This is the Morning Shift, our one-stop daily roundup of all the auto news that's actually important — all in one place at 9:00 AM. Or, you could spend all day waiting for other sites to parcel it out to you one story at a time. Isn't your time more important?
1st Gear: Subaru Gives Subieyota More Power Than Toyobaru
According to Autocar, Subaru tells them the BRZ will have the lowest centre of gravity of any production car when it goes on sale next summer. The BRZ's rear-wheel-drive configuration has meant that Subaru's itty-bitty 2.0-liter Boxer engine can be mounted even lower in the chassis than would normally be permissible in the manufacturer's conventional four-wheel-drive layout. But the big news is that, despite being co-developed with Toyota, power outputs will differ. The Subaru-spec ECU will liberate the BRZ's power to "less than 300 bhp," compared with the FT-86's 200 bhp figure. We'll find out for sure when we see both the Subieyota and Toyobaru unveiled at the Tokyo Motor Show later this year.
2nd Gear: 2013 Cobra Jet Details Emerge From Haze Of Smokey Burnout
MustangsDaily tells us that not only is the 2013 Ford Mustang Cobra Jet happening, but Ford will also be adding the Coyote 5.0-liter V8 as an engine option available in either naturally aspirated or supercharged form. Jesse Kershaw of Ford Racing tells them that this powertrain, along with the supercharged 5.4-liter V8 already offered, will allow for drag racers to compete in a wider range of NHRA categories. "The goal with the next gen Cobra Jet is for all engine options to be NHRA Stock Eliminator legal where in 2010 and 2012 we had Super Stock only engine options."
3rd Gear: Will Power Suffers Fractured Vertebra
According to the Indianapolis Star, it turns out that IndyCar runner-up Will Power was injured more than we thought in the deadly crash at Las Vegas Motor Speedway that took the life of Dan Wheldon. He's now been diagnosed with a compression fracture of his fourth thoracic vertebra. That's one vertebra off the similar fracture he suffered in the 2009 crash at Infineon Raceway.
4th Gear: Volkswagen Board Supports Third Term For Piech
Ferdinand Piech, the mastermind of Volkswagen AG's strategy to become the world's biggest automaker, has the support of the German company's supervisory board for a third term as chairman, according to two people with direct knowledge of the situation and being reported this morning by Bloomberg. Piech, who thwarted efforts by Porsche SE to take control of VW in 2009, has the backing of the majority of the 20-member body for another five-year term, said the people on condition they not be identified because board discussions are private.
5th Gear: Toyota Boosts Output
Toyota, the super number one best automaker from the land of the rising sun, boosted global production for a second straight month in September to catch up with output lost after the March 11 earthquake led to parts shortages. Bloomberg tells us that output climbed 9.3% to 735,020 vehicles last month, while domestic production rose 1.2% to 309,389 units, the Toyota City, Japan-based company said in a statement today. Nissan Motor Co., Japan's second-biggest carmaker, built 441,433 vehicles worldwide last month, a gain of 11.6% from a year earlier, it said in a statement.
6th Gear: Elon Musk Is Still An Ass
When it comes to cars, Elon Musk, the Tesla Motors CEO, has a history of attacking conventional wisdom, and then doing the conventional wisdom anyway. Like when he said traditional automakers had nothing to offer him, and then took money from Daimler and Toyota to save his company's fiscal life. Or, now, yesterday, when he showed off the company's new combo plug and wall-mounted connector, while taking a swipe at the high-voltage charging plug designed by SAE International, an organization of scientists and engineers whose J1772 standard plug has been embraced by some of the world's largest automakers, every maker of public charging stations, and the electric companies as "absolutely terrible, extremely ugly and low power...it looks like it was designed by committee, and things designed by committee are not really great," he told The New York Times. Then he turns around and says the Model S will still have an adapter so it can use the J1772 standard. So what's the problem again? As Chelsea Sexton said to the Times via e-mail: "How many people stare at a gas nozzle and think, ‘If only that were better looking'?"
Reverse:
⏎ Dodge Preps A Challenger SRT8 ACR For 2011 SEMA. [Motor Authority]
⏎ Kia prices all-new 2012 Rio sedan from $14,150. [LeftLaneNews]
⏎ F1 media rights up for grabs. [Financial Times] (sub. req.)
⏎ Ford of Canada CEO Mondragon named to U.S. marketing post. [Automotive News]
⏎ Car carrier upsurge points to stronger auto market. [USA Today]
⏎ French auto giant PSA to slash thousands of jobs. [AFP]
⏎ Chrysler Bets Turnaround on Small Car from Fiat. [Wall Street Journal]
Today in Automotive History:
On this day in 1955, Sammy Swindell, who becomes a star in the outlaw sport of sprint-car racing, is born in Germantown, Tennessee. In 1971, when he was just 15 years old, Swindell raced for the first time on a dirt track at the Riverside Speedway in Arkansas. Since he started dirt-track racing, Swidell has never finished a season outside the top 10. [History]
Show us your tips!
Got tips for our editors? Want to anonymously dish some dirt on a competitor? Know something about a secret car? Email us at tips@jalopnik.com.
Lost in our new layout?
Click here for the Opposite Lock or Tips forums. Want a more "blog-like" look? Click the button up top next to "Top Stories."
Get more Jalopnik!
Want even more Jalopnik? Want to know which of your friends read us? "Like" us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
You can keep up with Ray Wert, the author of this post, on Google+, Twitter or Facebook.