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There are plenty of commonalities to be found between astronauts and racing drivers. Both are daredevils by definition (if not by trade), both subject themselves to unfathomable G forces and both face very real risks when strapped into machinery that makes the very best use of advanced propulsion, aerodynamics and composite construction technologies. Yet you don't find much crossover between the two. There was talk of Niki Lauda, himself an experienced pilot, training to go into space with Virgin Galactic (which itself was sister to an F1 team for a while in Richard Branson's empire), but that didn't seem to materialize. Now we're receiving news that Felix Baumgartner will contest the Nürburgring 24 Hours this year.

Felix Whomgartner, you ask? Felix Baumgartner. He's more of a skydiver than an astronaut, but he made history in 2012 when he jumped out of a space capsule and set the record for the highest altitude in a manned balloon, the parachute jump from the highest altitude, and the highest velocity freefall as part of the Red Bull Stratos initiative. In other words, he may as well be an astronaut, because he fell down to the earth's surface from the stratosphere.

For his next challenge, Baumgartner will be climbing into an Audi R8 LMS Ultra in an attempt to tackle the Nürburgring. Having contested a handful of spec races under the VW Group umbrella, he'll undertake several test sessions and practice races before the main event in June, in which he'll alternate behind the wheel with professional racing drivers Frank Biela, Marco Werner and Pierre Kaffer. The initiative is part of the Audi race experience program that allows gentleman racers to team up with seasoned pros to take part in real races. Baumgartner will undoubtedly prove its highest-profile participant.

Tesla has a special history with the state of New Jersey, having delivered the 500th Roadster there in 2009. Fast forward to 2014, though, and the electric vehicle company is having a decidedly less-positive experience in the Garden State. In short, Tesla's ongoing dealer fight has turned sour, and thing are potentially going from bad to worse today.

Tesla says it has been working "constructively" with the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission (NJMVC) and Governor Chris Christie's administration "to defend against the New Jersey Coalition of Automotive Retailers' (NJ CAR) attacks on Tesla's business model and the rights of New Jersey consumers." In other words, the right for Tesla to open its own stores and not use the traditional dealer model. The legislative process on the fate of Proposal PRN 2013-138 (PDF) has been continuing and Tesla says it thought everyone was acting in good faith, but now it's not so sure. In a new official blog post, Tesla says:

Unfortunately, Monday we received news that Governor Christie's administration has gone back on its word to delay a proposed anti-Tesla regulation so that the matter could be handled through a fair process in the Legislature. The Administration has decided to go outside the legislative process by expediting a rule proposal that would completely change the law in New Jersey. This new rule, if adopted, would curtail Tesla's sales operations and jeopardize our existing retail licenses in the state. ... This is an affront to the very concept of a free market.

A meeting on the proposal is scheduled to take place this afternoon, and Tesla is not happy about it. In Ohio last year, Tesla asked for immediate help to stop a similar bill, which ended up working. For a while.

Last year, New Jersey started considering an EV-only tax that would cost EV drivers about $100 a year, but that appears to have been scrapped.

Jay Leno may not be spending his night behind the Tonight Show desk anymore, but he's clearly not done rolling precious metal into his garage, intent on putting it through its paces after a thorough investigation. The latest machine to meet Jay on his home turf is the Nissan IDx Nismo Concept that we first saw at the Tokyo Motor Show late last year.

Leno already has love for the classic Datsun 510, which plays a cameo in the video that you'll see below, and he refers to the IDx as the spiritual successor to that car's ethos – driving fun in an affordable package. Fortunately for us, while the IDx is a showcar first and foremost, it is indeed driveable, and Leno, naturally, takes his turn behind the wheel.

Scroll down to watch the complete video below.

While Porsche's designers can jokingly be accused of being some of the laziest in the industry due to the incremental changes to the 911's iconic design, no such charge can be leveled against the engineers and product planning folks. That's because it seems like each week arrives with news of a new variation of the marque's iconic rear-engined sports car. So, for this week, we've brought you images of what we think is the new 911 GTS Cabriolet, undergoing testing in a thawing winter wonderland.

