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From GMM

Honda on Thursday announced it will base its formula one operations in the UK.

After a six-year absence from the paddock, the Japanese carmaker is returning to the sport in 2015 as a supplier of works V6 power to McLaren.

Photo: McLaren F1 Team

Honda will develop and manufacture the engines in Japan, but the trackside operations will be based at a site in Milton Keynes, where the engines and energy recovery systems will also be maintained.

This is nothing new as Honda already operated a base in the UK when they supplied engines to McLaren, Lotus, Williams and Tyrrell.

"With the confirmation of a new F1 operation base in the UK, our preparation to join F1 has become more specific and concrete," said motor sport chief Yasuhisa Arai.

Reigning world champions Red Bull are also based in Milton Keynes, a town in Buckinghamshire, England.

The Rolls-Royce Wraith, the most powerful car ever built by the British automaker, is one of the crown jewels at the 2013 Goodwood Festival of Speed in England, which kicks off today. This 624-horsepower fastback, which accelerates from 0-100 km/h in 4.6 seconds, will take part in the famous Goodwood Hillclimb.

Other Rolls-Royce models on display at Goodwood include the 2013 Alpine Trial Centenary Ghost that made its debut in Shanghai this spring and pays tribute to the 1913 Silver Ghost “Radley Car.” The two will actually travel up the Hillclimb side by side 4 times each day.

Moreover, the company is providing invited guests with the opportunity to drive a brand new Rolls-Royce Phantom or Rolls-Royce Alpine Trial Centenary Ghost around the Goodwood Estate during the Moving Motor Show on Thursday.

And of course, the return of the Soapbox Challenge, in celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Festival of Speed, would not be complete without the Rolls-Royce Motor Cars team.

Photo: Rolls-Royce

Photo: Rolls-Royce

Canadian Tire Motorsport Park's Racefest will take over Toronto's Yong-Dundas Square Wednesday, July 17 to offer racing fans a taste of racing action in advance of the Mobil 1 Grand Prix of Mosport, a few days later.

The event will be staged July 17, from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at Yonge-Dundas Square in Toronto.

Canada's biggest sports car race of the year, the Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix will featurw the American Le Mans Series for exotic prototype and GT race cars. A world-class field of drivers pilot the globe's top marques such as Aston Martin, BMW, Corvette, Ferrari, Lotus, Mazda, Porsche and Viper on Canada's classic, challenging road course.

Four other U.S.-based series will be on track; the Cooper Tires Prototype Lites, IMSA Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge, SCCA Pro Racing Playboy Mazda MX-5 Cup and the Pro Mazda Championship. The Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada by Michelin returns for their final Canadian Tire Motorsport Park event of the season to round out an exciting weekend of racing.

The RaceFest is a dynamic public and media event, with great on-site visuals, sounds and personalities.

It includes:

• Live Pit Stop demonstrations by the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) Corvette Racing team with Ron Fellows back behind the wheel for this special event

• The first Canadian showing of the unique and revolutionary DeltaWing prototype, a new generation race car, joined by team driver Andy Meyrick (Great Britain)

• "Team Canada's" ALMS drivers, Tony Burgess (Toronto) and Kyle Marcelli (Barrie), who will compete against an international field of top Sports Car drivers

• Drivers and race cars from other event weekend series, including Martin Barkey (Huntsville) and Tim Sanderson (Pickering) of the Ultra 94 Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada presented by Michelin, and James Vance (Stouffville) of the Playboy Mazda MX-5 Cup

• Driver Autograph Sessions and draws to win event tickets

From GMM

Luca di Montezemolo on Wednesday said he is not ready to talk about Felipe Massa's future at Ferrari.

The Brazilian has been involved in a string of on-track incidents dating back every race since Monaco, amid speculation the Italian team might finally choose another teammate for Fernando Alonso next season.

"Yes, these are critical moments," team boss Stefano Domenicali said after Massa's spin into retirement at the Nurburgring, "and of course we are not happy with the results. But we have to support Felipe, because the team is fighting for the constructors' championship."

Notwithstanding Domenicali's comments, 32-year-old Massa said he has "no idea" if his recent incidents had jeopardised his future.

And Ferrari president Montezemolo said on Wednesday: "(Massa's) Future? We will talk about that further down the line as there's no hurry."

Felipe Massa. (Photo: Ferrari)

Drivers including Nico Hulkenberg and Jules Bianchi have been linked with Massa's 2014 seat.

Felipe Massa was at Ferrari's Maranello factory to work in the simulator and meet with Montezemolo on Wednesday.

Montezemolo said: "Felipe is fully aware he can count on our total confidence in him. I hope he will soon secure the results that will show his talent to the full, such as the great starts he pulled off at the last two grands prix."

