The first publicly-accessible hydrogen filling station in the German state of Baden-Württemberg opened this week at Stuttgart Airport. The station is being operated by OMV and was built in cooperation with Daimler and chemical supplier Linde. The new station utilizes Linde’s ion-compressor technology and supports both 350 BAR and 700 BAR filling. Aside from Honda’s FCX Clarity, which stores hydrogen at 350 BAR, most other automakers have moved to 700 BAR storage which allows for a greater range. The new station is the first such project for OMV, which operates 400 gas stations in Germany. Daimler is planning to launch low volume series production of the B-Class F-Cell later this year. Linde produces the hydrogen for this station from steam reformation of natural gas which cuts CO 2 emissions 30 percent compared to modern diesel engines. Linde is also working on a new process to produce hydrogen from biogenic feedstocks. A pilot production facility using this process should be coming online later this year. The Daimler press release is after the jump. Gallery: Stuttgart Airport H2 station [Source: Daimler] Continue reading Baden-Württemberg, Germany gets its first public hydrogen filling station Filed under: Hydrogen , Daimler Baden-Württemberg, Germany gets its first public hydrogen filling station originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Fri, 19 Jun 2009 14:02:00 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.

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.

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

The Navy SEALS have a saying — the only easy day was yesterday. Not so in the 2009 Tire Rack One Lap of America. The only easy day is, in fact, today — and tomorrow looks pretty good too. Why? Because we’re in the home stretch of this year’s event. After a brutal day 6 that included two time trials at Carolina Motorsports Park and a third at BMW’s Performance Center, One Lappers then fought rain, fog and the fatigue of a 9-hour transit to Wampum, Pennsylvania. Clear skies, mild temperatures, and a relaxed schedule greet the bleary eyed racers at BeaveRun Motorsports Complex. So does a fast, deceptively simple looking, squiggle of tarmac. This is another Alan Wilson-designed track (Autobahn Country Club and CMP are the two others we’ve been to this week) and we’re starting to notice the similarities: clean corners, oodles of run-off, and layouts that look easy but require both skill and guts. There is a gentle rise in the fast run down the front straight shielding the entrance to turn one. Experience is rewarded here, as competitors have only three laps in each of the two time trials to figure out proper braking points and the fastest line on this 12-turn track. Yates Jr. tells us the name of the game is late apexing everything, but track tactics take a backseat to the endgame strategy, as we overhear during the first session… “We got the Subie by 4-seconds. Maybe somebody can slip in there…” “GT-R would be stupid to go all out at this point…and they ain’t stupid.” After yesterday’s epic battles, Team Cannonball seems to have first place locked down. They don’t need to win or place to take maintain their lead, just stay comfortably in the points. Same goes for the Lier and Stewart Porsche GT2 . Barring massive stupidity or a catastrophic failure by Taylor and Rankins’ GT-R , second place is guranteed. The battle is now for third place, between Tony Wiesenhahn’s Subaru WRX and the Jones/Collado BMW M3 . At the start of the day, 35 points is the difference between these 3rd and 4th place teams. See the full results here . Other questions linger in the paddocks; we know that the Freedom Autosports Nissan GT-R and BMW M6 have officially exited the competition. Same goes for the 600 hp WRX STI . We haven’t seen the red 1965 Mustang in a few days and no one seems to know where they are. The fast lapping GTI of Noble and Unwin is missing as well, but word is they have decided to skip BeaveRun to fix a damaged O2 sensor or fuel pump and will reappear at the skidpad finale at Tire Rack. They better, their class win is on the line. We’ve made the turn and are heading to finish line. After BeaveRun we transit a breezy 239 miles through Ohio tonight on our way to back to Tire Rack headquarters in South Bend, Indiana, where it all began . There the plan is to hit the skidpad and then release stress in a gross display of horsepower. After that, all that is left is to tally up the points and pop open the bottles of bubbly. Check out the action as it happens at www.motortrend.com/onelap. -Photos by Brian Vance, click on any image to view the photo gallery

