Car Throttle

Next year, the Corvette will be eligible for AARP membership.  America's sports car will be turning 60 years old, and the boys at Chevy have a surprise planned for the anniversary: the 427 Convertible.  Thankfully it's more than just a stripes and stickers package, (I'm looking at you, 40th Anniversary Corvette!) what with the LS7 under the hood. The 427 Convertible will be the first time that the Z06's LS7 (7.0L) V8 will be available in a drop-top Corvette.  Previously, the top dog convertible was the Grand Sport, which featured the LS3 6.2L V8 with goodies like dry-sump lubrication and launch control.  With 427ci of displacement, there's now a healthy 505bhp and 470lb-ft torque, making it the most powerful convertible 'Vette they've made yet.  A

The yearly SEMA (Special Equipment Manufacturers Association) show happens in Las Vegas.  That's enough reason to want to go to it.  But more than the exotic locale (way better than, err, Detroit), SEMA is a hotbed of aftermarket parts.  If you're inclined to think this is a no-big-deal sort of affair, that's not the case.  The SEMA show attracts so much attention that manufacturers themselves have been getting into the SEMA game for a few years now, whether directly or through various 3rd party companies.

There are so many "new car" debuts prior to SEMA that I would literally flood your RSS feed with them.  I don't want to do that.  Plus, I can't write an entire article about a Chevy Sonic

It's true.  It's part of the human psyche.  In a battle between David and Goliath, people are always going to hope that the slingshot wielding man takes down the towering beast.  Perhaps it's the societal interpretation of "Rage Against The Machine."  People want to see the scrawny midget kick the stuffing out of the club bouncer. And so it is, I believe, with cars.  Or at least it seems to be that way.  Case in point:  Nissan's GT-R.  Now, this is not to say that the GT-R is a Pygmy in a room full of Amazons, or extraordinarily cheap.  In fact, if you point your browser over to Nissan's website, you'll see that $89,950 is required to put a new GT-R in your driveway.  If

I always make it out to Raleigh's Cars & Coffee event the first Saturday of every month. It's always worth it, even though I abhor waking up early, because there's always awesome stuff to see.  A lot of the same cars show up, so I won't show pictures of stuff you've already seen - for those you can check previous Cars & Coffee coverage here, here, and here. For starters, here is one of 337 Porsche 959's ever built, which was Porsche's rolling technical showcase that blew everything else out of the water in the 1980's, and set the standard for supercar performance.  None were ever imported to the US; it's likely this one has been fitted with the Canepa Design engine

Upon seeing the BMW 6-Series Concept, CarThrottle was happy to announce the return of good-looking BMWs. The 7-Series and 5-Series sedans weren't flukes -and in fact the 6-Series is the best of the bunch. It is good to see the traditional gran turismo coupe alive at BMW, and it bodes well for the upcoming four-door Gran Coupe. To show off the new 6-Series, BMW made two new videos of the new coupe. Action packed they are not - but its great to see the car inside and out from a variety of angles. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wod7-9GABs4&feature=player_embedded#! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nm0A94ycMvI&feature=player_embedded Motor Trend Compares Chevrolet ZR1 and Porsche 911 Turbo Throughout the storied history of the Chevrolet Corvette and Porsche 911 model lines, the two have been pitted against each other. Both are the

One of the things we really like about the New General Motors is the company's newfound openness. They are really listening to consumers and engaging on social media sites like Twitter and the like. Also, they've been creating new videos that explain product. This one just so happens to be about the quickest and most universally-liked GM model line, the Corvette. This is the third episode in a series about the Corvette Racing program. It features Corvette Product Manager Harlan Charles and chief engineer Tadge Juechter talking about the newest special edition Corvette, the Z06 Carbon. He also talks about the development of racing systems like carbon ceramic brakes on race cars and their eventual implementation on road cars. It is worth checking out. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7kD0E4tTmg&feature=player_embedded#!

John Hennessey is obviously the modern-day Carroll Shelby. And while Shelby may have one foot in the grave (not two), it's obvious that the Texas-based tuner is stepping up to take over where ol' Shel left off.  For one thing, HPE is perhaps the most reputable tuner when it comes to extracting huge, reliable horsepower out of domestic cars (along with a few foreigners, like HPE's Nissan GT-R "Godzilla".)  They'll sell you a Camaro with a 725bhp tweaked LS9 supercharged V8 out of the ZR-1, and it's such a clean conversion that an OBD scanner will have no problem pulling codes.  Oh, and it's got a warranty.  How about a Cadillac CTS-V that will do 186mph in the standing mile?  Or maybe a 1000+bhp twin-turbocharged

I'm sure this has been said during every era of automotive history at one point or another. Perhaps not during the mid-seventies, but otherwise technology continues to march on, and everything continues to get better.  And the way it is now, and the way it's going to be soon, is easily as good as it's ever been.  Even though the news seems to be overwhelmingly negative these days with regards to the automotive industry, (anyone know any companies with increased sales and healthy numbers lately?) this only really has a little to do with the products themselves and more with the overall condition of the economy as it stands. The products themselves are easily the best they've ever been.  Competition seems to grow stronger and stronger by

Coinciding with the new "May the Best Car Win" tagline (and recently, the CTS-V Challenge) the GM "60 Money Back Guarantee" was launched. Many speculated the program could be quite risky if many took it up. That has been far from the case though. Proof of the program's success is in the statistics. Only 100 customers have opted to participate in the program, and out of those 100, only 1 has returned a vehicle - that vehicle being a Corvette. Yes, you heard that right. Someone not liking a Corvette? Well, it turns out the Corvette's buyer opted for a manual-transmission and decided 30 days later to return it for an automatic one. Not even a real return! When purchasing a new GM vehicle, you're allowed to

Through good time and bad, the Chevrolet Corvette has continuously been a standout at GM no matter what the rest of the company has looked like. While as successful as ever, the current car has taken an evolutionary and blander approach than some would have liked though. It's GM's Porsche 911, if you will. The debate about its future has always been, and will continue to be, fierce. Should it be revolutionary, evolutionary or heritage-inspired? Revolutionary would be a huge change, like a mid-engined layout that deviates from the front-engined/rear-wheel drive configuration the Corvette has always had. Don't expect that to happen. Evolutionary would be like the change from Corvette C5 to C6. Modern styling, revamped interior with no major upsets to the tried and true formula. The