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The 2013 NASCAR Sprint Cup Cars were turned loose on the 2.66 mile Talladega Superspeedway on Wednesday, the first test of the new cars on a restrictor plate track.

While no lap times/speeds were recorded NASCAR officials said that “the new-look cars turned competitive laps while drafting and in single-car runs.”

“With a different car, we'll look at what it's going to take for [restrictor] plate size and some other things, but the main concern is how the cars draft, how they react in the draft, and obviously to get more one-on-one racing,” said Robin Pemberton, NASCAR vice president of competition. “All of the input that we have from the drivers and the teams so far has been pretty good.”

Ricky Stenhouse Jr.'s numberless Ford leads Sam Hornish Jr. (12), Juan Pablo Montoya (42) and Brian Vickers (15) during drafting practice in the 2013 NASCAR Sprint Cup car test at Talladega Superspeedway. (Photo: Jared C. Tilton, Getty Images for NASCAR)

Seven teams, among the three manufacturers, took part in the test.

Chevrolet brought their 2013 SS model in a dazzle-type paint job because the final production car has not yet been introduced to the public. Teams included Richard Childress Racing's Jeff Burton, Hendrick Motorsports' Kasey Kahne and Earnhardt Ganassi Racing's Juan Pablo Montoya. Kahne also liked the appearance of the new car. “I think the cars are unique because they look different. They have a fresh look, and it resembles the manufacturer's car, which is great for the fans, who ought to be able to go out and buy a similar car.”

Jeff Burton leads fellow Chevrolet driver Kasey Kahne during the 2013 NASCAR Sprint Cup car test at Talladega Superspeedway. (Photo: Jared C. Tilton, Getty Images for NASCAR)

“NASCAR's working really hard to make them drive better and make the races more exciting,” Kahne added. “Right there, we had five or six of us out there and it was actually pretty dicey and pretty exciting. We're definitely going in the right direction and that's great from a drivers' standpoint because we're going to be able to race and pass more, and it's awesome from a fans' standpoint because they're going to get a much better show all the time.”

Ford Fusion's driven by Roush Fenway Racing's Ricky Stenhouse Jr. who will be making his move up to the Sprint Cup level, and Penske Racing's Sam Hornish Jr.

“It seemed pretty racy out there when we got in the seven-car packs,” said Stenhouse. “The two-car tandem could catch the group, then kind of stall out, and a single car could run right there with them.”

Engineers and crew pore over data from the No. 15 Toyota from Michael Waltrip Racing during the NASCAR 2013 Sprint Cup Series car test at Talladega Superspeedway. (Photo: Jared C. Tilton, Getty Images for NASCAR)

Toyota was represented by Joey Logano driving the 2013 Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing and Brian Vickers at the wheel for Michael Waltrip Racing.

The new car design will kick off the 2013 NASCAR Sprint Cup season during Speedweeks next February at Daytona International Speedway with opening points event, the Daytona 500, on the 24th.

The six-hour test was extended by 30 minutes after morning fog delayed some teams' arrival.

Brian Vickers puts the No. 15 Toyota Camry from Michael Waltrip Racing through its paces during the NASCAR 2013 Sprint Cup Series car test at Talladega Superspeedway. (Photo: Jared C. Tilton, Getty Images for NASCAR)

Following IndyCar series' driver Rubens Barrichello announcement to compete in the Stock Car Million Race in December, his good friend Tony Kanaan said that he would join him.

Barrichello, who competed for years in Formula 1, will drive for Team Medley/Full Time in this round of the Copa Caixa Brazilian stock car series to be held at Interlagos Circuit in Sao Paulo.

Photo: Copa Caixa

The two friends accepted to donate all their prize money to Institute Barrichello Kanaan.

Grupo Petrópolis will sponsor Kanaan's car for that race, entered by Bassani Racing.

Kanaan will test his new mount November 9 during the free practice session of the Brasilia race.

The Copa Caixa attacted some very talented drivers with F1 or IndyCar experience, such as Max Wilson, Luciano Burti, Antonio Pizzonia, Vitor Meira and Ricardo Zonta.

The next-generation Volkswagen Beetle Convertible will officially make its debut at the 2012 Los Angeles Auto Show, but the automaker today unveiled images that show a sportier, more dynamic interpretation of the iconic design.

Based on the Beetle coupe, the new Volkswagen Beetle Convertible relies on a traditional soft top (rather than a folding hard top) that takes a little over 10 seconds to drop down or move back in place at the touch of a button.

Two rollover bars are concealed behind the back of the rear bench seat, activated by the computer that deploys the airbags in the case of a crash.

Inside, designers of the new Volkswagen Beetle Convertible retained the most popular elements such as the body-coloured dashboard and the stylish gauges and trim.

