Archive for August 2007

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Buying (2)

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    1972 Dodge Challenger

    Driving about in a Chevrolet Corvette Z06 it's easy to forget that while the formula for American muscle cars is still very much alive, refinements in technology have changed the experience drastically. Case in point is this 1972 Dodge Challenger. I drove this beast last year from Carlisle, Pensylvania to Detroit after having roadtripped from Motor City mostly in the passenger seat. This was not by any means a completely original machine, but the core of what rolled off the line in the '70s was

    By Mike Bumbeck Read More
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    2007 Corvette Z06

    [On the occasion of this year's Woodward Dream Cruise in Detroit, we're catching up on the Detroit muscle we've driven in the past year. First up, the Corvette Z06.] It's a tricky day for the Corvette Z06. In its short life, Chevrolet's flagship Vette has topped more best-of lists than Arcade Fire, and won enough esteem to neutralize, or at least distract from, the inadequacies plaguing Chevy's '07 car line. But the Z06 is approaching a crossroads, and fast. Papa bowtie has already sent the lo

    By Mike Spinelli Read More

Entertainment (4)

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    Audi RS4 Avant

    Perusing the latest issue of Top Gear I came across Jeremy Clarkson's column in which he tries to identify the perfect car. What gave him the idea? He'd just taken a ride in an RS4 Avant. Sure, a few sentences later ye olde Jezza determines that the hyperkinetic Deutsch wagon is not perfect. But, check out his gripes: there's no knee room in the back seat and it costs too much. Ahem. Here in the Jalopnik Fantasy Garage (we're filthy rich!) price is simply not an issue. And if we had someone tall

    By Jonny Lieberman Read More
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    OMG! OMG! OMG! Top Gear's on twice on BBC America tonight! And it's the Corvette Z06 episode! Epic!

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    Top Gear is on as we speak on BBC America. We just had a cargasm!

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    Quentin Willson's Marijuana Road Test

    More often seen extolling the virtues of used cars, Quentin Willson is noticeably unfamiliar with what he calls "bush." Despite his obvious problems with the terminology, the former Top Gear presenter offers a surprisingly insightful argument for greater reason being applied to the drugs and driving debate. The fact that he's able to do so while riding shotgun with a stoned graphic designer on a racetrack just adds weight to his claims.

    By Wes Siler Read More

News (333)

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    Banks Sets The Record Straight

    As the last chunks of salt are chipped off the race cars there is a post speed week battle forming. The SPAL Ford Powerstroke Rocket Ranger team is claiming the title of World's Fastest Diesel Pickup Truck. Gale Banks says this simply isn't true, stating that the Banks Engineering Cummins-powered Dodge Dakota Sidewinder still holds the official FIA World Record - set in 2002.

    By Mike Bumbeck Read More
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    Volvo Introduces Radar-Guided Collision Warning, Auto Brake

    Volvo's bringing its safety consciousness into the cabin, with a new set of gadgetry that brakes automatically if a collision is imminent. At the first sign of trouble, the system sounds the alarm and pre-charges the brakes. Then, if the driver is too busy sleeping or eating chicken fingers to respond, it grabs the stoppers for broke. Like other such driver-assistance features, Collision Warning with Auto Brake (rolls right off the tongue) uses software to combine long-range radar with camera si

    By Mike Spinelli Read More
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    Rebuild Your Carburetor

    Back in the days of carbureted and plentiful used Plymouth Satellites, B-52's frontman Fred sang of the devil in his car. Beehive sporting singer Kate did Fred one better by wailing that she had the devil in her CAR-buretor! Having Beelzebub in the float bowl and demons clogging the jets is not a good thing at all. A carburetor rebuild can help exorcise evil spirits.

    By Mike Bumbeck Read More
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    It's Official: BMW Gets Google Local Search And It's Available Now...In Germany

    It's official, there's a press release and everything. As part of their "ConnectedDrive" theory on in-car information systems, BMW is now the first auto manufacturer to offer Google local search straight from the in-dash nav system. You can look for Yellow Pages-type information like names and addresses of restaurants, hotels — locate service stations, banks, supermarkets, cinemas and Apple genius bars — and all of it right from your car. One catch — you've got to be in Germany. Well, it's a

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    This is not our country, these are our job cuts? GM's cutting 1,100 jobs from the Oshawa truck plant in Canada. [Reuters]

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    The Truth About Cars's Jay Shoemaker drives the Mercedes CLK 63 AMG Black Series. "Sounds like the unholy offspring of a Mercedes-Nascar union?" Yes, please. [TTAC]

    By Mike Spinelli Read More
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    Dutch Auto Site Reports Cerberus To Deny Dodge Challenger To Europe?

    We didn't mean to have two posts up this morning on the new retro muscle car from Dodge, but after we reported the somewhat old and obvious news that the Challenger would be coming in an SRT model, we're also hearing some rumblings from the Netherlands. Apparently, and this is coming via a Dutch site with a funny sounding name, Europe not only won't be receiving any SRT versions of the Challenger, they won't be receiving any R/T or any base models. On top of the denial of muscle to Europe, the

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    Tata and Fiat to join forces to make a bid for Land Rover and Jaguar? Seriously? [Forbes]

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    Volkswagen Thing, With Bonus Beetle Poll!

    This is another one of those cars that's just impossible for me to get the year pinned down. The Thing was sold in the US for the 1973 and 1974 model years only, so it's almost certainly a '73 or '74 (though someone could have imported an earlier one from Mexico or Europe). So, VW experts, here's your chance to shine! What year is this Thing?

    By Murilee Martin Read More
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    Toyota said today it plans to sell 10.4 million vehicles globally in 2009 — beating GM's record 9.55 million vehicles sold in 1978. What bearing this will have on anything other than the egos of the folks who work at GM — weve no idea. [Detroit News]

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    Bad Boy Vettes To Host Party After Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix ALMS Action

    Just got this e-mail from Dan over at Bad Boy Vettes, the boys all about embracing the skull 'vette logo. They'll be having a party after Saturday's ALMS race at the Detroit Grand Prix on Belle Isle. And hey, the fun part is you're invited. So if you're in Metro Detroit for the return of racing action to the city the French founded, the Americans built and automobiles enriched (props to WWJ), and you won't be out covering all the hot LeMans and IndyCar action (as we will be all weekend), head

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    Apparently all our biodiesel problems are solved. Time to go long on pond scum. [GM Inside News]

    By Mike Spinelli Read More
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    Mercedes-Benz C-Class Estate Revealed

    There may be nothing more old-bougie than a Mercedes wagon, except maybe a horse trailer full of empty Glenlivet bottles. But these days, wagons are so battered by the SUV onslaught they've almost become a oddity in the US. Take Mercedes's new C-Class Estate. It shares a new sculpted design with its less-commodious sibling; it comes in three trim lines, Classic, Elegance and Avantgarde, and it still looks like a throwback. Paradoxically, driving a station wagon is probably the most avant garde t

    By Mike Spinelli Read More
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    2008 Ferrari 575 GTZ Spyder

    Our boy Richard from Supercars.net just got us his scoop from the 2007 Quail Motorsports Gathering — what appears to be a new Spyder that looks like it could be derived from the Ferrari 575 GTZ built for Yushiyuki Hayashi. Richard expects it to be officially revealed at the 2008 Geneva Auto Show. Here's what else Richard's got to say — and here's a high-res shot of the tease:

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    New-Look 2008 Chevy Malibu Gets Priced Under $20,000

    The Chevy Malibu not only gets a new look, it's getting a new price — one that starts at $19,995 for the base-level LS model and includes a hybrid for the starting price of just $22,790. Along with the bargain-basement model and the light hybrid, the Malibu lineup includes the 1LT and 2LT trim levels and the top-of-the-line LTZ. MSRP for the 1LT is $20,955; 2LT, $22,635 and the LTZ, $26,995. And yes, that includes the destination charge — for those of you counting that. The newly hotted-up 'bu

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    Project Car Hell: Bricklin SV-1 Or Fiat Spider Torino?

    We were a little surprised to find that the 911-engined Transporter opened a can of whoop-ass on the Type 4-powered 911 in yesterday's poll, but the Jalopnik masses have spoken! So get under that van and start bustin' knuckles! Today we've decided to lower the bar on the price thing and get a couple of sub-$2000 cars that are sure to put some extra-toasty flames in your personal automotive Hades...

    By Murilee Martin Read More
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    Quality is job one at..."The New Chrysler?" [Detroit News]

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    New rules for Monroney stickers go into effect on Saturday. [Detroit News]

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    Shots Of Next-Generation HSV Maloo Leak Out Onto The Web

    That image above is supposedly of the next generation of HSV's most powerful ute — the Holden Ute-based Maloo — and it appears to have found its way onto the internet weeks ahead of the official debut at the Sydney Motor Show in October. Like the Maloo's lower-powered Holden Ute brother, the HSV Maloo looks to be straying further from its traditional appeal as a workhorse, and appealing more as a sports coupe or a lifestyle vehicle. In fact, I'm not entirely sure you could even carry anything

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    Rolling Nirvana

    In late adolescence, I heard a song. It was called "Los Angeles," and it was by an outfit called X, who were quite possibly the greatest band to come out of this town in the late '70s-early '80s, and still proudly stand as one of the city's all time great groups. It appealed to my shambolic state at the time. I was often the smartest kid in the room, almost rock 'n' roll, and hopelessly out of step. I was also loud, fast, obnoxious, and fancied myself poetic. My El Camino had Torq-Thrusts with B

    By Davey G. Johnson Read More
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    Nick Hogan Calls His Supra A "P***y Magnet" In Rides Magazine, Claims To Have "Terrible Driving Record"

    After learning earlier this morning about the possibility one of Hulk Hogan's Vipers may have been involved in the race that led to the crash of his son, Nick Hogan's (aka Nick Bollea) Supra (Again, pics of the crushed Supra here — and below), we really didn't think it was possible for there to be yet another wrinkle in the saga. We were wrong. The son of Hulk Hogan apparently gave an interview in the upcoming issue of Rides magazine where in addition to claiming he has "a terrible driving rec

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    Hulk Hogan Was Not The Driver Of The Viper Involved In His Son's Crash

    Last news we heard in the Nick Bollea Toyota Supra crash story (See the photos of the smashed-up Supra here!) came yesterday, when we heard the son of Hulk Hogan may have been engaging in some stoplight to stoplight racing with a Dodge Viper. Although we knew yesterday police believed the Hulkster was not the driver of any vehicle involved in the crash nor was he on site at the time of the crash, there's now rampant speculation one of his Vipers was involved. According to state records, Hogan

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    G-Power V10-Powered BMW 3-Series

    Shoehorning a BMW V10 in all manner of 3-Series models is a kind of totem for the German tuning set. Now, G-power says it's done so to an E46 M3 coupe. The engine's from a current M5, worked to produce 550 hp. The "heart transplant" reduces the car's zero-to-62 (100 km/h) time to 4.2 seconds and top speed to — old on to your liederhosen — 208 mph. Next stop, 750 hp via twin superchargers. Bis morgen! [World Car Fans]

    By Mike Spinelli Read More
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    1963 Chevrolet Nova Convertible

    The thing that we can sometimes forget when we go to car shows full of 60s Detroit iron is that the Chevy II/Nova was sold as a cheap economy car. A starter car. At the car shows, you'll see obsessively restored examples, usually loaded with every possible option... but there was a time when beat-to-hell Novas were as common as trashed Cavaliers are today.

    By Murilee Martin Read More
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    Ed Roth's Orbitron Found In Mexico!

    Finding a battered Orbitron, one of Ed "Big Daddy" Roth's most iconic custom cars, in Mexico is like finding JD Salinger slumped over a bottle of Mescal in a Tijuana speakeasy. The 1964 product of the Roth mind and fiberglass shop recently turned up south of the border, where it had been carnival attraction and trash bin in front of an adult book store. Orbitron scared the kneepants off a young Jalopnik when he saw a photo of it in a tattered library book. The picture was from 1963 and the Orb

    By Mike Spinelli Read More
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    Over The Back Fence: Audi To Reveal RS6 At Frankfurt Auto Show?

    We just got the official Audi press release for the Frankfurt Auto Show, which like all the automakers pre-show releases reads like they're teasing us with a tease of the press conference. Meaning that they're cryptic and although in this case we're told Audi's world premiering two new — somethings — they're not telling us what they are. Now, we know one of them's the new Audi A4, which we've already seen revealed on the interwebs. But what's the other one? We're hearing from a source who hear

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    Flux Capacitor: Peugeot Design Competition Winner Built In Full Scale For Frankfurt

    A major component to Peugeot's ongoing International design competition is the full-scale conceptual rendering the company works up and displays at the year's biggest European auto show. This year's winner, if you'll recall, was a design by Mihai Panitescu, a student from Romania. His Flux roadster concept blends sportiness, versatility and a flair for the ultramodern. It's like an Ed Roth design, as remixed by architect Renzo Piano for prop use in a Will Smith / Jean Reno buddy action movie. An

    By Mike Spinelli Read More
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    Project Car Hell: VW Bus With 911 Engine Or 911 With VW Bus Engine?

    The Jalopnik readers have spoken, and it seems that yesterday's Project Car Hell poll resulted in a the Maserati Merak administering quite the beat-down to the TVR 280i. It's probably not fair to stack a British machine up against the one-two coolness/madness punch of a Franco-Italian car, though. And, speaking of things that aren't fair, we've got a couple of Frankensteins for today's poll that oughta raise some hackles among the German-car purists out there...

