As if he has not enough problems on his plate, Akio Toyoda, president of Toyota, will now fly to the US to attend a hearing of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on February 24 titled, “Toyota Gas Pedals: Is the Public At Risk?”. Toyoda, grandson of the brand’s founder, probably did not have much choice as he was formally invited (more like summoned) to America by Chairman Edolphus “Ed” Towns.

In the invite to Toyoda, Towns wrote: “There appears to be growing public confusion regarding which vehicles may be affected and how people should respond. In short, the public is unsure as to what exactly the problem is, whether it is safe to drive their cars, or what they should do about it. To help clarify this situation, I am inviting you to testify.

“You may submit written testimony for the record, of any reasonable length. In addition to your written testimony, you should be prepared to provide a five minute opening statement and answer questions posed by Members of the Committee.”

Sounds like a grilling in store, but Toyoda is not shrking off the responsibility and will “stand in the dock”. “I look forward to speaking directly with Congress and the American people,” the TMC president answered.

American team USF1 was missing at the Jerez test this week and rumors are saying that they are pretty much on the verge of just quitting F1. If this happens, it would hopefully give Serbian team Stefan GP an entry in the grid. They are ready as they bought Toyota’s car and renamed it the Stefan S-01.

There have been plenty of word being exchanged about USF1 – including a rumor that YouTube would be backing out of their sponsorship and moving the money to another team. “The bottom line is really simple: sponsor money didn’t come through the way it was supposed to and it has grinded down the company to a halt. They’re having trouble making payroll, they’re having trouble paying suppliers and that’s the situation they find themselves in,” said an anonymous source in news reports. USF1 Team Principal Ken Anderson admitted with a rather ‘glass half full’ view that “a couple of sponsors have let us down a little but, but we’re on track.”

In fact, yesterday the US F1 Team website went down, and many took it as a signal that the team had finally folded. But the team’s Twitter account posted a message saying “The US F1 Team web server is down and is being repaired as this is written. We are not gone, as many have reported. More news soon.” We’re definitely waiting for more news!

After Fairuz Fauzy clocked in about 334 kilometres on the first day of testing in Jerez, earning himself a Superlicense in the process, the Lotus Cosworth T127 was passed to Heikki Kovalainen for the second day.

Wet conditions greeted the team as they arrived on track. First out at exactly 9am, Heikki completed about 30 laps before a small mistake saw the Finn hit the barriers, bringing the team’s day to an early close, but not before useful data had been accumulated.

“It’s lacking grip, it hasn’t got enough grip. And in the high-speed I think we lose quite a lot of time, partly because of the set-up problems as well. The car is a little bit heavy still and we need to make it lighter, then we can move the balance around and all these things,” Heikki told Autosport, but added that “my initial feeling from the car is good – it fundamentally feels right.”

“Unfortunately a small off and a lack of spare parts curtailed the amount of laps we were able to do today, but fortunately we’ve got spare parts arriving this evening. Up to that point we had got on top of some reliability issues from the previous day and the car was running very smoothly. Although we have lost some track time, the changing conditions made it very difficult, so we haven’t lost too much and we’ll be ready to continue with Heikki in the morning,” Chief Technical Officer Mike Gascoyne clarified.

Popular BMW tuner AC Schnitzer has worked on the BMW X1 and this white result you see here will be paraded at Geneva. This project is not a surprise though; just a matter of when, not if.

Visually, AC’s X1 gets a front spoiler, rear skirt extension and rear roof spoiler, which join forces to “improve downforce and ensure additional ground adhesion”. Other visual tricks include bonnet vents and chromed centre webs. Of course we need some flashy rims, and AC’s new Type VIII 19-inch wheels with double spokes in “BiColor” finish is an evolution of the popular Type VI wheel. The looks are backed by a spring kit and an aluminium strut brace for “the perfect balance between sporting performance and driving comfort”.

There’s some extra go too. The X1 xDrive23d gets a power hike from 204 bhp to 240 bhp, while the 1.8d engine goes from 143 horsepower to 171 bhp and the 2.0d jumps to 210 bhp from 177 bhp.

Inside, the X1 gets a massive dose of AC badges, but interesting details include a rim design for the iDrive controller and gear knobs with the gear position showing on its head. Full gallery after the jump.

