Ferrari, Maserati will display vehicles at Chrysler's stand in Detroit

While Chrysler Group LLC has no plans to hold a press conference at the 2010 Detroit Auto Show, the Auburn Hills automaker will still have strong presence at Cobo. Joining an electric Fiat 500 and a Lancia-based Chrysler concept will be Fiat SpA’s Maserati and Ferrari brands.

At previous Detroit auto shows, high-end luxury brands like Lamborghini, Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Porsche and Ferrari have rented out their show-floor space. Last year, Ferrari (along with many others) was a no show; however, this year Chrysler has formed a partnership with Fiat, which owns Ferrari and Maserati.

Spokesman or NAIAS, Sam Locricchio has confirmed that Maserati and Ferrari will display their new vehicles at the Chrysler stand. Both plan on showing the Maserati GranTurismo Convertible (known as GranCabrio in Europe) and the Ferrari 458 Italia.

Chrysler’s show space is currently being redesigned so that all brands are presented as a part of the Chrysler family.

- By: Omar Rana

Source: Detroit News

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Still hot after all these years

The Cindy Crawford Award for ageing gracefully goes to Audi's R8, now fortified with 10 essential pistons and 5.2 litres of sugar-coated sweetness.

It's fairly easy to wow us men. Pen an aggressively angular shape, equip it with fetching rubber and a vroom engine and for about, oh, 10 seconds, it will be all we can think about. Much more difficult is maintaining our attention beyond the introduction of newer, more enhanced models. This is where Audi's supercar shines more brightly than any other.

It's been around for almost three years and, though it's been enhanced with 525 horses, it's still that outrageous shape that sells. Park any other run-of-the-mill supercar beside theR8-- from the Nissan GT-R to Ferrari's 430 --and it disappears. The quattro GmbH-designed coupe is the best-looking car of the decade and almost assuredly a future classic.

The Scrooge Always Rules Award for the car I'd buy with my own money goes to Mini. Though it is far from being the universal automobile (I guess that would be the Camry, God help our souls), it does everything I require of an automobile.

Now that the basement troll is all growed up (and most importantly, possesses a TTC pass), I only need two seats. The Mini also handles a hoot, at once being as manouvreable as a go-kart and yet as stable as a limousine. It's quite a trick. If you opt for the John Cooper Works edition, it will even humble many a more powerful supercar and will do so while quite literally sipping our dwindling natural resources.

In a year marked with the bankruptcy of the world's once largest car company, the hubris of one of the planet's smallest car companies (that would be Porsche) trying to swallow one of the largest (that would be Volkswagen) whole and the ignominious sale of once storied and proud brands, it would be impossible for the excitement of the actual automobiles to match the high-stakes dramas unfolding in the boardrooms. Nonetheless, some managed to stand out so that your immensely thankful for the headline-generating news Motor Mouth might pontificate on something other than the soap opera that was the automotive industry this past year.

The Extreme Makeover Award for makeup-free cosmetic enhancement goes to Land Rover's well disguised but thoroughly redesigned LR4. Though the '10 model looks virtually identical to its predecessor, the LR3, the new Land Rover is significantly revised if not quite all new.

Rather than raving about a flashy new dress, a sultry hairdo and new fender flares, the Land Rover's ameliorated attractiveness is based on its completely new direct-injected 5.0-litre V8. Making almost the same power as the supercharged 4.2L that used to power the top-of-the-line Range Rover, the LR4 stresses performance upgrades over esthetic enhancements.

Coupled with an interior that goes from well to wow, it's enough to make you think that, even in this jaded world, substance can still triumph over style. It's certainly enough to make the LR4 my new favourite sport-brute.

The icing on the cake is that, almost 10 years after its rejuvenation, the Mini is still on my "hot" list. And, as every successful marriage can attest, anything that can still turn your head after 10 years of close cohabitation is a keeper.

Absolute perfection

Jeremy Clarkson

Special to the Star

london–With its combination of V10 Lamborghini power, German quality, sublime handling and ease of use, the Audi R8 V10 is an extraordinarily good car. I drove one back in the summer and reckoned that in every measurable way, it was the best car in the world.

It's not as complete, obviously, as a Bugatti Veyron, and it's not as hot-headed as a Lamborghini Gallardo. But if you take price, quality, fire, speed, looks, economy, grip and handling into account, it scores an almost consistent row of 10s.

