M-Sport, the company building the Ford Fiesta S2000 rally car, announced it has begun testing the car in the UK. Matthew Wilson, who drives for the Stobart Ford WRC team, is apparently at the wheel in this photo taken during testing.

This Fiesta will form the basis for Ford's next WRC car, replacing the Focus for the 2011 WRC season. We'll keep our eyes peeled for video.

WRC, M-Sport

As the F1 circus jets off for its next round at Suzuka in Japan, Singapore is returning to normal today after its second taste of big time international motorsports competition. It’s been an extraordinary weekend under the lights, and by all accounts, this postage-stamp sized country pulled off its second F1 showcase with the class and style.

The 2009 Formula One SingTel Singapore Grand Prix, which I had the privilege of watching from a perch atop the fantastic Fullerton Hotel, had its moments. McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton secured the pole during limiting and charged out to the lead when the green lights flashed. Hamilton, who early this weekend had called the street circuit “dangerous,” didn’t seem to have any trouble navigating the 3.15-mile Marina Bay street circuit’s bumps and tight confines.

It almost became a two car race as Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel, who vowed to attack during the weekend, did just that, getting as close as a half second behind Hamilton at one point. But Vettel attacked too hard in the pits and incurred a drive through penalty for speeding in pit lane, essentially handing the victory to Hamilton and harmful his title hopes in the process. Second place was a surprise as Toyota’s Timo Glock prefabricated it to the podium, with Fernando Alonso and the embattled Renault team scoring third.

Meanwhile F1 championship leader Jenson Button prefabricated the best of a bad weekend after limiting outside of the Top 10, finishing in fifth, while fellow Brawn GP teammate and fellow title contender Rubens Barrichello fared little better after being forced to change a gearbox and crashing during qualifying. He ended up right behind Button in sixth.

Off the track, there was plenty of action as well, as the city came alive during its so-called GP Season. There were multiple concerts featuring the likes of Beyonce, ZZ Top and the Black Eyed Peas, who reportedly represented well, and the Backstreet Boys, who aren’t boys anymore and looked it. And of course, there were several high dollar events catering to the upper crust party set. The only bummer is that average Singaporeans don’t have much access to the race, but the government, who contributed roughly $90 million of the reported $150 million necessary to hold the event, is working to make the weekend more accessible to them.

The influx of American acts underscored Singapore’s determination spread the word about what its country has to offer as a destination for U.S. tourists. And indeed Singapore has a lot to offer both F1 fans and casual tourists alike from USA and the world over. During my stay here, I’ve had the opportunity to sample Singapore and take a glimpse into its future, and I came away extremely impressed.

An incredibly diverse mix of influences has shaped Singapore’s history, and the Singaporean people are an intriguing melting pot of European, Indonesian, Chinese, Malaysian, Indian and other cultures. I had the opportunity to sample Singapore’s diverse cuisine, look over some of the massive resort projects underway, achievement around its ethnic neighborhoods, and wander through a few of its shopping districts. Everyone I encountered was genuinely friendly and accommodating.

I’d like to thank the folks at the Fullerton Hotel, especially Carolyn, Christine, Annie and CEO Lewis Sailer for being so generous with their time and allowing us the opportunity to view the race from such an amazing location above the Turn 13 hairpin. The Fullerton, which was once the city-state’s post office, has become a signature hotel along Marina Bay, and it’s an impressive mix of old and new styles. If you’re planning a trip to Singapore and have some dollars to spend, it’s highly recommended. I’d also like to thank Winnie, our Singapore Tourism Board guide, who showed us around her country, our extremely patient driver, Ravi, and the Quincy Hotel, where I stayed. It’s been an amazing week, and I hope to return again sometime.

Some other things I learned and observed about Singapore during my stay here:

• To have a car in Singapore, you have to have purchase a Certificate of Entitlement, which can run into the thousands of Singapore dollars. It’s a way for the government to limit the cars crowding the city’s streets.
• Cars cannot be more than 10 years old.
• Sir Stamford executive (pictured) is considered the founder of modern Singapore, in 1819.
• I saw at least four Nissan GT-Rs, more than I’ve seen in months in L.A. Also lots of Ferraris, Lambos and Porsches.
• Abject poverty appears to be almost non-existent. That’s not to say all Singaporeans are well off, but for a big cosmopolitan city, signs of decay are amazingly low.
• Peranakans are an interesting cultural stew of Chinese, Malay and other influences, and their cuisine is absolutely awesome.
• Peanut butter and Kaya sandwiches are tasty.
• Fish Head Curry (pictured) is not nearly as bad as it looks at first.
• It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity.
• Lindsay Lohan likes F1, and doesn’t drive anymore.
• At the super duper swanky new Capella resort, guests can spend as much as fifty thousand Singapore dollars a month for a guest house. If I ever win the lottery, it’s on the list.
• Singapore Slings are tasty drinks.