    By Murilee Martin Read More
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    I think I walked by this spot like six times during the Woodward Dream Cruise. [Detroit News]

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    Right-hand-drive Mitsubishi i spotted in Toronto, Canada. [Autoblog]

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    Nissan Micra Colour + Concept Revealed

    With the first one already out the door, Nissan's now released info for their second concept for the Frankfurt Auto Show. It's called the Nissan Micra Colour +. Yes, that's right, this Nissan Design Europe designed concept's got a "+" sign at the end of the name — for what reason, we're just not sure. In addition to the plus-effect, it also looks like it's nothing more than a P-shop animation — maybe that's because of the two-tone Liquid Metal gold paint effect that contrasts with the three co

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    Winding Road says Honda's bringing its Stream minivan/MPV to the US starting in 2009. How much you want to bet the tag line will be something like More People-moving per Gallon. [Winding Road]

    By Mike Spinelli Read More
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    Motorcycle News reports the BMW HP2 Sport is on track to be released within mere weeks - in the United Kingdom. [Motorcycle News]

    By Mike Bumbeck Read More
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    Driving The 2008 Viper SRT10, Part Three

    I grew up in England, a speeder's paradise. It might not have had Germany's famed autobahn, Switzerland's dramatic mountains or Spain's impossibly smooth tarmac. What it does have is a populace largely confined to urban areas, a police force with a reasonable concept of safe driving and a seemingly infinite amount of beautiful country roads. I grew up driving classic cars and riding modern sports bikes at speeds of my choosing in a culture that fostered driving ability. I devoted just about ever

    By Wes Siler Read More
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    For his last day at the White House, Karl Rove's staff covered his Jaguar S-Type in saran wrap. The fun and games continued up until the point Cheney's staff took a shotgun filled with bird shot to it. [Fox News]

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    Deal Of The Week: Saab 9-3 SportCombi

    Another Saab up on the Jalopnik DotW? Look at it this way, Saab's sales woes are your purchase gains. This week we're intrigued by a $4,000 rebate on the 9-3 SportCombi (among other models). Granted, GM's tenure as steward of the company birthed by aircraft engineers hasn't been the most fecund period in its history. And while things have been looking up for the 9-3, sales numbers haven't budged. The car's still hampered by cliff-face depreciation and GM's front-drive Epsilon platform, which put

    By Mike Spinelli Read More
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    Wow, DaimlerChrysler (yup, that's still the name) saw earnings of $2.5 billion last quarter. That was despite the $3.4 billion charge on the sale of Chrysler. Imagine how better it would have been had they recorded Chrysler's profits during the quarter too. Oh wait...maybe that would have been backwards. [NYT]

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    1950 Dodge Pickup

    I haven't done too many old pickup trucks for this series, although they're all over the island; I'll probably get to more of them eventually, just as I will with late-60s/early-70s VW Type 1s. Thing is, banged-up old trucks are more or less just as relevant as they ever were, so plenty of them are just doing their truck jobs, decade after decade, and they don't really catch my eye in most cases. However, this super-clean '50 Dodge does stand out, since it's in such nice shape.

    By Murilee Martin Read More
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    GM to pay dealers cash bonus for each and every vehicle they sell between now and August 31st. No word on whether they'll give out more for selling the Aveo. [Detroit News]

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    Diesel Tweaker: Brabus Tunes The Mercedes C 220

    In just a shade over a week we're heading off to the land of apple wine, thai food and cars that run on a strange concoction called "diesel." We're not quite sure what this odd, smelly substance is, but some say it's made from prunes, horse lard and the milk of a forgotten mammal elders say looked like Ernest Borgnine. There, in Frankfurt, many cars use this substance for fuel, and some even go fast. That is the aim of Mercedes tuner Brabus, which announced a new chip (sorry, auxiliary control u

    By Mike Spinelli Read More
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    Mitsubishi Concept-cX

    Mitsubishi's sent more shots of its new styling prototype, the Concept-cX into the digital ether following the appearance of a one-shot yesterday. Conceptually, it's an urban-oriented soft roader that assumes European tolerances for size and fuel suckage. It's powered by a 1.8-liter clean diesel (Euro-5 compliant) engine over Mitsubishi's new Twin Clutch SST (Sport Shift Transmission) — a competitor to VW/Audi-Borg Warner's DSG box the company says improves both performance and fuel economy. Out

    By Mike Spinelli Read More
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    Earlier today we spoke of the Napier-Railton setting a 1939 speed record at the Brooklands Motor Course outer circuit. Sections of the British race track are still intact, or as the photographer who took these pictures writes - lying derelict, broken into by Gallaghers. [Brooklands Race Track]

    By Mike Bumbeck Read More
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    New Audi A4 Revealed — And This Time It's Official!

    After that teaser shot last night and the embargo breakage earlier today, we were wondering if there'd be anything left to show you on the Audi A4 once the embargo officially broke at 6:00 PM EST tonight. And it would seem our ponderings were accurate — although now we've got the high-res shots and the press release. So there's that. Photos are below and the full release is after the jump. Enjoy and feel free to talk amongst yourselves.

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    Project Car Hell: TVR 280i Or Maserati Merak?

    We had our most one-sided Choose Your Eternity Poll ever yesterday, with Humber Sceptre getting obliterated by the Reliant Scimitar. Today we're going back to cars you can buy in the US of A, and we're going to jack up the admission cost to a Sisyphean future of endless wrenching. You want temperamental sports cars upon which to shatter your already-fragile sanity, pal? We got 'em!

    By Murilee Martin Read More
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    GM's "I Got Shotgun" basking in the beauty of a 1998 Trans Am. But seriously, who wouldn't trade a '98 Trans Am for $50,000? [YouTube]

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    Opel Astra OPC Nürburgring Edition

    It's not Space Camp, it's race camp. It's OPC Race Camp, a racing talent casting call, for which Opel provides the cars. Its aim is to assemble a team that will participate in the 24-hour race on the Nürburgring in 2008. But first, there's a car to mention. It's the Astra OPC Nürburgring Edition, a limited-run model fitted with a wider track, fat meats and a 2.0-liter turbo gasoline engine that can propel it to 62 mph in 6.4 seconds and on to a top speed of 152 mph. Inside, there's a trim packag

    By Mike Spinelli Read More
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    VWVortex member VeeDubDriver e-mails "Maximum" Bob Lutz and he actually responds. Or at least someone using his e-mail responds. But the more important question is — what did they talk about? [VWVortex]

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    Driving The 2008 Viper SRT10, Part Two

    There's one constant rule governing my life. As soon as I'm good enough at something to become confident, I crash spectacularly. The 2008 Viper's not a particularly uncomfortable car, but driving it on the track at Virginia International Raceway today I'm in misery. Out of every corner, the fearsome acceleration presses my road rash into the seat. I'm struggling to move the steering wheel accurately; something is out of whack in my left arm, limiting its articulation. Shocks of pain shoot throug

    By Wes Siler Read More
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    Audi A3 Convertible...Again

    The Fans of Cars across the World have snagged themselves some new shots of the new Audi A3 cabrio set to debut next year at Geneva. As we've shown you last week, the entry-level Audi drop-top mini-fighter looks like it took the current A3's front end and then strapped the A5 on to the back. [via World Car Fans]

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    This Cadillac's Security System Is Positively Riveting!

    Roaming the rows of my favorite self-service junkyard in scintillating Hayward, California, I caught sight of an 80s Caddy with hasps and padlocks on the driver's side doors. Now, that's something you see from time to time, but I wasn't prepared for what I saw on the other side of the car...

    By Murilee Martin Read More
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    Honda To Reveal Accord Tourer Concept At Frankfurt Auto Show And No, This Isn't It

    In addition to the ASIMO humanoid robot, Honda solar panels and HondaJet on the Honda stand at the Frankfurt Auto Show next month, the folks from Honda UK tell us they'll be debuting what they're calling "an exciting Accord Tourer Concept." Set on a stand that supposedly will focus on the twin Honda Euro themes of "Sports" and "Environment," the Honda folks claim the concept sled will give a "strong indication of the design direction of the next gen Accord Tourer" set to debut sometime during

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    1968 Pontiac GTO

    This is actually the car that inspired the Down on the Street series in the first place; it parks in my neighborhood, and every time I passed it I'd say to myself: "Hey, the Jalopnik readers would probably like this car." Then I realized such cars were all over town. But parking is tough in this downtown 'hood, and it's been hard to catch the Goat when it isn't hemmed in by a couple of parallel-parked Sentras and thus unphotographable.

    By Murilee Martin Read More
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    Would you let this guy pay you to wrap your car in ads? Check that — would you let anyone wrap your car in ads? [Consumerist]

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    Jaguar Reveals UK Pricing For XF To Start At $67,973

    After yesterday's official reveal of the 2009 Jaguar XF, the pretty kitty brand from Ford's released pricing in the UK for their new four-door saloon they'll be showing off in Frankfurt next month. Although there's no US pricing, we do know the XF will hit the streets in March of '09 and in the UK will start at the equivalent of $67,973 for the 2.7-liter V6 diesel or the 3.0-liter V6 gas-engined base models and run all the way up to $110,000 for the top of the line model with the big superchar

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    Toyota To Showcase "Innovation" At Frankfurt Auto Show

    Yup, that's the official word from ToMoCo on their offering for the Frankfurt Motor Show next month — according to the super number one best automaker from the land of the rising sun, they'll be featuring "innovation." We've no idea what that means, but in addition to whatever that is — they'll also be showing off a "radical new small car concept," two new Yaris models, the new RAV4 Cross Sport and the new Land Cruiser. Full press release after the jump.

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    The Japanese Mitsubishi Evolution X brochure hits the interwebs by storm...again. [via Autoblog.nl, Carscoop, etc]

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    Project Car Hell, UK Edition: Reliant Scimitar Or Humber Sceptre?

    After we went relentlessly downscale with our last PCH choice (in which the POS Mustang and basket-case Camaro came out neck-and-neck in the poll, some of you have demanded that we include a "No" vote option in the poll. That ain't happening, folks; Hell doesn't work that way. Anyway, it's time to leave North America and cross the Atlantic, where we can get a taste of the kind of knuckle-bustin' eternity faced by our counterparts in the United Kingdom. Just to make it harder, we're choosing Brit

    By Murilee Martin Read More
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    Count how many "Double Guns" Spinelli shoots out there today. [Fast Lane Daily]

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    foodcourtlunch has their list of the top ten worst-named cars in all of automotive history. Surely we can do better than the Gremlin as the worst. [foodcourtlunch]

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    Maker Of Huge-Ass RVs Considers Hybrid, Hydrogen-Assisted Powerplant

    Whether you're an elderly couple who've cashed in their 401K, sold the house and hit the road, or you're the bass player in an up-and-coming indie-rock band trying to ditch that chick with the braided nether region, you know Kingsley Coach. They're a maker of high-end RVs built on heavy-duty platforms. Now the company says it's considering a hybrid or hydrogen-assisted version of its 465 horsepower K-3 model — built on a Volvo 780 chassis — making it the first hybrid RV model on the market. Acco

    By Mike Spinelli Read More
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    2009 Jaguar XF: Why We Broke The Embargo

    So here's the 2009 Jaguar XF. It represents a new design direction for Ford's up-for-sale luxe brand. Since it was shown as the CX-F concept in Detroit earlier this year, the concept crystallized into the Dodge Intrepid-like four-door XF you see here. All that need be said about it — at least at this juncture — is in the press release (see it after the jump). Perhaps more important is the tortured process that lead to our publication of the picture you see above. Its a sordid tale familiar to

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    Driving The 2008 Viper SRT10

    The new Dodge Viper is best summed up by a pair of Oakleys. You see, at every launch the manufacturer gives attending journalists a gift, something to remember the trip by, some trinket to give their kids when they get home. Those without kids put them straight up on eBay and earn enough for an extra martini or two. Legend has it back in 1993, at the world press launch for the Ducati 916, journalists received silver bars stamped with the bike's name and launch date. I don't just mean a little si

    By Wes Siler Read More
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    QOTD: What's Your Family's Best Car Story?

    Every day we post on Jalopnik, fully expecting to be inundated by our readers' wit, intelligence and sarcasm. However, once in a while we get a comment like Speedie's from Friday's QOTD that not only brings a tear to our eye, but makes us realize how great a gig this is. You can read Speedie's reminiscence on his Grandfather's 1966 Cadillac in full after the jump. Then, if you like, tell us your best story involving your family and automobiles. Mine? My father's father had a pitch black, 1953 Ca

    By Jonny Lieberman Read More
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    Love Sponge Says: "Nick Hogan OK...Out Of Hospital" After Supra Smash

    According to radio shock-jock Bubba The Love Sponge — for serious, apparently Bubba's friends with Hulk Hogan's son — Nick Bollea's out of the hospital after his Supra smash-up we've already reported on twice this morning. Apparently the young son-of-a-wrestler ended up with "several bumps and scrapes and perhaps a broken wrist." The full quote from the Love Sponge's web site after the jump:

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    1971 Chrysler Newport

    Time was, big early-70s Chryslers were everywhere, driven by fedora-wearing liquor-store owners and semi-successful realtors from coast to coast. The cool thing is that you still see a fair number of them on the street; since most of them really aren't objects of obsessive resto-worship, this means that they're simply survivors, getting by on their own vehicular merits. We at El Jalopo appreciate that, so it was nice to spot this '71 Newport a couple blocks from my shack.

    By Murilee Martin Read More
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    Ford Releases Focus ST Black "Knight Rider" Edition?

    We're not quite sure what to make of this. Ford Europe's got a string of press releases announcing what seems to be a Ford Focus ST Black Edition. The only problem is they've dropped the press release out in every language but English, so we're kind of going off of the Babelfish translation of the French version here. But on top of Ford Europe's desire to not allow those of us with only knowledge of the English language to see the release, there's also the rather odd connection being made to

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    Lotus Exige Sport 240 To Debut At Sydney Show

    Lotus Australia says it's producing a market-specific 'roo runner based on the supercharged Lotus Exige 240 Cup. It'll debut in October at the Australian International Motor Show. Powered by a now-familiar Toyota-sourced / Lotus tweaked 1.8-liter intercooled four, the Sport 240 produces 240 hp and will be the first production car in Australia to to get F1-style, driver-adjustable traction control, and launch control that lets the driver set revs as desired. All that hardware conspires to bring t

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    2009 Dodge Journey: Minivan For The Worldwide Masses

    The mystery crossover ute we've been seeing spy shots of for the better part of a year is now ready to join Dodge's "Crew" as the Dodge Journey. Set to be unveiled at next month's Frankfurt Auto Show, the Dodge Journey represents the newest assault by the Dodge brand on the global sensibilities MPV market. The Journey's a crossover that "evokes the capable look associated with SUVs" yet still manages to be built on the Dodge Avenger platform, albeit lengthened by 4.9 inches. Designed for sal

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    Ferrari's Felipe Massa snaked wunderkind McLaren's Lewis Hamilton to take the pole in Turkey. Or is that take the turkey in Poland? [GrandPrix.com]

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    19-year-old Edith Delgado was convicted Friday of causing the accident that killed Tongan Prince Tu'ipelehake, his wife Princess Kaimana Aleamotu'a Tuku'aho and their driver, Vinisia Hefa. According to the prosecution, Delgado was "racing" another car when she hit the Prince's Ford Explorer in July of 2006. Delgado has already served one year of the sentence. [MSNBC.com]

    By Jonny Lieberman Read More
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    The director of the EVO hoon fest 2 Fast 2 Furious struck and killed a woman in the Jefferson Park neighborhood of Los Angeles on Friday. He was driving his Lexus SUV and was not intoxicated or high, according to the LAPD who questioned and then released the Oscar-nominated director. The woman, Constance Russell, was pronounced dead Friday morning at an area hospital. We have very little else to say except for watch Black Snake Moan. [MSNBC.com]

    By Jonny Lieberman Read More
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    Project Car Hell: Camaro Or Mustang?

