While we all wait for Daimler to sell Chrysler and Ford to sell Aston-Martin (can anyone remember a week when two world-famous car companies were on the public auction block at the same time?), let's catch-you-up with other news from the world of cars and auto racing ... There's plenty going on, and a lot of it you need to know to be considered "knowledgeable" at the water cooler ...
SAY IT AIN'T SO! NO SENSIBLY-PRICES BUGATTIS!?
Thomas Bscher has resigned from his leadership post at Bugatti. It all involves Herr Prof. Dr. Martin Winterkorn recently being moved from Audi to Bugatti (also a VW brand). Franz-Josef Paefgen, VW's Brand Manager, take his place. This management shift pretty much puts the final nail in the coffin of any future Bugatti model (Photo - Bugatti Veyron, $1.6 mil a copy), as it appears Paefgen will also be in-charge of that other VW brand, Bentley, and VW sells a bunch o' more o' WO Bentley cars than their ridiculous Bugatti Veyron model (one of which was recently wrecked on a public road in the UK).The VW group, if nothing else, is always good for stories of back-stabbing and back-room politics. That trend, at least, continues...
INDY LEGEND ALL BUT GONE; MOTORCYCLES ARE NEXT ON THE ROAD COURSE. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway, having given-up on their tradition-laden "Month of May" spectacles
surrounding the Indy 500 (Photo - Schumacher at Indy in Ferrari red), is trying to attract a Moto GP race to their august facility. The only way the bikes will run at Indy would be on the existing F1 track with its twists and turns and use of turn three and the track's main straight --- And if this happens (and Indy is probably the only track in North America with the money and facilities and prestige to draw a Moto GP event), then you can almost count on the USGP F1 event running counterclockwise, too...
VW'S BIG OL' TEUTONIC PHAETON COMING TO US --- AGAIN!? More on VW: Their Phaeton might make a return to the US. Hard to believe it will hit this nation running with anything resembling the $70,000-or-so price tag it carried on some iterations. It's a fantastic, fun car --- But VW has a division named Audi to sell cars in this price class. 
CARS WE CAN'T WAIT FOR, UH, I MEAN: TWO CARS WE CAN'T WAIT FOR! Nissan has announced pricing for its Sentra SE-R models. These throwbacks to the first days of the "rice rocket invasion" of the early-'80s promise to be a heck of a ride, and Nissan is making two different SE-Rs available, Sentra SE-R and SE-R Spec V (2007 model seen in photo). Your basic SE-R starts out at $19,400. That includes a 177-horsepower 2.5L four-cylinder engine and Nissan's Xtronic CVTO transmission. SE-R Spec V can be had for only $500 more and boasts a 200-horsepower version of the same motor and a 6-speed manual transmission, bigger brakes and tires and a sportier suspension than the SE-R model.
PORSCHE ENTERS DRIFTING; DOES ANYONE IN STUTTGART KNOW ABOUT THIS? Hankook Tires will debut a drifting Porsche 993 car at the Formula D season-opener as a companion event to the Long Beach Grand Prix on April 7th. The car features a 600-hp motor (with Hankook Ventus R-S2 rubber, see photo). Since Porsche carries so much weight over its rear axle, the rear suspension has been allowed to have been softened so it can "squat" for better traction. It will be driven by Tyler McQuarrie.
HIPPIE-CHICK-LOOKING ACTRESS DRIVING HONDA'S FCX. American Honda has handed the keys to their latest fuel cell-powered car to 17-year-old actress Q'orianka Kilcher (see photo), who was in the 2005 film "The New World." Honda says their zero-emissions Honda FCX is not simply a car of the future, but a real world vehicle on the road today that has met all applicable federal safety standards. A hydrogen-powered vehicle with zero emissions, the Honda FCX represents one of the most important transportation solutions and the ultimate in clean mobility for the 
future, says American Honda.
CLEAN DIESEL: CALL IT TDI, BLUETEC, WHATEVER ... IT IS THE FUTURE. FOR AWHILE, ANYWAY. On its new Touareg, Volkswagen introduces one of the cleanest diesel engines in the world, say the VW PR folks: The BlueTDI with SCR catalytic converter. This converter reduces nitrogen dioxide (NOx) emissions by up to 90 percent. The Volkswagen Touareg BlueTDI meets even California, Massachusetts, New York, Vermont and Maine standard. The Touareg BlueTDI being presented this week in Geneva is one of the first vehicles with a diesel engine that can clear all those state's hurdles, too, says VW. Economical turbo-diesels like the V6 BlueTDI can contribute, more than any other current powertrain technology, toward reducing oil consumption and the generation of climate-impacting greenhouse gases.
We tend to agree. These clean diesels might well be the best mid-range solutions to America's oil consumption.
"OH, NO. LET ME DRIVE FOR YOU." RALF LENDS HIS JET TO TOYOTA F1. In a last minute dash to improve Toyota's so far uncompetitive 2007 racer, the TF107, Ralf Schumacher has reportedly donated the use of his private jet. While the Japanese squad run for two final days at the Jerez circuit this week, the 31-year-old has apparently told team chiefs that they can use his new plane to ferry updated parts from the Cologne factory to their Spanish test location. Toyota's technical boss Pascal Vasselon is quoted as saying by the newspaper Express that 'It is an admirable offer.'
CAN'T WIN FOR LOSING --- SAVING GAS RUINS THE ROADWAYS? America's growing love affair with energy-efficient cars is starting to take a toll on the nation's crumbling highways and roads, says the Detroit News. Requiring fewer fill-ups at the pumps, the vehicles are putting a pinch on the federal Highway Trust Fund -- the major government funding source for highway and mass transit projects. And federal officials say the fund, financed by a federal tax on gasoline, is careening toward a deficit within two years. To be fair, federal officials say, it's not just energy-efficient autos that are sucking the fund dry. There are also higher construction costs, congressional overspending and an aging highway system.
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