Location 1: Carolina Motorsports Park, Camden, South Carolina Distance Traveled: 2310 miles “I told my co-driver I was going to get all I could.  I wasn’t planning on getting that much.”                                                      - Dan Corcoran on “The Slide” at CMP Camden, South Carolina, is famous for nothing but a gem of a race track known as Carolina Motorsports Park (CMP). Located an hour away from the racing mecca that is Charlotte, North Carolina, CMP is the only road course in the Carolinas and has quietly become the de facto circuit testing facility for a number of top spec teams. From Joe Gibbs to JPM, Jimmy Johnson to Junior, every major NASCAR team has tested in some form or another at CMP. Other fans of this tidy, Alan Wilson-designed circuit include everyone from ALMS teams to AMA superbike squads. Even though the track is only 10 years old, recent improvements to the configuration have made it smoother and tighter. Unfortunately, showers last night make it slippery this morning. “I might have used full throttle only for a bit on the front straight,” says Ian Stewart of the front running Porsche team. “It was just too slippery.” Dan Corcoran can attest to that; conservative estimates put the length of his epic first session slide at three football fields (that’s American football, not Canadian, eh ).  “On the reconnaissance lap I was trying the traction and thought it was pretty good,” he says afterward. “At the kink, I thought it was planted when I got back on throttle but then — nothing .” Well, except for a lurid 900-foot slide in trackside turf that sent spectators and fellow competitors hootin’ and hollerin’. Not to be outdone, fellow Canadian Bill Unwin executes his own sphincter-clencher almost immediately after Corcoran — in the exact same spot. “I just went in too hot. I’ve been here in the dry, but when I slowed down for the kink in the wet, it wasn’t enough,” says Unwin. “I normally go 110 mph, but I slowed down to 100 mph. Guess I was about 5 mph too fast when I lifted,” he concludes with a sheepish grin. As the rest of the run groups tackle the 2.23-mile course, the skies clear. The combination of the hot laps and sunshine dry out the track, a development that is met with furrowed brows instead of relieved smiles. This is the nightmare the front runners have been hoping to avoid; as track dries out, traction improves, which means off track excursions are less frequent and dramatic. But better traction also means faster lap times, and the possibility of interlopers jumping between the points hungry front runners. That is exactly what happens. The Team Cannonball Nissan GT-R and Team Cannonball Fodder Porsche GT2 have been trading a five point lead up until now. In the rapidly drying first session of hot laps, the Clark ‘n’ Clark Corvette Z06 manages to sneak in between the two frenemies . The Porsche team improves their lot in the second round, coming in second to the GT-R, but the damage is already done . Can they make up ground at our next stop? Location 2: BMW Performance Center, Greer, South Carolina Distance traveled: 2454 miles We’ve seen a lot so crazy stuff so far, but after a 120 mile hike up to Greer, South Carolina, it is hard to tell which is more impossible to believe — the course BMW has laid out for us or that teams actually stay long enough to run it. This is a magical event — which means if you blink, you’ll miss it. We’d love to explore BMW’s groovy visitor center, fondle items in the gift shop and take some tire-smoking laps with the M Performance Driving School pros, but there just isn’t time. Teams are rolling out just as fast as they roll in; anxious to drive this tight and twisty track, but even more eager to begin knocking down some of the monster mileage between Greer and our next track in Wampum, Pennsylvania. Though this brief event calls for one session of two hot laps, it is not to be overlooked or underestimated. It is the Napoleon of One Lap; short, difficult, and extremely dangerous. The upper portion is straightforward connect-the-dots racing, but to get to the back section, drivers must dive into BMW’s homage to the corkscrew — an eighth scale version of Laguna Seca’s infamous, stomach dropping, left-right free fall. If the prospect of launching Dukes-of-Hazard style doesn’t seem so scary, consider this: there is essentially no run-off here, just shiny Armco abutting the track, and the entry is blind. The pavement simply moves a bit up, then quickly left and down. Do it wrong and things could get really ugly, really fast. Which is why Yates Jr. and the Performance Driving School folks have tweaked the 1.4-mile course in the name of safety. A string of cones — each worth a score trashing 10-seconds — alters the line into the corkscrew, lowering entry speeds and chances of an impromptu airshow. Another set of cones creates a nasty chicane along the front straight, which reduces speeds into the start/finish area. Naturally, all of these conical joy-killers are front of mind, especially for the teams in overall contention. “If we hit a cone here or do something stupid, they’re right back in it,” says Team Cannonball’s Will Taylor of his chief rival, the GT2 of Lier and Stewart. Taylor’s words turn out to be prophetic, though backwards. After the first session nightmare at CMP, Stewart needs to put the hurt on Taylor’s GT-R — and he does, coming in at a blistering 2:39.048 for first place. But wait, he clipped two cones in the chicane for a crushing 20-second penalty. That drops the GT2 from 1st to 19th position for the event, and gives a 90 point advantage to the GT-R on top of the 15 points they picked up in morning. Lier and Stewart will need more than a miracle at one of the last two venues. Will they get it? Whether they coned it or ran clean, teams quickly say goodbye to the BMW course and face the most grueling part of day 6. From Greer, SC, One Lappers now must cross three states and 550 miles through rain, fog and the dead of night. Wampum, Pennsylvania’s BeaveRun beckons at 8 a.m. tomorrow. See you there or at www.MotorTrend.com/onelap. -Photos by Brian Vance, click on any image to view the photo gallery

