All clearances given, the BBC is reporting that Michael Schumacher is officially a driver for the Mercedes-Petronas F1 team. The deal is understood to be a one-year agreement, with Schumacher being paid £6.2 million ($9.82M U.S.) and having an open door at the end of the year to carry on if it all works out.

Mercedes is said to have its eye on Sebastian Vettel when his contract is up in 2012. Theoretically then, if Michael remains Michael behind the wheel, he could drive for the Three-Pointed Star and collect trophies, and perhaps Championships, until then. That's an immense theoretical, however: Prost and Lauda took time off, came back, and won the whole show again; Jacques Villeneuve, well, not so much.

And as much as Ferrari respects the times it had with Schumacher, we have a feeling Luca di Montezemolo has already called Alonso to tell him, "You know what you have to do..." On the other hand, if Alonso doesn't work out at Ferrari, and Michael does well and only has a one-year deal with Mercedes...

[Source: BBC | Image: Clive Mason/Getty]

The design arm of Bertone, which is now known as Bertone Centro Srl, is finally and completely back in family hands. Last year the entire company, its design and production divisions, went into bankruptcy. Fiat bought the production side, while control of the design side was held jointly by the court and the Bertone family. Lilli Bertone, the widow of Nuccio, the last scion to run the company, closed the deal on the remaining stake that was held by the courts.

Last year it was reported that the courts would maintain their share of control for at least three years, but it appears Lilli found a way to end that stewardship early. Bertone Centro, lately famous for the Bertone Mantide, will begin offering design and engineering contract work to the automotive and rail industries.



[Source: Automotive News - Sub. Req.]

There are few things we love more than hooning around in a vigorous, purebred sports car – and that's exactly how Mcchip-dkr describes its 401-horsepower Ford Focus RS. That's the Stage 2 version delivering the "whole-blood athlete," but if you want to work your way up to those heights, you can get the Stage 1 conversion for €799 ($1,142 USD). You'll take your hatch from 301 stock horsepower to 345 and bump torque by about 50 lb-ft to 383 with an ECU upgrade.

But if 401 is your lucky horsepower number and you like the sound of 457 lb-ft. of torque, then you'll need €4,499 ($6,421 U.S.). That pile of pounds will give you access to a new manifold, uprated intercooler, spark plugs, and a sports exhaust as well as the necessary ECU tweaks. Mcchip-dkr thankfully didn't do anything regrettable to the Focus RS' already terrific looks. What they've done with torque steer outside of the stock RS' trick Revoknuckle and limited-slip setup is anyone's guess.

Have a look at the press release after the jump, and there are more images of the car in the high-res gallery below.



[Source: Mcchip-dkr]

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Aha – so that Enzo MIG-UI wasn't the only duotone beast that Gemballa was hiding. For an encore, try this: the Gemballa Tornado 750 GTS/4. Based on a Porsche Cayenne Turbo, the German tuner adds new headlights and a night vision system, more of that widebody-and-vents thing, with LEDs hidden in the vents ahead of the front wheels. The inside is bathed in leather, Alcantara, and carbon, and the rear bench is bisected by a center console. The package is lowered on 22-inch wheels and is powered by a 750-horsepower engine.

If you want to turn the volume on your tuned Cayenne down a bit, then try the Gemballa GT 500 Aero 3, which wears less ostentatious aero lowered over 22-inch wheels, a new exhaust, and a revised interior.

Both SUVs are slightly tweaked and repainted versions of the Tornado 750 GTS and GT 500 Aero 3 that Gemballa released earlier this year. You can have a look at both in the gallery of high-res photos below.




[Source: Gemballa]

When General Motors announced it was sending Saab to that great Viking longboat in the sky, AutoTrader.com dug through its search database to see where bereft Saab customers would turn to for consolation. This will be a surprise to almost no one, but other European marques top the list of substitutes.

BMW was the most cross-shopped vehicle among people at AutoTrader's site looking for Saabs, with Audi a very close second, beating Volvo and Volkswagen for the next spots. The only mild surprise is that Toyota took the number five slot, ahead of two other Japanese brands, and Mercedes-Benz in eighth You can read the press release after the jump for the complete ranking of Saab alternatives. In case you were wondering, Spyker didn't make list...

[Source: AutoTrader.com]

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Visteon, the automotive supplier currently going through bankruptcy proceedings, is seeking to rid itself of pension obligations for 21,000 current workers and retirees. It wouldn't mean the end of pensions for the workers, but the payments would be taken over by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), and that would mean diminished benefits.

