Former New Zealand open-wheeler star Daniel Gaunt has been named as the Stone Brothers Racing’s second co driver for the Ford factory team’s 2009 enduro campaign.

Gaunt, who is currently contesting the second-string Fujitsu V8 Series for McElrea Racing, completes the SBR driver line-up, joining fellow kiwi John McIntyre in the Irwin Falcon for this year’s Phillip Island 500 and Bathurst 1000 endurance events.

He won’t have to look far for a familiar face in the mainly kiwi team; his room mate on the Gold Coast is SBR regular (and another Shaky Islander) Shane van Gisbergen.Gaunt, a former Australian Drivers’ Champion, got his first taste of V8 Supercars last year when he made his debut for Team Kiwi Racing driving the under-funded ack Falcon in the final two events of the season, at Symmons Plains and Oran Park.The two-time New Zealand Grand Prix Trophy winner is thrilled to be making his Bathurst 1000 debut in SBR’s 2009 endurance squad.“I grew up watching Bathurst so it’s pretty exciting to think that now I am actually going to be competing in it myself and racing against some of my childhood heroes,” said Gaunt, who is 24.“Shane [van Gisbergen] and I spend a lot of time racing each other on the simulator at home, now it’s the real deal and we will actually get to race against one another.SBR co-owner Ross Stone said that Gaunt came to his attention in 2007 when he went to Manfeild in New Zealand to watch van Gisbergen race in the Formula Toyota single seater series. His teammate at the time was Gaunt who went on to win both races. “Since then I have kept a close eye on him.”Gaunt won the Australian Drivers Championship for Formula Holden open wheelers in 2003 before competing in the United States and returning to win the NZ Toyota Racing Series open wheeler title in 2006 and 2007, including taking victory in the 2007 and 2009 New Zealand Grand Prix.He then finished second to Craig Baird in the 2008 NZ Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge.Alex Davison is SBR’s token Aussie driver.

You would expect a 7 Series BMW to have all the niceties that come with motorcars that set you back what many would consider a comfortable year’s salary. Leather spread generously about, enough to create how many pairs of shoes? More sophisticated electronics than in the first moon vehicle that landed four decades ago. Unimpeachable build quality.

Ah, but what if we told you there’s a version of the 7 Series that clips thorough to 100 km/h in 4.7 seconds, quick as an M5? And never loses the assumed stately air.We’ve already had a look at the 4th generation 7-Series in the form of the 750Li with its twin-turbo 4.4-liter V-8. Nice piece, sculpted smoothly along its 5214-mm length, looking quite stately and proud. And its power is impressive…but apparently not enough.BMW first installed a V-12 in a 7 Series in 1987, good for 220 kW and a time to 100 of 7.4 seconds. The good men in Munich have since won Le Mans (1999) with a 12-banger and now update their latest luxury machine with their version of the V-12 also used by Rolls-Royce.> This brings us the 760Li, which swaps out the V-8 for a hand-built 6.0-liter twin-turbo 60-degree V-12. Other important tech bits include direct fuel injection, water-to-air intercooling, VANOS cam adjustment plus those most important of numbers, 400 kW at 5200 and 750 Nm of torque from 1500 to 5000. Another important figure is eight, the number of gears in the automatic transmission. In general cruising the 760Li runs off the battery, which is then topped up via regenerative braking.As the 760Li is a BMW, we’re sure you’re not surprised to read that all this is quite seamless, from the first hum at idle to watching the speedometer needle arch to the car’s limited 241-kph top speed. Just as smooth is the manner in which the 760Li doesn’t so much turn-in at a corner, but assume its way through. No drama. Fuel consumption for the 2280-kg 760Li in a claimed 12.9 L/100km.There’s little hint of this extra umph outside. Light modifications to the kidney grilles, unique 19-in. wheels, the V12 emblem on the side, bits of added chrome and dual-dual exhausts. You can’t see it, of course, but the bonnet, roof and doors are done in aluminum.Added spiffs inside include V12 on the doorsill panels, Nappa leather, Alcantara headliner and burled walnut trim. The back seat is a treat, with electrically adjustable sweats and loads of legroom. Add to the list everything from active steering (in-phase, counter-phase) to Active Roll Stabilization to power window shades to self-leveling suspension to Active Blind Spot Detection. The list goes on underlining the car’s equipment…Pricey for certain, but a kick to get a rig this big to 100 so quickly…hey, want to trolling for M5s?

Dodge this… Gun-hating liberals are fuming at a Missouri car dealership, which hopes to sell an extra 100 GM pick-up trucks this year by giving away an AK-47 assault rifle to every new buyer.

