Futuremark has created a concept instrument and dash cluster for Audi. The system is a full, live dashboard environment all shown in 3D graphics. “We are delighted to work with Audi due to their professional expertise in the car industry,” said Petri Talala, Vice President and General Manager of the Handheld and Embedded Group at Futuremark Oy. If you wish to stop and grab something to eat or fill the car with gas, the GPS interface not only will point you to the nearest restaurant or gas station, but your dashboard will also adjust dynamically. Futuremark’s has an upcoming automotive benchmark that is in development which will utilize real-world use cases such as car dashboard, info-system, and navigation workloads based on OpenGL ES 1.x and ES 2.0. Khronos APIs such as OpenGL and OpenGL ES will be widely adopted for rendering backend of digital instrumentation.

Read More: "Futuremark designs stunning dashboard concept for Audi"

Audi has created Audi A4 Driving Challenge for the iPhone. Five tracks are included, each one more difficult than the previous. The lap time and track time are displayed. The game, which renders graphics from an overhead perspective, uses the iPhone’s accelerometer for steering, with on-screen buttons to operate the gas and brake pedals. “The iPhone is an ideal platform to help introduce the entirely new Audi A4 to the public,” said Scott Keogh, chief marketing officer, Audi of America. “Audi customers are smart, sophisticated and technologically savvy. As a brand, we are committed to progress and innovation at every turn. We’re very excited to be the first automotive manufacturer to connect with our audience through the iPhone.” The 2009 Audi A4 will be available starting with September 2008.

Read More: "Audi develops free A4 racing game for iPhone"

Audi has officially announced that they’ll offer a new sports car, based on they’re Audi R8 hit. The ‘racing’ R8 conforms to the production- based GT3 regulations and it will be available from autumn 2009. “The R8 is the first production Audi bearing the name and genes of a successful racing sportscar and is therefore an excellent base from which to build up our first big customer sport program,” explains Head of Audi Motorsport Dr Wolfgang Ullrich. The new R8 will offer more than 500 horsepower and adds things like a rear wing, full roll cage, heat extractors over the engine bay, a longer spoiler. Built on a rear-wheel-drive architecture the Audi R8 GT3 transfers power to the wheels via a new 6-speed sequential sports gearbox with suspension components taken from the regular production R8. First test races are scheduled for the 2009 season with deliveries to start next Autumn.

More photos after the jump. Read More: "500+ hp Audi R8 GT3 unveiled"

Team Penske’s transporter suffered disaster when their transporter truck caught fire on Interstate 80, west of Cheyenne, Wyo. The two drivers were unharmed, but the lower level of the transporter, containing crewmember uniforms and a variety of equipment was destroyed. A team spokesman said the No. 3 and No. 6 Dallara-Hondas that were on the upper level of the transporter had extensive water, smoke and heat damage. The fire started on the right side of the transporter, possibly from a wheel bearing failure. It was put out by a local fire department, but the transporter will remain in Wyoming for further inspection and assessment of the damage.

Cindric estimated the damage to be “a couple million bucks.” Specially outfitted transporters used by Indy-car teams cost about $400,000 with the cars worth at least $500,000 each. The incident is the team’s second major disaster in three years. In 2006, the team’s IndyCar headquarters, then in Reading, Pa., suffered major losses in flood damage. But the team responded by winning the next race, at Kansas Speedway. “We seem to always perform in these circumstances,” Castroneves said.

Source: Penske Racing (Via Autoblog

Maserati has built just 12 copies of the Maserati MC12 Corsa, a 755 hp track-version of the Maserati MC12 priced at 1.5 million Euros. Edo Karabegovic, founder of Edo Competition, has made the MC12 Corsa road-legal resulting in an absolutely unique super car. Nick Hall took the car for a spin last year, and said: “Seeing it was good, but driving it, well this might just be the ultimate test drive of the fastest weapon on the road today.” MC12 Versione Corse is powered by a V12 engine that delivers 755 at 8,000 and a peak torque of 740 at 5,500. It makes the 0 to 200 km/h (125 mph) sprint in 6.4 sec and hits a top speed of 330 km/h (205 mph).
Read More: "First Maserati MC12 road legal car for sale"

The 2008 Chevrolet Cobalt XFE is a new option package designed to offer improved fuel economy. Model-year 2008 also marks the return of the Cobalt SS high-performance model to this compact car’s roster. Manual-transmission Cobalt LS and LT models come with the XFE package, which includes specific tires and powertrain tweaks designed to maximize fuel economy. Note that the XFE package is not available on Cobalts equipped with the 2LT option package.

Sport coupes and sedans have a 171-hp 2.4-liter engine, while the SS is a coupe only, and it has a 260-hp turbocharged 2.0-liter powerplant. In terms of safety, the Chevrolet Cobalt is a mixed bag. In contrast to some cars in this class, rear disc brakes and ABS are optional except on the highest trim levels. Side curtain airbags became standard for ‘08, while they were previously optional. When equipped with the side curtain bags, the Cobalt has scored quite well in crash tests. Small Chevrolet cars have rarely been known for the quality of their interiors, and the Cobalt doesn’t do much to change this.

