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WASHINGTON — About 250 rejected Chrysler Group dealerships in arbitration will get access to their Chrysler performance scores — and those of their competitors — under a decision by a federal bankruptcy judge this week.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Arthur Gonzalez in New York has unsealed each dealer’s spreadsheet of about 30 performance categories for use in arbitration, a copy of the judge’s decision shows.

The judge also held that each dealer can get copies of the performance charts of rivals to whom the dealer was compared when the dealer was terminated, the decision, made Tuesday, shows.

Dealerships can use these spreadsheets to evaluate the validity of Chrysler’s explanations of why they were shuttered, said dealer lawyer Leonard Bellavia, of Mineola, N.Y.

“We intend to show the many discrepancies between what Chrysler asserted in the bankruptcy hearings as criteria for rejection against what they now allege in the arbitrations, to show that Chrysler will argue whatever suits its purpose at that given time,” said Bellavia.

Chrysler has described each spreadsheet as “a historical track record” of sales and financial performance that incorporates comparisons between a dealership and competitors in his market area.

Recently Nissan has become the first company to launch on its eco car in Thailand with its new March at the Bangkok Motor Show event. As for other Japanese car makers like the Toyota and Honda are expected will be soon following the same suit and later on showing off their new concept at the Thailand car show event.

At the same time, Volkswagen and Suzuki are likely to be helping out each other to be successfully developing an eco car in Thailand according to the news in the industry. The Bangkok reports that a senior official at the Thailand’s Board of Investment had confirm that the German and Japanese automakers were negotiating about the collaborative possibilities. Those small car maker experts Suzuki has already became a certainty after reaffirming its stand to go ahead with a 7.5 billion baht on the eco car venture in Thailand last year.

Meanwhile, Volkswagen was among seven automakers applying for promotional privileges from the Board of Investment. The industry source did also say that Volkswagen had embarked on the new push and was negotiating with the Suzuki about the jointly developing on the small and fuel efficient cars in Thailand. Which if we refresh back previously Volkswagen did planned to invest 27 billion baht for the project and this was a sum of money which higher than any others.

Two-time World Rally champion Marcus Gronholm has conceded that he is unlikely to tackle the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb this year in what would have been his second outing in the event.
The 42-year-old Finn set the second-fastest overall time on the Colorado mountain last year at the wheel of a 850-hp Ford Fiesta prepared by Andreas Eriksson’s MSE organization.
“It’s a shame, but I don’t think the car can be built for Pikes Peak,” Gronholm said. “I enjoyed that last year; the car was really fun to drive with all that power.”
Gronholm could still head to the United States this year, however, after he was linked to an outing in the X Games rally competition in Los Angeles, July 29-Aug. 1. While the event’s selection committee has yet to discuss the matter, Gronholm said, “We have to see. I was invited before but didn’t go; it could be interesting. I’m thinking about it. Why not?”

GPS-NS is a high-sensitivity and fast acquisition GPS card in PC/104 (3.5?X 3.7? format operating from 5VDC power. GPS-NS outputs NMEA messages plus one pulse-per-second (PPS). It comes with 50-ft (15m) of RG58 coaxial cable, rugged marine antenna, mounting bracket, serial cable and CDROM for setup.

GPS-SIM produces GPS output messages without an antenna. GPS-SIM can be ordered with the one or more GPS-SIMRX RS485 receiver cards allowing for time synchronization over the area covered by the RS485 network. GPS-SIM outputs NMEA (RMC) and PPS on standard tenth-inch headers and operates from 5VDC power (via the PC/104 bus or 2.5mm jack). The combination of GPS-SIM/RX produces zero time offset between clocks over a wide geographical area.

GPS-NS, GPS-SIM/RX are compatible with NetDAS and systems requiring RS232/485/PPS time inputs.

As can be seen, the Audi R8 Spyder may look very stylish but it was no longer remained as poser. With the open top variant of the Ironman’s machine comes only in V10 form with the 525 bhp and 530 Nm. It was already good enough for 0 to 100 km / h with just 4.1 seconds and with a 313 km / h top speed.

I am sure that’s not a small amount of speed but the German tuners will never leave it enough level as really enough. That’s why the ABT was still the biggest name in Audi and Volkswagen tuning. The 5.2 liter V10 that has been massaged was able to deliver at least 600 horses, by lowering the century sprint time to just 3.8 seconds, while top speed is now a round figure of 320 km / h.

As the suspension springs lowers the car further, it has been claimed that it was quite useful in order to improve handling. The front grill, front apron, side sills, rear apron, rear spoiler as well as the dual color coated ABT BR alloys have been merged into the original design, and as with ABT’s R8 coupe, all the parts are made from carbon fiber. On the options list is ABT’s CR Superlight alloys, which really suit the R8 Spyder with its claw-like spokes.

