This year's Sprint Cup was awarded this past weekend at Homestead, where Jimmie Johnson scored his record fourth consecutive championship with a fifth-place finish behind race winner Denny Hamlin. (Oh yeah, "spoiler alert".) Anyway, on to the interesting part: the oval speedway had some unlikely German visitors for the series finale, leading the motorsport press and the fans to begin asking questions.

The Volkswagen Group's head of motorsports Hans-Joachim Stuck was reportedly among the spectators at Homestead this past weekend, and took a few visible meetings with NASCAR officials. But Stuck was quick to dispel any rumors. Although he kvelled over the purity of the spectacle that NASCAR offers, Stuck said that convincing the bean counters back in Wolfsburg that stock car racing made sense for them would be a tough sell.

If you think it would be an even tougher sell to fans, consider that VW's new plant in Chatanooga, Tennessee, could be only the first step in an increasing American presence for the German automaker, and that Toyota may have already prepared the ground for foreign makes to enter the series.

Meanwhile Stuck did confirm ongoing negotiations over the German auto group's potential participation in the Grand Am sportscar series, also owned by NASCAR's France family. According to Stuck, the Audi/Lamborghini V10 could be a perfect fit for the prototype racers, though they'd have to make it work with the spec ECU. Stuck also revealed that his company was discussing a possible entry into the IndyCar series.

The VW racing chief wasn't the only notable German at Homestead this past weekend, though, as Red Bull flew out its star driver Sebastian Vettel to witness the spectacle as well. After watching the race and chatting with former colleague Juan Pablo Montoya, Vettel said that F1 could stand to learn a lot from NASCAR, and that while he's committed to F1, he'd like to try out a stock car on an oval. This after his professed fascination with rallying as well. It's worth noting that Heikki Kovalainen, now looking for a new drive since leaving McLaren, was also at the race as a guest of Penske Racing, leading to speculation over the Finnish driver's prospects for next season.

[Source: Autosport | Image: Jason Smith/Getty]

If you would have told us ten or twenty years ago that diesel would come to dominate motor racing, we probably would have laughed in your face. But since Audi charted new territory by dominating Le Mans with its R10 TDI, the competition benefits of burning oil is beyond reproach. Not satisfied to let diesel power dominate endurance sportscar racing, however, sister company SEAT picked up the mantle last year in the World Touring Car Championship with the Leon TDI.

As it turns out, running on diesel came to be a liability for SEAT as the WTCC reformatted the rules to reduce diesel's advantage. But the Sociedad Española de Automóviles de Turismo (Spanish Touring Car Company) pulled together, rallied its team and went on to dominate the World Touring Car Championship for the second year in the row, clinching all three of the series titles this past weekend in Macau – China's closest approximation of Monaco and the final round in the championship.

SEAT won the manufacturers' title, outpacing rivals BMW by three small points and outshining Chevrolet (with their new Cruze-based touring car) and Lada. SEAT's main shoe, Gabriele Tarquini, clinched the drivers' title ahead of his teammate (and defending champion) Yvan Muller. As if that wasn't enough, privateer Tom Coronel drove his gasoline-powered Leon to secure the Independents Trophy as well, making it a resounding triple victory for SEAT and its WTCC crew. Details in the press release after the jump and photos in the high-res image gallery below.



[Source: SEAT]

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You wouldn't know it if you weren't a serious film buff or marketing exec, but Propaganda GEM is responsible for a big share of the products you see placed in films. The entertainment marketing agency represents such brands as Audi, Lamborghini, Nokia, Panasonic, Bang & Olufsen and Casio, to name just a few. And it has a new client: the BMW Group.

Following such films as I, Robot and Iron Man, Propaganda has helped Audi significantly increase its profile in Hollywood. But the agency will be terminating its 13-year relationship with Audi (and, we'd expect, Lambo along with them) in order to take on BMW (together with Mini, Rolls-Royce and BMW motorcycles), spearheading a new marketing initiative for the Bavarian automaker.

