2013 Honda Civic WTCC is ready for racing

Drumming up a little excitement for the 2013 FIA World Touring Car Championship, Honda brought its new Civic WTCC car to the bright lights of Geneva for all to see. Honda joined WTCC late last year entering the final three races. The racing outfit will run this year's entire 12-round season, which kicks off later this month in Italy.

In the off-season, Honda made a few updates to its WTCC entry including better aerodynamics, improved suspension and braking and numerous engine and turbo enhancements. Two teams will field the new Civic racecar in this year's season: Honda Racing Team JAS and a private team from Hungary, Zeng Motorsport.

Fans of the WTCC in the US will be pleased to know that series makes a return visit to Sonoma Raceway on September 8 for the Race of the United States.

Sbarro Ract' E.V. isn't electric, could be very fast

The Espera Sbarro Montbliard School of Design has followed up its 137-horsepower Intencity EV concept and 360-hp V8-powered Eight concept with this, the Ract' E.V. Note the periods between the "e" and the "v" this isn't an electric vehicle, it's an "Ecological Vehicle" with a hybrid powertrain.

In back, underneath the reptilian-scale-like cover, is a Peugeot-sourced V6 with 210 horsepower that turns the rear wheels. Turning the front wheels are two DC brushless motors that are each worth 100kW and 553 pound-feet of torque. They get juice from a 24-kWh battery pack and combined grunt is said to be 484 hp.

Rumor is that it took the students just 13 weeks to get it all together and that the two-seater coupe actually runs, something we haven't seen the other two concepts do. We'll find out soon enough since they have plans to run the Ract' E.V. in the 14th Monte Carlo Rallye of New Energies later this month. There are a few more details in the press release below to go with the high-res gallery above.

Opel Adam R2 Rally Car is a plucky little bruiser

If there's anything more entertaining than watching a B-segment car bash its way through the woods, we don't want to know about it. Good for us, then, that Opel revealed a competition version of its Adam at the 2013 Geneva Motor Show.

The Adam R2 Rally Concept is designed to conform to FIA R2 regulations and boasts a 1.6-liter four-cylinder engine with 185 horsepower and 140 pound-feet of torque. While technically a concept, Opel says it will work to homologate the hatch. Once done, buyers will be able to compete in any number of international rally events.

So far, Opel has built 40 of the machines for competition in France in Germany, and the whole lot has been sold already. There's no word on how much the production models will cost buyers when the bow, but you can check out the full Opel release below for more information.

McLaren F1 LM proves the P1 has the best genes

The McLaren F1 is 20-year-old exotic that was the most expensive production car in the world when it went on sale for 540,000 pounds. That's about $810,000 US at current rates; in 1995, however, while the pound-to-dollar exchange rate was about the same as today, the automotive world hadn't got used to there being a new million-dollar car announced or launched every quarter.

McLaren brought the production prototype of the F1 LM to the Geneva Motor Show to offer another look at what was. This was tester for the production version of the Le Mans-winning F1 GTR, of which five would be built. It carried over the race car's aero accoutrements like the wing and extra venting but shed the restrictor, making 680 horsepower from the 6.1-liter BMW V12 the standard F1 made 627 hp.

Twenty years is a long time to be put on a pedestal, but the innovation and the results prove it still belongs there. We'll find out this year if the P1 has the right to join it.

Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race Scion FR-S [w/video]

Toyota has been hosting its Pro/Celebrity race at the Toyota Grand Prix on Long Beach since 1977. The charity event, which has raised millions of dollars over the years, traditionally pits Hollywood celebrities against professional athletes (including race car drivers) on the full Grand Prix course in modified street vehicles. The short, sprint-style race is popular with the crowds as the amateur drivers race uninhibited the result is an action-packed event with plenty of excitement and automotive... er... carnage.

Over the decades, the drivers have raced a variety of Toyota products including last year's front-wheel-drive Scion tC. But this year, Toyota announced at the Chicago Auto Show that the new rear-wheel-drive Scion FR-S would be stepping up to the plate. The good news only became better when Toyota Motorsports invited us out to Southern California's Willow Springs Raceway (the same circuit where the drivers train and practice) to be one of the first behind the wheel.

Driving Notes:

• Transforming a stock Scion FR-S into one of two-dozen hand-built race cars is a tedious project that begins with gutting the interior. A steel roll cage is welded in place, and then most everything (including the headliner) goes back in with a few exceptions. The audio system, cup holders and passenger-side vent are removed, as are all of the airbags. A pair of five-point Simpson racing harnesses are bolted in place and fitted through the stock seats. The radio panel is replaced with a panel only containing a fire extinguisher pull lever, the windshield wipers are deactivated (to prevent inadvertent activation) and the removed vent becomes a master kill switch. A window net is fitted on the driver's side, and knee bolsters are installed on the door and on the side of the center console (anyone who has ever raced will consider the foam pads a gift from the heavens).
• The four-cylinder Subaru-sourced Boxer engine, left displacing 2.0-liters, receives a new performance intake and TRD stainless-steel exhaust for better breathing (one catalytic converter is removed and some of the baffles are eliminated to increase the exhaust note). Radiator fluid, a slippery bane if leaked on track surfaces, is replaced with water and Water Wetter (a chemical that improves heat transfer properties). Burning unleaded racing fuel, the engine develops about 210 horsepower. The six-speed manual gearbox retains the same ratios, but a Centerforce single disc racing clutch ensures longevity through the abuse.
• TRD Racing coil-over shocks and springs are fitted and supplemented with TRD sway bars. Special lower control arms, anodized blue at the rear, allow 2.5 degrees of negative camber at all four corners. The stock front calipers and rotors are tossed and replaced with four-piston calipers over floating rotors (surprisingly, the rear calipers and rotors remain stock) and the factory pads are upgraded with Hawk Performance DTC60 racing pads. The new rolling gear is TRD-sourced 18-inch alloy wheels wrapped in Bridgestone RE-11 summer tires (225/40R18).
• While it sounded much more aggressive than stock, the exhaust note was loud and booming (easily permeating the shell of my full face helmet). On a positive note, it allowed me to hear the changing pitch of the engine as it climbed towards redline. Even so, I hit the rev limiter and fuel cutoff more often than not in my early laps (a red blinking light alters the driver of his/her ineptness) before consciously short-shifting at 6,500 rpm in my later laps. Rather than rely on the engine's meager torque (about 160 pound-feet) pulling a taller gear, I shifted frequently more than a dozen times on each lap to keep the power flowing. As is the case with the lightweight Mazda MX-5 Miata, the FR-S is a momentum car.
• I found the handling and overall dynamics significantly improved over the stock model. The chassis felt light and agile in response to steering inputs, and the various suspension upgrades meant most of the understeer was gone too (also evident by the minimal scrub on the front tires). The Scion coupe never felt anything but very well balanced. (Note: stability and traction control have been re-programmed to default to OFF the opposite of what they normally do upon engine start.) Putting the tires exactly where I wanted them was a no-brainer, and the fade-free brakes easily reigned things in and saved me when I overcooked more than a few corners. If asked to sum up how the FR-S race car felt on the circuit, I'd say moderately powered, responsive, predictable and very entertaining.
• The 2013 Toyota Pro/Celebrity Scion FR-S is what happens when a very good sports coupe turns great at the skilled hands of a factory-supported team. If these two dozen Long Beach race cars are indicative of what a future Spec FR-S series holds in store, I'll be one of the first standing in line.

Watch NASCAR racer Brad Keselowski do a burnout... in a hotel conference room

A vast majority of hotels frown upon smoking inside the building these days, but Brad Keselowski doesn't follow the rules. During his introduction at the 2013 MiilerCoors Distribution Convention, the reigning NASCAR Sprint Cup champion smoked the tires of his Miller-sponsored Ford Fusion stock car, adding a pair of thick, black stripes to the carpeting of the Marriott World Center's conference room.

This definitely isn't a high-quality video, but it's the perfect vantage point to watch Keselowski lay down some rubber and receive a well-deserved standing ovation after pulling up in front of the crowd. Check out the short-but-sweet video posted below.

Renault taking Alpine endurance racing, enters 24 Hours of Le Mans

Renault isn't letting up with the return of its Alpine brand. After announcing a partnership with Caterham to bring a new Alpine to market by 2015 (now expected by 2016), the French firm has announced it is taking Alpine racing again in the European Le Mans Series this year and that includes The 24 Hours of Le Mans.

It has been 35 years since Alpine last competed in Le Mans, when it won the race outright and dropped the mic as it left the pits, never to return. Before that, in the 11 years it campaigned in the most famous endurance race on the planet from 1963 to 1978, it took seven class wins.

Caterham won't be involved with the race team, however; that will be an effort spearheaded by the Signatech-Nissan team that has been running GT Academy winners in LMS racing. Alpine is preparing an LMP2 chassis that will get a 500-horsepower Nissan engine for this year's championship, with the first two named drivers being Nelson Panciatici (above right) and Pierre Ragues (above left). The third driver for Le Mans will be announced later this month when the racer is launched at the Le Castellet race track in southern France.

The press release below has more details, and prepare yourself now for a chant that hasn't been heard since Valry Giscard d'Estaing was president of the republic: "Allez Alpine!"