Filed under: Time Warp , Misc. Auto Shows 2009 Greenwich Concours d’Elegance, Day 1 - Click above for a high-res gallery The web is all about immediacy, and by that token, you should have seen these Greenwich Concours d’Elegance photos right after the event happened. Your humble correspondent, however, was juggling the Concours with his own family vacation preparations, and couldn’t deliver in a timely fashion. However, like Dick Nixon , I’m now tanned, rested and ready, so follow the jump for several themed photo galleries and the annual rundown on what you missed if you weren’t able to make the stop in Greenwich, All photos Copyright (C)2008 Alex Núñez / Weblogs, Inc. Continue reading 2009 Greenwich Concours d’Elegance 2009 Greenwich Concours d’Elegance originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 20 Jun 2009 20:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink  |  Email this  |  Comments

Filed under: Motorsports , Supercars , Ferrari , Motorcycles Ducati 1098R - Click above for high-res image gallery While the age-old question of whether the fastest way ’round a race track is on two wheels or four isn’t likely to get a definitive answer, on July 13th at the Ducs Fly South track day at New Jersey Motorsports Park we’ll get another bit of evidence to consider. Three Ferrari Challenge cars will take to the track driven by the staff from Universal Autosports, with each competing against the other to set the fastest lap. Immediately following that hot lap competition, a series of professional instructors and racers from Ducati will perform an identical contest piloting the Italian bikes. You know where this is heading, right? Naturally, the Ferrari Challenge driver and Ducati rider with the fastest laps will go head-to-head in a winner-takes-all race. Wanna watch? No problem - you can even hit the track yourself on your own motorcycle. Click past the break for all the details. Gallery: Ducati 1098 R Continue reading Ducs Fly South event to feature Ferrari vs. Ducati showdown Ducs Fly South event to feature Ferrari vs. Ducati showdown originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 19 Jun 2009 19:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink  |  Email this  |  Comments

2011 Tesla Model S - Click above for hi-res image gallery The guys over at On Cars recently had a chance to spend some quality time with the Tesla Model S and some of the key people bringing this sweet sedan to fruition. In the first of three videos (the other two haven’t been released yet), not only are we treated to some gorgeous shots of the Model S, inside and out, but also have the chance to listen to designer Franz von Holzhausen talk at length about the object of our fastback desire. If you have been paying attention to every detail released about the all-electric so far, there might not be a lot of new material for you here, though interestingly, the Model S does get the year 2011 attached to it. That seems a little soon seeing as a factory hasn’t been built or acquired yet, but we digress. Even if you do happen to know every bit of Model S minutiae, it is nice to hear the passion and excitement Franz has for the project as he talks with ardor about proportion and aerodynamics. You can see why Tesla chief, Elon Musk hired him on in the first place. But enough of our jabbering, hit the jump and check it out for yourself. Gallery: Tesla Model S Gallery: Tesla Model S: LIVE REVEAL [Source: On Cars ] Continue reading VIDEO: Franz von Holzhausen talks Tesla Model S design Filed under: EV/Plug-in , Tesla Motors , USA VIDEO: Franz von Holzhausen talks Tesla Model S design originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Tue, 09 Jun 2009 15:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink  |  Email this  |  Comments

Heard some interesting numbers recently that illustrate just how dramatically our world has changed in the past year. The Meltdown on Wall Street, which not only tipped Chrysler and GM over the edge, but now has almost every other automaker on the planet bleeding cash, has altered the automotive landscape in America forever. Forecasters are predicting U.S. light vehicle sales — that is, cars, pickups and SUVs — will total just 9.7 million units this year and 11 million units in 2010. For context, light vehicle sales in 2000 topped 17.4 million units, and as recently as 2005, 17.0 million units. Last year’s horror sales number — 13.2 million units — now looks like dreamland for automaker sales and marketing chiefs. Those numbers, by the way, are below a worst case scenario — 10.5 million sales in 2009; 11 million in 2010 — outlined in the business plan submitted by Ford to the Senate Banking Committee in Washington last year. Under that scenario, Ford claimed it would need an additional $13 billion in funding in the form of a “stand-by” line of credit. Ford has assiduously avoided taking any government money so far, and been routinely praised in the mainstream media for having gotten its house in order, unlike GM and Chrysler. But how much longer can the Blue Oval boys hold out? What conditions would the government likely impose in return for a loan? Most importantly, in the aftermath of GM and Chrysler, would consumers assume that Ford, too, was on the brink of bankruptcy? Automakers finished 2008 with about 3.1 million units of unsold cars and trucks sitting in dealer lots and holding yards