Auto News 5

German supplier Leoni said that CEO Klaus Probst will leave the company at his own request at the end of June 2015.

Volkswagen is not planning to develop a new model to replace its Eos convertible because the niche is too small, German publication Der Spiegel reported.

News 25 Mar, 2014

Slow European sales force Honda to reduce production at Swindon plant, 340 jobs could be cut

Ford is celebrating the Mustang's 50th anniversary in style. In addition to the

The long-rumoured BMW X7, a full-size SUV, has been announced by BMW. As expected, it will be built in the US at an expanded Spartanburg plant.

BMW's Spartanburg plant in South Carolina will announce production of a new seven-seat crossover called the X7 on Friday (28 March, 2014), the Reuters news agency reported.

Audi is to assemble the A3 sedan at its Aurangabad plant in India with sales starting this summer.

Daimler has joined German supplier Bosch in questioning Tesla's decision to build so-called ''supercharger'' stations in Germany that only cater to the U.S. electric carmaker's vehicles.

Renault will revive its Alpine brand on its own after ending a partnership with UK specialist sports car maker Caterham, reports said.

In just a few days the cars of the World Endurance Championship (WEC) will take to the track at the Circuit Paul Ricard for The Prologue on the 28 and 29 March 2014.

This is the official pre-season test for the FIA WEC and most of the 31 full season entries will be there.

It will also be the first opportunity to see the LMP1-H cars from Audi R18, Toyota TS040 and Porsche 919 running together on the same track.

The two days of testing at The Prologue will begin at 9 am on Friday March 28 for three sessions, including a run in the dark on Friday evening.

The event will continue on Saturday with the public being invited to attend and take part in an autograph session at lunchtime.

Friday March 28
09:00 - 13:00 Morning Session
14:00 - 18:00 Afternoon session
19:00 - 21:00 Night session

Saturday March 29
09:00 - 13:00 Morning Session
13:15 - 13:45 Driver Autograph Session
14:00 - 17:00 Afternoon session

A few days ago, Porsche released a video in which members of ''The Committee'' are called for an emergency meeting. They reluctantly leave their families, vacation plans, and other activities behind to gather inside the Porsche headquarters where they soon learn from their boss that they must build a Cayman and Boxster worthy of the GTS badge. The smile on their faces says it all.

The clip has quickly gone viral, and now has more than one million clicks on YouTube.

The A1 Grand Prix Series that folded a few years ago is about to be brought to life under a new name and format in South Africa.

The original A1GP series featured single seaters from different countries racing against each other. The series was billed as the “World Cup of Motorsport”.

After the series folded in 2009, the Lola chassis and the Ferrari engines were sold.

We found out Tuesday that a new series based in South Africa will be using these cars.

Preview of Team Northern Cape car. (Illustration: Delta Fin)

The new Formula SA will see 18 identical Formula 1-style cars in South Africa, to pitch the 9 provinces against each other in a showcase of inter provincial races over 24 weeks throughout the country.

The series' promoters claims that “many European and international drivers are already enquiring about testing and track time opportunities”.

Formula SA is still far from being a reality as the promoters are currently looking for stakeholders, investors and sponsors.

Fisker Automotive announced on Monday that it has sold all of its assets to an affiliate of Wanxiang America Corp. for approximately $150 million.

“The completion of this transaction represents a significant achievement and is a great result for all Fisker Automotive stakeholders,” said Marc A. Beilinson, Fisker Automotive's Chief Restructuring Officer. “This successful outcome would not have been possible without the productive support from Wanxiang, our Creditors' Committee, and their advisors.”

Photo: Fisker

Verizon IndyCar Series officials have confirmed that they are seriously working toward a possible return to Brazil for the 2015 season.

Up until the 2013 calendar, IndyCar held a popular race in the streets in Sao Paulo and Mark Miles, CEO of IndyCar parent company Hulman & Co, said that finding a way to return to Brazil is a priority.

"Brazil has a real history in IndyCar racing and we would like to re-establish a championship race there as early as 2015," he said.

Miles said the series is currently in negotiation with the regional government and TV Bandeirantes about a race in the national capital Brasilia.

The circuit layout for the race at the Nelson Piquet circuit was not immediately announced. It has a 12-turn, 5.5-kilometer (3.4-mile) anti-clockwise layout for most of the races there.

Bimmerpost has uploaded a video showing the digital instrument panel of a BMW i8 as the car accelerates, plus the sound of its electric motor in Sport mode (which is different from the sound in Comfort or Eco Pro mode).

The production BMW i8 will feature an Active Sound Design system; however, the particular model in this video has it disabled for testing purposes.

What's more, the left exhaust pipe is fake and actually serves as an external speaker used for exterior sound projection, while the right exhaust pipe is for regular engine emissions.

A pedestrian protection system will generate an acoustic sound to warn pedestrians that the car is approaching (in full EV mode, of course). When sensing an imminent collision, the system will automatically brake and completely stop the car if needed.

The BMW i8 will go on sale in the U.S. this June at $137,700.

Source: bmwi.bimmerpost.com

German car manufacturer Audi unveiled Tuesday the new R18 e-tron Quattro destined to endurance racing.

