Casey Stoner and Nicky Hayden will ride this new GP10 Ducati in the 2010 MotoGP championship. GP10 is an evolution of last year's bike. The two most improved areas are the aerodynamics and the engine. It was designed with contribution from Alan Jenkins, an F1 veteran and it should be adapted for the new rules that restrict the engines that can be used for the entire season to only six instead of almost one engine per race in 2009.

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A small Dutch company that produces accesories like centerstands, E.V.A. is producing the first diesel superenduro. The T-800CDI as it is called is about the size of a BMW R1200GS and has a 3 cylinder diesel engine. A Diesel motorbike is a long troubled idea that never caught on. Diesel engines used to be heavy, complicated and underpowered (in a way they still are) and totally unsuitable for a motorcycle. However adventure rallying and the idolized by 'the Long way round' BMW GS made enormous trail bikes very popular. If diesel engines are to become a viable option for bikes a big endure motorcycle is the best first step.

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These are the first official photos of the new Opel (or Vauxhall) Meriva and a premier of GMs new 'FlexDoor' design. As you can see in the photo above the new Meriva has what is known in car jargon as suicide doors, the rear doors open in the opposite direction. The only cars with a similar arrangement are the BMW-era Rolls Royce models.
Opel (and Rolls Royce) has a B-pillar and its frame is not unlike other cars, the only difference is the hinges. However this kind of door are much more difficult to certify, because they open facing the direction of movement, they must be very fail safe and foolproof to avoid accidents. The benefit is a easier access although sometimes the door handle could be difficult to reach when the passenger is seated.

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After the imposed limitation to 450cc for works motorcycles participating in Dakar rallies many thought that the new at the time enduro bikes from Aprilia were perfect for this new class. Their main advantage was the 2 cylinder engine instead of the 1cylinder KTMs that dominate the race the last years.
This year Aprilia is officially supports the Team Aprilia Giofil with its modified for rally raid RXV 4.5 Dakar bikes. Riders for Team Giofil will be Francisco Lopez, Paolo Ceci, Gerard Farres and Alex Zanotti.

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A year after Honda announced that the NSX-successor is cancelled you can see the first photos from the GT500 version of Honda's new HSV-010 GT. The images are from the website kansenzyuku.com and were taken yesterday in Suzuka circuit (owned by Honda) where 3 prototypes made some test laps. The HSV-010 GT will compete in 2010 SuperGT championship, replacing the very succesfull NSX-GT which represented Honda for 13 years and won 37 races.

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Another concept by ArtLebedev of the "why nobody think that before?" kind, the Transparentius road view transmitting system. The image above is almost self-explanatory, big vehicles obstacle view, especially in narrow roads and this is a simple way to almost eliminate the problem.

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More than two years ago a Toyota Supra HV-R GT hybrid won the 24h Tokachi race in Japan scoring the first victory for a hybrid gasoline-electric racecar. From then on there are rumors that Toyota will enter the GT class at LeMans with a hybrid or even challenge the diesel dominators with an LMP prototype. A recent Autocar article speculates a Toyota entry with the Supra HV-R GT. However this car is very old, its production model is out of production for years and the Tokachi winner was the semi-official team SARD.Hybrid technology is Toyota's technology posterchild. If Toyota decides to enter LeMans with its first ever official hybrid racer it will probably be with the new Lexus LF-A. In two years it will be well in production and it is overengineered as it is to form an excellent basis for a GT racecar without a huge development cost even with the addition of a hybrid drivetrain.

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GM just announced that after another fail to close a deal for selling SAAB the company will now close and in the next months operations in its main plant in Trollhättan will gradually wind down. After last years mayhem in Detroit GM decided to give away SAAB to another company. SAAB for the last years has almost exclusively owned by GM, which increased its share of 50% that held for a long time to own the entire company. The fact that GM hold half the shares of SAAB was held for many responsible for the lack of initiative and investments in the company that was for years stuck with a very limited range of two models and very scarce resources. High hopes were placed in the buyout from Koenigsegg, which while very small was supposed to establish SAAB in the position that the heritage and the extremely loyal fan base of the company wanted for decades. The deal with Koenigsegg collapsed suddenly when everything appeared to be ready for the owner transfer and the next deal with Spyker was spookily similar in every way.

It is a very sad day for automotive industry but the fate of SAAB was predefined by decades of bureaucracy and bad strategy despite the moments of brilliance and the efforts of the majority of engineers and workers in Trollhättan.

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As Michael Czysz stated in his blog, his company is seriously consider entering the 2012 MotoGP championship. MotoCzysz was introduced to the public about 5 years ago with the C1 prototype. As its engine size of 990cc indicates it was designed with respect to MotoGP regulations of the time. However being a very small company with limited resources and with an almost entirely in house designed bike, MotoCzysz wasn't able to follow the 800cc limit of 2007 and later on it focused on developing electric bikes, while keeping the technology developed for C1.

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