AutoWeek articles from August 2007

AutoWeek archives from August 2007

Eye(brow) raising experience.(News)
August 6, 2007... NASCAR racer Jimmie Johnson could have used a little fire-extinguisher help from his Lowe's Home Improvement sponsor after his car caught fire. Johnson smacked the turn-three wall during the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard at the Indianapolis...

Crewe's Bruiser; Bentley showcases Brooklands supercoupe at its namesake track.
August 6, 2007... Byline: Kevin A. Wilson If you wait for a press review of the upcoming Bentley Brooklands coupe before you place your order, you'll be too late. Within 90 days of the car's unveiling at the Geneva show in March, more than half the total...

Scoreboard.(Competitions of car racing)(Brief article)
August 6, 2007... Ron Hornaday Jr. (Chevrolet) won his third Craftsman Truck Series race this year and 32nd of his career at the Power Stroke Diesel 200 at O'Reilly Raceway Park near Indianapolis. Johnny Benson (Toyota) was second, followed by Travis Kvapil...

FLASH.(Competition)
August 6, 2007... ZEROING IN At the Brickyard 400, Nextel Cup free agent Kyle Busch said he is still at least a week or so from deciding where he'll drive next year. Most talk has him leaning toward Dale Earnhardt Inc. (replacing Dale Earnhardt Jr.) or Joe...

FLEET STREET; Briefs on our other long-termers.(News)
August 6, 2007... Toyota FJ Cruiser We aren't the only ones weary of the FJ's thirst for premium octane. So is the buying public. Sales of the iconic truck are down roughly 30 percent compared with last year. Chevrolet Suburban You can haul just...

VIP LOUNGE; House unfinished, garage well done.(Revs)
August 6, 2007... Byline: PHIL BERG Okay, married guys, take notes: Californian Ron Mintle convinced his wife that in order to build and finish the unique additions to the desert mountain home they bought four years ago, he needed space-a lot of space-to...

REVERSE HALO; Volvo hopes small C30 hatchback will bring new customers to the brand.(AB Volvo)
August 6, 2007... Byline: ROGER HART Volvo is expecting the smallest car it has ever built to make big changes in how the company is perceived. Its C30 goes on sale in the United States on Oct. 1. Buyers of the three-door hatchback will be able to...

ICONOCLAST NO MORE; That weird hippie uncle at the reunion? That was Saab. Now it has its act together and is taking it on the road. For proof, look at the new Saab 9-3.
August 6, 2007... Byline: DUTCH MANDEL Remember this number: 2158. Saab engineers, designers and marketing people figure that's the number of changes made to its bread-and-butter 9-3 model. Actually, the number is 2157, but it was easy to identify another...

CARRERA KILLER; Porsche won't build it-no problem.(News)
August 6, 2007... Byline: MAC MORRISON Suggest to Porsche officials that perhaps a more powerful Cayman would be at least mildly interesting to drive. Go ahead, try it. Don't know any Porsche officials? That's okay, we've already put forth the idea. "No,''...

Rewriting the Rules of Internal Combustion; Mercedes engine is part diesel, part spark ignition.(News)
August 6, 2007... Byline: J.P. VETTRAINO The demise of the internal combustion engine has been greatly exaggerated, or so Mercedes-Benz thinks. Mercedes' advanced engineering staff believes spark-ignition and diesel engines are a long way from tapped...

Drivers Log.(News)(Product/service evaluation)
August 6, 2007... VAUGHN: Since our family vacation was to be interrupted when I had to depart midway through for the NASCAR race in Sears Point, we took two cars. I chose a Tribeca to complement our Volkswagen Eurovan so we could pile in all 80,000 pounds of...

TWO-WHEEL LOWDOWN.(Revs)
August 6, 2007... Byline: GEORGE P. BLUMBERG 2007 TRIUMPH SPEED TRIPLE Euro naked street-fighter icon, started the class. 1050-cc, 131-hp, liquid-cooled inline triple; 416-lb dry weight; quarter-mile in 10.82 sec @ 127.1 mph Competitive Set:...