Last year the same white shoe, Max Muller, gave away a handgun and sold 35 extra cars.Now he’s into the heavy metal.While some commentators are outraged that the dealership, Max Motors, is offering an assault weapon as a sales incentive, he is unrepentant.He seems to believe every home should have an AK-47 as a disincentive to intruders.The dealer points out that he’s not actually handing over an AK-47 with the vehicle keys but sends the buyer on his or her way with a voucher redeemable at a local gun store.There the individual is obliged to go through a round of background checks.Which presumably makes it all right…Some patriotic Americans are more peeved that the AK-47 is Russian. M16s would be more appropriate perhaps. Next year: land mines or a rocket launcher.Chat on web forums appears to be running very much in favour of the unusual promotion.“We get a lot of press out of these kinds of promotions,” said Muller.”We sell a lot of cars and we have a lot of fun.”Bad guys in Missouri are right now deciding they won’t be invading any home with a shiny new GM product in the driveway.

It’s a case of out with the new, in with the old at GM, with newly appointed Vice Chairman Bob Lutz returning to the company – and the company’s daily blog, GM FastLane Daily – to refute rumours of a G8 revival.

Lutz himself last week hinted that GM may rebadge the Pontiac G8 as a Chevy Caprice, though even boss Fritz Henderson denied the small talk.But Lutz has made it clear in the GM blog today that there will be no G8 resurrection.“The G8 will not be a Caprice after all”.“I’d mentioned it, and said we were studying it, giving it a serious look, because a car like the G8 was just too good to waste.“We have a tremendous RWD team in Australia that gave us the beloved G8, a team that we will tap into at some point again in the future for its expertise and sheet metal. Just not right now.“I know that we’ll get a lot of complaints from G8 lovers, because I’m one of them. And the product guy in me is complaining as loudly as anyone. But the marketing guy says there’s no case. With budgets being what they are for the time being, the resources must be allocated elsewhere.“In no way, and this is very important, in no way does this mean we are backing away from performance, or backing away from rear-wheel drive. Look no further for proof than the Corvette, the Camaro, the CTS or many other present and future Cadillacs. We have a strong lineup of RWD vehicles already and we will continue to have it.”So despite that last par, Lutz can obviously see what many of us here don’t want to – that a large RWD car is not viable in today’s market.

While the bankruptcy courts have been determining what will happen to the U.S. car business, they have been answering some questions while creating a great many more.

