Porsche plans coup against Piech

Porsche Chairman Wolfgang Porsche has gained majority support among the two clans that own his family's carmaker to remove cousin Ferdinand Piëch from his post as Volkswagen chairman, a German magazine reported.

"It is not a question of 'if', rather 'when' and 'how'," Focus quoted one Porsche manager as saying.

The news magazine report ahead of its publication on Monday comes after a turbulent VW supervisory board meeting on Friday, where Piëch broke ranks with the other three Porsche representatives on the board.

Porsche had been quoted in comments made yesterday to Focus as saying of Piëch: "I am horrified by the behavior of the chairman."

The challenge is the result of long-running tensions between Piëch, part owner of Porsche, and his cousin over control of Volkswagen -- their company's largest investment in which the sports car maker is poised to take the majority this year.

Piëch, who has run Audi and Volkswagen as CEO before taking over as chairman in 2002, is a calculating strategist who has survived several coup attempts.

His power base stems from close allies like VW CEO Martin Winterkorn and the unwavering support from VW's powerful unions, which oppose Porsche's attempts to limit their influence.

Volkswagen declined to discuss the report while Porsche was not immediately available for comment.

Porsche Panamera

Porsche’s new four-door coupé is to undergo a extensive testing

Dubbed Panamera, it was pictured recently undergoing intensive chassis testing on the German Nürburgring. Scheduled for an official presentation at the 2009 Geneva show, the fourth range from Porsche is developed to be a strong competitor to the Mercedes CLS and the future Aston Martin Rapide and Volkswagen four-door coupé.

Though the Panamera takes over design elements from the 911 range, there will be significant differences, too. While the first has always kept its rear-mounted boxer engine, the newcomer will do with a choice of three front-mounted motors, though set back to the centre of the car as much as possible. The entry-level unit will be Volkswagen’s 3.5-litre six-cylinder unit developing 300 bhp, while Porsche’s own drivetrain will be a direct-injection eight-cylinder petrol engine, available in naturally-aspirated guise (350 bhp) and with twin-turbo (560 bhp). That should be enough to beat up the competition for a while – Mer'ss’ CLS 63 AMG comes up with 'only' 514 bhp. However, should Stuttgart make the CLS even stronger, Zuffenhausen would strike back with the Porsche GT’s 700-bhp ten-cylinder unit ...

The target for the Panamera is to be a true sportscar while at the same time it shall be a family-car for every-day with four full seats, easy access to the rear and a luggage compartment of around 450 litres. When it hits the road in 2009, Porsche hopes to be able to sell 20,000 units annually – and to jump over the barrier of 100,000 sold cars per year.

Piech stymies Porsche over Audi

Volkswagen Chairman Ferdinand Piech broke ranks with Porsche, his own clan's sports car maker, by tacitly backing VW staff in a boardroom showdown as thousands of workers protested outside.

A source briefed on Friday's events said Piech was not present during a VW supervisory board vote, allowing 10 members from the carmaker's labor unions to outvote the nine remaining shareholder representatives -- including three Porsche executives -- in a motion concerning VW's premium unit Audi.

The defeat for Porsche Automobil Holding means Volkswagen's largest shareholder will need approval from the VW supervisory board for any form of cooperation with Audi.

Volkswagen's luxury brand is a potential competitor to Porsche because Audi makes sporty cars such as the TT roadster and R8 high-performance coupe, which rival Porsche's Boxster and 911.

Porsche Chairman and VW board member Wolfgang Porsche attacked his cousin in a magazine interview, in a rare show of divisions between the Porsche and Piech clans.

"I am horrified by the behavior of the chairman," he was quoted as saying of Piech in Germany's Focus magazine. A preview of the article was released ahead of publication on Monday.

Extra power

The squabble took place as VW staff staged one of the biggest protests in the carmaker's history to support a German law giving labor and the state a big say at VW, which has passed Ford Motor Co to become the global number three automaker.

Both the European Commission and Porsche, poised to boost its VW stake to a majority, oppose the so-called VW law, which gives the state of Lower Saxony extra power to shape company strategy with its shareholding of just over 20 percent.

Union IG Metall said 40,000 Volkswagen workers from inside and outside Germany protested near its Wolfsburg headquarters. Staff from MAN, a truck maker in which VW holds a large stake, joined them.

"In times of shareholder value and finance market-driven capitalism we need more, not fewer, VW laws in our country," IG

Metall's leader Berthold Huber shouted in a passionate address to the noisy demonstration.

After the EU's highest court ruled last October that the 48-year-old law violated EU rules on the free flow of capital and needed changing, the German government made changes aimed at satisfying concerns in Brussels.

But EU Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy rejected those changes as insufficient.

Huber told the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung daily he would shift the protests to Brussels if the Commission lodged another complaint against the VW law, as McCreevy's office has threatened.

