Car Throttle

We've prayed, we've hoped and Honda have responded. You can buy your very own CR-Z Mugen, one very quick hybrid, from next year. Car Throttle had the opportunity to take the CR-Z Mugen prototype for a quick test drive at the SMMT test day back in October as well other test cars (which you can check out here) and it was the most fun Adnan had that day. This little Honda coupe is fast. It can go from 0-62mph in 6.1 seconds thanks to a rebuilt 1.5L IMA engine from Mugen which pumps out 200hp and 158lb-ft of torque. This is much better than the standard car and you can check out our review of that here. Mugen also changed the suspension to improve

Hyundai's Genesis Coupe took everyone by surprise when it came out in 2009.  A brand previously known for building cheap, boring transportation appliances had given us a shapely rear-wheel-drive sports coupe with great weight balance, and a choice of two engines: a tuner-friendly 2.0L Turbo base model, and a 3.8L V6, both available with 6 speed manual or automatic transmissions. In doing so, they pitched the GenCoupe directly against established musclecars like the Mustang, Camaro and Challenger - as well as against some import sports coupes like the Eclipse, Infiniti G35/G37, Nissan 350/370Z, and the BMW 1-Series.  It's a tough crowd.  And while the Genesis still shines as a driver's car, it doesn't shine as brightly in comparison any more.  Almost all it's competitors have gained

Well, for one thing, it's a tongue twister.  Mini Cooper S Coupe.  Koop.  Sha-doop.  Not quite a Touareg-level mockery of the English language, sure, but still not something that rolls off the tongue.  But there's more to the odd case of the Cooper Coupe than just the name. If you can't readily tell, what we have here is a Cooper Hardtop with only two seats, a chopped-off windshield, a greenhouse shaped like a backwards baseball hat, a pair of spoilers (one fixed), and not a whole excess of headroom.  If you love Minis for their faux-British charm, you'll love the Coupe.  If you hate them for how purposefully "styled" they are, you'll probably have an aneurysm.  Then get back in your Grand National and mumble about "cars

Finally.  This was bound to happen.  Hyundai sells two cars called Genesis - the sedan and the coupe.  And while they're somewhat related, they're more different than similar under the skin.  So while the sedate (albeit good-looking, well-equipped, and well-priced) Genesis sedan and the related Equus uberlux liner enjoy the silent thunder of Hyundai's 4.6L and 5.0L 32v Tau V8, the company line is that all that quad-cam V8 goodness just doesn't fit under the hood of the smaller coupe.

This is a bummer.  The Genesis goes up against cars like the Mustang, Camaro and Challenger - all of which offer gigantic V8's with north of 400bhp - and some north of 500bhp - as upper level options.  The Hyundai Genesis

Here's Part II of the SEMA Preview coverage.  Alternative title: Turbos, widebodies, big brakes and roll bars, oh my!  In the previous post I covered GM, Mopar, Mazda, and Hyundai.  Now we're moving on to Toyota.

Toyota, Lexus, and Scion have always had a strong presence at SEMA. This year will be no different, with all three divisions bringing concept cars in a futile attempt to convince us the brand is still interesting. Toyota's "big announcement" was the introduction of the F-Sport package for the new-generation Lexus GS350 sedan, which makes the car better looking (negotiable) but not any faster. The exterior gets 19" alloy wheels with 235/40/19 tires (RWD F-sports get 265/35/19 rears, AWD's are square), a more aggressive front

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

For those who love the idea of the Mini Coupe but don't want a roof that looks like a baseball cap, I bring great news. Mini has released images of a new convertible version of the coupe called the Roadster. The new Roadster has a fabric roof, just like in the bigger Mini Convertible, but unlike it's bigger brother, the fabric roof folds away into its own storage compartment instead of lying on the back end. The roof is semi-automatic meaning that to put it down you would unlock a latch yourself and then the roof will fold away by itself. There are other differences with its bigger convertible sibling. The Roadster sits 20mm closer to the ground, the

Us Brits are the biggest Audi TT customers. We buy more of these unique coupes and roadsters than anywhere else in the world and this week Audi announced you can order a brand new one for £24,070, £3,070 less than than the previous basic TT and £1,250 less than the basic roadster. Back in the late nineties/early noughties basic versions of new mainstream cars were usually rubbish. Any car nut could tell you had the basic version of the car you own because it had big plastic black bumpers, you had to stick your key in the door to open it and you had to use all your energy up to wind down the window. CD players were an optional luxury back then! Nowadays it's

I'm not just being mysterious; Kia really hasn't announced a name for it.  But what's in a name, anyway?  What's interesting here is that Kia wants to build a low-slung, rear wheel drive "four-door coupe." Besides a coupe of computer renderings, Kia hasn't given a whole lot of details on the car, but Frankfurt isn't that far away now - so expect more soon.  The big news is that this concept is on a rear-wheel-drive chassis.  That means it could either be based on the Genesis sedan (which has double wishbone independent front suspension) or the related Genesis Coupe (which uses simpler McPherson struts for space constraints.)  Still, this would be the first time Kia has offered a rear-wheel-drive vehicle since the original Sportage quasi-SUV from

Black Series - AMG speak for "wickeder than normal." And considering most AMG Benz's have a copious dose of wicked in the first place, anything with the Black Series label is usually a bit nutty.  There was the lightweight, tail-happy CLK63 Black, and the 661bhp SL65 Black, so what's next for Benz's top label? Turns out it's a C-class Coupe.  The Coupe is a recent addition to the C-class lineup, and it takes the lower end of the market that the CLK used to inhabit - the other end being occupied by the (also-new) E-Class Coupe.  In addition to the C250 (Turbo 4) and C350 (V6) as well as the "normal" C63 AMG Coupe, pictures surfaced recently of AMG's next "Black" project - a lightened, widebody,