Car Throttle

To be totally honest, I'm more interested in Hybrid fuel economy than football.  Maybe there was something weird in the water where I grew up, or maybe I just agree with Ernest Hemmingway: "There are three real sports: mountain climbing, bull fighting, and car racing.  Everything else is just games." Regardless, I hard it find to fake enthusiasm for the Super Bowl.  This year some overpaid athletes in spandex played against some other overpaid athletes in Spandex for the title of something.  Yay.  But I don't need to fake my enthusiasm for the advertisements.  Manufacturers spend vast sums of money to get ads in the superbowl; it's the highest-viewed event every year in the US, but at $3.5M USD per 30-second spot, they try especially hard

What can you get these days for $30 grand and change?  Well, if you're a sensible sort of fellow, the kind that wears slacks and a white polo daily, you could get a really darn nice Honda Accord.  To be specific, $29,755 (plus destination fee and accessories, etc) will get you a 2012 Accord EX-L with Navigation.  It's got a 2.4L engine that makes some horsepower, leather seats, an electronic map to tell you where to go, and it will without a doubt run flawlessly with 0 issues for 10-15 years.  10-15 years of perfectly predictable, sedate, drama and fun-free motoring. Seriously!  These cars last forever.  An acquaintance of mine works as a service adviser at a Honda dealer, and they recently got a 2006 Accord

Japan introduces two competing sports car concepts at Detroit.  What is it, 1989 again?  The Lexus LF-LC and the Acura NSX are both fighting for the spotlight at Cobo hall.  But really, a new NSX?  Can this be for real? The original NSX is still a high-water mark in sports car development.  For a company as conservative and reactive as Honda, it's really still shocking that they developed and made it, much less that they kept a loss-leader like the NSX in production for 15 years.  The NSX showed the world a lot of things about sports car.  It was the world's first exposure to VTEC, or variable valve timing, something we now take almost entirely for granted.  Back then, the high-cam wail of the NSX

I'm back in North Carolina now, where you can swing a dead cat without hitting a Bentley.  On one hand, it sucks.  I like seeing exotics constantly.  On the other, it's nice that exotics remain exotic. I walked around LA the whole time with my camera around my neck for you guys - so I'll continue now with day two and three of car spotting in LA.  Hope you enjoy it! Classic cars, especially older Japanese cars, seem to have a much longer shelf life in California's relatively mild, dry climate.  This 240Z would have a lot more rust bubbles over here in North Carolina.  I could do without the period window louvers, but YMMV. You could do worse for your commute than driving an

Hard-parking - Noun.  When one owns a high-performance vehicle which he only drives to and from the garage to the car show. Used in a sentence: "Stop hard parking your car, take it out to the tracks." Hard parking is that guy you know with the sweet M3 with the sweet BBS wheels and the sweet carbon-fibre everything and the sweet AP Racing big brake kit and Tein coilovers and carbon-bucket Recaros and oh my god it's a Grouppe M carbon intake, and all he does it park it up, sparkling clean with the hood up at Euro-snob car shows.  Boo on you, pansies.  Fast cars are meant to be driven heard.  Allow me to explain.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6m9Yomop92Y

A Lamborghini Countach was not equipped

I have to admit, Raleigh North Carolina is not the most exciting place on earth. Sure, it's a rapidly growing commercial center with a mixture of high-income and back-country areas, but it's not... you know... Los Angeles.  Or Miami.  We don't have a Woodward Avenue.  We have Capital Boulevard.  Which is really just US-1 given a different name as it goes through downtown Raleigh.  Snore. So it is therefore logical to assume there are no interesting cars at all in Raleigh.  Sure, a lot of Lexus RX350's, but nothing to care about.  Let me present a gentle counter-argument: Err, yeah.  Lamborghini LM002.  One of 301 total made between 1986 and 1993, this 1990 LM002 is one of 60 LM/America specials which included the body skirts, chrome trim,

Acura is definitely in a difficult place right now. It's struggling to have a true identity in the competitive luxury field. Honda has set high goals for it but is apparently not following through on giving the brand the tools it needs to succeed. I don't see FWD vehicles cutting it if it wants to really compete with Mercedes and BMW (and that goes for Cadillac). If it doesn't want to, that's fine - but then go after Lexus or something. The NSX was an amazing (and out of character) vehicle for Acura. It put Acura's name up there with true supercars, V6 power and all - a car befitting of the higher aspirations that Acura had. What happened? It was left to die with no replacement. Audi

It looks like Acura's replacement for the NSX is getting cancelled (victim of the recession, apparently) and that plans for a successor to the S2000 Roadster might be getting shelved as well.The absence of the high performance models leaves a gap in performance offerings for the collective Honda/Acura model lineup. Could there be a remedy for that? Automotive blog Carscoop apparently thinks so. The original Honda CRX saw somewhat of a resurgence with the meteoric rise in gas prices last year, with examples selling quite briskly. The car has always had a market though for people who want affordable gas mileage with a bit of fun. Could a new reborn CR-X (or CR-ZX) bring that back? I think it would certainly have an immediate audience for those fond

One topic that automotive enthusiasts can never seem to agree on is: what is the best-sounding car? I realize it's a HIGHLY subjective field, and there isn't a possible definitive answer.  Everyone has different tastes in what sounds good - heck, some people think Harley V-Twin's sound good - but I've compiled my top ten favorite automotive noises here for you to pass your judgement on.  I think they cover a wide spread, but I welcome your comments and critiques on my choices.

10) Subaru EJ20ET Displacement: 2.0L Mechanical Layout: 180° Horizontally-opposed Flat Four Valvetrain: Dual overhead cam, 4v/cyl Aspiration: Turbocharged Applications: Subaru WRX

The EJ20 is one of the most unique sounding powerplants out there.  It's got this off-beat staccato burble

On the first Saturday of every month, the Porsche Club of America has a morning car show in Briar Creek. It's always worth going to take a look, because you just never know what's going to turn up.  Today was no exception, with plenty of drool-worthy exotics present, friendly people, and coffee.  Hey, it's an early show - coffee is a must. The first thing that caught my eye as I walked into the show was undoubtedly this: Yes, that's a Porsche Carrera GT.  I apologize for the poor picture quality, as it was a bit overcast and nasty outside.  This is the second Carrera GT I've personally seen in my travels, and considering they cost $440,000 new and there were only 1,270 produced, the chances of