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While Fisker's demise has been a foregone conclusion for a little while, it was only on Tuesday that co-founder and COO Bernard Koehler admitted to the U.S. government that “the company may be obliged to seek bankruptcy protection to facilitate its continued efforts to preserve value for all stakeholders.”

At the same time, Koehler said he doesn't know exactly what the future holds for Fisker, including whether new investors will emerge.

The struggling electric car maker, which laid off 75% of its employees earlier this month, has some serious financial problems that are only getting worse.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DoE), which seized Fisker's emergency reserve funds this week, is also under fire after a PrivCo report claimed it knew by December 2010 that Fisker wasn't meeting milestones required to keep drawing taxpayer funds, yet waited until June 2011 to cut off funding.

Source: The Detroit Bureau

British motorsport publication Autosport Friday writes that teams are working to get the winter test sessions to be revamped in order to run the new turbo cars in January of next year instead of February.

The switch to normally aspirated V8s to the 1.6-litre V6 turbo is already a huge task, the teams, as well as the engine suppliers (Ferrari, Renault and Mercedes-Benz) want to track test the new motors as early as possible to ensure that everyone is as ready for the first race of the season.

Although no dates have yet been formally approved, Autosport has learned that F1 teams are now gearing up for an earlier than usual start to running because of the desire of engine supplier to get some track mileage done in January.

Photo: Mercedes-Benz

They are currently edging towards a plan of getting a test done at Jerez in Spain in late January next year prior to some tests in the Middle East. The FIA is currently reworking that rule so it can then be approved by teams.

It is hoped this can be ratified at the next meeting of Formula 1's Sporting Working Group that takes place ahead of the Grand Prix of Spain in Barcelona.

The go-ahead for a January test would leave the door open for teams to prepare an interim test car for the V6 turbo engine test, but such a scenario appears unlikely because of the huge drain of resources that would require amid the extensive effort needed just to get a 2014 contender up and running.

The hipster movement is not new. Car fanatics have been liking the un-cool, the ugly and the nasty for decades. More than that, cruising the streets with an ugly forgettable disaster of a car takes cohones and chutzpah. Although some of these cars require less of either to be seen in, they remain awful to look at but very chill to have.

Lincoln Versailles

Photo: That Hartford Guy / Flickr

Continue reading Top 10 ugliest cool cars

When Matt Kenseth won the STP 400 he was elated. The second win of the year for the 2003 Sprint Cup Champ virtually locked him into NASCAR's playoff's called the Chase.

Then on Wednesday NASCAR lowered the boom on his team when it found one connecting rod (out of eight) was less than three grams underweight.

NASCAR fined the crew chief, Jason Ratliff $200,000 and suspended him for six races. Worse the Joe Gibbs Racing team would be denied owner's points for six races.

On Thursday in Richmond, Virginia, the two-time Daytona 500 winner was not happy.

"I think the penalties are grossly unfair. I think it's borderline shameful,” said Kenseth.

Matt Kenseth and Crew chief Jason Radcliff. (Photo: NASCAR)

“There's no argument the part was wrong. They weighed it and it was wrong. However, there is an argument that there certainly was no performance advantage,” he continued. “Certainly to crush Joe Gibbs like that -- to say they can't win an owner's championship with the 20 this year is just, I can't wrap my arms around that, it just blows me away.”

On Wednesday Lee White, president of Toyota Racing Development which supplied the engines, said that TRD “screwed up.”  A third party vendor had delivered one connecting rod which was underweight, and despite the fact that all the parts were over the minimum weight NASCAR imposed one of the most severe penalties in history.

Brad Keselowski, the defending Cup champion - coincidentally whose team was hit with heavy penalties last week reacted “yeah, I think there's no doubt that there's been a pretty significant ratcheting effect to the penalties in the sport.  It takes a lot to really surprise me nowadays, whether it was the penalty we received the past week or the one that happened to the Gibbs group.  I understand both sides, in a sense, but then again I don't.  I think it's really tough.

"What the sport really lacks right now is a way for us to curb fair play - balance the fair play that the sport needs so that our fans can really relate to it without presenting this - I don't want to call it an illusion - but presenting this almost like a façade as though there's cheating in the sport.  I think it's pretty obvious that when you look at Matt's issue the pieces and the parts were not that influential to the performance, and probably didn't win him the race,” he said.

As result of the penalties Kenseth said "my excitement for tonight is at an all-time low. It just is right now. By tomorrow, I'll be ready to get on the track and I'll race and try to have fun tonight and give it my all. I have a lot of work to do tonight and tomorrow morning and get ready to get in the Cup car and go out and win a pole and try to win the race."