There's a problem, though. When reviewing a car, I look for the certain special something that makes oysters wonderful and prawns less so. And that's what the Audi's missing; something you can't imagine or explain. I suppose, in human terms, what it's missing is a soul.

Which brings me to an interesting question. Can you truly score a row of perfect 10s and emerge from the effort with any personality at all?

I give you, by way of reference points, Steve "interesting" Davis and Michael Schumacher. I give you, too, Roger Federer. I like the look of the guy and I like his style, but can you imagine him climbing under the dinner table and tying someone's shoelaces together? Can you imagine him drunk? In short, then, to be good, do you have to be boring?

The answer, of course, is no. John McEnroe wasn't boring. James Hunt wasn't boring. And yes, I could imagine George Best drunk, easily. This is because they have a gift. Sure, they worked hard to reach the top of their game, but plainly they didn't have to exorcise every human trait in order to get there.

And that's what's gone wrong with the R8. It was designed by people who are not naturally given to making supercars. You do not see this with a Rolls-Royce Phantom. This scores just as many perfect 10s as the R8, and yet it has a soul as well. It feels like it was born good, not nurtured over a billion cups of committee-room coffee to be that way.

We do see it, however, in the Mazda MX-5, the new Ford Fiesta, the BMW M3, the Range Rover TDV8 and the Ferrari 430. All of these cars do what they are supposed to do perfectly. But they have that certain something as well. They have a soul.

But the car that pulls off the trick better than all the others is the Aston Martin DBS Volante.

When I first encountered the hard-top version of this car, I was a bit disappointed. Aston Martin was maintaining that it had made an all-new car but you didn't need an X-ray machine to see it had done no such thing. The DBS, as plain as day, was a DB9 with some sill extensions and a bit more power.

Certainly, I could see no reason for the huge price differential between a 6.0-litre V10 DB9, which today costs $216,195, and a DBS, which looked exactly the same and had exactly the same engine, and today costs $366,000.

But then I drove it and everything became clear. The DBS was, in fact, a DB9 where every little detail was about 10 per cent better. The brakes, the responses, the steering, everything.

And then they cut the roof off. Normally, this spells disaster because any car designed to be a coupé and then converted to be a convertible goes all flobbery and soft. So you're buying something that was designed to be a driver's machine. And then ruined. It's why I always laugh at people in drop-top Porsche 911s.

However, if there is any weakening of the structure in a DBS Volante, I'm damned if I can find it. I've driven this car a lot. . And not once did it ever shimmy or shake. It's a soft-top rock.

In terms of outright speed, it's epic. But as I discovered in a flat-out charge down the motorway in Romania, a Ferrari California is faster. This is because it has a seamless flappy paddle gearshifter. It was irritating to reach the Aston's red line and know I'd lose a yard or two while swapping cogs. But frankly, I'd trade that yard or two for the feel of power and control you get from a stick shift allied to a big V12.

And anyway, put the two cars on a track or a mountain pass and there is no way in hell the Ferrari can pull away. The heavier, thumping Aston just clings on to its rear end until eventually the California has to pull in for new tires. Weirdly, the Aston, which sits on exactly the same sort of rubber, can go much, much farther between trips to the tire shop.

What really settles it, though, is not the Ferrari's appetite for rubber. It's the looks. The Aston is a sensation. I know of no better-looking car in production today.

Inside, I could gripe a bit if I wanted to. The sat nav is terrible, the buttons are hard to read and oh how I wish it didn't say "Power. Beauty. Soul" every time you turn it on.

Mind you, at least this is all true. There is power. There is beauty. And there is soul. When you switch on the new four-door Rapide it says "Pure Aston Martin." Which is, of course, nonsense. Because it's made in Austria.

Before we leave the interior, I suppose we should pause to laugh at the microscopic rear seats, fitted only so the car can be sold in America as a four-seater – it isn't – but then really we have to get back to the way this thing drives.

What's most astonishing of all is the way it's so utterly sublime on a track – both the Stig and Tiff Needell say it's the best driver's car of them all – but when you are just driving along, it is so docile and quiet. It really is, then, the absolutely perfect grand tourer.

And yet it's so much more than that. It's the absolutely perfect car.

