Last night, I went to a midnight showing of the Dark Knight, and it was awesome. There was tons of hype about Heath Ledger’s performance as the Joker, and I have to say I found it genuinely scary. It’s a shame he’s not around to reprise the role. Anyway, here’s the news:

• According to a leaked Subaru memo, the new WRX will have 265 horsepower, and will only be available with a manual tranny. That’s cool and all, but let’s hope they tweak the styling a little bit as well. I think the new Subies are kind of ugly. NASIOC
• Ok, most of the time, I write my own summaries, but I know when I’m beat. Check out this headline; "Sex, blood and baby names: U.S. mad for free gas." Does it get more perfect than that? Reuters
• The blokes from Top Gear have gotten their mitts on a new GTR, and have had the Stig take it for a spin around the track. So how did it do? Well, if you believe the time posted on—and then removed from—Wikipedia, very, very well. I’m going to wait until the lap hits YouTube to find out, but if you’re dying to know, it’s only a few clicks away. Autoblog
• According to JD Powers, customers rate the experience at Jaguar dealerships higher than any other manufacturer. Way to go Jag! Keep it up! Why aren’t I seeing the XF all over the place? Motor Authority

Automakers are scrambling to improve the gas mileage ratings of their vehicles. What’s a cheap and easy way to do that? Switch to low-resistance tires, which, until recently, were mostly found on hybrids. Ford is switching all of their compact SUVs to low-resistance tires for 2009. The Ford Escape will be getting Michelin Latitude Tour tires, which will improve the Escape’s gas mileage by 1 mpg. At current gas prices this will save the new Escape owner roughly $300 over the lifetime of the tires. However, low-resistance tires are more expensive to replace than conventional tires. And there are other trade-offs besides price: stopping distances will be a few feet longer, plus these tires don’t really work off road too well, which seems kind of silly for a tire that comes standard on a SUV. Source: Detroit News.

Last night, I went to see Wanted, and even though I’m not totally down with the amount of CGI in action movies these days, it was still pretty dope. Toward the beginning, there’s a sequence where Angelia Jolie is hanging out the shattered windshield of a Viper and firing backward while steering with her foot. Believable? No way. Hot? Oh. My. God. Yes. Anyway, here’s the news:

• President Bush has said that Uncle Sam isn’t going to bail out the Big Three. I honestly didn’t know where I stood on that issue, but after learning about Bush’s stance, I’ll support a bail out on general principle. 01.20.09! Autoblog
• What will the next-gen Porsche 998 look like? Well nobody—in the press at least—knows for sure, but these pics suggest power train development is well underway. And while I’m sure it will be a fast and capable machine, it won’t be as pretty as a Lambo or Aston. Motor Authority
• GM isn’t in great shape financially, but its plan to get its ass in gear must have been well-received as the company’s stock rose almost 16 percent yesterday. Nice work, General. I’m pulling for you! Detroit News
• When it comes to fleet fuel economy, you’d figure that Toyota just stomps Chevy, wouldn’t you? Well guess what? You’d be wrong. Automotive Traveler

In theory, this idea actually makes sense. I mean, think about it: if people actually have to walk or bike places—instead of just exercising their right foot—it stands to reason that they’d shed a few pounds. That said, as much as I’d like to see America lose its reputation as a land of fatties, I don’t think this Wired article is on target. After all, the average person commutes almost an hour to work everyday, so biking to work isn’t particularly practical, and modern suburbs are so spread out that trying to walk or bike anywhere would take forever. Instead of using alternate transportation, I figure people will just keep complaining, and eventually, buy fuel-efficient cars. What do you think? Will sky-high fuel prices be good for America’s health?

Road & Track recently set out to determine which performance-oriented cars were the most frugal. Road & Track’s Matt DeLorenzo wrote, "we decided the car must be capable of exceeding certain thresholds including 0–60-mph acceleration of less than 7 seconds, a slalom speed in excess of 65 mph and an average EPA mileage rating of at least 20 mpg, all while carrying a sticker price of less than $60,000." After running their recent test cars through their magic formula, they came up with this top ten list:

Audi TT 3.2 Quattro
Mazda MX-5
Pontiac Solstice GXP
Nissan Nismo 350Z
BMW 135i
Mini Cooper S
Chevrolet Corvette Z51
Lotus Elise SC
Honda S2000CR
Chevrolet Cobalt SS

I was impressed that the Corvette made the list. Then again, the Grassroots Motorsports guys told me recently that they had averaged 30 mpg with a new Vette on the highway. Not bad for a car with 430 hp. You can read the full article at Road & Track.

