04 05 Vw Touareg Info-gps-tv Screen Thru Vin 060000 189079 on 2040-parts.com

Dakar Rally 2012 Day 2 update

The first major motorsports event of the year, the 2012 Dakar Rally, began its two-week trek across South America on Jan. 1. Four hundred and sixty-five vehicles (171 cars, 185 motorcycles, 33 quads and 76 trucks) with drivers representing 50 nationalities will attempt to cover 9,000 kilometers (more than 5,500 miles) over 14 days throughout Argentina, Chile, and Peru.

Fangio’s 1954 Mercedes W196R F1 car sells for £19.6 million (video)

Fangio’s 1954 Mercedes W196R F1 (pictured) sells for £19 million The Goodwood Festival of Speed is all about cars and performance, but it’s not just cars on the ground and on the hillclimb. Goodwood is a Mecca for wealthy petrolheads as well as those who can only lust after the finest motoring metal – classic and current – so it’s a sensible place to run an auction for high-end cars. And you can’t get much more ‘high-emd- – at least in terms of value – than Juan Manuel Fangio’s 1954 Mercedes W196R Formula One car which went under the hammer yesterday at Bonham’s Goodwood auction, and reached a world record auction price of £19,601,500 (including premium – £17.5m before).

Pioneer App Radio officially unveiled

Pioneer has officially unveiled the App Radio that AutoWeek told you about earlier this month. Now that it's willing to talk, Pioneer claims that the radio and audio system is "the first in-vehicle product designed to utilize the processing power, storage capacity, network connectivity and apps of the iPhone and iPod Touch as the primary source for its information and entertainment capabilities." That does sound a lot like what Mini Connected and, in a more platform-agnostic sense, Ford Sync are doing. Pioneer said it couldn't speak to the similarity of those systems, but Ted Cardenas, director of marketing for Pioneer's car-electronics division, briefed us on installation of the device and what Pioneer is doing to minimize driver distraction.