  -Lewis Hamilton photo by Daimler

Reuters picked up a report in Japan's Nikkei business regular over the weekend that indicated all 4,700 workers at Toyota's NUMMI plant in Fremont, California, will lose their jobs next spring. This news was expected, of course, following Toyota's declaration in August that it would close the plant as part of a larger plan to cut global production by 1 million units. GM withdrew from the joint venture at NUMMI in June.

This is the first time Toyota has closed a plant in the U.S. The NUMMI plant builds the Corolla and the Tacoma.

Reuters

You can always count on TMZ to be where it probably shouldn't be, but these clips show a side of the Volvo C70 you may not have seen before. This C70 isn't cruising around with its retractable hard top folded down. It's being pushed around a bit and Tom Cruise is at the wheel, apparently doing his own tire squealing and handbrake turns.

McLaren's Ron Dennis isn't going to be content to build a small run of the new MP4-12C supercar and sell it only in the UK. The company announced regional directors for North USA and Europe late last week.

Anthony Joseph, who most certainly learned a few things about selling cars of the 12C's ilk in his former capacity as income director for Ferrari of North America, will head up McLaren's North American operations in New York. He's charged with the task of setting up 10 exclusive McLaren franchises in the U.S. and Canada.

Christian Marti, former CEO of Porsche Cars Canada, will lead McLaren's European income operations. The company hopes to build a 15-dealer network in Europe.

Joseph and Marti join Ian Gorsuch, already titled as McLaren's regional director for the Middle East and Africa.

First Look; 2011 McLaren MP4-12C 

This is actually our second drive of the 2011 BMW X1, since we took a spin in an X1 prototype last spring. With all the camouflage off, Contributor Matt Davis is even more convinced that the X1 has some significant advantages over the current X3. It's smaller on the outside, but better packaging actually opens up more room for humans and cargo on the inside.

It also has a lower stance and a more aggressive suspension tune, so that none of the usual crossover compromises are apparent when you drive it with some enthusiasm. "In some instances," writes Matt, "this 3,660-pound X1 even improves upon the handling of the 1 Series coupe."

He drove an X1 with BMW's 2.0-liter turbodiesel four, and this wasn't an academic exercise, either, as BMW plans to bring this engine to the U.S. in 2012. We'll see the X1 a little sooner than that in the first quarter of 2011.

Is this BMW's most sensible crossover SUV to date? It makes more sense to us than the X6 and even the X3, and it's sure to be more efficient than any X5.

First Drive: 2011 BMW X1

Honda's highly regarded museum at Twin Ring Motegi isn't the easiest place to get to, as even from Tokyo, you have take a couple trains and then a bus. But after seeing this video, you'll want to make the trip. IndyCar racer Graham Rahal offers a very enjoyable tour of the motorcycle and racecar collection halls. He knows his racing history (just as you would expect of the son of Bobby Rahal), pointing out F1 cars driven by Ayrton Senna and Alain Proust, among many others.

Honda Collection Hall

You can feel it in the air — air that’s so humid, it’s almost as though you’re breathing in mist. The cafes and kiosks that crowd the city’s waterfront promenades are buzzing with activity. It’s almost time for Night Race Deux, aka the 2009 Formula One SingTel Singapore Grand Prix, and I’m here as a guest of the Singapore Tourism Board. It’s a once-in-lifetime opportunity to bask in the glow of a cosmopolitan city teeming with excitement as it once again hosts the only night race on the F1 circuit.

For those unfamiliar with Singapore, it’s the smallest nation in Asia — you can literally drive from end-to-end in about 45 minutes and top to bottom in about an hour more — located at the tip of the Malaysian peninsula (find Australia, then look up and to the left), a chesty city-state that was once one of the most important commercial and military centers of the British Empire. British influence is still everywhere here, and English is the official language, although far from the only one spoken. Walk around for a while, and you’ll see an incredibly diverse mix of cultures and several districts with distinct cultural flavors. And no, you won’t see gum sold, but yes, you can chew it — as long as you dispose of it properly.