Ferrari 458 Italia will succssfully replace the famed F430, and yet brand new from the company. Engine displacement would be 4.5 liters, and number of cylinders is eight, they chose the name Italia because the company thinks the car shows it’s motherland’s talent and passion. And F1 champion Michael Schumacher also helped in developmenting 458 for the project.

The 458 would have a 4,5 litter direct-injected V-8 giving 570 hp at 9000 rpm and 398lb-ft torque at 6000rpm. the increase from F430 is of 87 hp and 55 1b-ft of torque. Diameter of the wheels is 20 inches, and the rubber is developed to 235/35 up front and 295-35 at back. This configuration would make the 458 getting to 0-62 mph in lesss than 3.4 seconds. Top speed of 458 is said to be 202 mph.

Chassis of 458 is made of aluminum and lifted by control arms up front with multilinks in back. Ferrari company says they would make the steering ratio even better than F430, with 2 more inches of wheelbase, 0.6 more inch of length. The 458 is of 178.2 inches long, 76.3 inches wide, and 47.8 inches tall. Thought 458 would weight same distribution of F430, it would have just 42 percent heft at front axle, and 58 percent in back.

Yes, yes, we know. The Mercedes-Benz use of the term “Shooting Break” as the name for its latest concept vehicle is, well, it’s just so wrong. The traditional, and most people would say correct, spelling is “shooting brake.”

As AW’s copy chief, I take this sort of thing very much to heart and felt moved to respond to the yowling of readers on our Web site.

Here is what the non-native-English-speaking German automaker’s press release says about the car’s name:

“Break, or the homonym Brake, was the name once given to carriages used to ‘break’ in wild horses and also to restrict (or ‘brake’) their urge to move, so that they could be put to use as work horses. Since the carts could easily be broken as part of this process, people tended not to use ones which they may have urgently needed for other purposes. Where

necessary, ‘Brakes’ were often fitted out with variable bodies, which were only really used to carry along anything that may have been necessary for the hunt, for example. Any such vehicle which was used when going out shooting was called a Shooting Brake or Shooting Break. In the 1960s and 1970s, motorized Shooting Breaks were popular in Great Britain–exclusive crossover vehicles, which combined the luxuriousness of a coupé with the luggage space of an estate.”

You say coupé, I say coupe. You say break, I say brake. And don’t get me started on the Mazda Millenia.

General Motors Co. said it has repaid the U.S. and Canadian governments $5.8 billion for loans that helped fund the U.S. automaker last year.

GM owed the U.S. government about $4.7 billion and the Canadian government, $1.1 billion. The automaker emerged from bankruptcy last July.

“Our ability to pay back these loans less than a year after emerging from bankruptcy is a sign our plan for building a new GM is working,” GM CEO Ed Whitacre said in an opinion piece in Wednesday’s edition of the Wall Street Journal.

GM had a good sales month in March, recording an increase of 33,000 units.

The Global Positioning System (GPS) has recently become a popular cellular device service. A “constellation” of 24 Department of Defense agency satellites allows a GPS location service to function for the benefit of civilian and military users. People use GPS location services for a variety of reasons, including locating family members such as children, social gathering networks, emergency services and navigation strategies. Many cell phones come equipped with GPS systems, typically found under the “Settings” section of a cell phone’s menu.

to find the GPS Locator on Cell Phones,you can follow these steps:
Find your phone’s menu button. Browse your phone until you locate the general menu option. The menu option can typically be found on the phone’s “Home” screen or default screen

Enter your phone’s menu. Click or tap the menu option. Browse the menu to locate the “Settings” option.

Find your GPS locator. Search for “GPS” or “Location” under your phone’s “Settings” menu. If you have trouble, consult your manufacturer’s handbook for details.

The Ferrari 599 GTO is the third in an illustrious line of Gran Turismo Omologato models from Maranello. It may look like a lightly modified GTB Fiorano, but is, in fact, almost entirely new. The hood’s prominent center bulge and aerodynamic wheel disks are a hat-tip to Ferrari’s F1 cars, while the contrasting matte black roof and flying buttresses visually lower the center of gravity and break up the 599’s mass.

The rest of the redesigned bodywork does little to develop the marque’s design language but its multitude of air intakes and outlets, an integrated rear wing and extensive underbody aerodynamic profiling reduce its Cd while also increasing downforce. The body is of thinner gauge aluminum in traditional Superleggera style and with the aero advances, ensures the 599 GTO is not only more economical than the standard car, but also faster than the Enzo.

Inside, leather gives way to utilitarian cloth while the driver is presented with a ‘Virtual Race Engineer’, a system that relays every aspect of the car’s performance to the driver. Despite its visual familiarity, the 599 GTO’s design shows Ferrari’s future direction of increased performance through increased efficiency.

We’ll bring you more information and our own unique images of the Ferrari 599 GTO live from Auto China in Beijing.