Toronto Star

F1 is proving too costly for car makers

Ferrari, Mercedes, BMW, Renault and Toyota spent a total of €608m (£539m) on F1, but in the year to date they sold 1.7m fewer vehicles than in 2008, leading to the latter three car manufacturers cutting their involvement in the sport.

F1's industry monitor Formula Money calculated the number of cars the manufacturers needed to sell in order to cover their cost of competing by dividing their budgets for the sport by the amount of revenue generated per car sold.

Ferrari, which has been competing in F1 for longer than any other manufacturer, leads the field by a considerable margin when it comes to covering its costs. The Italian marque makes €275,000 per car sold and so only needs to sell 153 vehicles to break even on its €42m investment in F1. In the nine months to the end of September 2009 it sold 4,680 cars, 346 fewer than in the same period the previous year. However this 6.9pc sales fall was the smallest in percentage terms of any of the car manufacturers that owned F1 teams.

In contrast, Toyota's latest quarterly figures for the six months to the end of September 2009 show that it sold 1.1m fewer cars compared to the same period the previous year. This was the biggest drop of any of the car manufacturer team owners and, in percentage terms, it was almost four times Ferrari's fall. Toyota announced that it would pull out of F1 one day before it revealed the second-quarter results in November.

The Japanese manufacturer could least afford a fall in sales since it was making the largest investment of any F1 team owner by pouring €178m into the sport annually. Toyota needed to sell over 9,700 cars, more than any of its rivals, to cover its costs in F1.

Renault followed Toyota's lead last month by reducing its F1 involvement when it sold a majority stake in its beleaguered team to Luxembourg businessman Gerard Lopez, an early investor in Skype.

In September last year Renault lost its team boss, Flavio Briatore, who was found to have manipulated the result of a race in 2008, and its title sponsor ING reversed out of the sport shortly afterwards. Crucially, to break even in F1, Renault needed to sell more than 8,200 cars e_SEnD more than any other manufacturer except for Toyota e_SEnD but in the year to date its unit sales were down by 214,000.

Mercedes bucked the trend by selling its stake in the McLaren team to its co-owners and then buying into the world championship-winning Brawn team in November. Although its latest results show a 20pc fall in unit sales compared to the previous year, Mercedes receives €37,797 in revenue per car sold – more than any other manufacturer except for Ferrari. This means it only needed to sell 4,154 cars, fewer than half as many as Toyota, to cover its F1 costs. However, it has not had an easy ride over the Brawn buy-out.

"We can not understand why the board of directors has immediately started a new Formula One project," said Erich Klemm, deputy chairman of the supervisory board for Mercedes' parent Daimler, shortly after the deal was announced. He added that "in these economically difficult times, the company should invest in better marketing of its real cars". F1 seems to be a long way from doing that.

Schumi's decision comes under fire burning rubber

Schumi's decision comes under fire burning rubber

The universal acclaim that greeted Michael Schumacher's emergence from retirement to a return to Grand Prix racing has run into a wall of disillusion in, above all places, his homeland Germany.

Sour notes are echoing from both the Daimler-Mercedes hierarchy and from the company's shopfloor in the light of Schumacher's £7million-a-year (Dh41.5 million) wage and the team's £200 million outlay at a time when workers are being laid off and there is a shift from Germany to build cars in foreign factories in a cost-cutting campaign.

The parent company, Daimler Works Council, is critical of Mercedes F1's decisions and leader Uwe Werner, citing widespread protests, said: "Schumacher's salary is hard to justify when some of the manufacturing plants and, therefore, jobs are being transferred overseas.

"We would have understood better if Mercedes had withdrawn from the expensive business of F1 altogether and followed the departures of Honda, BMW and Toyota."

When Mercedes bought a majority stake in reigning champions Brawn GP a month ago, Daimler councillor Erich Klemm snapped: "In these difficult times the company should invest in better marketing of its real cars."

And Essen-based automotive industry expert Ferdinand Dudenhoffer agrees: "Mercedes is a company for which sportiness is not a selling point, but rather security and quality. It doesn't need to throw millions at F1.

"Why would a customer decide to buy a Mercedes because of their involvement in Formula One? Every private car will have to be sold for much more money to finance the company's involvement in F1."

No sympathy

They are arguments that find no sympathy from Mercedes Motorsport boss Norbert Haug. He is convinced that all the opposites are true and commercial benefits will accrue from the race team's achievements and race legend Schumacher's profile.

