Mitsubishi presented its best and brightest rides for us to drive over the course of an eight-hour event in the parched desert oasis of Palm Springs, CA. Everything from a tuned, 290-hp Lancer Sportback Ralliart to an electric i MiEV. And drive them we did. We rocketed up winding mountain roads and down gravel-caked trails. If they brought it, we pounded on it. Fairly hard, too. Odd then that the focus of this particular review – and in many ways the star of the party – isn't some carbon fiber body kit-enhanced EVO X, but rather the new 2010 Mitsubishi Outlander GT.

Yup, an SUV. Actually, a CUV, albeit one with lots of ground clearance. Mitsubishi first introduced the second generation Outlander in 2006 (replacing the more wagon-esque first gen.), and 2010 marks a major refresh. In GT trim, almost everything has changed, from the exterior to the interior to the quantity and quality of gadgets to the engine output to the transmission and finally, most importantly, its all-wheel-drive system. The 2009 Outlander was a fine, competent, utilitarian machine – perfectly adequate for schlepping kids and groceries. But let's be frank, it didn't set hearts on fire. And while the new Outlander GT won't necessarily do that either, it's most definitely not just another sedan on stilts.




Photos copyright ©2009 Drew Phillips / Weblogs, Inc.

Read more →

When the automotive history of the last ten or so years is written, one of the most curious chapters will be why big, flush with cash American car companies purchased relatively diminutive, relatively oddball Swedish brands. Ford and Volvo, while still not a match made in heaven, at least gave it a go, sharing platforms and technology. The merger has yielded some good results, too. Anyone that's driven cars like the Flex or new Taurus can attest to how well Ford skin draped over a Volvo-based chassis works – especially when motivated by a twin-turbocharged, direct-injected motor.

General Motors acquisition of Saab on the other hand, was basically a complete and total disaster. Saab suffered mightily at the hands of the General, being forced to accept Opel underpinnings with hard points that prevented hatchbacks and therefore alienated the brand's five-door loving base. The 9-5 (formerly the 9000) languished and essentially died on the vine. The Saabaru (9-2X) proved the no one wanted to pay a $5000 premium for a WRX with nice seats, and the 9-7X was for all intents and purposes a Chevy Trailblazer with the ignition key stuck between the seats. Worse, with Saturn morphing into the American branch of Opel, Saab was the afterthought after the afterthought.

According to an article in Sweden's di, GM lost $5,100 on every Saab it has sold over the last eight years. The how is murky, but the why is that they spent a lot of money to purchase Saab and then didn't sell very many of them. Moreover, it's costing GM a pretty penny to unload Saab. Just about $900,000,000 to put a number on it. All in, General Motors lost nearly $6 billion dollars with Saab in the eight years they spent together. A total waste on both sides of the Atlantic. Here's hoping for better things from the (still pending) Koenigsegg marriage.



[Source: di.se via TTAC]

We'll admit up front that this news item is minimally car-related, but bear with us. In response to News Corp's Rupert Murdoch's repeated threats to bury all of his content behind a pay-for-it-wall, the UK's Guardian conducted a poll asking readers which online columnists they'd pay for. The not so shocking result: Jeremy Clarkson, number one. Number two is Charlie Brooker, who we've heard of. The next eight? Not so much. But here's the point.

Jeremy Clarkson writes about cars. The other day, we were arguing with a burned out (and nameless) colleague about our mutual chosen profession. Eventually he blurted out, "You're still working under the delusion that writing a good car review is somehow noble." Not that Clarkson is particularly noble, but the notion that the writer most people (well, British people...) want to read spends his days scribing about powersliding the tires off half-a-million dollar cars is quite heartening. Almost ennobling, really.

[Source: The Guardian | Image: AFP/Getty]

A few months back we were lucky enough to roll around in a 2010 Nissan GT-R. On our way up to a pre-burnt Angeles Crest Highway for the now infamous flip-flop-gate photoshoot, yours truly began explaining to our intrepid photographer Drew Phillips just exactly how Nissan's latest and greatest is faster than a speeding Gallardo, more powerful than a F430 and able to leap tall canyon roads without breaking a sweat. And on and on and on. When I finally shut up, Drew asked me, "Would you take a GT-R over a GT500?" Whoa...

