Performance News - 11 April 2000

Kia Shuma

Kia's Mentor replacement - the Shuma - is now on sale in Australia at $18,990 for the manual version and $20,990 for the automatic model. Standard equipment includes power steering, power windows, power mirrors, aircon, central locking, driver's airbag and a six speaker CD-player. The Shuma is powered by a 1.8 litre 16 valve engine producing 82kW. It is protected by a three year/100,000km warranty.

Grand Prix Rally Proton Satria GTi

Proton's hot hatch Satria GTi has finished fifth in class in the tough five day Duttons Grand Prix Rally, beaten home only by its pure sports car cousin the Lotus Elise. Wodonga Proton dealer Brian Reed and his son Todd drove the hatch in the now traditional Grand Prix lead up event and were pleased to have beaten all but four Elises in a class which also contained cars such as the MGF and other pure bred sporsters.

According to Brian Reed, the Satria GTi performed well above the expectations of other competitors in the Grand Prix Rally and surprised many with its performance. "The Satria GTi was a revelation for many of the drivers who were steering cars costing anywhere up to ten times as much as the Proton," he said. "We were as high as 30th outright in field of 220 cars which I think indicates how good the Satria GTi is in performance terms," he added. The Proton Satria will make its debut in the Australian Century Batteries GT-P Production Car Championship in April in the hands of reigning Class A champ Kozi Kalaitzidis.

Historical Ford Sippets...

• Henry Ford started life as a farmer and he was always interested in trying make life easier for that hardy breed. He developed the first practical mass-produced tractor in 1917 and, a year later, the famous Fordson was being shipped to Australia. The first Fordson went to work on the Darling Downs in Queensland and soon they were being sought after by farmers all over Australia. In July 1925, the same month that the first Model T rolled out of Ford's temporary assembly plant in Geringhap St, Geelong, 104 Fordson tractors were assembled by Ford Australia. By the end of 1932, Ford had produced more than 10,000 Fordsons and, for the next fifty years, continued to produce thousands of steel horses for Australia's farmers.

• When Harry Firth and his Falcon crews arrived at the starting line in the shadow of London's Big Ben for the commencement of the Daily Telegraph London-to-Sydney Marathon in 1968, everyone laughed at the huge cars with massive steel bumper bars. Experienced European rally crews scoffed at the huge cars saying they were too wide, too heavy and too cumbersome. The favourites amongst European rally drivers were the lithe Escorts and Hillman GTs, the sporty Porsches and the innovative Citroens. It didn't take long for the jeers to turn to amazement as these powerful V8 Falcons worked their way through the field as cars fell by the wayside in Yugoslavia, Iran and India. When they got to Australia that the Falcons really shone. By the time they arrived in Sydney after days of stony desert tracks and icy alpine roads, the Falcons were placed 3^rd, 5^th and 8^th and had won the prestigious Teams Prize. The car is on permanent display at the Ford Discovery Centre in Geelong.

• In the petrol crisis days of the late Seventies and early Eighties, Ford was 'having a few bob each way' on the design for the XD Falcon replacement. Ford had introduced the full-size XD at the same time as Holden had 'downsized' with the new Commodore. Ford's engineers and stylists set about designing a smaller 'Commodore-sized' Falcon in both sedan and hatchback styles. Code-named 'Capricorn', the car reached full clay and fibreglass model stage. The interior had been designed and, by late 1981, all it needed was final approval before going to the next stage - driveable prototypes. At the same time, Ford was revamping the Falcon range of engines and introduced the alloy head and other improvements that kept the Falcon's fuel economy on a par with the smaller Commodore. Falcon sales soared, Ford became No 1 in the market place and the Capricorn died!

Quickies

• Australian Peugeot sales are up 25 percent for the first three months of 2000, compared to the same period last year. A total of 736 Peugeots sold to the end of March, which is up 146 on the first quarter of 1999.

• Adelaide Japanese importing wrecker Adelaide Jap Dismantlers has recently added a range of top Japanese bits, including a Mazda 20B front cut, Subaru SVX front cut, Pulsar GtiR for wrecking, a WRX STi, RB25DET Skyline GTS for compliancing, and an FJ20 Turbo R31 Skyline half cut. Car Tec Imports in Canberra (02 6228 1595) are now an agent of the company. http://www.adelaidejap.com.au/

• Honda Motor Co has announced the completion of an indoor all-weather vehicle-to-vehicle crash test facility at the Tochigi R&D Centre of Honda R&D Co Ltd. More than AUD $104 million has been invested in building the centre, the first of its kind in the world. The centre is capable of handling not only existing crash tests that employ static barriers, but also tests between vehicles in situations that simulate actual traffic accidents. The facility has a total floor area of 41,000 square metres and eight test tracks constructed in a radial shape. Together, the tracks permit the reproduction of crashes from almost any direction at 15-degree increments. The facility will allow Honda to simulate crashes between two cars travelling at different speeds, as well as crash tests involving different sizes of vehicles such as a passenger car and a truck. Simulated automobile and pedestrian accidents can also be conducted. Testing can be conducted regardless of weather conditions, reducing research and development time.

• A stock standard Daewoo Matiz has been driven from Melbourne to Darwin on less that $100 of fuel. The 3,899.8km drive from Melbourne to Darwin departed on March 6 and arrived on March 10. The Matiz used 121.83 litres of regular unleaded fuel, which equates to $99.29 at $0.815c/Litre, the price paid in Melbourne on the day of departure. The other statistics are just as impressive: total fuel economy was 3.124 litres/100 km or almost 91 miles per gallon! The route took the Matiz through Port Augusta, Kulgera, Elliott and finally Darwin.