Letters.(Letter to the editor)
August 6, 2007... Texting tro-u-ble Dutch, regarding your July 23 column ("Why Can't We Be Left Alone?''), if distracted drivers are responsible for 80 percent of accidents, how can voice-messaging "Vivee'' help that by providing a served-up distraction? It...

TV: August 10 - 12.(Competition)
August 6, 2007... Friday, Aug. 10 NASCAR Live, 1 p.m., Speed (L) Go or Go Home from Watkins Glen, N.Y., 2:30 p.m., Speed (L) NASCAR Nextel Cup qualifying from Watkins Glen, N.Y., 3 p.m., ESPN2 (L) NASCAR Busch Series final practice from Watkins...

BLANDER, BUT NOT BAD; Impreza isn't WRX-hot, but not everyone needs spice.(News)
August 6, 2007... Byline: Phil Floraday Sure the regular ol' Impreza doesn't look more exciting than vanilla ice cream when it shares a page with the WRX, but everyone still likes ice cream, right? The Impreza uses the same double-wishbone rear...

SAAB'S 60TH ANNIVERSARY; Saabophiles converge on Trollhattan to celebrate the marque.(Revs)
August 6, 2007... Byline: MARK ELIAS During a spell of unseasonably warm weather more typical of Arizona than western Sweden, residents of Trollhattan spruced up for more than 10,000 visitors from all over the world who came to take part in the celebration...

SMOKIN' DEALS.(News)
August 6, 2007... Porsche jumps into the week's hot deals, and if you want a steamin' sedan, check out the BMW M5 or Acura TSX. SEDAN 2007 BMW M5 MSRP: $83,195; 3.9 percent financing SPORTS CAR 2007 PORSCHE 911 MSRP: $73,260; 7.14...

CALLAWAY C16 SPEEDSTER; Less top, more rock.(News)
August 6, 2007... Byline: EVAN McCAUSLAND Callaway will cut the top and punch up the power in the C16 Speedster it will unveil at the upcoming Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance Aug. 16-19. The C16 Speedster's supercharged 6.2-liter V8 gets a huge bump...

GINN SAYS GOOD NIGHT, YATES GETS HELP.(Competitions of car racing)
August 6, 2007... Byline: Al Pearce It didn't take long for real estate developer Bobby Ginn to see that NASCAR wasn't a game he wanted to play with his own money. Fourteen months after buying the majority ownership of MB2 Motorsports, the South Carolina...

But Wait, There's More...(BWTM)
August 6, 2007... At What Cost Ethanol?! Greenwire.com reports with corn prices rising as the market demands more ethanol, "Mexican farmers are abandoning the blue agave plant-distilled to make tequila-to plant fields of corn. The switch could create a...

Meanwhile, outside our car world . . .(50th Anniversary countdown)
August 6, 2007... Fidel Castro assumes power in Cuba. * Alaska and Hawaii become 49th and 50th states. * President is Dwight D. Eisenhower; vice president is Richard M. Nixon. * Jack S. Kilby of Texas Instruments supervises development of the first integrated...

UNDER THE HOOD.(News)
August 6, 2007... Teen Driving With support from Dodge, AutoWeek presents the first Teen Driver Safety Summit, Aug. 28 at Oakland University in Southeastern Michigan. In the house will be legislators, doctors, insurance-industry reps, driving-school owners and...

Market.(Escape Roads)
August 6, 2007... Byline: KEITH MARTIN 1957 Chevrolet Corvette Convertible Christie's Greenwich Concours d'Elegance Greenwich, Conn. June 5 283-cid, 283-hp, fuel-injected V8, four-speed. Red and white with red vinyl interior....

AIMED AND FOCUSED; Chevy puts an unserved niche in its crosshairs.(News)
August 6, 2007... Byline: KEVIN A. WILSON Thanks to Napoleon Bonaparte, England is often derided as "a nation of shopkeepers.'' We'd wager there are far more of them here, though. The American entrepreneurial spirit and the number of small-business owners...

