Audi's bright idea: Full LED headlights for the R8

If you've already seen an Audi A5, S5, or R8 on the road, you know how striking those now-trademark Audi LED daytime running lights are...

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Land Rover LR2

Regular readers will have noted that this has been a good season for SUVs. I liked the Ford Expedition for being a real truck. I liked the Volvo XC70 for its car-like driving habits and its capability, and I liked the Nissan XTerra for its rugged capability in the worst weather we’ve had in Oregon in the last10 years. Now I have to say that the Land Rover LR2 is my favorite SUV ever...

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Ford Mustang - Bullitt Edition

Great cars and hit movies enjoy a pleasantly symbiotic relationship. The cars make the movies fun and exciting and the movies give cars a certain panache - they often make the cars the stars, upstaging the human actors.

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First Drive: 2008 Tesla Roadster

So how fast is the Tesla Roadster really? In a few seconds, we're gonna find out because framed by its porthole-size windshield is a deliciously straight stretch of Skyline Boulevard, a knockout snake of a road we've never heard of before in the coastal hills above San Carlos, California.

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Symphony of Lust Novitec Rosso F430

Created from a uniquely Italian passion each and every Ferrari exudes sex appeal. It is created with a fervor that is evident in every curve of bodywork, every silky gear shift, every commanding turn of the wheel, every reaction of the taught chassis and every glorious symphonic orgy that bellows forth from the lungs of each perfectly created specimen.

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HUMMER HX

This short-wheelbase dune-runner concept is part Trophy Truck Baja racer, part trail buggy, with an independent suspension, high-output E-85-capable V-6, and seating for four. The doors and roof reconfigure easily, while many of the interior controls can tuck into the console and dash to create an open cabin layout.

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Exclusive 2009 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 Photo Gallery

Asked the question, "Why do a ZR1?" Corvette Vehicle Line executive Tom Wallace shoots back, "Because we can. We have the technology inside General Motors to do a car that can go up against any supercar from around the world," he continues, punctuating the thought with this threat: "I can't wait to take on any Porsche with this car, and we're going to be right in there with the Ferrari [599s] and Lamborghini [Murcielagos]."

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2007 Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera

A large carbon-fiber wing. Two carbon-fiber bucket seats. A four-point seatbelt harness. No radio. No cupholders.

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Exclusive 2008 Dodge Challenger SRT8 Photo Gallery

Sorry, Ford. Your by-default reign over the American musclecar party is about to come to an end. This is clear the instant we climb aboard a final engineering prototype of the Challenger SRT8, fire its 425-horse Hemi V-8, and plant our right foot hard to the mat.

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First Look: 2009 Rolls-Royce Phantom Coupe

You might wonder why Rolls-Royce would do a Phantom Coupe that from a distance looks virtually identical to the softtop Phantom Drophead Coupe with the roof up. Surely, you think, customers would want a little more variation on the Rolls-Royce theme?

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World First Drive: 2008 BMW M3 Sedan

BMW hasn't sold a four-door M3 in the US since the E36 version in the second half of the 1990s. Back then, purists whined that they'd sold out on the original M3 racing concept, not only by adding two extra doors, but two extra cylinders-going from the E30's legendary 2.3-liter four-cylinder to a new 3.0-liter inline-six.

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World Exclusive First Drive! Lamborghini Reventon

The "jet fighter for the street" concept has been around since the late 1970s, the ill-fated, never really worked Vector being the most obvious attempt. Three decades later it has finally arrived, thanks to Lamborghini.

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First Drive: Ferrari 430 Scuderia

It's too bad that car noises don't translate well to print. But the most committed among us know what "Wum-wum-wum-whhoooooooooom-pahhh or "wwaaaaaAAAAhhhhhhHHHH!" sounds like. Or what it means to talk about a car while using your hands to illustrate the curve of the road you just smoked through, or what steering inputs it takes to negotiate a particular corner. If all this makes sense to you, then you'll feel the emotional heat that boils out of Ferrari's new 430 Scuderia.

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First Drive: 2005 Pagani Zonda F

The Pagani Zonda S always was the best supercar money couldn't buy. The new Zonda F is even more so: better than ever, more money than ever (more than half a mil, ex-taxes), and even less legal than ever--at least here in the U.S. But it's worth your attention because it's so exquisite, so outrageous, and so damn good. And its maker vows that, by 2008, he'll use his skills to develop a car that complies with federal regulations.

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First Drive: 2007 Porsche 911 GT3

There's something strangely paradoxical about Porsche's newest 911. The GT3, for those less conversant in the 911 catalog, is the one engineered to meet FIA GT and American Le Mans Series homologation rules as a street-legal racer.

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The SSC Ultimate Aero

The SSC Ultimate Aero sets the benchmark for supercars today. Achieving tremendous power via its twin turbo V-8 engine, it produces 1,183 horsepower and 1094 ft.-lbs. of torque making the Ultimate Aero the world’s most powerful production car.

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First Test: 2007 Saleen S7 Twin Turbo

Irvine, California, isn't Modena, Italy, and Steve Saleen isn't Enzo Ferrari. But that hasn't stopped this Mustang racer-turned-car-builder from creating a 220-mph-plus supercar that's all his own--and all-American, right down to its thundering, mid-mounted 7.0-liter pushrod V-8.

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2006 Koenigsegg CCX

February 24th, 2006 - To meet international regulations and take advantage of the market potential in America, Koenigsegg have revamped and retooled their CCR supercar into the CCX. Named to commemorate 10 years since the first prototype saw the light of day, the CCX now meets the strict California emissions limits as well as other tough US safety laws.

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First Test: 2007 Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano

"Sorry, but only Italian cars are allowed at the Fiorano track." Photographer Mark Bramley and I looked at each other in dismay. But Davide Kluzer, our Ferrari host, was unbending. If we wanted to test the new 599 on the famous test track it's named for, we would have to transfer our cases into his Fiat Multipla and be ferried in. (And only when our empty rental Ford clicked locked, did the ice-faced guard finally nod us through.)

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First Test: 2008 Chevrolet Corvette

You've probably noticed that a horsepower war has been raging throughout the automotive spectrum, much to the chagrin of the Greens-we even have 438-horse hybrids ferpetesake.

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American V-8 Power: 2002 Mosler MT900S

"Brutal, raw, immediate, and scary" are words first-time drivers--and unsuspecting passengers--utter after exposure to the performance capabilities of a Mosler MT900. While it may produce "only" 435 horsepower, the handbuilt, lightweight ultrasports car warps one's perception of what a road car can be.

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Newcomers: 2008 Aston Martin DBS

It seems you can't mention Aston's new DBS, star car of "Casino Royale," without also making reference to Her Majesty's secret servant. So there; obligatory 007 allusion done.

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First Drive: 2005 Lotus Elise

With great relief, we can report that the 2005 Lotus Elise apparently will demand no apologies and require no special considerations as it goes on sale in this country.

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A Twist of Le Mans: 2003 Ferrari Enzo

In this exclusive first instrumented test, we launch three supercars toward the magic 200-mph barrier--and reveal which is the fastest of them all. The 2003 Ferrari Enzo went 211.0 mph

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2006 Bugatti 16/4 Veyron

September 3rd 2005, Monterey, California - After years of applause, celebration, doubt, then ridicule, the first Bugatti Veyron supercar has hit the road as the fastest. Bugatti has little to be embarrassed about, since the 16/4 - first seen on the streets of Monterey in August of 2005- is very similar to the extreme proposals made at the 2001 Frankfurt Auto Show that critics deemed unachievable.

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