Now, in Motorsport this week...

...F1: BMW-Sauber call it quits & Schmacher's back. That's right Michael, not Ralf.

So, Massa's doing better. the images of his face and crash helmet damage are doing the rounds on YouTube. The operation's a success, he'll be up and chasing wins in no time, say Ferrari. In the meantime however, they have the best super-sub in the business, 7-times Formula One World Champion; Michael Schmacher. You can see Jensen et al dropping their heads and closing their eyes, resigning to the fact that a hard season has just got harder.

2009 hasn't been easy to predict at any point. At the start, everyone wrote off Brawn GP, labelled as the season's SuperAguri. Six months in; Mclaren and Lewis Hamilton were never going to win again. F1 is starting to rise above the cloud of politics it seems to constantly lerk in. I've always followed the formula, watching the dull, dull races. It was a chance for SL to catch a nap on a sunny Sunday afternoon without the worry of missing anything important. Racing was incedental. It was always more about the going's on between the weekends; the egos, the conflicting interests, the ridiculous amounts of money...

So why didn't BMW do well?

BMW is a proud company, like VW and Porsche, it's founding family still has a large stake in the brand. So I can imagine that the ego of BMW is an extension of the ego of the Quant family. More so than that of CEOs or chairmans in normal modern, corporate business. As a result, I can also imagine that such a brand wouldn't be best pleased with how their BMW-Sauber arm has failed to make an impact on the F1 scene despite the large amounts of money they had put in. BMW however isn't immune to making costly and very high profile errors. Last time it was the Rover, mistake is too small a word; debacle, disaster, catastrophe etc. That cost the company more than pride. At one point, it's share price was so low and it's outlook so bleak, that VW under Ferdiand Piech control laughed about a possible takeover. The Quant family and the Piech/Porsche family power sharing BMW wouldn't go well. Two bitter arch rivals would fight to a point where the cars do not matter, Montague-Capulet bitterness. The Sauber buy out and the near fruitless 3 years of racing hasn't been so expensive but it has done the brand any favours. the past decade in Munich hasn't been all bad though; RollsRoyce and Mini have been a monumental success. Still, it reads 2-2, doesn't it?

In Motorsport this week...

Normally I wouldn't think this was the right place to comment on motorsport. This is a blog about, er, Audi A2 ownership? but...

...as F1 pilot, Felipe Massa's lying in a doctor induced coma, Formula motorsport is in shock.

A freak accident in which a F2 car crashed lightly into a barrier forcing one of it's wheels free claimed the life of Henry Surtees. The wheel bounced back onto the track in to the path of the oncoming Surtees driven car, striking him on the head with force enough to prove his helmet wearing near useless. An accident like this hasn't happened in open top racing for a large number of years, and to claim a life in this way is so rare, not seen since Markus Höttinger's death in 1980. Then, within a space of 6 days, a spring from the rear suspension of Rubens Barrichello's Brawn GP F1 car worked itself loose, to hit Felipe Massa's passing Ferrari, impacting him on the front left of his crash helmet. Compared to the Surtees incident, Massa was lucky as the weight and angle of the impact was lighter and less direct to the spine. Felipe had this happen to him in the end of 2nd practice in qualifying at the Hungaroring, near Budapest, Hungary. Then next day in the race there, another freak incident in a pitstop caused Fernando Alonso's Renault to lose a front right wheel, resulting in it working free, to bounce in this case, harmlessly into a barrier before coming to a rest off track. Also in the race, Sebastien Vettel's RedBull Renault F1 car breaks it's suspension in a way reminiscent of Barrichello's car the day before. However only shards of carbon fibre broke off, lying flat off the racing line, with no other driver being affected. RedBull claim a front suspension fault, completely unrelated to the Brawn GP incident.

It is strange in motorsport for freak breakages and accident to be mirrored so closely. It hasn't happened since the dreadful weekend at Imola for the F1 San Marino GP of 1994. That weekend, three similar accidents claimed the lives of Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna, with Rubens Barrichello hospitalised. Although Senna's death was caused by a steering and suspension failure and the other two by driver error, death and serious injury was becoming a distant memory in the top levels of motorsport at the time. Which is very much how Henry Surtees' death is met by today's motorsport community.

