• Instant success for bio-ethanol Volvo in STCC
• Team RAC targets carbon neutrality
• Further tightening of F1 floor rule
• FIA president stirs F1 customer car debate
• Ecclestone circuit deal seals Turkish GP future
• Ex-Ferrari F1 men guilty of industrial espionage
• Mercedes Benz planning new F1 engine facility
• FIA and F1 speak out on road safety
• CFD consultancy to concentrate on F1
• NASCAR visits China
• Business F1 magazine loses libel appeal
• Lotus in London lecture tonight
• European Union choose nanotechnology for tyre recycling
• Edison electric zero emissions van
• Vauxhall introduces biodiesel Vivaro and Movano at CV Show

The factory Volvo team’s use of E85 bio ethanol fuel in the 2007 Swedish Touring Car Championship met with instant success at the opening round of the series last weekend.

Robert Dahlgren’s factory backed Polestar Racing Volvo S60 won the 35 lap race at Sturup Raceway near Malmö last weekend. The Volvo factory is also planning to race its E85 fuelled racecars in selected rounds of the FIA World Touring Car Championship during 2007

Team RAC, the Sunbury on Thames, UK based British Touring Car Championship team run by West Surrey Racing has announced plans to neutralise its carbon output, tying in with a wider initiative endorsed by RAC parent company Aviva.

The move by Team RAC marks a significant step towards limiting the division’s overall environmental impact and follows on naturally from initiatives introduced last year. Most notably, Team RAC switched to bio fuels for the British Touring Car Championship last season and became the first team to attain a podium finish using such a fuel.

Whilst the motorsport industry is responsible for advancing car safety technology. It needs to adopt an environmentally friendly approach and RAC is determined to spearhead moves towards a more responsible outlook.

Team RAC plans to offset the carbon it uses by investing in projects that generate carbon credits such as energy efficiency, fuel displacement and carbon free energy sources such as wind power. It will offset its emissions on a retrospective basis starting with emissions generated in 2006.

Alastair Pegg, RAC director of marketing, said, “RAC are committed to making a positive contribution to the environment and will continue to explore ways to reduce carbon output, use green energy and investigate new fuel technology.”

Andy Gilchrist of Momenta, which has been contracted to deliver Motorsport Development, UK’s Energy Efficient Motor Sport (EEMS) programme through until 2009, said, “The UK has a long heritage of being a global leader in motorsport. This exciting programme gives us the opportunity to support the UK motorsport sector to meet the challenge of energy efficiency, become the world centre for alternative and efficient fuels and set new global standards.”

Richard Harvey, group Chief Executive at Aviva said, “Our decision to go carbon neutral is a serious engagement and not something we have entered into lightly. Climate change is clearly the most serious environmental challenge facing the world, and as a forward thinking organisation we are keen to play our part in addressing this challenge and hope other companies may follow our example.”

Starting at next months Formula One Spanish Grand Prix competing cars will be required to pass a stricter floor rigidity test to be carried out during pre-race scrutineering by FIA technical inspectors.

The governing body of international motorsport will increase the load test on the floor of an F1 car from 500 Newtons to 2000 Newtons and the test must be passed without any additional bracing struts.

The FIA’s move is an effort to prevent teams gaining an aerodynamic advantage from the floor flexing when the car is moving at speed and under high aerodynamic load.

FIA president Max Mosley has stirred up the current controversy of the use of customer cars by Formula One teams by stating that the F1 rules approved by the teams for 2008 “completely allow them.”

Following the 2007 Australian Grand Prix the Silverstone UK based Spyker MF1 team launched arbitration proceedings against the rival Super Aguri and Scuderia Toro Rosso teams for using chassis that were allegedly not designed by those organisations. There has also been dissension over whether customer cars should be allowed in F1 starting in 2008.

President Mosley told the autosport.com website, "At the moment the rules for 2008 completely allow them. They (the regulations) make a distinction between the constructor and the make - and of course the points go to the make and not the constructor. Very few people have looked at the rules yet, but they will."

