Posted on 03.27.2012 13:00 by Kirby Filed under: Dodge | compact cars | rally cars | hatchback | car racing | Dodge Dart | Cars | Car Reviews | Dodge

The Dodge Dart hasn’t been around long enough for some people to know it’s back, but that doesn’t mean that a certain cluster of folks haven’t taken notice to Dodge’s new super hatch.

That’s why it’s not surprising that the Dart is already gearing up for its rally debut in RallyCross, particularly that of the Global RallyCross Championship. Going on its second year, the series has already attracted some of the sport’s heavyweights, including Rhys Millen, Tanner Foust, and Ken Block.

This year, the 2013 Dodge Dart will be making its inaugural racing action under SRT Motorsports with no less than four-time Rally America Champion and 17-time X-Games gold medalist Travis Pastrana manning the wheels of the rally car.

As for the car itself, the GRC Dart will share a lot qualities with the production version, with one notable exception: the powertrain. Whereas the standard model comes with a 2.4-liter MultiAir Tigershark engine that produces 184 horsepower, the rally version will pack a 2.0-liter engine that has been tuned to produce a walloping 600 horsepower and 550 lb/ft of torque, numbers that allow the car to hit 0-60 mph in just 1.9 seconds.

If you’re frothing at the mouth waiting to see how Pastrana rocks the Dart in its rally guise, you can check out the 2012 Global RallyCross Championship beginning with its season debut on May 26, 2012 in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Dodge Dart Global Rally Championship Rally Car originally appeared on topspeed.com on Tuesday, 27 March 2012 13:00 EST.

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Ferrari’s shock victory in the Malaysian Grand Prix has blown open the fight for the Formula 1 world championship, reckons McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh. Ferrari has openly admitted that it is in damage limitation mode until a heavily updated car is unleashed for the Spanish Grand Prix, but Alonso’s brilliant performance to win at Sepang has now left him at the head of the title chase. And that has significantly increased the chances of Ferrari being able to join a championship battle that had appeared to be boiling down to a straight head-to-head between McLaren and Red Bull

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Dodge has revealed the first image and a few details regarding its latest motorsports entry, the 2013 Dart RallyCross car. Powered by a turbocharged 16-valve 2.0-liter four-cylinder producing 600 hp and 550 lb-ft of torque, Dodge is claiming 0-to-60 times as low as 1.9 seconds. (The regular Dart’s max output of 184 hp will produce [...]

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Sebastien Loeb believes that next week’s Rally of Portugal will offer the first meaningful assessment of the season of the pace of his Citroen DS3 WRC against the Ford Fiesta RS WRC. The world champion admitted that he was alarmed at the increase in speed the Ford team showed on the previous gravel outing in Mexico, but said that the lower altitude Faro-based fourth round of the WRC will mean much more. “This is the first rally where we will really be able to gauge the relative strengths of the crews,” said Loeb.

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Much will be made this season of the incredible strength in depth of the Formula 1 field in 2012, with six world champions all taking part, each one of them with a justifiable claim to being an all-time great.

But when the season kicks off in Melbourne on 18 March, there will be a man sitting at home in Europe who could make that line-up even stronger.

Robert Kubica might well have been starting this year’s Australian Grand Prix grid in a Ferrari had he not suffered the horrendous rallying accident that prevented him racing for Renault in 2011.

As it is, he is in a no-man’s land, not knowing whether he will ever be able to drive an F1 car in anger again.

This week, reports in Italy have emerged that he is planning to get back behind the wheel of an F1 car – almost certainly a Ferrari – in June. The problem is, that is more a hope than a plan, as no one knows whether the Pole will be fit to drive by then.

Kubica is doing four or five hours’ worth of physical training a day, despite still recovering from a broken leg sustained earlier this month in an incident that re-opened one of the fractures he sustained in his rally crash.

But the leg is not a major problem – the 27-year-old is not in plaster, there is only a light support around the limb, and he can drive a road car despite it. Before the re-break, he had already started doing some jogging, and the expectation is that the injury will no longer trouble him within a week or so.

Kubica has been linked with a return to F1 with Ferrari. Photo: Getty

The issue remains the movement in his right hand, which was partially severed in the rally crash on 6 February last year.

His injuries that day were truly horrific – he suffered partial amputation of his right forearm and numerous fractures to his right elbow, shoulder and leg, as well as losing a lot of blood. Had doctors not worked so quickly, he could have died.

Once his condition was stabilised, it became clear that the biggest problem was going to be the hand.

