Autoblog

Singapore is getting ready to host the first night race in Formula One history after the FIA approved the proposed calendar for next year's championship. Race promoters in Singapore got the clearance from the FIA to build the Monaco-style street circuit in May, and things are reportedly moving along well. The spectacle of the flood-lit road race in the Pacific city-state promises to inject some more excitement into what is already held as the pinnacle of international motorsport.

As we had reported earlier, there were a few proposed grands prix that were up in the air, but the motorsport governing body has approved them all. (Yay!) In addition to Singapore, the new event in Valencia, Spain, was awaiting approval. The French Grand Prix at Magny-Cours was under threat, as well. Even the perennial Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal wasn't for sure, as the economies of scale in schlepping the whole F1 circus to North America were eliminated with the cancellation of the race at Indianapolis. In the end all were confirmed, alongside the usual suspects in Australia, Malaysia, Bahrain, Spain, Turkey, Monaco, Britain, Germany, Hungary, Belgium, Italy, Japan, China and Brazil. Only a few dates were changed around by the FIA in the process. Altogether it makes for a full eighteen races, and we're looking forward already.

Follow the jump for the full 2008 FIA Formula One World Championship calendar.

[Source: Autosport]

The boffins have broken down the data from BMW Sauber F1 driver Robert Kubica's crash at the Montreal Grand Prix. If the shunt itself wasn't eye-popping enough, it turns out that Kubica hit the wall nearly head on at 142.6 mph and endured a 75 G impact. And he made it out with nothing more than a slight concussion and a sprained ankle. That's what a survival cell, crash box, HANS system, helmet, and 1,000 pieces of carbon fiber, Kevlar, metal, and honeycomb can do for you when they work perfectly. In a burst of German understatement, the BMW Sauber technical director said they were "very content about the behavior of the chassis as survival cell." Throttle-by-wire is great, but we need a whole lot more of that kind of tech to trickle down ASAP.

[Source: Autosport]

Poor Jacques is all washed up. Where this writer was born and raised, JV was a homegrown hero who lived up to his family name by taking the checkered flag at the Indy 500 (and the CART championship) and going on to win the Formula One title only two years later. But when you've reached the top, there's only one way to go. Unfortunately for Canadian race fans, that's the direction Jacques has been going for the last ten years.

After running out of F1 teams that would sign him, Villeneuve tried to salvage his reputation with a move to NASCAR, which both he and fellow grand prix defector, Juan Pablo Montoya, spun as a move sideways, not downwards. JP made a go of it, but JV's fortunes have not been so favorable, and, aside from an upcoming drive for Peugeot at Le Mans, he's had to sit out his first full race season since the start of his career.

When trying to organize a deal to race this season in the second-tier NASCAR Busch Series, the addition of a race in his hometown on the track that bears his father's name only seemed to sweeten the deal. The negotiations broke down, however, leaving Jacques without a ride. But he remains hopeful that he will make his debut in stock cars at the Montreal event this August.

"We are taking our time to do it properly. There is no point in rushing," is what Villeneuve had to say about getting behind the wheel for the Montreal race. Big words for a man who's used to going fast.

Related posts:

• Audi DTM wants Villeneuve and Montoya
• Update: Villeneuve's NASCAR deal
• Anyone got $18 million for Jacques?
• Villeneuve and Montoya close in on closed wheels
• Not coming for you, Ricky Bobby: NASCAR sans Villeneuve in 07
• Villeneuve headed for the Busch leagues
• Reports: Villeneuve signed NASCAR deal with Roush
• Mais, oui! NASCAR developing a French connection?

[Source: Autosport]

Quebec is probably the last place in North America where some businesses are still forbidden to open on weekends. Although the practice has long since dissipated in other retail sectors, car dealerships in Montreal still adhere to an archaic 35-year-old policy that dates back to when the Catholic church still had a strong hold on French Canadian society.

One dealership in this writer's home town is departing from that policy, and he's facing tough opposition. Pie IX Dodge Chrysler (pronounced pee nuf, on the street named after Pope Pius the 9th) is a dealership on the island's predominantly French east end, next to the Olympic stadium that once hosted the Montreal auto salon before it moved to the convention center downtown. They decided to open on weekends, selling cars on Saturday and Sunday, a move opposed by other area dealerships and their association (which also organizes the annual car show). Pie IX's sales have gone up, despite the protests outside. The demonstrators include salesmen from other dealerships (which remain closed on the weekend) and from nearby used car lots (which are open on the weekend). If new car dealerships were to open on weekends, the association says the salesmen will be overworked, while the used car lots will lose business. One protestor even went so far as to hit the manager at Pie IX Dodge Chrysler in the head with a block of ice and was arrested for assault. Demonstrators were also thought to have jammed the dealership's phone lines.

Despite the opposition, and with support from DaimlerChrysler, owner Claude Leclair says he plans to keep his dealership open on weekends, quoting sales figures of over a dozen cars each weekend, while competing dealerships are suspected to be operating in the red. Kinda gives new meaning to the old Quebec separatist slogan "Vive la Quebec Libre" – long live a free Quebec.

