Although Marco Andretti was able to set the fastest time in the first practice session on a wet track in preparation for the Grand Prix of Long Beach, the second session was cancelled due to heavy rain.
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing's Takuma Sato was second-quickest but still ended-up his day's work by spinning and hitting the wall just after Turn 10. HVM's Simona de Silvestro crashed almost simultaneously at Turn 9, causing the session to be briefly red-flagged, meaning that there was little opportunity for anyone to change the order.
AJ Foyt Racing's Mike Conway was third-fastest ahead of KV Racing's Tony Kanaan and Panther's JR Hildebrand, who was one of the few drivers to improve after the restart.
Several drivers elected not to run at all in anticipation of drier conditions over the rest of the weekend.
In the afternoon, a thunderstorm shortly before the session was due to begin was followed by showers throughout the hour that had been allocated for running.
Only the Ganassi duo formed by Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon tried to make it around the street circuit but Franchitti returned right after his installation lap while his teammate, less fortunate, ended in the barriers.
The weather is forecasted to be clear and dry for the remainder of the weekend.
Chevy says it will cease production on its Avalanche crew cab pickup, with a final run of 2013 Black Diamond editions.
The final models will feature body-colour bed surrounds, unique badging, and lower prices. Additional features will appear on the LS and LT trims, including rearview cameras. Base prices have gone down $2,500.
2013 Chevrolet Black Diamond Avalanche (Photo: General Motors)
Among the innovative features introduced by Avalanche over its run is a midgate that extends the bed into the cab. Crew cab pickups that do family duty as well as work duty have grown steadily since the Avalanche was introduced, and by 2011 accounted for 65% of light-duty pickup sales.
A specially equipped Avalanche transported the Olympic Flame during the Torch Relay prior to the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City.
Motor Trend called it the Truck of the Year in 2001; the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada gave it the same honour in 2007. Popular Mechanics in 2002 awarded it the Design and Engineering award. Chevy has sold more than 580,000 Avalanches since its introduction in 2001.
2013 Chevrolet Black Diamond Avalanche (Photo: General Motors)
As homage to the London-to-Brighton classic car relay, the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada has organized a Brighton-to-London run of its own, this time in Ontario, and featuring green vehicles instead of classics.
Event organizers hope to highlight for consumers the breadth of options available to those who are fed up at the pumps — 21 green vehicles include hybrids, EVs and other advanced technologies.
The three-day route highlights green student initiatives with stops at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology in Oshawa, which runs the only accredited automotive engineering program in Canada. Their world-class Automotive Centre of Excellence features a unique climatic wind tunnel which can produce a storm at any temperature from -40 to +60 degrees Celsius.
Centennial College, another stop on the route, offer Technical Standards and Safety Authority-accredited courses in alt fuels such as natural gas and propane, as well as specialized training in hybrid systems maintenance. Another stop is Toronto's Evergreen Brick Works, which in 2010 National Geographic named one of the world's top 10 geotourism destinations. McMaster University in Hamilton is the future home of the $26-million McMaster Automotive Resource Centre featuring the world's most advanced dynamometers.
Finally, London's Fanshawe College, where students can study to be automotive technicians, will show off its eco-friendly facility, which has a vegetated green roof system over shop areas, storm water reclamation for toilets, solar hot water preheating, and solar-powered GPS tracking skylights for natural day lighting in the auto shop.
Event partners are CAA and Natural Resources Canada.
Here is our selection of world rally cars that stand out from the pack because of their outstanding results or their stunning technical features, even if some of them never have won an event or a title.
At the beginning of the World Championship, the rally cars are quite simple machines. Then, the rally world entered the mighty Group B era where scary, super powerful cars were the rule. Then, the FIA imposed the WRC regulations destined to bring the rally cars closer to their road going cousins.
The next photos should bring good memories to many!
Photo : WRI2
10. MG Metro 6R4
Group B car created in 1985 and fitted with a V-6 engine. Started to race in 1986 but abandoned following the ban put on Group B cars.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. rocketed away from Denny Hamlin and Paul Menard on a restart with six-laps to go at Texas and headed to his second NASCAR Nationwide Series win of the year.
Driving a Ford Mustang Stenhouse, on Friday night, said "then that last restart Mike (Kelley his crew chief) decided to go with no changes on that last pit stop which I wasn't fond of but he knows what he is doing which is why he gets paid to do that.
"That last restart, it was crazy man. I think I spent the whole five laps or whatever it was under caution just praying for a good restart and everything worked out for us. It was fun racing those guys. I had to drive it in turn three wide open with Denny on the left rear of us and got us a little bit loose but we managed to hang on and pull it off."
It was Stenhouse's fourth career victory and fourth Nationwide Series win for his Roush Fenway Racing team at the mile and-a-half Texas Motor Speedway. Including Sprint Cup and the Camping World Series it's the 17th time an RFR driver visited victory lane and got a cowboy [hat] as well as the trophy.
Menard who ended up second in a Richard Childress Chevrolet said "I kept up with Ricky pretty good, but, we kind of spun our tires. I think we probably let him get away a little bit."
Kasey Kahne passed pole-sitter Hamlin for third place while Hamlin finished fourth in a Toyota.
If you've ever driven a Cadillac CTS-V, you know that the main problem is that it's not fast enough. The 98-pound weakling under the hood makes only 556 hp, barely enough to pull Bambi across the proverbial frozen pond. Fortunately, longtime speed merchant John Hennessey recognized the Caddy's noodle-armed feebleness and resolved to do something about it, creating the V700 package at his Texas skunk works. With a little old-fashioned hot-rodding, perhaps the CTS-V could be transformed into something that's not a plodding embarrassment to all America.
With a grand total of 36,630 miles traveled, the Honda Odyssey goes down in the Automobile Magazine record books as one of the highest mileage Four Seasons cars we've ever had. This isn't necessarily surprising when you consider that from the moment it arrived at our office, the Odyssey was the go-to vehicle for family vacations and road trips.
The global automotive industry faces a "severe" shortage of a resin used to make fuel and brake components that may interrupt production "in the next few weeks," according to a top supplier executive.
General Motors will press Latin American governments to respect existing trade agreements despite a protectionist trend round the region that the U.S. automaker fears could complicate manufacturers' investment plans, a senior executive said.
Dan Knott, the highly regarded head of purchasing who restored Chrysler Group's reputation with its suppliers, has taken a medical retirement effective immediately. Chrysler named Scott Kunselman as its new head of purchasing.
Workers at BMW's UK Mini plant in Oxford have overwhelmingly rejected a pay offer from BMW and are threatening strike action, although the German automaker hotly contests union claims the deal has "more strings than a puppet show."
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