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The makers of SUVs, already under fire for poor gas mileage and safety issues, have a new strategy to reverse sagging sales: Putting bigger engines in them. In the past year or so, car makers have been adding horsepower to everything from luxury cars to family sedans. Now SUVs are being outfitted with engines that are so big and powerful that they can accelerate as fast as sports cars. Yesterday at the New York International Auto Show, General Motors Corp. introduced the 2006 Chevrolet TrailBlazer SS, a souped-up version of its midsize SUV with an eight-cylinder engine like the one...

I'm guessing I'm not alone among auto enthusiasts in having a special place in my heart for Shelby Mustang Cobras. I've driven a few examples over the years, with the most memorable an extremely rare and well preserved 1968 GT-500KR - KR being short for King of the Road. Such a title might seem more appropriate for Bill Ford and Carroll Shelby's latest Mustang, the Shelby Cobra GT500 Concept. Since the automotive businesses favourite octogenarian has been back with the blue oval gang he's been very busy. He oversaw the development of the reinvented Cobra roadster which debuted at last...

LONDON - Environmentally minded British motorcycle engineers have produced a zero-emission bike that ticks all the right boxes except one - it's too quiet.So quiet in fact that its designers are looking to introduce artificial vroom to keep potential customers happy. Powered by a high pressure hydrogen fuel cell, the Emissions Neutral Vehicle (ENV) produces the equivalent noise of a personal computer fan belt. Not only is that distinctly wimpish in the eyes of many bikers, it could also be dangerous. Makers Intelligent Energy are looking at ways to produce an artificial engine noise that will alert people to its...

If you're into off-roading -- and we mean really into it -- then Daimler-Chrysler recently unveiled the vehicle of your dreams. It's a Jeep with more horsepower, more climbing ability and more steering options than any car ever made. With two HEMI engines and the ability to turn itself completely around in place, the Jeep Hurricane concept car is truly one of a kind.The Jeep Hurricane is meant to be an extreme vehicle. It's certainly not intended for the average driver. According to Trevor Creed, Senior Vice President of Chrysler Group Design, "Jeep Hurricane is simply the most maneuverable, most...

BURBANK -- After Chris Reeves first caught a look at the EV1, he'd do nearly anything to lease the electric sports car of the future. Now he'd do nearly anything to get one back. Reeves is one of dozens of electric car buffs to stand vigil for 10 straight days hoping to save the last of the General Motors fleet -- 77 EV1s in California and roughly twice that number in New York -- from the crusher. "If I could get my car back, I would lie in front of a (car) transporter," declared Reeves, 46, of Burbank, among a...

These are no ordinary cars. Power comes from fresh air stored in reinforced carbon-fiber tanks beneath the chassis. Air is compressed to 4,500 pounds per square inch — about 150 times the pressure of the typical car tire. The air is fed into four cylinders where it expands, driving specially designed pistons. About 25 horsepower is generated. Though technical problems are being worked out, company officials say the car is capable of 70 mph and a 120-mile range under normal city conditions, performance that is comparable to electric cars. Critics say the car has had trouble living up to its...

IT'S Smart but it's certainly not clever, and it has cost Daimler-Chrysler more than e2bn (£1.4bn) since its launch. Now the question is: how much longer will the carmaker continue to underwrite the underperforming Smart car? Heralded as the future of urban personal transport when it was launched in 1998, the car was environmentally friendly, ergonomically appealing and space efficient. But DaimlerChrysler's unique minicar has been revealed in the German media as a costly failure with 2004 losses of about e600m, making the overall dent in its creator's pocket up to e2bn.

JASPER, Texas (AP) - For some drivers, even a Hummer may not be enough. At a curb weight of more than 3.5 tons, the Humvee-inspired Hummer H1 is no skinny guy who gets sand kicked in his face. But the Bad Boy Heavy Muscle Truck, a dressed-up military vehicle more than twice as heavy, is being billed as bigger, badder and more bodacious. "It's the rugged Bubba," said Daniel Ayres, president and CEO of Homeland Defense Vehicles LLC and its division Bad Boy Trucks. The East Texas company aims to market the machine to civilians with disposable cash and a...

