WOMEN GIVE BMW A HIGH 5

The BMW 5 Series has once again been voted as the Best Executive Car, this time in the 2012 Women on Wheels (WOW) Women’s Car of the Year Awards. The car won the same category in the 2011 competition.

The WOW Women’s Car of the Year Awards are the only car awards in South Africa decided by women. WOW readers and the judging panel had 12 categories in which to vote, with more than 79 000 votes received via SMS and online voting from the readers.

The BMW 5 Series Sedan is a worldwide success. It has won a host of awards and comparison tests and earned top marks on quality, safety and value retention. Demand in car markets all over the world is steadily growing. With its seductive styling, its unrivalled balance between sporty performance and  comfort, and an extensive range of innovative equipment features, this series quickly established itself as the world market leader in its segment. With its extensive model range the BMW 5 Series offers greater variety and appeal.

STORY BY BMW

TOYOTA TEAM TAKES PODIUM AT POLOKWANE

Toyota Motorsport’s Giniel de Villiers and Celeste Snyders (Imperial Toyota Auris) celebrated their first podium finish together in the two-day Polokwane Rally in Limpopo on Sunday.

They also proved to be the most successful of Toyota Motorsport’s three SA Rally Championship contenders in the premium S2000 four-wheel drive class after team-mates Johnny Gemmell and Carolyn Swan and Leeroy Poulter and Elvene Coetzee ran into problems in their Castrol Team Toyota Auris rally cars.

De Villiers, in his first season with Toyota Motorsport and only his second in national championship rallying, and Snyders finished 1 min 45 sec behind winners Mark Cronje and Robin Houghton (Ford Fiesta) and 26 seconds behind former national champions Hergen Fekken and Pierre Arries (VW Polo).

Poulter and Coetzee were ninth and would have come close to winning the event for the second year in succession had they not run into mechanical problems on the first stage on Saturday. A front suspension bolt broke, losing them 45 seconds on the stage to winners Cronje and Houghton. They were forced to complete the next two stages with a temporary roadside repair before they were able to have their service crew attend to the problem.

They went on to dominate the remainder of the rally, winning four of Saturday’s eight stages and two more on Sunday. The 5 min 39 sec gap between them and the winners at the finish almost equalled the 5 min 20 sec penalty for lateness that resulted from their suspension problem.

Gemmell and Swan saw their chances of a first national championship take a blow when they were forced out of the event on Sunday morning three stages from the finish. They had led the championship from Cronje and Houghton by five points going into the weekend’s event after their victory in the Toyota Cape Dealer Rally last month.

While Cronje and Houghton led in Limpopo after Saturday’s eight special stages, Gemmell and Swan struggled to find their usual pace and could only manage fifth place at the overnight stop in Polokwane.

The Toyota Motorsport team changed the diff of the Auris and Gemmell showed improved pace in the first two stages on Sunday. When the Toyota’s engine temperature climbed dangerously, Gemmell called it a day to preserve the engine.

Their championship hopes are, however, still very much alive, although the task has become more difficult. With their scoring no points to their rivals’ full-house 25, Gemmell and Swan are now 20 points behind with one round remaining and a maximum of 25 points on offer. Complicating matters is the national championship rally requirement that competitors drop their worst score of the year. If this were to be done now, Gemmell would drop this weekend’s zero score and would reduce the gap to Cronje (whose worst score is 10) to just 10 points.

All this means that the outcome of the championship will definitely go down to the wire at the Garden Route Rally in the Western Cape on November 2 and 3.

Toyota privateers Mohammed Moosa/Andre Vermeulen and Jean-Pierre Damseaux/Grant Martin finished a respectable fifth and sixth respectively in their Team Total Auris four-wheel drive rally cars and contributed handsomely to Toyota’s manufacturers’ championship points tally. Toyota, in a tense battle with Ford for the title, won the manufacturers’ team award for the event and ensured that the duel would go to the final rally of the year. 

STORY BY TOYOTA

2013 FORD FOCUS ST BLOWS INTO MZANSI

The new Ford Focus ST is now in South Africa, and Ford has a lot of great things to say about it. It’s their first global performance car, and a “halo product” for the American brand. Talk is cheap though, torque isn’t. How does the car stack up?

Quite well actually. In fact, better than that. It’s brilliant.

Ford have created a really fun performance car in the ST, but one that’s just as easy and fun to drive on city streets or Highveld highways. They’ve lowered the chassis by 10mm, included a sports suspension with specially tuned dampers and left just a little bit of torque steer in the car, to give you that feeling of control that so many performance cars these days work hard to rob you of.

The 2013 Ford Focus ST features a 184kw 2.0-litre turbocharged EcoBoost engine that is smooth to drive, quick on take-off and road-trip friendly. The fastest Focus ST to date is great to drive day-to-day, and delivers on the track as if it was built for it.

On the track, the ST is terrific fun, albeit a bit too impossible to screw up. Taking corners at 100km/h is best fun if you have the feeling that something could go horribly wrong. Thanks to Ford’s Sport’s Steering System, this feeling isn’t there. Start off in an ST, but graduate on as you get better.

