……WILL PROBABLY ALSO BE THE WORLD’S MOST DANGEROUS CAR.  Tata Motors in India has just announced they will be producing a mostly-plastic automobile that will sell for the equivalent of $2,400.

In a poverty-riddled country where entire families of 4 ride perched on a motorbike, Tata hopes to ride the booming economy of India to bring more families into automobile ownership.  Currently only 8 of every 1,000 Indians owns a car, compared with 770 per thousand Americans.

The four-door puppy will have a 33-hp engine, but they claim it will get up to 80 mph.  They even say it will pass a crash test, but they don’t say who is doing the testing.

The potential market is huge, not just in India but other places like Brazil, China, Russia.

The Scotland Sunday Herald has the full STORY.

THREE-TIME FORMULA ONE CHAMPION NELSON PIQUET had his driver’s license taken away in his native Brazil because he had too many “points.”

Reuters reports:  Piquet, one of just three Brazilians to win the Formula One world championship, lost his license in June after receiving a slew of speeding and parking tickets. His wife, Viviane, also had her license taken away for bad driving and joined her husband in the mandatory driver awareness course.

“I think we have to pay for our mistakes,” Piquet, 54, told local news agency G1. “It’s not even just a speeding problem. I got tickets for all kinds of reasons, for things like parking where I shouldn’t.”

They have begun attending 30 hours of classes over eight days and will have to pass an exam before regaining their licenses.

Nelson and Viviane Piquet pay attention
during their driver’s awareness training.

SHOWING THAT YOU CAN GO “GREEN” and still burn rubber, a collection of alternate-fuel cars are ready to show their stuff.

One is a Dodge E85 Viper street car with a 1200 hp ethanol-powered V-10 that has already been clocked at 220 mph.

Another is Ford’s Fusion Hydrogen 999.  The Fusion has a 770 hp electric motor powered by a hydrogen fuel cell and they expect it to exceed 315 mph on the salt flats.

Popular Mechanics provided the photos and the article HERE.

INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY DIDN’T WASTE any time filling the hole in the schedule left by the departing prima donna’s of Formula 1.  Track president Joie Chitwood announced yesterday that the international motorcycle circuit MotoGP will be racing on the road course on Sept. 14, 2008.

There will still need to be several millions of dollars of renovations to the road course to configure it to meet motorcycle safety standards and to make it amenable to counter-clockwise racing.  The F-1 races clockwise.

According to the Indianapolis Star, the road course will be converted from a 13-turn, 2.605-mile layout to 2.601 miles with 16 turns. It will use the front straightaway of the oval, where the motorcycles will reach speeds approaching 215 mph, and several stretches of the existing circuit. Many of the changes are dictated by safety because the bikes require large runoff areas. 

Indy joins Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca at Monterey, Calif., in giving MotoGP two U.S. venues on its schedule, which this year lists 18 races at major road circuits around the world. Laguna Seca hosts its race this weekend.

This is really a big deal, and Firegeezer predicts that this will prove to be much more successful at the box office than F-1 was.

Read the full story HERE.

AFTER HOSTING THE FORMULA-1 RACING PROGRAM for eight years, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway declined to renew the sanction for next year.

The primary cause of failing to get an agreement with the F-1 circuit was the amount of “sanctioning” money that was being asked for.  IRS president Tony George offered $15 million but there are national governments who desire a PR activity that are willing to pay $30 million to host one of the races.

The first race at Indy in 2000 drew 200,000 spectators in what is still the largest-ever box office for any F-1 event.  However, it leveled off to around 100, 000 shortly after.  That’s still large by F-1 standards, but enthusiasm in the U. S. is mostly lacking for it.

The arrogant and quixotic antics of the F-1 operators rubbed most Americans the wrong way.  Drivers and team officials refused to allow access to the American press for interviews.  In the 2002 race the leader, Michael Schumacher backed off on the homestretch and threw the win to his teammate Rubens Barrichello.  An openly-rigged finish just doesn’t sit well with Americans.

Another fiasco on the part of the circus troupe in 2005 pretty well eliminated any hope of expanding the fan base in this country.  Just minutes before the race began, tire manufacturer Michelin stated that their tires were not safe to use at the track.  After all 20 cars took the parade lap, the 14 that were shod with Michelins pulled into pit row and left only six cars remaining to stage a “race” for two hours.

The Indianapolis Star has the full STORY.

Firegeezer adds:  Speedway CEO Tony George made the usual mumblings about how there is hope that F-1 will return in the future, and the local economy benefited from them being here, etc., etc., etc.  But I don’t think you’ll be seeing the F-1 circuit running in the U. S. again for another 20 years.  And to that I say “Good riddance.  Don’t let the garage door hit you in the tail wing.”

THE CAR WAS BUILT IN FRANCE IN 1884 and still runs.  It’s a steamer with a top speed of 38 mph and is believed to be the car that won the first automobile race.

Read more about it HERE.

 
Ingle/AP photo

A DRAG-RACING CAR WENT OUT OF CONTROL during a parade in Selmer, Tenn., and spun into a crowd of bystanders Saturday, killing four people and injuring up to 15, authorities said. The event, Cars for Kids, is a fund-raiser for children’s charities.

WMC photo

The racer attemped to do a “burn-out” on the parade route when the tires gained traction and the car propelled into a utility pole, then spun into the crowd.

It was a relatively narrow roadway, lined with spectators and an uneven road surface.  Firegeezer wonders:  Just what was he thinking?  We may never know….the driver is one of those in the hospital.

Alexander/WHBQ photo

The Memphis Commercial Appeal has the full story HERE.

Memphis channel 5 WMC-tv had FIVE VIDEOS HERE.

update:  The death toll has now (11 am EDT) been increased to 7.

update #2:  The Tennessee Highway Patrol has now revised the death toll downward to 6.
WMC -TV reports:  Tennessee Highway Patrol spokesman Mike Browning said six people were killed, including two 15-year-old girls and a 17-year-old girl. The accident injured 18 others, including a 5-year-old boy, who were taken to hospitals in Tennessee and Mississippi.

POPULAR MECHANICS HAS RUN ROAD TESTS on four “speed machines”……..the Dodge Viper SRT10, Porsche 911 Turbo, Chevy Corvette Z06 and the Audi R8.

The full test and results are here.