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LEFT: The hybridfight comes as Lexususes the high-profileevent to introduce itscompact CT200h tolocal buyers, as wellas the drivers whowill compete in the2011 celebritychallenge

On yourmarksfor hybrid raceBy PAUL GOVER

THE first real race anywherein the world that is open onlyto hybrid cars will be run atthe Australian Grand Prix inMarch.

The hybrid contest comesas Lexus uses the high-profile event to introduce itscompact CT200h to localbuyers, as well as the driverswho will compete in the 2011celebrity challenge.

Hybrids have run in For-mula One, as well as majorsports car races and sometouring car events, but onlyin contests open to normalpetrol-powered cars.

No-one in a CT200h will begoing for all-out efficiency atAlbert Park, or running thecar on pure battery power,but Lexus believes the AGPis an ideal way to change thegreen focus away from the ef-ficiency of the Prius to the

potential driving enjoymentof the fuel-friendly CT.

‘‘We want to show that hy-brids can be sporty and theycan be fun,’’ Lexus executivePeter Evans said.

‘‘This is a world first.‘‘We also think this is the

single biggest bang-for-your-buck opportunity to launch anew car in Australia.

‘‘It’s an amazing platform— with 4.6 million people atthe peak television viewingand 310,000 spectators overfour days.’’

Evans avoided discussingthe potential on-track car-nage with the cars, but prom-ised a field with far moregenuine celebrities than re-cent AGP celebrity contests.

‘‘Our target is to try andget a new group. Not so muchnew faces, but different faces.So not someone like GuyLeach,’’ he said. ‘‘We wanthigh-profile people. We’re

targeting a 50-50 mix of maleand female and we’re goingfor people who match theintended buyer profile, soyounger and almost half willbe women. Most will beunder 40.

‘‘We’re still working to fin-alise the list and we’ll an-nounce that in Melbournenext week. We don’t want arepeat of 2008 when themotocross racer Robbie Mad-ison cleared out and won byhalf a lap.’’

The celebrity race commit-ment will gobble the earlysupply of CT200h cars, alth-ough they will head to dealer-ships afterwards for promot-ional work and likely sale.

Evans also promises a re-cord number of chances fornon-celebrity drivers to takepart in the race.

‘‘There will be 30 cars, 27on track and three reserves.They will be made up of 24

cars representing our dealersites, plus three competitioncars.

‘‘There will be a consumercompetition, a dealer compe-tition and a buyer’s compe-tition. If you sign a contractto buy a CT200H then you gointo a draw to win a drive.

‘‘There will also be twowinners in the race, an out-right and an index-of-efficiency prize.’’

The celebrity race pro-gram will be run by retiredAustralian rally championsNeal Bates and Coral Taylor,who drove for Lexus in TargaTasmania with an IS200.

They will be responsiblefor everything from car prep-aration at Bates’ race base inCanberra to the training andlicensing of the celebritydrivers, although Lexus tech-nicians will also be involvedin maintenance of the carsduring the AGP meeting.

Ferrari speedster the ‘pinnacle’

The Ferrari 599 GTO provides ‘‘a true racing car’’ experience

THE Ferrari 599 GTO, thefastest-ever road car pro-duced by the legendarysupercar company, has ar-rived in Australia.

‘‘The Ferrari 599 GTO re-presents the pinnacle of Fer-rari road cars in every area,’’general manager for Ferrariin Australia and New Zea-land Kevin Wall says.

‘‘The bald performance fig-ures, amazing although theyare, do not do justice to theremarkable breadth of abil-ities that it offers.

‘‘These range from beingable to provide a true racingcar driving experience on thetrack, through being the ulti-mate road-going ultrasupercar to having the com-fort and luggage space thatquite simply would not be ex-

pected in a car of this per-formance level.’’

The Ferrari 599 GTO is anexclusive limited editionspecial which, in true Fer-rari tradition, is a completely

new concept, albeit inspiredby a production car.

In fact, the 599 GTO isbased on the 599XX, theadvanced experimental trackcar, and can be considered

almost a road-going versionof that mobile testbed.

The 599 GTO is reservedfor just 599 clients and thecar benefits directly from thetechnological transfer fromracing and a record lap timeset at Fiorano, Ferrari’s testtrack in Italy.

Meanwhile, after the re-cord results achieved inChina and Ferrari’s 21.2 percent sales lift in Australia,Ferrari’s preliminary figuresfor the North Americanmarket show that 2010 was arecord year for the marque.

The USA, which has al-ways been Ferrari’s primarymarket, and Canada togetherhave posted an increase insales of nearly 20 per centover the previous year, withmore than 1750 cars sold.