‘Hello, I need help’ – UN-backed forum to discuss automated car emergency calls 8 February 2005 – Cars with futuristic communications systems, ranging from warning nearby vehicles that they are skidding and advising appropriate action to automatically generated in-vehicle emergency calls that could save lives, will be the focus of a United Nations-backed workshop at next month’s Geneva International Motor Show. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is joining with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), a network of national standards institutes from 140 countries, and the Geneva International Motor Show to host the workshop on the synergy between the information...

ON a hot summer trip to Cape Cod, the Mills family minivan did a peculiar thing. After an hour on the road, it began to bake the children. Mom and Dad were cool and comfortable up front, but heat was blasting into the rear of the van and it could not be turned off. Fortunately for the Mills children, their father - W. Nathaniel Mills III, an expert on computer networking at I.B.M. - is persistent. When three dealership visits, days of waiting and the cumbersome replacement of mechanical parts failed to fix the problem, he took the van out...

Law would stop hubcap spinners By Bill Tolbert The Virginia Gazette Published January 15, 2005 RICHMOND -- If you want rapper Xhibit and his buddies at West Coast Customs to “pimp” your ride with some phat spinning wheels, you better hurry. Del. Bill Barlow (D-64th) has introduced an arcane bill that would prohibit wheel covers that give the illusion the wheels are moving while the vehicle is sitting still, or that the wheels are sitting still while the vehicle is actually moving. Barlow addresses the wheel covers in HB 2390. According to the General Assembly website, the bill was awaiting...

Making a list of the worst cars of all time, which we compiled last year, is easier than making a list of the worst cars currently on the market because, frankly, all cars are built pretty well these days. However, even now in the early days of the 2005 model year, several vehicles stand out for subpar performance in several important categories — in some cases, matters of life and death such as safety. What follows is a roundup of the ten worst cars on the market, based on three criteria: the worst crash test scores, the lowest projected reliability...

Lexus cars may be vulnerable to viruses that infect them via mobile phones. Landcruiser 100 models LX470 and LS430 have been discovered with infected operating systems that transfer within a range of 15 feet. It is understood the virus could affect the navigation system of the Lexus models, it transfers onto them via a Bluetooth mobile phone connection. It is still unclear whether the cars in question use the Symbian operating system which has recently been under attack from various worms and viruses. Vulnerable operating systems are increasingly moving onto a number of different devices. Last year the Slammer worm...

Making a list of the worst cars of all time, which we compiled last year, is easier than making a list of the worst cars currently on the market because, frankly, all cars are built pretty well these days. However, even now in the early days of the 2005 model year, several vehicles stand out for subpar performance in several important categories--in some cases, matters of life and death such as safety. What follows is a roundup of the ten worst cars on the market, based on three criteria: the worst crash test scores, the lowest projected reliability and the...

DETROIT (Reuters) - DaimlerChrysler AG has no qualms about ignoring female tastes -- at least when it comes to selling Dodge cars. The new Dodge Magnum sport wagon and a soon-to-be-released Dodge Charger, a modern update of the classic muscle car from the 1960s, are very much targeted at a male audience, said Trevor Creed, design chief at the company's U.S.-based Chrysler unit. "It does scream male, there's no doubt about that. We found that in our market research and focus groups," he said at an automotive conference in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn. Creed was responding to a comment...

DAILY EXPRESS Hold Your Horsepower by Gregg Easterbrook Post date 01.17.05 The cheerleaders, I mean automotive press, have departed, and over the weekend the annual North American International Automotive Show was opened to the public. You can gawk here at the flashy cars on display; detailed reporting on the event can be found here at The Detroit News auto show site. The theme of this year's cars was more: more power, more gizmos, more weight, more cost, even more safety features. But at this point what we need from cars is less. Much of the buzz at the car show...

Engineers at Michelin's US technology centre envision a future in which vehicles ride on what they call the Tweel, a combined tyre and wheel that can never go flat because it contains no air. The first commercial use of the integrated tyre and wheel assembly will be on the stair-climbing iBOT wheelchair. The Tweel and another airless tyre were on display at this week's Detroit motor show. Michelin has high expectations for the Tweel project. The concept of a single-piece tyre and wheel assembly is one the company expects to become widespread on passenger cars and, eventually, used on construction...

