Lamborghini has released its pre-tax profits for 2008, and the supercar manufacturer netted a total of 60 million euros ($79.6 million) last year for a 27% increase over 2007. Overall sales were up a scant 2.5%, eclipsing the previous year's sales record (2,406 vehicles) with 2,430 cars sold worldwide. The increase in sales is attributed to growth in China and the Middle East, while sales in the U.S. fell by over 20% to just 741 vehicles (down from 930 in 2007). Obviously, the additional profits didn't come from a massive sales increase. Instead, Lamborghini placed 300 of its 1,000 employees on shorter work days from February through May, netting an additional savings.

Naturally, the automaker isn't bullish (rimshot) for 2009, with CEO Stephan Winkelmann admitting that the economic downturn is likely to affect Lamborghini's sales. However, it remains committed to bringing a new model to market each year, so expect more hotness from Sant'Agata in 2009 and beyond. Hit the jump for Lamborghini's press release.

Ford has so far been able to avoid suckling on the teat of the federal government like its cross-town rivals, but after today's announcement of a 2008 fourth-quarter loss of $5.9 billion, serious questions are beginning to arise about how FoMoCo will fair in 2009.

This will be the third consecutive year Ford hasn't posted a profit, with a $2.8 billion loss in the previous year and $620 million drop during the same quarter of 2007. Ford wrapped up 2008 with $13.4 billion in cash reserves, but has announced plans to draw $10.1 billion in available credit to weather what's sure to be a rough 2009. That would bring Ford's liquidity up to $23.5 billion, sans the money already used for January, and the automaker contends that this is enough to meet its goals for the year. However, if Ford continues its fourth-quarter cash burn rate of $1.83 billion a month, there's a distinct possibility that FoMoCo execs might be knocking on Uncle Sam's door before the year comes to a close.

On a more positive note, Ford posted a 2008 pre-tax profit of $1.06 billion in Europe, although the last quarter saw a drop of $330 million. Hit the jump for Ford's full press release.

[Source: Ford, Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty]

One of the refrains we've all heard in recent years is how strong Buick is for General Motors in China, where it's not cursed with the stigma of being a grandparent's brand in the States. While most of yesterday's attention was rightly focused on the industry-wide year-end U.S. sales bloodbath, Shanghai Daily reports that 2008 was a bummer for GM's joint venture with SAIC in China.

Shanghai GM ended up down 7% versus 2007, with analysts saying that its new cars, like the freshly-updated Buick Excelle, didn't deliver the goods in terms of styling, price, or fuel economy. Hence, buyers reportedly turned to the VW Jetta and Toyota Corolla instead. Shanghai Daily points out that Chevrolet, Cadillac, and Saab all showed growth in China last year, so the overall Shanghai GM decline essentially gets laid at the feet of Buick. Now, it'll be interesting to see how 2009 plays out. GM is hoping that the Chevy Cruze can help get things back on track in the People's Republic (and everyplace else, for that matter) when it arrives sometime in Q2, joining other key Shanghai GM newcomers like the Buick Regal.

Shanghai GM's disappointing 2008 performance was part of a broader growth slowdown for the General in China. When factoring in the rest of its joint ventures, GM's China sales were actually up 6% overall. But that's a significant dropoff from the double-digit sales gains exhibited in preceding years -- 19% in '07, and at least 27% in the each of the four years prior to that, according to Bloomberg. With so many consecutive years of explosive sales growth, things were probably bound to level off as car shoppers transformed into car owners. Whether GM's influx of new models planned for this year and beyond stokes the sales fires in China again is a story that we'll follow throughout '09.



[Sources: Shanghai Daily, Bloomberg]

Imagine this: text-message updates on your favorite LeMons teams that includes their last lap time and overall position. Or real-time telemetry data streaming online. How about pictures and analysis, straight from the track and beamed down through the tubes right into your home? Fantasy? Hardly. When you get hundreds of die-hard DIY types together for a weekend of wheel-to-wheel racing, anything's possible. Unless, of course, the one necessary component – a stable internet connection – is missing from the equation. And so concludes our overall coverage of the 2008 24 Hours of LeMons at Thunderhill. After battling wonky wifi and sketchy EVDO connections, we bailed on the race late last night so we could give you a brief snippet of the action outside of Willows.

The LeMon's season-ender has all the ingredients for another epic crap-can battle royale, including the utterly fantastic ghetto-charged Miata, a Griswold-inspired Pinto, a fiberglass-bodied 240, a flipped Yugo, a superbike-powered Metro, a rod-knocking Escort (that puked all of its oil onto a half-mile stretch of the track) and our Altamont-running RX-7 that returned from the dead. Everything you'd want in a LeMons race was present and accounted for, and in these tumultuous times, it was a breath of fresh (well, diff-oil scented) air to see true gearheads doing what they love in an environment that's part LeMans and part Burning Man. If you ever need a brief respite to reinvigorate your faith in the bond between man and machine, LeMons is where it's at. And the 2009 season is already scheduled. If you can't compete, at least attend. You won't be disappointed, even if "the tubes" could use a thorough snaking.

