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15 Winter Must-Haves to Prep Your Car for the Snowy Season

Photo credit: Marc Urbano - Car and Driver
Photo credit: Marc Urbano – Car and Driver

From Car and Driver

With the cool winds blowing and the leaves changing, it’s time to consider prepping your car—and yourself—for winter. Or, at the very least, gathering all the necessary tools and consumables to save your future self time, money, and a whole lot of headaches. Just one note: These are general approaches to surviving winter, automotively speaking. This isn’t a catchall for every scenario that you might face in the struggle of protecting your car through harsh winter months.

We also looked at getting your collector car or more rust-prone ride ready to stash for the winter months. Rounding out the list, we have some suggestions to keep you busy when you can’t enjoy your car.

Photo credit: - Hearst Owned
Photo credit: – Hearst Owned

Unfortunately, those living in the frozen tundra of the East and Midwest will have to get around somehow when

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Car
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Hamilton launches X44 race team to contest maiden Extreme E season – Formula E

Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton has launched his own motorsport team – X44 – which will contest the maiden Extreme E season in a major coup for the electric off-road series.

The move marks Hamilton’s first role in team ownership, with the squad’s X44 name referencing the #44 race number that the Mercedes grand prix driver has carried in F1 since 2014.

Hamilton will not race for his own team, with X44’s driver pairing – one female and one male, as mandated by XE’s rules – yet to be announced.

Hamilton said: “It’s an exciting new project and it will be fun to have a different role from being the team driver.

“What is most appealing though, is that the Extreme E championship will be not only raising awareness of some of the most critical environmental issues facing our planet, but also doing something about it through working with

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Automotive
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Hamilton’s F1 season a “lonely journey” amid COVID restrictions – F1

Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton says his 2020 Formula 1 season has been a “lonely journey” in his bid to steer clear of any unnecessary COVID-19 risks.

Sergio Perez’s absence from the two Silverstone races after testing positive following his trip home to Mexico has served a reminder to all drivers of the potential impact of the virus on their careers.

Hamilton has traditionally mixed his intense focus on race weekends with outside interests such as music, fashion and extensive travel, often heading to the USA in gaps between European races.

However the busy 2020 schedule, which began with six races in seven weekends, has seen him obliged to live in a “bubble” with limited contact outside his inner circle.

He has spent much of the past two months living in his motorhome at race venues, with trainer Angela Cullen.

Hamilton admits that it hasn’t been easy to change his usual routine

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Automotive
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Dovizioso to leave Ducati at the end of 2020 MotoGP season – MotoGP

Andrea Dovizioso and Ducati will not renew their partnership for the 2021 MotoGP season, bringing an end to an eight-year partnership in the premier class.

Dovizioso joined Ducati back in 2013 and was an instrumental part in bringing it back to the front of the field, winning 13 races between 2016 and 2020 and finishing runner-up in the championship for the past three seasons.

While Dovizioso remaining with Ducati for 2021 looked a likely scenario at the start of the year, talks between both parties stalled during the coronavirus lockdown.

Ducati wants to move away from big-money rider contracts in light of the financial crisis caused by coronavirus, while Dovizioso has been unwilling to take a substantial pay cut.

On Thursday at the Red Bull Ring, Ducati boss Davide Tardozzi said a decision on Dovizioso’s future would be taken after next weekend’s Styrian Grand Prix.

However, after a meeting between

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Automotive
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KTM not being able to sign Dovizioso for 2021 MotoGP season “hurt” – MotoGP

KTM motorsport boss Pit Beirer admits not being able to come to an agreement to sign Andrea Dovizioso for the 2021 MotoGP season “hurt”.

Dovizioso faces an uncertain future after announcing his Ducati exit at the end of the year during the Austrian Grand Prix weekend.

The three-time MotoGP championship runner-up had been linked to a KTM move during the off-season, and discussions were held between both parties but no agreement was tabled, with Beirer suggesting the demands from Dovizioso’s manager Simone Battistella were not what KTM could reasonably afford amid economic uncertainty caused by COVID-19.

“It hurts a bit to see this situation,” Beirer told Sky Italia.

“Dovizioso is an incredible rider and also a friend. We talked two months ago.

“Everyone at the table wanted him. On one hand there was the manager’s request and on the other, the concrete possibilities of the company.

“We must not forget

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Automotive
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WTCR makes late switch to Zolder for first round of 2020 season – WTCR

The FIA World Touring Car Cup will stage the opening round of its delayed campaign at Zolder instead of at the Salzburgring as originally planned.

Back in May, WTCR revealed a revised Europe-only calendar comprising 16 races across six rounds, beginning with Austria’s Salzburgring on 12-13 September.

But less than two weeks away from the first round, the championship announced that the opener will be moving to Belgium’s Zolder circuit because the authorities in Austria had not green-lit the event against the backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic.

The remainder of the calendar is unchanged, with the Nurburgring, Slovakia Ring, Hungaroring, Aragon and a revamped Adria circuit holding the remaining events of 2020.

“Having to change venues less than three weeks before the start of the season was very unexpected,” said Francois Ribeiro, boss of WTCR promoter Eurosport Events.

“But the immediate priority was to present an alternative solution and we

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Automotive
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MotoGP teams wary of KTM building “super engine” for 2021 season – MotoGP

Several MotoGP manufacturers are not happy that KTM will be permitted to develop its engines ahead of the 2021 season, with fears it is working on a “super engine”.

KTM and Aprilia are permitted by the regulations to be exempt from the engine development freeze imposed on non-concession manufacturers Honda, Yamaha, Ducati and Suzuki.

However, as part of cost-saving measures in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, all manufacturers agreed to a freeze on engine development.

KTM will be allowed to develop its engines for next year now it has lost its results-based concessions as a result of Brad Binder and Miguel Oliveira’s wins at the Czech and Styrian Grands Prix.

But this is a move that has angered several rival manufacturers, as a source present at the manufacturers’ association meeting ahead of the Styrian GP where KTM was granted dispensation to develop its engines explained to Autosport.

“We believe

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Automotive
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Aleix Espargaro: Dovizioso “more than welcome” at Aprilia for 2021 season – MotoGP

Aleix Espargaro says outgoing Ducati MotoGP rider Andrea Dovizioso would be “more than welcome” at Aprilia for the 2021 season.

On Saturday at the Austrian Grand Prix, Ducati and Dovizioso’s manager Simone Battistella announced the 14-time MotoGP race winner would not be renewing his contract with the Italian manufacturer beyond 2020.

Dovizioso himself said on Saturday that he currently has no “plan B” for his MotoGP future after this season, but still wants to race.

The only manufacturer outside of Ducati to firm up its 2021 line-up still is Aprilia.

Espargaro will remain with the squad for 2021 and believes Dovizioso would “help the team grow” should he end up at Aprilia.

Asked if was surprised at Dovizioso’s decision to quit Ducati, Espargaro responded: “I don’t understand it.

“It looks like sometimes some teams are not giving enough credit to their riders.

“I think what Andrea gave to Ducati is

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Automotive
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“The most intense motorsports season finale”

But Antonio Felix da Costa would get the job done with two rounds to spare. It’s the earliest anyone has wrapped up the electric championship title in the series’ six-year history. 

Building on his two pole positions and two expertly managed wins in the first double-header, da Costa consolidated his points lead with a fourth and second-place finish as FE switched from the reversed layout back to the conventional track configuration. 

In the latest episode of Behind the Race from ThEVox, Autosport’s Formula E correspondent Matt Kew is joined by Italian racer Michela Cerutti to review the most recent two races and, with both titles decided, why there might be fireworks in the last two rounds of the season.  

 

It wasn’t just the Portuguese driver making history, however. Maximilian Guenther’s victory in race three for BMW Andretti was the closest ever finish to date in FE, as he fought off

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Automotive
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Johnson’s NASCAR playoff hopes in final season go down to Daytona – NASCAR

Despite one of his best finishes of the season at Dover, Jimmie Johnson will go into the final race to make the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs as an outsider.

A late-race two-tyre pit call briefly gave Johnson the lead in Sunday’s second race of a weekend double-header at Dover International Speedway and he came away with a third-place finish, his best effort since May at Bristol Motor Speedway.

But after the race, Johnson still sits four points outside the cut-off to make the 16-driver playoff field with only Saturday night’s race at Daytona International Speedway remaining.

A Johnson victory, of course, would lock him into the field in what will be his final full-time season in NASCAR. He could still make the field on points, but that would require a lot of effort in what is a very unpredictable race.

“It’s still Daytona, and in my opinion, the ‘big one’

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Automotive