Car Throttle

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

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

Since it's almost been a whole month since the last one, it's high time that Lotus introduced another slightly different variant of the Elise/Exige.  Mustangitis aside, I (generally speaking) love the Elise/Exige, and when "special edition" means "flat black paint," I extra love the Exige.  That's a whole lot of love. This one'll either be called Scura or Stealth, depending on the language spoken in your market.  Scura, by the way, is Italian for "Darkness," and suits the Scura to a T.  This thing is blacker than a coal mine at midnight during an ink flood.  "All murdered out" is how I'd describe the Scura's darkness, but it's not cheap rattle-can flat black! Just gaze in amazement at how deep and soft that paint looks.  Lotus