    Apologies for the lack of Project Car Hell recently, but I'm on vacation in rural Wisconsin and teh internets is hard to come by out here. Anyway, in our most recent poll, the Turbo Corvair-ified VW Bus just barely beat the pair-o-Vegas, and I'm sure that's just whetted your appetites for low-budget projects with great die-in-blaze-o-hoonic-glory (DIBOHG) potential. So, we're going to pit a pair of the all-time favorite American hoonmobiles against each other here...

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    A strike by Kia contract workers has halted production at the automaker's main plant near Seoul, South Korea. The plant accounts for 42% of of Kia's total output. No word on when the Hwaseong plant will resume operations. [Drive.com.au]

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    Ford To Launch New Low-CO2 Diesel Initiative In Frankfurt

    Look out, CO2s, the world's car companies are in the stomping-your-ass mode. And Frankfurt will be the rumbleground. Ford Europe's the latest automaker to announce a major anti-CO2 marketing initiative to launch at the Frankfurt auto show. They're calling it ECOnetic, a riff on their use of "kinetic" as a brand signifier of late. Cars in the program will run on the company's latest common-rail diesel powertrains that sport additional systems designed to reduce CO2 emissions — to meet stiffening

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    The Axis of Oversteer reports that David Coulthard and the Red Bull Renault were seen testing the latest in tire warming technology during the Turkish GP free practice. Coulthard later praised the mechanics, who made repairs in time for second session practice. [Red Bull on Fire Video]

    By Mike Bumbeck Read More
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    2008 Land Rover LR2 HSE

    The Landies are back with a new trim level for the Freelander replacement. It's the LR2 HSE. The package includes body-color bumpers, rear spoiler, titanium door handles and 19" metal at the wheels. Never make an unstylish entrance at IKEA on snowy days again.

    By Mike Spinelli Read More
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    It's not the most exciting forum thread in the world, but there's no arguing with the spirit of it. Oh wait... [Automotive Forums]

    By Mike Spinelli Read More
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    What are the betting odds Ferrari's Felipe Massa or Kimi Raikkonen will take the fastest lap in Istanbul? Yep, there's an expert for that too. [F1 Punter]

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    Dodge M43 Ambulance

    I'm not sure what's up with this neighborhood in Alameda's East End, but the streets have quite a few military vehicles parked in front of Craftsman bungalows. In addition to this Air Force ambulance, there's the Pinzgauer, the Ford GPW Jeep, and another couple of war-wagons I haven't posted yet. Is is some sort of requirement that each block have at least one? Such are the mysteries of the Island City.

    By Murilee Martin Read More
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    Tuner Mercedes 350 CLS: The ART GTR 374

    The tuning floor at the Frankfurt auto show will be packed to the rafters with tweakage this year. There, among the Brabus and AC Schnitzers, will be upstarts like Nuremberg's ART, a firm not known for restraint. But with its latest tuning job, performed on the Mercedes 350 CLS — the GTR 374 — the company's putting on a more serious face. A DTM-style body kit over redline rims and black racing stripes gives it a more earthbound look than some of the company's other creations. Under the hood, a s

    By Mike Spinelli Read More
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    Profiles In Badge Engineering Courage: Daewoo Launches G2X

    The Saturn Sky roadster is apparently GM's two-seater for the global market (sorry, Solstice). A version has already found its way into the Opel lineup as the Opel GT. Now, GM's Korean connection Daewoo's getting its own Sky. Make that the G2X. First shown at the Seoul motor show earlier this year, the G2X will get the same 2.0-liter direct-injection turbo four (producing 265 hp) as the US Saturn Sky Red Line. The price? Millions and millions of Won.

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    GM Rolls Out Prototypes Powered By HCCI

    There's been lots of talk about homogenous charge engines boosting fuel economy, reducing hydrocarbons and making the spark plug obsolete. Now, GM says it's put such an engine in two drivable concepts, a 2007 Saturn Aura and Opel Vectra. Known as HCCI, or homogeneous charge compression ignition, the engine adds the efficiency of a diesel to a gasoline mill by igniting the fuel-air mixture through compression, not a spark. That reduces the temperature of combustion and burns all the fuel simultan

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    BMW Z4 By A Nose

    Here's the BMW prototype roadster that caused a split among those who thought was the new Z9 (Z8 replacement) and others who swore it was the Z4. Those in the latter camp were sold by its size and scale, though some massive body panels caused those in the former camp to think the proto-Z was larger than it is. All we know is a new facial treatment keeps the kidney grille, though alterations appear to be focused around the lamp areas. The mecha-shark body style, however, looks largely the same.[W

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    Anyone who refers to himself as the Grand Poobah of Luxemburg and is also one of our Flickr contacts deserves a huzzah. It appears he is governing his tiny European country from UK dragstrips and car shows. [ The Grand Poobah of Luxemburg via Jalopnik Flickr contacts]

    By Mike Bumbeck Read More
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    JD Power says the combined Asia Pacific car market will surpass Europe's in 2009. Carmakers should start dressing to the right, just for practice. [Press2Go]

    By Mike Spinelli Read More
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    A motorcyclist who shot past a school crosswalk at 160 mph has been sentenced to three years in prison. He's a former racer with a rap sheet for recklessness who says he was late for work. Yeah, that old line. [NBC]

    By Mike Spinelli Read More
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    Jac the knife and Chairman Dover square off over the purchase of Jaguar. Scarlet billows are bound to spread. [Telegraph (UK)]

    By Mike Spinelli Read More
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    Hey Auto Journalists, NHTSA Administrator Nicole Nason Is Waiting To Take YOUR Call!

    The NYT Wheels Blog tipped us off to a little issue with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). It seems that NHTSA Administrator Nicole Nason, a Bush appointee who's taken a page out of the Cheney book of governmental transparency, has forbid the staff at the US Government's agency for safety in all forms of transportation from talking on the record to reporters. That means if a reporter's calling to ask a specific technical question about an issue as mundane as the LAT

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    1977 Plymouth Volaré

    Much as we car freaks might wish to pretend the Malaise Era never happened, we must face the reality that smog motors and rattletastic build quality were the hallmarks of Detroit products for quite a while. This '77 Volaré, spotted just down the street from the Ketchup und Mustard Transporter, is here to remind us of that reality.

    By Murilee Martin Read More
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    Opel To Show Mild Hybrid Corsa In Frankfurt

    Opel says it's plotting to show a hybrid version of its Corsa subcompact at the Frankfurt show, defying all those clean diesels who think so highly of themselves. The company says the comabination of a 1.3-liter gas engine and part-time electric motor add up to 62 miles per gallon US. That while spewing a mere 99 grams of C02 per kilometer. The concept Corsa also has such de rigeur hybrid features as stop-start. No word on whether the VW Polo BlueMotion has told all its friends the Corsa puts er

    By Mike Spinelli Read More
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    GM Source: 60,000 Chevy Volt Electric Cars To Be Built In First Year...Whenever That Is

    Bloomberg's Jeff Green is reporting that a super-secret source at the General is claiming that they could build up to 60,000 Chevy Volt electric cars in their inaugural year of production — which GM product czar "Maximum" Bob Lutz is hoping will be 2010. It's partly because they believe the demand's going to be there and it's partly in order to drop the price on the plug-in electric sled to under $30,000 per unit. To put the number of units in perspective, that's twice the number of Prius hybr

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    Project Car Hell: Turbo Corvaired Bus Or Cosworth + GT Vegas?

    In our last Project Car Hell, the Mazda Rotary Pickup stomped the RX-4 Wagon by a huge three-to-one margin, no doubt because we're all suckers for unfixable little trucks with a huge ROTARY POWERED sign on the tailgate. But forget all about Rotary Hell, because now we've got a couple- actually a trio- of real gems for your eternal wrenching enjoyment...

    By Murilee Martin Read More
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    With GM pulling out of Olympic sponsorship, Keith Naughton thinks Toyota can go...all...the...way...to the gold. [Newsweek]

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    Chrysler And Daimler Partner On Hard Und Strong Steel

    No aluminum anywhere in sight, but the two former partners making up the German-American hybrid look to be playing nicely together on the shteel side of the combo. The jilted lover and their big German ex announced today a success coming from a tag-team with the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI). The threesome have developed a new Computer-Aided Engineering modeling thingie that'll help them create the next generation of rock-hard steel. Hmm, rock-hard steel, a new "thingie" and playing

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    Sweet Pete Claims A Mid-Engined Corvette "Looks To Be A Certainty" For 2010

    This ain't the first time Sweet Pete's tossed this one out there — but this time he's claiming he's got himself an exclusive — he's claiming the General's made a "monumental philosophical shift" on building a mid-engined Corvette for the "C7," or next-generation Corvette. Here's what Sweet Pete's got to say (before it disappears, like all content, off his site forever next Wednesday):

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    Backup cameras kinda suck. [Yahoo! Tech]

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    1977 Toyota Celica GT

    We've seen a few of Alameda's surviving street-driven imports in this series, but only one Toyota so far (and that was a Land Cruiser, not a car). That means it's a Toyota Down on the Street day!

    By Murilee Martin Read More
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    British Tycoon Abandons $150K Maserati In London Car Pound After Racking Up Almost $10K In Fines

    Bertrand Des Pallieres, millionaire UK businessman and manager of the SPQR hedge fund, racked up 65 congestion charge penalties and dozens of parking fines on his limited edition £80,000 ($158,600) Maserati GranSport without tax. His car was towed away from a square in Knightsbridge, West London, in late May and taken to a pound by a London towing company in a bid to get him pay up. But the 39-year-old chap failed for three months to get down to the tow lot to claim it - increasing the money h

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    It would appear that what has changed in the year since Alan Mulally took over at Ford has been both everything and nothing. [NYT]

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    The Holden 2007 VE Ute Lineup: Are You The Next El Camino?

    Holden, GM's Aussie division, unveiled today the new VE lineup of ute's — or as it's better known here in the US — the El Camino truck-car. The big news for the new VE series is it gets a performance update in addition to the minor updates to the exterior sheet-metal. The top end engine in the new Holden VE SS V gets a 6.0-liter V8 with a peak power output of almost 362 HP, and on the low end the Omega gets a 3.6-liter V6 with a horsepower rating of 241. Prices start at $30,990 and topping out

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    CaliberForums will be hosting a forum with the SRT team from "The New Chrysler" at 6PM on Wednesday. Make a guess what the topic's going to be. Perhaps it's this? [CaliberForums]

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    Dodge Announces Caliber SRT4 Pricing To Start At $22,995

    $80.64 per bhp, or $3,832.50 per second to 60, depending on how you justify the purchase. Of course, it's probably easier just to say $22,995 per car, including destination, but that's just not so much fun. Any way you look at it, the 285 HP SRT4 is a serious bargain. Full press release after the jump.

    By Wes Siler Read More
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    KTM Launches First Quads, Coming To The USA In 2008

    Best known for their race winning supermotos and the stunning X-Bow, KTM are launching their first Quad bikes. The 450 XC and XC feature the same powerful single cylinder engines as the Austrian company's dirt bikes, which should make them an equally wild ride. The full press release follows the jump. KTM

    By Wes Siler Read More
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    Q: Hey man, you remember where we stashed that 14 pounds of weed? A: Weed? [Autoblog]

    By Mike Spinelli Read More
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    Honda S2000 CR

    In a late-cycle act of refreshance, Honda's introduced the production-model S2000 CR, a lighter-weight version of its roadster, first revealed at the New York auto show earlier this year. The company's tweaked the base model to cut bulk by a net of 99 pounds. Losses of 141 pounds come by way of losing the power top (in favor of an aluminum hardtop for inclement-weather days), stripping out sound insulation and deleting the air conditioning and audio systems, while 42 pounds accrue by way of heav

    By Mike Spinelli Read More
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    Let's Do The Time Warp Again: The DeLorean Will Be Back In 2008!

    Follow the fun at our Woodward Dream Cruise tag for all of our coverage of the 2008 Woodward Dream Cruise, the largest one-day automotive event in the world!That's the official word from the folks at DeLorean Motor Company anyway. We sat down with James Espey, veep of the DeLorean Motor Company, one of a large corporate contingent in Detroit on Saturday for the Woodward Dream Cruise. They were there to cater to the large number of DeLorean enthusiasts in town to cruise their classic flux-capac

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    2008 Honda Accord Sedan - In Detail

    Late last night, the embargo doors on the 2008 Honda Accord were blown open and we gave you a first-look and first-dump of all the pictures and press info we had of the new-for-2008 model of the Accord. Now it's time to dig a bit deeper and take a look at both the sedan and the coupe in a bit more detail — and we're starting with the four-door. The Honda Accord sedan's become all grown-up over the years — but we don't mean in terms of build quality and dependability. The Accord long ago moved

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    1969 MG MGC-GT

    I was out for a walk in the East End and came across this car on Versailles street (note: Alamedans pronounce this street's name "Ver-SAILS" and will jump down your throat if you call it "Ver-SIGH"). From a couple blocks away, I thought it might be a Jaguar E-Type, given the shiny black paint and wire wheels. Then I thought it was an MGB-GT, and it was only when I saw the strange hood bulges that I realized I was dealing with the much rarer MGC-GT.

