IN TOUCH IN TUNE IN TOUCH IN TUNE 2018 Formula 1 Pirelli French Grand Prix – Race – Sunday 24 June The Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team back in the points with Charles Leclerc in P10, and Marcus Ericsson in P13 It was a good French Grand Prix weekend for the Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team, with Charles Leclerc finishing in P10 (1 point), and Marcus Ericsson in P13. In an eventful start to the race, Marcus Ericsson skilfully evaded an incident on track, gaining several positions during the opening lap. Charles Leclerc also progressed well, showing consistent and strong pace over the course of race. Both drivers did an excellent job in fighting with their rivals and de- fending their positions today. With another point to add to its tally, the Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team now heads to Spielberg to take part in the second of the three back-to-back races – the Austrian Grand Prix. For the third time in a row, the Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team per- formed the fastest pit stop of all teams. The Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 team currently holds 9th place in the Constructors’ Champion- ship. In the Drivers’ Championship, Charles Leclerc is in P14 (11 points), while Marcus Er- icsson is in P17 (2 points). Marcus Ericsson (car number 9): I am quite happy with my race. It was a tough weekend, and having started after only running in FP1 and qualifying, we did a good job in getting on the pace during the race. I made a good start and I was able to evade the incident on the first lap and to gain positions. After that, I struggled with the balance of the car and didn’t advance as well as we hoped to. In the second half of the race, the car felt much better and things were running more smoothly. The tyres were working better, and I closed the gap to the competitors ahead. We also had a very fast pit stop again. Now, we have to make sure that we understand what happened at the beginning of the race and come back even strong- er in Austria next week.” Charles Leclerc (car number 16): “Overall, I am satisfied with the outcome of this weekend. I had a great qualifying result yesterday, and felt confident in the car. Having scored another point for the team during the race today feels great. It was fun to drive, and I had some good fights with the drivers around me. We are moving in a positive direction, and improving our performance week by week. I really look forward to seeing what is possible next weekend.” Frédéric Vasseur, Team Principal: “It has been a positive weekend for us. We had good pace in qualifying, and increased our pace step by step. Today, both of our drivers fought in the midfield during the race, and we are making good progress as a team. It is important for us to keep pushing and stay in the fight with our direct competition in the races ahead. We feel confident for the next Grand Prix in Austria.” IN TOUCH IN TUNE N TOUCH IN TUNE IN TOUCH IN TUNE Back in 1984, an Alfa Romeo was the “fastest locally produced car” sold in South Africa. It was of course, the Alfa Romeo GTV6 3.0, and it was a result of a collabora- tion between Alfa Romeo SA and Autodelta, the Italian firm's competition arm, and Alfa Italy. The fierce on track rivalry between BMW and Alfa, forced the Italian au- tomaker to create this “limited edition” model. Originally, Alfa’s GTV6 2.5 went up against the BMW 535i, but with a much smaller motor, and far less power, it could- n’t match the Bavarian. Alfa figured than an extra 500cc would do the trick, and make them more competitive. It did, winning its debut race at Kyalami in 1983, and followed that with a stunning 1-2 in the Group One class of the Castro Three-hour race at Killarney. But the secret to its success was its powerplant, and the story behind it. Alfa Romeo SA imported the cylinder head casting, crankshaft, special pistons and sleeves from Autodelta - the components required for a capacity change and had larger valves made in Italy to South African specifications. Every- thing else was done in this country - including the machining of both block and cyl- inder head. Alfa’s aim was low and mid-range torque instead of top end grunt, as aggressive acceleration out of corners was what they sought. The EFI of the 2.5 motor was binned in favour of six Dellorto RFP40 carburettors. The carbs were al- ready being used on the Alfa Six sedan, but were rechoked and rejetted to suit the larger capacity and bigger valves. The bore and stroke were increased from 88 x 68,3mm to 93 x 72mm, yielding a total displacement of 2934cm3. As a result, power jumped from 118kw and 213nm to 128kw and 222nm. While the 3.0 improved on the 2.5’s 0-100kph time of 10.8 seconds to 8.36, it was still slightly off the 535i’s time of 7.9 seconds. They were a dead head in the standing kilometre, both completing the sprint in 29.3 seconds, however its top speed of 224.2kph shaded the big Bimmer’s 220.7kph – but it needed its rev limiter shifted from 6,500 to 7,000rpm in order to achieve it. Where this motor scored though – especially on track – was how it com- bined its enormous reserves of power with docile tractability – which made it an ex- ceptional cruiser in the real world. The five-speed rear-mounted overdrive trans- axle retained standard ratios, including the 4.1 to 1 final drive, but because the car was lower, and used wider and lower profile tyres, the overall gearing was lower. This combined with a superior power-to-weight ratio (up from 97.2 W/kg to 112.5W/ kg) was the reason why it was so strong on acceleration. Its brakes were said to be superb, running 269mm vented discs up front, and solid discs at the rear. One of the greatest strengths of the GTV6’s chassis, was the feedback it gave the driver. Its wide track and low stance gave a sense of immense stability and grip, as the driver sought to find its limits. Everything from the powertrain – to the steering – to the suspension worked in perfect harmony to give a truly special and satisfying ex- perience behind the wheel. It was easily distinguished by the aggressive power bulge on the bonnet, deeper front spoiler (which lowered radiator temperature by as much as 5 degrees Celsius), 15-inch Compomotive Wheels, and red striping on the bumpers and side mouldings, whilst the interior had a leather-wrapped steering wheel, and RECARO seats covered in Italian velvet. All of these, together with its low, road-hugging stance conspired to give it the look of a proper race car. To race in Group One, Alfa Romeo had to homologate the model by building at least 200 ex- amples, and this was done from 1983 to 1985, with it carrying a price tag of R29 495. These days expect to pay up to R200 000 for a clean 3.0. Thankfully, ALFA RO- MEO has kept its V6 tradition alive to this day, with its Giulia Quadrifoglio Verde su- per sedan. IN TOUCH IN TUNE Italian Carabinieri takes delivery of liveried Jeep® Wrangler IN TOUCH IN TUNE IN TOUCH IN TUNE IN TOUCH IN TUNE Three-hundred and sixty-five Pandas welcome Panda Waze – It’s a record! The second edition of "Panda a Pandino", the international gathering of Panda owners from all across Europe - from Germany, Belgium, Spain, Italy, the UK and Austria - took place on June 24. 365 Panda’s met up in Pandino breaking all records and mak- ing this the biggest Panda gathering in the world. Guest of honour was the new Panda Waze, the most socially connected Panda ever, and rather aptly, one could say, since this event came into fruition on social media. The original idea started as little more than a joke in 2017 when a young Panda owner from the south of Italy announced on Facebook her intention to drive with her friends in their little car - popularly known as "Pandino" in Italian - to the town in the north of the country of the same name. And word of mouth, typical of the social media chan- nels, saw to the rest. On 18 June 2017, the official date of the first edition, more than 200 past and present Fiat Panda cars turned up, from all over Italy. The Panda Waze is the most socially connected Panda ever, firmly in line with the gen- uine core of the Fiat model's mission to make the smartest solutions, which simplify and improve life at the wheel, affordable for all. As well as being the first city car with 4WD (1983), the Panda was also the first car in its segment to win the coveted "Car of the Year" title (2004), and in the same year, it was also the first city car to climb to an altitude of 5,200 metres to the Everest base camp. The long series of records contin- ued in 2006 when Fiat Panda became the first natural gas fuelled city car to be mass produced. In 2013 it was the first car in its class to introduce an "autonomous city braking" function.