Swift Car Insurance

If there's one way to convince buyers of the advantages of smaller displacement engines with fewer cylinders, it's to do it through motorsports. And now General Motors is marking its return to the IndyCar Series with a new twin-turbocharged, direct-injected V6 racing engine powered by renewable E85 ethanol fuel that will essentially replace the older V8 program. The new, purpose-built Chevy IndyCar engine will be co-developed by General Motors and Ilmor Engineering.

Previously, Chevy took part in Indy-style competition as an engine manufacturer in 1986-93 and 2002-05 with V8 engines, winning 104 races, powering six driver champions, and achieving a total of seven Indianapolis 500 victories.

"Our vision is to design, build and sell the world's best vehicles – and racing is one of the best ways to showcase what we can do," said Tom Stephens, GM vice chairman, Global Product Operations. "Re-entering IndyCar racing will help us take our advanced engine technology to the upper bounds of what's possible. And it will also provide a dynamic training ground for engineers, who'll transfer the technologies we develop for racing to the products we sell to our customers.

GM's IndyCar V6 turbo will have a displacement of just 2.4 liters and feature will an aluminum block and cylinder heads. According to the company, the V6 will be a fully stressed chassis member supporting the gearbox and rear suspension. GM said more technical details and specifications will be released at a later date.

"Our return to IndyCar as Chevrolet enters its centennial year is natural," says Chris Perry, vice president of Chevrolet Marketing. "At the same time this engine program will be a showcase for the efficient and powerful engine technologies that parallel new Chevrolet vehicles like the Camaro, all-new Cruze compact and Equinox crossover."

In celebration of the International Rally Championship (IRC) title won by its Fabia S2000, Skoda has rolled out a limited-run edition version of its road-going Fabia RS hot hatch dressed in the firm's racing colors. All 200 examples of the car will be painted in a Rally Green finish with a white roof, white alloy wheels and stickers from the rally-spec S2000 model.

There are no other changes over the stock model, which was presented for the first time at this year's Geneva International Motor Show. As a result, the limited edition Fabia RS gets the same 1.4-liter twin-charged petrol engine with 180-horsepower and a seven-speed dual-clutch DSG transmission with paddle-shifters transferring power to the front wheels.

Since changing colors has no affect on performance, the Edition S2000 is as fast as the normal Fabia RS reaching the 100km/h mark in 7.3 seconds while topping out at 225km/h or 140mph.

The VW Group owned maker has not yet released pricing for the Fabia RS Edition S2000.

Here's a car race with a difference: an automotive remake of the classic Tortoise and the Hare story, starring a Fiat 500 as the tortoise and a Koenigsegg CCX as the hare. Well, not a real 500 and CCX; these are 1:24 scale models, and the whole thing is filmed in stop motion. It was made by Swedish filmmaker and photographer Robin Danehav as an advertisement for Binero, a Swedish webhosting service.

That's why this video is called 'Binero vs. Loopia', with Loopia being Binero's major competitor in what is no doubt a hotly contested segment of the market (well, I guess there are over 9 million potential customers in Sweden).

I think the moral here is...if you want fast webhosting, go for Loopia, but if you want webhosting that really cares and likes Apple products...try Binero? Eh, there must be something lost in translation, I think. Anyways, it's a cute video all the same and very well made.

Check it out and let us know what you think.

By Tristan Hankins

British car magazine Auto Express, has crowned the Ferrari 458 Italia their 2011 Performance Car of the Year (PCOTY). The magazine chose the Italian supercar from a list of 20 contenders, including other big names like the Audi V10 Spyder, Porsche GT3 RS, BMW M3 Competition and Mercedes SLS AMG. The Honda CR-Z, Renault Twingo Cup 133 and Skoda Fabia RS were the more down-to-earth cars of the group. Watch the video summary after the break to see what makes the F458 this year's performance car in AE's opinion.

By Csaba Daradics

Former Russian President and now Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is doing his best to remain in the spotlight. After his country decided to back the Renault F1 team, by branding it with Lada advertisements, Mr. Putin was invited to drive the R30 Formula One racer at a special event held in St. Petersburg. Video after the break.

Wearing a helmet painted in his country's colors and with Russia written on the visor, Vladimir Putin is said to have reached speeds of up to 240 km/h (150 mph), showing that he is a man of many talents.

The PM's interest towards the sport is also due to the fact that Russia's bid to hold an F1 event after the Sochi Olympics in 2014 was successful as the deal was signed less than a month ago.

By Csaba Daradics