• Silverstone Masterplan revealed
• Centre of Excellence to be built at Bahrain F1 circuit
• Team Roberts pursuing Ducati MotoGP deal
• F1 supplier to open Chinese office
• Ilmor resumes MotoGP bike tests
• Pirelli to develop eco-friendly rally tyres

• Flybrid, Torotrak and Xtrac's KERS system nominated for MotorSport World Expo award
• E.ON UK to order new cars only with CO2 ratings of 165g/km or less
• Biofuels: EU confirms cuts in farm aid for energy crops as area reaches 2.84m ha.

• CVC figures reveal details of F1 right sale transaction
• IMechE adds Low Carbon competition to Formula Student
• Champ Car team closing down
• Express Composites appoints new head of business development
• New speaker confirmed for PRI show
• European Commission prepares new rules on tyre noise
• Crutzen study: Some biofuels’ N20 emissions worse than saved fossil fuel CO2 emissions
• RAC Foundation suggests voluntary road pricing
• ECG appoints FOE (Italy) to produce a CO2 footprint standard

• European Parliament environment committee targets cleaner air standards

The ‘Masterplan’ for the UK’s Silverstone race circuit near Northampton is now available to view at www.southnorthants.gov.uk/silverstonecircuitcomments/

According to the track’s owners, the British Racing Drivers Club (BRDC), the plans, which would result in two hotels, a concert arena, a university campus, an extreme sports complex, an international karting centre, and a museum being built around the track, would make Silverstone the leading facility of its kind in the world. The plans also include major upgrades to Silverstone's grandstands and pit facilities, improvements Formula 1 impresario Bernie Ecclestone has been demanding for years.

The BRDC's development director Spencer Canning told the Northampton Chronice and Echo newspaper that the club’s plans went 'far beyond' anything Ecclestone had asked for.

He said: "All Bernie really cares about is that the facilities at the track are going to be improved but this masterplan goes far beyond that. It would bring Silverstone truly into the 21st century and includes things that he has not requested.

"These ideas will not just bring Silverstone up to scratch, they'll put it in a position of global dominance for motorsports."

It is hoped that work on the redevelopment will begin immediately after the 2008 British Grand Prix.

A $3.5 billion Centre of Excellence is to be built on a 450 acre site surrounding the Bahrain International Circuit, which hosts the Formula One Bahrain Grand Prix.

The project is a joint venture between BIC and MCC Project Partners and a award-winning Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid has been engaged to design the buildings that will provide more than 800,000sqm of commercial mixed-use facilities, including an automotive cluster, a technology and innovation park and an integrated university campus.

BIC chairman Talal Al Zain said, "I am delighted that Bahrain will be developing this campus with MCCPP to create profitable business opportunities and enhance BIC's reputation for excellence."

The Banbury, UK based Team Roberts which competes in the Moto GP motorcycle racing world championship is hoping to conclude a deal that to lease Ducati GP7 machines, similar to those which have dominated the 2007 series, for the 2008 championship.

Team Roberts, owned by multiple 500cc world champion rider Kenny Roberts, is in negotiations with the MGM Grand casino in Las Vegas over funding for the programme and team manager Chuck Aksland told Motor Cycle News, “Until we have money in hand and we can get serious until then it’s just speculation about what can or can’t be. It would be great though to have a partner in MotoGP that wants to go forward with a team like ours.

“In all of our conversations with the manufacturers, Ducati seemed like the one more likely to want with a project like ours. If we don’t get the sponsorship in place to do a deal with Ducati then we will have to look at other options.

“I think if we get the money it will be of a great benefit to all parties and I think Ducati would want to be a part of it. This project is a lot bigger than just MotoGP, so we have got to wait.”

The Austrian based company Pankl Systems AG is to open an office in Shanghai to tap into what it sees a lucrative Chinese market for its products and services.

Werner Bruck, manager of the engine division of PRS which provides engine and drive systems and chassis components for almost all F1 teams told the People’s Daily newspaper, "I know I am a little bit too far ahead. What I dream today might be happening seven or 10 years later in the engineering sector. But the motor sports side and the after-market side will grow quicker."

The Brixworth, UK based Ilmor MotoGP team has resumed testing of its X3 racing machine as team owner Mario Illien continues his efforts to revive the project for 2008 .

Ilmor pulled out of the 2007 MotoGP world championship after the opening round in Qatar in March due to a lack of sponsorship. Test bench development of the Ilmor V4 engine has continued since the withdrawal and the X3 was tested again at the Estoril track in Portugal last week.

The organisers of Tesco 99 Octane MSA British Rally Championship and the Italian Pirelli tyre company have announced plans to work with the UK’s Forestry Commission to carry out an evaluation and tyre development programme with the aim of reducing damage to forest roads

A statement issued by the BRC said, “Following on from the introduction of a ‘greener' control fuel, a partnership set up by the BRC with Pirelli and the Forestry Commission will examine tyre technologies with a view to finding a solution which will have positive economic and environmental benefits.