Visteon contributes to four pension plans, three of which is it attempting to drop. The company owes $544 million to those three plans, and although it will make $260 million in payments over the next five years its obligations will grow if it cannot free itself. If it does get clear, pensioners will collectively lose $100 million in benefits because of caps on what the federal body can guarantee.

The PBGC wants Visteon to keep making pension payments, but its now in the hands of the Delaware judge handling the bankruptcy. Visteon has presented a few different options for reorganization, but each has met with resistance from one or more involved parties, including the plan to pay $8.1 million in bonuses to executives and the structure of it's post-bankruptcy stock allocation. The company hopes to emerge from Chapter 11 by the middle of next year. Pension recipients will hope they do it with their funds intact, but that isn't looking likely.

[Source: Detroit News | Image: Bill Pugliano/Getty]

The black and white menace you see above was created for Gemballa's Middle East distributor, the Illyas and Mustafa Galadari Group, using Mustafa's personal Enzo as the subject. The roof scoop, jet-thruster-surrounds for the exhaust, and black rims are Gemballa hallmarks, on top of which the nose has been slightly sculpted and the hood sports a central scoop.

The widebody treatment has given Gemballa room to add new elements, like the vents up front and behind the wheels, the gills on the fenders, and stolen-from-a-Subie rear wing. Other Enzo features, like the side vents, have merely been massaged. The paint scheme, a far cry from the Middle East's de rigueur gold or chrome, is nothing short of arresting -- make of that what you will. We don't mind it.

The inside is rather subdued, comparatively speaking: black and quilted red leather, trimmed in red stitching and piping. We don't know anything else about the car at the moment -- seems the proud owners are holding back until it's officially rolled out, debutante style, to a waiting Dubai public. If anyone makes it to the unveiling, please let us know if it comes with a set of Imperial armor and an E-11 blaster...



[Source: TeamSpeed]

There are hearts breaking all over Italy, and the biggest one of all is that which beats in the chest of Ferrari head Luca de Montezemolo. Michael Schumacher is still under contract to The Prancing Horse as a global ambassador and consultant for their road cars. However, given the opportunity to return to a Formula One cockpit and prove a thing or ten, he appears keen on racing no matter the color of the car.

Neither Schumacher nor the Mercedes F1 team is revealing anything public about the German's chances of driving, but it's been in the press for a few weeks now. Last week, Schumacher phoned Montezemolo and told him there was a "very, very, very strong possibility" he'd end up as a driver for Mercedes. Speculation is that the final say is only waiting on Schumacher's neck to be declared fully healed after his motorcycle accident earlier this year.

If the 41-year-old Schumy does race again with Mercedes, it will be with the company that put him on the road to becoming one of the greatest racing drivers ever. And it will come at the expense of a muy doloroso de Montezemolo, who is so torn up about Michael switching camps that he has taken to calling the former Ferrari driver "the real Michael Schumacher," and the potential Mercedes pilot, "the new Michael Schumacher."

If it comes to pass, we'll play a sad song for de Montezemolo on the jukebox, but we'll do a dance for the coming F1 season: Rosberg and Schumacher in Mercedes', Alonso and Massa in Ferraris, Hamilton and Button in McLarens, Vettel in his Red Bull. There hasn't been a field like that in that kind of machinery in more than a decade. Please let it be March already...

[Source: Autosport | Image: Juergen Schwarz/Getty]

So you're ready to be your own 2011 Ford Fiesta agent, but you'll actually be paying for yours instead of the company giving you one to drive for free. If you want one that's got all the doodads, this is what you need to do: bring money. A base Fiesta sedan starts at $13,320, but go for the pricier hatch and check a few boxes and you'll hopscotch your way past the $23,000 line -- and there will still be options left.

Ford doesn't see this car as just a small American hatchback for people who want a smaller footprint but all the style and utility. The base and lower end models fit the bill for that, but on the other end, Ford officials tell Automotive News that it sees the Fiesta as an aspirational, high tech hatch that can command attention and commensurately elevated prices. Said Ford's Jim Farley, "Americans have shown us if we bring out aspirational products, not only will they pay the base price, but go up."

We played with the Fiesta configurator and wound up at $22,970. Yes, it's easy to do, but that does give you just about everything -- we skipped the graphics packages, the smoker's kit, and a couple of other accessories. But of that $9,650 difference between the sedan's base and our wishlist hatch, about half of the cost is loaded on the front end: the SES starts at $17,120 before you do anything to it, and that goes to $18,190 if you go for the automatic. Ford's getting premium prices in Australia for the Fiesta, and it believes it can do the same here. If you think so – or don't – let us know in Comments.



[Source: Automotive News – sub. req.]