around the country. As of right now, it still has 2.6 million of them left, all 2008 and 2009 models, and aging fast. Deep discounts are inevitable. No surprise, then, that some analysts predict net industry revenue for 2009 will be $80 billion to $100 billion lower than last year. North American vehicle production will fall below 8 million units this year — the lowest total since 1961. That means North American vehicle production will have almost halved in two years, a decline roughly equivalent to closing 35 assembly plants in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Recovery will be slow — production is forecast to rise to 9.7 million units next year, and 11.9 million units in 2011. We’re not likely to see 2007 levels of production, say the number crunchers, until 2014. But here’s the thing: The Detroit Three — assuming Chrysler and GM survive — will be producing at least 2.6 million fewer vehicles a year in their North American plants than they did in 2007, while Asian automakers will be building at least 2.2 million vehicles a year more here. The Europeans — BMW, Mercedes-Benz, VW Group — will likely have increased their North American production by up to 500,000 units a year. “This one’s gonna leave scars.” That was Ford marketing maven Jim Farley’s take on the recession a month or two back. In terms of automobile manufacturing in North America, those scars will be deep and permanent.

DETROIT - I won’t bore you with the financial ups and downs of founder Billy Durant’s career at General Motors. GM was on the brink often between 1908 and the ’20s, but I’d be surprised to find Rick Wagoner running a bowling alley in Flint. The last time GM came this close was much more recently, just 17 years ago, about 14 years into Wagoner’s career. In 1992, GM announced it had lost $23.5 billion in the fiscal year just closed. California’s pension fund found itself over-subscribed on GM stock, and its influence on the Board of Directors led to the “palace coup.” Finance guy Jack Smith replaced car guy Bob Stempel, father of the Oldsmobile Toronado, as the automaker’s chairman. Wagoner, former chairman and CEO, and Fritz Henderson, his replacement as CEO, both are finance department guys. If President Obama’s Treasury department hadn’t ousted Wagoner a couple of months ago, next week’s probable events would have. After months of vowing to keep GM out of bankruptcy, Wagoner would have been the sacrificial lamb next week, when the Obama administration “forces” GM into a pre-arranged Chapter 11. I put “forces” in quotes because all Treasury has to do is refuse to loan GM any more money. In exchange for the bankruptcy filing, GM will get just short of another $30-billion in loan guarantees, The Washington Post reported Friday morning. The government will “steer” GM into bankruptcy just as Chrysler Group LLC (its new name) emerges from its pre-arranged, government-mandated Chapter 11 and deal with Fiat SpA. Free-marketers are up in arms, of course. There’s a pattern of conservative supply-siders blaming the new government for everything that’s happened to GM and Chrysler since January 20. Before January 20, Senator Bob Corker (R-Tennessee), opposed federal “bailouts” for GM and Chrysler because it was unfair to the automakers building non-union cars in his home state. Now, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), is decrying the Obama administration for pushing GM and Chrysler to close a combined 1900 dealerships in the U.S., thedetroitbureau.com reports . To senators like Corker (who, for obvious reasons, couldn’t lead this particular protest) and Hutchinson, it’s more important to preserve dealership jobs and the economic viability of the “small businessmen” who contribute so much to local and state politicians. It’s not just the Republicans, though. After Hutchison tried to amend a war funding bill to give Chrysler’s 789 dealers a stay of execution, according to Congressional Quarterly, Hutchison and Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow (D), “secured assurances from Chrysler President James Press that dealers ‘will receive a fair and equitable value for virtually all of their outstanding vehicles and parts inventory.’” You can bet that senators and House members from both sides of the aisle will meddle with GM and Chrysler in their attempts to keep the Obama administration from running the automakers. Nineteen-hundred dealerships is a big number. GM and Chrysler want to close down more dealerships in the next year than Toyota and Lexus have open. GM and Chrysler can’t afford to operate as smaller, more efficient automakers without creating some pain on their retail franchisees. They also can’t afford to operate without inflicting pain on the United Auto Workers, of course. And even after the historic 2007 Detroit Three-UAW agreements, the UAW Thursday agreed to concessions to make it possible for GM to receive more loan guarantees without filing for bankruptcy. Which leaves one holdout: the bondholders. GM is looking for 90-percent of its bondholders to agree to a deal eliminating $27 billion of the automaker’s debt. The bondholders aren’t expected accept a GM deal by Tuesday’s deadline to take 225 shares of GM for each $1000 of debt. In the end, it will be investors — you and your pension plan, but also the some of the Wall Street weasels that triggered this mess - who will force GM into bankruptcy.

