Odds and ends

The John Cooper Works name is synonymous with the Mini brand, the partnership dating back almost 50 years, so it’s not surprising that the British-based tuner along with Mini have formed a new sub-brand. Aptly named the ‘Works,’ the new sub-brand will be responsible for all...

F1 drivers are usually given a carmaker’s top performance model when they sign up to race under them, probably because anything else would be painstakingly slow in comparison to an F1 racer, so imagine the surprise when Ferrari’s Felipe Massa was handed the keys to a humble Fiat 500...

China’s motor industry has been frequently maligned in the automotive press for its less-than-original designs and the latest car from one of the country’s biggest manufacturers, Lifan Auto, has ripped off not only the design of one car but also the name of another. Pictured above is...

Americans - unlike their cars - are getting wider every year. Unfortunately, carmakers aren’t keeping up with the nation’s spreading waistline, especially when it comes to their seats, and passengers are starting to feel the pinch. That’s why at this year’s Detroit Auto Show...

This year’s Barrett-Jackson auctions in Scottsdale, Arizona, had one of the most varied lineups in the event’s history, with several yet-to-be released models, a car-crushing robot dinosaur, and the usual assortment of ultra-rare muscle cars all going under the hammer. One of the...

Car makers have belabored the near-total lack of availability and distribution channels of most alternative fuels to the point of exhaustion. They are simply stating the obvious when they point out that hydrogen-fueled cars will not become a reality until a fuel supply network is in place. And...

The Steve Fossett World Land Speed Racing Team have been struggling to break the world land speed record since they first announced their ambitions back in October, 2006. The racing team has suffered the loss of founder and famed adventurer Steve Fossett, who has been missing since September 3rd...

In a rather bizarre study released today Strategic Vision claims that minorities (full results for Caucasians were not released) have a 'vehicle DNA' that is composed of a 'driver's desires, needs and attribute priorities.' Why they decided to phrase 'vehicle preference' in such a Social Darwinian...

The Invicta S1 is a high-performance and luxurious grand tourer built in the UK since the early 2000s. It’s powered by a range of Ford V8 engines displacing either 4.6 or 5.0L and in its most powerful form develops over 600hp. The latest version of the car turned up recently at a motor show...

Last week Tata revealed for the first time its groundbreaking Nano minicar, shocking the world with the announcement that the pint-sized runabout's price tag will start as low as 100,000 rupees (roughly $2,500 at exchange rates). This makes it the cheapest car in the world, a fact that has rival...

Just when you thought the UK had come up with every possible way to get a fine out of a driver (speed cameras disguised as trash bins, doubled congestion charges and parking tickets among others), they go and find a whole untapped market of fines. It seems 700,000 fines go unpaid every year...

Since 1953, all Corvettes have been manufactured in only one plant in Warren County, Kentucky. Now a Kentucky State Representative, C.B. Embry, has introduced a bill to designate the Corvette as Kentucky's official state sports car. Embry is aware the move is a controversial one, as Kentucky is...

The Quandt family, whose members own large amounts of BMW stock, is seeking to clear the air around the family name. Upset by some of the accusations raised against the family, in part by a recent German TV documentary alleging wartime abuses of former prisoners at a Quandt-owned battery plant, the...

We’ve seen Nissan engineers testing cars at famous race tracks such as the Nurburgring and Laguna Seca but that doesn’t mean they’ve stopped using their own private circuits. It seems testing behind the doors at Nissan has become so busy that a fifth test track was required. A new...

The marketing types over at Volkswagen want us to think ‘VW’ when we think of cars so they’ve launched a new campaign with the simple tagline “Das Auto,” German for “The Car.” VW used the backdrop of last month’s Frankfurt Motor Show to launch its new...

For those of you who thought having your car seized would be bad enough, imagine what it would be like to have it crushed. That's exactly what happened to thousands of motorists in Manchester, England, where local police claim to have crushed more than 10,000 cars since January last year after...

This odd looking and slightly stylish coupe is the new BC3 from Brilliance and has just gone on sale in China with a starting price of just under $15,000. Brilliance is BMW’s partner in China but the new BC3 is said to be an all-Chinese designed and manufactured vehicle, the first for the...

When Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond ended up in hospital after his spectacular crash at 288mph, he could at least boast he was driving an insane jet-powered car at an equally insane speed. The same can’t be said for the presenter of rival motoring TV show Fifth Gear, Tom Ford, who was...

If you’re dropping over one hundred grand on an armored vehicle you’d expect at least minimal security for the vehicle while it was being transported. After all, if a group of four asylum seekers could get to the car unscathed as in this next story, then it means virtually anyone could...

A production version of the Duesenberg Torpedo Coupe pictured in this concept drawing was promised to be on the market by August of this year but, as the guys at Hemmings have spotted, the release date has now been pushed back to mid 2008. The modern day version of the American luxury classic is...