Here are just a few.We know the basic form of the New General Motors as it collects the best assets from the Old General Motors and the remainder is sold off or liquidated. By 2010, it’s The Incredible Shrunken GM, no longer publically owned, brands cut from eight to four, nameplates from 48 to 34, factories from 48 to 34, U.S. employees from 81,000 to 63,500 and dealers from 6099 to 3600.Will the consortium of traditional GM bosses, government overseers and the union (which will own 17.5 percent of the New GM) be able to work in harmony?What will be GM’s true labor cost to build each vehicle, a number that has kept it at a disadvantage against the Japanese, Europeans and Koreans for years?Will U.S. taxpayers just have to write-off the $50 billion loan given GM so it can survive? That’s the conclusion of the well-known newspaper, the Washington Post, and other analysts.What will happen with the cast-off GM and Chrysler dealers?GM shed 1100 dealers while Chrysler dropped 789 franchises, thanks to the bankruptcy laws. This caused a terrible row in the U.S. with stories about dealerships that have been in families for decades being closed, many in small towns. There was one particularly poignant photo of an 85-year-old dealer being told he was dropped, learning by way of a letter read to him by his son, as the older gentleman is too blind to read.This might come across as melodramatic for some, but you have to understand how the dealer system grew in the U.S. How the automobile became part of our society, thanks in part to Henry Ford, who made Model Ts cheap and readily available throughout the land. This system put dealerships by U.S. automakers in small towns all over the country, where they became part of the local community, just as a school or church might be.Now many such dealers are gone because they don’t fit the profile required by an automaker. That doesn’t mean the dealership wasn’t profitable, as many of the financially questionable “stores” had already been shut during the recent financial crunch.So why close those that are left?I asked a friend with one of the automakers and he explained that at the end of the day you can sell more cars through a smaller, profitable dealership body that can provide proper service, local advertising and image than though a larger group.The proof lies with the Japanese, European and Korean automakers that have slowly built their dealership system in the past 50 years rather than as Detroit did over the past (in some cases) 100 years.Some of those now-defunct GM and Chrysler dealers will just lock up and throw away the key. The sight of vacant, lonely-looking dealerships with a huge dark showroom and stripped work bays in the service department is common in many U.S. cities.Some dealerships already had a second or third franchise with import car companies and those automakers will now get the dealer’s full attention. Other dealers might get lucky and take on a new franchise for the first time. Still others will become independent used-car dealerships, selling all types of brands. While this last choice might have seemed like a big step down in the past, given the quality of many of today’s vehicles and their honest value when used, it could work very nicely…especially at a time when consumers are watching their money and it’s more important to get to work than to do it in a brand new car.Regardless of which direction these still-active dealers take, guess they all will become?Competition for GM and Chrysler that will take great delight in every car and truck they sell against their former companies.And what about Chrysler? If Daimler, with all its expertise and technology couldn’t make Chrysler work, can Fiat? But then can Koenigsegg make a go of it with Saab after buying it from GM…another case of the little guy trying to bite off too much, only to choke on it? Why did the names Porsche and Volkswagen just pop up?We keep hearing praise for Fiat’s 500, which apparently will be the only model sold in the U.S. under the Fiat name. According to Automotive News we’ll get four models as of 2011: hatchback, convertible, station wagon and sporty hatchback, with the chance of a small SUV. Nice car, but in the U.S.? While the Mini does sell nicely here, Smarts aren’t exactly flying off the showroom floors and the 500 has only a nano cult following.Hearing hopeful praise for Fiat’s 500 and listening to what our government says about the small, fuel-efficient cars it thinks U.S. consumers should buy leads one to question who’s in charge?Trying to force small cars on the public won’t work, even with recent watered-down “cash for clunkers” legislation aimed at getting older cars off the road. As long as gasoline always seems to settle into the sub-$3-per-gallon range for about six months out of the year, Americans are reluctant to give up big vehicles.And don’t even think about raising gasoline taxes significantly to prompt us into small cars, as that seems to make everyone a little crazy. In a country that has grown up around the automobile for the past 100 years and has a citizenry that thinks of cheap gas as an inalienable right, high gas taxes are political suicide.So, again, how does one get Americans into smaller cars?The shrinking of GM and Chrysler certain leaves a potential hole in the U.S. car business other automakers hope to plug. As we know, the car business is an odd one and not like others, as several executives a Cerberus can attest to after their disaster at Chrysler. And yet we already have a new U.S. auto firm being formed, which leads us to ask, who are these guys?It’s called the V-Vehicle Company and it recently announced it would soon (18-22 months from now) be operating a car factory in Monroe, Louisiana. San Diego, California-based VVC is named for Frank Varasano, who has wrangled some impressive backers, including the well-known Silicon Valley venture firm Kleiner, Perkins, Caulfield & Byers.What will they build? Good question, as they will only say it is a, “…high quality, environmentally friendly and fuel-efficient car for the U.S. market.”The site is a former factory of Guide, the one-time lamp division of GM, in an economically depressed area of this southern state. Louisiana is chipping in with $67 million in start-up funds, with another $12 million for working training. There’s to be another $248 million in capital investment.We know a few of names behind the project. T. Boone Pickens is an outgoing entrepreneur who has transitioned from the oil business to being a proclaimed environmentalist.Tom Mitano, the car’s chief designer, was with Mazda for 19 years and ran its U.S. design efforts and was acting leader of Mazda global design. Mitano’s VVC efforts are only part-time as he also directs industrial design at the Academy of Art College in San Francisco.And Tom Perkins of the investment firm was at one time one of the better-known vintage car collectors in the U.S. and a competitor on both the Italian and U.S. Mille Miglias…though one suspects he never lets his love of cars intrude on his business sense.Guess which companies the firm as invested in early on? Yahoo, Google and America Online.Stay tuned…

Last issue, in a sidebar to the Lambo Gallardo LP560-4 Spyder launched story, a senior Wheels editor (let’s call him ‘Ash’) wrote, “expect Porsche’s direct-injection GT3 to rev even higher”. And, while the 997 facelift 911 GT3 does out-rev the Lambo (eight-five versus eight-three), it doesn’t, in fact, get DI. Apparently, the DI system in much of the rest of the Porsche range can’t fuel the demands of the big-revving GT3.

