Earle stays with Monterey Historics for another year

Maybe the 2010 Historics won't be so different after all. Last week, the day after the Monterey Historics concluded, founder and producer Steve Earle announced that he and his company, General Racing, would no longer be producing that well-loved event. But on Thursday, in an interesting change, Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca announced that Earle will be one of five selection-committee members planning next year's Monterey Historics race.

Lotus announces partnership with Mansory

Group Lotus has announced its new collaboration with Mansory, which will become its official customization studio. The German tuner will be contributing bodywork, trim and special finishes for the Elise, Exige and Evora in yet another controversial strategic decision for the UK company. Lotus confirmed the first fruits of this new partnership will be the unveiling a new model variant at September's Paris motor show, two years after the highly ambitious announcement of five new models of which the first is yet to become reality.

Official: Renault & Caterham to build Alpine sports cars

Renault has confirmed it is to partner with Caterham to build a range of Alpine sports cars in Dieppe from 2015. The partnership between Renault and Caterham is a logical extension of their F1 partnership but now, with the joint venture to produce their own sports cars, goes much deeper than the almost badge-engineering Williams Renaults. A new company - Société des Automobiles Alpine Caterham – will be jointly owned by Caterham and Renault and will develop models in small and large volumes to be marketed as both Renault Alpine and Caterham, and will be built in Renault’s Dieppe factory that currently churns out Renaultsport models for the road and track, and is the historical home of Alpine.