15 must-sees at the 2014 Goodwood Festival of Speed

There aren't many places in the world where you can get up close to the Audi R18 e-tron Quattro that won this year's 24 Hours of Le Mans, but you can at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. If you’re lucky, you might even get to talk to a team member and take a peek inside the cockpit of these incredibly advanced LMP1 prototype endurance racers. As a bonus, look out for its rivals: the hybrid Toyota TS040 and Porsche 919.

GM's historic Willow Run plant closes

After 68 years of arming the nation and putting America on wheels, the Willow Run manufacturing plant in southeast Michigan closed on Thursday. The 5-million-square-foot powertrain plant, owned by Motors Liquidation Corp., the remnants of the former General Motors Corp., has fallen victim to GM's 2009 bankruptcy and subsequent restructuring. About 300 workers left at the plant will either “retire, transfer to another campus or go on layoff,” said Chris Lee, a spokesman for the reorganized General Motors Co.

Nismo enters a new era

Nissan made Nismo its exclusive performance car and motorsports brand at its new global headquarters in Yokohama, Japan. CEO Carlos Ghosn declared the building open at a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Monday. Even though Nismo has been tuning cars for Nissan for almost 50 years, its first true production car didn't hit the streets until the Nissan Skyline 2000GT.