ZA Car

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Drifting, like Facebook, in eight years has taken the world by storm. This storm is blowing into South Africa very uncharacteristically from the north and east and as posters with pig ears of Ferrari F430s and Bam Magera fall off kids’ walls from the drying prestick, they are being replaced by posters of Vaughn Gittin Jr, Rhys Millen, Ken Block, and extreme sports legends like Travis Pastrana, Brian Deegan and Rob Dyrdek to name only a few.  That is why we’re joined by Jim McFarlane from XS Promotions in Episode 149. XS Promotions has long been in the lead when it has come to extreme sports promotion and event organisation not least of which is the SuperDrift series in South Africa Atomic Junkies shows which wil be taking place in Durban, Cape Town and Johannesburg this year.

So if you’re keen on the drift scene, want to find out what it involves, what car you should consider if you’re just starting out, or how much money you should put side for tyres, take a listen. Take a listen. Do it now.  John, Trevor and Christo have a great chat with Jim who clearly has a passion for getting your blood racing faster than an Nissan GTR through turn two at Zwartkops Raceway and in our books, that’s brilliant.

In this show we cover some news like the Ferrari Formula One team’s gifts of appreciation, a Fat Pig of a Jeep each - you can read about it by clicking here. No wonder Flippie and Fern are unimpressed.

If pictures could tell a thousand words and you see the disappointment on the Team Scuderia Ferrari’s faces then we wish we had a camera to show you what Christo looks like when he recounts the South African launch of the BMW (F10) M5, we’ve never seen him smile that much.

In other news we talk briefly about the Chevrolet Sonic Diesel — a new entrant in a segment with very few diesel offerings and the Kuga, and no, we’re not talking about older women who are after younger guys, we’re talking about the Ford.

Look we're as muscular (or fat) as our Jeeps

We have yet to test the Chevrolet Sonic but on paper the new 1.3 diesel seems to offer the best small-diesel package. Click on the picture to view the gallery.

This new M5 packs some serious heat; like bazooka to a pistol-fight heat. Click on the image for some more pictures of that car that Christo drive in Port Elizabeth.

The BMW M5 also makes great sounds, sounds that you might want to use as a ring tone, and you can find them right here if you click these slanty words…

This is Mikey from XS Promotions, Jim's business partner. They like to do this...

...forget about ZA Car Show's Sideways Saturdays Mikey and Jim do this for a living and if their passion for the sport while talking with us is anything to go by, then drifting is set to become something great in SA, just like it is around the world. Click on the image to view a XS Promotions' SuperDrift gallery on Flickr.

Doriftuuuu....

Episode 149 download 

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The weekend of 28 and 29 January 2012 was black. South Africa lost two talented motorsports men in unrelated incidents, to the families of Curt Alchin and Wim Pretorius, ZA Car gives its condolences.

Despite the news items, ZA Car Show isn’t sponsored by BMW or MINI, it just appears that they have the most to talk about at the moment. On that front, MINI officially announced the MINI Roadster — a convertible based on a hard top that was based on a convertible, the MINI Coupe — and it also alludes to JCW becoming a stand alone sub-brand like the recently announced BMW M-Performance range. We discuss.

The silver slats in the kidney grills give the car a 'cleaner' appearance if that makes sense? Either way, it emits less toxins, produces V8-like power and consumes fuel like a diesel. For more images (around 70 in total) click on the image to be redirected to our gallery. To view in a new tab (if you're streaming the show at the moment) right click and select 'open in new tab/window.

Christo is going to LeMans this year, that is the commitment to motoring that we have here at ZA Car Show,  and no he’s not getting sent there by a manufacturer so to the South African motoring journalists who read this, you don’t need to hound manufacturers to find out why you never got invited. He, however, was sad to see the departure of Peugeot from the LM1 class which would have left it a one-horse race. It’s also good to see that Toyota is regaining its motorsport ‘mojo’ with the announcement of the Toyota’s LM1 racer, the TS030. It will be a 3.4l V8 Hybrid. This is important becuase we cover another perfomance hybrid in the form of the BMW 5-series Active Hybrid. It’s no tree hugging hybrid like the Prius, but rather a performance hybrid that delivers diesel car-like consumption, very low emissions, and performance equal that of a V8. It doesn’t look like ‘hairy arm pit’ hippie car either, which is what tends to be the perception with the term hybrid.

Toyota will return to Le Mans with the LM1 contender, the Toyota TS030. Click on the image to be redirected to the gallery.

In other news Audi’s extremely beautiful A5 has had a nip here and tuck there and come off looking even better. It’s like taking giving Naomi Campbell or George Clooney (see we keep it relevant for everyone here) a slight make over — the blank canvas is already good so it can only get better, right?

Handsome, very handsome. It's the facelifted A5 and it is finally in SA. Click on the image to view the gallery.

Finally we wrap up the show with the ZA Car Show road test. This week it’s the Audi A6 3.0t, which is actually supercharged not turbo’d. Good car, bad car? We’re torn a little bit between good and boring, but you’ll have to listen to the show to find out why. Enjoy.

We cannot fault its looks nor the way it is built, but in creating something that is so competent Audi has removed any sort of soul, granted the words 'soul' and 'Audi' are rarely used in the same sentence in any event.

Episode 148 hi-fi download (22MB) 

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I googled the number 147 to find out what the number meant in numerology terms. I didn’t understand a thing, but there were two tarot cards one with ‘love’ and the other with ‘devil’ on them. That pretty much sums up the Alfa Romeo 147, then. It also, hopefully, shows how much we love ZA Car Show and with our news and reviews, stop you buying the devils cars regardless of how many times Trevor says buys a SAAB. Whatever the meaning,  listen to the show now, because having told you this, you’re either about to fall in love if you share ZACS with all of your friends or will turn into a devil if you don’t. It’s your choice.

