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Ford GT dominates Le Mans qualifying, gets slapped with performance adjustment

Fifty years after Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon drove the Ford GT40 to victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Ford is poised for a historic return to the Circuit de la Sarthe. The new Ford GT took the top two qualifying positions in the LMGTE Pro class, and four of the top five. Ferrari's 488 filled in the rest of the spots in the top seven, the first two from AF Corse. In other words, we're primed for a reboot of the classic Ford-Ferrari feud at this year's race. Or not, as the ACO, which organizes the 24 Hours of Le Mans, announced sweeping pre-race Balance of Performance (BOP) adjustments this morning that make this year's GT class anybody's race. In LMP1, last year's overall winner Porsche locked up the top two spots with the 919 Hybrid and will lead the entire field at race start. Toyota's two-car factory effort followed with qualifying times 1.004 and 2.170 seconds behind the pole lap. Audi rounds out the manufacturer-backed LMP1 class in fifth and sixth. Full qualifying results can be found here. The storyline for the GT cars is perfect - some say too perfect. Ford's class-leading times came after BOP adjustment to the Corvette Racing C7.R before qualifying. BOP is intended to level the playing field in the class by adjusting power, ballast, and fuel capacity. (Check out this explainer video for more, or even just if you love French accents.) But the process is riddled with unknowns and ripe for accusations of sandbagging. That is, if the Ford cars were intentionally slow in practice they could hope for BOP adjustment to improve their race chances. On the Corvette side, last year's GTE Pro winner went from the top of the field to the bottom, barely improving from practice to qualifying. If you think Le Mans is as rigged at the NBA Playoffs, well, it's not that simple. Because if Ford and Ferrari held back until qualifying - the eighth-place Porsche 911 RSR is three-and-a-half seconds off the class pole time - it was a pretty dumb strategy. This morning, the ACO tried to put things back in order by limiting the boost in the Ford GT's twin-turbo V6 and adding 11 pounds of ballast. Ferrari was also given extra weight but allowed more fuel capacity. The Corvette and Aston Martin teams were both given breaks on their air restrictors, which will allow their engines to make more power. Both Ford and Porsche also received extra fuel capacity.

Recharge Wrap-up: Volt makes up third of Quebec Chevy dealerships sales, Tesla seeks Aussie talent

A Chevrolet dealership in Quebec has had the Volt make up 35 percent of its sales so far this year. Bourgeois Chevrolet in Rawdon, Quebec received recognition for the feat at the 2014 Electric Vehicle Conference, where it won the award for Leading Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle Dealership. To sell that many, Bourgeois Chevrolet had to import used Volts from the US, and keeps about 50 units on the lot in various configurations. The conference also saw Park Avenue Nissan of Brossard, Quebec win the Leading Battery Electric Vehicle Dealership Award, and Loch Lomond Mitsubishi of Saint John, New Brunswick receive the award for Electric Vehicle Dealership Inspiration. Read more at Green Car Reports. Tesla Motors has begun scouting Australian engineers as other automakers shutter operations there. Ford, General Motors and Toyota have announced that they will shut down their Australian factories, leaving behind a lot of unused talent. Tesla recently held a "Recruiting Open House" in Melbourne for engineers to fill positions at its plant in Fremont, CA, where they will be paired with other Aussie engineers already on staff. Read more at Green Car Reports, or at Motoring. Electric turbochargers may come to play a key role in making internal combustion engines more efficient. Valeo recently showed an electric turbo it plans to supply to an unnamed automaker at a fuel economy showcase event at the EPA's National Vehicle Emissions and Fuel Lab. Electric turbochargers have the advantage of greatly reduced lag when compared to exhaust-driven turbos. They also work well when paired with cylinder deactivation, providing a much-needed boost when driving on a grade, which can help reduce the need for cylinders to reactivate. Independence from the exhaust system also makes it easier to package the turbocharger wherever there is room. Read more from Navigant Research. US crude oil futures have dropped to their lowest in more than two years. Saudi Arabia cut oil costs for the US and raised them for Europe and Asia as the US has increased output. On November 3, US crude futures fell as much as 2.2 percent in New York. West Texas Intermediate closed at $78.78, the lowest since June 2012. Brent crude slipped $1.08 to $84.78 a barrel. Read more at Bloomberg.

Weekly Recap: Racing legend Jim Hall explains Chevy's futuristic Chaparral concept

"I said our cars are built to be winners." – Jim Hall Racing legend Jim Hall never thought he'd be a video game consultant, but when Chevrolet asked for his advice to create a futuristic Chaparral for the Vision Gran Turismo series, he was eager to help. He reviewed early sketches and suggested some changes that made it onto the concept, including the addition of a camera that's mounted onto a mast over the cabin to aid the driver. The Chevy Chaparral 2X Vision Gran Turismo concept was revealed this week at the Los Angeles Auto Show and will be part of a downloadable update for PlayStation 3's Gran Turismo 6 in December. Theoretically, at least, it uses a laser-beam propulsion system and an air-powered generator to produce 900 horsepower in the video game. It's capable of sprinting to 60 miles per hour in 1.5 seconds en route to a top speed of 240 mph. Those gaudy performance specs – even in the virtual world – came at Hall's urging. "I said our cars are built to be winners," Hall told Autoblog on the floor of the Los Angeles show. The 79-year-old drove Lotus racecars in Formula One before launching the successful Chaparral Cars in the 1960s. Like his innovative Can-Am racers, the Vision Gran Turismo project has an eye toward the future. It also introduces the iconic Chaparral name to a new generation of fans, and hopefully, Hall says, gets them excited about engineering and design. "It emulates what we did in the '60s," he said. And what they did back then still resonates. Chaparral Racing and Chevy partnered more than 45 years ago for development work on the composite monocoque chassis, lightweight alloy powertrains, automatic gearboxes and active aerodynamics. "He [Hall] walked right back into this and was able to apply thinkings and learnings," said Clay Dean, General Motors executive director of advanced design. The Chevy Chaparral 2X Vision Gran Turismo concept was created at GM's North Hollywood advanced design studio, and it will be on display at the show through November. Other News and Views Sebastian Vettel joins Ferrari team in 2015 Ferrari confirmed that four-time Formula One World Champion Sebastian Vettel will join the Scuderia for the 2015 season, jettisoning Ferrari's current ace, two-time champ Fernando Alonso. Vettel has been F1's most successful driver since Michael Schumacher, though he's struggled to match his previous accomplishments in 2014.