DETROIT - The Associated Press says President Obama will release new vehicle emission standards Tuesday that effectively move up the 2020 Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards of 35 mpg up to the year 2016. The good news is that Obama is expected to call for one national standard, and won’t let California plus 13 other states and the District of Columbia set their own, harsher standard. Obama’s new standard comes as Chrysler LLC slogs though the first 30 days of its pre-arranged Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and in preparation for a now-inevitable Chapter 11 for General Motors. What does this mean to us? Let’s take Chrysler. It has a new 300 and Dodge Charger on the boards, scheduled for the 2011 model year. The new, full-size, rear-drive LXes will be available again with Hemi V-8s, but Chrysler probably would emphasize its new, 3.6L V-6, originally called “Phoenix” and developed with Mercedes-Benz and Hyundai, now renamed “Pentastar.” The second-generation Chrysler 300/Dodge Charger’s lifecycle should end after the 2016 or ‘17 model year, based on their current lifecycles. The easy thing for Chrysler to do would be to end 300/Charger production by the 2016 model year, when the new standards are likely to kick in. Of course, Fiat Auto will have a great deal of say on whether Chrysler continues to build anything larger and thirstier than the Italian company’s own models. On the other hand, Chrysler could take the attitude of Hyundai’s John Krafcik, and design a third-generation LX, perhaps the Chrysler version only, that would become a low-volume flagship car by design, rather than consumer demand. That’s what Hyundai plans for its new rear-drive Genesis sedan and coupe (and possibly, the Equus) while selling high-volume, front-drive small cars to meet the 35-mpg CAFE. And to make a third-gen 300, Chrysler could look to technology like ex-owner Daimler’s 2.2L turbodiesel-powered Mercedes E250 Bluetec, with an expected 28/39 mpg EPA rating, or 32.1 mpg average. Close to the 35-mpg average with a large, rear-drive sedan. And the diesel four is said to make nearly as much torque as Mercedes’ own turbodiesel V-6. A 32.1-mpg diesel puts out 0.69 pounds of CO2 per mile, versus 0.60 per mile for a 32.1-mpg gas-powered car. But it’s still close enough to the standard that Mercedes could sell some of those as long as it sells a larger number of, say, B-Classes and C-Class hybrids. And keep in mind that the CAFE standard as written based on the 2007 law uses a “footprint” to determine the standard. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which wrote the rule, wants all cars and trucks, big and small, to show improved fuel economy by ‘20, by meeting a complicated formula. Now Obama wants to apply that standard four years early, to meet his goal of reducing greenhouse gases by 30 percent. (The Detroit Bureau reports that the 2016 car standard will be 40-mpg and the truck standard will be 26 mpg. Under the NHTSA standard for 2020, both cars and trucks were to meet a 35 mpg CAFE standard.) We can complain all we want. Automakers did, and prevented any increases in the 27.5-mpg standard since 1985. Now they’ll have to rush to meet a new standard in roughly one model lifecycle. The new rule will make it hard for anyone — from GM, Ford and Chrysler to Toyota, Nissan, BMW and Volkswagen — to sell any V-8s in volume and to sell large, high profit-margin cars and trucks. Honda’s on-hold V-8 and rear-drive Acura platform undoubtedly will be on hold indefinitely. Only Hyundai and Mercedes, so far, have indicated they have the foresight and the plans to keep large rear-drive cars in showrooms after 2016.

