio 172’s rims six times! The problem is this: – If you drive fast/hard on good roads these days, you are likely to be booked and ultimately lose your licence. So you seek out back roads which are both more challenging and have less surveillance. This is a great idea until you hit a pothole that seems to lurk where you least expect it. Result? - a bent rim, perhaps a ruined tyre and a repair cost of at least several hundred dollars. It wasn’t always like this. Way back in Jurassic period when I first started to drive, most cars had steel wheels, a few cars had wire wheels and only Bugattis and a few racing cars had alloy wheels. Nobody had low profile tyres. Michelin X (Stop Pattern) and Pirelli Cinturato had the lowest profile at about 80 – 83%. Most tyres had a profile of 95% to 100% and bent rims were rare, even though roads were much rougher than they are today. I often carried a hammer and some tyre levers as a kind of ‘on board rim repair kit’. Oh how much simpler things were in those far off days! Now we have cars with sidewall heights well below 100mm, driving round with two cans of gloop in the boot, instead of a full sized spare wheel. These days, a hammer and a couple of tyre levers wouldn’t fix a bent rim anyhow. These days, if you bend a rim and don’t have a spare, your car is likely to go home on the back of a truck! Well, relief may be in sight as Car Point’s Joshua Dowling reports below: Car Point’s Joshua Dowling says - The ballooning size of car tyres could soon come to an end – and chances are car enthusiasts aren't going to like the new alternative, unless they're into the Los Angeles low-rider scene. With the number of motor vehicles on the world's roads set to double over the next 40 years, Michelin, one of the world's biggest tyre producers, is worried that there may not be enough rubber to go around. Thus it has come up with a whacky plan to develop undersized go-kart-style tyres that have the unfortunate effect of making a humble hatchback look like something out of a cartoon. The 10-inch diameter tyre weighs 25 per cent less than a regular tyre and uses one-third less material to make. The example Michelin gave was this: if all the common hatchback tyres (175/65R14) on cars in Brazil were replaced by its 175/70R10 wheel, it would save 728,000 tonnes of rubber and steel. The Brazil example was no coincidence. Michelin show examples of the 'new' tyres at this week's Michelin Bibendum energy conference in the South American nation. The tyres were demonstrated a pair of otherwise identical Citroen hatchbacks. The Carsales Network was let loose on the Nelson Piquet Autodrome racetrack to sample the difference. And we can report that while the regular tyres felt more responsive and had more direct steering, to be frank, had it not been for the back-to-back test, chances are most drivers wouldn't pick the difference. Michelin claims that braking performance and cornering grip is the same as a regular tyre -- only the steering feels different because of the taller sidewall. "Whenever we introduce a new tyre technology that goes in a new direction, it must be the same or better performance than what we currently have," says Michelin Vice President of Technical Communications, Pascal Couasnon. "We will not go backwards." So far, the tyres are only experimental and are some years away from going into production. Indeed, Michelin only had one spare set for its test drive program. Couasnon says the tyres have mainly been developed for use on city cars. "I don't expect you will see these tyres on every type of car, but it is a possibility if there is not enough rubber to go around then we need to find new ways to make sure everyone can still be driving on four wheels. "Some people think the design looks unusual, but maybe they need to change the way they think about the appearance of tyres. At the end of the day it is for -- and dictated by -- the environment." Targa Tasmania in an Alpine A110 By Ernst and Sonja Luthi This year’s Targa Tasmania took place between 27 April and 2 May. TT is a classic tarmac rally in the style of the Targa Florio (www.targatasmania.com.au). After missing out on last year’s Targa, this time we were ready and keen to tackle the challenge. The A110 was joined by Andrew and Belinda Collier’s R5 Turbo 2 who participated in the Tour (no roll cage required and speeds limited to an average of 130km/h on certain road sections). The Tour is a great opportunity to experience Targa Tasmania without the costs in the competition class. TT consists of 39 special stages on over 500km of closed roads and 1500km of touring stages in between. The longest stage is 55.2 km. This year, 270 cars participated, from a Delage in the vintage section, to an Austin A30, Fiat Abarth, the usual 911s in Classic and the BMWs, Alfas, EVOs, Subarus, and the mighty Lamborghini Galliardo in Modern. The event starts with the Prologue, where the starting sequence for the event is determined. The A110 performed nicely, but the crew only managed 2nd last, showing our inexperience. At least we would be back early each day, as the field runs in reverse order. Day one dawned very grey and overcast and the heavens opened up just as we pulled up on the starting line. The wipers could hardly cope with the rain and the driver had his own problems, so off we went into the ditch on stage one. Not the start we expected. Fortunately there was no damage and after the field had passed two hours later, we got towed out and continued on our journey. Except that we were now following the field instead of leading it. After a long day and a car check up by a friendly service crew, we finally pulled into the parc ferme at 20.00. The next day was brilliant and dry with no issues, the car and crew getting to know each other, and the pace note calls falling into place. Day 3 contained the first of a series of mountain stages. The weather was intermittent and the roads slippery, so the crew took it slowly. We finished without further problems, something that could not be said about the wipers (dead) or the alternator (dead too). So another favour was called in and the regulator was replaced in 30 minutes - not bad considering it was late afternoon. Day 4 was the longest day, with nearly 500km of driving, of which 170km were on closed roads. This also included the longest mountain stage (37.8 km), which we had to complete in the rain without wipers. Strange feeling at 130kph+, but fortunately we had pace notes that told use what to expect. The crew was happy to arrive at the overnight stop in one piece.