Vettel takes Japan GP 2012 to close gap in Alonso

It was a major turning point in the 2012 Formula 1 season as Red Bull's Sebastien Vettel closes the gap on championship standings leader, Fernando Alonso of Ferrari.

With Fernando Alonso crashing out on the first lap at Suzuka, the Red Bull driver finds himself just four points behind the Spaniard with another five races left in the season.

Although delighted with the result, Vettel is quick to point out that it has been a "crazy" season and anything can still happen.

"It was an important step today [in the Championship] but there is still a long way to go," he said.

"Look at the last couple of races and since Spa - it's been very much up and down. We don't know what will happen in the next race but let's try and take the points. It's been a long season with crazy racing."

The German's cause in Japan was no doubt helped by Kimi Raikkonen after a nudge from the Lotus driver resulted in a puncture and DNF for Alonso.

Vettel, though, says he only realised halfway through the race that his main rival for the title was taken out on the first lap.

"I saw the Safety Car at the beginning but I had a very good start and that was very important," he said.

"I knew behind me there was a crash and I saw a Ferrari was out but wasn't sure which. Halfway through I was looking to see the others and I saw their [Ferrari] car still racing Felipe, I didn't know what happened to Fernando."

Vettel and Red Bull were certainly in a class of their own at Suzuka as he not only started on the pole, but he also finished 20.6seconds ahead of second-placed man Felipe Massa.

"Thank you. The atmosphere has been unbelievable all weekend. There has been so much support, the stands have been full and that really makes our job feel very special," he said.

"Thanks to the team, all the guys pushed so hard. When you're dreaming at night, you dream one day about racing a car like that. The balance was so good and that's why there was a gap to behind. I'm very happy."

Sebastien Loeb is now 9 times FIA WRC Champion

Sebastien Loeb and his co-driver Daniel Elena clinches their ninth World Rally Championship Crown Loeb's hometown of Haguenau, the pairing celebrated victory by 15.5s ahead of factory Ford driver Jari-Matti Latvala.

“It’s incredible,” said Loeb, whose title was the 20th drivers’ crown scored by tyre firm Michelin. “We were dreaming about this moment at the start of the rally having lived this two years ago. Now we are here again with the victory and the championship in front of all these wonderful people. It’s not possible to get better than this, it was a dream all weekend in front of all these fans. We couldn’t believe the atmosphere two years ago, it was amazing then and it’s amazing now.”

Heavy rain affected the morning loop of three stages, and mud and damp sections a constant menace in the afternoon, Loeb, Latvala and Mikko Hirvonen - in the second factory Citroen and the only driver capable of denying Loeb the title - drove with caution throughout the day to finish in that order, a result that thrilled Latvala.

“To be honest it is my best Tarmac result,” said Latvala. “I have never ever been so close to Sebastien Loeb on a Tarmac rally if you think about the overall gap so I need to be happy.”

Citroen Junior driver Thierry Neuvile was less circumspect than the leading trio, claiming a total of five stage wins as he climbed from sixth to fourth in impressive fashion, demoting Mads Ostberg and Dani Sordo in the process.

Adapta Fiesta pilot Ostberg took fifth - his best result on asphalt - but Sordo dropped out after a heavy impact on the sump guard of his MINI John Cooper Works WRC on stage 18 bent the engine mounting and moved the power steering pump, resulting in a lost of power steering fluid and failure on the Haguenau street stage.

Ott Tanak won the Power Stage in a strong sixth overall. M-Sport Fiesta team-mate Evgeny Novikov lost almost three minutes on stage 18 when he rolled into a field and suffered considerable delay trying to regain the road. Miraculously, Novikov’s car suffered cosmetic damage only and he was able to finish seventh.

Chris Atkinson finished eighth for WRC Team MINI Portugal with Martin Prokop ninth and Sebastien Chardonnet an impressive 10th on his first run in a DS3 WRC in the world championship.

Sebastien Ogier beat team-mate and fellow Skoda Fabia Super 2000 driver Andreas Mikkelsen to 11th overall in the battle to be top Volkswagen Motorsport driver. Multiple World Touring Car champion Yvan Muller was 14th after going fourth quickest on stage 18. Former Le Mans 24 Hours winner Romain Dumas finished 16th in a similar MINI.

Brazil World Rally Team’s Daniel Oliveira went off the road on stage 18, while countryman Paulo Nobre failed to complete stage 21. Petter Solberg restarted under Rally 2 rules following his crash on day two but finished outside of the top 20 in his works Ford. However, there was no restart for Qatar World Rally Team’s Nasser Al-Attiyah after he also went off the road on Saturday.Sebastian

Honda Motor U.S recalls CR-V models

Honda Motor Co.(U.S) said Saturday it is recalling 268,000 CR-V SUVs models over what is said to be a fire risks. The latest in a string of recalls from the Japanese carmaker.

Honda Motor Co said it is recalling the 2002-2006 CR-V models because of the driver-side power window switch may fail or melt. The switch could overheat, smoke and probably cause a fire.

The carmaker told owners to park their vehicles outside their garages until the repairs are completed because a switch failure, and a fire, could occur even if the vehicle is not in use.

Honda said it had reports of four fires from owners — including two in July and August, which helped prompt the recall.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has been investigating the issue since November 2010 and upgraded the investigation in April 2011 after 29 reports of complaints of problems with the switch, including five reports of fire or smoke.

Honda said in a statement Saturday that its dealers will inspect and repair or replace the power window master switch. Honda said no crashes or injuries have been reported related to this issue.

Under severe conditions, water or other fluids may enter through an open driver's window and reach the master power window switch on the door, Honda said. Over time, exposure to water or fluid can cause the switch to overheat and melt, damaging the switch and potentially damaging an associated wire harness.

