1968 Pontiac Firebird Armrest (passenger Door) on 2040-parts.com

Lotus lusts after Lutz?

Lotus seem to be pursuing Bob Lutz The Lotus five year plan calls for the track day cars to make way for much more substantial and upmarket cars to become the force at Lotus; a move to become the Aston Martin East Anglia. Probably the first obvious move in this plan was to grab Dany Bahar from Ferrari last year (and Ferrari designer Donato Coco) and now Lotus are casting their net again to snare some big names to drive them forward. Top of the list is almost-octogenarian Bob Lutz who retired from GM – but certainly not from business – last year.

Ford eases V6 Mustang around Bristol track for 1,457 laps

As you may have expected, the team at Ford was able to run a V6-powered 2011 Mustang for at least 1,000 laps on the half-mile Bristol Motor Speedway track on Wednesday before running out of gasoline. In fact, the Mustang lapped Bristol 1,457 times before its 16-gallon fuel tank ran dry. The run was part of a marketing push touting the 31-mpg highway rating for the 2011 Mustang V6 and its six-speed automatic transmission.

Hyundai offers crate V6s and fours at SEMA

Crate engines are usually high-output, high-displacement, domestic motors from Ford, GM and Chrysler. Hyundai said no mas yesterday at SEMA, introducing its plan to offer the Lambda 3.8-liter V6 and Theta 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder as crate engines for sale. The program begins next month.