Government mulls Benz, BMWs as Proton delays new Perdana

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 28 — Despite the moribund economy, the government is mulling the use of imported luxury cars for the Najib administration and top civil servants to replace its leased fleet of ageing Proton Perdana V6 Executive vehicles which are no longer in production.

The cars — Mercedes Benz S class, BMW 5 series, Toyota Camry and Honda Accord — are likely to be leased for four years from Spanco Sdn Bhd, which has a 25-year concession with the government ending 2018 that is now worth RM80 million a year.

The Malaysian Insider has learnt that the judiciary has decided on using the Mercedes Benz and that perk could extend to ministers.

"The Mercedes Benz cars are already being assembled now in Pekan in anticipation of the lease," a government source told The Malaysian Insider, referring to the assembly plant in the prime minister's constituency.

The new cars could raise heckles as Barisan Nasional (BN) lawmakers had objected to Pakatan Rakyat (PR) administrations in both Perak and Selangor for opting to use Toyota Camrys over the Perdanas, accusing them of being unpatriotic and disloyal to the national carmaker.

The BN government that ousted PR in Perak later put the Camrys on the auction block early this year.

The BN government in Terengganu also raised eyebrows last year when it ordered 14 Mercedes Benz E200 Kompressors for RM3.43 million to replace the Perdanas, citing costly maintenance for the national car.

Proton is already looking at a new model next year to replace the flagship Perdana, which was launched in 1995 as the badge-engineered version of the seventh-generation Mitsubishi Eterna. The current Proton Perdana V6 Executive used by the government is 10 inches longer than the standard model.

Another government source said the new cars had competitive lease rates, reducing initial costs but he reckoned Spanco can turn in a tidy profit from maintenance charges.

"The lease for each car is four years and maintenance charges are a bit high but they do everything from A to Z. So on paper, it's worth it for the government," he told The Malaysian Insider.

The government stopped buying cars for the administration and senior government officers since January 1994 by agreeing to lease from Spanco which initially provided Mercedes Benz and Volvo models.

But the Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad administration stopped that in 1997 under its austerity drive during the height of the Asian financial crisis.

Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Kong Cho Ha told Parliament last year that apart from cars for official government use, Spanco also leased saloon cars for the various ministries and federal departments.

"Under the agreement, Spanco is responsible for supply, maintaining and repairing all cars leased by the government.

"In return, the government pays for the cost of rental, maintenance and repairs to Spanco on a monthly basis based on the number and type of cars leased," he said in reply to Lim Kit Siang (DAP-Ipoh Timur) who wanted to know the cost and benefits of leasing Proton Perdana V6 as official cars of the government.

He said until July 2008, a total of 8,341 cars were leased of which 105 were for use by members of the government administration.

"The average yearly maintenance cost (not including repairs) for the Perdana V6 cars was RM2,373, which was 55 per cent less than RM3,693 for the standard yearly maintenance cost of a Mercedes," he said, adding that the government found using the Perdana V6 to be very practical as it seldom had serious technical problems.

Apart from the Perdana as a standard car for government servants, Spanco also provides the Proton Waja.

Spanco was given the contract to lease and maintain vehicles for the government for 25 years as part of the government’s privatisation exercise. It was seen a good deal as many government departments, such as the police force, had thousands of cars, and leasing and maintenance was not Spanco’s core business.

In 2004, the Finance Ministry asked Coopers & Lybrand to review the Spanco deal in the belief that the government had paid too much. The contract sum was then reduced by 20 per cent from RM100 million a year to RM80 million a year.

The decision to renegotiate the Spanco contract came after the then Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said that the government would look into lopsided concessions.

Najib, who succeeded Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi as prime minister last April, had added the government would learn from its mistakes to ensure that it did not get the short end of the stick when negotiating deals with the private sector.

BMW 135i M Sport convertible

Here’s what he says: “We realised a long time ago that what you make people feel is just as important as what you make”.

Bang on. You can buy a cheap car that takes you to work economically and you may be pleased with the savings you’ve made. But saving money is never joyful. It is mean-spirited and demonstrates that you have a heart of coal. If you wish to lead a joyous life, you should always spend 10% more than you earn.

Joy in a car can come from many quarters. It can come from the “feel” of a button on the dashboard. It can come, such as it does in a Porsche Boxster, from that spine-tingling noise the exhaust makes at precisely 5200rpm. It can come from the way a car turns into a corner or, as you will find in a Nissan 370Z, from the way the engine blips on down changes. Joy can come from a nicely flared wheelarch, from good graphics on a sat nav screen, from the surge you feel when you accelerate. Sometimes, as is the case with the Aston Martin DBS, it can come from so many places, all at once, you are left feeling a little bit light-headed. Even the stitching on the seats made my heart feel all gooey and warm.

I’ve never been able to put my finger on quite why I don’t like cars made by Proton and so on. But now I do. They are not joyous. They are built purely to shore up an emerging nation’s balance of trade, and you will never find any joy in anything where every single part has come from the lowest bidder.

Joy, contrary to what BMW would have us believe, does not make us smile. Even in the aforementioned DBS, I do not gurn like a mad person as I drive along. But joy does make us happy and content and satisfied. In a car, joy is more important than an airbag.

Strangely, however, the one car company that rarely gives me any joy is BMW. It’s why I would never buy one of its cars.

That’s not to say its cars are no good. The new Z4 is marvellous and the M3 is one of the most perfectly balanced machines ever created by man. It makes an F-16 fighter jet look ungainly and lumpen.

However, you always get the sense with a BMW that science has ruled the roost throughout the entire design process; that anything with a bit of flair or panache has been ditched to make way for another equation. And as for the line, “We realised a long time ago that what you make people feel is just as important as what you make”?

Lotus says its new car will be ready by December for 2010 Formula ...

Lotus says its new car will be ready by December for 2010 Formula One entry

By Chris Lines (CP) – 2 hours ago

SINGAPORE — Lotus, one of the new Formula One teams for next season, says its first car will be ready by December, giving it a full off-season of testing before its appearance in Bahrain next March.

The new team revives one of the grand names of motor sport, with Lotus having won seven F1 constructors' titles in its previous incarnation.

The rebirth is a Malaysian venture, backed by the national government and to be based at the Sepang circuit outside Kuala Lumpur.

"We are estimating that to get the car on the grid will cost us between 20-30 million pounds (C$35-52 million), which will be equity financed by the shareholders, and we estimate the running costs of the team to be around 55 million pounds (C$96 million) - that will be the bottom end of the budgets," team principal Tony Fernandes said.

"This budget will come through sponsorship, and obviously there are a lot of Malaysian sponsors now who want to get involved. We will raise that money."

Fernandes, the chief of AirAsia, will remain in management control but hand over the running of the outfit to a full-time team principal, who will have a say in choosing the drivers.

"(What would be) ideal would be an experienced driver and a rookie, but there is no name that I can drop this very moment," Fernandes said.

PIT LANE POP STARS: Beyonce Knowles, in Singapore to perform Saturday at the F1 Rocks concerts, caused quite a stir in the paddock when she arrived to visit McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton and F1 boss Bernie Eccelstone.

Minutes later, Nicole Scherzinger of the Pussycat Dolls, Hamilton's girlfriend, showed up and Knowles, Scherzinger and Hamilton held hands and walked over to the McLaren pits as photographers and cameramen scrambled to get a picture of the trio.

Asked if she was an F1 fan, Knowles replied: "Yes, I am, obviously."

She declined to say who her favourite team was.

WHITE FOR NIGHT AS FERRARI DROPS RED: There is no more recognizable trademark in motor sport than the scarlet Ferrari, which makes the latest F1 fashion statement all the more curious.

While the cars will be in their familiar livery, team members are getting around the Singapore paddock dressed in white.

"We wanted to do something different for the night race," Ferrari explained on its website.

Like it or not, Ferrari's fashions were preferable to the clothing predicament at Renault.

The hasty withdrawal of major sponsor ING - after Renault was found guilty of fixing the 2008 race - meant the name of the insurance company had been taken off the cars and removed from various signs around the garage and motor home.

However, there was no time to arrange alternative clothing for the mechanics and technicians, who are sheepishly still wandering the paddock emblazoned with the name of the sponsor who walked out.