The Corsa Motorsports Ginetta-Zytek 09HS hybrid LMP1 car is running in competition for the first time this weekend at the Utah Grand Prix at Miller Motorsports park. The new car arrived from the UK just last weekend and prior to hitting the track in Utah has run only once since being completed. Driver Johnny Mowlem and team owner Steve Pruitt spoke with Green Fuels Forecast this week about the new car and revealed some details. The lithium ion battery pack supplied by Continental is basically the same unit that will be going into the new Mercedes-Benz S400 hybrid this summer. During last week’s shake down test at Silverstone in England, Mowlem completed a full lap on electric drive only hitting a top speed of 75 mph. Besides looking for a performance and efficiency advantage (a plus in endurance racing) Pruitt also wants to use the program to promote and advocate for more alternative powertrain and battery development in the United States. More details about the car’s drivetrain are available at Green Fuels Forecast . With almost no track testing before the race it should come as no surprise that the early lap times at Utah were disappointing. The new car qualified 4.5 seconds a lap slower than the leading Acura of de Ferran Motorosports. [Source: Green Fuels Forecast ] Filed under: Hybrid , Racing Corsa Motorsports Ginetta-Zytek hybrid running this weekend originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Sat, 16 May 2009 19:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Read  |  Permalink  |  Email this  |  Comments

DETROIT - Some of the stories tug at the heart. One Birmingham, Alabama, car dealer whose family has owned the business since 1908 lost his Chrysler-Jeep dealership Thursday, when Chrysler LLC announced 789 dealers will close down “on or about June 9.” He told The New York Times he was anxiously awaiting word on Friday about the fate of his Buick dealership — given the age of that brand, likely the one his great-grandfather started with 101 years ago. General Motors said Friday that roughly 1100 “underperforming” dealers out of its surviving 5969 would get letters informing them they will stop getting shipments of cars and trucks by the end of 2010. It’s up to the dealers to name themselves, GM said. The automaker will not release a list. So as of today, we can feel sorry for about 1900 small business-people across the nation, plus their salespeople, mechanics and other personnel who will lose their livelihoods in the next 18 months or so. Many of those “small businesspeople” — perhaps most — are (or were) millionaires. Many of them own other dealerships; say the 1400 operated under the Toyota banner, or another 280 Lexus dealerships in the U.S. At least a few must be like the Studebaker dealership operating in my childhood neighborhood, which switched to Fiat shortly after Studebaker went away in 1966. That Fiat dealership is long gone, so it can’t take advantage of that brand’s impending return to the U.S. You’ll notice that our friend, the Birmingham Chrysler-Jeep dealer is not Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep. Much of the 789 that Chrysler cut the other day are smaller dealerships that failed to keep up with the “Genesis Program,” which sought to triple all Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep dealers. This gives Chrysler, now in Chapter 11, the opportunity to cut duplicate, badge-engineered cars like the Chrysler Sebring and Dodge Avenger. If the Birmingham dealer hasn’t combined his Buick store with GMC, he’s more likely to be among GM’s 1100 eliminated. Meanwhile, Chrysler placed perhaps the most entertainingly transparent “positive spin” on its cuts announced Thursday . “Chrysler files papers to retain majority of dealer network,” its release read. This glass-half-full take is that 2392 of its 3181 dealers get to stay in business…assuming, of course, the automaker emerges from the other side of the 30- to 60-day bankruptcy. After that, Chrysler will be much smaller and leaner, with Fiats and Alfa Romeos rebadged as small Dodges and maybe Chryslers. Probably not Jeeps: Fiat could do to Chrysler what Chrysler did to AMC. About 1986, Chrysler Corporation bought American Motors and eventually stripped down that automaker (remember the AMC-Renault Eagle Medallion?) to Jeep. Across town, GM seems to be racing the economy in closing down its dealerships. It had about 6280 dealers by the end of 2008, already down some 400 from the previous year. Now, it has 5969, and its viability plan to the U.S. Treasury plans on 3600 dealerships by the end of 2010. GM dealers about to get notices make up 1100 of that nearly 2400. Another 470 Saturn, Hummer and Saab dealers soon won’t be part of the GM family, one way or another. The New York Times reported in April that Saturn lost 45 of its 420 stores after GM announced it would end support of the brand. By the time CEO and President Fritz Henderson announced Pontiac will go away, there were only 35 standalone Pontiac dealerships in the U.S. (It has traditionally been a big brand in Canada, sometimes selling at Chevrolet levels, but Canadian franchise laws make it easier for GM to close those contracts than in each of our 50 states.) That leaves about 800 dealers that GM figures will close due to attrition by the end of ‘10, unless it needs to make another cut after the initial 1100. There’s one other aspect to the problem of American-brand auto dealers. Ford Motor Company today has 3723 Ford and Lincoln-Mercury dealerships in the U.S., more than GM plans to have by the end of next year. Ford began cutting dealers in 2005, when it had 4393 in the U.S.A Ford spokeswoman notes that the company has worked with dealers to rationalize coverage in places like Buffalo, New York, which had 17 dealers in the metro area in ‘05 and has 11 now. Each dealer sells more cars and trucks, on average, and is more profitable, both because of the higher volume and because there’s less inter-brand competition. Ford will need to cut more dealers to keep up with GM, assuming that GM’s market share in the U.S. remains higher than Ford’s (and Toyota’s). Neither GM nor Ford will get down to the 1680 Toyota and Lexus dealers in the U.S., because both companies still have loyal customers in rural areas where Toyota, so far, has much fewer dealerships. (That explains as much as anything why the Tundra has been a sales failure, so far.) GM and Chrysler’s actions this past week will put longtime family dealerships out of business, while contributing to the nation’s soaring unemployment rate. In the long run, it should make GM, Chrysler and their dealerships more profitable. Fewer dealerships will make it easier to cut production to rational levels. Which brings up one drawback: it’ll be harder to get a killer deal on your 2011 GM or Chrysler vehicle.

DETROIT - General Motors CEO and President Fritz Henderson upheld his promise for regular updates on the automaker’s restructuring Monday morning, saying GM would be open to selling factories slated to be closed (probably no one is interested in buying capacity, right now, however). He declined to clear up the question of how much influence GM will have if/when it sells majority interest in Opel. Henderson said GM would release a list later this week on which dealers will be notified that they will stop getting product shipments by the end of 2009 . Meanwhile, GM is racing toward its June 1 deadline to file its latest reorganization plan with the U.S. Treasury’s automotive task force. Henderson reiterated that it’s “more probable that we would need to accomplish our goals under bankruptcy…but there’s still an opportunity and a chance for it to be done outside a court process.” Henderson’s comment on selling North American factories slated for closure was in response to a question about GM’s Wilmington, Delaware, factory. It builds Kappa products Pontiac Solstice, Saturn Sky and Opel GT. Rumors surfaced last week that Roger Penske is interested in working with Nissan/Renault and Saturn dealers to buy the Saturn brand . That would leave Penske & Co. with nothing more than a dealer network, which included about 400 Saturn stores at the beginning of the year, but now is certainly much smaller. Nissan has plenty of unused automaking capacity in North America, and Penske could partner with that automaker to build cars rebadged as Saturns until Penske and the Saturn dealers found another manufacturing source. The Wilmington Kappa plant is a relatively low-capacity, rear-wheel-drive factory that should appeal to a car guy like Penske. The bigger question is whether Penske, the businessman, would see it as viable. Remember, this is an unconfirmed rumor, right now. Henderson did say that no potential buyers for any of GM’s divisions for sale have expressed interest in North American plants. Henderson said GM has been talking with “a number of parties” regarding sale of the Saturn distribution channel ( Magna International and Oleg Deripaska, one of Russia’s richest men, have been rumored as possible interested parties ). On Hummer, Henderson said GM is now negotiating with two parties on its potential sale. “I was hoping to get it done in April,” he said, but now expects a deal by the end of May. And GM is looking to sell Saab , despite completing development of its new 9-5 and the Cadillac SRX-based 9-4x crossover. Saab, which has filed for bankruptcy protection in Sweden, is conducting negotiations, Henderson said. “That’s a process we respect … we support it, but don’t run it.” Which brings us back to the whole issue of GM’s Opel/Vauxhall. I’ve been skeptical of the motives and potential results of GM gutting its Western European operations in order to raise money. Henderson reiterated in an online chat following his press conference that the U.S. government wants GM to spend loan guarantees on U.S. operations and American jobs, and the company needs funding to support its expensive operations in Germany and elsewhere in Western Europe. And no, you can’t pin this on the Obama administration; news that GM might sell a majority interest in Opel surfaced late last year, while GM was looking for loan guarantees from the Bush administration. A similar provision connected to federal loans in the late 1970s caused Chrysler Corporation to shut down most of its overseas operations and become a regional automaker, perhaps its biggest problem after Daimler sold it off in 2007. The question is, would Opel under majority Fiat or Magna ownership continue to integrate with GM’s North American operations, taking the same path as Ford Motor Company? Henderson said he expects a partnership in Europe could result in substantial cooperative benefits for GM. He noted that GM owns just a bit more than 50-percent of the South Korean partnership with Daewoo ( which developed the 2011 Chevy Cruze ). Still, “things change if you own 100 percent, versus part-owned.” Henderson said that the nature of GM’s relationship with Opel, which it has owned since the late 1920s, is part of negotiations with various interested parties and declined any further comments. The results of a GM-Opel-Fiat deal are intriguing. Consider a post-bankruptcy GM that partners with Fiat Auto (which, I repeat, does not include Ferrari or Maserati) and is therefore connected with Chrysler, after all. Fiat already uses a premium front-drive platform developed under the blunted early-00’s partnership (the one that resulted in GM paying $2-billion to Fiat to avoid buying it) with GM, mostly for its Alfa Romeos.

