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Adapted from GMM

Marussia team boss John Booth on Sunday said that the team's test driver, who lost her right eye after an horror testing crash at Duxford airfield on Tuesday, is now awake and "talking with her family".

He said that is "great news".

Furthermore, Charlie Whiting, the FIA's top F1 official, has described de Villota's crash earlier this week as a "one in five million" freak accident.

"It was so incredibly unfortunate," the race director, starter and technical and safety delegate told the Spanish sports newspaper Marca at Silverstone.

"I think that if Felipe (Massa)'s accident (in 2009) was one in a million, then Maria's was one in five million," Briton Whiting added.

"The circumstances were just so unique that it was just incredible bad luck," he said.

Whiting said that, even at the time of de Villota's incident, the FIA was already looking at ways to better protect the drivers' heads.

"We're looking more at the case of an impact with a wheel, because this can happen several times in a year. Maria's circumstances may never occur again," added Whiting.

"In Maria's case, yes it (head protection) would have worked, but perhaps in many other cases the problems would be worse, like extraction or visibility.

"We have to make sure we aren't making something better for one type of accident but worse for three more."

I've experimented with adaptive cruise control systems, but never to the extent that I dared push Volvo's Queue Assist setup. Apparently, this system will bring the S60 to a complete halt if that's what traffic ahead is doing. It will then allow the vehicle to follow stop-and-go traffic, all without requiring the driver to touch the brake or gas.

Sure, I thought.


On a freeway run, I set the adaptive cruise control to well above the posted limit, then allowed my tester to follow slower traffic for several kilometres, which it did flawlessly. I exited onto another highway in which there was no nearby traffic.

The 2012 Volvo S60 smoothly accelerated until reaching my set speed. All was good. As we neared slower traffic, I knew that the car would decelerate to match the speed of those ahead in my lane; what I wasn't so sure of was whether it would successfully stop behind vehicles, without effort from me, as we approached a red light.

Exercising nerves of steel, I resisted the urge to settle my foot on the brake. With breath held tight, my Swedish chariot smoothly applied braking while maintaining a safe but diminishing distance from the car ahead. We came to a full stop one car length from the vehicle ahead.

When the traffic began moving, I hit the reset button with my left thumb and the S60 played along. It followed the traffic around a left turn and maintained a consistent speed with the cars ahead. We stopped at several more traffic lights and proceeded through a business district - all without my assistance on the brake or accelerator. Was I impressed? You bet.

But that's not all that impressed me with Volvo's upscale midsize sedan.

When the traffic began moving, I hit the reset button with my left thumb and the S60 played along. It followed the traffic around a left turn and maintained a consistent speed with the cars ahead. (Photo: Rob Rothwell)

S60 setting new direction for Volvo
The sleek lines of the S60 are quite un-Volvo-like, and that's the point. Volvo is working hard to shed its conservative image, and the S60 is the latest in that effort. This vehicle is aimed at the sort of customer that may also be considering a BMW 3 Series as their next purchase.

Although my tester was pulled along by its front wheels, all-wheel drive is an option, and one that I would seriously consider if I were in this sort of market. Nonetheless, the front-wheel-drive configuration served me well during my test period, and presented only minimal torque steer when acceleration was pushed to the max.

The engine delivering that get-up-and-go is somewhat unique.

The sleek lines of the S60 are quite un-Volvo-like, and that's the point. (Photo: Rob Rothwell)

5 cylinders run smooth
My tester was the T5 model, in reference to its turbocharged 2.5L 5-cylinder powerplant. While not as turbine smooth as some 6-cylinder engines, Volvo's 5-banger is delightfully peppy and suitably refined for this upscale application. It produces 250 hp @ 5,500 rpm and 266 lb-ft of torque from 1,800 to 4,000 rpm.

A small annoyance for me was the abruptness of throttle tip-in. Touching the gas a little too aggressively when setting off tends to produce unintended wheelspin, especially on wet roads. Again, a most un-Volvo-like characteristic. More in tune was the 6-speed automatic transmission hooked to the engine.