NOT SO FAST ON PIQUET - OK?: There are mixed signals coming out of 2010 team Manor GP over whether it would consider signing Nelson Piquet Jr. as a driver for next season.

The F1 newcomer has not announced its driver lineup and is one of a number of teams linked with the Brazilian, whose reputation was left in tatters when he admitted deliberately crashing in the 2008 Singapore race to help then-Renault teammate Fernando Alonso win.

Manor team principal John Booth was quoted in the English press as saying he would be interested in Piquet, describing him somewhat cheekily as a "smashing little driver."

However, Manor's key sponsor, Virgin, which is defecting from Brawn GP, is less than keen on the young Brazilian.

"What I can say is that, as a director of the main board of Virgin, I can assure you that we would never have anybody in a team sponsored by us who cheats," Virgin's Alex Tai told Autosport.

Former F1 drivers Anthony Davidson and Christian Klien have both held talks with Manor.

Associated Press Writer Alex Kennedy contributed to this report.

Exclusive Q&A with Lotus's Tony Fernandes

He came into Formula One racing through sponsorship and, like Force India's Vijay Mallya, Air Asia boss Tony Fernandes realized the beauty of the sport. Now he plans to revive one of Britain's most iconic F1 names: Lotus. After winning a slot in the 2010 FIA Formula One World Championship, the Malaysian entrepreneur is throwing himself into the project with the aim of bringing together English racing heritage and Malaysian racing passion. And Fernandes is convinced that the cocktail will work...

Q: Tony, what do the names Colin Chapman and Jim Clark mean for you?
Tony Fernandes: Well, a wonderful heritage. I grew up listening to those names, I grew up watching Jim Clark on the track in all the cars that Colin Chapman put together. It evokes a lot of heritage and pride.

Q: A Malaysian company trying to revive a British racing legend. How did that happen?
TF: I got involved with Formula One through the Williams team and my sponsorship with them with Air Asia. I saw a tremendous amount of assets Malaysia had built up in F1 over the last five years and then I found Proton and Lotus - which to me seems to be a marriage made in heaven. To others this might sound odd and difficult, but when you see the brand being rolled out you will see that the heritage will be very much protected. I had a fantastic meeting with Clive and Hazel Chapman on the Goodwood Sunday and we got a car from them, in fact - Ayrton Senna's car that took the last race win by Lotus. So we feel very obliged to build on that heritage - and hopefully with the management of Lotus's road car division one day they should again be in the same vein as Ferrari with Ferrari cars and the Ferrari Formula One team. That sounds like lots of work to do, but at least there is a plan and a vision behind it - and there is a dream.

Q: What is it that you want to achieve?
TF: There are two aspects to what we are trying to do. First of all we want to show that Lotus and Proton can be world class - to revitalize Lotus and show that they can compete with the top marques in the world, and to show Proton that their cars are great technology and great engineering, made in Malaysia. From my side it's providing the software. In all the years Malaysia has been involved in Formula One there were only a handful of engineers coming out of the country, and not many Malaysian drivers or management. I want to help develop that and show that Malaysia has more to offer than construction of tall buildings. I envisage bringing our people to Formula One standard - to have more innovation, greater thinking and to show our kids that they can compete with the rest of he world. Now if you go to the Malaysian Grand Prix I see my people wearing Ferrari shirts - one day I want to see them wearing something Malaysian.

Q: Promoting two car companies - Lotus and Proton - via Formula One racing seems to be a costly exercise given that we've seen some of the global players withdrawing recently...
TF: Yes, it is a costly thing - but good things cost. I started my airline with two planes and built it up to 82 planes - and now it's a wonderful brand. My saying is that you pay for what you get: Formula One reaches enormous audiences, motivating enormous masses of people. There are not many sporting events that can create that, so the bottom line is that you pay for what you get. If you are successful the rewards will be 50 times more then the investment. The question is if we will be successful - that's on everybody's mind. I started my airline with $250,000 and everyone said 'he's nuts and mad'. So I got used to these kind of notions. I think we will have a good run and in years to come we will slowly build ourselves up.

