Next UAW president to be Ford lead negotiator King

Ron Gettelfinger, the United Auto Workers' (UAW) president during the recent tumult, is moving on from his post, and has thrown his support behind Bob King. King is currently a vice president in the union and manages the relationship with Ford.

While the outlook is positive for King's nomination, he's going to have some reconciliation to do. In the last go-round with Ford, King asked his membership to agree to concessions that took strikes off the table, which the UAW's rank and file promptly denied. Despite the contention, King has been thought of as Ron Gettelfinger's replacement for some time, and the union hopes King will be a tougher customer in the throes of negotiation.

F1 grid comes into focus as Lotus signs Trulli and Kovalainen 2010

The pieces to the puzzle that is the upcoming Formula One season are coming together bit by bit. In the latest development, the upstart Lotus F1 Racing team has announced the signing of two veteran drivers: Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen.

A former Monaco Grand Prix race winner, Trulli has driven for five different teams over the course of the past twelve years on the grid. Speculation was that he could switch to NASCAR following a recent test with Michael Waltrip Racing, particularly as the Toyota team for which he'd been driving for the past six years announced its withdrawal from the series. Finnish driver Kovalainen, meanwhile, is also a former race winner, left without a ride when McLaren replaced him with reigning world champion Jenson Button. Local aspirant Fairuz Fauzy, formerly of Malaysia's A1GP team, will serve as reserve/test driver.

The announcement was made by Malaysia's prime minister, whose government is backing the team. Although the outfit has no direct ties with the automaker of the same name – save for mutual patronage by Malaysia's state-run Proton – the British sportscar-maker and engineering firm could buy into the team at some point in the future as part of its comprehensive racing plan, giving Lotus the kind of operation Ferrari has run for decades.

With the Lotus drivers in place and Force India having recently confirmed the retention of Adrian Sutil and Tonio Liuzzi, the 2010 grid is rapidly taking form. The only remaining seats are with Mercedes/Brawn GP (which has yet to announce Nico Rosberg's team-mate as speculation intensifies over Michael Schumacher's return), Renault (which has yet to announce a wingman for Robert Kubica as the team's future remains in question), Sauber (which was only recently approved for next season), Toro Rosso, Campos Meta (which has announced only Bruno Senna), Virgin/Manor (which has confirmed only Timo Glock so far) and USF1.

Follow the jump for the full press release from Lotus.

Fornasari intros five-door RR99 performance SUV

Fornasari RR99 – Click above for image gallery

Fornasari, the independent purveyor of exotic sport-utes, has been in the game since before Porsche came along with the Cayenne, but despite its blend of Italian craftsmanship with American muscle, the three-door body-style of the Fornasari RR450 and RR600 relegated the quirky exotic truck to the fringe. Now Fornasari, has come back with its first proper (or not) five-door SUV.

Dubbed the RR99, the latest from the Creazzo-based automaker is some 25cm longer than its three-door predecessors, but thanks to a lightweight tube frame, it weighs only 1850 kg (just over 4000 lbs), significantly less than competing performance SUVs. This despite the six-liter General Motors V8 sitting up front, which Fornasari says it has optimized for near-50/50 weight distribution, driving 610 horsepower to all four wheels with a 40/60 rear-biased torque split via limited slip differential and six-speed Borg Warner transmission.

Wheels are available up to 23 inches, packing optional Brembo brakes mounted to F1-style triangular suspension. But the most ambitious figures come down to the performance: Fornasari claims its exotic sport-ute can rocket to 62 mph in just 3.8 seconds en route to a 174 mph top end. Those are eyebrow-raising numbers, and if the RR99, with substantially-improved styling over its oddball predecessors (upon which we reported three years ago), can actually come anywhere near those projections, count us among the flabbergasted.

Fornasari RR99

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
•