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Fernando Alonso reportedly will race for Toyota at Le Mans

When it was recently announced that Fernando Alonso would race in the 24 Hours of Daytona in January, it was described as a warm-up for an eventual attempt to win Le Mans. "Eventual" may come pretty fast: It now looks like the Formula One champion will race in the Le Mans 24 Hours next season as well. Or so reports BBC Sport, which says he'll race for Toyota. But wait, there's more: The BBC also says he's in talks with Toyota to drive most of the entire World Endurance Championship — while keeping his day job driving for McLaren in F1. "Le Mans is agreed," a source close to Toyota told the BBC. "The rest of the season is still being negotiated, but it looks like he will do most of the races." BBC's sources say Alonso will drive a Toyota WEC car in the season's last race, in Bahrain on Nov. 19, to get his feet wet. The season's final Formula One race is the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Nov. 26. Neither Alonso nor Toyota would confirm an impending deal. Alonso said at practice for this weekend's Brazilian Grand Prix: "So far, nothing to comment. We will see. Just rumors." What's motivating him is this: He's 36 years old and is intent on becoming only the second driver, after Briton Graham Hill, to win motorsport's Triple Crown. That entails winning the Formula One title (or just the Monaco Grand Prix according to one interpretation) as well as Indianapolis and Le Mans. He has won Monaco as well as the 2004 and 2005 world titles. He recently signed a contract extension keeping him at McLaren in 2018. As for the Indy piece of the Triple Crown, Alonso famously raced there this year and was running competitively when his Honda engine failed in the closing stages of the race. So expect to see him there again as well. Racing with Toyota at Le Mans and other endurance races should give him better luck than he had this season with McLaren-Honda in F1 and at Indy. Though Toyota has never won Le Mans, it is known to be developing a new WEC car. Traveling the globe to race in both the WEC and F1 in the same season sounds grueling, but it might be possible. The circuits have provisional schedules, and there's just one conflict — the U.S. Grand Prix and a WEC race in Japan are both penciled in for Oct. 21. But McLaren sounds none too keen on him doing the whole WEC schedule. McLaren racing director Eric Boullier told the BBC: "He has said he is keen to do some races outside. There is a case-by-case discussion. His main and first focus is F1, so that has to be the priority.

Expedition drives from Russia to Canada over North Pole...

No, a Ford Expedition did not drive from Russia to Canada via the North Pole, but that's exactly what a team of intrepid explorers accomplished recently. Using specially-modified buses with massive tires, the group slowly drove 2,485 miles in 70 days over drifting ice, occasionally using a pickaxe to clear a path and staying on guard for chasms that could open up and plunge the team into the frigid arctic waters. Average speeds were about 6 mph, "at the speed of a (farm) tractor." While the big tires technically allowed the buses to float if the need arose, the team preferred to stay out of the water to keep the suspension from getting coated in thick, hard ice. Falling in on foot would mean almost certain death.
According to Phys.org, the buses were powered by Toyota diesel engines, but were built with prototype parts from a previous driving expedition to the North Pole. Right now, the machines are parked in a garage in Canada's Resolute Bay while the the team rests up with family back home. They plan to continue their trek to back across the Bering Straight to Russia. If successful, the team may eventually offer a version of their buses for commercial sale.

Scion iA and iM rolled into Yaris and Corolla lineups for 2017

The Scion brand may be going away, but most of its cars (sorry, tC) are living on. We'll see the 2017 Toyota 86 (nee Scion FR-S) at the New York Auto Show next week, and the automaker already confirmed that the Scion iA and iM will be rebadged as Toyotas. But instead of standing on their own, the former Scions will be rolled into existing model lines. "Yaris iA" and "Corolla iM" will be the official names of the cars, effective for 2017. It's a smart move, paring the relatively new Scion nameplates with well-known, existing Toyota monikers. Scion spokeswoman Nancy Hubbell tells Autoblog that the iA already exists as the Yaris in the Canadian and Mexican markets, so "that connection was already there." Plus, it's better for marketing. The combination of the two vehicles all under the Yaris nameplate means Toyota can focus its advertising dollars on one vehicle line, simply saying that you can now have the Yaris as a four-door sedan or a five-door hatchback. "The same goes with Corolla," Hubbell explains. She says the existing Toyota sedan and the Scion iM "paired really well," and again, it means Toyota can advertise the Corolla as having two body styles moving forward. There are benefits from a sales perspective, too. Never mind that Scion division sales were already included in Toyota's overall numbers – calling the new cars Yaris iA and Corolla iM means the company won't have to report these cars individual sales separately. It's like when Toyota made the Matrix – its technical name was Corolla Matrix, so its individual sales didn't have to be broken out. That means an extra boost in overall numbers for the Yaris and Corolla, even if the cars would have been reported under Toyota's numbers had they kept their Scion badges. View 18 Photos Related Video: