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New vehicle sales report – November 2011

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Hold on tight everyone Australia should crack 1,000,000 car sales in 2011 after VFACTS figures show 88,654 new vehicles were sold in November. That brings the year to date total to 925,978, which should allow the 1 million mark to be broken for only the fourth time in Australia’s history.

“For the past four months in a row sales have been trending above the same period for 2010. This suggests improving consumer confidence in Australia’s economic prospects,” FCAI chief executive Ian Chalmers said.

Although, it is worth noting the final tally for 2011 will fall short of last year’s total of 1,035,574 sales.

As usual Toyota topped the charts for the month (17,436 sales), followed by Holden (9,761) and Ford (8,103).

For the fourth month in 2011 the Toyota Corolla was Australia’s highest-selling car (3,731). Close behind was the rather more bearable Mazda3 (3,480) and the tradies’ favourite Toyota HiLux (3,332).

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Formula 1 Lotus Renault

Renault announces Kimi comeback

Kimi Raikkonen

Kimi Raikkonen’s Formula One comeback is now official after Lotus Renault GP today announced he has signed a two-year deal with the team. Remember, the team will be known as simply as Lotus in 2012.

It hasn’t taken long to knock off one F1 silly season rumour and Kimi is happy to be back. “I’m delighted to be coming back to Formula 1 after a two-year break, and I’m grateful to Lotus Renault GP for offering me this opportunity,” the 2007 world champion said in a team statement.

“My time in the World Rally Championship has been a useful stage in my career as a driver, but I can’t deny the fact that my hunger for F1 has recently become overwhelming. It was an easy choice to return with Lotus Renault GP as I have been impressed by the scope of the team’s ambition. Now I’m looking forward to playing an important role in pushing the team to the very front of the grid.”

For now we assume he will partner Vitaly Petrov, which would leave Bruno Senna looking for a drive. Senna has been performed reasonably well for Renault since taking over from Nick Heidfeld part way through the season. One would expect he would be reluctant to return to a Friday test drive role.

Now that one domino has fallen will the pressure, perceived or otherwise, on Rubens Barichello (Williams), Adrian Sutil (Force India) and Jarno Trulli (Lotus/Caterham) force more teams to quickly lock in their 2012 roster?

The full statement from LRGP can be read after the break.

UPDATE: A short video interview with Kimi has been added below.

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2011 Brazilian Grand Prix in pictures

2011 Brazilian GP

In our final F1 in pictures post for the year it’s great that we can reflect on another grand prix victory for Mark Webber. It’s scant reward in the wake of a dominant season from the other side of the Red Bull garage, but a win is a win and for most drivers they don’t come too easily.

As usual there’s some great pics for you after the break; a job touring the globe shooting F1 cars is one we’d rather like if we had the skills.

We trust you’ve enjoyed this series again in 2011 and we’ll be back with our F1 picture galleries in 2012. If there’s anything you’d like to see added future collections please let us know in the comments section below.

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F1 in pictures Ferrari Lotus McLaren Mercedes-Benz Red Bull Racing Renault

2011 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in pictures

2011 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

Just in case you haven’t forgotten all about the snore fest that was Lewis Hamilton’s redemption here’s 90-odd pics to help you relive the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. There’s a nice mix of day and night shots, with a few colourful sunset shots in between. Actually a few of the shots illstrate well the undulations of the Yas Marina circuit; something television tends to mask too well.

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Aston Martin BMW Ferrari Jaguar Lamborghini Lotus McLaren Porsche Renault

evo Car of the Year videos

Evo magazine has assembled 10 of the world’s best performance cars to try and establish which one they think was the best to hit the market in 2011. Following a few phone calls, 10 turned into 11 when they added the just released BMW M5 to the list. As you would. The results of eCOTY 2011 are out there, but we won’t give that away just yet in case you’re waiting for the mag.

In the meantime here’s the list of cars gathered at the mercy of some heavy right feet. Highlight videos from Chris Harris on each can also be seen after the break. He was banned from driving the Ferrari, thanks to his rant against the Prancing Horse earlier this year, but managed to find way to get by.

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Caterham Formula 1 Lotus Renault

Hello F1, meet Caterham, Lotus and Marussia

2011 Japanese Grand Prix

The Lotus v Lotus naming saga has come to an end of sorts, with confirmation the FIA has approved three team name changes in Formula One for the 2012 season.

