Car Throttle

It's hard these days to find a unique niche in the US auto market. There's a vehicle to suit basically any need and price range.  I mean, why else does Mercedes make the R-class and the CLS?  Does anyone really need a 500-horsepower 4WD AMG-engined Minivan?  Not really, but Mercedes saw a niche and filled it.  Sometimes this practice of niche filling works out (Subaru Outback!) and sometimes it doesn't (GMC Envoy XUV!)  Honda saw an opportunity to both fill an empty niche in the market, and make a retro reference to one of their cult classics.  Thus was born the CR-Z hybrid, an odd amalgam of Civic CRX, first-generation Insight, and a touch of Prius.  And maybe Fiero.  It's weird, but does it make

One of the highlights of the recent Tokyo Auto Show (pretty much a home market Japanese-only show this year) was the Honda CR-Z Concept. The car first appeared at the 2007 show, but the model introduced at the show this year was supposedly a nearly 100% preview of the production model. That has proven to be correct now, as a brochure for the production Honda CR-Z has leaked, giving us a good bit of information. See, it looks nearly identical to the "concept" - and that is a good thing. The CR-Z promises to be the best looking Honda in a long time. The CR-Z is somewhat of a successor to the original CRX (and also somewhat, the Insight), an extremely efficient and fun to drive vehicle that

Toyota has set its sights on producing some exciting new vehicles that will help it to connect with enthusiasts. Vehicles from Toyota have been criticized as appliances that don't provide much in the way of excitement. For Lexus, the LF-A was introduced after a long development process, and the FT-86 Concept is destined for production at the Toyota division. Rival Honda has made waves with the CR-Z Concept that is in the works for production. Japan's Best Car magazine has Toyota planning a competitor by reviving a recent sports model - the MR2, but this time called the MR-S. The MR2 was seen as an affordable mid-engined sports car, but it didn't do very well in the United States in the years leading up to its demise.

Lately, a couple of friends and I have been throwing around the idea of starting a racing team. Of course, since none of us have very much money, this would normally be impossible.  But, if you've been living under a large rock for the last few years, I have good news - there's a solution to this problem!  It's called the 24 hours of LeMons (as opposed to the real deal, the 24 Hours of LeMans), and it's just about the best thing to happen to grassroots racing since Spec Miatas. You can get all the nitty gritty details at the 24 Hours of LeMons website, but I'll lay out the basic premises of the series.  It's a 24-hour (mostly) endurance race that takes place over

I've been waiting for this one for a while now. There's been a severe market shortage of small, fuel-efficient, genuinely fun-t0-drive two-seat coupes, pretty much since Honda dropped the CR-X and replaced it with the useless del Sol.  It's of no surprise, then, that it would be Honda to pick up the mantle of the tiny two-seat pocket rocket with a modern interpretation of the beloved CR-X. And you can't say the time isn't right for such a car.  These days, everyone's concerned with efficiency, but that doesn't mean people don't still care about fun.  This strategy is the whole reason that Honda sold every CR-X they could import in the '80's, even with the ridiculous Honda dealer price gouging that was routine back when there was

These days, the 1980's have something of a bad reputation. There was Rick Astley,MC Hammer pants, Metallica (personal opinion here!), a minor recession, massive inflation, and a general air of bad taste was prevalent.  However, you have to give the 1980's it's fair share of credit.  Cars were quite bad in the 1970's; by the 1990's the automotive world was well on it's way to the glorious state it's in now.  Cars of the 70's were awful almost entirely without exception; they were inefficient, unattractive, poorly performing, poorly built, crippled by emissions regulations, and filled with tacky tasteless features. The 1980's bridged that gap between then general feeling of Malaise in the 70's, and the revival of the automobile as we know it.  It was a