ETROIT -- General Motors Vice Chairman Robert Lutz said the automaker missed an opportunity to market itself as a technologically savvy company capable of producing hybrid vehicles. Lutz said GM "missed the boat" on a marketing opportunity with hybrids -- an opportunity Toyota Motor Corp. has played to its advantage. "We business-cased it, took a hard, analytical look and thought the engineering and investment were irresponsible vis-a-vis our shareholders," he said. "We failed to appreciate what Toyota has basically treated as an advertising expense." Lutz said GM was doubtful the business case for hybrids would work. In hindsight, "we should...

GREENVILLE, S.C.--The first automobile to use air-filled tires was a racecar built by André and Édouard Michelin in the early 1890's. More than a century later, the French company founded by the Michelin brothers is so identified with pneumatic tires that its mascot, Bibendum, is a man made of little else. Now, after decades spent persuading the world to ride on air, the company has begun work on an innovation that could render the pneumatic tire obsolete. Engineers at Michelin's American technology center here envision a future in which vehicles would ride on what they call the Tweel, a combined...

MSOIL founder A.J. Amatuzio coined the phrase "extended drain intervals" back in 1972 with the introduction of AMSOIL 10W-40 Synthetic Motor Oil, formulated for 25,000-mile/one-year drain intervals. Not only was AMSOIL motor oil the first synthetic oil to pass American Petroleum Institute (API) service requirements, AMSOIL INC. was the only motor oil company promoting oil drains beyond 3,000 miles. Today, motorists are still bombarded with propaganda from the major oil companies promoting 3,000-mile oil changes. However, the industry is slowly but surely coming around. Vehicle manufacturers typically suggest 5,000- to 7,500-mile intervals in their owners manuals, and many manufacturers have...

Imagine buying a new car and driving it for 10 years without once taking it for an oil-and-lube job. The engine won't even have a dipstick to check the oil. That's what the future holds if Rehovot-based ApNano Materials succeeds in marketing NanoLub. NanoLub is the world's first synthetic lubricant to be based on spherical inorganic nanoparticles. As with other lubricants, its job is to reduce wear and friction between moving objects (like engine parts), enabling longer operation and higher efficiency. NanoLub dramatically outperforms every known commercial solid lubricant marketed today. As its creator, ApNano Materials has just been selected...

The price of unreliability is getting outrageous. If you want to buy what Consumer Reports has determined will be the least reliable sedan available in the U.S., you're going to have to shell out between $75,000 and $125,000. That's because the dubious honor went to a car Consumer Reports also calls "sumptuous," "quiet and luxurious" and "a delight to drive": the Mercedes-Benz S-Class. Mercedes-Benz (a division of DaimlerChrysler) has been struggling with quality problems over the last few years. But the rest of the list of the least reliable sedans reads like the valet lot of a Davos hotel at...

Even though it's Ferrari red, zooms from zero to 60 in four seconds, and has a sensuous black leather dash with the same Motech data display found in Grand Prix race cars, this is not your typical little red sports car. At stoplights, adjacent drivers often ask Rick Woodbury for a card and where they can buy his car. For starters, it's smaller. Or rather, smallest. At 39 inches wide and 8 feet 5 inches long, it's skinnier than some motorcycles and shorter than many a living-room couch. It runs on batteries, not gas. And, if the thing ever makes...

Car buyers, tired of designs that roll off the assembly line, are shifting gears to decades past. Some are customizing new vehicles to look old, while others are souping up vintage models with 21st-century luxury and power. "Resto-mods," or cars that have been restored and modified, are now commanding the kind of money that only "pure" vintage cars with all-original parts did just a few years ago. "There aren't any more" vintage cars being manufactured, explained Tom Henderson, spokesman for General Motors Corp., "but there's a lot more money chasing them." GM, along with other Detroit automakers, has ramped up...

