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We now have the complete specs for the third-generation 2014 Lexus IS sedan.

Both the IS 250 and IS 350 models sport bold new looks with the company's signature spindle grille and, for the first time, separated LED daytime running lights. Also, look for more cargo and passenger room, as well as a host of advanced safety features.

The 2014 Lexus IS 250 carries over the 2.5L V6 engine rated at 204 horsepower. With a 6-speed automatic transmission, it can sprint from 0-100 km/h in 7.7 seconds and reach a top speed of 225 km/h. Fuel consumption amounts to 9.8L/100km city, 6.5L/100km highway, and 8.3L/100km combined.

Meanwhile, the 2014 Lexus IS 350 boasts a familiar 3.5L V6 that produces 306 horsepower through an 8-speed Sport Direct Shift automatic transmission. This one accelerates from 0-100 km/h in 5.6 seconds, and reaches a top speed of 230 km/h.

A new Drive Mode Select system features up to five driving modes, including ECO, NORMAL, SPORT, SPORT S, and SPORT S+. All of them are tailored to meet the driver's preferred combination of economy, comfort, performance and handling characteristics. In addition, AWD models also feature a SNOW mode.

Canadian pricing for the 2014 Lexus IS 250 and IS 350 has yet to be announced.

Photo: Lexus

From GMM

Mark Webber's father insists the 36-year-old Australian driver is not quitting Red Bull or formula one.

After teammate Sebastian Vettel passed him for victory in Malaysia in defiance of a team order, comments made post-race by Webber indicated he was now considering his future.

Webber went straight from Sepang to a surfing holiday, insisting his phone will be "off the hook".

At the same time, videos were emerging on Youtube showing Webber angrily swerving at Vettel at high speed after the pair had crossed the chequered flag.

It is even rumoured Webber threatened to boycott the podium ceremony.

Photo: WRi2

But his father Alan told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Tuesday: "We'll be up in China for the next one."

The major fallout of the Sepang affair is undoubtedly the now completely broken relationship between top team Red Bull's driver pairing.

"I think it will take a while (for Vettel) to earn the respect and trust again," admitted Alan Webber.

Webber father, however, insisted his son has the full support of Red Bull's most influential figure -- Austrian billionaire Dietrich Mateschitz.

"I'll say this," Webber told Australia's ABC on Tuesday.

"I read the text (message) that Mr Mateschitz sent Mark and I think Mark's position is assured."

He suggested the only driver in trouble with the Red Bull management is reigning triple world champion Vettel, 26.

"The team aren't altogether happy with Sebastian I'm afraid," said Alan.

Webber's dad said Vettel has issued apologies all round, but "I know (the team) aren't happy with him at all".

Alan also said Vettel's reputation in the wider F1 community has taken a big knock.

"Up and down the pit lane I even had FIA people come up to me and say they felt sorry for him (Webber)," he said.

What the experts say

Former driver and respected British commentator Martin Brundle said that is a "huge problem", because a F1 team cannot manage its drivers if there is no "trust".

Dr Helmut Marko agrees: "Seb and Mark don't need to go on holiday together, but there must be a constructive working environment."

Flavio Briatore pinned the blame on Red Bull's management.

"Unacceptable," he is quoted by Italy's La Gazzetta dello Sport. "You can see who the real manager is at Red Bull; it's Vettel."

John Watson, a former McLaren driver, therefore called on Red Bull to ban Vettel for a race.

"I know that if other drivers in other teams disobeyed a team order they would be suspended or even fired," he said on BBC radio.

"If Christian Horner doesn't reassert his authority, then his position in the team is not exactly the role it is designed to be."

Even Bernie Ecclestone admitted Red Bull have a big problem.

"Maybe there will be a stage when he (Vettel) would like Mark to help him, but I don't think Mark is going to come up front and do it (now)," he is quoted by the Telegraph.

Webber is not the only one who has lost respect for Vettel.

"I used to regard him as the most intelligent and worldly 25-year-old I have ever seen racing," fellow triple world champion Sir Jackie Stewart is quoted by the Independent.

"But not anymore."

Red Bull is doing its best to claim it has the situation under control. Team boss Horner has called meetings with his drivers, and Dr Helmut Marko has revealed the pair "shook hands" in the post-race engineering briefing.

"We have to rebuild trust between the two of them," he told Bild newspaper, "but from our side it is done."

Austrian Marko even appeared to excuse Vettel.

"When two alpha males are fighting wheel to wheel, they're not listening to the radio any more. The situation got out of control."