The conclusion of a deal by Formula One impresario Bernie Ecclestone to buy the Istanbul Park race circuit has guaranteed the future of the F1 Turkish Grand Prix at the venue for the next 14 years.

Speaking about the $120m (£60m) deal Ecclestone said, "I did this investment by myself. I'm glad to have many people around supporting me. I can guarantee F1 will race in Istanbul until 2021."

Two former employees of the Maranello Italy based Ferrari Formula One team who later worked for the rival Toyota Motorsport F1 team in Cologne, Germany have been found guilty of industrial espionage and have been given suspended prison sentences.

The Italian Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper reports that Mauro Iacconi and Angelo Santini were found guilty by a Modena court in a case in which they charged with espionage, including gaining unauthorised access to Ferrari's computers and the misappropriation of files.

Santini and Iacconi, who were dismissed by Toyota before the case was made public, have both appealed against their sentences.

The Brixworth, UK based company Mercedes-Benz High Performance Engines, which designs and builds race engines for the McLaren-Mercedes Formula One team, is planning a new test centre in Northamptonshire.

According to a report in the Daventry Today newspaper HPE’s parent company Daimler-Chrysler is in the final stages of approval for a state-of-the-art development at Wood Park.

If the plans are approved backed it could see HPE operations moved to Wood Park and would involve 80 high-grade technical jobs being moved from the HPE's Stuttgart, Germany headquarters. It is thought that the new site could indirectly lead to hundreds of jobs being created. A formal planning application is shortly expected to be submitted to the local Daventry District Council.

The FIA and members of the Formula One community have called for action on road safety during this week’s United Nations Global Road Safety Week.

Speaking at a special launch event FIA President Max Mosley said, "Road deaths are an ongoing tragedy that must be addressed. This is why the FIA has given its full support to the first UN Global Road Safety Week, a campaign which will initiate numerous road safety activities around the world. We must take strong action to deal with the growing epidemic of road deaths worldwide."

Also at the launch were the Chairman of the Commission for Global Road Safety Lord Robertson of Port Ellen, UK Road Safety Minister Stephen Ladyman MP and seven-time FIA Formula One World Drivers Champion Michael Schumacher.

Schumacher said, "Road crashes kill on the scale of Malaria or Tuberculosis, yet the international community has not woken up to this horrific waste of life. That is why I strongly support the Make Roads Safe campaign and the proposal that the United Nations organise a first ever UN ministerial conference to tackle this preventable loss of life."

The FIA Deputy President for Mobility Franco Lucchesi, said, "Every year 1.2 million people die and over 50 million are injured on roads worldwide. This is unacceptable both from a moral and economical point of view. We can no more watch passively and blame these tragedies on sheer fatality. We all know that most accidents can be avoided and therefore we must take action right now."

Advantage CFD, the Brackley, UK based computational fluid dynamics consultancy has confirmed that is terminating its consultancy agreements with external customers to concentrate on the Honda F1 programme.

Originally a part of the now defunct Reynard Motorsport group, Advantage CFD is a subsidiary of the Honda Racing Formula One team which has suffered a poor start to the 2007 FIA Formua One World Championship.

Representatives of the US based stock car racing sanctioning body NASCAR are visiting China this week with the aim of raising the international profile of their race series.

The group includes NASCAR CEO Brian France, NASCAR International Managing Director Robbie Weiss, consultant Ken Clapp, and Senior Vice President Paul Brooks. France said, "We've been saying that we're going to take a nice, slow, careful international view of where this sport can go."

The London, UK published magazine Business F1 and its editor Tom Rubython have lost their appeal against a £75,000 award of damages made to Tony Purnell, the former principal of the Jaguar Racing Formula One team.

In April 2005 Business F1 published a story with the headline "Purnell bribed top journalist to puff achievements" which falsely alleged that he had bribed a journalist to inflate his achievements at the Jaguar F1 team.