6 colors are available in the 5-door hatch that’s more stacked than a pirate’s chest. An aggressive and aerodynamic front, bulging side-skirts and a dynamic rear bumper are holding within them specially designed steering wheel and pedals, Recaro seats, keyless entry and start, a deflation detection system and Bi-Xenon HID headlamps.

Being a performance car, the sound the car makes matters, and in the Focus ST they’ve gone to great lengths to ensure the inside of the cabin gets a generous dose of the sounds of fossil fuels being vaporized. Thanks to a newly-enhanced sound symposer, engine noise comes directly from the intake in to the car.

Both the ST 1 and ST 3 Focus ST derivatives come bundled with the multifunction Sony entertainment system, and its run using Ford and Microsoft’s collaborative SYNC system.

An advanced software platform that provides hands-free, voice-activated in-car connectivity, the SYNC voice system actually works. And pretty damn well too. I would hazard to say that you might actually find yourself using it instead of just telling your mates your car has it.

Connect any compatible smartphone or media player to the car via Bluetooth and get going learning the 150 voice commands the system can recognise. While most manufacturers offer something similar, the SYNC does a great job of recognition and freeing up your hands to help you drive safer. It’ll even read you an incoming SMS so you don’t have to look down.

Ford are offering their comprehensive 4 year / 120 000km warranty and 5 year / 90 000km service plan on the car, and here’s the best news, the car starts from a completely miniscule R309 530. Few other cars make as much sense as the Ford Focus ST it seems.

FOCUS ST PRICING

ST 1      (R309 530)

ST 3      (R353 700)

SPECS

Engine: 2.0-litre Turbo EcoBoost

Transmission: 6-speed manual

0 - 100km/h : 6.5 seconds (claimed)

Top speed: 248km/h

Consumption: 7.2 litres/100km

CO2: 169g/km

STORY BY STEVEN SLOTOW

LOEB AND ELENA WIN 9TH CHAMPIONSHIP

Sébastien Loeb and Daniel Elena claimed their eighth win of the season in Strasbourg and the 75th victory of their remarkable career. The result means that they become World Rally Champions for the ninth year running.

Also on the podium, Mikko Hirvonen and Jarmo Lehtinen collected the points required to wrap up the Manufacturers’ championship. The Citroën Total World Rally Team has therefore won its eighth world title at this year’s Rallye de France.

Although it was much shorter than the previous two days, the final leg of the Rallye de France didn’t look like it would be easy going. Rain had fallen throughout the night and continued into the early morning, which eliminated any lingering doubts about tyre choice: both of the Citroën Total World Rally Team’s DS3 WRCs set off from the service park fitted with soft Michelin Pilot Sport tyres.

Sébastien Loeb had barely covered a few metres on Vignoble de Cleebourg before he saw just how little grip there was.

Following the action intently on the screens showing live onboard and overhead camera footage, Citroën Racing’s engineers broke out into a collective cold sweat as they watched the no.1 DS3 WRC flirt with the verge. “We were aquaplaning a lot and, as there was more and more water on the road, I really took it easy on the last few kilometres.

At a push, I don’t have to win the rally to secure the championship,” admitted the leader.
“This morning’s conditions were very similar to those we had at the Rallye Vosgien, which I competed in as preparation for this rally,” added Mikko Hirvonen. “I have been really cautious so as not to jeopardise the team’s overall result. In normal racing conditions, I think it will be difficult to close the gap to Latvala.”

After a regroup held in Haguenau, Sébastien Loeb’s home town, the first ten in the overall standings were sent off in reverse order for the last three stages. In sunny but muddy conditions, the second run on Vignoble de Cleebourg counted as the rally’s Power Stage with bonus points on offer.

Once again, Sébastien Loeb and Mikko Hirvonen didn’t look to set the stage alight, as these points weren’t necessary to win the Drivers’ title.

Managing their lead until the final stop control on Haguenau 2, Sébastien Loeb and Daniel Elena could finally relax and let go of the tension that had built up during the week: “This is what we came to do, experience the feelings we enjoyed in 2010 again by winning the world title ‘at home’. This year the feeling is even more special, because it is undoubtedly the last one. I drove carefully this morning, but it wasn’t very easy due to the weather conditions.

Even when it stopped raining, the roads were still extremely muddy. There were two rallies left where I could have won the title, but I’m really very happy to do it here for the fans in Alsace.”

STORY BY CITROEN

2014 MERCEDES-BENZ S-CLASS CABRIOLET SPIED

Check these spypictures of the upcoming Mercedes-Benz S-Class Cabriolet. Essentially the car is a CL with its top down, and since Mercedes-Benz will soon kill the CL badge in favour of S-Class Coupe, this is the natural addition to that. We don’t yet know when exactly it will be launched, but we expect it to be sometime in 2013, either at the New York or Frankfurt International Motor Shows.

S-Class Cabriolet will be based on the Ocean Drive Concept car that was first shown in 2007, and obviously reflect sibling S-Class engines. The brand new S-Class sedan itself is coming in 2013. So the engines we are talking about include the 4.7-litre bi-turbo with 320kWand maybe even an AMG version with over 400kW.