Both main nerves to the hand were severed, and had to be repaired by surgeons, and movement remains restricted. Specifically, he is lacking strength in the hand, and his ability to rotate his wrist is limited – in other words, he does not yet have the two physical attributes he needs to steer an F1 car.

According to his doctors, it is a matter of when, not if, the nerves rebuild themselves and he recovers full use of the hand, but no one knows when that will be.

Kubica is out of contract and all his links with his former team have evaporated. So when/if he is fit to drive an F1 car, it is likely to be a Ferrari.

The Italian team had an option on him for the 2011 season, which they did not take up, but sources say they remain interested and have discussed the issue internally.

It is a complicated matter, though. If Kubica tells them he feels ready to drive an F1 car, Ferrari have to consider how a test for him would look to Felipe Massa, whose contract runs out at the end of the year and who already knows he is under pressure to raise his game compared to team-mate Fernando Alonso in 2012 if he is stay on.

Equally, it is not as if they do not have other options.

Red Bull’s Mark Webber, in whom they were interested for 2012 before deciding to stick with Massa, remains on Ferrari’s radar.

And Lewis Hamilton is out of contract with McLaren at the end of this season, even if the prospects must be considered distant of the Englishman renewing what was a combustible combination with Alonso at McLaren in 2007.

As far as Kubica is concerned, all this remains moot until he can prove a) that he is physically recovered; and b) that he has not lost any driving ability.

He has told those close to him that unless he can recover 100% of his skill, he will quit motorsport. He will not know that until he drives an F1 simulator and then a car for the first time.

He hopes that will be in June – but a hope is all it is. It could just as easily be August, or any other month you pluck out of the sky. He is not in a hurry, although the longer it goes on, the less the likelihood will be of that Ferrari seat in 2013 remaining open.

Right now, then, there is no reason to say he will be back, but at the same time there is no reason to say he won’t.

In many ways, it would feel like a miracle if Kubica did make it back to F1. But what a story it would be if he does.

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So, after four days of testing and nearly 3,500 laps of running at Jerez in sunny southern Spain, what has the first Formula 1 pre-season test revealed about the season to come?

The simplest answer – as ever – is “not much”. Testing – or the “winter world championship”, as McLaren chairman Ron Dennis famously described it – is a notoriously poor guide to form.

Or at least it is if you look only at the headline lap times. At the end of last year’s test in Jerez, the fastest man was Williams driver Rubens Barrichello – and his team were about to embark on the worst season in their once-illustrious history.

Likewise, if anyone thinks Lotus driver Romain Grosjean is going to win this year’s world championship after setting the pace in Jerez this week, they will be waiting a long time for those pigs to fly in front of that blue moon.

Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso set the fastest time on the final day of the first Formula 1 pre-season testing in Jerez, in Spain with a time of 1.18.877. Photo: Getty

Nevertheless, it would be wrong to say that Jerez has revealed nothing.

First of all, it has become clear the teams dislike the look of the new cars as much as anyone.

For them, the ugly step on top of the noses of all cars apart from the McLaren is an unfortunate necessity in the pursuit of the best possible aerodynamics, following a rule change requiring lower front noses.

“Performance comes before aesthetics,” as Red Bull design chief Adrian Newey put it.

The teams head back to their factories with a mountain of data, on which decisions will be based about the direction in which to take the development of their new cars.

These gleaming machines are prototypes for their entire lives, but in terms of maturity right now they are still in the post-natal stage.

Nowhere, it seems, is that more true than at Ferrari, whose decision to start with a clean sheet of paper after a chastening year in 2011 has left them with a lot of work to do.

Fernando Alonso may have left Jerez with the fastest time from the final day – and the second fastest overall – but no-one was fooled by that.

Ferrari were clearly struggling to understand their new F2012 and spent most of the four days doing aerodynamic assessment tests.

The car, they said, was behaving inconsistently in the corners, and so far fixing its behaviour at one stage – the entry, say – messes it up at either the mid-corner or exit, or both.

This is not an especially encouraging sign for a team whose 2011 season came off the rails at the final pre-season test, when new parts that they expected to bring a chunk of speed actually made the car worse.

It turned out this was a result of a lack of correlation between the results that were being created in the wind tunnel and the actual performance of the car out on the track – a major problem in a sport where aerodynamics are critical to performance.

Ferrari spent most of last season trying to get on top of this, and by late summer they insisted they had. Yet when they introduced an update to the car at the Belgian Grand Prix in August, that too did not work.

Were they not concerned about this, I asked an insider a little later in the season. No, he said, they knew why it had happened – the wind tunnel correlation was fine.