Audi R18 e-tron quattro 2014 (Photo: Audi Motorsport)

The new Audi R18 e-tron quattro did not do its initial kilometers at Le Mans on the legendary race track in Western France but in public traffic.

Audi factory driver Tom Kristensen, with nine victories under his belt the record holder of the Le Mans 24 Hours, drove the diesel hybrid sports car from the Saint-Julien du Mans cathedral in the city center to the famous race track.

The new color scheme of white, silver, red and black stands for fresh, expressive graphics.

Audi R18 e-tron quattro 2014 (Photo: Audi Motorsport)

The cubic capacity of the V6 TDI power plant was increased from 3.7 to four liters in order to further optimize the engine that had already been very efficient.

After testing various energy recovery systems, Audi decided to compete in the class of up to two megajoules of recuperation energy at Le Mans. The energy exclusively flows through a motor generator unit (MGU) at the front axle and is stored in a flywheel energy storage system.

Audi R18 e-tron quattro 2014 (Photo: Audi Motorsport)

Audi R18 e-tron quattro 2014 (Photo: Audi Motorsport)

SRT and Chrysler have withdrawn the two works Viper GTS-Rs from the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The Vipers were back at Le Mans last year and they were clear favourites to win the GTE category.

“We regretfully and respectfully decline to participate in this year's 24 Hours of Le Mans,” said Ralph Gilles, president and CEO of SRT (Street and Racing Technology) Brand and Motorsports in a press release.

“We are honored to once again be invited by the [race organizer, the Automobile Club de l'Ouest] to compete in this historic event, and they were the first to be informed of our decision. We will remain focused on our North American racing program in 2014.”

SRT Motorsports will continue to run the No. 91 and 93 SRT Viper GTS-Rs throughout the 2014 Tudor United SportsCar Championship series season.

The decision means that drivers Dominik Farnbacher, Marc Goossens, Rob Bell, Jonathan Bomarito, Jeroen Bleekemolen and Canadian Kuno Wittmer will not participate in this year's edition of the 24-hour race.

The Ferrari F458s of teams JMW Motorsport and Taisan will replace the Vipers.

As part of the iconic muscle car's 50th anniversary celebration, Ford will display the all-new 2015 Ford Mustang convertible on the observation deck of the Empire State Building in New York City on April 16-17.

Since no portable crane can reach the 86th floor observatory, and the spire towering above the relatively narrow deck makes helicopter delivery impossible, engineers will have to slice the Mustang convertible into three main sections plus windshield so that they can fit into the elevators.

Interestingly, Ford pulled off that same feat with a prototype convertible in 1965.

1695 Ford Mustang convertible (Photo: Ford)

“Like all good craftsmen, our team is measuring twice and cutting once to make sure we can get this Mustang up in the elevators,” said Dave Pericak, Mustang chief engineer. “Like the team that did this in 1965, the current crew visited the Empire State Building before starting and took careful measurements of its new elevators and doors before cutting up the car.”

Visitors to the Empire State Building observation deck can see the 2015 Ford Mustang convertible from 8 a.m. to 2 a.m., April 16-17.

2015 Ford Mustang convertible (Photo: Ford)

From Sahara Force India

Sahara Force India announced a further expansion of its driver development programme as it enters GP3 in partnership with Hilmer Motorsport.

The expanded programme, which will see Hilmer compete in the series with three cars under Sahara Force India colours, follows a similar deal for the GP2 series.

Together with Sahara Force India's successful Academy programme, the GP3 partnership represents a logical step towards creating a full motorsport ladder for talented drivers.

The GP3 team will make its first on-track appearance at the Jerez test on April 10-11, while the racing debut will take place in Barcelona at the beginning of May.

Hilmer Motorsport. (Photo: GP3 Series)

From GMM

The only missing link in Red Bull's title campaign for 2014 is a 'state of the art' engine.

That is the view of billionaire team owner Dietrich Mateschitz, who told the Austrian news agency APA on Tuesday that Red Bull's only alternative to struggling supplier Renault would be for the team to build its own engine.

Asked if all of Red Bull's current problems are in the area of Renault's new turbo V6 'power unit', Mateschitz answered: "Yes.

"I think our car is once again 'state of the art', but in order to prove this, it also needs a perfect power unit in terms of hardware and software," he insisted.

Christian Horner and Dietrich Mateschitz. (Photo: Red Bull)

Even in the midst of the reigning quadruple world champion team's successes, the relationship between Red Bull and Renault has often been strained.

Given the problems now, Mateschitz was asked by APA if Red Bull sees any alternatives to working with the French marque.

"Probably just to make an engine ourselves," he answered.

However, Mateschitz said he is confident Red Bull can quickly catch F1's currently dominant team Mercedes.

"I am confident this process will be fast and we can catch up to Mercedes by the third race," the 69-year-old said ahead of the second race of 2014, Malaysia.

"There is no reason to think that this (winning the 2014 title) is not still our goal," he added.

Mateschitz even tipped Sebastian Vettel - who has shown signs of frustration in 2014 so far - to ride out the storm with Red Bull.

"For four and a half of his five years with us, Sebastian has had a car with which he can win," he said.

"He has more than enough character, professionalism and loyalty to overcome this phase together with the team."