Former F1 engineer Gary Anderson, however, said Massa's recent mistakes have come at "the most inconvenient time" for the Brazilian, whose contract expires soon.

"The mistake at the Nurburgring is not one a driver of his calibre should be making," Anderson told Speed Week.

"Maybe it's time for Ferrari to get another driver who scores more regularly. Nico Hulkenberg is an obvious choice, but personally I would get Jules Bianchi. He is less likely to trouble Fernando's position as top dog," he added.

From press release

One of Canada's largest drag racing events, the Canadian Nitro Nationals, will be held this weekend and will feature the Pro Modified Racing Association, the Quick 32 Sportsman Series, and the Pro Bike & Sled Series.

This event, to be held July 12-14 on the Cayuga Dragway of Toronto Motorsports Park is the track's fourth annual, and the three series will play a prominent part in this major sporting event.

With two wins to his credit so far, Rocky Di Lecce leads the popular PMRA Pro Modifieds. The Mississauga, Ontario driver has been outstanding with his 1968 Camaro, and tops the Championship Point Award Series race over Jay Santos of Halton Hills, Ontario, Jack Grainy of Basom, New York, Bruce Boland of Hamilton, Ontario, and Derek Hawker of Corbyville, Ontario.

Presented by NAPA Auto Parts, the Quick 32 Sportsman Series pits Top Dragsters against Top Sportsman entries with large car counts and exciting Sportsman-style drag racing action.

Top contenders include Sam Christian of Amherst, New York, who has driven his Top Dragster to a win in 2013. Others include the Top Sportsman entries of two-time Quick 32 Sportsman Series champion Kevin Wicke, and the up-and-coming Spencer Hyde, both from Stratford, Ontario.

Top Dragster drivers Billy White of Gadshill, Ontario, who has a Quick 32 Sportsman Series victory this year, and the strong Top Sportsman team of Wilson & Gray from Ingersoll, Ontario are others who could easily drive into victory lane.

In the PBSS presented by Wiseco Performance Products, Dan Cryderman of Thamesville, Ontario leads the Championship Point Award Series with his Pro Bike Suzuki entry. He presently has one win for 2013, as does Ted Glinny of Milton, Ontario riding his Kawasaki in Pro Bike.

Others to watch in the PBSS include Dave Vandereyken of Acton, Ontario, Marty Kuiack, also of Milton, and John Orfanidis of Toronto, Ontario.

Qualifying rounds for all three series will take place on Friday and Saturday, July 12-13, with eliminations scheduled to take place July 14.

Along with these three drag racing series, the Canadian Nitro Nationals will feature nitromethane-burning Top Fuel Dragsters and Nitro Funny Cars, Nitro Nostalgia Funny Cars, the NDRA Alcohol Funny Car Series, the NDRA Pro Doorslammer Series, the Outlaw 10.5 Association, racing in the Can-Am Stock/Super Stock Series, Jet Dragsters and Shockwave, a Peterbilt semi-truck powered by three jet engines.

For more information, go to www.torontomotorsportspark.com

Six different categories of race cars and trucks will be featured during this weekend's Honda Toronto Indy.

The Honda Indy Toronto features a 1.755-mile (2.84-km), 11-turn temporary street course located in downtown Toronto. The track is constructed throughout and around Exhibition Place grounds and utilizes Lake Shore Boulevard as the backstretch.

For the first time, the event will feature a full length IndyCar race on both Saturday and Sunday. Each race will be an equal length, championship points' race.

Toronto track map.

IZOD IndyCar Series
The IZOD IndyCar Series is the premier open-wheel series in the United States, competing on a challenging combination of super-speedways, short ovals, scenic road courses and temporary street circuits. The series consists of 19 events; 17 in the US, one in Canada, and one in Brazil.

Firestone Indy Lights
The Firestone Indy Lights is the premier ladder series for drivers and teams striving to compete in the IndyCar Series and the Indianapolis 500.

Pro Mazda Championship
The second step in the Road to Indy ladder, the Pro Mazda Championship presented by Cooper Tires features a scholarship package for the series champion to advance to the Firestone Indy Lights the following year.

Photo: LAT for IndyCar

US F2000 National Championship
The Cooper Tires presents USF2000 National Championship powered by Mazda is part of the MAZDASPEED Motorsports Driver Development Ladder and is the first step in the Road to Indy.

Pirelli World Challenge
The Acura Sports Car Challenge featuring the Pirelli World Challenge is a competitive production based series that allows teams, manufacturers and aftermarket suppliers a chance to test their products in a race series. The race is limited to 50 minutes, where total number of laps, distance and lap times are factored.

Stadium Super Trucks
Robby Gordon's new concept of Stadium SUPER Trucks makes its Canadian debut at the 2013 Honda Indy Toronto. The amazing show involves high-powered off-road trucks racing side-by-side on challenging tracks consisting of jumps, crossovers and tight corners.

