IndyCar Race + County Fair = Long Beach Grand Prix [Race Recap, Photo Gallery]

The Long Beach Grand Prix is the third round on this year’s IndyCar schedule. It’s also the main attraction of a race weekend that features everything from a drifting competition to an American Le Mans event to a Pirelli World Challenge race. This was an historic weekend, too, as Takuma Sato became the first Japanese driver to win an IndyCar race, doing so for legendary A.J. Foyt.

But the Long Beach Grand Prix is also a party. It’s perhaps not the raucous bacchanal that churns through Sebring’s infield, but it is festive nonetheless, characterized by the sort of gleeful, carefree atmosphere you’d find at a county fair. You’re more likely to see a three-generation family—including septuagenarian and stroller—than a reveler hoisting a bladder-capacity beer. Crowd estimates range from 170,000 to 200,000 for the three-day weekend.

While race cars roar around the streets of LBC, a huge convention hall inside the 1.968-mile, 12-turn city circuit is filled with exhibits featuring exotic cars, driving simulators, SAE student race cars, RC cars, and more. One hall is dedicated to activities for small children. There’s a go-kart track. Food ranges from a sit-down meal with a glass of wine to chili fries and a beer. (Burp.) It’s a mellow crowd that strolls to the accompaniment of race engines.

As to the race, Sato won after holding off a strong bid by Graham Rahal, with Justin Wilson in third, followed by pole-sitter Dario Franchitti. All four were driving Honda-powered Dallaras in a year that has so far favored the Chevrolets. Also on Sunday, Carlos Munoz won the Indy Lights race.

Caddy had the Pirelli World Challenge race in the bag with one of its CTS-V.Rs when a punctured radiator gave the win to James Sofronas’s Audi R8. This two-class race at Long Beach brought a mix of cars that included Cadillacs, Audis, and Volvos, plus a Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3. There were also Acura TSXs; Kia Optimas; a Lotus Exige; the inevitable Porsches, BMWs, Camaros, and Mustangs; and one lonely Pontiac Solstice singing its heart out. Get a feel for the racing in the gallery below.

Peugeot to Return to Pikes Peak with Its Stunning 208 T16—And Sébastien Loeb

Racing in the rarified air of Colorado’s Pikes Peak has been going on since 1916 and is one of the classics in American racing, but it also has a hold on overseas automakers. Suzuki may not even sell cars in this country anymore, but it and “Monster” Tajima are modern legends on the mountain. The words “Hyundai” and “racing” would be an odd combination at most every racetrack, yet at Pikes Peak, Rhys Millen and Hyundai Genesis are world-record holders. Audi has made a sizable mark of its own on the mountain with the likes of Walter Röhrl, Bobby Unser, and Michèle Mouton. So too has Peugeot, and it’s about to make a comeback.

When the 2013 Pikes Peak hill climb kicks off on June 30, starting number 208 in the top-notch Unlimited class will be taken, appropriately, by a Peugeot 208 T16 Pikes Peak. The French marque revealed very little about the car, other than to say, “Its proportions are very different to those of the production 208.” It was revealed, however, that the rear wing is the very same as was used in the 908 prototype racer that won Le Mans in 22009. Regardless of what resides beneath the 208 T16′s beautiful bodywork, it will be fine tuned for the special nature of racing the fully-paved, 12.4-mile, 156-turn course that runs from 9390 feet up to 14,110. The car most certainly will achieve the feat in a time of less than 10 minutes.

We say certainly because Peugeot has the right driver for the climb. Sébastien Loeb, 39, is about as close as it gets to a perpetual title holder in any form of racing, having won the past nine World Rally Championship driver’s crowns. This year he has already won his record seventh Monte Carlo Rally and finished second in Sweden in what will be a reduced-schedule year, as he segues to road racing.

