Welcome to Must Read, where we single out the best stories from around the automotive universe and beyond. Today we've got reports from ScarbsF1, TTAC and Yahoo! Autos.
Analysis – Set up sheet explained – ScarbsF1
We love F1 here, but we're not tech experts (as Twitter will tell you). These guys, however, give a nice overview.
Whenever an F1 car runs on track, the team will have planned what parts are fitted and the set up of every facet of the car. Now over a year and a half old and with an even older car, this set up sheet appeared on the Lotus Media site. It was from Kimi Raikkonen’s debut test at Jerez for the team in a R30 (from 2011). It shows some of the set up detail that the teams go into. This also gives us some insight into the spring\damper configuration modern F1 cars run.
Best Selling Cars Around The Globe: How The Chinese Are Setting Themselves For Success (Part 4: Asia) – The Truth About Cars
China is the world's largest car market, but they do export.
Another part of the world completely bypassed by most car manufacturers except the Chinese is all the Central Asian former Soviet nations. Even though official data is still rare for these countries, anecdotal evidence show they are present there en masse. For example, did you know that judging by YouTube videos the Changhe Freedom must have been the best-selling car in Tajikistan for a couple of years before such minivans were abruptly banned over safety concerns in 2010? Lifan has been assembling cars in Azerbaijan since 2010 and the MG3 can already be noticed in the streets of the capital Baku. Finally Geely will export part of its Belarus production to Kazakhstan from 2014 onwards…
Honda turns Odyssey minivan into 500-hp mountain climber – Yahoo! Autos
Awesome.
Although its hard to tell from the cars it builds today, Honda has a long, glorious history in motorsports, from its founding through the Senna years and the original NSX up to the hot-hatch heyday of the '90s. After a long hibernation, those sporting instincts have begun to re-emerge, from the upcoming revival of the NSX to its role building engines for IndyCar. None of which explains why Honda and its partners have taken an Odyssey minivan and turned it into a 532-hp beast that will race the dangerous Pikes Peak International Hill Climb later this month. Some ideas are too good for reasons.