Photo: LAT for IndyCar

The FIA, Formula 1 racing's governing body, has set strict rules for the upcoming young driver test that will be held next week at Silverstone.

The governing body first has confirmed that the test will not be extended in to a fourth day and will instead remain a three-day session beginning July 17.

Following the tire failures in the recent British Grand Prix, the FIA decided to make changes to the Silverstone test, permitting race drivers to take part, provided that their running is limited to testing Pirelli's revised tires.

Photo: Ferrari

There had been discussions about extending the test to a fourth day to allow for extra tire running, but the FIA has decided to keep to the original dates.

Pirelli will be providing teams with extra sets of their revised tires, which are the 2012-specification construction combined with the 2013 soft, medium and hard compounds. However, teams have been reminded that any set-up changes that are made to cars when a race driver is at the wheel must be related to tire testing, not to improve the car.

Mercedes AMG is the only team that will not have the opportunity to test the revised tires. The Brackley-based team was excluded from attending the Silverstone session for breaching F1 regulations by taking part in a private 1000-kilometre tire test with Pirelli following the Spanish Grand Prix.

Photo: Pirelli

The FIA's statement in full:

The FIA today informed Formula One's teams of the conditions that will apply at the Young Driver Training Test scheduled to take place at Silverstone as of July 17.

The announcement follows a meeting of F1's Sporting Committee on Wednesday, July 3 at the Nurburgring, prior the German Grand Prix.

The conditions set out are in accordance with Article 22.4(h)(i) of the F1 Sporting Regulations, as recently amended by the World Motor Sport Council, and are as follows:

The Young Driver Training Test will remain a three-day test, from July 17-19.

Only the 2012 construction will be used for the test but with the hard, medium and soft 2013 compounds.

The test will now allow teams to field drivers who have competed in more than two F1 World Championship events provided that the purpose of them doing this is to test tires for Pirelli.

In order to meet this requirement, all teams shall ensure that any changes made to a car at these times are exclusively related to the tire tests set out in the run plan provided by Pirelli.

An FIA observer will be appointed to ensure the regulations are being followed.

From GMM

Pirelli has reversed its decision to bring harder tires to the forthcoming Hungarian grand prix.

Lotus had questioned the F1 supplier's "unusual" call in taking the same tires to tight and twisty Hungary as it did to Bahrain and Silverstone.

Chief engineer Alan Permane added that Pirelli's choice was too "conservative", even though teams like Mercedes and Red Bull pushed for it.

But the BBC reports that Pirelli has now tweaked its compound choice for Hungary, replacing the 'hard' with the 'soft'.

The tire supplier said the decision follows the introduction of the all-new tire construction in Hungary, combining the 2012 carcass with this year's compounds.

"The change to the 2012 construction means that Hungary doesn't require such a hard compound now," said a spokesperson.

Photo: Pirelli

San Diego, Ca. - Nissan is not only refreshing its model lineup, but its business model, as well. The 2013 NV200 is their entry into the compact commercial van category. Nissan feels the market for small, fuel-efficient vans has largely been ignored, and expects this emerging market to continue to be an area of growth.

What is The Nissan NV200?
The 2013 Nissan NV200 is a compact van that has a small, fuel-efficient engine in front of a fully customizable, integrated cab and cargo-van body. In North America, the only exception to the cargo van configuration will be in New York City where the NV200 will become a taxi cab.


2013 Nissan NV200 Price and Specs
A small mobile office that can haul up to 679 kg and carries a base price of $21,995 is a good way to start the description of the 2013 Nissan NV200. Some of the inclusions for your money are a standard Bluetooth™ connectivity, a six-way, manually adjustable driver's seat, and integrated floor and roof mounting points in the cargo area. The option list does contain a few “would be nice to have” items such as a sat/nav system and satellite radio.

Getting the 2013 Nissan NV200 down the road is handled via a 2.0L 4-cylinder that produces 131 horsepower and 139 lb-ft of torque. Transmitting the power to the front wheels falls to the latest-generation Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT) known as the Xtronic.

Getting the 2013 Nissan NV200 down the road is handled via a 2.0L 4-cylinder that produces 131 horsepower and 139 lb-ft of torque. (Photo: Charles Renny)

Driving the 2013 Nissan NV200
Ordinarily, the thought of driving an open cargo van with a volume of 3,474 liters in the cargo area would bring thoughts of high interior noise levels. There are few creases inside, but panel drumming and overall nose was minimal. Low rolling-resistance tires were quiet on most types of pavement.

The 2013 Nissan NV200 comes with a 195-wide tire which is narrower than expected for a cargo van of this size. This produces minimal wheel well intrusion into the cargo area. A bonus is that the latest generation of low rolling-resistance tires handles better than in the past and still contributes to up to 3% fuel economy improvement.