Where we can take heart is in how Massa survived the impact his Ferrari sustained after he was rendered unconscious by the suspension debris. As yet, the speed in which he hit the tyre crash wall has not been made public, however, from onboard footage, it is clear that it was at a significant speed. Yet apart from the head injury caused by the spring to his head, Felipe suffered no other injuries. The car behaved extremely well under force. As driver's safety cell stayed intact; Massa's legs did not break, unlike Michael Schumacher's in a similar impact at Silverstone for the British GP in 1999. Plus, there is no direct neck injury caused by stopping into the crash wall. This is, in part, thanks to the innovative HANS device worn by all top level drivers to eliminate neck breakage in such a high speed impact.

Hopefully motorsport has endured the last of these freakish accuracies of the past week. There is always a risk involved in all kinds of motor racing but drivers are more vulnerable in open top Formula races. Yet the resulting crash suffered but Massa after the head injury proves that technology and Jackie Stewart's safety revolution has helped in significant ways to to make it many times safer than it was in Henry Surtees' father; John and in Jackie's time at the wheel. For which all racing car driver's take a small piece of reassurance from.

Problem starting, starting to get really frustrating and now....

...there is an answer.

When I had the cambelt changed in Eastbourne 3 or so months ago, 2 days later an air pipe cracked due, most likely, to the excessive amount of engine movement involved in changing the belt. I'm sure I wittered on about this in a previous post but anyway, my point is that it's happened again in a bigger and stranger way.

When the air pipe cracked the first time, Father was in the car and S L Bartlett and driving up hill on the northbound A23 on the way to Gatwick. Maybe it was the weight?
This time, however it was down hill on the M80 with my friend in the car.

Kolo's fine when it's just S L and myself, when other people travel in the A2, it shows us up. The other day, on Scott Street, Glasgow, the handbrake went onto 7+ clicks when picking up a friend.

Back to the air pipe. well, according to 'A for Audi' of Clydebank, there has been a toxic level of carbon-monoxide blowing through the vents. Slowly over past 70+ miles, the monoxide has been building in my blood; Kolo has been poisoning me. Plus when I'm in a vulnerable position on the road, the 1.4 TDI loses it's power from the turbo. Kolo has been a bit of a monkey in the last fortnight.

Oh well, it's getting fixed and...


...finally someone with sense, at 'A for Audi' instantly diagnosed instantly what was wrong with Kolo's starting. It's one or both of the fuel pumps (low pressure one in the fuel tank or the high pressure one just before the injectors above the engine block), costly maybe, but at last!

Problem starting, starting to get really frustrating.

Since we bought the Audi, the A2 has had an issue starting up. As it was a very cold November when we received the V5, the problem was exacerbated as TDIs have a reluctance starting in the cold anyway. Now however, in warm July, the time on the starter-motor is still just as long. To be fair to the previous owner, he was upfront about it and showed a number of Audi main dealer receipts not only from him but also the first owner too highlighting this problem. "It seems to be an A2 diesel thing that Audi dealers just don't get." the previous owner said.
From my Audi main dealership experience, I'm not surprised at this; I went into Caffyns Audi Eastbourne for a volume knob for the Audi made Symphony2 stereo, their response was,
"Audi don't make stereos in their cars, you'll have to get a new radio from Halfords, we have the double-DIN cover to fill in the hole though."
Genius.
Buy a new stereo because of a missing knob!
If he'd actually looked at it, it says Audi on it, and if he'd looked at his Audi parts computer, and well...
A phone call to Caffyns Audi Brighton, £2.12+VAT for a pack of two.
I wanted to go back to Eastbourne's branch (of the same dealer, Caffyns, tut tut) and show the lazy parts person but Kolo's starting problem would hamper my smug getaway.

Yes, back to that. Well, I'm not the most mechanically minded but I have an idea. If you full up the tank to full and the forecourt has a forward slope then, hey presto, starts first time, like a normal diesel, almost petrol like. From this, I have surmised that it's a fuel pressure issue. Maybe the fuel pump is being a bit weak and modern diesels pump fuel at ridiculously high pressures. When I had the cambelt and pullygear changed at a trusty local garage in Eastbourne (Visicks), they said the car doesn't used the glowplugs. The plugs themselves are fine but the EPU doesn't send a charge to them. This could be true and would at to the issue but even when the engines been running and is at a good temperature, if you switch it off, then straight away, start it again; er er er er, er, er er, starts, then whine of the over used starter. That'll be a new starter too then.

So Monday, it'll be a call round to TDI and Audi specialists, maybe I'll go to a Skoda dealer, Glasgow's private taxi fleet are all diesel Octavias or Superbs. Plus Audi Glasgow, although miles better than Caffyn's, shelled out in excess of £10m (that was just Audis half of the bill) for there new showroom/restaurant/art gallery/service centre. Thus always going to be a three figure bill starting with 5 or higher.