Normally, if you team the words Peugeot and United States, what follows will be “commercial failure,” but the French automaker has a history of racing success in the U.S. Dip way back into Indy 500 history and you’ll find Frenchman Jules Goux won that race in a Pug 100 years ago, Dario Resta did the same in 1916. What has Peugeot done for us lately? Overall wins at Sebring in 2010 and 2011 and a pair more at the Petit Le Mans (2009 and 2011). As for Pikes Peak, famed Finnish rally driver Ari Vatanen first raced there in 1987 with Peugeot’s 205 T16, losing out to Röhrl and his Audi Quattro. Vatanen was back and broke the hill record in 1988 with a Peugeot 405 T16, a run documented in an award-winning video—”Climb Dance.” The automaker returned in 1989 and won again, this time with driver Robby Unser, whose famed family has “owned” the hill for decades.

2013 Fiat 500E First Drive: The Juiciest 500 Is About Much More Than the Driving

Chevrolet Reveals Hot Wheels Edition Camaro Convertible by Giving Away (For a Time) 33 of Them

If you were one of the 33 major directors of the Indianapolis 500, you’d now be tooling around in one of the new Chevrolet Camaro Hot Wheels edition convertibles. Chevy lined up 33 of the softtop Hot Wheels Camaros at the Brickyard and gave away one to each director as a way of highlighting both this special-edition Camaro and the run-up to the 500 in May. The bow-tie brand hasn’t put a number on how many Hot Wheels cars it will build, but if past special editions are any gauge, expect around 1500 to see the light of day.

As is the case with the coupe, the premium for the Hot Wheels convertible is $6995. What do you get for nearly seven grand? Well, everything that comes with the Hot Wheels coupe, save for the ZL1′s rear spoiler. For starters, there’s the obvious blue-metalic finish with a matte-black racing stripe running from nose to tail, accented by bespoke, red-trimmed 21-inch wheels that carry a tag of $4780 all by themselves. Hot Wheels badging is added to the front fenders, the grille, and the decklid, but, perhaps, the coolest add-on is the flame detailing on the rear fenders. Inside is a black-leather interior featuring the famous Rick Irons–designed Hot Wheels logo on the seats and the floor mats.

When it comes to powering the Hot Wheels Camaro, there are two engine choices available: The 323-hp, 3.6-liter V-6 or the 6.2-liter V-8. Both engines can be had with either a six-speed manual or a six-speed automatic, however, the eight-cylinder’s output changes depending on which transmission is selected—400 horsepower with the auto or 426 with the stick. Regardless of which transmission is bolted to the eight-cylinder, it gets an active-exhaust system, which gives us all the encouragement we need to keep the right pedal firmly matted.

2014 Acura MDX Production Photos and Info: Now with More Available FWD [2013 New York Auto Show]

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2014 Lexus IS Sedan First Drive: Nearly All New and Now Available in Eight Flavors

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Buy Your Powerball Tickets Now: Historic Mercedes-Benz W196 F1 Racer Going to Auction

Thousands of automobiles go through auctions every year, from lowly Triumph TR3s to Holy Grail Ferrari 250GTOs, but this one could trump them all. At this summer’s Goodwood Festival of Speed, Bonhams auction house will drop the hammer on a 1954 Mercedes-Benz W196 grand-prix race car. You might be asking yourself, “What’s the big deal?” The big deal is that this car could potentially be the most expensive car ever sold.

Formula 1 introduced a new set of regulations for the 1954 season, including a new 2.5-liter non-supercharged formula. Many of the usual suspects were there—Ferrari, Maserati, Gordini—but as of the French Grand Prix at Reims and the introduction of Mercedes-Benz’s W196 , the next two seasons were in the bag for Mercedes and Juan Manual Fangio. Fangio and Mercedes went on to win eight grands prix in 1954 and 1955—out of a possible 16 races; the championships were much shorter in those days—and Fangio took the driver’s championships each season.