“The sport has long recognised that action needs to be taken to avert the threat of exponential increases in the Forestry Commission charges, due to pressure imposed on the management of forest tracks and the rising costs of repairing the roads.

"Indeed a Concordat drawn up at the beginning of 2005 between the Motorsport Association and the Forestry Commission pledged to find a solution to reduce the damage, examine vehicle performance and tyre technologies.

“Now nearly three years on, Pirelli tyres, the official tyre suppliers to the Tesco 99 Octane MSA British Rally Championship have funded an initiative and have partnered with the Forestry Commission to conduct a trial evaluation of tyre technologies. They will compare current tread patterns and compounds to help in the development of a tyre designed specifically to reduce the damage to the surface of a gravel road.”

Following the announcement in September of the first application of their mechanical ‘kinetic energy recovery system’ (KERS) with a major Formula 1 (F1) team, Flybrid, Torotrak and Xtrac have been shortlisted for a Professional MotorSport World Expo Award.

Competing in the category of Engine Innovation of the Year, the KERS development is among four finalists drawn up from nominations submitted to the Professional MotorSport World Expo website.

The mechanical regenerative braking KERS system developed for F1 comprises a toroidal traction drive CVT and a mechanical flywheel developed by Flybrid Systems, used to store the moving vehicle’s kinetic energy. This energy is recuperated from the driveline, through Torotrak’s CVT, as the vehicle decelerates. This energy is subsequently released back into the driveline - again through the CVT - as the vehicle accelerates.

Torotrak’s CVT has been engineered for the F1 application by Xtrac, who will also manufacture the device. In June 2007, both companies entered into a licence agreement to enable Xtrac to develop and sell the CVT for motorsport applications.

The power generator Powergen’s parent E.ON UK has announced that it will be cutting the emissions of its company cars by only ordering new vehicles with a CO2 rating of 165g/km or less, with immediate effect.

Derek Parkin, Managing Director of Business Services at E.ON UK, said: "We've already reduced the non-operational carbon intensity in our buildings by 16.7% per employee in 2006 and we aim to reduce the carbon intensity of our generation by 10% by 2012, having already cut it by 20% since 1990.”

E.ON believes that this car procurement policy will reduce average emission levels across its company car fleet to 140kg/km, a reduction of over 12%.

E.ON employs around 18,000 people in the UK; its non-operational carbon intensity dropped by 15.5% per employee in 2006. It's release did not confirmthe size of its car fleet.

The EU’s Management Committee for Direct Payments yesterday backed unanimously a European Commission proposal to reduce the area on which farmers may claim special aid for energy crops in 2007, because the eligible area of 2 million hectares has been exceeded.

The aid was introduced in the 2003 reform of the Common Agricultural Policy to provide an incentive for farmers to increase the production of biofuels and electric and thermal energy produced from biomass. Up to the maximum guaranteed area of 2 million hectares, farmers receive €45 per hectare as long as they had a contract with a collector/first processor, in order to ensure the crops will be used for processing into the relevant energy products. If this is exceeded, the area on which each farmer can claim aid is reduced by a coefficient to ensure that the €90 million budget is not overrun.

The area in 2007 reached approximately 2.84 million hectares and so a reduction coefficient of 0.70337 has been set. In other words, farmers will receive the €45/ha aid for just over 70 % of the land on which they claimed the aid.

"This payment has been very useful in stimulating the European biofuels sector," said Mariann Fischer Boel, Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development. "But when we come to the Health Check of the Common Agricultural Policy next month, we will have to ask whether it is still necessary. We now have a binding target for biofuels and a blossoming marketplace."

Figures presented by the Member States show that applications this year have risen to approximately 2.84 million hectares. This year is the first time that 10 of the 'new' Member States which use the Single Area Payment Scheme have been eligible for this aid. The maximum area was therefore increased from 1.5 to 2.0 million hectares.

The simplification of the scheme, introduced recently by the Commission, has apparently contributed to its popularity among both farmers and the processing industry. New elements, like the possibility for Member States to replace a security by the "Optional system of approval" of processors and first collectors, have significantly reduced the administrative burden.

The implementation of the scheme started in 2004, when the area covered totalled 0.31 million hectares. The area increased over the next two years (2005 – 0.57 million ha and 2006 – 1.23 million ha). This year the total area reached approximately 2.84 million ha.

The expansion of the areas under the scheme in 2007 reflects its implementation among Member States. The EC says farmers’ interest in energy crops has significantly increased over the four years since the scheme’s launch, and for the first time in 2007 the total budget of €90 million will be fully used.

