The 2009 Cadillac XLR V-Series gets refreshed with moderate changes to the front and rear, spy photographer Brenda Priddy tells us. The V-Series signature wire-mesh comes through the front-end camouflage, and Priddy notes the large fender vent covered by black tape as a new feature, probably not unlike the vent shown on the Provoq concept.

Priddy adds that the XLR may continue with the 4.4L supercharged Northstar V-8, good for 443 hp. There's also a chance that it could get the LSA motor, a 6.2L supercharged small-block V-8 good for 550 hp, found in the upcoming 2009 CTS-V.

A version of SEMA-model legislation (H.F. 2452) that would create a vehicle registration classification for street rods and replica vehicles was approved by the Iowa State Legislature and signed into law by Governor Chet Culver. H.F. 2452 defines a street rod as an altered vehicle manufactured before 1949 or a vehicle designed to resemble a vehicle manufactured before 1949. The bill defines a replica vehicle as a reproduction of an originally manufactured vehicle with the substitution or addition of parts to update the vehicle for purposes of safety, performance or reliability. The bill allows street rods and replica vehicles to be assigned a registration designation bearing the same model year that the body of the vehicle resembles. For details, contact Steve McDonald at stevem@sema.org.

THE PRELUDE: For the second-consecutive year, The Prelude to the Dream dirt-late-model event, which features many of NASCAR’s best drivers racing on the dirt track at Eldora Speedway in Ohio, will be televised by HBO Pay-Per-View, selling for $24.95. The race is set for June 4.

STILL WANTS TO RACE: While he has sat out the first two races of the IndyCar Series season because he is under contract to Forsythe Racing, which is not going to compete in the series, veteran open-wheel racer Paul Tracy said he wants to continue to race, but will not do so until a settlement is reached with team owner Gerry Forsythe.

SANCTION: USAC will sanction the Little 500 sprint-car race and a new long-distance midget race at Anderson (Ind.) Speedway this year.

DIED: Midget driver Shane Hammond was killed in a violent crash during the Northeastern Midget Association season opener at Thompson (Connecticut) International Speedway. Hammond was 27.

BREAK THROUGH: Nineteen-year-old Graham Rahal won his first IndyCar Series race in his first start Sunday at the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. He is the son of three-time CART champion Bobby Rahal.

READY TO ROLL: The Atlantic Championship powered by Mazda has set a revamped 11-race schedule for the 2008 season. It is highlighted by a return to Trois-Rivieres, Quebec after a five-year absence.

BACK ON THE TRACK: 1996 CART champion Jimmy Vasser will return to the seat of a Champ Car, competing in the final event for the series, which will be governed by the Indy Racing League April 20 at Long Beach, Calif.

POWER RANKINGS: Veteran late-model racer Billy Moyer used his ninth victory (in a World of Outlaws Late Model Series event at Farmer City Raceway in Illinois) of the season to remain at the top of the National Speed Sport News Power Rankings, which are published weekly in the 74-year-old motorsports publication.

SUBSCRIBE: National Speed Sport News has been published weekly since 1934. To subscribe to National Speed Sport News, click on the following link for a special industry rate: www.nationalspeedsportnews.com/subscribe.html?pid=NQ%2BVfhkepT4%3D.

NEWS NUGGETS

RETURN TO VEGAS; DEFENDING CHAMPS HOPING FOR REPEAT OF EMOTIONAL 2007 WINS: It was one year ago when the John Force Racing camp rolled in to Las Vegas, nearly one month removed from the last time they had seen any racing. After losing teammate Eric Medlen in a testing accident a week after the Gatornationals, Funny Car legend and team owner John Force decided to have his teams sit out the preceding event in Houston. The SummitRacing.com Nationals not only marked the return of racing for JFR, but also the first event they’d compete in without Medlen. By the end of the event, it was apparent that Medlen’s memory was far from forgotten, as JFR driver Robert Hight and Eric’s close friend, Brandon Bernstein, took the win lights at Las Vegas in Funny Car and Top Fuel, dedicating their wins to Medlen. Greg Anderson also found winner’s circle in Pro Stock. “I know Vegas is going to bring back a lot of Memories,” said Bernstein. “I’ve already gotten a message from Mimi (Medlen, Eric’s mother) that she’s planning to be in Vegas, and I know it would mean a lot to her if we could repeat our victory there.” Though the emotion felt at last year’s event will always be remembered in the drag racing community, this year’s SummitRacing.com NHRA Nationals will bring new memories for fans and drivers alike. For more information on the SummitRacing.com NHRA Nationals, April 10–13, at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, visit www.nhra.com.

