Piper Tripacer Pacer on 2040-parts.com

Ford Shelby GR-1 concept shown at Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance

 Ford is taking the occasion of the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance to unveil the Ford Shelby GR-1 concept, calling the new sports car a salute to 'performance art'. The GR-1 is a uniquely emotional American sports car design that makes a bold statement about Ford's performance future. "The Ford Shelby Cobra concept was a small step in our plans for the Ford GT supercar architecture and our relationship with Carroll Shelby," says J Mays, Ford Motor Company group vice president of Global Design.

News watch Feb 2010: today's auto industry news

Tuesday 2 February 2010• Spyker has outlined its plans for Saab, which include a new 'all Saab' 9-3 to be launched in 2012. Read the full story here (Saab)• EuroNCAP has named the VW Golf as 'Safest Car of 2009' after ranking all the 33 models it crashed last year (Volkswagen) • Toyota's massive recall to fix fault accelerator pedals could cost the company £1.25bn in lost output and sales (BBC)• Ford will unveil an Edge SUV at next week's Chicago auto show with a turbocharged four-cylinder Ecoboost engine, but the extensive visual mid-life facelift has been made economically possible thanks to Ford's worldwide consolidation of its model ranges (Detroit News) • Toyota has denied that it ignored warnings and acted slowly over reports of unintended acceleration in its vehicles (Detroit News) Monday 1 February 2010• Lotus's vehicle engineering director Roger Becker announced his retirement today. Becker, 64, joined Lotus in 1966, worked alongside Colin Chapman and helped develop every single model since (Group Lotus)• Tata Motors' total sales last month hit 65,478 vehicles – a rise of 77% over January 2009.

Kia opens new Design Center America

Kia Motors has opened its new Design Center America, located adjacent to the new US corporate headquarters in Irvine, California, about 40 miles southeast of Los Angeles. The opening ceremony of the new US 21.8-acre Kia Corporate campus was held on June 24 and was presided by Byung Mo Ahn, group president and CEO of Kia Motors America and Kia Motors Manufacturing Georgia. He was joined at the ceremony by both local and state representatives, as well as members of the media and guests.