Car Throttle

The Audi R8 is already one of the most desirable vehicles on the market. It combines the exotic feel and performance of a Lamborghini Gallardo with all of Audi's know-how on how to make a modern vehicle.  It's coddling and comfortable, extremely fast yet nimble, refined but slight old-school - have you seen that gated shifter?  And now, Audi's cranking up the "want one" qoutient to 11.  Today the first images of the upcoming R8 Spyder have hit the web, and I like what I see. As far as the design goes, there aren't a whole lot of surprises in store.  It's an R8 without the solid roof.  And while most coupes look awful with the top chopped off (I'm looking at you, Nissan 350Z!), the

The Gullwing is back, and in a big way. We've been seeing spyshots of the upcoming modern Gullwing Benz for what seems like eternity at this point, and it's good to finally have a face to associate with a name.  And oh, what a face. The SLS AMG takes the spot left in Merc's fold by the now-departed, somewhat unloved McLaren SLR, affectionately known as the McMerc in some circles.  It is to sit atop the heap of Mercedes-Benz models as their halo car, as well as providing a technical showcase of the AMG division's automotive know-how.  It is both retro and modern, aggressive and beautiful, and it's 100% a rolling event.  Let's take a closer look at this range-topping supercar. The SLS was supposed to stay

A new Rolls Royce is something like getting a new Pope. It doesn't happen very often, it's sort of a big deal, but the fact of the matter is it looks exactly like the last one.  There's a new Rolls Royce out, and if you scratch your head and say "it sure looks like the last one," then you're not alone.  What's cool is that this is a new kind of Rolls Royce.  It's supposedly a Rolls Royce for people who want to actually drive their Rolls Royce, which isn't really something they've done in the past. The car's official debut is schedule for the Frankfurt show (where else?) but like most cars these days, the real debut for the Ghost comes a few weeks ahead of

You might be tired of hearing about special edition Elises, but I'm not. In fact, what's wrong with you?  They're Lotuses, you like them if you're reading this site, so here we go. The latest infinitessimally different Elise is based on the entry-level Elise S, and it's called the Club Racer.  It's a modern Elise with some classic Lotus styling cues and colors, wrapped up in a fun (and efficient!) package with an attractive price. The Club Racer inherits the standard Elise's 134bhp 1ZZ-FE engine, shared with the Corolla and MR2.  While that sounds as fun as partying with a bunch of nuns, when coupled to the Elise's 860kg kerb weight (1896lbs) it equals surprising performance - 0-60mph in 5.7 seconds - along with surprising efficiency.  The

The Porsche 911 is sort of like Medusa. You cut off one of it's heads and... wait, no, that's not right.  No, the Porsche 911 is sort of like a Mustang - there are so many versions you can't keep track, and they just keep introducing new variations anyway. This latest derivative is more of a throwback to the old days of the 911, though, rather than a new model name because they changed the shift knob design.  It combines totally modern performance (actually above and beyond a regular 911) with some classic 911 styling cues, including a few we haven't seen in a while. Let's start with the most obvious.  Gotta be the knockoff Fuchs-style alloy wheels.  How utterly awesome are these? The 911 SC isn't just

EuroRennen 2009 was held on June 20th, 2009 at the beautiful Coastal Plains Raceway in Jacksonville, North Carolina. It featured numerous vendors, lots of hot cars, and some good old-fashioned drag racing.  Despite the oppressive heat and humidity (it was miserable!), the turnout was impressive for a first-year show that was in the middle of nowhere.  Here are some of the highlights. That's me, preparing to leave from Raleigh at 5:15 am.  I do get out of bed this early; I usually just need a really good reason. Here's the caravan of VW's I travelled down the highway with, picture shot through my sunroof.  The weather was beautiful in the morning; low 70's and not too humid.  I wish it'd stayed like that, but you know

College Park Tuning held their annual massive Spring Meet on Sunday, April 28th at the University of Maryland. CPT is the official car club of the U of M, and U of M is a pretty massive school.  So the turnout was just as insane as you'd expect it to be.  I made the 280-mile trek up from Raleigh, North Carolina and attended.  I found the variety present in the show to be almost mind-numbing, and the number of simply fantastic rides there makes it a show I will certainly attend again.  I hope you enjoy the images. Some pictures of the caravan of S2000's I found myself in on the way over to the meet...  These guys were from S2Ki, and they were a

The minivan is dead; long live the minivan. Or something like that.  While the Minivan market has pretty much cratered in the US, the possibility of a luxurious people carrier makes a lot more sense in China.  And Buicks apparently make a lot more sense in China.  Thus, this: the Buick MPV concept. It's a co-design between Buick and the Pan-Asia Technical Automotive Center, who was also partially responsible for the rather pretty Riviera concept from back in 2007.  For a minivan, it's quite well-styled: it's even got a hint of Citroen to me from the side. I'm not sure the extent to which there's really a market for a vehicle like this in the US, though.  I mean,  Buick's last minivan - the oddly named Terraza

On the week of April 6th of this year, I will be covering the New York International Auto Show, with laptop, and camera in hand. And so, I wanted to ask, which vehicles would you want to see? The list is almost endless, and of course there is certainly some time limitations, but I will do my best. It looks like the entire day for both Wednesday, and Thursday are packed end to end with product introductions, or product reviews, from 8:00 right through 15:15 on Wednesday, and through 14:45 on Thursday. And according to the newsletter, there will be at least 33 vehicles scheduled for press conferences. That's going to be quite a few to try and cover, so I'll only go after the

Since we took a look at the Geneva Auto Salon, I though it was time to take a look at a unique Detroit Spectacular, the Detroit Autorama. This is where the premiere Custom Car Builders congregate to show off their interpretations of the classic American Hot Rod. All of the entries in this years show were nothing short of breathtaking. This all culminates in awarding the Don Ridler Award for the most outstanding custom at the show. Without further ado, here are the highlights of the 2009 Detroit Autorama. 2008 Ridler Award Winner, the Ferrambo, a Ferrari engined 60's Rambler wagon! First, a review of Don Ridler, who inspired the award: Don Ridler was a man with a very competitive spirit excelling in athletics in high school