Car Throttle

Even though the recent recession fatally wounded parts of the industry and fossil fuels running dry will threaten its future, the world of cars is still very much alive and kicking. There is such a variety of new products coming out this year ranging from affordable city cars you'll actually want to own, to ridiculously expensive supercars you'll lust after, old school coupes to revolutionary family cars, petrol engines to plug-in electric motors. The list is almost endless. So to help fellow car lovers and "new kids on the block" out, here's a round-up of 33 cars we can't wait to see in 2012 in order of release date. January 2012 Kia Optima It's been available around the world for a while but the Kia Optima

Hot on the heels of yesterday's reveal of the Toyota GT-86,  Subaru has dropped it's first images of the BRZ.  If we've seen the Toyobaru, now we're seeing the Subieyota.  (Toyobarubieyota?)  If you were expecting something radically different from the GT-86, well - err, no. The Subaru BRZ is almost indistinguishable from the GT-86, except for the Stars of Pleiades badge on both ends, and a slightly different front clip.  The pattern inside the taillights is slightly different, and there's no "86" Boxer badge on the front fenders, but that's about it.

Even the same wheels.

Mechanically, it's identical to the GT-86.  That means a front-mid engine/rear drive chassis, a 2.0L "D4S" boxer engine with 197bhp/151lb-ft, and six speed manual or automatic transmission.  Subaru

Subaru has a long and complicated performance history.  They've been making turbo Impreza's since 1992, and along the way there's been a dizzying array of ultra-high performance derivatives.  The standard higher-performance WRX - the STI - has had plenty of derivatives itself.  Clumps of letters and numbers: Type RA, Spec C, P1, RB5, 22B, Series McRae, Catalunya, Turbo Terzo, WR Sport, S202 - all designations that dedicated Subieheads worship.  Among the hottest have been the S20x cars, starting with the S201 on the old-school GC8 Impreza chassis back in 1999.  It featured a wild body kit, a larger turbo with more boost, and a then unheard-of 305bhp - back when Japanese manufacturers stuck to the "276bhp" gentleman's agreement. S202 through S204 were based on the

Times are tough.  Credit used to flow like water, getting a job after securing a bachelor's degree in English was a sure thing, and the world was a lot easier place to live in.  Not so any more: those who once figured "Hell, I have a job and a pulse, I can get a new car" are now realizing that no, they can't.  They don't have a credit score of 700 and a 10,000 down payment sitting around.  What's a car enthusiast to do? If you're handy with wrenches and know a fuel injector from an EGR valve, you don't have to plunk down 40 grand for a car that will both plaster a smile on your face 95% of the time and not leave you

Last month, I started up a night-time car show with the help of some local friends. The first few meetings were in an outdoor parking lot, but another location became available, so we jumped on it: a well-lit underground parking deck.  This has some benefits, and some downsides.  On the upside, you can hold a carshow underground whether it's raining or snowing or whatever.  The downside: it gets hot in there. For a fledgling car show, a turnout of 50+ cars on short notice is (especially in Raleigh!) is nothing short of astounding.  Without any specific brand associations, the variety of stuff that turns up for a show is pretty satisfying as well. This Lexus IS350 is well known in the NC area; it was

The longer I hang around Raleigh, the more I realize we've got a vibrant car culture. There are groups and enthusiasts everywhere; it's just a matter of knowing where to look.  A friend of mine (with one of the most sleeper Civics ever) let me know about a car meet that occurs every Friday night at the Sonic Drive-In in Cary, near NC State.  I'd never even heard there was a meet there, but figured I'd give it a shot.  According to regulars, it was a pretty small turn-out.  I wasn't disappointed; the meet filled up the entire Sonic parking lot and overflowed into the grocery store lot next to it; and this was at 10:30 at night!  Check out some of the stuff that

I've always liked Subaru's attitude towards performance measurements. While BMW and Audi will brag about their 0-60 metrics, or how many lateral G's of acceleration their cars can pull on a perfect skidpad, Subaru is all about their racing record.  And within a month, two different Subarus - driven by two brothers, no less - have both laid down new lap records on two of the toughest race courses on planet earth. I'm talking about the Isle of Man, and the Mount Washington Hill Climb.  The Isle of Man hosts a yearly motorcycle race that dates back to 1904, although the current course used for the race (the Mountain Course) has been in use since 1911.  This twisting, winding intricate piece of road spans almost 38

Dank: it's a noun, an urban-ism, with a lot of meanings. It can refer to food ("that burrito was dank!"), music ("this house DJ is dank!") or a number of other things.  In the car world, Dank is usually used to describe stanced/hellaflush cars.  So Dank-Fest seems like a proper title for a show devoted to the Stance & Offset crowd.  The show - which was the first - was organized and put together by StancedLyfe, Wilkseboro Crew, and Hoodstatus, and was supported or sponsored by ISO, TeamRPM, NOS Energy, Firestone (locally), GoGirl Entertainment, and SOHO Motorsports. So... what the hell is Stance & Offset?  In mechanical terms, it's a car that's slammed to the ground, cambered out, stretched tires and rolled fenders with the wheels

Sometimes it's hard to mask your disappointment. It'd been two years since I'd ventured from Raleigh up to College Park, Maryland for CPT (College Park Tuning's) Spring show, and I was damn excited.  The event in 2009 was large enough to fill two gigantic parking lots, and this year the event was to be moved to FedEx field in order to fit the massive amount of cars expected to turn out - easily in the thousands. With the event scheduled to start at noon on Sunday, I packed up and headed to the DC region Friday night - I've got friends and family in the DC region I haven't seen in a while; might as well kill a few birds with the same tank of

Continuing along with the rest of the new stuff at NYIAS this year, welcome to Part 2 of our "best of the rest" coverage, a sort of all-at-once splurt of information to keep you up to date on the latest developments, without boring you to death with new paint colors for the Kia Optima.  Here we go. 2012 Subaru Impreza Sedan/Hatchback Subaru has finally come to their senses with the Impreza.  While it's always been a relatively fun-to-drive car even in non-turbocharged form, it hasn't really experienced great sales in the economy-car market compared to more conventional rivals.  The biggest reason would be the big-car fuel economy in a small, unrefined package.  The current Impreza 2.5i makes a fairly impressive 173bhp from it's single-cam 2.5L horizontally