Car Throttle

Well, not quite. Though you could forgive the world's environmentalists for weeping into their wheatgrass juice over Mercedes' latest member of the AMG family. The new ML Class has had the skunkworks makeover, gaining the 5.5l biturbo V8 already seeing duty in the CLS AMG and updated E63 AMG. As ever, the badging is a nonsense. The boot says '63', but this isn't a 6.3 litre, nor the normally aspirated 6.2 V8 of yore seen in the C63 and SLS. The all-new blown engine not only performs better in the all-important EU emissions test, but twists out 516 lb/ft of torque and 518bhp. That's Audi R8 V10 shaming muscle in a luxury SUV that's not even the full-fat version; adding the AMG Performance Pack opens the

In the past, owning a Volvo has always been akin to owning a fridge-freezer. If you play along with the analogy then you'll see that both offer sturdiness as a top attribute, both can play it cool when needed (we're looking at you Mr. T5 Engine) and both offer safety in ways that the world over has come to expect and not demand. However as you may remember at the beginning of the year when you saw my mug on YouTube reviewing the S60 and V60 R-Design variants, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the Volvo brand had been injected with a dose of what appeared to be some Class A narcotic; merging a threatening sporty exterior with a chirpy range of engines designed

I do like the Porsche Panamera. It may look like a very large toad and if you parked it beside an Aston Martin Rapide, a Maserati Quattroporte or a Mercedes Benz CLS you would find that it is actually very ugly in that sort of company. But that hasn’t stopped Porsche from selling a whole lot of them. The reason for this is presence. It has bus-loads of road presence and if one suddenly pulled up right behind you, you’d be slightly intimidated and move over in an instant. Unless you’re in something as equally rapid, that is. And with that little thought out of the way I’d like to introduce the new Porsche Panamera Diesel. The oil burning Panamera Diesel is obviously catered to those

Finally! A proper mini sized MINI. The MINI Rocketman Concept was recently revealed at the 2011 Geneva Motor Show and I believe they got the essence right this time. Prior to this pocket rocket, BMW MINI seemed to be dishing out larger and larger ‘MINI’ cars like the recently launched Countryman. I suppose they’ve finally realized that there are a lot of people out there that want to relive the original MINI size and feel. You know, that Tardis-like feeling you get (look at one from the outside and then sit inside one and you’ll get the picture), that quirky steering wheel position, the bouncy ride contributed to by the extremely short wheelbase (as well as the hydrolastic suspension) and its extremely small car handling

We already know Ford has launched the Mustang Boss 302 recently. Using a name that hasn't been used since 1970, the Boss 302 is Ford's most powerful normally aspirated Mustang to be sold to date. It has a 5.0liter V8 that makes 440bhp and should allow the Boss 302 to achieve a sub 5 second 0-60mph time. Whilst the specs of the Boss 302 are all fine and dandy, one item caught my eye. It comes with a regular ignition key and another coded ignition key to access the full performance of the Boss 302. Ford calls it the TracKey and its main purpose is to sharpen all engine responses for use during track days, or mainly during periods of showboating at the local

Whilst major manufacturers like Ferrari and Lamborghini are slowly inching their way from supercars weighing a portly 1450kg (3100lbs) or so to a target weight of around 1,000kg (2200kg), small volume manufacturers are already manufacturing sub 1000kg sports cars. One such manufacturer is Gillet. Gillet is the brainchild of Tony Gillet, a Belgian racing driver who was famous for winning the Belgian hill climb championship for several years and had also competed in the Paris-Dakar Rally. He started off as the official importer of the Dutch made Lotus Super 7 derived Donkervoort and has branched off into car manufacturing with the Gillet Vertigo series of sports car. What started production in 1993 (the original Vertigo pictured above) has now evolved into the current Vertigo 5 Spirit.

BMW Marketing is at it again. The last time I wrote about them I was pretty fed up with their 'Joy is This and That' tag line. Obviously they forgot to note the fact that I could have as much fun driving a Mercedes-Benz AMG C63 or a Honda Civic Type R and feel really joyful and truly happy. Anyway, their latest marketing campaign is now on some BMW 6 series based Eco-friendly concept car and they don't want us to blog about it. This is because they've said so in the BMW registered website: http://www.dontblogaboutthis.com/. The thing is, the web is a place filled with people (like us) who will blog about it. I suppose reverse psychology is what the marketing men are reverting to

These days, the consumer in the sports sedan market is spoiled for choice. There's pretty much always been the 3-series BMW (and before it the 2002 and the 1600), and there's always been a comparable Audi and Mercedes (at least since the 190E appeared on the scene in the mid eighties), but the field has never been as diverse as it is now. Take, for example, these two seemingly unrelated sedans: the 2009 Infiniti G37 6MT sedan, and the 2010 Ford Taurus SHO EcoBoost.  On paper,  about all they have in common are four wheels with pneumatic tires and a sticker price hovering somewhere around $36,000.  Experiencing both back-to-back just proved exactly how different of a sports sedan your $35k and change will get you these days. This

Lately, one of the things you've all undoubtedly heard enough about is the Camaro. For god's sake, Chevrolet brought an entire tanker load of modified Camaros to SEMA in virtually every imaginable form.  Yenko Camaros, Camaros that look like Trans-Am's, evil Camaros, Red Camaros, there was probably a Camaro with wings. And the new Camaro has been getting a lot of press everywhere, really.  And for good reason - it's an extremely attractive car that people actually want to buy, rather than settle for, which seems to be par for the course in today's automotive market.  But all the attention is really sort of centered around the SS model, which is the high-performance one powered by the 6.2L LS3 Corvette engine.  So of course people are going