Back in the 1980s, there was a secret language that GM fans spoke.  It was RPO: Regular Production Option.  Filling out three characters on your order form got you some neat toys.  For instance, "B2K" on an 80s Corvette would about double the price tag, and you'd receive a 'Vette with a twin-turbocharged engine from Callaway Engineering.  For the Camaro, 1LE was the secret.  It took the highest-performance Camaro (the IROC-Z, which had the 350ci tuned port injection V8 from the 'Vette) and made it more track-worthy.  No A/C, no fog lights- but you did get bigger brakes with twin-piston calipers, stiffer suspension bushings and shock absorbers, a balanced aluminum single-piece driveshaft, and a baffled fuel tank to prevent starvation during cornering.  It was designed

Catastrophic news today, as gravity was cancelled and the earth's polarity reversed.  There were earthquakes in Missouri, land slides in Alaska, and the wind blew upwards in China.  What's responsible for this mass destruction?  Tuner AMS's wanton disregard for the laws of physics, demostrated by their Alpha Omega Nissan GT-R. While a regular Nissan GT-R is no slouch - 530 horsepower, 0-60 in under 3 seconds with launch control activated, capable of shaming Ferraris and Porsches everywhere - imagining one with three times the power is a little difficult.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjLB9y4fn3Y

AMS offers staged packages of performance upgrades for the GT-R: Alpha 6, 9, and 12, each representing how much horsepower they make.  After breaking records with the relatively tame Alpha 12 (216mph in the

Remember the Subaru Baja?  I always referred to it as the Bahaha.  As in "Bahaha, who would buy a Legacy wagon with a 4' pickup bed and two tone body cladding?"  The answer was "almost no one," and as a result you hardly ever see them any more.  They're unique in that retina-searing ugly sort of way, but if you're building a performance Subaru why wouldn't you just start with a WRX?  Sure, there was a factory turbo version (the Baja Turbo, with a 215bhp 2.5L and a mandatory 4-speed automatic) but it was no great shakes either.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S75TxIe0oS8

If watching this big-turbo slammed Baja auto-cross doesn't put a smile on your face, you might need a hug.  It doesn't look like it

Disco Volante is Italian for "Flying Saucer."  Of course, everything sounds slightly sexier in Italian (Quattroporte!), but Flying Saucer is a good start.  Touring built this outlandish concept car as a 60th anniversary of the original flying saucer - the 1952 Disco Volante, based off of the lithe Alfa Romeo 1900. The original car was designed to be super-light and minimize wind resistance, which enabled a surprising top speed of 140mph with just a 2.0L four-cylinder.  The new Disco Volante won't have to struggle so much: it's basically a reskinned Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione, so it's powered by the same 4.7L Maserati V8, with 450 horsepower.  The Disco has a rear-mounted sequential shifting transaxle for ideal weight distribution, as well. Of course, if you're staring

Are you ready to be offended?  It might already be too late; after all, you saw that intro image before you opened this article in the first place.  I'll allow you a minute to cry for the lost dignity of the famed British brand.  Bentley will be the next brand to follow Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi, Porsche, and even Maserati into that market that makes purists cringe: SUV's. So go ahead and sharpen your pitch fork, light your torch and kill three pints of Guiness as you head towards Crewe.  But keep something in mind: car companies, even absurdly exclusive ones, exist to turn a profit.  Know where the high-end buyers are these days?  Know what has a large profit margin?  That's right, SUV's.  You

Lamborghinis SHOULD be absurd.  Ferrari is welcome to built four-seat hatchbacks with all wheel drive that you can take to the ski lodge, that's fine.  McLaren canto focus on the minutest details of their cars while forgetting to come up with names.  Lamborghinis should be proud of not being practical.  Like, one door, 7.5 cylinders, two turbos and some nitrous impractical.  Perhaps this Aventador Unica concept that's heading to Geneva will be more in line with what a Lamborghini really is. These two grainy images of a totally roofless Aventador leaked out on autoforum.cz recently, giving a glimpse of the concept Lamborghini will bring to Geneva.  Not only is there no roof or convertible top, the whole windshield is gone - it looks like

What segment, exactly, is Hyundai's Veloster aimed at?  Not sure.  Sports coupes?  Well no, it's got three doors and a prominent lift-back.  Hatchback?  No, not enough headroom or practicality.  Practical family car?  Nope, there's hardly any room in the back.  I think the Veloster is aimed at people like me: 18-24's with reasonable income and a taste for the bizarre.  That's what it is: bizarre. For instance, that intro shot is the driver's side of the car.  This is the passenger's side.

You will notice the door count is different.  Two on the passenger side, one on the driver's.  Why?  I think it's because they can, that's why.  If you're going to make a fun, affordable, interesting car (there's your segment pigeonhole!) you might

Today is a rare day.  You can wish you friend who was born today a happy 51st birthday, assuming he came to be in 1804.  Indeed, it's February 29th, and we won't have another one of these until 2016, so we might as well celebrate with something special.  How about... a Jag Wagon?  Works for me! Mmm.  Look at that wagon ass.  Of course if someone was going to pop out a ridiculously attractive wagon, it'd be Jaguar.  After all, they made the moribund X-Type into a fairly attractive estate, even if it was a bit crap underneath.  I'll admit that my first thought on seeing the XF was not "hmm, needs more wagon" - but I'm always willing to revise my thoughts.  Wagons for

The fastest Ferrari road car ever, is how the folks from Maranello are describing it.  And it terms of road-going production cars from the storied Italian brand, you could also add "the most powerful" moniker.  Meet the Ferrari F12berlinetta, which was seemingly named in an attempt to irritate editors everywhere. The F12 (which is probably what most people will end up calling it) takes the place of the 599 GTB in Ferrari's lineup: the top-of-the-range, front engined V12 Grand Tourer.  Less practical and spacious than an FF, less light and nimble than a 458, it's designed (like the 599, 575, 550, 412, 400i, etc before it) to take two people and their things across a continent at high speeds.  Why wouldn't you just take the plane?

Back in the day, the world "diesel" had some assumptions that went along with it.  Some of them were good; some of them were bad.  It can be argued that most of the bad ones (at least in this country) have their roots in the crap diesels that GM sold here back in the 80's.  Converted 350 small blocks and 4.3L V6's that puked out black smoke, made less power than a 150cc Honda, and got worse mileage - where's the appeal?  The reliability of those didn't help, either.  So while the US basically abandoned the concept of a diesel passenger car (we never moved away from diesel trucks), Europe continued to develop them to a ridiculous level.