Location: Tire Rack Headquarters, South Bend, Indiana Distance traveled: 3265 miles Well, as Hank Williams Jr. says, it’s all over but the crying. The 2009 Tire Rack One Lap of America is officially in the books. As you read in our final race report , Day 8 finished up where it all began, at Tire Rack’s Headquarters in South Bend, Indiana. And while first position overall might have been a foregone conclusion, second place narrowly missed becoming available as the battle between third and fourth intensified. But those are just the details . In a day or two, as racing suits are washed and road weary muscles relax, as hearing returns and body clocks reset, the importance lap times, point differences, and finishing order will fuzz and fade.  More important memories will persist . As we wandered from track to track, a number of competitors asked if I was enjoying myself and what I thought of my first One Lap. Many of the veterans were interested in how it all appeared to my fresh set of eyes . So here, in no particular order, are a few things I witnessed during 8 days and 3265 miles on the road with the 2009 Tire Rack One Lap of America : I saw middle-aged men with serious faces rollerblade carefully around a race track at 8:15a.m. in the morning. I saw Godzilla belch fire and a V-8 Frankenstein chew up its competition. I saw wide-eyed rookies become seasoned veterans with thousand-yard stares – by Tuesday afternoon. I saw red lights, break outs and some pretty awful drag racing. I saw guys who routinely fix the human body, struggle to get a mechanical horse running. I saw a Chevy HHR  pass not one but two cars low on the inside banking at Daytona. I saw fathers and sons forge enduring bonds through the adversity, excitement and sheer lunacy that is One Lap. I saw impressive tracks — big and small — all for the very first time. Daytona and Sebring lived up to the hype, but I was surprised by the beauty and quality of Autobahn Country Club and Carolina Motorsports Park. I saw talent beat money and experience. I saw the best fried chicken and okra in Kershaw, South Carolina – but not for long. I saw skill emerge in extreme situations — when grip gave way to slip, brakes failed, and 31 degrees of banking demolished a tire. I saw 90 degrees Fahrenheit on a thermometer at Sebring – but swore it was hotter. I saw 51 degrees at South Bend, but knew it was colder. I saw the bottom of far too many styrofoam cups of hotel coffee. I saw two Canadians turn a strip of tarmac into their very own slip and slide. I saw courage in a corkscrew and hope crushed in a chicane. I saw fear, disappointment, and frustration on a few racer’s faces — but never saw it last longer than the transit to the next venue. I saw a group of passionate racing nuts, refreshingly devoid of ego and attitude, display genuine camaraderie in spite of intense competitiveness. Did I see everything? Not a chance — but perhaps I will next year. Read the whole story in the August 2009 issue of Motor Trend . Can’t wait that long? Then click on the links below: 2009 One Lap Videos: Video 1 Video 2 Video 3 Video 4 Video 5 More 2009 One Lap Coverage: 2009 One Lap of America photo gallery 2009 One Lap of America Complete coverage -Photos by Brian Vance, click on any image to view the photo gallery