Marko even hinted he is totally on Vettel's side, pointing out the "risk" that both Red Bulls would be "swallowed up" by the chasing Mercedes at Sepang.

He admitted, however, that team owner Dietrich Mateschitz was "not amused".

"We have made clear to Seb that something like that will not happen again. I don't think it will."

On Monday evening Denny Hamlin was released from Loma Linda University Medical Center after suffering a compression fracture of his lower back in a last-lap crash involving former Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Joey Logano on Sunday at Auto Club Speedway.

The injured driver will be flying to his home in Charlotte, NC where he'll be further evaluated by Dr. Jerry Petty of Carolina Neurosurgery and Spine Associates to determine whether surgery is required. Dr. Petty is well known to the racing community.

Logano and Hamlin were having a fierce, side-by-side, battle for the win when they made contact and Hamlin's car was sent, nose first, into an inside wall which was not protected by a SAFER barrier.

Caption: NASCAR.com

Hamlin, said to reporters at the hospital, that it was too soon to tell when he will be able to return to racing. NASCAR has the next weekend off due to the Easter holiday. Also complicating his situation is recurrent back injuries prior to Sunday's incident.

Some drivers have missed up to six months of racing while recuperating from an injury of this type. Until Dr. Petty and his associates review Hamlin's medical records and current tests the date he can return to driving for Joe Gibbs Racing is up in the air.

After the race, but before learning of Hamlin's injury Logano said that Hamlin had hard racing coming to him as a result of bumping incidents at last week's race at Bristol. On learning of Hamlin's hospitalization Logano changed his rhetoric.

Logano told USA Today on Monday, in telephone interview,"I just thought we were racing hard, you know? It happens. You don't ever want anyone to get hurt; you don't ever want anything to happen, especially to Denny. We were racing really hard there at the end of the race. I wish there was a SAFER barrier down there, and I wish I knew before I made any comments on TV also."

In a related development, Logano's boss, Roger Penske, supported Logano's driving in Sunday's Auto Club 400.

Denny Hamlin at the hospital. (Photo: Twitter)

From GMM

Renault has admitted it is negotiating with Toro Rosso.

Currently, the second Red Bull-owned team is powered by Ferrari's V8 engine.

But it has been rumoured that, in order for the Faenza based squad and 'big brother' team Red Bull to more closely collaborate in the new V6 era, Toro Rosso could switch to Renault turbos from next year.

Toro Rosso STR8, powered by Ferrari. (Photo: WRi2)

At the moment, Renault supplies four teams - Red Bull, Lotus, Williams and Caterham - which is more than any other engine supplier on the F1 grid.

Asked if four is "the ideal number", Renault's Jean-Michel Jalinier told Speed Week: "I don't think there is an ideal number. In 2014, we want - if it is necessary - to supply five teams. We are negotiating with the teams and with Toro Rosso."

"We are ready for five teams. But three teams would be good for us, making it easier for us to support all of them," he admitted.

Asked if another engine supplier entering F1 would ease the load, Jalinier answered: "Yes. Three is not enough to equip all the teams. Five (customer teams) is not my first choice."

From GMM

Toto Wolff, the new Mercedes co-owner and director, has played down reports of a growing rift between the team's German and British factions.

After German Nico Rosberg was ordered by Ross Brawn to stay behind Briton Lewis Hamilton in Malaysia, Austrians Wolff and Niki Lauda admitted their disapproval.

But RTL now quotes Wolff as saying: "The decision was unpopular, but right."

Photo: Mercedes AMG F1 Team

The incident is being compared to the situation at Red Bull, where team bosses tried - but ultimately failed - to impose a 'hold station' order at Sepang.

Red Bull's Dr Helmut Marko had tried to differentiate the teams by insisting "It's not like at Mercedes, where there's a clear number 1 and number 2".

Lewis Hamilton - who according to Marko is undoubtedly the '1' - dismissed that as "rubbish".

"They (Red Bull) have a clear one and two, they always have had," the 2008 world champion told British reporters. "And that is why they have always had the problems they have had."

But during Martin Brundle's Sky commentary in Malaysia, the former McLaren driver admitted he finds it hard to believe Hamilton decided to switch to Mercedes over the winter without the promise of higher status.

Lewis Hamilton denied: "I have always said, from the moment I was speaking to the team, that I wanted equality."

That's why the 28-year-old looked so unhappy despite finishing third on Sunday.

"I said to Ross at the end that I wanted to let him (Rosberg) past. He said 'Absolutely not. When I tell you what I want (you) to do, you have to stick by it'," recalled Hamilton.

