Thank goodness for Autoweek. Someone has to ask the goofy questions that turn internet forums into raging wildfires of obtuse wishful thinking, and A-Dub is there to lay it all on the line. The latest episode centers around a line from Ralph Gilles’ press release on the new Viper ACR:

When we have partners across the ocean who are known as the best sports-car makers in the world, the future opportunities are huge

Which is like giving a two-thirds of a through-the-clothes handjob: just plain mean. If disappointment undimmed by crushing obviousness isn’t your thing, skip the next bit.

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GM Canada offers the least sufficient alternative possible for the defunct Pontiac G8 [via Derek Kreindler/CarChat]. Sound familiar?

The most expensive Toyota ever made, the $375,000, “totally customizable” Lexus LF-A will not be available for sale to anyone, reports Automotive News [sub]. Not because nobody wants to pay that much for a Toyota though, but because the company is somehow worried about price speculation. “If someone buys it the first month and then decides to sell it, that could be damaging for the ownership experience,” says Lexus VP sales Brian Smith. “If it is not controlled and hits the speculation market, all bets are off. We want people out driving the car and not just parking it in a museum or selling it at an inflated price.” Which is why only 500 models are being produced? At the end of the mandatory two-year lease, customers will have the option of buying their LF-A outright. So how does the world’s largest automaker build such an advanced, limited production machine and not expect speculation and/or hoarding to take place? Moreover, how will they guarantee that LF-As are actually driven during the two-year lease period? One of the greatest sins of the auto industry is the reluctance to admit that a brand belongs to customers. For Toyota, it seems, not even its brand-defining supercar will truly belong to its customers… for two years anyway.

Autoweek apparently got an interview with GM vice president of global vehicle engineering and former chairman of Holden, Mark Reuss. Apparently, because their write-up takes a light hand with the quotation marks, using them to fill in the gaps between the author’s breathless interpretations of the topic at hand: Chevrolet’s SS line.

From 1960s Chevelles to modern Camaros, speedy Chevrolets have always been indentified with two letters: SS. But does the tradition-laden performance designation have a future in the new General Motors, which is under pressure to cut costs, make money and meet stricter fuel-economy regulations? “Absolutely,” Mark Reuss, GM vice president of global engineering, told AutoWeek. In fact, the SS line could be better–or at least more clearly defined. Reuss envisions cars outfitted on a case-by-case basis, rather than somewhat generically adding horsepower and red-letter stitching to Chevys across the board. Or as he put it, “Not trying to peanut-butter SS for everything.”

And though the intent of Reuss’s proclamation was clearly to encourage, the SS brand may be one of GM’s most-damaged. Here, for your viewing pleasure, are a few of the reasons why.

Cars are not a mere means of mobility. They respond to the driver’s will; they turn, speed up, slow down. Naturally, there’s a need for excitement…Of course, eco-friendly cars are a prerequisite for the future, but there must be more than that.  Morizo cannot afford to lose. I will tackle the challenge of creating a car with even more splendid flavor than the Scirocco.

Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda blogging at his company’s Japanese marketing website Gazoo.com, as reported by Automotive News [sub]. Toyoda’s Scirocco killer? That has to be the FT-86 “Toyobaru” coupe. Interestingly, Inside Line reports that the Subaru version will have about 250 hp, AWD and will cost about $30k. In contrast, the $25k Toyota will be smaller, RWD and only 200 hp. Smaller, lighter and RWD? Sounds like Toyota beat Subaru to the splendid flavor. [Hat Tip: Cammy Corrigan]

Brace yourself ladies and gentlemen, because an automaker is taking on one of the American market’s greatest bugbears: size and weight bloat. Mazda’s vehicles have gained 80 pounds on average with each recent redesign, according to Robert Davis, senior vice president of product development and quality for Mazda North American Operations. Davis tells Automotive News [sub] that increases are coming “mostly in larger tires and wheels, and safety equipment,” resulting in a 2010 Mazda3 that weighs 2,868 pounds compared to a 2003 Protege’s 2,634 pounds. And, says Davis, that’s all about to change. He promises “typical” weight reductions of 220 pounds per vehicle on future Mazda models, through a combination of measures. For one thing, dimensional creep is a thing of the past, with some Mazda models scheduled to lose as much as three inches in length.

