Industry News
News for 21st September 2007
FIA releases full transcripts of F1 industrial espionage hearings
The FIA, the governing body of international motorsport, has released full transcripts of the meetings of its World Motor Sport Council that took place on July 26 and September 13.
At these meetings hearings relating to the Formula One industrial espionage scandal involving the McLaren-Mercedes and Ferrari teams took place.
To read the transcripts visit www.fia.com/mediacentre/Press_Releases/FIA_Sport/2007/September/190907-01.html
Sale of Spyker F1 team ‘agreed in principle’
The Dutch based low volume roadgoing sportscar manufacturer Spyker Cars NV has agreed to sell its Silverstone, UK Based Formula One team to consortium for 88 million euros ($123 million).
A statement issued by the car manufacturer said, "With the sale of the Formula One Team now agreed in principle... Spyker Cars N.V. will return to the task of finalizing the internal strategic review and associated refinancing which has been ongoing since May."
At the beginning of September a group including Indian businessman Vijay Mallya and Spyker's former director of Formula One, Michiel Mol, made an 80 million euro bid for the team.
Final approval for the transaction is being sought from Spyker shareholders who will vote on the sale on September 29.
BTCC returns to Silverstone in 2008
The British Touring Car Championship, the UK’s premier touring car racing series, is return to the Silverstone race circuit in 2008.
The Northamptonshire circuit, which stages the Formula One British Grand Prix, was left off the 2007 schedule for undisclosed reasons.
Richard Phillips, the managing director of Silverstone Circuits Limited, said, "It's great news that the BTCC is coming back to Silverstone, and we are delighted to be back on the calendar.
"The BTCC is a fantastic British championship and we look forward to hosting the ninth round, especially for 2008 when the series will be celebrating its 50th year."
EEMS confirms first motorcycle racing campaign partner
The Peterborough, UK based Team Inzane Laverda motorcycle racing team has been confirmed as the first two-wheel EEMS Campaign Partner.
Team Inzane races its Italian made Laverda Formula 650 machine races in the UK Mini Twins Championship on E85, a blend of 15% petrol with 85% bioethanol distilled from sugar.
EEMS Programme Manager, Alan Mercer said, “We are delighted to welcome Team Inzane Laverda as a Campaign Partner. The bike’s conversion and competition is an excellent showcase of what can be achieved within two-wheeled motorsport. We will be following its progress with interest.”
Team Inzane technical director Ian Calvert said, “We have made modifications to the fuel mapping of the bike to accommodate the green fuel blend, early results show no loss of performance and our rider reports excellent power delivery and a cooler running engine. "
Chassis supplier seeks winding up order on Grand Prix Masters series
Delta Special Projects, the Silverstone, UK based company which supplies the chassis for the Grand Prix Masters race series is seeking a winding up order against the series organisers due to non-payment of invoices.
The petition is due to be heard at the Royal Courts of Justice in London on November 28.
The Grand Prix Masters series in which ex-Formula One drivers raced against each other in identical chassis powered by identical engines started in 2005. To date only three races have taken place, the last in August 2006.
MSA council mandates ‘cats’
At its recent meeting the Motor Sports Council of the UK’s Motor Sport Association, the governing body of UK motor sport, confirmed a number of regulation changes that will be adopted for the 2008 season.
Included among the changes is the mandating of catalytic converters for all production based touring, saloon and sports cars, including specialist production and kit cars, from January 1 2009 and for newly registered championships from January 1 2008. The MSC also reserves the right to mandate their use for certain other formulae.
AlgaeLink launches 2nd generation biofuel equipment at Biodiesel-Expo
AlgaeLink, a subsidiary of the Dutch firm Bioking, will unveil its photo-bioreactors for algae-for-biodiesel production at the UK Biodiesel-Expo and Biofuels Conference, giving the UK its first demonstration of a second-generation biofuel that the conference organizer says “is already getting the bosses at Boeing excited”.
