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From GMM

Caterham boss Cyril Abiteboul has backed the team's all-new driver lineup, amid suggestions Heikki Kovalainen should be drafted back in.

For the first time since its 2010 debut, the green-liveried team appeared to falter early this season with an outdated car and in the wake of experienced driver Kovalainen's departure.

Finn Kovalainen reappeared in Friday practice in Bahrain and Spain, triggering rumours he might soon replace either rookie Giedo Van der Garde - slammed by Mark Webber in Canada as a 'pay driver with no mirrors' - or Charles Pic.

Photo: Caterham F1 Team

Abiteboul told F1's official website: "He (Kovalainen) definitely helped in the couple of sessions he ran, and in the feedback he gave."

But there is no sign the 31-year-old will appear again, even if Finnish commentator for MTV3, Oskari Saari, said: "I still believe he will race this season."

For now, Abiteboul is backing van der Garde, who will drop five places on the Silverstone grid after his crash with Webber in Canada, and Frenchman Pic.

"Same as with the team, I'd like to evaluate both drivers properly at the right moment, but for now I think both are making progress in parallel," he said.

While Sync and MyFord Touch can be found on 79% of Ford's 2013 vehicles, the company plans to add certain buttons and knobs after the touchscreen-based system continued to garner mixed reviews from users.

It appears that a new rotary knob will control the volume of the radio and that another button will facilitate temperature control.

“The satisfaction is higher on vehicles equipped with MyFord Touch than without,” Raj Nair, Ford's global product development chief, insisted during an interview published today in The Wall Street Journal. “We've been able to spend a lot of time with customers to find what exactly are the areas that are bothering them.”

A Ford spokesman said the automaker has been talking about adding more buttons and knobs along with the touch screen features for some time and that some vehicles, such as the F series models, already include the knobs and buttons.

Source: Automotive News

Photo: Philippe Champoux

James Finch's Phoenix Racing Sprint Cup NASCAR team seeks win at Sonoma this weekend after finishing third last year with Kurt Busch.

Team team's No. 51 Chevrolet will be driven by 1997 Formula 1 World Champion, Canadian Jacques Villeneuve who makes a return to NASCAR racing for the first time since the NAPA 200 Montreal Nationwide race in August of last year.

Villeneuve, also a former winner of the Indy 500, will drive the No. 51 TAG Heuer Eyewear Chevrolet in Sunday's Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway.

Photo: Phoenix Racing

The Canadian, aged 42, has three NASCAR Sprint Cup Series starts, nine Nationwide Series starts and seven Camping World Truck Series races to his credit.

In Nationwide road-course competition, he has four top-five finishes - including three at his home track in Montreal - and six top-10s

"We wanted to put a driver in our No. 51 Chevrolet who would give us the best chance to win at Sonoma Raceway," said James Finch, team owner. "When the opportunity came up to have someone like Jacques Villeneuve in our car, we were very happy to make that happen."

Villeneuve will face some stiff competition this weekend, especially from other experienced road racers such as Marcos Ambrose, Danica Patrick, Ron Fellows and Juan Pablo Montoya.

Meanwhile, here's some great footage of Canadian Tire Motorsport Park owner Ron Fellows testing at Sonoma Raceway is his Canadian Tire sponsored Chevy.

After Chrysler initially denied an NHTSA request to recall 2.7 million 1993-2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee and 2002-2007 Jeep Liberty vehicles, the automaker has finally decided to conduct a voluntary campaign for said models.

An inspection will determine the necessity to upgrade the rear structure in order to better manage crash forces in low-speed impacts.

Chrysler's analysis confirms that these SUVs are not defective and are among the safest in their respective class. Nevertheless, Chrysler opted to comply with the NHTSA to provide additional measures to supplement the safety of its vehicles.

Photo: Jeep

Aston Martin today unveiled the Vanquish Volante, a new luxury convertible that sits at the top of the British automaker's sports car lineup. It uses a 565-horsepower, 6.0L V12 engine to sprint from 0-100 km/h in 4.1 seconds and reach a top speed of 294 km/h.

