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THE WITNESS
JANUARY 17, 2019
WHEELS
www.witness.co.za
WINTERTON TO HOST CROSS COUNTRY SOUTH Africa’s Cross Country Championship will this year for the first time feature Winterton as a base. The series starts with the Mpumalanga 400 in Dullstroom mid March and then comes to the small town in the foothills of the Drakensberg for round two on May 17 and 18. The halfway mark in the championship, the Toyota Kalahari Botswana 1000 Desert Race takes place from June 2123. This is the only marathon event on the SACCS calendar and the largest Cross Country event in Southern Africa
also breaks new ground, with the event relocating from the small mining town of Jwaneng to Selebi Phikwe. Round four will again be in Bronkhorstspruit on August 2 and 3, followed by round five in Harrismith on September 13 and 14. The venue of the final event on November 1 and 2 is still to be confirmed. The SA Cross Country championships will be made up of five 400-kilometre events, while the marathon Toyota Kalahari Botswana 1 000 will retain its current 1 000-kilometre format. — WR.
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Supra finally official After years of leaked photos and rumours, Toyota is ready to race again ALWYN VILJOEN TOYOTA’s master test driver and — is it happens — boss, Akio Toyoda, on Monday revealed the new Supra at the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS), better known as the Detroit car show. Toyoda described the Supra as “one of my closest friends” and also the worst kept secret in the industry. “I’m sure for each of you ... there’s been at least one car in your life that you have a particular attachment to — one car that holds a special place in your heart — and for me the Supra is it,” he said. He told the crowd assembled for the launch how he had spent countless hours in the Supra learning to become a master driver at Nürburgring, and of the teasing he had to endure in his old car while the other drivers were in the latest prototypes. He admitted he always wanted to make another Supra, even though Toyota did not. But after driving the Supra developed for the Gran Turismo video game, he was convinced. “Just like a lot of other die hard Supra fans around the world ... I secretly wanted to make it happen. So did a small group of our designers at Calty it turns out. A few years ago ... they showed me a concept they called the FT-1 ... and as if I needed any more persuading ... they managed to get their prototype put into the Gran Turismo video game.
Toyota test driver and boss, Akio Toyoda, at the launch of the new Supra sports car in Detroit. “By the way ... I recommend this approach to any designer out there trying to get his boss to sign off on a concept car. Because for me it was Game Over. At that moment ... I knew my old friend was coming home,” said Toyoda. “Our Gazoo team actually began as a kind of skunkworks that we put together to test cars at Nürburgring beginning in 2007 because, as all manufacturers know, there is no more perfect or challenging place to test a car than the Green Hell. “We didn’t start out as an official Toyota race team though, in fact the
original Gazoo team wasn’t even acknowledged by Toyota. We were more like a bunch of friends who thought it would be cool to hang out with the big boys and eat bratwurst. “Anyway, little by little we learned and got better and soon we became a real team. In fact, Toyota’s Gazoo racing division won the World Rally Championship in 2018 and also Le Mans. So the new Supra was born out of this hands-on testing at Nürburgring and as a result I can honestly say that this new Supra is not just fun to drive, it’s totally LIT!
BMW collab What Toyoda did not say is that Toyota worked with BMW to make the Supra, which shares a 50:50 balanced platform and engines with the new BMW Z4. In Europe and the U.S the Supra will be sold with BMW-derived a 6,3-litre, inline-6 with a twin-scroll turbocharger that makes maximum torque of 500 Nm from 1 600 rpm and peak power of 250 kW. In Japan, a 2,0-litre, inline-4, also with a twin-scroll turbocharger, will be sold, tuned to make either 145 kW or 190 kW. But while the Germans went for a sporty convertible, the Japanese went for a focused sports car. The official line is there will be no manual transmission. Instead, a dualclutch, eight-speed automatic sends power to the back wheels, where an active differential allows drivers to make the most of the adaptive variable suspension. Pricing The Supra will make its way to South Africa and dealers are taking orders, but Deon Oliver at Toyota McCarthy Pietermaritzburg told Wheels a price is yet to be announced. Wheels expects pricing to stay in the overseas ballpark, where the six-cylinder sells for $56 000, or R767 200. This will pit the new Supra against the timeless Nissan 370Z coupe auto, which sells for around R726 800, and the iconic but thirsty Ford Mustang 5.0 GT Fastback, which costs R872 000.
Honda’s robot quad bike able to follow and fetch
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WHILE self-driving cars are as yet only being tested in closed-loop areas or highways, Honda released robot quad bikes that are ready to follow and fetch over terrain that will make a Boerbok pale. Speaking at last week’s Consumer Electronic Show (CES) in Las Vegas, head of development for Honda’s autonomous ATV, Mark Kohls, said the
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company decided to make a “manpower multiplier” as a logical step to turn Honda’s proven ATV into very useful tool for all labour intensive industries. The quads are either full electric or powered by internal combustion engines. The robot wagons can be programmed to operate in “Follow Me” mode behind a person or another vehicle, or to run back and forth from point A to point B, using GPS sensors and artificial intelligence. Senior planner with Honda R&D Americas, Pete Wendt, said they are now looking for partners to evolve the technology and develop accessories to expand the potential uses for the robot quads. — WR.
Honda robot quad bikes can carry a heavy loads up steep inclines to a construction site, or pull mowers through plantations.
Brazilian-based service centre VolksFord will be the perfect place to fix electric vehicles from a Volkswagon-Ford collaboration, starting in 2022.
Volkswagen and Ford join teams VOLKSWAGEN AG and Ford Motor Company announced this week they will collaborate in building electric vans and bakkies, as well as self-drive cars and mobility services. Volkswagen CEO Dr Herbert Diess and Ford CEO Jim Hackett confirmed the two companies intend to develop the vehicles together from 2022. The alliance will drive significant scale and efficiencies and enable both companies to share investments in vehicle architectures that deliver distinct capabilities and technologies. The companies estimate the commercial van and pickup co-operation will yield improved annual pre-tax operating results, starting in 2023. The alliance, which does not entail cross-ownership between the two companies, will be governed by a joint committee. This committee will be led by Hackett and Diess and will include senior executives from both companies. The companies’ collective light commercial vehicle volumes from 2018 totalled approximately 1,2 million units globally, which could represent the industry’s highest-volume collaboration as production scales. Demand for both medium pickups and commercial vans is expected to grow globally in the next five years. The alliance will enable the companies to share development costs, leverage their respective manufacturing capacity, boost the capability and competitiveness of their vehicles and deliver cost efficiencies, while maintaining distinct brand characteristics. — WR.