Autobacs Seven bankruptcy!?!?

This is a gloomy week for motorsports, Autobacs Seven primarily known as Super Autobacs to monkey tuners alike in the auto aftermarket industry have witnessed yet another unforeseen turn in events. On Feburary 4, 2009 Autobacs Seven filed for chapter 11 which protects Autobacs Seven from creditors and continue the business as they re-evaluate a business plan that can help revive the company by possibly selling a portion of its assets. What does this mean for you monkey-tuners? well for one the two American outlets; Stanton and Covina; in California are in risk of closing up shop.

Update 02/07/09

Autobacs Strauss and Autobacs USA are subsidiaries of Autobacs Seven, this bankruptcy only applies to the stores in the Unites States. We have yet to determine how much of an affect this will have on the world market.

Stay tuned monkey-tuners...

Update 02/08/09

Autobacs released an udpdated income statement on February 6, 2009 stating:

(Tokyo, Japan) — AUTOBACS SEVEN Co., Ltd. (“the Company,” Representative Director and CEO: Setsuo Wakuda), announced today a revision of its performance forecasts for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2009, which were announced on November 7, 2008. Additionally, the Company released notes on its Extraordinary Losses that occurred during the 3rd quarter ended December 31, 2008.

It looks like Autobacs Seven will suffer in the world market with their "Extraordinary Losses" with a posting loss of JPY 4,565 million in restructuring the business in the consolidated form. JPY 8,242 million of losses on U.S. subsidiaries on non-consolidated forms. To sum this up Super Autobacs in the US of A was not quite the Walmart of the automobile industry that investors had hoped for; with the downfall of the economy, who is to blame for all the nonsense that is spreading like the bubonic plague of the dark ages, at this rate those of you with a squash fetish better get your air fresheners before even those manufacturers go out of business...

Mitsubishi pulls out of Dakar Rally

Please it ain't so, Mitsubishi-Motors announced on Feburary 4, 2009 that they will withdraw from all cross country rally, with the world renowned Dakar Rally first to go. With a great track record of 12 wins out of the 26 entries. The world economic crisis has filtered out yet another motorsport manufacturer following Subaru with their announcment to leave WRC in 2008.

With the advent of recent events to plague the industry and motorsports tell tale signs have pointed out what could be the demise of Mitsubishi-Motors in the United States.

Congratulations to Rally Innovations 1st Place in class!

Congratulations to Kevin Welker & Nolan Sombrano for an outstanding win in their class during the Plan B Rally in Ridgecrest, California on January 31, 2009. The teams fastest time for the event was stage two clocking in at 7 min 22 sec. Wish the team luck on their next battle at High Desert Trails, So mark your calendars monkey heads (check our wonderful event calendar on the bottom right corner)show some support for the team and the sport!


Rally Innovations Plan B Rally 2009, Stage 2 from Kevin Welker on Vimeo.

Rally Innovations Rally team, second stage of this rally. Car: 2001 Subaru Impreza 2.5RS, Open Light Rally America class.

No Top Gear till June =(

Jeremy Clarkson gets his salary cut this year due to the recent effects by the economy. The BBC is trying to save $20Mill this year so they are cutting salary and setting budgets this year for all shows. Hopefully Top Gear doesn't become epic lame.

There for you wont be seeing my British cousin for a while.

On other news... A link has emerged out from the open sea of a video of The Man... or The It... or The Stig that started it all emerging from... well the sea!



Check it Out!

A Man who needs no introduction.

Some say that he's a Mexican experiment gone wrong and that he has Tapatio running through his veins and that if he was elected president he would have slow drivers that drive on the left side of the freeway shot on the spot. All I know is he's called El Stig.