If you’re over the age of say, 45, you might remember a quaint institution called a "service station." Instead of your wallet just being $100 lighter after each fill up, your car was greeted by uniformed attendants who’d fill your tank, wash your windshield, and check your tire pressure. A gallon of petrol cost 30 cents a gallon or less, and if you asked, the attendants would even pop the hood and check your oil, all for under a 10-spot. For gearheads who want to remember, those good old days are recalled in Fill’er Up! The Great American Gas Station, by Tim Russell.

Continue reading "Fill'er Up Book Review" »

See the little arrow on the instrument cluster below? Right up at the top center. There’s a yellow LED in there that lately, I’ve been trying to keep off as much as possible. It’s the one leftover of the last gas crisis that I think we need to bring back: the fuel-economy-based shift light. If you have an early-80s VW or a mid-80s Plymouth Horizon or Dodge Omni, you probably recognize this feature. It uses a vacuum signal from the intake manifold and some simple relay-driven electronics to to indicate when you could be driving in a higher gear, and prods you to upshift by lighting up the arrow. I find that mine works pretty well, but it can lead to driving a lot harder than you would think possible for fuel economy. To keep it from lighting, you have to be at idle or close to WOT. The light is locked out in the top gear. I’ve been fooling around with minor tuning tweaks for the past couple of weeks, and combined with judicious minding of the light, I’m up to 30mpg in some really bad traffic. If I ignore the light, I drop down to about 27 or 28mpg. Considering that this is a 1.7L engine in a 2100 pound car, that’s not all that fantastic, but I am pretty impressed that the light does what it sets out to do—guides me to driving more efficiently. I find that I miss it when I’m driving my wagon, although the boost gauge on that car does a fair job as long as I stick to the algorithm—idle or WOT, no in-betweens. Do you have a car with a fuel economy shift light? Post up!

Should you trade in your old gas guzzler on a more fuel efficient vehicle? Well, Edmunds came up with this handy little calculator to help you decide. I wanted to see if it made sense for us to trade in our 1988 Volvo 240 grocery getter in on a new Prius. The calculator only works for cars back to 1990, so I had to use a 1990 instead. Ok, whatever. Anyway, I was told I’d get $317 in trade (considerably less than all that Swedish steel is worth in scrap) and that the old Volvo gets around 19 mpg (which is about right). I factored in that we only drive it about 500 miles per month. The calculator showed me that if we switched to the Prius, we’d save $66.63 in gas per month, and that at this rate it would take 348 months (or 29 years) to reach break even and begin saving on gas. Hmmm, I’m thinking that the $23k might be better spent on some more old Mopars…

There aren’t too many things stupider than road rage, and it’s terrible when someone gets killed because of it. You know what else is stupid? Not wearing your seatbelt. There isn’t anything cool about getting ejected from your vehicle and having it roll over you. Anyway, here’s the news:

• The list of top ten global brands is out, and fortunately, US companies are well represented. Not surprisingly, the most recognized software, sugar water and cigarettes come from the States. The funny thing? Not one automaker made the list. AutoObserver
• The Tata will still be the world’s cheapest car, but rising steel costs might increase the price. Of course, since its parent company also owns India’s largest steel producer, there’s ample wiggle room for some compromise. Winding Road
• Ferrari has already admitted that someday, a hybrid will wear the famous Prancing Horse badge, but are they already being tested in the wild? Nobody knows for sure, but this strange 360 is making lots of gearheads curious. World Car Fans
• To stimulate business, Nevada’s Shady Lady brothel has been offering $50 gas rebates for customers which purchase $300 in services. There’s a really good joke here somewhere, but unfortunately, I just can’t see it. Rueters

During the 1973-4  oil crisis, Car and Driver took a Pinto and modded it for improved fuel economy. By spending $11 on improving the aerodynamics, removing two of the four fan blades, and switching from bias ply to steel belted tires, they were able to improve the Pinto’s gas mileage by 25%. More at Ecomodder.