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GRAND-AM, IMSA announce deal to bring DTM racing to US

It won't be until 2015 at the earliest, but the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA), Grand-Am and the Internationale Tourenwagen-Rennen have agreed to a licensing and cooperation deal that could bring a version of Germany's DTM series to the US.
When the American Le Mans Series and Grand-Am are officially combined next year, the resulting body will be called United SportsCar Racing (USCR). IMSA will be the sanctioning body for that series, and DTM races could be run as support events. It was also suggested by an ALMS chief that DTM races could be standalone or join NASCAR and IndyCar weekends.
With the so-called DTM America finally agreed to, there is now a way for manufacturers to run the same DTM-type cars in Europe, the US and Japan - last year Japan's Super GT series agreed to adopt "the basic technical regulations" of DTM for the GT500 class, the top class in the series. That already puts six manufacturers in play: Mercedes-Benz, Audi and BMW that run in Germany's DTM and Honda, Nissan and Lexus that run in Super GT. The DTM oversight body has invited American brands to Germany for the opening round of the 2013 season, and will begin actively courting their participation in the US series. Check out the press release from Audi with comments on the deal below.

2014 Nissan GT-R Track Pack squares off against Audi R8 V10 Plus

The team over at Motor Trend has pitted the new Audi R8 V10 Plus against the Nissan GT-R. While both of the bright red all-wheel-drive supercars are comparably matched in power output, the similarities end there. Audi offers a mid-engine aluminum coupe with a naturally aspirated V10 that spits out 550 horsepower. Nissan shows up with a more traditional coupe equipped with a 545-horsepower twin-turbocharged V6 at the front of the car.
The Head-to-Head video takes both cars to the Streets of Willow Springs in the California desert for some track work with professional racing driver Randy Pobst behind the wheel. After a day at the track, the pair head to the local mountains for some spirited real-world driving. One dominates on the circuit, while the other earns back its credibility in the canyons. We won't tell you which coupe comes out on top, but we think you may be surprised. Follow the link below to watch for yourself.

Porsche would have entered F1 if Audi had blocked its Le Mans program

Go back a few years and you may have heard rumors of Porsche heading into Formula One. That never came to pass - or at least, it hasn't yet - but that doesn't mean that it wasn't close to happening. That's how committed to returning to top-level motorsport competition Porsche has become recently.
Autosport reports that just as Porsche was merging fully into the Volkswagen Group, Zuffenhausen was weighing its options for a factory racing program. Le Mans was its favorite, which makes sense, as it remains far and away the most successful constructor in the history of the famous endurance race. But the strategists at Porsche were worried that its new corporate overlords at Volkswagen wouldn't support two LMP1 programs and would favor Audi, which has positively dominated the modern era of endurance racing, coming second only to Porsche in the number of Le Mans victories it has scored to date.
Porsche's Plan B was reportedly to head into Formula One, although it isn't clear if the German automaker was intent on starting its own team, buying an existing one or merely providing engines to other teams. Porsche fielded its own cars in F1 in the late 1950s and early 60s, and returned as an engine supplier with TAG to power McLaren in the 1980s, powering Niki Lauda and Alain Prost to the World Championship in 1984 and 1985.