Autoblog

Infineon Raceway to become Sonoma raceway... temporarily

Jeff Sabatini — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 10:01:00 EST

Filed under: Motorsports, Marketing/Advertising

Here's the problem with selling corporate naming rights to sports facilities: When times are good and sponsors are interested, they're more than happy to make it rain. When priorities change, however, the money gets withdrawn and all that's left is that company's stupid logo, plastered all over the signage.

Not that we're specifically referring to Infineon, the German chipmaker that decided against renewing its sponsorship deal with the California track now known as Sonoma raceway (yes, small r). We're not sure why the powers that be at Infineon felt that defiling the name of this 2.5-mile road course would no longer be part of the corporate marketing plan, though we will admit that despite its having bought the naming rights to Sears Point Raceway a decade ago, we still had to look Infineon up on Wikipedia to recall exactly what business it was in.

The announcement that Infineon would cut ties with the track came in March, though track management told The San Francisco Chronicle that it had known for years that the contract would not be renewed. Infineon had its name officially retired on June 1, and while track officials have temporarily christened the course, they've said the "Sonoma" moniker is not likely to last. In a letter to fans, the track's general manager said they will "formally re-brand the facility before the end of this year, whether with a new company or otherwise, with a major announcement, new logo, promotion and merchandise."

Here's an idea: If you strike out on landing a new corporate sponsor, most racing fans still call it Sears Point.

Infineon Raceway to become Sonoma raceway... temporarily originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 03 Jun 2012 10:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

2012 Audi R8 GT [w/video]

Michael Harley — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 11:57:00 EST

Filed under: Coupe, Performance, Audi, First Drives

A Supercar Without The Bad Attitude

2012 Audi R8 GT - Click above for high-res image gallery

Regardless of the frequency, our pulse still races every time we fire up a ten-cylinder engine. It's not just the unique sound or the warbled vibration that gets the blood flowing - it's the anticipation. Whether the badge says Gallardo, Viper or M5, a V10 under the hood promises intoxicating power and frenzied excitement.

The new Audi R8 GT packs just such an engine - a 5.2-liter V10. Mid-mounted in an aluminum and magnesium monocoque chassis, the powerplant is rated at 560 horsepower. With all-wheel drive and a sequential gearbox, the coupe rockets to 60 mph in 3.6 seconds before hitting an aerodynamic wall just shy of 200 miles per hour. It is, notes Audi, the lightest, fastest and most powerful supercar in its lineup.

Constructing the R8 GT was hardly a mild undertaking. Audi first put the R8 on a diet, shedding 180 pounds. They then turned their attention to the powerplant, where engineers were able to coax the 5.2-liter V10 into delivering another 35 hp. The suspension, brakes and underpinnings were upgraded, while the automatic gearbox and all-wheel-drive system received their own new set of commands. Lastly, unique cosmetic touches were applied that not only improved the R8's appearance, but boosted performance.

As Audi has limited production of the R8 GT to just 333 copies worldwide (with only 90 examples falling into very lucky hands within the United States), we consider ourselves fortunate to be one of just a handful of journalists at Sonoma, California's Infineon Raceway to put the world's newest exotic through its paces on a race circuit.

Continue reading 2012 Audi R8 GT [w/video]

2012 Audi R8 GT [w/video] originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 22 Jun 2011 11:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

SPEED announces Hollywood's Hottest Car Chases with mega sweepstakes

Jeff Glucker — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 08:28:00 EST

Filed under: Etc., Videos

Ronin ranks high on the list - Click above to watch video after the jump

It's a question which stirs up deep emotions in most automotive enthusiasts. No, it's not Porsche versus Ferrari, Senna versus Schumacher or Jeep against Land Rover. The question that causes serious debate boils down to one sentence - what is the best movie car chase of all time? SPEED is going to count down the greatest that Hollywood has to offer during a two-hour special running Thanksgiving day. The show is a platform to show-off the channel's newest contest, the return of the SPEED Dream Ride in the form of the SPEED Dream Ride 2.

The SPEED Dream Ride 2 is a sweepstakes-style contest with an excellent grand prize. Five winners and their guests will get to experience the VIP treatment at Infineon Raceway, in Sonoma, California. While at the track, winners will get to ride shotgun with Mario Andretti in a two-seat Indy car, Kyle Petty in a NASCAR stock car, Jason Pridmore on a two-up MotoGP sportbike and get sideways with Tanner Foust on a drifting course. If riding riding in cars gets boring, the winners can take turns crushing cars behind the wheel of the Gravedigger monster truck. They'll also get seat time in a handful of exotics courtesy of World Class Driving. Appetite whetted? You can enter this contest starting on Thanksgiving Day by heading to SpeedDreamRide.com.

The TV show, called Hollywood's Hottest Car Chases, may just serve as a backdrop for the announcement of the dream ride contest, but we think it's a topic that can't be discussed enough. To get you ready for the show, we've placed three chase clips after the the jump along with the full press release for the SPEED Dream Ride 2 contest.

[Source: SPEED, Youtube]

Continue reading SPEED announces Hollywood's Hottest Car Chases with mega sweepstakes

SPEED announces Hollywood's Hottest Car Chases with mega sweepstakes originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 11 Oct 2010 08:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

IndyCar: 2010 Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma [SPOILERS]

Frank Filipponio — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 10:58:00 EST

Filed under: Motorsports, Honda, Racing

2010 Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma - Click above for high-res image gallery

Just five races remain on the 2010 Indy Racing League IndyCar schedule, and only one of those is a road course. The final four rounds of the championship will all be contested on ovals - but this weekend the drivers will be taking on Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California. Last race at Mid-Ohio, series points leader Will Power saw his lead shrink a bit when second place Dario Franchitti took the win. Still, Power clinched the inaugural Mario Andretti trophy for being the road course champ. Not a lot of drivers have a shot at catching the seemingly invincible super Power, but Franchitti has a better track record at Sonoma...and on ovals.