    By Murilee Martin Read More
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    Lamborghini admits an ultra-expensive model inspired by the F-22A Raptor jet will be at the Frankfurt show this September. No word on Nadine Gerhardt, though. [AutoWeek]

    By Mike Spinelli Read More
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    2008 Honda Accord Revealed!

    Thanks to the folks at Edmunds for some slick embargo breakage earlier, we've now got the Inside Line on the 2008 Honda Accord in the coupe and sedan variants — with both the 4-cylinder and V6 engines under the newly sculpted bonnet. Here's the photos we've got — and the data and specs on all variations of the next Honda Accord are below the jump. We'll have specific information up and more photos on each variant tomorrow — but for tonight, here's what we've got — just as we've got it.

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    Project Car Hell: Rotary Dilemma!

    Stop the presses! Last Friday's Project Car Hell entries are locked in a seemingly unbreakable tie! At the time of this writing, the Volare "Road Runner" and the Ventura "GTO" each have 150 votes, possibly indicating that a big engine is just as cool as a 4-speed when you're dealing with a Malaise Era pseudo-musclecar. Or something. In any case, let's move on to a pair of vehicles that remain untainted by unfair comparisons to a Golden Age...

    By Murilee Martin Read More
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    The Ultimate Car Accessory: The Faux Stick-On Sunroof

    Dying for the status a car sunroof will bring, but lacking the financial liquidity to have one professionally installed? Worry not friend, for the good folks at eBay have the solution for you. The road to sunroof ownership is fraught with risks; leaks, rust and diminished security are only a few of the pitfalls possible when cutting a large hole in the roof of your ride. With the Decano Self Adhesive Sunroof the only risk you'll take is with the throngs of women that will doubtless be drawn to

    By Wes Siler Read More
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    The Prowlers Of The Woodward Dream Cruise

    The Chrysler folks had a tenth anniversary party for their Prowler retro-rod this week to coincide with the Woodward Dream Cruise, and so there were a great many of them on Woodward Avenue for the cruise. While we're unsure if new CEO of "The New Chrysler," Bob Nardelli made it out to the main drag for the cruise, we know from the picture above he at least made it to the tenth anniversary celebration. Here's our quick gallery of a few Prowlers we caught prowlin' about Metro Detroit on Saturday

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    Production Line Built From Legos Builds Lego Cars

    When I was a kid, my favorite toys were Legos. Many a rainy day was spent building planes and spaceships, supercars and battleships, medieval castles and futuristic moon bases. But I never made anything like this. Constructed using Lego's Mindstorm Robots, this is an autonomous production line capable of building Lego cars. It can even select the color of the blocks used. Consider my little Lego geek mind blown.

    By Wes Siler Read More
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    That Sound You Heard Was The American Car Magazine Business Downshifting: 0-60 Debuts

    Brian Scotto is freakishly tall, at least to my average-minus eye height. He's also a freakishly nice guy, which in the magazine business is like finding a Tahitian pearl in a plate of McCormick and Schmick's oysters. That's why, when I heard Scotto was working on a new car magazine - not just a car magazine, my dream car magazine - I gulped hard and prepared for the day I'd have to look through it with the jaundiced eye of a media critic. I winced at the thought of deconstructing 0-60's flight

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    The Trucks And SUV's Of The Woodward Dream Cruise

    We've got so much car-love on film from Saturday's Woodward Dream Cruise it's going to be hard for us to get it all up. But let's muster on anyway, and start off with the trucks and SUV's spotted along Woodward Avenue by the Jalopnik team and our helpful and quick-to-the-shot readers. From old school trucks by Chevy and Ford to new school SUV's with some fun custom work and big ol' tires — here's the best of what was around. Keep our Woodward Dream Cruise tag refreshed throughout today as we g

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    Ford Escort MK1 Concept

    One of the most well loved performance cars in Europe, the Ford Escort never caught on stateside. Now, an Automotive Design graduate from Coventry University is trying to change that. Rajesh Kutty's Ford Escort MK1 concept brings modern retro design to the classic coke-bottle shape. The 1967 original featured downsized design cues from American muscle cars, throwing a few original ideas into the mix. The Mk1's dog bone grill is carried over, but hides behind driving lights inspired by the Escort

    By Wes Siler Read More
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    High-Mileage Volvo C30 To Debut In Frankfurt

    Volvo says it's showing a special-edition Volvo C30 in Frankfurt that offers a few energy-efficiency tweaks, giving it an estimated 52 miles per gallon. It's powered by a 1.6-liter turbodiesel and fitted with a new autobox that reduces torque loss during upshifts, which Volvo says boosts efficiency by eight percent. It's called Powershift, and it's the equivalent of two manual gearboxes controlled by separate clutches. Along with VW's BlueMotion and Mercedes's Bluetec, the model furthers the ide

    By Mike Spinelli Read More
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    Eleven extras were injured when they fell out of a truck during filming of Valkyrie, a new movie starring Tom Cruise. [Freep]

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    In case you didn't know — Jean Jennings is coming back to edit Automobile. And although we appreciate the reminder e-mails to run something on it — seven e-mail reminders since last Tuesday borders on the scary.

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    1964 Oldsmobile Jetstar 88

    Heading down to the decaying industrial stretch of Estuary waterfront near the 23rd Avenue Bridge, I spied this grizzled Olds awaiting its next boat-towing job. A 43-year-old beater that still gets used to do actual work is a thing of beauty in my eyes, particularly if the decades haven't dimmed the light of its amazing mid-60s style.

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    Danny Howes comes back to the Detroit News from his vacation and treats the economic proposals traditionally made during the first week of collective bargaining talks as his own private exclusive. He may not have noticed the reason the "media blackout" on UAW contract talks has been so "disciplined" this year is because there's been — you know — some other stuff to talk about while he's been gone fishin'. [Detroit News]

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    Identify This Mystery Car, Now With Super Prize Potential!

    We've done a couple of Ennui Countermeasure contests, including the Mystery Mercury and Dastardly Datsun, but now things have changed. Now we've managed to convince the all-powerful Gawker Overlords to spring for an actual prize for the car-obsessed freakola automotive expert who identifies the car in the photograph above...

    By Murilee Martin Read More
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    We think it's strange Detroit's not yet included in the Woodward Dream Cruise. Although unlike Mike Bernacchi at U of D Mercy, we don't think it's "criminal." Possibly tinged with a wee bit of racism, sure — but certainly not criminal. [Detroit News]

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    Citroen C5 Airscape Concept

    What might a Citroën C5 look like as a diesel hybrid with a hardtop cabrio roof? That fictional animal is reflected the C5 Airscape concept, PSA's entry in the Frankfurt auto show style sweepstakes. The concept moves the C5 upscale, with swank appointments from the Citroën design HQ, along with a showcase diesel-electric powertrain dubbed UrbanHybrid. It also hearkens the newly redesigned C5, slated to get a longer wheelbase and more upscale position. We'll see if that arrives in Frankfurt as we

    By Mike Spinelli Read More
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    "Mormon Meteor" Duesenberg SJ Special Takes Pebble Beach Best In Show

    It set a 24-hour speed record in 1935, hitting 135.58 miles per hour. Sixty-nine years later, The Duesenberg SJ Special "Mormon Meteor" sold for $4.45 million at a Pebble Beach Auction held by Gooding and Company. Now owned by Harry Yeaggy of Cincinnati, it's won the approval of the seersucker'd set at Pebble, taking this year's Best in Show award. The SJ Special isn't the average Duesenberg, any of which are far from the bell curve's center. The supercharged stock engine had been replaced by A

    By Mike Spinelli Read More
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    It's a Jalopnik Super Summer Weekend! Choose your own adventure for live action from the Woodward Dream Cruise or the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance!

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    We're not wearing enough seersucker.

    By Davey G. Johnson Read More
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    Freep takes to the skies in the Goodyear blimp to cover the Dream Cruise...and...forgets to take a camera? [Freep]

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    Only in Detroit would a kid have a Goodyear tire as a "security blankie." And only at the Woodward Dream Cruise would said kid feel comfortable enough to walk around with it. Isn't it adorable? We thought so anyway.

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    Now that's a VW bus we'd totally play with!

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    And — we're now past 14 Mile and we're in Birmingham — home to the Townsend Hotel, the most expensive hotel in the Metro Detroit area. Coincidentally, it's also where Autoblog's John Neff is staying tonight. Must be nice to be on that AOL dime, eh? We kid the bloggers of all things Autos.

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    Yes, even the Aussies can play at the Woodward Dream Cruise — like these hoons in a Holden. At least we think they're hoons. I mean, they are in a Holden.

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    It's called the Pro Street bar stool cruiser, and yes, we want one. Very, very, very badly.

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    I Just passed 13 Mile — only two miles left to go!

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    Big Bux To Be Made On Google Street View With Infiniti EX35

    This morning on the 18th fairway at Pebble Beach, Infiniti debuted the production version of their their third SUV model, the EX35, following in the footsteps of the FX-series and the Bismarck QX. While one might think the RWD-or-AWD EX is a derivative of the Murano, it's actually built on a trucked-up version of Nissan's FM platform. Probably the trickest piece of equipment, besides the headreast-mounted coathanger — is the Around View Monitor System, known in abbreviated parlance as AVM. It of

    By Davey G. Johnson Read More
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    This quicklink is sponsored by Chicken Shack at 30402 Woodward Ave. That's right, Chicken Shack — it's not finger-lickin' good, it's better — or something like that.

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    This here '57 Chevy corpse-hauler gets the award for the best license plate we've seen so far on Woodward Avenue. And hey, it's "super clean."

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    I passed 12 Mile Road a short while ago, and it's starting to get slammed on Woodward Avenue — add that to the heat, and I'm starting to feel a bit peaked. Be that as it may, I've got many three more miles to go — and many more classic cars to capture for your enjoyment.

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    I've just passed Catalpa. The Autoblog guys are at the Ford dealership just South of the intersection with some new-fangled video device. And by new-fangled, I really mean not at all. Only like 3 1/2 miles to go. Nothing really happens in Bloomfield Hills anyway.

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    I know you always want to get a curbside seat on Woodward Avenue — but come on, did ya really need to like, sleep there and stuff?

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    Good Morning, Detroit! It's Woodward Dream Cruise Time!

    Well, we've already done our obligatory one-lap cruise up Detroit's fabled and historic main drag this morning and we fear it may be the last time today we'll be driving on Woodward Avenue due to the classic car congestion. But fear not, fans of the massive metal boats, we'll be covering it for you on foot, EV-DO card in hand — cataloging the sites and sounds of the 2007 Woodward Dream Cruise as we live-blog up n' down Woodward starting from down here in scenic Royal Oak. On top of the live-bl

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    Project Car Hell: Volare Road Runner Or Ventura GTO?

    In a shocking upset, the Short Bus soundly trounced the Pink Pig in yesterday's Choose Your Eternity poll, no doubt because it's equipped with a V8 and a 4-speed. Today we're going to see what happens when we pit a couple of Malaise Era post-musclecars against each other...

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    "Maximum" Bob Lutz Throws Down On The PT Cruiser!

    At last night's Chevy HHR SS reveal, the main product man for the General presented with open hands a red bomb of turbocharged power onto the assembled media. But then, as you can see from the above video, he pulled that hand back and gave a backhanded slap to the boys in Auburn Hills for the Chrysler PT Cruiser variant edition released earlier in the week. "Maximum" Bob made it clear the HHR SS was "not a special edition with a sunset bronze paint job — this is the real deal." We're now hearin

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    Are You A Project Car Hell Poster Child?

    The reader response to our Project Car Hell series has been strong, with several of you writing in to describe your own personal eternal vehicular damnations. BrendanSF, however, stands out for the sheer hopeless beauty of his stable of Australian machinery...

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    Aston Martin DBS Details, Cinematic Photo Spread

    Someone at Aston Martin thinks they're Peter Jackson. The company has gone all out for the press launch of its new DBS luxo-sportster, staging it in dramatic settings with dangerous-looking women and shifty eyed timepieces. The car's being featured at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance this week, where the newly independent Aston is coming out as a featured marque. The DBS, the company says, bridges the chasm between the DB9 and DBR9 track car, employing a juiced version of the DB9's V12 produ

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    The Citroen C-Airscape cabrio concept emerged today on French web site Autonews. More to come as the bottle of 1999 Chateau Y'quem empties. [Autonews.fr]

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    2008 Chevy HHR SS In Black Gives Us A "Show", But Can The Car Also "Go"?

    One of us likes his cars black, the same way he likes his coffee. But the black Chevy HHR SS we spotted at the HHR SS reveal yesterday and that we've got pictured up above and in the gallery below — may have some "Go" to go along with the "Show." You see, this particular tester is the actual prototype HHR SS the GM engineers took around the Nurburgring with a lap time of 8:43.52 minutes. The engineering team's even commemorated the run by dropping an adorable little red 'ring graphic on to the

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    Chrysler Design Boss: Building The Dodge Demon "Foremost In My Mind"

    Chrysler's design capo Trevor Creed says the time is right for the new, private-equity-owned Chrysler to build the Demon roadster. If you'll recall, the Demon debuted at the Geneva auto show earlier this year to rave reviews from the European and American motoring establishment. But some wonder if the s-m-all roadster market warrants spending cash on producing a two-seater, especially as some worry Cerberus is less interested in the long-term health of the Chrysler and Dodge brands than they are

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    See, when we saw the name of this guy's blog we thought maybe it was about what people would be wearing at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance. Sadly, we were kinda off. [A Suitable Wardrobe]

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    Steve McQueen 1963 Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta Lusso Sells For $2.3 Million At Christie's Monterey Auction

    The man known most for piloting a Mustang just had his old 1963 Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta auctioned off last night at the Christie's auction last night at the Monterey Jet Center, one of the many events that make up the hoopla surrounding this weekend's Pebble Beach Concours. The Ferrari, expected to go for somewhere in the neighborhood of $800,000 to $1.2 million ended up fetching $2.31 million. Although in no means is this a record of any sort (unless you count it as a record for a 1963 Fe

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    1945 Ford GPW Jeep

    Alameda has plenty of tiny side streets, and it's pretty hard to check them all for potential DOTS cars. However, I spotted what appeared to be an early-50s VW Transporter down one such street, and though the VW turned out to be a garden-variety mid-60s specimen, I found this crusty old soldier parked next door.

