Car Throttle

Bangle.  Chris Bangle. That's all I can think of when I look at a BMW Z4.  I can see his trademark styling all over these cars, and when Bangle's Bungles first started hitting the road, all it made me want to do was punch babies and scream.  "How can he do this to us?  Our cherished BMWs!  He's ruining them!" But you know, the Z4 has been on US roads now since 2002.  That's 9 years to soak up the Z4's unusual styling, and to be honest it's rather grown on me.  Not to mention the fact that the Z4 wasn't actually styled by Bangle, the styling was directed by Bangle.  So if you want to punch someone, look up Anders Warming. Really though, the (E85-chassis)

The favourite car of 800,000 or so hairdressers since it first appeared in 1989, the 900,000th Mazda MX-5 Miata rolled off the Mazda assembly line over in Japan recently. I suppose the remaining 100,000 were bought by motoring enthusiasts. But jokes aside, this little open top sports car managed to capture the spirit of classic British open top motoring. It heralded a second coming for affordable open top motoring and is actually what a small roadster should be – light, agile and mechanically uncomplicated. It has been debated that the Miata is more British than the current crop of British sports cars. Imagine that, the quintessential British sports car is Japanese. Anyway, what better way to celebrate this milestone by featuring one right here on CarThrottle.

Let's talk about the Caterham 7.  When the dealership took over production rights to the original minimalist Lotus sports car in 1973, I doubt they knew how many people would still be making copies and derivatives of it today.  Heck, I doubt they knew they'd still be making it today.  Wikipedia lists a few brands that make Lotus/Cateram 7 clones, copies, and spin-offs.  Here's their (surely incomplete) listing: Almac, Alpha Sports, Aries Motorsports, Barnard, Birkin, Boes, Brunton, BWE, Chevron, Chinkara, Cobra, Dala7, Daytona, Dax Rush, Diardi, Donkervoort, Elfin, Esther, Fraser Clubman, Gillett, Gregory, HKT, Irmscher 7, Leitch Super Sprint, Locust, Luego, Mac #1, Martin, Mitsuoka, MNRacing, MK, Nota, Pegasus 7, PRB, Quantum, RaceTech, Raw, Robin Hood(!), Shawspeed, Superformance (S1 Roadster), Sylva, Tiger, Tornado, Vindicator, WCM

Last week, we were out of town and had the opportunity to stop in at Tesla Silicon Valley in Menlo Park, California. This dealer is where a lot of Tesla sales take place, in the heart of California's tech industry and Tesla's backyard. It just so happened that the updated Roadster 2.5 was recently announced and on display at the dealer. The cars on display had already been sold, and there was a customer in the dealer in the process of a purchase. The particular model we saw on display was a Roadster Sport 2.5 in Simply Orange. It looked extremely good with the carbon fiber accents, and we loved the orange color. The updates for the 2.5 versus the 2.0 are subtle, but improve the look.

At the Geneva International Motor Show, Tesla debuted a special TAG Heuer Roadster. The car has special markings and a its "Foucault Field Gray" color, along with an interior that has a specially-designed console to fit in with a special (you guessed it) Tag Heuer watch. We know, the stuff dreams are made of. Apparently the car was coordinated around the Swiss watchmaker's 150th anniversary, and to celebrate that, the TAG Heuer Tesla Roadster is embarking on a 12,000-mile world tour called the "Odyssey of Pioneers." Leonardo DiCaprio, one of the first Roadster owners and an "official TAG Heuer Ambassador" began the tour along with Tesla's CEO Elon Musk and TAG Heuer's CEO Jean-Christophe Babin. Check out the dates for the tour below, beginning in Monaco this month and

In January, it was discovered in a SEC filing for an IPO that Tesla would stop selling the Roadster, due to tooling changes at the Lotus plant in Hethel, England where it is built. The Roadster's production was contracted out to Lotus, and it shares some components with the Elise. The announcement was unplanned, and would have left Tesla with no vehicles to sell until the Model S comes into production. That is a dangerous position to be in, but it looks like Tesla has worked something out. The latest update broke in Tesla's March newsletter, where Tesla says that, "responding to customer demand" agreements with suppliers have been negotiated, increasing Roadster production by 40% in order to extend sales into 2012. With those agreements in place,

Back in the old days, doctors used to make house calls routinely. But what about house calls for your car? With the Mobile Service Rangers those days could just be beginning, at least for Tesla owners. The new program is designed to offer Roadster owners peace of mind about getting their Roadsters repaired. Tesla Mobile Service Rangers can visit the Roadster where ever it is- owners’ homes, offices or parking garages and they are equipped to perform an array of procedures like annual inspections and firmware upgrades. The service isn't inexpensive - Tesla customers pay $1 per roundtrip mile from the nearest Tesla service center, with a minimum charge of $100. Tesla offers the example of a Tesla owner in Portland, Oregon paying $350 for a visit

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it." It's worked for a lot of cars in the past, hasn't it?  How about the Jeep Cherokee?  The Fox-platform Mustangs?  One could definetely say that Mini has a tried-and-true formula, and thus "ain't broke."  But apparently Mini's strategy of selling cute, sharp handling sports cars disguised as hatchbacks (to the rate of 30,000 units YTD in the US, which by the way is about 23,000 more than BMW's own attempt at small premium cars, the 1-series Coupe) isn't enough, and they're adding more models. Now, I think this is ridiculous, but I suppose diversity isn't a bad thing.  We've already covered the interesting looking Mini Coupe here, but the interesting news is that it and a drop-top sibling are

As part of the global expansion it is undertaking, Tesla Motors made an appearance at the Frankfurt Auto Show, and a big one at that! There has been a lot of introductions happening, but some big news happened on the business side of things there well. There's not a whole lot of information about the whole deal as of yet, but apparently equity investment company Fjord Capital Management has invested $82.5 million in Tesla. That's no small bit of cash, and it comes on the heels of a recent string of positive news for Tesla - DOE government loan approval for the Model S, worldwide real store openings and hitting the goal of profitability for the first time. If you remember, the outlook for Tesla last year

Frankfurt seems to be the show to debut your exotic supercar at this year. Already we've got the Mclaren MP4-12C, the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Gullwing, the Ferrari 458 Italia, the Audi R8 Spyder, and probably the Noble M600.  Add the topless variant of Lamborghini's wild Reventon supercar to the mix, and it looks like it's going to be a killer show this year, economy-on-life-support or not. I honestly thought the Reventon was done at this point; it was limited to 25 units of production and all were sold to rich oil sheiks, or something.  Apparently Lambo isn't done with this futuristic-looking range topper, or perhaps they want something mental to compete with the Aston One-77.  The Reventon is still just a Murcielago with a really cool