Tod's driving loafers and Ferraris go together like gin and vermouth, if not because every barchetta-driving playboy on the Amalfi Coast is sporting a pair, then because Ferrari's longtime chairman Luca di Montezemolo also sits on the board of the leathercrafter's company. But now the two companies have teamed up to bridge the divide with a special line of loafers bearing the iconic Cavallino Rampante.

The shoes bear all the hallmarks of Tod's enduring design – comfort, flexibility, style and those little rubber nubs in lieu of actual soles, all the better for gripping the pedals. The Ferrari line upgrades with little prancing horses, insoles patterned after Ferrari seats and – in the case of the Gommino Mascherina Griglia – a badge on the tongue reminiscent of the GTO's grille, replacing the tassels or laces on the Leccetto or Laccetto Tubi GT. They're available in a variety of colors, but will set you back a little more than the horse-emblazoned Puma sneaks available at your local Foot Locker.



[Source: Ferrari]

The history of the British automobile is littered with dozens upon dozens of small, independent cottage-industry automakers. Names like Lotus, Jaguar, Aston Martin, Bentley, Rolls-Royce and Land Rover have stood the test of time. And in recent years companies like Ascari, McLaren Automotive and Ariel have sprung up to join the fold. (Heck, Lee Noble's been responsible for half of them.) But for every new automaker that sets up shop in the UK, there are dozens more that have faded into the night: carmakers like Triumph, Sunbeam, AC, Austin-Healey and TVR. But one is making a comeback.

Founded by Derek Bennett in 1965, Chevron Cars produced more than 60 distinct racing cars over the course of its history. But the Lancaster-based automaker has long since faded into obscurity. The marque now belongs to Westfield Sportscars, purveyors of Lotus 7 continuation cars, which is now preparing to bring back the Chevron with the design you see here.

The new Chevron GR8 is being developed as the spiritual successor to the original G8, a lightweight mid-engine race car built in the late '60s. The new car follows the same formula: a fiberglass body over a steel spaceframe with a 255hp 2.0-liter Cosworth engine mounted right in the middle. That might not sound like a lot of power, but the target curb weight of 1,322 pounds promises to keep the power to weight ratio on the fun side.

Chevron is planning an initial run of 20 examples, each to be sold for £49,500 (about $82k). They'll all be earmarked towards the GR8 Challenge, a new one-make racing series. After that, Chevron plans to turn the GR8 into a track-day special available for public consumption, but does not plan to make a road-going version. Which is a shame, because as many that spring up every so many years, we never get tired of British sportscars.

[Source: Chevron via PistonHeads]

What would BMW be without racing? We could be about to find out if recent developments are any indication. The Bavarian automaker competed in F1, the World Touring Car Championship and various sportscar series, while running its own Formula BMW feeder series that has helped breed such talents as Michael Schumacher, Nico Rosberg and Sebastian Vettel. The automaker announced its withdrawal from Formula One at the end of this year, and reports now indicate that they'll be severely curtailing their participation in the World Touring Car Championship as well.

BMW mounted a concerted comeback effort in the WTCC this year, only to narrowly lose out again to SEAT. Whether the decision is directly related to the upset or not is unclear, but reports out of Europe say that BMW will be reducing the number of its cars in the championship next year from five to two. That means eliminating the national teams system it had in place, consolidating and putting its WTCC-spec 320si in the hands of Team Schnitzer (the erstwhile BMW Team Germany), which gains triple champion Andy Priaulx from BMW Team UK to partner with multiple race winner Augusto Farfus. Two-time CART champion and double amputee Alex Zanardi, who was racing for BMW Team Italy-Spain, is moving to the Superstars Series. (Touring car fans should also note that SEAT's 2008 champion Yvan Muller is moving to Chevrolet to replace the retiring former F1 driver Nicola Larini.)

What remains to be seen is whether BMW will continue cutting its racing activities in other series as well, or if they'll have cut enough expenditures from their F1 and WTCC programs to let its sportscar programs and Formula BMW survive the cutbacks.



