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Shoppers in a Cadillac showroom can consider a just-released, redesigned CTS mid-sized sedan in a luxury trim package for about $55,000.

The troubled Finn will race the same short wheelbase version of the Lotus E21 he drove recently at the Yas Marina Circuit, next week when F1 visits the Circuit of the Americas.

At the bottom of his performance slump, during which he was outperformed four times by teammate Romain Grosjean, Raikkonen threatened to skip the last two grands prix of the season because he has yet to be paid this season.

But on the back of a new two-race deal with Lotus, he decided to race after all.

And it now appears it will be at the wheel of the short wheelbase E21, the same car he drove at the beginning of the season, when he was outpacing Grosjean, and in Abu Dhabi last week.

Kimi Raikkonen (Photo: Lotus F1 Team)

"It has a better feeling for me and seems to make it easier for me to get more of what I want from the car," Raikkonen explained. "We've been trying to get rid of understeer to get the car more as I want it and the shorter car helps with this."

Regarding the relationship within the team, Lotus boss Eric Boullier and owner Gerard Lopez are adamant everything is good, despite rumours Raikkonen could end the season at the Ferrari-powered Sauber team.

"He is completely on side," Boullier confirmed, referring to the Finn after an intense weekend of negotiations in Abu Dhabi.

"The only reason we are fighting for second in the world championship is because of all the points that Kimi scored," added Lopez. "We're doing everything we can to ensure (we) can continue to fight right up until the checkered flag in Brazil."

Sachin Tendulkar, one of the world's most famous cricket player, can look forward to retirement, as the sun sets on the Indian's 24-year career.

That is the claim of seven-time Formula 1 world champion Michael Schumacher, who retired for good just last year, after 307 grands prix and 91 wins.

"Having retired a bit earlier than him, I can (tell) him that (retirement) is something he can look forward to. There is just so much to discover, as finally there is time to do so. I wish him all the best," the German legend is quoted saying by Sports.ndtv.com.

Sachin Tendulkar (Photo: BCCI/iplt20.com_

The two sportsmen met on several occasions, the last being at the 2011 Indian Grand Prix, where Tendulkar waved the checkered flag.

"We have met several times in Italy and India, and even if admittedly I was not - and still am not - very firm in the sport of cricket, I am fully aware of how many people around the world are," Schumacher added.

The 40-year-old batsman received many honours throughout his career, including the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, presented to India's top sportsman.

From press release

Audi win Six Hours of Shanghai, as Allan McNish, Tom Kristensen and Loïc Duval secured World Driver's Championship.

The race was won by the No.1 Audi R18 e-tron quattro in a dramatic fashion after victory looked to have been going the way of the No.7 Toyota which crossed the finish line in second place, 15.3 seconds behind the leaders.

Third place was enough for the driving crew of the No.2 Audi - Allan McNish, Tom Kristensen and Loic Duval - to claim the FIA World Endurance Drivers Championship.

Allan McNnish, Tom Kristensen, Loic Duval (Photo: Audi)

After starting from pole position the No.7 Toyota Racing TS030 Hybrid of Nicolas Lapierre led the early laps but eventually ceded the lead to its sister car, the No.8 Toyota of Anthony Davidson.  The two Toyotas then held an advantage over the two Audis for the next few hours before fate stepped in and changed the course of the race.  The No.8 Toyota retired after four and a half hours of racing after suffering suspension failure. 

Despite admitting to having made a wrong tyre choice to start the race, and then suffering from a puncture the No.1 Audi R18 e-tron quattro took the lead ahead of the No.7 Toyota of Alex Wurz and Lapierre.

Some great competition between the two marques saw the Toyota leading the race into the final hour but, crucial to the outcome, Alex Wurz had to make a splash-and-dash fuel stop before the end of the six hour event.

He took fuel only in an effort to retain the lead but the drop off in tyre performance was such that Treluyer - on fresher tyres and on a charge - was able to get ahead and go on to victory by a 16s margin.  Rebellion Racing's No.12 Lola Toyota was fourth overall at the finish.

In LMP2 G-Drive Racing ORECA 03 Nissan took its third win of the season ahead of the No.24 OAK Racing Morgan Nissan of Pla-Brundle-Heinemeier-Hansson, the class providing a close battle throughout. 

The No.97 Aston Martin Vantage V8 of Stefan Mucke and Darren Turner had a seemingly untroubled run from pole position in the LMGTE Pro category to the finish, holding the lead throughout apart from during the pit stop window. 

LMGTE Am was won by No.81 8Star Motorsports' Ferrari 458 Italia was poised to take control driven by Enzo Potolicchio, Davide Rigon and Rui Aguas.