In editorial reviews, the car has earned negative commentary in regard to its hard plastics, inconsistent build quality and limited storage. On the positive side, the Cobalt’s interior is nicely insulated from road and engine noise, and the front seats should be very comfortable for the majority of drivers and passengers. The Cobalt debuted for the 2005 model year. As such, it is only now starting to appear with frequency as a used vehicle. The Cobalt effectively replaced the long-running Chevy Cavalier, which was both smaller and of much poorer quality.

“In the financial report, Ford said that it took $8.0 billion in special charges to write off the value of troubled assets — including a $5.30 billion charge for Ford North America. The North American unit posted a $1.3 billion pre-tax loss in the quarter compared with a $270 million loss during the same period a year ago.” Ford said it will produce small cars and double output of fuel-saving engines as record gasoline prices sap U.S. truck sales. “Every number was close, but every number was on the wrong side, on the negative side,” said Dan Poole, vice president of equity research at Cleveland-based National City Corp.

Ford had $26.6 billion in automotive cash at the end of the quarter, down $10.8 billion from a year earlier. The F-150 slide has contributed to a 24 percent industrywide decline in full-sized pickup sales this year. Ford also announced that the next-generation Ford Explorer midsize SUV will come out in 2010 and be built on car underpinnings, making it more fuel efficient than the current truck-based model. And it announced it will build a seven-passenger car-based crossover vehicle for Lincoln in mid-2009.
Read More: "Ford Has $8.7 Billion Loss on Writedown, Truck Sales"

Its official: GM is no longer the world’s largest automobile manufacturer. Toyota sold 4.8 m vehicles in the first half of 2008, while GM managed to move 4.54m. Higher U.S. gas prices have “put an enormous amount of pressure” on GM’s truck sales, said Erich Merkle, an automotive consultant with accounting and consulting firm Crowe Chizek and Co LLC. “That is equating to lower sales for GM and causing them to now fall behind Toyota.” GM and Toyota were roughly even in 2007 for the top spot among the world’s automakers, with GM slightly ahead if sales from a China business were included.

GM’s sales in North America fell to 963,929 vehicles in the second quarter from 1.2 million, hurt by the slow U.S. economy and labor disruptions in the U.S. market, the company said. Sales in Latin America, Africa and the Middle East rose 17.7 percent, while sales in its Asia-Pacific region grew 14.6 percent, GM said. Sales rose 2.5 percent in Europe. Mike DiGiovanni, GM’s chief sales analyst, said most of the industry’s sales increase is expected to be in the so-called BRIC countries — Brazil, Russia, India and China.” Certainly the biggest risk is the U.S. economic downturn and potential spill-over effects on the global economy,” he said.
Read More: "Toyota is officially number 1"

KTM is working on a more powerful version of the X-BOW and the official launch will be made in 2009 at the Geneva Motor Show. Under the hood KTM will have a modified version of Audi’s 2.0-liter FDI engine, an engine that has produced as much as 261 horsepower in the S3. The new model will get a full-height windshield a removable roof. That should aid greatly in making the X-Bow a more livable proposition, but it will be interesting to see how they negotiate putting a convincing-looking hat on such a minimalist roadster. The more powerful model could be joined later by a new variant sporting a full windshield and a removable roof, making the case for the X-Bow more compelling and allowing KTM to take aim at traditional track toys.
Read More: "KTM preparing a more powerful X-BOW"

Toyota confirmed that the Prius hybrid will be built in USA and that production will begin in 2010. The production of the Tundra will be moved to the San Antonio plant in Spring 2009.

A new Prius can run to around 48 miles (77 kilometers) per gallon of fuel in city traffic compared to a large SUV which may run to 13 miles (21 kilometers) a gallon depending on how each vehicle is driven. The car retails for around 21,000 dollars and Toyota reported 11,765 Prius sales in June, marking a 25 percent drop from a year earlier.

“The truck market continues to worsen, so unfortunately we must temporarily suspend production. But this good news about production mix demonstrates our long-term commitment to our North American operations and to our team members, supplier partners, and communities where our plants are located,” said Jim Wiseman, vice president/external affairs for Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America (TEMA). “By using this downturn as an opportunity to develop team members and improve our operations, we hope to emerge even stronger.”

While it still runs on gas, the Lotus Eco Elise concept uses cutting-edge materials and production methods to reduce its environmental impact. Eco Elise has the same drivetrain as the Elise S, they use the same aluminum tub and have the same shape, but there are some differences. For Eco Elise they use a host of sustainable materials to make up the body and trim, including hemp, “eco wool”, new high-tech, water-based paint which can be applied by hand. These things reduce the Eco Elise’s footprint, limit the energy during production.

Mike Kimberley, CEO of Group Lotus plc commented “This Eco Elise is a great example of the advanced and affordable green technologies Lotus is developing. We are at the cutting edge of environmental technology and are determined to push forward with our green agenda. The Lotus brand values of lightweight, fuel efficient and high performance are more relevant today than they ever have been. We are keen to ensure that Lotus as a company and its products offer an ethical, green option that appeals to our customers”.

The Eco Elise has a set of solar panels to help the power the electrical systems, reducing the drain on the engine and improving efficiency. A new green shift light appears on the instrumental panel that assists drivers in maximizing fuel efficiency. The Eco Elise weighs 32 kg less than the standard Elise S.