Q: But when was it that you really got hooked on the idea of having an F1 team?
TF: Well, the guys who put in the first application - from a Formula Three racing team called Litespeed - approached me just before Silverstone and since then it's been a very fast development.

Q: You've said that you will run the team for the first few months but then hand it over to an experienced team principal. Do you have somebody in mind?
TF: No, not yet. I said that I will establish the framework, the brand, make sure that we deliver what we said that we would deliver, but in the long run it has to be managed by a fulltime professional - my job is to run Air Asia. I am not here for the glamorous part. I want to show that my country can do it and that my people can do it. We have that gap between now and Bahrain that I will oversee, and I am very proud of what we have already achieved in four months. Give us another four months and eventually we will find someone fit to take over from me.

Q: You have teamed up with Mike Gascoyne - a very familiar face in Formula One racing. How is that working?
TF: Litespeed had teamed up with Mike and we struck up a very quick relationship in Silverstone. I like his style, I like his honesty. He has worked phenomenally hard, he is very passionate - and I think he's very good at mixing with Malaysians. I think we found a good guy.

Q: Budget is a key issue in bringing a car to the grid. What will the Lotus budget be?
TF: We are estimating that to get the car on the grid will cost us between £20-30 million, which will be equity financed by the shareholders, and we estimate the running costs of the team to be around £55 million - that will be the bottom end of the budgets. But I keep telling people that it's not about money but all about having the right people and being smart - as Vijay has shown. This budget will come through sponsorship and obviously there are a lot of Malaysian sponsors now who want to get involved. We will raise that money.

Q: Drivers are always a key element to a successful team. Do you already have an idea of where to look?
TF: We are starting to do that now. There is no point thinking about drivers when you don't have a slot on the grid. But now that we have a plan, that we have an engine, that we start hiring people we can think about drivers. Ideal would be an experienced driver and a rookie, but there is no name that I can drop this very moment.

Q: So coming to the crucial questions: how far away is the car and what is in the factory at the moment?
TF: The car is going through wind tunnel tests and we are scaling up rapidly. We should have a physical car ready in late December, the engine will be Cosworth, and we will be ready for testing in January - like everybody else. I took a big gamble because we started to build the car before we had the slot. Had we not been given the slot I would have ended up with some very nice pictures - very expensive, computer graphic pictures. But life is a gamble. You have certain shots in life - either you grab them or you try to be risk averse and wait forever. I decided to take the chance, and the risk paid off. Maybe the risk paid off because people like Bernie or Max (Mosley) saw our passion - and maybe saw something different. Maybe they fell for the idea that you have to have teams outside of Europe.

RM168 Million Start-Up Capital For 1Malaysia, Annual Budget ...

September 25, 2009 20:54 PM

RM168 Million Start-Up Capital For 1Malaysia, Annual Budget Estimated At RM308 Million

By: Ramjit

-->

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 25 (Bernama) -- 1Malaysia F1 Team will have a start-up capital of RM168 million while the team's baseline annual budget is estimated at RM308 million.

In a statement, the team said Proton Holdings Bhd will licence its Lotus brand to the 1Malaysia F1 Team (1MF1T).

The partnership licence will include a variety of benefits for both Lotus and Proton involving technology transfer, marketing rights and employment opportunities, both within the national F1 Team, at the team's technical centre in Sepang and its satellite base in Norfolk, United Kingdom, it said.

1MF1T is a privately-funded project and jointly owned by Tune Group, Naza Group and Litespeed UK.

Tune Group is jointly-owned by 1MF1T Team Principal Datuk Seri Tony Fernandes and 1MF1T Director Datuk Kamarudin Meranun. Other Directors of 1MF1T are SM Nasarudin SM Nasimuddin, the Chief Executive Officer of Naza Group and Zahri Ismail of 1Malaysia F1 Sdn Bhd.

The government holds no equity in the project, either directly or indirectly, through any of the government-linked companies.

The team will collaborate with Universiti Teknologi Malaysia and Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS to help realise the aspiration of creating a growing class of high-technology and knowledge-intensive human capital for the country.

Composites Technology Research Malaysia (CTRM), a leading composites manufacturing expert, will also be part of the project, the team said.

