Do you think you have what it takes to be a Grand Prix driver?

Source: Newspress

Ever dreamt of pitting your skills against reigning FIA Formula One World Drivers' Champion Lewis Hamilton? Well now you can as Mobil 1 lubricants have teamed up with Vodafone McLaren Mercedes to launch Will You Be The 1? an interactive, online game designed to provide the definitive Grand Prix test for any aspiring driver.

Grand Prix driver Lewis Hamilton is the first to have played the game and has set a 10,147 points score to head the leaderboard. Vodafone McLaren Mercedes and Mobil 1, the world’s leading engine lubricant, have combined their racing expertise and technical know-how to create the game. Free to join at www.mobil-1.co.uk, the game features four key challenges to provide an all-encompassing test for anyone who thinks they can match Lewis Hamilton.

Will You Be the 1? also provides UK gamers with the chance to meet Lewis Hamilton at the Mobil 1 Garden Party on Saturday 20th June and attend the British Grand Prix at Silverstone the very next day. The gamer at the top of the leaderboard at 23.59.59 on 4th June will also receive an exclusive trophy containing Mobil 1 oil from the very Vodafone McLaren Mercedes MP4-23 car that helped Lewis Hamilton secure fifth place at the Brazilian GP and win the 2008 World Championship. So what are you waiting for?

The four tests cover a wide range of skills essential for Grand Prix Racing driving including: Technical knowledge, which tests users’ knowledge of a Mercedes-Benz engine; Memory, which challenges competitors to recall race tracks from around the world; Reactions, where the Lewis-hopefuls drive a Vodafone McLaren Mercedes off the grid when the lights go green; and of course a Driving Challenge where players get to drive the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes MP4-24 on Lewis Hamilton’s Mobil 1 Supercircuit – a selection of Lewis’ favourite corners from around the world. Once completed, users receive an overall score and ranking split according to region, group and against all other entrants.

Lewis Hamilton commented: “Formula One is a sport that demands high performance from its drivers through the ultimate mental and physical tests. It is only by collaborating with partners such as Mobil 1 that we can deliver peak performance on the track, race after race.”

ExxonMobil spokesperson, Otto Nijdam added: “Formula One is the ultimate testing ground for the driver, the car and the lubricant. ExxonMobil’s technology partnership with Vodafone McLaren Mercedes is now entering its fifteenth year so to mark this we wanted to give fans the chance to experience a taste of the level of performance needed to be a success at the very top.”

The Will You Be The 1? game will be running on Mobil 1 sites across the world, and can also be added to Facebook through a downloadable application to allow you to compete easily with friends and showcase your current ranking.

The Mobil 1 range of lubricants is available from Exxon, Esso and Mobil service stations, leading franchised car dealerships, automotive stores and other independent retailers.

Happy 100th anniversary Motoring Tax

Source: Newspress

Motoring tax reaches 100th anniversary – so what’s changed?

This week’s budget coincides with the 100th anniversary of Lloyd George’s Peoples’ Budget which set the foundations of modern motoring taxation. The IAM (Institute of Advanced Motorists) has taken a look back at how things have changed for motorists since April 1909.

In the early 20th century, motoring in Great Britain was in its infancy, but the growing number of vehicles meant roads were becoming inadequate for their purpose. Director of IAM policy and research, Neil Greig, said: “It was fair to expect motorists to pay for road improvements, but today motoring taxation has spiralled and most of the revenue doesn’t go into improving road infrastructure.”

Echoing many of the complaints of modern day drivers Lloyd George said in his 1909 speech: “It is quite clear that our present system of roads and of road making is inadequate for the demands which are increasingly made upon it by the new form of traction. Roads are too narrow, corners are too frequent and too sharp, high hedges have their dangers, and the old metalling, admirably suited as it was to the vehicles we were accustomed to, is utterly unfitted for the motor-car.

“Both the general public and motorists are crying out for something to be done, the brunt of the expense at the beginning must be borne by motorists, and to do them justice they are willing, and even anxious, to subscribe handsomely towards such a purpose, so long as a guarantee is given in the method and control of the expenditure that the funds so raised will not merely be devoted exclusively to the improvement of the roads, but that they will be well and wisely spent for that end.”

The funds were managed by the Road Board and the Chancellor stated all of the revenues from taxes would be directed to the Road Board; none would be taken by H M Treasury: “I (will) deal first with motor cars, and so dispose at once of a source of revenue from which, I, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, shall derive no advantage.”

The new road tax was based on the Horsepower rating of the engine and was set in eight bands; the least powerful cars paid £2 a year, compared with £42 for the most powerful cars. Today the lowest tax band costs £35 and the highest is £400.

The Road Fund was never fully utilised, and the growing surplus was regularly used for non-road purposes by Government. In 1926, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Winston Churchill raided the fund, and the hypothecation of motoring taxes into the Road Fund was formally ended in 1936, with the proceeds of road vehicle taxes paid directly into the Exchequer.

The flat rate taxing system replaced the Horsepower system in 1947. Now the wheel has gone full circle with today’s road tax based on CO2 emissions.
The Chancellor also introduced fuel tax. In doing so he recognised the deficiencies and unfairness of an annual road tax that bore no relation to the extent to which a car might be used, saying: “I, therefore, propose to put a tax of 3d per gallon on all petrol used for motor vehicles. This small tax, very small compared with what hon. Gentlemen would have to pay if they were motoring in France, where they would be compelled to pay 1s. 8d. This small tax will fall on motorists in proportion both to the distance travelled and also to the power of the car, for the Committee knows that a high-powered car will consume considerably more petrol per mile run.”

The somewhat modest tax of 3d a gallon in the early part of the 20th century turned into a cash cow with huge revenues paid to the treasury. At one time in the 1990s the tax reached 85 per cent of the pump price and it led to the fuel protests, and an end to the fuel tax escalator. Mr Greig added: “The fundamental reasoning behind road tax has been forgotten since 1909. The fund was meant to be used solely for roads improvement and no profit or ‘advantage’ was to be made by the Exchequer, now £40 billion in motoring taxes goes straight to the Government every year and only £8 billion gets reinvested in new safer roads and other transport systems.

“Many roads are in a poor condition with pot holes and a basic lack of key safety engineering features such as barriers. More needs to be invested in the road network to ensure motorists are given back the fair deal first promised over a century ago.”