1	11/06 16:00	Johannesburg – JSC		South Africa	1:1 (0:0)	Mexico
2	11/06 20:30	Cape Town		Uruguay	0:0	France
17	16/06 20:30	Tshwane/Pretoria		South Africa	0:3 (0:1)	Uruguay
18	17/06 20:30	Polokwane		France	0:2 (0:0)	Mexico
33	22/06 16:00	Rustenburg		Mexico	Background	Uruguay
34	22/06 16:00	Mangaung/Bloemfontein		France	Background	South Africa

Group B

3	12/06 16:00	Johannesburg – JEP		Argentina	1:0 (1:0)	Nigeria
4	12/06 13:30	Nelson Mandela Bay/Port Elizabeth		Korea Republic	2:0 (1:0)	Greece
19	17/06 16:00	Mangaung/Bloemfontein		Greece	2:1 (1:1)	Nigeria
20	17/06 13:30	Johannesburg – JSC		Argentina	4:1 (2:1)	Korea Republic
35	22/06 20:30	Durban		Nigeria	Background	Korea Republic
36	22/06 20:30	Polokwane		Greece	Background	Argentina

Group C

5	12/06 20:30	Rustenburg		England	1:1 (1:1)	USA
6	13/06 13:30	Polokwane		Algeria	0:1 (0:0)	Slovenia
22	18/06 16:00	Johannesburg – JEP		Slovenia	2:2 (2:0)	USA
23	18/06 20:30	Cape Town		England	0:0	Algeria
37	23/06 16:00	Nelson Mandela Bay/Port Elizabeth		Slovenia	Background	England
38	23/06 16:00	Tshwane/Pretoria		USA	Background	Algeria

Group D

7	13/06 20:30	Durban		Germany	4:0 (2:0)	Australia
8	13/06 16:00	Tshwane/Pretoria		Serbia	0:1 (0:0)	Ghana
21	18/06 13:30	Nelson Mandela Bay/Port Elizabeth		Germany	0:1 (0:1)	Serbia
24	19/06 16:00	Rustenburg		Ghana	1:1 (1:1)	Australia
39	23/06 20:30	Johannesburg – JSC		Ghana	Background	Germany
40	23/06 20:30	Nelspruit		Australia	Background	Serbia

Group E

9	14/06 13:30	Johannesburg – JSC		Netherlands	2:0 (0:0)	Denmark
10	14/06 16:00	Mangaung/Bloemfontein		Japan	1:0 (1:0)	Cameroon
25	19/06 13:30	Durban		Netherlands	1:0 (0:0)	Japan
26	19/06 20:30	Tshwane/Pretoria		Cameroon	1:2 (1:1)	Denmark
43	24/06 20:30	Rustenburg		Denmark	Background	Japan
44	24/06 20:30	Cape Town		Cameroon	Background	Netherlands

Group F

11	14/06 20:30	Cape Town		Italy	1:1 (0:1)	Paraguay
12	15/06 13:30	Rustenburg		New Zealand	1:1 (0:0)	Slovakia
27	20/06 13:30	Mangaung/Bloemfontein		Slovakia	Line-up	Paraguay
28	20/06 16:00	Nelspruit		Italy	Preview	New Zealand
41	24/06 16:00	Johannesburg – JEP		Slovakia	Background	Italy
42	24/06 16:00	Polokwane		Paraguay	Background	New Zealand

Group G

13	15/06 16:00	Nelson Mandela Bay/Port Elizabeth		Côte d’Ivoire	0:0	Portugal
14	15/06 20:30	Johannesburg – JEP		Brazil	2:1 (0:0)	Korea DPR
29	20/06 20:30	Johannesburg – JSC		Brazil	Preview	Côte d’Ivoire
30	21/06 13:30	Cape Town		Portugal	Background	Korea DPR
45	25/06 16:00	Durban		Portugal	Background	Brazil
46	25/06 16:00	Nelspruit		Korea DPR	Background	Côte d’Ivoire