Read the rest of the post and vote in our poll after the jump.

Read more →

Ford Motor Company and noted rally masters M-Sport have pulled the veil off their latest collaborative rally machine, the Fiesta S2000. It's their first global rally car, and as such will be able to compete in a whole bevy of international competitions ranging from IRC to the S2000 World Cup to Aatos and Aamu's Finnish Tree Bash. Long story short, going by past history alone, this should be one bruiser of a successful rally car.

Right, so let's talk stats. The Fiesta S2000 comes with a naturally aspirated 1998cc I4 Duratec S2000 engine good for 280 horsepower and 192 lb-ft of twisting torque all the while spinning to an 8,000 rpm redline. That mill gets mated to a permanent all-wheel drive system hooked up to a sequential manual transmission with an AP clutch. Sizable Brembos are at all four corners (and like the wheels, vary in size depending on asphalt or gravel). Ready for the best part? It weighs just 2,640 pounds – and that's with the roll cage. And get this – the Fiesta S2000 is "due for homologation in January 2010." Fake, well-produced "spy video" after the jump, gigantic high-res gallery below.



[Source: FiestaS2000.com via 0-60mag.com]

Read more →

About a year ago, when Ford's stock dropped to just above $1 per share, we had a total Ralph Kramden-style get rich quick epiphany. Take all our money and buy Ford stock. Why? Having driven Ford's new, excellent products (like, say, the 2010 Ford Fusion), we knew that barring some weird disaster, that its stock could only, would only rise. Talk about easy money – we'd just sit back and get rich(ish). Trouble was A) we didn't have very much money B) we... forgot to buy any Ford stock.

Now, billionaire with a B investor and philanthropist George Soros has lots of money. Tons, quite literally. So much, in fact, that his holding group bought 7.3 million shares of Ford stock yesterday. All in, those shares are valued at about $53 million. Because of Mr. Soros' confidence in Ford, the price of the company's stock shot up briefly over $9.00, before ending the day valued at $8.98 a share. All in all, it's up 3.1% since Soros said "go." Imagine if we would have sunk $1,000 or so into Ford back when the share price was $1.26 last November. Nearly $8,000 smackeroos of cold, hard, profit! Maybe next recession.

[Sources: Reuters; Auto News – sub req | Image: Paul J. Richards/AFP/Getty]

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has once again announced the winners of its Top Safety Pick award – all 27 of them. This time out, 19 cars and eight SUVs made the all-important grade. To break it down a bit for you, Subaru is the only make to earn top marks in each of the classes in which it competes (four), winning a total of five awards. Ford and Volvo combined to take home six Top Safety Pick awards (the most of any automaker), VW/Audi comes away with five and Chrysler gets four. Added to this year's safe list in the small car segment are also two new competitors, the Nissan Cube and Kia Soul.

New for 2010 are more stringent rollover standards used in the evaluations by the IIHS, a tweak which is apparently responsible for keeping Toyota, the world's biggest automaker in terms of sales, from receiving a single award – even though last year, between Toyota, Lexus and Scion there were eleven winners. BMW, Mazda, Mitsubishi and Saab were also absent from the list for the same reason, as the was the Ford Fusion. The Toyota Camry, meanwhile, didn't make the cut because of a marginal rear crash rating. All 27 winners – and a full press release – can be found after the jump.



[Source: Insurance Institute for Highway Safety]

Read more →

When we saw the HPP Daytona at this year's SEMA show, two things became very apparent. One, we'd really like to drive it. Two, we need better pictures of it. See, the poor thing got itself shoved into a tight booth at SEMA and we just couldn't get too many decent shots. So, being the enterprising lads that we are, we wrote HPP and asked if they had some better pictures. Guess what? You're looking at 'em.

One thing we really dig about these studio shots is the detailing. Just check out the custom exhaust tips – the square suckers sticking out of the Daytona's side behind the rear wheel. Nifty, no? Great hood latches, great front splitter, good looking (and apparently functional) hood scoops and really nice hood pins. And just look at that wing – fabulous. Really, the more we look, the more we like this 600-horsepower supercharged bad boy. Which leaves us with one big question: who is HPP?

