| Mazda Cosmo Sport 110S: An Under-Apprectiated Classic
I've always been attracted to engineering oddities. You know, things that get the job done in a different way than most. And I'm especially partial to out-of- the-ordinary engines. So it just seems natural that sooner or later I'd own a car with a rotary engine. And I do: a Mazda Cosmo Sport. "A what?" you say. The two-seat Cosmo is a '60s-era small sports car powered by a 110-hp, two-rotor Wankel engine. The rotary was the brainchild of Felix Wankel, a self-taught German tinkerer who never went to college. He made the first rotary prototype in the late '50s for NSU, a German motorcycle and car manufacturer eventually bought out by Volkswagen. For a while in the '60s, it looked to some like the rotary would be the engine: light, small and only a handful of parts. Several carmakers paid Wankel for the rights to use the rotary.
Longbridge revival hit by hitch with parts shipments from China
The long-awaited restarting of production at Longbridge, the old MG Rover car factory, has suffered a fresh setback after a series of problems with shipments of components from China. Nanjing Automobile Corporation, the carmaker that bought the assets of the defunct MG Rover business, had intended to start selling the revamped MG TF sports car this autumn. However, after problems with parts being shipped from China, the launch has been put back to next March. NAC UK, the division of the carmaker based at the Birmingham factory, is now seeking to source some components from Europe. The company denied that there were problems with the quality of the parts and said that breakages and damage had occurred when the supplies were sent on the 10,000km (6,200 mile) journey.
New Lexus line races into
In March, Lexus is launching a high-performance division. Called the F—for "Flagship"—the first model will be the sporty, $56,765 Lexus IS F. Several more F models are in the pipeline, including a luxury sedan and an SUV-wagon crossover. This represents a radical departure for Lexus, which has enjoyed enormous success as Toyota's luxury brand, despite being often faulted by driving enthusiasts for making cars that are unexciting, albeit attractive, well-built, and competitively priced. Now obviously Toyota's top brass wants to change this impression—and that is something that should concern executives at the high-performance divisions of its luxury rivals, specifically Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and, increasingly, Audi. Mercedes offers an AMG version of nearly every model it sells, including light trucks.
Senator McCain isn't going to talk about it anymore but others seem ...
Broadcaster Lowell "Bud" Paxson yesterday contradicted statements from Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign that the senator did not meet with Paxson or his lobbyist before sending two controversial letters to the Federal Communications Commission on Paxson's behalf. Paxson said he talked with McCain in his Washington office several weeks before the Arizona Republican wrote the letters in 1999 to the FCC urging a rapid decision on Paxson's quest to acquire a Pittsburgh television station. Paxson also recalled that his lobbyist, Vicki Iseman, likely attended the meeting in McCain's office and that Iseman helped arrange the meeting. "Was Vicki there? Probably," Paxson said in an interview with The Washington Post yesterday. "The woman was a professional. She was good.
Racing gods' revenge?
To borrow one of the catch phrases from ESPN's Stuart Scott, Gillian Zucker needs a hug. Actually, everyone that works at California Speedway, er, Auto Club Speedway, could use a hug. Or better yet, a break. Because even though their Fontana, Calif.-based facility has never been a favorite of mine, last night's descent into weeper-driven madness is starting to make me wonder if the racing gods have it in for the two-mile oval. And I'm starting to feel for them. In case you passed out last night, rain delayed the start of the Auto Club 500 for about two-and-a-half hours, and the race ended up having two water-assisted crashes in the first 21 laps -- the second one putting the race under a red flag for an hour and change. Sixty-six laps of green-flag racing ensued after that, but the rains came back.
Chrysler gets boost from Caliber sales
The Belvidere-built Dodge Caliber was one of the few Chrysler products to have solid starts to 2008 in what was otherwise a tough month for the nation's No. 4 automaker and the industry. Chrysler's U.S. dealers sold 137,392 vehicles in January, down 12 percent from January 2007, the company announced Tuesday. Much of the loss, though, came from a planned 18 percent drop in sales to rental companies, which typically are less profitable and drag down resale prices. In January, U.S. dealers sold 10,885 Calibers, the best total for that model since June and more than 25 percent above January 2006 totals. The Caliber, the Jeep Patriot and Jeep Compass are made at the Belvidere assembly plant, which has about 3,600 workers and is the largest local manufacturing employer. Sales of the Compass fell more than 32 percent, but Patriot sales jumped from 175 last January, when the car first made it to dealer lots, to 4,489.
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