The Baltic Sea, sitting off the coast of Finland, is a white wasteland of ice and snow during the winter portion of the calendar. Local hero Juha Kankkunen, a four-time World Rally Champion, looks out over that vast expanse and sees a blank slate on which he can make his mark. What exactly is that mark? It’s 200 miles per hour… on ice. @funkmasterflex
Ford Mustang NASCAR Nationwide Race Car
Forget the Fusion, Ford is making a move to bring the Mustang to Nascar’s Sprint Cup Series. Ford has informed NASCAR decisionmakers that it wishes to begin racing the Mustang in the highest level of left-turning motorsports. @funkmasterflex
Porsche to hire 1,000 employees as it ramps up for Cajun
Porsche would like to double its global sales to about 200,000 per year. That’s an ambitious goal for a niche company, but Porsche intends to make things happen with the help of more money and manpower. AutoWeek reports that the German automaker plans to hire 1,000 employees by 2015. Half the workers will help build the company’s forthcoming small crossover, which has been given the working name ‘Cajun,’ while the other half will be engineers needed to develop new vehicles. An additional 500 workers could be added by 2018, provided sales targets are met. @funkmasterflex
GM trying to re-hire Bob Lutz
General Motors is reportedly looking to re-hire none other than Bob Lutz as a consultant to vehicle development. Lutz, 79, left GM in May of 2010 after leading the company’s product development efforts for many years. @funkmasterflex
(Video) Lexus uses the LFA to teach a swimsuit supermodel about donuts
Nissan may choose to use its Juke to square off with swimsuit-clad supermodels but Lexus takes a different route to interact with the pretty ladies… a circular one. Photographer Yu Tsai wanted a shot of a Lexus LFA performing a donut around model Rianne Ten Haken. He could’ve simply spent some time playing in Photoshop, but instead decided to capture the real thing. @funkmasterflex
2011 KTM 1190 RC8 R
KTM has announced pricing for the company’s absurdly sinister 2011 1190 RC8 R, and there’s plenty to get excited about. The bike will now go for a full $3,500 cheaper than last year’s model, which means that KTM has saddled the machine with an MSRP of $16,499. That number puts the 1190 RC8 R at the same price point as the more mortal 1190 RC8 (non-R), which KTM killed off for this year. @funkmasterflex
