Renthal 97108sr01187 Rnthl Bar Rc/wind Red on 2040-parts.com

VW to announce Italdesign takeover on Tuesday

Volkswagen will announce Tuesday that it will take a 90 percent stake in Italdesign Giugiaro S.p.A, people familiar with the matter told Automotive News Europe. The Giugiaro family will retain 10 percent in the Italian design house that is famous for styling cars such as the first-generation VW Golf. VW plans to acquire control of Italdesign to help reach its goal of becoming the world's largest automaker by 2018 with sales of 10 million vehicles a year.

New Mercedes SLK 55 AMG (2012) blasts in

The new Mercedes SLK 55 AMG arrives ahead of Frankfurt Just last week we had the first diesel SLK arrive, promising a new era of fun and frugal Mercedes roadster goodness – but with an oil-burner. But now we’ve got the ‘Daddy’ SLK, the new 2012 Mercedes SLK 55 AMG, revealed ahead of its debut at Frankfurt next month. Really, however much we may admire the SLK diesel – and think it a damn fine road for Mercedes to go in our eco-obsessed world – it’s the new SLK 55 that incites real lust.

Nissan backs radical DeltaWing racecar program

Nissan has announced its involvement in a radical new motorsport project, dubbed the DeltaWing, which will race at the Le Mans 24 Hours this summer using Nissan power. The car is the work of Ben Bowlby who originally designed the car as a proposal for the 2012 IndyCar racer, which has since found the attention of Nissan after its rejection by the American race championship. The headlines of the design are that it's half the weight and has half the aerodynamic drag of a conventional racer and is therefore far more efficient.