Having temporarily stolen the James Bond spotlight from Aston Martin and Lotus in the mid-Nineties and launched The Hire film short series in 2001, BMW is no stranger to product placement, but the tie-in with Propaganda promises to take things to the next level. Apparently Munich's marketing budget has increased recently, thanks in large part to the termination of the company's Formula One program this year. BMW's sponsorship of the 2012 Olympic Games in London will only be the tip of the proverbial iceberg, as we can expect to see its products and those of its subsidiaries in more movies, television shows, music videos and video games in the near future. Thanks for the tip, Adam!

[Source: Variety]

Bentley has just supplanted the Jurassic-era Arnage with the new Mulsanne, which in turn will breed replacements for the Brooklands and Azure. A new Continental range is on the way as well. But according to a new report from Automobile Magazine, the crew from Crewe isn't content simply replacing existing models: they want to branch out. And when their heads are already scraping the sky, Bentley is reportedly looking at going downmarket with two new niche models.

Tentatively known as the New Compact Bentley (NCB) project, the luxury automaker hopes to cover new territory in the $110-130,000 range in two forms: a three-door shooting brake and a segment-busting crossover. The latter would be more of a tall wagon than a sport-ute, as Automobile notes that Bentley chief Franz-Josef Paefgen was responsible for the original Audi Allroad but opposed the Q7.

Platform underpinnings for both would reportedly be based loosely on the next-gen Audi A6/A7 flexible architecture and powered by an Audi-based 4.5-liter twin-turbo V8 driving somewhere in the neighborhood of 550 horsepower through all four wheels via an eight-speed automatic transmission. Production would reportedly be pegged around 7500 units annually, but Bentley might find it doesn't have the market all to itself, as Rolls-Royce is said to be working on a Ghost-based crossover of its own known as the "Short High Rugged International Metropolitan Project" – or SHRIMP for short.



[Source: Automobile Magazine]

Questionable past acquisitions aside, you don't get to be as large and successful as BMW without having some business acumen. That assumption, however, is being cast into question as reports out of Germany suggest that the Bavarian automaker may have been duped in its sale of the Sauber F1 racing team.

Peter Sauber's eponymous racing team joined the F1 grid in 1993, and raced for a dozen seasons independently before BMW bought the team in 2005. But earlier this year, the German automaker announced it would withdraw from the sport, leaving Sauber to look for a new investor. A mysterious Swiss finance firm called Qadbak Investments stepped up, and the sale was completed. Having missed the deadline to re-commit for 2010, however, Sauber was replaced by newcomer Lotus, but since Toyota vacated its position, Sauber has been waiting on the FIA to give them the go-ahead. And now we're starting to understand the FIA's hesitance.

According to emerging reports, it appears that Qadbak – which also recently acquired the Notts County football team in England and was supposedly backed by a couple of reclusive, wealthy Middle Eastern families – is little more than a string of shell companies for a convicted British fraudster based in Dubai. Apparently Russell King, the fraudster at the end of the Qadbak paper trail, was trying to tap into the shared F1 revenue streams split between the teams in the series. Having finished sixth in the constructors' championship this season, the Sauber team would be entitled to a considerable slice of the pie.

The revelation raises more questions than it answers, but we're expecting the whole picture to come into focus over the coming weeks, so stay tuned.

[Source: SonntagsZeitung via Axis of Oversteer]

Following earlier speculation, the newly-acquired Mercedes Grand Prix team has confirmed its first driver for the upcoming Formula One season. As expected, Nico Rosberg will be switching places with Rubens Barrichello, the departing Brawn GP driver who moves to Williams for next year.

24-year-old Rosberg is the son of former World Champion Keke Rosberg, but he has earned a reputation all his own. After winning the inaugural GP2 Series title in 2005, Nico became the youngest driver to test an F1 car and was subsequently hired by Williams F1, for whom he's raced for the past four seasons. This year, he placed a respectable seventh in the drivers' championship, but there's no telling what he can accomplish with his new World Champion team.

Although he holds Finnish citizenship, Nico was born in Germany, raised in Monaco and races under a German license. The new Mercedes team is tipped to be pursuing an all-German driver lineup, with eyes locked on departing arch-rival BMW's Nick Heidfeld to join Rosberg behind the wheel, while rumors of Michael Schumacher's return or Kimi Raikkonen's change of heart persist.

