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Motorcycle sidecars are a fairly rare sight on American roads, sad as it may be. What's rarer is dogs in motorcycle sidecars. Yes, it seems that when we take our four-legged friends on the road, they're tucked safely into their cages or strapped into some convoluted doggy harness. But some intrepid motorcyclists are combining their love of the open road with their love of their dogs, and a pair of independent filmmakers are documenting the whole thing.

Sit Stay Ride: The Story of America's Sidecar Dogs is the project of Eric Ristau and Geneva Liimatta, a husband-and-wife film team that's aiming to travel across the country and document riders that enjoy bringing their canines along for the ride. Using a set of "doggles" (doggy goggles), the dogs ride shotgun in the sidecar. Think of it as this, only with motorcycles.

"Seeing a dog in a sidecar brings a smile to everyone's face," said Liimatta. "Our film explores the relationship between sidecar dogs and their motorcycle-riding humans. The dogs and humans we've met while shooting this project are amazing characters. You'll love them all."

The film is currently running a Kickstarter campaign to raise money for production expenses, find different subjects for the film and help promote animal welfare organizations.

"Many of the dogs featured in this film were adopted from the Humane Society and other incredible organizations," said Ristau. "This is an important message we're trying to send. We want people to adopt dogs and other animals, and also to support agencies that find homes for these pets."

We've included the Kickstarter video from the pair, which details the project, as well as an official press release. Take a look below for both of those things, and then head over to the donation page and chip in.

Porsche was first rumored to be working on a plug-in hybrid (PHEV) version of the Cayenne over a year ago. However, we had never seen it, until now. The new model was caught almost completely undisguised while testing. In another stroke of luck, we got a glimpse of the upcoming facelift for Porsche's SUV (pictured above) as well.

According to the spy shooter, it was windy during the cars' cold weather testing. The cover blew off of the facelifted Cayenne, and there was enough time to snap these pictures before it could be hidden again. The changes are all quite minor but jive with what we saw the last time it was spied. The rear still wears some cladding but is expected to be hiding lights similar to the Macan.

The second gallery shows off the upcoming Cayenne PHEV. It looks nearly identical to the standard model, except for the extra panel on the driver's side of the car that hides the electric port. One image even shows the car plugged in. The new version is expected to use the same supercharged 3.0-liter V6 and 9.4-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack with a combined 416 horsepower and 435 pound-feet of torque from the Panamera S E-Hybrid. We enjoyed the system when we tested it last year. It's rumored to debut on the SUV sometime this year.

It's a good time to be in the luxury car business. In Volkswagen Group's financial report for the 2013 fiscal year, it is revealed that that Porsche enjoyed an operating margin of 18 percent. That means the Stuttgart brand made on average about $23,200 per car sold, according to BusinessWeek. Bentley wasn't far behind, and Audi (which was combined with Lamborghini) posted a 10.1 percent margin. This compares to only around 2.9 percent for the Volkswagen brand.

"Luxury brands are on fire," said Dave Sullivan, an industry analyst at AutoPacific. He said that the average profit margin is between six and eight percent. Brands like Porsche and Bentley have the benefit of competing in rarefied markets. Buyers looking at one their vehicles have fewer models to shop against and don't care as much about price. They can also charge more for options, which further boosts income, according to BusinessWeek.

In a way, we should be more impressed by the continued success from Audi. Its models generally have direct competitors in every segment from the other premium automakers. Plus, their buyers aren't the captains of industry who are shopping for a Bentley. Still, the Four Rings is leading rivals in sales so far this year.

Don't expect premium car sales to begin falling anytime soon. The world economy is slowly improving. "As developing nations develop and people start new businesses there is a growing demand for status," said Sullivan. VW Group isn't stagnating either. It announced plans in the report for 10 new models by the end of next year, including higher-end entries like the Audi A4, Q7, Porsche Macan and plug-in hybrid Cayenne. It clearly knows which vehicles are keeping the lights on.

The FARS analysis didn't take into account fatal accidents where the airbags weren't supposed to deploy.

Earlier today, we reported that the actual death toll attributable to GM's ignition switch problem had crested the 300 mark according to new research, well up from the original reports of 12 to 13 deaths. Now, word is breaking that the US government database that informed the study that the report was based on may have significantly overstated the correlation between the study and the GM recall.

The initial study was conducted by Friedman Research on behalf of the Center for Auto Safety, and used something called the US Fatality Analysis Reporting System. To recap, the study claimed that over a 10-year period, 303 people were killed in Chevrolet Cobalt and Saturn Ion coupes and sedans when their airbags failed to deploy. These undeployed airbags were then linked to GM's ignition switch recall, which as we've explained before, can turn the ignition out of the "run" position and into the "off" or "accessory" position, disabling the airbags in the process.