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    If you're looking for our 2007 Woodward Dream Cruise coverage — head on over here.

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    The General's looking for your thoughts on a "blog strategy" — anyone have any ideas for the folks in the Detroit phallic tower o' power that is the RenCen? [GM Fastlane Blog]

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    2008 Infiniti M45 Revealed, V8 To Get All Wheel Drive System

    Infiniti released details and artwork regarding its 2008 M45 sedan, and new M45x, which will get the company's all-wheel drive system. The system, known as ATTESA E-TS (advanced total traction engineering system for all electronic torque split — gesundheit) can adjust front/rear torque distribution from 50/50 to 0/100. It's the first time the company's offered the system on the top-line model. What's entirely new is Infiniti's lane departure warning system, hard drive navigation with 9.3-gig mus

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    So Bob Nardelli makes his first public appearance in a car his company no longer makes from a brand that no longer exists. Sure, works for us. [Freep]

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    Project Car Hell: Pink Pig Or Short Bus?

    Our two contestants yesterday were pretty evenly matched, with the Turbo 2002 beating the KA24DE 510 by a nose. Today, it's time to really explore true project lunacy, with a couple of vehicles that would be sure to make your neighbors recoil in horror if they were to see either one being dragged into your driveway (trailing a shower of sparks and rusty parts). Vehicles that, in spite of their ungodly awfulness, have potential to be incredibly fun customized hoonwagons.

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    Angelina Jolie filming an action scene atop the hood of a Dodge Viper, double fisting automatic weapons? We also hear her Wanted co-star is a talking ICBM named Dick Johnson. [Popsugar]

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    2008 Lexus SC 430 Pebble Beach Edition

    Ladies who lunch, start your mixed green salads. It's the 2008 Lexus SC 430 Pebble Beach Edition, and it's coming soon to a tennis club in Orange County, California. Considering this is the time of year when car enthusiasts' thoughts turn to all things snooty and julip-soaked, Lexus again will give its aging SC a good tricking out. And as usual, they're whipping out the upmarket-sounding phrase book. Check out the Smoky Granite Mica exterior paint, and the exclusive two-tone Camel and Ecru leath

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    Live From The Woodward Dream Cruise, It's The Chevy HHR SS Reveal!

    After all the hoopla, we're now done with our coverage of the Chevy HHR SS. We've just seen "Maximum" Bob Lutz drive the 2008 Chevrolet HHR SS into the parking lot here at the Athens Coney Island on Woodward Avenue in lovely Birmingham, MI and we now feel we can die complete. OK, that's a lie. Really, it was kind of a let-down. No fireworks, no explosions of flame. It was actually all rather pedestrian. Other than some quick words from Chevy chief Ed Peper and Bob Lutz making the worst joke ev

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    Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy! We're Off To The Monterey Historics!

    This afternoon the two Los Angeleno Jalops who are not the Loverman will hop in a mysical Korean bucket to be magically transported to the Monterey Peninsula for three glorious days of what can only be called The Greatest Spectacle in Auto Enthusiasm. Seriously, the events surrounding the Concours d'Elegance are that face-melting. But the greatest one of all has to be the Monterey Historics. While Pebble's got the pageantry and the "Oh my freaking bloody hell, I had no idea that this even existe

    By Davey G. Johnson Read More
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    The Freep wants you to test out your "Car IQ" to win Tigers tickets. Go ahead and see how well you can do. [Freep]

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    The knight has lost his armor. I repeat, the knight has lost his armor [VOD Cars]

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    Ford Goes Over 200 Mph In Fuel Cell Fusion, Sets Speed Record Of One

    Ford's surpassed the double-century mark, and joined the Bonneville 200-mph club, in its Hydrogen 999 fuel-cell-powered Ford Fusion. It's an industry first, considering other automakers' hydrogen fuel-cell projects have eschewed speed accrual for the message of environmental correctness. Why not do both, Ford says with the 999 project, which we're just fine with us old salts. The car was worked up with The Ohio State University Center for Automotive Research, Ballard Power Systems and Roush Raci

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    Woodward Dream Cruise: you either love it or you hate it. What's your take and why? [Detroit News]

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    1955 Plymouth Savoy

    We've seen 61 of Alameda's street-parked cars so far in this series, but only seven have been from the 1950s. Since I have a fair number of Alameda cars from that decade already photographed, it's time to break one out. This '55 Plymouth lives in the East End, a block or so from the '72 El Camino we saw earlier in the month, and I'd been meaning to shoot some photos of it for quite some time.

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    Oldest Rabbit Diesel Found In California

    Volkswagen has located the oldest living Volkswagen diesel. No surprise it was found in California, near Bakersfield, where it wasn't forced to undergo the perfect storm of corrosive forces: road salt, humidity and Amherst students on a mescaline binge. The winning model is from the Rabbit's first model year in the US, 1977. It sports a 1.5-liter oil burner producing an achingly low 50 horsepower, though its curb weight was around that of a new Touareg's spare tire. The car's owner gets the use

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    2008 Chevrolet HHR SS: 260 HP Of Turbocharged Retro-Ness

    There's a new member of the SS family hitting the streets of Detroit tonight in honor of the Woodward Dream Cruise — it's the new 2008 Chevrolet HHR SS. The new all-capital letter retro-truckagan gets a 2.0-liter turbocharged and intercooled Ecotec engine under the hood. That engine hits 260 horses on the top end, but that's not the limit to upgrades from Chevy. The SS edition will also get a "Nürburgring-tuned FE5 sport suspension" to keep those tires as best to the road as the front wheel

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    Project Car Hell: KA24DE 510 Or Turbo 2002?

    After the decrepit Crosley wagon just barely edged out the parts-nightmare DAF in yesterday's Choose Your Eternity poll, we figured it was time to put up a couple of projects that would give you plenty of Insane Hoonage Potential for the money (while still driving you completely berserk with frustration and sucking flurries of Benjamins out of your wallet, of course). And, inspired by today's DOTS car, we're going to let you debate the merits of the combatants in the never-ending BMW 2002-Datsun

    By Murilee Martin Read More
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    Jalopnik Drives Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid

    We recently got a chance behind the wheel of a road-test model 2008 Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid. We can now confirm that yes, it is still an SUV as well as being a hybrid. At the heart of the Chevrolet's two-mode hybrid system, developed with BMW and the erstwhile DaimlerChrysler, is a transmission that brings together the planetary and fixed gears of an autobox with dual electric motors. That same transmission joins forces with a V8 engine to retain the part of SUV folks like, with the added bonus o

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    Chrysler CEO Bob Nardelli said ready to name Lexus Marketing VP Deborah Meyer as its first CMO. [AdAge]

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    Ferrari Dino...Mule Or 599?

    We just got the following missive and photos from Brenda Priddy, who's claiming this here taped-up Ferrari is none other than the alleged mini-stallion, the Dino. Here's what Brenda's telling us:

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    More shots of the 2008 BMW M3 for your right-hand pleasure. Right hand drive, that is.

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    Ford experiencing "Pindemonium?" [Freep]

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    BMW 2002tii

    After being a year off on yesterday's DOTS car, I'm not going out on a limb with this BMW; I think it's a '73, but those damn Huns didn't change the tii's design much, it's not in the state's smog history database, and I'm too damn lazy to walk four blocks and look at the dashboard VIN plate (if it even has one). So, BMW fanatics, here's your chance to kick your Bayerische Motoren Werke kuh-nowledge by telling us all the year of this Alameda East End Beemer.

    By Murilee Martin Read More
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    The Big Three automakers are staging anti-CAFE rallies in the midwest. No teargas, please. [Detroit News]

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    Project Car Hell: DAF Or Crosley?

    Congratulations to the winnah of yesterday's Project Car Hell poll: the Thousand Buck 928! The Porsche won by a fairly comfortable margin, no doubt due to its irresistible mix of inherent Stuttgart coolness and certain death-of-a-thousand-cuts agony for anyone attempting to take it on. For today, we've gone a bit older and raised the ante by a grand or so...

    By Murilee Martin Read More
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    Edmunds Gaming Google On Chevrolet Traverse CUV?

    Google's a mysterious thing in the auto webiverse. If you've got a good story it doesn't necessarily mean you'll end up on top of the search giant's search pages. Sometimes it's so important to get ahead of the rest of the pack, you'll do some very strange things. Like for instance Edmunds. Edmunds is totally the 800-pound gorilla of the consumer internet space. And this 800-pound gorilla is all about getting information on new cars into consumers hands. Apparently that extends to vehicles the

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    2008 Mini Cooper convertible pricing leaks out into the public. The standard convertible will come in at $22,600, and the new S-edition will tally in at $26,050 (including destination). [Motoring File]

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    2009 Chevrolet Traverse

    The 2009 Chevrolet Traverse, expected to debut at the 2008 Detroit Auto Show and arrive in showrooms near the end of 2008, has been somewhat of a wily prey for spy photographers...until now. A member of the Priddy car portrait-takers snagged these shots of the new upcoming Lambda-platformed SUV as it was being tested on of all places, the Las Vegas Strip. The Spring Hill, Tennessee-built Traverse will replace the Uplander minivan and the big Trailblazer SUV — so, you know, Chevy's got a lot

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    Talbot-Lago T150C SS Figoni Et Falaschi Raindrop/Teardrop Coupe

    In our line of work, you see a lot of hot metal. Auto shows, concourses, historics, track days, car clubs — you name it. All filled to the brim with the sort of rides that make men pant. But never mind the job, just living in California gives you a front row seat to some of the world's most stunning cars. During a half hour phone call with the Postfather last week I saw a bright yellow Porsche GT and a black-on-black Rolls-Royce Phantom. Later that day, on the same street (Montana) in Santa Moni

    By Jonny Lieberman Read More
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    What happens when you combine rock crawling with drag racing? We've always wanted to know. Now that we know — we want to try. [AutoWeek]

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    Audi Is The iPhone Of Cars? Or Is iPhone The Audi Of Gadgets?

    We're not sure which of those, if either, is true. But although we've got to admit we're impressed with some of the new technical features the brand all about precision has added to their vehicles as of late — we're not so sure they're able to proclaim all of their vehicles as being equals with the iPhone. Mostly because the Apple commercials are so much better. We mean, can you really see an ad that starts out with "Hi, I'm an Audi?" But whatever the real basis may be for their reasoning, one

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    1965 Pontiac Bonneville, With Bonus Evil DOTS Car Poll

    Without beat-ta-hell 60s cars still dragging their rusty mufflers down our streets, we'd get our impression of such cars entirely from the gleaming, coddled examples at car shows... and that would be a tragedy! This especially menacing Bonneville parks right by Alameda High, on the next block over from the equally menacing '69 Continental.

    By Murilee Martin Read More
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    Porsche Design To Show Special-Edition Cayman In Frankfurt

    How better to promote the design wing of your carbuilding concern but with a special edition version of one of your cars? It's simple enough for Porsche Design, which is working up its parent's Cayman S for a limited run of 777 cars that show off its product design skills. It's the Cayman S Porsche Design Edition 1. The mechanicals are stock, but the exterior combines matte and glossy finishes (see stripes) and its interior has more leather and Alcantara than a Portuguese nightclub. But wait! Th

    By Mike Spinelli Read More
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    Chrysler To Reveal 2008 PT Cruiser Sunset Boulevard Edition On Woodward Avenue This Morning

    There's a new owner at the Chrysler Group, but the gameplan's the same for their celebration of the Woodward Dream Cruise — the reveal of another Chrylser PT Cruiser special edition. This new version of the 2008 PT Cruiser, dubbed the "Sunset Boulevard Edition," represents the eleventh factory-customized limited-edition of the little retro rod, and the Chrylser Group says it's designed to bring "bling to the Boulevard." Or at least to Woodward Avenue we guess. We've no pictures of it yet, but

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    2009 Ford Fusion And 2009 Ford Fusion Hybrid Mule

    The grille above may look like an ordinary Ford Fusion, but don't let appearances deceive you. We're told by our main spy man Chris Doane of the Priddy photographer pride that it's actually a prototype mule for the 2009 Ford Fusion Hybrid. The '09 electric sled from Ford will likely be powered by a 2.5-liter I4 HEV - similar to that of the Escape's setup and as we told you back in May, we're expecting to see a reveal at the LA Auto Show. But before this comes out for the 2009 model year, we'

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    Mini To Reveal JCW Challenge Edition In Frankfurt

    A Mini Cooper S built only for the track? Yes, please. And make it a double. Mini says it's rolling out a new Challenge edition of the Cooper S that offers higher top speed, increased torque, faster acceleration and better traction in exchange for DOT approval. Right, it's track-only. It's got the John Cooper Works tuning hardware, natch. The suspension offers adjustable dampers from KW Automotive, 17" Borbet wheels and Dunlop racing tires. It's tuned for the single-make Mini Challenge owner's s

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    Car gratification during the Woodward Dream Cruise is all about...isolating your car all winter? Who knew? [Detroit News]

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    We'll post on the $400,000 Lamborghini Murciélago some guy crashed in Florida. Hold your calls. [Local6.com]

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    Limited! Edition! 2008 Range Rover Sport LE!

    For those who want their supercharged SUV with a few tablespoons more luuuuuxury, Range Rover says peep the LE. Only 250 of the tweaked models will make the rounds, each with "flush-fitting front and rear bumpers," an extended rear roof spoiler, body-colored lower side panels, a new rear exhaust treatment, tread strips and 20-inch Stormer wheels. Inside, there's a cold climate option, adaptive front lighting, premium leather, hand-polished oak wooden trim and a center console cooler box. Carpet

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    The guy who made the piston seem passé, at least for a little while, is a posthumous 105 today. In his honor, brick a 1980 RX-7's accelerator and take bets on how long until the rotary melts down. [Wikipedia]

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    Volkswagen To Present Golf BlueMotion, Five Other Diesels In Frankfurt

    Volkswagen's cleaner diesels are bubbling up from the company's nether development regions, with six of them set to debut at the Frankfurt show in September. V-dub released details today about the BlueMotion Golf model, which the company says will get 52 mpg (US gallons). The golf is the fourth Volkswagen to get the BlueMotion badge — which indicates the TDI engine's been brushed clean by way of software and particulate filter — after the Polo, Passat and Passat Variant (wagon). No word on the U

    By Mike Spinelli Read More
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    Chevrolet Aveo To Debut In Frankfurt As Kalos Replacement

    Chevy Europe's releasing the successor to the Kalos sub-compact car at the upcoming Frankfurt Auto Show in September, and we've got an exclusive sneak peak of the all-new look. But it's not just new sheet metal, they've decided to import an American name to go along with the hot new looks. Something that evokes absolutely no thoughts of hot hatch sub-compact — Aveo. But this Aveo ain't your college freshman's B-segment. It's got a new look that seems to represent a melding of the 'merican st

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    Whatever happened to those "car guys" who used to run US automakers? [NYT]

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    1978 Chevrolet Camaro Z28

    Before you Camaro experts jump all over me and make with the lectures about how this car is really an '80 or '81, try running its license plate number through the state's Smog History website. You see? I suspect we're dealing with the ol' "take two wrecked 2nd-gen F-bodies and make one Z-28" routine here...