Event organizer Biofuels Media says commercial algae farming is coming to the rescue of the increasingly controversial biodiesel. Unlike crops such as soy, palm, corn and rapeseed, many strains of micro-algae contain as much as 70% oil - up to 25 times more than oil seed rape.
With increasing interest in biodiesel as an alternative to fossil fuel, many have looked at the possibility of growing more oilseed crops as a solution to the problem of peak oil, but have raised concerns over the displacement of food crops, impact on biodiversity, and rising feedstock prices.
Algae is also capable of absorbing nitrogen from wastewater and extracting carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Algae can be grown in open ponds or sealed in clear tubes to produce far more oil per acre than food crops such as soybeans.
Other advantages claimed for micro-algae as a fuel feed crop include:
- All year cultivation and short life cycle
- The fastest growing plant on earth - 100 times faster
than trees – algae typically double their weight daily
- Algae requires only raw materials that are abundant: sunlight,
water, carbon dioxide and nutrients
- Algae can grow in adverse conditions for other crops such deserts and saline
waters
The Biodiesel-Expo and Biofuels Conference has attracted 100 exhibitors from both the UK and overseas.
(www.biofuelsmedia.com)
- An agricultural conference in Hungary yesterday heard from Szent Istvan University professor Marta Birkas that the effects of a drought which halved the country’s maize crop this year had been exacerbated by soil evaporation accelerated by the removal of stalks and straw from the harvested land for use as biomass in power generation. (Planet Ark, 21 September)
Cleangreencars.co.uk: Proposed government road tax changes show ‘right idea, wrong method’
Treasury plans to penalise cars emitting high levels of CO2, (leaked by The Sunday Times of 16 September) though well-intentioned, are likely to prove ineffective and unnecessarily complicated, according to www.cleangreencars.co.uk. According to the Treasury paper, it is proposing to introduce an additional purchase tax of £2,000 for cars emitting over 255 g/km of CO2 at the next budget.
www.cleangreencars.co.uk has long argued the need for a new Band H – at present the owner of a Renault Espace 2.0T Auto emitting 234 g/km of CO2 pays the same tax as the owner of a Range Rover Supercharged with 376 g/km of CO2. Sales of cars emitting over 275g/km of CO2 actually rose by 19.2% in the first half of 2007, as luxury car buyers have no incentive to choose lower emission vehicles at present. Almost all their possible choices are in Band G, so they might as well get hung for a sheep as for a lamb.
However, the site’s editor Jay Nagley says, “Our idea is for an increased road tax figure of £500, but payable throughout the car’s life.”
The government’s plan, he says, is missing the point: on a £50,000 luxury car most buyers spend more than £2,000 on options already, so an extra £2,000 on purchase tax is neither here nor there. What stops people buying medium-sized cars just over the current Band G limit of 225g/km is the sure knowledge that it will cost them a great deal of money come resale time (for example, a Ford Mondeo 2.5 Ghia X auto that falls into Band G loses approximately £1,500 more in depreciation than the Ford Mondeo 2.0 Ghia X auto in Band F). With a road tax figure of £500 for Band H, the difference in resale value on a more expensive luxury car would be much higher – at least £3,000. Thus a simple increase in road tax would have a bigger impact than a complex extra purchase tax.
However, www.cleangreencars’ research shows that the CO2 figure of the proposed Band H is “about right”. Earlier this year, the site suggested the immediate introduction of a Band H set at 275 g/km, as that would enable the most economical versions of most luxury cars to escape the top rate of tax. However, as the government’s proposed tax will not come into force until at least 2008, and CO2 figures are steadily falling for a given engine size, the net effect will be almost the same by the time the tax comes into force.
Said Jay Nagley, “We support the idea of penalising cars that emit high levels of CO2, but there is a far easier and more effective way of doing so. The irony is that the government already has the right tool to hand – graduated road tax.”
- Current market share of cars in the proposed Band G: 2.9%
- Current market share of cars in the proposed Band G: 3.5%