Singapore has prefabricated its study over the past several decades as one of the world’s major commercial and financial centers, with dozens of skyscrapers dominating its impressive skyline. But it’s recently busting out of that shell, and the Singapore GP is one of many events and projects designed to dramatically raise its profile on the international stage as a tourism destination especially. Two massive projects, the Marina Bay Sands and Resorts World Sentosa, are underway and should be completed by 2010. The Sands is an astounding resort which is angling for worldwide convention business, and with an amazing promenade set to be perched atop its three towers, it will serve as a signature property in the downtown area. The Sentosa project has a major Universal Studios component and theme park attractions.

If there’s one thing F1 Supremo Bernie Ecclestone can smell from thousands of miles away, its money, and millions of Singapore dollars have been poured into developing arguably the most impressive event on the F1 calendar. The race is a major point of pride for the Singaporians I’ve encountered, and they should be chesty from what I’ve seen so far. The week long series of events is highlighted by exhibitions such as the wild, F1-inspired artwork of Indonesian artist Pintor Sirait.

Sirait’s creations, crafted from stainless steel, are in part his artistic response to the explosive growth of the sport in Asia. He then branded the cars, helmets and smaller models with various slogans in an effort to highlight cultural tensions and human values. While I get the deeper artistic meaning, they’re simply cool as hell. The crushed one you see here, which was inspired by Lewis Hamilton’s crash and recovery at the 2007 German GP, was smashed with a seven-ton crane.

Sirait’s exhibit is one of many F1-themed attractions dotting Singapore’s main Orchard Road, swanky shopping centers and impressive waterfront areas — most prominently Marina Bay, where the cars are screaming by all weekend on the Marina Bay Circuit.

While the sideline events are a nice diversion, the main focus is on the race, with Crashgate — the scandal that has rocked F1 — dominating the headlines of the Straits Times, the local paper. At last year’s inaugural Singapore event, then Renault top dog Flavio Briatore reportedly ordered driver Nelson Piquet Jr. to deliberately crash in a twisted effort to help teammate Fernando Alonso win (which he did). The charismatic Italian Briatore has been indefinitely illegal from the sport, and Pat Symonds, Renault’s former executive director of engineering, illegal for five years. This week, Alonso (who’s been cleared) broke his silence, saying “my win is still a win,” and while the Renault team as a whole has escaped major penalties, its future in the sport is unclear now that its main sponsor, ING, has pulled its sponsorship of the team. And in an amazingly ironic twist, Renault’s fill-in driver Romain Grosjean crashed yesterday in roughly the same spot as Piquet did.

Practice got underway yesterday, and we had unprecedented access to the action from the helipad of the Swissotel the Stamford, some 73 floors above the circuit. No real surprises on the time sheets thus far, with Brawn GP’s Rubens Barrichello topping the first session and Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel the second.

Tonight we’ll be checking out limiting as well as the weekend’s signature entertainment event — F1 Rocks — that last night featured the bearded wonders that are ZZ Top. Tonight Beyonce and the Black Eyed Peas will rock the stage. And of course, we’ll be watching the race live on Sunday. I’ll check back in with another blog or two along the way, and you can also follow my adventures on Twitter. Oh, and Lindsay Lohan is here. No, really, she is. She’s supposed to be introducing the acts and interacting with the drivers. Yep, F1 these days is about way more than the cars screaming around in the artificial light — for Singapore and the rest of the world, it’s also about the excitement off the track. And finding that perfect Singapore Sling cocktail…

Below are some facts about what it takes to light up the Singapore GP, from the 2008 race:

• 108,000 meters worth of power cables were used
• 3,180,000 watts are required to light the circuit
• The 2,000-watt halide lamps give off 3,000 lux, which is the average level required to light the circuit, meaning the track is almost four times brighter than a typical sports stadium
• The 1,500 lighting projectors that line the circuit are powered by 12 twin power generators

  

Why is the 2010 Ford Taurus an IIHS Top Safety Pick? Because a robot rammed a shopping cart carrying a 110-pound weight into the driver-side door.

This video from Ford is apparently meant to show some of the tests company country engineers do to see how the doors will deform in a side impact. Also, there's some random footage at the end of an F-150 on a ride/handling course at the company's proving grounds. Not sure how that's related.

DETROIT – Chrysler brand chief Peter Fong told Automotive News at the Frankfurt show that the division would offer a much wider array of products, while it moves upmarket, “a notch above Lincoln, a notch above Cadillac.”

Huh?

Other pundits already have questioned Fong’s apparently contradictory plans for Chrysler, the division. “We’re going to have to offer a broad array of products crossways every one of the segments,” he further told AN. With models like the Crossfire and Aspen discontinued, Chrysler has but four nameplates for 2010, the PT Cruiser, Sebring (five, if you count the Sebring convertible separately), Town & Country and 300. (Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep promise to make their product plans public in November.)

