Archive for July, 2009

Dodge Viper SRT10 Will Live On

Zwartkop, Pretoria – Chrysler Group LLC, parent company to Chrysler South Africa (Pty) Ltd, announced today that production will continue for the legendary Dodge Viper SRT10.

Originally slated to cease production in December 2009, the Chrysler Group Conner Avenue Assembly Plant — the exclusive home of Dodge Viper production since 1995 — will continue to build the V10 powered sports car. Chrysler Group is no longer pursuing a sale of the Viper business assets.

Introduced as a concept car in 1989 at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, the Dodge Viper was designed and engineered to test public reaction to the concept of a back-to-basics, high-performance, limited production sports car.

The reaction was so overwhelming that customer orders began to flow in even before the auto show was over. Chrysler Corporation immediately decided to determine the production feasibility on transforming the crowd-pleasing Dodge Viper show car into a limited-production sports car in no more than three years.

In May 1990, after months of intensive study and testing, Chrysler Corporation announced that the Dodge Viper, powered by an aluminium V-10 was a “go.”

Dodge Viper production began in May 1992 at the New Mack Assembly Plant and was moved to Conner Avenue in October 1995. Viper V10 engine production transferred from Mound Road Engine to Conner Avenue Assembly in May 2001. In 2008, Dodge introduced the all-new, fourth generation Dodge Viper SRT10. With more horsepower, more torque and more than 30 exterior and interior color combinations, the latest Viper gives enthusiasts the performance they expect on the track and off, with more factory customisation options than before.
For 2009, the Dodge Viper SRT10 offers outrageous power, with an 8.4l, 450 kW V10 engine contributing to blistering acceleration 0-96 km/h in less than four seconds, 0-160-0 km/h in the low 12-second range, setting an American sports car benchmark.

To date, more than 25 000 Dodge Vipers have been built.

Unfortunately the Dodge Viper is only built in left hand drive execution and will therefore not be available for sale to South African car enthusiasts.

Review: 2010 Ford Shelby GT500 vs 2010 Chevrolet Camaro SS

“Not fair!” howled a bunch of Ford fans when we pitted the 2010 Mustang GT against Chevy’s new Camaro, and it lost. “What about the Shelby GT500? You should be comparing the top-of-the-range Camaro with the top-of-the-range Mustang.”

Hey, it’s not our fault Ford brought a knife to a gunfight. The simple truth is you can buy a 426-horsepower Camaro for the same money as a 315-horsepower Mustang. In fact, order a GT Premium with the TrackPack — the only way to get the GT500-inspired suspension upgrades, 3.73 rear axle, dual-piston front calipers, recalibrated stability control system, plus the 19-inch wheels and tires that make the 2010 Mustang such a blast through the twisties — and you’ll pay about 1500 bucks more than you would for a 1SS-spec Camaro, which comes standard with Pirelli tires, Brembo brakes, a six speed manual transmission, and a 21st-century rear suspension.

Look at the price, look at the market positioning: The Mustang GT’s logical rival is the faster, more powerful, more refined Camaro SS. End of argument.

But the Ford faithful got us thinking: With the 556-horse supercharged Z/28 on indefinite hold, the SS is the toughest factory Camaro you can buy. Is it good enough to take on the new 540-horse 2010 Shelby GT500? Or does Ford now own the high ground in a ponycar war that has ebbed and flowed between these two automakers for more than 40 years now? We decided to find out.

First, we corralled a 2SS Camaro manual with the optional RS package (the giveaway is the red SS badging). It’s mechanically identical to the $30,995 1SS we tested earlier, but a bunch of appearance and luxury extras, including a sunroof, boost the price tag to $37,250. We’ve covered the new GT500 in detail already. Base price is $48,175, but our tester came equipped with Ford’s Electronics Package — essentially nav and dual-zone air-conditioning — plus HID headlights, pushing the sticker to $50,985.

You want bang-for-buck barroom bragging rights? The Camaro SS nails it. There isn’t a car on the planet that delivers as much sheer grunt for the money. It easily outpoints the GT500 — you’ll spend 55 percent more to buy the Shelby, and only get 27 percent more mumbo. But this isn’t about bar talk. Let’s head out to the track.

The Camaro is a porky car, a legacy of its Australian-developed Zeta platform, which was deliberately over-engineered to ensure the Holden Commodore gained five-star ratings in the Australian NCAP crash tests. At 3888 pounds, it has a weight to power ratio of 9.12 pounds/horsepower. The GT500 is no lightweight, either — at 3903 pounds, it weighs a surprising 331 pounds more than a regular Mustang GT. But those 540 horses under the hood help compensate, delivering a weight to power ratio of 7.22 pounds/horsepower.