The California company that has cleared legal hurdles to sell two-seat Smart cars in the United States has put its first saleable unit on eBay. On Friday afternoon the top bid for the car, a red Smart fortwo with 586 miles on the odometer, stood at $12,300. The auction is set to end on Dec. 12 at 9:44 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Zap, of Santa Rosa, Calif., wants to sell 15,000 of the two-seat cars a year in the United States. It hopes to sign 150 dealerships by summer. Zap doesn't get the Smarts directly from parent company DaimlerChrysler AG....

Yahoo News caption: Toyota's new concept vehicle i-unit is driven in during its unveiling in Tokyo, Dec. 3, 2004. (AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama) The i-unit, which resembles a wheelchair, is designed to help people get around. It will be displayed at an exposition in Aichi, central Japan, next year. (AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama) The compact sized vehicle, which runs on lithium-ion batteries, enables the passenger to move among other people in an upright position in low speed mode, while the vehicle reclines in high speed mode to lower the centre of gravity and ensure stable handling, the company said.

Hummer, long loved by loyal owners and fans and just as equally loathed by environmentalists and some consumer groups, is coming out with a new model that it hopes wins over at least some critics. The General Motors division that makes the Hummer also hopes the new model, the H3, puts some pop back into the vehicle's sales, which through August had plunged 25 percent from a year ago. Unveiled recently at a Anaheim, Calif., auto show, the H3 retains the unique look of its larger siblings but gets an average 20 miles per gallon on the highway -- almost...

[T]he tzero can only go 280 to 300 miles at 60 mph without recharging--even if it can recharge on any 120- or 240-V power socket. And if you accelerate it like an Italian exotic, or even take it on a hilly route, that range can decrease by up to about 20%. The range has actually increased over time. AC Propulsion had made the tzero with lead-acid batteries since 1997, but this year released a revamped version with the kind of lithium-ion batteries used in laptop computers. The range, which increased to 280 to 300 miles from 100 miles per charge,...

Eight 100-HP Electric Motors Result in 800-HP and a 4-Second 0 to 100 Sprint Tired of your '72 Citroen DS21 because it's low on power? Keio University's Electric Vehicle Laboratory has the answer. The Keio University's Electric Vehicle Laboratory harnesses 800 horsepower of pure electric endorphins in a bizarre 8-wheel '72 Citroen DS21-styled machine. Japanese institution harnesses 800 horsepower of pure electric endorphins to blast this 8-wheel monstrosity to 100 km/h in a mere four seconds, and 160 in another three, before rocketing to an amazing top speed of 370 km/h (230 mph). The Eliica, the name derived by creating...

Protesters descended on the San Francisco International Auto Show at the Moscone Center on Sunday to demand better fuel efficiency from Detroit. "We're five percent of the world's population. We consume 25 percent of the world's oil," Jason Mark of Global Exchange told KCBS reporter Doug Sovern. "We just can't keep living that way. The costs are very real and they're immediate." Mark said that besides costs to the economy and the environment, expenditures by U.S. military and the deaths of Iraqi civilians caught in the war could be connected to Americans' driving habits. He characterized the war in Iraq...

Combining extreme performance with extreme pricetags Supercars — spelled as one word — are different from super cars. Were this a story about European cars, we could have titled it "European Supercars," because Europe has plenty of supercars. But because we wanted to write about America, where only two bona fide supercars are in production (the FordGT and Saleen S7), we had to expand the term into two words, hence the title "American Super Cars." Supercars are hard to define. Lew Strong, secretary of The Supercar Drivers Club in Britain, writes that “there is no definitive answer to the question,...

Toyota Motor Corp. has set April15, 2005 -- tax day -- as the on-sale date for the next addition to its hybrid-powered vehicle portfolio. Toyota said it already has more than 9,500 confirmed pre-sold orders for the RX 400h, which will be designated a 2006 model. The automaker has not announced a price. The automaker said its captive finance company, Lexus Financial Services, would extend leases for current Lexus owners who have ordered a RX 400h as much as 12 months to cover any potential gap between lease contracts. The Lexus RX 400h powertrain combines a 3.3-liter V-6 engine with...