Now, according to a report from The Detroit News, which cites research from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and the National Study Center for Trauma and EMS at the University of Maryland, the FARS analysis didn't take into account fatal accidents in conditions where the airbags weren't supposed to deploy (which isn't to say crashes and deaths weren't caused by loss of control from the ignition switching off in the GM vehicles). According to the report, this was a significant number of the cases.

There is another potential problem, too. According to that same report, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration uses both FARS and another database on fatalities, called the National Automotive Sampling System/Crashworthiness Data System (NASS/CDS). Where FARS uses what the DetNews calls "not always reliable" police data to record vehicular deaths within 30 days of a crash, NASS/CDS relies on what's known as a probability sample. It collects data on 5,000 crashes each year – including some found in the FARS database – to calculate a probability figure.

According to a 2009 IIHS study, "Among crashes common to both databases, NASS/CDS reported deployments for 45 percent of front occupant deaths for which FARS had coded nondeployments." In plain English, FARS doesn't provide a reliable count airbag deployments.

"The bottom line is at least for the years we looked at it, the coding of airbag deployments isn't always accurate," the study's author, IIHS Senior Vice President for Research Anne McCaratt told The News. "It's frustrating because it seems like police reports would be able to code accurately whether an airbag deploys or not. It's not like trying to figure out if the driver fell asleep."

At this point, it remains unclear how many deaths are attributable to the GM ignition switch flaw. It's possible that the number of total deaths may be far fewer than the 303 claimed by the Friedman Research/CAS study we covered earlier (although it may climb back past that number once deaths across all models are included), though it's likely still higher than the 12 to 13 cases thus far acknowledged by GM. With this latest turn, though, the issue becomes cloudier and cloudier.

The first lights-out of the 2014 Formula One season can be measured in hours, not months. If you've heard anything about pre-season testing you know that even the teams are expecting carnage - Fernando Alonso at Ferrari, who's had a comparatively good pre-season, said "the first priority is to finish." Christian Horner, team principal at Infiniti Red Bull Racing, has said he wouldn't be surprised if Mercedes AMG Petronas driver Lewis Hamilton finishes the first race two laps ahead of the field.

The power units have been the root of the off-season mess, and in case you're not clear on how they work - or don't work, as teams are finding - the Mercedes team has provided a video laying it out. The turbocharged 1.6-liter V6 has to work with two power units, one that collects brake energy and one that collects turbo energy for a battery called the "energy store," all of which is meant to help go a race distance using about 33 percent less fuel than last year. For the teams that actually make it race distance, at least.

You can watch the video below.

Toyota has filed a petition with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration asking for a waiver to avoid recalling about 206,271 2012–2014 Camry, Avalon, Corolla, Sienna, Tundra and Tacoma vehicles, some of its most popular models. The affected vehicles contain seat heaters that might not meet government flammability standards. Toyota says in the waiver that "the chance of fire or flame induced by a malfunctioning seat heater is essentially zero," according to The Detroit News. The automaker notes the part makes up less than one percent of the seat's weight.

Initial reports of the problem arose in late January when Toyota issued a stop-sale order for 2013 and 2014 model year versions of those vehicles. The automaker says that there have no been reports of fires or injuries in the affected cars, and the problem was discovered during testing by the South Korean government, according to The Detroit News.

We've reached out to Toyota for comment on this development and are awaiting a reply. We'll update this post if and when we hear back.

The fight for unionization at Volkswagen's Chattanooga, TN, factory isn't letting up. Yesterday, the National Labor Relations Board decided to allow anti-United Auto Workers employees at the plant the right to defend voting down the measure. Now, a group called the National Right to Work Foundation has filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of five workers against VW and the UAW for allegedly working together to organize.

The group says in a release that it wants "to block further collusion between the company and the United Auto Workers." It alleges that VW forced workers to attend "mandatory pro-union meetings" and prevented managers from opposing. In a rebuttal on its website, the UAW called the claims "baseless" and said its actions were entirely legal.

One possible problem faces the carmaker in regards to the lawsuit. According to the Detroit Free Press, a recent US Court of Appeals ruling found that neutrality agreements like the one the business had with the UAW could be illegal if the company provided "things of value" to the union. The newspaper also claims that VW held a mandatory employee meeting concerning the election, but workers were free to leave during the UAW's presentation.

