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BMW nears the end of a 20 year journey to alternative auto power

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German automaker BMW has confirmed it is close to launching a hydrogen fuel-cell version of its X5 SUV. Like most new technology developments, the iX5 Hydrogen is an ‘umbrella’ vehicle, aiming to spread the word about hydrogen as a fuel using the brand’s high end 4WD and starting with demonstrations and real-road testing. The project is another instance in a developing relationship between BMW and Toyota that started with the Japanese brand adopting the BMW Z4 as the basis for its new Supra, Toyota is building the fuel cell units for BMW to fit into the iX5. The announcement is also seen by some as redefining the current push toward plain EV vehicles. Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles create their own electrical power using water in a complex but effective chemical process on board the host vehicle. Emissions are limited to water vapour. Exciting news for the motoring public, though not exactly the news politicians trying to push the public onto trains and buses were needing to read right no
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Hartley takes second at Le Mans

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  best of the Kiwis: former Formula 1 driver Brendon Hartley has taken second overall at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, helping the factory Toyota team to a 1-2 result in the process. The 2021 race is the first to feature the new Hypercars’ class for hybrid drivetrains. Driving the team’s #8 GR010 hypercar with Sebastien Buemi and Satoru Nakajima, he led for a significant period of the race but the car carried damage from the race start. With Buemi at the wheel, it was hit and spun, then later had to stop and reset its power system, rejoining dead last. The Hartley-Buemi-Nakajima car carved its way back to the front and then hit the lead with 33 per cent of the race done. In the closing four hours of the race it was slowed by recurring fuel pickup problems that forced the team to run with shorter driving stints. Buemi also lost a minute when the car cut out, trying to reset the car on the side of the road. They finished two laps behind the #7 GR010 of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi a
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Bamber to Bathurst, but no V8 Supercar series drive

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  Let's read between some lines, shall we? Triple Eight Race Engineering might be receptive to ‘internationals’ as it looks for a replacement for Jamie Whincup, but boss Roland Dane has ruled out an all-Kiwi line-up, rejecting the prospect of double Le Mans winner Earl Bamber joining the team’s lead driver, Kiwi Shane van Gisbergen.   The experienced Bamber has a connection to the Brisbane-based team, having partnered van Gisbergen in the 2018 Pirtek Enduro Cup. Roland Dane says the team is looking for a younger driver who is at a different point in their career. “Earl isn’t in the same position as Shane in a Supercar point of view, [but] he certainly is in his professional career.” Bamber will make his second Bathurst 1000 start at the end of this year, partnering fellow Kiwi Andre Heimgartner in the Kelly Grove Racing entry.
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Gettin' Crabby wid it

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Extract from my recent NZ Petrolhead column - at the moment there's a post-lockdown 'carpe diem' theme emerging.  This one profiles a bloke who has had a huge influence on the future of  New Zealand offroad racing: Richard Crabb Living the racer dream: Arron, Richard and Fergus Crabb. And yes, that’s a McLaren behind them. Richard bought it when he ‘retired’ from his day job. Apparently it goes quite well. Origin story: I met Richard Crabb last century. He was running his old class 3 car, a serious contender for podiums and class wins; he was as quick in short course as in the big enduro races. This fella worked hard, played hard. Scored a few good results, and even when things went wrong his love of motorsport shone through, obvious and infectious. He did give us a fright one year when he flipped out of the Taupo 1000, smacking a pine tree about ten feet up its trunk in the process. That one scored him a trip to the Big White Building in a helicopter. Richard found mor
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Reid's return: Stepping up to Spa

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Kiwi race driver Reid Harker has joined a very small club of New Zealanders who have competed at the Spa 24-Hours.  Most have heard of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, many of the same duration enduro at the redoubtable Nurburgring. The Spa event has less profile 'down-under' but is at least as punishing - and often as cruel - as its fellow endurance events. The Kiwi team's entry was a 'Pro-Am' and qualifying was blighted by a gearbox issue that meant the car started pretty much dead last. The only way was up! I caught up with Reid after the event to find out first-hand what it's like. here's the Q&A.   Q: Reid, you’ve come a long way since the E30 and 86 days and a lot of Kiwi race drivers would KILL to drive a GT3 911 at Spa– how good was that?   For sure it was a dream come true to drive in this race. It’s arguably the most challenging GT3 race in the world and I think this year was especially exciting! To be honest I was both excited and relieved to be back
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Graham McRae 5 March 1940 - 4 August 2021

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I met Graham McRae just the once, when Michael Clark brought him down to Palmerston North to the New Zealand Grand Prix. On that occasion, there was McRae, Damon Hill and Josh Hill, Chris Amon and - if memory serves - also Howden Ganley all perched in the house bar of our hotel supping ales and swapping yarns.  I was happy enough to shut up and listen to some epic tales. This remains the biggest gathering of F1 drivers I have ever sat amongst. Travel well, Graham. It was an honour and a privilege to meet you. The image here is by good bugger and ace lensman Terry Marshall. Graham McRae 5 March 1940 - 4 August 2021 New Zealand racing driver and constructor Graham McRae has passed away. He had been unwell for some time and was aged 81. McRae was one of New Zealand’s most successful drivers and race car builders, a three-time champion of the Tasman Series, champion in the 1972 SCCA Continental 5000 series and multiple Australian Grand Prix winner (1972, 1973, 1976, 1978). Few dr
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Strewth Scotty, what would Crumpy reckon?

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It’s not a ute, mate. Not even close to the bunch of Hiluxes that were hammered in the old Crump ads for Toyota. Neither is it as weird as the Tesla Cyber thing, which looks like a monkey got loose with a sheetmetal folding machine one evening.  But because electric vehicles have been in the news this past month or so and without passing comment on the ill-conceived and virtue-signalling Kiwi ‘ute tax’ (well not much anyway), let’s acknowledge the work being done to bring EV technology to offroad racing. Far from the shores of Fortress New Zealand the Extreme E series is raced in unique offroad race cars that are full battery EVs.  The unique motorsport event was the brainchild of Spanish businessman Alejandro Agag, who has been involved in Formula One and came up with Formula E, the open-wheel electric-powered circuit racing series. Formula E, of course has our own Mitch Evans racing in the Jaguar team and looking like a title prospect. Extreme E is billed as “the race for the pl
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Allez les bleus! Armstrong scores at Silverstone

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After an epic battle in the first Formula 2 sprint race at Silverstone, Marcus Armstrong has taken a podium finish in the second, fighting off all rivals to defend his position throughout the 123.7 km race. In race one, an early spin by championship leader Guanyu Zhou brought out the safety car and compressed the field. Armstrong had surged from the seventh row at the green light to be in the top four. An intense battle over the following laps left the outcome undecided and a second incident on lap 12 once more bunched the field, leaving Armstrong inside the top ten but locked in a three way battle for sixth as the race resumed two laps later. He crossed the line in ninth place, which put him on the front row in the partial-reverse second sprint race on Saturday afternoon. Then in the second sprint – distance race the top three of Richard Verschoor, Armstrong and Dan Ticktum held their positions off the start line while the field jostled for the minor points-bearing positions
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