To get an idea of just how long Coulthard has been racing, remember that his first race was to fill the late Ayrton Senna's seat at Williams after the famed Brazilian's fatal crash 14 years ago. Since that fateful start, Coulthard has competed in 236 grands prix to date, winning 13 of them, taking pole position 12 times and setting the fastest lap 18 times. DC spent nine seasons with McLaren, and was instrumental in brokering the purchase of the defunct Jaguar team from Ford by Red Bull, with whom he has raced for the past few seasons, scoring the team's first point and first podium. This weekend's British Grand Prix will be David's last home race, having won the event twice in his career.
So what's next for the flying Scotsman? For starters, he will remain as a consultant to Red Bull Racing, pitching in for development driving, much like his contemporaries Schumacher and Hakkinen still do for Ferrari and McLaren respectively. Despite earlier assertions, however, Coulthard says he will remain open-minded about racing in other leagues, and we could very well see him back in the race seat for the Race of Champions at London's Wembley Stadium in December, however it remains to be seen if Coulthard will try his hand at Le Mans, DTM or some other form of motor racing or rallying. Meanwhile, the vacation of his seat at Red Bull leaves the door open for Sebastian Vettel's promotion from the Toro Rosso B-squad, so sit tight for that announcement. In the meantime we wish David all the best of luck for the remainder of his last season and for life after F1. Follow the jump to read David Coulthard's official statement.
Click above for more pics of the Mclaren SLR Speedster.
Following yesterday's revelation that Mercedes and McLaren were preparing to launch a special lightweight version of their SLR supercar, a batch of spy shots plus a spy video have surfaced, giving us a sneak peek at the limited-edition roadster prior to its anticipated unveiling by McLaren-Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton towards the end of the month.
The images – which appear to have been released by the manufacturer itself – confirm our previous report that the roofless supercar will have little in the way of protection from the elements, with an F1-sized wind deflector screen as the only thing between the driver and the wind rushing by at breakneck speeds. Inspired by the original '50's-era 300 SLR, the new speedster will be faster than any previous SLR and be built in a small serial of 75 examples.
Click on the thumbnail images below to view more, and follow the jump for the spy video.
British kids are at least as into cars as American kids, and probably liked the Pixar movie just as much. But Route 66 is far away from old Blimey, as is the Cars-dedicated theme park which Disney is making at its California Adventure location. British parents will soon be able to pacify their octane-snorting Olivers when the British International Motor Show opens its doors in London, where a full Cars attraction will make its UK debut.
The highlight of the attraction will be a display of life-size Cars cast members, based on actual automobiles. Lightning McQueen will be there (based on a '78 Trans Am), along with Sally Carrera ('02 911) and Mack the Truck ('85 Mack Super-Liner), but British lads might relate best to Mater the buck-toothed tow-truck (based on a Chevy dually pick-up). Kids can also try out the special gaming pods and get their faces painted – though we doubt Ramone (voiced by Cheech) will be there to turn out the his custom schemes.
Spend a couple of minutes surfing the net and you'll find all sorts of contests giving away all sorts of prizes. The best of them – ahem, like the Autoblog Relaunch Celebration Sweepstakes we ran a year back – give away a new car. But how about an old car? We mean, like a classic... a classic among classics, even, like the 1957 Ford Thunderbird.
That's exactly what Blaster chemicals – makers of a variety of lubricants and rust inhibitors – is giving away to mark its 50th anniversary. Residents of the lower 48 can enter the sweepstakes online until the end of July. The grand prize consists of the T-Bird and a trip for two to Cleveland – home of Rock & Roll and our own John Neff – to pick it up at the awards ceremony. They're also giving away five classic pedal cars, five leather jackets and Blaster-branded apparel. Follow the jump to enter.
Many of the biggest teams in Formula One extract enormous budgets from the automakers that own them: BMW, Renault, Toyota, Honda, even Mercedes-Benz, which is part owner of McLaren. Not Ferrari, though. The team, part of the Maranello-based sportscar maker, is owned by the Fiat auto group. However, Fiat does not contribute even one centesimo (er... euro-cent) to the team's budget.
This according to Luca Cordero di Montezemolo. And he should know, being both president of Ferrari and chairman of Fiat (in the mid-'70s, Montezemolo directly headed up the Scuderia before being promoted up the Fiat ladder). The marquis insists that the entirety of the Ferrari F1 team's budget is generated from within Ferrari, through the sales of its road cars (all of which go for six digits) and the team's sponsors, to say nothing of the company's considerable merchandising efforts.
We've said it before, but it warrants repeating: it takes a special kind of crazy to take an epic supercar like a Ferrari or a Lamborghini and tune it like you would a Mustang or even a Porsche. Fortunately, Novitec and EDO are just such a breed of crazy. We've brought you news of the former's modified Ferrari 430 Scuderias and 599 GTBs and the latter's Lamborghini Superleggera, Maserati MC12 and Audi R8 (to name just a few), but never side by side. For that, you may follow the jump and thank those zany Germans for pitting a Novitec Rosso-modified Ferrari 575M Maranello against an EDO Competition-tuned Lamborghini Gallardo. You'll need four and a half minutes to spare, but not fluency in German... "vroom" is international.