The union vote was held from February 12-14 and was defeated 712-626. The UAW has filed an appeal with the NLRB citing interference in the vote, and it's hoping for a second ballot. Other workers are hoping to save the works council at the factory.

"We have no comment at this time," said Scott Wilson, head of PR at the Volkswagen Chattanooga factory, to Autoblog.

We are just a few days away from the kickoff of the 2014 Formula One season with the Australian Grand Prix, and among all of the shakeups with cars, engines and drivers, Kamui Kobayashi is back in the sport. This year, the Japanese pilot has found a seat at Caterham after taking a year out of F1 for a stint in in the FIA World Endurance Championship. He's starting off his new role in a video showing company's latest, most powerful creation – the Seven 620 R.

One of the perks of driving for the British team is getting a chance to get behind the wheel of its stripped-down Lotus Seven successors. This little roadster packs a 310-horsepower, 2.0-liter supercharged four-cylinder – enough power that Caterham claims it can reach 60 miles per hour in 2.79 seconds. As this movie shows, you can drive it as much with the throttle in corners as with the steering wheel. Scroll down to watch Kobayashi slide the 620 R around Silverstone and give his impressions on the car.

Infiniti boss Johan de Nysschen "insists" the car be put into production.

Over the past few years, rumors have swirled about an Infiniti-badged, four-door version of the Nissan GT-R. Makes sense to us – Infiniti could certainly use a performance halo, and the seemingly forgotten IPL initiative hasn't exactly bore any interesting fruit. Enter the Q50 Eau Rouge, which recently debuted for a second time at the Geneva Motor Show packed with the 3.8-liter, twin-turbocharged heart of Godzilla itself.

Infiniti first showed the Q50 Eau Rouge at the 2014 Detroit Auto Show in January, where it did not have an engine – literally. Nothing was housed beneath its striking red hood. Naturally, this puzzled us, especially considering Infiniti boss Johan de Nysschen's statement that he "insists" the car be put into production.

But as it turns out, the Q50 Eau Rouge wasn't necessarily destined to be the "Infiniti GT-R" we have been hearing about for so long. In fact, several options were explored before the final decision to use the Nissan supercar's engine was even made. So following the Eau Rouge's second coming in Geneva, we talked to Infiniti's senior communications manger, Kyle Bazemore, who shed some interesting light on what almost was.

One of the support races for the Clipsal 500 V8 Supercar race in Australia was a Nissan showcase in the form of a time attack challenge: at the starting line were the Nissan Leaf Nismo RC, a GT-R and an Altima V8 Supercar. The 80-kilowatt Leaf Nismo RC was given a seven-second head start on the 545-horsepower GT-R and a 26-second lead on the 600-hp Altima V8 Supercar in hopes that it could get around the 3.21-kilometer course first.

Nissan's not afraid to burn the Leaf Nismo RC's rubber at the track, recently letting video series Translogic hit the kerbs, and it's put it up against some competition, having raced a Tesla Roadster - and lost. The odds were a bit better this time, but it wasn't the finish the hosts expected. Now a race commentator, the driver in the GT-R, Neil Crompton, finished on the podium of the Toohey's 1000 race in an R32 GT-R in 1992.

You can watch the hard-fought time attack in the video below. Skip ahead to 3:43 if you just want the action, but Crompton's recap of every driver interview ever is worth a watch at 2:41.

This issue could surpass the 27 Ford Pinto fire deaths and the 271 fatalities blamed on the Ford Explorer/Firestone debacle

The General Motors ignition switch recall appears to be rapidly spiraling out of control. A new report analyzing federal crash data suggests that there weren't only 12 or 13 people killed after their GM vehicle's ignition inadvertently switched off, disabling the airbags. No, the new figure could be 303. And that's just on two of the six recalled models, the Chevrolet Cobalt and Saturn Ion, so the figure could grow.

The review of the crash data was done by Friedman Research Corporation, which looked at airbag failures in GM vehicles between 2003 and 2012 (despite reports of issues back in 2001). According to The New York Times, the review only looked at cases where the airbags failed to deploy – it didn't analyze the actual causes of the crashes.

Still, it's a troubling development, which if proven correct would mean this latest safety issue easily surpasses the 27 deaths attributed to Ford Pinto fires and the estimated 271 fatalities blamed on the Ford Explorer/Firestone tire debacle.

Meanwhile, Automotive News reports on trial lawyers smelling blood in the water. Litigators are looking to line up clients that have been affected by the recall, with one lawyer even saying he was planning to challenge post-bankruptcy GM's immunity to issues that happened before a federal bailout.

"If you are aware of potential exposure to litigation and you don't reveal it, that's fraud," said Bob Hilliard, a Texas-based lawyer representing the families of a pair of Wisconsin teens killed in a Cobalt crash in 2006. "I'm going to go back to that bankruptcy judge and say, 'You have to undo this, the liability of old GM, because it was the new GM's continued coverup after the bankruptcy that allowed people to be hurt or killed.'"

Automotive News spoke to Chip Bowles, a bankruptcy lawyer, about Hilliard's attempt to reopen the case and remove new GM's immunity. Bowles told the site Hilliard would need to prove that old GM willingly deceived US Bankruptcy Judge Robert Gerber.

Actually doing that, though, may prove very difficult, with Bowles adding, "Lots of luck there, friend."

UPDATE: There is concern that the study citing 303 attributable deaths may not represent an accurate calculation, because its findings were reportedly based in part on a database that does not discern between accidents in which the airbags were supposed to deploy and accidents in which they were not. We have a followup story with details on the growing controversy here.

We have already raved about the Porsche 918 Spyder, and all indications suggest we'll be moved to dispense flowery Italian prose about the upcoming Ferrari LaFerrari (even if the name does sound like a skip on a 45-rpm record). In between these two hypercars comes this British mind-boggle better known as the McLaren P1.

As a pure driver's exoticar, the P1 outshines the Porsche in dynamics and nimbleness, while the 918 engineers the miracle of potentially exceptional mileage combined with face-flattening speed that equals the Big Mac. Both cost around $1 million ($845,000 for the 918, $1.15 million for the P1 – at this level, what's a few hundred-thousand dollars among friends?), and both get most normal humans as close to experiencing Formula One for the street without driving something that looks like a single-seat, open-wheel car.

You can imagine my excitement as I was ushered over to Dunsfold Airfield south of London to have my cherished laps in McLaren P1 validation prototype No. 5. I have never experienced good weather here, but I was thankfully blessed with tepid air and brilliant late winter sunshine for this drive. This means that there wasn't the usual standing rainwater on the scrappy Top Gear test track. As I arrived at the McLaren bunker alongside the makeshift circuit, the mellow, flame-yellow P1 I was to drive was already going through motions in a client's hands.

This client and his charming wife were just finishing up several laps of their own, including some absolutely scorching rounds with McLaren chief test pilot Chris Goodwin, as well as with McLaren GT3 driver Duncan Tappy. The couple was as giddy as teenagers when I talked with them, smiling from ear to ear. And they were not from Dubai, not from Moscow, not from Singapore, and not from Beverly Hills. They were from Ohio, so leave your rich people stereotypes at the door.

Toyota is on track for record profits, and in return, its Japanese workers are receiving their first increase in base wages since 2008, plus higher pay based on seniority and a larger bonus for 2014. The Japanese automaker predicts the average laborer will net a 2.9 percent income gain.

The average Toyota employee will earn 2,700 yen ($26.28) more each month, a 0.8 percent increase from last year. Workers will also receive about 7,300 yen ($71.09) more monthly based on seniority and promotions. Finally, the company's union pushed through a median bonus of 2.44 million yen ($23,768) for 2014, the highest in 6 years.

The pay boost comes as Toyota forecasts a record 1.9-trillion yen ($18.5 billion) profit for the fiscal year ending on March 31, according to Bloomberg. It has been helped by the Japanese government's efforts to weaken the yen on international markets and expand inflation. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been asking businesses to increase compensation to end years of deflation and offset upcoming higher sales taxes. Honda and Nissan have also raised their wages there in recent months.

With just 240 horsepower on tap, the Alfa Romeo 4C may not be the most powerful sports car on the market. But its lightweight construction ensures that it has a power-to-weight ratio better than cars with twice the output. In short, it belongs at the front of the pack, and that's just where it will be for this year's World Touring Car Championship.

That's because Alfa's nimble little sports car has been selected as the new safety car (what we'd call a "pace car") for the WTCC, starting next month with the season opener at the Moulay El Hassan Circuit in Marrakech, Morocco. For that purpose it's been fitted with the special red and black livery you see here, and will presumably carry some extra safety equipment like emergency lighting, and a couple of fire extinguishers and a first aid kit on board in case it arrives at the scene of an accident before the medical support car can get there.

This year will see some new entries in the FIA's top touring car series as the new Honda Civic WTCC makes its debut with four cars on the grid, Citroën entering the series with the new C-Elysée with nine-time rally champ Sebastien Loeb and four-time WTCC champ Yvan Muller behind the wheel. After a Euro-centric start to the season, the series heads to the US in mid-September for the race at Sonoma before winding up with three rounds in the Far East.