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From GMM

Rumours that F1 team owner Genii is contemplating buying the Group Lotus sports car company are continuing to gain steam.

That is despite Genii's Gerard Lopez confirming recently that the Enstone based team has ended its sponsorship deal with the carmaker, even though the team will continue to carry the Lotus name.

But subsequent media reports indicate that the newly Malaysian conglomerate DRB-Hicom owned Group Lotus is for sale.

Lotus headquarter. (Photo: Group Lotus)

"Genii... is thought to be interested, and its boss, Gerard Lopez, is said to have had talks with Hicom, but also with (Group Lotus chief) Mr (Dany) Bahar about a possible management buyout," read a report in the Independent newspaper.

Dany Bahar is not ruling out the transaction.

"Whatever happens will happen," he told the local Norfolk publication edp24.co.uk. "Genii has expressed interest and if there is a good deal to be done, why should they not be interested? I think it would just make sense."

From GMM

Red Bull has poured cold water on expectations the reigning back to back world champions could be set to resume their reign over formula one.

After a victory drought spanning the opening three races of the 2012 season, Red Bull broke through with Sebastian Vettel's familiar win-from-pole triumph in Bahrain last weekend.

It means he has leapt to the top of the drivers' standings, while the Milton Keynes based team is now 9 points clear of its nearest rival, McLaren.

"King Sebastian is back!" exclaimed the authoritative Italian newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport after Bahrain. "Vettel and Red Bull dominated like old times. They have worked hard in recent weeks to have a great car again, so it will be difficult once again to take the throne from Sebastian."

Podium of the 2012 Bahrain grand prix. (Photo: Lotus F1 Team)

The energy drink-owned camp, however, is not so bullish.

"To predict our performance in Bahrain just a week after what happened in China would have been tricky," said team boss Christian Horner, referring to Vettel's fifth place in Shanghai. "I am sure that with 16 races to go, we are going to see a lot more variation."

24-year-old Vettel agrees that, despite the familiar pole-and-victory in Bahrain, 2012 is not the same as 2011, when the RB7 car utterly dominated F1.

"We're not as confident as we used to be," he is quoted by the Sun newspaper, "so small things can make a difference in qualifying and have a big impact on the race. We've only had four races but I'm not entirely happy with where we are."

Sebastian Vettel will be back in action next week, when F1 moves to the Mugello circuit in central Italy for a rare in-season test.

"In Italy we'll be able to test and evaluate a lot of things and get the car in a happier place for Barcelona," he said.

From wrc.com

Sebastien Loeb has gone fastest on the Qualifying Stage for Rally Argentina, round five of the FIA World Rally Championship.

Loeb, the winner in Argentina on the last six occasions, completed the 4.59-kilometre test from Villa Garcia to Cabalango in a time of 2m36.9s to earn the right to select his road position for day one's stages first.

Loeb's Citroen team-mate Mikko Hirvonen was second fastest. Dani Sordo, who is making a one-off appearance for the factory Ford team in place of the injured Jari-Matti Latvala, was third quickest in his Fiesta RS WRC. Team-mate Petter Solberg opted to run on Michelin's hard compound tyre, which provided less grip in the slippery conditions.

Drivers will select their road positions for day one at 13:00hrs local time. The first stage, Super Especial Amarok, goes live at 20:08hrs local time tonight (Thursday).

From GMM

F1's governing body is looking into mandating 'forward roll-hoops' to boost driver safety.

The innovation would be to prevent the kind of incidents that, in 2009, seriously injured Felipe Massa, and killed the young F2 racer Henry Sutees.

The FIA tested the roll-hoop at an airfield in Suffolk, England; firing a formula one wheel at 225kph at a F1 helmet that sat behind the titanium roll-hoop, which was designed and supplied by the Lotus team.

F1's governing body has previously tested jet fighter-style canopies and windshields, and now the forward roll-hoop, theoretically to be fitted on the front edge of the cockpit opening.

"The roll-hoop basically did a very good job," said the FIA Institue's technical advisor Andy Mellor. "It was able to keep a wheel away from a driver's head."

