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NHRA: Force Hood set for showdown with Hight in Las Vegas:

October 31, 2009

Championship contender Ashley Force Hood needed a last-gasp 4.197-second pass at 292.52 mph in Saturday’s final round of qualifying just to get her Castrol GTX Ford Mustang into the Funny Car field of the ninth annual Las Vegas NHRA Nationals.

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Kyle Busch wins Talladega truck series race:

October 31, 2009

Teammates Kyle Busch and Aric Almirola finished first and second, respectively, in Saturday afternoon’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Talladega Superspeedway, giving owner Billy Ballew the first 1-2 of his NASCAR career.

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Tricked-Out Treat! Galpin Auto Sports builds Halloween-themed hearse

October 31, 2009

Filed under: Aftermarket, Etc.

Galpin Auto Sports Halloween-themed Hearse - Click above for high-res image gallery

We generally don’t think of a hearse as a great platform for customizing, but then again, we’ve never known Galpin Auto Sports to shy away from messing with anything on four wheels. That’s why we weren’t surprised to see this specially-built conveyance of corpses constructed by the Southern California customizer. The hearse features a Halloween theme including dozens of hand-painted skulls on the front and side, as well as a spiderweb grille. It’s not all spooky, though, and Galpin has made the interior an inviting place to be, with a working barbeque, chilled cooler, and a flatscreen TV all in the coffin. Not a bad place to spend your last few hours above ground!

Gallery: Galpin Auto Sports Halloween-themed Hearse

[Source: Galpin Auto Sports]
Tricked-Out Treat! Galpin Auto Sports builds Halloween-themed hearse originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 31 [...]

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The Lingenfelter 455 T/A Concept really is badass

October 31, 2009

Filed under: Concept Cars, SEMA Show, Coupe, Performance, Chevrolet, Pontiac

Lingenfelter 455 T/A Concept - See more photos at Car and Driver

Car and Driver is the first outlet to post real live photos of the SEMA-bound Lingenfelter 455 T/A Concept. By taking the looks of the ‘70 Trans Am and adapting them to the new Chevy Camaro, Lingenfelter has created something that will have you playing “What if..” senarios regarding Pontiac over and over again in your heads. Imagine a world in which you could walk into a GM dealer and pick between this and the G8 GXP…
Anyway, snap out of it, because that ain’t happenin’. We think what’s likely to happen, if people go as batsh*t crazy over this creation at SEMA as we think they will, is that Lingenfelter will probably offer the package to customers. That’s probably good, anyway, as we can’t see General Motors [...]

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Lotus hires former Ferrari/Fiat racing chief Claudio Berro as new motorsport director

October 31, 2009

Filed under: Motorsports, Hirings/Firings/Layoffs, Lotus
Do you remember back in 1996 when Michael Schumacher left Benetton for Ferrari? They didn’t just get Schumi; along with him came master strategist Ross Brawn and designer extraordinaire Rory Byrne. Together, the wonder team built the Scuderia back into a championship-winning powerhouse. Well, we have a feeling there are some people in Maranello who may be getting acquainted with the flip side of that particular coin.
Following the appointment of Dany Bahar - who left his position as Ferrari’s senior vice president of marketing - to the post of chief executive at one-time rival Lotus comes news that the British engineering firm has scored Claudio Berro as its new director of motorsport.
Although Berro hasn’t been at Maranello for a few years now, he’s a well-known personality in Italian motor racing. Not unlike his successor Jean Todt - recently elected president of the FIA - Berro started [...]

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Ford and Canadian Auto Workers reportedly reach a deal

October 31, 2009

Filed under: Plants/Manufacturing, Ford, UAW/Unions, Canada

Ford Motor Company and the leadership of the Canadian Auto Workers union have reached a tentative agreement after a marathon four-day wrap-up to negotiations. Union membership needs to approve the deal, which will guarantee a Great White North presence for Ford until at least 2012. Voting is underway this weekend, and if approved, the CAW will be responsible for building 10 percent of Ford’s North American production, down from the current 13 percent, which the union had been trying to hold on to.
Workers did agree to time off reductions, and pledged that new employees will have to pay into their pensions. Ford’s given its word that the company will build as many vehicles in Canada as it sells there, and the union deemed the pledge good enough to grant GM- and Chrysler-style concessions to Ford.
The Panther platform has been given its last rites; the [...]

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NASCAR NOTEBOOK: Truck Series goes to double-file restarts, Hornaday honored, more:

October 31, 2009

NASCAR has tweaked a handful of rules for its 2010 Camping World Truck Series season. Primary among them is the use of double-file restarts identical to those introduced this year for the Cup and Nationwide series.

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Scion brand finally headed to Canada next September

October 31, 2009

Filed under: Scion, Toyota, Canada

It’s official: Scion is headed to the land of Bob and Doug. Toyota’s sub-brand will arrive in 45 dealerships in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver ten months from now, in September 2010. Scion’s full model range will be offered — xB, xD, and tC — and dealers will present them in a “store within a store” concept, which makes it sound like passwords, burlesque, and moonshine will be involved.
To give you Canuck Scion mavens something to do for the next eleven months, there’s a Canadian scion website. It’s a little barren right now, but after you take a quick survey it’ll let you know things like the Scion badge was “created to symbolize non-conformity, authenticity and personal style.” And then there are links to other Scion content, such as an interview with Motörhead, because what Scion owner doesn’t love Lemmy? Canadians rejoice. Eh. Hat tip to [...]

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Cup qualifying rained out at Talladega, Johnson starts from pole based on points:

October 31, 2009

For the seventh time this year rain has forced cancellation of Sprint Cup qualifying and left officials to set Sunday afternoon’s AMP Energy 500 grid by points.

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Dodge Challenger NASCAR Nationwide Series racer unveiled

October 31, 2009

Filed under: Motorsports, Coupe, Performance, Dodge

2010 Dodge Challenger New Nationwide Series racer - Click above for a high-res image gallery

NASCAR’s rollout of the new Nationwide Series racer has garnered buzz already with the introduction of the first-ever Mustang-branded stocker, and it got another shot in the arm yesterday at Talladega when Chrysler pulled the wraps off its brand-new Dodge Challenger Nationwide racer. We personally love the fact that the Challenger NNS car retains the same general front-end look as the production street car — partially restoring an element that’s been missing from stock cars for years now. The new Nationwide Mustang and Challenger will join their yet-to-be-unveiled counterparts from Chevy and Toyota (don’t hold your breath for a Nationwide Camaro) in four races on the 2010 Nationwide Series calendar: Daytona in July, then later dates at Michigan, Richmond, and Lowe’s Motor Speedway. The new car designs are expected to be [...]

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