The BBC has been playing with this idea for years now. They’ve shot pilots, scrapped them, shot more pilots, scrapped those, and even flew The Stig himself over to show the lads how to drive. So here’s the first glimpse of the first broadcasted attempt to recreate the magic that is the original Top Gear. It’s the first official trailer for the show, featuring comedians/actual racing drivers Adam Ferrara, Tanner Foust and Rutledge Wood.

Fellow blogger Brendan Jack has called it Lost in Translation, which is about the best description I can think of. The thing is, with budget and the right crew, it’s not rocket science to film cars and make them look good. What is really tough is to replicate the chemistry between the personalities of Clarkson, Hammond and Captain Slow (May). Many think it can’t be done. I think I’m one of those many.

In case you haven’t seen our exclusive interview with Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond, it’s here.

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That's the front page of the Beijing News, yesterday.

Beijing will trial an incredible traffic-straddling bus system in 2011. Traffic in Beijing is a nightmare but the roads are clogged with too many busses, rather than private vehicles like many modern western cities. Solution? Design the busses to ride over the traffic. Pretty frikkin ingenious, we reckon. There’s even a video. It must be real.

The Ferrari team-orders semi-scandal that’s currently generating the usual off-circuit F1 drama has all but ended: the team has just been given a date for the FIA hearing concerning the incident. The hearing will fall four days before the Italian Grand Prix at the almost religious Monza circuit, meaning Alonso and Massa could face some sort of penalty before the team’s home race. Or, Ferrari will just get a massive fine. We’re betting on the latter.

Is the Lancia Stratos coming back? In case cars are pretty much toasters with wheels in your world, the Lancia Stratos is one of the most iconic, legendary, bat-shit crazy motor vehicles ever conceived. Providing barely enough space for two adults, the driver sat at an awfully awkward angle, and it was notoriously tricky to drive. But, it weighed less than a dustpan and went like stink so nobody cared and everybody loved it. It also won three World Rally championships in a row. Here’s a picture of an original Stratos going sideways, and here’s the story, including spy-pics of what is presumed to be the reincarnation. See what I did there.

Toyota is pretty desperate to shake off the recent “unintended acceleration” PR nightmare, which to be honest looked like a big scam from day one. Regardless, in a bid to become a manufacturer that is seen as a little bit more exciting, they’ve been working on a small, fun, rear-wheel drive car, something which they used to be really good at producing. It’s called the FT-86 in car-nerd circles, but will probably get a racier name come launch time. Which might be next year, or 2013. Get on with it lads. We’re waiting.

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I caught this advert a little while back on the old television, something I haven’t owned for about five years now, so I was probably in a bar or at my uncle’s house. It made such an impression on me but for whatever reason I immediately forgot to Youtube it, until yesterday. It’s jaw-dropping the first time you watch it; the entire Renault range is ceremoniously crashed into itself.

It’s called the Renault Ballet, and goodness me did the French manufacturer go all out with this one. They even commissioned the Polish National Orchestra to recreate the composition for the film. Polish no less! Even better though is the fact that after a little research, I confirmed my suspicions that the advert was shot in SA. It was. More details and a hilarious “making of” video when you click “Read the rest of this entry”.

Robbi Smith is a bit of racing legend, who, about 20 years ago, redirected his energy to filming cars. His company, Camera Ready Cars, has shot over 500 commercials, and Robbi has been involved in about another 500 more.

Shooting the Ballet commercial must have been a riot. They were tasked with taking Renault’s entire range out to the Verneuk Pan and smashing it to bits. Here’s the “making of” video. It looks like this video was commissioned by Renault themselves; it features loads of the company’s top brass going on about safety and all that. It’s in French, which is probably why they didn’t cut out the excellent South African swearing. Wait for the curse-riddled instructions about 2 minutes in, it’s hilarious.

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Webber: surprisingly shit at celebrating.

As a general rule I’m not a huge fan of the Daily Mail; the tabloid that thinks it isn’t one. But they do have fairly exclusive pics of Manchester United’s midfielder Anderson’s destroyed R8. He was apparently pulled from the wreckage moments before it exploded. Reports say he and two friends were travelling home from a nightclub (trust us, getting three people into an R8 is difficult to say the least) when his friend launched the car into a field. Even though he was pulled unconscious from the car, everyone’s okay.

Schumacher has apologised for his astonishingly dangerous block on Barichello at this past weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix. Barely 4 laps from the end of the race, a decent duel between the former teammates almost ended in a funeral when Schumacher squeezed Barichello off the main straight and up against the concrete pit wall (frightening pic included). Barichello immediately screamed “black flag!” over team radio. Schumacher has been penalised 10 grid places for the next Grand Prix in Belgium. Our favourite commentator Martin Brundle offered his comments as well: “If they had collided it would have been an aeroplane accident.” Too right, Sir.