MAN ON FIRE; Tony Stewart bags his second Brickyard 400.(Competitions of automobile racing)
August 6, 2007... Byline: AL PEARCE With six laps left in the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard-a race he covets almost as much as he covets his next breath-Tony Stewart took both hands off the steering wheel, lifted his helmet visor and steered with his knees...

MCLAREN ESCAPES SANCTIONS.(Competition)
August 6, 2007... To Ferrari's fury, McLaren-Mercedes escaped sanctions by the FIA World Motor Sport Council in the Formula One industrial espionage scandal (Competition, July 30). In a six-hour hearing, lawyers from both teams spoke of the discovery of 780...

WILD ONE; San Jose was Champ Car's weirdest race so far this year.(Competitions of car racing)
August 6, 2007... Byline: STEVEN COLE SMITH This is how Team Minardi driver Robert Doornbos' weekend at the San Jose Grand Prix went: He qualified a miserable 15th of 17 cars, ran up over the back of Conquest Racing's Jan Heylen on the first lap, leaving...

Concours de Technicance.(Column)
August 6, 2007... Byline: Raffi Minasian The year is 2038, and the highest standard for judging collectible automobiles has reached another pinnacle of exactitude. Teleplanetics Systems Inc., maker of plasma dimension wafer chips and molecular biogram data...

Don't Look Back: It's Gaining on Us.(competitions of car racing)(Column)
August 6, 2007... Byline: Kevin A. Wilson Nostalgia,'' novelist Peter DeVries wrote 30-some years ago, "isn't what it used to be.'' Researching background for a pair of recent trips brought this to mind. I went with Bentley to England's Brooklands racetrack...

EXTRA.(Briefs)
August 6, 2007... No surprise here As we suggested when the sale of Chrysler to Cerberus Capital Management was announced in May, former Chrysler and Volkswagen exec Wolfgang Bernhard will play a key role in the new Chrysler ("Imperial Dreams,'' May 21)....

GORDON MURRAY'S DESIGNS; Small-car plans for the father of supercars.(News)
August 6, 2007... Byline: JULIAN RENDELL When one of the world's most-respected auto engineers decides to go it alone and create a revolutionary small car, it's time to take notice. Gordon Murray-whose credits include Gran Prix-winning Brabham race...

1959 DEVIN D ROADSTER; From Kit Car to Hillclimber.(Escape Roads)
August 6, 2007... Byline: BOB TOMAINE After Bill Devin served in World War II, he went to California with plans to open a dealership. That led to racing and Ferraris and other sports cars. By the mid-1950s, he was a builder. After the success of the...

COULD HAVE BEEN A . . . FORD; Mazdaspeed 3 offers a pleasant ride.(News)
August 6, 2007... Byline: JOE KOVACH After one editor drove the Mazdaspeed 3, he wrote, "Almost the whole time I drove this car, I kept thinking, `Boy, did Ford ever blow it.' This is what a latest SVT Focus could've been. Fast, handles, sticks, you can...

1959.(National Automobile Dealers Association)(Competition Press)(Aston Martin Lagonda Ltd.)
August 6, 2007... 1959 is a busy time for Competition Press. Six months after its birth, Denise McCluggage takes over ownership and becomes editor and publisher. The paper moves from Detroit to Cornelia Street in New York City. This tenure lasts from January to...

SQUARE DEAL; Subaru puts WRX on a diet and fattens the torque curve.(News)
August 6, 2007... Byline: PHIL FLORADAY It's refreshing to catch a glimpse of the top-mounted intercooler while looking at the functional hood scoop on the 2008 Subaru Impreza WRX. So many scoops, vents and wings are purely cosmetic nowadays. That the rest...

RV HAVING FUN YET? A sports-car fan discovers the pleasures of a road trip.(News)
August 6, 2007... Byline: CORY FARLEY One trip in a motor home can't make a sports-car guy wish for an RV in his garage. But it can make him wish for one next door, with a generous owner. Winnebago, General Motors and Blue Ox, a maker of towing devices,...

