The curtain is rolling back on Cars Land, which opens at Disney’s California Adventure next month. Mater himself makes appearances in a network commercial and the new microsite, and on the latter he’ll be happy to take you on a tour of some of the attractions at the live-action Radiator Springs, including a Racer’s test drive and Luigi’s Flying Tires.

You can watch the commercial under and click here to check out the microsite.

Last year, the Monterey Motorsports Reunion proclaimed that the Shelby Cobra would be the featured marque for 2012 in honor of the company’s 50th anniversary. It’s shaping up to be quite the celebration. Earlier this month it was proclaimed that no fewer than 45 competition Cobras will be racing on the track come August, with owners from across the United States, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Canada in attendance. In fact, demand to participate was so high that several entrants actually had to be turned away.

Shelby Cobras won’t just be on the track, though. The event expects at least 200 Cobras, real and replica, to gather in the infield car corral. Shelby and Ford Motor Company will also take a collection of historic Cobras to display in the paddock. In other words, if you’re a Shelby Cobra fan then start making plans to attend right away.

You can read the official annunciation from the Monterey Motorsports Reunion below.

There was a lot of built-up excitement surrounding the larger and less high-priced 2011 Volkswagen Jetta, but the prevision deflated among critics when the model’s less-than-impressive interior was revealed to the world. Critics chided the cheapened cabin, and quite a few negative reviews followed.

It’s tough to debate that in the process of its upsizing, the Jetta’s interior wasn’t downgraded with lesser plastics and trim. The 2012 Passat does a much better job in this regard, but even then there are some areas where it feels like price has been taken out of the cabin. But none of that is obviously enough to stop designer Jae Min from taking issue with these characterizations. Ward’s Automotive reports that VW’s chief U.S. designer claims that the Jetta and Passat interiors were not the victims of cost-cutting. Min claims that the money was simply re-purposed, with money shifting “from here to there.” The designer went on to add that the automaker was capable to lower the starting price of the two vehicles in part because of more flexible vehicle architectures and shifting production from Germany to the States.

While Min sounds confident that no pennies were pinched, we’re not so sure – unless when he says money was shifted “from here to there” he means “from where you can see and feel to where you can’t.” Regardless of what we think, one statistic is impossible to argue: Jetta sales have shot up 43.9 percent this year and Passat sales have skyrocketed by 80.9 percent. That, ladies and gentlemen, is letting the numbers do the talking.