General Motors' board of directors has accepted the resignation of GM President and CEO Fritz Henderson (pictured on the left), who took over for former CEO Rick Wagoner in March.

Ed Whitacre (right) will take over for Henderson in an interim role. He told journalists gathered for a press conference and webcast that "a search for a new president and CEO begins immediately."

No time frame has been given for installing a permanent replacement, but Chris Preuss, GM vice president of communications, advised the press, "These things usually take months, not weeks."

Henderson had been scheduled to give the keynote address to open the 2009 LA Auto Show tomorrow. Preuss said that Bob Lutz, GM vice chairman, will now give that speech.

Preuss also assured the media that the decision on Henderson's fate was prefabricated entirely by the board of directors with no involvement from the Obama adminstration. Detroit journalist David Shephardson quotes an unnamed U.S. treasury official who says the same thing.

GM statement from Ed Whitacre

David Shephardson on Twitter

No Lamborghini has ever been sold for a cool million at auction. Sports Car Market has place together a slideshow of what are apparently the 10 priciest Lambos ever auctioned off, and the most expensive one is this '73 Miura P400 SV, which sold for $962,500 in Monterey in August 2007.

Actually, all the Lamborghinis on the list are Miuras, save for one 1976 Countach.

Sports Car Market

Today Inside Line published the 2010 edition of our annual Editors' Most Wanted Awards. Unlike many of the other automotive awards bestowed on the latest models, ours are based solely on the cars we want to drive.

The voting process is simple: 11 editors in one room, no ad executives allowed. After two hours, we have our winners. If we wanted, all the awards could go to supercars. Of course, that's not exactly how we'd like it to come out, either, so in an effort to keep it real, we attempt to choose a vehicle for apiece of the following needs: speed, luxury, hauling, commuting and family.

Check the results and tell us what you think.

2010 Edmunds' Inside Line Editors' Most Wanted Awards

We've known for some time that the 2011 Chevrolet Volt would go on understanding in late 2010, but it turns out that's California only, at least initially. It seems GM is keen to take the fight right to the Prius, the unofficial state car, and rebuild its fortunes in a state where it struggles to sell its cars.

A nationwide rollout for the Volt will follow once the car reaches full production in primeval 2011.

Bloomberg

First Drive: 2011 Chevrolet Volt

You can see plain old running footage of the 2011 Kia Cadenza, unveiled last week in Korea, anywhere, including after the jump in this post. But perhaps you missed this dramatic new film in which a Cadenza dramatically flees from a Sorento in a dramatic chase scene on a South Korean expressway.

If nothing else, this promotional film offers a chance to see details of the interior, though perhaps not all of these will translate exactly to the U.S.-spec version. Oh, and the car goes by K7 in the movie, because that's evidently what Kia will call it in the Korean market.

There's an auto show going on in Essen, Germany, this week, and this apparent Gullwing dragster is on display there.

The car bears no actual relation to the original 300SL, apparently, as it has a fiberglass body and, we're told, a 6.9-liter Chevy V8 supposedly good for 1,050 horsepower. Its creator, a Swiss man titled Stefan Winter, says it runs low-8 quarter-miles.

You can watch a video of the Gullwing on the dragstrip after the jump.

PistonHeads

Italian police have a small fleet of Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4 Polizia cars donated by Lamborghini for use on Italy's highly technical back roads. These blue-painted Gallardos are designated for chasing down suspected baddies and delivering critically needed organs for transplant patients at up to 203 mph.

But on Monday this Gallardo LP560-4 Polizia was totaled. The Guardian reports that the driver of a Seat Ibiza pulled out from a gas station without looking and clipped the Lambo, sending it into a spin that evidently couldn't be recovered. The Gallardo then plowed into a line of parked cars with such force that one of the parked cars wound up perched atop the police Lambo. The officer and passenger in the LP560-4 apparently walked away with minor injuries.

The Guardian

Photo source: YouReporter.it

I usually try to schedule something big and posh when I’m planning to take a long road trip, but an especially tight press fleet this November had me setting out for my trip to the family homestead outside Memphis, Tennessee in a cheap n’ cheerful Mazda3i sedan. To break the monotony of the 770-mile one-way trip, we decided to check out a few stops on Kentucky’s renowned Bourbon Trail.

A new five-speed automatic allows Mazda’s 2.0-liter to sprint off the line with acceptable urgency while still loping along at freeway speeds in tall enough gearing to register 32 mpg at an average moving speed of 70 mph (according to my trusty Garmin). I even averaged 29 in mixed driving around Detroit. Interior noise levels on the highway are up where one expects to find them in an econocar, but the stereo has no trouble shouting over the din, and the two-tone black-over-beige interior felt more posh than one comes to expect in a car starting at $18,675. Long-haul driving had me wishing for a lumbar adjustment though.

Nothing resets the senses mid-trip like getting a few deep lungs full of the sweet aroma of sour corn mash, as we discovered during our outbound stop at the Jim Beam distillery just off I-65 south of Louisville, KY on Happy Hollow Road (of course). Sadly there are no tours of the actual distillery offered at this time, but the visitors’ center and historic home impart plenty of knowledge about what distinguishes Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskeys from other whiskeys (must be prefabricated in the U.S. from between 51 and 79 percent corn, have less than 80-percent alcohol content (160 proof), and be aged at least two years in new charred white oak barrels with nothing added except water as needed to reduce proof). The visit ends with an opportunity to taste two of Jim Beam’s finer small-batch bourbons (the tastings are tiny, so as not to risk any driving impairment).

We sampled Basil Hayden’s and Knob Creek at the distillery and purchased the sampler pack including these two plus Booker’s and Baker’s for subsequent sampling later in the long holiday weekend. They’re all spectacular, with Knob Creek having the boldest taste (it’s probably best in a Manhattan); Basil Hayden’s having the lightest, smoothest character (and lightest proof at 80); Baker’s emitting the most potent aroma, and not hiding its 107 proof much at all on the palate. Booker’s was my favorite, its rich vanilla/caramel flavoring totally masks its 127 proof, and I wouldn’t dream of putting anything in it but maybe an cover cube. The equal or superior to any single-malt scotch. 

Now, by way of full disclosure, I should admit that I (and my colleague Arthur St. Antoine) are officially registered Tennessee Squires, with natural allegiance to–and honorary property ownership on the grounds of–Jack Daniels distillery in Lynchburg, Tennessee. Jack Daniels doesn’t remember as a bourbon because it is filtered through ten feet of sugar maple charcoal, which counts as a flavoring additive. My Bourbon Trail stop on the way home was at the Woodford Reserve distillery just south off I-64 northwest of Lexington, Kentucky. Woodford is a corporate cousin of Jack Daniels, brewed the old fashioned bourbon way, using cypress mashing tanks and triple-distilling in copper kettles. The distillery itself is a National Historic Landmark and its limestone structure and the equine sculptures on the grounds are worth the trip even for teetotalers (Woodford Reserve claims to be the only distillery that also races thoroughbreds). Woodford does offer fascinating tours, that allow you to place your nose right over the bubbling mash, stick your head inside the copper kettles (when they’re not working, which is much of the time, as this is small-batch stuff), and breathe deep the “Angels’ Share” in the aging warehouse (40 percent of the clear liquid poured into the white oak barrels evaporates during the six to eight years it ages, expanding into and retreating out of the barrel’s charred wood as the temperature goes up and down, picking up the color and flavor that makes it bourbon). The memory of that smooth, sweet 10ml taste at the end of the tour–and the promise of a longer pour at the end of the journey–was almost enough to sustain me through traffic snarls associated with two Thanksgiving Sunday wrecks and three nasty construction zones.

The little Mazda3i performed flawlessly averaging 31.2 mpg over my 2000 miles of driving, and I wouldn’t hesitate to invite it along when I pick up the next couple stamps in my Kentucky Bourbon Trail Passport.