The Aston Martin Vanquish Volante is the first Volante model with a full carbon fibre body, and at 1,844 kg, this drop-top is just 9 kg heavier than the coupe. The top folds away in 14 seconds only at speeds of up to 50 km/h.

Moreover, the LED taillight blades are derived from the One-77 supercar, and the Adaptive Damping System (ADS) allows the driver to switch between three distinct damping modes: Normal, Sport, and Track.

“Vanquish Volante, like the Vanquish coupe before it, uses the very latest technologies employed in the very best ways to create a sports car which is easy to control, and to enjoy dynamic performance at the finest level,” said Aston Martin CEO Dr Ulrich Bez.

Priced from $297,995 USD, the car is expected to begin deliveries across the Americas from early next year.

Any time of year is good for a road trip, but the summer months seem to bring out the need to hit the open road that much more. Maybe it's the sunshine or maybe it's too many iced coffees that have us all hyped up about filling up the tank and throwing caution to the wind as we head out to where the sky meets the earth.

Whatever it is, we're glad we feel the itch because it means we could (potentially) enjoy the journey behind the wheel of any of these top 10 road trip vehicles.

10 - Toyota Prius v
Well, if you haven't clicked away already, good. Here's why the Toyota Prius v is one of our top 10 road trip vehicles: it won't cost you a bomb at the pumps as you make your cross-country trek. Sure, road tripping is great, but not when you're spending money on feeding your car instead of yourself. It won't be the quickest, or the coolest looking, but it'll offer up space, comfort and convenience. And you can spend your dollars on roadside attractions ; and who doesn't want to see The Blue Whale in Catoosa, Oklahoma?!

Photo: Toyota

Continue reading Top 10 Road Trip Vehicles

The two Lotus Praga LMP2 cars of the Koweda team have been seized by French authorities Tuesday afternoon in the paddock of the Le Mans circuit, one day prior to the first practice session of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The action was taken by one of the supplier of the German team owned by former HRT F1 team director, Colin Kolles for alleged non-payment of bills.

One report says that suspension components, gearboxes and the steering wheels were taken from the team's pit in Le Mans by bailiffs at 5pm on Tuesday.

The two Lotus entries are scheduled to be driven by James Rossiter, Kevin Weeda and Christophe Bouchut (N° 31), and Thomas Holzer, Dominik Kraihamer et Jan Charouz (N° 32).

The court case in the city of Le Mans is due at 3pm local time today, Wednesday. Team sources are hopeful that a successful resolution would allow the two cars to take to the track in free practice, which runs from 4 to 8pm.

Photo: Lotus

From GMM

Niki Lauda only knew about Mercedes' secret tire test at Barcelona in May once "the wheels were turning".

That is the claim on Wednesday of the respected Auto Motor und Sport correspondent Michael Schmidt, as F1 braces for the first ever hearing of Jean Todt's new international tribunal.

Reportedly armed with lawyers and engineers of the Brackley based team, the sole Mercedes chief deployed to Paris on Thursday morning will be Ross Brawn, after a spokesman confirmed that Lauda and Toto Wolff will not be there.

After a disappointing first three years of the 'works' F1 foray, the Austrian pair are the new faces at Mercedes, and both shareholders.

Photo: WRi2

There has been speculation Brawn will be the scapegoat, or fall guy, with former McLaren technical director Paddy Lowe already at work at Brackley, and earmarked to eventually succeed Brawn.

"It was my decision to do the test, so that's a fact. Let's see what occurs at the tribunal and go from there," Ross Brawn told reporters in Canada recently.

Schmidt reported on Wednesday that Lauda, the triple world champion and Mercedes F1 chairman, first heard about the highly controversial Barcelona test "when the wheels were already turning".

He added that Lauda's deputies insisted that permission had been sought for the use of the 2013 car.

Here is a preview of this year's 24 Hours of Le Mans - the 81st running of the great endurance race in France.

LMP1
In LMP1 - the top endurance category - it's quite difficult to imagine how Audi can lose victory. The German car manufacturer has dominated Le Mans since 2000, scoring 11 wins in 13 races. Why things should be different this year?