The autobox favoured fuel economy over performance but functioned well nonetheless. When fully tasked, the S60 T5 can climb from zip to 100 km/h in well under 7 seconds. Thanks to turbocharging, power comes on early and is sustained through the majority of the rev band.

The transmission's contribution to squeezing the most out of a litre is evident in the fuel economy rating for the S60 T5, which stands at 10.5L/100km and 6.6L/100km, city and highway driving respectively. My real-world about-town driving netted me a reasonable 10.8L/100km, but the S60's about a lot more than decent performance and economy.

My tester was the T5 model, in reference to its turbocharged 2.5L 5-cylinder powerplant. (Photo: Rob Rothwell)

Beautiful surroundings
I've always found Volvo cabins, especially those of late, to be well thought-out and highly attractive. My tester's interior real estate was just that, with leather upholstery and wood inlays that nicely fulfilled expectations.

Head and leg room up front is expansive and most controls are logically presented. I say most, because I was largely confounded by the cluster of buttons on the centre stack. Of particular challenge was determining how to make audio adjustments and tune in stations.

After some putzing about, I figured out the audio controls and also how to program the navigation system, which is not all that intuitive unless using the voice command interface. Interestingly, I found Volvo's voice command system to perhaps be the easiest I've ever used.

I've always found Volvo cabins, especially those of late, to be well thought-out and highly attractive. (Photo: Rob Rothwell)

Wrapping the Swede
While the S60 T5 has what it takes performance-wise to compete with upscale sports sedans, it has in many ways more than its competitors. Much of what sets the S60 apart from other Euro sedans is its commitment to safety and occupant protection.

Volvo is on the cutting edge when it comes to preventing collisions, and reducing damage and injury should one occur. It would take a full-length feature to properly cover these aspects of Volvo design and engineering; trust that no one does it better.

In addition to safety and protection, Volvo has clearly chosen to emphasize sportiness in its S60, giving this attractive sedan driving dynamics to match its avantgarde styling. Buyers seeking a sporty upscale sedan with a strong commitment to keeping the family safe and secure will find those attributes in the 2012 S60 T5, but should be prepared to pay.

Although the base S60 T5 begins at $38,300, my loaded tester crested the $50K mark.

Ganassi's Dario Franchitti earned the pole for this Sunday's IndyCar event in the streets of Toronto with a last ditch effort at the end of the qualifying session to take top spot from Penske's Will Power.

In the last moment of the Fast-Six shootout it had looked as though Power was very much in control but an ultimate flying lap by the reigning champion was clocked at 59.3510s, putting him ahead of Power by just 0.02 seconds.

Justin Wilson (Dale Coyne Racing), another pretender to the pole, ended up third while Sebastian Bourdais (Dragon) was fourth.

Ganassi's Scott Dixon was fifth while a superb performance from BHA's Alex Tagliani was rewarded with a sixth although the Canadian will join Andretti's James Hinchcliffe and HVM's Simona de Silvestro in facing a 10-place grid penalty for an engine change.

Gustavo Yacaman (Team Moore) battled it out thru much of the latter part of the race with Sebastian Saavedra (AFS/Andretti) but ultimately won the Indy Lights event at the Honda Indy of Toronto.

Yacaman and Saavedra had both passed pole-sitter Victor Carbone (Sam Schmidt) on lap 13 of the 50-lap race after which their battle was on for the lead, although Yacaman was able to open a gap over his pursuer in the final stages of the race to win with a 2.2s advantage.

Carbone was the last driver on the podium at the end of the race in which his teammates and championship rivals Esteban Guerrieri and Tristan Vautier collided on the opening lap.

Vautier, who severely damaged his car had to retire a couple laps later while Guerrieri, after having his front wing replaced, was able to finish in sixth.

Local hero, Canadian Davis Ostella (Team Moore) finished in seventh place.