Location: Daytona International Speedway, Daytona Beach, Florida Distance Traveled: 1871 miles “Wish I had a few practice laps,” says Mike Renner, one of the drivers of the BMW Performance School M3 , while looking agog at the massive track we find ourselves at on Day 5. “That’s the toughest thing about One Lap of America. You show up and you gotta go.” This is also one of the most incredible aspects of One Lap. Founders Brock Yates and Brock Yates, Jr. have such strong and deep connections in the racing world that One Lap competitors really can just show (up) and go (really fast) at nearly any track in the country. Take our experience this morning. At 8:07 a.m. we pull up to Daytona’s Gate 40 to sign a waiver and receive a kelly green ticket (no silly wristband here). By 8:16 a.m, we’re crawling around the pits, grabbing “ Suggett-esque ” video tracking shots of the paddock and simply gawking at the spectacle that is the 480 acre Daytona International Speedway. Same goes for the teams. After signing in, they drive into the 180-acre infield, take one of the dozens of garage spaces in the Speedway’s ginourmous paddock area, empty their vehicles, and then stage up for hot laps. This is the kind of fast, unfettered access that makes One Lap worth the price of admission. Did I mention that Daytona is a Seven-Wonders-Of-The-Modern-World huge? The infield is dwarfed on both sides by massive grandstands said to seat a total of 170,000 race fans. When you’re standing in the paddock on a quiet Wednesday morning, that number actually seems on the low side. I regularly visit the 92,000 seat Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles and Daytona’s grandstands look at least twice as large. Daytona is fast as well — the fastest track One Lap competitors will see this year. Even on street legal tires, many of the faster cars in the group will see in excess of 160 mph on the back straight of this 3.56 mile, 16 turn road course. Then there is banking to consider; in the 24 Hours of Daytona endurance race configuration One Lap runs here, turns 8, 9, 14 and 15 are on the Speedway’s famous 31 degree banking. Does any of this make our competitors nervous?   “Yeah, a little,” says Kevin Hirschberg, a three-year veteran of One Lap and driver of the Rice University BMW M3 . “But it’s exciting to be here.” Exciting? Tell that to the Vein Solutions team whose Mustang GT missed last night’s drag racing because of brake issues. “We spent two hours with the car on the rack at a local Ford dealership,” says Dr. Phil Munschauer, one of the drivers. “They couldn’t figure out what the problem was because we’re not running a stock ECU, so we disconnected the ABS,” he says.“Now we’ve got all sorts of lights on in the dash — and no ABS.” How will this affect their Mustang’s performance on Daytona’s high-speed banking and infamous “bus stop” chicane? “We just don’t know, so we’re a little nervous,” Munschauer admits. This is a common theme heard throughout the paddock, no matter whether you’re talking to a rookie or veteran. Slower teams worry about things like what line to take in the banking and how to negotiate the high-speed straightaways. As we reported earlier , the front runners must contend with issues including front end lift at 170 mph, high speed spins, and how to keep things cool in the hot and humid weather. It’s refreshing to hear that despite all this stress, a few One Lappers have found a way to keep things light. This is of growing importance as we grind past One Lap’s halfway mark. “We have a little inside bet with the No. 28 BMW M3 and the maroon Boxster since we’re all from the same town in Colorado,” says Tony Song (pictured at left) of the Lotus Elise team. “It doesn’t matter if we finish 57th as long as the others guys finish below us. Then they have to hang a photo of us — the winning team — in their living room for a year!” For one of the front-running teams the fun stops here. Freedom Autosports, less than 24 hours from scorching the field in low E.T. event at Gainesville Raceway , decides to throw in the towel and head home — taking both their Nissan GT-R and BMW M6 with them. Cooling problems have been plaguing the GT-R since Sebring, and since the team is based in Florida, they’ve decided to keep heading south, instead turning around like the rest of us. Daytona is the last One Lap adventure in sunny Florida and the furthest south we are going. From here we head north through Georgia, to Carolina Motorsports Park. Follow along at www.MotorTrend.com/onelap . -Photos by Brian Vance, click on any image to view the photo gallery

