Yep, you read that right. According to Sky News, Cha Sa-Soon of South Korea has been taking and failing driver's tests daily since 2005.
It has cost her nearly $4,000 over the years, but she never gave up, finally passing with a reassuring 60%.
Oh, and this was just the written part. She still has to take the actual driving test before getting a license.
Sky: 950th Time is a Charm for Leaner Driver
Why did these people spend nearly four months trying to push this dump truck off the fourth floor of the abandoned Packard building in Detroit?
Because it was there and no one was around to tell them not to.
It's just one part of a Wall Street Journal article about how Detroit has become a vandal's paradise thanks to an endless supply of empty buildings. Quite the uplifting read. Video after the break.
WSJ: How Do You Put the Dump in Dump Truck? Push It Off the Fourth Floor
Continue reading Video: Dump Truck Pushed Off Fourth Floor of Packard Building in Detroit.
More than a few of us on the Inside Line staff have a jones for a built first-gen Miata. We keep thinking about making one a project car/used long-termer, sort of like we did with the Ferrari 308, the E46 M3 and the Evo GSR all rolled into one. Only the Miata is dirt cheap. If you do much of the work yourself and live without a few luxuries, total cost to build one into a little Japanese Cobra could be well under $10,000 (including the car with hardtop).
The gang at Mike Burlas Design Inc. (www.mikeburlas.com) out of Rialto, CA understand what I'm talking about. They built this clean and simple wide body Miata I came across today at the SEMA show. It's powered by a turbo rotary engine, wears a fastback-style carbon roof and it sits just like it should. That, my friends, is stance. Mike, just lose the big rear wing and the car is right on.
And so now my Miata jones is like really off the chart. Thanks, Mike.
So what do you think? Should we do it?
Continue reading Turbo Rotary Mazda Miata Attacks SEMA.
Welcome to the SEMA Show 2009.
That's what I said to myself when I arrived at the Las Vegas Convention Center today and found this radical flat silver 2010 Chevy Camaro SS in the DUB booth on my way to pick up my media credential. See those Forgiato wheels. Well, they measure 24-inches in diameter and wear massive Pirelli tires; 275/25ZR24 front and 405/25ZR24 rear. No that is not a typo.
Oh yeah, and it's for sale.
Continue reading 2010 Chevy Camaro SS Rollin' on 24s: Welcome to SEMA.
That's the provocative headline of a recent story published by Slate.com. It sounds like some screed by a coal industry lobbyist, but the gist of the article is slightly more logical.
Author Joe Eaton, a self-described hot rodder who grew up in the suburbs of Detroit, makes the case that collector cars are great, as long as you balance their use out with some form of public transportation.
He claims that the day he sold his car and started using all public transit was also the day he started a Porsche fund with the money he saved on gas, insurance, etc. He would take trains to work during the week and tool around in a late 60s 911 on the weekends he figured.
Sounds sensible enough actually, although the fact that he lives in Baltimore and commutes to D.C. makes the whole idea a little easier. Probably wouldn't work so well in the other 90% of the country.
Still, any kind of logical argument for preserving collector vehicles seems worth discussing, if only to keep the conversation off the idea of getting rid of "those old gas guzzlers" entirely.
Slate: How a Porsche can be better for the environment than a Prius
Yesterday, Edmunds released an analysis of the Cash for Clunkers program. It concluded that each car purchased under the program cost the taxpayers roughly $24,000. You can read the full release here to see how we arrived at that number.
Well, it appears as though the White House doesn't like people going around calling its programs expensive. "This is the latest of several critical 'analyses' of the Cash for Clunkers program from Edmunds.com, which appear designed to grab headlines and get coverage on cable TV. Like many of their previous attempts, this latest claim doesn't withstand even basic scrutiny," it wrote on the official White House blog.
We have, of course, responded. Decide for yourself who's right here, we know where we stand.
Edmunds: Cash for Clunkers Results Finally In, Taxpayers Paid $24,000 Per Vehicle Sold
White House Blog: Busy Covering Car Sales on Mars, Edmunds.com Gets it Wrong Again
CNN Money: Taxpayers paid $24,000 per car
Just after last week's Tokyo Auto Show, IL News Editor Kelly Toepke had a chance to participate in a roundtable discussion with Honda's new president Takanobu Ito.
He laid out several of Honda's goals in the coming years as well as explaining some of the reasons for his actions so far. Here are some of the most memorable quotes from the conversation.
