Topgear News

Porsche announced this Wednesday of a new model line: to be called Panamera, the new car will be a premium-class sports coupe with four seats, four doors, and a choice of front-mounted engines driving the rear wheels.

Scheduled to enter the market in 2009, the Panamera will join the 911, the Boxster/Cayman and the Cayenne on the brand’s volume lineup. The new car’s name is derived from the legendary Carrera Panamericana long-distance race.

A portable dot marking system designed by SIC Marking has provided state-of-art traceability and wheel marking quality for Rimstock plc, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of alloy wheels.

Rimstock plc produces alloy wheels for the global automotive OEM and after markets from its four purpose-built factories in the West Midlands. The range features some of the lightest, most stylish alloy wheels on the market with customers including Aston Martin, Lexus and Daimler-Chrysler. The company also manufactures the after market brands of Team Dynamics Light Alloy Wheels and the Unisport range.

Spend just five seconds behind the wheel of Chevy’s new supercharged Cobalt SS and you’ll be wearing your ball cap backwards, singing along with the Goo Goo Dolls, and calling everyone “dude.”

This two-door rocketship is Xbox and PlayStation2 rolled into one tire-squealin’, torque-steerin’, red-linin’ whole ball of fast ’n furious fun. It’s the kind of car that should have a sticker on the dash suggesting “Drink Two Red Bulls Before Driving.” Or the name of a good psycho-analyst to council you for the inevitable teenage angst that driving the SS will create.

The long-running impasse regarding the future of MG Rover, Great Britain’s last independent volume automaker, came to an end with the announcement that China’s Nanjing Automobile group acquired the company’s remaining assets for circa $100 million. Rover was officially declared bankrupt last April.

Nanjing’s bid overcame offers from another, much-larger Chinese automaker, Shanghai Automotive (SAIC), plus a British consortium known as Project Kimber.

The new owners’ plan is to assemble most of the new cars in China but keep the brand’s R&D center at Longbridge, England. Nanjing is expected to kill the Rover brand in the European market, sticking just to the more traditional, sporty MG marque.

Platinum Equity Aquires Major Alloy Wheel Manufacturer

Platinum Equity announced today that it has acquired American Racing Equipment Inc., a leading manufacturer of high performance automotive wheels to aftermarket customers in North America, from Noranda Aluminum Inc.

Based in Southern California with a heritage dating back 50 years, American Racing Equipment is an industry pioneer that employs 1,400 people in manufacturing operations in Los Angeles and in Tijuana, Mexico, as well as in 44 distribution centers across the United States and Canada.
“American Racing has a rich heritage and one of the industry’s premier brand names for high performance, custom automotive wheels,” said Johnny O. Lopez, executive vice president for mergers and acquisitions at Platinum. “We are very pleased with the opportunity to acquire this company and help it grow in the future.”

Glasgow driver Colin Greer recorded his best Mitsubishi Ralliart Evolution Challenge result of the season on round five, the Jim Clark International Rally at the weekend. Colin and co-driver Neil Ewing crossed the finish ramp in second place, although the event did not go as smoothly as they may have hoped.
The Innovation Motorsports backed driver had a steady run through the opening stage of the event to acclimatise himself on only his second event on a tarmac surface. A second fastest Evo Challenge time through stage two displayed great potential, however it was not to last. An engine fault appeared through stage three and the car was mis-firing and down on power for the remainder of the event.

A former Maserati and Ford of Europe boss, Martin Leach, has entered the frame for the bids that could save bankrupt British automaker MG Rover from going into oblivion.

Leach’s idea is to rekindle the deal with the Shanghai Automotive group (SAIC), which was initially thought as Rover’s best bet for survival until the Chinese, largely due to the size of the company’s debts, backed off on the negotiation. Rover’s assembly lines are currently all stopped.