Ford recently unveiled their new 2012 Ford Fiesta WRC Rally Car in its full livery at the Autosport International Racing Car Show in Birmingham, England.

This will be the Fiesta’s second year competing in the WRC and the race team is looking forward to building off of its success last year when it won the season opener and the last race of the season. It’ll be powered by a 1.6L Ford EcoBoost turbocharged powerplant and was prepared to go rally-racing by M-Sport, Ford’s long time partner. As you can tell by the livery, Castrol remains the team’s primary sponsor.

The successor to Ford’s Focus WRC, there are high hopes for the Fiesta this year and things could get mighty interesting against Citroen.

GALLERY: 2012 Ford Fiesta WRC Rally Car

The 2012 Chevrolet Sonic is besting the competition for safety ratings, for now. The little sub-compact Sonic scored a five-star rating from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to beat out the Ford Fiesta, which only scored four out of five.

Safety isn’t the only thing we’re pleased to say makes the Sonic great, it’s a peppy starter car that comes available with a six-speed manual and a turbocharged four-cylinder that had us scooting past the speed limit with surprising ease. It also comes with 10 standard airbags.

The Sonic still has to go up against its other competition: this year’s Kia Rio and Honda Fit, which both have yet to be rated. The 2012 Nissan Versa sedan also still has to be rated, but the verdict isn’t looking good for its hatchback brother with three of five in the frontal crash category and four of five in rollovers.

Poor ratings aside, the Sonic hasn’t won the race yet. It got four out of five stars in the rollover category, so there is still a chance the unrated cars can equal or best it.

Of course, that rating is coming hot off the heels of a recall over missing brake pads in the Sonic. We’re willing to assume the rating is based on completely assembled cars.

The Sonic is also a Top Safety Pick by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

Read Autoguide’s Chevy Sonic review here.

Valentino Rossi is clearly a warrior on all things two-wheeled. Rossi won his first 125cc championship in 1997, a 250cc World Championship in 1999, a 500cc World Championship in 2001, back-to-back World GP Championships in 2002 and 2003 with Honda, and another back-to-back in 2004 and 2005 with Yamaha. It would take until 2008 for Rossi to recapture his title, but he had no problem retaining it in 2009.

Despite a disappointing season in 2011 for Ducatti, Rossi is still first in all time 500cc / MotoGP race wins with 79 victories. And while we don’t expect Rossi to hand up MotoGP anytime soon, he did proclaim that he sees himself racing in rally sometime in the future.

I’ll do a few more years in MotoGP, then I’d race in rallies: these machines are really fun to drive because they have less electronics,” said Rossi.

For the 2011 edition of the Monza Rally Show, Monster Energy and Rossi put together a three-car team and shot a video of Rossi behind the wheels of a WRC Ford Fiesta. And despite not having a ton of time behind the wheel, Rossi showed off why he’s one of the fastest things on wheels (two or four) by finishing second in two race formats behind multiple WRC champion Sebastian Loeb.

Check out a video of Rossi piloting a Monster Energy WRC Fiesta after the break.

[Source: Autoblog]

Just in time for the holiday season, Hot Wheels announced a lineup of Ken Block toys now available at retailers nationwide such as Toys “R” Us, Wal-Mart, Target, Kmart and Pep Boys. Three individual products make up the Ken Block Hot Wheels line, a 1:64-scale die-cast 2011 Ken Block Ford Fiesta Hot Wheels car, a Hot Wheels RC Nitro Speeders Ken Block Fiesta, and a 1:16-scale Hot Wheels Ken Block RC Stunt Car.

The 1:64-scale die-cast Fiesta is available sporting the black or white liveries, depending on your preference and comes in at a mere $1.00. The RC Nitro Speeders Fiesta is a small, self-containing RC car and controller and has the ability to go 0-60 mph in scale speed in just 1-second. The Speeders is for sale at $26.00. Lastly, the RC Stunt Car is a fully functional remote controlled car with two different drift modes, allowing the user to pull both wide and tight drifts. It features a scale speed of 0-80 mph in less than 2-seconds for just $45.00.

This is just the beginning of the collaboration, as Block elaborated that he’s already working with Hot Wheels for some 2012 items, including some of his current projects that are still secret.

GALLERY: Ken Block Hot Wheels

Ford has just released the Do Not Disturb feature, a new technology that lets parents limit distracted driving habits teens are tempted with.

The new Ford MyKey Do Not Disturb feature allows parents to block their teens from receiving phone calls and text messages while driving. This means that young drivers can keep their eyes on the road instead of on their cell phones. The Do Not Disturb feature saves incoming calls and texts, so teens can check them after they stop the car.

This new Do Not Disturb feature adds another safety element to Ford’s programmable MyKey, which limit a vehicle’s top speed to 80mph and reduces the audio volume. Not only that, but this feature reminds drivers to use a seatbelt, provides earlier low-fuel warnings and can be set to sound chimes between 45 and 70mph.

“MyKey adds a new dimension to auto safety by giving drivers standard technology that encourages safer driving and limits their exposure to risk, regardless of age or experience,” said Peter Patzelt, Ford system architect for MyKey. “MyKey can give parents peace of mind when they hand car keys over to their kids, and ‘Do Not Disturb’ enables parents to control another risk factor when their child gets behind the wheel.”

The MyKey function will be available next year on the Ford Fiesta, and will later be available on other Ford car models.