POWERade SERIES DRIVERS HIT A “DIFFERENT” TRACK IN LAS VEGAS: It’s not everyday that a Top Fuel driver has the chance to race against a Pro Stock world champion, but as the NHRA POWERade Series heads back to Las Vegas this week, many popular NHRA drivers will have that opportunity. POWERade Series drivers Jeg Coughlin, Doug Kalitta, Morgan Lucas, J.R. Todd, Allen Johnson and Gary Scelzi will face each other in the 15-lap, NHRA Stars in Short Track Cars, at the Bullring at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Saturday, April 12. For the evening, these kings of the quarter-mile will climb in to short track Thunder Roadsters for the 15-lap contest, while fellow Top Fuel competitor, Urs Erbacher calls the action from the booth, serving as color commentator for the event. “I’m just going to wax him,” Scelzi said of fellow Mopar racer Allen Johnson. “Allen Johnson is not going to have a chance unless he has dad (engine builder Roy Johnson) over there tuning on that engine.”

NHRA DRIVERS TO RAISE MONEY TO FUND DREAM HOUSE FOR MEDICALLY FRAGILE CHILDREN: NHRA POWERade Series drivers Mike Ashley, Melanie Troxel, Gary Scelzi, Frank Hawley, Jack Beckman and Matt Smith will participate in a special fundraising event to benefit the Dream House for Medically Fragile Children. The event, organized by Ashley and Gotham City Racing co-owner Roger Burgess, will be held Saturday, April 26, at Chateau Élan Winery & Resort in Braselton, Georgia. Dream House for Medically Fragile Children was created to give medically fragile children the quality of life they deserve by providing them with a dream home, a family and a future. For more information on the event, or to purchase tickets, click here. 

HOTEL UNVEILS COLLECTABLE POKER CHIPS HONORING NHRA POWERade WORLD CHAMPIONS: Drivers from the NHRA POWERade Series will participate in a free autograph session at The Palms Resort Casino, Thursday, April 10, from 6:30–7:30 p.m. As part of the autograph session, The Palms will have special gaming chips honoring 2007 NHRA POWERade world champions Tony Schumacher, Tony Pedregon and Jeg Coughlin, as well as unveiling a Palms Casino Resort design on Tony Pedregon’s Q Horsepower Chevy Impala SS. To view some of the images of the collector chips, visit www.nhra.com.

COMING ATTRACTIONS

SUMMITRACING.COM NHRA NATIONALS, THE STRIP AT LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY, APRIL 10–13: The NHRA POWERade series travels to Nevada for the fifth event of the 2008 season. Defending event winners include Brandon Bernstein (Top Fuel), Robert Hight (Funny Car) and Greg Anderson (Pro Stock).
 
SUMMIT RACING EQUIPMENT NHRA SOUTHERN NATIONALS, ATLANTA DRAGWAY, APRIL 24–27: The NHRA POWERade series heads back down south as drivers in four categories will compete at the sixth event of the season. Defending event winners include Brandon Bernstein (Top Fuel), Robert Hight (Funny Car), Greg Anderson (Pro Stock) and Karen Stoffer (Pro Stock Motorcycle).
 
O’REILLY NHRA MIDWEST NATIONALS, GATEWAY INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY, MAY 2–4: Traveling back to Madison, Illinois, which sits just outside of St. Louis in view of the archway, drivers from the NHRA POWERade Series will look to gain some advantage in the Countdown to the Championship just before the start of the summer months. Defending event champions include Melanie Troxel (Top Fuel), Ron Capps (Funny Car), Dave Connolly (Pro Stock) and Matt Smith (Pro Stock Motorcycle).

IN THE NEWS…

ACCESS, SPEED, AND DIVERSITY ALL A PLUS IN NHRA: In his column this past week, Florida Today Auto Racing reporter Mark DeCotis discusses how the appeal of NHRA POWERade Drag Racing, including the 300 mph speeds of Top Fuel dragsters and Funny Cars, the diversity found in NHRA’s field and fan base and the amazing accessibility fans have to their favorite drivers, compares to that of other auto racing series he’s covered. To read more of DeCotis’ article, click here.