Purnell was awarded the money in May 2006 but the magazine and Rubython had appealed on the basis that the jury which awarded the damages, at a hearing before Mr Justice Gray at the High Court should have been directed not to include any element for vindication when deciding on the total to award.

A lecture titled 'Lotus in London: Colin Chapman - a designer of genius' is being given tonight by John Scott-Davies, the President of the planned Colin Chapman Museum and Education Centre.

The lecture takes place at the Bruce Castle Museum in Tottenham. The event is free and doors open at 7pm, with the talk commencing at 7.30pm.

CBp Carbon Industries Inc’s breakthrough nanotechnology allows the automotive industry to meet EU directives for recycling tyres and would also reduce greenhouse gas emissions per facility by 40,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide.

At the European Tyre Recycling Association Conference 2007 in Brussels, it was estimated that the equivalent of 300,000,000 or more tyres reach their end-of-life each year in the member states. As of 2006 European Directives have banned scrap tyres, shredded tyres and tyre residues from being stockpiled or placed in landfills.

The CBp Carbon Industries Inc technology for tyre recycling allows for the economic upgrading of the raw carbonaceous char, one of the by-products of the heating process, into a commercial substitute for carbon black, a main commodity for the rubber and plastics industries and demonstrates clean operations that cause no detrimental environmental impact. Tests by the European Union show that the CBp Carbon Industries Inc technology for tyre recycling to be the first fully integrated approach of thermal and mineral technologies that is both environmentally and economically viable.

The complete ETRA 2007 presentation - New Reinforcing Black and Mineral Fillers Derived from Scrap Tires - can be seen on the CBp Carbon Industries Inc website home page: www.cbpcarbon.com.

Source: CBp Carbon Industries Inc.

Tanfield Group PLC has signed a supply agreement with Ford that will see Smith Electric Vehicles convert an initial 100 Ford Transit Body shells to battery-powered Edison vans.

The Edison electric van utilises a Ford Transit Body shell, housing Tanfield’s higher function electric vehicle technology. It has a restricted top speed of 50mph and a range of up to 150 miles on one battery charge. Smith Electric Vehicles officially unveiled Edison at the CV Show taking place in Birmingham NEC.

J Sainsbury Plc (“Sainsbury’s”), a leading UK retailer, has ordered an initial eight Edison electric vans for its Sainsbury’s Online home shopping delivery fleet.

Darren Kell, Chief Executive of The Tanfield Group Plc, said:

“Edison’s urban performance capabilities have exceeded our own expectations and those of our customers.

"This initial order and further commitment by Sainsbury’s demonstrates the level of belief and confidence held by major fleet operators in our zero emission vehicles.

"The Ford Transit is the most popular and widely used van in its category, further enhancing driver acceptability of our vehicles. Coupled with Edison’s unique performance capabilities, we are confident that the vehicle will generate further volume orders.”

Introduced at the CV Show, the biodiesel Vauxhall Vivaro and Movano models use the existing 2.0 CDTI Vivaro and 2.5 CDTI 100PS and 120PS Movano engines. They offer up to 20 per cent fewer CO2 emissions on a ‘source to wheels’ basis compared to the standard Euro 4-compliant diesel units.

As part of a controlled fleet trial, a number of vans will run on biodiesel B30 across the country as GM and Vauxhall investigate the long-term potential for the fuel in the UK, and look towards a more widespread distribution network for it.

Biodiesel is made from naturally renewable sources such as sunflower and rapeseed oils, where the oil is extracted and transformed into a methyl ester. Biodiesel B30 is a mixture of 30 per cent biodiesel and 70 per cent conventional diesel.

Vauxhall Managing Director, Bill Parfitt, said: “Fuel efficiency is already one of the top priorities for our commercial vehicle customers. Payload and duty cycles mean downsizing is generally not an option, so achieving further CO2 reductions becomes a real challenge. The introduction of biodiesel B30-compatible models to our van range is one way GM can help customers reduce their CO2 emissions.”