Clear out your desk, Westerman… So, with that sorted, let’s roll…

First impressions are reassuring. The metallic offbeat rumble at idle is present, as is the instant throttle response.The steering wheel is of a slightly different design, but still clad in Alcantara and thin-rimmed — and, crucially, paddle-free. Thankfully, the GT3 remains exclusively a six-speed manual. The first turns confirm that the GT3’s steering is beautifully weighted, alive with information and perfectly geared.Other than the revised engine, which is cleaner and more efficient despite the increased capacity and output, the main changes for this latest GT3 are in the aerodynamics. The more pronounced front splitter and rear wing give four times the downforce of the first-gen 997 GT3, explaining why this car is only marginally quicker in a straight line despite its increased power. Porsche has also tweaked the suspension (although as before, the GT3 is fully adjustable) with firmer spring rates, reduced ride height and thicker anti-roll bars.You have to be pushing on to notice any real difference, such is the GT3’s reserve of grip, but at higher speeds it does feel more keyed into the road, particularly at the front end. The good news is that the firmer settings haven’t adversely affected the GT3’s surprisingly compliant ride.So Porsche has improved on what many already view as perfection. Stronger, faster and even more precise to drive, yet no less involving, the GT3 remains the performance-car benchmark.

Porsche 911 GT3

Engine 3797cc flat six, dohc, 24v Max Power 320kW @ 7600rpm Max Torque 430Nm @ 6250rpm Transmission 6-speed manual 0-100km/h 4.1 seconds (claimed) Price $279,300 On sale now

West Australian police have impounded a new Ferrari California that was allegedly speeding at 231kmh – more than twice the legal limit – near the wheatbelt town of Toodyay.

The California was valued at about $470,000 and one of only two cars in Australasia. And under the State Government’s anti-hoon laws, the California was seized by police and will be held for seven days.The California, recently launched in Australia, accelerates from zero to 100km/h in less than four seconds.Now here’s the rub…The California was a Ferrari press test car and the driver a well-known motoring journalist, aged 57, and not exactly given to wild behaviour.With the car impounded, there will be some unhappy fellow scribes who are now likely to miss out on their scheduled test drives of the new rocket.The journo faces a charge of reckless driving.

In just its second generation, BMW’s Z4 has evolved from a Porsche Boxster rival into more of a comfortable, sophisticated Mercedes-Benz SLK competitor. But have its new priorities robbed the Z4 of some of its raw charm and ingrained excitement?

The range-topping twin-turbo 3.0-litre six sDrive35i would suggest otherwise, serving up a storming 225kW and 400Nm. Although its weighbridge ticket reads a hefty 1580kg, it hits 100 kays in a claimed 5.1sec, just quicker than the Boxster S. The only real disappointment is the soundtrack, with the turbos muffling the induction and exhaust.Point the Z4 at a sinuous ribbon of blacktop with ‘Sport Plus’ mode dialled up to delay the onset of the stability control, and you’ll discover there’s little in the way of on-the-limit adjustability; you get entirely predictable understeer, followed by the onset of roll steer at the rear when you lift the throttle in constant-radius corners. It’s foolproof, but lacking in excitement.The Z4 sticks with an electro-mechanical steering set-up, which, at 2.7 turns lock to lock isn’t quick, but is reasonably alert off centre. The major problem, however, remains a lack of feel. With the car set in Normal mode, the steering is rather light. Switch into Sport and/or Sport Plus and the weighting increases.The ride is far better resolved. The Z4 trades some of its renowned body control for a touch of added comfort. Roll remains very well contained, but primary ride has improved greatly.The new Z4 won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. But with its distinctive looks, classy cabin, strong performance in sDrive35i guise, refinement and increased luggage capacity, it is certainly going to make life harder for SLK, and even Boxster. The problem is it’s not quite as involving as its $116,900 might have you believe. We await the arrival of the Z4 M with interest.BMW Z4 sDrive35i Engine 2979cc six, dohc, 24v, t/t Max Power 225kW @ 5800rpm Max Torque 400Nm @ 1300-5000rpm Transmission 7-speed automated manual 0-100km/h 5.1sec Price $116,900 On sale Now

Honda’s Insight got off to a roaring start in Japan in the early part of this year, and even topped the sales charts with 10,481 units in April, the first hybrid car ever to go number one in Japan.

Cue champagne, fireworks. But now, just three months later, has the bubble already burst? It sounds far fetched but the latest round of sales figures have caused some to wonder.The launch of the new Toyota Prius has knocked the Insight right off the top. In May, the Honda was down to third place with 8183 units, then for June it went down again to fourth despite a stronger sales haul of 8782 units.The extraordinary situation now is that the Insight has been outsold twice by the Fit (Jazz) in May and June, an in-house sales battle was surely never supposed to happen, especially as the Insight is the leaner, greener, techier machineAs Honda top brass mull that one over, there are rumours in Japan that Honda is already fast-tracking a major update package for the Insight to improve the dynamics and close some of the eco gap on the Prius.