In fact, Power had a pretty nasty crash at Infineon just last year, while Franchitti claimed victory, so it was going to be interesting to see if 2010 would bring a reversal of fortune for the duo. Heading into qualifying, Power was looking to extend his consecutive pole position record and secure enough points to give him a bigger buffer going into the ovals, which haven't been as lucky for him to date. Follow the jump to see how things played out at Infineon.

Gallery: IndyCar: 2010 Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma

[Images: Donald Miralle, Christian Petersen/Getty Images | George Nikitin, Rich Pedroncelli/AP]

Continue reading IndyCar: 2010 Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma [SPOILERS]

IndyCar: 2010 Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma [SPOILERS] originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 23 Aug 2010 10:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

DTM champ Mattias Ekström swaps tin-tops for NASCAR

Noah Joseph — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 07:59:00 EST

Filed under: Motorsports

If we've said it once, we've said it a thousand times, but it warrants repeating - in context especially - that there exists an ocean of difference between stock car racing in America and touring cars overseas. And we're talking about more than geography here. The cars are different, the tracks are different, the drivers, the fans... and so too is the racing. But the two are about to take one step closer when two-time DTM champion Mattias Ekström takes on NASCAR.

Now Ekstrom wouldn't be the first European driver to test drive a stock car, but he's already done that. What we're talking about here is the full contest of an actual NASCAR race (made possibly by Red Bull, which sponsors his Audi A4 DTM and the #83 Toyota Camry he'll be driving Stateside). And not in a feeder series, either: the Toyota/Save Mart 350 is a full-fledged round of the top-tier Sprint Cup, not the Nationwide Series, Camping World Truck Series or ARCA junior league like some European drivers have started out with when making the transition.

Mind you, the race is being held at Infineon Raceway (formerly known as Sears Point) in Sonoma, California - one of only two road-courses on the series calendar - but the round at the Lausitzring EuroSpeedway (run partially on the banked tri-oval) ranks among the fourteen DTM races which Ekström's won, so he very well might stand a fighting chance on an American oval, too. In the meantime we'll be watching the weekend after next to see how Mattias fares in his auspicious NASCAR debut. Details in the press release after the jump.

[Source: Audi]

Continue reading DTM champ Mattias Ekström swaps tin-tops for NASCAR

DTM champ Mattias Ekström swaps tin-tops for NASCAR originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 09 Jun 2010 07:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Penske Racing: to Infineon and Beyond (SPOILER ALERT)

Noah Joseph — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 09:57:00 EST

Filed under: Motorsports

Click above image for high-res gallery of Grand Prix of Sonoma

Motor racing is, of course, highly competitive, and the logistics highly complicated. The higher the level of racing, the more competitive and the more complicated. But racing fans expect to see it duked out on the track, not on the way there. That's why it was so disappointing when the transporter carrying Penske's Indy racing team to Infineon (formerly known as Sears Point) in Sonoma, California, went up in flames on the interstate.

For any other team, even a lesser incident would have called the curtain on their race weekend. But as we reported on Thursday, Penske has a history of turning adverse circumstances like these into victory. Was the team able to perpetuate the legacy, or did it succumb to the circumstances? For the sake of those who have this past weekend's Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma County cued up on TiVo, we'll keep the results after the jump. Follow along to read on.

Gallery: IndyCar Series Grand Prix of Sonoma

Continue reading Penske Racing: to Infineon and Beyond (SPOILER ALERT)

Penske Racing: to Infineon and Beyond (SPOILER ALERT) originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 26 Aug 2008 09:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

SAE Convergence: Improving automotive microcontroller performance

Eric Bryant — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 13:35:00 EST

Filed under: Technology

Without a doubt, modern expectations for automotive performance, safety, and comfort are pushing "intelligence" throughout the vehicle, with microcontrollers showing up in a variety of devices that draw together chassis control, driver assistance, and risk management. At the SAE Convergence electronics show, Patrick Leteinturier from Infineon talked about the trends that we might expect for these tiny semiconductor brains.

Moore's Law may dictate growth in computational power of about an order of magnitude (10x) every five years or so, but that's not a reasonable assumption for automotive devices, according to Leteinturier. The reasons are numerous - the harsh automotive environment, customer expectations for longevity (20 years), and the heat generated by increased clock speeds (where as a PC CPU might dissipate 60W, something in the neighborhood of 1W is considered acceptable for automotive microcontrollers). Expect instead something more along a doubling of power every five years, with current engine management devices going from 250 million instruction cycles per second nowadays to about 2 billion/second by 2020. Memory will grow at a similar rate from 2MB to 16MB over the same period of time. Process geometry shrinks will also occur, but also not at the same rate of other electronic devices. The problem here once again is reliability, but another factor is the heavy use of analog circuits in the automotive environment - such devices can't be shrunk in the same manner as digital circuits.

Adding to reliability will be multiple redundant processors, although how these will be packaged is yet to be determined. Techniques such as built-in self test (BIST) and built-in self repair (BISR) will improve memory integrity (ever more important as storage space grows), and new memory storage technologies such as FeRAM might replace Flash in the next decade.

This might not be the most exciting innovation, but it's the sort of steady improvement on the component level that enables technology that's a bit more obvious in its impact on our driving experience.

[Source: Infineon]

SAE Convergence: Improving automotive microcontroller performance originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 20 Oct 2006 13:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments