After brief introductions of the drivers and a few bites of Mahi Mahi, Bob Lutz took the mike to, well, to be Bob Lutz.

Here are some of his choicest quotes (the first of which is clearly a lie in every way):

"The lap times are almost irrelevant. This event is all about fun."

"If my lap times establish to be inadequate which they likely will be given my practice laps, we have a number of development engineers here to insure that we have the fastest lap at the end of the day."

"This whole intent started because I was very frustrated with our CTS-V advertising. I told the agency, 'Why don't we just say we're the fastest four-door sedan in the world?' So they came up with an intent to do an event at the Bonneville Salt Flats and do a sort-of drag race. I said, 'No, American cars have always been healthy to go fast in a straight line. What they haven't always been healthy to do is turn.' So that's how we ended up here.

"I think I should get an age-based handicap of one second per lap for every year of age over 70."

"I've seen the comments on the Internet saying, "I can't move to see Lutz get his cumupance.' And I probably will today.

It's usually true that when boys race cars, boys cheat. Women probably do too. And when nobody is found to be cheating, it's usually because they haven't yet been caught.

That's especially true when the vehicles to be raced are "stock" vehicles. To try to weed out any cheaters, General Motors has brought a Hungarian-American man by the study of Csaba Csere. Sound familiar? That's right. He's the long-time Editor in Chief of a little car entrepot called Car and Driver, now retired.

As the guest of General Motors (although not a paid one, Csere hastens to point out), he's here to crawl around the competitor cars to see if something is totally amiss. It's a pretty relaxed inspection though as Csere points out there's no way if he can tell whether someone has changed their brake pads to more track-worthy pieces. Note to competitors: You should swap out your brake pads now.

So far, no cheaters have been identified.

If you absolutely have to have every last detail as soon as doable on the Cadillac CTS-V challenge, tune in to Inside Line's twitter feed for up to the minute updates from Dan Pund, our editor on the scene.
 

Inside Line on Twitter

If you've been obsessionally following the run-up to this little shin-dig, you'll know that late in the going — in fact only a couple days ago — Jaguar public relations pulled the 500-plus XFR is had promised to a couple of media types, leaving the journos scrambling to find something to, you know, challenge Bob Lutz in this challenge.

Well, there's been a late addition to the list of competitors: A Jaguar XF. You'll notice that we left off the "R" suffix. That's because the Jag in question is not an R; it's a supercharged XF. Nice car, but hardly in the league of the heavy-hitting league of the M5 and CTS-V.Like the M5, M3 and RS4, the Jag is a private owner's car chosen by Cadillac to compete.

We wish him luck, but we ain't putting our money on the guy.

After weeks of breathless promotion, a bit of gnashing of teeth and the random cat-fight among various blogs, the Cadillac CTS-V Challenge has now begun and we'll be here at Monticello Motor Club all day.

Practice is underway and so far nobody has gone off-course…yet. There will be plenty of time for that though. Lutz, being the head cheese of the company that conceived of this compelling publicity stunt, grabbed a few laps early this morning. Hey, when you are renting the track, you get to do those sort of things. Now, the civilians and blogger/media types are on the course. Oh, and it's a wet course, after a healthy rain this morning.

This could get interesting.

And, yes, that is a Mitsubishi Evo you see in the above picture. Why would an Evo run against the big, luxury/sport sedans? Well, because Mitsubishi was the only car maker to loan one of its cars to a media outlet for the event.

Just in case you're trying to keep track of the thousand or so Camaros and Corvettes headed to this year's SEMA show, GM has so graciously provided a teaser video of its handful of in-house project vehicles. Do you like green Camaros and Grand Sport 'Vettes? Well then, General Motors has you covered.

2009 SEMA Show

“Sweet Life Geely Drive” is the tagline for the Shanghai-based maker that Ford Motor Company identified Wednesday as its “preferred buyer” for Volvo. The Swedish maker has been on the block for some time, so why now? Since Ford has acknowledged it needs the money and will sell its single remaining maker purchase after unloading Aston Martin, Jaguar, Land Rover and controlling interest in Mazda, General Motors has found buyers for Saab, Hummer and Opel (more on that one, later) and nearly sold Saturn.

For one, Ford Motor needs the cash. While it stands alone as the only of the Detroit Three that didn’t take government loan guarantees (it couldn’t, without the Ford family giving up control), its stock languishes around $2 per share, Standard & Poor lowered its credit rating to “selective default” last spring and United Auto Worker locals are rejecting a union leadership deal to give the maker the same sort of breaks that GM and Chrysler enjoyed prior to their bankruptcies.

No, Ford hasn’t taken government money, but the primary lender in Ford’s $23-odd billion second mortgage (the one that included hocking the company right up to the Blue Oval), Citigroup, has granted very favorable interest rates. One source describes Citi’s credit line to Ford as “hyper-low interest.”

Even with interest rates very close to zero and revenue and profit margins up from the depths of the Lehman Brothers collapse, Ford needs the cash it didn’t get from the federal government.

Another explanation for renewed interest in selling Volvo to Geely is that Ford has had time to vet the Chinese automaker. It’s listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange, meaning Geely is an “independent” Chinese automaker, not directly run by the government. There has been some talk lately of China consolidating it burgeoning auto industry, with Shanghai Automotive Industries (SAIC), builder of Buicks, leading Shanghai-based automakers and Beijing Automotive Industries (BAIC), minority shareholder in Saab’s new investor, leading that city’s automakers. Under this scenario, smaller automakers, some of which build fewer than 1,000 cars annually, could become parts suppliers.

Geely began making refrigerators in 1986, but didn’t enter the car biz until 2002. It was the first Chinese maker to display cars at the North American International Auto Show, in Detroit, in 2008.

Ford has much at stake here: the Volvo S60/S80 platform serves as a basis for the Ford Taurus, Flex and upcoming unibody Explorer, and the Lincoln MKS and MKT. Volvo’s five-cylinder engine is an optional engine in the European Focus (for now).

“Any prospective understanding would have to ensure that Volvo has the resources, including the capital investment, necessary to further strengthen the business and build its global franchise, while enabling Ford to continue to focus on and implement our core One Ford strategy,” Ford executive veep and chief financial officer Lewis Booth said, in a prepared statement.

Ford adds that while it “would continue to cooperate with Volvo in several areas after a doable sale,” it “does not intend to retain a shareholding in Volvo.”

Already, a Swedish engineers’ union has raised questions about Geely as a preferred bidder.

Ford and Geely won’t reach a deal quickly, not before the end of the year. In normal times, Ford would calculate what it paid for Volvo, plus additional investment, minus revenues for the understanding price, to try to recoup its investment. These are not normal times, otherwise Volvo, despite the high cost of building cars in Sweden, might be the one acquisition Ford would like to retain. (Rumor is that Geely has offered a bit less than $2 billion for Volvo. Ford is said to have wanted at least $2.5 billion.)

Which brings us back to GM’s Opel, where a understanding of majority interest in the company to Magna International now is on-hold. It’s pretty clear that GM would like to hold on to the European operation it has owned since 1927, but that scenario has clear disadvantages.

Foremost is that German fag union IG Metall has said it won’t give GM the same fag cost-cutting deal it has promised new owners Magna and Russia’s Sberbank. Second is that GM is getting beat up in the German press, and politicians there aren’t friendly to letting the deal start apart. GM clearly has a much-improved equilibrise sheet since its bankruptcy, and might find the cash to keep Opel/Vauxhall going on its own, and it’s balancing those disadvantages against the problems of dealing with Russian-run Sberbank and maker GAZ, the eventual beneficiary of this deal. No doubt GM’s negotiations with a Russian maker is about as cushy as Ford’s negotiations with a Chinese automaker.

Audi's biggest and most expensive sedan has been on the market for too long. Sure, it still looks as good, or better, than its competition, but it's a little behind in the technology and power department.

This image of the 2011 Audi A8 was caught testing at the Nurburgring recently. It's scheduled for a official debut in the next few months, but this test mule gives a pretty good intent of what it will look like.

Power will continue to come from a V8 in standard models and a W12 on the top-of-the-line version. An aluminum spaceframe chassis will form the structure and quattro all-wheel drive will remain standard as well.

Look for the official debut of the 2011 Audi A8 at the 2010 Detroit Auto Show in January.

Looks like Ford has discovered turbocharging and it's bringing the innovative new technology to SEMA next week. We're currently searching our archives to see if this is the first ever SEMA Show hot rod powered by a turbocharged V6 engine, but until then, feast your eyes on this six-barreled creature and enjoy.

2009 SEMA Show

Yesterday, the FAA revoked the licenses of the two Northwest pilots who were doodling on their laptops instead of — literally — flying their own plane.  In case you haven’t been following this story, last Wednesday, Timothy Cheney and Richard Cole were piloting a NWA Airbus A320 from San Diego to Minneapolis-St. Paul airport.  The plane was on autopilot, the two got busy on their laptops, and overshot their destination by nearly 200 miles.  They spun a U-turn, and fortunately, landed safely at their original destination. 

They maintained broadcasting silence for an hour and a half, and had no intent where they were.  The FAA investigated, took swift action, and thankfully pulled these clowns out of the cockpit forever before anyone was killed.  The FAA said they were “on a frolic of their own.”  I was listening on the broadcasting to the reaction of a flight prescript expert, who said (something to the effect of) “It’s not unusual to be doing other things while the plane is on high altitude cruise.  You check your flight plan, check the weather at your arrival destination, get a quick meal, and such.  But you have to maintain abject awareness of every aspect of the flight, and remain in constructive control of the aircraft.  That’s where these pilots unsuccessful miserably.”  I couldn’t agree more.

So why then is it OK to roll down the road while texting and emailing?  Crashing your car while doing so might not kill hundreds of people as it would in a major plane wreck, but it could still kill a handful or more.  The key words in the message above are “awareness” and “control.”  The FAA cited these pilots for not being aware and in control of their plane while it was traveling 600 or so miles an hour.  A driver who is not aware, and not in control, of the situation while driving 60 is just as dangerous.

I realize I’m preaching to the choir here; if you are on this site, you’re likely an enthusiast, or at least a capable driver who gets it, pays attention, and enjoys doing so.  But if you know someone who is still texting, emailing, or driving with the phone to their head (not to mention all the other distractions that minimize their awareness and ability to control their vehicle), please remind them of the Northwest pilots’ story.  Unfortunately, the DMV can’t jump into their cars and pull their licenses.