No surprise, then, that the GT500 is quicker over the quarter mile, nailing the distance in 12.8 seconds. What is a surprise is the Ford’s winning margin, as the Camaro is a mere tenth of a second slower, despite its 114-horsepower handicap. In fact, the big Chevy is actually quicker off the line than the GT500 and only starts to get reeled in by the more powerful supercharged Shelby mid-track. The trap speeds — 115.3 mph versus 110.7 mph — show the Ford’s power advantage at work at the top end.

The Ford’s big problem is traction. The rock-hard Goodyear Eagle F1 tires grip about as well as a pair of bowling balls, and you have to feather the gas otherwise the GT500 will be left standing in a cloud of tire smoke as the Camaro simply digs in and grunts away. If you’re not careful, the GT500′s live rear axle hops and bangs and thumps, spitting the car sideways as the tires struggle for grip.

It’s a core element of modern Mustang mythology that the GT500′s S197 platform has a live rear axle because it delivers better traction on the drag strip. (And it is mythology — several folks who worked at Ford have since revealed the S197 was originally planned to have an independent rear end, and that the drag race traction story was PR spin designed to deflect media criticism of the car’s stone-age rear suspension). But even if the GT500 was fitted with Pirelli PZeros like the Camaro, we’re not convinced it could match the Chevy’s off-the-line grip.

At Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca for some hot laps, more surprises: The first is that despite the rock hard rubber, the GT500 is a sensational track car. Like the Mustang GT with the TrackPack, it has terrific steering and hyper-aggressive turn-in response. It feels light and agile, and with a ton of power on tap from the supercharged 5.4-liter V-8 pretty much from idle, it’s easily steered on the throttle. The Shelby telegraphs its punches well in advance, and the transitions are smooth and predictable.

The big Chevy has better brakes, the 6.2-liter LS3 is smoother and more refined all the way to its 6200-rpm redline, and the rear end traction is superb. But, oh, boy, does it push when you start to push. You feel like you’re grabbing armfuls more lock through every turn than you are in the Shelby.

Whereas the GT500 can be hurled into a turn, and you can use the responsive steering and engine to sort out the geometry from there, the Camaro demands carefully judged entry speeds and track position. You get one shot at the optimum line, as the car’s trajectory is pretty much non-adjustable from the moment you pull the steering wheel off-center. Try anything other than lifting off the gas — which destroys mid-corner speed — and the front end simply runs wide. Compounding the problem is the Camaro’s low seating position and gun-slit windows, which make it difficult to place the car accurately.

Out on real world roads, the Camaro is easily the smoother, more refined, more mature car of the two; more deliberate in its moves, and more measured in its responses. The LS3 is a sweetheart, as rich and smooth as molten chocolate right through the rev range, but the drivetrain is spoiled by the aggressive clutch takeup high in the pedal’s arc of travel. Other niggles include the oddly profiled steering-wheel rim, which is uncomfortable to hold, and the strangely shaped shifter. The Tremec TR6060 six-speed manual is also not as quick and slick as the version in the ZR1 Corvette.

The GT500 is a much more lively ride off the track, with lots more sharp vertical motions through the suspension, and an unmistakable two-step from the live rear axle through anything other than super-smooth turns. The brakes don’t feel as robust as the Camaro’s, and the engine is harsher, but the steering is wonderful, the retro-style billiard ball shifter easy to use, the pedals are better placed, and the exhaust crackles and barks like a race car’s.

The Chevy Camaro SS is a swaggering rock star of a ponycar. Almost everything you touch and see has been compromised in the name of style — the front-end graphic looks overwrought, the slammed roof means anyone over 6 feet 2 simply won’t fit comfortably in a car equipped with a sunroof, the optional console-mounted gauges look cool but are pretty much useless otherwise, and the trunk opening is little more than a mailbox slot. But the Camaro delivers pure, unadulterated driveway theater few other $30,000-$40,000 cars can match.

Shelby GT500 is probably the greatest Mustang ever built, the ultimate evolution of a tried-and-true formula that dates back 45 years. It needs better brakes and better tires, and, like the Camaro, needs to lose a few pounds. But it’s a comfortably charismatic car; a deliberately rose-tinted, digitally remastered memory of a happier and simpler automotive America. While the Camaro is modern muscle with a manga edge, the GT500 is Norman Rockwell with racing stripes.

