Motorsport

Watching the first Formula 1 race for the year. This year the cars are very different, they’re 50% combustion, 50% electric. They were hybrids before this too, but not with this much electric. Many purists want just…

Formula 1 now has its own anti-vax movement. The anti-battery/anti-electric crowd. F1 cars have been hybrids for years already, it’s made them faster than they’ve ever been before, while using much less fuel so…

It became very widespread to say ‘living with the virus’. Which was a phrase invented by a politician, not a scientist. It was bullshit. And this is where it leads. Every person who gets sick now, listen to them, will…

It doesn’t matter if it’s windmills, data centres, electric cars, gender, or in this case Formula 1. The social media machine has only one product. Rage. Imitation produces rivalry. Rivalry produces rage. Social media…

Look at what AI can do. For years I’ve thought Formula 1 racing isn’t really racing, that its results are more about entrenched technological advantage in key teams. So with AI I looked at whether the results of the…

With Bathurst coming up, even if you’re not a car racing fan, there’s a genius to V8 Supercars that I think it’s still super important for everybody to understand. A specific Australian genius, that goes well beyond car…

The Nerd Reich is well underway. Simpletons still think this is a battle of Left vs Right, like those who think the Bathurst 1000 is still a battle of Fords and Holdens. Decades of slogans on ‘red tape’ and…

When I say adult life has been completely replaced with adolescent life, politics is a good example. We look at politics the same way we watch a State of Origin game. Red v Blue, even the colours are the same (we use…

I posted about casuistry a while ago, to me one of the most important and forgotten human inventions. The idea of case-based reasoning. This outrageous injustice to Oscar Piastri is a great example of why it’s needed.…

A Formula E car. All-electric. These cars only carry relatively small batteries, much smaller than modern EV road cars, less than 40 kWh. It's still enough to do nearly 100 km, at very high speeds. They flog an F1 car…

Wow, Bathurst 1000 price now. I'm sure the $25 hamburger crowd think that's reasonable.

Car racing needs something like the penalty try in rugby. Murray here for example had his race ruined, and while Golding copped a penalty, there was no justice for Murray. Officials should be able to restore a position…

I loved the F35 fly-by at the Bathurst 1000 on the weekend.

94% of car accidents are caused by human error. Humans are not good drivers, and if asked what good driving is, will usually describe some variation of car racing, like fast cornering, braking etc. Good driving is…

The bizarre thing is that ‘sports’ cars are built to drive on public roads. The people who buy them will drive in anti-social ways, why spend the money otherwise? We need to reframe what ‘good driving’ means, away from…

The Bathurst 1000 will never be a river of gold for Bathurst Council because it’s not a Council event. Council owns the track, not the event. It gets a track hire fee, but not some enormous cut of the race revenue,…

We’re back at the evil supermarket ‘duopoly’ again. Australia doesn’t have a supermarket duopoly. Aldi and IGA for example have been other options for years. Aldi is cheaper than either of the Big 2. But people mostly…

They should invite BYD and Tesla to enter a team each in the V8 Supercars. Sadly it won’t happen, not least because the electrics would be half a lap ahead already on Lap 1. And for those wondering how they’d recharge…

The Bathurst 1000, the race that fascinates a nation. But not everybody in Bathurst.

Watching the V8s (on TV) in Adelaide this weekend. The formula struggles now to find a relevant car, nobody much drives Camaros or Mustangs. They don’t even make the Camaro any more I don’t think. Make it a contest…

You have to watch this show. (SBS has it streaming on demand.) Guy Martin is one of the UK’s leading petrol heads, ex-motorcycle racer. Lovely, funny guy. This doco is so entertaining, and shows him exploring the world…

Tesla get a lot of attention with electric cars, for good reason. They saw what was coming and went hard, early. Look at those stats, who would bother with an old combustion clunker? This car would beat a Formula 1 car…

Had to take back roads home tonight, because of an accident on the highway. The way the car ate up those roads reminded me why hybrids are the ultimate car for driving, though they’re mostly seen as ways to save fuel.…

Supercars may have a problem here. The racing worked best when drivers were driving highly modified versions of cars ordinary Australians drive. Hardly any Australians want to drive American muscle cars. Including…

This weekend you can watch the ultimate example of a hybrid car - Formula 1. The fastest cars in the world. F1 cars are hybrids. They’ve been hybrid for nearly a decade, and not only did it make them much more fuel…

Formula 1 is planning something pretty amazing, even if you’re not into car racing. They’re taking their current hybrids (best engines in the world, I may have mentioned, once or twice). But they’re making them even…

The idea of place is why I’m so critical of travel, which has a very problematic relationship with place. The Bathurst 1000 is another way to explain it. I like this picture because it captures the two aspects in one…

Next time you're queued at the lights, watch what happens when they go green. The cars will move off one at a time, from the front, each one waiting for the one ahead to move first. This isn't necessary, technically all…

It’s Bathurst 1000 week, my favourite of the year! As a sporting event, it has a crowd almost 3 times the size of any football grand final. And it runs for almost a week. The ‘Figure it Out BRC’ FB group have had lots…

I don't generally like American cars, they're mostly woeful. But Tesla is different, innovative engineering. Have a look at their new Roadster, the fastest car in the world. The acceleration you see in this short video…

Race cars rev like crazy at the start of a race because petrol engines have zero power except at high revs. It’s exciting, goosebumps, the sound. Though that’s just the cars farting, literally. Some equate the sound…

Here’s Michael Faraday, genius, who invented the electric motor in 1821 while working on laws of induction, which those who’ve done physics will appreciate. Over a century ago. A thing of almost sublime beauty, with…

Here’s Michael Faraday, genius, who invented the electric motor in 1821 while working on laws of induction and discovering electro-magnetism, which those who’ve done physics will appreciate. Over a century ago, and half…

This to me is the greatest modern wonder. Your home is now connected directly to the entire world, in real-time. While we travel around the world thinking it broadens our minds (it narrows them), and thinking visiting…

Brilliant! V8 racing will go on, but virtually, and broadcast live in HD. Thinking happening everywhere you look. https://www.supercars.com/allstars/

If I had to give relationship advice to anybody, it would be find the person different to who you are in all the right ways. That person is Kell, for me. Her music is rubbish, she watches rom coms, she hates windows and…

I'm loving playing in a mixed netball comp. But I've discovered that it's a brutal game on the body, and coming to it at 50, cold, was a bit of a shock to the system. It's my favourite sport to watch on TV now too, most…