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    Edo Maserati MC12 Corsa

    If you've got Krugerrands enough to give King Midas a case of the wobblies, and you want a GT1 racecar to take shopping, call Edo Competition. Never one to shrink from a high-buck project, Edo created a tuner version of the Maserati MC12 Corsa. That's the $1.7 million, track-only version of Maserati's Enzo-based halo GT car built for homologation's sake, the lightweight Maserati MC12 Corsa. Edo's futzed with the suspension, exhaust and braking systems, applied a new tire and wheel package, and s

    By Mike Spinelli Read More
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    Tesla Motors Founder Martin Eberhard Out As CEO, Electric Roadster Possibly Delayed?

    Tesla Motors founder Martin Eberhard's just been "sacked." Well, sorta anyway — in as much as it's possible to "sack" the founder and CEO of your company. Also in as much as it's possible to do it in a way that has your CEO actively trying to not be in the position anymore. In a move that feels very Bill Ford-ian, the guy who provided the founding ideas for the company that's built the 'lectric Lotus has made a switch in positions from the Chief Executive Officer to Chief Technology Officer

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    Project Car Hell: Mazda Cosmo Or Three Honda 600s?

    It really wasn't fair putting a British car up against a GM A-body in yesterday's Project Car Hell matchup, because the ready availability of A-body parts gives you too many escape hatches from Hell. In any case, the Esprit blasted the Olds by winning with a Nixon-versus-McGovern-esque landslide. Today we're going to drop the price tag a bit, go with two Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere choices, and return to the Multi-Car Madness schtick, but with a twist: one car versus three!

    By Murilee Martin Read More
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    Stefan Eriksson's Passenger Arrested

    In the case of the car crash that won't die, Trevor Michael Karney was arrested by sheriffs around 9:00 am Wednesday in Marina del Ray, near Venice Beach in California. Mr Karney, as some of you surely recall, was present at the scene of the infamous Ferrari Enzo crash in Malibu, but reported to police that he was in fact a passenger in a Mercedes McLaren SLR. Not only that, but he too saw the totally fictional Dietrich flee up into the hills. Turns out that Karney IS Dietrich. Well, not exactly

    By Jonny Lieberman Read More
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    Don't go anywhere near the old Packard plant unless you're looking to be a gay pr 0n extra. [xceedspeed]

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    Replace Spark Plugs

    Along with swapping out the air filter and changing the oil, replacing the spark plugs is one of the few things left that require service on a modern gasoline engine. Some newer than the twenty-year old junk classics in our garage have negated even this task with spark plugs made of space-age materials that can live with their head stuck in a combustion chamber for 100K miles or more. The first and most obvious task of the spark plug is to light the gasoline and air mixture aflame when the pisto

    By Mike Bumbeck Read More
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    Jerry Flint wants to know where the beef is. [Forbes]

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    Wait — there's more than just the Tigers, Woodward Dream Cruise and Grand Prix going on in Detroit this summer? Who knew? [AutoWeek]

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    A major US-versus-Japan debate is raging on Metafilter in light of the latest JD Power initial quality rankings. Guess the technocrats wouldn't really rather have a Buick after all. [Metafilter]

    By Mike Spinelli Read More
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    1978 Honda Civic Hatchback

    When searching Alameda's streets for DOTS cars, I can find sufficient vintage Detroit and German cars to stretch from here to Gardena. But I need to hoard the photos of the few older Japanese cars I can find here and ration them out carefully (I've managed a Datsun 610, a 240Z, a Colt, and a Datsun 411). This is kind of a drag, because pre-1980 Japanese cars have such historical importance.

    By Murilee Martin Read More
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    Proof that what we thought was true — Chrysler officials didn't even know Robert Nardelli would be appointed. [NYT]

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    Saab "Turbo X" To Be Revealed In Frankfurt

    It's 30 years since Saab unveiled its first turbocharged model, causing young stockbrokers to rear their heads like hungry cocker spaniels at the shake of a kibble bag. Now, Saab says its planning to reveal a car that will evoke the classic "black turbo" models that followed throughout the 1980s. It's called the Turbo X, and we suspect it's an attempt to recapture some of the brand's, er, Saabness lost during the GM years. The Turbo X will be a limited-edition model the company says will intro

    By Mike Spinelli Read More
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    Suzuki To Show "Third Phase" Design Study In Frankfurt

    Suzuki says its planning to introduce its "third phase," which we presume means setting itself apart from other carmakers with unique design. It'll happen at the Frankfurt auto show, where the Suz will unveil a concept car called Kizashi. It suggests a new model expected to show up early next decade and reaching a world audience. The company's plans for world domination having come up short in the past, we expect this time they've also got some sort of secret weapon hidden in a volcano. Who will

    By Mike Spinelli Read More
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    Project Car Hell: Toasted Esprit Or Hacked 442?

    Yesterday, we saw a slight majority of you go for the Volvo Bertone as your eternal vehicular companion in the Wrenching Underworld. Thing is, though both are certainly cool, neither a 200-series Volvo nor a fairly straight Ford wagon would really punish you sufficiently to provide that "going through hell for your cool car project" feeling we strive for. To remedy that, we've got a couple of real challenges lined up...

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    Touring: Vintage Car Game From Parker Brothers

    During those long family road trips, my siblings and I would gather in the back of the '72 Chevy Beauville van and play endless rounds of card and/or board games. Sure, we weren't seatbelted (and thus might as well have been juggling buckets of fuming nitric acid and loaded .45s, as far as today's panicky child-safety fanatics are concerned), but we didn't need no goddamn entertainment center in the vehicle to keep us from driving our parents crazy, neither! Anyway, one of our very favorite road

    By Murilee Martin Read More
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    The 11 Best Contemporary Automotive Designs

    Unless you're among the art-school geeks who drop terms like "foreshortening" into cocktail conversation, automotive design is a matter of intense personal opinion. During the past decade, automakers have spent their inheritance struggling to meet consumers' demand for fresh designs. The aim has been to reconcile the past with the unknowable future to create a cohesive present. That is, a contemporary design that recalls former glories without looking like reruns, and projects toward the future

    By Jonny Lieberman Read More
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    Build Yourself A Tumbler PC, Pretend You're Batman

    We think the Batmobile Tumbler is pretty sweet as far as superhero movie cars go. True, it's no Transformers Camaro concept or Dukes of Hazzard '69 Charger — but we'd totally take one for our own garage (note to self: inclusion in Jalopnik Fantasy Garage perhaps?). Now, there's a young man with a lot of free time on his hands who's got one for his desk. It's a former Wal-Mart-bought R/C Tumbler with the innards scooped out and replaced with an AMD Sempron chip and...well we're now already out

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    GM To Show Off Transformers, Other Classic Cars Of The Stars At Woodward Dream Cruise

    If you didn't get the opportunity to get all up in Bumblebee's grille the last time the General brought the cars from the Transformers live-action movie out into the summer sun's glare — you'll get another shot live at the Woodward Dream Cruise next weekend at Athens Coney Island on Woodward Avenue. In addition to the Camaro concept car, GMC TopKick, the Pontiac Solstice and the Hummer from the movie — you'll also be able to join the General at the "Birmingham Triangle" — the junction of Woodw

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    Buick Ties Lexus Atop J.D. Power List Ranking Vehicle Dependability

    Maybe Tiger Woods was on to something with his Buick Enclave. All we know is according to J.D. Power and all of his associates, Buick's moved up the dependability chart from third place up to a dead-heat tie with the luxe brand from the super best awesome number one automaker from the land of the rising sun, Lexus. What's most surprising for those on the whole US-automakers-can't-build-quality kick is that the Vehicle Dependability Survey (VDS) is the survey that evaluates quality after three

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    Follow the "Corvette Caravan" as it goes from Orange County to Oakland County for the Woodward Dream Cruise. [Freep]

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    1974 Porsche 911 Targa, With Bonus 914 Poll

    Though we've seen an 80s Porsche and a 60s Porsche in this series, 70s Porsches had been overlooked. I'd seen a few 70s 911s driving around town, but hadn't managed to find one actually parked until I spotted this brown '74 parked near the site of the old Del Monte cannery.

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    Chrysler locking doors to prevent execs from running to other hills from the Hills of Auburn. [Detroit News]

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    Ford Offers Sync System For $395

    If you'll be buying one of the 12 vehicles in the Ford, Lincoln or Mercury brands with the option to get your music, phone and text messaging all in Sync via bluetooth, we've now found out you'll be able to get the Microsoft-Ford accessory for less than the cost of an iPhone and just a bit more expensive than a Zune. Ford just released information on pricing and the vehicles the system will be initially available in, and we've got the whole scoop below the jump. If you remember, we had the c

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    Foreign Tire Sales Inc. is recalling 255,000 Chinese-made tires imported to the United States because the tires are the gum strips that help hold steel threads in the tire together are "inadequate." [Detroit News]

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    Automaker sales look weak this year. [NYT]

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    Project Car Hell: Fairlane Wagon Or Volvo Bertone?

    We learned yesterday that two out of three Jalopnik readers surveyed would rather reign in Project Car Hell with a '62 Renault Caravelle than with a '62 Corvair Monza. Which makes perfect sense to us, but what happens when we jack up the admission cost just a touch and make you choose between a chopped Göteborg sedan and a vintage Dearborn family hauler?

    By Murilee Martin Read More
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    Jobs Wanted Mac To Look "Like A Porsche"

    "It's got to be different, different from everything else." Steve Jobs wanted the first Macintosh to revolutionize personal computing, an idea that had to be backed up by its looks. But could he have used his Porsche 928 for inspiration? According to an account on Folklore.org, a site devoted to telling the story of the original Mac's development, Jobs sparred with his designer, who wanted their product to resemble a Ferrari.

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    Toyota says people hate shopping for cars. [Detroit News]

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    Ralph Nader: Devil Or Angel?

    Philosophy Week marches on... This isn't Wonkette, so we won't be discussing Florida circa 2000, OK? We will be discussing what Ralph Nader did in 1965: publish a book called Unsafe At Any Speed. Far too many people think of Nader's polemic as "the book about the Corvair." Truth is, only one of the eight chapters was about the butt-engined Chevy. The larger theme of the book was that automakers routinely chose profit over safety and constantly fought against items such as seatbelts, padded dashb

    By Jonny Lieberman Read More
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    Hyundai Announces 2009 Elantra "Touring" Five Door Hatch, Releases Sketch In Traverse City

    Looks like the product news today out of the Management Briefing Seminars up in Traverse City comes to us today from the Korean automaker, Hyundai. Hyundai's John Krafcik, their North 'merican Veep of Product Development announced Hyundai's all-new five-door compact will be named the "Elantra Touring." Hyundai didn't just give us a name and a sketch drawing. Nope, they've also let us know (via the press release below the jump) the Elantra Touring will be powered by the same 2.0-liter, in-line

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    Wait — what is this new html coding code the New York Times Wheels Blog has finded found? It's like they're a real live blog! Now if only they could have used it on like every post article ever written by Jayson Blair. [New York Times Wheels Blog]

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    Deal Of The Week: 2007 Lincoln Town Car

    Stop snickering. You know you want one, or maybe you don't. Either way, the 2007 Lincoln Town Car could be an ironist's wet dream (don't bother asking Alanis Morissette what that is). It's the kind of car in which you can both cruise to the Hamptons and sell cured sausages door to door. You can strap a surfboard to the roof and look like you've just come from a Citibank commercial, or pull up to out-of-towners at the airport and make a few bucks on the side. Until October 1, Lincoln's offering a

    By Mike Spinelli Read More
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    GM won't be renewing their "separate-but-linked" Olympic sponsorship deal with NBC and the U.S. Olympic Team once the current deal ends after the Beijing Olympiad next year. Well, maybe they figure since they won't be building any cars in the UK — the site of the 2012 games — they don't need to drop the dimes on a deal. Of course, maybe it's just really expensive. [Advertising Age]

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    2010 Porsche Panamera...Again

    It isn't just the Spanish spotting Porsche Panamera test vehicles on the road. In addition to the video from earlier this morning, our Soo-th Ahf-rikhen friends at Wheels24 procured some shots of the winged wonder down in Johannesburg, South Africa. Why South Africa? Well — as it's one of the markets they'll be offering it in come 2010, why not start getting fellow drivers used to a four-door Porsche sedan. We know we're certainly not used to it yet — maybe Porsche could drive the Panamera aro

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    Remember folks, "Maximum" Bob Lutz said it first — buy more houses to save General Motors. [Freep]

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    1979 Ford Ranchero

    Of course we all love the cars-with-truck-beds that GM and Ford sold in the 1960s, but we often forget that they kept making them for quite a while after (and, in fact, still make them down in Mad Max Land). Ford continued building Rancheros for the American market until 1979, and that's the year this two-tone Alameda beauty was sold.