Adding to a line up which quantum-physicists are battling to keep track of, Audi launched the A7 late last week, on the internet of all places. Fancy that. The A7 is like a big A5, which is a four door version of the A5 Coupe, which is like a two door version of the A4, which doesn’t have a two door in the line up. Goodness.

The Autobahn is a place where, on certain lengthy stretches, you can drive as fast as you damn well please. It’s like a small piece of Nirvana in a world obsessed with curbing motoring joy. But it’s not without it’s perils, as the owner of a smurf-blue Mclaren F1 found out recently. Swerving to avoid some plonker, the multi-million dollar rarity smashed into two cars. It looks like a bit of a front fender smash, but it’s probably about $130 000 worth of damage.

Finnish rally legend Juha Kankkunen finished an impressive eighth on a one-off outing for Ford at this past weekend’s Rally Finland, while former Formula One world champion Kimi Raikkonen was down in 25th after a crash. And Jari-Matti Latvala won in a Ford.

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The F1 circus tent is currently pitched just outside of Budapest for the Hungaroring Grand Prix, or the FORMULA 1 ENI MAGYAR NAGYDIJ 2010, to give it’s official title. Unsurprisingly the Red Bull’s of Sebastien Vettel and Mark Webber continue to dominate, with Vettel putting in a scorching Q3 lap to claim pole position, his seventh of the season. He was over half a second quicker than his Australian team mate and a good 1.2 seconds faster than third-placed Fernando “this is ridiculous” Alonso in the Ferrari. Full results when you click “Read more” below. There may be a bonus video in this for you as well.

The pace of the Red Bulls is simply laughable. Which is exactly what Hamilton and Button are doing about it. Hamilton, who occupies fifth on the grid was quoted as saying: ”It was really my target to finish fifth. I know that the Red Bulls are impossible to beat. It’s a second in the middle sector and half a second in the final sector. For Jenson and me, we just look at the onboard footage and laugh. I don’t know what they’re doing, but it’s incredible. I pulled every inch out of the car. We’ve got to work hard but it’s a good position for us to start and we’re on the clean side. Finishing third or fourth would be spectacular.”

Goodness me Lewis, where’s that British pluck? It must be awfully demoralizing being anybody but Red Bull right now. How a Thai energy drink, marketed by an Austrian genius, ever came to dominate the top sporting code of world motorsport, we’ll never know. Old man Enzo must be choking on his ethereal Chianti.

Michael Schumacher managed 14th while his team mate Nico Rosberg is all the way up in sixth. What’s that Michael? Your car’s not fast enough? Uh, no one really cares any more mate. Sorry.

As usual, Gav and I will be recovering from Saturday evening’s usual festivities and watching the race in our now customary Motorsport Sundays. I might even persuade him into throwing a few words on the interweb after the race. By the way, there is some cool coverage here, here and here.

Qualifying results: Formula One Hungaroring Grand Prix, 31 July 2010

1. Vettel -- Red Bull -- good time
2. Webber -- Red Bull -- slightly worse
3. Alonso -- Ferrari -- over a second slower than Vettel
4. Massa -- Ferrari -- slower than Alonso
5. Hamilton -- McLaren -- slower, but laughing about it
6. Rosberg -- Mercedes GP -- significantly ahead of Schumacher
7. Petrov -- Renault -- nice work
8. Kubica -- Renault -- go on lad
9. De la Rosa -- BMW Sauber Ferrari -- any day now, Pedro
10. Hulkenberg -- Williams-Cosworth -- Stephen Hawkings will be pleased
11. Button -- McLaren -- probably not too worried
12. Barichello -- Williams-Cosworth -- just there for the chicks anyway
13. Sutil -- Force India -- no comment
14. Schumacher -- Mercedes GP -- oh dear
15. Buemi -- Torro Rosso -- best team name ever
16. Liuzzi -- Force India -- probably doesn’t struggle with the pit ladies
17. Alguersuari -- Torro Rosso -- stop day dreaming kid
18. Glock -- Virgin -- probably isn’t one
19. Kovalainen --  Lotus -- uh…
20. Trulli -- Lotus -- is this guy still racing?
21. di Grassi -- Virgin -- same applies
22. Senna -- Hispania Racing -- he’s back
23. Kobayashi -- BMW Sauber Ferrari -- sent to the back for failing to weigh his car
24. Yamamoto -- Hispania -- somebody’s gotta be here.