Esteban Gutierrez and Luiz Razia secured win in the two GP2 rounds presented at Silverstone, Razia moving up to first position in provisional championship classification.

After he started from pole position, Fabio Leimer pulled away in front before the safety car came in to remove James Calado's car, which was blocked in the middle of the track with gear box issues.

But, while all his rivals decided to stop for their mandatory pit stop, Leimer remained on track, and when the Swiss driver decided to stop for his own pit stop, the safety car was already out, and he was back on track in the middle of the field.

Meanwhile, Esteban Gutierrez inherited the lead, to take his second victory this season.

The second race presented a great fight between the leading drivers, among them championship contenders Davide Valsecchi and Luiz Razia. Razia overtook Valsecchi for third, then both moved up to first and second after they got by pole man and early leader Giedo Van der Garde.

Luiz Razia took victory ahead of Valsecchi and Felipe Nasr, which allowed the Razia driver to move up to first position in provisional standings.



Race 1 results - GP2 (Silversone)
1 - Esteban Gutierrez - Lotus - 25 laps in 1h00min22.657s
2 - Johnny Cecotto - Addax - 1.700s
3 - Jolyon Palmer - iSport - 5.257s
4 - Nigel Melker - Ocean - 6.368s
5 - Luiz Razia - Arden - 6.523s
Etc.

Race 2 results
1 - Luiz Razia - Arden - 21 laps in 37min28.656s

2 - Davide Valsecchi - Dams - 5.642s
3 - Felipe Nasr - Dams - 17.775s
4 - Esteban Gutierrez - Lotus - 19.969s
5 - Jolyon Palmer - iSport - 25.869s
Etc.

Championship :
1. Razia 165 points, 2. Valsecchi 159, 3. Gutierrez 122, 4. Calado et Chilton 95, etc.

Although he had a bit of a problem explaining how he did it Tony Stewart notched his fourth Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway.

The reigning and three time Sprint Cup champ negotiated his way to through traffic to overtake the previously dominant and defending Daytona 500 winner Matt Kenseth for what would be his third win of the season.

“I wish I could explain it,” said Stewart, who has five restrictor-plate victories in Sprint Cup, with four coming at Daytona. “The great thing about restrictor-plate racing is that 43 cars all have the same shot at winning the race, but that's also part of what makes it frustrating, too.

“It's just being at the right place at the right time, and when those last two big wrecks happened, we were in the right spot. We were ahead of them both times.”

Stewart, driving a Chevrolet, took the lead on lap 131 of the 160-lap after a multi-car accident in turn four and led for 21 laps before relinquishing the spot to the Ford duo of Matt Kenseth and Greg Biffle on lap 152. The second of three multi-car crash set the stage for a two-lap shootout.

Stewart regained the lead on the final lap with an impressive drive around Biffle and Kenseth off turn two and down the backstretch. The key was breaking up the Kenseth and Biffle drafting team.

“The biggest challenge was the ‘17' (Kenseth) and ‘16' (Biffle) cars, and when they hooked up, I don't think there was anybody that could beat them,” Stewart said.

“But we were able to stay in touch with them, and I got a great restart with Kasey Kahne helping me. I'm not sure how he got shuffled back there in (turns) one and two, but we just had to try to separate the ‘17' and ‘16' there.

“And once we got them pulled apart, I think Matt tried to reconnect with Greg, and we carried enough momentum to get back around in front of him and get down on that bottom line. I tried to back up to Matt to make sure they didn't get a huge run on us.

“They were coming on the outside in (turns) three and four and the last wreck happened, and we were just fortunate enough to be leading still.”

“I'm really disappointed,” said Kenseth who fell to third. “My team deserved to be down there holding the hardware and I let them down. Daytona has been wonderful to us this year... Obviously, I had a really good Speedweeks and then came down here and sat on the pole and led the most laps.

“We had one of the fastest cars and had a good finish. It's hard to be disappointed with that, but the racer in you, when you have a car like that, you certainly want to figure out how to try to win with it.”