    By Murilee Martin Read More
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    Jim Dunne answers the question of who killed the 'merican car. Wait — Jim Dunne's still alive? Who knew? [Popular Mechanics]

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    Porsche Panamera Spotted In Spain

    Hola, Panamera! A Porsche Panamera prototype was recently spotted in Zona Levante, Spain. Apparently even overworked German engineers on a deadline have time for a run to the beach. Who knows what mischief they got into after this was shot. Possibly something involving fruity cocktails and unidentified chemicals in pill form, followed by six hours in a fetal position. Best. Job. Ever. [via The German Car Blog]

    By Mike Spinelli Read More
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    GM assumes an additional $1.5 to $2 billion in pension obligations from Delphi. [Detroit News]

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    Stout Risius Ross survey pegs Japanese profit-per-vehicle at $3800 higher than US automakers. That is if US automakers were to make a profit-per-vehicle wethinks. [Detroit News]

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    Vauxhall VXR8 Nears UK Launch

    The Vauxhall version of Holden's VE HSV Clubsport R8 is so close as to be generating its own gravitational field around the UK (hold on to your cider). It's yet another Australian-born teaser for the Pontiac G8, which will appear in the states sometime during the 385th season of "According to Jim." If we can survive another millennium (or so it will seem) of the unfunny Belushi brother, we'll may get a taste of what the VXR8 already has in its toybox. Of course, the most potent of Vauxhalls will

    By Mike Spinelli Read More
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    Project Car Hell, Ass-Engined Edition: Caravelle Or Corvair?

    Yesterday's Choose Your Eternity matchup was just about as close a race as the Zagato versus Javelin choice, with the Rolls edging out the Bagheera by a slim margin. We're going to ease back down into low-buck territory with today's choices, going with a couple of budget heroes for your eternal wrenching enjoyment...

    By Murilee Martin Read More
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    The Big 3 Performance Limited Edition 650 HP Ford Mustang

    Big 3 Performance, the company most noted for one-off customs and supercharged purple Cadillac Escalades is now working with Stroker and a couple of other custom parts makers to produce one hundred 2007 and 2008 Mustangs with 650 HP. We've no idea how they're going to do it and they're really not telling us much in the press release — but here's the kicker — they'll all have three-year/36,000 mile warranties. We've no idea on cost, but we'd expect GT500-level for that kind of a horsepower and

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    Russian automaker GAZ buys 5% of General Motors. Yes, friends, the end of the world is nigh. [Automotive News via Autoblog]

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    Ferrari 612 Scaglietti To Get Standard XM

    What good is being a corporate lobbyist and having a fat, luxe Ferrari if you can't hear the "Ron & Fez" show on the way to the day spa? No damn good, we say. But take heed. Ferrari will include XM Radio and XM NavTraffic as standard equipment in the 612 Scaglietti flagship grand tourer, along with three years of service. I guess just listening to the engine won't cut it anymore. Maybe if XM had a channel that only played Ferrari V12s... Hmm.

    By Mike Spinelli Read More
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    How Do You Live With Yourself?

    Philosophy Week continues here at Jalopnik. Cars are destroying the world. I would like to right now completely take global warming off the table. For today's thought exercise just forget carbon emissions completely. Just under 3,000 people died as a result of the terrorist attacks on 9/11. 3,677 American soldiers have been killed in Iraq and 422 in Afghanistan along with 292 other dead coalition forces. Yet every year here in America, more than 44,000 people die in traffic accidents. In 1999, 1

    By Jonny Lieberman Read More
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    Bentley Speed Six

    Way back when the world, and certainly the automobile, was younger, things were... We don't want to argue they were better — having to adjust the fuel mixture and set the coil while you're bumping down a dirt path inadvertently eating grasshoppers surely shouldn't be romanticized too much. Still, the world did seem more adventurous in days of old, especially as cars were concerned. In 1907 an advertisement appeared in the Parisian Le Matin that read simply, "What needs to be proved today is that

    By Jonny Lieberman Read More
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    Crack Open A Cold Powerglide Road Soda, Buddy!

    Back when I was young and broke and living with a houseful of other young, broke slackers, we figured out that it was possible to make our own beer; once the beermaking hardware had been purchased and enough non-twist-off bottles had been obtained, the opaque, yeasty homebrew we bootlegged up in the garage cost about $5 per case to produce and usually tasted tolerably good. Well, tolerable, anyway. Thing was, guests at our parties were afraid to drink beer out of ominous-looking unlabeled bottle

    By Murilee Martin Read More
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    Audi A8 For 2008

    Can you spot the differences? If you said, "front turn indicators," give yourself a nice bowl of vorsprung durch technik. If not, don't get all self-hating, most of the changes — save the signals, new side mirrors with embedded signal lights and LED taillights — are underneath the skin. The Audi flagship for Europe gets a new, fuel-sipping 2.8-liter direct-injection FSI six producing a healthy 210 horsepower that can coax the largest of Audis past the 60-mph mark at nigh on eight seconds. What's

    By Mike Spinelli Read More
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    Ford Edge By H&R

    Getting the tuner and customization set to see the Ford Edge as a subject worth messing with will take some effort, though the idea isn't the worst one. The latest is this tuner Edge, made over by suspension supplier H&R to showcase its sport springs, wheel spacers, camber adjustment bolts and other such aftermarket suspension kit. Of course, the Edge could use a bit of lowering, and a bit more taut feel for our own taste, formed by years of riding a scant few inches from the ground. The Edge be

    By Mike Spinelli Read More
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    2010 Ford Mustang Production Mule Spotted!

    Brenda Priddy's done it again, snagging the first shot we've seen of a test mule for the 2010 Ford Mustang. Here's what she has to say, and take a look at the high-res shot of the mule after the jump:

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    EU emissions regulations uncertainty is potentially hampering the sale of Jaguar and Land Rover. [Forbes]

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    Management Briefing Seminar Update: Ralph Gilles Says Interiors "The New Battleground" For Chrysler

    So there's this thing called the Management Briefing Seminars up at Michigan's Grand Traverse Resort in the sleepy resort community of Traverse City. While we've partaken in said seminar a couple times ourselves, we kind of feel like it's just a way to get automakers and media outlets to foot the bill for a short August vacation. Don't get us wrong, we're OK with that, and frankly if the boss-man would foot it, we'd be there ourselves — but we've found it difficult to make the case for going j

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    The minivan is dead. Long live the minivan? [WSJ]

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    1960 Chevrolet Bel Air Sedan

    Venturing to Alameda's gritty West End, I found this '60 Chevy sedan parked around the corner from the '73 Stringray we saw a couple weeks back. It's a bit banged-up, but it's rust-free and clearly drives regularly.

    By Murilee Martin Read More
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    The New York Times is soliciting reader opinions on the question of "What changes do you think are needed in the American auto industry?" We just lurve the "America's Sagging Automakers" headline — it makes us feel like all they need is a face lift or something. [New York Times]

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    Retired autoworker resents the use of the term "legacy cost." Who wouldn't? [Freep]

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    Project Car Hell: Silver Shadow Or Bagheera?

    As I'm sure you all know, Friday's Choose Your Eternity poll was the most one-sided yet, with the Quadra-Opel option absolutely vaporizing the Bi-Fiat choice. It would be interesting to see how a single Opel GT would fare against its Fiat 600 counterpart in a head-to-head matchup... but that will have to wait for another time, because today we've gone all high-buck on your ass with our choices...

    By Murilee Martin Read More
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    A debate for the ages is heating up on Corvette Forum. Whether or not money is an issue (your choice), which generation 'Vette would you go for if you already had one. In other words, Which generation would your second Corvette be? We're sticking with the Shinoda-desiged C2. First? Why, Z06. Thanks for asking. [The Corvette Forum]

    By Mike Spinelli Read More
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    The blokes from Motoring File say Mini will sidestep the Detroit auto show and launch the new Clubman wagon at the Los Angeles show this November 14th. Seriously, it's the People Mover, isn't it. C'mon, it's not that scary. [via Autoblog]

    By Mike Spinelli Read More
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    1973 Datsun 610

    It's amazing how all the pre-1980 Japanese cars seem to have vanished off the street in recent years; even in Alameda it's a challenge to spot once-ubiquitous 70s Civics, Corollas, and the like. Here's one that I took for a Celica from a distance, but instead it turned out to be the first Datsun 610 I've seen in years.

    By Murilee Martin Read More
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    Brabus To Celebrate 30 Tuning Years In Frankfurt

    The candles on its cake will likely be shaped like cams, but the present will be unwrapped at the Frankfurt show. Mercedes tuner Brabus says it'll celebrate 30 years of messing with Mercedes models, rolling out what it's calling an automotive "wolf in sheep's clothing" at the Frankfurt auto show this September. A sleeper Merc with a volcano under the hood? We're guessing it's some kind of 700-hp C-Class with enough torque to pull the USS Nimitz into dry dock.

    By Mike Spinelli Read More
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    Aggressive reputation, yes. No auto experience, also yes. Welcome to the Nardelli era at the new 'merican Chrysler. [Detroit News]

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    A 49-year-old race car driver died in a Whittemore Speedway accident yesterday in Iosco County, MI — 133 miles north of Detroit. No word on what was being driven — the schedule called for "Limiteds, Factory Stocks and Leadsleds." [Freep]

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    2007 Woodward Dream Cruise Is Two Weeks Away And Even The New York Times Sees The Man Trying To Keep Us Down!

    It looks like the New York Times has deemed the run-up to the 2007 Woodward Dream Cruise, and the associated (and non-associated) week-long classic cruising, worthy of a piece this past Friday. Although we're just excited our little 40,000-car and million-person Cruise of Dreams was considered news fit enough to print, we're troubled by the many reports we're hearing from Metro Detroit classic car owners of "police issues" including tickets for burn-outs, loitering and general harassment by th

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    Ford's Marcus Gronholm dominates WRC Rally Finland yet again. Dude probably knows every one of those 1,000 lakes by heart. Hirvonen's just 4.4 seconds behind, natch. [Guardian (UK)]

    By Mike Spinelli Read More
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    Dodge Ram: Inspired By A Uterus?

    Apparently — according to the boys at Truckblog — there's a very clear inspiration for the Dodge brand logo. We're of the opinion there's probably more of a phallic Joe Camel-like muse for the brand that used to be all about grabbing life by the horns. [TruckBlog]

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    Audi Promises To Prevail At Road America

    Sick of humiliation at the hands of their part-owners and rivals, Audi boldly steps up the rhetoric and claims that they shall emerge victorious from this weekend's ALMS event at Road America. Having been soundly rounded by LMP2 cars in the last five races, the ALMS has made some next-season concessions to keep the diesel LMP1 cars in front of the pack. According to Audi's press release, "Team Audi Sport North America believes it has the opportunity to beat the preferentially treated LM P2 cars,

    By Davey G. Johnson Read More
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    Project Car Hell: Four Opel GTs Or Two Fiat 600s?

    We had quite the excitement yesterday, what with the virtual tie between the '81 Lancia Zagato and the '74 AMC Javelin in the polling (the Javelin wins by a nose). Now that we've breached the $2000 Project Car Hell price barrier, we might as well do away with the requirement that a Hell Project needs to be a single car...

    By Murilee Martin Read More
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    Rally America driver Ramana Lagemann slammed into the side of a jump at nearly 50 mph, turning his Mitsubishi Evo into a bouncing betty. He and co-driver Mark Williams were shaken up, but are ok. [C16]

    By Mike Spinelli Read More
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    X-Games Rally: Watch It, Bub, Or Else

    Over in Europe, they love their rallying, which — lest you thought it had something to do with ex-basketball stars fishtailing through East Texas in leased Lamborghinis — is the chosen sport for some of the most well-turned drivers in the motoring universe. Each season, in far-off lands with names like Jyväskylä and Porto Cervo and Lagoa Azul, drivers head out on challenging courses along country lanes, tamped down over a hard, angst-ridden millennium by firewood carts. Fans line up along 14th c

    By Mike Spinelli Read More
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    Ferrari 308 GTB Vs. Lamborghini Jalpa

    We know, we know. The real duelists in the 1980s were the Countach and the Testarosa. We know. However, this is the Lost Jalpa Weekend, so we gotta go trolling through the second tier of 25-year-old Italian metal. You know, the mid-engined variety with traverse mounted V8s. And look what we done found! In the red corner, we have the Ferrari designed after the oil crisis, originally selling in Italy with 2.0-liter V8s, the car that smells like Magnum PI's mustache, the Ferrari 308 GTB! And in the

    By Jonny Lieberman Read More
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    Ten Quick "Facts" About The Lamborghini Jalpa

    In one of the the endless flashback montages that comprise Rocky IV, Rocky is seen behind the wheel of a Lamborghini Jalpa. And he's listening to some very bad music. (One lock of chest hair to anyone who can name the other car Rocky rocks in the sequel to the sequel to the sequel.) Here's a list of little-known facts about the Jalpa, some of which are untrue. · Lamborghini produced the Jalpa from 1981 to 1988. Ronald Reagan was in office from 1981 to 1989. · The exhaust valves are (probably)

    By Jonny Lieberman Read More
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    2008 Honda Accord - Interior

    A reader to the Blog all about the Auto was quick to draw their phone camera the other day and managed to have snapped a shot of what appears to be the interior of the newly redesigned 2008 Honda Accord. Wonderful — now that we've caught that shot, we can add it to our Coupe, V6 and four-cylinder shots — and finally complete the full set! [via Autoblog]

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    Paris Hilton caught kissing Kasey Kahne? [NY Daily News]

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    Jeff Spicoli Stoned In The Valley, Crashes Z28

    Along with learning valuable lessons about American history from Mr. Hand in the film classic Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Jeff Spicoli also learned that people on 'ludes should not drive a 1979 Chevrolet Camaro Z28 belonging to Idi Amin Charles Jefferson.

    By Mike Bumbeck Read More
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    Whew! That was fast — everyone, let's all welcome Chryslerberus! [Detroit News]

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    Chrysler, Cerberus deal could very well be closed today. And with it, the DaimlerChrysler chapter. Next chapter, the Chryslerberus chapter, may start tomorrow. [Freep]

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    Audi Re-Releases Auto Union Type C As Pedal Car

    The original Auto Union Type C was a V16-powered Grand Prix car with 520 HP. This new Audi-built Auto Union Type C replica announced today will be powered by two feet and may get you the power of about half of a horse depending on how fast your little legs can move. The 1:2 replica of the Auto Union Silver Arrow pedal car, first revealed as a prototype at last year's Paris Motor Show, has now been approved for a collectors run of just 999 foot-powered units. The 1:2 size means it's perfectly l

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    Nissan Concept Car Shows Anti Drunk-Driving Tech

    Let's say you're drunk and no one's around to grab your keys and accept your wildly thrown punches, verbal abuse and ultimate crying jag. Nissan has a solution. It's a series of technologies the company says will identify a driver's state of sobriety. All together, they can detect the odor of alcohol, ascertain a driver's level of drowsiness (tightening the seat belt to get their attention) and monitor driving behavior for signs of inattentiveness or distraction. They've put them all in a concep

    By Mike Spinelli Read More
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    1972 Chevrolet El Camino

    I've been seeing many '73-and-newer El Caminos on Alameda's streets, but the earlier generations of truck-bed-equipped Chevrolet cars are harder to find. They tended to get beaten to death via overloading and/or hooned into oblivion, but this one is still alive and kicking in Alameda's East End.

