The infamous Gumball Rally is scheduled to start this weekend, and participants have started to gather in the Los Angeles area for the start of the race tomorrow. We caught up with several of the cars in Santa Monica this afternoon, already prepped with their unique liveries and vinyl wraps. The rally will officially start at 1:00pm on Saturday at the Santa Monica pier, so if you are in the Southern California area you can head down to check out all the cars and celebrities. They eight day rally will also be stopping by Las Vegas, Sante Fe, Dallas, New Orleans, and Miami, so check the Gumball web site to see when they will be coming through your city. We’ve put together a small preview gallery from today, but check back for plenty more photos from the start of the rally tomorrow. You can read additional details in the Gumball 3000 press release after the jump….

Read more…

Hennessey Performance 2009 Cadillac CTS-V

As far as we can tell, John Hennessey and his crew have somehow warped time and space to create the 36-hour workday. With all the products the Texas-based tuner is coming out with, there’s no other explanation. So in addition to creating the 705-hp Corvette ZR700, 715-hp GTR700 and a duo of force-fed Camaros, Hennessey has decided to tackle the 2009 Cadillac CTS-V - and in the process created a four-door ZR1.

The team is releasing four complete packages for Caddy’s M5-fighter, ranging from a 610 hp version all the way to a twin-turbocharged 800 hp variant. You can check out each package, including horsepower, torque, mods and performance times, along with corresponding videos, after the jump. And we’ve also got a gallery of the fire-breathing CTS-V below.

In what has to be one of the least surprising developments related to the auto industry, a newly-released survey finds that Americans’ favorable view of Ford Motor Company has increased substantially since it became the sole member of the Detroit Three to abstain from taking federal funds.

Before the Capitol Hill Bailout Bonanza got going in earnest late last year, just 41% of Americans held the Blue Oval in a positive light. Now, after billions of taxpayer dollars have been spent keeping now-bankrupt Chrysler and soon-to-be (in all likelihood) bankrupt General Motors in business, FoMoCo’s positive number has jumped up to 63%, according to a survey conducted by the Aloft Group last week.

However, that’s not to say that those surveyed believe Ford’s out of the woods: a mere 24 percent of the respondents think Ford doesn’t need Uncle Sam to come to the rescue. Still, Ford’s decision to mortgage everything on its own in a bid to stay alive has been a big PR success, and you can bet that Alan Mulally will instruct staffers to burn all the office furniture in Dearborn this winter before he looks to Capitol Hill for a penny in bailout dollars. In Detroit right now, the Scarlet Letter is “B.”

[Source: The Detroit News]

These days, it’s nearly impossible to find a new automobile that doesn’t come equipped with a barrage of airbags to keep the driver and passengers safe in the event of an crash. That’s all well and good, but what about the pedestrians that happen to be in the vehicle’s line of fire?

A team in the U.K., led by Roger Hardy of Cranfield University, has developed a new hood-mounted airbag system that would theoretically improve the safety of pedestrians that come face-to-face with the windshield of your car. When not in use, the U-shaped airbag hides away underneath the car’s hood at the base of the windshield and doesn’t restrict the driver’s view.

Just prior to impact, the airbag would deploy to protect the unfortunate pedestrian from making contact with the car’s windshield or A-pillars. At the same time, the car’s hood would rise to provide added crumple room over the engine compartment. The team believes its system could be put into production within five years without a substantial increase in cost while cutting pedestrian injuries in half.

[Source: Telegraph]

Volkswagen IROC Concept

Mazda has a new leader for its North American design efforts courtesy of Volkswagen and Audi. Derek Jenkins is moving to Irvine, California to head up the studio that created concepts such as the Nagare and Furai as well as the latest 6 and 3 from Mazda. Jenkins had a 15 year tenure in design at the Volkswagen group, including most recently being the Chief of Design for Volkswagen Group North America.

His credits at VW included the Audi A8 and the Volkswagen Iroc concept that eventually became the new Scirocco.

At the Mazda studio Jenkins is charged with migrating the design language seen on recent concepts like the Nagare into production vehicles coming in the next several years. Check the press release after the jump for all the details.

Read more…

One of the many unfortunate casualties of General Motors’ financial apocalypse is the loss of the Kappa platform, the small, rear-wheel drive architecture underpinning the Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky. With both of those brands being discontinued and no plans to migrate any models over to GM’s surviving brands, the slow-selling roadsters will simply disappear within the next year.

Another disappointment to GM fans was the transformation of the Chevy Volt from concept to production form. The sporty, aggressive concept was, to many, a generic interpretation of an otherwise revolutionary design….

Read more…

With Pontiac’s death official, Holden stands to lose around $1 billion annually with the demise of the Pontiac G8. However, Holden doesn’t plan to go quiet into night. The Aussie automaker has drawn up plans to offer the rear-wheel drive Commodore platform to Cadillac and GMC.

Although GM’s CEO, Fritz Henderson, has confirmed that the G8 won’t live on, there’s a chance it could be used by law enforcement in the States, and with Cadillac’s recent attempts to inject more RWD models into the mix (save the Epsilon II-based sub-CTS), the Zeta architecture could be used for a new line of Caddies.

More interestingly, with GMC safe – for now – from sharing a grave with Pontiac (not to mention the inevitable liquidation of Hummer, Saab and Saturn), Holden could make a case for importing the stillborn G8 ST ‘ute to the U.S. as a fuel-efficient alternative to GMC’s otherwise big and thirsty pick-ups. Where there’s a niche, GM normally likes to fill it, and while the case for the Zeta-based Cadillacs could be made — particularly as GM seeks to downsize the platform to aid its survival — the G8 ST’s revival seems far less plausible.

The Chrysler bankruptcy is poised to be one of the biggest of the 21st century. President Obama estimates that the Pentastar “pre-packaged” bankruptcy could last between 30-60 days; a huge job for a business with thousands of employees. One would think the presiding judge would have an impossible job on their hands, but Chrysler has been given one of the most experienced corporate bankruptcy judges of all-time. Judge Arthur Gonzalez of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan once presided over the Enron and WorldCom bankruptcies — at the same time — and also ran the show for the Sunbeam bankruptcy of 2001.

Gonzales’ style has been characterized as “experienced, wise, patient and fair,” attributes that should make Chrysler brass feel slightly more at ease. With the bankruptcy earmarked for a whirlwind 30-60 day completion timetable, Judge Gonzales will need to make huge decisions early and often. With his vast experience, it’s little wonder he was assigned to this high profile case.