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This is the Flextreme GT/E concept car that will be Opel’s showstar at the Geneva show next month. Using the Chevrolet Volt’s extended range electric vehicle (E-REV) technology, the 4.7-metre Flextreme is the first big bodied housing for the E-REV drivetrain.

As a recap, the wheels of E-REV cars are powered by electricity at all times (unlike hybrids). For journeys up to 60 km, energy is supplied by a lithium-ion battery pack. However, unlike regular EVs, E-REV will continue running when the battery is depleted, as a small gasoline engine then acts as a generator to provide current. GM says that this arrangement “eliminates any possibility of range anxiety through fear of being stranded without power”. Charging the Flextreme via a 230V outlet takes less than three hours.

The Flextreme GT/E has a drag co-efficient of just 0.22, which helps it reach a 200 km/h-plus top speed. Weight reduction measures include the use of carbon composite panels, polycarbonate window glazing and aluminum alloy structural components. 370 Nm of torque comes in at 0 rpm to propel the Flextreme to 100 km/h below nine seconds.

More pictures after the jump.

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Tesla Motors, maker of the battery powered Roadster sports car, lost three employees in a plane crash which happened over California’s Silicon Valley. The twin-engine Cessna 310 crashed shortly after taking off in fog from Palo Alto Airport. No injuries were reported on ground, but the accident cut off power supply to companies such as Hewlett-Packard and Facebook.

“We are withholding their identities as we work with the relevant authorities to notify the families. Our thoughts and prayers are with them. Tesla is a small, tightly-knit company, and this is a tragic day for us,” said Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk.

Police said that the plane struck a power tower and one of its wings came off, hitting a residential structure. Electricity was cut across the town, affecting about 28,000 people and forcing two hospitals to rely on emergency systems.

This unfortunate incident aside, things are looking up for the company. Palo Alto will be the future base for Tesla Motors, which is set for an initial public offering and the announcement of the location of its US assembly site. The 500-staff outfit has delivered about 1,000 of its $109,000 Roadsters (0-96 km/h in 3.7 seconds, 200 km/h limited top speed) to buyers, which includes celebrities like George Clooney.

Here’s another one of those Porsche promotional footages of their products – this time it’s the new baseline Porsche Panamera and Porsche Panamera 4, which with their V6 power joins their more powerful Panamera S, Panamera 4S and Panamera Turbo 4S siblings to complete the Panamera range. Or at least for now – I’m expecting at least one hybrid variant, and could we perhaps see a diesel as well, since there is a diesel Cayenne?

This is the Tesla EYE Concept, a concept car which was commissioned by EV carmaker Tesla to a group of IED Turin (L ‘Istituto Europeo di Design of Turin) design students. The project brief was this – a 2+2 sports car that can be used everyday with an affordable price that targets young, cosmopolitan customers.

A total of 11 students of the Masters of Arts in Transportation Design programme at the IED coordinated by Pininfarina senior designer Luca Borgogno and FIAT senior designer Andrea Militello worked on the project, and were supervised by Tesla Motors chief designer Franz von Holzhausen. Pirelli and OZ Racing also helped out wherever needed.

One half of the Cayenne-Touareg ‘twins’ have already been unveiled, but there has already been hints of the new version of the popular Porsche Cayenne being dropped around by Porsche. Look at the promotional image of the new Porsche 911 GT3 R Hybrid shown above – notice there’s an SUV following it? All we can see is the headlamps right now but with a little Photoshop magic…

Tada! We’ll see the all-new Cayenne in full in the Geneva at the end of this month.

Honda has developed a variant of the Honda Wave 110i equipped with a CV-Matic automatic transmission called the Wave 110i AT. Instead of the regular step-through transmission, you get a belt-based CVT so you don’t have to shift through the gears yourself. The normal Wave 110i with PGM-FI costs upwards of 34,000 Thai Baht, but for the Wave 110i AT with the CV-Matic you have to top up and pay a starting upwards of 44,900 Thai Baht.

Volkswagen has finally unwrapped the all new Polo GTi. This high-performance Polo has a supercharged 1.4 liter TSI engine under its hood which is able to crank out 178hp at 6,200 revs and 249Nm of torque from as low as 2,000 revs.