Pricing for the U.S. will be announced closer to launch, which occurs in the last quarter of 2012.

Photo: Volkswagen

From GMM

A new task on Martin Whitmarsh's busy job-list for the rest of 2012 will be to "protect" Lewis Hamilton after the long-time McLaren protege decided to leave the great British team at the end of the season.

"Clearly there will be cause to be distracted in the next days and weeks," McLaren boss Whitmarsh admitted.

He is referring to Hamilton's bombshell news about Mercedes.

Whitmarsh must now ensure the 27-year-old's focus remains on trying to win this year's titles in a McLaren, even though success for the Briton would mean Hamilton takes the coveted 'number 1' to the nose of a different silver car in 2013.

Lewis Hamilton and Martin Whitmarsh, still friends for six races. (Photo: WRi2)

He admitted there will be new distractions around Hamilton as a result for the all-important final six races of his McLaren career.

"We've got to try and protect him from that," said Martin Whitmarsh. "He's assured me that he's a McLaren man for the rest of this year and that he's going to be completely focused on winning and we are going to try and create as much protection of him and the environment in which he can do that."

Whitmarsh also denied that, despite his championship contention, McLaren might begin to walk away early from Hamilton, including by flowing the bulk of the development items to his teammate Jenson Button, and locking him out of discussions.

"Lewis is a McLaren driver, he will be the recipient of the development items that we have for this year's car," he insisted.

"He will have every single development for instance in Japan and beyond. In that regard, he will be involved in the development at the race circuit, although clearly he won't be involved in the development of next year's car," explained Whitmarsh.

Michael Schumacher announced in Suzuka today, he will stop his F1 career at the end of the season.

Following Mercedes AMG's decision to replace him for 2013 with Lewis Hamilton, Michael Schumacher explained in Japan: "If [anything] at all, it is relief. We had a three-year agreement and already it was hard work for me to keep the motivation and keep the energy and always go forward.

Michael Schumacher (Photo: Mercedes AMG)

"With all that I have achieved, it is natural that you think about it a little bit more than maybe being young. So in a way how things have developed, I am actually very pleased.

"I have always been informed by the team, so I knew what was going on and I am quite happy that things have developed in this direction and I am free to get back the freedom I had before."

Schumacher added: "I told you at the time in 2006 that my battery was empty, and I am (now) on the red zone with my batteries. I was not sure if I could recharge them with the time we have available or not, and I felt it is time for freedom again."

Schumacher was unsure of his desires, but the commitment of Lewis Hamilton to Mercedes last week convinced him.

"The special moment in a way was obviously that the team found an option with Lewis that sort of helped me find that decision. Obviously there was an option for me to do so at an earlier stage and I was in the picture when there was the negotiation going on, but I didn't want to decide. I wasn't sure about myself, so it is like this. Sometimes in life your destiny will develop by itself and so it did. But without any hard feelings and without any regrets."

Until now, Michael Schumacher scored 91 victories, 68 pole positions and 155 podiums.

Adapted from Renault Sport

Thanks to the help of Renault Sport, we will here explain pedal maps and torque maps, and how they influence power delivery in a Formula 1 car.

“There are essentially two types of pedal map. There's a conventional one dimensional pedal map, which is basically a representation of a driver's throttle against the pedal input that is passed across to the engine controller. You can use this to quickly change the feel of the engine to the driver, but it is slightly obsolete now; you might have found it in the sport ten years ago. Some road cars now feature a ‘sporty' pedal map of exactly this style, with the initial engine response feeling more aggressive to give the impression of it being racier,” said David Lamb, Renault Sport F1 engine engineer for Williams F1 Team.

“Now when we talk about pedal maps we talk about the torque pedal map, which is a two dimensional map against engine speed and throttle pedal position. For a given pedal position and a given engine speed, you generate an engine torque demand from the driver. It is this demand that gets fed to the engine side of the ECU to deliver the required amount of torque,” Lamb continued.

Photo: WRi2

While the role of pedal maps is to ensure the driver has the power he requires, they can also be used to give the driver a bit of help.

“With driver torque pedal maps, you can have different philosophies. You can have a constant torque map, where regardless of the engine speed you receive the same torque demand for a given throttle pedal position. However, this offers no wheel spin assistance, which can be incorporated with a constant power style pedal map.

“For example, say you're at 50% pedal on the throttle and at 15,000 RPM, you might get around 200Nm of torque. If you get a bit of wheelspin and the engine speed increases to 16,000 RPM, the torque at the wheels will be reduced as this is a constant power pedal map - power being the product of torque and engine speed. It's not traction control as it isn't controlling to a wheel slip target, but instead an open-loop method to try and help wheelspin control. It can be of real benefit when the tires are worn out,” the Renault Sport engineer explained.

