Stuttgart, May 14, 2007 - DCX has today decided, subject to the approval of the Supervisory Board, on the future concept for the Chrysler Group and the realignment of DaimlerChrysler AG. Completion of the transaction is subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions, including the receipt of regulatory approvals and Cerberus financing arrangements.
Filed under: Aftermarket, Sports/GTs, Porsche
The new 911 GT3 has been praised as the finest iteration of the iconic coupe to ever come out of Stuttgart. And it’s easy to see why. Lightweight components matched with an overly engineered powerplant and a superior suspension all conspire to make this 911 a perfect balance between track terror and daily driver. But KW thinks they can improve upon that last bit.
The aftermarket suspension wizards have developed a coilover setup, available in three specs, that allows users to modify the dampening settings and ride height to strike a balance between optimal road-holding ability, safety and comfort.
Three flavors are available: V1, V2 and V3, each offering a range of adjustability. The V1 is the tamer setup, reducing ride height, but still offering a compliant ride. The V2 and V3 expand upon the fine-tuning capabilities, with the V3 allowing a drop of 20mm and geared towards more technically adept drivers.
You can check out KW’s full line of components by following the ‘Read’ link below, and their full press release is posted after the jump.
[Source: KW Automotive GmbH]
Continue reading KW thinks it can make the Porsche GT3 stick better
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Filed under: Spy Photos, Crossovers/CUVs, Nissan
If we told you that a seven-seat Nissan was on its way with a turbo-diesel option, inoffensive looks, and a reasonable price tag, you’d think it was too good to be true. Well, it actually is true if you live in Europe, where the Qashqai currently serves as Nissan’s soft-roader. For now, however, there is only room for five, but the folks over at Car Online have shots of an extended Qashqai with an additional eight inches of length beyond the b-pillar that provides room for a third row of seats.
Judging by the lack of incognito camo, this crossover looks to be well on its way to market, and it will be powered by a 115-hp 1.6L engine, as wellas both the Qashqai’s 2.0L gasoline and turbo-diesel engines. An additional £1,500 is tacked on for the added 200mm, which brings the base price up to £15,000. We can plainly see the additional length of the Qashqai vs. the standard wheelbase version, but it’s still hard to believe two people can sit in the small area that makes up that third row of seats. We’re guessing the aft-most bench will be akin to the benches in the Toyota RAV-4 and Mitsubishi Outlander, meaning only little people and children need apply.
[Source: Car Magazine]
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Filed under: Motorsports
Before the start of the 2007 Bullrun rally last Saturday in Montreal, participants Richard Rawlings and Dennis Collonis bet their fellow Bullrun buddy Jay Riecke $50,000 that they could beat the longstanding cross-country rally record of driving from New York City to L.A. set by Dave Heinz and Dave Yarborough back in 1979 during the final running of the original Cannonball Baker Sea-To-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash. Heinz and Yarborough did the trek in 32 hours and 51 minutes in a Jaguar XJS.
Rawling and Collonis took the bet and immediately left the Bullrun rally headed for NYC. They got some sleep, stocked up on supplies and had their vehicle fitted with some video equipment to document the attempt. Their Ferrari 550 was already modified for the Bullrun to Key West rally with extra fuel cells and a spare tire, so they were ready to go. After nearly 32 hours of driving with no tickets, Rawling, Collonis and the Ferrari pulled into the Portofino Inn in Redondo Beach, CA. With an unofficial time of 31 hours and 59 minutes, the team appear to have beat the longstanding Cannonball Run record set nearly 28 years ago.
Our good buddy Ray Wert from Jalopnik, who is participating in the 2007 Bullrun Rally this year driving the #70 Cadillac ESV, tells us that Rawling and Collonis will appear on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno this evening to recount their record run. There’s no word on how or when the trip will go from being unofficial to the new official cross-country rally record, but we assume the Bullrun organizers plan to edit together a nice piece of video after they sift through the many recorded hours of driving to show us all the proof.
[Source: Bullrun2007.com via Jalopnik]
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Filed under: Motorsports
Next year’s Formula 1 calendar could contain an unprecedented 20 races. One of those races will be held for the first time on the island state of Singapore, and according to Bernie Ecclestone, it will be held at night. Both IRL and NASCAR have night races, so why not Formula 1? The reasons aren’t just for spectacle, either: a night race in Asia will be more convenient for viewers in Europe and the US, and after all, for Bernie this is all about television revenue.
A few drivers, most notably current F1 World Champion Fernando Alonso, are against night racing. Alonso apparently imagines a number of horrors happening at the same time: “What if it rains? All those painted lines. What if the lights go out?” However, Singapore is a notoriously fastidious state that will work overtime to make sure its first F1 race and the first ever night race come off safely. It has also indicated that the race will be held at night only so long as everyone has faith in the safety of the event. Ecclestone, as usual, doesn’t appear to be worried — he’s sure the race will happen after dark, saying “I think that we can stop discussion about the possibility of holding this race during the day.”
