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 parse it out to you one story at a time. Isn't your time more important?
1st Gear: The Race Car For The Street Is Now Just A Race Car
You could absolutely daily drive a McLaren 12C, but we wouldn't complain if you only used it on the track.
Therefore, the McLaren 12C GT Sprint makes sense to us. Inspired by the McLaren 12C GT3, but not quite as insane, the GT Sprint comes with a similar V8 putting out 625 horsepower and a modified cooling system.
The suspension has been tuned, the car has been lowered, and they threw some sticky Pirelli racing tires on there for an explosive good time. The GT Sprint also gets a more aerodynamic bumper, GT3-inspired hood, and carbon ceramic brakes.
And so you don't feel like you're spending roughly $300,000 on a few tweaks, they'll also throw in a roll cage, fire-extinguisher system, HANS-approved racing seat, and a lightweight air conditioning system.
2nd Gear: Tesla Joins The Nasdaq 100
Oracle is moving out of the Nasdaq and over to the NYSE, opening up a place in the Nasdaq 100. Who shall fill it? Tesla, according to the Wall Street Journal.
If you'd shorted Tesla a few months ago you're probably feeling like a dick right now. Sure, the whole weight of Elon Musk's operations may come tumbling down around his feet still, but that's not the bet I'd be making right now.
The Nasdaq 100 is the index of the 100 biggest non financial stocks on the exchange and, with a $14.4 billion market cap, Tesla is now theoretically bigger than a few major car companies. That 200%+ stock gain this year probably isn't hurting matters.
3rd Gear: What's Up With The 2014 Infiniti Q50?
We're going to be driving the 2014 Infiniti Q50 in the coming weeks, but you won't be buying one in the coming weeks as they'd originally promised because of an undisclosed engineering delay according to Automotive News.
Did the engineers get confused and try to put the engine from a Q70 into the Q50 thinking it was the M37 not the G37? Perhaps they remembered that they should put a manual in it? Whatever the reason, you're not getting one until August 5th.
While this is probably a bummer for someone who really had to have an Infiniti this month, it's also maybe a sign that the company is really trying to be the best they can be in the present so that, perhaps, they'll still have a future.
4th Gear: GM Would Like To Not Lose Money In Europe, Some Day, Eventually
Europe continues to be a mess for GM who, one could argue, should have abandoned Opel and Vauxhall years ago when they had the chance. In ten years time, perhaps Opel will be worth a trillion dollars and I'll feel like an asshole for implying they should have cut-and-run. Or maybe it'll be limping along. Only time will tell.
But my pessimism is only supported by GM's lukewarm optimism, with CFO Daniel Ammann telling the The Detroit Free Press they think Europe can break even by mid-decade, which Nathan Bomey cruelly reminds us "would end a losing streak that dates back to last century."
Ouch. GM should invest in aloe vera harvesting technology BECAUSE THEY JUST GOT BURNED.
Hey, at least North America is doing well. And you know who deserves a little credit for that? Mark Reuss, who appears to be celebrating in the photo above.
5th Gear: A "Wop" Engine, But Maybe Not "Wop" Production
Fiat-Chrysler chief Sergio Marchionne famously said that the Alfa Romeo would only be sold with a Wop engine, but an ongoing dispute with Italian labor unions might mean production will move from Italy to somewhere else according to Bloomberg.
Sergio is probably bluffing, but he's arguing that Fiat doesn't have clear enough rules on labor policies in Italy and until they get them it doesn't make sense to expand in Italy. That's a big deal for Italians who, you know, don't have any jobs. The dispute is with the Fiom union, which is part of Cgil, over longer shifts and shorter breaks.
The boot-shaped nation is in constant fear that Sergio will kick the entire company out of the peninsula nation and move the HQ to the peninsula state of Michigan, so he's got a lot of leverage.
"They'll get shorter shifts over my dead dago mustache," he was heard to grumble into his coal black sweater, employing one of his famously antiquated epithets.
Reverse: Gotta Love The Swedes
On August 17, 1959, Bohlin filed for a patent in the United States for his safety belt design. The U.S. Patent Office issued Patent No. 3,043,625 to "Nils Ivar Bohlin, Goteborg, Sweden, assignor to Aktiebolaget Volvo" on July 10, 1962. In the patent, Bohlin explained his invention: "The object... is to provide a safety belt which independently of the strength of the seat and its connection with the vehicle in an effective and physiologically favorable manner retains the upper as well as the lower part of the body of the strapped person against the action of substantially forwardly directed forces and which is easy to fasten and unfasten and even in other respects satisfies rigid requirements."
[HISTORY]
Neutral: Is An Alfa Built In Spain Still An Afla? Do we care where an Alfa is built? What if it's built in Hiroshima? Madrid? Michigian?
Photo Credit: Getty Images