Japan Sales:

April: 1 Insight – 10,481 units 2. Fit (Jazz) – 9443 units 3, Vitz (Yaris) – 6706 unitsMay: 1. Prius – 10,915 units 2. Fit – 8859 units 3. Insight – 8183 unitsJune: 1. Prius – 22,292 units 2. Fit – 13,016 units 3. Vitz – 9092 units 4. Insight – 8782 units

Open to the sun, but surrounded by breeze-blocking walls to prevent long-lens peeping from adjacent buildings, the roof of Mazda’s design headquarters in Hiroshima is a suntrap. The mid-July day in 2008 when Kunihiko Kurisu gives us an exclusive briefing on the design of the new Mazda 3 is a super-humid scorcher. But the chief designer, a compact, whippet-lean weekend road cyclist, never breaks a sweat as he talks about the car he’s worked on the previous four years.

The PowerPoint presentation on the official style objectives for the second-generation 3 is predictable stuff. Even though it had been decided the new Mazda 3 was to be built on essentially the same body structure as the first, it was important to make it better looking. Kurisu uses stock vocabulary; the exterior needed to be more expressive, emotional and dynamic, the interior more stylish, sophisticated, dynamic and sporty. Only once we’re talking about the process of turning these words into metal, plastic and glass do things get interesting… “Centre focus” is his key phrase, and Kurisu is able to show how it applies, both inside and out. “All design elements are looking at the centre, concentrated on the centre,” he says. So the new 3’s exterior lines converge at its centre line, while the interior extends outwards from its centre.The big, five-point front aperture plays a key role in the exterior. Like a downward-pointing arrowhead it anchors the car to the road, at the same time as making it appear wider and lower (even though the changes in key dimensions are not large) and creating a family resemblance to other Mazda models.Kurisu admits there were concerns that customers might dislike the grille’s oversized prominence. Design clinics proved these were unfounded. And any similarities to Peugeot are purely superficial, he says. “In the case of Peugeot’s grille, it’s not a centre-focus grille. The plan view is quite flat.” Kurisu takes a pen and draws two lines to illustrate his point. Then he deftly renders the head-on views of a generic Peugeot grille and the Mazda 3’s. “The radius is quite big in the Peugeot treatment, it looks really quite organic,” he points out. “This is probably the nose of the lion, or something…”The crisp creases and emphatic surface work of Kurisu’s team of designers push the boundaries of what’s possible with stamped sheets of steel. In Mazda’s design process, clay models from the studio are repeatedly digitised and checked for production feasibility. The engineers weren’t always happy with what they saw. “The manufacturability was the issue,” admits Kurisu of his centre focus design theme.“We really had quite heated discussions between engineers and designers,” he says, pointing out the particular creases and hollows that were the subject of these talks. “But they worked so hard to make it happen.”The wheels designed specifically for the new 3 are intended to echo some of the body’s features. Taking up his pen again, Kurisu outlines and then shades a couple of wheel spoke designs. The twisted “tension in transition” design for the 3’s 16- and 17-inch wheels mimics the kick-up element in the car’s sides, he explains.Special attention was also paid to the detail design of the lamp clusters. “Customers are quite sensitive to those, you know,” Kurisu says. The bi-xenon headlamps with arrow-shaped sidelights, for high-grade 3 models, are quite striking. “No new technology, but it looks really new because we did something good there.”The car’s carry-over architecture – the body side apertures, for example, are the same – meant the designers were denied the opportunity to create a roomier, easier to access interior. Yet the interior does look and feel quite fresh.“The [gear] shift location, compared with the current vehicle, we just moved upward so that it’s quite dynamic,” Kurisu says. This welcome change meant particular attention had to be paid to other functions close by, including heater and audio controls. The solution was to curve the top of the centre console away from the front seat occupants, which made the interior feel more spacious.“The interior [colour] co-ordination, we mainly use black colours so that it looks really sporty,” he continues. Frequently used dash knobs are highlighted in silver for easier location. But only the lower part of the centre stack panel is silver-finished because of reflection issues discovered during development. And the centre stack itself was slimmed when testing showed front seat occupants wanted more room to spread their knees.There seems to be only one detail inside the new 3 that Kurisu would like to change. The designer admits he finds the red-glowing markings of the Mazda 3’s major dials hard to read without his glasses. “Personally, I wanted to [use] white colours instead of the red,” he says. Mazda has studies that show this is better for ageing eyes, he adds. “However, in this case we have to show some consistency with other vehicles. That’s how we decided on red colours…”