Car Throttle

Need a moment of zen today?  Then plug in your speakers, turn it up, and just listen to it. It's a compilation of footage from the 2011 Rallye Legend Boucles de Spa, a gathering of classic rally cars that's a yearly occurence.  Old (RWD) Escorts, stage-prepped air cooled 911's oversteering wildly, just... just watch it.  It's beautiful.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khmBVFjBrIc

My goodness.  Feeling more in tune with your inner Chi now?  Not yet?  How about footage from 2010?  Take two and let me know how you're feeling later.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-M8jsU2E8eE

It's already too late to go see the action this year (it was held Feb 18-19), but for more info on the event you can visit the organizational page at Race-Rallye.be.  The language

GM has kicked the hype machine into top gear for the upcoming US launch of the Cruze, their competitor in the Civic/Corolla compact car class. If I were them, I would too: their history of making compact cars that aren't totally horrible is... uhh, in fact they never have.  Vega!  Cavalier!  Sunfire! Chevette!  Cobalt!  Aaaargh! But initial reviews of their upcoming Cobalt replacement, the Cruze, have been overwhelmingly positive.  The ground seems to be growing cold, somewhere far below my feet...  Well, unlikeliness of the situation aside, the Cruze is said to be a totally competitive, well-thought out and well-built car that's ready to take on the compact class with everything it's got.  And GM just dropped pictures of the other card up it's sleeve today,

I left off with my previous post covering the BMW CCA V@V event somewhere in the E21 3-series era. There's a lot more German eye candy to drool over, so grab your mouse and a towel - it only gets better. I realized after posting the last article that one picture of a bunch of E30 M3's simply isn't sufficient for the magnificence of these homologation hooning specials.  While many of the box-fendered E30's were simply stock survivors (impressive enough), some of them were remarkably perfect example of this rare racer-with-a-plate. Now, I'm not 100% sure, but those look like E34 M5 "Ninja Star" wheels with black-painted centers.  Can't say I've ever seen that before - it's a good look for the E30, though.  There's no way

These days one of the fastest-growing market segments are Premium Subcompacts. Manufacturers (and customers) are finally realizing that a car doesn't have to be gigantic to be luxurious or at the very least interesting, and that's nothing but good news for us.  Audi's recently debuted A1 Supermini takes all the traditional characteristics of the brand and reduces them to 6/10th's size, in a small and efficient package - but still crammed with technology, luxury, and clever design. It looks like Ford wants to get in on the game too, and this concept car - the Start, which debuted today at the Beijing Auto Show - is definitely a great start.  Sitting below the Fiesta size-wise, the Start still is packed with interesting stylistic and technical details.  Seeing

When Subaru introduced the current generation of Impreza 3 years ago, one thing was missing: an STI sedan. Sure, you could get the fire-breathing STI in nifty (and arguably better-looking) five-door hatchback form, but it was a bit strange to not be able to get an STI sedan.  Subaru has finally seen fit to remedy this, and along with the updated Impreza/WRX lineup for 2011, you can now get your fire-breathing rally homologation special in four-door format. This is the first time that US consumers will be able to choose a body style for their STI since the model first went on sale here in 2004.  The 5-door will remain in production, but now there's a four door to chose from as well.  And being a four-door

Hyundai's new Sonata sedan has been a press darling these days. It's got everything that mid-size car buyers are looking for: great looks, a reasonable price and a long warranty, plenty of space and quality, and a remarkable power-to-efficiency ratio.  Hyundai just debuted the 2011 Sonata Turbo at the New York Auto Show, and if anything the media love for the new four-door is about to reach a fever pitch. Let's talk numbers for a minute.  The regular Sonata uses a 2.4L 16v I4 with gasoline-direct-injection to produce a healthy 198bhp and 189lb-ft of torque, which is more than any of the four-cylinder competition in it's class, all at an "are you serious?" 35 highway MPG.  That's impressive in it's own right - they're out-Honda-ing Honda

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

There are a lot of nice things to say about the current WRX sedan. It's way more comfortable than the old ones, it feels less like a McDonalds toy inside, that 2.5L turbo flat four is epic, and it still is one of the quickest ways to get from Point A to B when there are curves and nasty stuff in between.  What you couldn't say, though, was that it looked good.  In fact, it sort of looked like a fat Corolla with a hood-scoop. Well, no more!  Today, images of the 2011 WRX leaked out ahead of it's debut at the 2010 New York Auto Show, and the improvement is drastic.  The main visual difference are the STI-style flared fenders, which increase the track width

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

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