Bonus video! It’s Gerhard Berger’s first lap of the 1991 Hungary Grand Prix, with Japanese commentary!

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Motorsport throws up many emotions for spectators; we certainly don’t want racing drivers to roll their Ford rally cars at over 100mph, but my goodness it’s hard to not to revel in this spectacular footage. This particular piece of film is quite special in that it features frames from a spectator’s camera moments before it is annihalited by the green Ford, then in car footage of the crash, and then finally outside footage of the huge roll.

Mikko Hirvonen was leading Rally Finland when he crashed out yesterday, destroying the Abu Dhabi sponsored Ford but leaving both himself and co-driver, Jarmo Lehtinen, unharmed. In the open-chequebook days of the WRC these sorts of spills were a bit more common, one gets the sense that drivers are forced to dance a fine line between looking after the team’s budget and shaving milliseconds off the clock. This in a sport that recently saw stalwarts Subaru retire amid financial meltdown, amongst others.

Interestingly, Mini this week announced it will return to world rallying, with it’s much anticipated Countryman model. More on that later.

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By all accounts, Russian roads are a nightmare. The rich and powerful can buy flashing lights for any of their cars, meaning they have right of way at intersections. The roads frequently ice over and potholes are a nightmare, as evidenced by this hilarious video. It’s utter chaos out there. It seems like they should be playing stereotypical circus music over a loudspeaker.

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This picture, captured during podium celebrations after the British Grand Prix, was actually printed in a real newspaper. How did they miss that unfortunately placed flaming logo? We’ll leave the Vindaloo jokes up to you.

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Waking up at 4am after barely two hours of sleep for a 06:30 Monday morning flight is, um, challenging. I arrived at the newly completed King Shaka airport in Durbs feeling rather bleary and contorted, to say the least, having sat between two former rugby props for what felt like 17 years. I was then immediately bundled into a Kombi, driven 15 metres to a parking lot where my one open eye was greeted by six brand new convertible and coupe BMWs. That sort of sight has the ability to improve your mood by some margin.

After what was probably the briefest press briefing in history, we were asked to pick a car for the first leg of the drive. The first vehicle of the day would be a maroon 335i convertible with flappy paddles. It takes about 5 seconds in this car to realise it is a brilliant machine. It’s athletic, comfortable, well stuck together and damn sexy. It’s by far and away the sportiest 4-seat convertible in it’s segment, barring the special performance models from various marques. But it is also R750 000, which is a lot. Even so, I prefer the coupe.

With the same engine, it is R100 000 cheaper than the convertible and about 220kg lighter. That’s like having Bakkies Botha and his dad sitting in the back, and asking them to get out. Climbing out of the convertible and straight into the coupe helped make the comparison easier, and the difference in feel is remarkable.

The convertible does an excellent job of making you feel like it’s handling well, whereas in the coupe, you’re actually made aware of everything that the tyres, suspension and chassis are up to. The drive is hugely involving and is more comparable to a sportscar than anything else. The combination of this chassis with this engine creates what is probably one of BMW’s most exciting cars.

And what an engine. The first turbocharged engine for 34 years from BMW won World Engine of the Year three years in a row. It’s good. Taking an already decent 3.0 litre straight six and twin-turbocharging it, BMW created an engine which didn’t betray their philosphophy too much; that turbo-lag has no place in a performance car. It worked, mostly, but there was a bit of lag which some poor engineer probably had to resign over.

The latest incarnation of the engine, which we were invited to drive yesterday, loses a turbocharger. In modern car design, where everything seems to have to get bigger and better, removing anything seems counter-intuitive. But it’s a clever new turbo this; it features twin-scroll technology, something BMW invented yonks ago, which does something very important and technical,  and which I can’t be arsed to elaborate on because you probably don’t care.

What you will care about is that the power is now on tap from very early in the rev range and hangs around for longer, almost to the red line. 99% of drivers would be hard-pressed to notice that the engine is turbocharged at all, which is exactly what BMW are aiming for. All you’ll get when you hammer the right pedal is a wonderful linear punch in the back, coupled with a simply delicious growl. Everybody love the wobble-wobble of a V8, but in a big straight six the howl is simply intoxicating.

Looks-wise, BMW has has spared the 3-series of intensive cosmetic surgery, choosing to simply touch-up the headlights and tail lights, to bring them in line with the new 5- and 7-series. New front and rear bumpers and a few new wheel designs round off the tweaks but unless you’re a BMW-nut or a self-confessed car nerd like me you’ll struggle to spot the small differences, while the overall effect certainly freshens up the appearance.

