AutoWeek Daily Drive — Tuesday, April 27, 2010

HOME   |   CAR NEWS   |   CAR REVIEWS   |   RACING   |   AUTOSHOWS   |   SUBSCRIBE   |   MARKETPLACE Tuesday, April 27, 2010                  Bob Lutz says that when he arrived at GM in 2001, he found that it was overthinking its car designs.... Dinner with Lutz: Bob Lutz has spent nearly a half-century in the car business. That's a lot to cover over dinner, but we give it a try. Bob Lutz is retiring--again. He has tried this twice before: at Chrysler in 1998 and with his abortive exit from General Motors last year. But this time, at age 78, it may stick, even for the car guy who has operated at the industry's highest levels since the early 1970s. So a small delegation from Automotive News heads to Lutz's country home outside Detroit for an exit interview....   2010 Acura MDX Advance and Entertainment, an AW Drivers Log EXECUTIVE EDITOR ROGER HART: Getting back in this MDX made me miss our long-termer, realizing what a great utility vehicle it is. And this version, with the advanced all-wheel-drive system and the ELS sound system, is even better. The only thing I'm not really down with is the new face on ...   IndyCar Series to crown separate oval, road-course champions Since 2005, when the Izod IndyCar Series began running on street and road courses, the season champion has either been the strongest of the drivers on oval tracks or nonovals, but not both. In fact, when Sam Hornish Jr. won the season title in 2006, he was the top-scoring driver on neither type...   Automotive X Prize teams begin performance testing in Michigan The 28 teams competing in the Progressive Insurance Automotive X Prize will begin performance testing this week at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Mich. The teams are vying for $10 million in prizes, which will be awarded to consumer-friendly vehicles that exceed 100 mpg. This week...   General Motors to invest more than $850 million to build new V8s General Motors Co. said Tuesday it will invest more than $850 million to upgrade five North American factories to make its next-generation V8 engines more fuel efficient. The new V8s will differ from the current versions by using direct injection and a new combustion system, spokeswoman Sharon...   Ford posts $2.1 billion profit on rising sales, lifts production plan Ford Motor Co. posted net income of $2.1 billion in the first quarter, almost twice the figure projected by analysts, fueled by a 37 percent rise in U.S. sales. The profit compared with a loss of $1.4 billion a year earlier. Revenue rose to $28.1 billion from $24.4 billion. The automaker said... You May Have Missed...   Porsche nearing 900 orders for its 918 Spyder hybrid concept When Porsche AG showed the 918 Spyder at the Geneva show in March, we said it was a car to “make anyone a believer in hybrid supercar tech.” Well, maybe not anyone, but Porsche now says it has almost 900 potential buyers for the two-seater hybrid prototype as the German automaker gets...   2011 BMW X5, an AW Performance Profile From the streets of Miami to the Florida Everglades, we put the 2011 BMW X5 to the test. Find out more in this AW Performance Profile....   NASCAR examines Keselowski's car, Hornish Jr. to stay with Penske Brad Keselowski's lead in the Nationwide Series points standings may shrink on Tuesday. That's when NASCAR officials decide whether the left front spring and/or the right front shock on his Aaron's 312-winning car are legal or outside specifications.Tech officials confiscated those parts after...   2010 Lexus RX 350, an AW Drivers Log EDITOR WES RAYNAL: This baby is silky smooth and creamy, beautifully built--and boring as hell. There's just nothing in the driving that excites me. Maybe if the RX 350 was a terror off-road or something, but this it's not. The RX 350 is comfortable and quiet on the road and has Lexus's typical...   GM Performance to offer 430-hp E-Rod crate engine for manual transmissions Do you remember the E-Rod, the 6.2-liter LS3 crate engine that GM Performance Parts showed at SEMA? Of course you do. And now you can get it in a version that accommodates a six-speed manual transmission. The Vegas engine was set up for an automatic gearbox. And on Monday, General Motors announced...   Jay's green garage: Leno operation is more fuel-efficient than your mom's Prius Everybody knows Jay Leno loves cars. He loves working on them, looking at them and, most of all, driving them. But these days, more than 300 cars and motorcycles in a cluster of four adjoining garages totaling more than 25,000 square feet mean he has a whole lot of CO2 to answer for. Or so you'd...   Tomas Scheckter to drive for Dreyer & Reinbold in the Indy 500 South African driver Tomas Scheckter will drive for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing at the 2010 Indianapolis 500.This will be Scheckter's ninth year competing in the event. He finished in 12th place in the 2009 race.Scheckter will drive car No. 23. The team will also field cars for IndyCar Series regulars ...   China auto show: Mercedes, Ford, Chevrolet and Geely win AW awards Last week's Beijing auto show was full of interesting designs--some which will eventually make it to the road, while others are shuttled off to a warehouse. The AutoWeek editors at the show found plenty to look at and debate over to decide which vehicles deserved our Editors' Choice awards for the...   Räikkönen: Rally Turkey was a step forward Kimi Räikkönen, the 2007 Formula One world champion, says he believes that his fifth place on the Rally of Turkey, April 16-18, marked a turning point in his World Rally Championship campaign.Räikkönen was one of the few drivers to steer clear of trouble on the tricky Turkish event to score his... CLICK HERE TO UNSUBSCRIBE from the AutoWeek Daily Drive E-mail or to sign up for other AutoWeek e-mail products. 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