[Source: The Montreal Gazette via Jalopnik]

Click on the image above to see our 24-image high-resolution gallery

The Quebec-built T-Rex has been on the market since 1996, and at the recent Montreal auto show the wraps were taken off the newly-revised model. For 2007, the T-Rex ditches the old carbureted 1200cc, 152-hp engine for a bigger, more powerful fuel-injected Kawasaki unit displacing 1400cc and pumping out 200 horsepower. On a motorbike, two hundred horses go a long way – now imagine saddling that with more traction and better stability than any motorbike could and you begin to fathom the kind of performance the T-Rex serves up: 0-60 in 3.6 seconds (in first gear) and 1.3 g's of lateral acceleration. Intriguingly, to get the engines and other components from Kawasaki, the makers of the T-Rex buy the full bikes from the factory, take the parts they need and sell the rest to shops in the US.

For 2007 the T-Rex also gets new lights, new instrument gauges and a covered engine. They also offer carbon-fiber body-kits, a wind deflector, larger outboard storage bins capable of holding a full-face helmet in each and special-order paints.

We got a chance to check out the T-Rex at the Montreal show, and have the pictures to prove it. The blue model pictured is the updated 2007 version, while the white and green ones are first-gen models, both featuring special-order Lamborghini colors for a customer in Dubai.

Check out go-t-rex.com for more details.

Click on the image above for our 12-image high-resolution gallery from the Montreal launch.

Legendary Corvette tuner Callaway's latest creation, the C16, was unveiled in pre-production guise at the LA show back in November, but the final production version made its debut at the Montreal auto show, of all places. Why Montreal? Company founder Reeves Callaway, who was on hand together with designer Paul Deutschman to unveil the new car, explained that because Montreal is Deutschman's home town, it was only fitting. (If the C16 hadn't already made its big splash in LA, we're sure they wouldn't have shown it first at such a minor show as Montreal.)

There were only a few differences between the orange pre-production car shown in LA and the red, final version unveiled in Montreal. The LA car had a custom brake package, while the Montreal car's were stock; the orange car had a custom interior, while the red car's cabin was unmolested; and around back the distinctive chome-tipped "Double-D" exhaust outlets were enlarged on the Montreal car to what the boys from the factory jovially called the "Triple-D" exhaust. If it seems backwards that they left the brakes and interior stock; remember that each Callaway creation is built to order, and evidently this customer didn't want to spring for the upgraded stopping power and custom cabin.

Like the LA show car, this C16 features a supercharged six-liter Corvette V8 pumping out a whopping 616 horses, enough to propel this Callaway to sixty in less than three-and-a-half seconds. Apart from the roof, greenhouse glass and side mirrors, every body panel on the C16 is changed from the C6 Corvette on which it's based, and the result is a car that looks half Corvette, half Ferrari, but distinctively Callaway.

(We had a chance to talk with Reeves Callaway at the launch... watch this space for the highlights.)

Click here or on any of the images below for our 12-image high-resolution gallery from the Montreal launch.

Click on the image above to jump to our gallery of 25 high-resolution images

The centerpiece of the 2007 Montreal auto show was supposed to be the Plethore, a supercar being developed in Quebec by HHT Locus Technologies. As we reported previously, the car nicknamed "the Quebec Bomb" employs carbon fiber construction and an 8.2-liter V8 to produce a high power-to-weight ratio driving from behind a three-passenger cabin with a center-line driving position, an innovative layout employed in the record-shattering McLaren F1 supercar (and in a 1966 Ferrari 365 P prototype), but not replicated since.

Unfortunately, as is often the case with such ambitious projects, the car was far from ready to be unveiled when the auto show opened. Instead, designer Luc Chartrand and company took the wraps off a non-functioning pre-production prototype, essentially a mock-up for display purposes. Next to the prototype they displayed the 8.2-liter GM-sourced V8 that is anticipated to propel the Plethore to mind-boggling speeds, if and when it finally gets rolling.

Locus Technologies anticipates its creation will be ready for delivery in the fall, when a limited annual run of no more than 400 will each sell for $330,000 CDN. They can call it the Plethore, the Quebec Bomb or whatever they'd like... we'll call it blind ambition.

We've got 25 high-resolution images of the Plethore from the show floor. Click on any of the images below or right here.

The Montreal auto show is not typically a show worth covering. Personally, having been born and raised in Montreal, I would visit the show every year as a child to see three-year-old concept cars making their rounds of the b-circuit car shows and the odd Lamborghini or Ferrari from one of the local dealerships. Otherwise it was pretty much a chance for the big car dealers to get thousands of prospective customers under one roof. But the 2007 Montreal Auto Show had a bit more to offer.

Click on through for the rest of the story.

To battle its image as a form of motorsport exclusive to the South, NASCAR is going North – to Canada: "the True North, Strong and Free" (at least that's how the anthem goes). So with F1 drivers coming to NASCAR, NASCAR is going to an F1 track: it's been confirmed that next season's Busch Series schedule will include a race at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, home of the Canadian Grand Prix.

In past years the track has hosted both F1 and Champ Car races each season. After securing exclusive rights to the track from Montreal city hall in June, Canadian Grand Prix promoter Normand Legault began moving on plans to bring stock car racing to Montreal. As an extra bonus, the weekend will also feature a Grand-Am race.

The Champ Car race, meanwhile, will move even farther north to the legendary track by the slopes of Mont Tremblant. Securing a major open-wheel event is a huge coup for the recently revived track, which was once famously referred to by Michael Schumacher as the "little Nurburgring". (No wonder Ferrari elected to open its first North American driving school there. )

Having grown up in Montreal, this writer can attest that it's a die-hard racing town through-and-through (in the summer, at least). Hosting F1, CART, Grand-Am and NASCAR will only allow more fans, teams and drivers to get a taste of the action.

[Sources: GrandPrix.com and Canada.com]