Autosport International 2008

Autosport Show 2008

A new year means another visit to the Birmingham’s NEC for the annual trip to the biggest motor racing show, the Autosport International.

The main highlight was the 50th anniversary of the British Touring Car Championship. Seeing the many ‘tin top’ racing cars up close was a real treat, especially the dominate Vauxhalls of the late 90s but I was slightly disappointed not to see the sinister black Ford Sierra that dominate the series in the mid 80s.

Another high point was the Colin McRae tribute stand, featuring an impressive collection of rally cars. Observing all these vehicles that the 1995 World Rally Champion drove throughout his career was highly emotional and it is still a shock that the popular Scot is no longer with us.

The Live Action Arena was extended with more racing action from the likes of Formula Palmer Audis, stockcars and new to the show, dragsters. These straight-line accelerating monsters sounded great in particular the 1953 Studebaker. I was amazed how much tire smoke it produces as the whole arena vibrated to its powerful engine (not to mention going deaf)!

As for the Formula One grid, it was fascinating to see the 2007 single-seater cars up close and personal. The chrome McLaren is simply gorgeous while the ‘earth’ theme Honda didn’t… This year’s Autosport International also included an extra feature, the Pistol Head performance car show and to be honest, I wasn’t a fan, Sure it was nice to see exotic supercars from the likes of Ferrari, Lamborghini and Porsche, but it felt like I stepped into Max Power world… And it didn’t help that the promo girls were wearing less (on second thoughts, that’s a good thing!).

At the end of an exhausting and long day, we left with a range of photographs stored on our digital cameras and fantastic memories of racing cars and stars.

Hamilton to strike back with new McLaren MP4-23

McLaren MP4/23

This is the new Mercedes-powered race car that Lewis Hamilton hopes to win this year’s drivers’ title after narrowly missing out in the season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix. The MP4-23 will mark ten years since the British team achieve the double (drivers and constructors) and will be desperate to bounce back after a difficult and controversial season in 2007.

The chrome-themed racing car will carry the unusually high numbers of 22 and 23, due to the team officially classified last in the standings – after being thrown out of the championship due to the latest series of spy scandals. Its a pure coincident that the 2008’s chassis is designated as the MP4-23 and that the unveiling in Stuttgart happens to be the same day as Lewis celebrates his 23rd birthday!

The designation ‘23′ holds further resonance for the squad. The McLaren M23 of the pre-Ron Dennis years appeared in 80 Grands Prix from 1974-78; a total of 177 individual car appearances. It won sixteen races, taking Brazilian Emerson Fittipaldi to the drivers’ title in 1974 and Britain’s James Hunt in 1976. The M23 was the last title-winning car produced under the direction of Teddy Mayer before Ron Dennis took over the team in 1980.

Can the MP-23 enjoy the same success and make a champion out of Lewis Hamilton or new signing Heikki Kovalainen? Ron Dennis hopes so and he added that the team is focused to move on from that spying controversy that overshadowed last season.

“This is a year of forward thinking for us, we are looking forward,” Dennis said. “We are not spending any time dwelling on the past. We are intent with everyone in the company in producing a competitive racing car, a car that is constantly evolving and will look radically different by the time we get to the first Grand Prix.”

As for Lewis Hamilton, the championship runner-up says he will be a lot stronger in 2008 following a stunning debut season with McLaren last year.

“It gives me great pleasure to be here today on my birthday,” said Hamilton, turning 23 today. “After such a great season in 2007 I think the approach will be very, very similar to last year.

“We have a better car, a new team-mate and as a team are stronger and as a driver I have developed so much over one season that I will be a lot stronger next season than last year. So with the same mentality, approach and determination we can do well.”

Finn Heikki Kovalainen, who has joined McLaren after making his Grand Prix debut with Renault in 2007, will partner Hamilton. Kovalainen admits he has already been impressed with the team and is hopeful he will enjoy a strong season at McLaren.

“Of course for me it is a fantastic opportunity,” said the Finn. “It is a big step forward in my career to join McLaren. So far I have been impressed with what I have seen at the factory in Woking, meeting engineers, meeting people.

“Everyone is determined to return to the top and I will do the maximum I can before the first race, to start the season well in Melbourne and hopefully have some good results.”

Prepare for another battle royale between McLaren and Ferrari in 2008!

