Ferrari Turns 60

Ferrari found a fun way to celebrate it's 60th birthday. In a ploy to include their owners in the fun, they've started up a road rally of sorts. Starting in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emerites on January 28th, the owners who signed up for this stylish birthday party will drive their cars across the Middle East, across Asia, across Australia, and then lastly, Europe. All carrying a special baton. The finish line is of course in Maranello, Italy where the supercars are built. It all ends on Ferrari's official big day June 21st.

[Source: Auto Express]

Honda Recalls 81,000 Accords

Honda, which is usually synonymous with bulletproof reliability, quality manufacturing, practical designs yada yada yada has just announced a recall on 81,000 Accords. What's even more out of character is the seriousness of this recall. The part in question here is the airbag. Not the airbag itself, but an airbag sensor which could however, cause a lot of trouble. This sensor is responsible for adjusting the power of the airbag deployment based on size and weight of the driver. With this faulty part, smaller or lighter drivers could get injured.
All auto manufacturers have recalls from time to time, but the frequency of recalls is often used as a barometer of a company's build quality. Now we don't want to make too big of a deal over this, but we find more and more recalls amongst the stalwarts of quality like Honda and Toyota, and less instances with notorious cost cutters like Ford and GM. So yes, this is one recall is cause to denounce Honda, as they still have one of the best quality records in the industry. It is however another piece of ammo to those who argue that the quality gab between Detroit and Japan is continuing to close.

New Z9 Spotted

The Z8's days are numbered as BMW puts the finishing touches on the new Z9. These spy shots from Leftlane News show that it's got a longer, sleeker look, and take a look at that fake soft top. The car will more than likely be a convertible hard top. The only question now is will it be available with the M5's V10?

[Source: LeftLane News]

New E-Class Spied.

Not sure you've noticed, but the new C-Class cars have been seen driving around with very little cammo lately, which leads experts to belive that this heavily disguised vehicle is the new E-Class.
The example above was shot in of all places, the Artic Circle. Possibly involved in some cold weather testing? They could have just brought the car to Detroit; it's cold enough.
Although the car is heavily disguised, which is our favorite kind of spy shot, we can decipher a few changes right off the bat. It appears to be wider most noticeable in the spaces between the taillights and plate area. Other areas of interest would be the squarish exhaust shrouds on the rear bumper.

[Source: Autospies.com]

Villeneuve to race this year's Le Mans with Peugeot.

Come this June, Jacques Villeneuve will be Peugeot's poster boy as they try to take Le Mans back from the ever dominate Audi R10s. The 35-year-old Canadian will be beind the help of the company's all new diesel powered 908. He won't be the only ex-F1er there. He'll br racing along side Pedro Lamy and Marc Gene as well.
Before switching it's motorsports budget to building F1 engines in the early 90s, Peugeot dominated the the Le Mans circuit and appears that they're going for it again.
Peugeot’s attempt to knock out Audi will also include a second 908 featuring an all-French crew of big names as well: Sebastien Bourdais, Stephane Sarrazin and Nicolas Minassian.
After losing his ticket with the BMW-Sauber team, word has it that Jacques is needless to say, pretty excited to get back to racing. He's quoted saying, "“As with Indy, Le Mans is a mythical race. It will be a great experience and we should be competitive.”
If he does well at Le Mans this year, it will only add to his pretty amazing career. He'd have a winning record in F1, ChampCar, Lemans, and at his press conference he added that he remains interested in running in NASCAR as well.

Grand Prix replacement spotted in Australia.

We at autozealot apologize for the break in posting, we're based in Detroit and have been without power for a while here, but were back online. Hopefully this spy shot will make up for it. It appears that a replacement for the long in the tooth Grand Prix has been spotted in Australia. Bob Lutz leaked a little info at the NAIAS this week, but says more to come at the Chicago show in February. What we do know about it, we like. First and most importantly, it's a rear drive setup. It will be based on the Holden SS, and will be badged as the Pontiac G8. Other details are the G8 will come with a choice of V6 or V8 engines, including a 6.0-liter 362-hp, 390-lb-ft V8 coupled to a six-speed manual or automatic transmission. Price wise, it's estimated to be in the $25,000 range.
Judging from the spy shots, this re-badged Holden seems to be well on it's way with new Pontiac sheet metal. GM has been really improving it's image lately, but unfortunately the designs seem to be coming more from overseas than from it's Detroit base.

[Source: Autoweek]

Kenwood & Blaupunkt Join Forces for Nav System

Yesterday in Tokyo, both Kenwood and Blaupunkt (owned by Bosch) announced they are forming a partnership to enter into the portable navigation device market, aka PNDs.
This comes at little surprise since both companies are well known for their advanced car audio and multimedia systems. There is now further info on any specific equipment, but they will more than likely have their hands full trying to break into this already competitive market. Companies like Tom Tom and Garmin, already have a strong foothold in this market. Plus they'll be up against OEM suppliers that are hardwired into current car lineups.
Source: [JCN]