Plans are in the advanced stage to develop the 1Malaysia F1 Team technical, research and development and manufacturing centre on a eight hectare site at the Sepang International Circuit.

Fernandes described the team as a lifetime achievement for all Malaysians.

"Other countries have been bidding hard for this spot but Malaysia, through our concerted effort and strength in the true spirit of 1Malaysia, managed to pull it through.

"This will be an excellent opportunity for Malaysian corporates to share this dream that has finally come through," he said.

Fernandes said the project would help Malaysia move up the value chain by emphasising on innovation and technology.

"Having been involved in Formula One, we are very excited at Malaysia owning a Formula One team and the amazing benefits it will bring the country," he added.

Fernandes also said the team was delighted to be partnering Proton in a way that allowed both to focus on its core businesses yet share the benefits of the collaboration in a mutually beneficial manner.

"I am equally pleased too that we are able to announce that every day we are deepening our relationships with CTRM and SIC, with UTM and UTP. It's an immense privilege to be working with institutions that have embraced the spirit of the Prime Minister's 1Malaysia vision," he said.

In short, Fernandes said the programme was specifically designed to strengthen Malaysia's industrial base, inspire students to focus on a wide variety of skills, boost the country's image as a tourist destination and provide a competitive advantage for the nation on the world stage.

Proton's Managing Director Datuk Syed Zainal Abidin Syed Mohamed Tahir said the company as very excited and supportive of the Malaysian initiative.

"Through the impending licencing arrangement between Lotus and the team, the brand association will be beneficial to both Lotus and Proton would definitely heighten global brand awareness," he said.

Similarly, Syed Zainal said the Proton Group also hopes to capitalise on this opportunity from a technical and engineering aspect.

"The exposure to be obtained from Formula 1 racing is invaluable, especially when Lotus is a renowned sports car manufacturer and a respectable engineering firm," he said.

The team will rapidly integrate a Malaysian technical and pit crew totalling some 200 people managed by one of Formula One's most respected and accomplished Technical Director, Mike Gascoyne.

The team has already recruited a core team of international experts with proven track records in the many and various engineering, design and manufacturing disciplines.

This is to ensure the 1Malaysia F1 team is of international standard, readiness and capable of competing with the world's greatest racing marquees on the world's most prestigious racing stage.

The 1Malaysia F1 Team project takes its name from the "1Malaysia - People First, Performance Now" policy mooted by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak earlier this year.

The policy aims at unifying Malaysians in celebrating the co-operation amongst its multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-religious society for the betterment of the nation.

--BERNAMA

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Rallye Sanremo - Preview

From Jouni Tikanen [ 6/13/2001 ]. Click to read all other Rally News.
 

This introduction is meant for both those who don't yet know World Rally Championship but can also give something to more experienced fans. It is a complement to the Rally Glossary in which certain things are explained in depth.

The WRC

If you're new to the FIA World Rally Championship (acronym: WRC), this

article is a perfect place to start with. Since I don't believe that too many genuinely new people find their way first into my site, I try to include a bit of more advanced material into this too. So unless you're real expert you might find something interesting here. Also note that while this article covers some basics, more info can be found at glossary of rally terms and if you still have questions after reading these, don't hesitate to ask on via the general message board. There will surely be someone there that will be glad to answer your question.

What is it all about?

Rallying is a form of motorsports that is run over ordinary roads rather than in specialized circuits used in Formula One or off-road environment used in endurance events like Paris-Dakar.

In distinction to rallycross in rallying drivers compete against the clock, not directly against the other drivers.

And in distinction to rally-sprints, stages used in rallying are much longer (up to 40 to 50 km, average being 10 to 30 km) and special co-drivers are used to call pace notes.

Under current rules, each competitor starts into the stages with two minute intervals (applies to works drivers only, private drivers start with one minute intervals) so under normal circumstancies competitors see each others only at the start and finish of the stage.

Who runs the show?

There are four important parties involved. First one is FIA, the ruling body. It's the same body that makes also rules for Formula One, for example. Their role is only to make rules and govern, they do nothing else. Commercial rights to the WRC has been sold to International Sportsworld Communicators (ISC) which is owned by David Richards. They do all promotion, filming and distribution in relation to whole championship.

