Garmin 347 Audio Panel 14/28 Volt, P/n 011-00807-00 on 2040-parts.com

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.

BMW set to go front-wheel drive

BMW chairman Norbert Reithofer has confirmed that the German carmaker will introduce a new front-wheel-drive entry-level model positioned and priced below the existing 1-series as part of plans to help increase part sharing and to bolster the potential for production savings between the BMW and Mini brands, thus bringing an end to the era of rear- and four-wheel-drive-only BMW models. Speaking to AutoWeek at the Geneva motor show, Reithofer said internal BMW studies revealed that despite the downturn in the world's economy, there was continued demand for what he described as "premium vehicles" in the small-car class, before officially acknowledging plans that will see BMW produce a rival to the recently unveiled Audi A1 and a new Smart Forfour presently under development at Mercedes-Benz. "We will be extending the BMW and Mini brands into the small-car segment with new models and variants," he said.

CAR readers interview ex-F1 star David Coulthard

By Ben Whitworth (photos by Jacob Ebrey) Motor Industry 22 May 2009 11:21 In a somewhat surreal event, we caught up with David Coulthard at Goodwood circuit this week and put the best of your questions to the former Red Bull racer. Why was it surreal? Well, the Scot was hammering around the circuit in Volkswagen’s Caddy racer – a front-drive turbodiesel van that  completes in the Volkswagewn Racing Cup championships.