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NASCAR's sexy French past

In the post-Jean Girard era, your stereotypical NASCAR fan probably doesn't spend too much time thinking about France. Unless it's Bill France Sr., Bill France Jr., or Jim France, or Brian France, or Amy France. Ok, so NASCAR fans might actually think about Frances fairly often, but probably not the French Republic.

Meet the Kia Soul EV and Niro hybrid concept

Kia revealed three electrified cars at the Chicago Auto Show on Thursday, one concept and two that are headed for production. The Niro hybrid is Kia’s future take on a city car, while the Soul EV and new Optima hybrid will be out later this year. The Soul EV is the company’s main focus at the show, judging by our seven pages of press releases on it.

Hyundai Motorsport Facility opens in Germany

Hyundai’s new Motorsport facility in Germany No one can accuse Hyundai of not taking their return to the FIA World Rally Championship in 2014 seriously. They’re busy preparing an i20 to take on the WRC, starting in Monte Carlo in January 2014, and have now started testing their swift WRC i20 in preparation. They’ve already recruited some impressive names to join their new Hyundai Motorsport GmbH team including Michel Nandan to head up their WRC efforts who has been joined by Frenchmen Bertrand Vallat and Stephane Girad, Alain Penasse, Ernst Kopp and Stefan Henrich.