Motor City to Mile High: Chrysler and Mopar sponsor cross-country rally

Chrysler and Mopar are taking fans on an adventure, or a MoVenture, as they call it. The company is hosting a scavenger hunt across America, beginning on July 15. The road rally begins in Detroit and ends in Golden, Colo., at the Mopar Mile High NHRA Nationals, which runs July 22-24.

Hyundai developing new test centre at Nurburgring

Hyundai has revealed they are building a new test centre at the Nurburgring to help develop driving dynamics for their European cars. We already know that Hyundai are going to make 2012 a brand building exercise, with much effort going in to raising the experience and profile of the Hyundai of today. Part of that is entering WRC rallying with the i20 for the sprinkle of performance dust it will cover Hyundai’s product range with and, hopefully, point towards a serious intent to develop more extreme versions of their performance models.

GM shifts gears, will keep Opel

General Motors' board of directors has decided that it will keep the Opel business and restructure it, putting an end to plans to sell the European operations to auto supplier Magna International. GM said it expects the restructuring of Opel to cost $4.42 billion (3 million euros), which it says is lower than the costs associated with outside bids for the company. GM said it will soon present its restructuring plans for Opel to the German government and other governments in Europe.