    By Murilee Martin Read More
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    Toyota made $4.1 billion this past quarter. Actually, they made 491.5 billion yen, but we translated that for you. [Bloomberg]

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    GM Introduces Saab 9-7x Aero; Gets Bigger V8, Still Not Swedish

    Say what you will about the Saab 9-7X, that it's an upmarket Chevy Trailblazer clone, that it's a cynical product that belies Saab's charter or that it's about as Swedish as In-N-Out Burger. Of course, it has a nice interior, and the ignition key is on the console, so it's not entirely without Saab appeal. But whatever you say about it, it's getting a horsepower infusion. GM's extending Saab's higher-performance Aero designation to include the SUV. No turbos on this Americanized Swede; it gets

    By Mike Spinelli Read More
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    Coop Scores Speed Parts

    Mister Cooper got lucky on a trip to a guy's garage to pick up some new wheels for his Falcon. Besides the aformentioned rolling stock, the famed artist let go of a few more dollars from his Cooply stash, heading home with a vintage Vertex Mag, a classic Edelbrock X-C8 cross-ram intake complete with dual Carters and a pair of classic finned valve covers, all for a Chevy 350 that he's building for a hot rod project. And when Coop says "phaeton," you can be sure the man isn't talking Volkswagen. [

    By Davey G. Johnson Read More
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    Sex With Cars: A Tutorial

    Here at Jalopnik, we really love cars. We just don't really love cars, if you get our drift. But, that doesn't make us want to discriminate against those that do. With the aim of increasing public awareness and improving garage safety we're pasting below a guide on 4-wheeled luvin', including the construction of a Sexual Interface Unit. This is seriously not safe for work.

    By Wes Siler Read More
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    The Bugatti Veyron Pegaso Edition: For When Owning A Bugatti Is Not Quite Exclusive Enough

    Some times are for Michelob, and other times are for Cristal. The vehicle you see above and in the gallery below — the Bugatti Veyron Pegaso Edition — is one of the latter. Similarly, we're assuming there are some times we guess it's important for Russian oil barons to set themselves apart from the rest of the mere "filthy rich," and show the world they're actually part of the "ridiculously rich" club. Here's how one particular Russian oil baron did it. The man, who happens to actually live

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    Bloomberg's Subways And Suburbans

    NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg is taking flak for making part of his much-ballyhooed subway ride to work in a chauffeured Suburban. His people pick him at home and drive him twenty blocks down to 59th Street, where he picks up an express train to City hall. Still, compared to Antonio Villaraigosa's trouble of late or our own often late, MTA buses here in Los Angeles, we might encourage our mayor to spend a bit more time on public transit and less dallying with reporters. [Independent, UK]

    By Davey G. Johnson Read More
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    Project Car Hell: Zagato Or Javelin?

    Jalopnik readers- or at least the readers who bother to vote in our polls- have decreed that they'd be crazy enough to take on the awesome Purple Datsun 510 Limo over the slightly less awesome Bugamino in yesterday's Choose Your Eternity matchup. But let's say we're willing to jack up the cost of admission to a Hell Project- not a whole bunch, but closer to two grand than one. What then? Of course, since we all know the cost of the car itself is one of the least expensive parts of Project Car He

    By Murilee Martin Read More
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    Wonder why the House is backing down from the fuel standard increases? All we know is Rep. Markey's making a run for the Massachusetts hills. [Freep]

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    No, one of us is not "drunk posting" today — he's just really excited to get folks to join the Jalopnik Facebook group! He's also hoping he won't go blind. [Facebook]

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    We're still accepting members to the Jalopnik Facebook group — do your part and join today! [Facebook]

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    Don't play like you haven't heard of Facebook before — go join the Jalopnik group, k? [Facebook]

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    Didn't you hear? Jalopnik...is on...Facebook. Get over there! [Facebook]

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    Auto Engineers Really Like The Long Camera Lens Of A Spy Photographer...Or Maybe It's Just Me

    ("Follow us as we lift the hood on the world of industrial automotive espionage in From The Car Spy's Dossier, a series of road reports from A-list spy shooter Brenda Priddy and some of the world's greatest car spies!) It's been just 4 weeks since the hot weather test season officially started and I've put well over 7500 miles on my car, two oil changes and even logged a few thousand air miles. And no matter where I go, it seems that I trip over other spies trying to photograph the same cars.

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    If you're in the city of Detroit today, stay away from Livernois — for some obvious reasons. It's starting to become an epidemic. [Detroit News]

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    Shop Tour: Hotchkis Sport Suspension

    While we often rant on about crazed measures of infernal combustion or even jet cars around here, multiple hundreds or even thousands of horsepower along with scads of torque won't add up to a side order of beans unless you can actually put it through to the ground. Racers know this perhaps better than anyone. As a racer who spent a good deal of time behind the wheel of a Porsche 917, John Hotchkis now steers a company that puts horsepower to good use through the design, production, and install

    By Mike Bumbeck Read More
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    Hybrid sales are getting huge. That's right — now they're up to 2.3% of all auto sales. Wow — the sky's the limit. [Detroit News]

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    Should Race Cars Look Like Real Cars?

    Automobile L'Ouest, the sanctioning body for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, has announced that by 2010 all cars in the top prototype LMP1 class must feature both a closed cockpit and bodywork resembling actual production cars. The thinking is that the LMP1 cars are "dream cars" and that fans should not be able to tell Peugeots apart from Pescarolos. On the one hand we are totally for this move, as win on Sunday, sell on Monday is one of our favorite mantras. Also, despite knowing all about the bleedin

    By Jonny Lieberman Read More
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    Did you know Jalopnik has a group on Facebook? Maybe you should join. We hear all the cool kids are doing it. [Facebook]

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    Speeders To Be DNA Tested

    British drivers could soon face DNA tests when stopped for simple traffic violations. The move comes amid pressure to expand the scope of the national DNA database after a government watchdog found it to be mostly full of black males and children under 10.

    By Wes Siler Read More
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    It's a threesome of seats — perfect for a threesome of, you know, people having sex. Yeah, blunt, I know. [Winding Road]

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    Expensive cars cost lots of money to fix. [CNNMoney]

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    Once Again: The SSC Ultimate Aero TT Is Set To Break Production Car Speed Record

    Bugatti, the end is nigh, maybe. Those lovable scamps over at Shelby SuperCars are poised to break the production car speed record (242 mph) currently being held hostage somewhere in Sweden by Koenigsegg. The unofficial production-car speed record of 253 mph is, of course, safe and sound somewhere in the German French Alps. This time out, SSC has enlisted the help of the Guinness Book of World Records to properly sanction their attempt. To set the record, the 1,183 horsepower Ultimate Aero TT mu

    By Jonny Lieberman Read More
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    Volkswagen To Premiere Eight Models At Frankfurt Show

    V-Dub has big plans for the local crowd at this year's Frankfurt auto show next month. Rolling into the klieg lights will be eight new models: the Tiguan SUV, a prototype of VW's coming rear-engine city car and six BlueMotion diesels. The Tiguan we've seen, but the people's company is holding tight to the pulley ropes keeping its city car under wraps. It'll be called the City Expert, and will be powered by a flat-four "boxer" engine mounted rearward. We'll be on scene with our personal media dev

    By Mike Spinelli Read More
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    Mark Phelan should be careful saying things like that to Ford PR. They get angry when writers say bad things about them. And Mr. Phelan, you wouldn't like them when they get angry. [Freep]

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    U.S. House decides not to decide on new fuel economy standards. Because, you know, why fix what ain't broken — or was it fix what is broken? We can't remember. [Detroit News]

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    Over The Back Fence: Is This The New Toyota AE86?

    The sphere of blogo has been abuzz about a new rear-drive Toyota model that would revive the AE86 ethos. That is, the Corolla coupe from the 1980s that's still a many splendored model to import and drift kids and aficionados of Japanese classics. Now, World Car Fans spotted a spec rendering in Japanese magazine Best Car, where the story of a new Scion, possibly riding on a Fuji Heavy Industries (Subaru) platform and costing in range of $12,500. Will Toyota's new interesting car division follow t

    By Mike Spinelli Read More
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    1939 Chevrolet Master Deluxe Coupe

    As always, I was keeping my eyes open for vintage machinery as I cruised down High Street a couple weeks back, and this incredibly orange object down a side street caught my attention from blocks away. So, I headed over to investigate and found something you don't often see parked on a city street, not even in Alameda...

    By Murilee Martin Read More
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    South Dakota Man Arrested For Sex With Street Signs

    Sioux Falls police arrested 60-year old Verle Peter Dills on Tuesday after he was caught performing an unnamed sex act in another resident's yard. The Argus Leader reports that while searching his home, police uncovered a "large amount" of video showing Dills masturbating to and having sex with various traffic signs. Dills is charged with burglary, unlawful occupancy and six separate acts of public indecency. Man Arrested for Public Sex Acts [Argus Leader]

    By Wes Siler Read More
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    Project Car Hell: Bugamino Or 510 Limo?

    I thought about going a bit more upscale with today's Choose Your Eternity entries, perhaps looking at project cars in the $2500-$5000 price range. But then I ran across these two fine cars and I knew I had no choice but to go with them. As we know, the German machine decisively beat the Japanese one in yesterday's All-Axis Project Car Hell Challenge, so we're going to give the vehicular products of our erstwhile enemies another shot today and see if perhaps the Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity

    By Murilee Martin Read More
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    Heavily Tweaked Lada

    English Russia once again comes through with evidence of capitalism's impact on the former Soviet Union. East, meet west. West, meet East. Now add turbochargers and scissor doors. The yikes factor is strong with this one; it's even got a head-up display! We have to admit, we're not entirely sure about the styling but well, it does kinda grab you by the face and yank. Yes comrades, we'll give it that. [English Russia]

    By Davey G. Johnson Read More
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    BMW Z4 Coupe, Tuned: AC Schnitzer Profile Concept

    Navigating the extremes in BMW tuning, Germany's AC Schnitzer likes to have a good laugh once in a while, usually at BMW fans' expense. First it was the Tension concept, a flamboyant 6-Series prepared for the Frankfurt show in 2005. This year, seeing it's Frankfurt time again this September, ACS again has a headline. It's a conceptual take on the Z4 Coupe, called the Profile concept. More staid than the Tension, the Profile is more a driver's car than a footballer's club transport. In addition

    By Mike Spinelli Read More
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    Hey, someone's got good news — Nissan July sales were up 1.7%. [Detroit News]

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    Wait, what? Toyota showed a drop in July sales?!?! On passenger cars?! We're growing faint — how could the super number one best awesome automaker from the land of the rising sun see a drop of 3.5% overall and a drop of 11.9% in passenger cars? [Forbes]

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    This past month GM sales were down 18.5% from June 2006 numbers on weak truck sales. And by weak, we mean they sucked really badly. But it sounds like everyone's having this problem today. Next up is Toyota... [GM]

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    Penske Automotive shakes it's money-maker in the second quarter to make itself some money. [Reuters]

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    Ford sales down 19% from July of last year. But hey, crossovers were up 40% — because Ford likes to live on the Edge-uh. [Ford]

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    Chrysler Group July 2007 sales down 8%, Mercedes Group down 14% month-to-month from last year. [Reuters via PRNewswire]

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    Volkswagen of America, Inc. today announced July 2007 sales of 19,653 vehicles, representing a decrease of 13.1 percent over July 2006 unit sales of 22,627. [Volkswagen]

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    Jaguar appoints a new managing director. Probably a good idea to get those ducks in a row before y'all get sold. [MotorTrader]

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    Ford S-Max spotted in LA — is it on its way to the US? [Autoblog]

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    The Inside Line at Edmunds reviews the 2008 Volvo C30. Their verdict? It's a "Volvo for young urban males." No, for serious, that's what they say. [Edmunds Inside Line]

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    Automotive X-Prize Announces First Teams

    Want a check for 10 extra-large (that's millions)? All you have to do is prove you can design, build and bring to market a car that can get 100 miles per gallon and that people will buy. It sounds simple enough, and 31 teams have already signed up to compete for the Automotive X-Prize (you remember the X-Prize people from the $10 million they gave Paul Allen's Mojave Aerospace Ventures for building the first private vehicle that could go into space; no, it wasn't a Delorean). Qualifying teams wi

    By Mike Spinelli Read More
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    Who knew French elections could determine auto sales? [Reuters]

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    Children in Massachusetts would be required to continue using automobile booster seats until age 8 under a bill passing the MA state senate. [Boston Globe]

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    1971 Datsun 240Z

    While 280Zs are fairly common on the streets of Alameda, you don't run across a 240- or even a 260- every day. Part of the reason is that many of the smog-exempt 1975-and-newer Zs have been stuck in garages to await small-block Chevy swaps (we like V8 Zs, but only the ones that actually get finished), while the hoon-magnet nature of these cars has led to many of them being wrapped around telephone poles and/or eroded away in death-of-a-thousand-cuts fashion.

    By Murilee Martin Read More
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    GM sales are up 87% in July!!! Oh, wait — that's in India. And oh, wait, wait — they sold 2,120 more than the same month last year. That's about as many as some dealerships 'round these here parts. [The Hindu]

    By Ray Wert Read More
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    Bentley Reveals 600-Hp Continental GT Speed

    It's the first bentley to hit 200 miles per hour (202 mph, to be exact) right off the shelf. It's a pretty big shelf, though, because the Bentley Speed GT is a bruiser of a car. It packs a more-than-sufficient 600 horses lolling beneath its bonnet, also making it the most powerful production Bentley ever built. The company says it offers a more "hard-edged driving experience," and the kind of agility one wouldn't expect from such a stout hooligan in a waistcoat. Click through for details.

    By Mike Spinelli Read More