Driving in town in a cargo van means getting used to using mirrors, and the Nissan NV200 has good mirrors that provide an excellent view of what is beside and to the rear of the van. As good as it is in town, the 2013 Nissan NV200 can still handle freeway and highway speeds with ease. As long as you use a bit of right foot pressure, you will be able to accelerate with traffic, keep up on hills, and zip from lane-to-lane as required. On two-lane roads, passing will take a bit of planning since passing distances can be a bit long.

On the frugal operations side of the ledger, fuel economy ratings for the 2013 Nissan NV200 are 8.7L/100km in town and 7.1L/100km on the highway. Average for both is 8.0L/100km. When compared to economy cars this seems a bit high, but when compared with a full-size trade van, it is positively a fuel sipper not a guzzler.

Ordinarily, the thought of driving an open cargo van with a volume of 3,474 liters in the cargo area would bring thoughts of high interior noise levels. (Photo: Charles Renny)

Inside and Out of the 2013 Nissan NV200
There isn't much on the inside of the 2013 Nissan NV200 except lots of space. Up front are two comfortable seats covered in cloth. The instrument cluster is large and easily read, while the centre stack would be pretty plain, except for the large screen used for the backup camera and the GPS system (if ordered). What goes behind the seats depends on what you want to put there.

Getting inside is really easy. Two cargo doors at the back open up to 180 degrees to make access from the rear simple. One sliding door on each side makes sliding cargo in quite simple, as well. As for getting people in and out, there are two large doors that provide the driver and passenger with an ease of entry and exit often found on much larger vehicles.

Getting inside is really easy. One sliding door on each side makes sliding cargo in quite simple. (Photo: Charles Renny)

Comparing the Nissan NV200
The only other compact van available in Canada is the Ford Transit Connect. If Ford can't hear Nissan coming, they better start paying attention because the 2013 Nissan NV200 is a serious contender in this class, and Nissan means business about being in this class of vehicle.

From GMM

F1 authorities have clamped down even harder on pitlane safety protocols, in the wake of the Nurburgring incident.

After a television cameraman for Bernie Ecclestone's FOM operation was hospitalised by Mark Webber's stray wheel after a pitstop last Sunday, the FIA announced that media will be banned from the pitlane during races and qualifying.

And it now emerges that FOM has extended that ban to free practice, meaning that pit reporters will no longer be free to stalk pitlane for coverage and information during sessions.

The British broadcaster Sky confirmed that it has been told of the "all-new guidelines" by FOM ahead of the forthcoming Hungarian grand prix.

"Safety remains a prime concern and we are sure that, whilst the new regulations will mean certain changes to pitlane protocols, we are confident that our coverage will not be affected," Sky added in a statement.

Photo: WRi2

Rally Poland could make a return to the World Rally Championship, starting in 2014.

While Brazil and China are also bidding to appear on next year's WRC calendar, it seems that Poland will likely be back on the schedule.

Poland already hosted a WRC round back in 2009, won by Mikko Hirvonen in a Ford Focus.

Since Robert Kubica's impressive debuts in rally, the interest for the serie is increasing in Poland. Indeed, the former F1 driver currently drives a Citroen DS3 in both European Championship and WRC2 Championship.

However, China and Brazil are more attractive markets for the constructors involved or interested in the WRC.

This year's Rally Poland will be held in September as part of the European Rally Championship. The 2014 WRC calendar will be revealed in a few weeks.

Robert Kubica. (Photo: Citroen Racing)

Ford, responding to sluggish sales and moves by rivals, is cutting the price on the 2014 Focus EV by $4,000, or 10 percent, to $35,995. The price includes $795 for shipping.

The Hyundai HCD-14 was named the 2013 Concept Car of the Year by automotive writers at the North American Concept of the Year Awards.

Dario Franchitti was looking for a great year in 2007, as he won the Indianapolis 500, and claimed victories at Iowa and Chicagoland Speedway.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, a potential candidate for president in 2016, will address dealers from around the country at the National Automobile Dealers Association Convention and Expo in New Orleans in January, the trade group...

Many auto dealerships that use digital marketing vendor Cobalt to power their Web sites -- including General Motors' dealer network in the United States -- had their service disrupted today by a deluge in Web traffic.

As the United States economy has improved, so has the business confidence of auto industry execs, according to a recent study.

The Volvo XC90 has been with us for 10 years now -- a long time indeed when it comes to product life cycles of comparable upmarket SUVs.

The Jaguar XK-E, known in these parts as the E-type, is now recognized as one of the most attractive automotive designs, period. And that's over

Mini never shied away from setting records in the most dramatic way possible, and the company's next stunt hopes to set a new Guinness World Record for the largest parade of Minis.