Car Throttle

The world's filled with boring, mundane, unremarkable automobiles. For every SVO Mustang, there are 10,000 Camry LE's.  For every Alfa Romeo Guilia Super sedan, there are an untold bazillion Honda Fits.  That's just how it is: mainstream sells.  As it turns out, very few people actually want the diesel, all wheel drive, manual-transmission station wagon that internet car enthusiasts say would sell like hotcakes. Sometimes, though, some of the most interesting cars out there are born out of some of the most dishwater-dull transportation appliances.  Here's my top ten - as always, feel free to leave a comment telling me what I left out at the bottom!  On we go. 10) Mitsubishi Galant VR-4 Mitsubishi's Galant sedan is... hold on, let me go to Wikipedia, I can't

Picking up where Part I left off, we find ourselves in the back of 3SX Performance's service shop. In addition to a handful of lifts in the main service bay, 3SX also has a number of other rooms filled with interesting stuff in the back of their shop - starting with the dyno room.

This is 3SX's photo, because I somehow forgot to take one of the dyno.

3SX's dyno is a SuperFlow AutoDyn 88, which is a four-wheel-drive unit.  This seems like a no-brainer, but the vast majority of dynos at private shops are only 2WD models, as they're cheaper, easier to set up, easier to keep working right, and easier to use.  But when the bulk of your business

One of the things I'm trying to do in an effort to bring more interesting content to you, the reader, is cover more local items. There are plenty of places you can read a rehash of the latest press releases, but here at CarThrottle we strive to bring you coverage and features you won't find anywhere else.  So to get the ball rolling on this, I introduce our new "Shop Tours" series, where I'll be traveling around the eastern seaboard of the US, highlighting the best and brightest of performance and modification shops our country has to offer.  First up is 3SX performance in Concord, North Carolina. If you're familiar with the world of Mitsubishi performance, chances are you've heard of 3SX before.  They are the

This is a continuation of The Brief History of The Muscle Truck. If I've kept your attention this long, hold onto your seat: it's about to get faster. At the same time the big-block Chevy 454SS was being developed, in another division of GM, engineers were cooking up a performance truck with an entirely different recipe, a truck that lives on in legends and myths today: the GMC Syclone.  First, a minor point: yes, Syclone is spelled wrong.  Mercury (remember them?) held the trademark for the Cyclone name, and Ford wasn't about to give it up to their rival.  The Syclone was a remarkable vehicle in many ways, but mostly for it's ability to leave a stoplight like someone had strapped

The 3000GT VR-4 is a sign of both what's right and what's terminally wrong with the automotive industry. Which is remarkable, because they haven't made one since, oh - 2000.  US imports ceased in 1999, meaning the freshest of 3000GT's are more than a decade old at this point, so the relevance of the VR-4 is questionable.  But it was quite telling. The 3000GT (marketed in Japan and other countries as the GTO, which you know wouldn't have gone over well here) was Mitsubishi's flagship halo car, a rolling testbed to show just what the company could do.  It replaced the ancient (but awesome) Starion Coupe when it debuted in 1990, and when the specifications were announced it sounded like a world-killer. Based on a shortened Diamante

Almost as if there wasn't a world-wide economic crisis going on, Dodge introduced a special edition of their lovably anachronistic Challenger sports coupe at Detroit.  While it amounts to little more than a tape and stickers special, anything in today's market that debuts with a huge powerful V8 and good looks should be embraced - next year it might have a dang Hybrid Drive or something silly. The Classic is a retro-throwback package for the mid-level Challenger R/T, which is powered by Chrysler's glorious 5.7L 16v V8.  With the six-speed manual, the engine makes 376 horsepower and 410lb-ft of torque, made more effective by a shorter 3.92 final drive ratio and a limited slip so it will liquify both tires equally. The Classic also gets a low-restriction