Cars

Penske Automotive’s Scottsdale 101 Auto Collection will be the site of the newest monthly car enthusiast gathering represented by Cars and Coffee Online.

“We are thrilled to offer our customers, collectors, owners and enthusiasts of sports cars, exotics and muscle cars a monthly place to gather on Saturday morning to socialize and admire one another’s vehicles,” said Dave Wallace, area vice president of Penske Automotive. The first event will be held Saturday morning, March 24, from 8 to 10a.m. There is no charge to display a car or to spectators. Motorcycles are also welcome.

One of the highlights of the Scottsdale location is Roger Penske’s own racing museum, which tracks the history of Penske’s career as a driver and team owner with a broad collection of cars, engines and memorabilia.

Penske Automotive is simultaneously launching a second monthly gathering at 8 a.m. on Saturday at the Penske Chandler Autoplex at I-10 and Ray Road in Chandler, AZ.

“We wanted to give people all over the Phoenix Valley and beyond the convenience of attending a North or South Valley location and hope that people will eventually visit both locations,” Wallace said.

Penske’s Scottsdale location offers 13 brands: Acura, Audi, Bentley, BMW, Bugatti, Jaguar, Lamborghini, Land Rover, MINI, Porsche, Rolls-Royce, Aston Martin and Volkswagen. The Chandler facility incorporates Audi, Lexus, Mercedes-Benz and Smart.

For more information about the latest Cars and Coffee gatherings, see Scottsdale event and Chandler event. Click here for an online visit to the Penske Racing Museum. 

There will be plenty of changes heading into the 2012 Sprint Cup season that begins next month with the Daytona 500, especially for Penske Racing.

Todd Gordon of Penske Racing will take over as the crew chief of the number 22 Dodge after a stellar Nationwide series performance in which his car had 6 wins and 6 poles. Roger Penske, perhaps the most revered name in auto racing, likes to develop and promote from within and he believes that Gordon is ready for this next big step, which is the equivalent of being a head football coach in the NFL. Driving the No. 22 will be AJ Allmendinger who is coming off a good season as he finished 15th in the standings.

Penske stayed in the news with the announcement that Kurt Busch will leave the organization after six highly contentious but overall successful years together. Penske said that the decision was mutual and that he was disappointed that Busch would no longer be racing for his organization. Busch won a total of 16 races for Penske.

The addition of Allmendinger in place of Busch for Penske Racing should be a long term positive for the organization as Allmendinger is a class driver and someone the organization can be proud of.

These days science and technology-oriented advancements are paving the way for the future…is it in a good or way way? 

General Motors’ popular service OnStar,prior to the change,  would only collect your data under limited circumstances, such as if you were in an accident or if your vehicle was reported stolen. This was one of the reasons OnStar is so great.

Does the new terms and conditions give OnStar the contractual right to, “share or sell any anonymized data (including location, speed, and safety belt usage) with third parties for any purpose, which may prove useful for such things as research relating to public safety or traffic services?” As John Quain, of the New York Times’ Wheels blog notes, “the open-ended language in the terms suggests that OnStar could, without reproach, sell the information to local governments, to companies offering location-based services and to marketers interested in directing messages to specific groups of drivers.”

What do you think? Will it come a point in the future of automotive information systems to collect and report all data?

The Road Racing Drivers Club will honor Roger Penske during a banquet on April 14 in Long Beach, Calif.

“There is no one in this sport who’s better known for his high standards of car preparation, presentation and development than Roger Penske,” said Bobby Rahal, RRDC president. “He set the bar high early on for his competitors, and many are still trying to reach those heights. We are privileged to honor the ‘Captain’ [Penske] at the RRDC’s Evening with Roger Penske in Long Beach.”

Penske began racing in 1958 but retired in 1965 to focus on building the Penske Corp., the multibillion-dollar business, and Penske Racing.

He began fielding cars in endurance events in 1966. Penske teamed up with Mark Donohue to compete in the United States Road Racing Championship, Can-Am and Trans-Am. The pair won two USRRC titles, two Can-Am championships and three Trans-Am crowns.

Penske Racing made the move to Indy-car racing in 1968 with Donohue behind the wheel. The duo won the 1972 Indy 500.

Since then, Penske Racing has claimed 15 Indy 500 victories, 153 wins, 196 poles and 12 national championships–all in Indy-car racing.

The team has won 23 national championships overall, including three in the American Le Mans Series LMP2 championship.

The proceeds from the dinner will go toward the Team USA Scholarship, which the RRDC has supported since 1997.

Read more: http://www.autoweek.com/article/20110211/IRL/110219976#ixzz1DgTqTW3w