PERFORMANCE AND COMFORT; Audi's TT Is Dressed Up in a Prettier Package.(Audi AG)
August 6, 2007... Cynics call the Audi TT a reworked Volkswagen Golf with a swoopier body. In a way, they're right: The TT platform is derived from the Golf's, with familiar engine choices, too. Our test car had the optional 3.2-liter, 250-hp,...

Watch where you're walking!(News)
August 13, 2007... A dummy flips for a car equipped with a pop-up engine hood. Nissan Motor Co. recently unveiled its pedestrian-protection technology at the automaker's Oppama plant, south of Tokyo. The system reduces damage to a pedestrian's head in a...

FLASH.(National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing Inc.)
August 13, 2007... ROUND TWO The Ferrari/McLaren document scandal (Competition, Aug. 6) will drag on after Federation Internationale de l'Automobile president Max Mosley sent the case to the FIA International Court of Appeal. The World Motor Sport Council...

A TALE OF TWO RACERS; Kurt Busch pounds a Bud at Pocono.(National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing Inc.)
August 13, 2007... Byline: J.P. VETTRAINO The Pennsylvania 500 turned into Budweiser versus Miller and fan favorite versus villain. Miller and the villain won, but the fan favorite showed his mettle, and the chase for NASCAR's Cup got hotter. ...

TROUBLE IN PARADISE; Controversy overshadows another Hamilton win.(Competitions of car racing)
August 13, 2007... Byline: ALAN HENRY McLaren-Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton's Hungarian Grand Prix win was probably the best of his three Formula One victories so far, a 70-lap marathon throughout which Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari kept him on his toes. ...

GREEN MACHINE.(News)
August 13, 2007... Byline: BOB GRITZINGER At the Frankfurt motor show in September, Mitsubishi will reveal the Concept-cX, a next-generation compact sport/utility vehicle that seeks the ideal balance between environmental concerns and practical performance....

It may be called Sneaky, but there's nothing understated about this truck.(designs and construction of automobiles)
August 13, 2007... Byline: KEVIN A. WILSON Rodney Rucker is a big fella, and he thinks big. He has built cars that look like a giant grocery shopping cart with a big V8 on the lower tray, or like a roller skate with the driver sticking out of the top of the...

More than a little fun.(design and construction of automobiles)(Brief article)
August 13, 2007... Byline: MARK VAUGHN While the wide-open spaces of the United States mean no real restrictions on the size of cars, in Japan things are a little different. Just take a look at this pocket-sized Suzuki Jimny. Tuned by Suzy Sports of Tokyo,...

BUSCH SERIES HEADS NORTH; Robby Gordon Couldn't Spoil a Strong Canadian Debut.(Competition)
August 13, 2007... Byline: AL PEARCE Steve O'Donnell, NASCAR's vice president for racing operations, looked aghast, like a kid whose sibling just trashed his favorite new toy. His toy was the NAPA Auto Parts Busch Series 200 on Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in...

Crossover Cool.(News)
August 13, 2007... Byline: MARK VAUGHN Ain't it about time crossovers got some respect? "I don't like the word `crossover','' said Mazda CX-7 Adrenalin crossover designer Truman Pollard. "The word crossover sucks the life out of what could be a really...

How high do you want to be?(product information of truck)(Brief article)
August 13, 2007... Byline: MARK VAUGHN It's easy to buy a set of U-shaped mounting bolts, jack up your rig, slap on big tires and feel-finally-secure in your manly orientation. But "getting high'' is only part of the truck-tuning equation. To then be...

Henry Ford could never have thunk it.
August 13, 2007... Byline: J.P. VETTRAINO It was light, sturdy and fast-top speed 85 mph-and it had great pickup. "Getaway,'' they called it during the Great Depression. Perfect for a police car. Now, those attributes that made the 1932 Ford V8 a solid...