Check back tonight for a list of the top-ten finishers and keep an eye out later this week for a first-hand account of the Tinkerbell Rosso team's campaign. In the meantime, enjoy our gallery of Saturday coverage below.

UPDATE: And the winner is... the Metro Gnome CBR900RR-powered Metro!

2008 is at an end, and while the editorial pages of some newspapers spend the final days of December focusing on ways to further burden taxpayers and foment interstate hostility, the Washington Post Magazine has, thankfully, handed several pages over to Dave Barry who, as usual, makes the events of the past year actually seem funny. This includes car-related stuff like the farcical Detroit bailout proceedings, which often bordered on satire. Fortunately, Barry knows exactly how to handle that sort of thing, and does so much in the same way David Ortiz handles a hanging curveball with runners in scoring position. Hilarity ensues on many fronts, except maybe inside the executive boardrooms of GM and Chrysler, the latter of which earns mention in Dave's June summary with, "In economic news, Chrysler announces a plan to lay off workers who have not been born yet." This year-end recap is best appreciated as a whole, however, so if you're in a mood to lighten things up this afternoon, head over to the WaPo and just read the whole thing.

[Source: The Washington Post]

With less than 30 minutes of racing complete, the first penalty was dolled out to the #43 BMW 325i after a bit of off-track farming. A spin of the Wheel of Misfortune delivered the Auld Lang Syne penalty, which involves a pair of adult diapers, a sash and commitment to be a better competitor in the New Year. Black flags are flying all around, so expect more tails from the pits to follow throughout the day.

Let's set the scene: You've just returned from a jaunt to pick up Grandma and parked your 2007-2008 MINI Cooper S in the driveway. After leading the sweet lady up your steps and into the house, you return to the car to unload the assorted goodies and gifts that she's brought for you and the fam. You pop open the hatch, reach over to grab a foil-wrapped plate of her legendary baklava and start to feel a burning sensation on your shin. It's official. You've been indoctrinated into the Club of Cooper S owners who now sport a circular prison tat on their legs.

According to the NHTSA, the problem affects some 28,450 2007-08 MINI Cooper S models due to the dual tailpipes that protrude too far from the center of the Cooper's rear bumper. The problem has been documented on several MINI-specific forums, and BMW is stepping up to address the issue and offering Cooper customers a new, shorter exhaust, free of charge. The recall begins in January and owners can contact BMW at 800.831.1117 to schedule a replacement of the offending exhaust.


[Source: InsideLine | Image: Findude]

If you're a 2005-2008 Aston Martin V8 Vantage owner, you may have wished you'd held out for the 2009 model which benefits from an extra 0.4-liters of displacement (up from 4.3- to 4.7-liters) and gains an extra 40 hp and 45 lb-ft of torque, along with some revised suspension tuning. The crew at Gaydon feels your pain and has begun offering a new performance package for the 4.3-liter model.

The kit includes a new induction system originally developed for the DBS that features a pair of toggling airbox valves that open at 5,500 rpm to bring more air into the engine. With the help of a revised ECU that optimizes ignition timing and recognizes higher octane fuels, output increases to 400 hp (20 extra ponies) and torque grows to 307 lb-ft.

The sports package developed for the 2009 model can also be retrofitted to the last generation Vantage and includes forged aluminum five-spoke wheels, upgraded springs and Bilstein dampers. Aston hasn't released pricing for the new performance pack, but we're sure it's less than trading in your old Vantage for the updated model.

With 83 official competitors at the 2008 25 Hours of Thunderhill, it's next to impossible to give each team their well-deserved time in the limelight. So we've complied a gallery of the top ten overall finishers (although one escaped our long lensman) and four of our favorites from the race that we caught up with between pit-stops and fill-ups. Check the gallery for their overall and class standings, along with a brief write-up on the teams we were able to corner.

We've also uploaded two galleries from the early morning and afternoon; one that covers almost all the contendors still running late into the day and another gorgeous gallery of night shots that provided us with a new desktop.

At 5:00 AM PST this morning, the 2008 25 Hours of Thunderhill restarted after a fog-induced 7.5-hour delay. We were able to catch a few hours of sleep in the interim and got word at 4:30 AM from team Cytosport that the fog was lifting and that the race would be underway shortly.

NASA hasn't updated their live scoring page with new information yet, but by our count, just over 50 cars are on the track, another half-dozen are prepping in the hot pits and the rest are in various states of disrepair. We're sitting about 20 feet away from the #27 Team MPME/Team Scion/Modified Mag Scion tC and with a new transmission already in place, the crew expects to be back on the track within 30 minutes.

While the pea soup that postponed the race has thinned out, it's still far from clear. The thickness of the fog varies depending on when you look out on the track, with the crow's nest being visible one second and then totally obscured in a grey blanket the next. More to follow in the next few hours... we're off in search of caffeine.

UPDATE: Cytosport car has been hit by an unknown Honda. Word from a member of the crew is that the rear suspension is toast. Updates and photos shortly.