Team Lotus will change its name to Caterham, and follows the takeover of the British sportscar firm by the Tony Fernandes led Team Lotus Enterprise. Lotus Cars CEO Dany Bahar gets his way by turning Lotus-Renault into simply Lotus. And Richard Branson loses his naming rights with Virgin switching to Marussia, thereby acknowledging the financial support given by the Russian auto maker.

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F1 in pictures Ferrari Lotus McLaren Mercedes-Benz Red Bull Racing Renault

2011 Indian Grand Prix in pictures

2011 Indian Grand Prix

Some are saying the Sebastian Vettel domination at the Indian Grand Prix made it the most boring race of 2011. Whatever your stance on that, we’re sure you’ll agree these aren’t the most boring pictures of the year. The world’s best photographers have found some great angles at the newest F1 circuit on the calendar. There’s 100 pics here for you, we hope you like them.

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F1 in pictures Ferrari Lotus McLaren Mercedes-Benz Red Bull Racing Renault

2011 Korean Grand Prix in pictures

2011 Korean Grand Prix

After safely tucking away another world championship in Japan, Sebastian Vettel showed no mercy to his rivals by putting in a dominant performance on race day at the Korean Grand Prix. He was pretty happy about it too. It’s his 10th win for the year; third on the all time list. He’ll need to win the remaining three races to equal Michael Schumacher’s epic 2004 season, where he won 13 out of 18 races.

Of course, the first place for Vettel and third place for Mark Webber wrapped up consecutive constructors’ titles for Red Bull Racing. The team has courted controversy during its relatively short life span, but there’s no denying their effectiveness.

After the break you’ll see over 100 pictures from Yeongam. It’s not a surprise anymore to see just how many marbles the Pirelli tyres have spat out at F1 circuits this year, but it’s been illustrated very will in a few of the pics below.

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F1 in pictures Ferrari Lotus McLaren Mercedes-Benz Red Bull Racing Renault

2011 Japanese Grand Prix in pictures

2011 Japanese Grand Prix

Here’s the pics from Suzuka where Jenson Button and Sebastian Vettel were the stars at the 2011 Japanese Grand Prix. It’s one of AUSmotive’s biggest F1 race compilations ever, with 109 images for you after the break. There’s some fantastic shots in there too; the late afternoon light was captured perfectly by the world’s best photographers.

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F1 in pictures Ferrari McLaren Mercedes-Benz Red Bull Racing Renault

2011 Singapore Grand Prix in pictures

2011 Singapore Grand Prix

Sebastian Vettel’s dominance in 2011 has been perfectly captured by the image above. Love him or hate him, nobody can deny the young German has been in a class of his own this year. And so it was at the Singapore Grand Prix; Vettel’s most complete race this season.

To see how the also rans went we have compiled another 80 pictures from the unique night race held at Marina Bay. They’re all there for you after the break and don’t forget to click your favourite images to view in 2000px super sizing.

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F1 in pictures Ferrari Lotus McLaren Mercedes-Benz Red Bull Racing Renault

2011 Italian Grand Prix in pictures

2011 Italian Grand Prix

Here’s your pictorial reminder of what went down at the 2011 Italian Grand Prix. Unusually, this includes a few pics of Mark driving around in his busted car as well. Seems most teams don’t like showing broken cars when the driver is mostly at fault. There’s been a few exceptions, though, and we’re always keen to share them when they arise.

Lotus, Mercedes GP and Renault didn’t come to play with many pics from Sunday’s action. We’ve used a few Saturday fillers for you, which we prefer not to do. However, we can’t have you miss out on your fair share of pics.

There’s 80 pics in all this time around, all waiting for you after the break. Knock yourselves out!

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Renault

Is this a preview of the 2012 Renault Clio IV?

Renault Clio leaked image

Renault will be launching a new Clio Concept at the Frankfurt Motor Show next week. It seems they may have jumped the gun by posting this image to Facebook, before it was quickly removed.

It would seem the Clio is the red coloured concept model on the far left of the image. Next to that is the Captur, then the R-Space and the Frendzy ZE on the far right.

It’s hard to tell with this image, but let’s hope Renault finally nails a consistent and attractive design for the Clio IV. The next-gen Clio is due for release in 2012. We shall find out for sure in a few days.

[Source: Autoblog.nl via CarBuzz]