Thirdly there are manufacturers or teams, who design, build and run cars in the championship.

They are required to enter two cars in every event (but can enter more if they wish) but may name different drivers in each event. There are rules for new teams who have option to contest 25% of events in their first year, 50% in second year and all in third and subsequent seasons. Fourth party are event organizers who are independent organisations around the world and it is their job to organise event under FIA rules. There are as many ways of accomplishing this as there are events, some are free for the spectators while some use tickets. Some attract up to 150 entries while some are restricted to 60 entries (a trend for smaller entries is FIA's current wish).

Click here to read the next page

 

Smaller Isn't Always Better: Catalyst Simulations Could Lower Fuel ...

Smaller Isn't Always Better: Catalyst Simulations Could Lower Fuel Cell Cost

September 22, 2009

Imagine a car that runs on hydrogen from solar power and produces water instead of carbon emissions. While vehicles like this won't be on the market anytime soon, University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers are making incremental but important strides in the fuel cell technology that could make clean cars a reality.

Materials science and engineering assistant professor Dane Morgan and Ph.D. student Edward (Ted) Holby have developed a computational model that could optimize an important component of fuel cells, making it possible for the technology to have a more widespread use. Essentially, they investigate how particle size relates to the overall stability of a material, and their model has shown that increasing the particle size of a fuel cell catalyst decreases degradation and therefore increases the useful lifetime of a fuel cell.

Fuel cells are electrochemical devices that facilitate a reaction between hydrogen and oxygen, producing electrical power and forming water. In the type of fuel cells Morgan is researching, called proton exchange membrane fuel cells, or PEMFCs, hydrogen is split into a proton and electron at one side of the fuel cell (the anode). The proton moves through the device while the electron is forced to travel in an external circuit, where it can perform useful work. At the other side of the fuel cell (the cathode), the protons, electrons and oxygen combine to form water, which is the only waste product.

Though the premise sounds straightforward, there are multiple hurdles to producing efficient fuel cells for widespread use. One of these hurdles is the catalyst added to aid the reaction between protons, electrons and oxygen at the cathode. Current fuel cells use platinum and platinum alloys as a catalyst. While platinum can withstand the corrosive fuel cell environment, it is expensive and not very abundant.

To maximize platinum use, researchers use catalysts made with platinum particles as small as two nanometers, which are approximately 10 atoms across. These tiny structures have a large surface area on which the fuel cell reaction occurs. However, platinum catalysts this small degrade very quickly.

"The stability of bulk versus nanoparticle materials can be understood intuitively by thinking of cheese," says Morgan. "When you leave a large chunk of cheese out and the edges get crusty, the surface is destroyed, but you can cut that off and there is still a lot of cheese inside that is good. "But if you crumble the cheese into tiny pieces and leave it out, you destroy all of your cheese because a larger fraction of the cheese is at the surface."

Rapid catalyst degradation means the fuel cell doesn't last long, and the U.S. Department of Energy estimates fuel cells must function for 5,000 hours, or approximately seven months of continuous use, to be practical for automotive energy solutions.

Morgan and Holby, who are working in collaboration with Professor Yang Shao-Horn from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, have found a possible solution to the rapid degradation problem: When it comes to catalyst particle size, sometimes smaller isn't better.

Their modeling work, which is funded by 3M and the U.S. Department of Energy, shows that if the particle size of a platinum catalyst is increased to four or five nanometers, which is approximately 20 atoms across, the level of degradation significantly decreases. This means the catalyst and the fuel cell as a whole can continue to function for much longer than if the particle size was only two or three nanometers.

The research into the fundamental physics of particle size will be useful as scientists extend their platinum studies to exploring platinum alloys, which can reduce platinum consumption when used as fuel cell catalysts. Morgan is beginning to research models to study size effects on the stability of platinum alloys, such as copper-platinum and cobalt-platinum catalysts.

"Fuel cells are just one of many energy technologies — solar, battery, etc. — with enormous potential to reduce our dependence on oil and our carbon emissions," says Morgan. "Computer simulation offers a powerful tool to understand and develop new materials at the heart of these energy technologies."

SOURCE: University of Wisconsin-Madison