CARandDRIVER.com just released their list of the funniest car names of all time. And while you may remember shaking your head at the inexplicably named Probe - of which CandD says Ford may have "had romantic, interstellar intentions when they pulled the name Probe out of their, um, heads, but it instead only evoked the snap! of latex gloves and extraterrestrial incursions" - most of the names on the list put it to shame.

A few of my favorites:
Isuzu Mysterious Utility Wizard (I hear Harry Potter drives one.)
Isuzu GIGA 20 Light Dump (Don't even ask about the Heavy Dump.)
Mazda Bongo/Bongo Friendee/Bongo Brawny (Which proves what happens when car companies hire hippies in the marketing department.)
and the ever popular, Yamaha Pantryboy Supreme (A huge step up from the base Pantryboy.)

To read the rest of the list, click here.

Part of the 60's counterculture, the original cafe racers were built to reach speeds of over 100-mph, and allow the rider to race from a cafe to a predetermined location and back, before the song on the jukebox ended. (Crazy hippy bikers.) Buell's new '09 1125CR is a nod to those old racers, and brings superbike performance to their streetfighter category.

Incredibly fast, and nimble beyond imagination, this new Buell is powered by a liquid-cooled 1125cc Helicon V-Twin that comes in at 146-hp and 82 ft-lbs of torque, with the added bonus of having been geared down for optimal acceleration. Considering the bike weighs in at a feather-weight 375 pounds - with each of those 146 horses only responsible for propelling 2.5 pounds, a class-leading weight-to-horsepower ratio - you will experience seriously optimal acceleration as you swerve and dodge through whatever the road throws at you.

The Clubman-style bars with integrated LED signals are another nod to the classic cafes, and there's a short flyscreen instead of a fairing, giving the 1125CR an aggressive visage that sets it apart from its Japanese rivals. And since these bikes sip, rather than guzzle, fuel, they're a definite alternative to the 8-cylinder cage you're driving in now.

$11, 695
www.buell.com

A stock Audi R8 puts up some very respectable speed numbers - its 4.2L, 420-hp power plant will take you from 0-60 in 4.6 seconds - and it sports some aggressive styling, so the chances of attracting the attention of local law enforcement are pretty high. To combat that, one R8 owner tricked-out his ride with enough high-tech, cop-jamming gadgets to make James Bond sport wood for a week.

Not surprisingly, the owner wants to remain anonymous, so Alex Roy - the rally-car driver who shattered the cross country driving record by making it coast to coast in 31 hours and 4 minutes, a guy who knows a little something about disobeying the posted speed limit - takes us through the myriad of stuff designed to let the you push the limits of the car, without red lights appearing in your rear view.

Check out the video here.

Barak Obama was all over the news recently, mocked by his opposition for saying we can conserve fuel by simply inflating our tires. Made for a great sound bite for the 24-hour news stations, but the thing is, he's right. According to experts, under-inflated tires can reduce your gas mileage anywhere from 3 to 15 percent.

So what else can you do to help lessen your gas consumption? I spoke with the experts at the NASCAR Technical Institute and Traffic.com, two groups that know a little something about fuel management. Here are their top tips for squeezing out more miles from every gallon.

1 - Check Your Tires
Tire pressure changes with changing temperatures, so it's important to check the pressure after all weather changes. An under-inflated tire not only reduces the life of the tire, but can cause your gas mileage to plummet by as much as 15 percent. (And they recommend rotating tires roughly every 5,000-10,000 miles to extend the tread life. With or without a pit crew.)

2 - Change the Air Filter
Dust and other impurities getting into the combustion chambers of your engine's cylinders results in wasted gas and weaker engine performance. Replacing a clogged filter can improve mileage by as much as ...More

Tomorrow is the start of the 10th annual Gumball 3000 Rally, an eight-day, 3000 mile, PUMA-sponsored motorsport rally that covers two continents and features 120 cars driven by rock stars, movie stars, athletes and billionaires.

What draws people to the Rally isn't just the race. It's the adrenaline- and alcohol-fueled parties in each stopover city. This year, those parties are taking place in San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego and Las Vegas. And you can win a pair of VIP passes that'll let you party like a rock star.

Head over to PumaGumball.com, pick the city of your choice and enter for a chance to win. And if you go, make sure to send me pics.

For their newly-launched KBBGreen section, the auto pros over at Kelly Blue Book put together their list of the Top 10 Green Cars for 2008.

Here's a quick rundown of the cars they chose and the mileage you can expect from each. There are three SUVs on the list, one diesel, two subcompacts, and four non-hybrid gas-sippers. You can read KBB's full commentary here.

10. 2008 Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid
21 mpg: 21 city/22 highway
Full-sized SUV with seating for eight that can ...More

Yesterday was my fourth and final day taking the Grand Prix Road Racing course at the Bondurant School of High Performance Driving. (Which means I'm back to normal updates from here on in. No more playing around.) I came out of the final day with much sharper skills, a passing grade, and a blister on my left palm the size of a quarter from white knuckling through some tight turns in the F-1 style Ford Formula I was driving all day.

