In creating the 2011 Explorer, Ford engineers and designers had an enormously difficult task set before them. Ford's President of the Americas, Mark Fields, described the job as "Reinventing the SUV for the 21st century." Despite the near complete collapse of the traditional mid-to-large SUV market over the last several years, Ford still sees a substantial market for the capabilities of these boxy behemoths. Customers just don't want the traditional downsides that accompany these body-on-frame 'utes – specifically, their higher fuel consumption and poor ride and handling.

Since its debut some 20 years ago, the Explorer has sold over six million units, four million of which are still traversing the world's roads. Through much of the late-1990s and early part of the last decade, the Explorer was Ford's second-best-selling vehicle behind its F-Series pickups, regularly selling 400,000 units a year. Fast-forward to 2009, and that volume had plummeted to just over 52,000. Even so, Ford believes it still has an opportunity. According to the automaker's vice president of global marketing, Jim Farley, each year, at least 140,000 Explorer owners come back to Blue Oval dealerships looking to purchase new vehicles. And obviously, they just aren't buying Explorers.

When word got out that Ford was developing a new unibody Explorer off the same platform architecture that underpins the Taurus and Flex – not to mention the Lincoln MKS and MKT – many people wondered why Dearborn had elected to develop yet another crossover, especially since the Taurus X/Freestyle had just been killed due to slow sales. This predicament was not lost on Ford's product planners, and their four-wheeled response is a new Explorer that remains squarely targeted at traditional SUV buyers – shoppers that Ford sees as a distinct group from most crossover intenders. Long ago, Jeep proved with the Cherokee and Grand Cherokee that a unibody chassis isn't necessarily an impediment to building a fully capable off-roader, and Ford appears to have taken that lesson to heart, along with targeting big improvements in fuel economy and driving dynamics. Follow the jump to find out if they succeeded.

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After reviewing this year's 24 Hours of Le Mans in the previous episode of the Corvette Racing video series, the latest installment looks at the off-track activities that preceded the race. Once the cars and drivers have established their place on the starting grid, they're able to take a short break from competition to interact with the fans - especially the rabid Danish crowd that showed up to cheer on Jan Magnussen. Judging from the narration, you'd think that eight overall victories at the Circuit de la Sarthe aren't enough for Tom Kristensen to gain any attention from his countrymen. (If you've seen Truth in 24, however, you know full well that the Danes treat TK like a rock star, too.)

Apparently the narrator missed the memo from the marketing department about referring to Chevrolet as Chevy. Rather than vuvuzelas, Le Mans fans prefer to express their enthusiasm using air horns, so the Corvette crew brought a very special one of their own this year. Wanna see? Then check out video after the jump.

[Source: YouTube]

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We're live from Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca today for the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix, and we just witnessed some awesome racing action. Well, awesome for some riders, less so for others. For instance, we're certain that Factory Honda rider Dani Pedrosa isn't particularly pleased with his result.

After leading the race for the first 11 laps, Pedrosa crashed out at turn five. Yamaha-mounted Jorge Lorenzo, who had positioned himself in second position following Pedrosa, inherited first place. He would not relinquish his grip on the lead for the remainder of the race, earning his sixth win of the 2010 season and his first at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.

The rest of the field sorted itself out over the course of the race, with Ducati (for now, at least) rider Casey Stoner finding himself in second place behind Lorenzo by 3.5 seconds. Third position was claimed by Valentino Rossi, who made his second start of the season riding with a broken leg.

Andrea Dovizioso relinquished third position to Rossi with just five laps left to go in the race, and he ended up finishing in fourth place. American riders managed to take the next three slots, with Nicky Hayden edging out Ben Spies and Colin Edwards (in that order) for fifth. Check out our high-res image gallery below and see the full finishing order after the break.



Photos by Jeremy Korzeniewski / Copyright ©2010 AOL

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After a decade at the top of the U.S. luxury vehicle sales charts, Lexus may soon be unseated by the previous leader, Mercedes-Benz, as well as BMW. While Lexus sales have been recovering this year from the dismal first half of 2009, Mercedes-Benz has been climbing even faster.

One possible reason for this disparity is the string of recalls Lexus has been hit with this year, including accelerator pedals, floor mats, leaking gas tanks and defective valve-springs. Another reason is the sales strength of Mercedes' updated bread-and-butter vehicles, including the new E-Class.

In June, Lexus sales were up just 2.7 percent compared to 25 percent and 15 percent for Mercedes and BMW respectively. Unless Lexus cleans up its act quickly and manages to convince customers that its quality problems are behind it, Toyota's premium brand could fall behind both German brands.



Photos by Drew Phillips / Copyright ©2010 Weblogs, Inc.

[Source: Bloomberg]

We revel in watching someone get their wits scared out of them in the passenger seat of a car. It's why we take the time to watch Subaru's slew of new ads for the 2011 WRX STI sedan any time we're feeling down. It would appear that we're in good company. During filming of a somewhat recent episode of the UK's Fifth Gear, Tiff Needell was charged with scooting the Porsche 911 Turbo Cabriolet around the show's test course with Jason Plato in the passenger seat. Based on the outtakes, it looks as if it took a few tries to get Plato around the course without a profusion of expletives.

