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 ...There's 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 ...There's 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 ...There's more