In only their third year of participation in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the Peugeot 908 diesel prototypes managed to maintain a very high pace and obliterated Audi’s decade-long dominance of the annual event held in France.
Round 2 of the 2009 DAMC Sprint Challenge at Dubai Autodrome on Thursday evening (11 June 2009) attracted a host of entrants, with more competitors and staff than actual spectators, as usual.
In August 1939 the safety pioneer Béla Barényi started his work in Sindelfingen. He invented for example the principle of the crumple zone, a trailblazing innovation which entered series production at Mercedes-Benz in 1959. With the help of its in-house accident research function, which was founded in 1969, Mercedes-Benz engineers in the following years have developed several innovations in passenger car safety. Mercedes-Benz is using the new S-Class ESF 2009 concept to celebrate this culture of development, with a look towards safety technology to come.
The BMW-owned Mini brand has unveiled a special edition Cooper S model in the United Kingdom with a stupidly long name. The Mini John Cooper Works World Championship 50 is supposed to evoke the birth of the brand and John Cooper’s Formula One title victory 50 years ago.
After overcoming everyone from disgruntled dealers to pissed-off pensioners, the sale of Chrysler to Fiat is finally complete after 42 days. Fiat now owns most of Chrysler’s assets and will receive US$ 6.6 billion in “exit financing” from the U.S. government.
It looks like imported salvage cars in the UAE aren’t the only ones burning up. A rare and exotic McLaren F1 caught fire last week in the U.S. state of California, after it was taken out for a spin. Apparently the owner had let the car sit unused for six months before finally driving it on that fateful day. The rare supercar will now be sent back to the United Kingdom in the hopes of having the car restored.
Failing brand Chevrolet is rejoicing again after minor victories in motorsports. Following a WTCC triumph in Marrakech earlier in the month, the Cruze won both races of the Race of France that took place on the extremely demanding street of Pau in southern France, extending the team’s winning run to four. Drivers Rob Huff, Alain Menu and Nicola Larini secured top honours for the gold bowtie on May 3 in Morocco after taking the new car to the track for the first time in the opening round in Curitiba, Brazil on March 8.
The Saudi Customs Department has officially started implementing a government decision banning the import of used cars older than five years into the Kingdom.
It is a slow news day today, just like the crime statistics in the safe city of Dubai. The jails are filled with loan dodgers and disgruntled labourers rather than murderers and mafia dons, and we figured we’d highlight the Dubai Police’s latest weapon in their fight against crime – the Dodge Charger.
Jenson Button made it six from seven as he ran away and hid from the Red Bulls of Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel in Turkey on the afternoon of June 7, 2009.