When Acura and Highcroft Racing announced last month that the defending American Le Mans Series prototype champions would switch back to running a P2 car in 2010, the fate of the de Ferran Motorsports team was left hanging in the balance. That fate has now been decided, as Acura and de Ferran have announced the end of their relationship. Gil de Ferran's team was launched at the beginning of 2008 and ran the second half of the season in one of Acura's P2 cars before moving up to P1 this year. The team won five races in 2009 but fell short of the overall championship.

Unfortunately, the continuing recession means that Honda has had to cut back its support for the ALMS program and de Ferran Motorsports is being cut loose. Last summer, de Ferran announced the addition of an IRL program for 2010. At this point, it's not clear whether Acura will be able to bring in a second team for the 2010 ALMS campaign.


[Source: Acura]

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You might think now that Porsche is firmly ensconced in the Volkswagen Group family, challenging Audi for overall victory at Le Mans isn't on the to-do list. Apparently, you would wrong. With 16 overall victories, Porsche has more wins at Le Mans than any other manufacturer. However, while Porsches have continued to do well in GT, the marque's last overall victory came in 1998. Plans to build a prototype early this decade were abandoned, although the V10 engine developed for it eventually found its way into the Carrera GT.

New Porsche CEO Michael Macht evidently wants more overall victories, and while Volkswagen will soon control Porsche, family member Ferdinand Piech is chairman of VW's supervisory board. With the resources of the group available, Porsche could develop a new car to go for number one. No timetable has been given, but this actually wouldn't be the first time that there has been an internal battle at Le Mans. Earlier in the decade, Bentley also ran a prototype coupe based on the Audi R8.

With the interest in promoting alternatives like diesel at Le Mans and Porsche soon to debut a hybrid, a prototype with a similar system is not beyond the realm of possibility.

[Source: AutoCar]

2009 has not been a good year for Toyota. After getting its first full-year loss in seven decades, it faced its biggest-ever safety recall over unintended acceleration caused by floor mats and/or throttle control software. Now, as the year draws to a close, a new potential problem has sprung up. This time around, the issue is related to the braking system on the latest Prius, which debuted early this year.

The problem, which has been reported to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) by several dozen drivers, relates to a loss of deceleration when transitioning from regenerative braking to friction braking. At this time, NHTSA has not opened a full investigation but it is monitoring the situation.

This is actually quite a complicated issue, and it highlights one of the reasons why it takes automakers so long to bring cars to market. Read on after the jump for some discussion on what might be happening.



[Source: The Detroit Bureau]

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As we were discussing the Chevy Volt with some colleagues the other day, a potentially serious problem for EVs came up during the conversation. For the foreseeable future, the primary market for plug-ins and EVs will be urban areas where the range limitations of battery-powered cars figure to be less of an issue. However, if you look at the older residential areas in many cities, you'll find that many homes don't have garages, and people have to park on the street.

As we know, street parking carries along its own unique set of risks. Break-ins and thefts are not uncommon, as is vandalism like dragging keys along the paint. Now, imagine the type of miscreant who would commit such an act when he's faced with a fun new target: several blocks and dozens of cars plugged into curbside chargers. Such an individual would likely be inclined to simply unplug all the cars as they walk by. Or worse.

You can put a locking fuel cap on an conventionally-powered prevent gas from being siphoned out, but the proposed locking mechanisms on some charging couplers don't totally eliminate the possibility of someone simply disconnecting the cord. We're not sure what the solution is, but if this sort of thing were to happen on a wide scale, it's just another potential impediment to getting drivers to consider plug-in vehicles.

BMW is rounding out its Detroit Auto Show premier lineup with the North American debut of the 535i Gran Turismo. The 550i GT that's powered by the 4.4-liter twin turbo V8 is already on sale in the U.S., but we won't get our shot at the six cylinder model until the spring of 2010. Like the recently-announced 5 Series sedan, the Gran Turismo is getting a new version of the 3.0-liter inline six cylinder turbo.

The current 535i and 335i both use a version of the six with two turbochargers. The version in the GT produces the same 300 hp and 300 pound-feet of torque with a single twin-scroll turbocharger. The engine also incorporates BMW's Valvetronic valve control system to reduce fuel consumption by eliminating the throttle and reducing pumping losses. The six will be mated up with the same new ZF eight-speed automatic used in the 550i and the ActiveHybrid 7. Want more details? Click past the break for the press release.



