Car Throttle

We've been hearing about it for a while now, and finally some more details are forthcoming on the Cosworth STI. While it saddens me that the latest Cosworth road car won't have a Ford badge on it, a Cosworth STI makes a lot of sense - a turbocharged, four wheel drive rally car are things both of the brands are well known for.  Up until now we've only seen a teaser shot of the rear badging (how exciting!) but yesterday a few more details leaked out on this most-awesome-of-scoobies, and it sounds like it's going to be a serious piece of kit. Called the STI Cosworth CS400, the 400 will stand for how many ponies reside under the Cosworth/Impreza's hood.  Cosworth hasn't released any details on

Well, here it is all you global warming deniers, guys who think that Ralph Nader is some sort of Communist plot to take away your God-given Hemi, gearheads who think that "the libruls" are going to force you to drive a hideous little car with no power and no fun: The Tata Nano EV Concept. Tata has been rumored to be working on an EV version of the Nano since the day they announced the car. The normal version has been almost universally reviled by the carraratti, and wholly embraced by the greenies, granola munchers, neo-Luddite techno-lovers et al. Yes, yes car wonks. The one world socialist/communist/fascist government will soon be mandating that you HAVE TO purchase a Tata Nano EV once you've turned over

To quote Mr. Spock: "Fascinating!" Westfield, makers of a very good Lotus 7 variant (one of the all time great sportscars, no two ways about it) rolled out a very, very interesting version of some sort of 7 they call the Westfield iRACER. And this, if you ask me, is a clear way forward. Because the Westfield iRACER is an electric race car. And if we're going to make electric cars passable, the best way to do so is to race them. The most apparent thing about the Westfield iRACER is it's "body work". It doesn't really have any. It's wrapped in, essentially, something akin to spandex. And on the one hand, you have to think that wherever Colin Chapman is at the moment, he's probably

Sadly, this is not a full blown return for Hispano-Suiza, the vaunted Spanish car builder that had a penchant for using airplane engines in street cars (think about that for a while). No, this time around Hispano-Suiza has come back as a coach builder, and they've decided to do up some custom coachwork for Audi's R8 The debut model, just rolled out at the Geneva Show, for the reconstituted Hispano-Suiza is not just any R8, but an R8 5.2 FSI V10. Seems like they can't shake the "let's put a BIG engine in the car" vibe that pervaded their offerings for so many years. And just like the Hispano-Suizas of yore, this one ain't cheap. €700,000 or US$950,000 is what they're asking. Yes, it does come

You've got to love Koenigsegg.  Hard to say, easy to admire. The company was founded in 1994, which means it's one of the newer kids on the block.  Their intent was to bring a Swedish take on the classic supercar to market, taking the fight to Ferrari and Lamborghini on their first swing.  When you consider that they delivered their first production car to a customer in 2002, the fact that they've taken the top-end supercar market by storm (almost buying the entire Saab franchise along the way) in just 8 years is pretty damn amazing. Their cars have always produced fairly alarming numbers - those early CC8S models cranked out 655bhp from a supercharged 4.6L V8, and the latest CCXR made an insane 1,107bhp on

What, you were expecting subtlety form a firm like Brabus (or I guess that's BRABUS, all caps (geez, even their name is as subtle as "annexing" the Sudetenland)). What we have here is the BRABUS take on the Mercedes E Class coupe. And their take includes things like V12 engines, enough horsepower for an ocean-going tug, and all the subtlety of a flying mallet. The BRABUS massaged Merc puts out a whopping 800 horsepower and the torque initially rates at 1,420 Nm. I say initially because BRABUS has to dial it down to "only" 1,100 Nm. Why? Dunno, but probably to prevent splattering the tranny or the diff all over the road would be my guess. The plant itself has its own name: The SV12 R

In case you weren't aware, Alfa Romeo is celebrating it's 100th birthday this year. Not only that, but Italian design house Pininfarina is celebrating it's 80th.  The two firms - who basically specialize in selling sex with wheels - decided they were going to go halfsies on a birthday present.  I'm just gonna say - they should do this more often. Meet the 2uettottanta, which is hard to pronounce but really nice to look at.  The bizarre name is a throwback to the original Pininfarina-design Duetto (which later came to be known simply as the Alfa Spider by most people), and the design is inspired by the early Spider 1750 Veloce. Pininfarina sees the 2uettottanta as a future replacement for the current Alfa Spider, which hasn't

Colin Chapman must be rolling in his grave. "A Lotus all stuffed full with batteries and electric motors?  That's hardly what I'd call 'adding lightness.'  You're all fired." I can't imagine there would be any other reaction from the mass master himself, but at least on paper this electron-infused Evora has what it takes to deserve the Lotus badge - and at the very least, it's a showcase of the brand's impressive technical know-how. It's based on the 2+2 seater Evora, currently the top of Lotus' lineup, but ditches the 3.5L Toyota V6 for...  a 3-cylinder engine and some batteries.  While this doesn't sound especially promising at first, stay with me for a minute here.  the Evora 414E is an ER-EV (Extended Range Electric Vehicle), like the

Lamborghini's Gallardo range is seemingly evergreen. Just as we get used to how face-bashingly awesome the latest variant is (in this case the hardcore, rear-wheel-drive LP550-2 Valentino Balboni), Lamborghini drops a new version in our laps that starts the drooling all over again.  The latest long-name Gallardo derivative is arguably the best yet, and it goes by "LP570-4 Superleggera."  It's a lightweight, more powerful, aero-equipped monster coated in radioactive lime green paint and giant black carbon fibre scoops and spoilers everwhere.  In other words, it's business as usual for the Sant A'gata automaker. The 5.2L direct-injected V10 sees power climb from 560 to 570 at 8,000 rpm, and still employs cool tech goodies like an aluminum crankcase, dual-plane crank throws, dry-sump lubrication, infinitely adjustable cam timing

I'm not that much of a sedan kind of guy. Sure, it's nice to have all that room and being able to drive three friends to the movies and what not, but if I'm going to lust after cars, they are usually of the two seat, two door variety. One exception to this rule (not that it's really a rule) is the Maserati Quattroporte. There's a lot to like about the Quattroporte. First of all, since it exists, it takes a lot of market pressure off of Ferrari to do something stupid like Porsche did with the Panamera. Secondly, there just happens to be that Ferrari sourced V8 under the front bonnet. OK, yeah, it's just the block (and heads?), but that's a pretty nice plant. Next,