In response to a question on his expected time line for hydrogen-powered cars:
"My wish, within 10 years. Please tell your government to build more hydrogen stations."
"Hydrogen stations are not being built as fast as we had hoped, so we have to prepare ourselves with battery EVs."
Regarding the cancellation of the NSX:
"I'm the one that stopped that program."
"I personally would love to develop another sports car, but if our wish is to come true we need to overcome two challenges:
1. Bad economy, need more profit to have freedom to build new cars.
2. Need to develop new green technologies. One we have an abundance of cash, we will develop a green sports car, not like the car Lexus announced yesterday."
And finally his view of the Acura brand:
"There's a certain level of confusion within the Acura line-up, we're in the midst of a big change. Post-Lehman we dropped the larger-than-V6 engine, and have to adjust to new consumer demands."
According to a report in Automotive News, Honda is refocusing its future product plan with an even greater emphasis on reduced weight and improved mileage. Yes, this from a company that already boasts one of the most efficient fleets on the market. Such are the demands of the upcoming fuel mileage standards in the U.S.
The next-generation Honda Civic was the first car to see changes under the new plan. Instead of getting slightly bigger as planned, the redesigned Civic has actually become smaller than the current model. Honda also plans to add more hybrid cars to its lineup and may even develop fully electric cars, a strategy it previously considered unnecessary.
There are two separate stories about the Subaru Hybrid Tourer making its debut here in Tokyo. The first is the obvious one. This is a hybrid. It showcases the in-house hybrid system that Subaru will bring to worldwide production in 2012, likely as an additional model within the Impreza or Legacy lines.
This will be a setup like in the Honda Insight, wherein you have a gas engine (a 2.0-liter, turbocharged and direct-injected boxer-4, in this case), a continuously variable transmission (the Lineartronic CVT) and a front-drive electric motor packaged between those two.
However, the Hybrid Tourer also has genuine symmetrical all-wheel drive, so the gas engine drives the rear wheels, too. At least in theory, the concept has a driveshaft and center clutch pack built into its flat floor. There's a rear-drive electric motor in the back, too. Subaru officials are adamant that any hybrid production car would have a true all-wheel-drive setup.
But the other story about the Hybrid Tourer is just as interesting. In talking with Osamu Namba, general manager of Subaru design, we learned that this car represents the next design direction for all Subaru models.
We'll walk you through it after the jump.
Continue reading Subaru Hybrid Tourer at the 2009 Tokyo Auto Show.
You've may not know of Buell motorcycles. It was a small, American manufacturer of sportbikes that used Harley-Davidson engines. In fact, Buell was a division of Harley until today as the company just announced that it's shutting down Buell and selling off the MV Agusta sportbike division it bought just last year.
It's a sad end to what was a great story of American ingenuity. Erik Buell built the company from scratch and enjoyed moderate success by building bikes that emphasized mass centralization to improve handling. The latest bikes used their frame as a gas tank and stored engine oil in the rear swingarm to keep the weight low and centered. Although the archaic Harley engines often held Buell back, the British magazine Bike (the two-wheelded equivalent to CAR magazine) named the XB12R one the best cornering bikes of all time in 2005.
I've got a personal soft spot for Buell as I owned the XB12R above. It was indeed a blast to ride, the big block of sportbikes with an exhaust to match. Later, I remember talking to a BMW engineer in Germany about his Buell. He couldn't get over how well it handled and he loved what he called, "that big American sound."
Glad I had the chance to sample it myself as it's unlikely there will be another American builder of attainable sport bikes anytime soon. Let's hope I'm wrong.
Well, here it is, the latest study that says young people are no longer into cars. It's a well worn subject that gets played out every decade or so, usually by some clueless old people.
In this case the old people are the data-driven souls at J.D. Power. They studied blog posts, twitter feeds and other social networking sites to get a feel for the general enthusiasm of today younger cars buyers. Their conclusion: Kids are less interested in cars than they used to be.
We have no doubt that J.D. Power put plenty of brain power behind this study, but their conclusions are ridiculous. Sure, maybe the kids who sit at their computers twittering for hours on end after school see no use for a car, but the desire to have a car isn't about being "into cars." It's about the ability to go where you want, when you want. Maybe you don't need a car for that in NYC, but in just about every other town or city in the U.S. it's a necessity.