The cars were all on run-flats, and after all these years, I still don’t like them at all. While BMW debuted some lovely new wheel designs, I wish they’d shod those wheels in standard rubber. I find run-flats jittery over even slightly poor roads, and the fact that they generally can’t be repaired after a puncture makes them a particularly expensive exercise.

Make no mistake, R650 000 is a great deal of money for a motor car. But, if you’re looking for a sportscar with the practicality of a sedan, this could be your ticket. The rear seats are hugely comfortable for adults and children alike and the boot is of a very decent size. It’s not an exageration to say that the car’s performance and handling are comparable to some of the best two-seater sportscars, which makes this a fun weekend toy and a practical and luxurious weekday run about.

It was certainly a lot more comfortable than my flight home that evening. A few of BA’s best gin and tonics can only do so much to make your second flight in one day bearable.

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Unfortunately, a one-day car launch is a bit like trying to be a tourist while on fire. I didn’t have much time to analyse the car, but we’ll get it on test soon for a few days which will give Gav and myself time to come up with at least one more opinion about the car.

Following the successful hosting of the FIFA World Cup in South Africa, the nation is chasing other major sport events with renewed vigour, and Formula One is no exception.

Over the weekend, F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone reaffirmed his belief that Formula One will come to the African continent this decade, and the leading city is Cape Town. Eccelstone told BBC radio that “We’ve been talking to the people in Cape Town…We’re talking about building a circuit. It’s probably about three years away. That’s what I would like to see. I would hope so. I’ve been hoping that for five years.”

South Africa enjoyed a healthy dose of Formula One from the inception of the sport. Cape Town was the first city to host an international Formula One Grand Prix in 1960 at the Killarney Race Circuit. The following year the saw the likes of Sterling Moss compete at the same facility but poor financial planning by the promoters lost the event for the venue.

The last time a Formula One race was held in South Africa was in 1993, at the Kyalami circuit in Midrand, north of Johannesburg. Kyalami also held a race in 1992, and from 1967 through to 1985. Prior to that, the Prince George Circuit in East London held events in 1962, ’63 and ’65.

The financial benefits are seemingly obvious; Formula One is the single most expensive sporting code per event on Earth, and returns to each track year after year. Mega-events like the Olympics come along once every few decades and place considerable strain on a city’s finances. It has been suggested that Athens 2004 played a considerable role in the Greek financial crisis which struck only this year.

The news spread rapidly and inevitably Dave Gant, CEO of the South African Grand Prix Corporation, was asked to clarify or even ratify the statements.

Gant has spent the better part of the last decade working to bring Formula One to Africa, and in particular, Cape Town. He has spoken to Ecclestone a number of times on the potential of adding Cape Town to the F1 calendar. Plans for a racetrack facility near the airport were in advanced stages about three years ago but were squashed by the former cabinet of the Western Cape, who backtracked after formally getting behind the project.

Speaking to 567 Cape Talk’s John Maytham late yesterday afternoon, Gant confirmed that the project is very much still alive. “The focus has now moved to a multi-purpose facility, which will include a racetrack as well as industrial and wider business opportunities, with a particular focus on socio-economic upliftment for the area concerned.”

This was the proposed facility near the Cape Town airport.

While he was unable to elaborate further due to sensitivities with the ongoing negotiations, he did detail the financial difficulties of staging a Formula One event: “While the event represents a huge earning opportunity, the license fees and the cost of promoting it mean the facility has to be cross-subsidised.”

This is one of the reservations he has against a street circuit in Cape Town. “While I agree that a street circuit in the Mother City would rival the very best, even Monte Carlo, for beauty and spectacle, it remains a romantic idea which I think is not financialy viable. There is no way for the promoter to capture the crowd, something which Durban learnt the hard way [after staging the A1 Grand Prix].”

Ecclestone has made a direct contribution to developing motorsport in South Africa, through his involvement with the South African Kart Racing Academy, SAKRA, a Section 21 charity training youngsters from all backgrounds for a possible career in motorsport, with the ultimate aim of having a South African in a Formula One car in the near future.

Gant feels strongly about the growing the culture of motorsport in SA, and in that sense, by staging a street race, there is no way to leave a legacy behind once the Formula One roadshow packs up at the end of the race weekend. A purpose built facility has the potential to become a foundation for all motorsport.

While Ecclestone mentioned 2013 as a possible date, Gant believes 2015 is more likely: “I feel it is inevitable that Formula One will come to South Africa, most likely in the next five years, and most likely to Cape Town. I don’t think it will be a street race, but rather at a purpose built facility, of which I hope to reveal details soon.”

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