Monday, February 14th, 2011

With our redesign comes the return of Morning Shift, our one-stop daily morning roundup of all the auto news that's actually important to you. It's all of the most important automotive news on the internet in one place at 9:00 AM. Or you could spend all day waiting for other sites to parse it out to you. Isn't your time more important?

1st Gear: Automotive News tells us Chevy will roll out a special edition Camaro every six months with names synonymous to the muscle car's performance past. You know, like the Z28 we told you about on Friday, or, the "performance" model Automotive News mentions — a 2012 "Transformers Edition." Groan.

2nd Gear: An AutoWeek.nl reader gets up close and personal with the new Porsche 911, snapping a series of shots of a prototype when he parked his car in the belly of a ferry in the Netherlands. My god, the curves, the engine location, the, the... wait, that looks almost exactly like the current... oh, wait, right.

3rd Gear: McLaren MP4-12C reviews are seeping out. First up is CAR UK, calling it "the most complete supercar the world has ever seen." Next? Evo's Chris Harris. We can't wait to show you our review... just as soon as they let us drive it. Yup. That'll happen any minute now... well, while we wait, here's the full specs. Oh, and one of the panoply of Edmunds sites drove it too.

4th Gear: Sales of Australian-built two-door utes have fallen steadily in the past five years to the point where the growth the segment has experienced in the early years of the past decade have been all but wiped out. Ford only sold 479 Falcon Ute's this past month. Holden? Only 11,405 all of last year. We know what's needed — a "Save The El Camino" t-shirt! Any design ideas?

5th Gear: Here's the first shot of the new Lancia 500 Ypsilon. It's built on Fiat's cinquecento platform and at about 12 1/2 ft. long, it looks like a mini-Delta. Expect the same engine choices as the 500 — including the 1.3-liter Multijet diesel. We'll apparently know more about the Fiat family's small car later this morning. Until then, feast your eyes on Italian platform prostitution. Mmm...

6th Gear: Happy Valentine's Day. We hope you remembered to get your Valentine something extra special today. If anyone's looking for me, I'd really love this 1997 Jeep Wrangler TJ. Please? Pretty please? I'll even try to get Denton to pay for parking for me.

Reverse:

⏎ Audi's U.S. microsite for the new A7 is up and running. [Audi]

⏎ Ford plans to cut another $3 billion from debt. Now they only owe $16 billion, down from the $33.6 billion they owed in 2009. They're halfway there! [Automotive News]

⏎ Life in the slow lane. The very slow lane. Like 1930's Ford Model A slow. [NYT]

⏎ Crazy Ivan's tossing out awards over at Motor Trend. Wait, Kirill speaks English? Who knew? [Motor Trend]

⏎ Can Ezra Dyer please get his own account on Automobile's blog? Having his byline listed as "Automobile Staff" at the bottom is just weird. [Automobile]

Today in Automotive History: Sakichi Toyoda, whose textile machinery company spawned the Toyota Motor Corporation, and then the word "beige," is born in Japan on February 14, 1867. [History]

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