One potential problem, however, is the impact of the roll-hoop on driver visibility, with a report at F1's official website admitting the structure "might dangerously impede sightlines".

Another problem is that a forward mounted roll-hoop would not be pretty.

"But a radical aesthetic change," read the media report, "would be a price well worth paying to save drivers' lives and achieve a game-changing safety breakthrough."

Mellor insisted: "We're not at all looking at final solutions as such. The work is absolutely exploratory and we are beginning to understand the mechanisms in order to protect a driver's head in this kind of impact."

The results of the tests will be put before F1's technical directors.

After hearing a myriad complaints about the lack of interesting racing at Bristol Motor Speedway; Bruton Smith, Chairman and CEO of Speedway Motorsports, announced his plans for significant modifications to the track on Thursday.

For decades the track located in Tennessee was a complete sellout. However, ever since the track was reconfigured, to include progressive banking, spectator interest has fallen dramatically.

Changes scheduled at Bristol Motor Speedway. (Photo: Bristol Motor Speedway)

The cause of the problem might be the banking which allows more cars to race side-by-side and thus the racing is missing the fender banging and aggression which was signature feature at the short oval.

The fans spoke via emails, Twitter, and any other medium whose message would reach Bruton Smith.

"I said when this process began last month that I would listen to what the fans said they wanted," Smith said. "After a week to 10 days, there was no question that the overwhelming majority was asking for alterations to the track.

Ironically most of the NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers were very satisfied to race instead of wreck.

Twelve-time BMS winner and NASCAR Hall of Fame member Darrell Waltrip, Speedway Motorsports Inc. President Marcus Smith, Bristol Motor Speedway Executive Vice-President and General Manager Jerry Caldwell and Speedway Motorsports Inc. Chairman Bruton Smith discuss the details of the construction project with media members. (Photo: Bristol Motor Speedway)

"Since March 28, when we announced that changes would be made, we have listened to fans, heard from drivers and talked to engineers about what to do and how much time we had to do it. Once we knew the direction, we located the right equipment to make it happen," added Smith.

"The majority of fans we heard from said they wanted adjustments made and the bulk of those said the progressive banking was what they didn't like," said Smith in explaining the decision-making process. "So, that's the focus of our efforts. And that is what we are working to change."

The striped line indicates that banking which will be removed by the paving project. (Photo: Bristol Motor Speedway)

When the deteriorating BMS track surface was replaced in 2007, variable banking was added. Often referred to as “progressive” because the degrees increase from bottom to top, the layout provided multiple lanes of racing on the famed short track.

Smith said the choice to change the track surface did not come easy, but listening to the race fans always has served him well.

"More and more fans kept asking us to do something to the track," Smith said. "So I put it out there. They spoke and we listened. I want them to be happy; I want them to love their experience in Bristol.  This will accomplish that and I know they will be pleased with the result."

Penhall Company machinery developed specifically for the Bristol Motor Speedway project in Turn 4. (Photo: Bristol Motor Speedway)

Goodyear Tire & Rubber said that they would conduct tire tests in June.

"We're happy with our current tire set-up at Bristol but we always have to keep up with track changes, so we plan to run a test to determine what will best suit the specific modifications made to Bristol," said Stu Grant, Goodyear's general manager of worldwide racing. "We will start out our test with the existing Bristol tire set-up, in order to determine if the changes to the track surface require any changes to our tread compound formulation. We'll then evaluate if the track surface has changed and if we'll need to bring back something different for the race in August."

"Being a concrete surface, we always need to manage the ‘rubbering in' process," added Grant. "Concrete seems to be more sensitive to taking rubber, so we need to make sure we get the right combination of tires to match up with this race track.  The most important thing to us is making sure the actual racing surface is the same from the bottom of the track to the top."

Participating teams are to be determined. 

From GMM

F1's plans to float on the Singapore stock exchange are continuing to harden.

The sport's majority owner CVC has reportedly lined up several banks - including UBS, RBS, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Santander, DBS Group Holdings and CIMB - to handle the transaction.

