Rallying runs in the DNA of both the Millen family and Nissan. Rod Millen is one of the most successful North American rally drivers of all time, and although brother Steve is best known for his road racing exploits, he, too, has participated in off-road racing. Nissan once sold cars under the Datsun brand, and long before the Subaru WRX and Mitsubishi EVO, the Datsun 510 was one of the stalwarts of rallying. Since Steve Millen’s driving career ended, he has focused his efforts on modifying street cars, particularly Nissans through his company Stillen.

Stillen is now working on a new project that brings all of this heritage together: a rally prepped Nissan GT-R. In this case it’s a road rally, specifically the Targa Newfoundland which will run from Sept. 12-19. Millen’s team is following the usual practices, including chopping weight out of the car, squeezing more power out of the engine, beefing up the brakes and retuning the suspension. Perhaps best of all, Stillen has a blog where curious fans can follow the development and testing process over the next several months.

[Source: Stillen]

The day after Ford and the UAW reached a tentative retiree health care deal (General Motors and Chrysler are still negotiating), the leaders of the Dearborn, Michigan, automaker have announced that they will be taking a 30 percent reduction in salaries over the next two years. A memo, signed by Ford Executive Chairman William Ford Jr. and Chief Executive Alan Mulally, addresses the pay cuts and adds that Ford’s board of directors will also drop their compensation for the same period of time. In addition, performance bonuses for salaried workers and senior executives will also disappear.

As reiterated in the memo, Ford and Mulally are not wavering from their plan to go without government assistance and these recent announcements support that strategy. “We know these are challenging times and we all are affected by the tough actions we are taking… However, these are necessary actions to help us emerge as an even stronger, profitably growing Ford Motor Company for the benefit of us all.” Thanks for the tip Adam!

[Source: WSJ.com | Image: Bill Pugliano/Getty]

It’s the General Motors and Chrysler merger saga, take three. A few months ago, GM said “No can do” to the union, taking off its ring and walking out of church. Now GM’s bondholders may be contemplating a shotgun wedding, forcing The General back to the altar over the debt-equity swap the automaker needs to conclude to have a chance at more government financing.

GM needs to shed $18 billion in unsecured public debt, but the bondholders have so far been complaining about the equity they’re being offered. According to an outside analyst, if bondholders think a merged GM-Chrysler will save the combined company from $6 billion to $8 billion dollars, the bondholder might only agree to the debt-equity swap if GM merges with Chrysler. GM hasn’t shared its exchange plan with the bondholders yet, so the stakeholders could change their minds once they have the information.

Of course, the problems with the merger possibility don’t appear to be any different than they were last time, and while it might seem appealing to “collapse two problems into one,” critics say that one combined problem could be a bigger hassle for the government than the two together. The merged company would still need funding, on top of which it would need billions to simply complete the merger. In short, this deal still doesn’t look like it makes sense. Hat tip to Dan.

[Source: Financial Post]

The mad Wissenschaftlers at Rinspeed have come up with a dual-mode Fiat 500 Abarth that gets you more power and better gas mileage – just not at the same time. Rinspeed started with the 500 Abarth that has a standard 135 horsepower, and they’ve given it a new engine management system that has one mode for the city and one for the highway.

In “Commuting” mode the has use of up to 60 hp, which is forty fewer horses than the bog standard petrol 500, but you’ll be rewarded with almost 59 miles-per-gallon. Press a button on the console to go to “Highway” mode and you get 160 hp, which is the same hp number for the 500 Abarth SS, but it costs you a tad of frugality at 33 mpg. There aren’t many ways we could think of to make the 500 better, but this trick could be one of them.

[Source: Rinspeed]

Now all you need is talent, or if you don’t have any, you can at least teach others to drive as horribly as you do. Hurry to Indianapolis for the Saturday, February 28 auction of Track Attack racing school, and you could pick up some good stuff. There’s seven SCCA spec racers, a fleet of go karts, a Ford Mustang that was a Champ Car pace car, a car transporter, motorhome, tools, lots of racing gear – basically everything but the track. If you can’t make it to Indy, the auction will be webcast, as well. Teaching others how to drive not your thing? There’s the makings of a racing team in there, or enough goodies to seriously boost the equipment in your workshop. It’s a darn shame that the school is closing, but there’s no sense letting any meat on the bones go to waste, right? Thanks to Kurt for the detailed tip.

[Source: njgallivan.com]

The automotive aftermarket has been hit hard in recent years, and the latest casualty of the economic downturn is Crane Cams. According to a report by the Florida News Journal, the 56-year-old manufacturer closed its doors yesterday and laid off the majority of its employees. Any calls to Crane to follow-up on the story have been shuttled off to the company’s voice-mail service, although the Florida e-paper did talk to Dennis Burgess, who declined to comment.

