Folks around the planet have received some rather good and not so good news regarding the 2020 Nissan GT-R. The good news is that it’s coming with a host of upgrades that’ll give anyone a smile, but the not so good news is that it’s an upgrade, not a brand-new model like most of us had anticipated. (more…)
♦ Charles Leclerc’s win at Spa brings the total number of victories at the Belgian GP for Ferrari to 18, the most of any team.
♦ The death of Anthoine Hubert in an accident during the Formula 2 race was a tragedy that hit Leclerc especially hard because of their close friendship. 5 years earlier, Leclerc also lost his godfather, Jules Bianchi, who died after an accident in the Japanese Grand Prix.
♦ Max Verstappen was knocked out at the start of the race after contact with Kimi Raikkonen’s Alfa Romeo. However, the Dutchman, currently third in the championship standings, did not blame Raikkonen for the incident which damaged his steering.
♦ After it was clear that Sebastian Vettel was struggling to maintain his pace, the team made the decision that he had to defend Leclerc’s bid for victory, and he followed the team orders.
♦ The tragic death of Anthoine Hubert on Saturday affected the whole F1 community and Daniel Ricciardo revealed that he had almost decided not to race on Sunday.
♦ In the final lap, Sergio Perez and Alexander Albon had a close fight to try to improve their positions which caught the attention of the stewards. However, they did not receive any penalties after the race, the stewards reporting that ‘each driver described it as hard racing and agreed there was potential danger. In view of the explanations and the successful overtaking move, it was considered there should be no further action’.
Next race in Italy on September 8
Black is back, right? How black can the colour be? But there is one black finish which is uniquely black and BMW has chosen to use it on the third-generation X6 which will have its world premiere very soon. The finish is known as Vantablack VBx2 and is a nanostructure paint finish never before applied on a car.
Exclusively for the launch of the X6, the one-off display model is the result of a collaboration between BMW and Surrey NanoSystems, the inventors of the Vantablack technology. The new X6 is the first and only vehicle in the world to feature a Vantablack VBx2 paint finish.
“We turned down numerous requests from various automobile manufacturers in the past,” explained Ben Jensen, Founder and Chief Technical Officer of Surrey NanoSystems. “It took the BMW X6 and its unique, expressive design for us to entertain the idea.” With design highlights like the optional Iconic Glow kidney grille, distinctive twin headlights and striking taillights, the new BMW X6 provides fascinating contrasts to offset the Vantablack VBx2 paint finish, which changes the viewer’s visual perception of an object’s three-dimensional shape.
Vantablack looks two-dimensional
A surface coated in Vantablack loses its defining features to the human eye, with objects appearing two-dimensional. This can be interpreted by the brain as staring into a hole or even a void, making Vantablack a rather unsuitable vehicle paint finish as it blots out virtually all the design details and highlights.
For this reason, theX6 was coated in the VBx2 variant initially developed for use in architectural and scientific applications. This coating can be sprayed on and has a 1% total hemispherical reflectance (THR), meaning it is still considered ‘super black’ while enabling a small amount of reflection from every angle. Thus, materials painted with it seem to lose their three-dimensional appearance.
Developed for aerospace applications
The name Vantablack has already become synonymous with an entire range of extremely black coatings and paints such as VBx2. It contains an acronym of the technology enabling this superior black in its first two syllables, which stand for ‘Vertically Aligned Nano Tube Array’, a matrix made out of carbon. Each of these carbon nanotubes has a length of 14 to 50 micrometres, with a diameter of 20 nanometres, making it around 5,000 times thinner than a human hair. As a result, around a billion of these vertically aligned carbon nanotubes fit into one square centimetre. Any light striking this surface is almost completely absorbed rather than reflected, and effectively converted into heat.
This technology was initially developed for coating space-borne components. As Vantablack can be applied at temperatures from as low as 430 degrees C., it is suitable for delicate materials such as aluminium, and optical components coated in Vantablack enable observation of faint stars and distant galaxies that stray light from the sun makes difficult to detect. The first generation of Vantablack introduced by Surrey NanoSystems in 2014 absorbed up to 99.965% of light, almost completely eliminating reflectance and stray light.
Future option for customers?
When asked if Vantablack VBx2 could become a regular paint finish option for customers buying a car in the future, Jensen said that it works really well on the new BMW X6, because of the size of the car, its distinctive shape, and how imposing it is. “But putting a paint like that on a conventional car lacking a distinctive design would probably detract from it in some way. In addition, developing a Vantablack VBx2 car paint durable enough for daily use is a huge technological challenge,” he explained.
However, Hussein Al Attar, Creative Director Automotive Design at Designworks and the designer responsible for the new X6, is keen to see it as an option. “BMW X6 drivers are among our most extrovert and free-spirited customers. If anyone were to opt for a Vantablack paint option, it would definitely be a BMW X6 driver!” he said.
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A newly upgraded Proton 3S Centre in Jelutong, Penang is now officially opened by Autobinee Oriental Sdn Bhd which offers sales, service, and spare parts. The new facility offers better total ownership experience as part of Proton’s network strategy rollout. (more…)
Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport has confirmed that it will retain Valtteri Bottas for the 2020 Formula 1 season. The 30-year old Finn, currently second in the world championship standings on 188 points, joined the team in 2017. Racing alongside Lewis Hamilton, he has played a key role in its victory in the Constructors’ championship in the past two seasons.
Bottas made his F1 debut in 2013 with the Williams Renault team and had his first win at the 2017 Russian Grand Prix. During his two and a half seasons with the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport team, he has scored 5 race wins and 10 pole positions.
“I am very happy and proud to be part of the team for a fourth season and wish to thank every team member and the board of Mercedes for their trust and belief in me. My performances have been getting better and better each year, and this is a great way to kick start the second half of 2019,” said Bottas.
Aiming to be world champion
“My overall target is to become Formula One world champion. I believe that on paper, and from my experience with the team, Mercedes is the best option for me to achieve that goal in 2020. We have 9 races to go this season and I am determined to keep improving at every one of them. Now, all my thoughts are on Spa and delivering a strong performance with the team this weekend,” he added.
Commenting on the retention of Bottas, Team Principal and CEO of the team. Toto Wolff, said: “For 2019, we set Valtteri the challenge of coming back even stronger than we saw him in the first part of 2018 – and he has achieved that, with some really impressive performances in the early races this year. Although it has been his most successful first half of a championship so far, he is hungry for more and determined to keep on improving and raising his level. That’s the mindset we want from all our team members.”
“The results we have achieved together with Valtteri are no coincidence: he has been an integral part of our championship success in the past two seasons, his teamwork with Lewis has been exemplary and he has shown real strength of character in how he has responded to setbacks. I’m delighted that he will stay with the team for another season at least – and look forward to seeing him raise the bar even further,” he said.
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