Hans-Joachim Stuck, the German federation president, said he admires Rosberg for not behaving like Vettel in Malaysia.

"It was a textbook example of a world-class driver. He is an employee of Mercedes and so when he receives an order, he follows it," he told SID news agency.

2013 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution GSR

The Evo is wild, fun, and guaranteed to put a smile on your face.

I adore the Evo. It makes no sense at all as a daily driver because it's so loud and horrible on fuel, but it's the most visceral car you can buy today. There is absolutely nothing refined about the car. And that's why I love it.

Photo Gallery: 2013 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution GSR - Editors' Notebook - Automobile Magazine

Photo Gallery: 2013 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution GSR - Editors' Notebook - Automobile Magazine

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Subaru of America has promoted Tom Doll to president, effective April 1. He will remain COO and CFO. Doll, 57, is the highest ranking non-Japanese executive at Subaru's U.S. subsidiary. He joined Subaru of America in 1982.

By Design: Hyundai HCD-14

Almost terrific.

This is the thirteenth concept car produced by Hyundai’s California Design studio. Thus, that three-letter acronym and accompanying number actually mean something—besides the fact that the folks at Hyundai are superstitious and skipped number thirteen, that is. This counters the trendy random collection of letters beloved by automotive marketers and applied liberally to all sorts of cars and SUVs in the hope that some Teutonic precision will rub off on their cheaper models. This time, Hyundai has conjured up one of the best-proportioned sedans in a very long time yet managed to throw away all those proportional advantages with one of the ugliest, bluntest front ends to appear in public in many years.

Photo Gallery: By Design: Hyundai HCD-14 - Automobile Magazine

Photo Gallery: By Design: Hyundai HCD-14 - Automobile Magazine

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The Detroit 3 automakers joined other Michigan businesses today in donating $8 million for new ambulances and police cars to Detroit as state-appointed emergency manager Kevyn Orr took over running the destitute city.

2014 Lexus IS First Drive

Silk ablaze.

We're not driving the 2014 Lexus IS F Sport on the Nürburgring, where some of its development took place. Rather, we're driving this exemplar of the new third-generation IS around carousels and corkscrews, through kinks and hairpins, all copied from Spa and Laguna Seca, Fiorano and Road Atlanta. This greatest-hits collection known as Driveway Austin Motorsports is approximately 2.0 miles around.

Photo Gallery: 2014 Lexus IS First Drive - Automobile Magazine

Photo Gallery: 2014 Lexus IS First Drive - Automobile Magazine

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NASCAR Embraces the Next Generation

Cheer up, disgruntled NASCAR fans.

Cheer up, disgruntled NASCAR fans. In 2013, for the first time in six years, Sprint Cup races feature stock cars that actually look like stock cars.

Photo Gallery: NASCAR Embraces the Next Generation - Automobile Magazine

Photo Gallery: NASCAR Embraces the Next Generation - Automobile Magazine

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Buick is showing a refreshed LaCrosse sedan this week at the New York auto show. And it's not a moment too soon. The LaCrosse has been the workhorse of Buick's recovery.

Half-million-dollar vehicles tend to be polarizing. Why, for example, might one drop extra-large coin on an Aventador Roadster when a

News 25 Mar, 2013

Subaru has announced UK prices and specs for the latest version of its rugged off-roader, the Forester

Also in this episode: The 2014 Buick LaCrosse is revealed before the New York auto show; Formula One heats up in Malaysia.

2014 Buick LaCrosse First Look

New face for a big sedan.

The Buick brand has evolved significantly since the current LaCrosse bowed at the 2009 Detroit auto show, so it's time for the full-size sedan to receive a facelift. The updates to the 2014 Buick LaCrosse bring the model in line with the rest of the brand's styling trends, and add a raft of new technologies.

Photo Gallery: First Look: 2014 Buick LaCrosse - Automobile Magazine

Photo Gallery: First Look: 2014 Buick LaCrosse - Automobile Magazine

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Automakers are wrapping up the domestic auto show season with a bang in New York -- we are counting some 20 world debuts.

Brazil's car market, the fourth largest in the world, has got off to a slower than expected start in 2013, a senior Ford executive said.

Mazda, Australia's best-selling imported car brand is recalling the redesigned 6 due to a potential fire hazard under the passenger seat.

Infiniti is preparing to retire InfinitiNet, a homegrown dealer communication and management system that Infiniti dealers have used since the premium brand's first U.S. vehicle sales in 1989.