Volkswagen Amarok Canyon

Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles presented an extreme version of the successful Amarok pick-up at the recent Geneva International Motor Show; the Amarok Canyon concept vehicle.  Specially configured for the popular extreme sport of ‘freestyle kayaking’, this impressive show car illustrates how versatile pick-up configurations can be created.  
The concept vehicle is significantly taller and wider than the production Amarok. The Amarok’s body (in bright Baladi Orange) was raised by 40 mm with a body lift kit; and when the tyres are included, the concept is a full 85 mm taller than the production model.  The freestyle pick-up also has auxiliary headlights mounted on its roof, and additional visual accents are provided by the smoked rear lights and the colour-contrasting underbody protection. Two electrically deployed tread plates make it easy for all occupants to step into and out of the vehicle, despite the raised ride height.
The tread plates were designed to be visually unobtrusive, and they retract when the vehicle is moving to maintain the standard Amarok Canyon’s traditional high level of off-road capability.  As noted, the concept car’s width has also increased to accommodate outdoor activities. The wheel housings were widened by 35 mm on each side to make room for the big AT tyres, size 275/65 R 18, mounted on ‘Durban’ type wheels painted in ‘High Gloss Adamantium Dark’.
The two carbon fibre kayaks are securely mounted to the cargo floor: at the rear, the floor is designed with two formed cut-outs with soft padding, while the kayak bows are mounted on a styling bar in ‘High Gloss Adamantium Dark’ with straps for firmly securing the boats. The paddles are firmly latched in place on the inside surface of the easy-to-operate tailgate, ready to grab. All other gear – white-water helmets, flotation devices and rafting shoes – are also stowed securely: the helmets in nets on the front wall of the cargo bed, and the rest of the gear in smaller boxes that can be locked with watertight lids.
Inside, a special colour scheme was used with many details and new accents. The leather seats have two-tone styling: the seating surfaces are in ‘sterling’ colour, while the head restraints and side supports are elegantly offset in ‘adamant’ colour. The decorative seams on the seats take on the orange-red colour of the body. This colour is also reflected in numerous other details such as in the seams of the three-spoke steering wheel and gear shift lever trim, the safety belts and the air outlets. Housed in a cowl in the cockpit are three auxiliary instruments. They show the climbing and tilt angles of the Amarok, which gives the driver key information for extra safety on extreme off-road drives.
To enable maximum off-road capability, the Amarok concept vehicle is powered by a torque-strong 2.0 TDI bi-turbo with 180 PS, which provides a maximum torque of 400 Newton metres over engine speeds ranging from 1,500-2,250 rpm.  The switchable 4MOTION all-wheel drive system – together with a reduction gearbox and differential lock at the rear axle – ensures effective power transfer to the wheels even in the toughest off-road conditions.

Volkswagen triumph at Rally Mexico

By taking eighth place overall the Volkswagen factory team successfully finished the test run at the Mexico Rally, the third round of the 2012 FIA World Rally Championship, and gathered valuable experience for fielding the Polo R WRC from 2013 on.

Sébastien Ogier and co-driver Julien Ingrassia (F/F) finished ahead of three more powerful WRC cars and scored the first four championship points. Volkswagen Junior Kevin Abbring (NL) and his new co-driver Frédéric Miclotte (B) were struck by misfortune. After having set good initial times they were forced to retire in the second Škoda Fabia S2000 due to technical problems on the 16th special stage. 

"The extremely stony gravel tracks at an altitude of over 2,000 metres make the Mexico Rally one of the most demanding rallies for ‘man and material,'” said Volkswagen Motorsport Director Kris Nissen. "We've gathered conclusive measurements for the development of the Polo R WRC. Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia did a very good job. It's a shame that Kevin Abbring and Frédéric Miclotte suffered a bit of misfortune as they'd been running at a nice, fast past up to that point in time. The enthusiasm of the Mexican rally fans is fantastic. And it's a good feeling to note that the Volkswagen brand has so many fans in Mexico.” Rally Mexico delivered spectacular rally racing on 22 special stages and 380 timed kilometres around Leon, a city with a population of 1.3 million, in front of a crowd of enthusiastic fans. 65 thousand frenetic fans celebrated the rally racers like pop stars at the ceremonial start in Guanajuato, a city that is on the UNESCO's World Heritage List. "It's fantastic to drive past the fans through the narrow alleys and tunnels. It's definitely the best starting stage on the whole calendar,” raved Sébastien Ogier. And co-driver Julien Ingrassia added, "It's a pure feeling of goose bumps. For me it's the greatest experience in rallying every year.” 