Raikkonen’s new Ferrari racer

Ferrari F2008

It’s that time of the season and with the first Grand Prix at Melbourne coming up in two months time, the first 2008-spec Formula One racing car is launch and to set the ball rolling, this is the car in which the 2007 Formula One World Champion Kimi Raikkonen will defend his drivers’ title for this year’s championship season.

The new Ferrari F2008 looks similar to last season’s title-winning chassis but with a new standard ECU and some new aerodynamics. The car, codenamed internally as the 659, has been designed for the new sporting regulations in 2008, with no driving aids allowed.

Raikkonen hopes the F2008 – designed under the guidance of technical director Aldo Costa – will again bring title success for the Maranello-based squad. In fact, the Iceman is looking forward to driving without traction control though the potential for more crashes is the biggest issue for the world champions ahead of the first race in Melbourne on March 16th.

“Now traction control is not going to help you but for me it will be a lot more fun. I think there will be an easier chance to overtake as people will make more mistakes,” Raikkonen told a news conference.

“The sport is dangerous anyway. It doesn’t matter if you have traction control or not. If you think it is too dangerous you probably shouldn’t be in the sport. It is more tricky for sure, you need to be awake more of the time.”

The Finn’s team-mate Felipe Massa was less positive about the changes and said drivers had asked for safety assurances from the FIA, Formula One’s governing body.

“We had an email exchange but we haven’t tested the car yet. The GPDA (Grand Prix Drivers’ Association) has for sure been trying to increase safety levels. This is a very important change. It will have to be a smoother driving style,” said the Brazilian, who was still enamoured with the new Ferrari.

“My expectations are very high. When you first look at the car it is a special moment. It is like seeing a child being born. Now we have to let this child grow and grow as quickly as possible.”

Both drivers said it was too early to tell who their main challengers would be this year given the new rules and that Fernando Alonso has returned back to Renault. The Finn believes that Ferrari and rival McLaren will again be the main protagonists in 2008.

“Ferrari and McLaren will be there,” he added. “Renault had a difficult year last year but it might be a completely different story this year but nobody really knows after the first couple of tests and we get some kind of idea where everybody is. And then there’s BMW.

“It will be a difficult year. It’s my second year at Ferrari. I can feel that everything is going really well. I know the people I am working with and I really like the team.

“We need to always look at what others are doing but the main thing is that we keep pushing hard as a team and we keep improving we should be in good shape.”

Let’s see how good the world champions will be during the all-important testing as Formula One 2008 gears up for a new season of racing.

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock

Guitar Hero III Slash

After playing both version of Guitar Hero II on the PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360 to death, it’s nice to experience a new set list of rockin’ tracks with the latest instalment of the popular music rhythm game.

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock has been developed by Neversoft after Activision decided to focus its attention on creating a brand new music game – the quite superb Rock Band (which is currently available in the States). Even though the game play to Guitar Hero III is identical to the previous titles, it some how feels different…

Yes, you still need to play through the different tracks by pressing the five colour fret buttons with the unique guitar controller but new to Guitar Hero III is the boss battle mode. To be honest, I really despise this new game play element as the balance between winning and losing is so random…

Okay its great to face-off legendary guitarists like Tom Morello (of Rage Against the Machine/Audioslave), Slash (of Guns N’ Roses/Slash’s Snakepit/Velvet Revolver) and Bret Michaels (of Poison) but you have to rely on sheer good fortune to take victory.

To defeat your opponent, you will need to pick up Battle Power (which replaces Star Power) to earn attacks. By using this special ability, you can strike against your fellow competitor just by tilting the guitar upwards. It may seem fun to keep on attacking but they can fight back – causing missed notes, increase in difficulty and even amp overload!

As for the visuals, the set designs and animation of the band members feels more realistic. In fact the lip sync on the singer matches the voices coming out of his mouth!

The track listing is now full of master recording from the likes of The Rolling Stones, The Smashing Pumpkins, Muse, Metallica and The Sex Pistols. It all sounds fantastic, a massive improvement over the cover versions that were featured in the previous Guitar Heroes.

And with the new wireless guitar – based on a real Gibson Les Paul model – playing the tracks is a more rewarding experience. What a shame that the boss battle seems misplace after all the fun playing encores… At least the new controller has a better responding whammy bar and is a lot more comfortable compare to X-plorer…

Race of Champions comes to Wembley

Race of Champions 2007 Wembley

After hosting the traditional end-of-season motor sport event in Paris at the State de France for three years, the organisers of the Race of Champions (Michèle Mouton and Fredrik Johnson) decided to change venue for 2007.