HE SAID, SHE SAID
 
PREPARING TO RACE, BOTH PHYSICALLY AND MENTALLY: Driving an NHRA Pro Stock car is anything but a simple task. Reaching speeds of more than 200 mph where races are won or lost by tenths of a second, drivers have to prepare both physically and mentally for the daunting task that each run brings. For Pro Stock driver Kurt Johnson, that means spending three to four days a week working out in his personal home gym. Focusing not only on the mental side of racing, Johnson spends time each week strengthening and conditioning himself for the upcoming race. “Still, even though I stay fit for myself as much as I do for our racing program, there is no denying it helps me stay focused,” said Johnson. “After all, just like the race car, a body is a machine that needs to be properly maintained. If that one extra repetition I do during my workout helps us put our ACDelco Cobalt in the winner’s circle, it’s well worth it.”

INSIDE THE NUMBERS

14: The number of round wins Funny Car driver John Force has at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. This week at the SummitRacing.com NHRA Nationals, Force will look to reach the historic 1,000 round win mark. He is currently four round wins (or one event win) away from the milestone. Force has only one win at LVMS and has never won there in the spring.
 
For more information, visit www.nhra.com.

APA Search announced that Brian Holliday joined the company as vice president. Most recently, Holliday was vice president/global brand leader for filtration products at Honeywell International. Holliday worked at Honeywell for 18 years serving in a variety of positions, including vice president of marketing for Prestone Chemicals from 1998 to 2002. Holliday has spent his entire career in the automotive aftermarket and has been a member of the Filter Manufacturer’s Council and Automotive Chemical Marketing Council.

Brian Holliday

Ramesh Lhila, Ph.D., joined the staff of Venture Tape Corp. as technical director. He will lead the company’s research and development effort and play a key role in new product development and business strategy. Dr. Lhila has published many scientific papers and holds several product patents.

OnSight Solutions (OSS) sold its 17th franchise to Rochester native, Mark V. Rossi. This latest franchise sale will allow coverage to new- and used-car dealers in the western New York state territory. Rossi, a 12-year veteran in the automotive business, purchased the franchise after finding information about OSS on the Internet. OSS and its franchisees provide visual merchandising service to automotive dealers.

Coker Tire acquired Phoenix Racing Tires, spearheading Coker’s 2008 launch of its new Performance Brand division. “We’ve kicked off our 50th Anniversary year by announcing Phoenix’s arrival and will soon be rolling out our national distribution plan for Phoenix. Our new performance brand division’s marketing plan is exciting!” said Corky Coker, president of Coker Tire Company. Originally marketed as Firestone, Phoenix Drag Racing was launched in the mid-90s when several executives at Firestone chose to break away and re-launch the specialty drag racing tire brand.

The Petersen Automotive Museum’s annual Cars & Stars Gala on May 8th will be dedicated to “Racing Legends of Los Angeles,” celebrating Phil Hill, Dan Gurney, Parnelli Jones and Carroll Shelby. While each honoree has a unique history, they all have certain things in common. Each has raced diverse kinds of cars, won epic races and continued to be involved in the sport as team managers, owners, and/ or manufacturers throughout the years. Dave McClelland is the Master of Ceremonies for the evening, proceeds of which will benefit the Museum’s continuing educational programs and exhibits.

McCullough Public Relations Inc. was named the public relations firm of record for DAMAR Corporation LLC, manufacturer of the DAMAR Truck Deck cargo management solution. McCullough PR will direct all public relations activities for DAMAR, including media relations, press release and feature story coordination, special events, trade show representation and product placement. The agency also will advise DAMAR concerning media buying and marketing initiatives.

In conjunction with the 2008 National Cherry Festival, Hagerty Insurance will host a recently restored General Motors Futurliner at the annual Hagerty Family Car Show. The GM Futurliner is an extremely rare vehicle designed by Harley Earl in the ’40s. The 12 buses were manufactured by General Motors and used for their “Parade of Progress,” which toured the United States through 1956 to demonstrate advances in modern technology. The 33-foot long Futurliners contained futuristic technology such as jet engines, microwave ovens, television sets, and many other rare advances in technology for the time. The Futurliner that will be displayed at the Hagerty Family Car Show is the tenth of 12 produced. In 2006, the eleventh Futurliner was auctioned off at the Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Auction for over $4 million dollars in Scottsdale, Arizona. For more information, visit www.cherryfestival.org/carshow.