This week with the start of the WRC, Citroen driver, Sebastian Loeb has kicked off the WRC Sebastien Loeb Invitational Season. Will he be as unstoppable as the other Sebastian, Mr Vettel? With the WRC starting we’re glad that the Dakar has ended. Have you considered a Mazda 3? Yeah, we didn’t think so, so you might like the debate that breaks out as Christo tries to tell us about its new update. The Jeep Wrangler has also had an update and it appears to be quite significant while we swoon over the Fiat 500 1.2 Cabrio Audi R8 GT Spyder and Review the MINI One — the one car you should not overlook at if you are already looking at things like the Ford Fiesta, Mazda 2, Volkswagen Polo and Toyota Yaris — we’re willing to bet you’ll be very surprised.

Your hosts this week are Christo van Gemert, Trevor van de Ven, John Beale and Patrick Gearing.

As always, click on the image to view full galleries of the cars featured. You will be directed away from the page, so right click and select “Open Link in New Tab/Window” to avoid this.

MINI Bayswater. Apart from the riduculous colour, these special editions seem to sell out before they're made available. We cant fault MINI on its style. Click on the image to view a full gallery.

Yes it's a Mazda. It has a new engine in the range - 2.5 litres in capacity now and some other tweaks. Click on the image to see a gallery.

Jeep can pull of khaki better than a farmer from Limpopo. Click on the image to see a full gallery (not from the local local launch).

The Fiat 500C 1.2 has become South Africa's cheapest convertible. Oh we do like this little thing.

You can now order one of these in South Africa. You'd better have a fat wallet and not drive past Porsche on your way to Audi.

This is the basic Mini One. It looks pretty much the same as every other MINI, but offers far better value than most competitors. Find out what we think in the show.

Episode 147 hi-fi download (22MB) 

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Two’s company and this week, our second show of 2012 it’s Trevor van de Ven and Christo van Gemert that keep you company while chatting about cars, some good and some bad. There’s a slew of new BMW engines destined for the BMW 1-Series (international markets only at this stage), which get’s our Captain Consumption aflutter with excitement, were still not quite sure why. BMW has also announced that it will be launching an M Performance series which will be more dedicated than simply adding an M-Sports pack to your Beemer, while being not quite as hardcore as BMW’s M cars. Why, well you’ll have to listen, won’t you? Christo van Gasoline reports back from the Abarth 500 launch that he attended recently and the two round off the show with a review of the Audi TT-RS and Mitsubusi’s Titanic Triton.

We dont have a picture of the engines so an image of the new M-Sport pack for the 1-Series will have to do. Can you spot the add-ons?

You think we included a picture of Dr. Friedrich Nitschke, the President of BMW M Gmbh, because of that magnificent moustache? You'd be wrong, there is a car behind him, which is the only indication that we have at the moment of what the new M Performance cars will look like and the M550d X-Drive looks deceptively like full-blown M5 unless there's some sloppy PR going on here.

There's a sting in the tail of this little car. Click on the image to view a comprehensive gallery. You will be redirected, so right click the image and select "Open in new tab/window"

The one we had looked identical to this, red is certainly the best colour for this beast that out accelerates just about everything on the road. Hear what we think on the podcast. For a gallery, click on the image but be aware that you will be redirected away from this page. To stay here, right click on the image and select "Open in new Tab/Window"

There's nothing new here, it's a Mitsubishi Triton. We review it...

Episode 146 hi-fi download (22MB) 

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Welcome to 2012 and welcome to the first show the year for the ZA Car Show team. There are a number of big things in store for you this year as we’ve embarked on a couple of changes to the ZA Car Show product offering. Stay tuned to find out more in the coming weeks. In the mean time we kick off the year with John Beale, The Times’ Thomas Falkiner and ZACS’ Trevor van de Ven. Much like your return to work, this year has kicked off with a bang in the form of the North American International Auto Show. Tom also gives us a run down on his upcoming trip to the Yas Marina GP circuit in the UAE with Porche for the launch of the Porsche 991.  And with the start of varsity, there are a ton of new drivers on the roads. We explore what reasonably priced cars — under R140 000 — you should consider if you are planning to buy a car for your recently-left-school child. Reviewed this week are the BMW 116i Urban and controversial Nissan Juke 1.6 Tekna.

As always click on the images to go to a full gallery of that car. You will be redirected away from this page if you do so, however, so to carry on listening and still view the albums right click on the image and select ‘open in new tab’ or ‘open in new window,’ and enjoy. 

This car is one of the most beautiful mid-sized sedans. It will never sell as much as the BMW 3-series, Audi A4 or Mercedes-Benz C-Class and it remains a mystery as to why. In global markets though, this car will be a game changer for the Ford brand, we think. Let's hope that we are proved right with this.

The last time the Americans and Italians mixed this closely it took the FBI many years to find the root of the problems (and they're still looking). Let's hope the same symptoms do no befall a very good looking car which is based on the Alfa Romeo Giulietta.

We review the Nissan Juke 1.6 Tekna in this show. It's a car that polarizes opinions, sells well and remains pretty unique in its segment. Is nissan too bold, or would you buy this car. Take a listen to find out more.

Sport and Urban, good or strange looking, you decide. We review the 116i Urban that looked identical to the blue car and walk away very impressed, find out why.

Episode 145 hi-fi download (18MB) 
Episode 145 lo-fi download (9MB)

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