Now, what is it that gives this 911 away, compared to standard convertible? Well, the big thing is the new offset, center-mounted exhausts. Borrowing a page from the last Volkswagen R32, these exhaust tips are unlike anything we've seen from Porsche. Only the GT3 wears center pipes, and unlike these spy photos, the twin pipes on the track-minded 911 are stacked neatly alongside each other. The other change spotted by our spies is the set of active-aerodynamic flaps in the front bumper, which can automatically channel air toward the brakes for increased cooling, or close off to reduce drag, as needed.

Those exhausts are a pretty big design detail, and so far as we can tell is the only differentiator between the other 911s in this car's posse. Our spies speculate that this could be a 911 Speedster, but point out that both the canvas roof and windshield remain unchanged - the rumored Speedster model would almost certainly feature a different roof assembly along with a steeply raked windshield.

Further confusing things in this case are the presence of 911 Turbo-style fender vents. They can't clearly be made out on the 911 above, but are quite easy to spot on the 911s in the background. Couple that with the two pairs of slats in the rear fascia, which are present on these cars as well as in previous spy shots, and it becomes very, very difficult to figure out what Porsche is up to. GTS, perhaps?

Whatever this car is, we'll be keeping an eye out for more information on it. Until then, what do you think Porsche has planned? Let us know in Comments.

Any hypermiler will tell you that the way you drive your car has a huge impact on how much energy it uses. But these greenfoot drivers haven't had a car that's smart enough to tell them about the inner lives of traffic lights. That's what a prototype system in an Audi A6 Saloon that the German automaker recently tested in Las Vegas can do. Since the car can communicate with local traffic signals and is able to predict when lights will change, the car can help reduce CO2 emissions by up to 15 percent. Further, Audi says that the system could save some 238 million gallons of fuel (900 million liters), if deployed across Germany. We can only imagine what hypermilers could do with this.

We got to drive the Audi Online traffic light information system prototype in January, but we focused more on how the system worked rather than the green aspect. Now that Audi has had a bit more time to crunch the numbers, it has released fuel economy information for the connected car. The key points for the eco-side of things are that the driver is told in the dashboard how fast/slow to go to hit the next green light. This can help prevent unnecessary speeding and or encourage drivers to go a bit faster in order to hit the green, thus preventing idling and wasted time.

The system is too smart to let you idle for long.

Except that Audi Online is too smart to let you idle for long. The Audi connect system can calculate how much longer the light will be red and can access the car's start-stop capabilities and will fire up the engine "five seconds before the green phase." That seems like an awful long time in a world where competitors have figured out ways to restart an engine in 0.35 seconds. We've asked Audi for an explanation on why this buffer is so lengthy, and will let you know what the reasoning is when we hear back.

Despite the trials in the A6, Audi says the Audi Online traffic system could be integrated into any Audi model, "subject to the necessary government legislation." Aside from the Sin City tests, Audi is running trials of the connected car in Verona, Italy and Berlin, Germany. If you'd like to test it out yourself some day, take heart from this line in the press release, available below: "A market launch is currently the subject of intense analysis in the United States."

*UPDATE: Audi's Mark Dahncke told AutoblogGreen that the five second window is meant, "To alert the driver that the light is about to turn green. In other words, get ready to drive."

Just days after we caught the first glimpse of the next-generation Mercedes-Benz C-Class AMG doing cold weather testing, here are some fresh images of its high-performance wagon sibling getting a workout. It has been a while since we've spotted Mercedes testing the C-Class T, but it's clear Affalterbach's version is getting an extra dose of aggressiveness.

Power for the next C63 AMG is expected to come from the same 4.0-liter, twin-turbo V8 with between 450 and 500 horsepower rumored for the sedan. This version is carrying more camouflaging cladding than the four door we saw, but they share a few styling elements, including the larger front air dam, quad exhausts at the rear and lower ride height. It also looks like the wagon has a rear spoiler on the roof.

The same questions hover around the T as the AMG sedan. It isn't known whether the C63 name will carry over to the new model or if the smaller engine will trigger a moniker change. The sedan version doesn't have an official debut date yet, but it's expected by early 2015. The new wagon is an even bigger mystery because the standard version isn't even on sale in Europe yet. Whether it makes it to these shores is also an open question.

You try to do a good thing, but someone always has to come around and say there's a down side. In this case, the good thing is AB 32, also known as California's greenhouse gas emission reduction law, and the potential down side is one that could generate a lot of bad publicity.

