Automobile owners in the U.S. see fuel economy as the leading element they will consider in purchasing their next car, according to a survey by Consumer Reports.
Nissan said it aims to triple global sales of its premium Infiniti brand by 2016 and take 10 percent of China's luxury vehicle market, challenging premium market leaders like Audi, Mercedes and BMW.
Nissan is preparing to appoint a global head for its Infiniti luxury brand after setting up the unit's headquarters in Hong Kong to boost sales in China and elsewhere.
Jacques Villeneuve, who won the Formula 1 drivers' championship in 1997, will return to NASCAR with Penske Racing for two races in 2012.
Shocked? Well, you should be.
Villeneuve wound up with the best time at the NAPA Auto Parts 200 in Montreal last summer after a solid performance during the qualifying session. He got off to a good start and stayed in first place for a while, but when the race was interrupted, he reacted too late to the green flag and got schooled like a rookie.
Moments later, Villeneuve didn't slow down enough to complete the first turn and went off the track. And instead of safely heading straight, he abruptly steered left and slammed into Marcos Ambrose. Day over.
''I hit the snooze,'' he confessed.
Photo: Sébastien D'Amour
How could he be so distracted behind the wheel of the best car from the best team? What exactly was going through his mind? That was inexcusable.
Naturally, I assumed that Villeneuve had burned his bridges with Penske. Yet here he is again. But why?
It looks like Penske has forgotten all about that awful day and wants him to drive their #22 Dodge Challenger not once but twice - at Road America in June and at Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve in August.
The organizers of the Montreal race must be thrilled. Villeneuve will sell tons of tickets.
Despite his foolishness and quirky character, JV remains a big fan favourite. You should have heard the crowd going wild when he earned the pole position last year.
Let's just hope he will stay focused and won't ''hit the snooze'' again!
It was confirmed today by BMW North America boss, Ludwig Willisch: the V6 engine idea is being dropped by the Bavarian manufacturer, to the profit of an inline 6.
Sources also indicate that BMW has patented an innovative electric turbo. The definitive number and nature of units found on the said straight-six must still be confirmed, both it could be two or even up to three turbines that will be fitted on the new engine.
The Munich firm did say the next M3 should be a lighter and more powerful one, hence faster. Other details should filter through soon, such as whether the manual gearbox will be standard or optional.
This new version will be available either at the end of 2013 or early in 2014.
Pirelli has unveiled the P Zero slick compounds that will be used for the races after Monaco.
The forthcoming races, after Monaco, are the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal, the European Grand Prix in Valencia, Spain and the British Grand Prix at Silverstone.
The same tires selected for Monaco this weekend will be used in Montreal, on the tight and twisty street circuit Gilles-Villeneuve, the P Zero Yellow soft and the P Zero Red supersofts tires.
Valencia is also a street circuit, but with higher temperature, and Pirelli will bring P Zero White medium and P Zero Yellow soft tires.
Silverstone is one of the quickest circuits of the year and the teams will be able to adopt different strategies with the P Zero Silver hard and P Zero Yellow soft tires.
As usual, each team receives six sets of there harder compound and five sets of the softer compound for the entire race weekend.
In an interview given to Autosprint, Pirelli's motorsport director Paul Hembery said that the company is ready to supply Q3-only tires, but adds that the teams are reluctant to change the format of the qualifying session.
The main concern about the current format is that the cars must be shod on the same tires they qualify on in the race, something that has lead to drivers sitting out Q3 in order to limit their running and save sets of tires for the Grand Prix.
In order to change this, Pirelli could supply additional tires for the qualifying effort only.
Photo: Pirelli
"We could do it immediately," Hembery told Autosprint. "We could come up with a specific compound, or maintain the current ones. But the teams say that the format is fine as is, that the public enjoys tire strategies”.
Paul Hembery added: “But if a fan on the grandstands doesn't see much running in Q3, then that fan casts the blame on Pirelli thinking that we don't want to spend any more money in order to supply more tires."
Even ahead of F1's Singapore floatation, the sport has some new owners.
Reuters, the specialist financial market news agency, said US-based asset managers Waddell and Reed, Blackrock and Norway's Norges Bank have bought a $1.6 billion stake from existing owners CVC.