The Race of Champions is scheduled to return to its new home at London's Wembley Stadium on December 14th. For those unfamiliar, the annual event pits a host of the best racing drivers in the world against each other on carefully-calibrated equal terms. The event is split between the solo competition and the nations' cup, the latter in which countries send their two best drivers to claim the honors for their homeland.
Last year's event saw DTM champion Mattias Ekstrom defeat Schumacher in the final rounds, after the two (pictured at right) made minced meat out of the rest of the field in a variety of vehicles including the Aston Martin V8 Vantage N24, Ford Focus RS WRC, Fiat Grande Punto S2000 Abarth, an Opel/Vauxhall-based Solution F touring car and a purpose-built sprint car. This year retired seven-time F1 champion Michael Schumacher is set to return, teaming up with rookie driver Sebastian Vettel again for Team Germany. So far only Schumacher and Vettel have confirmed their participation for 2008 – last year Travis Pastrana valiantly held down the fort for Team USA on his own – but more are sure to join as the date approaches. Stay tuned.
We see a lot of rendered speculation on upcoming models, but they're seldom penned by renowned designers. However as Fiat prepares to revive the classic Topolino, Italian magazine Ruoteclassiche commissioned designer Paolo Martin – former of Bertone, Pininfarina and Ghia – to render his interpretation of how the tiny retro runabout could (or should) look.
Martin says he strove to "maintain the original spirit" of the Topolino, "with similar proportions, protruding front end and fenders, a nearly-identical grille, circular headlamps, short rear overhang and spare tire covered and integrated in the rear tailgate." The Topolino will be built at Fiat's newly-acquired Zastava plant in Serbia as a budget city-car, positioned below the 500, and despite Panda/500 underpinnings could get a rear-engine layout for the 0.9-liter two cylinder engine with DSG and start-stop technology.
If you're a Harley-Davidson fan you might be interested in driving...well, riding an actual Harley. But for those who can't (or won't), Ford has been working on a new Harley-Davidson edition of its F-Series Super Duty pickup. While previous versions were based on the smaller, lighter-duty F-150 pickup, these spy shots and accompanying reports indicate that the new version we're looking at is the full-fat, heavy-duty F-450, complete with dually rear axle and quad-cab four-door set-up.
Like the previous set of spy shots that surfaced back in May, these photos of the undisguised test mule show a variety of exterior add-ons, including blue flames extending down the flank of the truck, although the flames are only visible on one side of the spied vehicle, with the Harley badge evident on the other, suggesting these could have been applied to throw us off. (We won't be surprised to see the final version unveiled in either way.) Unique wheels and special lettering along the side of the bed walls also form part of the visual package, while special badging and leather are anticipated to round out the interior. No changes are expected of the 6.4-liter twin-turbo diesel, already capable as it is of towing a couple of hogs on a trailer behind it, but we're expecting a price tag of over $60k for the special-edition truck.
Okay, we'll admit it. Most of us here at Autoblog aren't big NASCAR fans. But we have been intrigued by the recent migration of championship-winning open-wheel racers to the stock car series. Former Indy 500 and Monaco GP winner Juan-Pablo Montoya seems to be making a go of it, while fellow Indy and F1 champ Jacques Villeneuve has all but given up hope of ever making it with the good ol' boys. But how about Dario Franchitti? After winning both the Indy 500 and the IRL title, Franchitti made the move to NASCAR. Unfortunately, however, his skills in open cockpits have yet to translate to closed ones in the same way as they have for his Colombian team-mate, and his sponsorship cash in the top-level Sprint Cup has run dry after Coors Light dropped the No. 40 Dodge.
Team principal Chip Ganassi has had no choice but to shut down Franchitti's ride as a result. Ganassi emphasized that Dario is encouraged to continue in the second-tier Nationwide Series, and after Franchitti finds his speed again we hope to see him rubbin' bumpers and taking names back in the Sprint Cup soon. In the meantime he'll just have to take solace in the arms of his wife Ashley Judd... poor guy.
[Source: AutoWeek, Photo by Todd Warshaw/Getty Images]
Let the leakage begin: Ford Focus RS concept
British Motor Show Preview: Opel Insignia to debut in hatch and sedan forms
Rumormill: Ford reviving Mustang SVO with 300 hp Ecoboost four
Leaked: 2009 BMW 7 Series photos hit the web
Spy Shots: Mitsubishi Lancer Sportback Ralliart sneaks out ahead of Paris show
Track Test: 2008 Roush 427R Trak Pak Mustang
In the Autoblog Garage: 2008 Porsche Cayman S
First Drive: 2009 Chevrolet Traverse
In the Autoblog Garage: 2008 Mazda MX-5 Miata Retractable Hard Top
In The Autoblog Garage: BMW 128i Convertible
