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Never in the 45-year-history of Mt Panorama has there been a more exciting and dramatic finish to the Bathurst 1000 than the final extraordinary race.

To say Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup won is to be simplistic in the extreme.

In a dramatic last hour, always regarded as the money period in the race; no less than six teams looked to have genuine chances of success.

As usual, the gods of motor sport played their cards late.

Outrageous race strategies blended with changing weather conditions added to the high drama of desperate drivers; who were throwing V8 Supercars around at speeds of up to 300km/h.

The finishing laps offered up some extraordinary scenarios. The mountain erupted when Steve Johnson took the lead from Craig Lowndes. Then James Courtney, the former F1 hopeful, threw down his own challenge on behalf of his unemployed V8 mate, David Besnard.

Earlier the favourites had tended to dominate the race. But pole sitter Mark Winterbottom was brought undone late by weather conditions just when victory beckoned.

Mark Skaife, seemingly out of contention and then back in again was back out again in a similar scenario. So, too Russell Ingall. So, too Jason Bright.

Four-time winner Greg Murphy arrived late and threatened mayhem in the last laps in his own adventurous style.

On the last lap of 161, four were left in contention.

Just over 2km later Murphy missed a podium finish by three tenths of a second as Ford took the trifecta over arch-rival Holden.

But there is no better driver to bring it home in those circumstances than Lowndes who secured his third Bathurst win. He reckoned later he didn’t have the speed to win in the dry conditions. The showers changed all that.

And in doing so changed the lead in the V8 Supercars championship as Jamie Whincup and Lowndes leapfrogged Holden drivers Rick Kelly and Garth Tander, who did not finish the race.

Only 16 of the 30 cars which started finished the race. And Ford won the trifecta for the first time since 1988.

Lowndes and Whincup have won Bathurst back to back and have completed a rare Bathurst-Sandown double.

“In those circumstances every lap was a new experience,” Lowndes said. “We didn’t have the fastest car. And I don’t think we could have won in the dry. But the rain changed all that.”

This time last year Lowndes was the emotional driver as he won for the memory of Peter Brock. This year it was Whincup who had tears in his eyes.

“Last year I didn’t know what was going on,” the youngster said. “This is bigger. To win this year is something very special.”

Even more special because he thought he had lost his team the race when he almost crashed at the pit lane entry in the latter stages.

“I made an error. I wanted to hand over the car to Craig in first position and I went in too hot,” he said.

Lowndes rescued the situation but not before Steve Johnson’s brave and hair-raising challenge, along with the constant threat from Courtney.

“It was a pretty crazy day,” Courtney said. “We did not have the pace to stay with the leaders all day but over the last 35 laps it was 100 per cent.”

He couldn’t remember the manoeuvre which gave him second place in those last frantic laps.

“There were cars going everywhere and I just ended up second,” he said.

For Dick Johnson Racing, after some well-publicised financial problems, third was like a win.

Championship Round 10/14

The Bathurst 1000, Mt Panorama

1st Craig Lowndes/Jamie Whincup (Team Vodafone)

2nd James Courtney/David Besnard (Jeld-Wen Racing)

3rd Steve Johnson/Will Davison (Jim Beam Racing)

Championship standings

1 Jamie Whincup (461)

2 Craig Lowndes (445)

3 Rick Kelly (443)

4 Garth Tander (434)

5 Todd Kelly (324)

6 Mark Skaife (273)

- The Daily Telegraph

The carmaker’s red carpet line-up has local sales revving.

A-list celebrities and a new $50 million corporate headquarters are German carmaker Audi’s latest gambits to beat prestige rivals in Australia.

With the help of former Miss World Jennifer Hawkins, designer Colette Dinnigan and a host of Aussie sport legends including Cathy Freeman and Steve Waugh, Audi has more than doubled sales in four years.

“Total investment in new and upgraded facilities in Australia will exceed $170 million by 2010,” Audi Australia managing director Joerg Hofmann says.

Hofmann, 41, arrived in Australia at the end of a dismal 2004 when Audi sales had fallen to 3701 units.

In the first five months of this year, Audi sold 4193 cars and is set to achieve 35 per cent growth on 2007.

He recruited the high profile ambassadors to spruik Audi’s stylishly-designed cars.

Sponsorships include prestige events such as the Sydney Harbour regatta, Hamilton Island Race Week and of the Sydney Theatre Company, which has Cate Blanchett driving an Audi.

And Audi is now on track to pass Mercedes-Benz and BMW in passenger vehicle sales, Hofmann says.

“Our vision is to become the number one prestige brand in Australia.

“The dealer network will be completely rebuilt by 2010. When I came on board we invested about $20 million a year in the brand. We ramped that up to about $35 million and will go to $40 million or maybe even higher,” he says.

“This year we can come close to 9000 sales and the 15,000 borderline will be reached before 2015.

“I believe we can achieve it earlier. In percentage terms we are the number one growth market in the Audi world, including Russia and China.”

Fifteen new model lines and variants have been introduced since Hofmann’s arrival, with another five due in the next 12 months. These run the gamut from the Porsche-rivalling $250,000 R8 coupe to a $38,000 diesel hatchback that uses less fuel than Toyota’s Prius.

Released in April, Audi’s crucial new prestige sedan, the A4, is within sight of BMW 3 Series. Its entry in the ever-expanding compact SUV segment, the Q5, is due next year.

Elsewhere, work has begun on the so-called Lighthouse facility on South Dowling St in Sydney.

It follows the recent opening of the imposing Terminal on Parramatta Rd, Five Dock, the first of an international roll-out of such designer dealerships.

- The Daily Telegraph

We know gas is very expensive this days, but from here to convert a car on running on wine, well is a pretty long way to go! But when you are a great person, a prince for example, you can afford pretty much everything!

Prince Charles decided to convert his 38-year-old Aston Martin to run on bio-ethanol made from English wine!

Converting the Aston Martin played a small but symbolic role. The Prince’s chief aide Sir Michael Peat said: ’Charles only traveled two or three hundred miles a year in the Aston but he wanted it to be environmentally friendly. It just happened that our bioethanol supplier makes the fuel from surplus English wine.’

The car - which is kept at Highgrove and clocks up just 300 miles a year - averages ten miles a gallon, the equivalent of 4.5 bottles of wine for every mile.

Click above to view the latest batch of Ferrari California images in our gallery

We hate to ruin your summer, but in the automotive world the sunny season is little more than a few months with no car shows. What kind of fun is that? Well, after the summer’s over we’ll be headed to Paris to bring you your fix of new car extravaganza. Among the new models being unveiled there will be the Ferrari California, which we’ve so far only been able to see in bits and pieces as Maranello sees fit to release it. So while the California’s launch site (not to mention the Ferrari media site) continue to offer only the initial batch of computer-enhanced studio shots, major publications like Auto Bild and now Road & Track get exclusive new shots of the hardtop convertible from every angle. We’ll continue to do our best to bring you what’s available, but unfortunately the latest crop is decidedly low-res. Check ‘em out in the constantly-updated gallery by clicking the new thumbnails below, or follow the jump to watch them in a YouTube video slideshow (though we’d recommend turning off the sound).

[Source: Road & Track]