Even though the Fiesta was last year’s news, Ford handed out a trio of them to be customized and shown off at this year’s SEMA Show. None of the projects were crazy exotic, but really show off what the Fiesta can achieve when done with the right modifications.

The Candy Purple Fiesta is a creation from M2-Motoring, featuring upgrades in all departments of the vehicle’s performance. Under the hood is an Injen Technology cold air intake system, DC Sports cat back exhaust, Mishimoto oil coolers and Champion lubricants. For suspension, a set of coilovers came from Megan Racing while brakes from Wilwood gives the Fiesta proper stopping power. On the outside, APR Performance chipped in with a carbon fiber splitter, while the rear gets a roof spoiler from 3dCarbon. The stereo has also been upgraded using products from Jensen and Audiovox.

Next up is a Fiesta creation from Gold Coast Automotive featuring a four-piece body kit from 3dCarbon while Gold Coast further accented the body with its fender flare kit. Under the hood, Jackson Racing enhanced the performance of the Fiesta with a Rotrex intercooled supercharger and Performance Electronics “Edge” stand-alone ECU. H&R coilovers and Wilwood brakes round off the chassis upgrades while the Fiesta sits on a set of 17×7-inch Kyowa Racing 206 wheels.

Aaron Vaccar’s Signature Series Fiesta features a BASF Custom Bright Silver Matte Metallic paint finish while custom body kit by Canfield offers subtle changes to the exterior. 3dCarbon’s upper roof spoiler can also be found on this Fiesta, along with a set of carbon fiber mirrors from APR. Coilovers are also from Megan Racing, along with the Wilwood brakes for chassis upgrades. Under the hood, Vaccar turned to Weapon-R for their air intake, oil catch tank and coolant overflow tank. The Fiesta rocks a set of 17-inch Advanti Racing V3 Vago wheels wrapped with 205/40/17 Toyo Proxes 4 rubber.

GALLERY: M2-Motoring Ford Fiesta

GALLERY: Gold Coast Automotive Ford Fiesta

GALLERY: Aaron Vaccar Ford Fiesta

The Ford Fiesta B-Spec is intended to be Ford’s offering for the newly created B-Spec racing class, which allows racers a (relatively) affordable way to go road racing in production cars.

Based on the same Fiesta available to consumers, the B-Spec cars have their interiors gutted to make way for a rollcage, a bucket seat, race harness and ballast, designed to keep weight levels even among the various cars. Engine work is minimal and rules are still in flux, but certain vehicles will have restrictors fitted to the intake – no word yet if the Fiesta will be subject to this handicap.

Tires and suspension will also be subject to the same strict regulations, but again, rules are still being worked out. Ford is evidently behind the program in a big way, and we’re looking forward to a full field when racing gets under way in 2012.

Gallery: Ford Fiesta B-Spec

Check out more of AutoGuide’s SEMA coverage here

The Sports Car Club of America’s B-Spec class is meant to give automakers and racers alike a relatively affordable platform to go racing with machines similar to those available from the factory. While safety and chassis modifications are allowed, engine power is restricted to keep the playing field even.

Honda and Mazda were among the earlier adopters, fielding Fit and Mazda2 B-Spec prototypes respectively. Now, Fiat and Ford are looking into the series, and the automakers tested Fiat 500 and Fiesta B-Spec cars at Michigan’s Grattan Raceway last week. Kuno Wittmer and Andy Vrenko piloted the 500 and Fiesta, while Peter Cunningham and Charles Espenlaub represented Honda and Mazda. All cars were equipped with engine restrictors and 100 pounds of ballast, while engineers were on hand to compare lap times between the four cars.

If the formula gains traction among racers, 2012 could be a banner year for American sports car racing, as an entry-level series has long been needed to reinvigorate interest among potential participants.

10. Toyota Yaris 3-Door: $14,115

You can sound polite and say “inexpensive” but if you’re strapped for cash, the most important question when shopping for a new car is: what’s the cheapest car on the market? AutoGuide has got the answer, along with the nine runners up.

Toyota‘s warmed-over Yaris makes the 10th spot on our list with a base price of $14,115 for the 3-door model. The pricier 5-door will run you $15,150.

Using a 1.5-liter 4-cylinder like many of its counterparts the Yaris makes 106-hp and is rated at 38-mpg on the highway making it one of the most efficient models in its class, but not the most efficient. Growing three inches overall, Toyota claims the new car has 68 percent more cargo room than the outgoing model, which it shares a near-identical resemblance with. Standard on all models is air conditioning, nine airbags and power windows.

The viral success of Ken Block’s Gymkhana videos gave rise to the Gymkhana GRID competition, which is basically a bunch of fancy driving stunts masquerading was a real motorsport. The first one achieved commercial success, and a second event was planned for the end of October in Hollywood, Ca. Now, the event has been cancelled due to a pending legal dispute.

Gymkhana GRID’s founder Chris Willard had originally approached Ken Block and DC to collaborate on the events, and Block gave Willard his blessing to run the events. Somewhere along the line, things changed and DC Shoes attempted to trademark the name, while simultaneously issuing a cease-and-desist order to Willard to prevent him from using the name for his events.

While Willard seems unsure of why DC decided to pursue this course of action, a legal representative for Block told Autoblog that his client wanted to make sure that Gymkhana GRID was at a “… level where it’s supposed to be, and that it’s ran right and ethically.”

Without wading into murky legal territory, it’s safe to assume that there’s a serious case of not seeing eye-to-eye here and with a dearth of facts, it’s prudent to avoid making any judgement calls this early in the game.

[Source: Autoblog]