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Rally Ace Beats Own Isle Of Man Lap Record

SUBARU’S WRX STI has once again broken the four-wheeled lap record around the famous Isle of Man TT circuit, with British rally champion Mark Higgins setting a new record of 19 minutes 26 seconds in a production version of the firm’s newly launched high-performance saloon. Higgins’s lap around the challenging 37.8-mile TT Mountain course saw him post an average speed of 116mph and a top speed of over 160mph. Manxman Higgins completed his timed run under closed road conditions as part of the TT schedule and beat his previous record, set in 2011, when he set a time of 19 minutes 56.7 seconds at the wheel of the previous-generation WRX STI, breaking a record that had stood for 21 years.

Insurance group lists its Top Safety Picks

After increasing its standards for 2011 models, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety says that 66 vehicles--more than double the 2010 total--rate as best in the industry at protecting passengers from front, side, rollover and rear crashes. Only 27 vehicles qualified last year after the group, funded by the insurance industry, required that vehicles pass a roof-strength test to earn a good rating, claiming that stronger roofs would reduce the risk of serious or fatal injury by 50 percent in a rollover accident. The most mentioned carmakers on the 2011 list are Hyundai/Kia and Volkswagen/Audi, both with nine vehicles to get the Top Safety Pick designation.

Japan quake delays redesigned Nissan Titan until 2014 model year

The March earthquake in Japan has forced NIssan to delay the introduction of the revived Titan pickup until the 2014 model year. The quake required a redeployment of engineers to get Nissan production back into operation, says a top Nissan executive. "We will come out a little later now," Andy Palmer, Nissan Motor Co.'s executive vice president for vehicle planning and program management, told Automotive News during the Los Angeles auto show.