It may have been years behind schedule and cost a huge amount of resources to construct, but the new Wembley Stadium in North London was a truly impressive sight when racing cars took central stage.

Back in 2004, when I went to Paris to attend my first Race of Champions I was amazed by the quality of racing from the best drivers from the world of Formula One, rallying, touring cars and single-seaters. The atmosphere – with the fans cheering on their favourite drivers as they tear around the figure-of-eight circuit with tyre smoke – was electric! And when the news came through regarding the event coming to London, I wanted my friends to come along and experience it themselves!

I invited some good friends from the TokyoToys forum who are interested in motor racing. Even though Ashlea, Chris and Michael couldn’t afford the tickets (and to be honest, it was expensive) I was more than happy to pair for them. In fact, it was my special Christmas treat to make them attend the event!

On the day, I meet up with Yas at Baker Street tube station to have a spot of lunch with other TT members. We had a nice Italian meal in a nearby restaurant and it was quite amusing to see the waitress cutting some slices into Amy’s pizza, as she was having trouble with her blunt knife!

After eating, we made our way to Wembley by taking a direct (and very fast) route on the Metropolitan line. After stepping out of the tube station, the first sight you see is the impressive spanning archway over Wembley Stadium.

Chris was running late at this point so we agree to meet him at the entrance point. He finally arrived some time later and we our way in and towards our stand. Initially, I was worried that the seating arrangement at the far end of the stadium wouldn’t offer any good views but when we got to our seats, we had a spectacular vantage point overlooking the figure-of-eight race track!

The event was highly entertaining despite the harsh winter winds! We were absolutely freezing our arses off but the track activities kept our spirits warm.

Double DTM champion Mattias Ekstrom won the main Race of Champions after beating the seven-times Formula One world champion Michael Schumacher in a series of tense heats. But Michael had the last laugh as Team Germany won the Nations Cup with fellow colleague Sebastian Vettel.

The most amusing moment in the Race of Champions was when Schumacher stalled on the start and finish line! Michael was even overtaken on the track by new McLaren signing Heikki Kovalainen. This was the high point for the Finn as he would later crashed out in spectacular fashion in a dramatic race with Andy Priaulx.

After the fun day out, we all made our own way home and once back, I was happy to see the many photographs and videos posted on Facebook by the others! Reading the various comments on that popular socialising website, everyone was ecstatic about the event and Yas in particular was looking forward to attending the event next year. For Michael, he was fond to see his idol Schumacher racing while Ashlea and Chris enjoyed the whole experience. Same time next year everyone?

Kovalainen joins McLaren

Kovalainen Renault

Finland’s Heikki Kovalainen has joined the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team as Lewis Hamilton new team-mate for the 2008 world championship.

The young Formula One rookie impressed the Woking-based outfit despite a shaky start at Renault. Heikki initially struggle to drive the R27 due to a lack of a decent balance – which in effect dented his confidence in driving.

His performances improved over the course of the season with his best-ever finish in the wet dramatic race at the Fuji Speedway, finishing behind race winner Hamilton.

By joining McLaren, Heikki has a wonderful opportunity to showcase his talent with a race-winning car. In addition, it will be fascinating to see if Lewis can handle another fast team-mate.

Pedro de la Rose remains as the third driver, with Gary Paffett staying on board as tester.

Stylish Heroes promos from the BBC

Claire Bennet BBC2

The stars of hit sci-fi television drama Heroes have appeared in a series of video clips promoting the BBC2 brand.

These four promotional clips – featuring the characters Claire Bennet (Hayden Panettiere), her father Noah (Jack Coleman) and the brothers Peter and Nathan Petrelli (Milo Ventimiglia and Adrian Pasdar respectively) – were shot for BBC2 when the actors were in London recently (perhaps during the World Heroes Tour?).

The clips feature each of the actors walking towards, and looking through, a cut-out of the channel’s “2” logo, which acts as a window into their psyche.

For Claire, the indestructible cheerleader is looking through the number “2” and seeing herself shattering. Noah’s viewpoint involves a room full of eyes watching his every step… Peter can see himself becoming the exploding man, while brother Nathan must be the scarecrow considering how many black crows are flying towards you!

The four idents are made by Red Bee Media and will join the fourteen new “window on the world” BBC2 promotional clips that were introduced earlier this year. These new idents are to replace the channel’s previous playful, fluffy idents.