Yet on Thursday this week, there was technical director Pat Fry admitting that there was still a small problem in this area. “There’s reasonable correlation,” Fry said. “I certainly wouldn’t say it was perfect.”

Despite that eye-catching lap time from Alonso, then, Ferrari’s potential remains unclear.

“That time was on soft tyres,” a source close to the team said. “It was not so special. The feeling is they are waiting for a lot from this car – but they don’t know how to get it. It is impossible to say what will be the future.”

But it is not just Ferrari. Over at McLaren, Lewis Hamilton has said his first impressions of the car were “all positive”. But the more he talked, the more you wondered.

They had not found the best set-up yet, he said – unsurprising, perhaps, so early in testing.

“It feels like an evolution of last year’s car in many ways but also there are some things that are not so good,” he added. “The downforce on the rear for instance, is not as good through the high-speed corners as it was last year, but I’m sure we’ll get that back.”

Again, this was to be expected given the ban on exhaust-blown diffusers, from which all top teams gained huge amounts of rear downforce last year – and Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel also noticed a similar experience in his car.

But perhaps Hamilton’s most revealing remark was this: “You never know what fuel loads people are on. I think we’ve been quite aggressive with our fuel loads.”

A translation of which seems to be that McLaren are running with less fuel on board than they might normally be expected to – which will make their lap times look more impressive.

Despite that, the car looked as if it was not quite as fast as the Red Bull, which Hamilton effectively admitted. “I think you can see the Red Bull looks quick,” he said.

The Red Bull indeed appeared to do its times with relative ease, both in the hands of Mark Webber and, later in the week, Vettel.

Just as much of a concern for their rivals will be that pictures suggest the car seems to have retained what most believe to be its crucial secret.

That is getting the front wing to run closer to the ground than any other car, a critical aerodynamic advantage.

This is despite design chief Adrian Newey saying they had had to reduce the rake on their car following the ban on exhaust-blown diffusers and despite the introduction of a tougher front-wing deflection test.

And yet even Red Bull clearly have work to do. After three pretty much trouble-free days, an electrical fault appeared on the final morning, and Vettel lost an entire morning’s running while the team fixed it.

In summary, then, Red Bull again look like the team to beat, and there is a mixed picture from McLaren and Ferrari.

Just as it did in 2011 when the team were Renault, the Lotus has left a good initial impression.

Toro Rosso and Williams also appear to have decent cars, while Force India fell back after a promising start, almost certainly because of losing a day to reserve driver Jules Bianchi’s crash on Thursday.

There follows a 10-day break before the teams reconvene at Barcelona on 21 February.

The Circuit de Catalunya’s mix of long corners of varying speeds have long been the ultimate test of an F1 car’s all-round capabilities, so more pieces of the jigsaw should fall into place there.

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F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone has spoken of his belief that the 2012 Bahrain GP will go ahead as planned. Check out the gallery of Petra Ecclestone! Despite a return to violence in the area, Ecclestone believes that the race will take place on 22nd April 2012. He said: “I don’t think it’s anything serious at all. [...]

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Leading Chevrolet drivers have cautioned against reading too much into the manufacturer’s dominant performance over main rival Honda in qualifying for the IndyCar season-opener at St Petersburg. Chevrolet-powered cars occupied five of the six slots in the final phase of qualifying, with Schmidt-Hamilton Motorsport’s Simon Pagenaud the sole Honda representative

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Michael Schumacher?s third place on the grid in Malaysia represents his best qualifying performance since his comeback, but despite being behind just the two McLarens, he insists that he?s not thinking about victory. Back in Melbourne, where Michael qualified fourth, … Continue reading →

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Some questions to be answered at Auto Club Speedway: · Will Jimmie Johnson and Kevin Harvick duel for victory for the third consecutive season? · Will Johnson or another Hendrick Motorsports driver post the organization?s milestone 200th victory ? or will seven-time ACS winner Roush Fenway Racing spoil the party? · Can Michael Waltrip Racing [...]

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Brandon Short checks in from Toronto, the scene of tonight’s Monster Energy Supercross round. Can anyone step up to challenge the champ?

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Parts box turbine powered, tracked suicide cart.

Hang on!

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Audi is about to swallow Ducati, the Italian manufacturer of iconic, high-performance bikes. Audi won’t officially confirm the rumors, but a source close to the negotiations tells us that the talks between the German carmaker and Ducati’s owner, Italian financial holding company Investindustrial, have progressed quite far. The companies already have reached the due-diligence stage, [...]