[Source: Fox Sports]
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Filed under: Etc.
click either image to view more examples of Powertool Drag Racers
There must come a day in every home owner’s life when the fence is mended, the deck is built, the drywall’s up and there’s just no chore left on the list that requires a power tool. While some may fear that day, there are a group of people who weren’t discouraged by their power tools’ retirement. In fact, they saw it as an opportunity to reinvent their angle grinders, belt sanders, circular saws and chain saws as purpose built tools of speed. The goal was to win their class at the 2006 Silverline Power Tool Drag Race. While the 2006 event has come and gone, we’ve just learned its popularity has locked in a return for 2007. This year’s race will happen on Sunday, August 5th at the Haynes International Motor Museum in the UK.
The rules for Power Tool Drag Racing are pretty simple. Take a power tool, turn it into something resembling a drag racer, and set it off down a 75-foot long track against an opponent. Of course, there are classes of competition, which most easily break down into Ridden and Un-ridden classes. Just like they sound, the Ridden class includes vehicles big enough to carry a driver that are still powered by power tools. The Un-ridden class, meanwhile, features smaller vehicles that ride down a narrow track on their own. There are individual sub-classes, as well, which include a Modified class that allows almost any design and drivetrain as long as it doesn’t come from a remote-controlled car, and the Super Stock class that basically takes off-the-shelf power tools and races them against each other.
We’ve got a gallery full of some entrants from last year, including the Chainsaw Dragster (shown above) from the Ridden Class that’s powered by eight chainsaws (!), as well as the fastest entry from last year, a custom built racer powered by what appears to be a pair of angle grinders or some other small power tool.
[Source: Silverline Power Tools]
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Filed under: Etc., Government/Legal
If you’re travelling down I-90 in Washington State and texting your BFF on a CrackBerry, then you might want to put it down. Washington has become the first U.S. state in the union to ban text messaging while driving. The legislation against driving while texting (henceforth to be known as the dreaded DWT) was rolled into a similar measure against talking on one’s cell phone without using a hands-free device, a regulation many cities and states have already adopted.
Washington Gov. Chris Gegoire signed the measures into Washington state law last Friday (he was reportedly flanked by children injured from car accidents involving cell phone distractions). Like many laws of this sort, the po-po can’t pull you over if they spot you Twittering away in the driver’s seat. You need to be caught doing something worse, like swerving across the center line, to get pulled over. If Officer Roscoe P. Coltrain spots a warm Qwerty riding shotgun though, you’ll likely be nailed with a $124 fine. If that happens, you won’t be LOL.
[Source: Seattle Times]
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Filed under: Etc.
It appears that today is the day for shedding divisions, as in addition to news that Daimler has sold a majority stake in Chrysler to the Cerberus Group, we’ve also learned that Primedia has finally unloaded its Enthusiast Media division to Source Interlink. The Enthusiast Media division of Primedia includes 70 magazines titles and 90 websites, including Motor Trend and Automobile Magazine, among others.
Source Interlink appears to work in the field of distribution, which should fit well with the Enthusiast Media division that produces dozens of magazine titles each month needing to find their way onto newsstands across the world. It appears that the purchase will make Source Interlink a vertically integrated producer and distributor of content from this point on. Though a copy of Motor Trend goes for about $4 on the newsstand, Source Interlink paid $1.2 billion for it and its siblings thanks to financing support from Citigroup Global Markets, Inc.
Like the sale of Chrysler to Cerberus, only time will tell if these sell offs benefit the seller, the sold and the buyer. You can read the full press release from Source Interlink detailing the sale after the jump.
[Source: Source Link via Winding Road]
Continue reading Motor Trend, Automobile sold to Source Interlink
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Filed under: Ferrari
Just because you spend your days in Maranello crafting F430s, 599s, and 612s, listen to them roar through the streets, and watch customers gleefully receive the keys to their new Italian toys doesn’t mean life is perfect. Even though Ferrari was just voted as the best place to work in Europe, Ferrari workers have been on strike since March.
The main reason for the strike is that the workers want higher bonuses, among other things. But they are also unhappy because they believe the quality of Ferraris is declining. Fiat is simply trying to make too many of them to maintain the necessary quality standards that would live up to Ferrari’s image. The unique thing about this strike: the workers only strike on Saturday, and not all of them at one time. Production has been slowed, but not stopped. Of course, none of the workers on the Formula 1 team are on strike — that would be unthinkable.
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Filed under: Convertibles, Coupes, Sedans/Saloons, Cadillac
Click on the photo for a high-res gallery of the 2008 STS
In the next few years Cadillac is likely to adjust its product mix toward somewhat smaller vehicles, which may be at least in part driven by the need for increased fuel economy. In an interview with Automotive News, GM North America President Troy Clarke indicated that the two larger Cadillac sedans, the DTS and STS, will likely be replaced by a single model in the future.
In addition, a model smaller than the CTS is likely to appear, which could come off the rumored Alpha platform. In spite of cutting one model line, Cadillac’s lineup will probably grow with additional variants such as coupes and convertibles, including the CTS coupe that has been spied.
[Source: Automotive News - sub. req’d]
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