For the W196, Mercedes developed a 2.5-liter inline-eight that featured fuel injection, “Z-drive” desmodromic valves, and a built-up roller-bearing crankshaft. The engine was canted to lower its profile and center of gravity and the power taken from between cylinders four and five back to a five-speed transaxle. Suspension was independent all around, the brakes in-board drums at all four corners, and it was all housed in a tubular space frame. As first raced with 257 horsepower at Reims, the W196 had a wheel-enclosing aero body, which was used again at Monza, while it contested the rest of the calendar in the open-wheel configuration as seen in these photos.

Mercedes keeps close tabs on its historic race cars, but this one got away and its story remains somewhat murky. Years ago, before historic race cars became so valuable, they often were loaned to museums. You can see a W196 with the aero body at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum. We don’t know conditions under which W196 chassis number 00006/54 found its way to the Beaulieu National Motor Museum in England—loaned or gifted—but it sold the car apparently to raise funds. The car has had several owners in the past few decades, although at this point it’s tough to pin down who they were. We do know, however, that the car is coming from Germany. In the quiet world of automotive megadeals, things usually are done sub rosa, so it’s interesting that this Mercedes will be available at a public auction.

As far as how much this car is worth, Bruce Canepa, who deals in exotic race cars, estimates it could finally sell for as much as $40 million. (As it stands, the most expensive car ever sold is a 1962 Ferrari 250GTO built for Sir Stirling Moss, which changed hands for $32 million last summer.) The Powerball jackpot is up to $260 million, so go down to your local shop, pick one up, buy yourself a piece of automotive history, and you’ll still have plenty of walking-around money leftover. It’s as easy as that, really.

Chevrolet and Cadillac Mulling Three-Cylinder for Volt and ELR, Report Says

If you had suggested just five years ago that we could have a Cadillac powered by a three-cylinder engine, you’d have been locked away in a loony bin. They’d have made you eat the key. Yet according to a report by Edmunds, that’s what could be on the horizon for Cadillac and Chevrolet. The report says that while the plan has yet to be approved, General Motors is considering the use of three-cylinders as part of its plan to reduce vehicle weight and fuel consumption.

As they stand, the Chevrolet Volt and the Cadillac ELR plug-in hybrids are powered by a, 84-hp, 1.4-liter four-cylinder working in conjunction with a 149-hp electric motor. If the source of the Edmunds report is correct, that four-banger would be replaced by a 1.0- or 1.2-liter inline-three. About 18 months ago, GM announced it would be working with its Chinese partners to develop a new generation of three- and four-cylinder engines, which likely would be the source for the new Volt and ELR combustion engines. The Volt likely would be the first recipient of the triple with a refresh expected for 2015, while the ELR would follow suit a year later.

Just last week, GM CEO Dan Akerson spoke of the need to reduce vehicle mass, saying, “A good rule of thumb is that a 10-percent reduction in curb weight will reduce fuel consumption by about 6.5 percent. Our target is to reduce weight by up to 15 percent.” Last November, the man at Ford with the company’s longest title—executive vice president of global marketing, sales and service, and Lincoln—Jim Farley, told us, “Probably the most exciting fuel economy technology we never talk about is ‘lightweighting.’” It just so happens that Ford’s been hard at work on a three-cylinder of its own, which we’ve sampled in a European-market Focus and in the 2014 Fiesta, which will go on sale later this year.

61st 12 Hours of Sebring Recap + Photo Gallery: Audi Dominates Again, GTs Duke It Out

We trust you didn’t wager against the Audi R18 e-tron Quattros in the 61st running of the 12 Hours of Sebring. It would have been a sucker’s bet that the German team would do anything but dominate—and it did just that. Since 2000, Audi has won Sebring every year but three, with five of those victories coming courtesy of diesel power. This year, its R18 hybrids qualified 1st (drivers: Marcel Fassler/Benoit Treluyer/Oliver Jarvis) and 2nd (Lucas di Grassi/Tom Kristensen/Allan McNish) and finished in the same order, with both cars five laps up on the next P1 machine.

