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Record Breaker Aiming High With Audi

NOT content with falling out of a balloon from a great height, Austrian extreme athlete Felix Baumgartner is tackling his next big challenge on the famous Nordschleife circuit of the Nurburgring in Germany. Teaming up with Audi, the Austrian will obtain a racing license and become a driver with the Audi race experience team for the grueling Nurburgring 24 Hours in June. He’ll also be swapping his recording-breaking balloon for a race-prepared Audi R8.

Smart car inventor Nicolas Hayek dies

Nicolas Hayek, the engineer and industrialist who founded the Swiss watch company Swatch and brought the world the Smart car, died on June 28 of heart failure at his office in Switzerland. He was 82. Hayek saved the Swiss watch industry from lower-priced Asian competition in the early 1980s by offering colorful, inexpensive Swatch timepieces that he backed with equally colorful marketing.

Ford Ka (2009): more photos and details

By Tim Pollard First Official Pictures 08 September 2008 17:40 Ford has issued more details and photographs of its Ka city car, the Blue Oval's twin of the cutesy Fiat 500. The new Ka will – for the first time – be available as a diesel in the shape of the 74bhp 1.3-litre TDCI model, which can muster a very sensible 67.2mpg on the combined cycle. But don't forget that few 'mini buyers pick diesel in the UK; an oil-burning city car's price premium appears larger and economy gains smaller when compared with bigger cars, making diesel babies like hens' teeth.