Group H

15	16/06 13:30	Nelspruit		Honduras	0:1 (0:1)	Chile
16	16/06 16:00	Durban		Spain	0:1 (0:0)	Switzerland
31	21/06 16:00	Nelson Mandela Bay/Port Elizabeth		Chile	Background	Switzerland
32	21/06 20:30	Johannesburg – JEP		Spain	Background	Honduras
47	25/06 20:30	Tshwane/Pretoria		Chile	Background	Spain
48	25/06 20:30	Mangaung/Bloemfontein		Switzerland	Background	Honduras

Its Australian debut took place at Australia’s spiritual home of motor racing, where the C 63 AMG completed a lap of the internationally-renowned Mount Panorama racing circuit.

“This is the ideal playground for this stunning performance saloon: the road-going model of our most successful touring car at the home of touring car racing in Australia,” Horst von Sanden, managing director for Mercedes-Benz Cars in Australia.

The C 63 AMG is far from out of place at the iconic home of the bent-eight, boasting an AMG-designed and developed 6.3-litre V8 petrol engine.

Developing peak output of 336kW at an enthusiastic 6,800rpm and maximum torque of 600Nm, the C 63 AMG accelerates from zero to 100 km/h in just 4.5 seconds.

Power is left in the more than capabale hands of AMG’s Speedshift Plus 7-Tronic transmission, equipped with steering-wheel mounted shift paddles and an automatic throttle blipper for rapid downshifts.

Driving agility is enhanced with AMG speed-sensitive sports steering and the new, 3-stage ESP, along with specially-developed AMG sports suspension components and 18-inch AMG light-alloy wheels.

Distinguishing the AMG deviation from the standard C-Class is a new bonnet with power domes, the distinctive AMG radiator grille, flared front wings, the AMG rear apron with a black diffuser insert, the AMG sports exhaust system with two chromed twin tailpipes and the AMG spoiler lip.

The new Mercedes-Benz C 63 AMG Saloon begins at $139,500.

Turns out, our double degree IT guru and fellow motoring journalist Alborz, (who said his friend at flight centre had it sorted), had completely misread the ticket. Bus – actually meant BUS – the road going version. All sorted?

By some stroke of luck though, the bus company had grossly overbooked both Strasbourg bound buses, and Bruno, the guy at the Lufthansa desk, worked some magic and presto, we had a Ford Mondeo TDCi for twenty-four hours, at no cost. Gold, we thought.

The diesel powered Mondeo is no slouch, within moments we are sitting on a comfortable 200km/h as we head towards Molsheim, the home of Bugatti.

It couldn’t have been more than twenty minutes into the trip and bugger, something felt badly out of whack with the front end. What we found, was a dirty great big hole in the middle of the right front tyre tread, which meant we weren’t going anywhere fast. That is, until we got the spare on and rebooted to that blissful 200km/h.

The look of disappointment on our faces, when we lifted the boot lining and saw that 125-width space saver, said it all. And it was a Sunday!

Rather than push on at an impossible 80km/h (its downright dangerous on the Autobahns) we stopped in at Hertz in Heidelberg and switched over to a little Peugeot 307 1.6L diesel powered wagon, which believe it or not, was good for a steady 190km/h and that’s hauling the four of us, with a stack of luggage and camera equipment!

Alborz also forgot to download the Euro maps on our Mio Sat Nav and we were damn too tired to figure out the road map. Lots of stops to ask directions in my half decent French (the other’s will surely deny me that credit) eventually paid off.

Molsheim is not a big place, and when we saw the Bugatti sign inside a high security compound, smiles were a plenty. We were less than twelve hours away from an event, few in the world will ever claim.

