For the past few months, design students from 50 universities across the globe took up Ferrari’s challenge of designing a future supercar for the famous Italian brand. Now, following the completion of the second phase in which seven schools were chosen to move to the final round, we have a winner.

Drum-roll please…and the winners of the Ferrari World Design Contest are…the students from Seoul’s Hongik University. The South Korean school finished first ahead of the second-placed IED of Turin in Italy and London’s Royal College of Arts.

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“Green” is the new “mean”. Whereas a few years ago most automakers focused on tooting their performance credentials, now the trend is to be eco-friendly. Even BMW, the maker of the M3, M5 etc., is jumping on the "green" bandwagon. Albeit a little late to the EV party, the Germans plan to make up for it with a dazzling entrance.

Today, the Munich-based automaker announced that it is holding a press conference on Friday, July 29, to preview its “i” sub-brand. Unfortunately, that's about all BMW is willing to reveal about the conference, so we don’t exactly know what the company has in store for us: a startling presentation of the new models or one mundane speech after another from the firm's executives?

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Truth to be said, the third generation of the Honda Odyssey is about as exciting to look at as a bowl of cheerios. And no, adding carlashes will definitely not change our view on the Japanese minivan’s styling or rather, the lack of it. Read more »

Chevrolet sold 2.35 million cars worldwide in the first six months of 2011, which is a record number in the company’s 100-year history. The GM brand sold 286,499 more vehicles than in the same period of 2010, which represents a 14% increase.

This is due to Chevrolet gaining ground in its top five markets. In the US, its sales increased by 16%, in China by 15%, in Russia, where it is the best-selling global brand, by 54%, in Canada by 8% and in Brazil by 0.4% over the record first-half of 2010.

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Say want you want about the media’s obsession around Britain’s newly-wed royal coupe, Kate and Williams, but for some people, like Sonny Brazil, it’s a gift from the heavens.

You see, Sonny’s father Al, bought Kate Middleton’s inky-blue 2001 VW Golf hatchback back in 2009 from her brother James for a reasonable £1,400 (about US$2,300 or €1,600 at today’s exchange rates).

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New DTM racing cars are like public transportation: you wait for ages and then , all of a sudden, three or four buses appear at the same time. Just yesterday we posted Audi’s new entry into the German Touring Car Championship or, as it’s more commonly known, DTM (Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters). Today, BMW pulled the wraps off its new own DTM racer based on the coupe version of M3.

And mind you, unlike Audi, BMW revealed the M3 in the flesh clad in carbon fiber and looking quite menacing with its matte paint, flared wheel arches and aerodynamic package.

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Scuderia Ferrari announced the extension of Fernando Alonso's contract for the following five years until 2016. Although it took only 2 weeks to settle the negotiations, the amount of Alonso's annual salary is still unknown.

Alonso joined Ferrari in 2010 after two difficult years at Renault and a troubled time at McLaren in 2007. His his career at Maranello has been immediately succesful after winning the first Grand Prix of 2010 season and coming within four points of the 2010 title at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Fernando commended about the agreement:
"I am very happy to have reached this agreement. I immediately felt comfortable within Ferrari and now it feels to me like a second family. I have the utmost faith in the men and women who work in Maranello and in those who lead them: it is therefore natural for me to decide to extend my relationship in the long term like this, with a team at which I will no doubt end my Formula One career one day... I always said it was my intention to end my career at Ferrari, as I felt at home here since day one.... By the end of 2016, I will have been with Ferrari for seven years and maybe for 2017 I can sign another contract with Ferrari if I am not too old and if they are still happy with me!... It is impossible to predict what will happen in Formula 1 and therefore I don’t know how many I can win. My intention is to keep on enjoying my racing and this is the best team to be with, because with other teams, their form can go up and down a lot, but with Ferrari, a bad year can mean finishing second or third in the championship.

Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo commented also that he was delighted to keep the two-time world champion at Ferrari for the following years.
"It is a great pleasure to have renewed our agreement with a driver who has always demonstrated a winning mentality even in the most difficult circumstances. Fernando has all the required qualities, both technically and personally to play a leading role in the history of Ferrari and I hope he will be enriching it with further wins very soon."

The pure electric version of the RAV4 will not be sold directly to the U.S. public when it arrives in the market in the first quarter if 2012 as originally planned, according to Geri Yoza, Toyota’s national business planning manager of advanced vehicle marketing.

Instead, the EV version of the Japanese company’s popular SUV will be leased only to fleet customers and car sharing programs.

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The bosses over at BMW's British division have released pricing on the second-generation 1-series hatchback before it goes on sale in the UK on September 17, 2011.

The redesigned five-door hatchback will launch with a choice of three diesel and two petrol engines, with on-the-road prices starting from £19,375 for a 116i ES rising to £24,720 for a 120d Urban or a 120d Sport.

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Racing season has't started well for Ana Beatriz who undergone surgery to repair her scaphoid bone (wrist) and she is obliged to stay out of Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama at Barber Motorsports Park, in order to be fully recovered. Instead of Beatriz, the No. 24 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing car will be driven by American Le Mans Series champion and former Champ Car driver Simon Pagenaud, who will makes eventually his IZOD IndyCar Series debut.

Pagenaud commented:
"I'm fortunate to have the opportunity to drive Bia's No. 24 IndyCar this weekend. It's an awkward situation and not the best for a driver to race in circumstances like this, but I wish her the best and hope she has a very quick recovery and I will work hard for a good finish for DRR, Bia and Ipiranga/Blazemaster.
I've been looking to get into IndyCar for several years and now is my chance, so I just have to say thank you to everyone for giving me the opportunity."