Location: Gainesville Raceway, Gainesville, Florida Distance Traveled: 1743 miles After the war of attrition that was Sebring , we don’t expect to see many happy faces after the 200 mile hike north to Gainesville Raceway — home of the NHRA’s Gatornationals. Suprisingly, wides smiles and blaring car stereos greet us when we pull in for the second half of One Lap’s most grueling day . After a tech/safety inspection, Gainesville Raceway’s Dan Robertson — looking like a tall Johnny Cash in his dark black cowboy hat — gives interested drivers a quick primer on the basics of drag racing. He covers everything from where to line up, how to stage, and what to do when the light goes green. It’s a basic run through, but important as there are just as many drag rookies here today as there were autocross newbies on Sunday . During the tutorial, competitors seem pumped (or is it punch drunk?) and ready for some good ol’ fashioned drag racing. The event is scheduled for two hours, but for some, the first competition will be over in just a few seconds. This is a flat out acceleration contest that looks deceptively simple. When the light goes green, you just go hell-for-leather down the strip, right? Reaction times (R/T) and redlighting don’t matter, just the lowest elapsed time (E.T.) through the quarter mile. Well it isn’t as easy as it sounds. There are no practice runs, so competitors get only one shot to find their lowest E.T.. Competitors with automatic or fancy dual clutch transmissions often have an edge here — simply flat foot it and hold on. Launching with a manual gearbox — especially in a high horsepower sports car — is a tricky bit of business due to the sticky, VHT-treated tarmac. Drop the clutch too quickly and you can bog or roast the tires. Drop it too slow and you risk roasting your clutch as traction overwhelms the tires.   With that in mind, it is no surprise that the top two finishers in the lowest E.T. event are Nissan GT-Rs; Team Freedom Autosport rips off an 11.286 second run against Team Cannonball ’s 11.393 . In third place is another familiar front runner, the 11.772 second, manually-shifted, Porsche GT2 of Lier and Stewart. Rounding out the top 10 are four of the big power Corvettes that have been largely absent from the front of the pack. The rest of the One Lap field is a mixed bag. As with the autocross, it quickly becomes clear who is experienced and comfortable when the lights on the tree drop. While many rookies roll awkwardly through the staging lights or stall out on launch, the veterans put on a drag racing clinic. “My stepson taught me,” Glenn Dodd tells me after his low E.T. run. “He’s a pretty good drag racer.” Well so is Dodd. He cuts one of quickest lights in his ’48 Plymouth rat rod – serving up a 0.078 second R/T. Only the 0.037 second R/T of Tim Harper’s Mitsubishi Galant VR4 is quicker. Next up is the bracket racing portion of the evening — an event that only drag purists can love. With their vehicles’s Vmax potential firmly in mind, our One Lap competitors “dial in” an E.T. for their car that they must not go under. For example, the low E.T. winning Freedom Autosports GT-R could consider dialing in that 11.20 second E.T. (if such a low time didn’t mandate additional safety gear) and then gently lifting the throttle just before the finish to ensure a run that is quick, but not too quick. This type of racing allows for the scrambling of One Lap’s run groups and for match ups between wildly disimilar cars . Honda Fit vs Corvette? No problem. Ditto for Camry vs Camaro. How does that work? Well, in bracket racing, drivers are not really competing with the other cars as much as they are competing against themselves and the lights on the tree. The goal is to be quick off the line, clean down the strip, and consistently close to your dial in time — but never under it. Do that round-after-round, and you’ll win the day, like One Lap rookie RJ Matthews. Matthews spent the evening lining his Subaru STI wagon up against powerful opponents and knocking them down one by one. His technique? Run consistent, but most of all, stay clean. Against Glenn Dodd and his 475 horsepower rat rod, Matthews scored a “break out” win — Dodd ran faster than his dial-in time, which is one of bracket racings biggest no-nos. The other is “red lighting” (leaving before the light goes green), which Matthew’s opponent, David Tilton, did in the final race. Easy to do when it’s all on the line. Click here for the results of the lowest E.T. drag races and here for results of the bracket drags . Tomorrow we run at NASCAR’s premier track - the legendary Daytona Speedway . Our odometer says the event is half over, but the schedule says plenty more crazy competition is on the way. See it all at www.motortrend.com/onelap. -Photos by Brian Vance, click on any image to view the photo gallery