rv65

I don't think this will be a full bore manufacturer team, as Mini dealers will have to contribute some $$$ to this program. BMW might help them and give them some cash, but Prodrive will be on their own to do it, but maybe BMW will help finance them. BMW says that they want the Countryman WRC to be a winner and that Marcus Gronholm has been linked to this project. He might help Mini achieve their aspirations.

Toyota might be making an announcement next month in regards to racing. It could very well be a WRC program or even a combined WRC and WTCC program, since they can use the WRC engine in the WTCC. I would expect a Toyota WRCar to debut in 2012 at the earliest

VW might join in 2012 but they will become the next Suzuki and Hyundai in the WRC, and they will be lucky to be in the top 5, much less the podium. A podium or a win is possible for VW if all the other cars crash out :). Even the Mini Countryman will probably be more successful than a future VW WRCar.

Maybe I've dranken some anti VW koolaid from someone who once briefly worked there, but VW hasn't made a successful rally car in the past in non WRC championships.

Ouninpohja is an awesome stage. I saw the World Record where Petter Solberg drove his Subaru WRCar and he got the world record, and that was epic. A NASCAR driver couldn't last about 5 minutes in that stage. It definitely proves how brave rally drivers really are.

DTM uses a spec chassis, but allows the manufacturer to give it some individuality. V8 Supercars are spec to a degree. The WRC pretty much uses spec cars now. A gravel spec Focus WRC uses less than 50 parts from the base road going car. I think the number is around 46. The WRC is moving to Super 2000 based cars with a 1.6T engine and they did ban some things such as flappy paddle gearboxes, but within a few years they will probably cave in and allow flappy paddle DSG units.

2011 may very well be the last year for the Race Touareg 2. VW is thinking of leaving the Dakar and joining the WRC; however, I doubt they would be successful. We shall see if they actually do join the WRC. Skoda is more likely than VW to enter the WRC.

Some of the snack products that you mention are sometimes made in a plant that uses peanuts.

Eventually Comcast is working on a tru2way guide. Aspen is their current guide and it looks a lot like iGuide but with spiffy graphics and it's tru2way compliant. Barcelona will replace Aspen and it will be available some day to Comcast STB's but only the DCX3400, RNG-200, Panasonic DVR, Cisco RNG150, Samsung RNG150, and the Pace RNG110. Barcelona is a proper 16:9 HD guide and it's much better, and it shows 8 channels and at least 2 hours all at once.

There is now a rumor floating around saying that Toyota is going to visit Rally Portugal and an unnamed IRC event. Maybe this is a sign of Toyota making a WRC comeback.

Time Warner Cable will be carrying this network and they say that you must have Speed TV and RR online. Time Warner says you only need Expanded Basic cable plus a digital box in order to access either Speed and Speed HD. TW doesn't charge extra for HD or even HD boxes so all you need is Speed TV and RR and you're good to go.

This service will launch as a beta in June to Charlotte, NC subscribers but in the next few months it will be available to all subscribers.

The press release doesn't work. Only has the title of that press release.

@jbcaro This guide won't be available on your box type; however, they'll be deploying Passport to the legacy boxes which is actually quite good.