World Auto News & Reviews

V8 Supercar driver Mark Winterbottom will be swapping the steering wheel for bicycle wheels when he takes part in this year’s Ford Otway Cycling Classic in Geelong on Sunday 7, November.

This year celebrates 30 years of the iconic annual cycling race, with this year’s theme aiming to raise awareness of how cyclists and motorists can safely share the road together to help minimise accidents.

On average, each year, more than 2,500 cyclists are injured on our roads, and this has prompted famous faces such as Mark Winterbottom to throw their weight behind Bike Safe’s “Share the Road” campaign and the Ford Otway Classic.
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That Ferrari 458 Italia… it’s so hot right now. Nobody but the sickest of pyromaniacs wants to see Ferrari’s exquisite new 458 Italia go down in flames (if that’s you, you’ll want to click on past the break…). Sadly, though, the case of Ferraris on flambé is spreading like.. ahem, wildfire. So problematic is the issue that the Italian automaker itself is now investigating the cause of the conflagrations.

According to various reports, there have been at least three separate instances where Ferrari 458 Italias have burst into flames without being involved in an accident. At this time, Ferrari is assuming that these three cases are unrelated, and it’s not willing at this time to rule out driver error.

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With order books now officially open, Mercedes-Benz has announced pricing for its track-only SLS AMG GT3. The race-ready SLS AMG GT3 will carry a base price of $430,190, or $511,925 when VAT is included. Deliveries of the SLS AMG GT3 will begin in February.

Reflecting the SLS AMG GT3’s close relationship to the road-going version of the SLS AMG, the racecar is powered by Mercedes-Benz’ sensational 6.2L V8. Although that beefy V8 makes 571 horsepower under the hood of the standard SLS AMG, the FIA has yet to determine the SLS AMG GT3’s final output.
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Lotus will be more active than usual during next week’s festivities around the Monterey historic races and Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. Along with the North American Debuts of the Evora Cup race car (above) and Elise RGB edition, Lotus will give us the world debut of the 125 track car.

The new 125 will be unveiled at the Monterey Motorsports Pre-Reunion at Laguna Seca this weekend and then reappear several times during the week at various events. Lotus hasn’t given any hints of what to expect from the 125 other than it will be the ultimate customer track and racing experience.
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Felipe Massa says he is stronger after the Hockenheim experience last weekend and insists that he’s still fighting for race wins, despite the team apparently putting its title efforts behind Fernando Alonso.

Inevitably, the Brazilian underwent a grilling about the German race when he met the media in Budapest on Thursday, although he declined to go into too many details about what transpired.

“Well, we know that sometimes you have a difficult time,” he said. “But anyway, you always learn and we always need to think forward and always need to be stronger and stronger all the time in your career, in your life, and what I can say is I am very strong and looking forward to the victory.

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