FORD'S FABULOUS FLATHEAD; The engine that just won't die.(Ford Motor Co.)
August 13, 2007... Byline: KEN GROSS Seventy-five years ago, Henry Ford made automotive history by introducing an affordable V8 engine in the low-priced field. Legend has it, Mr. Ford hated Chevrolet, so he refused to have anything to do with six-cylinder...

MONSTER PICKUP TRANSFORMS OUR PERCEPTION OF BIG.(Monroe Truck Equipment Inc.)(Brief article)
August 13, 2007... Byline: BOB GRITZINGER If you absolutely must have the biggest truck on your block, and money is no object, Ironhide ($81,062) is your truck. Forget Hummer H1s, heavy-duty pickups and even small dump trucks-this pickup based on a GMC...

Letters.
August 13, 2007... Continuing the countdown I really appreciated the first of this series working up to the full 50-year celebration (July 30). I would have been seven years young in 1958 and already hooked on motors and wheels. We had a home-built go-kart...

Meanwhile, outside our car world . . .(50th Anniversary countdown)
August 13, 2007... Debate between Sen. John F. Kennedy and Vice President Richard Nixon is viewed by 70 million people. * Kennedy defeats Nixon in a close presidential race. * American U-2 spy plane, piloted by Francis Gary Powers, is shot down over Russia. *...

UNDER THE HOOD.(Briefs)
August 13, 2007... Beauty Is What We Say It Is Take a good look at this sweet piece of hardware. It will be given to the Elegance in Motion award winner at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, which goes to the most beautiful car on the Pebble Beach Tour....

DESIGNERS WORLDWIDE STILL LOVE 'EM; Ian Callum's Deuce rumbles in the U.K.(News)
August 13, 2007... Byline: MIKE DUFF The number of car designers who have owned, or do own, a hot rod based on a '32 Ford is incalculable, but one of the more unlikely would seem to be Scottish-born Ian Callum, design director for Jaguar. "I fell in love...

The coolest motorsport you've never seen.(competitions of car racing)(Brief article)
August 13, 2007... Byline: Phil Floraday Rock racing is bizarre. The idea combines negotiating obstacles and flat-out drag racing, with a sprinkling of Monster Garage thrown in. Custom-built buggies race over boulders you likely couldn't traverse with a rope...

KEEP YOUR KIDS SAFE.(News)
August 13, 2007... The first AutoWeek Teen Driver Safety Summit is shaping up to be a big deal. We have attendees coming in from all over the country for this Aug. 28 event sponsored by Dodge. And those on the agenda can make a difference: Dr. Ricardo Martinez,...

SMOKIN' DEALS.(News)
August 13, 2007... This week, Audi features special financing on its scorching S4, while Chrysler piles incentives on the Sebring convertible. A Suzuki sport/ute and a Chevrolet sedan also carry big cash-back offers. CONVERTIBLE 2008 Chrysler Sebring ...

But Wait, There's More...(BWTM)
August 13, 2007... Relax, Paul, he's kidding NBA superstar Kevin Garnett raised the eyebrows of new teammate Paul Pierce at a press conference when Garnett described his feelings on joining the Boston Celtics. Garnett: "I'm excited . . . it's like being...

EXTRAVAGANZA OF EXCELLENCE; If a thing is worth overdoing, it's worth overdoing right.(trade shows of automobile industry)
August 13, 2007... Byline: LARRY EDSALL The annual Pebble Beach Automotive Weekend (yep, that's what it's "officially'' called) figures to be a real Duesy this year. Featured marques on the 18th fairway of the Pebble Beach Golf Links are Aston Martin,...

TV: August 17 - 19.(Competition)
August 13, 2007... Friday, Aug. 17 USAR from Newport, Ind., 10 a.m., Speed 2004 NHRA Nationals from Columbus, Ohio, 11 a.m., ESPN Classic NASCAR Live, 11 a.m., Speed (L) NASCAR Nextel Cup practice from Brooklyn, Mich., 11:30 a.m., Speed (L) ...