Automakers should always be thinking about engaging the newest generation of drivers, it's good business. But worrying that the market is going away because of lack of interest is wasted energy.
L.A. Times: Rebel Without a Car?
Not content with its current campaign, Cadillac has officially dumped its advertising agency and put the account up for grabs.
"As we continue the renaissance of the Cadillac brand, we are looking for the best agency partner to deliver outstanding advertising that attracts the luxury vehicle buyer," said Bryan Nesbitt, the designer turned general manager of Cadillac.
The announcement comes as somewhat of a surprise as Cadillac's advertising was generally considered the best creative within GM. Not sure what direction Nesbitt is expected to take, but it will go down as one of his first big decisions as the new general manager.
Surely you've heard of the Ford Fiesta movement by now? It's a promotional program for the upcoming Fiesta subcompact that was designed to make use of all that social networking stuff that we all love so much.
Ford got off to a good start by giving away a bunch of free cars for a year. Then it asked the recipients, or "agents," to tell the world all about their cool new car. Simple enough eh?
According to Ford, the program has been a huge success, naturally. Over 50,000 people have raised their hands, presumably to get more info. The web is buzzing, too, of course, with over 3 million impressions on Twitter.
"We didn't break the bank. We didn't use traditional media. We tried something different, and it is working" said Connie Fontaine, Ford Brand and Content Alliances manager. "We're delighted with how Fiesta is gaining traction with consumers. It's a whole new way of introducing a car to market."
Clearly Ford thinks this is a great way to get the word out on new cars, but do you agree? Have you seen a Fiesta or one of Ford's agents? Did they convince you to take a look at the upcoming hatchback?
Oh, and by the way, one of the so-called agents said today that the U.S. spec Fiesta will finally debut at the L.A. Auto Show in November.
Updated: Final cut of commerical after the jump.
By now, you may have seen the early clip of Sony's Gran Turismo for PSP commercial featuring Rhys Millen driving a Corvette ZR1 at Laguna Seca, while Tanner Foust does the very same thing on PSP from the passenger seat.
Well, Sony has made a "making of" movie about the commercial, and you can see to what lengths the company went to make the real-life action on the track match what was happening in the game. Foust is racing against a Ford GT, a Nissan GT-R and an E39 BMW M5 in the game, so those same cars are on the track. Rod Millen apparently drove the GT.
In shooting the ZR1, says Stephanie Yoshimoto, senior product marketing manager for Sony, "we worked to replicate the camera used in the game. The cameras were mounted just as they would be in the game -- third-person view, first-person view. That was the goal really to make sure we replicated the game with the actual commercial."
Foust, she says, picked up the game easily and didn't get carsick. "He could deal with being thrown from side to side at 130 mph, going through the corkscrew and all that."
The 30-second commercial is after the jump.
Straightline Review: Gran Turismo for PSP
Continue reading Video: The Making of Sony's Gran Turismo for PSP Commercial.
If you lived in the New York area in the 1960s and street-raced your muscle car, the Connecting Highway was the place to go. It's just a short stretch of roadway that connects the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway to the Grand Central Parkway in Queens, NY, but all the big-money drag races were here.
The Connecting Highway gained more notoriety when Joe Oldham dared to write about the motorsport that most everyone knew about, but hardly anyone talked about, in the August 1968 issue of Cars magazine. 
This era is over now, but there's no proper tribute to the cars and the drivers in any of the car museum we've visited. So the "veterans" of the Connecting Highway have started their own gallery on the web.
It's called Connecting Highway Tribute, and anyone who raced a car here is invited to submit photos (like this 1967 Oldsmobile 442) and stories of their experiences to this living collection.
After the jump, there's an old Super 8 video of drivers prepping their cars for racing on the Connecting Highway.
IL Feature: Street Racing in New York City
Continue reading Virtual Museum of Street Racing on New York's Connecting Highway.
Pre-Production Underway on Fast & Furious 5
November 6, 2009 9:38 AM
2010 Concorso Italiano To Host Gathering of Ferrari F40s
November 6, 2009 8:20 AM
2012 Dodge Charger Teased During Chrysler Press Conference
November 5, 2009 9:51 AM
Lingenfelter 455 TA Revealed at SEMA
November 4, 2009 1:11 PM
Win Two Shelby GT500s and Help Our Troops (SEMA)
November 3, 2009 4:52 PM