The Silver State Challenge takes place on a 90 mile stretch of  Nevada highway 318 with a very simple concept;  pick a target MPH and drive it, for the length of the course.

This is the same race that a sleepy looking 69 Camaro showed up to in the late 1980’s and proceeded to blow the doors off every exotic car on the grounds.  That victory, and many more afterwards got the car “Big Red” a leading role in the last version of the Fast and the Furious.

These video’s were shot by Randal from the side of the course somewhere around the middle.  Turn up your speakers.

145 MPH 1963 Ford Galaxie

150 MPH 2007 Corvette

170 MPH 1965 Corvair

180 MPH 1937 F1 Truck

180 MPH 1966 Chevelle

Unlimited 1971 Camaro

Holley, the over 100 year old company famous for their performance carburetors and other components have filed for bankruptcy now twice in just two years.

Holley had filed in 2008 and emerged not long after swapping their equity for 95 million in second lien debt.

The Company, which owns such others as Nitrous Oxide Systems, Flowtech, Weiand and Hooker, said that sales flopped a brutal 40% after emerging from their first chapter 11 filing.

Company Co-CEO and CFO Thomas Tomlinson said that the second filing came after debt holders threatened to foreclose on Holleys assets after Holley rejected a forbearance proposal by debt-holders including Wells Fargo, as the administrative agent, and Regiment Capital Special Situations Fund IV LP, which Tomlinson said would have taken $2.5 million out of the business.

Word out of  Auburn Hills is that Fiat has signed off on the hot 200C for production and it will be code named GTD.

The conundrum is if the car should be built as a rear wheel drive or front wheel drive.    Apparently, if it goes RWD it will be built on the same LY platform as the Dodge Challenger and will be produced in Brampton Ontario Canada along with the 300C, Charger and Challenger.

If it goes front wheel drive, it will most likely be built using an existing Fiat or Alfa platform.

The other tip was that the Fiat folks weren’t too happy with the next generation 2011 300C and have issued front and rear fascia changes to happen before the car debuts next year along with the “bolder” 2011 Dodge Charger.

If the 200C were to go FWD it would be a premium offering against C-segment competitors, which is a tough but forgettable group.  If it were to go RWD, it could easily provide the same equipment, more power and ultimately more value over a C-Class Mercedes, 3-Series BMW and A-series Audi.

Its no secret that Chrysler wants to head up market after being pushed down and throttled by Daimler in order to protect Mercedes sales.

My vote? Go RWD Sergio and take Chrysler to where it belongs.

Bloomberg reports that the US economy is set to emerge from the worst recession since the 1930’s as soon as this quarter.  Pending the extra 2 billion to fund Cash for Clunkers is voted in.

Mike Digiovanni, sales analyst for General Motors Co., said “If the cash-for-clunkers program is extended by the additional $2 billion that passes the Senate, it could boost third-quarter GDP by 0.5 percentage points,”

Many other analysts have stated that if CFC gets the extra 2 billion in funding, you will see sales levels as high as they were before the recession, and that not only helps the car companies but the multiple layers of suppliers too.

I guess we will have to see if Clunkers makes it past this Friday.

Today GM debuted their new unified GT racer, the ZR1 based C6R GT2.

Testing will be done at the remaining six races this year in order to get the bugs worked out for next year.  For this year, the cars will use LS7 based 6.0L’s but next year they will have to work with only 5.5L of displacement and run on E85R racing ethanol fuel.

“The global movement toward a single GT class will allow us to compete head-to-head with more marketplace competitors while increasing both the production content of the Corvette C6.R race cars and the relevance of racing to our customers. This is a step that positions Corvette for the future of production-based sports car racing worldwide, and a move that is perfectly aligned with GM’s marketing and business objectives in racing,” said Mark Kent, GM Racing manager.

The first race for the new car will be the Acura Sports Car Challenge at Mid-Ohio this coming Saturday, August 8. It will be televised on ABC at 2:30pm Sunday, August 9.

Today Buick ended all future PGA Tour sponsorships, which date back as far as the 1951 Buick Open.

This comes after Buick ended its sponsorship of Tiger Woods last year, where they pulled out a year early of a nine year contract.

The GM unit stated they would no longer be title sponsors of the Buick Open and Buick Invitational.  The Buick Open, ironically was won by Tiger Woods just two days ago.

GM exited Chapter 11 bankruptcy on July 10.

Bucking the downward trend, and proving cash for clunkers is working, Ford Motor Company posted a 2.4% sales gain over the same period last year.

Sales were heavily led by their smaller and more fuel efficient vehicles, including the Focus that was up 44%, Fusion 66% and the Ranger pick-up at 65%.

Cash for Clunkers had initially had 1 billion to use for the program but after exploding success, the money was almost tapped after just 4 short days.  The house is currently voting over the injection of another 2 billion today.

Chrysler Group LLC posted a -9.4% loss that was attributed to not doing any fleet sales and  running out of cars to sell because their plants have been closed during the whole Fiat transaction.

So far Subaru posted the biggest gain at 34.2% while others were less fortunate.  Maserati -49.5%, Daimler AG -24.2%, GM -19.4%, Honda -17.3% and Mazda -15.1%.

Chrysler dealers report that over the past week they attracted more potential buyers than they had seen in two years.  Chrysler took the already attractive Cash for Clunkers Gov’t rebate program and sweetened it by offering to match the $3500 – $4500 themselves.  Some deals equal over $10,000.00 in ultimate savings when other incentives are involved on top.

Chrysler Group LLC reported that 70% of showroom traffic was generated specifically because of the CFC program in an e-mail released earlier this week.

Many auto analysts are eager to see the July 2009 sales numbers for Chrysler and GM, as it was July 2008 when they both ended the option to lease their vehicles due to the credit crunch. This month will be the first fair YTD comparison yet with some significant gains possible due directly to the Cash for Clunkers program.

Since the credit freeze last year and GM’s abrupt end to leasing of their vehicles,  GM just announced that they will once again begin leasing, starting with luxury cars first in as early as one week.  Luxury brands across the board rely heavily on leasing to keep sales from becoming stagnant due to higher actual costs if you were to purchase the vehicle out right.

GM’s Bob Lutz told the Wall Street Journal that they would be using their GMAC lending arm to handle the finances and that they are unsure how long it will be until leasing is once again an option on all models

“The luxury end of the market is very heavy on leasing and as credit frees up, it would be very logical to get back into the portion of the market that we currently don’t compete in, which is the lease market” Lutz told Automotive News.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjBilHH5z2A