Porsche have declined the invitation to a race from MINI USA President Jim McDowell with a wonderfully succinct reply. The response took the form of an open letter written by Detlev Von Platen, President and CEO of Porsche Cars North America. In his letter, available in full below, he states, “Porsche doesn’t race for fame, [...]

Success at Le Mans demands efficiency and Audi have revised their R15 TDI prototype to improve its economy and maintain its power levels, despite new regulations. With eight wins in the last 10 years Audi would have come away from La Sarthe disappointed last year with just a third place finish. This will be thelast [...]

Brisvegas is the lucky city to have Australia’s first Ferrari 458 Italia. The car was air-freighted to Queensland from Maranello. “Australian deliveries have started a little earlier than planned because the interest in this remarkable car has been so great that the car has been air freighted to Australia,” explains Kevin Wall, General Manager for [...]

Hey, what you talkin’ about Lance?! Young Master Stroll is just eleven years old, but that hasn’t stopped the Maranello team from signing this kid to the Ferrari Driver Academy. Unsurprisingly the little tacker is pumped at this news, “For me it’s a dream that’s become a reality, an incredible feeling, the best in the [...]

The Canadian Grand Prix—Mark thinks of a great atmosphere in the city, beautiful restaurants, and his teammate’s front-right wheel in his sidepod. Or something like that, anyway. Webber is back with his regular Grand Prix preview, this time at Montreal and with three overtaking opportunities per lap he will have to keep his wits about [...]

Following the earlier news about the Subaru Impreza WRX STI here is a behind the scenes look at Subaru’s time at the Nürburgring. The clip runs for just under four minutes and gives a bit more insight into the STI sedan setting a new Nürburgring record for a four-door car.

Volkswagen Australian have just announced official details for the Golf GTD. These confirm the car’s status as a “diesel GTI” with its body kit, interior and suspension all heavily influenced by the highly regarded GTI. For the GTD, this also includes 15mm lower suspension and the Extended Electronic Differential Lock (XDL). The GTD will only [...]

Volkswagen US is preparing for a live online launch of the all new Jetta. In real terms this car is simply a Golf sedan. However, while the two cars will share many components, this new Jetta shapes to be Volkswagen’s best attempt in recent years at making a clear difference between the two models. Back [...]

The factory backed Peugeot 908 HDi FAP machines are all set to defend their 2009 Le Mans 24 hour crown. But seeing as the French team have demoted Australia’s David Brabham from the winning car to the LMP2 category AUSmotive’s full support will be behind the Audi R15 TDI. Of course, Peugeot won’t care about [...]

Subaru brings us news that Tommi Mäkinen has driven an MY11 Impreza WRX STI sedan around the Nürburgring Nordschleife in 7 minutes 55 seconds. Which is a new (unofficial) lap record for a four door car, beating the previous best time of the Cadillac CTS-V by four seconds. Speaking after the lap Mäkinen said, “The [...]

According to Autocar readers the Lancia Delta Integrale is the hottest hatch of all. The poll opened in April and 3500 votes were registered. Following the Lancia in second was the Peugeot 205 GTi 1., with the Mk1 Ford Focus RS in third. Chas Hallett, editor said “It’s no surprise Autocar readers have voted for [...]

A new sales record for the month of May was set this year. New vehicle sales totalled 89,218, and improvement of 578 sales from the previous May record set in 2008. “This is a record May result and shows the new vehicle market is maintaining a strong sales momentum,” said FCAI Chief Executive Andrew McKellar, [...]

Unconfirmed Australian pricing for the Volkswagen Golf R has been published on the VWWatercooled forum. And, if you’re in the queue for the latest and hottest performance Golf the news is good. Very good. This is the alleged list pricing: 3 Door Manual – $48,490 3 Door DSG – $50,990 5 Door Manual – $49,990 [...]

Like the all-paw Golf R the Golf GTD is about to be set free in Australian showrooms (they’ve been here since early May). To help those who are waiting on the “diesel GTI” here’s some pics sourced from the Volkswagen UK press archives. Some details seen in these pics might differ from GTDs sold locally. [...]

Mark Webber’s series of track previews filmed from the Red Bull Racing simulator have been a great insight before each Grand Prix this year. What we haven’t been given is a closer look at the simulator itself. It’d be every gamers dream to have a rig as complex and realistic as the RBR machine seems [...]