Hamilton has learned his Twitter lessons

Lewis Hamilton said he would handle social media with care after causing a Twitter flap earlier in the week with a message accusing McLaren team mate Jenson Button of disrespect by 'unfollowing' him.

The 2008 Formula One world champion has been an enthusiastic user of the medium, acquiring some 1.2 million followers. Some of his more trigger-happy 'Tweets' have generated plenty of news coverage for all the wrong reasons, however.

In Belgium last month, Hamilton raised eyebrows with crude language and then sent out confidential team technical data hours before the race. Button said at the time he was 'disappointed'.

The morning after last Sunday's Japanese Grand Prix, he accused Button of having snubbed him before retracting his comment once it emerged the older Briton had never followed him in the first place.

The messages triggered plenty of media debate, much of it analysing Hamilton's state of mind and maturity as he prepares for a move from McLaren - the only team he has ever driven for in F1 - to Mercedes next season.

"I just have to put my hands up and say I made a mistake. Sometimes we do that in the heat of the moment and you don't actually mean what you say, but there is nothing I can do. I apologised and that is it, we move forward," he told reporters when asked about the latest incident.

"Perhaps me and Twitter don't go together too well," continued the 27-year-old ahead of Sunday's Korean Grand Prix.

"I like it because I like to be able to share the great experiences I have with the fans but it is a fine line. Lots of people get it wrong and I am one of those and I will hopefully try to improve on that."

Hamilton said he had not been able to contact Button directly by telephone on the Monday because his team mate had a late night after finishing fourth in the race at Suzuka. They had spoken again in Korea on Wednesday.

"I obviously wasn't in the right frame of mind, but that's it. Hopefully I won't do it again," added the Briton, who has not tweeted any messages since apologising to Button on Monday.

Button, somewhat bemused to be talking about a 140 character message format rather than his car or Sunday's grand prix, said he did not follow his team mate because he saw him at every race weekend.

"The fun thing about Twitter is you don't always follow the same people, you can mix and match, follow and unfollow," he explained.

The 2009 champion does follow Mexican Sergio Perez, who joins McLaren next season in place of Hamilton. Button said he had done so to welcome him to the team but could not now 'unfollow' him.

"I'm not allowed to do anything on Twitter these days. I'm stuck. I can't unfollow anyone anymore," he said.

2014 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Black Series Prototype Crashes And Burns

One of the upcoming SLS AMG Black Series model from Mercedes-Benz recently being spotted conducting some high-speed tests on Germany’s Nürburgring race track. Unfortunately, it appears that the prototype has now crashed on the ‘Ring and caught fire.

The good news is that the driver and passenger managed to walk away from the crash, long before the flames took over the wreckage.

The crash took place at the Döttinger Höhe section of the Nürburgring, a long straight that stretches close to 1.5 miles and where it’s common for AMG models to clock speeds of close to 186 mph.

With the fire having destroyed most of the car, we can see that AMG engineers are sticking with the SLS AMG’s aluminum structure rather than adopting the carbon fiber monocoque of the SLS AMG Electric Drive. Not much else can be gathered from these latest shots, but previous spy shots have revealed pumped fenders, an integrated diffuser and plenty of carbon fiber.

It’s expected that the new SLS AMG Black Series will have a more powerful engine than the 583-horsepower SLS AMG GT. Combined with this should be a lighter overall curb weight and retuned suspension, guaranteeing the Black Series will be the most capable model in the Mercedes-Benz fleet.

We don't know yet exactly when the SLS AMG Black Series will enter production, but we will likely have to wait until sometime in 2013 for the official unveiling, which means the car is likely to arrive in showrooms as a 2014 model.

Toyota had some warning of recall issues four years ago

Toyota Motor Co may have known about the problem behind the company's recent recall of 7.43 million vehicles. The recall covers faulty window switches that may get stuck or catch fire if improperly lubricated. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration received its first complaint about the faulty switch issue some four years ago, which singled out American supplier, Tram Inc., and its Japanese parent company, Tokai Rika Co., as being the one to blame for the trouble. The faulty switches in question were described as emitting a strange odour and were sent back to the supplier for analysis. Tokai Rika couldn't discern a cause for the failure.