Just as the Mustang GT is a lot closer to the Camaro SS than its horsepower difference suggests it ought to be, the Camaro SS is a lot closer to the GT500 than you’d think. The key difference is this: The Camaro can be distant and detached, almost a little clumsy, especially when driven hard, while the GT500 always feels as playful and engaging as a Labrador on puppy uppers. What we have here is one old-school chassis at the absolute apogee of its development curve versus a new one that has missed the mark for the enthusiast driver on its first go-around (the Camaro’s chassis is similar to the Zeta that we love in the Pontiac G8 GXP, but not identical — the front axle center line has been moved almost two inches forward relative to the firewall).

So the Ford Shelby GT500 is king of the modern ponycar hill. For now.

Sourced via motortrend.com

Decline in truck sales starts to slow

VEHICLE manufacturers expect the precipitous decline in the truck market to bottom out in the second half of this year.

Last week manufacturers said the rate of decline in new truck sales was stabilising.

In April, sales fell 63% year on year and in May declined by 57%. David van Graan, an executive at MAN Truck and Bus SA, said the decline slowed to 53% last month.

The market was reaching a bottom, he said. “We believe the truck market will decline in the third quarter. But we see year-on-year declining stabilising in the fourth quarter.”

Craig Uren, chief operating officer at Isuzu Truck SA, said the latest truck sales figures indicated that the market might have started to stabilise.

This sign of stability provided some relief to truck manufacturers, who saw their volumes shrink after companies such as miners, manufacturers and retailers froze their investment plans amid the financial crisis and economic downturn.

Medium-sized truck sales slumped 53,7% last month, while heavy truck and bus sales fell 51,4%, the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of SA reported it its latest vehicle sales data last week.

But Nedbank remained pessimistic. It said sales of commercial vehicles were expected to decline further as overall economic activity stayed weak and fixed investment activity continued to fade.

Unfazed, the chief operating officer of Nissan Diesel SA, Johan Richards, said the truck market’s performance last month had given the industry an injection of encouragement after an extended period in which the market had failed to find a bottom.

Most transport companies entering a new financial year this month would have capital available to spend on new trucks, Richards said.

Van Graan said the escalating number of sales inquiries, coupled with a surge in fleet replacement, had strengthened his conviction about the prospects of recovery.

In particular, he said truck fleets at some companies had reached what MAN Truck and Bus SA called “optimum replacement point” — the natural life of a truck.

Uren said the wait-and-see attitude towards vehicle replacement was slowly changing, as fleet operators started replacing their fleets again.

For the past nine months these companies had been delaying replacing their fleets, in large part due to the credit crunch, low business confidence, high interest rates and lack of consumer spending.

Clients who were buying trucks fund their own vehicles, he said. These included parastatals and well-run companies with solid cash flows. He said the bank credit door was still shut on 70% of clients who applied for vehicle finance.

Ignatius Muthien, senior marketing manager at Toyota Trucks, said the percentage of vehicle finance inquiries received by Hino SA had declined from 80% at the beginning of the year to 60%, which might be attributed to certain banks financing more deals.

Construction within the building industry would continue to stimulate demand for trucks such as tippers and concrete mixers, he said.

Sourced via businessday.co.za

June car sales continue to show slowdown in rate of decline

New passenger vehicle sales for June have yet again indicated that consumers remain under severe pressure to afford new vehicles, but that the rate of year-on-year decline continues to ease. According to the latest figures released by NAAMSA today, total new passenger car sales for June 2009 showed a 22,6% decline year-on-year, compared to 39% in April and 26% in May.  A further positive sign can be found in June’s 12.9% improvement in sales over last month.

“The continued high level of consumer indebtedness remains one of the major reasons for the new vehicle sales market to keep stumbling along in its deflated state” says Chris de Kock, Executive Head of Sales and Marketing at WesBank. “It is now becoming clear to industry players that our market will drag along the bottom for quite a bit longer than we originally anticipated” continues de Kock.

The positive signs contained in June’s numbers also need to be seen within the context of the 2008 market performance. “One has to bear in mind that trading conditions experienced during the second half of 2008 was substantially worse for the motor industry than the first half and consequently, it is to be expected that the rate of year-on-year decline will now start easing. Nevertheless, we are grateful for the increase in sales over May and will continue to stay positive about the future outlook” concludes de Kock.

For the first time in the last 18 months the new to used ration has started to retract showing that the strength in the used vehicle market has stabilised and the new car market has started to long claw back to parity with used. Our numbers were 32,8% new compared to 30,6% in May.