The head of the United Auto Workers union expressed hope that a bipartisan deal to help floundering auto makers can be reached Thursday, despite skepticism among some lawmakers that Senate leaders would agree to a pact.

UAW President Ron Gettelfinger revealed news of the proposed deal during a previously-arranged news conference in Detroit, sending shares of Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Corp. sharply higher.

The office of Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., said an agreement had been reached, with lawmakers due to brief reporters at 2:30 p.m. Eastern Thursday.

Gettelfinger had earlier reiterated the UAW’s appeal for additional government support, warning that one or more of the Detroit 3 auto makers faced collapse within six weeks unless Congress authorized further backing.

“Time is of the essence here,” said Gettelfinger, who this week joined executives of Ford, Chrysler LLC and GM to lobby for help on Capitol Hill.

Gettelfinger said he didn’t know if ousting one of the companies’ CEOs would help, but added that executives should go if it helped to secure financial support.

“It is critically important for the Bush administration and Congress to take action. Inaction is simply not any option,” he said.

When asked if the UAW would be willing to agree to deeper concessions, Gettelfinger pointed to past sacrifices but said the “UAW is at the table every day.”

Ford shares were recently up 26.2% at $1.58, having fallen as low as $1.01 earlier in the session. GM shares were 16.9% higher at $3.25.

Automobili Lamborghini has announced The Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo – the world’s fastest one-make series. The series will debut in May 2009, and feature Lamborghini’s Super Trofeo: a lightweight version of the Gallardo LP 560-4 super sports car launched earlier this year. The Super Trofeo will come with a reworked chassis, significantly reduced weight of only 1300 kg, and power output of 419 kW (570 hp) from its V10, ‘Iniezione Diretta Stratificata’ engine.

Lamborghini has a clear objective to ensure the Super Trofeo is the fastest one-make series in the world.

The race car will feature Lamborghini’s permanent four-wheel drive, making the Super Trofeo the only one-make, all-wheel drive motorsport series. Lamborghini will build cars for a 30-strong grid, available to individual professional and ‘gentleman’ drivers, as well as Lamborghini dealer teams. One factory car, reserved for celebrity ‘guest drivers’, will be included in the line-up at each round.

“We’re delighted to announce The Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo,” said Automobili Lamborghini President and CEO Stephan Winkelmann. “Both on-track and off, our championship will reflect the Lamborghini brand, with extreme, high performance racing and stylish and luxurious trackside facilities. This gives our Lamborghini clients, as well as professional and gentleman racing drivers looking for a new challenge, the opportunity to experience Lamborghini in the ultimate driving environment.”

The first competition of the 2009 provisional calendar will run on 3 May at Silverstone Circuit in the UK, followed by Adria in Italy on 17 May; Nuremburg’s Norisring in Germany on 5 July; Spa in Belgium on 2 August; Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya in Spain on 20 September; and culminating on 4 October in Monza, Italy. At Monza in ‘the world’s fastest one-make series’.

With the Swiss watchmaker as title sponsor, The Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo will run over European race weekends alongside other prestigious series such as the FIA GT Championship, DTM and FIA WTCC (World Touring Car Championship). Either one or two drivers can register for each three-day race weekend, comprising of free practice and qualifying sessions, and three 40-minute races during Saturday and Sunday. The results of the three races are added together: no success ballast is added to winning cars, and the cars cannot be modified during the season.

The Super Trofeo car and parts package is offered at 200,000 euro plus tax and entry fee, via Lamborghini dealerships, with support and parts trackside. The prestigious ‘Lamborghini Village’ will provide a luxurious paddock package in true Lamborghini style, for drivers, sponsors and guests.

The Super Trofeo car

The Super Trofeo race car is based on the Gallardo LP 560-4, powered by the new 5.2 litre V10 direct injection ‘Iniezione Diretta Stratificata’, engine, generating an increased output of 419 kW (570 hp). Its power flows through the e.gear six-speed robotized gear box to the permanent all-wheel drive with viscous traction.

The Super Trofeo is a top-class race car in every detail. Its chassis, featuring double wishbone suspension all round, has been reworked specifically for the purpose. The slick tyres are supplied by Pirelli and a specialist racing brake system provides brutal stopping power. The race car weighs in at only 1,300 kg dry, despite its additional safety cage. Additional body components such as the large, fixed rear wing are made from carbon-fibre composite. The cockpit includes ultra-light racing seat, racing steering wheel and specialized instruments.

Pagani is working on the new 750hp track special that it plans to build in a limited run of just ten cars. This new renderings has been released this week, depicting the car with a vibrant streak of yellow to offset the nearly pure carbon-fiber construction.

Powered by the 7.3L AMG V12 engine that underpins several other Zondas, the R model is an exercise in extremes - extreme design, extreme materials and extreme performance. Though the car has yet to take to the track in anger - at least publicly - but its heavier, less powerful Zonda F stablemate set a Nurburgring lap record of 7:27.82. Though the record has subsequently been broken, it’s still faster than a Porsche Carrera GT supercar, and the extra 100hp the Zonda R has on tap should be able to shave a few seconds off that time.

National Geographic approached Nissan to see if it could follow the development of a vehicle from conception to production for its “Inside” series.

Nissan’s response, “We’ve got something for you. It’s called the GT-R.”

National Geographic’s film crew was given unprecedented access to Nissan’s design, engineering and manufacturing facilities, along with spending time at the test track and with Nissan/Renault’s rock-star CEO and Manga-hero, Carlos Ghosn.

Enjoy!

After tuning house 9ff announced that they are preparing to release a tuning package for the new Porsche Panamera. German tuner Roock, just released a teaser photo of their upcoming Panamera project. The question remains is if this is the standard version or modified version of the future Panamera. What do you think?

Top Gear has just launched their US portal website. We’ve seen previews of it and like it’s UK counterpart, very easy to navigate, with a very clean design. Features include a blog, videos, and U.S. specific content. It should go a long way towards spreading the Top Gear brand here in the States.

You can also check out this video welcoming U.S. visitors to the world of Top Gear.
CLICK HERE: A Video Welcome to TopGear.com

Call it an obnoxious purchase, but this is a must have for F1 junkies. Hand-made in England exclusively for Formula 1 by specialist composite technicians and exclusivly available from F1.

The Mouse Pad features a solid polished carbon fibre with inlaid leather mouse area, italian black suede backing, and more importantly it’s embossed in carbon with the F1 Formula 1 logo that has been carbon cured to 120º C at 100 psi.

Suitable for an optical or ball-operated mouse and designed using state of the art automotive 3D modeling software.

MSRP: $387.00

Porsche’s current generation of the 911 has been around for almost four years and is currently in the process of a mid-cycle update. We’ve already heard reports of the facelifted Carrera and Carrera S as well as the AWD 4 and 4S models, but still in the works are the more extreme Turbo, GT3 and GT2, and the track-honed GT3 RS.

Power levels should receive a slight boost over the 405hp output from a new direct-injection system. In line with the changes in the facelifted Carrera range, the engine in the updated GT3 RS will also sport higher flowing heads, a redesigned crankshaft and an upgraded oil and water pump.

The GT3 RS will also once again based on the Carrera 4 body and should feature the same widened track, carbon-fiber interior and plastic rear window as the current model. Acceleration times over the current model would likely be improved if Porsche adds its new dual-clutch system, but a conventional six-speed manual is likely to remain the only option given the intended purpose of the track special.

Exterior Styling updates include new LED daytime running lights, revised taillights, a cleaner front end with larger intakes in the lower skirt, and a new lip spoiler. Expect to see the new model make its debut shortly after the launch of the facelifted GT3 in the middle of next year.

Head of Audi Motorsport Dr Wolfgang Ullrich and the 46-year old Audi factory driver Emanuele Pirro had already reached an agreement some time ago about the end of the Italian’s active career for Audi at the 2008 American Le Mans Series season finale. Included among Pirro’s outstanding victories under the banner of the four rings are the Italian Touring Car Championship (1994 and 1995), the German Touring Car Championship (1996), the 24 Hours of Le Mans (2000, 2001, 2002, 2006 and 2007) and the American Le Mans Series (2001, 2005).

“On behalf of the Audi motorsport squad and the entire AUDI AG I would like to extend our thanks to Emanuele Pirro for the excellent and extremely successful cooperation over the last 15 years,” explains Dr Wolfgang Ullrich of Pirro who became the first driver to be signed during his time as Head of Audi Motorsport since 1993. “Throughout this extraordinarily long relationship many personal experiences and great memories of fantastic individual race wins and championship victories with Audi touring and sportscar unite us still today.”

“A wonderful chapter of my life and career comes to a close,” explains Emanuele Pirro. “Even as hopeless optimist, at the very beginning I would never have dreamt of spending 15 such fantastic and wonderfully successful years with Audi on both a personal and professional level. I want to pass on my sincerest gratitude to Audi Sport and all the teams for who I have driven – ROC Competition, Audi Sport Italia, Team Joest and Champion Racing and also all my team mates during this time.”

In order to nurture this prosperous and successful cooperation Audi has opened the possibility for Emanuele Pirro to act as brand ambassador in the future. Audi successfully implemented the rejuvenation of the sportscar programme driver squad in 2006 with the signing of Lucas Luhr (winner of the LM P1 class in the 2008 American Le Mans Series together with Marco Werner), Alexandre Prémat and Mike Rockenfeller (joint winners of the Le Mans Series 2008) and continued it this year with races for Marcel Fässler and Christijan Albers.

Via: Audi Motorsports

Despite the recent decline in car sales and consumer spending, all of the £115,000 plus Caterham-based Levante supercars scheduled for production have been sold.

Launched in Spring 2008, the Levante is the most powerful production Caterham ever, with only eight being hand-built by Hertfordshire-based RS Performance in association with Caterham Cars.

The Levante boasts RS Performance’s unique, in-house designed supercharged 500+bhp 2.4 litre V8 engine, housed in a modified version of the lightweight Caterham SV chassis. With close to 1000bhp-per-tonne, the figure is nearly double that of the Bugatti Veyron.

With its modern and aggressive interpretation of the Seven’s classic looks, the Levante possesses a sophisticated electronics package, including traction and launch control, to allow drivers to get the most from the incredible machine.

All new owners of Caterham RS models are required to attend a two-day advanced driving course on delivery of their machines.

Caterham sales & marketing director, Andy Noble, commented: ‘The fact that all eight Levantes have been sold so quickly comes as no surprise. Over the last 51 years, the Seven has created and met the demand for those searching for the purest form of driving available. For drivers looking for the ultimate, the Levante facilitates that by taking Colin Chapman’s original design to a staggering new level.’

In parallel to the success of the Caterham RS Levante, Caterham Cars enjoyed one of its best ever sales periods this summer thanks to the arrival of the critically acclaimed Superlight R500 and the expansion of the Academy race series from two to three grids for the 2009 season.