Jeff Burton, who survived in a Chevrolet to finish seoncd, said “Kevin (Harvick) and I had a good run going and just had nowhere to go. I did my little thing in turn one, saved it and then they wrecked off turn four and ended up with a good finish. Anytime you can leave here with a car not torn up you probably ought to be happy.”

Biffle ended up 21st.

First seen in concept form at the 2010 Geneva Auto Show, the Lotus Evora Range Extender Hybrid Electric Vehicle has now begun road testing.

The two electric motors drive each rear wheel independently. They combine to generate 408 horsepower and accelerate from 0 to 60 mph (96 km/h) in under four seconds while emitting only 55 grams of CO2 per kilometre.

The Lotus Evora 414E Hybrid also uses energy recuperation, a seven-speed transmission with paddle shifters, a three-cylinder engine driving an electric generator that can directly power the two traction motors, and finally a 17 kWh lithium-polymer battery that can be charged through a standard power outlet. The car can run solely on electricity for up to 48 kilometres.

Will the car ever get the green light? Lotus executives are staying mum on the subject.

Photo: Lotus

Photo: Lotus

Sam Schmidt Motorsports' Victor Carbone took pole for this weekend's Indy Lights race in Toronto after a close battle with his teammate Esteban Guerrieri.

Carbone spent the last few minutes of the session trading fastest times with Guerrieri before securing his advantage with a 1min20.2282s. A late spin by Belardi's Jorge Goncalvez denied Guerrieri a final chance to reclaim the top spot.

Thunderstorms before the qualifying round forced a short delay before the green flag could be waved, and the wet track posed a challenge right to the end.

Carloz Munoz (Andretti Autosport) was sidelined for having triggered two red flags, while his teammate Sebastian Saavedra also fell victim to a spin.

Gustavo Yacaman (Team Moore) held the top spot for the majority of the session, but finished third, just ahead of Schmidt duo Tristan Vautier and Oliver Webb.


Qualifying results* - Indy Lights (Toronto)

1.Victor Carbone - Schmidt - 1min20.228s

2.Esteban Guerrieri - Schmidt - 1min20.335s
3.Gustavo Yacaman - Moore - 1min20.784s
4.Tristan Vautier - Schmidt - 1min20.976s

5.Oliver Webb - Schmidt - 1min21.532s

6.Peter Dempsey - Belardi - 1min21.847s

7.David Ostella - Moore - 1min22.013s

8.Sebastian Saavedra - Andretti - 1min22.381s

9.Jorge Goncalvez - Belardi - 1min23.471s

10.Juan Garcia - Jeffrey Mark - 1min24.442s
11.Carlos Munoz - Andretti - no time

*Unofficial timing

The NASCAR community was stunned with the announcement that AJ Allmendinger failed a random drug test.

Allmendinger, who drives for Penske Racing, "has been temporarily suspended from NASCAR competition based upon notification of a positive 'A' test NASCAR received from the Medical Review Officer as stated in Section 19-11B (6,7) of the NASCAR Substance Abuse Policy.

"Pursuant to the rule book, Allmendinger has the opportunity to request within the next 72 hours that his 'B' sample be tested," according to an announcement just prior to the start of the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway.

The 29-year old driver was 23rd in the Sprint Cup points standings at the time of the announcement.

Penske Racing issued the following response "NASCAR notified Penske Racing this afternoon that AJ Allmendinger was administered a drug test earlier this week, and those results tested positive. NASCAR has a strict drug testing program that Penske Racing fully supports. Penske Racing will work with NASCAR through this process and its next steps.

Sam Hornish Jr., will drive the No. 22 car in tonight's Coke Zero 400."

This is the highest profile driver to be suspended under NASCAR's anti-drug policy since Jeremy Mayfield in 2009.

Dyson Racing's Chris Dyson and Guy Smith may have started from pole, but Lucas Luhr and Klaus Graf made Muscle Milk Pickett Racing the winner at Lime Rock Park.