Earlier this week, Honda said it was boosting a massive recall of vehicles for low-beam headlights that can fail by another 820,789.

In total, Honda has recalled more than 1.8 million vehicles since 2004 over the issue — with reports of more than 400 failures.

This is Honda's third recall for headlight problems since 2004. The first recall covered 440,000 2001-2002 Civic and 2000-2002 Insight vehicles.

Honda also said this week it was expanding an earlier recall to include another 572,000 2003-07 Accord cars because the power steering hose may fail and leak fluid. The initial recall in May covered 52,615 2007-08 Acura TL sedans.

Ferrari 458 Italia eat E30's dust

Damm...really makes me wonder what is under the hood of that E30? Car was really unstable when turbo kicks in. Crazy

Japanese GP 2012 Qualifying Results

Pos No Driver                 Team 1 1 Sebastian Vettel  Red Bull Racing-Renault   2 2 Mark Webber          Red Bull Racing-Renault 3 3 Jenson Button          McLaren-Mercedes 4 14 Kamui Kobayashi  Sauber-Ferrari 5 10 Romain Grosjean  Lotus-Renault 6 15 Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari 7 5 Fernando Alonso  Ferrari 8 9 Kimi Räikkönen          Lotus-Renault 9 4 Lewis Hamilton          McLaren-Mercedes 10 12 Nico Hulkenberg  Force India-Mercedes 11 6 Felipe Massa          Ferrari 12 11 Paul di Resta          Force India-Mercedes 13 7 Michael Schumacher  Mercedes 14 18 Pastor Maldonado  Williams-Renault 15 8 Nico Rosberg          Mercedes 16 16 Daniel Ricciardo  STR-Ferrari 17 17 Jean-Eric Vergne  STR-Ferrari 18 19 Bruno Senna          Williams-Renault 19 20 Heikki Kovalainen  Caterham-Renault 20 24 Timo Glock          Marussia-Cosworth 21 22 Pedro de la Rosa  HRT-Cosworth 22 25 Charles Pic          Marussia-Cosworth 23 21 Vitaly Petrov          Caterham-Renault 24 23 Narain Karthikeyan  HRT-Cosworth

Mugen CR-Z

Honda’s world famous tuner and tuning arm Mugen has unveiled their brand new Honda CR-Z Mugen RZ. It was based on the Honda CR-Z hybrid model. It claimed that the tuned up version gets an upgraded suspension system, brake system, wheels, exterior parts designed considering aerodynamics and a centrifugal supercharger.

MUGEN will install the parts on their own on the CR-Z (6-speed manual) provided by Honda and start to sell 300 complete cars.

So what is exactly going on here? Basically, Mugen tuned up the 1.5 liter i-VTEC engine to the point where it can produce 154-hp and a maximum torque of 136 lb-ft. The 20-hp electric-motor allows for a combined output of 174-hp and a 0 to 62 mph time of 6.1 seconds.

GENERAL SPECIFICATIONS

POWER UNIT
1.5L i-VTEC ENGINE + SUPER CHARGER 115kw (156ps) / 6,600rpm
185N.m(18.9kgf.m) / 5,200rpm

IMA SYSTEM 15kw (20ps) / 2,000rpm
78N.m (8.0kgf.m / 1,000rpm)

CAT-BACK EXHAUST
TITANIUM DUAL FINISHERS

SUSPENSION
5 ADJ. SUSPENSION
17inch FORGED ALLOY WHEEL 17 x 7J
17inch HIGH PERFORMANCE TIRE 205/45R17, DUNLOP DIREZZA ZⅡ

BRAKE SYSTEM
ACTIVE GATE BIG SIZE BRAKE ROTORS for FRONT, ø300mm. t=25mm
REINFORCED BRAKE CALIPERS for FRONT
REINFORCED BRAKE PADS for FRONT
MICRO MESH BRAKE LINES for FRONT

EXTERIOR
FRONT GRILLE
ADJUSTABLE FRONT UNDER SPOILER with LED ILLUMINATIONS
SIDE SPOILERS
REAR UNDER SPOILER & DIFFUSER with LED FOG LAMP
ADJUSTABLE REAR WING CFRP
SPECIAL BODY COLOR AZURE BLUE METALLIC

INTERIOR
SPECIALLY COLORED FRONT SEAT BLUE & BLACK
SPECIALLY COLORED STEERING WHEEL BLUE STITCH
CFRP SHIFT KNOB
BOOST METER

Pagani Zonda 764 Passione Revealed

Pagani placed the Zonda 764 Passione in the company showroom recently so the first pictures are starting to seep onto the internet! Thanks to our friends over at LotusTalk, we can tell you that it features a grey carbon fiber finish with accents of natural black carbon fiber and light grey pinstripes. The wheels are black and the interior is a fetching purple-pink colour.

Of course, it features the same engine upgrades as the previous two 760-series Zondas. The Passione also gets the same manual gearbox as the Zonda 760LH, Lewis Hamilton’s Zonda. It differs from the Zonda 760RS though as it instead features standard wheel arches rather than the bolted examples on the first car.

It features a 7.3 liter AMG M120 V12 engine uprated to 760hp, this is some 90hp more than the Zonda Cinque and 20hp more than the Zonda R. It’s inspired by the Zonda R, however, the R’s 6.0 liter version of the M120 engine is not suitable for road use. In fact, that engine was lifted straight from the Mercedes-Benz CLK-GTR!

The Pagani Zonda 764 Passione will bring Zonda production to a close as the AMG engines are no longer available. Thanks to PrototypeZero for the tip.