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The ethanol market in Brazil remains under pressure after five years of nearly frozen petrol prices. Since biofuel production costs kept rising, its pump prices have been far from competitive for two years.

News 2 Jan, 2013

The Skoda Octavia-rivalling Qoros GQ3 has been revealed ahead of its Geneva show debut

Eyeing a luxury car market expected to expand from 50,000 units in 2012 to up to 130,000 a year by 2016, Audi may set the pace to produce them locally.

A little before the milestone of 60 years of operations in Brazil, due later in this first quarter of 2013, Volkswagen announced it had exported 3m cars and light commercials since 1970.

Peter Schreyer, Chief Design Officer at Kia Motors, has been appointed as the brand's president - the first non-Korean to hold that title in the company's history.

Indonesian state-owned steel company PT Krakatau Steel announced an agreement late last year to build a new steel plant in partnership with Japan's Nippon Steel and Sumitomo Metal Corporation.

Hyundai Motor and smaller affiliate Kia Motors forecast their slowest sales growth in seven years as a slowing global economy and strengthening won saps demand. The two companies plan combined sales to rise 4.1 percent to 7.

Sales of new autos, a bright spot for the U.S. in 2012, will grow further this year as an improving economy and demand for pickups and for mid-sized cars boosts registrations 6.6 percent, according to R.L. Polk and Co. About 15.

Once considered a risky bet, Romanian automaker Dacia has become Renault's global profit machine. Europeans think of Renault's Dacia lineup as cheap, entry-level models that compete with used cars for sales.

Until last year, I had not driven a modern Dacia model nor felt any compelling reason to do so. However, the huge sales success of the Duster SUV encouraged me to try one of the models made by Renault's low-cost subsidiary.

From GMM

A list of the best formula one drivers of all time has overlooked Ayrton Senna for a top-three spot, and left out Fernando Alonso completely.

Italy's Autosprint said Juan Manuel Fangio, the five-time world champion of the 50s, deserves the number one spot.

He is listed ahead of runner-up Michael Schumacher, with triple world champion Sir Jackie Stewart also finishing ahead of the late and revered Senna.

Ayrton Senna leading Alain Prost at Monaco, in 1988. (Photo: WRi2)

Jim Clark, Alain Prost, Sir Stirling Moss, Alberto Ascari and Niki Lauda are ranked fifth to ninth respectively, with reigning triple world champion Sebastian Vettel completing the top ten.

Spaniard Alonso, Ferrari's double world champion who was recently voted the top driver of 2012 by team principals, was not mentioned.

Fernando Alonso, 2012 runner-up. (Photo: FIA)

"We have analysed not only the results on the track, but also the importance and impact a single driver had on his era," the Autosprint report read.

From GMM

Giedo Van der Garde's hopes of finally breaking into formula one in 2013 have "shrunk", according to the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf.

The now 27-year-old flirted with a move to F1 several years ago with brief test roles at Super Aguri and Spyker, and while racing for Caterham's GP2 team in 2012 he finished the F1 season as reserve driver for the green-coloured outfit.

With sponsor backing, the Dutchman was a leading candidate to be Charles Pic's 2012 teammate.

Giedo Van der Garde, Caterham. (Photo: Caterham F1 Team)

Van der Garde's new year has kicked off on a happy note with his engagement to his girlfriend, but De Telegraaf is reporting that Caterham incumbent Vitaly Petrov is now the hot favourite to complete the team's 2013 race lineup.

Van der Garde's manager Jan Paul ten Hoopen, however, said nothing has been decided.

JR Motorsports announced a primary sponsorship deal which puts Kasey Kahne and Brad Sweet in the driver's seat for 27 races sponsored by Great Clips. Dale Earnhardt Jr. a co-owner of the team will race in one additional race for this sponsor.

Kahne's relationship with Great Clips, going to back to 2003, was likely the driving in force in JRM obtaining the new sponsor. The company also recently announced a sponsorship of Kahne's No. 5 Chevrolet at Hendrick Motorsports for three NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races in 2013.

This is a financial boost in the arm which guarantees the company will field at least two entries in 28 of 33 Nationwide Series events. Smith is already committed to driving a full schedule, and Earnhardt Jr. will compete in select races in a third car.