Accounts posted by the UK based holding company Alpha Prema, which is owned by the private equity firm CVC, have revealed details of the transaction in March 2006 in which CVC purchased the commercial rights to Formula One.

The figures show that CVC paid $1.7bn (£834m) for the rights. Three investment banks, JP Morgan, Lehman Brothers and Bayerische Landesbank, which owned 75% of the rights received the majority of that sum while Bambino, the family trust of F1 impresario Bernie Ecclestone, benefited by $478m from the sale its share.

The UK’s Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) is to add a Low Carbon class to its Formula Student collegiate racecar design competition starting in 2008.

The Low Carbon competition will be officially launched at the UK’s Silverstone race circuit on October 22 and Flybrid Systems, the Silverstone based developers of hybrid technology including Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems for Formula One cars, is set to be named as the main sponsor of the new category.

John Wood, Formula Student chairman, said, ''The event is an innovative, cutting-edge competition, and alternative fuels are on everyone's agenda.

"It also ties in with the IMechE's key themes, Education, Environment, Transport and Energy, so it makes enormous sense for us to be a leader in this area.''

The American RuSport team has announced that it will withdraw from the US based Champ Car World Series at the end of the 2007 season and will cease operations.

Based in Loveland, Colorado, RuSport was founded in 1999 by Carl Russo and Steve Wulff. Initially the team competed in the junior Toyota Atlantic series before moving up to the Champ Car World Series in 2004.

Russo and Wulff left the organisation at the end of 2006 when the team was acquired by new owner Dan Pettit. In 2007 the team has co-operated in a technical partnership with the rival Rocketsports CCWS organisation.

In its four seasons in the CCWS RuSport won four races and one of its drivers finished second in the championship in 2006.

The Norfolk, UK based Express Composites Group, which recently expanded with the acquisition of Racing Technology Norfolk, has appointed Oliver Shearman as its head of business development.

Shearman has more than 25 years experience in the high performance automotive, motor racing and commercial vehicle engineering industries.

Express Composites Group marketing director, Steve Godwin said, "Oliver's appointment represents another step in our investment for growth in the business. He brings extensive knowledge and experience of vehicle development programmes from his work with Ford, Group Lotus Engineering and more recently with the Italian ATR Composites Group, spanning projects in the EU, USA and Far East. This appointment clearly demonstrates that the Express Composites Group with Racing Technology Norfolk under its wing is 'open for business' as a global supplier of composite materials solutions".

The organisers of the giant American Performance Racing Industry motorsport industry trade show have confirmed that NASCAR Nextel Cup driver Carl Edwards is to replace former NASCAR Winston Cup champion Darrell Waltrip as the speaker at the show’s annual Grand Opening Breakfast.

Waltrip was obliged to withdraw from the engagement due to clashing television commitments. The PRI Show takes place at the Orange County Convention Centre in Orlando, Florida from December 6-8.

After the European Commission’s first consultation for several years on maximum permitted tyre noise ended recently, the European environmental transport lobby group T&E has called for an overall reduction of at least five decibels. It reports the EC is planning a new tyre noise regulation before the end of this year, reportedly to include both noise and rolling resistance, as a constituent of its planned regulation to impose a 130 g/km CO2 emissions limit for cars by 2012.

The current EU tyre noise standards were introduced six years ago. T&E policy officer Nina Renshaw said in the group’s latest newsletter: “Even when they were introduced, the existing standards were easily met by most of the tyres on the market. Given wider tyres increasingly coming onto the market, it’s essential the EU proposes, without delay, effective standards to cut noise from passenger and commercial tyres, and we’re suggesting 5dB or more across the board.”

There are, says T&E, already tyres on the market 8dB quieter than the current maximum limit, so a 5dB reduction would be technically feasible and need not compromise other aspects of tyre performance. T&E also says further tightening should follow in 2016, for which indications should be agreed now.

The EC, says T&E, said earlier this month that it would continue collecting data on overall vehicle noise until 2009-10, and would only then consider legislation to tighten existing standards.

(www.transportenvironment.org/docs/Bulletin/2007/2007_10_bulletin_162.pdf)

A paper on biofuels’ climate impact published online by Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions, a group led by Nobel laureate Paul Crutzen and including Keith Smith, Hon. Professor at Edinburgh University’s Institute of Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences, suggests that nitrous oxide release from biofuels can cause more global warming than the fossil fuel saved.

It reexamines the relationship, on a global basis, between the amount of nitrogen fixed by chemical, biological or atmospheric processes entering the terrestrial biosphere, and the total emission of the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide, N2O, and shows that this emission is much greater than previously believed. Consequently, the emissions of N2O associated with nitrogen fertiliser use in the production of biodiesel from rapeseed oil and bioethanol from cereal crops can more than cancel out the reduction in net CO2 emissions resulting from the replacement of fossil fuels by these biofuels.

