Sunway Tuner

Everything related to car modification tuning & racing

Laureus Awards For Brawn and Button

Mar 11

Posted by Insider in Awards

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Although one can hardly believe this, a 30-year old racer was named the Breakthrough Sportsman of the Year during this year’s Laureus Awards. Obviously, we’re talking about the reigning Formula One champion Jenson Button, who last year clinched his first title in career despite being uncertain of his F1 seat until a few weeks before the start of the championship.

Following Honda’s exit from the world of Formula One at the end of 2008, the Brackley based team remained without funds for the 2009 campaign. Eventually, the Japanese manufacturer proceeded to a management buyout towards Ross Brawn, and the new Brawn GP was formed. The team went on to secure both championship titles - drivers and manufacturers - writing one of the most exciting stories in the history of the sport.

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A1 GP Assets for Sale

Mar 11

Posted by Insider in A1GP

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The A1 GP World Cup of Motorsport will no longer be in 2010. Although some have hoped that the series would be revived by its owner Tony Teixeira in the near future, it was today confirmed that all the assets of the series will be put up for sale by the Administrator (A1 Grand Prix Operations Ltd) and Liquidator (A1 Holdings Ltd) of the series.

The series went bankrupt before the start of its 2009/10 campaign, as financial difficulties have cause Teixeira to put his project on hold for at least one year. In recent months, the South African businessman has tried to revive the series by buying into Campos Grand Prix Formula One team - now rebranded into Hispania Racing F1 Team - and therefore turning A1 GP in some kind of feeder series for the Great Circus.

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Renault F1 with MOV’IT

Mar 11

Posted by Insider in F1, Renault

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Only a couple of days before the start of the new season, Renault F1 Team received another boost (financially speaking) by signing a new partner. We’re talking about German company MOV’IT, a worldwide player in high-performance brake systems for sports, racing and security vehicles.

We weren’t given the full details of the new agreement, but we believe it will extend for the duration of the upcoming season only, with the company’s logo due to be painted on the nose of the Renault R30 starting the very Bahrain Grand Prix this weekend.

“One of the primary motivations for our investment in Renault F1 Team was to use the sport as a powerful business-to-business platform and create synergies between different companies within our partner network,” said the Enstone based team owner Gerard Lopez.

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Schumacher Facing Understeering With W01

Mar 11

Posted by Insider in F1, Mercedes-Benz

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Michael Schumacher is yet to get comfortable with the Mercedes W01, despite the 7 or 8 days of testing during the month of February. According to both the team’s boss Ross Brawn and Schumacher’s little brother Ralf, it seems that Nico Rosberg finds it more natural to drive the 2010 challenger than the 7-time world champion.

“Nico (Rosberg) has felt a little better in the car (than Schumacher) in his test days,” said Brawn in recent days, echoing the comments of Schumacher’s long-time manager Willi Weber - who was replaced by Sabine Kehm in that position a few days ago - who revealed that his former client doesn’t like his car’s tendency to understeer.

However, this is not a fresh problem for the cars built at Brackley, as the predecessor of the W01, the Brawn BGP01, had the same problem throughout the course of last season. However, the racing styles of both Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello made it easier for the car to be controlled at performing levels during the races.

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Kicherer E 50 Coupe

Mar 11

Posted by Insider in Mercedes-Benz

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Kicherer has developed a tuning program for the Mercedes E-Klasse Coupe 500, offering a decent power increase and a discreet styling tweak.

The car’s naturally aspirated 5.5 liter V8 engine has received a high performance exhaust system and an ECU remap. These offer a 42 HP and 15 lb-ft (20 Nm) of torque premium, bringing the engine’s total output to 430 HP and 406 lb-ft (550 Nm) of torque. Kicherer has removed the coupe’s electronic speed limiter and the tuner claims that the car’s speedometer (this ended the fun at 250 km/h) now climbs up to 330 km/h. However, the tuning house did not provide any exact performance specification for the vehicle.

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How to stop vehicle if accelerator sticks [VIDEO Inside]

Mar 11

Posted by Insider in Brakes, Knowledge, Video

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Parents Are Confused About Child Restraint Laws

Mar 10

Posted by Insider in Awareness, Knowledge

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According to an Australian survey, one in three parents are confused about child restraint laws. The survey, which was conducted by the familycar.com.au website, came in response to the large number of questions about this topic featured online.

“Parents are clearly concerned about the safety of their children while driving them to school, day care and after school activities and are desperate for some clarity in this area,” said founder of the website, Melissa Pye.

This is not necessarily an ignorance related issue. Last year, The Australian Transport Council introduced new laws based on a size-appropriate restraint system for all children in Australia up to the age of 7. Things are getting even more confusing as states will introduce the laws at different times. Victoria was the first to implement the new laws in November.

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Jordan Think Schumacher Can’t Win The Title

Mar 10

Posted by Insider in F1, Mercedes-Benz

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BBC pundit Eddie Jordan - formerly a team owner inside the Formula One Championship - said that Michael Schumacher must be “out of his mind” to return to the sport that turned him into a 7-time world champion. Speaking his mind about Schumacher’s chances of making a difference in the 2010 championship, Jordan believes the German made a terrible mistake returning in F1.

“If I was his father I would have said to him, ‘Son, why? Why?!’ Seven times a world champion - he must be out of his mind! In life, you - as an individual with that sporting legacy - have to give your sport up, not the sport give you up, and he’s putting himself in that position,” said Jordan during a pre-season BBC discussion this week, according to crash.net.

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No Sponsor For Sauber F1 in Bahrain

Mar 10

Posted by Insider in F1

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Although hoping to secure a major sponsor for the 2010 Formula One championship - that gets off from as early as this weekend - Peter Sauber will bring his team to Bahrain without an official backer. While some teams have recently announced new title sponsors for the 2010 season, Sauber F1 Team is yet to find a company willing to pour some money into their account for at least one year.

Consequently, the well-designed Sauber C29 cars - as showed in one of our recent reports - will show up on the Bahrain grid in a mostly-blank bodywork. Hopefully, some good results in the first few races will cause some sponsors to look the Sauber way in the near future.

“After the withdrawal of BMW and the takeover of the team, the time was simply too short for us to find a partner or principal sponsor. We only had confirmation of the 13th team entry in December so concrete negotiations (with backers) could only start very late,” said Sauber, according to Switzerland’s 20 Minuten.

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Mazda Gets Brake Override Systems

Mar 10

Posted by Insider in Mazda

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Toyota’s devastating recall that affected millions of cars sold all over the world scared the hell out of several other automakers which were more or less involved in this serious problem. Some others have already confirmed that their cars are also affected by Toyota’s glitch, including Peugeot and Citroen, while other brands are trying to avoid such an embarrassing and money-losing situation straight from the assembly lines.

This is exactly the case of Mazda, the Japanese manufacturer that recently decided to install brake override systems on all new models. This basically means that in case a near-death experience (to be read “a stuck accelerator pedal”) occurs, the vehicle will give priority to the brake pedal and not to the accelerator.

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