Auto News 5

Renault F1 chairman Gerard Lopez told Autosport the interest of Kimi Raikkonen in coming back in F1 is not enough to convince him to change his 2011 lineup. Full story...

Brad Keselowski shoved NASCAR's top ten drivers into the background by winning his first Sprint Cup pole on Friday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Full story...

Lotus commemorated their successful relationship with Toyota today (17th September) at a celebration at the British Embassy in Tokyo where Lotus CEO Dany Bahar presented Toyota Motor Corporation President Akio Toyoda with a specially equipped Lotus Elise powered by the last ever Toyota 2ZZ-GE VVTL-i engine. The occasion marked the end of an era and the start of an even stronger relationship between the two companies. Full story...

Jamie McMurray, driving the McDonald's Chevrolet set the fastest time of the day Saturday during the second and last practice session leading to the Sylvania 300, round of the NASCAR Sprint Cup held on the one-mile oval of New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Full story...

Paul Di Resta (Mercedes Classe C) set the pole position after the qualifying session in Oschersleben Friday. He finished ahead of his teammate, Canadian driver Bruno Spengler. Full story...

An executive at Daimler AG's U.K. truck unit was arrested by police as part of a cartel probe by British antitrust regulators. Ian Jones, the head of the U.K. Mercedes-Benz truck division, was detained by police earlier this week. Full story...

AutoTrader.com, a third-party auto classified site, has purchased vAuto Inc., a software company that specializes in used-vehicle inventory management tools. The amount was undisclosed. Full story...

General Motors Co. is evaluating new investments in North American plant capacity to ease short supplies of key vehicles, Mark Reuss, the automaker's North American president, said today. Full story...

General Motors will invest $483 million to make the current and next-generation Ecotec four-cylinder engine at the Spring Hill plant in Tennessee. Full story...

WITH VIDEO -- Red Bull Racing's X1 Prototype, designed by Adrian Newey and tested by Formula One driver Sebastian Vettel, will be included in the Gran Turismo 5 video game set to go on sale in November. Full story...

A helicopter crashed near the summit of Pike's Peak in Colorado on Friday while filming a test run of Audi's self-guided vehicle. Full story...

A helicopter carrying a crew crashed early today while filming an experimental Audi sports car going up Pikes Peak without a driver. An Audi spokesman said the pilot was airlifted to a hospital. Full story...

Saab's first-ever electric car will debut on the Swedish automaker's stand at the Paris motor show Sept. 30. Full story...

In today's News Brake, our thoughts on an Alfa-based Dodge Viper, Carl Edwards joins the Race of Champions, and the Automotive X-Prize names the winners ... But Wait, There's More! Full story...

Foreign automakers may have to share innovative electric-vehicle technology with Chinese companies in exchange for access to the nation's growing light-vehicle market, according to the The Wall Street Journal. Full story...

Saab's first-ever electric car will debut on the Swedish automaker's stand at the Paris motor show late this month. Full story...

Ford Motor Co. is taking the 2011 F-150 pickup on the road for a seven-city drive program to compare its redesigned engines to those of competitors. Full story...

Audi is developing an extended-range electric vehicle that uses a rotary engine to recharge the batteries. The automaker is testing prototypes based on the A1 e-tron concept, which debuted in March at the Geneva auto show. Full story...

Fiat has appointed former Toyota Europe sales chief Andrea Formica as CEO of its passenger-car brand. Full story...

A combination of my bad knee playing up, inspection of the tea leaves left in the newsdesk cup and one of those-omits-more-than-it-tells press releases one occasionally gets from automakers has me a bit worried about yet another UK vehicle assembly plant this Friday afternoon. I hope I'm wrong. Full story...