MINI to Enter WRC with the Help of Prodrive, Aims to Win Title Within Three Years!

After a long break, MINI is making a comeback in the world of rallying starting from next season with a Prodrive built and developed Countryman crossover. The BMW Group said that MINI, whose Cooper model won the Monte Carlo Rally three times in the 1960s, was planning its racing involvement "for several years".

The Countryman WRC complies with the new Super2000 regulations and will be powered by a 1.6-litre, four-cylinder turbo-charged engine from BMW Motorsport and have an all-wheel drive system. Prodrive, which ran Subaru's world championship-winning team until the Japanese automaker pulled out at the end of 2008, has been working on the development of the car since early 2009.

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Sportback from the Past : The Audi A7's Predecessor, the 1977 100 C2 Avant

The just introduced A7 Sportback and its more compact sibling, the A5 Sportback, aren't the first fastback, liftback, hatchback, five-door coupe or whatever else you'd like to call cars with four doors and a rear hatch, from Audi.

The automaker from Ingolstadt toyed around with the idea of a fastback model in the upper-medium segment more than 30 years ago with the presentation of a hatchback version of the A6's predecessor, the 100, carrying the Avant nameplate.

That was before Audi began started using the Avant moniker for its Station Wagon models beginning with the third generation of the 100 in 1982.

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Buick Sells 100,000th LaCrosse in China

It's no secret that General Motors's Buick unit has been a rolling success in China. Now, the U.S. automaker's China division has another reason to celebrate as sales of the new Buick LaCrosse sedan in the country have reached 100,000 units less than a year after its introduction in the market.

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SPIED: 2011 Jeep Wrangler Receives an Interior Makeover As Well

Following on from last week's scoop with two exterior shots (click here and here) of the upcoming 2011 model year Jeep Wrangler, courtesy of the news website 'Toledoblade', the Chrysler Group enthusiasts over at Allpar have now come into possession of some revealing images of the facelifted 4x4's interior.

The photos show a redesigned dash with a new instrument panel and center console, and possibly higher-quality materials. There's also a new three-spoke steering wheel with a thicker rim, which now houses the audio and cruise controls. Other changes include the restyled door panels, a new audio system and the generous use of aluminum trim throughout the interior for a more upscale feel. For the complete set of scoop photos, hop over to Allpar.

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Mazda Launches Subtly Refined Verisa Subcompact Hatch in Japan

Despite the introduction of a newer generation of the Demio, which is known as the Mazda2 in overseas markets, Mazda continues to offer a crossover-ish version of the previous model called the Verisa in Japan. The tall subcompact hatch, which is pretty much the Japanese equivalent of Europe's Ford Fiesta (previous generation) -based Fusion, enters the 2011MY with some modest updates.

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New Audi A7 Sportback: Official Details and 106 High- Res Photos

After a long wait, Audi finally slid the covers off the all-new A7 Sportback during a special event at the art museum "Pinakothek der Moderne" in Munich today. Following a similar formula with the smaller A5 Sportback, Audi crafted a sleek five-door model to target the new Mercedes-Benz CLS and BMW 5-Series Gran Turismo.

The German carmaker claims the production version of last year's Sportback Concept brings together the best of three worlds:"the sporty elegance of a coupe, the comfort of a sedan and the practicality of a station wagon." In reality, the A7 Sportback is a shaper looking version of the next A6 with a lower roofline, a more practical rear hatch and seating for four.

The car's exterior and interior design has remained largely untouched over the 2009 Detroit show car with most changes concerning practical details such as the larger head- and tail lamps and the shape and size of the exterior mirrors, along with the less fancy trim inside. And oh, it also gets a neat retractable rear spoiler similar to the one found on the Porsche Panamera.

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Corvette Undergoes Freaky Transformation into Ferrari F40

Just because you can't own a real Ferrari, doesn't necessarily mean that you have to go and butcher one up for the sake of fulfilling your desires... And while this here Corvette C4-based replica of the Ferrari F40, which was spotted hiding out in a garage somewhere in Spain, isn't the worst one we've seen to date (that award probably goes to the 1980s Suzuki mini-based Faux 40), it's not a pretty sight to behold, that's for sure. More photos of the "Ferrvette" F40 clone after the jump.

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