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Febuary 2008

 
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News for 29th Febuary 2008


Italian investigators visit McLaren

With the opening round of the 2008 FIA Formula One World Championship just over two weeks away Italian investigators paid unannounced visits to the headquarters of the Woking, UK based McLaren-Mercedes F1 team and to the homes of high ranking members of its management.

The visits were part of an ongoing investigation by Italian magistrates relating to the 2007 Formula One industrial espionage scandal that involved McLaren and the rival Maranello, Italy based Ferrari F1 team. In September 2007 the McLaren-Mercedes team was fined $100 million (US) and lost its constructors' championship points after it was found guilty of being in possession of and making use of confidential Ferrari data.

According to a report by the Italian ANSA news agency on Wednesday Italian investigators, with British police, gathered information and documents at McLaren's headquarters in Surrey and from the private homes and offices of team boss Ron Dennis and executives Martin Whitmarsh, Jonathan Neale, Rob Taylor and Paddy Lowe. The material gathered is said to have mostly involved computer data and email records.

A statement from McLaren said that the police and investigators had been satisfied with the team's cooperation.


Long Beach GP to be Champ Car swansong

The 2008 Long Beach Grand Prix which will take place on the streets of the Californian port city on April 20 will be the final race to be contested by Champ Car World Series Cars and drivers.

The race will count towards championship scores in the Indy Racing League following the recently concluded merger of the IRL and CCWS. It had been hoped that the Long Beach race would be staged with IRL cars but it has proved impossible to change the date of an IRL race at Motegi, Japan scheduled on the same day as the Long Beach race.

Grand Prix Association of Long Beach CEO Jim Michaelian said, "For 25 years, we've hosted a series that has given our fans countless great racing thrills. We plan on using the weekend of April 18-20 to celebrate the many notable drivers, great cars and memorable moments that have been a hallmark of Champ Car racing here at Long Beach for a quarter-century.

"We'll be honouring our past and, at the same time, setting the stage for the showcasing the unified IndyCar Series as it comes to the streets of Long Beach in 2009."


Forsythe Racing to close down

The Indianapolis, USA based Forsythe Championship Racing team which competed in the Champ Car World Series is to close down following the Long Beach Grand Prix race on April 20, having been unable to secure the necessary sponsorship to race in the Indy Racing League IndyCar Series in 2008.

Founded in 1995 by American businessman Gerry Forsythe to race in the CART series, FRC won 32 races and won the drivers championship in 2003. In 2004 Forsythe was part of a group which acquired the assets of CART and funded its rebirth as the Champ Car World Series.


Formula Student competitions oversubscribed

The organisers of the 2008 UK and German Formula Student collegiate racecar design competitions have received record levels of interest in their events.

The UK’s Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE), which organises the UK Formula Student event which is due to take place at Silverstone, in July reports that it reached its full capacity of 110 team entries within 48 of the opening of registration.

Meanwhile the Verein Deutscher Ingenieure, the organiser of Formula Student Germany which is due to take place at the Hockenheimring in August, has confirmed that the maximum number of entries for the 2008 event will be increased from 64 to 78.


UK Motorsport Academy to promote apprenticeships at historic show

The UK’s Motorsport Academy will use the International Historic Motorsport Show, ‘Race Retro’ which takes place at Stoneleigh Park, Coventry on March 14-16 to promote apprenticeship training opportunities for the motorsport industry, and the historic sector in particular.

The initiative has been devised in response to the disturbing findings from research commissioned by the Motorsport Academy, that 42% of companies operating in the UK motorsport industry have skills shortages, and 56% believe that apprenticeships are the answer. As part of its related research, the Academy recently asked over 3,000 motorsport companies to complete an on-line survey on the subject and engaged many members of the industry and public in the debate at January’s Autosport International Show.

Motorsport Academy director Eric Newell said, “We are making progress towards a complete apprenticeship solution, but we still need more support from the industry. Even though our questionnaire was specifically designed to allow us to help the companies complaining of skills shortages, the return rate has been rather disappointing. We urgently need these companies to engage with our related research/work. If they don’t, I fear their problems are only likely to escalate.

“The Government supports the idea of new apprenticeships and, since the publishing of the Leitch Report, has been committed to increasing apprentice numbers. It is also prepared to make the necessary funding accessible. Provided the industry can help us ensure that educators deliver the courses required, we can begin to tackle the skills shortages of which they complain. Our involvement in Race Retro will give us direct access to nearly 450 key members of the historic motorsport industry sector (where there are particular skills issues) - a very valuable opportunity which we will make the most of.”


REV funding allocated

According to a report in the UK’s Eastern Daily Press newspaper hundreds of jobs have been created and £2m has been invested in Breckland region of Norfolk's motorsport industry and advanced engineering sectors.

The funding was provided by the Rural Enterprise Valley (REV) project, a business grant initiative scheme, which was part of a £6.3m project to boost the advanced engineering and motorsport industry along the county’s A11 road and has now all been allocated.

The EDP reports says that 128 small and medium-sized companies across Breckland benefitted from cheques of up to £5,000 to help them grow and develop since a pot of £600,000 was set aside at the end of 2006.

Mark Stead, skills and recruitment broker for REV, said the scheme had resulted in an investment of £2m in businesses that received cheques, with an estimated 110 extra employees working within those companies. He said the grants had helped motorsport, advanced engineering and supply chain companies to invest in new equipment, websites, training, consultancy, or new premises and also brought a number of isolated firms into the REV community.

Stead said, “It has been a complete success and has been a significant achievement for the REV project as a whole. We cut out the amount of paperwork and made it a simple and quick process, but it was still a stringent process and we were not just giving money away for the sake of it. It had to help them grow and develop to employ new people, increase turnover, and help the Breckland district as a whole.”

