In a move that could make Ice Road Truckers even more boring and prevent "up to 56 percent of rollover crashes each year and another 14 percent of loss-of-control crashes," the US Department of Transportation is proposing a new motor vehicle safety standard that would require electronic stability control on "large commercial trucks, motorcoaches, and other large buses for the first time ever."
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Categories: Auto Industry,Trucks
"Insane. Those leathers have been crashed before." --Mark Takahashi
Genki Hagata is ripping around Infineon Raceway during an AMA event when all of a sudden things don't go so well. But then, thanks to incredible grip strength, smarts, balance, luck and luck, things get better.
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Categories: Motorcycles,Videos
"...I burried the throttle, closed my eyes, bounced off a few trees and came up in the road..."
-Subaru Rally Team driver David Higgins.
Why more people don't watch rally I'll never know. Check the video after the jump for more rally action from Subaru's win at the 2012 Oregon Trail Rally.
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Categories: Motorsports,Subaru,Videos
If you're anything like me, you hate Dax Shepard. First, he was the worst guest start on the old Adam Carolla radio show here in LA and he was on ALL THE TIME. Second, he's dating Kristen Bell. Third, he's the owner of a totally bitchin' 1967 Lincoln Continental with a fuel-injected 514ci Ford Racing Crate Motor cranking out over 700 horsepower.
And if you're anything like me, you're going to shove that hate down deep and go see the hell out of Hit and Run because this movie looks pretty darned good.
Item's 2 and 3 in my "Dax Shepard is annoying" list are featured prominently in the the new movie that also stars Dax (as a getaway driver), David Koechner, Tom Arnold, Bradley Cooper and Kristin Chenoweth.
Oh, the movie will also feature Dax's 700-horsepower LS7-powered Class 1 Off Road buggy.
Trailer after the jump.
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Categories: Convertibles,Videos
The Wall Street Journal yesterday reported that GM would pull advertising from Facebook after the marketing team determined that the ads had little impact on consumers. I use Facebook and can confirm that the ads are, mostly, ineffective. This is a decision companies make every day. You don't run a successful company if you're not monitoring the ways you spend money and if you're not tracking the results of your actions. You've got to know when to hold them etc etc.
In other words, while this has two HUGE names involved (GM and Facebook), it's kind of a non-issue.
Or at least it was until Ford got into the mix...
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Categories: Auto Industry,Ford,General Motors
Road Test Editor Mike Monticello gives you the pros and cons of the Hyundai Sonata Sedan along with insight on pricing, safety, and fuel economy plus a list of competitors of the Hyundai Sonata to check out including the, Honda Accord, Ford Fusion, Nissan Altima, and Toyota Camry.
For more info on the 2012 Hyundai Sonata Sedan see Edmunds.com.
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Categories: Hyundai,Sedans,Videos
Inside Line tests hundreds of vehicles a year. Cars, trucks, SUVs, we run them all, and the numbers always tell a story. With that in mind we present "IL Track Tested," a quick rundown of all the data we collect at the track, along with comments direct from the test drivers. Enjoy.
With full-size-sedan proportions, a real trunk, rear-drive layout and fuel-efficient and powerful powertrain offerings, both the new Chevy Caprice -- available only for government fleet use when new -- and the Dodge Charger are vying for the hearts and budgets of the Fraternal Order of Police.
What we have here, though, are completely different animals from the rookie’s squad car. First, we’ve replaced the Police package Charger with the biggest and baddest Charger available, the 470-horsepower 2012 Dodge Dodge Charger SRT8. It’s a tire-shredding beast of a sedan for sure, but it’s still less powerful than what you can get from GM.
Standing in for the base Caprice is a 505-hp-plus 6.0-liter monster out of SLP. The SLP Caprice Detective Package straps an SLP TVS 1900 supercharger to the stock 6.0-liter V8 as well as cold-air induction and SLP PowerFlo axle-back stainless steel exhaust and, for good measure, gives it a healthy tune. SLP says this is the car for emergency units in small towns with few cars, as well as Fire and Rescue units. We’re going to assume a few high-ranking detectives have also approved a line item for this kit in their budget.
Which takes it on the track and which one would you be more afraid of with gumballs on the roof?
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Categories: Chevrolet,Dodge,IL Track Tested,Sedans,Tuners and Modifications
Nissan’s new (we can’t bring ourselves to say “all-new” because the chassis and engines are carryover) will be in showrooms on June 26, little more than a month from now. We don’t think the 2013 Altima’s styling is pushing any boundaries, but the new midsize sedan has several handy features that prove increasingly interconnected electronics are good to be a great thing, as is the industry’s ongoing weight-reduction initiative.
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Categories: Nissan,Sedans
The great question of our time has finally been answered: Food Network star and hair-bleach enthusiast Guy Fieri will pilot the pace car at the 2012 Indy 500.
In case you forgot, this year's pace car is a pretty rad 2013 Chevy Corvette ZR1 with a Bowtie on the roof, special Indy Pacecar graphics and the car's normal 6.2-liter Supercharged, 638-horsepower 6.2-liter V8.
