Mad About Cars

Honda has announced that it will end production of the iconic S2000 sports car in June of this year. The car was first introduced in 1998 and since then has been a huge hit with buyers, with over 110,000 cars being sold.

However in recent years, sales of the S2000 have dropped dramatically, in 2008 only 4580 examples of the car were sold worldwide, and despite the context of the general slowdown of the new car market, it still represents a hefty drop from the figure of 15,000 per year sold by the company at the turn of the millennium.

Coupled with Honda’s increasing emphasis towards alternative technology and environmentally friendly technology, and it would appear that the S2000s future has been in doubt for some time. The company has cut back dramatically on its performance development, a replacement for the iconic NSX supercar was cancelled whilst the company also pulled the plug on its Formula One team over the winter.

With the loss of the S2000, it seems that Honda’s image as a producer of powerful high-performance cars is something the company is keen to end, with an emphasis now heading towards pioneering environmentally friendly technology.

Whilst some may lament Honda’s shift of emphasis, it would appear that as environmental impact becomes more of an issue, Honda is merely trying to beat its rivals in the race to adapt to motoring’s changes.

Despite a turbulent year for the Ford Motor Company, and the car industry in general, Ford Europe have announced pre-tax profits of $1billion (approximately £700million) for 2008.

The news comes as Ford looks to be the strongest of the beleaguered US car makers, who have suffered a torrid 2008. As a company, Ford still made a $10billion loss during 2008, but unlike rivals General Motors, Ford did not rely on US government assistance. Instead, the company delivered a blueprint for future growth to the US government, including plans to commit to electric and hybrid technology by 2012, to which they were provided a bridging loan by the US government, which Ford aim not to use.

It is hoped that Ford’s turnaround in Europe will be the spur for the company’s recovery, having made losses for several years and with some within the industry fearing the company would at one stage collapse.

Ford’s growth in Europe may be in some aspects down to it disbanding the ‘Premier Automotive Group’ with prestigious, but loss making brands such as Aston Martin, Jaguar and Land Rover being sold.

Ford Europe have launched successful new models during 2008, with new versions of the Ka and Fiesta proving popular, whilst the updated Ford Mondeo is one of the class leaders in the family car market.

Tyre choices are an important aspect of motoring, and with many budget tyres being temptingly cheap compared to brand name rivals.

Budget tyres may seem to make sense financially, but in recent tests by Autocar a set of budget tyres were found to perform far worse than their branded counterparts.

When used under extreme conditions such as harsh braking, along with aquaplaning, the budget tyres on test were found to perform far worse. In one of the most alarming statistics, the worst finishing ‘Linglong’ tyre was still travelling at 27.8 miles per hour after the car fitted with a branded tyre, a Continental’ had stopped.

Typically, budget tyres represent a false economy for the driver, in terms of lower production standards, higher rates of wear, and far worse performance in adverse weather conditions, along with high speed performance driving.

A more realistic way to try and save money on tyres would be to consider the wide range of mid-range tyres that are available, many of which offer comparable performance to branded tyres but at lower cost.

Another consideration may be the internet, many tyre shopping website now exist where customers can buy tyres directly, with most websites including fitting and balancing in the purchase price.

Long before the days of high-tech development and multi-million dollar budgets from major car companies, Formula One was a much simpler affair, and still within the realms of wealthy enthusiasts and budding team owners from the junior formulae could develop a car and enter Formula One.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, entries at Grand Prix events typically exceeded 30 cars, with pre-qualifying necessary to weed out the slowest cars. Most of the small teams of this era had short lifespans of only a couple of seasons, usually terminating their interest when it was clear they would never make the step up from also-rans.

Some teams from this era barely made any impact at all, in 1990, the Life team emerged from Italy to showcase a radically designed W12 engine. Hopelessly slow, the car never made it past pre-qualification in 14 attempts.

Some failed to capitalise on early promise, the neat Coloni team gathered some decent results in 1988, before a disastrous engine deal with Subaru saw them fail to qualify for a Grand Prix ever again. The Onyx team enjoyed a podium during their first season in 1989, but by 1990 the team had been taken over by Swiss enthusiast Peter Monteverdi and soon collapsed under poor management and lack of funding.

Some teams rose from backmarkers to become top runners, the most prominent of these being Jordan, who after failing to capitalise on a good opening season in 1991, soon rose to become one of the sport’s leading teams during the late 1990s.

Sadly, the recession of the early 1990s ended the involvement of the small privateer teams, with the likes of Simtek, Pacific and lastly Forti having brief, relatively unsuccessful spells in F1 during the mid 1990s.

Soon after, the sport had closed itself off to such participants. Today, new teams entering F1 are carefully vetted, with many millions of dollars investment behind them. Many herald this as in improvement and far more professional. But others feel that with the passing of the privateer teams, something has been lost from the sport.

One of the biggest names linked with the UK modifying scene is Ripspeed. Since its acquisition by Halfords in 1999 the company has become one of the biggest names in UK car modifying.
The company originally started in 1973 as a performance tuning and accessories mail order company. Founded by 1970s Rallycross champion Keith Ripp, the company took his surname and from its base in Enfield, Middlesex, predominantly sold performance parts for Mini owners.
The company steadily grew before being sold in 1996, however in a bid to expand the new owners moved the company from its traditional Enfield base in a bid to expand to several stores nationwide, with more of an emphasis being placed on the sale of cosmetic modifications at the expense of performance tuning. However the ambitious plans were thwarted two years later when the business folded.
The Ripspeed name was bought by Halfords in 1999, who use the Ripspeed name as a sub-brand, representing the car-modifying arm of Halfords. One of the major changes to the Ripspeed name since 1999 is the virtual abandonment of performance tuning, with the brand now concentrating solely on cosmetic modifications.
Ripspeed is now one of the UK’s biggest car modifying companies, although since its Halfords takeover the brand is often heavily criticised by ‘serious’ car modifiers who claim that the company’s relatively cheap, low quality items and the focus on cosmetic modifications give it a cheap ‘boy racer’ image.
However, Ripspeed is now one of the few ‘mainstream’ car modification retailers in the UK with Ripspeed branches in Halfords stores across the UK.