Car News
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Porsche is celebrating its 60th anniversary, and as part of the festivities the company set out to find the oldest surviving U.S. import. The result? A fantastically restored Strawberry Red 1952 356 Cabriolet. It's not, strictly speaking, the oldest Porsche in the U.S., but it is the oldest car sold at retail as an import. An even older Porsche 356, built in Stuttgart in 1950, was also found, but because it was imported later and restored form a variety of source vehicles, it wasn't deemed the oldest U.S. Porsche. The 356, despite its modest performance by modern standards, was the car that...
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Video: Raikkonen Crashes At Rally SpainAt the speeds and level of aggression required to drive with the top tier of the World Rally Championship, it takes only a millisecond's mistake to end up on your roof, the day over, and out of the points. Kimi Raikkonen gives us an excellent illustration of this point from Spain. Watching...
Nelson Ireson -
Stuck: VW To "Discuss" Formula 1 In November, But NASCAR More LikelyHans-Joachim Stuck, among other things a former Formula 1 driver and motorsports rep for Volkswagen, has told the Financial Times Deutschland that the carmaking giant will discuss an entry into the FIA's top-tier series in November. It will be a VW Group discussion, meaning the team could be...
Nelson Ireson -
Toyota, Lexus Recalling 740,000 Vehicles In U.S.When you make more than 10 million cars per year, if something goes wrong on a significant batch of them, the recall size is going to be pretty big. Toyota has been a case study in this concept over the past year or so, today adding another 740,000 vehicles in the U.S. and over 1.5 million...
Nelson Ireson -
Kia Partners With The NBA, Or, An Open Letter To Lindsay Lohan And Britney SpearsDear Lindsay, Britney: Are you happy? Are you happy with yourselves? Have you gotten better, made it over the hump, cleaned up, dried out? We're thrilled. Sorry, that was mean. Seriously. We're happy that you've found some inner peace. We're happy that you've put the drink and drugs behind you so...
Richard Read -
Report: Next-Gen Volvo C30 To Spawn Golf CompetitorWhen Volvo first unveiled its C30 hatch back in 2006 many questioned the automaker’s decision to ignore launching a more practical five-door model and instead offer it exclusively as a sporty three-door. As we all know Volvo’s finances quickly degraded shortly after that and launching a...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
With the RX-8 sports car expected to be discontinued after the current model year, Mazda, the last bastion of the Wankel rotary engine, will be without a car in its lineup featuring the free-spinning engine. Why the predicament? Because Mazda just can’t seem to engineer the rotary to meet its own internal fuel economy and emissions standards. The rotary engine is a love-it or hate-it piece of engineering. Marvelously simple and compact yet viciously inefficient, variants of the spinning triangle have seen use in Mazda's cars for over 40 years. But that robust classic tech won't do the...
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Full Story On Viper-Powered Chrysler 300 SRT10It's hard to beat American muscle for hauling tail in a straight line and one of the best in the business is Chrysler’s Street and Racing Technology division, or SRT for short. The Chrysler go-fast division has built some memorable cars in the past, including the Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8, one...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Spy Shots: 2011 Aston Martin DBS FaceliftAston Martin is on a roll of late, the latest creation its four-door masterpiece, the Rapide. While that car has its quirks, it's certainly one of the most attractive four-door sports cars in existence. Last year, the company shoehorned a brawny V-12 engine into the Vantage, taking the car's...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Video: Two New Top Gear USA Trailers, Show Airs November 21We found out earlier this week that Top Gear USA would get its own Stig (and no, he's not the fat one) as well as the Suzuki SX4 as its small car for big stars. Today, the History Channel has loosed another pair of trailers for the show, and the air date of the first episode: November 21. The two...
Nelson Ireson -
Video: Chevy Teases Its SEMA ExhibitWe've already had a peek at the eight Camaros that Chevrolet plans to bring to the SEMA show in Las Vegas next week. Now we can take a slighter deeper look, thanks to a video that Chevrolet has released. The short video is mostly a teaser, but it might be worth a look for Camaro fans. In other SEMA...
Tim Healey -
Los Angeles Auto Show Design Challenge Aims For 1,000-Pound CarEach year the Los Angeles Auto Show hosts its Design Challenge, pitting design studios against each other and against a goal to test the limits of future thinking about automotive design. This year's goal is to create a vehicle that will hold four passengers, meet safety requirements, yet weigh...