Maybe I'll just ask a Skoda driving cabbie, they know everything, plus they're tight and wise(?) with money (both by driving a Skoda & being Scottish*)




*This is not the opinion of 'Living with Kolo' or of the author, however, if you have cause for complaint, please feel free to air your comments in the box below.

Audi Build Quality: The TRUTH

Right, lets get this straight, firstly, there are two, er lets say, areas, of build quality. One, the build quality of the interior and especially the dashboard that lazy car journos call 'build quality' which also includes then noise of the door closing. This type, or area is know in R&D dept of car companies as 'Perceived Build Quality'. Two, true build quality, the one that matters to people who spend what is still a hefty chunk of cash on a car, is the unseen craftsmanship in building a car. The things that only when you own the vehicle, do you notice, like rust traps, door seals, the fogging up of light-clusters, things like this. Things only with time, begin to show.

It is, I should say, was, normal to associate one with two, perceived with true. But as with most things in modern life, life manipulated by Ad Agencies, the perceived isn't best buddies with the true. In fact, thinking about it logically, the actual use of the word perceived, seems to suggest some type of deception. It can leave you questioning the honestly of your expensive purchase.

Now, lets put Audi's so called legendary build quality to the test. And why not VW too.
Right, since the Audi renaissance of the mid-nineties, which has continued so far without falter, Style and Quality have been the two main buzzwords that have helped push Audi into the position it is in now.
Style is a matter of taste, a subjective thing that is difficult to quantify. J Mays did a fantastic job of making it into a statement with the (ur)TT. But even when launched, not everyone was convinced by it's front end (an issue which with time has disappeared, but now affects the 'one grilled' Audi models, post urTT). But Audi still basks in the glow from this one model.
Now, Quality, build quality. The urTT also carried this Piech management buzzword into production. The interior won more awards than its landmark exterior. It is of note that Ferdinand Piech, head of the VW group (owner of Audi), pushed quality through all the groups' ranges, this is an era of Golf mkiv, Passat mkiii, Toureg, Phaeton and related Bentley GT. Moving up market, charging more thus more profit margin, was the way forward for him. They make a better product, we get a better car, so we all win surely? This is where we add the perceived bit in.

Right, perceived. Even when only a year or so old, how many Golf mkiv's did you see at night with only one tail-light? Now, how many do you see with faded paintwork or, worse, pealing lacker on the bonnets? How any Passats do you see with a goldfish bowl for a headlight? I could but won't go on, however there are many more. Now imagine you own one of these Piech VWs or Audis, the interior is/was a deal maker when you parted with your money. Has time spared it from the worst of many thousand miles worth of use? When I was looking for either an Audi A2 or a Golf mkiv last November, interior signs of use was the reason I walked away from many cars. I'm used to buying used cars, I'm used to seeing wear and tear. Apart from one car, all vehicle purchases have been of cars four or more years old. But worn interiors has been a real sticking point with Audis and VWs, much more than Alfas or Fords of the same age, the same year. At first I was shocked, but after trawling through the AutoTrader and everywhere else, I got used to the disappointing truth. The true quality of Audis and VWs.

One of the areas where Piech interiors scarred the Ford bosses, was the soft touch nature of the dash as a whole. The way that everything you touched, buttons, roller switches, even airvents, had a feel of, well, softness, thus the feeling of quality. This was achieved with a fine layer of matt black rubber on every surfaced you pressed, pushed or rolled. Ford didn't bother with this; if it felt like plastic, it's because it was. But over tens of thousands of miles, these areas are going to used thousands of times, but sometimes, sweaty, grubby fingers. A fine layer, is a fine layer, fine, gets worn away.Military tanks aren't made with fine layers. Ok I made that point, but the consequences. White buttons in an otherwise black interior. You also have to consult the handbook to see what function the button performs. As men, some don't, that's then why third hand Golfs don't have a working rear-demister. In my A2, it's the ESP/traction control button and it's starting on the -temp switch on the climate unit. As a bit of a control (pun?) freak, I look at that -temp with nervous OCD. I've banned anyone from touching it. I don't care if the climate is set at 22'c on a summer's day, I'm not risking it. As for the ESP; black leccy tape, I already know what it does, plus why press it anyway? Maybe our Kolo's not as well looked after as we thought?


This subject is bigger than I first thought!

Will continue later.
Tomorrow maybe.

Brooklands, back in 2003 with Alfettas

Brooklands, back in 2003 with Alfettas