15:56:56

14 great reasons to visit the 'Ring

If you pick the right day to visit Germany's Nurburgring, you'll see more hot new metal than you would at any motor show, and one Autocar reader has just proved that to be true.

Long time Autocar fan Peter Brown visited the Nordschleife last week and snapped no fewer than 14 top-secret development mules doing flat-out laps. You can see his pictures in our gallery.

Among the cars he caught are the Aston Martin DBS, Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione, Mercedes C63 AMG, Vauxhall Insignia, the new BMW X6 and the next 7-series, and Lexus's ISF.

Peter also caught a rare shot of Jaguar's supercharged XF, the XFR, with all four wheels off the ground, and a couple of less readily identifiable mules; one of them's likely to be a chassis mule for Audi's Q5, and the other a BMW M5 with interesting flared arches.

20:27:28

Big 3 Ponder Pawning Health Care On Unions

There's a silver lining in the Detroit automakers' financial distress. Things appear so bad that the companies and their main labor union might agree to something radical.

Right now, a growing burden of retiree health care costs is one of the biggest challenges facing Ford, General Motors, and a soon-to-be-independent Chrysler.

That liability one not shared by competitors like Toyota and Honda goes a long way toward explaining why German-based DaimlerChrysler views its Chrysler Group as a clunker to be sold no matter the price. And it explains why the private investment firm Cerberus had to offer so little this month to become the buyer.

In this climate, a once-unthinkable idea is being seriously discussed: In effect, spin the health care problem off to the labor union.

9:02:25

Kubica Visits Bridgestone Poznan Tyre Plant

Employees at Bridgestones Poznan production plant in Poland enjoyed a day with BMW Sauber F1 driver Robert Kubica, who took time away from the track to pay them a visit. Polands star driver, who is currently nursing a leg injury after a horror crash at the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal, toured the factory and saw how tyres are made before choosing Polands winner of the Bridgestone dreams at heArt childrens drawing competition.

He turned a few heads on the way, chatting to staff on the production line and signing autographs for a lucky few of his enormous fan club in Poland. The Kubica visit was part of official celebrations for the completion of the final expansion phase at the Poznan plant, raising daily production capacity to 22,000 tyres. The increased output will help meet growing demand across Europe for Bridgestones high-performance passenger car tyres.

14:09:29

Auto stocks lose speed on slowdown worries

Auto stocks are in a bear grip on concerns of a slowdown in sales. The ET Auto index has lost 15% of its value since the beginning of March this year. The first two months of the current fiscal reveal not very encouraging numbers. While the growth in passenger cars has slowed down, commercial vehicle makers are reporting negative growth. Two-wheeler manufacturers — Hero Honda, Bajaj Auto and TVS Motor — are trying to cope up with declining sales in their 'bread & butter' 100cc motorcycles. And going forward prospects don't look too bright. Analysts and industry insiders believe there could be a further slowdown in auto sales. This may just spell bad news for auto investors. However, a closer look at auto numbers for April-May 2007 shows that the scenario is not as bleak as it appears to be at first glance.