Car Throttle

The Chicago auto show is upon is, which means... well, some facelifts, some new models, but not huge news like Detroit or Geneva.  Still, new stuff!   Inside: Two new Acuras, perhaps the world's most powerful 4-seat production convertible, minor facelifts for a Datsun, a big ol' GMC, and a sweet new Kia they need to make pronto.  Oh, and some bad news on Fisker. Acura officially debuted two new production cars - the ILX (pictured above) and the new RDX.  The ILX takes over for both the Canadian-market CSX sedan (Civic based), and will replace the US-market TSX sedan (Euro Accord-based) as Acura's entry-level model.  Why don't they call it the Integra?  Dunno.  Power comes from three sources.  The base model has a 2.0L I4

Every car lover's calender starts with a new batch of machines on show in Motor City. I'm talking, of course, about the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Michigan. The city is famous for being the beating heart of the American motor industry and at the start of every year all the world's manufacturers congregate and show off their new products to see what our stateside friends think of their latest offerings. Here's a half-time round-up of the motors on show for 2012 from each stand from the day so far. Bentley Two new Continentals broke free from the covers at the Bentley stand; the V8 coupe and V8 GTC Cabriolet. Little differences to tell these from the bigger W12 on the outside include a gloss black

If I were to make a list compiling the positive and negative things about the Mustang Shelby GT500, it'd go a little like this.  On the plus side:  Enough power to pull an entire trailer park.  Enough power to eclipse the sun with tire smoke on accident.  Enough power to win a tug-of-war with a Panzer tank.  Enough power to stand up at the United Nations and bang it's shoe on the table screaming "we will bury you!" and everyone takes it seriously. On the negative side:  it's heavy, it's got most of it's weight on the nose so it's either understeering or killing you, it's expensive, it gets 0.3 miles to the gallon, it's slathered in Shelby stickers, and most of all:  with the 412bhp

I've been bad about getting out to Cars & Coffee. It's always held relatively early on Saturdays, and to be honest I'm not a fan of waking up early on Saturdays.  It's always worth it, of course.  This week I was determined to make it out there, and the IV drip of coffee was totally worth seeing exotics stacked like cordwood in the Brier Creek parking lot at 9:30 in the morning.  There were some really interesting vehicles to be seen, along with about 30 late model Corvettes.  You know you're in rare company when 30 Corvettes look mundane. I'm fairly certain they never made Fiero convertibles.  A little research on Google shows there were conversion kits for these back in the day,

Let me pose two questions to you all, dear readers. First of all: how much power is too much? And second of all, what is it that makes a car a sleeper? Well, I'd venture that a Shelby GT500 has too much power.  550 horsepower from a huge supercharged V8 is excessive.  It's enough power to light the tires up clear through third gear.  It's enough power that if you buy one, you should automatically have a pending felony conviction for gross display of horsepower.  Or wreckless driving.  Or attempted manslaughter. Now, what's a sleeper?  Well, a sleeper is a car that looks stock, but is a lot faster than stock.  So is it possible for a car like a Shelby GT500, which has 550 horsepower, to

When we do post videos of cars lapping tracks at CarThrottle, it usually is of expensive European machinery lapping one of the most famous tracks of them all - the Nurburgring. This time, it is American muscle lapping the Virginia International Speedway. The Ford Mustang has been upgraded for 2011 significantly and down the lineup. The GT500's power output, however, wasn't touched - at 540 horsepower and 510 pound-feet of torque, it didn't need changing. Instead, it got an aluminum block that reduced weight by 120-pounds, helping speed and agility. Want proof weight has a lot to do with performance?  Check out the video below, and watch the GT500 lap the track in 2:58.5 –  nine seconds faster than the 2010. Wow. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aR7PIZhFUdc&feature=player_embedded

Ford's Shelby GT500 Mustang derivative has always been sort of polar. As in, people either love it or hate it.  There's a lot to love about the GT500, mainly under the hood: a huge 5.4L 32v V8 that's topped with a big old supercharger, cranking out loads of weapons-grade horsepower: 540bhp and enough torque to unseat an entire trailer park.  It'll burn the tires down to cords faster than you can say "clutch dump," it sounds like a NASCAR on crack, and it's as American as... well, as a Ford Mustang. On the other hand, the GT500 was a big step back technically from it's predecessor in a lot of ways.  The '03-'04 SVT Cobra was  not long on posh refinement, but it was capable in

Caroll Shelby may be a stuffy old codger born in the Great Depression era, but you can't deny the man still has one of the keenest understandings of what a muscle car is.  Shelby's name has been on everything from little crappy British sports cars stuffed full of hi-compression Ford V8, to crappy little Chrysler K-car derivatives with turbochargers the size of your face - but lately, ol' Shel's name has been all over a whole bunch of Ford Mustangs.  If you're going to plaster your name on anything, an icon of American muscle isn't half bad. And what do you know - Caroll's got a whole slew of new Mustangs with his name slapped on them, and chances are like most Shelby products, they're all capable

With each and every passing generation of the automobile, one thing (pretty much) remains constant: "More is more." It seems to be what we all want, and so that's what we get.  More size, more weight, more features, more safety equipment, and more power.  More more more, each and every time.  Today's Civic looks gigantic compared to the original Accord - and the Accord these days is about as big as an Impala, which is disgusting. Cars these days are huge, and for the most part have way too much power.  They're losing the plot and losing the point, losing focus and losing touch.  Sure, there's more, and sometimes more's better.  Like when there's not enough to begin with.  But the American mentality of "more is

While Ford Fans In Europe are celebrating the recent release of the 300bhp Focus RS hot-hatch, Ford fans in America have an entirely different release to celebrate - the debut of the new 2010 Shelby (Mustang) GT500, in both coupe and convertible form. A car seemingly designed entirely for American tastes, the GT500 is rolling proof that America still knows how to do what they do best - overmuscled, steroid injected sports cars.  For 2010, the basic Mustang chassis was revamped with more modern, sleek styling and vastly improved suspension tuning - a criticism of pretty much every Mustang since the demise of the Fox-platform in 1993. Ford released details of the new Shelby GT500 at the stroke of midnight, bringing in the new year with a