It's no secret that Needell is one of the hottest shoes around when it comes to coaxing big speed from a vehicle. With a racing resume packed with references to the 24 Hours of Le Mans and Formula One, the guy could run the wheels off a shopping cart. Hit the jump to see Tiff make Plato hold on for dear life. Thanks for the tip, Brad!

[Source: YouTube]

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In racing, planning is everything. This point was proven once again as the bright yellow (Flying Banana, if you will) race machine from Lightning Motors held the lead of the e-Power International Championship until the very last few hundred feet. And then ran out of juice.

Sadly, for Lightning Motors at least, this slight miscalculation allowed the Flying Banana to be passed literally just feet ahead of the finish line by Michael Czysz, who took the win mounted on his own MotoCzysz E1pc electric race bike. For those keeping track, Czysz was 6.7 seconds behind at the start of the last lap.

Michael Barnes took second place on the Lightning Motors machine, followed by Thijs de Ridder aboard the Crystalite bike. Our congratulations to all of the riders!



Photos by Jeremy Korzeniewski / Copyright ©2010 AOL

While fire-breathing performance cars and hot rods are car-show fixtures, there aren't many environmentally-friendly car shows out there, so Prince Charles is having one in his front yard. The Prince of Wales will open his gardens at Clarence House to the public from September 8–19 (neighboring gardens at Lancaster House and Marlborough House will also open their respective gardens) for what's being dubbed "The Garden Party to Make a Difference." Proceeds from the event will support the Prince's Charities Foundation, whose aim is to help people "lead more sustainable lives and to show what a more energy efficient, cleaner and healthier future could look like."

The garden party will feature a number of eco-friendly vehicles, music, comedy acts and a race from Glasgow to London pitting the sustainable stallions against the Prince's royal train, which runs on waste vegetable oil. Entry to the gardens costs £15 (about $23 USD), but the display of green cars is free. Is a green car show worth a trip across The Pond? We're thinking no – unless of course we can burn some rubber racing Charles' choo-choo – all in the name of environmental responsibility.

[Source: Auto Express | Image: Saab]

The Formula One World Championship passed the halfway point with the British Grand Prix two weeks ago, and while Red Bull and McLaren have been the teams to beat of late, several others are showing signs of marked improvement, Ferrari being but one of them. Heading into qualifying for the German Grand Prix, the Maranello squad was telling anyone who would listen that they were in it to the very end. After all, the Scuderia had taken the top step of the podium in the first round of the season and Fernando Alonso was fifth in the drivers' standings.

Of course, there were still two Red Bull drivers and two McLaren drivers ahead of him, none of whom are mailing it in for the remaining nine races. Vettel, Hamilton and Button have each racked up two wins in 2010, and last week's victor, Mark Webber, has posted three. If Ferrari, and Alonso in particular, were going to get back into the hunt, they needed a great showing in Hockenheim. There was good news for the tifosi: Fernando was quickest through much of practice heading into the Sunday feature. Would his speed hold through qualifying? And would Ferrari truly take that big step everyone has been anticipating? Follow the jump to read how things went down.



[Images: Matthias Schrader, Martin Meissner, Michael Probst, Jens Meyer, /AP | Guillaume Baptiste/AFP/Getty Images]

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General Motors may be in the process of acquiring AmeriCredit as a step toward securing a captive in-house financing operation, but the company says it will continue to nurture its relationship with Ally. As you may recall, Ally (formerly GMAC) has financed dealer floor plans for years, and GM says that it will continue to rely on its former financing arm for that very reason. While AmeriCredit has been able to weather the rise and fall of consumer confidence with nary a scratch, the company doesn't boast same level of assets as other lenders. Note also that AmeriCredit has next to no experience financing dealer floor plans, and it's easy to see the holes in GM's financing strategy.

Ally seems happy to fill in those bald spots. According to Automotive News, the company provided financing for around a third of all GM vehicles sold at retail during in the first quarter of 2010 and 90 percent of The General's vehicles in inventory. That leaves AmeriCredit to take care of subprime borrowers and leasing duties. Consider the two the dynamic duo of GM financing.

[Source: Automotive News]

An increasing portion of BMW's revenue in recent years has come from dealing in older cars. The Munich brand's certified pre-owned program that reconditions and sells warranted used cars has reportedly been very profitable. Now BMW is taking that idea to a whole new level by opening the Classic Center workshop. The Classic Center offers a variety of services from parts re-manufacturing to full vehicle restorations.

The facility recently finished its first complete restoration of a 1972 BMW 3.0 CSi coupe. In addition to bringing the CSi back to pristine condition, the owner had BMW convert the coupe's transmission, originally a manual, to an automatic. The owner took possession of his restored beauty at the BMW Welt in Munich, which until now has only been used for new car deliveries.



[Source: BMW]

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