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-- Ferrari is getting into the Christmas spirit by... towing Santa's sleigh with one of their F138 race cars.

Jim Blanchard was horrified as he watched the Detroit 3 CEOs stumble through the congressional bailout hearings in November and December 2008.

GM's decision this month to stop manufacturing Holdens in Australia looks like the marketing equivalent of a car crash.

The steering wheels of current Formula 1 cars are not only handmade work of arts, but they are also highly concentrated pieces of advanced technologies.

Steering wheels are not purchased, but entirely designed and hand made by each team to suit the demands of their drivers and engineers.

Since there are no dashboards in the modern F1 cars, all the controls, switches and displays are located on the steering wheels, allowing the driver to make adjustments to the car performance and behaviour while driving at 300 km/h.

Drivers can modify the settings of the engine, the KERS, the DRS, the differential and the brake balance.

Although all steering wheels are different, most buttons and switches are common to all of them.

Steering wheel of the Ferrari F138. (Photo WRI2)

N: Puts gearbox in neutral
DIF: Adjust the settings of the differential
RADIO: To talk to the team by radio
DRINK: To drink during the race
PUMP: Activates reserve oil tank
REV: Set maximum revs of the engine
MIX: To change engine maps to save fuel, for example
TRQ: (Torque) Changes torque settings, changes torque delivery
BOOST:To increase power delivery to pass another car
CHRG: To make adjustments to the KERS
BP: Bite Point Finder, used to accurately measure the clutch bite point
OK: To acknowledge radio message
10 + : To change a selected value by increments of 10
1 -: To change a selected value by increments of 1
PIT: Set speed limiter in the pit lane

Steering wheel of the Lotus E21. (Photo WRI2)

Steering wheel of the Caterham CT03. (Photo WRI2)

Steering wheel of the Williams FW35. (Photo WRI2)

Steering wheel of the Red Bull RB9. (Photo WRI2)

Ferrari F138 (Photo WRI2)

Auto123.com Racing would like to wish a Merry Christmas to all its readers.

May the joy and peace of Christmas be with you today, and always.

Best wishes to all. And if you drive, please don't drink !!

Formula 1 cars are weighed during the Grand Prix weekend to ensure they comply with the minimum weight requirement of 640 kg. Teams use ballast to ensure the cars run at the minimum weight.

Ballast was once made of iron or lead. Nowadays, a much more advanced material is utilized: a tungsten alloy trademarked, Densamet.

Densamet is very good candidate for the manufacture of various balance and ballast components to allow engineers the opportunity to optimise vehicle handling. Ballast is normally located underneath the floor of the car as close to the ground as possible to maintain a very low Cg (centre of gravity).

Caterham F1 Team recently released photos of some of the ballast located inside their CT03-Renaults.

(Photo: Caterham F1 Team Twitter)

Here are two examples of ballast, the same size and volume. One is made of aluminium, while the other is made of Densamet.

Aluminium (Photo: Caterham F1 Team Twitter)

The aluminium ballast weighs around 800 g (1.8 lbs) -- easily light enough to lift with a few fingers.

Denasmet (Photo: Caterham F1 Team Twitter)

The Densamet tungsten alloy ballast weighs 9 kg (19.8 lbs). One needs the whole palm of his hand to hold it!

Passion is a great motivator. Passion is also a driving force. I believe that so long as one has passion and heeds its call, they shall never be truly sad.

To channel this passion is to be powerful, determined, and comfortable with one's self. On Rob Dickinson's personal Web site, the man behind Singer Vehicle Design, he explains that he's glad he did not expend any energy in defining his band, Catherine Wheel. Because of his state of mind, this excellent band's moderate success was recognition enough and not a reflection on the singer/songwriter's talent or skill.

This is passion speaking. Confidence exuded.

In my time, I've had passion for music (I played in a band for a number of years) and for my true calling, the automobile. Rob Dickinson has had the same, but has been able to take both loves to a whole other level with passion and talent to go with it.

As a lover of vintage Porsches, it only made sense that when Rob's band disbanded and his solo career was burgeoning that he scratch the other itch and see where it would take him.

Where this venture lead and is taking Mr. Dickinson, I don't think he could have foreseen.



SVD
Singer Vehicle Design was officially founded in 2009, but Rob was already working on a car beforehand. This same car and I were able to meet at the Quail in 2010 during Monterey Car Week. Texas was her name and deeply in love I fell at that very moment. But enough about that, let's talk about a Porsche 911 that has been dutifully restored, tuned and customized by Singer Vehicle Design.

It all starts with a customer-supplied 1990-'94 Porsche 911 of the 964 generation. It is important to understand that Singer does not sell cars. It reconstitutes and breathes new life into an older car. Consider them as an A-Z tuner of what they consider to be the "most important sports car on the planet and worthy of such celebration for its iconic status and the genius of the company and the men that created it."

The Car
It starts with a complete deconstruction; stripped chassis on a rotisserie then additional reinforced welding. From here, the ultra-sexy carbon-fibre body panels are fitted and then painted. Some damn fine looking front 9"x17'' and rear 11"x17'' Fuchs wheels (painted or not) are rolled on and racing side stripes stuck on for the perfect final exterior touch.
The cabin is reconstructed from dashboard to rear deck, from door to door. A fully integrated roll hoop (upholstered in padded leather) is affixed behind the seats, and then all surfaces that come into contact with the occupants are swathed in the finest materials possible.

The key element here is that all of the new stuff is period correct. The interior recalls that of the Porsche from the '60s and '70s and that includes the seats, steering wheel, and overall décor.