Fieri is a known Chevy fan (Check the video after the jump. He loves Chevy. He's not that good an actor.) who drives a '68 Camaro on his show Diner's Drive-Ins and Dives, and also owns the above Chevy Camaro SS Convertible. A gift from GM.
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Categories: Celebrities,Chevrolet,Motorsports
As happens all too frequently these days, the news that Tony Hawk jumped a skateboard over a Lexus LFA broke via Instagram via Twitter yesterday. And, like most things that break on Twitter/Instagram, this is pretty pointless. But, hey, who knew Tony still had enough cartilage in his knees to skateboard?
Next time try it without the ramp.
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Categories: Celebrities,Lexus,Videos
You read the title; you're either into this video or you're not.
If you are into loud, smokey, ridiculously painted supercars going unreasonably fast, here's your daily dose of rear-mounted-camera dizziness for the day!
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Categories: Coupes,Ford,Motorsports,Sports Cars
The BMW 1 Series M Coupe lasted less than a generation. That car had all the right things: 335 horsepower, a limited slip differential, M-steering wheel, great seats and a massive wheel/tire package paired with equally large brakes. It's one of those cars that was a collector's edition the second it rolled onto the showroom floor.
BMW is not announcing a new 1 Series M Coupe, but they are jazzing up the 1-series for those of us who didn't get in on the very, very limited run of them.
Finally, the 135is has some unique interior and exterior styling bits like exclusive wheels, special badges, stainless steel pedals and optional black leather seats with blue stitching.
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Categories: BMW,Coupes,Sports Cars
Nissan is set to expand its Nismo offerings with new "RS" packages. While standard Nismo packages will continue to focus on suspension upgrades, the RS packages will include engine upgrades. Or so says Andy Palmer, executive vice president of Nissan and head of Global Product Planning.
Categories: Auto Industry,Future Vehicles,Nissan
When we first got spy shots of the Porsche 918 Coupe last week, we were thrown by the faux racecar livery applied just too well to the car. It wouldn't have been the first time a manufacturer has thrown racecar paint on a prototype to throw photographers, but this one was a little too....nice. And now we know why....
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Categories: Hybrids,Porsche,Sports Cars
That there is 3/4 of the #40 racing SRT Viper Cup being piloted by David Pintaric. The incident was "completely driver error" according to David Pintaric. Watch him narrate his own life-threatening crash and thank the Dodge / SRT Engineers who made the Viper so safe in the video after the jump.
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Categories: Coupes,Dodge,Motorsports,Videos
Much has been said about the reality of the car action in the Fast and the Furious movies, but perhaps no subject has been as thoroughly debated as the shifting. Shifting in the F&F movies does pretty much the same thing as hitting the NOS button and each car has something like 92 gears. And now Supercut has put them all together.
Not exactly all, Supercut had some rules, "It had to be an obvious gear-shift moment, with the hand/gearshift at least partially showing on screen (there are several moments in the films where you see a character's shoulder move as they shift gears, but those didn't count unless you could also see part of the hand). Everything else--barring the brief titles for each film--was cut."
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Categories: Celebrities,Videos
Jeff Zwart sent out a video this morning teasing the 2013 Cadillac ATS' soon-to-be appearance on the circuit at Monaco. "Gonna get to do these laps. Derek Hill is driving for me. When they give us the green light we're going to go out and hammer around this circuit and see what the ATS will do."
And, unfortunately, that's it. We don't see the ATS hit it yet, but Zwart was the man behind the videos of the ATS on the Nurburgring and at Milford so expect much of the same whenever this one hits.
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Categories: Cadillac,Motorsports,Videos
Rejoice my fellow Canadians as you feast your eyes upon the Chevrolet Trax mini SUV that will make its world debut at the Paris Motor Show in September. OK, so that's not especially exciting, but it gets better. Canada, along with Mexico, will be the first markets to get the Trax when it arrives in showrooms in the "fourth quarter" of this year. First!
And that's pretty much all that's known about the Trax. Well, that and it won't be sold in the United States.
"Because of the strong position of the Equinox, there are no plans to introduce the Trax in the U.S. market."
This is curious given that the Buick Encore will be sold down here below the 49th parallel despite being similar in size and concept. So Americans are interested in a tiny Buick SUV, but not a Chevy one? Odd.
Categories: Chevrolet
After a couple of decades out of the game, Lamborghini is charging back into the ultra-premium performance SUV market with a careful, reasonable, measured goal: "Make the production Urus the best-performing and lightest vehicle in its category."
In an interview with Automotive News, Lamborghini's R&D director Maurizio Reggiani broke the news to the rest of the sport-suv world that the Urus would focus not just on brute strength and crazy looks, but that Lamborghini is aiming for the lightest (under 4,400 pounds) and sportiest vehicle in the decidedly not sporty class.
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Categories: Future Vehicles,Lamborghini,SUVs
