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Dongfeng and PSA extend Chinese joint venture

BEIJING/PARIS — China's Dongfeng and Peugeot maker PSA are extending their business cooperation, despite the Chinese company reducing its stake in PSA to help smooth the French carmaker's merger with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA). Dongfeng said on Thursday it had agreed with PSA to extend the duration of their joint venture Dongfeng Peugeot Citroen Automobiles (DPCA). Under the deal, the venture could get the rights to PSA's new brands in China and will benefit from new technologies and intellectual properties, the Chinese company said. PSA was not immediately available for comment. The announcement comes a day after the companies said Dongfeng would reduce its 12.2% stake in PSA by selling 30.7 million shares to the French company. Analysts said the move could smooth U.S. regulatory approval for PSA's roughly $50 billion (GBP38.97 billion) merger with Italian-American carmaker FCA. The sale of Dongfeng's shares in PSA, worth around 680 million euros ($757 million), will leave the Chinese group holding around 4.5% of the merged PSA-FCA, which is set to become the world's fourth-biggest carmaker by sales volumes. "As the cooperation between Dongfeng and PSA deepens, we expect the joint venture to continue making good progress in China," a Dongfeng representative said. On a conference call, Dongfeng said DPCA would have exclusive rights to PSA's Opel cars should the partners agree to bring the brand to China, and enjoy lower prices on car parts imported from PSA. Earlier this year, a document seen by Reuters showed Dongfeng and PSA plan to cut jobs at Wuhan-based DPCA and reduce its number of car plants to try to make the venture more profitable. Chrysler Dodge Fiat Jeep RAM Citroen Peugeot China FCA PSA Dongfeng

Raminator sets world record for fastest monster truck [w/video]

Monster trucks are made for a lot of things: crushing jalopies, jumping over jalopies, wowing spectators while crushing and jumping over jalopies, and so on. But powerful as they tend to be, monster trucks are not built for outright speed. Still, one has to be faster than another, and as it turns out, Raminator is the fastest of them all. Alongside Rammunition and the new Mopar Muscle, Raminator is one of three Ram-based monster trucks run by the Hall Brothers Racing Team with support from Chrysler. It's been named Truck of the Year by the Monster Truck Racing Association a record eight times, its driver Mark Hall has been named the association's Driver of the Year nine times and its crew chief Tim Hall its Mechanic of the Year five times. And now Raminator and the Hall Brothers have claimed the Guinness World Record for the fastest monster truck, recording a top speed of 99.10 miles per hour to break the previous record of 96.8 mph. The record was set at the Circuit of the Americas, the 3.4-mile track built on the outskirts of Austin, Texas, to host the United States Grand Prix. Aside from Formula One, the track has hosted endurance racing, touring cars and motorbikes, and while Raminator may not be the fastest vehicle ever to lap the circuit, it's surely one of the biggest. Scope out the video from the record run below. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Raminator Monster Truck and Hall Brothers Racing Team Shatter Guinness World Records® Record: Fastest Speed for a Monster Truck America's fastest growing truck brand breaks speed record for monster trucks at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas December 15, 2014 , Auburn Hills, Mich. - Raminator, a monster truck sponsored by the Ram Truck brand, has broken the Guinness World Records® record for the "Fastest Speed for a Monster Truck" at Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas. Hitting a new record speed of 99.10 miles per hour (mph), Raminator and driver Mark Hall secured the Guinness World Records title at 8:44 a.m. (CT), breaking the previous record of 96.8 mph. As the fastest growing truck brand in America, the Ram Truck brand is a long time sponsor of the fastest Monster Truck, the Raminator. The Ram-sponsored monster truck lineup includes the 2014 Monster Truck Nationals Champion Raminator and Rammunition, sponsored since 2002. In 2014, Mopar also introduced Mopar Muscle; the monster truck it sponsors.

Chrysler set to make $266M-investment into 8-speed transmission production

Chrysler will shortly make a significant $266-million investment into its Kokomo, IN transmission factory in a bid to expand production of its eight-speed automatic transmissions. The gearboxes, which are built under license from Germany's ZF Friedrichshafen, have been well received by customers and critics, and according to an SEC filing obtained by Automotive News, the transmissions will eventually find their way to all of Chrysler's rear-drive offerings (Viper and heavy-duty Ram models, aside). According to AN, a Chrysler spokesman says the investment has not been confirmed, but once it is, it'll mark the company's latest in a growing line of investments at the facility. Chrysler has poured $1.5 billion into Kokomo since 2009.