Under the rear bonnet goes a 270-horsepower 3.6L H6 for starters. A 5-speed manual Getrag G50 transmission does gear duty. Optionally, a 360-horsepower 3.8L H6 and 6-speed box can be spec'd at extra cost.

Photo: Olivier Delorme

Obsessive attention to detail
I've grossly understated the amount of work that goes into each and every Singer Vehicle Design reconditioned Porsche 911. By Rob's estimates, Singer stops counting after 4,000 hours have been devoted to the car; a mind-blowing number to be sure.

That time is not wasted on trivial things. They are invested in meticulous fit and finish, matching and even surpassing what the best automakers (luxury included) can do today. The attention to detail makes the head hurt and I'm convinced that when these cars were painstakingly designed, many Advils and Excedrins were consumed.

The final product belongs in an art gallery as opposed to a crude garage. Each gap is perfect; all body panels align with precision. We witnessed one of the workers install a window crank system -- I had no idea such a banal thing could be made to look so important. In all seriousness, I've never witnessed craftsmanship such as this.

The present and the future
The shop itself, located in Sun Valley, CA, is very underwhelming, in stark contrast with the cars being assembled within its walls. It shares its outer footprint with a body shop that is littered with rusted, mangled classic cars and trucks all over the front parking lot. This is proof that one should never judge a book by its cover...

What started out as a low-key venture has become one of the most appreciated and practically worshiped tuners of Porsche cars. Those in the know know that Singer makes a classic 911 like few others.

Unexpectedly, in the interview, Rob touched on the future and the fact that he'd be open to expanding his craft to another car. I could not get him to specify a make or model, but I'm thinking something British would make the most sense given his roots... Time will tell.

Photo: Olivier Delorme

View the uncut version of the interview here.

The Brazilian government will gradually roll back tax breaks on cars next year amid worries from producers that higher duties could hit sales in the South American country.

I live in Denver and own a couple of large dogs, which means that I am more or less required by law to own a Subaru.

U.S. safety regulators upgraded an investigation into more than 250,000 Mercedes-Benz C-class cars for possible failure of the rear lights.

Kacy Marrs was working at a Chick-fil-A when he first met Brad Fanshaw three years ago. Fanshaw is

ASSOCIATE EDITOR JAKE LINGEMAN: I had two days to check out the 2014

Editor's note: When the C7 Corvette stomped the competition in our

Polestar isn't the only Volvo tuner out there, and it's about to face some stiff competition from Stuttgart's Heico Sportiv.

Lynda King hung up her phone and apologized. "That was a guy from Georgia," she said. "He wants a yellow one for his hotel. Some kind of 'welcome the troops' thing."

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, they say. Mercedes-Benz might disagree right about now.

The U.S. auto industry has come full circle, from boom to bankruptcy to boom, and Detroit's road from reckoning to revival was shorter than expected.

Porsche chose Patrick Long, Richard Lietz, Nick Tandy and Michael Christensen to represent it in the new United SportsCar Championship (USCC).

Tandy and Litz are sharing the No. 911 Porsche 911 RSR in the GT Le Mans category. Long and Christensen will be behind the wheel of the second factory entry, No. 912.

Patrick Pilet and Joerg Bergmeister will complete the pairings at the upcoming 24 Hours of Daytona.

Jon Bennett's Core Autosport acts as Porsche's official competition partner in the USCC.

Photo: Core Autosport

From GMM

Mercedes has ruled out cooperating with Renault in the development of its all-new turbo V6 engines for formula one.

On the road-car side, however, Mercedes and Renault-Nissan do cooperate, and it is expected the alliance will only be expanded further in the months to come.

Henry Foy, a correspondent for the Financial Times, said the cooperation comes as "all global carmakers explore partnerships and joint ventures to reduce costs and grow in new markets".

"The moves are designed to cope with the worst European car market in two decades and unprecedented pressure to innovate into new areas, such as more fuel-efficient cars," he added.

Dieter Zetsche, Mercedes chairman (Photo: Daimler.com)

But Dieter Zetsche, the chairman of Mercedes and its parent Daimler, said the alliance with Renault does not mean the two F1 engine suppliers will work together in developing their engines for grand prix racing.

"No," he insisted during an interview with Germany's Auto Motor und Sport.

"While we do cooperate, we do not do any common advertising campaigns. And part of our marketing is motor sport.

"We have also said that if the 'common engine' was introduced in formula one, that would be our signal to leave," explained Zetsche.

"Engines are a core competency for us and we want to show that we can build the best one," he added.

From GMM

Carlos Sainz jr could be the next rookie in line for a Red Bull-powered step into formula one.

For 2014, it was expected that Antonio Felix da Costa would replace the Red Bull Racing-bound Daniel Ricciardo at the energy drink company's second F1 team, Toro Rosso.

But, instead, the Russian teenager Daniil Kvyat was selected from the Red Bull Junior Team, while Portuguese da Costa was appointed a F1 test driver.

Now, in 2014, the leading Red Bull-backed hopeful will be Spanish 19-year-old Carlos Sainz, who shares a name with his famous rallying legend father.

Carlos Sainz Jr, Formula Renault 3.5 (Photo: carlossainzjr.com)

Red Bull has trimmed its Junior Team for this season, with Sainz jr joined only in the programme by new GP3 driver Alex Lynn and Pierre Gasly, a 17-year-old Frenchman.

Sainz senior, the two-time world rally champion, is hoping his son can be the next to step up to F1.

"I know that he has the talent," he told Speed Week. "But that is not enough. To make it to formula one, he will also need a lot of luck."

Sainz jr will contest the full Formula Renault 3.5 series in 2014.