When Muscle Milk's HPD ARX-03a dove into the pits, only 45 minutes into the race, the ending looked set to go Dyson Racing's way. The problem: a malfunctioning gearbox. An ECU module reset later, Luhr and Graf were back in the race, albeit four laps down.

Making the most of traffic and yellow flags, the pair came back from the rear to take a third straight win this season, therefore extending their lead atop the P1 championship board.

In GT, Flying Lizard Motorsports took a first win this season with the 2012-spec Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, thanks to Jörg Bergmeister and Patrick Long's efforts to best Corvette Racing's Jan Magnussen and Oliver Gavin at the finish line.

The P2 class yielded at fourth consecutive win for Level 5 Motorsports and the Scott Tucker/Christophe Bouchut pairing, as well as a first series podium for actor Patrick Dempsey and his teammate Joe Foster, aboard their Lola-Judd coupe.

Jon Bennet and Colin Braun won the LMPC class for CORE autosport, while in the GTC class, the win went to pole-sitters Cooper MacNeil and Leh Keen.

News 7 Jul, 2012

Fernando Alonso is on pole for the British Grand Prix, ahead of Mark Webber and Michael Schumacher

Fernando Alonso is on pole for the British Grand Prix, ahead of Mark Webber and Michael Schumacher

The success of foreign carmakers like Hyundai in growing sales in European markets where local brands are struggling is agitating European car manufacturers and complicating the European Union's ambitious free-trade agenda, just as EU leaders look...

If Volkswagen AG Chairman Ferdinand Piech and his protégé, CEO Martin Winterkorn, hope to consolidate VW's position as the world's largest automaker by 2018, American consumers will need to buy a lot more new Volkswagens, Audis and Porsches.

If Volkswagen AG Chairman Ferdinand Piech and his protégé, CEO Martin Winterkorn, hope to consolidate VW's position as the world's largest automaker by 2018, American consumers will need to buy a lot more new Volkswagens, Audis and Porsches.

Quality Metalcraft and its CEO Michel Chetcuti have emerged from the auto industry downturn by embracing flexible manufacturing and a focus on low-volume specialty prototypes and production parts.

From GMM

Red Bull has indicated it is keen to keep Sebastien Buemi on board as reserve driver next year.

The Swiss was dumped as junior team Toro Rosso's race driver at the end of 2011, but Red Bull Racing chief Christian Horner has indicated he is very happy with the 23-year-old's performance in his new role.

"In the simulator he's doing a sensational job," the Briton told the Swiss newspaper Blick.

"Technically he is very good, and in the simulator he can adapt to the driving style of both the race drivers without any problems. That's pretty unique," Horner added.

Buemi said earlier this week there is a possibility he could do some driving during a Friday morning practice session this season.

Horner apologised as he said that will not be possible.

But he added: "He will have a job with us in 2013 if he wants. We absolutely want to keep him."

Buemi, however, wants to return to racing next year.

"That's quite understandable," said Horner. "But Sebastien knows that he always has a job with us."

Kurt Busch's road to redemption got a bit shorter with a win in the Nationwide race at Daytona International Raceway on Friday night.

The race came down to a green-white checkered flag finish.

“We brought it home to Victory Lane at Daytona,” an emotional Busch said. “That there is a statement - that's what (owner) James Finch is all about. He loves Daytona and I'm happy that we were able to deliver.

“All of (the crew) came out to the start/finish line to be a part of the celebration. It's all about heart, and it's all about passion with these guys and I couldn't be more proud of this team effort tonight.”

Pushing Busch to the win was pole-sitter Ricky Stenhouse Jr., followed by Michael Annett.

“(Kurt) was fast all night and I just pushed him to the win,” Stenhouse said. “I was hoping I could make a move there, but I saw the No. 3 (Austin Dillon) car and everybody coming, so I tried to duck out and block them and we ended up second. It was a fun race.”

The reason for redemption is that the volatile one-time Sprint Cup champ parted ways with Penske Racing at the end of last season leaving the driver without a top ride for the first time in his career. James Finch who owns the tiny Phoenix Racing team hired Busch as he tries to regain a championship contending team.

