Ducati. It's a name full of racing heritage and tradition, but it hasn't always been that way. The company's roots are much more humble, first by selling radio equipment before moving into the world of two wheels with a quaint motorized bicycle dubbed the Cucciolo – meaning "puppy" in Italiano – because of its cuddly exhaust note. Needless to say, there was no way of knowing in the early 1950s that the brand would go on to become one of the most successful grand prix racing companies in the world. But we're sure glad it did.
Racing success came early and often in the '70s for the Italian motorcycle manufacturer, and in 1972 Ducati won the Imola 200 with an air-cooled 750cc L-twin engine wrapped in a cradle-type frame. These are the bikes that Ducati sought to replicate with the SportClassic range that first debuted in concept form at the 2003 Tokyo Motor Show and finally went into production in 2006. Living up to a legend is never an easy task, so when we managed to get our greasy mitts on a brand-new 2009 Sport 1000 for a couple of weeks, we wasted no time getting familiar with this sleek black machine. Follow the jump to see what we thought.
H. B. Halicki was a used car salesman who wanted to make a movie. With a little money, one big idea, and a 1971 Mustang Mach 1, he made Gone in 60 Seconds. And in that particular way that movies, especially '70s movies, can be, it wasn't all that good, but it was awesome. Fast forward to Michael Bay's remake in 2000, and the Mach 1 was replaced by a 1967 Shelby GT500. When we got a call offering us the actual car from that movie for the weekend, we felt obliged to say yes... and then drive it like we stole it. The verdict: Eleanor is the hottest piece of car we've spent a weekend with in quite some time.
It's fitting that General Motors has a vehicle named after an astronomical phenomenon that marks the seasons. The first Equinox came from the "old" GM during the autumn of its long slide. Since then, the General has emerged from a government-funded chrysalis, and the Equinox has followed suit with a redesign. Hopefully, the freshening signifies a springtime in GM's fortunes; a future desperately in need of a green infusion of the cash variety. Its products need to not only compete – but exceed – what's available from the competition. That figures to be a tall order, because the opposition is in rare form.
Just across town, Ford isn't sitting around – the Escape gets tweaks and updates seemingly every year. The Honda CR-V and Toyota RAV4 also crowd the top of the family CUV class, with the Mazda CX-7 and Hyundai Santa Fe playing supporting roles. Into this company of A-students wades the Equinox, fresh from reform school. Have the model's rough edges and troublesome behavior been smoothed out enough by remedial study?
We were headed on a road trip, because that's what you do when the summer draws to a close and something as gigantic as the Ford Flex rolls into your driveway. Destination: Brooklyn. Five miles into the journey, the Sony audio system belts out the Beastie Boys' "No Sleep Till Brooklyn," and the two sub-five-year-olds in tow agree. But we had an ace up our sleeve: our Flex SEL tester was packing a six-shooter augmented by Ford's EcoBoost turbo system, good for another 100 horsepower over the standard model. If the trip was going to be hellish, at least it would be short.
There's newfound muscle to... flex.There's a price premium to pay for the heavy breathing, but even at $40,000 as-tested, the kitted out Flex stickered for less than expected, and mitigating drawbacks seems to be a running theme with the EcoBoosted Flex. Its EPA estimated fuel economy in all-wheel drive trim of 1724 1622 mpg cityhighway, is exactly the same as the unboosted Duratec 3.5-liter, but there's newfound muscle to... flex. A turbocharged engine immediately makes thoughts of premium fuel dance through your head, but nope, the direct-injected V6 is happy to perform tricks on regular, though Ford recommends you run higher octane for maximum performance.
While the Lexus LX570 is the flagship SUV in the automaker's lineup, its glory is often overshadowed by the best-selling RX. With proven Land Cruiser bloodlines, and the Tundra's V8 muscle under its hood, the seven-passenger LX competes in the rarefied full-size luxury SUV segment occupied by the Land Rover Range Rover and Cadillac Escalade. What does the Japanese entrant hold over its British and American counterparts? And more importantly, what makes the LX unique in this segment?