The report cited a source "with direct knowledge of the matter". The companies did not immediately comment.
It drops CVC's stake from 63.4 per cent to about 40pc, the source said.
Other reports said pre-marketing for the listing, likely to go ahead at the end of June, will begin immediately.
"It is not our practice to publicly comment on our dealings with listing aspirants," said a Singapore bourse spokesman.
Some insiders have expressed concern.
"Look at the muted first-day response to Facebook's IPO," an unnamed banker told the Singapore broadsheet Straits Times. "The F1 listing is not nearly as attractive and long-awaited as that."
The Japanese brand has revealed it sold as of April 30th, four million hybrid vehicles around the world - 423,000 in Europe and 94,000 in the United Kingdom.
Photo: Toyota
Toyota has become a leader in the hybrid technology industry. Its Prius was, after all, the first ever mass-produced hybrid vehicle - launched in December 1997. There was however another hybrid produced first, the Toyota Coaster hybrid EV, a bus which came out in July 1997.
But nevertheless, the Prius first went around in Europe, then ventured in North America and other markets with the new millennium. In 2003, a new generation was baptized and prompted engineers to use the technology elsewhere: minivans, SUV, sedans and family cars.
The third-generation Prius busted sell records.
In total, Toyota sold no fewer than 19 hybrid models in close to 80 countries, and estimates that this year's hybrid sales will represent 15% of the grand total. The aim now is to further develop the technology to enhance performance while reducing costs.
In 1985, Danny Sullivan, nicknamed “The Kentucky Kid” won the 500 Miles of Indianapolis with style, spinning his March at high speed and not hitting anything. Here's a video of his stunning spin!
Sullivan, who drove for the Benetton Tyrrell-Ford Formula 1 team in 1983 returned in North America afterwards to compete in the PPG Indycar series, driving for Roger Penske.
At Indy in 1985, he passed race leader Mario Andretti only to spin out of control. Sullivan did not hit the wall, pitted for a set of fresh tires and went on to win the race.
Sullivan made one of the most amazing saves in the history of the Indy 500.
Adrian Newey, the technical director of the Red Bull racing Formula 1 team, will compete in the second round of the Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo at his home track of Silverstone, June 2-3.
The 53-year-old Englishman will share the No. 1 Lamborghini Gallardo Super Trofeo 570-hp V10 race car with Alberto Sabbatini, Editor in Chief of Italian magazine Autosprint.
Newey is also an accomplished race car driver. He's competed in the Classic Le Mans race, as well as in other spec series plus taken the wheel of the Red Bull RB5 at Goodwood in 2010.
Photo: Blancpain
Swiss newcomer Stefano Comini dominated the opening round of the 2012 season in Monza on April 14-15 with victory in both races. He leads the drivers' points standings with 30 points.
The number of cars on the grid for Silverstone is likely to be 18 with a UK entry joining the fray.
Competition for the title is fierce with new teams entered from Italy, France, Germany, the Czech Republic and 13 new contenders from all over Europe.
The F1 car photographed amid the charred remains of Williams' burnt-out garage in Barcelona will be back in action this weekend at Monaco.
We reported last week that an initial inspection of Bruno Senna's Renault-powered FW34, which was sitting in the pits when the fire broke out during the team's celebrations for Pastor Maldonado's victory last Sunday, showed it had emerged with minimal damage.
A spokesman has now confirmed that Senna will race the very same chassis on the streets of Monaco this week.
Otherwise, the garage fire "somewhat hampered" Williams' preparations for the famous race in the Principality, chief engineer Mark Gillan admitted.
"But the impact has been mitigated by what can only be described as a herculean effort by the factory and our suppliers to restock both the damaged equipment and car parts," he said.
Photo: WRi2
Mark Gillan also said rival teams made "generous offers" of help.
Maldonado's chassis was safely in parc ferme at the time of the fire.
Recently, the Brazilian has been giving up his seat to the team's rising young reserve driver Valtteri Bottas on Friday mornings.
But Bruno Senna will be at the wheel of his Williams throughout the Monaco grand prix weekend.
The programme of the Finnish driver for 2012 involves practicing at every grand prix circuit "except for the street races".
Therefore, Valtteri Bottas is expected to also sit out Canada, Valencia and Singapore.
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