BBC2 is seeking to bolster its brand, starting with these stylish Heroes promos, as part of a new project, 2Dimensions, focusing on the network’s key on-screen talent. All will use the “2” as a window.

I have to admit these promos work great. The visual style and music come together well matching the personality of these four Heroes. I particular like Claire’s shattering into million of pieces!

Check out the four clips attached.

Claire “Broken Doll”

Bennet “Eye See You”

Peter “Leap of Faith”

Nathan “Black Flock”

Alonso returns back to Renault

 Alonso cockpit

Double world champion Fernando Alonso has return back to his spiritual home that is the Renault F1 team for the 2008 championship. The Spaniard will partner rising Brazilian star Nelsinho Piquet, son of three times world champion Nelson Piquet.

The new line-up means Heikki Kovalainen and Giancarlo Fisichella without a drive for next season, though it later emerges that Kovalainen will partner Lewis Hamilton at McLaren in 2008. As for Fisichella, he is hoping to land the race drive at the new Force India team (formerly Spyker).

It wasn’t a surprise for Alonso to go back to Flavio Briatore’s team to be honest. After suffering a traumatic first season at McLaren in 2007 racing against both Ron Dennis and young hotshot that is Hamilton, his decision to move back to Renault was a right choice for both parties.

Alonso will earn around £25m as part of his two-year contract at Renault. The Spaniard will become the highest paid driver in the post-Schumacher era of Formula One, though he has a ‘get out’ clause if he wishes to join Ferrari and team up with Kimi Raikkonen in the near future.

As for Nelson Piquet Jr, this opportunity to race alongside the world champion will be a massive benefit for the GP2 race winner. The Brazilian can learn the ropes and perhaps might beat his highly rated team-mate in the races!

The 2008 world championship will be crucial for Briatore, as the team suffered it most disappointing season since 2002. After taking the championship double (drivers’ and constructors’ title) in 2005 and 2006, it was shocking to see the former champions suffer with a lack of decent race result. The best result in 2007 was Kovalainen’s superb second place in a rain-lashed Japanese Grand Prix.

Hopefully next year will bring good fortune for Briatore, Alonso and Piquet Jr but it will be a tough challenge against the mighty Ferrari and McLaren race teams. Let see how competitive the new Renault R28 chassis will be.

Heroes Volume 2 review

Heroes Season 2 cast

After eleven episodes Volume 2 of Heroes is now over and due to the writer strike, it is unclear whether Volume 3 will re-commence. In the meantime, I can reflect back on the past season of Heroes (warning: contains spoilers).

The first volume was nothing short of spectacular with fascinating characters and exciting storylines that became the show to watch on television. It is not surprising how popular it became after twenty-three nail biting episodes, that you would expect the following season to continue this thrilling drama.

Unfortunately, the hype of Heroes means fans were expecting too much. We wanted more action sequences and another face-off with Peter versus Sylar. Instead we got a slow start with a couple of quite frankly, tedious episodes in Volume 2.

The first episode introduces a set of new characters including Maya, Alejandro, West, Monica, Adam, Elle and Bob. Immediately I wasn’t a fan of the so-called ‘Wonder Twins’ a.k.a. Maya and Alejandro. Maya’s special ability was her ‘tears of doom’ in which people around her will drop dead whenever she cries… To reverse the effect (and make everyone around her back alive), twin brother Alejandro can heal by holding her hand.

Claire Bear’s new boyfriend (West) was also annoying. Yes, he fancy the former cheerleader by hiding in the trees ‘admiring’ her but the whole romance sequences between the pair made this part of the show feel like a teen drama – something straight out of The O.C.

As for Monica, she was kind of cool with a unique ability in replicating any physical motion after watching it. But I found it infuriating that she didn’t watch enough videos on her iPod to escape from that thug who caught her trying to retrieve back Micah’s comic books. That resulted in Niki coming to the rescue but dying in a fireball…

Adam Monroe/Takezo Kensei on the other hand was a revelation. He turns out to be the main villain who wants to unleash the Shanti virus on the world. David Anders plays this character so well (he was also a bad guy on spy drama Alias) and I enjoy the way he manipulating both Hiro and Peter that he was doing the right thing. Silly Heroes!

As for Elle, at first I thought she was a bitch! Kristen Bell played the girl with the ability to throw balls of electricity straight out of her hands. She killed Peter’s Irish girlfriend’s brother by frying him! In the final episode, she turns to the good side by helping to capture Sylar to please her father Bob.