Range Rover Sport Tuning by Vemiri

Vemiri offers an 8-piece body kit for the Range Rover Sport. Replacement front and rear bumpers and 6-piece side skirts make up this kit. Chrome-plated grills for the front and the side and smoked rear lightclusters ar also avbailable. The suspension module lowers the car 40 mm at the front and 30 mm at the back so it sits nicely on the 22″ wheels. Vemiri claim their engine module increases the power of the Range Rover Sport by 20%. The exhaust integrated in the rear bumper reduces back-pressure while meeting emission standards. Various upgrades are on offer for the interior, ranging from piano black trim to lcd screens for the headrests.

Where it sits: The Range Rover Sport TDV8 is exactly the same price as the petrol powered V8, but god only knows why you would opt for that variant. It may as well be deleted from the range!

Entry level into a Range Rover Sport is a fair and reasonable $87,900 for the TDV6, which goes well enough and is kind to your wallet. Above the TDV8 is the V8 Supercharged at $136,900, a favourite of ours. When that Supercharger starts singing, it’s nothing short of intoxicating for us petrol heads, but its thirst for premium fuel, could leave OPEC short of a barrel or two.

How the Land Rover guys are able to extract 200kW of power and a monstrous 640Nm of torque from a diminutive 3.6-litre V8 diesel is a complete mystery to me.

Nokia on Tuesday shipped out revisions to a pair of its most successful phones. The Nokia N82 now ships in black and provides a subtler look than the silver version that has until today been the only choice for the smartphone. The 5-megapixel camera with Xenon flash, GPS, Europe-focused 3G, and Wi-Fi all come through from the original model. The Finnish cellphone producer sees the updated N82 arriving in stores within three to four weeks at a price of 400 Euros ($631) in its home continent, but also sells the device in the US as an unlocked device for use with AT&T or T-Mobile.

Every manufacturer secretly dreams of rolling out something like the Nokia 8800 one day. A premium solution with low production costs, tremendous image of a fashion-savvy phone and sales that are way beyond expectations. However, nobody has managed to repeat the trick pulled off by Nokia, and all attempts have been getting cold welcomes from consumers. The end of 2007 sees a new twist in this story – phone makers are getting serious about precious metals and stones in their offerings. Remember the Motorola RAZR2 Luxury Edition with its 18- and 24-carat gold parts and the rear finished in snake leather. This beauty will set you back about 1000 Euro, just like its league mate, the Nokia 8800 Sirocco Gold.

However it is not Nokia’s primary offering – the Sirocco line is a sub-class of the Nokia 8800 family, and that’s all there is to it. What it is really aiming to accomplish is to take everything one step further and increase the phone’s price, otherwise, Nokia portfolio for the top price-bracket won’t be seeing a substantial sales growth. And on top of that the arrival of new and steeper models justifies hefty price tags of junior offerings, especially as far as fashion-savvy phones are concerned. This is a decent trick that boosts prices for this particular maker’s products in general and drives them up to a slightly higher price segment. This worked out for the 8000-series, why shouldn’t they believe it will do the job these days as well

From the empirical point of view, the price of any premium model can grow up to the level when it goes for as much as 1\2 of a junior Vertu-branded model, in other words – 2000 Euro or so. Past this watermark, the price might get consumers thinking – whether they are willing to wait some time and get a Vertu, since its life cycle will be longer anyway (Vertu doesn’t tend to revamp its line-up with never-ending announcements, depreciating original solutions). That’s why we have all reasons to expect the company to start making its way in this direction.

The word “Arte” stands, like you probably have already guessed, for “art”, which is a truly profound act on Nokia’s part – while it kept the 8800 number in place and thus put the new offerings in one line-up with their predecessors, on the other hand, for some time it will be very easy to get lost in names and order of releases (which model came out when). Arte’s generic design also adds to this confusion. However for the phone’s target audience it becomes vitally important to emphasize that they own the latest and greatest handset of the series, rather than some already-long-in-the-tooth original Nokia 8800 – they want everyone to know that they are at the cutting edge with their Arte, or, even better, Arte Sapphire. This principle is what all sales of this series hinge on – Nokia needs to roll out new, and, curiously, more expensive solution, working in a way opposite to the mass market; in this case every next product should wear a heftier price tag, rather than drop in price.