Kasey Kahne and Brad Sweet. (Photo: JR Motorsports)

The breakdown includes: Kahne and Sweet will split time in the No. 5 Chevrolet for 27 races. Regan Smith will compete for a championship in the No. 7, and Earnhardt Jr. will carry his familiar No. 88 in a limited schedule that presently stands at four races.  One of Earnhardt's races will be with Great Clips branding to fill out the 28-race sponsorship package.

JRM is still seeking a primary sponsor for the remaining races in the Nationwide Series.

General Manager Kelley Earnhardt Miller said “the last three months have been critical for the direction of JR Motorsports and the commitment we've made, and this partnership with Great Clips is a major step in the right direction,” Earnhardt Miller said. “To sign a 28-race sponsor while adding Kasey Kahne and Brad Sweet to our line-up is quite extraordinary. Our goal is still to run two full-time teams, and this helps us greatly to achieve that.”

“Great Clips has been a long-time sponsor of mine for 10 years,” Kahne said.  “They support everything that I do from the Kasey Kahne Foundation to my sprint car team and they continue to grow their program in NASCAR. We all look forward to joining JR Motorsports and continuing to build on the success that they have had.”

A race schedule for Kahne and Sweet in the No. 5 Great Clips Chevrolet is still to be determined. So, too, is Earnhardt Jr.'s complete Nationwide Series slate. To date his only announced races are Feb. 23 at Daytona International Speedway and March 9 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, both in the No. 88 TaxSlayer.com Chevrolet.

Turner Motor Sports, where Kahne had raced in the Nationwide Series previously said the decision to end its' deal was not acrimonious. Steve Turner, owner of Turner Motorsports.  "They have been a big supporter of this race team since the beginning and we just can't Though we have mutually decided to end our business partnership, the friendships we have made over the years will endure well into the future."   


There is no word on where Cole Whitt, who drove the #88 for JRM in 2012 to seventh place in the series standings, will go.

From GMM

This year Toro Rosso car is "very different" to the 2012 model, Australian driver Daniel Ricciardo has revealed.

Ricciardo and his teammate Jean-Eric Vergne finished last season eighteenth and seventeenth consecutively, with the Faenza based squad ahead only of the sport's three newest teams in the constructors' standings.

23-year-old Ricciardo has acknowledged the pressure to improve in 2013.

"I'm aware of that, and I know that my targets in 2013 will have to be more ambitious," he told Italy's Autosprint magazine. "My Achilles heel is that this year, in the first part of the season, I wasn't aggressive enough in the races. In some aspects I was the opposite of Grosjean."

Daniel Ricciardo, Toro Rosso STR7. (Photo: WRi2)

Another crucial element, Ricciardo admitted, is a better Toro Rosso single seater.

"I have already seen the new car. When you examine it more closely, it is very different to the old one. I believe that it is better. In any case, it's not one of those cars that looks a total copy of the last one, as though nothing has changed," he added.

Kevin Blanch, IZOD IndyCar Series technical director, has used the Dallara Automobili facility to lay the groundwork for technical rules in the 2013 rulebook.

"With delivery of the new car last Dec. 15 and all the testing, it's given me an opportunity to check and verify procedures," Kevin Blanch said of the Dallara chassis introduced for the 2012 season. "We had about two months to update what we had built over eight years to fit the old car. We approached the 2012 season as what were the most important things we needed to check, and then we prioritized items and worked through all that until we went racing. Then you're racing back to back to back and there wasn't much time to develop the tech pad. So, just like the teams over the winter are developing the car, we're developing the tech pad to get back to where we used to be."

About 175 measurements and dimensional checks are conducted the first time a car goes through technical inspection during a race weekend - all in about 12 minutes. Additional checks are performed pre-qualifying and pre-race, plus spot checks following qualifications and the race.

Kevin Blanch adds: "Being able to work here where there is a fab shop and machine shop and engineers has been a big help. I've put the car on the tech pad and have played out different scenarios and have tried different ways to inspect items. I've talked to teams a number of times about what we're thinking of doing, and they're good about saying what they think needs to take place but here's what you need to be looking for if somebody will take it to the next level."

Photo: LAT for IndyCar

Car dimensions for 2013

Length:
Road and street course / short oval - The overall length of the car is 203.94 inches +/- 0.250 inches.
Speedway - The overall length of the car is 197.335 inches +/- 0.250 inches.

Wheelbase:
The maximum wheelbase is 121.500 inches and minimum is 117.500 inches.
The wheelbase of the car, left to right, may have a maximum variance of 0.750 inch.