Well now, included with the purty pictures was a very interesting explanation to that very question. Gordon M. Heidacker is the president of Heide Performance Products (HPP). He's been in the car business for 23 years, working for AMC and Chrysler while getting his hands dirty with cars like Plymouth Prowler and Dodge Viper. After the Cerberus debacle, Heidacker decided to go it on his own, and set up HPP to fill, "a general hole in the market for accessories and upscale vehicles that could be converted into passionate expressions of metal, glass, plastic to become rolling art." Sounds good by us.

As far as this here Daytona goes, Heidacker had a conversation with Chrysler explaining what he and his team wanted to do. And if Chrysler liked it, they'd fund it. But, as Heidacker points out, they "Delivered that proposal to Mopar exactly 1.5 hours before they declared bankruptcy. So we decided to internally fund the project." Timing, as it's said, is everything. What's next for HPP? Next up is another Challenger, but for next year's SEMA show, they'll be bringing a Chevrolet Camaro. We, for one, will be there. For a partial list of the 50 individual changes HPP made to the Challenger when turning it into the Daytona, make the jump.




[Source: hppcars.com]

Read more →

It's mea culpa time. While it's probably best not to begin a review with an apology, I'd be fairly derelict in my auto bloggin' duty if I didn't admit that not only does this review represent my first time in a Cobra – ever – but that I went in wanting to love the car. After all, not only is the Cobra Daytona Coupe the single greatest car I've ever driven, but I'm what you might call a Shelby-head. At least once a week my fiancee is hollering at me to put one of my several Shelby books back in the bookcase. But still, before today, I'd never driven a Cobra.

Of course, purists will argue I still haven't. This gun metal gray beauty wasn't built on Princeton Ave. in Venice Beach. Nor was it built at Shelby America's hanger near LAX. In fact, it wasn't even built in America. No, this particular Cobra – the Superformance MKIII R, a special version of their MKIII – is built in South Africa. Recently, too. The MKIII R actually has a modern, square-tube spaceframe chassis with different hard points and suspension than you'd find underneath a classic Cobra's skin. Perhaps it's not a "real" Cobra, but here's what Carroll Shelby has to say about Superformance's efforts, "It's not a true Shelby, but I've endorsed and licensed the car for being as close to correct and well-built as possible." Good enough for me.



Photos copyright ©2009 Drew Phillips / Weblogs, Inc.

Read more →

While most sports car fans everywhere are waiting with bated breath for the new Toyota FT-86 to arrive from the Land of the Rising Sun, some of us are a little bit more excited about the car's Subaru cousin. Why is that, especially considering that the FT-86 appears to be kinda just what the doctor ordered (rear-wheel drive, 200 horsepower, light, cheap)? Well, for one thing, Subarus are all-wheel drive. And while rear-wheel driven sports cars definitely have their charms (earlier rumors even suggested that Fuji Heavy (i.e. Subaru) was even caving and going rear-drive with its version of the Toyobaru), there's really little in life as fun as blasting down a gravel road at a seemingly unsafe clip while kicking up mountainous clouds of dust. Plus, you know, rain and all that.

Then there's the engine. Our pals at Inside Line are reporting that the Subaru iteration of the FT-86 will have more power – 250 hp according to them. Using Jeremy Clarkson-style logic, 250 hp is better than 200 hp. Because it's more. IL claims that the Toyobaru will use a version of the just-developed-for-the-FT-86 flat-four 2.0-liter engine – supposedly naturally aspirated like in the FT-86.

But here's the thing – the smallest engine Subaru offers American consumers these days is a 2.5-liter boxer. And that motor, turbo-tuned for WRX duty, makes 265 hp (though we've driven it and we'd wager it kicks out a bit more than that). Why would Subaru put a smaller, weaker engine into a $30,000 coupe ($30,000 according to the IL article) than the motor they stick in the $25,000 WRX? Exactly –we don't think they would.

Inside Line also says the Subaru version will be larger than the Toyota car because of a "stretched platform." We're not sure if that means longer or wider – or both – but we'd err on the side of longer, as in more backseat room. What we're looking at then, is a big-ish, AWD coupe with a lot of power. Can you say 2011 SVX? We knew you could.



[Source: Inside Line]