Audi's top trio made of Lotterer-Treluyer-Fassler (winners of the last two Le Mans races and reigning World Endurance champions) intends to win the race for a third time. The fact is that Audi has virtually no rivals, except Toyota. Despite the fact that they performed well at Le Mans last year, the Toyota TS030s are not as fast as the mighty German machines.

Behind the factory teams, the two Rebellion Racing Lola-Toyotas intends to win the “independents” race in front of the HPD of Strakka Racing.

LMP2
An impressive field of 22 cars will battle in the LMP2 class. Winners of last year, Starworks Motorsport are not back. Battle for the win includes OAK Racing's Morgan-Nissan, the Alpine-Nissan and the Zytek Nissan.

GTE Pro
Five car manufacturers are entered in the GTE Pro category. Four works teams - Porsche, Corvette, Aston Martin and STR Viper and one semi-private, Ferrari AF Corse - will be in the hunt for victory. The Porsche factory will be involved, rehearsing for next year's challenge with its new LMP1 prototype.

GTE Am
Corvette, Ferrari, Porsche and Aston Martin will be racing in the GTE Am category. Fourteen cars will be battling for 24 hours, including a pair of factory Vantages.

Canadian stock-car driver, Andrew Ranger will be pretty busy this weekend as he will participate in both the ARCA and Nationwide races held at the Road America road course.

For Ranger, it will be his second and third race of the year, having already contested the K&N Pro West race in Brainerd, Minnesota, where he earned pole position and finished 10th after experiencing a puncture late in the race.

The weekend schedule will be hectic for Ranger since both races are to be held on Saturday afternoon but that doesn't seem to bother the two-time NASCAR Canadian Tires Series' champion.

Photo: Facebook Andrew Ranger

The Canadian will be fighting for victory in the ARCA race, his MDS Motorsport team having brought to the circuit two excellent cars for the occasion.

The team has a lot of experience in ARCA and the Road America track is one of Ranger's favorites and on which he has a lot of experience, having raced there in ARCA, Nationwide and even ChampCar.

Things will be different for the Nationwide part of the weekend since the team doesn't have a lot of experience in that series. Ranger will do is best to qualify the car for Saturday's event, 46 drivers will be battling for the 40-car starting grid.

The two Lotus Praga LMP2 cars have been returned to their owners today after being seized Tuesday by the French justice in the paddock of the Le Mans circuit.

The following is the press release issued by the team:

Lotus Praga LMP2/Kodewa have instructed their lawyers to file a criminal complaint against Stéphane Chosse, Adess AG and SCE Solutions on Monday, 17th June 2013.

Stéphane Chosse is in debt and owes Kodewa a seven-figure amount. Chosse presented fictitious and not justified invoices to the court in France. He insisted that Kodewa is in debt. This is not true.

On Tuesday evening (18th June), a bailiff seized parts of the Lotus Praga T128 LMP2 cars.

The court in Le Mans decided this afternoon (19th June) to give the seized parts back to the team as the allegations were reasonless.

Kodewa will take further action against Stéphane Chosse, Adess AG and SCE Solutions.

From GMM

Ron Dennis has played down expectations there could be a female driver on the formula one grid in the near future.

Williams test driver Susie Wolff is pushing for a super license and expecting to contest next month's young drivers' test at Silverstone, while Maria de Villota was Marussia's test driver last year before her horrific Duxford crash.

Dennis, McLaren supremo, was asked this week when he thinks F1 will see a female driver on the grid once again.

"I don't think it will happen soon. There are some sports that are difficult from a physical point of view for women, and formula one is one of them," he is quoted by Italy's La Repubblica.

Susie Wolff. (Photo: Williams F1 Team)

McLaren's lead driver Jenson Button, however, insists it is "possible" for women to race in F1.

"There are a couple of women racing in Nascar and Indycar, have actually won races," he said.

"The big issue is that I don't think women are given the opportunity at an early age. It is a very demanding sport, very specific training and taking time to get race fit. I personally think it's possible," added Button.

Meanwhile, Dennis has also been quoted as firing a barb at a former McLaren driver for losing focus on the real 'objective' of the sport.

"Some people lost sight of what the objective is," he said. "When you lost sight of what you are doing, then you lost sight of what it takes to be a world champion."