He said: "We believe we know how to invest our money and the whole F1 engagement, Michael and all, will do wonders, sell a lot of cars and give worldwide recognition to the quality of the three-pointed star."

And his chief executive Dieter Zetsche said: "There are now only three manufacturers left in F1 — Mercedes, Ferrari and, to a much lesser degree, Renault, and it would be a missed opportunity not to take advantage of the global exposure with Middle Eastern and Asian markets in particular ripe to be tapped."

In Italy voices have been raised against Schumacher for his "betrayal" in deserting Ferrari for Mercedes, but the Prancing Horse team spokesman Luca Colajanni revealed: "I say the same as President Montezemolo — all the best. From now on he is an opponent and we always try to beat our opponents."

Ted Macauley is a UK- based writer specialising in motorsport.

Ferrari designers to shape new Forth bridge

THEY have streamlined Ferrari racing cars, sculpted the sails on the world's fastest yachts and made sure that the London Eye keeps turning. Now the team behind some of the world's most exclusive design projects are bringing their aerodynamic know-how to bear on the new Forth bridge.

Transport Scotland has enlisted the help of engineers at Italian university Politecnico di Milano to wi ADVERTISEMENT ndproof the new Forth replacement crossing (FRC), allowing drivers to use the bridge even in the harshest of conditions.

Using complex wind tunnel tests, the Italian team are studying the way air moves around a series of scale models of the proposed bridge, as they try to construct a barrier that protects high-sided vehicles while offering a reasonable view from the bridge for drivers.

The 14x4m-high wind tunnel simulates the conditions in the Firth of Forth, including the harsh weather and alignment of the bridge in relation to prevailing winds.

Further tests will then determine the aerodynamic behaviour of the road, towers and eventually the bridge's entire structure.

Billy Minto, Transport Scotland's structures team manager for the FRC, said yesterday: "The effects of wind on large structures, such as the Forth replacement crossing require very careful consideration.

"Computer testing cannot fully quantify the effects of wind on large bridges, so tests using scale models are required to provide additional information and are an essential tool in the design process.

"A key requirement of the Forth replacement crossing is that traffic is able to cross the bridge during periods of high wind.

"The wind shield is therefore essential to provide the level of reliability we are looking for on such an important link in Scotland's transport network."

Designers are hoping that rigorous testing will enable the Forth bridge to perform as well as the second Severn crossing.

Finished 12 years ago, the Severn crossing has never been closed due to high winds.

The news comes as Transport Scotland announced they had completed the list of contractors for the Forth replacement crossing with the appointment of Heath Lambert as the insurance advisors.

Project director John Howison said: "This appointment will allow us to examine the benefits of a bespoke project insurance policy for this major infrastructure project alongside the procurement competition.

"This approach has been of interest to us for some time as a way of further improving site confidence in the construction of our transport projects."

The Politecnico di Milano was founded in 1863 and is a world leader in wind engineering and aerodynamics.

The Italian team was recently involved in testing Italy's proposed record-breaking 3,000m-span Messina Crossing.

Hamilton Not Perfect But He Will Be One Day

Hi

I have written articles before about various things and some have had included Lewis Hamilton and they have not always been glowing in praise. I never intended the articles to be overly critical but a few people who I assume are hardcore Hamilton fans were very aggressive in their defence of him.

However, because of the fact I was never fully concentrating on Hamilton I never fully explained some of the views I portrayed. So I decided that I would fully explain what I have said and hopefully recieve less of the harsh criticism.

First of all Lewis Hamilton is a brilliant driver. No one in their right mind can deny what a good driver he is. Hamilton on his day could beat most people that have ever sat in a F1 car. Now that last sentence was key. He could beat MOST people. I do not believe he is the greatest F1 driver that has ever been in a F1 car.

His performance this year was I think in my view his most impressive. He really did show some true grit and determination in 2009 that really earned some respect from even his most fiersome critics of which I am not. He threw around what has to be one of the worst cars Mclaren have ever produced and managed to get it to do something and produced a very good season with tools at his disposal. This year he really began to show that legendary status could be his one day.

