Motoring News
Today, 09 October 2015VW hearing displays anger on both sides
US chief Michael Horn details how carmaker’s emissions test cheating began
read moreA fly on the BTCC pit wall - how does a top team tackle race day?
We shadow Jason Plato’s race engineer at Silverstone to find out what Team BMR get up to behind the scenes at a BTCC event
Sunday, 8.30am - When I arrive at the Team BMR pit garage, it is already bustling with activity. The disappointment over the previous day’s qualifying is palpable. Jason Plato will start from 10th position on the grid for the opening race and Aron Smith in eighth, ?with Colin Turkington settling for sixth. The team’s fourth driver, Warren Scott, fractured ?two vertebrae in a heavy accident during practice and is forced to miss the business end of the weekend as a result.These Silverstone races are huge for Team BMR. Plato and Turkington are both still in with a shout of the title, but Honda’s Gordon Shedden leads the championship. Plato and Turkington need some big points today.Outside the team garage, I meet Carl Faux, ?Jason Plato’s race engineer, who breaks down his team’s roles to me. Plato is the driver, Faux describes himself as “in charge of pace”, Darren Sunley sorts out the tyres and mechanic Brenton Yule works with three other mechanics, who ?take direction from him.9.15am - Plato is outside the team truck, which is directly opposite the pit garage. He’s in a jovial mood, bouncing around, talking to team members, showing them memes on his phone and discussing jet engines for an upcoming project. We talk about how he prepares himself for races.“I don’t have any rituals,” he says, besides an essential toilet break an hour before the first race. “I don’t want to get myself too pumped up and over-think things; I just wait for the first warm-up lap a
read moreWork under way on Volvo V40 replacement
Replacement for today's V40 is in development as part of a new family of small premium cars from Volvo
Work on the all-new platform that will underpin Volvo’s future range of compact cars - including a replacement for the V40 - is well under way with parent company Geely at a new research facility in Gothenburg, Sweden, according to Volvo’s research and development boss, Peter Mertens.The new architecture is dubbed CMA. Mertens said the development work was especially challenging because the new ‘tool box’ of component sets and structural sub-assemblies would have to be versatile enough to form the basis of models in both mainstream and premium sectors.“We have to cover everything from the mass market to an Audi A3 rival with CMA. Volkswagen’s MQB is doing something similar, but we have to push hard to ensure that we can have greater differentiation [between Geely and Volvo models],” he said.The architecture will also underpin a compact crossover, likely to be badged XC40. Mertens said the CMA platform will be vital in helping to reduce Volvo’s corporate fuel economy average, because the Swedes are hoping to expand significantly in the premium compact market. Currently, Volvo achieves about 110,000 sales annually for the V40 and V40 Cross Country.Mertens, who said he is “deeply involved” in the CMA architecture, has form in this tricky area. He led the platform design work on the General Motors structure that was used globally to underpin cars at different price levels and aimed at different mar
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