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Last week Toyota followed the lead of Renault, Honda and BMW and bid adieu to Formula 1 racing. The Financial Times pins Toyota’s decision not only on financial belt tightening, and on the notion that racing just doesn’t move the metal in times of increasing environmental concern. When Leonardo DiCapro becomes the inspiration for an electric car and NASCAR talks about moving from carburetors to fuel injection to save some gas , you know something is afoot. Automakers and part suppliers have been backing away from the racing for many months now. Earlier this year both Subaru and Suzuki exited World Rally Championship racing and Bridgestone recently announced it’s giving up being Formula 1’s exclusive tire supplier.

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Via Cadillac’s Twitter Feed:

John Heinricy (Cadillac test driver)- Cadillac CTS-V: Top Lap: 2:46:560

Aaron Link (Cadillac development engineer)- Cadillac CTS-V: Top Lap: 2:48:902

Brian Redman- CTS-V: Top Lap: 2:49:596

Michael Cooper (Who is this guy?)- BMW M3: Top Lap: 2:50:424

Jack Baruth- Cadillac CTS-V (TTAC): Top Lap: 2:51:153

Lawrence Ulrich- CTS-V (New York Times): Top Lap: 2:53:157

Bob Lutz- Cadillac CTS-V (VP of Marketing, GM): Top Lap: 2:56:321

Michael Mainwald (carguydad.com)- BMW M5: Top Lap: 3:05:398

Wes Siler- Mitsubishi Evo X (Jalopnik): Top Lap: 3:08:126

Chris Fairman- CTS-V: Top Lap: 3:14:292

Archan Basu- Jaguar XF: Top Lap: 3:15:670

Tom Loder- Audi RS4: Top Lap:  3:15:702

It’s official: TTAC’s top driver has beaten Bob Lutz! Check back tomorrow for Jack’s on-the-ground take on the weirdness that was.

In the same week BMW revealed a one-off, 580 hp, 100+ lbs lighter “M5 CSL we never built” (in the words of the M division’s head of development, Albert Biermann), BMW USA’s VP had this to say about his firm’s absence from Cadillac’s CTS-V Challenge:

We have no fear of comparisons by objective bodies, but it’s different if the person doing the comparison has a dog in the hunt

Not that the point lacks validity, but would BMW’s tune be different if the M5 CSL were a production model? We’d like to think so.

Bob Lutz savors his morning cup of Maximum, as he contemplates a wet, foggy day of racing at Monticello. Competitors will get five laps of the 3.5 mile track… assuming all those ponies at the rear wheels don’t leave Cadillacs scattered across the infield. Early practice video shows a CTS-V shouting at the devil on the main straight, but in these conditions the corners are the issue. Updates will be posted as they come in from our man behind the wheel, Mad Jack Baruth.

Reading a long-term test of a stripped-and-slammed Renaultsport Mégane R26.R in evo Magazine, I couldn’t help but chuckle. In true enthusiast style, the author simultaneously bemoans the disappearance of such factory-racer hot-hatches and attempts to argue that they’re not really that impractical. Between the picture of the author’s bicycle sharing hatch space with a bright red racing cage and his amazingly sincere insistence that driving without a radio is more zen exercise than deprivation, the picture was clear: enthusiasts are absolute nutters. We’re willing to make ludicrous defenses of cars that are as light and stripped-out as possible, while the mainstream begs for ever more weight, comfort and isolation. As at least one commenter in today’s Honda product thread noted, automakers would be nuts to listen too hard to enthusiasts. Unless there were ways to reduce weight without making a car totally unappealing to the appliance fans. Could it be possible?

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Stanford University bring us a little closer to the day when cars will come with a pre-programmed Nurburgring (or, in this case, Pikes Peak) lap time. [Hat Tip: Robstar]

Pity Takanobu Ito. Like many (ok, some) of us, the CEO of Honda is torn between his love for speed and the desire to be perceived as environmentally responsible. On the one hand, he lambasted Toyota for building its $375k LF-A supercar, saying that to his mind the fuel-cell FCX clarity (once described by Jonny Lieberman as “exactly like a Honda Accord”) was his idea of a modern sports car. On the other, “I would like to make a sports car,” Ito tells Automotive News [sub]. “Once we have that technology and once we have cash on hand, I would like to see Honda have a sports car that symbolizes our technology.” Is he referring to the forthcoming CR-Z? Because, as cool as that car looks, it will hardly satisfy the LF-A jealousy we detect in Mr Ito’s voice. And you have to imagine that the creator of the NSX is as qualified as anyone else to design and develop the first 21st Century green sportscar. But what would that look like? Assume any price point up to the LF-A’s insane $375k sticker, and give us some specs. And remember, at this point, green is relative… and quantifiable only in terms of marketing.