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News watch July 2012: today's auto industry news

Welcome to CAR Magazine's news aggregator as we round up the daily stories in the auto industry. Top tip: news summaries are added from the top hour-by-hour Tuesday 31 July 2012•Porsche SE recorded a first half profit of €1.15bn, in comparison with €149m for the same period in 2011. The enormous jump has come not from directly selling cars, but from the group's investments in Porsche Zwischenholding GmbH and Volkswagen AG (Porsche SE)•Reuters suggests Germany's car market is in recession, but few outside the industry would know it, thanks to a controversial sales practice that inflates official statistics and paints a flattering picture of demand.

Jag Land Rover factory closure ‘already decided'

Jaguar Land Rover management has already decided which UK factory to close – and the decision will be announced this autumn in 2010. The car making group, which manufactures around 250,000 cars a year, operates out of three UK sites: Castle Bromwich and Solihull near Birmingham, and Halewood near Liverpool. Those sorts of volumes are more normally associated with a single factory or, at a push, two.

Martini Mustang makes more with less weight

The Martini Mustang is based on a supposition. “Suppose Ford executives had a chance business meeting with the owner of Martini Racing,” wondered Steve Strope, founder of Pure Vision Designs in Simi Valley, Calif. “This meeting could have taken place during a European F1 or rally race, perhaps.