If you don’t like big trucks loaded with torque, you should just stop reading now. But if you’re like me, you love you some torque and towing capacity. The 2011 Ford Super Duty truck has best in class towing capacity and payload hauling, as well as two new engines; a 6.2 liter gas engine good for 405 horsepower and 385 ft-lbs of torque, and a new Powerstroke diesel that makes 390 horsepower and a mammoth 735 ft-lbs of torque. Even... 

If you really want to see the future of everyday transportation, you have to look no farther than the racing series happening right around the corner. As much for entertainment and competition as it is a testbed for new technology, the highly competitive nature of racing forces engineers and manufacturers to put their best foot forward if they hope to stand out (and beat!) the rest of the crowd. The American Le Mans Series is one of my favorite... 

As we’ve talked about on these pages before, the battle for the hearts and minds of the next generation of car purchasers is starting. By the end of the year many major auto manufacturers will have some kind of electric vehicle for sale on the mass market and by 2014, nearly all major manufacturers have plans to introduce at least one electric car. In these early stages, carmakers  Read More →

New research out of Kuwait , using a new method of calculating the crude oil production potential of 47 of the world’s largest oil producing countries, has found that peak oil — the period in time when oil production reaches a maximum and then begins to decline — will come much sooner than expected… 2014 to be exact. (more…)  Read More →

Hummer is another one of General Motor’s zombie brands that will likely soon cease to exist (if no last minute buyer steps up). The builder of gas-guzzling SUV’s was thought to have been saved when Chinese construction company Sichuan Tengzhong, but the Chinese government squashed the deal. GM was preparing to wind down the brand, even as it entertained two other potential buyers. But Hummer still has a little bit of life left... 

I’m a big fan of science fiction. The genre has instilled some high expectations in me for the coming decades, as well as tempered my imagination against vaporware that works only on paper. But it is good to loosen the grip of reality sometimes. This flying sailboat concept is just such vaporware, although it is neat to look at and speculate on. Designer Damien Grossemy concocted the ship for a supposed around-the-world race by car maker Renault.... 

Imagine for a second you are the President of Honda’s North American division. The closest thing you have to a performance car right now is the Honda Civic Si, and your main competitor to the Prius, the Insight, is getting killed in the market. The CR-Z two-door hybrid should be a godsend then, right? Apparently not. The CR-Z almost didn’t make the cut, and US bosses didn’t even want they car. They didn’t think it was... 

New research out of the University of York in Britain is unraveling some mysteries of the common wood-eating gribble that could provide the key to cheaply turning abundant wood and straw fiber into biofuel. (more…)  Read More →

“Range anxiety” — the worry that your EV will run out juice before you get to where your going — is a term that has been bandied about a lot recently… almost annoyingly so. From a common sense standpoint, it seems only logical that range anxiety is a real phenomenon. But since we have so few EVs on the roads right now, the fact of the matter is that range anxiety is, at this point, a made up concept based on what... 

So far as we know, oil is a finite resource. But it is still the most widely used fuel for transportation right now, and likely will be for the near future. It could be twenty-five years or more before alternative fuel vehicles make up a majority of the new car market. So until then, we are stuck with petrol engines. But that doesn’t mean they won’t get better. A California-based company called Transonic claims that its fuel injection... 

Audi is continuing its aggressive push into the electric car marketspace by bringing its “e-tron” moniker to yet another model: the A2. What’s that you say, there’s an Audi A2? Well, yes, when it was originally produced in the early 2000’s the A2 (pictured above) was essentially a European market flop. It was an oddly styled, underperforming mini-minivan that made extensive use of aluminum to save weight. But it... 

I love me a fast Ford. The 2011 Mustang GT gets a new 5.0 liter, 412 horsepower V8 engine, 25 mpg, and a plethora of other improvements. It is a real Camaro killer. But if I’m going to be honest, it is the 305 horsepower V6 Mustang that has caught my eye. Not only does it share the GT’s sharper, improved looks, but Ford had estimated the V6 engine would return 30 mpg on the highway. Well the official certification results are in,... 

Let’s just say I’m not exactly a fan of the California Air Resource Board, or CARB. For all their good intentions, they cause a lot of headaches with unintended consequences of sometimes poorly conceived ideas–especially for those of us who enjoy performance cars. But every now and then they get something right. And while Roush is a name most often associated with supercharged Mustangs, the company is also well known for its... 

I remember when Subaru first introduced the WRX version of their Impreza sedan. I vowed to one day own one. Alas, to this day I’ve yet to get my hands on one, but that vow remains. There have been murmurs of an impending Subaru hybrid vehicle for about a year now, although the company is certainly tiptoeing into the electric/hybrid car race. The first guess was the larger Legacy sedan, but Road & Track seems to think the the Impreza... 

We all want more choices, right? Zero Motorcycles, maker of electric motorcycles, has heard the call and for 2010 they are giving customers more options to play with. They have also made improvements to acceleration, power, and their battery technology. It’s a good thing too, because competition in the electric motorcycle market is already starting to heat up. (more…)  Read More →