Ben’s Car Blog

Elfin, makers of Lotus 7 type cars are branching out and building the MS8, conceived by Mike Simcoe and designed and built with help from Holden.

These originally started as concept cars and are now full-blown production cars with the LS1 V8 in a 1100kg “clubman” body. They’re expensive and I’m not sure if there is any point other than to have a really big unstressed engine in a really little car. I’d have to have at least three other cars before considering getting an MS8 (make mine the Clubman, the Streamliner is a bit too Thunderbirds).

Michael Stahl from Wheels drove one for the current issue and generally liked it which is a pretty good rap for what’s basically a low-volume hand-built road-registered race car.

Bose, makers of audio equipment for people with lots of money, have for some reason designed and built a suspension system for cars that meets the two goals of “passenger comfort and vehicle control”.

They installed it into a Lexus LS400 and took videos of it not rolling in corners and not dipping into ruts and bumps.

It’s cool but Citroens could do that years ago.

In 1966 Bob Holden raced a Mini at Bathurst and won. CarsGuide has the story of how he boosted the power in his assigned car and won the race.

(Driver lifts the veil on mighty Bathurst win)

Drive reports that people are buying flood-damaged cars at auction, cleaning them up and selling them for a tidy profit. The big problem with this is that sooner or later the water damage will re-surface, causing no end of troubles.

I was catching a plane from Brisbane to Canberra last week and had a similar conversation with a fellow passenger where he told be a similar story of dodgy dealings.

Be aware.

(Wet cars leave buyers dunked)

Autoblog reports that in Malaysia some enterprising boffins have made speed cameras that fit into “Botts Dots” (think cats eyes if you’re Aussie).

Big brother meets little brother?

(Cameras embedded in road catch speeders)

Drive reports that Sydney’s cross city tunnel will have speed cameras installed before it opens in contravention of the State Governments speed camera policy of only having cameras at accident black spots.

The government has defended the decision, saying that “conventional policing” was difficult in the tunnels.

(Tunnel a black spot site before it opens)

CarsGuide reports that Mazda will bring the CX7 crossover here, probably as the Mazda7 but will ignore the Mazda5.

Despite the ‘5 being exactly what I’d like to see people driving, Mazda Australia have probably been burnt with the Premacy and their almost invisible MPV.

I’m doubly disappointed that we won’t get the Mazda5 as the Auto Prophet did a great review of the American market Mazda5 a while ago and found it to his liking.

(Mazda CX7 on the way)

Carpoint reviews the new Nissan Murano crossover 4wd and comes away cautiously impressed.

On first impressions, the Murano is a comfortable, stylish, well equipped and good value SUV that although may not offer the enthusiastic driver a rewarding experience, is sure to hit its target market, and its rivals, right where Nissan wants it to.

Their “what we liked” summary is farily obvious but the “not so much” is revealing: it’s all about the handling:

• Flat seats lack support
• Soft suspension tune
• Body roll at higher speeds

(Nissan Murano)

Mercedes continues their “assault” on the niche market (shouldn’t that be niche markets?) with the B-class.

Looking somewhat like a bigger A-class or a much smaller R-class, the B-class is, according to Mercedes-Benz Australia’s Toni Andreevski,

“It is more of a lifestyle vehicle for people who are doing a lot of outdoor activities, almost a cross-over style of vehicle between an A-Class and maybe something like a Subaru Liberty.”

An unnamed spokesman said with the B-class and the as yet unreleased D-class Mercedes would “have a grip on the top 20 percent of the alphabet”.

(Benz’s plan B)

Fullboost (free reg. req’d) has a story on the recent Ford Forums Club Night at Heathcote in Victoria. Adam Hargrave’s BA XR6 ran consistent 10.3 second passes with a best of 10.20 @ 135mph on a stock turbo and manifold! Now that’s fast!

(FullBOOST - Ford Forum Club Night)