Car Throttle

BMW's made a lot of different cars, and a lot of them have been really quite good. It's a nearly impossible discussion to pick the best one, but for me it's not hard to pick a favorite. I've always loved the Z3 M Coupe, with either an S52 or S54 - they're just badass cars. The Z3 M Roadster combined the compact, light Z3 chassis (a shortened version of the compact, light E36 Compact chassis) with the powerful E36 (and later E46) M3 engines, revised suspension, huge sticky tires, bigger brakes... the whole nine.  The Z3 M Coupe was a low-production fixed-head version of the suave Z3, that turned it from a cute hairdresser's hot rod into a feisty-looking little hatchback... ...or a tennis shoe with wheels

The appeal of the Saab 9-3 Viggen is enigmatic, to say the least. Objectively, it's not that great of a car.  It's reasonably quick (2.3L turbo I4 with 235bhp in a small car will do that!) but suffers from an awful shift linkage, massive wrist-snapping torque steer, and a chassis as stiff as cooked spaghetti in convertible form. Still, I have this deep-seated urge for a Viggen (as you can see in my recent post here).  They have character.  And I like torque steer.  Also, they're quite photogenic. This beautiful Viggen-in-the-sunset picture comes courtesy of the most talented Flickr user Mugley, who seems to have an affinity for blowup sex dolls and jackal masks in his unique photography.  Takes all types, I suppose.  The clarity of

Enthusiasts call it "stance."  Professionals call it fitment.  Whatever you want to call it, it's important.  Fitment is that intangible relationship between the tires, wheels, and wheel wells.  Your average stock car doesn't have it; the wheels sit inside of the fenders, they're too small, they have bulgey hupcaps, etc.  Most aftermarket wheels don't have it either - wrong offset, cheesy details, too much chrome, busy design, etc.  But now and then you see a particular fitment that just absolutely defines "correct." And THAT, my friends, defines the correct stance perfectly.  These are press photos for CCW wheel's new model LM20's, which I think look absolutely fantastic on this Mitsu Evo.  They sit perfectly flush with the fender, have tons of lip but the tires aren't

Ford's perenial family hauler, the Taurus, has never been known for provided seat-of-your-pants thrills.  That might be about to change, with the upcoming 365-bhp twin turbocharged AWD SHO.  You know I'm a fanboy.  This car is going to be epic, no matter how you look at it.  And while media testing hasn't started yet (Ford?  Test car?), AOL Autos (really?) had an opportunity to ride along in a pre-production SHO with one of Ford's Vehicle Dynamics Development Engineers, Christina Rodriguez.  On a racetrack!  Lucky! From the look of things, A) Christina knows how to throw a car around, and B) the Taurus doesn't mind being thrown around a bit!  I have to say, this is one devastatingly handsome car, which isn't something that could be said

Today's Random Capture comes from the capable lens of Dejan Sokolovski, a very talented automotive photographer who hails from Sweden.  His photos cover all types of cars, but I think he's really managed to capture the whole "Vorsprung Durch Technik" thing on film pretty damn well.  Check out this black B7-generation Audi S4: I'm a sucker for industrial area shots, but this really is a breathtaking photo.  The car itself ain't too shabby, either: RS4 wheels would look good on a Hyundai Accent.  And yes, black is the best color for an S4.  You can check out more of Dejan's work here. It's especially difficult to make a black car look good in bright sunlight, but what he's done with the angle and the direction of

Regardless of the technical merits of All Wheel Drive or Front Wheel Drive, there are still some people out there that would rather eat their own foot than drive anything other than a rear wheel drive car.  I can relate. I'd say more than half of the ads for Hyundai's hot new Genesis coupe have shown the car getting ridiculously sideways, and I have to say I approve.  Despite the fact that I'm on my third front-wheel-drive car (they seem to follow me home!) I understand the appeal of RWD.  Like the ability to perfectly balance the car with the throttle just past the limit of adhesion, tires howling and smoke boiling off the rear end in thick sheaths. I think the Genesis' best angle is definetely

VW's 3rd-generation Golf GTi wasn't an absolute hit with fans of the original hot hatch when it was new, but thankfully as time goes by the appreciation for these cars has grown in the VW community to an impressive level, where today we're seeing really classy MKIII's on a regular basis.  Today's picture comes from NCDubs.org member VDUBNLUVN, courtersy of the "favorite shot of your car" thread. I'm a big fan of the fish-eye lens effect - it works well with the industrial background, and provides a great contrast the clean lines of this slammed MkIII.  The Europlate's a nice touch, too.

Nothing in this world goes together more naturally than a powerful GT car and an open road stretching through the desert. Well, perhaps peanut butter and jelly deserve a place on the list, but it pales in comparison for me.  There's something romantic about a taut, powerful GT parked next to a long road leading to the horizon; it might be that it symbolizes the freedoms we are granted as Americans; it might just be a pretty backdrop.  Either way, I've always been a fan. This picture comes to us from the DieselStation forums, via user "joeyredmond."  Joey is a photography genius (obviously) as well as a web guru; he runs an automotive site called PM LifeStyle.  This picture was part of a set