First, some background. The idea behind the law was to reverse the climbing trend of emissions in the state, shrinking them down to 1990 levels by 2020. That means, in the end, a "15 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions compared to the 'business-as-usual' scenario in 2020 if we did nothing at all," according to the California Air Resources Board (CARB), which is the force behind the law. AB 32 was passed in 2006 and was signed by then-governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The emission cap for 2013 was set at a level about two percent lower than the emissions that were expected (in 2006) to be in 2012, and AB 32 gets stricter from here. It drops another two percent (roughly) in 2014 and then about three percent every year from 2015 to 2020.

CARB chair Mary Nichols said she doesn't believe the oil companies.

Since there is a cap on overall emissions, the affected industries can trade emissions credits as one way to comply. Or they can conduct cleaner operations. In 2013, the law took effect for electric utilities and large industrial facilities (which have already racked up $1.5 billion in pollution permit fees), and it will kick in next year for "distributors of transportation, natural gas and other fuels." As 2015 approaches, the oil industry is warning that the increased hassle of AB 32 will add at least 12 cents to the cost of a gallon of gas in California. State regulators claim the increase could be anywhere from negligible to over 10 cents a gallon, the AP says. The current average price in the state today is about $3.90. CARB chair Mary Nichols told the AP that she doesn't believe the oil companies when they warn the public about higher gas prices. "It would appear to be some deliberate measure on their part if there were to be a sudden rise in [fuel] prices on January 1," she said.

Dave Clegern, CARB's public information officer, says that the reported cost increases are unlikely. "So far," he told AutoblogGreen, "the costs of compliance with AB 32 programs has held to the basic economic model which indicates a possible impact on fuel prices of three-to-five percent over an eight year period. This is less than the rate of inflation."

An overview of AB 32's cap-and-trade provision is available here in PDF and a general state government page on the law is here. You can read more about a proposed alternative (a flat carbon tax) for the gas producers here. Clegern also dismissed the flat tax proposal because, "ARB's mandate under AB 32 is to design programs which reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The emissions cap in the cap-and-trade program ensures verifiable emission reductions each year. The carbon tax discussed in the [AP] article cannot ensure any emissions reduction."

With the introduction of the F-Type coupe and convertible, Jaguar has cleared room in its sports car lineup to drop the XK for new models. "There will be a 2015 model year XK, but the rumors are true, production for the XK will end later this year after eight years," said Wayne York Kung, Jaguar USA National Product Communications Manager, in an email to Autoblog. A replacement for the GT might be a very long way off.

The automaker told Auto Express that it's part of a "wider strategic vision and product planning cycle." Ending assembly will allow the feline luxury brand to build better-selling vehicles like the XE, its upcoming BMW 3 Series fighter. The new sedan is scheduled to go on sale in Europe in 2015 and in the US in 2016. It also needs to make room for the C-X17 crossover to be built, which is likely expected to sell better than a 2+2 GT car.

"There are no immediate plans to replace the XK," said Kung in his email. Jag was rumored to be considering moving a future generation of it upmarket. The new model would have been a bigger, softer grand tourer and allow the F-Type to be the brand's more hardcore sports car.

NASCAR driver Tony Stewart is making good use of his nickname Smoke in new videos inspired by the 1970s classic Smokey and the Bandit. The original is one of the quintessential automotive movies of its era with a fantastic combination of slapstick comedy and great car stunts in a Pontiac Firebird Trans Am. If you've never seen it, check it out immediately.

In the new six-part Smoke IS the Bandit web series, Stewart takes on the role of Burt Reynolds' famous character complete with huge mustache. But instead of trying to smuggle cases of Coors beer it's Mobil 1 oil. The series promises to recreate many of the famous scenes from the movie and includes cameos from other NASCAR drivers.

To complete the look, future videos just need a quality replacement for a young Sally Field to ride shotgun. It would also be really cool if Reynolds could make a brief appearance at some point. Scroll down to check out the trailer and the first episode in the series.

Even more than in years past, this month's Geneva Motor Show press days were absolutely teeming with lust-worthy hot hatches. There was the new Seat Leon Cupra, the Honda Civic Type R concept, Volkswagen Scirocco R and Golf GTE, Audi S1 and Abarth 695 Biposto. But one of the most enticing of them all was the Opel Astra OPC Extreme.