Lincoln has five models, including the Town Car and Cadillac has five — six if you count the Escalade pickup separately (yes, they still build that).

Fong’s two statements aren’t contradictory, if Chrysler proliferates into all the right size segments. Chrysler Group’s new parent, Fiat, can’t do this off its current crop of Alfa Romeo platforms, though. Alfas would make a better basis for the Chrysler of yore; a semi-premium brand that competed directly with Buick. GM’s middle brand is trying to get back there with models like the ‘10 LaCrosse and the Enclave, and in fact, Chrysler has a head start with its 300.

What Chrysler did wrong with the 300 was equip it much like the Dodge Magnum and Charger. In the first half year of 300 and Magnum income in 2005, the average Dodge version actually sold for a higher price than the average Chrysler version. That’s going to be a tough image to reverse.

Fong’s/Fiat’s strategy raises several problems. First, even Cadillac has struggled to move back upmarket. How will Chrysler pull it off?  Cadillac’s rear-drive combined STS/DTS replacement has been shelved in favor of the front-drive based XTS, and the brand’s Western European assault against Mercedes-Benz and BMW is also on hold. To be “a notch above Cadillac” at least half the Chrysler lineup should be RWD.

Competing with Lincoln is more plausible, if only because Ford has switched all its cars except the lame-duck Town Car to front-drive-based platforms. Lincoln has been repositioned to between Buick and Cadillac and Ford has prefabricated minimal the differences between cars like the Ford Taurus and Lincoln MKS, and the Ford Fusion and Lincoln MKZ.

Second, before the bankruptcy and before Fiat’s takeover, Chrysler Group was moving in the right direction. Jim Press, who has left the Auburn Hills headquarters, knew the maker would not be one of the major players in the U.S. market any time soon. GM, Toyota and Ford Motor apiece will struggle to maintain 16- to 18-percent market share here. Chrysler was below 10 percent market share before it let its inventory dwindle, prior to the Cash for Clunkers program.

Press understood that Chrysler had become a niche maker by favourite demand and knew that is its long-term future. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Honda is a niche brand here, compared with GM, Toyota and Ford. For now, Hyundai and Kia are niche brands, although probably not forever. For those two to keep gaining market share someone will have to lose share, and my money’s on companies like Chrysler, no matter how well they cover the segments.

To compete with Buick, let alone Lincoln or Cadillac, Chrysler should concentrate on refreshing and updating its rear-drive 300 (it’s coming next year) while loading it up with enough standard equipment to price it against the Hyundai Genesis sedan. There is room for a modern “New Yorker” or perhaps even an “Imperial,” though not one like the hideous concept from a couple of years ago. That’s one, and only one model competitive with the Cadillac CTS, or at least, the Lincoln MKS.

Chrysler could replace the Sebring with an Alfa 159-based midsize car, or better, something like the 200C concept on a shortened 300 RWD platform. There’s more margin in the 159’s “Premium” platform, though, which Fiat and GM jointly developed early this decade. (GM never used it.)

Chrysler division probably will need a crossover to compete with, in Fong’s mind, the Lincoln MKT or Cadillac SRX, but in my mind, more like the Buick Enclave. The new unibody platform underpinning the 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee and the upcoming Dodge Durango is obvious. Having all three crossovers in tripled Chrysler/Jeep/Dodge dealerships will be like having to sell Chevy Traverses along with GMC Acadias and Buick Enclaves at Buick-GMC dealerships.

It will get crowded in there, unless this strategy manages to increase Chrysler’s market share by, oh, 8 points or so.

A spokesman suggested that a number of small Fiat platforms could underpin Chrysler brand models. This is where the plan really falls apart.

Cadillac will have a RWD car in the c-segment, smaller than the Chrysler Sebring. Chrysler’s competitor would be on a Fiat front-drive platform, one probably shared with the Dodge Caliber replacement (yes, they still build that). Maybe, if the Chrysler compact’s components and suspension are more sophisticated than the Dodge compact’s, it could compete with Buick’s upcoming Opel Astra-based sedan.

Could the Chrysler brand go even smaller? The business is filled with automakers trying to figure out how to replicate the Mini Cooper formula, and sell a $25,000+ hatchback in America. Fiat is the only BMW competitor that has replicated the formula.

In fact, if not for the 500, Fiat would not be considered a successful turnaround. Chief Sergio Marchionne wouldn’t be hailed as a genius and he wouldn’t have had the clout to take over Chrysler. The Fiat 500 succeeds because it’s something an uber-Cadillac Chrysler division will never be: true to the brand.