Joe Goral of Cranberry tries to take good care of his cars. "I'm always checking fluid levels and tire pressure. I believe in preventive maintenance." So when the Costco Tire Center in Cranberry starting offering to fill new tires with nitrogen instead of compressed air, Goral gave it a shot. He was curious to find out whether the nitrogen would make a difference in handling, mileage and tread wear. Nitrogen is an odorless, colorless, inert gas, meaning it doesn't mix easily with most other elements. Air is about 78 percent nitrogen by volume, and represents most of what we breathe...

Okay, know going in that this story is going to cause your brain to curdle. You've got French technology, French manufacturing, and a French driver all going wildly, terribly wrong. On top of that you have a not-ready-for-prime-time Google translation from German to English. It's going to be a rough ride, but once you get into the spirit of the thing it just sort of skips along. To set the scene: You have a cutting-edge French car with "smart" technology that takes so many little, irritating tasks away from the driver. You know, little things like air conditioningl, seat adjustment,...

Can the Pony Ride Again? Jerry Flint, 10.18.04, 12:00 AM ET Remember 1965? We had Vietnam and watts, free love, Vatican II, the Beatles, Joan Baez. And we had the Mustang. Back then cars were really important, and the Ford 1965 Mustang, introduced at the New York World's Fair in April 1964, created a wave of car excitement in America never seen before or since. The Mustang and its evangelist, Lee Iacocca, were on the covers of Time and Newsweek the same week. Mustang made Iacocca the most famous executive in America. Later he was president of Ford and then...

PARIS (Reuters) - German luxury carmaker BMW unveiled the world's fastest hydrogen-powered car at the Paris auto show on Wednesday, dubbed the H2R, capable of exceeding 300 kilometers (185 miles) per hour. "Our drive toward the future is called hydrogen," BMW management board member Burkhard Goeschel said before the tarp slowly slipped off the teardrop-shaped body of the sleek race car. Goeschel, responsible for technology and development at BMW, said the streamlined rocket car sprints from 0 to 100 kmh in about six seconds and reached a top speed of 302.4 kmh on BMW's test track at Miramas, France. "It's...

At 258 inches, or 21-1/2 feet long, the CXT's about 4-1/2 feet longer than the new Hummer H2 pickup, and about 2 inches longer than the F-350 Crew Cab. But it really towers over what's on the road now is in height, at 108 inches, or 11 feet, a foot above a basketball rim and more than two feet taller than the Hummer or the F-350.

Navistar starts marketing cement mixer-based truck that dwarfs the Hummer and the F-350.September 13, 2004: 3:07 PM EDT NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - For the driver looking for more in a pickup -- one that dwarfs the Hummer and the Ford F-350 -- Navistar has just the ride for you. The new CXT -- short for commercial extreme truck and built from the same platform as the heavy-truck maker's typical tow truck or cement mixer -- will be sold starting this week by Navistar's International Truck & Engine subsidiary.At 258 inches, or 21-1/2 feet long, the CXT is about 4-1/2 feet...

I have created a public register of "bump lists" here on Free Republic. I define a bump list as a name listed in the "To" field used to index articles. Free Republic Bump List Register

It was an awesome sight at the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans. Under a rain-soaked afternoon sky, the first three cars crossing the finish line all wore the Ford GT40 name. It was a proud moment for Henry Ford II, seeing his team break the European carmakers' stronghold on sports-car racing and end Ferrari's streak of supremacy over the famed endurance race. Following that incredible feat were three more consecutive wins at the same race in La Sarthe, making the GT40 one of the most dominant race cars in motorsports history. While Ford's success on the racetrack has continued...

<p>LANSING, Mich. (AP) -- General Motors Corp. officials on Wednesday geared up for the final send-off for Oldsmobile, the brand that pioneered chrome-plated trim and gave drivers the Eighty Eight series, the front-wheel-drive Toronado and the Cutlass.</p> <p>Outside Oldsmobile's vast complex in the state capital, officials displayed a dark cherry red metallic Alero, number 78 of the final 500 to be produced. The last car is slated to roll off the line at the Lansing Car Assembly plant on Thursday.</p>

(CBS) Ford calls it "an elegant answer to a hostile world." It looks like an ordinary limousine. But it's not, reports CBS Correspondent Anthony Mason. "This is called the Lincoln BPS - Ballistic Protection Series," said Rick Bondy who handles security for the Ford Motor Co. That's right, an armored Lincoln Town Car. The BPS is bullet resistant. The doors are reinforced with ceramic and steel. The windows are more than an inch and a half thick. Handguns and hunting rifles can't penetrate the car. Neither can assault rifles. This car was Bondy's idea. A former Secret Service agent, Bondy serves...