On account of the early starting positions Ogier was struggling with difficult conditions. "When you're always among the first drivers to go out, there's still a particularly large amount of gravel on the track,” said the 28-year-old Frenchman. "In addition, the power difference compared with turbo engines is even greater here at altitudes of up to 2,750 metres. On the whole though I'm pleased because I can give the team its first championship points. And in 2013 we'll be even farther at the front with the Polo R WRC.”
As in Monaco, Volkswagen Junior Kevin Abbring showed a strong driving performance. The young Dutchman at times was similarly quick as his team-mate Ogier until technical problems thwarted any hope of scoring a good overall result. The Škoda S2000 first stopped due to a fuel supply problem after the fifth special stage on Friday which caused Abbring/Miclotte to receive a total of 25 penalty minutes and made them drop to the bottom of the standings. After the re-start according to the Rally 2 regulations engine failure on the 16th special stage forced them to retire. "Obviously, I'm disappointed,” said Abbring. "My times weren't far from those set by Sébastien and in my book he's one of world's three best rally racers. And despite the fact that he had some disadvantages due to the unfavourable starting positions I'm proud of having been quicker on three special stages. The collaboration with my new co-driver Frédéric Miclotte was superb. Now I'm looking forward to Portugal because that rally suits me well.”

60th Anniversary Twelve Hours of Sebring - Flying Lizard

Sebring proved to have it in for the Lizards again this year when the No. 45 was collected before the race even started by the No. 58 Luxury Racing Ferrari. Suffering substantial rear suspension damage in the incident, Joerg Bergmeister--who was starting eighth on the combined WEC/ALMS GT grid--was grounded on course for 30 minutes before officials could get the car back to the team's garage. Once back in the garage, the crew worked rapidly to replace the No. 45's complete left rear suspension, shock, and rear axle and repair bodywork. The Porsche was back on course just under the 1 hour mark but had lost 26 laps on the GT leader due to the lengthy repair.

Sister Lizard Porsche No. 44 fared better: Seth Neiman started near the back of the GT grid and after an uneventful stint, turned the wheel over to Darren Law in P12 (combined). Over the next several hours, the Lizard drivers cycled through their stints - with Andy Lally taking over from Law in the No. 44. In the No. 45, after Bergmeister returned to the race and completed his stint, he turned the wheel over to Patrick Long, then Marco Holzer.

By the six-hour mark, Darren Law was back in the No. 44 and had moved up to P10 (combined). The No. 45 was now P13 (combined) with Joerg Bergmeister again behind the wheel and now 25 laps down on the GT leader.

Shortly past the halfway point, Lizard engineers made the decision to bring the No. 45 behind the wall a second time under yellow to replace a defective gear potentiometer. Bergmeister went directly to the garage where the crew replaced the gear sensor. The No. 45 returned to the pits for driver change to Patrick Long , who was back out on track 40 minutes later, still in P13.

By hour nine, the No. 45 was still P13 (combined), and the No. 44 had moved up to P8 (combined). Bad luck struck again when Joerg radioed in that he had another problem in the left rear. The crew called him into the pits immediately, and diagnosed a broken left rear subframe. The No. 45 went behind the wall for the third time to replace the subframe. Meanwhile, a final pit stop for the No. 44 and driver change to Andy Lally moved the Porsche back to P9 (combined). On the last lap, Lally was able to overtake the P8 GT car for position, moving to P8 (combined). The No. 45 rejoined just a few minutes before the checkered, to finish P13 (combined). The ALMS GT-only finishing positions were P6 for the No. 44 and P10 for the No. 45 and points were allocated according to those results. The No. 56 BMW won in ALMS GT.