[Source: OmniAuto.it]

Ever look for something high and low only to find it hiding in plain sight? That's how we'd sum up the latest announcement from General Motors. The company has announced that the new Buick Regal – based on 2009's European Car of the Year, the Opel Insignia – will enter production at the beginning of 2011 at its assembly plant in Oshawa, Ontario. There it will join the existing assembly line for the Chevrolet Equinox and GMC Terrain crossovers and the Chevy Camaro.

The kicker? General Motors subtly slipped in the announcement that the Camaro Convertible will begin production there as well around the same time. The drop-top pony car was first mooted with the concept unveiled at the 2007 Detroit Auto Show, and GM has been hemming and hawing about its production prospects ever since. Well, apparently they've made up their minds, and told all of us about it in the most understated way they could think of. Follow the jump to read the official press release.



[Source: General Motors]

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As we discovered earlier this month, the 2010 Porsche 911 Turbo is one heck of a fast car. The quickest Porsche has ever produced, in fact. So it would take considerable moxie to try and improve on it. Fortunately, 9ff has such moxie, as demonstrated with the company's new Speed9.

We brought you initial info on the Speedster-inspired tuner car a few days ago, but 9ff has been kind enough to grace us with a few more details on its latest endeavor. Set to be unveiled this coming weekend at the Essen Motor Show – Germany's equivalent of SEMA – the 9ff Speed9 starts with the new 911 Turbo cabrio and updates with a series of performance and body mods to take it to the next level.

Improving on the 997.5's 3.8-liter direct injection twin-turbo boxer six, the 9ff pumps output up from 500 horsepower up to 650 ponies with a simple upgrade to the ECU and new air filter, exhaust and catalytic converter. The result? Try 0-100 km/h (62mph) in 3.3 seconds en route to a top speed of 330 km/h (205 mph) – limited only by the speedster's slick open body-style. But those sleek looks and extra oomph will cost you: 239,000 euros – the equivalent of $360,000 in American greenbacks. That's two-and-a-half times the price of a stock 911 turbo cab, but if cost is no object, the Speed9 could be just your ticket.

Follow the jump for the press release and check out the fresh gallery of full high-resolution images below.



[Source: 9ff]

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Tell us if this sounds familiar: Hybrids will kill the driver-oriented sportscar. It's the line taken by no small share of enthusiasts, and some of them are among us here at Autoblog. But the skeptics were silenced – or temporarily hushed, at least – when Honda took the wraps off of its CR-Z coup concept. After all, anything that could bring back the CRX hatchback with added oomph at no extra cost at the fuel pumps has to sound good to anyone's ears, right? But you didn't think Toyota would let Honda have the fun all to itself now, did you?

It's far from official, but reports out of Japan suggest that Toyota may be working on a reborn hybrid sportscar of its own. The company once known for its sports-coupes recently unveiled the FT-86 concept, and could be set to follow up with a gasoline-electric resurrection of the cult classic MR2. The budget-friendly mid-engine/rear-drive sportscar had a big following who led the legions of the disappointed when the third-generation model was discontinued two years ago. But if the latest reports are to be believed, Mr. Two could be back – in hybrid form.

Details are scarce, but according to Japan's Best Car, we're looking at a two-seat two-door coupe with a gasoline engine mounted amidships behind the cabin, coupled to an electric motor in a more performance-oriented version of the Toyota Synergy Drive popularized by the Prius. Reports suggest it could adopt the MR-S nameplate, which is what the last MR2 was known as in Japan, so there's just as good a chance that it could wear the MR2 nameplate on this side of the Pacific. That's about all we've got for now, but if we all (Toyota included) play our cards just right, Japan's beloved budget mid-engined car could be coming back...with a charge.

