A round-up of this week's other motoring news
Volkswagen and Fiat look set to join WRC ranks
FIAT AND Volkswagen are rumoured to be on the verge of joining Citroën and Ford in the World Rally Championship (WRC). Neil Duncanson, chief executive of North One, the London-based television production company that owns the series, said: “I’ve got one or two [car firms] who I think will come in. I don’t want more than four because any more than that and they can’t win.”
At the end of last year WRC lost teams run by Subaru and Suzuki and Duncanson said that this “certainly affected us, but no more than the overall economic scenario”.
Running a top rally team costs a car manufacturer about €14 million annually – about 5 per cent of the investment required for a Formula One campaign. However, according to Duncanson, cost is not the only reason that car companies are considering WRC.
“The manufacturers find themselves in a much better position because we are selling the real cars,” said Duncanson.
The series attracted three new sponsors in 2007 including the Abu Dhabi tourism authority, which is WRC’s official partner.
HYundai's Tucson replacement
HYUNDAI HAS released a teaser illustration of its replacement for the current Tucson SUV. To be badged the ix35, the new mid-range SUV will make its world debut at next month’s Frankfurt motor show.
Appropriately, the new car has been designed at the Korean firm’s European design centre in Russelsheim, which is not far from the show venue.
The Tucson replacement will arrive in Irish showrooms next summer. Engine details will be revealed at the show.
The car has been a very strong seller for Hyundai, sharing top billing in the Irish SUV market in recent years with its larger sibling the Santa Fe. However it has recently lost out to new arrivals like the Ford Kuga.
Elegance abounds for the Mulsanne
BENTLEY USED the high-profile Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance event in California to unveil its replacement for the aged Arnage. The Mulsanne is a completely new car that shares no body parts with any of the firm’s other models, but it is powered by a revised version of the Arnage’s 6.75-litre V8 engine.
Future owners can boast that each car takes over 400 hours to build. Introducing the car at Pebble Beach, Dr Franz-Josef Paefgen, Bentley chairman and chief executive, said: “The challenge we set our engineers was to create a new grand Bentley that would stand as the pinnacle of British luxury motoring.”
The car will make its European debut at the Frankfurt motor show and goes on sale in the middle of 2010.