This enables the mini GTi to hit 100 km/h in 6.9 seconds and it will continue till it reaches 225 km/h. That’s actually pretty decent as anything below 8 seconds starts getting fun. Fuel consumption is figured at 47 mpg on a combined cycle.

The engine in paired with the company’s 7-speed dual-clutch transmission, fondly known as DSG. The hot super mini also has an XDS electronic differential system which is part of the standard ESP system. The Polo GTi is treated to new springs and dampers which bring the hatch lower by 15 mm.

Exterior wise it has a honeycomb grille with red strips, a subtle bodykit, new headlights with the option to add LED daytime running lights and a pair of chrome-tipped exhaust pipes at the back. It sits on 17-inch alloy wheels which are also found on the Golf GTi.

Inside you will find a flat-bottomed steering wheel with paddle shifters, aluminium pedals, front sports seats finished in tartan trim, gloss black trim on the centre console as well as a black headliner.

Continue reading to view an image gallery.

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Formula 1 is the pinnacle of motorsport. Its the most expensive and technical of them all. Only few are lucky enough to race in Formula 1 and most of the time these drivers are the crème de la crème, although some circumstances have proved us otherwise. Now what is Formula 1 without a strict license requirement that is the ‘king’ of motor racing licenses? The answer is: Superlicense.

Anyone who wishes to race in Formula 1 needs a Superlicense from the FIA. To qualify for the license one needs a ‘decorated’ experience in motor sport. On top of that one has to cover 300 kilometers with a current Formula 1 car. Following yesterday’s official test session in Jerez, Fairuz Fauzy has qualified for a Superlicense as he clocked in about 334 kilometers.

This means that if Kovalainen or Trulli is unable to race anytime during the season, Fauzy can step in. The test session in Jerez continues later today with Heikki Kovalainen behind the wheel of the Lotus Cosworth T127. Force India’s Paul di Resta also qualified for the license as well.

Today the 2010 Formula 1 circus had its busiest official test session at the Jerez circuit. A total of 12 drivers from 11 teams clocked crucial laps at the Spanish race track. All teams were present except for USF1 and Campos, the only two teams that have yet to launch their 2010 contenders.

Today was also Lotus Racing’s first official test session and the team’s third and reserve driver Fairuz Fauzy was behind the wheel. He completed a total of 76 laps and managed to set a personal best lap time of 1:31.848. That lap time put him in 11th place but he was more than 2 seconds quicker than Virgin Racing’s Timo Glock who set a lap time of 1:34.453.

The fastest driver was Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull who set 1:22.593. The German was quicker than Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa from McLaren and Ferrari respectively while Michael Schumacher from Mercedes GP Petronas completed 111 laps and managed to set 1:23.803 which put him in sixth.

However its very hard to use these lap times as an accurate performance indicator. During such tests sessions, different cars may run on different fuel levels, tires and other settings such as aerodynamics. Teams are still developing their cars hence a more accurate indicator will be the performance during the season-opening race in Bahrain which will happen next month.

At the same time Virgin Racing has been spending a lot of time at the bottom end of the time sheets for the past five test sessions. This may be a sign that Lotus Racing’s ‘rival’ is struggling with its car. Nevertheless lets catch the first race on March 14th and find out!

Bufori has announced that it will present an all new vehicle at the 2010 Geneva Motor Show. Called the MkVI saloon for now, it will be powered by a 6.1 liter engine. Unfortunately we do not have information regarding its power figures at the moment. It took Bufori two years to develop the MkVI which is the brand’s first 4-door vehicle.

Pictured above is an initial sketch released by the company and it points to Bufori’s typical design language: modern day motoring under a vintage-styled skin. It will be made to order and production is scheduled to start in June 2010. Bufori will also reveal the saloon’s official name during the launch.

Bentley has unwrapped the all new Continental Supersports Convertible which joins the coupe variant that was launched last year. The convertible which will make its debut at the Geneva Motor Show is powered by the same 630hp twin-turbo W12 mouth-watering engine (with 800Nm of torque) found in the coupe version making it the most powerful four-seater convertible in the world.

This engine is able to run on petrol, E85 bioethanol or a combination of both. 0 – 100 km/h takes 4.2 seconds while top speed is figured at 325 km/h. It also features reworked suspension, steering and ESP settings, carbon-ceramic brakes as well as sticky Pirelli Ultra High Performance tires, among others. An image gallery can be found after the jump.

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