Few would argue that the Dodge Tomahawk defies common sense. After all, who needs a motorcycle that reaches a top speed of more than 250 mph, cranks out 525 hp, and goes from 0-60 mph in 2.5 seconds? Moreover, who needs a vehicle that – if it ever reaches full-scale production – could be priced at a staggering $250,000? Obviously, no one needs it. But the Tomahawk isn't about need, and it certainly isn't about common sense. "My first reaction to this idea was that it didn't seem like the most intelligent use of power," says Mark Walters, the DaimlerChrysler...

BY THE TIME MARK REUSS reached the age of 36, people were criticizing his work with gusto. Why not? He, a GM vehicle line executive, was given the task of shepherding into production one of the ugliest, most misconceived vehicles to ever see an assembly line: the Pontiac Aztek. The rest is history. Literally. Expect to see Aztek buried next fall or soon after. First, though, Reuss—now holding the enviable reigns of GM’s Performance Division—gets a Bob Lutz-mandated shot at redemption using the ill-fated SUV as inspiration. We can think of plenty of better ways for the General to spend...

From The Triumph UK site:The first ever production bike to break the 2-litres barrier, the Rocket III is the ultimate power cruiser. As alluded to by its name and alone among the cruiser fold the Rocket III is powered by a triple cylinder engine, an engine format that Triumph has very much made its own. Its fuel-injected, longitudinally-mounted, in-line three-cylinder engine has a cubic capacity of 2,294cc – 140 cubic inches – and uses the same size pistons as a ten-cylinder American muscle car. But the impressive numbers don’t end there as Rocket III makes more peak torque than two...

It is the next big thing in vehicle automation: the self-parking car. In a revolutionary development for lazy and skill-deficient drivers, Toyota engineers in Japan have developed a car that can perform a perfect reverse park between two objects. The system will be launched in Japanese showrooms late next month as an optional extra with the second generation Prius petrol-electric hybrid car, which sells for about $40,000. The system took three years to develop and is being touted as a step towards the ultimate in vehicular automation: the self-driving car. The self-parking system uses a rear-mounted camera and a computer...

SANTA MONICA, Calif. &mdash; Scott Painter is a car guy. At age 12, he started an auto detailing service. For $40 a pop, he'd pick up your car, drive it around the neighborhood on the sly and deliver a sparkling vehicle back to you. Half of the 14 businesses the serial entrepreneur has started—including Web site CarsDirect—involved automobiles. "I've always loved cars," says Painter, 34. "The auto detailing was mostly about driving the cars around the block." Now he wants to be the custom car guy. Painter is in the process of launching Build-To-Order Inc., a company that aims to...

For the freedom you enjoyed yesterday... Thank the Veterans who served in The United States Armed Forces.   Looking forward to tomorrow's freedom? Support The United States Armed Forces Today!   Varooom!....VarOOM!.....VAROOM!!!!Are those HOT RODS I hear? click on the tach! ...Kustom Kars ?....Hot dogs?.....HOT RODS, DUMMY!......street machines!............gear heads gonna be here?......no-go show boat.....FLAMES & SCALLOPS.........did he say liver & onions/......shut-up!....muscle cars?.. ......chrome rims.... mag WHEELS...Hurst shifters......little red wagon?.......fords...chevys...dodge...duce coupes ..Welcome to Camp RUN-A-MUK! Today's Feature:HOT RODS! Where the Plan Of the Day is: Mirth...Merriment...and FUN!Kick back! Relax! Tell a joke or two! Have a brew ! The BAR is...

<p>NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Want a car that will get you noticed? How about one that glows in the dark?</p> <p>Ford's new concept vehicle, called GloCar, uses LED lights to change body panel colors, intensity and frequency. The car currently is on display at Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York City as part of the National Design Triennnial: Inside Design Now. The museum is part of the Smithsonian Institution.</p>