One of the many companies that benefited from the scheme was the Advent Motorsport racing team which relocated from the Brands Hatch area to Thetford.


New York City to make hybrid private hire limos mandatory from 2009

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced yesterday that the city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) will require ‘black cars’ that service corporate clients to increase fuel efficiency standards to levels currently achievable only by using hybrid technology, though these (25 mpg by 2009, 30 mpg by 2010) could be met by some European diesel cars if they were permitted.

The plan to improve the fuel efficiency of the 10,000 black car fleet was envisioned as part of the Mayor's PlaNYC 2030, a set of 127 initiatives aimed at reducing New York's carbon emissions. In December last year, the TLC voted unanimously to approve regulations that will also require all yellow taxis licensed after 1st October 2008 to meet fuel efficiency standards currently only achievable through the use of hybrid technology.

Black cars currently release 272,000 tons of CO2 equivalents annually, which make up 2% of the City's transport-related emissions. Under the new standards, emissions from black cars will be cut in half.

To help drivers finance the down payment associated with buying a new car, the City has worked with partners in the financial sector, dealers, and black car fleets to develop a range of solutions that will finance the higher down payment.

Approximately 10,000 black cars operate in New York, typically through contracts with corporate clients. Currently, black cars average 12-15 mpg. The TLC will require fuel efficiency standards for new licensed black car vehicles of 25mpg in 2009 and 30mpg in 2010. Also included in the proposed rule change is a requirement for vehicle retirement. The TLC currently does not set a vehicle retirement age for for-hire vehicles as it does for yellow taxis. There will be a retirement phase-in cycle that will ensure almost all vehicles associated with black car bases are more fuel-efficient by 2013. Under the new standards, emissions from black cars will then be cut in half.

The TLC estimates that hybrid cars will save owner-operator drivers upwards of $5,000 per year in gasoline expenses - approximately 50% of their current fuel costs. These savings will allow drivers to cover, in just one year, the additional cost of purchasing a new hybrid car over the currently used Lincoln Town Car. As part of PlaNYC, the City proposed a State law to waive the City portion of the sales tax for vehicles that meet the EPA Elite standards for energy efficient vehicles It is also working with the Partnership for New York City, a group of international companies committed to cutting CO2 emissions in the city, and several financial institutions, on a programme to provide financing.

After consultation with users, fleets, and drivers - including demonstrations of the new vehicle types - the Mayor's Office of Long-term Planning and Sustainability and the TLC have identified several models that will have widespread acceptance, including: Toyota Camry Hybrid, 33mpg (city); Toyota Highlander Hybrid, 27mpg (city); Nissan Altima Hybrid, 35 mpg (city); and Mercury Mariner Hybrid FWD, 34 mpg (city). Other models may include: Lexus Rx400h AWD, Ford Escape Hybrid AWD, and Toyota Prius.

Two dealers for what NYC says are the most promising vehicles - Best Ford Taxi and Hudson Toyota / Penske Automotive Group - have committed to making financing packages available to black car drivers.


UK Friends of the Earth calls for carbon-linked car purchase tax

Among other environmental policies urged for the next Budget by Friends of the Earth yesterday was a purchase tax on new cars to accelerate the shift to buying low carbon vehicles. Other European countries have adopted such policies; in December 2007 the French parliament voted in a ‘bonus malus’ system penalising purchasers of cars emitting over 160 g/km of CO2 and incentivising buyers of lower-emitting cars.

Analysis of the new French system’s fiscal effects during December-January by the Le Monde newspaper of 8th February suggested it had cost the French state €50.6m – the incentives involved a loss of €65.7m in vehicle excise duty, while the penalties involved brought in €15.1m.


European steelmakers to launch second-stage CO2 reduction research programme

The European Steel Technology Platform (ESTEP) announced plans to launch the next phase of its Ultra Low CO2 Steelmaking research programme (ULCOS II) this week. The aim of ULCOS is to develop new technologies which could drastically reduce the steel industry's carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. The initiative brings together around 50 partners, including steel makers, research laboratories, universities and other players in the steel supply chain.

During the first phase of the project, the partners carried out a detailed screening of a wide range of technologies and energy sources which could help the industry to achieve its goal of cutting emissions by a factor of two or more in the long term. By the end of 2006, four technologies had been selected for further investigation: the top-gas recycling blast furnace incorporating carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies; smelting reduction of iron ore with CCS; natural gas pre-reduction with CCS and direct electrolysis of iron ore. These four technologies will now be further evaluated on their technological, process, economical and environmental performance.

Under the ULCOS II programme, large-scale pilots will be set up to test the most promising technologies on an industrial scale. The first to be tested will be the blast furnace technology with top gas recycling (TGR-BF) with CCS. The costs of this project are high - €300 million. The outcome will be carbon capture, transport and storage technology designed specifically for the steel sector, thereby allowing CO2 free steelmaking for the first time. During this project, ESTEP will work closely with the European Zero Emissions Technology Platform, which is also carrying out research into CCS technologies.

Over the last 40 years, the European steel industry has cut emissions by 50%, largely through improvements in energy efficiency. Achieving further energy savings with these carbon-based technologies is becoming harder and harder, and so entirely new technologies are needed if the sector is to achieve further reductions in its emission levels. ESTEP was launched in 2003 to spearhead research into new, cleaner technologies for the industry. It is supported by the EU's research framework programmes as well as the Research Fund of Coal and Steel (RFCS).

(www.cordis.europa.eu/estep/home_en.html)


 
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