After three days on the track in the race-prepped, 430-hp 6.2L Corvette C6, the little Formula Ford, with it's 110-hp 1.6L engine seemed like a step down. A 320-hp step down. In my first post from Bondurant (read here), I said one of the things I learned on day one was it's not the car it's the driver. On the last day, I learned it's not the engine, it's the whole car. So was the Ford able to hold it's own against the much bigger beast? Um, yeah. Here's a quick little head-to-head for ya.

Ballsiness:
Those of us who love speed tend to obsess over horsepower. And tend to forget that the key isn't just the number of horses. It's the horsepower to weight ratio that really matters.

The Vette packs 430 under the hood, but they've gotta haul nearly 3,300 pounds around the track. Not bad, but the Formula's 110 ponies only have to tug just over 1,000 pounds. So looking at the ratios, it's nearly a tie.
Winner: Vette. By a fiberglass nose.

Handling:
The Vette's got all the electronic bells and whistles you can imagine, like ...More

I spent yesterday putting Mazda's new 6 through its paces up and down the winding mountain roads of southern California. With this completely redesigned version of their underperforming sport sedan, Mazda is hoping to take their "Zoom-Zoom" and beat Camry, Accord and Altima about the head and neck with it. Should those perennial top-sellers be worried? Um, yeah.

I am leaving for the airport in a few minutes for the day-long trip back across the country, so I only have time for a quick preview.

The new 6 is completely redesigned from the ground up with the intention to deliver more of what we're looking for in a sport sedan: more power, more responsive handling, more toys, and more eyeball. With a wider, more stable stance, a front fascia that hints at the asphalt-eating RX-8, a dash-full of toys inside, and a class-leading 272hp 3.7L V6 powerplant - at a price tag under $30k - the new 6 should have Toyota, Honda and Nissan concerned.

Full review - and more pics - to follow soon.

Back in the days when men were men, mullets were cool, and gas was cheap, muscle cars ruled the roads. Ferocious, snarling chick-magnets that guzzled down gas and tore up asphalt. But then came the oil crisis. Runaway insurance premiums. And big blocks gave way to econo-boxes and minivans.

Fret not, men. The Big Three are reaching back into the past and bringing some of our old favorites roaring into the future. With retro styling. The latest technology. And ridiculous horsepower. Who cares about fuel economy? Forget stressing over $4-per-gallon gas. What you really want is power. And Detroit is obliging.


2009 Corvette ZR1
A true American Supercar, the ZR1’s see-through hood reveals a supercharged, 6.2-liter, V8 monster that generates a cheek-clenching, body-slamming 620 horsepower. This, combined with its lightweight fiberglass and carbon-fiber loaded body, lets the “Blue Devil” boast a horsepower-to-weight ratio better than Porsche 911 GT2, the Ferrari 599, and the Lambo LP640. Oh, and the speedo runs to 220. For a reason.

Expect only about 2,000 to be made. And expect to pay over $100,000 ...More

VW's much hyped new crossover, the Tiguan, hit dealerships nationwide recently. (Just in case you haven't seen the commercials airing every seven minutes on TV.) I got a chance to drive one for a week, and I was anxious to see if it lived up to the buzz - from both the marketing campaign and the legions of rabid VW fanatics who talk about the cars with a reverence usually reserved for cult leaders and Apple products.

After driving the Tiguan for a few days, I can understand why people become fans of the brand. It has a balance of driveability and function you usually see on cars with much higher price points. And like Apple, everything VW put in the car was intuitive, well-designed and worked flawlessly. Especially the optional navigation system, which had some of the best graphics and features I've seen on an OEM in-dash system. (Like its rocket feature that, with a single button push, takes you from a close-up view of the roads and "flies" you a few miles up so you can see the surrounding cities to get your bearings, then drops you back down.)

Here's how the rest of the car rated:

Overcompensation Quotient: Zero.
VW calls it a "Micro SUV", and even with it's aggressive front jawline, the Tiguan isn't going to scare anyone off the road. It's got enough room to haul you and four friends to the lake for a weekend of fishing - along with your gear - but in a compact body that won't make women smirk and question your intention for buying it, like say, a Hummer would.

Ballsy-ness: Driving, not dragging.
The 200hp, 2.0L 4 cylinder tied to the 6-speed auto tranny is built and tuned for driving, not jack-rabbiting off the line. It'll take a leisurely 7.8 seconds to get you 0-60, but once you get there, you'll enjoy the ride. It's every inch a German-engineered car, with electromechanical power steering, Euro-tuned 4-corner independent suspension and vented front 4-wheel disc brakes. And you'll appreciate the experience. Just don't eyeball the guys revving the engine in the ...More