Car Throttle

The Chicago auto show is here, and one of the first reveals is the new Hyundai Elantra Coupe, as well as the GT hatchback.  While the GT Hatchback isn't exactly new (more on that in a minute), the Elantra Coupe is. Designed to compete with the Civic Coupe and the Kia Forte Koup, the Elantra 2-door takes Hyundai's "fluidic sculpture" into a sportier package.  It's a good looking car in my eyes, with a traditional coupe roofline and an abbreviated, swoopy tail. With how well US sales of the new Elantra have gone (have you noticed they're everywhere?) it makes sense that Hyundai would expand the lineup with some additional models - and a coupe and hatchback are probably a good place to start, considering corporate

Introducing the most economical Continental Bentley have ever made. It's not a hybrid nor is it electric but it has a 4.0L twin-turbo V8 petrol. Okay so that doesn't sound very efficient does it? The new V8 Continental GT and GTC will go on sale in 2012 after launch at the Detroit Motor Show in January along side the mighty 6.0L twin-turbo W12 variants we know and love but the V8s have several tricks up their sleeve to help save you some money on fueling them. For instance the amount of cylinders the engine uses varies depending on how and where you are driving it. If you are popping out to town or you're crawling through traffic it will use only 4 of the cylinders but if

One of the stars of this year's Frankfurt Motor Show was the smallest car there, the Volkswagen Up. This is VW's latest city car replacing the old Fox and challenging rivals such as the Ford Ka, Fiat 500 and Citroen C1. The big news now though is that Volkswagen have made a GT version of the Up that promises to bring back the spirit of the Mk 1 Golf GTI, a small, fast and cheap hot hatch. This little VW comes with wider front grille to help more air get to the engine which promises to produce around 100bhp. Attached to each side of the wider front grille are cooling ducts which have the job of keeping the brakes chilled and also house the LED daytime

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

Ford's iconic Mustang musclecar got a significant revamp for 2010, and a pair of new engines for 2011. While the 2005+ Mustangs have always been pretty nice cars with a decent amount of punch, for a while they were playing for customers without any real competition.  With the introduction of the Chevrolet Camaro and Dodge Challenger, Ford needed to up the ante: the 315bhp GT just didn't have much to say against the 426-bhp Camaro SS. The battle-tested 4.6L "modular" V8, which powered Mustang GT's from 1996-2010 has finally been retired, and replaced by a thoroughly modern V8.  The return of those oh-so-familiar 5.0 badges to the flanks of the Mustangs mean a nearly 100-horsepower bump over last year's model, but don't be fooled into thinking

Last September, Bentley lifted the lid on its redesigned Continental GT. The first generation of the car proved to be a huge success for Bentley, helping to significantly increase the luxury division's sales over the last decade. So it when it came to replace the existing model, introduced in 2003, Bentley played it understandably safe. One of the big changes was the announcement that a V-8 engine would be available this year. The V-8 is a 4.0-liter unit that will serve as the car's new base model. The Continental GT when it was introduced was all about being a more accessible vehicle than the Arnage (now the all-new Mulsanne). The V-8 model looks set to continue that, offering a lower price tag. Autocar reports that

This week we saw a huge game release in the form of the Black Ops, the latest installment in the Call of Duty franchise. Black Ops has been billed as the biggest media launch - of any kind - in history. While there was some action on the automotive front with that game and the Call of Duty-themed Jeep Wrangler, Gran Turismo is the game car enthusiasts are looking forward too. After delays, Gran Turismo 5 has finally gotten a new offual launch date, and just in time for the holiday season. What a coincidence! *Sarcasm alert* And the date is.....Wednesday, November 24th. There you have it, under two weeks away. This is official too, direct from the official Playstation blog in the United States. Kazunori Yamauchi, President

Maserati has recently let loose on the most high-performance Gran Turismo model yet, the MC Stradale. It made its first appearance at the Paris Auto Show. It is unique for the fact that in recent years Maserati has put more focus on emphasis on the word "luxury" in performance luxury. MC in the Stradale name stands for Maserati Corsa (Maserati Racing in English). The MC Stradale aims to provide a bridge between the road and track-focused models like the MC Trofeo and the GT4 race car. Maserati says the car features "razor-sharp handling" that it will break "the 300km/h barrier." The engine gets a bump in horsepower from 430 to 450 and Maserati says downforce has been improved without an increase in drag. You can check out the car proving

The deluge of Audi performance variants continues! Enthusiasts are the ones benefitting as new model after model arrives. We aren't ones to complain. The R8 is one of the upper end models in Audi's stable, likely out of our reach - at least for quite sometime. It has been expanded beyond the original V-8 coupe model to include a V-10 Spyder variant. Recently, the V-8 was made available in Spyder variation as well. The hottest model of them all though is the R8 GT, and it just has gotten a price tag. $198,000 - yes, that's almost $200,000, for an Audi. It is an Audi that competes in exotic territory though. It gets the aforementioned V-10 engine, but adds horsepower - up to 560 horsepower from the

Most automotive enthusiasts whose knowledge goes beyond surface level can tell you about the demise of the classic British sports car. Once the mainstay of young people that liked to live fast and die young, it died a protracted death in the late '70's at the hand of it's then-unorthodox replacement: the hot hatch.  Cars like VW's GTI, Peugeot's 205 GTI, and many others offered all of the grip, acceleration, braking, and fun but with many times more utility and reliability.  The most well-known poster child of the British roadster was without a doubt the MGB.  Introduced in 1962, the replacement for the antique MGA quickly became a status symbol and a lifestyle.  When it went out of production in 1980, it was a shadow of