Earlier this week, Lower Saxony's premier said the state would raise its stake in Europe's biggest carmaker to 25 percent to retain its blocking minority if necessary.

Volvo S80 HPC

A Volvo S80 about to embark on some laps of a race track? Fish out of water? Well this S80 High Performance Concept has evolved a bit. It’s got four-wheel drive, new sports suspension, racing brakes and 345bhp. It’s also the first model to come from tuner Heico Sportiv to be endorsed by the Volvo Car Corporation, so it stands a fair to middling chance of becoming a production reality too.

Much of Heico’s time was spent nurturing the relationship between a pre-production four-wheel-drive system and its own ECU, but, with help from Bilstein, the firm has also developed new suspension that enables the car to sit 40mm lower on its 255/30-shod 20in wheels.

This has the desired effect of reducing roll in corners and further improving the car’s sure-footedness, but it still feels more like a quick saloon than a sporting one. In auto mode the gearbox doesn’t hold ratios long enough to exploit the increased torque, and the steering – an S80 weak point – is lifeless.

Heico was adamant that this car should maintain its ‘Volvo-ness’. It’s certainly achieved that. But in this concept a little too much so.

GM plans to show production Volt this month

General Motors plans to show a production model of its Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric vehicle as part of the automaker's upcoming 100-year anniversary celebration this month.

The automaker, which formally celebrates the 100th anniversary September 16, so far has shown only concept versions of the Volt.

"The rumors that a production version of the Volt will show up at the celebrations are true," a GM source told Automotive News Europe.

"The car will be a true representation of what the production version looks like and be somewhat different from the concept versions."

The car will be shown to employees and media at GM headquarters in Detroit.

Speaking at the London auto show in July, Bob Lutz, GM's vice chairman of global product development, said, "A production model will be showing this fall, but not at Paris (auto show)."

Preproduction models of the Volt will be built next year and 2010 ahead of the final production version in 2010, Lutz told Automotive News Europe. A European version will follow in 2011.

"Everything is looking good," Lutz said. "We have quite a few running around now in old Chevy Malibu bodies, so we can modify the engine and battery configuration."

Lutz said the body would be the next-generation global compact architecture. That's the same one to be used on the next-generation Vauxhall/Opel Astra and the Chevrolet Cruze, which will be launched at the Paris auto show in October.

Trulli says Singapore still a worry for F1 drivers

Formula One drivers are still fretting about the sport's first night race less than a month before Singapore's new street circuit makes its debut.

"It's a new circuit, we don't know much about it, the schedule, the times of running. we all are a little bit concerned about the night race and the poor weather which might occur there," Toyota's Jarno Trulli told reporters at the Belgian Grand Prix on Thursday.

"It's a big question mark for everyone, we mustn't underestimate the situation."

Singapore will become the second new venue this season after last month's Valencia street race when the southeast Asian island state hosts the 15th round of the championship on Sept. 28 at the tail end of the monsoon season.

Unlike Valencia, which staged a couple of junior formula races on the street circuit a month before the grand prix to iron out any problems, Singapore remains untested.

"In Valencia they did a good job, so I am confident they can do a good job for Singapore," said Trulli. "But the location is different and the climate conditions are different.

"We are all a little bit uncertain because we probably don't have enough data. I haven't seen the circuit layout but that's not the problem. The problem is we don't know if the circuit is good enough, if the surface is good enough, if we have enough run-off areas, if the safety is good enough for a night race in wet conditions.

"There are several question marks and several concerns. I'm not saying that I don't want to race there, but that we might encounter some more problems than in Valencia."

Aston Martin revives Lagonda

ston Martin has announced that it intends to revive the legendary Lagonda marque, and will use it to launch a whole new range of large luxury models.

Dr Ulrich Bez, boss of Aston Martin, said he plans to relaunch Lagonda as a sub-brand from 2012 in order "to develop cars which can have a different character to a sports car". It's a move that's meant to extend Aston Martin appeal beyond sports cars.

Aston Martin currently sells cars in 32 countries, but CEO Bez believes the brand should launch new models that can appeal to "more than 100" existing and emerging markets.

It's likely that Lagonda will offer a range of high performance, luxury saloons. A spokesperson admitted that the new models would be "more practical" than anything in the current Aston line-up, but he added that an SUV would be out of the question.

As we reported earlier this month, rumoured links between Aston and Mercedes-Benz could make Maybach platform sharing an option. However Aston won't be drawn on its new sub-brand's market positioning.

The Lagonda designs are yet to be finalised. But Aston boss Bez said it will use its own unique design language, and will offer "exclusive, luxurious and truly versatile products".

The company confirmed that the forthcoming Rapide, due in 2009, andthe One-77 hypercar would still be badged as an Aston Martin, not a Lagonda.