Bob is the head of The Company in which both Noah and Mohinder try to bring down. Working under cover the doctor was easily influence by Bob by believing that he was doing the right thing by creating a cure for the deadly virus. But it turns out to be the other effect…

As for the regular characters, they still play a part in the series but I was shocked in how stupid they became! Volume 2 was titled ‘Generations’ but it should be renamed as ‘Gullible’ as Peter, Mohinder, Claire and Hiro simple lack any brain cells between them! You wanted to scream in frustration and I still can’t forgive Dr. Suresh shooting Noah in the eye(!) just because he doesn’t know whom to trust… Of course, The Company exploiting him, but I thought Noah was on your side so you just shoot him instead?

Matt Parkman was the only character that had an interesting storyline with a progression in his power to read people’s mind. He used this to his advantage in trapping his own father after experiencing first handily in a mindf*** episode (Fight or Flight).

And the re-introduction of D.L. in one episode (Four Months Ago…) and then killing him off some minutes later was a waste. What was the point in bringing Niki’s husband back? In addition, the whole New Orleans storyline involving Micah and Monica was weak. Saving a bunch of comic books (and a medal) was more important than saving 93% of the world’s population? Oh, please(!)

As for Sylar, it was frustrating that he only got his power back in the final episode (Powerless) after injecting himself with Claire Bear’s blood. I like how he runs around decapitating people head’s off to absorb their power in season 1. Here in season 2, he spent most of his time flirting with ‘tears of doom’!

But the moment that annoyed me the most was when he was isolated in the middle of nowhere after killing that shape-shifting woman. In the following episode he was lying unconscious in the middle of the road… How did he get there?!

But the biggest annoyance was Peter Petrelli. He was by far the best character on the show. Peter has the ability to fly, can generate nuclear in his hands, travel through time and be able to walk through walls and yet, if only his brain was functioning a bit more, he could have prevented the destruction of the world by using a bit of common sense… Plus, whatever happened to his Irish girlfriend? She doesn’t exist in the present because she was capture in the future…

And what about Hiro – the fans favourite? Well, the loveable Japanese geek was stuck in ancient Japan trying to help out the great Takezo Kensei in becoming a hero. He eventually returns to the present time to stop Kensei – now Adam – in destroying the world!

In conclusion, season 2 wasn’t on par with the first season. The fact that the writer’s strike is still ongoing reveal how poorly constructed these eleven episodes were. It felt rushed and the second half of the season began to hit it stride, before it ended prematurely… Even Tim Kring, the series creator, admitted he should have focus the virus storyline quicker into Volume 2 than introducing a love story for Claire and West and a host of new characters like Maya and Alejandro.

Volume 3: Villains will be interesting. Can Heroes regain its form by providing more shocking moments? I hope so as still one of the most entertaining television shows around. Plus I do fancy Claire being indestructible and the return of the evil Sylar!

Leaf’s Xbox 360 RROD

Xbox 360 RROD graphic

My Xbox 360 committed suicide this month by giving me the dreaded three red lights a.k.a. the Red Ring of Death. I was shocked when this occur especially as my friend was playing quite well on Expert mode in Guitar Hero II

The whole screen froze and when we tried to reset the console, the familiar red lights flashed away. To be honest, I was heading towards the console’s deathbed in the past couple of weeks when it crashed ten times in a space of an hour! In that period, I replayed the same race in Project Gotham Racing 4 without making past the first corner… To see white lines and square blocks appearing on my Samsung HDTV during a game and on the Xbox 360 loading screen means there is something seriously going wrong inside the machine.

I called up customer support immediately and after explaining the problem, I arrange a pick-up to get it repaired. The good news is that I don’t need to pay for the repair as Microsoft has a three-year warranty. The bad news is I won’t get my Xbox 360 for the next three to four weeks so in the meantime I can continue my quest in Super Mario Galaxy on the reliable Nintendo Wii! But in all seriousness, Microsoft is aware of the RROD situation. In fact, I discover that Microsoft receives numerous amounts of broken Xbox 360s with this problem EVERYDAY!

I hope I get it back in the New Year, as I desperately want to play Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock with the new wireless guitar controller. Plus, I have to finish off those remaining levels in Bioshock (feel embarrass that I yet to complete it). Fingers cross my Xbox 360 is running fine without any more problems when I get it back.