First Drive: Rossion Q1

"How fast can you take it?" I ask Craig Spuhler, Rossion's technical engineer and my passenger at this particular moment in time. "About 75 mph with an 85 mph exit speed." I was behind the wheel of a Rossion Q1 winding my way up a 270-degree decreasing radius on-ramp that shoots straight onto Florida's I-95. As Spuhler has put more miles on Rossions than anyone else alive, and I'd been in the car all of 15 minutes, I decided that 65 mph was a nice,...

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Ferrari 458 Italia: Maranello releases more details

The Frankfurt Motor Show is fast approaching, but rather than hit the brakes as they would for an approaching corner, Ferrari is pulling out all the stops. In gearing up to unveil their new 458 Italia at the show next month, Ferrari is giving us a little more each week. We've already seen the first batch of shots, downloaded the ringtone and heard the company's brand and technical directors talk about the car; now Maranello has released an additional...

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Watermelon Juice - the next great automotive fuel?

Corn as a source for ethanol has its problems. While there are a number of backers, there are real issues that need to be addressed, including (but not necessarily limited to) the huge amount of corn required to brew large batches of the alcohol fuel and the large quantities of water needed in the process. A new alternative is just now popping up that may offer at least a partial solution: watermelon juice.According to Discovery News, 360,000 tons...

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Stillen Nissan GT-R: 620 horsepower, 0-60 mph in 2.9 seconds (w/ video)

It's been more than six months since Stillen started working on their Nissan GT-R race car and we're happy to report it's finished and already on its way to Eastern Canada where it will compete in the Targa Newfoundland in a few weeks. Before the hopped-up GT-R was loaded on the trailer, Steve Millen and his crew took the car out to the El Toro Marine base for a few shakedown runs. Road and Track tagged along to record some performance numbers that,...

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Asian chefs create unreal life-size F1 car from bread

We know what you're thinking, and we agree – if there's one thing that we just can't seem to accept in modern Formula One racing, it's the distinct lack of edible race cars. Fortunately, that minor niggle is currently being remedied by the Culinary Executive Chef from the Royal Plaza On Scotts in Singapore, who led a team of six chefs, two artists, two technicians, two culinary staff members and five young volunteers from Metta Welfare Association...

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First Drive: 2010 Ford F-150 SVT Raptor

Although some of us have an unabashed love for all-things off-road, the Ford F-150 SVT Raptor didn't register a huge blip on our collective radar. We figured it would be a performance kit that was much more kit than performance, or an off-road wunderkind that makes life a Hobbesian kind of brutish when used anywhere but the moon. We spent two days in Southern California, one of which in the Raptor's Anza Borrego Desert birthplace, to discover one...

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Toyota recalling nearly 700,000 vehicles over melting door panels - in China

If you just got into your China-made Toyota Camry only to notice that your door panel has inexplicably melted, it's probably not your fault and the problem is going to be fixed for free. That's good news for you, we suppose, but not so much for Toyota. New reports say the Japanese automaker is recalling 688,314 Chinese-made sedans for faulty electronic window control systems. The damaged switches were reportedly caused by excessive lubricant used...

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Audi to unveil RS3 in Frankfurt?

The Frankfurt Motor Show is fast approaching with a slew of exciting debuts. And you can bet Audi will use the semi-annual home-turf show to debut some savory pieces of machinery, but just what those will be is still a matter of speculation. Earlier reports suggested the new A8 could bow in Frankfurt, along with ruminations of drop-top or even electric variants of the R8 supercar. But the latest reports indicate that Ingolstadt is secretly preparing...

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2010 Honda CR-V coming Sept. 17

You're excused if you look at these images and see little more than the Honda CR-V that we already know and love. According to a corner of its home-market website, the Japanese automaker is debuting what it calls the "new CR-V" on September 17th, possibly at the Frankfurt Motor Show. Already a hot perennial seller, Honda is understandably cautious to mess too much with success, though calling this updating anything other than a mid-cycle refresh...

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Review: 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid

Recently, we had our third opportunity to drive the 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid. Actually, the last go around was with a Mercury Milan Hybrid, but aside from a different nose and fanny, it is the same car. Even though we did a full review of the Milan, we asked Ford for another go around because of the difference in fuel efficiency compared to the first drive we did last December in California. We managed to achieve 43.1 mpg driving around Hollywood,...

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