10 DEUCES; A personal pantheon of dominant Deuces.(News)
August 13, 2007... Byline: TONY THACKER Bad enough I was chosen to be one of the committee of 25 selecting what we determined were the 75 Most Significant '32 Ford Hot Rods for Ford's 75th anniversary celebration of same. Then Roger Hart of AutoWeek called...

OUT WITH A BANG; The Last IndyCar Race at Michigan Wasn't Pretty.(Competitions of car racing)
August 13, 2007... Byline: CURT CAVIN IndyCar said goodbye, at least for now, to Michigan International Speedway (Competition, July 30), and no one shed a tear. Not the drivers who crashed out of the rain-delayed Firestone Indy 400, not the team owners...

A Date with Dad's Deuce.(Column)
August 13, 2007... Byline: Curt Catallo Clarence "Chili'' Catallo's first car was a 1932 Ford DeLuxe Coupe. It had been a veritable flowerpot behind a gas station across the street from my grandparents' market in Taylor, Michigan, when he bought it in 1955....

GRONHOLM OUT FRONT.(Competition)
August 13, 2007... Ford driver Marcus Gronholm became the only driver to win the same World Rally Championship event seven times, after a victory at his native Rally Finland. The win stretched Gronholm's championship lead to 13 points over Sebastien Loeb,...

MARKET.(product information of Ford Motor Co.)(Brief article)
August 13, 2007... Byline: KEITH MARTIN 1931 Ford Model A Deluxe Roadster Christie's Greenwich Concours d'Elegance Greenwich, Conn., June 5 200-cid four-cylinder, three-speed. Black with a white cloth top and saddle-leather interior. Decent...

HOW THEY PICK THE WINNERS; Just what are those concours judges looking for?
August 13, 2007... Byline: MARK VAUGHN What do they look for, those guys in the Brooks Brothers blazers, bow ties and boaters who walk through the field at a concours and pick the winners? What are they marking down on those clipboards? And do they really...

DREAMING BIG; Art Center show is all about the designers.(Revs)
August 13, 2007... Byline: MARK VAUGHN Even though this year's Art Center Car Classic was titled, "Dream Machines, Imagination Gone Wild,'' there's usually no real theme to the annual show on the Art Center's Hillside Campus in Pasadena, California. It's...

EVEN MORE SPEED; Bentley's big coupe gets a power boost.(News)
August 13, 2007... Byline: WES RAYNAL Hang on to your Barbour coat: Bentley just took the wraps off the most powerful production model in its history, the Continental GT Speed. It will hit 202 mph, making it the first production Bentley to top 200, and will...

What a Nice Guy.(Column)
August 13, 2007... Byline: KC Crain If you're wondering where you can see 6500 hot rods and classics, head to Columbus, Ohio, for the Goodguys Nationals show in mid-July. This year, cars were stacked atop each other-if you thought you'd seen them all, you'd...

ON THE MOTHER ROAD IN A '32.(News)
August 13, 2007... Byline: KEVIN A. WILSON Forget hot rodding and think about the original '32 flathead Ford. We hopped aboard a 1932 Ford Model 18 four-door sedan for a drive from Albuquerque to Flagstaff, incorporating large sections of historic Route 66....

AMERICA'S NEXT MINI; Audi A1/S1 due in U.S. by 2010.(News)
August 13, 2007... Byline: GREG KABLE BMW's Mini Cooper will come under fire in 2009, when Audi introduces an entry-level A1 model, followed by a top-secret high-performance S1 model aimed squarely at the Cooper S. Although Audi officials in the United...

Drivers Log.(product information of Audi AG)(Product/service evaluation)
August 13, 2007... MORRISON: What a wonderful car. Stunning looks, especially the front and rear views, and a ball to put through a workout. With this powertrain and inherent "Audiness,'' it reminds me of the S4 but up a notch. The chassis is incredibly rigid,...