In contrast, crops requiring little or no fertiliser N were found to be much more benign in GHG emissions terms. The full reference is P. J. Crutzen, A. R. Mosier, K. A. Smith, and W. Winiwarter. 2007. N2O release from agro-biofuel production negates global warming reduction by replacing fossil fuels.

(www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/papers_in_open_discussion.html)

- The German biodiesel industry is reported by Planet Ark to be lobbying against tax increases timetabled for next January, and worried that bad press about the social, environmental impacts of rapeseed biodiesel will influence the decision. The agency quoted spokesman Frank Bruehning, who said the above-mentioned paper on N20 outputs from Prof Crutzen and colleagues assumed higher levels of fertiliser use than applied in Europe.

The Government appears to have hit a brick wall in trying to convince the public about road pricing, according to Edmund King, the director of the RAC Foundation, in a speech at the National Transport Conference in London today.. He suggests that a voluntary scheme with rewards for early adopters, including cuts in fuel tax, might be the way ahead.

Reminding delegates that more than 1.8 million individuals signed the Downing Street petition opposing road pricing, King will urge UK authorities today to use the lessons learned from a voluntary road-pricing scheme piloted in Oregon, USA, where motorists who opted into the pay- as- you- go scheme received discounts on fuel duty at the pumps.

Royal Automobile Club Foundation research on the acceptability of road pricing schemes has consistently found that the majority of motorists (60%) accept the principle that it would be fairer to pay for the roads according to the time spent driving in congestion, but are worried about how this change would impact their lives.

Support for the concept of charging has increased slightly over the last four years, but support for any specific application of congestion charging is starting to wane. UK motorists also believe that any road pricing scheme should be socially just, with 58% agreeing that there should be protection for those on low incomes. When asked where finances should be reinvested, over 50% of motorists believe that finances should be directed straight back into the road network itself and acceptability increases if there are equivalent reductions in other motoring taxes.

The RAC Foundation believes the government needs to change the way the debate on road pricing is presented. Edmund King says: "A voluntary scheme that gave motorists other benefits would be a step in the right direction. No-one is likely to buy "road pricing" , but they might be interested in subscribing to "UK DriveTime" as a package of solutions which incorporates services that motorists actually want.

"Motorists who opt into a "UK DriveTime" scheme could benefit from reduced fuel duty, congestion avoidance systems, up-to-date parking information, cheaper insurance and e-call technology, which pinpoints the car and calls the emergency services in the event of an accident. The mechanics of the system would run in the same way as the Oregon trial and the RAC Foundation believes that even a voluntary scheme would have an immediate impact on congestion."

ECG, the Association of European Vehicle Logistics, has commissioned Friends of the Earth (Italy) to study ‘The External Costs of Logistics of Vehicles, Uniform European Values to Measure the Company’s Environmental Performance.’

The study will be completed in six months and is to provide a set of reference data allowing the measurement of the external cost of transport for new vehicles (including the indirect cost not borne by logistics operators but falling onto the wider public: CO2 emissions, air pollution, noise, congestion, accidents). In particular the study will provide a standard to measure CO2 emissions per kilometre and per single car transported by road, rail or sea.

The ECG / FoE (Italy) CO2 Standard will allow measurement of the emissions of:

- Trucks with Euro 3, Euro4 and Euro 5 engines with the car transporters loading ratio ranging from empty to fully loaded

- Electric and diesel trains with 22 wagons

- Pure Car Carrier ships in two sizes: fewer than 2,000 cars and 5,000 cars or more.

The study will highlight many of the inefficiencies affecting the distribution of cars and commercial vehicles, and hopefully cut the kilometres that car transporters run empty. The necessity to cut inefficiencies was the other major subject of the 11th ECG conference, during which the ECG launched a “Common Efficiency Improvement Program”, a platform for the industry as a whole – including logistics service providers and car manufacturers.

An ECG Operations Quality Manual has also been developed, with contributions from BMW, Ford, GM, Mercedes-Benz, Mitsubishi, Seat and Volvo. ECG is now working to create a Damage Reporting standard, a volume prediction model, and a common data platform.

(www.eurocartrans.org)

The Environment Committee of the European Parliament adopted its report on ambient air quality on its second reading on 9th October. It called for more ambitious EU air quality targets than those proposed by the European Commission and Council of Ministers, but also urged greater flexibility in the legislation to enable Member States to adapt to them.

The EP voted to reduce concentration of PM10 to 33 microgram per cubic metre (33 μg/m3) on average from 2010, down from the current limit value of 40 µg/m3. Regarding smaller dust particles (PM2.5), the EP agreed on a target value of 20 µg/m3 from 2010 that will become legally-binding in 2015. The Council is aiming for 25 µg/m3.

(Alliance of Liberals & Democrats for Europe, 9 October, www.alde.eu/index.php)