From GMM

Although still referred to as the famous British team's 'supremo', the 65-year-old - succeeded by Martin Whitmarsh - stepped down as McLaren team principal some years ago.

He also sold half of his 30 per cent stake in the Woking based company to the Bahrain investment vehicle Mumtalakat Holding, and most recently has been focused on McLaren's road car production subsidiary.

McLaren MP4-12c GT3. (Photo: McLaren Automotive)

And according to Auto Motor und Sport, it is the road car business, and the extent of Bahrain's new influence at McLaren, that has resulted in Dennis' latest demotion.

The German magazine reports that Dennis has lost his voting rights on the McLaren Group board, leaving him only a non-executive member due to his status as co-owner.

Auto Motor und Sport said Bahrain is angry because Dennis' pet project, McLaren Automotive, is losing rather than making money.

"Instead of the planned 3,500 units, only half of that are sold," wrote correspondents Michael Schmidt and Bianca Leppert.

"The Bahrainis are seeing their money disappear, never to return," they added, estimating Bahrain's losses in the hundreds of millions.

UPDATE
McLaren played down reports Ron Dennis has been demoted by team co-owner Bahrain.

A McLaren spokesperson on Friday told the BBC that Dennis' change of role was decided by himself.

The spokesman did, however, admit that group chairman Dennis is now a non-executive board member.

Dennis is quoted as saying: "The difference in the job is I don't have accountability for the actions of the management."

He denied rumours of significant disagreements with the Bahrainis and also shareholder Mansour Ojjeh, or that he had attempted to wrest back control of the F1 team from Martin Whitmarsh.

"There has absolutely been no suggestion of my role in the company changing beyond the change of roles that took place as per my contract in January," said Dennis.

Geely Automobile Group and startup automaker Detroit Electric have agreed to develop electric vehicles and electric drivetrains for sale in China.

Ford has partnered with Shinola, a Detroit-based luxury products manufacturer, to develop a commemorative watch celebrating

Mitsubishi today forecast its operating profits will jump 48 percent in the fiscal year that began April 1, lifted by a favorable yen exchange rate as well as an anticipated sales surge in the United States.

Hyundai apologized for a spot, created by the agency Innocean Europe for use in the United Kingdom, showing a suicide attempt failing because the vehicle, the ix35 crossover, did not produce any harmful emissions.

The auction of the Don Davis Collection isn't going to break any records where volume is concerned: Just 64 lots are set to cross the block this Saturday, April 27, in Fort Worth, Texas.

and#8220;Grid 2and#8221; will hit video-game store shelves on May 28.

GM CEO Dan Akerson's compensation mix was changed in 2012 to accommodate the possibility he may retire before his long-term restricted stock vests in three years, the company said.

2013 Nissan Leaf First Drive

Good news for the .0001 percent.

Almost two and a half years after its introduction, the Nissan Leaf's sweet spot may be in sight. The Leaf now exceeds Lotus's annual sales every month and soon will better Lotus and Maserati together. Meanwhile, there have been no reports of garage fires while the Leaf is charging, and the lithium-ion batteries that were baking last summer in Phoenix, impinging the performance of some Leafs, have enjoyed a rare winter that brought a snowfall to the Valley of the Sun.

Photo Gallery: 2013 Nissan Leaf First Drive - Automobile Magazine

Photo Gallery: 2013 Nissan Leaf First Drive - Automobile Magazine

2013 Nissan Leaf First Drive | Digg It | Add to del.icio.us

The Jetta is Volkswagenand#8217;s franchise player in the United States.

News 25 Apr, 2013

Our spies have a caught a high-performance version of the all-new Range Rover Sport testing

Economic troubles in Europe cut into the first-quarter earnings of three major suppliers based in the United States that reported their financials today -- Lear, BorgWarner and Dana.

Economic troubles in Europe cut into the first-quarter earnings of three major suppliers based in the United States that reported their financials today -- Lear, BorgWarner and Dana.

GM's Opel division is against giving workers another vote on a restructuring deal at the automaker's embattled plant in Bochum, Germany.

Fiat may have to pay more than its original offer of about $140 million for Chrysler Group shares being bought from the UAW's retiree health-care trust, a Delaware judge suggested in court today.

Fiat may have to pay more than its original $140 million offer for Chrysler Group shares being bought from the UAW's retiree health-care trust, a judge in the United States suggested in court today.