Britain's SportsPro magazine got an exclusive interview with Mansoor Ijaz, one of the new investors in the Lotus Formula 1 Team.

Yesterday, Lotus confirmed that its owner, Genii Capital, has sold a 35 per cent stake in the business to Infinity Racing Partners. Infinity is a special purpose vehicle set up by what Lotus called 'an American hedge fund manager, an Abu Dhabi-based multinational business group and royal family interest of a major oil producing nation'.

Mansoor Ijaz, a US investment banker and sometime media pundit, is also the founder and chairman of New York-based investment firm Crescent Investment Management.

“For us it was an opportunity to bring our technological capabilities,” said Ijaz to SportsPro.

“We have enormous technological capabilities that we can bring and we're going to make Lotus the number one team for sponsorship within the next year. That's simply a result of my network around the world,” he added.

Mansoor Ijaz.

Some medias speculated that there are interests from the United Arab Emirates and also Brunei in that project.

“I will not comment on the royal family, whether it's Brunei or not. What I will tell you is the people who are part of the consortium are old, dear friends, business partners, investors in other things that I've done,” replied Ijaz.

Ijaz also explained why he chose to invest in the Lotus F1 Team. “We have been looking at Formula 1 for about two years now. We looked at three other teams before we decided on Lotus,” he said to SportsPro.

“Team Lotus has the element of real team spirit, meaning across the board - vertically as well as horizontally - in terms of the breadth and depth of the team's capacity. Secondly, there are the business brains that run Genii Capital and the business brains that affect the way in which Lotus is managed as a business; these are men cut from the same cloth as I have been throughout my career,” he added.

“We will be integrally involved in the technology development side, as the engines change next year, as technology comes to the front.

“I have a younger brother, Mujeeb and he is the chief technology officer of A123 Venture Technologies in Boston. He's an important part of the story of what we're doing because he brings a certain capability as a systems integrator and an expert in battery technology that will, I think, dramatically enhance what we're doing on the technological side come next season,” Ijaz continued.

Ijaz confirmed that the new investors have high expectations for the future of the Lotus F1 Team.

“Of course we want to make a profit, but it's not the primary objective. Next year, when there is a change in the way the races will be run, there's a lot of opportunity going forward to differentiate one car from another technologically. We'll be number one in 12 months. I say it simply, flatly, completely - we'll be number one in 12 months,” he concluded.

From GMM

The promoter of the Indian grand prix on Wednesday slammed rumours the race may fall off the calendar after 2013.

Reports early this week said existing F1 events in Korea and India may not take place next season, with India's promoting Jaypee Group not committing to funding beyond this year's race and "nearing bankruptcy".

Jaypee spokesman Askari Zaidi said on Wednesday: "Some international news organisations are trying to spread rumours that (Jaypee) may not host (the) 2014 Indian GP.

"This is totally baseless and malicious."

The reports about India's F1 demise also cited poor race attendance, with the Indo-Asian News Service saying on Wednesday that while a crowd of 95,000 gathered in 2011, that figure dropped to 65,000 last year.

But Zaidi insisted: "Our agreement with formula one management is to hold F1 races at Buddh international circuit until 2015, and we are fully committed to do that."

The refreshed 2014 Buick LaCrosse will be priced starting at $34,060, with shipping, or $610 higher than the outgoing 2013 model, GM said today.

Chrysler has decided to recall 2.7 million 1993 to 2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee and 2002 to 2007 Liberty models for a potential risk relating to the fuel tank placement between the rear bumper and rear axle.

Jaguar Land Rover is targeting global sales of 750,000 units by the end of the decade, with an eventual target of 1 million units, a top executive said today.

The trial against G. Elizabeth Carmichael and her associates of the defunct Twentieth Century Motor Car Corp.

Tesla Motors, already adding a network of fast-charging stations for its luxury electric cars, is readying a service to rapidly swap a car's battery with a charged pack for added convenience.

Chrysler Group, saying it's settled a dispute with federal safety regulators, will inspect older-model Jeep Grand Cherokee and Jeep Liberty SUVs and install a trailer hitch assembly if necessary to 'better manage crash forces in low-speed...