EXTRA.(Briefs)
August 13, 2007... Super Z What is likely to be the last chapter in this generation of Nissan's 350Z comes from in-house tuner NISMO. Aerodynamic bodywork, stiffened chassis enforcements, stiffer suspension tuning and Rays forged aluminum wheels wrapped in...

1960.(50th Anniversary countdown)
August 13, 2007... 1960: Competition Press' address is now Newport Beach, California, home of John and Elaine Bond. Watchers of enthusiast magazines will remember that the Bonds also owned Road & Track. Other names on the masthead changed, too: Dean Batchelor is...

This sub shines; 1917 Golden submarine replica.(Escape Roads)
August 13, 2007... Byline: STEVE KASH Barney Oldfield was one of the most fearless racing stars of the early 20th century. But fearless doesn't mean foolhardy. After the 1916 death of his friend Bob Burman, who had been racing in an open-cockpit car in...

All-American Drive-In Show.(News)
August 20, 2007... More than 400 '32 Ford Deuce hot rods and cars fitted with flathead V8s visited Dearborn, Michigan, August 9-12 to celebrate their 75th anniversary, some coming from as far as Hawaii and Australia. On the ticket were cruises, parties, dinners...

Tifosi for Yourself; Want to spy on a new Ferrari driver or a car's first run? Head for Fiorano-and don't forget the vodka.(Competition)
August 20, 2007... Byline: Anthony Peacock The flag is faded and torn; its grubby early-'80s script reading "Villeneuve" recedes into a dirty white background. But for Battista, who lives in a house overlooking Ferrari's hallowed Fiorano test track in...

Correction.(Correction notice)
August 20, 2007... A Fleet Street update on our long-term Toyota FJ Cruiser in the Aug. 6 issue should have said sales of the FJ Cruiser were down nearly 35 percent in July 2007 compared with July 2006. Year-to-date FJ sales through July 2007 are up 22 percent...

RETOUCHED A8; Audi reworks flagship for 2008.(News)
August 20, 2007... Byline: JONATHAN WONG With an all-new A8 still a couple of years away, Audi is refreshing its flagship sedan for 2008 and enhancing performance via a reworked steering system and suspension. Steering improves with a variable steering...

SNOOZE FEST; Sebastien Bourdais wins Road America for the first time in his career.(Competition)
August 20, 2007... Byline: STEVEN COLE SMITH "I hope the race wasn't too boring for the fans,'' said winner-and master of understatement-Sebastien Bourdais. The Champ Car Generac Grand Prix at Road America in Wisconsin was a snoozer thanks to the...

Old Cars, Great Fun for a Cure.(Column)
August 20, 2007... Byline: Dutch Mandel A while back, a group of people got together and said, "Hey, we have these really serpentine city park streets, and we need to raise money for charity. Why not throw a vintage-car race?'' The idea stuck, and the...

UNDER THE HOOD.(News)
August 20, 2007... Photo Galleries Galore If you couldn't be there for the diamond jubilee, go to autoweek.com to check out the Ford '32 Deuce 75th anniversary photo gallery. And if you like that, come back early next week to see shots from the famous...

1961; Competition Press editor Dennis Shattuck runs editorial commentary on Page One, taking the Sports Car Club of America to task. The subject: the SCCA's "ivory tower retreat'' when addressing the race-for-money versus the club's favor-of-amateurism debate.(50th Anniversary countdown)(Editorial)
August 20, 2007... So contentious is the SCCA board's stance at its annual meeting that racer and brewery heir Augie Pabst threatens to stage a walkout. Briggs Cunningham ("one of the few men in the world wealthy enough to afford to be an amateur'') speaks in...

Meanwhile, outside our car world . . .(50th Anniversary countdown)
August 20, 2007... Meanwhile, outside our car world . . . * Berlin Wall erected. * Moscow announces first man in orbit around earth, Yuri A. Gagarin. * U.S.-sponsored anti-Castro exiles invade Cuba at the Bay of Pigs. * President is John F. Kennedy; vice...