And now media reports, including in the authoritative Financial Times, say Austrian businessman, Nestle chairman and existing F1 board member Peter Brabeck-Letmathe is being lined up to chair the parent company.

Bernie Ecclestone would remain chief executive.

It is expected that the 30 per cent, multi-billion dollar floatation could occur as early as June, with Bloomberg reporting that the application could be filed this week.

CVC and Nestle, the food giant, declined to comment.

The world first had a peek at it in September, at the Frankfurt Auto Show. Now it's for real: the Hemera concept was renamed by its British maker Artemis and introduced at the Beijing Auto Show.

Photo: Eterniti Motors

From the outside, it vaguely resembles a Porsche Cayenne, but on the inside the Artemis is more limousine than SUV. There is more legroom at the back, a fridge for cold drinks and, geek-approved iPads available. Material-wise no effort was spared. Sheep wool (for the carpets), wood and carbon fibre are just three of the materials used to please even the pickiest of passengers.

Under the bonnet, Eterniti has fitted a 600-horsepower, 553 ft-pounds of torque V8 monster, which will take this "Super-SUV" from 0 to 100 km/h in just 4.5 seconds, and then to a top speed of 290. Four 23-inch low-profile wheels are keeping everything grounded.

The first specimens should arrive here only this fall. For the time being, it's only available on the European and Asian markets - with a price tag of 210,000 pounds (around $335,000 CDN)

It was 1979 and I was a fresh-faced 20-year old recruit with the Vancouver Police Department. Now, 33 years later, I retire from an amazing career that taught me something new each day about humanity - good and bad.

Along the way, I branched into automotive journalism. It was a welcome distraction from the stress of police work and kept me busy on my days off, engaging my mind in matters other than crime and disorder, budgets and operational plans.

Probably more cathartic for me than immersing myself in my writing was the human connection that automotive journalism exposed me to. I truly enjoyed meeting non-police colleagues while learning my way through an industry new to me; let's just say it kept me grounded.

While there's a hole in my wallet where a badge used to be, I still belong to the Vancouver Police Department. The organization that I so proudly served and think the world of, has engaged me as a civilian member.

I have the good fortune of becoming the Fleet Manager for the Department.

Ford Police Interceptor (Photo: Ford)

As fleet manager, I am responsible for the selection, acquisition, maintenance and safety of the Department's police cars, motorcycles, marine vessels, ATVs, trucks, trailers and more - totaling 599 assets. This is no small undertaking.

A staff of 27 full and part-time employees performs the heavy lifting, including assigning cars and radios to officers as they hit the streets 24/7. In many ways, these are the unsung heroes that keep the wheels turning so the police can keep responding.

Despite the workload involved in managing the police fleet, I intend to continue writing and reviewing cars and trucks. I also plan to write about some of the challenges faced by big city police agencies in keeping their officers mobile in an ever-changing environment crowded with ever-changing expectations.

I look forward to blogging about these challenges and how we rise up to overcome them. Some of the immediate issues to deal with include determining which vehicle should replace the extinct Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor.

It isn't as easy as popping down to the local auto mall and kicking a few tires. This is a huge public contract for the winning manufacturer, and as a public body, we're bound to follow a fair and transparent selection process.

Topical this week is the acquisition of two military spec'd Gators to assist the police in moving supplies and transporting the injured in the event of a riot. Last year's riot taught us that conventional vehicles are too big and cumbersome to get through disorderly crowds.

More than ever, the “eco” factor plays a role in all decisions. As such, we are experimenting with retrofitting start-stop technology in several patrol cars to determine the effectiveness in reducing our contribution to greenhouse gasses.

We've also adopted hybrid technology in many of our non-patrol vehicles, which is proving highly successful in reducing fuel consumption and securing the ancillary benefits.

As you can see, there's plenty to be done in the role of fleet manager and lots to talk about. I look forward to the future and to keeping you - our faithful and inquisitive readers - abreast of the action and developments in keeping the force with you.

The latest member of the Jeep family, the 2012 Wrangler Unlimited Altitude, will make its first appearance in American dealerships this May.