Ronald Dorn, a former employee, said that workers were told to expect lay-offs in the coming weeks, but there was no talk of a full-scale closure.

Crane Cams and Crane Technology Group – purveyors of some of the finest valvetrain components in the U.S. – were founded by Harvey J. Crane in 1953, became an employee-owned entity in 1979 and was sold to Mikronite Technologies in 1985. The company has endured a series of small layoffs in recent years, cutting its workforce down from 220 employees since 2006. Rick Michael, Volusia County economic development director, said that the city was working to keep Crane in the community and was shocked by the company’s closing. Thanks to all who tipped in.

[Source: News-JournalOnline via FordMuscle]

While Tesla has made the biggest splash with its Roadster, a number of other companies have been busily developing their own electric-powered droptops, including Protocar. You may remember Protoscar as the builders of a wacky Porsche 911-based Shooting Brake from a few years back. In any case, the Swiss firm is back, and they’re teasing the public unveiling of their LAMPO concept car ahead of its debut at next week’s Geneva Motor Show.

The LAMPO is an all-wheel-drive electric cabriolet that uses lithium ion power to extract 268 horsepower and 440 Nm (325 pound-feet) of torque from its two electric motors. Protoscar says the LAMPO (”lightning” in Italian) has a 32 kilowatt-hour battery pack that should yield a range of 200+ kilometers (about 125 miles). However, the company seems to be most proud of its “interactive GPS-based ‘range estimator’” as well as its so-called “intelligent charging” capability. At the moment, Protoscar says the LAMPO is configured to draw its power from a photovoltaic plant in Tuscany, with the goal being to have the car as an integral part of a self-sustaining transportation and energy system. Official (if confusingly worded) press release after the jump, high-res gallery of teasers below.

[Source: Protoscar]

Back in January, we showed you an early rendering of the Hennessey HPE700, a car we called the bastard love child of a Camaro SS and Corvette ZR1. Development of the “ZR1 and then some”-powered Camaro is well underway, and John Hennessey of Hennessey Performance Engineering just sent us this video of the HPE700 powertrain being manhandled by the recently retired John Heinricy on a track in Texas. For now, the 705-horsepower LS9 engine tuned by HPE is living in its native home beneath the hood of a yellow ZR1. In the hands of Heinricy, it propels he and the car up to 145 mph on one of the back straights at MSR Houston. The engine sound is sonorous and quite unlike what we’re used to hearing from a Corvette, which means it should sound downright alien in the Camaro. Follow the jump to watch the video and hear what we mean.

[Source: YouTube]

The current Volkswagen Golf (a.k.a. “Rabbit”), which is a 2010 model, hasn’t made it through the front nine, and already the next Golf is being teed up behind it. The new model is planned for 2012, two years earlier than planned, perhaps because VW wants to recast what the Golf represents with a return to frugal-yet-sporty motoring.

If these AutoExpress renderings are at all accurate, the reskin won’t make your jaw drop, as there is little planned for the hatch’s exterior save for a few tweaks. It is the philosophy of the car that takes a new stand, however: the Mk VII is rumored to ride on a smaller platform than the MkVI, borrow parts from the Polo, employ lightweight body panels, and get VW’s Twin Drive plug-in diesel hybrid engines.

The focus on reduced weight will mean more punch from VW’s smaller TDI engines. The Twin Drive, which is three electric motors mated to a 1.5-liter diesel, works on battery power alone at 31 miles-per-hour or below, and doubles the gas mileage of the 2.0-liter TDI. VW is also working on a Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) that ditches the spark plugs in a gas engine to give it the fuel efficiency of a diesel. If VW can bring all of those things together in a couple of years and keep the fun-to-drive factor, the MkVII Golf sounds like a clear winner.

[Source: AutoExpress]

Automaker pays back unpaid customs duties. Many of the parts that make up today’s Saabs are sourced from suppliers and General Motors plants outside of the European Union, and customs officials have halted the shipment of those parts. Without a supply chain, the Trollhättan plant has been forced to stop production.

According to The Local, an English-language Swedish news outlet, Saab’s production manager, Gunnar Brunius, hoped to have the situation resolved by this evening. But the fact the duties haven’t been paid is a sign of the cash flow problems at parent company General Motors. Customs officials haven’t disclosed how much money is owed other than to say the amount is “considerable.”

Earlier this week, Saab filed for the Swedish equivalent of Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. If GM is unwilling or unable to pony up the cash to pay the bills, Saab will have to find another benefactor. The Swedish government already rejected a bailout last week, so Saab’s future is increasingly unclear. Is this the end of the Griffon? Hat tip to Sven.

[Source: The Local | Image: Olivier Morin/Getty]

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