Track width (measured at axle center line):
Oval events - Front and rear are limited to a minimum of 75.750 inches and a maximum of 76.750 inches.
Road and Street events -- Front and rear are limited to a minimum of 75.500 inches and a maximum of 76.500 inches.

Wheelbase offset:
Oval events - The car can be between .150 inches off center to the left or 0.600 inch off center to the right.
Road and street events - A maximum of +/- 0.250 inches permitted left or right of center.

Kia Motors Corp. has a new president. Peter Schreyer, the gifted designer who will forever be associated with the gorgeous Audi TT, becomes the first foreigner to head all of the South Korean automaker's operations.

Since leaving the four-ringed logo in 2006, Schreyer has completely transformed the face of Kia, as evidenced by the new Forte and Optima.

"I thought I wanted to give Kia a character and a family feel... If you come to a country and you see a Kia, you should recognize it immediately, like you recognize a BMW or Mercedes immediately," he said in an interview with Reuters in March 2012.

Source: Reuters

From GMM

Sebastien Buemi has kicked off his new year by learning he will not be making his return to the formula one grid in 2013.

Switzerland's Blick newspaper reports that the 24-year-old has been told he is out of the running to secure the vacant Force India race seat.

Driving the Toro Rosso in 2011, Sebastien Buemi was on the verge of securing a race seat with Sahara Force India in 2013. (Photo: WRi2)

Veteran correspondent Roger Benoit said Buemi, who lost his Toro Rosso drive at the end of 2011, will now work instead on having his deal as Red Bull's official reserve driver extended.

Roger Benoit said Buemi, who had also been linked with a Ferrari test deal, wants that new Red Bull contract in place "as quickly as possible".

"Buemi will not comment at this time. First he needs to safeguard his future," the journalist wrote.

Blick added that the Ferrari-linked Frenchman Jules Bianchi, and former team driver Adrian Sutil, are now the favourites to become Paul di Resta's new teammate at Force India.

Subaru Canada is recalling 293 vehicles equipped with dealer-installed accessory puddle lights after it's been discovered that a short circuit may develop causing the lights to melt and/or emit smoke. This could result in a fire.

Consequently, Subaru dealers will install an additional fused wiring harness.

Affected models include the 2006-2012 Tribeca, 2010-2011 Outback and Legacy, and 2009-2012 Forester.

Source: Transport Canada

Photo: Mike Goetz

Forbes magazine recently published the list of the 10 best-selling cars in the world in 2012 and crowned a new leader.

With nearly one million units, the Ford Focus edged the venerable Toyota Corolla (966,000 units), followed by the Volkswagen Jetta, Hyundai Elantra, and Ford Fiesta.

Rounding out the top 10 were the Volkswagen Golf, Toyota Camry (No. 1 in the U.S.), Volkswagen Polo, Chevrolet Cruze, and Honda Civic (No. 1 in Canada).

As you may have noticed, all of them are small, fuel-efficient cars, save for the Camry.

Toyota could have retained its seat atop sales charts if it hadn't been for a territorial dispute between Japan and China that sparked a boycott of Japanese cars by Chinese consumers in the latter half of the year. As a result, Toyota sales in China dropped about 25%.

Source: Forbes

Photo: Mathieu St-Pierre

Bentley will launch the Continental GT Speed Convertible at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit on January 14th. With a 625-horsepower W12 engine allowing a top speed of 325 km/h, this brand new model will become the fastest four-seat production cabriolet in the world.

The Bentley Continental GT Speed Convertible sports exclusive 21'' wheels, dark tinted grilles, and ''rifled'' tailpipes. Inside the lavish cabin, buyers will find distinctive diamond-quilted leather upholstery along with an exclusive Dark Tint Aluminum ''engine spin'' finish inspired from the dashboards of the Le Mans-winning Bentleys of the 1920s.

The infotainment system has been improved and can now store up to 15 Gigabytes of music. Optionally, the Naim for Bentley sound system comes with custom-built speakers that automatically adjust audio balance settings when the roof is lowered.

Similar to Mercedes-Benz and its Airscarf system, the company also added a practical neck warmer. When you don't have a choice but to keep the top up, the four-layer fabric has proven to withstand even the harshest elements and conditions.

Pricing for the Bentley Continental GT Speed Convertible will be announced later.

Photo: Bentley