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Sergio Perez has vowed to concentrate on his job at Sauber despite Italian media speculation linking him to Felipe Massa’s seat at Ferrari. The Mexican is a member of Ferrari’s young driver programme and tested for the Italian squad last year. Massa has had a poor run of form since his accident in qualifying for the 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix

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Reigning GP2 champion Romain Grosjean has tipped his successor at the DAMS team, Davide Valsecchi, to fight for this year’s title.

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Double R Racing has signed Fahmi Ilyas and Duvashen Padayachee to race in British Formula 3 this year. Ilyas, who raced for Fortec last year and also took a race win in the European F3 Open, will contest the International Class in a Dallara F312-Mercedes.

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Posted on 03.15.2012 14:00 by Simona Filed under: Nissan | sedan | New York Auto Show | Nissan Altima | midsize cars | 2012 | Cars | Car Reviews | Nissan

While everyone was waiting for the 2012 Geneva Motor Show, Nissan was busy revealing a teaser video for their new generation Altima that will be unveiled at the 2012 New York Auto Show in April.

Although no real details were offered, it has already been confirmed that the new Altima will feature a new-generation CVT (Continuously Variable Transmission) that’s said to offer 40 percent less friction than the current unit. Under the hood, the current 270 HP 3.5-liter V-6 engine should remain, but a new 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine and a hybrid version will also be offered. A new design language will also be adopted, but just to make the car look a little bit more modern.

The Nissan Altima is built at Nissan’s assembly plants in Smyrna, Tenn. and Canton, Miss. The engines for the Altima are built at the company?s Decherd, Tenn. plant. The Altima is the second best-selling car in the United States.

UPDATE 03/08/2012: Nissan has unveiled new teasers – one image and one video – for the 2013 Altima that is set to be unveiled next week at the 2012 New York Auto Show. The new video offers a glimpse of the car’s front enddesign. Nissan is also promising that the new Altima will bring outstanding fuel economy, premium design inside and out, and driver-focused technologies to a midsize sedan.

UPDATE 03/15/2012: The 2012 New York Auto Show is getting closer and so is the official unveiling of the new Nissan Altima, but until then, they have released a new video and a new teaser image revealing a few more details about the car’s rear end. Enjoy!

UPDATE 03/22/2012: Nissan has unveiled the fourth teaser for the upcoming Altima. This teaser provides a better idea on the car’s profile. Nissan describes the new model, “The sculpted bodyside surface communicates forward motion and aerodynamics even when standing still.” We are all waiting for the New York Auto Show to see if they are right!

Nissan Altima originally appeared on topspeed.com on Thursday, 22 March 2012 15:00 EST.

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Porsche is working on a plug-in hybrid version of its Panamera five-door hatchback. No official word comes from the company, but our sources indicate that the plug-in model will come to market during the 2013 calendar year. It’s not clear yet whether the car will be sold alongside the plugless Panamera S hybrid or if [...]

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Filed under: SUV, Mercedes-Benz, Luxury

Earlier today, we showed you a brace of images starring the refreshed 2013 Mercedes-Benz GLK that will make its debut at the New York Auto Show next month. But upon closer inspection, the folks at CarScoop found something very interesting hiding in the back of one of the GLK photos: the revised 2013 G-Class.

It’s unclear exactly which G-Class model this is, though our best guess is that it’s the standard G550. (Those wheels look much too tame for an AMG model.) The G-Wagen’s overall design hasn’t changed (that’s fine, we like it just the way it is), but updates for the 2013 model year include LED running lamps under the headlights and redesigned mirrors.

Word on the street is that the G-Class will feature a reworked interior for 2013, including a new instrument panel, steering wheel and consoles. The big news, however, is that the G55 AMG will now make use of Merc’s 5.5-liter twin-turbo V8 found in the other AMG models, though it’s unclear if its nomenclature will be altered. You know, because G63 AMG absolutely makes sense.

Mum’s the word on when the official G-Class details will be released, but since the car appears to be finished and already posing for photos, we don’t expect Mercedes-Benz to hold off for too much longer.

Revised 2013 Mercedes-Benz G-Class makes easter egg appearance in GLK photos originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 22 Mar 2012 17:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The strip tease continues as Nissan has released the fourth teaser video of the 2013 Altima.

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McLaren’s world championship hopes now rest in its own hands following Jenson Button’s performance in the Australian Grand Prix, according to team principal Martin Whitmarsh. With the Woking-based team having delivered on its target of starting the season with the quickest car, Whitmarsh says it is now in control of its own destiny as it pushes to improve the MP4-27.

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Daimler wanted to use the opportunity to highlight how seriously they take copyright infringement with an announcement on the subject which you can read below in the press release section.

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