One of the first questions President-Elect Obama received at a major economic press conference held today related to the auto industry and, after stock comment about the importance of the industry and the responsibility of the government to assure it doesn't vanish, Obama makes the point they can't simply write a "blank check" to an industry so historically "resistant to change." Obama essentially echoes the Congressional Dem's request for a not-awful plan and expresses disappointment with the no-so-Big Three for putting on a bad show in their testimony, which wasn't much better than the SNL sketch mocking it. Sadly, there was no mention of saving the shrinking auto journalism industry. [CNN]
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The best ads tell a story, and this one for the mid-90s Citroën XM Pallas certainly does that. In fact, it's more of an informercial than an regular car ad, with inspiring music right out of an Early Dot-Com Era shareholder's meeting. Best as we can tell, the Citroën driver here is bringing a box containing a critical mass of our favorite off-brand fissionable material, 
The front three-quarter view is almost creepy in how much the cars look alike. If you didn't know better, you'd swear it was a Chinese rip-off and not a home-built replicar. The only dead giveaway is the treatment on the lower lip of the front bumper. We'll be honest here, we're split on which one actually looks better from this angle. Henkl and Udo will be miffed at us, but it's the truth.
The one area the ReplicaAudiR8 has nothing on the real R8 (aside from the engine, the transmission, the suspension, the wheels, the chassis etc.) is the interior. The stock Mercury Cougar interior remains largely untouched from the day the Ford line workers installed it. The addition of an "R8" badge to the wheel can't compete against the shiny stainless steel, Nav system, D-wheel and general awesomeness of the Audi R8 interior.
At the front end we see the proportions of the wide Audi is again interpreted pretty cleanly on the Cougar chassis. The intakes are again a bit deeper on the replicar, and that lower lip comes into a clearer focus. Take a note, the ReplicaAudiR8 gets thin-line fog lamps where the real Audi is lamp free.
Ray took some time out of his busy 