Mitchell 1 announced that it’s accepting applications through May 15th for its annual $2,500 Automotive Technology Outstanding Student Scholarship, which is awarded through the North American Council of Automotive Teachers (NACAT) Education Foundation at its annual conference. The scholarship will recognize one U.S. high school senior for outstanding achievement in automotive technology/auto shop repair scholastics. The recipient will receive the scholarship, a check for $500 and round trip airfare and accommodations to attend the NACAT conference with a guest. More information is available at www.nacat.com.

Filler for eNews

Despite feeling positive sentiment in February, consumers are now feeling less optimistic about spending money customizing their vehicles. In March, the SEMA Performance Parts and Accessories Demand Index (PADI) lost 39 points, or 49%, going from 81 to 42 last month. Currently, 11% of adult American drivers (or approximately 11-plus million households) are now committing to plans for specialty-equipment purchases over the next three months.

The charts below show both the index values (black line, values on the left of graph) as well as the percent of consumers indicating that they plan to purchase specialty equipment in the coming three months (blue-dashed line, values on the right of graph).

Although the drop looks daunting, specialty-equipment sales typically follow yearly cyclical trends.  The mainstream consumers surveyed here are increasingly concerned about the economy and its future outlook, leading them to hold off discretionary purchases at the moment.

Several factors contribute to fluctuations in demand for specialty-equipment parts and accessories by mainstream consumers. Economic optimism also declined in March, dropping two points, or 4.5%, to reach 42.5, as noted by Technometrica’s TIPP Economic Optimism Index. This monthly economic survey is sent to consumers in order to gauge their attitudes toward economic prosperity, and continues to show a steady decline following drops in 2007.  As we can see from the jumps in all three subsegments of the PADI, consumers are more cautious to spend money on their vehicles.

PADI In-Depth

Wheels, tires and suspension components were the most popular aftermarket products consumers were likely to purchase (8%, or about eight million households), followed by specialty accessories and appearance products (6%, or about six million households) and racing and performance products (4%, or about four million households). In terms of index values, these percentages translate to 39, 68, and 40, respectively, as noted by the charts below.

Over the last three months, on average, pickups (22%) and midsize cars (19%) were the most common target vehicles for enhancement or modification, followed by fullsize (13%) and compact cars (14%). On average, independent parts stores (23%) and car dealerships (21%) were the two most popular purchase destinations among those planning to enhance their vehicles, followed by chain auto parts stores (15%) and the Internet (9%). When aftermarket buyers were asked what form their vehicle would take after customization, the most common answer was general personalization (56%), followed distantly by street performance (13%), restoration (7%) and off-road (7%).

Methodology

Although similar to economic indexes, the index SEMA is not designed to report past activity, but rather the expectations of future purchases. 

The indices track consumers’ plans to purchase performance parts and/or accessories within the next three months after each respective survey. This will help provide a rough forecast for demand of specialty equipment in the near future. The SEMA PADI, and each of the three sub-indices, is a weighted composite index computed relative to its own baseline value, calculated by taking an average of January through March 2007 raw percentages. This average is then set to 100, and each month’s index is computed relative to the change from its baseline. The indices and their movements are projectable to the national market for specialty-equipment products, which consists of more than 114 million U.S. households.

SEMA has contracted with TechnoMetrica to gather the data used in building and maintaining the SEMA PADI. Each month TechnoMetrica uses a Random Digit Dial (RDD) telephone survey to collect the survey data in order to provide a nationally representative sample of U.S. consumers. Typically, the responses total between 850 and 1,000 in any given month. The margin of error is normally within the plus or minus 3% to 4% range.

Although the PADI is not a precise measure of absolute future purchasing activity, it is a tool for understanding and predicting industry sales. There are two ways of interpreting the PADI. First, its direction—whether the index is rising or falling. Second, the values themselves provide a guide as to the degree of change in consumer expectations for purchasing industry products. For more SEMA market research, visit www.sema.org/research.

Source: SEMA