The Motor Report Auto News Blog

Universal Pictures have released 17 snarling, rabid photos from their cage on the back lot of the studios, revealing that Paul W.S. Anderson’s upcoming film Death Race is set to take everything we know and love about classic post-apocalyptic car movies—including the original Death Race 2000 film upon which it’s loosely based—and drop a warm curly one on them all.

But that’s okay, because films like this are supposed to be fairly terrible. Really, the worse they are, the more likely they are to attract hideously malformed people like myself.

Starring Jason Statham and Tyrese Gibson, and produced by couch-jumping Tom Cruise, Death Race centres around a future where all prison inmates are required to take part in a carmageddonesque race to the death (get it now?). Statham’s character has mere weeks until his release from prison before he too is finally sucked into the driver’s seat. He quickly becomes a fan favourite, the crowds dubbing him “Frankenstein”. Screams originality, doesn’t it!

[Check out Statham's MadMaxed new-generation Ford Mustang at /Slashfilm]

Ford in the U.S. have announced pricing for their “King of the Road” Mustang, the 2008 Ford Shelby GT500KR. Due to arrive in dealerships later this month the super stang is stickered at $US79,995, a price which includes the gas guzzler tax.

Heated debate has rippled across the blogosphere with many thinking the GT500KR is overpriced. From where we sit with our governments fingers constantly rifling through our pocket books, the pricing looks attractive – very attractive. But we do live in a country where it costs us more to buy a new VE SS Commodore (built right here in Adelaide) than our American friends do after it is shipped halfway across the world and dressed up in Pontiac drag. » Read Article

Geoff Polites, chief executive officer of Jaguar Land Rover, has died peacefully in Australia at the age of 60. A former car dealer, Mr Polites spent much of his 40 year career in the automotive industry working his way up through the ranks at Ford and its subsidiaries, including a stint as the head of Ford Australia. Having previously turned Ford’s fortunes around in Australia he took on the tough job of reinvigorating both Jaguar and Land Rover.

Prior to his untimely death, Mr. Polites has been credited with leading the team that returned the Jaguar Land Rover business back to profitability and successfully steering it through its ongoing sale process to Tata Motors. He managed all of this while battling serious illness for the past two years.
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Ford Motor Company made the long awaited announcement last Wednesday that it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell its Jaguar Land Rover operations to Tata Motors.

The transaction is the culmination of Ford’s decision last August to explore strategic options for the Jaguar Land Rover business, as the company accelerates its focus on its core Ford brand and “One Ford” global transformation. The sale will leave Volvo as the sole surviving member of Ford’s Premium Automotive Group (PAG), following the sales of JLR and Aston Martin back in 2007.
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