Bergmeister commented, "It was a very unfortunate to get hit before the green flag even dropped. But the guys did an incredible job in fixing the car and getting us back on track - not just once, but three times. It's possible that all of our problems stemmed from that initial accident; so other than that incident, we really had a problem-free race. I'm happy that we managed to get some points for the championship."

Lally added, "It was a wonderful first experience as a Lizard: I'm honored to be a part of the team and had a great time with a fun group. I enjoyed all of my stints - it was an exciting race. At the end of the race, when I was closing in on the No. 02 Ferrari with half a lap to go, we both got caught up in traffic and I was able to sneak by to gain a position and points. It was definitely the cherry on top of a very cool weekend."

Visit the team website at www.lizardms.com.

Mercedes-Benz Vito E-CELL

Geneva saw a world first from Mercedes-Benz Vans: the Vito E-CELL Crewbus is the first seven-seater vehicle worldwide to offer local emission-free mobility ex-factory as standard. With its range of around 130 km it is ideal for use in environmentally sensitive areas as well as by the environmentally conscious. The range of 130 km is optimised for deployment on short routes involving numerous stops, opening the E-CELL to as broad a range of consumers as possible..

The Mercedes-Benz Vito E-CELL Crewbus lends itself to a broad scope of applications: in particular, offering an emission-free and yet highly comfortable means of (relatively) short-range transport.

The electric motor (60 kW with a maximum torque of 280 Nm), power electronics, transformer and AC/DC charger are accommodated under the bonnet. The generated power is transmitted to the front wheels. The powerful and robust lithium-ion traction batteries are accommodated under the passenger compartment floor. The nominal voltage stands at 360 V, with a capacity of 36 kWh. The speed is electronically limited to 89 km/h in the interests of a range but even so the Vito E-CELL offers perfect around town and city performance, fitting in perfectly with the traffic flow of most large conurbations.

The Vito E-CELL's batteries are charged from a 380/400 V grid in a maximum of five hours although the E-CELL's battery additionally stores recuperated power while the vehicle is in motion.

The Vito E-CELL does not compromise on safety: ESP and driver's airbag come as standard and a safety belt is integrated in each seat. The batteries are protected by a crash element. In the event of airbag activation, the high-voltage technology will be shut down automatically. The Vito E-CELL has demonstrated its high safety standard in an impressive manner in crash tests.

Currently there are 230 Vito E-CELL vans on the road as part of the promotion schemes in operation in Germany. Together, they have so far successfully covered around 650,000kms after their first year in service with customers ensuring that the Vito E-CELL has proven its credentials as an ideal vehicle for urban traffic.

60th Anniversary Twelve Hours of Sebring - Paul Miller Racing

The scene in the Paul Miller Racing pit after a grueling 60th Anniversary Twelve Hours of Sebring was pure jubilation as Bryce Miller, Sascha Maassen and Rob Bell co-drove the No. 48 Chopard/Dunlop/TOTAL Porsche 911 GT3 RSR to a seventh-place GT result. Two of the cars finishing ahead were FIA World Endurance Championship entries, so the driving trio actually earned fifth-place points from the longest event on the American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón schedule. "Obviously, we've been on a learning curve, both with the car and the tires at the same time, so to be the first Porsche in ALMS is a huge accomplishment for us," said team owner Paul Miller. "I'm very excited for the guys. The car ran like a train all day and all night, so we're really pleased. It's just great and so far beyond what we could have expected. We were just hoping for a little more attrition in front of us, because there was no change in that order for the last five, six hours of the race. The last half of the race, it was the same six guys in front of us. Nobody dropped out. It was amazing. There were guys doing two-minute flats and 2:01s, it was just incredible, all the way through, and there was zero attrition. It was amazing."

