#Indianapolis

Pop-pop-pop! The exhaust of the MINI John Cooper Works I’m driving reacts enthusiastically as I let off the gas and carefully point the car to the apex of the turn, then accelerate the little car towards the short straight between turns five and six on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s road course.

Chevrolet Performance has announced that it has signed a multi-year deal to become the title sponsor of the NHRA U.S. Nationals.

This year’s Indianapolis 500 will not only have a special guest pace car, but also a special pace car driver in the form of Super-Bowl runner-up San Francisco 49ers head coach, Jim Harbaugh.

Indianapolis plans to swap all its city-use sedans for electrified cars according to a new order signed by mayor Greg Ballard.

Insurance.com has published a report on DUI citations in the nation’s largest US cities with California playing home to three of the top five. San Diego and Los Angeles topped the list at first and second respectively, while Indianapolis, Jacksonville (Florida) and San Francisco rounded off the top five.

It’s worth mentioning though that these cities with a high-percentage of DUI citations doesn’t necessarily mean there’s more drinking and driving occurring. It could also mean that there’s less public transportation or a police force that’s good at doing their job – or really the more densely populated a city is, the more people there are to do stupid things.

Nationwide in 2010, there were 1.4 million DUI arrests according to the FBI. This is also the second year in a row that San Diego has topped the list in the study.

Despite the study supposedly listing the top 20 cities, the website only publishes 19 – see it after the break.

[Source: Insurance.com]

BMW used this past weekend’s Indianapolis MotoGP to unveil its new F10 M5 safety car. The BMW was fitted with an Akrapovic titanium exhaust system that sounds amazing. Other goodies that set this  safety vehicle aside from all other standard M5’s include high performance coilovers, new front and rear spoilers, Recaro bucket seats and 20-inch rims.

The M5 has been entirely redesigned but the biggest change is the switch from a high-revving V10 to a 4.4-liter twin-turbocharged V8. The new engine will crank out 552 horsepower and 502 lb-ft of torque mated to either a six-speed manual or a seven-speed dual clutch transmission. The car is capable of achieving a 0-60 time of 4.4 seconds, not bad for a car weighs around 4,000 lbs. Pricing has not been announced but the M5 will probably sell for around $85,000.

Check out the video after the jump!

Jacques Villeneuve, the Canadian Formula 1 world champion and Indianapolis 500 winner, is headed back to NASCAR for the famous Brickyard 400 in Indianapolis.