[Source: BMW]

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Italian pub, Quattroroute reports Ferrari will show its first road-going hybrid next March at the Geneva Motor Show. Based on the 599 GTB, the Ferrari hybrid is expected to use a derivative of the kinetic energy recovery system (KERS) used on the prancing horse's Formula One cars during part of the 2009 season.

The KERS setup and the concept will reportedly use a lithium ion battery pack, and based on the diagram (right) the road car will have the battery and the power electonics mounted on either side of the rear transaxle, with an electric motor incorporated into the transaxle itself. If the road car is similar to the race car, this will essentially be a mild hybrid system providing automatic start-stop, regenerative braking and electric boost. Judging by the battery size, Ferrari won't offer any pure electric propulsion. The system is expected to boost urban driving mileage by over 30 percent from the current 8.7 mpg (US) to a slightly less miserable 13.8 mpg.

Thanks to Daniele for the tip!

[Source: Quattroroute]

BMW's storied history of building roadsters dates back to the original 328 of the 1930s. However, there have been gaps in the brand's open-top lineage, including one extended stretch through the '60s, '70s and '80s. After a dalliance with the bizarre European market Z1, BMW finally got serious about roadsters again in the '90s with the introduction of the Z3.

Earlier this year, the Munich brand introduced what's essentially the third generation of its modern mainline roadster (discounting the aforementioned low-volume Z1 and the Z8) in the shape of its all-new Z4. Upon its introduction, the esteemed Mr. Harley took our first crack at the new "E89" at its Southern California launch last spring and came away with mixed feelings.

To be fair, whenever an automaker builds a new model, there's always a distinction between what the engineers and designers expect of it and what consumers bank on. There's also a big difference between spending a few hours on a prescribed driving route under controlled conditions versus living with a car as a daily driver for a week or longer. So we wanted to spend time with the Z4 on more familiar turf to see what life is like with BMW's newest roadster.



Photos by Sam Abuelsamid / Max Abuelsamid / Copyright ©2009 Weblogs, Inc.

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When Audi announced its new GT3 class R8 LMS race car late last year it was expecting 2009 to be a year of learning and development. As it turned out, it was a hugely successful season, landing championships in the FIA European GT series, along with the German and Belgian national series. All told, the R8s captured 23 race victories.

In 2010 the new GT Challenge class for GT3 type cars will become a permanent fixture of the American Le Mans Series as the GT1 class is consigned to history. During the 2009 season, GT Challenge was mainly the province of Porsche 911s. However, with the R8s success in Europe this year, Audi is considering offering the car to North American customers for the 2011 season. While the car could probably be competitive in 2010, Audi wants to set up a customer support infrastructure first.



[Source: American Le Mans Series]

Late last month, BMW officially revealed its next generation 5 series sedan in Munich and the opening salvo of powertrains includes the usual array of gas and diesel six- and eight-cylinder engines. However, with the recent launches of the ActiveHybrid X6 and 7, no one expects it to stay that way for long. BMW officials have acknowledged its intent to expand hybrid capability to other models going forward and, as the next redesign, the 5 would be the logical choice.

We're not sure if the new 5 will show up at the Detroit show next month, but it should appear by the Geneva Motor Show in March. At that time, the ActiveHybrid 5 will probably debut as a concept with the production version possibly arriving by the end of 2010. At this point, it appears unlikely that we'll see any more BMW applications of the two-mode hybrid system used in the X6 (with the possible exception of the X5). Instead, the modular mild hybrid from the 7 is the likely candidate since it delivers much of the benefit at a lower cost and smaller packaging size.



[Source: BMWBlog]

Ford has named Jamie Allison as the new director of its North American Motorsports programs. Set to replace Brian Wolfe, Allison has been working in Ford Racing for six years and has been with the Dearborn automaker for 22 years. While part of the racing group, Allison has worked in one of the more profitable segments of the business, selling racing performance parts. During his tenure Allison oversaw the launch of Ford selling turn-key race cars like the FR500C, the FR500S and of course the Cobra Jet drag race car.

The race car program has been very successful both in terms of sales and on the track, with both the 2008 and 2010 runs of 50 Cobra Jets sold out before the cars were even built. The announcement of Allison's promotion came during a media event this week where Allison revealed the next product from Ford Racing, which you'll here more about next week. Wolfe has been named to a new position in the product development organization.



[Source: Ford]
Photos Copyright ©2009 Sam Abuelsamid / Weblogs, Inc.

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