So far if we are honest he has not done quite enough yet to deserve the status of legend. He has not won enough titles for one thing which obviously is not his fault you cant win 5 or 6 world titles when you have been in the sport for just three years. To be legend you have to not only win the title once you have to be a multiple world champion. I fully expect him to win more titles.

Another thing needed to be classed as a legend is the memorable drive. The drive that will go down in history and will never be forgotten. Schumacher in Hungary in 1998 when he and Ross Brawn pulled off one of the most remarkable drives he have had to seemingly win from nowhere.

Senna in Donington in 1993 pulled around a car that wasn't the best car in the field by far to win after passing 5 cars in just one lap. Nuvolari in 1935 produced possibly the greatest drive in history when we won at the Nurburgring with a car that was old so therefore not the best handling car in the field and had roughly 110 HP less than others in the field. He won the race by around two minutes infront of the more powerful and newer cars.

He have yet to see one of those drives yet from Hamilton. He has had some very good performances especially in the wet for example at the 2007 Japanese grand prix and the 2008 British grand prix. However he needs that one performance where he pulls of the seemingly impossible that will go down in folklore. However that success is another reason why he has not quite earned legend status.

He had the best car in the field the Ferrari really wasn't quite up to the mark that year and therefore they should of been no concern. After a while it was clear that Alonso was not happy at Mclaren and he was going to move. Surely, the team would slightly albeit probably unintentionally supporting Lewis more. He just needed maintain they way he was going and the title would be his and he well, blew it. He really should of never ever let Ferrari back into the hunt and they did and well they didn't need asking twice.

However what no one again can deny is his true ability. He started his career in the best possible fashion in the best car and producing pdium performances race after race and then at Canada to win his first race. Hamilton because of those performances does deserve a special place in the history of F1. Hamilton was in 2009 the best driver on the grid and by a long way.

He also has the habit of surrounding himself in controversy. If you look back at all the races and you think how many times Lewis has found himself in trouble. It's a worryingly high amount. Lets start with one of the less controversial ones which would be the 2008 Japanese GP. He produced a quite simply ridiculous attempt at a pass which resulted in him clattering into Raikkonen and Kovaleinen. It was the first corner on the first lap and it was completly uneeded. He was rightly penalised it was a very bad error.

Then we think about the 2008 Belgian GP which is still disputed now. The chicane cutting incident was in my view a error by a Lewis and the stewards. Lewis has a bit stupid because he simply didn't drop back enough you can't just let them infront by as little as he did and then immeadiatly attack again. It was a silly error and nothing more. The penalty was simply not deserved. In France in 2008 yet again a silly error ensured once again he was penalised for cutting the chicane. 

He also gave us one of the comedy moments in F1 where I simply couldn't help but laugh. I am of course refering to the 2008 Canadian GP where he forgot about traffic lights. In the pits the lights where red so Raikkonen stopped as your meant to do. Hamilton didn't see the light or wasn't fully concentrating or whatever reason he continued merrily towards Raikkonen untill eventually he realised but by now it was to late and he simply slide in to the back of Raikkonen and his and Kimi's race was over.

But of course I am just here picking up on the errors of Hamilton. His driving is normally spectacularly good and f coruse he will make mistakes he is not perfect and no one is. He hasn't atleast got involved in some very underhanded sort of things such as Schumacher in Jerez and Senna in Suzuka.

Of course, he has been involved in controversy with spygate and the farce of the Austrailian GP 2009 but on neither of those occasions was Hamilton really at fault as far as we know. Aswell as this Lewis is absolutly brillaint with the media. He got the media on his side early on and apart from when he has had his little run ins with the stewards when they have criticized him they have been nearly universal in their praise.

Lewis is becoming less and less involved with the stewards and that can only be a good thing. The less he is involved with the stewards the better it will be for them. He is becoming wiser and as he does this it will benefit him more on and off the track. As we gets wiser that combined with his undoubted natural speed will result in one of the most rounded drivers we have ever seen.   

Lewis Hamilton has made mistakes in his F1 career and some of his fans really do need to accept this. I am a little tired of some of his fans trying to make out that he is perfect because of course he isn't as no one is. What Lewis Hamilton is a diamond still in the rough. He is not the finished article just but he is still brilliantly good. One day he will be the finished article and we could have a second era of Schumacher style dominance.

Hope I have explained myself and am fully prepared for Hamilton fans still to have a go at me

This was...

The Trivium Fan