Details are the press release after the jump, where the team repeatedly refers to the return of the Silver Arrows, leading us to wonder exactly what banner the new team will fly when it hits the grid next year.

[Source: Mercedes GP | Image: Clive Mason/Getty]

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The French may not be known for their efficiency as much as, say, ze Germans, but according to the latest reports from across the Pond, Peugeot is reportedly looking at merging two weak product lines into one new sedan. The models in question are the 407 and 607, two saloons that may intrigue from this side of the Atlantic but haven't exactly been runaway successes with those who can pick them up at their local dealership. As a result, parent company PSA's new president Philippe Varin has reportedly confirmed that both models will be integrated into one new successor to be called the 508.

The last time Peugeot used the 50X model designation was with the 505 of 1979. Although we have no idea at this point what the new 508 will be like, we're expecting it to be unveiled in concept form at the 2010 Paris Auto Salon before its production introduction at Geneva in 2011.



[Source: Le Blog Auto]

We've learned to take "scoops" from Auto Express with a grain of salt. But Britain's car tabloid says they have it on good authority that Audi is working on an even more extreme successor to the current range-topping R8 supercar.

Dubbed the R10, the heart of the new four-ringed exotic is listed as a twin-turbo 5.0-liter V10 mounted amidship and pumping out 600 horsepower – through all four wheels, natch. The platform is tipped to be shared with sister company Lamborghini's upcoming replacement for the aging Murcielago, crafted from aluminum and supplemented with carbon fiber.

While such a performance beast would encroach on Lamborghini's territory and, from the sound of it, even approach Bugatti's, the Volkswagen empire has proven particularly adept at packing segments with its own products, so anything's possible. AE says prototypes are already lapping the Nurburgring and could be ready for delivery by 2012.

[Source: Auto Express]

We don't condone illegal behavior here at Autoblog. Heaven forbid. But if you are going to break the law, this strikes us as a good way to go about it.

Reports out of Germany indicate that a group of some 100 people in 43 cars descended upon the Hockenheimring (host of the German Grand Prix) in southern Germany this past Saturday night for what we can only describe as the racing equivalent of a flash mob. The group reportedly coordinated over the interwebs, showed up at night after the track was closed and staged an impromptu race around the circuit.

That is, until 50 cops showed up to bust the illegal race. Officials say they'll all be fined – presumably for trespassing, since we don't imagine there's anything illegal about actually, you know, racing on a race track – and that this wasn't the first time this kind of race has been held on the track after hours. Giggity. Thanks to everyone for the tips!

[Source: The Local | Image: Vladimir Rys/Bongarts/Getty]

Fornasari, the independent purveyor of exotic sport-utes, has been in the game since before Porsche came along with the Cayenne, but despite its blend of Italian craftsmanship with American muscle, the three-door body-style of the Fornasari RR450 and RR600 relegated the quirky exotic truck to the fringe. Now Fornasari, has come back with its first proper (or not) five-door SUV.

Dubbed the RR99, the latest from the Creazzo-based automaker is some 25cm longer than its three-door predecessors, but thanks to a lightweight tube frame, it weighs only 1850 kg (just over 4000 lbs), significantly less than competing performance SUVs. This despite the six-liter General Motors V8 sitting up front, which Fornasari says it has optimized for near-50/50 weight distribution, driving 610 horsepower to all four wheels with a 40/60 rear-biased torque split via limited slip differential and six-speed Borg Warner transmission.

Wheels are available up to 23 inches, packing optional Brembo brakes mounted to F1-style triangular suspension. But the most ambitious figures come down to the performance: Fornasari claims its exotic sport-ute can rocket to 62 mph in just 3.8 seconds en route to a 174 mph top end. Those are eyebrow-raising numbers, and if the RR99, with substantially-improved styling over its oddball predecessors (upon which we reported three years ago), can actually come anywhere near those projections, count us among the flabbergasted.


[Source: Fornasari via Italiaspeed]