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Lotus CEO fired - Dany Bahar won't return to Lotus

Lotus chief executive officer Dany Bahar was tonight ousted from his job as the boss of Group Lotus. The Nofolk sports car maker's new Malaysian owners, DRB-Hicom, issued a terse statement confirming Bahar's departure. As CAR earlier reported, Bahar had been suspended following an investigation into his expenses.

Elemental RP1 track-focused sports car revealed

The Elemental RP1 revealed ahead of Goodwood FoS At the beginning of the month we ran a tease from a new start-up car maker teasing their track-focused sports car – the Elemental RP1 – and now, ahead of its debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed this week, Elemental have done the full reveal of the RP1. Due to be ready to sell by this time next year, Elemental bravely proclaim the RP1 as previewing a new generation of world class British sports cars, and the spec does at least offer more than a hollow promise, fingers crossed and lots of hype. Based on a lightweight carbon and aluminium tub wrapped in body panels to fully enclose the underpinnings, has double wishbone suspension with inboard Eibach springs and Nitron dampers, 4-pot Caparo calipers and 17″ alloys.

Crunch watch Mar 09: the auto industry in crisis

By Ben Pulman and Tim Pollard Motor Industry 31 March 2009 13:48 Tuesday 31 March 2009• Porsche said that its earnings before tax rose to €7.3 billion in the six months to the end of January – including a €6.8bn windfall from its VW share options (Financial Times)• Fritz Henderson, GM's president and chief operating officer, will step up to replace Rick Wagoner, who was ousted on Sunday as CEO of General Motors (Financial Times)• President Obama is essentially CEO-in-chief of GM – despite not owning a single cent of stock, says Detroit News commentator (Detroit News)• German chancellor Angela Merkel gives assurances that any would-be investors in GM's European arm will be given state support. Opel is asking for €3.3 billion in aid – and up to 25,000 jobs in Germany depend on it, with up to 300,000 jobs across Europe including Saab and Vauxhall (BBC News)Monday 30 March 2009• General Motors' chief executive Rick Wagoner has been ordered to resign by US president Barack Obama with immediate effect. It's part of Obama's administration's critique of GM and Chrysler's turnaround plans – he's understood to be unhappy with the plans submitted (BBC News)• New GM non-executive chairman Kent Kresa has admitted that at the company's next general meeting it will have 'a majority of new directors' (General Motors)• Chrysler will receive US government aid for the next 30 days, but the Obama administration has said that if the company cannot secure a tie-up with the Fiat Group within that time period it will not receive any more money from the taxpayers and could go into liquidation.