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Fernando Alonso expects to retire after McLaren-Honda

When Fernando Alonso was three years old, his father gave him a model of a McLaren-Honda grand prix car. That's where his path to Formula One started, and it's where he wants his career to end as well. Speaking with Autosport, the two-time world champion indicated that he intends to retire after he's done at McLaren, rather than switch to another team. Of course, he didn't indicate just when that would be, but as far as he's concerned, the road ends in Woking. The highly rated and immensely successful Spanish driver has been on the grid for fourteen years now. He started out with Minardi (precursor to Toro Rosso) in 2001, then spent four seasons with Renault, where he scored back-to-back world titles. He then switched to McLaren for one year, where he won four races, then back to Renault for another three where he and the team fell off their form. Fernando subsequently switched to Ferrari where he spent the last five seasons, thrice finishing second in the world championship but never quite managing to clinch an elusive third title. This year he's back at McLaren but has had a bumpy start. After crashing during a pre-season test session, he sat out the season opener, and failed to finish the second round in Malaysia. He's now in Shanghai preparing for this weekend's Chinese Grand Prix. Like this writer, he'll be turning 34 in July, making him the fourth oldest driver on the grid this year. So he's still got a good few years in him, and will likely want to see the troubled rekindling of the McLaren-Honda partnership through to winning form. But while nobody can tell what the future will bring, it looks like any other team that hopes to lure the champ away could end up disappointed.

2013 North American Car and Truck/Utility of the Year finalists announced [w/poll]

2012 is almost in the books and automakers are spending December gearing up for the 2013 auto show season, which tips off next month at the Detroit Auto Show. Traditionally, the latter opens up with the announcement of the North American Car and Truck/Utility of the Year awards, and this year figures to be no different.
But up until this moment, we didn't know which six vehicles would be parked ahead of the stage as finalists, with executives and engineers waiting for the winners to be disclosed. Whittled down from October's "short list" of nominees (11 cars and 10 truck/utility vehicles), the finalists are as follows:
2013 North American Car of the Year:

1991 Acura NSX Luggage Test: Will a Motocompacto fit in the trunk?

I know I know, the wait has been killing you. From the second the Honda Motocompacto electric scooter/suitcase was introduced, you've desperately been begging the universe to answer the following question: "Will the Honda Motocompacto fit in the trunk of a 1991 Acura NSX?" Believe me, the suspense was killing me, too. Well, rest assured, your answer is finally here.  I stumbled upon old friend Tyson Hugie and his predictably pristine 1991 Acura NSX at Radwood Socal two weekends ago. While chatting about my/his old Acura TSX finding a new home with a collector in North Carolina, a gentleman on a Honda Motocompacto whizzed by and finally pulled up to a stop among the small group of people gathered around the NSX and an Integra Type R. We initially thought it had been brought by the Honda PR rep who was attending Radwood (he did in fact have one in his trunk, an Acura 2.3 CL), but it actually belonged to the person riding it. Patrick Vidal had only just got his Motocompacto the previous Monday, but had already put it to work as his last-mile transport. He says it fits behind his seat in his Toyota MR2 Spyder, as if this story couldn't get more rad. As I stood there with Tyson and Patrick chatting about life with Honda's latest creation, I started staring at the back end of Honda's finest creation. Then I looked back at the Motocompacto ... and back again at the NSX.  "Um, do you think that would fit in the NSX's trunk?" I asked, turning to Tyson. "Oh, that's happening," he quickly replied. We asked Patrick if he'd be game, and no shocker, he was. Tyson cleared out the trunk and Patrick started the process of transforming the Motocompacto from a scooter into luggage.  The transformation is certainly not a seamless process. There's lots of steps, and Patrick said that he's still getting the hang of remembering all the bits and pieces. Again, though, he'd only had the thing for five days.  Initially, I doubted the Motocompacto would fit, but as it got smaller and NSX trunk got emptier, I got a lot more confident. "OK, let's do this," said Mr. Luggage Test, rubbing his hands together.  Officially, the 1991 Acura NSX was listed as having 5 cubic-feet of trunk volume. That's actually the same as my 1998 BMW Z3's trunk, but when you're talking about such a small amount, the shape of the space really matters and in this case, the NSX trunk is basically a big rectangular cavity with a protrusion from the engine bay.  OK, let's get to the bags.