But putting down a wager on any one of the GT teams was chancy—the battle pitched Ferrari 458 Italia against Corvette C6 ZR1 against BMW Z4 GTE against Porsche 911 GT3 RSR. And lurking in the background, suggesting a strong season to come, were the two SRT Viper GT-Rs, one of which had led the race before facing a mechanical problem during a pit stop. The GTs were hard at it from the start, and with six hours to go, there was a tight train of Ferrari, Corvette, BMW, and Porsche duking it out as if they were in a 10-lap sprint race. At the finish, it was Corvette (Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner/Richard Westbrook) and then Ferrari (Gianmaria Bruni/Olivier Beretta/Matteo Malucelli) on the same lap, followed by Porsche (Wolf Henzler/Bryan Sellers/Nick Tandy), BMW (Bill Auberlen/Maxime Martin/Jörg Müller), and Viper (Ryan Dalziel/Dominik Farnbacher/Marc Goossens).

The P2 class saw four Honda-powered prototypes taking on one with a Nissan engine, and Scott Tucker, new dad Marino Franchitti, and IndyCar’s Ryan Briscoe gave Honda the win. The PC class is all Oreca chassis/engine combos, and the class win went to David Cheng, Mike Guasch and David Ostella. It’s a Porsche 911 GT3 Cup-fest in GTC—Cooper MacNeil, Jeroen Bleekemolen and Dion von Moltke were this year’s winners.

We’d like to report that the updated DeltaWing was a factor, but it wasn’t. Just 12 minutes into the race, it was in the pits. The car eventually made its way back out on track, but it did only 10 laps before starting to pump engine smoke and ultimately retiring.

Forty-two cars started the race on the 17-turn circuit known for its rough surface, and the top 35 managed to turn more than 300 laps. But while the course itself will be as familiar as ever next year, the race could look even more different: 2014 will continue the evolution of the freshly merged Grand-Am and ALMS series. If you only make it to one endurance race in ’14, that might make the 62nd running one to shoot for—to say nothing of Sebring’s legendary trackside party scene.

2014 Lexus IS250 Images: Deep in the Heart of Texas

Deep in the heart of Texas, automotive writers from around the world are getting their first shots at driving the third-generation Lexus IS. We’ve had time with the IS350, the IS350 F Sport, and the IS250, but mum’s the word. We can’t share our impressions or concerns with you for another 10 days or so—although we have driven a prototype IS—but that doesn’t mean we can’t give you at least a visual preview. To step back a bit—to the Detroit auto show, perhaps—here’s what we’ve known about the new IS thus far. Visually, the exterior design is evolutionary, the IS shape we know has been honed to a finer cut. Its lines are sharper, and it now features a full incorporation of the brand’s signature spindle grille. The beltline has been raised, while below it another line sweeps up from the sill to the taillights. Those rear lights, which formerly swept up, now angle downward.

A pair of V-6s—a 204-hp 2.5-liter or a 306-hp 3.5—carry over, but the IS300h hybrid won’t make it to American dealers. The manual transmission is done away with, as the six-speed automatic is standard in every version but the rear-drive IS350, which now has the eight-speed auto. A Drive Mode Select knob offers a choice of several levels of throttle response, transmission settings, and chassis characteristics. If that’s not enough, there are F Sport versions of both the IS250 and IS350 with sportier suspension and steering tuning, LFA-inspired 18-inch aluminum wheels, and a unique instrument cluster.

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The new IS’s steering wheel, dash, and center console all are influenced by the LFA. As well And as is becoming more common in the luxury league, the climate controls are touch sensitive. On the assist list are lane departure, blind spot, and—when in reverse—rear cross-traffic warnings.

If the new IS is on your wish list, hold your horses, because they won’t be in dealerships until the middle of the year, and while prices won’t be announced for some time, we’re guessing they won’t be far off today’s stickers. As far as the availability or existence of a new IS F or another convertible IS C no news is, well, no news. The pair will continue as they are for the time being and their future is little more than a guess at this point.