It was Bryce Miller's best result in three Sebring starts, but it didn't come without a few tense moments as the laps wound down. Miller took over in the cockpit for Maassen to drive the final stint with slightly more than an hour remaining with the singular goal of preserving the team's seventh-place position. While he was never challenged for position, Miller ran the entire closing stint in fuel conservation mode and had one liter of fuel remaining in the fuel cell after the race. He also survived contact from a Rebellion prototype inside of the final five minutes. "We kept looking for opportunities and mistakes and other crews making mistakes in the pit stop rounds, and just stayed true to our strategy," said Bryce. "We had a couple hiccups along the way, but all in all, that's where it counted. We kept it pretty tight. It was tight enough and the race pace was good enough, and we kept it clean enough, that at the end we were there. That's what counted. The fuel call that the guys on our cart made was just absolutely exceptional. I got the fuel reserve light on the very last lap and it just couldn't have been called any better. It's just an awesome feeling. I'm really proud of the team and everyone here. We really deserve it. I'm just proud for the guys."

Maassen started the race from just outside the top 10, but moved up to ninth before 30 minutes were gone. He moved up to a race-high position of fourth briefly during the first wholesale pit stop cycle and drove a monster double stint to solidify the team's top-10 position. "It's a great result," said Maassen, a five-time Sebring class winner. "This is the toughest race of the whole year and we're just starting with so many new partners, with a new Porsche and a new Dunlop tire, all these new things that we have to put together. We finished the race and we finished the race strong. There were only two factory Corvettes and two factory BMWs from the ALMS in front of us, and we are the best-placed Porsche. I'm very, very happy."

The seventh-place performance matches Bell's best run in four Twelve Hours of Sebring appearances, as he also finished seventh in his Sebring debut in 2008. He brought an extensive background with Dunlop to the race week at Sebring and feels the team now has a clear direction on how to move its program forward. We learned we need to work hard and go forward and work with Dunlop as a partner," Bell said. "You come to the first race of the year, especially at Sebring, which is really difficult, and that's your judge. That's where you know where you are for the rest of the season. We now know we've got work to do. That's good for the guys. They can see it, it's in black and white, but there's determination here to move on. It'll be what it will be, but we all know motor racing is difficult. That's why we love it."

Next up for the Paul Miller Racing squad is the Tequila Patrón American Le Mans Series at Long Beach on April 13-14.

Audi A4 RS4 Avant

The new Audi A4 RS4 Avant offers the extreme performance expected from any RS Audi as well as a more practical and useful side to. The RS4 Avant is now into its third generation but age doesn't seemed to have dulled this über-estate as the hand-built, naturally aspirated 4.2 litre V8 engine delivers a vibrant (and beautifully sounding) 450PS as well as 430Nm of torque. This ensures there's plenty of urge whenever the accelerator is depressed and ensures that the latest incarnation of the RS4 is blessed with impressive performance and performance figures. 0-62 takes a mere 4.2 seconds whilst the RS4 sprints effortlessly to its limited top speed of 155mph (the ultimate top speed of 174mph requires a little extra outlay for de-restriction).
power reaches the road via the standard seven-speed S tronic transmission, complete with paddle change on the steering wheel. For explosive starts (not the traditional domain of an über-estate) drivers can also activate Launch Control. In common with every Audi RS model, the RS4 Avant features quattro permanent all-wheel drive, the RS4 also benefits from an advanced crown-gear centre differential, which is able to vary the distribution of power between the front and rear axles rapidly, smoothly and over a wide range, with up to 70 per cent flowing to the front or as much as 85 per cent to the rear. The default 40:60 ratio allows for a more agile drive allowing the driver to precisely adjustable handling by the use of the throttle. The self-locking crown-gear centre differential works in conjunction with a torque vectoring system allowing perfect power distribution between all four wheels. The electronic stability programme (ESP) offers a Sport mode and can be fully deactivated if required. The sport differential familiar from the S4 quattro and the RS5 is available as an option.
19" or optional 20" wheels cover improved brakes front and rear with  carbon fibre ceramic discs and six-piston callipers being available as an option.
The exterior design of the RS4 Avant is a mixture of purpose and subtle understatement. Flared arches deeper splitters, larger air intakes, 20mm lowering, honeycomb grille and a subtle rear spoiler all add a more distinctive look to the RS4 but none are excessively brash to draw too much attention to the car and it's driver; at least not at slow speeds.....
Prices are currently unavailable for 4.2 litre V8 Estate (with a luggage capacity of 1430 litres) Audi RS4 Avant although those really interested in purchasing one should wander down to the local Audi dealer who will be happy to place one on order.