“There's no other guy that gets as excited for Daytona as James Finch,” Busch said. “He wanted his cars orange so that they could be seen up front and so that the car could be recognized without a sponsor on it. We drove an unsponsored car into Victory Lane tonight.”

It was his second Nationwide win of the year. Earlier he won in a Kyle Busch Motorsports cars.

The race set a Nationwide Series record with 42 lead changes and 16 different leaders, besting the previous mark set at Daytona in February.

A combination of tandem drafting and big pack racing produced “the big one,” a 16-car wreck on lap 66 of the 100-lap race. A total of 26 cars suffered damage in the event.

Later Danica Patrick having one of her best runs and contending for the win when her car was spun and she hit the inside wall with about 16 laps to go.

Guy Smith and Bill Auberlen have put their respective cars on pole of their respective class at the American Le Mans Northeast Grand Prix of Lime Rock.

Guy Smith clocked his fastest lap in 44.017s in his Dyson Racing's Madaza-powered Lola coupe, the car he shares with Chris Dyson, and took his first pole of the season by doing so.

"We have struggled this year; it has been an uphill battle," admitted Smith. "After the Monterey round (in May, team owner) Rob Dyson said we need to knuckle down and put in the work. We've worked for the last seven weeks and tested and tested and tested.

Lucas Luhr, in the P1 rival Muscle Milk Pickett Racing HPD ARX-03a, took second with a lap of 44.119s.

In GT, Bill Auberlen flew to pole position in his BMW Team RLL M3 GT, which means he will start his 100th ALMS race first. Corvette's Oliver Gavin follows in third, and then comes Team RLL's second car, driven DTM racer Joey Hand and Dirk Müller.

"We rolled off the truck really strong," Auberlen said. "We were really strong the first session and got better in the second. Qualifying went green and we banged a good lap out."

P2 pole went to Level 5 Motorsports' Christophe Bouchut, driving an HPD ARX-03b.

Canadian Kyle Marcelli (ORECA FLM09) shined in the LMPC class, taking a pole of his own for CORE autosport.

Alex Job's Racing Leh Keen (Porsche 911 GT3 Cup) took care of the GTC category.



Qualifying results* - ALMS (Lime Rock Park)

1. Dyson/Smith (Lola B12/60-Mazda) - Dyson - 44.017s
2. Luhr/Graf (HPD ARX-03a) - Pickett - 44.119

3. Tucker/Bouchut (HPD ARX-03b) - Level 5 - 46.539s

4. Marsal/Lux (Lola B11/66-Mazda) - Dyson - 46.552s
5. Tucker/Diaz (HPD ARX-03b) - Level 5 - 47.007
6. Plowman/Hansson (Morgan-Judd) - Conquest - 47.072s
7. Marcelli/Downs (Oreca FLM09) - Merchant - 47.249s

8. Junqueira/Drissi (Oreca FLM09) - RSR - 47.482s

9. Dempsey/Foster (Lola B12/86-Mazda) - Dempsey - 47.992s
10. Leitzinger/Dobson (Oreca FLM09) - PR1 - 48.033s

11. Popow/Kimber-Smith (Oreca FLM09) - CORE - 48.134s

12. Bennett/Braun (Oreca FLM09) - CORE - 48.137s

13. Richard/Ende (Oreca FLM09) - Dempsey - 48.726s

14. Mueller/Auberlen (BMW M3) - Rahal - 50.920
(...)

*Unofficial results

On July 11th at San Diego's Comic-Con International, Hyundai will showcase the Zombie Survival Machine, a customized 2013 Elantra Coupe designed by The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman.

Photo: Hyundai

Built by Design Craft, this one-off zombie killer will obviously never enter production... unless the nightmarish scenario comes to life.

Car enthusiasts who want to see the modifications to the Elantra, which will appear on the next cover of the popular comic book, can visit www.hyundaiundead.com.