Canadian Jacques Villeneuve, the 1995 Indy 500 winner and 1997 Formula 1 World Champion, will contest the next round of the exciting V8 Australian Supercars Championship.
Villeneuve will fill-in for Greg Murphy in the No. 51 Pepsi Max Crew Commodore at next month's Sucrogen Townsville 400.
Jacques Villeneuve. (Photo: Australian V8 Supercars)
Murphy is unfit to driver as he recently underwent surgery to fuse two vertebrae.
“I feel for Greg Murphy having to miss a number of races in the championship as there is nothing worse for a race driver than sitting on the side lines with an injury and not being able to accumulate points in the series,” said Villeneuve from his home in Montreal.
“When this opportunity came up only one week ago, the stars all aligned and thankfully my commitments with the NASCAR Nationwide Penske team in America and Porsche Supercup in Europe allowed me to grab the Pepsi Max Crew seat for the Townsville race in an instant,” Villeneuve added.
Villeneuve last sampled a V8 Supercar at the 2010 Armor-All Gold Coast 600 when he shared The Bottle-O Falcon with Paul Dumbrell.
Pirelli has indicated its desire to stay in formula one beyond its current contract.
The sport's controversial sole tire supplier returned to F1 at the beginning of last year, having won a three-year tender from governing body the FIA.
"Our current contract ends at the end of the 2013 season, but we still want to be in F1 in the medium and long term," motor sport director Paul Hembery is quoted by the French-language website autohebdo.fr.
"If the sport wants us to stay and we can convince the management to continue, then we intend to keep going," the Briton reportedly added.
Jaime Alguersuari driving the Pirelli R30. (Photo: Pirelli)
McLaren played a role in developing a $1.4 million armoured vehicle for British troops to use in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
The Sun newspaper said the British formula one team, as well as BMW and world rally engineers, helped with the design of the new Foxhound truck, which arrived in Afghanistan last week.
The Foxhound has a top speed of 113kph, a V-shaped bottom to deflect bomb blasts, can be driven even with a missing wheel, and can have an engine replaced in just half an hour.
"This government has spent 270 million pounds on 300 of these high-tech, British-built vehicles to help keep our troops properly protected," said British defence secretary Philip Hammond.
Photo: Sergeant Andy Reddy, Crown Copyright/MOD 2012
J.D. Powers has established Lexus, at 73 Problems Per 100 vehicles (PP100), had the lowest problem rate of all car manufacturers. Jaguar and Porsche, which scored 75 PP100, stand second. MINI (139), Fiat and Smart (151 each) posted the three worst scores.
For the first time in 26 years of recorded history, car owners have reported more problems (24% increase) with audio, entertainment and navigation systems than with any other type of equipment; partially because of the rapid introduction of new technologies, such as speech recognition softwares. Furthermore, problems regarding hands-free devices have increased by over 137% in four years.
Looking for new and intense thrills or maybe just a change of scenery? Then consider Aventures Plein Air in St. Hippolyte, just a few kilometres north of St. Jerome, Quebec. The owner, Alexandre Saey, partnered with François Peloquin, director of Auberge du Lac Morency, to offer visitors a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Specialized in ATV rental, Aventures Plein Air has been renting Jeeps for three years now. ''This is not a tourist trap,'' Saey quickly insists. ''We have real challenging trails with lots of mud, rocks, and river crossing.''
You don't need to be an avid off-roader to take part in one of the various outings, however. Most participants are first-timers, and many of them have never even stepped into a Jeep.
Photo: aventuresenpleinair.com
Of course, you won't be left alone out there. Three options are on the table: you can either hop in the same Jeep as your guide, rent a vehicle and follow him on the trails (with radio contact at all times), or bring your own Jeep and set up a raid with a guide.
The vehicles on hand have all been modified to handle the demands of off-road driving. Suspension travel is increased, and various parts have been added to make sure participants safely enjoy the adventure.
The trails used during the summer are reserved for Aventures Plein Air customers. For more information about the company including rentals, activities, tours and raids, visit www.aventurespleinair.com.
McLaren Automotive celebrates one and 1,000 today. The one is for the first anniversary of the opening of the British supercar maker's first dealership to retail the MP4-12C.
Remarks by two aides to President Obama this week calling fuel cells part of the solution for improving automobile fuel efficiency gave boosters some optimism the U.S. will help create a market for the technology.
Also in this episode: The Salmon car collection sells at auction, Bentley releases its fastest production model yet, and a behind-the-scenes video of the Tesla Model S being painted.
A proposed Pacific trade region may capture an additional $3 trillion in economic output, while boosting North American automotive trade, after Canada and Mexico were invited to take part in talks with nine other nations.
Jaguar, Porsche and Cadillac posted the biggest improvements in new-vehicle quality for the 2012 model year, while the Mini, Chrysler, Mercedes-Benz, Ford and Subaru brands fell back in a year that saw overall industry quality advance nearly 5...
The three most important things about a one-day driving school are track time, track time and track time. Monticello Motor Club in upstate New York offers that, plus hours of class instruction, on a 22-turn, 4.1-mile track 90 minutes from Manhattan.
In this interview, Matthew Beecham talked with Les Hill, Automotive Test Systems Product Planning Department of Horiba Ltd. The Horiba Group of worldwide companies provides an array of instruments and systems for applications ranging from automotive R&D, process and environmental monitoring, in-vitro medical diagnostics, semiconductor manufacturing and metrology, to scientific R&D and QC measurements.
The latest auto news, reviews, prices, product and vehicle releases. 