There's a small group of enthusiasts who worship a car you just wouldn't expect: the original Ford Taurus SHO. And I'm one of them. After years of searching for an example in good shape, I bought my very first vintage SHO, a 1991 Ford Taurus SHO Plus model (we'll explain what the "Plus" means later) earlier this year. At the same time, somewhere in a secluded Dearborn bunker, Ford was planning to announce that the SHO name would return with the redesigned 2010 Taurus. Clearly, 2009 was shaping up as a big year for SHO fans – especially me.
Thus, it was beyond argument in the virtual halls of Autoblog HQ that the task of reviewing the 2010 Ford Taurus SHO would fall to yours truly – but could an unabashed SHO fan pass judgment on the resurrection of his all-time favorite car without bias?
The 2010 Acura TSX V6 is something of a consolation prize. At the 2008 Detroit Auto Show, Acura showed off a new 2.2-liter four-cylinder diesel and said it would launch in the U.S. this year. A few months later in New York, Honda's luxury arm showed off the all-new second generation TSX sedan, and we expected to be driving the culmination of the two right around now.
Unfortunately, a confluence of events a few months after the TSX was shown caused Acura to reverse course and put the diesel engine on the shelf. As world oil prices hit all time record levels, the never ending construction in China and Dubai seemed to be consuming the entire world supply of diesel, driving prices higher and higher. At about the same time, the world came to the realization that loaning money to people who couldn't pay it back might not be a great idea after all. With sales in the toilet everywhere, Acura decided that throwing a gasoline-powered V6 into the TSX might be a better idea. Was it?
In Europe, the humble station wagon holds a big-time slice of the family driver demographic, partly because ridiculous petrol prices make big SUVs and crossovers far too uneconomical. Americans, on the other hand, have a fundamental problem with the station wagon. We're not sure if the wagon is uncool because it was our parents' preferred family vehicle or if the aesthetics of it are just too boxy for our fashion forward culture. The only subset of the American public who has consistently called for more wagons are automotive enthusiasts, though even we seldom seem to vote for the Griswald Family Truckster with our pocketbooks.
Cadillac is all too aware of America's disdain for the wagon, as evidenced by the fact that General Motors' luxury brand has never built a squat two box for the U.S. market. That changes for 2010 as the Wreath and Crest begins production of its 2010 Cadillac CTS Sportwagon. This Caddy begins life with hot-to-trot sheetmetal and the underpinnings of the excellent CTS sedan, but does it have the chutzpah to change our less than flattering opinions about the station wagon? We gave the CTS Sportwagon some time in the Autoblog Garage to see if the first-ever U.S.-market Caddy wagon has the goods to make Americans stop their loathing and get to loading.
It wasn't so many years ago that Chrysler's design department was considered among the best in the industry. Attractive, innovative shapes came one after another, then they took a sharp detour into the crash test building and the rest is SebringCompassCaliber history. In the late '90,s when Chrysler design was still on a roll, one of the highlights was the debut of the PT Cruiser.
As insolvency fast approached, CEO Bob Nardelli and his staff were scrambling to find cars to kill and, unsurprisingly, the nearly decade-old PT wound up on that list. Surprisingly, after exiting bankruptcy court in July, Chrysler decided to keep the PT alive through the end of 2010 when new models start arriving. After perusing our review list and realizing that, like the S2000, we've never tested the PT, we called Chrysler to get one last go-'round in the retro-hatch.
It's been ten years since Honda released the S2000 to celebrate its golden anniversary, but since Autoblog's inception, we have somehow never managed to publish a proper review of the high-revving roadster. With the final S2000 having rolled off the line on August 7, we figured it was time to make amends and get some serious seat time in one of the few pure sports cars left in existence.
To create a roadster, you've got to have the proper ingredients. It has to have two seats and a retractable fabric roof, but above all else, it's got to be light and agile. The S2000 qualifies on all counts. While it's not as minimalist as a Lotus Elise (or even a Dodge Viper), the S2000's cabin is devoid of over-the-top luxury or techno-wizardry. There's no navigation system, Bluetooth or iPod connector, and there certainly isn't anything on the order of an iDrive or MMI controller. No need – there isn't much to control.