[Source: Best Car via CarScoop]

Wednesday evening before the inaugural Abu Dhabi Grand Prix last month, crowds gathered along the Corniche, Abu Dhabi's seafront boulevard. Two police cars sped down the road, swerved to a stop, an officer got out, pulled out his gun and began opening fire at a masked man pulling a checkered flag off a formula racing car. A driver climbed into the cockpit and drove off down the closed-off street to the applause of the gathered crowd as a marching band played on and a helicopter flew overhead. The point? Why, to promote road safety, of course!

The F999 – a formula racer decked out with emergency lights on the rear wing and police livery – is a project of the Abu Dhabi Police, and could very well be the fastest police car the world has ever seen. It's part of a public awareness campaign that sought to capitalize on the fever that swept the gulf emirate leading up to its first F1 race. The F999 is only the most recent in a slew of special police vehicles in the emirate that has recently included a police-spec Nissan GT-R, Chevrolet Camaro and a customer chopper, to name just a few. It's Abu Dhabi's way of getting people excited about road safety, and while it may seem counterintuitive to the rest of us, it's certainly garnered its fair share of attention. Follow the jump to watch video footage of the F999's unveiling and read more in the press release. Thanks for the tip, Ali!

[Source: Abu Dhabi Police]

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Say what you will about the retro design of the new Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG. Some call it a contemporary take on a classic shape, others may deride the lack of originality. But at least it's consistent. Which is a heck of a lot more than we can say for what MEC Design has done to it.

The Berlin-based tuner has been dreaming up how it could butcher the gullwing's lines, and from the looks of things, they've done a bang-up job. First thing you notice is the nose – you could hardly miss it – that apparently attempts to bring the preceding SLR McLaren's F1-inspired treatment back. But MEC hasn't stopped there. The full aero kit includes side skirts with integrated exterior lighting. The rear end fits in a spoiler, chrome tailpipes and a new diffuser. There are comically oversized and blinged-out rims. And they've theoretically fitted a carbon and Alcantara steering wheel.

And that's where the sigh of relief comes in. Thankfully, MEC Design hasn't actually gotten its hands on an actual SLS to perform these mods. And for the sake of everything we hold dear, we hope they never do.



[Source: MEC Design]

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Pushing a performance monster like the Viper ACR around a race track at ten tenths takes some pretty massive cojones. But few tracks require the testicular fortitude of Laguna Seca.

The iconic circuit in Northern California is packed full of decreasing radius corners, off-camber turns, and the indomitable corkscrew. Fortunately, Dodge test driver Chris Winkler was up to the task, and pushed the ACR around dry lagoon to a record-breaking lap time of 1:33.944, edging out its cousin the Devon GTX in the process to claim the fastest road-car lap time around the track.

Now we've got footage that takes us inside the cockpit for the record run, which may seem like old hat to the video game crowd, until you realize this was happening in real life. Follow the jump to check it out.

[Source: Chrysler via YouTube]

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It's been nearly six years since production ended on the Ferrari Enzo. That's longer than we had to wait for the Enzo to arrive after the preceding F50 ended production, but far longer than the gap between the F40 and F50 or between the 288 GTO and the F40. In the interceding years, rival automakers like Lamborghini, Bugatti and even Aston Martin have been glad to present the uber-wealthy with million-dollar supercars, but Ferrari hasn't sat idly by. The exotic automaker from Maranello has been working on plans of its own, speculative details of which have begun to take shape.

According to reports, the project codenamed F70 should hit the streets by 2012. And when it does, expect it to take its cues from the FXX development program and the Millechilli concept car. That means all the latest high-tech race-derived technology packed into a compact frame placing its emphasis on weight reduction.

A carbon fiber body and chassis, along with a stripped-down cockpit will do their part, but don't expect the F70 to go light on the power. Ferrari's new turbo system could be ready for the Enzo replacement, possibly employing electric actuators to spool up the twin turbos to avoid lag. Coupled with direct injection, the V8 should at least match the Enzo's 650 horsepower, but cut down significantly on carbon emissions while rocketing its rich occupants to sixty in three seconds flat and top out around 230 miles per hour. Of course, this is all an educated guess at best, but it looks good so far.

[Source: Auto Express]