Britain's Mike Coughlan is bouncing back to NASCAR after a stint back in Formula One with Williams F1. Coughlan has been named Technical Director, effective immediately, at Richard Childress Racing.

Coughlan is known as a character in Spygate. Then chief vehicle designer at McLaren Mercedes, he had been named for illegally obtaining Ferrari engineering documents from Nigel Stepney. Although there were no criminal proceedings against him, he was involved in civil litigation.

Then, after leaving Formula One, Coughlan settled in the United States and worked on military vehicles called the Ocelot. Steve Hallem, a former McLaren executive, hired Coughlan to work for NASCAR's Michael Waltrip Racing as chief of vehicle design in late 2010.

Mike Coughlan (Photo: Williams F1 Team)

When Coughlan went back to his native England, in 2011, to work for the Williams F1 team in 2011, he was then sued by MWR for breach of contract for the sudden move back to Formula One.

This summer the engineer suddenly left Williams.

According to the team “the addition of Coughlan greatly adds depth to the RCR competition organization. That area will now be managed with two major approaches and perspectives: race operations and engineering. Mark McArdle, who joined RCR full-time in August 2013, will continue in his role as Director of Race Operations, with Coughlan now serving as Technical Director. Both will report to Dr. Eric Warren, RCR's Director of Competition.

Their combined depth of experience and established leadership with championship winning teams, in multiple forms of racing, provides even more strength to RCR's culture of rapid performance development and efficient execution at the track.

"I have known Mike Coughlan for many years and have a tremendous amount of respect for both his personal skills as an engineer and as a leader of people," Dr. Warren said.

"He is a tremendous talent and has a rare combination of experience in leading teams and development programs in Formula 1, along with prior experience and exposure to NASCAR. To be successful in any form of racing, you have to push hard to find performance gains and his experience will strengthen RCR with regards to our competition."

Coughlan is looking forward to applying his combined experience, success and knowledge with his new role.

"This is a great opportunity for me to become involved with a team like Richard Childress Racing," Coughlan said. "This is one of the great teams in NASCAR and their commitment to winning is second-to-none.

"I feel with the increased technical focus of the Sprint Cup Series and the direction that the sport is moving, it makes a perfect fit for me. I look forward to helping Eric Warren, and the rest of the team, in bringing more success to the organization through the next few years."

Jimmie Johnson turned up the heat on his competition winning the pole at Phoenix International Raceway. Denny Hamlin will start second and Joey Logano third. It was Johnson's second pole in-a-row.

Matt Kenseth, who is in second place in the standings seven points behind Johnson, will start 14th.

Going out almost last in single car qualifying the five-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion, who was also fastest in practice, took advantage of the cooler track temperatures to turn a lap of 139.222 mph around the one-mile flat oval.

“Did the draw help? “It didn't hurt going out late,” Johnson said of the time of day of his qualifying lap.

His antagonists all referred to the success that Johnson's team has in the 10-race Chase over all others.

Jimmie Johnson and Matt Kenseth's cars (Photo: Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images)

When asked about how his No. 48 seems to raise their performance at this critical time of the year Johnson replied. “I don't feel I'm doing anything different, we're doing the same stuff. It's not a concerted effort we're not doing anything different.”

“Today was a pretty big struggle the qualifying run was a bit of a surprised,” Hamlin who challenged Johnson for the title in 2010 said. “I felt we made some big strides.” Hamlin who turned a lap of 139.023mph.

When asked how Johnson's team was handling the pressure of the Chase (NASCAR's playoffs) Hamlin replied “it shows a lot of strength, that's the easy answer. Everyone knows they can turn it up at will especially for the championship.”

“Matt needs a few things to go this way,” Hamlin said of Sunday's race.

“Anything can happen but Matt is going to have to (come out strong) and beat him (Johnson) at Homestead.”

Logano, in his first Chase, who drives a Ford for Roger Penske said “seems like the 48 (Johnson) is in kill mode. He's beating us by a bigger amount (in the closing races).”

Kenseth took his qualifying lap in stride “just really didn't have a good lap,” he said didn't really do what we were hoping to do. The good news is we've got all day tomorrow to get it driving better. Hopefully, we'll be able to work our way to the front and get it driving good in race-trim where it really counts."

Speaking of his rival (Kenseth) Johnson added the win and continued points lead is not guaranteed “we have to get our adjustments right and have a flawless race on Sunday.”

The 2013 champion of France's GT championship Fabien Barthez is racing towards his first appearance at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

His team's boss Jerome Policand confirmed the rumour.