Ana Beatriz, 24, of Brazil, suffered a wrist injury on Lap 5 of the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg when her car made contact with the No. 38 car driven by Graham Rahal but she managed to finish the race 14th.
"I could feel that my hand was sore and as the race went on it started to bother me more and I was in a lot of pain. I was just focused and determined on finishing the race. I really wanted it knowing that I wasn't 100 percent. Fortunately, I was able to finish the race and I got some good experience under my belt.
It wasn't until after the race that I realized that something was actually broken. I was pretty upset, but the team and the league have been great. I'm putting a lot of effort in being ready for Long Beach (April 17)."


Pagenaud, was Will Power's teammate in the 2007 Champ Car World Series season. He moved to ALMS for the 2008 season with de Ferran Motorsports and in 2010 he moved to Patrón Highcroft team, co-driving with David Brabham to the LMP1 title.

Dreyer & Reinbold Racing co-owner Dennis Reinbold commented:
"We wanted to put Bia in the car for this race, but it's more important that she heals properly and has a quick recovery," . "She's working hard and headed down the right track so that she can be ready for Long Beach. While she recovers we are happy that Simon can fill in for her this weekend.

With the new ML-Class unwrapped and ready for launch, Mercedes-Benz engineers have turned their development attention on the SUV's more spacious sibling with three-rows of seats, the GL-Class.

The development test car pictured is still hiding under a lot of camouflage but it's not particularly hard to imagine what the second-generation of the GL-Class will look like given that it is based on the 2012 ML.

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Unless you are enjoying a Fast and Furious flick on the couch, in real life, you rarely hear about car thieves stealing a bunch of vehicles from the same owner.

Yet this happened in the Canadian city of Calgary where some very slick bandits made off with not one, not two but a dozen (!) brand new vehicles from a local Nissan dealership.

The Calgary police said that the thieves broke in the Sunridge Nissan dealership on Sunday , July 24, and stole the keys from 20 different models including sedans, SUVs and trucks, but managed to drive away with "only" 12 vehicles.

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Even though we’re always on the lookout for rally-bred production cars from the 1980s and 1990s like the Lancia Delta Integrale, we must admit that this 1994 Toyota Celica GT-Four ST205 grabbed our attention mainly because it is the same car that was featured on an older episode of Top Gear. A young Jeremy Clarkson had then compared it against Ford's Escort RS Cosworth.

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Members of the Teamsters Union Local 495 and BMW workers organized a protest on Tuesday outside labor law firm Jackson Lewis in downtown Los Angeles.

The reason is that the firm represents BMW North America in its dispute with the labor union over the termination of contract of 68 employees in its Ontario, California parts distribution center.

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Daimler AG, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz, said it plans to invest more than $2 billion to upgrade and retool its U.S. plant in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, in order to begin building the C-Class (from 2014) as well as the new generations of the R-Class and the G-Class models. Read more »

As they say, necessity is the mother of invention. In Japan’s case, the devastating earthquake in March and the subsequent damages to the country’s infrastructure put the spotlight on Toyota’s Estima Hybrid minivan that features a system allowing the supply of auxiliary electricity to power household appliances.

The minivan’s owners were extremely satisfied with the system, which effectively turns the hybrid system into an electric generator that runs on gasoline, claiming that it was invaluable during the extended blackouts in Japan.

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Hennessey is one of America’s best-known tuning houses offering solutions for a great number of vehicles ranging from Nissan GT-R bashing Caddy Escalades to Ferrari’s 458 Italia –and anything in between.

Having already tuned the sedan and estate versions of the Cadillac CTS-V, Hennessey decided it was time to give a little attention to the coupe version: hence the V1000 CTS-V Coupe was born.

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Audi’s new A6 model series will soon welcome a new member into the family, the sporty S6 that was snagged by our spy photographers in Avant trim during testing in Germany.

The prototype model was completely undisguised, however, there’s a reason for that. With the exception of some model specific details such as the telling quad tail pipes and unique alloy wheel designs, the S6 will remain unchanged from the A6 with the optional S-Line sport package. The latter adds an aero kit with restyled front and rear bumpers, among other parts.

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“Despite Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo’s excellent assessment of the New Stratos after his test drive at Fiorano, Ferrari does not consent to construction of the planned limited run by either Pininfarina or any other Ferrari-dependent suppliers.”

And with the above short statement, Ferrari announced to Michael Stoschek, the man behind the 21st century interpretation of the famous Lancia Stratos of the ‘70s, that it won’t let him use its chassis, engines nor allow any of its suppliers to participate in the build.

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Our weekly dose of 2013 Infiniti JX teaser images continues with the release of the fourth picture of the Japanese automaker’s upcoming premium crossover in advance of its debut first in concept form at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance on August 18 and then in final production trim at the Los Angeles Auto Show in November.

Having previously graced us with a single sketch of the 2013 JX’s profile as well as photos showing the crossover’s front and rear end, we now get a glimpse of the vehicle’s distinctive crescent-shaped C-pillar, which was first seen on the Infiniti Essence concept and is gradually making its way onto the firm’s production models, as well as the large (double?) sunroof.

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Circulating around the internet today is an official photograph of the 2012 Honda CR-V Concept that previews the production model that is scheduled to follow by the end of the year.

In June, Honda had announced that it would present a new generation of its popular compact crossover model; however, the Japanese company had not disclosed any specific details on the vehicle other than it would sport a "new design inside and out, new features and new possibilities".

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