Toyota Motor Co dropped the case in that instance, but continued to monitor the switches. Similar reports flared up once again in 2010, this time with the components actually smoking, and Toyota launched a full-fledged internal investigation that eventually led to the recent recall. The campaign covers nearly 2.5 million vehicles in the US alone.

Toyota re-calls 7.43 million vehicles

Toyota Motor Corp. (7203), Asia’s biggest carmaker, said it began a recall affecting about 7.43 million vehicles worldwide to replace defects in power-window switches.

About 2.47 million vehicles are affected in the U.S., 1.4 million in China, 1.39 million in Europe and 460,000 in Japan, Joichi Tachikawa, a Tokyo-based spokesman, said by phone today. The recall involves 14 models and no accidents have been reported because of the issue, he said.
 The recall is the company’s largest since the carmaker recalled more than 10 million Toyota and Lexus vehicles worldwide in 2009 and 2010 for defects associated with unintended acceleration.

The recall is the company’s largest since the carmaker recalled more than 10 million Toyota and Lexus vehicles worldwide in 2009 and 2010 for defects associated with unintended acceleration.
“The volume is big, and doesn’t look good,” Satoru Takada, a Tokyo-based auto analyst at Toward the Infinite World Inc., a securities research company, said by telephone today. “Even if you calculate the cost in a very simple way, it’s going to be significant. What comes with standardizing platforms and parts is that these recalls become immense.”
Toyota shares fell 2.3 percent to 2,932 yen as of 2:47 p.m. in Tokyo, headed for the lowest close since July 26.

The recall involves about 490,000 vehicles in the Middle East and about 650,000 in Asia, excluding Japan and China, Tachikawa said.

NASCAR Epic Crash: 25 Cars pile up and a flip over

Good Lord. Fortunate for all of the drivers involved to escape without any major injury. 

Nissan GTR 35 demolished

Four young lives were lost when two sports cars were totally demolished after they skidded and hit two trees.

The crashes involving two Nissan GTR 35 cars occurred at about 4am, it was said that both of the drivers were speeding along the Jalan Haji Ahmad Satu stretch here when the road was wet after a heavy downfall.

The driver of the first car was identified as Tan Kah Yong, 34, a businessman from Klang while a woman from China, Bao Shanshan, 27, was his front passenger. Firemen had to extricate their bodies from the badly-mangled vehicle.

Relatives of the deceased inspecting one of the damaged cars at the traffic police station in Kuantan. Two other women passengers, Wei Litong and Zhang Hongmei, also from China, have been warded at the Tengku Ampuan Afzan Hospital with serious injuries. All three women apparently worked at a karaoke outlet here.

Also killed were the driver of the second car, businessman Go Haw Wei, 20, from Alor Akar, and car salesman Koay Khor Liang, 21, from Bukit Sekilau. Go died immediately on the scene while Koay succumbed to his injuries with his elder brother by his side moments after being brought to the hospital.

Firemen had earlier taken 40 minutes to extricate Koay from the wreck. Visibly shaken and traumatised, he stuttered: “I saw him ... barely able to talk and in great pain.

“I knew then that he might not make it. But I had to put on a brave front as I tried to assure him that everything was going to be all right when the firemen were cutting him free.”

It is learnt that Go runs a family-owned business and had just bought his car about two weeks ago.

Proton Preve R3 makes its debut

The highly anticipated Proton Preve R3 makes its maiden debut at the Proton Green Mobility Challenge 2012 held in the Sepang International Circuit during the weekend. It was a rumour that spread around almost 3 months ago that R3 is prepping Proton's latest addition, the Proton Preve as a race car. The Proton Preve being used ad the track car however, is not the top of the line CFE engine range. This Proton Preve R3 is the CAMPRO IAFM engine that has been used it its previous Proton Satria Neo R3.