Nelson Ireson -
We already know Ford is planning an onslaught of 2011 Fiestas for SEMA, but so far Chevrolet has been largely quiet on its plans for the aftermarket specialty show. Today we get a "sneak peek" at what it's calling its "surprises" for SEMA. The surprises may lie in the hint at future production equipment. While SEMA is typically an outlet for one-off, wild, and sometimes wacky modifications, Chevrolet hints in the video that some of what we see at SEMA will "translate into products you can buy down the road." From what we see in the video, that may mean unique wheels, "Jake" branded...
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Chrysler Begins Appointing Fiat DealersThe Fiat 500 is due to begin sales here in the U.S. by the end of the year, and Chrysler is now beginning to choose the dealers that will get the car--and represent Fiat in the U.S. The choices made will be critical, as Fiat's reputation from its last run in the U.S. isn't exactly stellar. The...
Nelson Ireson -
Dodge Ramps Up The Halloween Hype On SyfyChrysler's marketing team has had some hits and some misses over the past year. For a while, Olivier Francois & Co. ran nothing but quirky branding campaigns, featuring the likes of Mikhail Gorbachev and Nelson Mandela cruising in Chrysler vehicles. That made dealers confused and mad, but...
Richard Read -
2011 Porsche 911 GT2 RS Sold OutOnly 500 units of the Porsche 911 GT2 RS were to be built, and they've all sold in less than two months since the official unveiling August 25 at the Moscow Auto Salon. Despite the $245,000 starting price, it's not all that surprising--the GT2 RS is Porsche's highest performance, most powerful...
Nelson Ireson -
Spyker Launches Exclusive Timepiece Collection In Time For ChristmasJoining the big boys like Ferrari and Bugatti, both of which have their own respective line of luxury timepieces, Dutch sports car company Spyker has just revealed its own timepiece collection, coinciding with celebrations for the brand’s 24 Hours of Le Mans participation. Designed and...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Audi Bringing Custom R8 Spyder And Autonomous TT To SEMAOne of the clearest indications yet that Audi wants to make its impact on the U.S. market was revealed today, with the German automaker announcing plans to participate in this year’s SEMA show in Las Vegas. The annual aftermarket tradeshow draws industry folk from all across the country and...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Almost exactly one year ago Mazda gave us a preview of its next-generation of drivetrain technologies, revealing new designs for a highly efficient direct injection gasoline engine, clean diesel engine and an automatic transmission. The Japanese automaker is now revealing the next chapter of its ‘SKY’ family of vehicle technologies, adding vehicle body and chassis developments into the growing technology pool. The first vehicle to benefit from all the latest developments--grouped under the new "SKYACTIV" heading--will be the next-generation Mazda2 hatchback due for release in...
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Red Bull X1 Prototype Ready For Gran Turismo 5 DebutEarlier this year Japanese electronics giant Sony announced a unique partnership between Gran Turismo and Red Bull Racing to create a virtual car that would push the boundaries of motorsports. This in turn prompted the guys at Polyphony Digital, the company behind the legendary Gran Turismo series...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
2011 Infiniti EX PreviewThe 2011 Infiniti EX is coming into the latest model year with a few minor updates to keep it fresh in the eyes of luxury crossover buyers, especially with newcomers like the 2011 BMW X3 and the ever-popular Lexus RX on the prowl. The biggest changes are the introduction of a new seven-speed...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Spy Shots: 2012 Chevrolet Aveo SedanWith the 2012 Chevrolet Aveo, General Motors is taking its small car destiny in its own hands, bringing its Honda Fit fighter home to America--at least in terms of design and production. Unlike the first-generation model, which was designed largely in South Korea, the new Aveo will be mostly...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Mercedes-Benz Prices Twin-Turbo V-8 2011 CL550, 2011 CL63 AMG, S63 AMGThe 2011 Mercedes-Benz CL-Class launch program is taking place today, and along with the first drives of the new cars, Mercedes has released pricing for the twin-turbo V-8 models. The 2011 CL550 starts from $114,025, while the 2011 CL63 AMG starts from $151,125, and the S63 AMG sedan slots between...
Nelson Ireson -
Neiman Marcus Edition Camaro Convertible Sells Out In Three MinutesYou may have been wondering if the $75,000 price tag on the appearance-only Neiman Marcus special-edition 2011 Camaro Convertible made for the 2010 Christmas Book was worth the asking price. We wondered the same thing. Turns out, for 100 people, it most certainly was. So much so that the car sold...
Nelson Ireson