The Last Cadillac Historians Decry Loss of Unique
Cadillacs

post from autoMedia Auto News Blog on 30 June 2011 11:31:00 PM. © autoMedia Auto News Blog

Engines aren’t everything. Still, through much of our automotive past, they’ve been one of the foremost elements that gave each car model—at least from American manufacturers—its own distinctive identity. Consider Oldsmobile’s Rocket 88 of 1949, the Chevrolet small-block V-8 of 1955, and Chrysler’s Hemi V-8. For the first time ever, no Cadillac model contains...

Click through for more info and pictures.

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Porsche Aims For Top Le Mans Honours Again

post from PistonHeads (Motoring News) on 30 June 2011 08:00:00 PM. © PistonHeads (Motoring News)

Brand new LMP1 racer will contest the 24hrs in 2014

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UK-Spec Chevy Camaro Pricing Announced

post from PistonHeads (Motoring News) on 30 June 2011 08:00:00 PM. © PistonHeads (Motoring News)

Thank God for politically incorrect cars...

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SOTW: Fiat Tipo 2.0ie 16v

post from PistonHeads (Motoring News) on 30 June 2011 08:00:00 PM. © PistonHeads (Motoring News)

Italian? Check. Rare? Check. Beautiful? Er...

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Pic Of The Week: Surtees At The FoS

post from PistonHeads (Motoring News) on 30 June 2011 08:00:00 PM. © PistonHeads (Motoring News)

Legendary car, driver and event remind us exactly why Goodwood is great

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PH Carpool: TVR Griffith

post from PistonHeads (Motoring News) on 30 June 2011 08:00:00 PM. © PistonHeads (Motoring News)

A resprayed Griff makes PHer Alex Franjieh feel er, all white

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The That Got Away

post from The Truth About Cars on 30 June 2011 07:15:29 PM. © The Truth About Cars

I am now on an active quest to import a genuine Soviet people’s car from the former Soviet Union; if all goes according to plan, a ZAZ-968 will go into a shipping container in Odessa and make its way to Chez Murilee later this year. I have a special affection for the Zaporozhets, because it [...]

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-that-got-away/

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Quote Of The Day: The Obsolescence Of Volt
Edition

post from The Truth About Cars on 30 June 2011 07:15:29 PM. © The Truth About Cars

Fortune [via CNN]‘s Alex Taylor III is clearly as disappointed as I was with Joe Nocera’s toothless, vaguely pro-Volt piece in last Sunday’s NY Times, and he’s riled up enough about it to lay down a savage call-out the Volt hype machine. In fact, it’s a less scientific, less comprehensive (and, by virtue of the passage of [...]

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t-edition/

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Consumer Reports Pushing 62 MPG

One of the reasons I dropped my personal Consumer Reports subscription is that they have become consistently liberal in their outlook, taking the sides of intrusive regulation by the government.
Today CR issues a statement supporting a high (62 MPG) fuel economy. One of their arguments is that vehicles can be reduced in mass without necessarily becoming less safe. For small differences in mass, this is probably true.

Importantly, reducing vehicle mass will be essential in improving fuel economy. Consumer Reports is confident that lighter vehicles will not necessarily compromise vehicle safety. For example, a contemporary family sedan such as the Hyundai Sonata weighs 3,210 pounds and still achieves a Top Safety Pick by the IIHS. It weighs 7.5% less than its previous generation and about 6% less than the average family sedan. By contrast, a Chrysler 200 weighs 3,590 pounds (also a Top-Safety Pick) but with no performance or interior room advantage. The new Honda Civic at 2,810 pounds also received a Top Safety Pick and weighs 400 pounds less (about 9%) than the Chevrolet Cruze, a direct competitor.

However, they make a big mistake here--they refer to IIHS test results between vehicles that are about 400# different. It is critically important to remember that crash test results such as IIHS and NHTSA, when they are intended to mimic front crashes, simulate a car hitting another car of the same weight.
What happens when a heavier car hits a lighter car is not pretty. Here are some great videos by IIHS which make this very point. Here is the report.
Everything else being equal, heavier cars tend to be safer than lighter cars, and forcing people into lighter cars will, on average, reduce their safety.

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The Ten Coolest Le Mans Prototypes Of All Time
Jalopnik Gets It Wrong

I have this theory that any list, top ten, top five, top 100, whatever, are only there to start arguments, rather than be definitive statements. 99% of the time, I have no problem with Jalopnik. They are a rather funny and irreverent car site, and in addition to the standard fair of who’s releasing what [...]

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