AutoWeek Daily Drive — Friday, October 15, 2010

HOME   |   CAR NEWS   |   CAR REVIEWS   |   RACING   |   AUTOSHOWS   |   SUBSCRIBE   |   MARKETPLACE Friday, October 15, 2010                  The Porsche Boxster Spyder weighs just 2,811 pounds.... 2011 Porsche Boxster Spyder, an AW Drivers Log SENIOR WEST COAST EDITOR MARK VAUGHN: The perfect sports car: When I first drove a Lotus Elise sometime around 1998, I thought it was the be-all, end-all perfect sports car. Of all time. A couple years before that, I thought it was an air-cooled 911. A year later I thought it was the 911 GT3 at the start of the water-cooled era. Years before that I thought it was a 1955 Porsche Speedster...   Toyota front man puts on a solid show in the Motor City He's silver-haired, candid and gruff. He's a former U.S. Marine. He served as a public spokesman in Detroit when his company faced its darkest days. Bob Lutz? Good guess, but no. Try Don Esmond, Toyota's senior vice president of automotive operations in the United States. He met with the...   Trio of customized Ford Explorers set to take center stage at SEMA Calling on regular partners Funkmaster Flex and Galpin Auto Sports, a trio of customized Ford Explorers will be a centerpiece of the Ford stand at this year's SEMA show in Las Vegas--even before the redesigned SUV goes on sale. Funkmaster Flex and Team Baurtwell bring an urban theme to their...   GM recalls Chevrolet Impala to inspect seat belts A problem with the way the front seatbelt webbing is attached to the anchor pretensioner has prompted General Motors to recall nearly 322,500 Chevrolet Impalas from the 2009 and 2010 model years. If the belt is not properly attached to the anchor, it could fail during a crash. Dealers will...   Jaguar Land Rover drops plans to close one of three England plants Jaguar Land Rover said Friday it no longer plans to close one of its three auto plants in England after reaching an agreement with trade unions. The automaker, which Ford Motor Co. sold to India's Tata Motors in 2008, said it would be significantly increasing the number of models in its range... You May Have Missed...   NASCAR: Gordon wins Cup Series pole for Bank of America 500 at Charlotte NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Jeff Gordon called Thursday night's pole run at Charlotte Motor Speedway “a huge, huge shock.” Not only that, but the result should produce both confidence and momentum in Gordon for Saturday night's Bank of America 500. His lap of 191.544 mph gave him...   2011 BMW X3 xDrive35i, an AW Flash Drive What is it? The 2011-model-year BMW X3 was revealed at the Paris motor show. A complete redesign, it replaces the first-generation X3, which racked up 614,824 sales worldwide since its introduction in 2004. About 150,000 of those sales took place in North America. The exterior styling has the...   Detroit Auto Show: All-new Toyota Prius variant to be revealed Toyota will reveal another member of the Prius family in January at the Detroit auto show. It will be completely new and different in size from the current model.Toyota has said it plans to expand the Prius and market the name as a sub-brand that stands for environmental prowess. The company is...   Silverstone's new pit, paddock and conference center set to be completed May 2011 Construction of the new pit, paddock and conference center at Silverstone, host of the British Grand Prix, is on schedule.The new facility, which broke ground in April 2010, is set to be completed in May 2011, two months before the 2011 Formula 1 British Grand Prix in July.Silverstone's new...   IndyCar: Versus pulls in more viewers Izod IndyCar Series officials announced a 16.2 increase in cable-television viewers on Versus, although it comes with an asterisk.By virtue of Comcast resolving its dispute with DirecTV, Versus had more possible viewers this season.Also, IndyCar's overall ratings remain well below what sponsors...   2010 Volkswagen CC Sport, an AW Drivers Log EDITOR WES RAYNAL: What a nice little car. Well, not exactly little, I guess. It looks terrific inside and out and the attention to detail is fantastic.This interior color is really pleasing to the eye. It’s not your basic tan; it’s richer than that. Volkswagen calls it cornsilk beige,...   New Ford Ranger debuts at Australia show Ford's new Ranger pickup made its world debut today at the Australian International Motor Show in Sydney.The compact pickup truck will be sold in 180 countries. Sales begin next summer, but the new Ranger will not be sold in North America. The pickup was developed by Ford Motor Co. and Mazda Motor... CLICK HERE TO UNSUBSCRIBE from the AutoWeek Daily Drive E-mail or to sign up for other AutoWeek e-mail products. IMPORTANT: Please add AutoWeek.com to your E-mail Address Book to ensure you will continue to receive our newsletters. Please DO NOT reply to this e-mail. You will not receive a reply if you use this e-mail address. Crain Communications, 1155 Gratiot Ave. Detroit, MI 48207.