If they can put together a budget, and if the French classic's selection committee approves the team's application ahead of the 2014 edition, Barthez could be on the grid of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, at the wheel of a SOFREV-ASP Ferrari 458 Italia.

Fabien Barthez, Ferrari 458 Italia (Photo: gt-tour.fr)

"The team's ready for Le Mans, after racing three times at the 24 Hours of Spa," Policand is quoted saying by Endurance-Info.com.

"Fabien can race at Le Mans. If this project goes through, he will focus on it. We'll know more by November 15th."

Bathez, who turned to motor racing after retiring from soccer in 2007, already took part in an official test session once, as part of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, when he drove an LMPC car in 2012.

October 2013 Auto Sales

Back to the showrooms.

When new-car sales had a hiccup in September, we wondered if that was the start of a moderation indicating that pent-up demand was beginning to get sated. Instead, we saw in October that demand is still strong, and sales jumped by 10% versus a year ago. They might have been even better, but the first two weeks of the month were sluggish as the theatrics in Washington undermined consumer confidence. October's annualized sales rate of 15.2 million vehicles was not as good as we saw during the torrid summer months, but it's better than almost anyone was predicting at the beginning of the year. All three domestic automakers saw increases of greater than 10%, putting them ahead of the industry overall. Transaction prices set a new record but incentives are starting to creep up a bit. Analysts expect that the latter to increase as we get toward the year's end, giving car buyers some help dealing with steep sticker prices -- and also greasing the wheels of the marketplace to keep the surprisingly powerful auto-sales recovery rolling along.

Photo Gallery: October 2013 Auto Sales - Automobile Magazine

Photo Gallery: October 2013 Auto Sales - Automobile Magazine

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Chrysler Group will conduct three recalls of nearly 1.2 million pickups to inspect and repair misaligned tie-rod assemblies.

Publicly held dealership group AutoCanada said today its net income rose 38 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier to C$10.6 million ($10.3 million), as revenue rose 35 percent to a quarterly record $392.5 million.

Two out of three car shoppers in the United States would sacrifice performance for fuel economy, and reliability is the biggest factor is choosing a new vehicle, according to a study by a Detroit-area consulting firm.

As the fifth anniversary of the Federal Reserve's policy of keeping interest rates near zero approaches, the market for subprime borrowing is once again becoming frothy, this time in the car industry.

News 21 Nov, 2013

Here's Auto Express' top ten list of the best Movember cars in the automotive world

Cadillac's newly hired marketing chief says the brand can reclaim leadership of the United States luxury market if it backs a rejuvenated vehicle lineup with a stronger brand identity.

Sonic Automotive's third-quarter net income more than doubled as revenue from new and used vehicles improved. Sonic reported third-quarter net income of $23.3 million compared to $10 million a year earlier.

Roadside America: Ready For Takeoff

Steve Heller gives fins-and-chrome-era car parts an even weirder second life.

Those who drive into New York's Catskill Mountains on Route 28 and have a keen eye for old cars may notice a few odd things: a 1950s De Soto tail fin as part of a giant weather vane, say, or a '40s sedan that has morphed into a rocket ship. This is Fabulous Furniture, where car parts can find a new and wildly different context. Here, junk man/welder/woodworker/custom car builder/artist Steve Heller creates furniture, sculpture, and, well, stuff. He has bought more than 300 junk cars to strip for their sheetmetal, dashboards, bumpers, grilles, and "all the chrome doodads." High-finned vintage cars are his particular muse. "It was just so wild then -- the late '50s, early '60s," he says. "They came up with whatever they could imagine." Heller's own fertile imagination has created entire custom cars -- most recently a Dodge Magnum as it might have been envisioned by Chrysler's fin maestro, Virgil Exner -- but his specialty is putting old car parts to new use. Speaking with obvious admiration for the heyday of outrageous car design, he says, "It was really, really nuts." Out here on Route 28, it still is.

Photo Gallery: Roadside America: Ready For Takeoff - Automobile Magazine

Photo Gallery: Roadside America: Ready For Takeoff - Automobile Magazine

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Buoyed by encouraging sales numbers in October, 1,002 units, Audi hopes to become the first luxury car brand in India to achieve annual sales of over 10,000 units by the end of this calendar year.

Turkey's automotive production fell 3% to 88,279 units in October, the Automotive Manufacturers Association said.

The Ferrari F12 Berlinetta took its first public bow at the Geneva auto show in February of 2012.

Tata Motors, India's biggest automaker by revenue, beat analyst estimates with its first quarterly profit gain in a year after buoyant sales at UK luxury unit Jaguar Land Rover due to new models.