Effectively a roadgoing version of the Astra OPC Cup racer, the Extreme is a track car for the road that packs a 2.0-liter turbo four tuned up to 300 horsepower and little else – and by that we mean it's been all stripped out and geared up for hardcore performance.

We have to admit that we were a little bummed when General Motors stated that the Astra OPC Extreme was just for show at the moment. But word coming in from Autocar suggests that, based on positive public reception at the Swiss show, it has already been approved for production.

Production will reportedly be limited to between 50 and 300 examples, depending on demand. That apparently includes a right-hand-drive Vauxhall Astra VXR Extreme for the UK market. All we need now is for GM to bring it across the Atlantic to sell in US showrooms.

Toyota has announced a small recall of its redesigned, 2014 Highlander over issues with one of its seat belts. The affected vehicles, which were built from November 20, 2013 to January 18, 2014, could have a seatbelt assembly in the middle seat of the third row that wasn't properly secured to a floor anchorage at the factory.

In total, 7,067 of the new Highlanders are included in the recall, which was discovered not after a crash, but during a post-build inspection at the factory. It's unclear if there have been any injuries as a result of the faulty seat belts.

Toyota is set to inform owners of the affected vehicles as well as dealers with the recalled Highlander models in their inventory. Naturally, repairs will be performed free of charge. For the full bulletin form the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, scroll down.

What do the Dodge Dart, Ford Focus, Honda Civic, Mazda3, Subaru Impreza, Toyota Corolla and Volkswagen Jetta all have in common? Well, actually, lots. They are all four-door sedans that fall into the so-called C-segment, and they are all trending downward in sales. This data comes courtesy of Wards Auto, and, while not all such vehicles are down – the Hyunai Elantra has been trending upward – the deficit reportedly rings in at six-percent overall for the segment.

Where are all those compact sedan buyers going? To compact SUVs, at least in part. Wards cites data showing that sales of small SUVs and crossovers are up big over the last several months. Vehicles like the Honda CR-V, Toyota RAV4 and Mazda CX-5 are all showing sales increases as buyers shift from sedans to utility vehicles, says Wards.

Still, it's way too early for automakers to give up on C-segment sedans. Though down, sales of popular models like the Civic and Corolla are good enough to put them well into the top 10 sales chart (in ninth and sixth place, respectively).

We last told you about the open-source racing game Project CARS at the end of December, calling it the Mona Lisa of racing games. That post, which included some beautiful screencaps as well as a video showing the game in action, presented a wide breadth of cars and tracks in stunning detail. Now, we have another trailer, and if anything, the game looks even better.

Available in ultra-high-def 1440p, this new trailer looks particularly stunning when the courses are wet. As with the last trailer, the sheer variety of cars and tracks is seriously impressive, even without the damage and weather effects. According to the video game fanatics at Kotaku, Project CARS is still under development. If that's really the case, we can't wait to see what the finished product looks like.

If there's one qualm we have, it's that this new title from Slightly Mad Studios still doesn't have a release date. All we know is that it will be available on Steam, Microsoft's Xbox One, the Sony Playstation 4, Nintendo Wii U and Oculus Rift later this year. Take a look below for the full trailer.

Chrysler has announced that it is recalling over 25,000 Jeep Grand Cherokee and Dodge Durango SUVs from several markets over concerns about brake feel under hard braking. The affected models are from the 2012 and 2013 model years, although the actual dates of production aren't available. 18,700 are in the US, while 825 are in Canada, 530 are in Mexico and a further 5,200 outside of North America.

According to a statement, Chrysler was informed of the issue by a component supplier for the Ready Alert Braking system, which primes the brakes in anticipation of an emergency stop. A component in the system was restricting the flow of brake fluid too much.

As Chrysler is quick to point out, the way the brakes functioned was in compliance with regulations and there are no reported cases of drivers losing braking power. Instead, the issue rests with what Chrysler calls a pedal feel that "was not consistent with customer expectations." So it would seem Chrysler is being proactive and fixing a problem not because there's a legal issue at work, but simply because it doesn't feel the way the manufacturer wants it to. Well done.

Customers will begin receiving notifications soon, and will need to report in for a complimentary software reflash, which should sort the issue out. Scroll down for the official press release from Chrysler.