Blog Posts by: Carlos Lago  

For its fifth year of production, key additions are coming to the 2011 Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe. Besides a restyled rear seat and additions to interior and exterior color palette, the Drophead borrows new suspension components and transmission calibration from the Coupe. The result, per Rolls-Royce, is a Phantom that ...    Read more

Any combination of the following items is likely to make a video worth watching: a lime green Dodge Viper SRT10, Richard Wagner's "The Ride of the Valkyries", and glorious slow motion video. This video features all of the above, plus liberal use of 600 horsepower. Burnout, indeed. Caught with a ...    Read more

The Chevrolet Volt certainly has green credentials, but it seems to have missed a mark or two in California. New reports suggest the car will not be eligible for California's $3000 California PHEV credit when it goes on sale this year, and, according to the California Air Resource Board, the ...    Read more

At the 2010 Paris Auto Show, the lusciously-styled and American-designed Fisker Karma looked to be rapidly nearing production. Today, Fisker appears to keep charging down that path by unveiling a configurator for the plug-in hybrid. The Web applet contains some neat graphics, ...    Read more

Take one V-6 Mustang and one Bristol Motor Speedway, and you have a challenge. Tomorrow, Ford will attempt to lap the 0.533-mile oval 1000 times with a 305-horsepower V-6 Mustang. The catch? The Mustang only gets one tank of fuel to travel the 533 miles. ...    Read more

Logically, an M Sport package for the 2011 BMW 5 Series is a natural fit. Aesthetically, it works just as well, if the surrounding images provided by German BMW enthusiast website Bimmertoday prove any indication. The website is touting these scans of what looks to be a catalog advertising the ...    Read more

You've heard this one before, but Cars U.K. is reporting that a lighter and faster variant of the Bugatti Veyron -- the SuperSport -- is on the way. But keep a grain of salt handy, as the only confirmation comes from an anonymous buyer who claimed to be ready to ...    Read more

Today's batch of recalls comes from Volkswagen and Suzuki. VW is recalling the Chrysler-based Routan minivan, while Suzuki's reining in both the Grand Vitara and XL-7 for deteriorating drive belt tension adjuster pulleys. 2009 Volkswagen Routan The Problem: As was the case with the Chrysler minivan recall announced last week, ...    Read more

Gran Turismo 5 will be here -- eventually. In preparation, the German-based Fanatec ("fanatic") is releasing an upgraded version of its Porsche 911 GT3 RS racing wheel. The V2 wheel, which is wrapped with hand-stitched Alcantara, now boasts a host of features, including upgraded electronics based off the well-received 911 ...    Read more

Chevrolet hasn't revealed how much the Z06 Carbon will cost, but, thanks to leaked 2011 Corvette pricing, you should be able to spec a Z06 just like one for under $90,000. The Z07 performance package, which outfits a standard Z06 with the Carbon's Brembo brakes, Michelin tires, and fancy magnetic ...    Read more

In an ad widely circulated on YouTube last week, a dyno-confined Lexus LFA shatters a champagne flute simply by accelerating to top speed. To prove its claim that no camera tricks or computer-generated imagery were used, Lexus has released a behind-the-scenes video. ...    Read more

Autocar is reporting that at the Paris auto show in October, a larger and lighter second-generation X3 will be revealed, carrying with it new technology from the upcoming 3 Series. Expect a new all-wheel drive system, and a ThyssenKrup-developed mechanical-electric steering system that will replace the ZF hydraulic setup found ...    Read more

In Lexus' latest advertisement for the already sold-out LFA, the 552-horse exotic remains stationary. It's strapped to a dyno, next to a champagne flute. As it races towards redline, the 4.8-liter V-10's exhaust note, channeled through a microphone and speaker, shatters the glass. ...    Read more

Porsche may have been the favorite, but it was the Schnitzer Motorsport BMW M3 GT2 that won this weekend's epic Nürburgring 24 Hour race. Drivers Jörg Müller, Augusto Farfus, Uwe Alzen, and Pedro Lamy fought through the 15.8-mile course, 198-car wide starting grid, and a failing transmission, losing gear after ...    Read more

At the inaugural Formula 1 race at the Silverstone Grand Prix in 1950, Alfa Romeo won. After 70 laps in his supercharged 158, Giuseppe Farina arrived at the checkered flag first. He was followed 2-and-a-half seconds later by Luigi Fagioli, who was driving another 158. Reg Parnell took third. He, ...    Read more

In a recent Shell TV ad, a Nissan 370Z gets a new batch of oil. The catch? The Z is see-through -- as the oil is poured in, we see it drip to the pan, and we watch it circulate through the engine. The gist of the ad, according to ...    Read more

Children feel safer with mom at the wheel, says a study by UK road safety group GEM Motoring. The survey included 1279 children aged 5 to 16, and found that 6 in 10 say they are more relaxed with mom -- not dad -- driving the car.Those in the poll ...    Read more

Last October, Chery took a track-ready version of the turbocharged Riich G5 to the Nürburgring, shocking enthusiasts around the world. The automaker is showing the car at the Beijing auto show this week, claiming it lapped the Green Hell in 8 minutes/56 seconds, which is close to a Range Rover ...    Read more

Geely reached peak criticism after releasing pictures of its GE luxury flagship last year. It was a weak Rolls Royce Phantom knock-off trying to look as serious as possible, like a child donning dad's suit and tie. Since then, Geely has reshaped the GE, and the car above is the ...    Read more

Tomorrow, Nissan will open its preorder process for the Leaf, the automaker's first mass-market electric vehicle. At NissanUSA.com, signing up for Leaf updates grants you a priority reservation spot amid the 115,000 people that Nissan claims have already done so. Reservations will open to the public on May 15. ...    Read more

During the first official press tour of the SMS Supercars facility in Corona, California, company founder Steve Saleen debuted his latest take on the modern musclecar: the 2011 SMS 302 Mustang. The imposing gray machine we saw was a prototype, with the body gaps to ...    Read more

Would it be overkill to arrive at the next Spec Miata race with a former Brawn GP Formula 1 trailer? One with cabinets and cupboards, office space for 10 people, air-conditioning, a heater, compressor, external storage lockers, and extras? With eBay, you can find out. USF1 ...    Read more

We're glad to see Ferrari has crafted a film highlighting all the technical details of its hot new 599 GTO, but we're a little dismayed that Modena issued said production in Italian, and failed to provide us either with subtitles or Rosetta Stone software. If you're not proficient in Italian, ...    Read more

Along with the bodywork change that upgraded the R15 TDI to "plus" spec, Audi has a new livery in store for this year's 24 Hours of Le Mans. Gone is last year's predominately silver color. (Something to do with the third-place finish behind Peugeot, perhaps?) It's replaced with red and ...    Read more

Yesterday's report that Fiat is consolidating brands and shifting production to North America is "premature and not based on fact," according to the automaker. Italian newspaper la Repubblica reported that Fiat, which holds 20 percent of Chrysler, is moving production of 350,000 vehicles ...    Read more