The maximum amount of torque engine engineers are proportionally allowed to remove as a function of engine speed is limited by the FIA so, as always, getting the right balance to help the driver and stay on the right side of the law is a juggling act.

“You can have an area of constant torque on a pedal map followed by a region of ‘constant power' decay afterwards. Your torque pedal map could therefore be a mix of this and a constant torque map, depending on the preference of your driver and your car,” Lamb said.

Renault engine installed in Williams chassis. (Photo: WRi2)

But it isn't just in the use of the pedal that mapping is important. It is also when the driver is off-throttle that is of almost equal importance.

“The zero percent line is when the driver is completely off the pedal. It is this line that sets the amount of over-run push. This is when the engine continues to turn and produce torque, albeit still slightly negative, under braking. Getting this correct is essential as we use it to reduce rear locking under braking. It's another open-loop system, this time pseudo anti-lock, so as the tires wear out the driver will tend to increase the amount of push during the course of a stint.

“The downsides are that the heat rejection to water and oil will go up, so fluid temperatures will increase, and you'll also use more fuel to achieve this. It's quite a pronounced effect: if you plan to use maximum push for the whole race you could end up adding another two kilos to the starting race fuel load,” he concluded.

From GMM

Having contested three minor Italian rallies since returning to active competition recently, Robert Kubica has revealed he is now eyeing "the track".

The Pole has not yet driven a single seater since returning to health, because the long-term injuries to his right arm make full movement inside the cockpit currently impossible.

But Kubica, rated as one of the best F1 drivers through his BMW and Renault career until the end of 2010, has admitted he has targeted a return to F1-style circuit running in the near future.

"When I think about the future, I see myself 70 per cent on the track and 30 per cent in rallies," he is quoted by Autosprint magazine.

The 27-year-old announced that he wants to contest a full-time motor racing series "of the highest possible level" in 2013, with a 2014 return to F1 the obvious next target.

But he insisted: "Talking about F1 now is very premature. I'm pretty much starting from scratch. Rallies are useful for the adrenaline and the tension, but the track requires more concentration.

"So I want to switch between the two. I am planning a series of tests on tracks," Robert Kubica revealed.

According to British motorsport magazine Autosport, the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile has performed revised deflection tests during the technical inspection of the Formula 1 cars in the paddock of the circuit of Suzuka in Japan.

A rumour started to circulate after the Grand Prix of Singapore, saying that teams McLaren and Red Bull Racing were using front wings that could rotate backward on their axis at high speed, reducing aerodynamic drag. The tricky wings were apparently able to pass the standard deflection tests.

McLaren MP4-27 front wing. (Photo: WRi2)

The FIA therefore decided to introduce new tests in Japan to ensure that no teams are using these moveable front wings.

Sources have confirmed Autosport that the FIA has moved where a test load is applied to the front wing. The magazine understands that all teams passed the tests that were conducted at Suzuka.

However, it is unclear whether or not modifications had been made from previous designs that some teams had been using, as they were pre-warned about the new tests.

Toyota and Subaru are grappling with reports of rough idle and stalling conditions on their new sporty coupes. The problems on initial batches of the Subaru BRZ coupe and its Scion FR-S twin -- known as the Toyota FT-86 outside the U.S.

Supplier Visteon today announced the resignation of Executive Vice President and CFO Martin Welch.

2012 Audi A7 - Questioning The Big Wheels

Growing tired of the 20-inch wheels.

Labor Day may have meant a day off work for most of us, but our Audi A7 didn't get any reprieve from its usual road-trip duty. Managing editor Amy Skogstrom and her husband took the luxury car to South Carolina for a golf tournament at Myrtle Beach.

Photo Gallery: 2012 Audi A7 - Questioning The Big Wheels - Automobile Magazine

Photo Gallery: 2012 Audi A7 - Questioning The Big Wheels - Automobile Magazine

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Despite the downturn in many parts of Europe, Chevrolet sales are up. Susan Docherty, who heads up both Chevrolet and Cadillac in the region, talks through her strategy for success with just-auto's Glenn Brooks.

GM and Costco Auto Program are offering Costco members preferred pricing and a $500 Costco Cash Card when they buy selected models #8212; some of which have suffered recent sales declines.

Also in this episode: Scion sets its sights on the heavy metal demographic, and a dispute with a

Japanese companies placed nine vehicles and U.S. automakers placed eight on the short list of entries in the running for the 2013 North American Car and Truck/Utility of the Year awards.

The reason I haven't been able to get my

Shai Agassi has stepped down as CEO of Better Place amid talk of clashes with the board on company strategy.

News 3 Oct, 2012

The revised Mazda 3 MPS gets new 18-inch alloys and different exterior trim

Pictures 3 Oct, 2012

News 3 Oct, 2012

New Nissan X-Trail N-Tec+ model adds lots of kit and costs £27,790