Photo: Chrysler

The Wrangler Altitude, based on the Wrangler Sahara, takes its unique look from its 18-inch black alloy wheels, and from its body-matching solid roof. The inside, black as well, features a redesigned dashboard, some re-thought storing areas and is tinted with subtle touches of red: the seats' contour, the steering wheels and the carpets.

The Pentastar 3.6L V6 boasts a 40% increase in power-output, bringing horsepower to 285. With the five-speed gearbox, Jeep believes it will burned around 11.2L of fuel per 100km, on the highway.

Whether it will make it to Canada or not is impossible to tell so far. Priced at around US$33,740, and given the Americans crave for Jeeps, the 4,500 Wrangler Unlimited Altitude offered on their market should go fast.

From GMM

A spat between two Britons could drive the German giant Mercedes out of formula one, according to a new media report.

F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone recently confirmed he is at loggerheads with Mercedes over the next Concorde Agreement.

But at the same time, he insisted that the Stuttgart marque is "very important to formula one. I have always supported them and I will always," he is quoted by Auto Motor und Sport.

Indeed, Mercedes has its own and newly-winning works team, powers the marquee McLaren outfit, and also supplies engines to Force India.

Ross Brawn and Bernie Ecclestone. (Photo: WRi2)

Ecclestone's dispute is with fellow Englishman Ross Brawn, who is the Brackley based Mercedes GP team's principal.

"I have spoken to the team manager (Brawn) about it (the dispute) and he seems to believe that the team has won a few world titles and about 80 races since the Tyrrell days," said the 81-year-old.

Sport Bild reports that Ecclestone is refusing to give in to Brawn's demands for extra Concorde Agreement entitlements for past title successes and history. The magazine said the relationship has become so intense that Ecclestone has even refused to give a joint interview with Brawn.

"He (Brawn) was never very nice to me," the F1 'supremo' is quoted as saying.

The German report said there is a risk Mercedes will, as a result of the 'ice age' between the British duo, pull the plug on its entire F1 involvement.

At the Honda stand in Beijing, visitors can check out two new concepts that “show the direction of mass-production models” the manufacturer will introduce next year.

Honda Concept C (Photo: Honda)

The Concept C is a sedan developed specifically for the Chinese market, with the “C” reportedly representing “Cool,” “Challenge,” and “China.” (All three words, of course, only start with “C” in English, but we digress.) Designers took inspiration from the image of a dragon. It was developed in tandem with teams in Japan and China. A mass-production model based on the concept is due next year.

The Concept S (for “Stylish,” “Smart,” and “Surprise”) uses a hybrid powertrain and emphasizes good interior space in a family-friendly design.

Firmer details on either model were not forthcoming.

Honda Concept S (Photo: Honda)

In a study result that surprises no one, it turns out that women prefer small cars and crossovers while men like Ferraris. At least according to TrueCar's annual report on the subject, that is.

Chrysler Group and a Detroit clothing company have reached a settlement in a lawsuit over the use of the "Imported from Detroit" slogan on T-shirts. Terms of the settlement haven't been released.

Nick Reilly, who retired as president of GM Europe earlier this year, has been named by MSX International as chairman of its Asia Pacific region.

BMW is making a bigger version of its popular 3-Series sedan in a bid to tap into Chinese car buyers' taste for larger cars and lure them away from the likes of GM. The stretch 3-Series, made uniquely for the Chinese market, is 11 centimeters (4.

Lithia Motors' strong first-quarter earnings and a new five-year, $650 million line of credit have given it the financial muscle to shop aggressively for more dealerships.

EV startup Coda Automotive said today it has withdrawn its $334 million loan request from the federal Department of Energy after waiting two years for a response.

Tesla Motors co-founder Elon Musk, well known in the auto industry and U.S. business for his risk-taking startups, has joined a group of investors in a company that plans to send robotic spacecraft to mine asteroids.

For a mid-cycle refresh, Ingolstadt hasn't lavished a whole passel of aesthetic rearrangement upon the Audi Q5. There's some fiddling in the interior, some minor meddling with the face and, really, that's about that.

Also in this episode: Travis Pastrana suits up for NASCAR's Nationwide Series,