Road and Driver

The Renault F1 team made a fresh start in Valencia on Sunday when the R30 was unveiled by the new management, as the French company seeks to distance itself from the Flavio Briatore era.
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The Sauber team unveiled its 2010 contender in Valencia on Sunday afternoon. The car has a Ferrari engine and gearbox as the team renews is association with Maranello after four years of BMW ownership
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Russian GP2 driver Vitaly Petrov was announced as Renaultand#8217;s second driver in Valencia this afternoon.
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Media coverage of 4×4s during recent heavy snowfalls has been positive as have drivers’ efforts

Motorsports editor Mac Morrison interviews American Le Mans Series president Scott Atherton about the state of the series ahead of the 2010 season.
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The 1-series menu now includes a new engine, a new transmission, and—hooray!—free leather upholstery.

Give us leather upholstery any day. It’s easy to clean, is almost always paired with seat heaters, and we hate cows. (OK, we don’t really hate cows. Well, we hate the rude ones.) Nowadays, extended leather packages can be selected to cover the dashboard, infotainment controllers, and more, and Porsche buyers can even get their vent slats covered in the stuff. And so we welcome this minor bit of news: buyers of the BMW 1-series now will be able to opt for leather seats at no charge. It’s true, all 2011 1-series models can be fitted with the totally gratis Value package—previously offered on the 2009 5-series and 328i/xi—which not only adds cowhide seat coverings, but iPod integration, too.

Keep Reading: 2011 BMW 1-series Updated with Single-Turbo N55 Inline-6, Dual-Clutch Transmission – Car News

Related posts:

1. 2011 BMW X6 to Get Single-Turbo N55 Inline-6, 8-Speed Transmission – Car News
2. 2012 BMW 3-series Adds a Turbo Four, Hybrid, and Hatchback to the Range – Car News
3. 2009 Porsche 911 Carrera S – Look for 385 hp and a 7-speed Dual-Clutch PDK Transmission – Spied

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Our long-term fleet is always better with a good hot hatch.

Late last year, the Mazdaspeed 3 went to the tailor and—shazam!—came out as the updated 2010 model. As before, it shares a lot of body parts with the Mazda 3 on which it is based, with a few sporty tweaks like the hood scoop that feeds the top-mounted intercooler. The intercooler and the turbocharged 2.3-liter direct-injection four-cylinder beneath it are unchanged from the previous-gen model.

Keep Reading: 2010 Mazdaspeed 3 – Long-Term Road Test Intro

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Our long-term 2010 Mitsubishi Lancer Sportback Ralliart doesn’t seem to like winter. Stepping from my house into the brisk (5-degree!) Michigan air this morning, I noticed the head- and taillights of our Lancer slowly and faintly flashing on and off. I wonder if the battery’s dead. I approached, grabbed the door handle, and the keyless entry unlocked the door. A good sign. I dropped into the Recaro driver’s seat, turned the ignition knob, and nothing. Bad. Very, very bad.

I went into my garage and pulled out a set of jumper cables. After looking under the hood, it was clear I needed to consult the owner’s manual for instructions on how to access the battery. Unlike the Evo, which stores its battery in the trunk, the Ralliart’s battery is up front and obscured by intake plumbing to feed the turbo. That intake piece has to be removed to get to the battery. Removal requires a Phillips-head screwdriver. Back to the garage I went.

One of the screws came out with no trouble. The other (shown here on the left) just kept spinning inside the outer clip. After fumbling in the cold with it for a few minutes, I decided that it was time for the drill. Another trip to the garage and I had the screw/clip drilled out. With the intake removed, I then had to undo two thumb screws to pull the battery cover. With that out of the way, I managed a successful jump-start (success was assured—Car and Driver is part of the Jumpstart Automotive Group. Go JAG!), drove to work, and left it running in the parking lot to charge. The worst part is that all of this annoyance could have been avoided if Mitsubishi had included a flap on the battery cover to allow access to the positive terminal without the need for power tools.

What drained the battery? Well, I left the headlights switched on, but it’s not that simple and it’s not my fault (honest!). Even though the car yells at you to turn off the lights when you shut it off and get out, it has been our collective experience that the lights actually do turn themselves off, and the owner’s manual confirms that the car is equipped with an auto cut-off system for the lights to prevent this very scenario from taking place. The auto cut-off feature can be turned off by the dealer, so we’ll have them check that it’s functioning correctly the next time the car is in for service.

We’ll have to run some more tests—i.e. try leaving the lights on and check if they do, in fact, go off—to determine what’s up. My mostly uneducated guess is that the extremely cold weather had some part in this, since I am almost certain that the lights were off when I left the car and no other members of my household noticed a car parked in the street with its lights on or flashing.

One final message: Do not tell your co-workers that you’ve left a vehicle running in the parking lot. Said vehicle will not be there when you return.

For more on the Lancer, see the following resources:

• Other long-term logbook entries
• Our long-term introduction story
• Mitsubishi Lancer Buyer’s Guide

Related posts:

1. 2010 Mitsubishi Lancer Sportback Ralliart – Long-Term Road Test Intro
2. 2010 Mitsubishi Lancer Sportback Ralliart – First Drive Review
3. 2008 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution GSR

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