So those nutty hippies were right: driving slower, increasing tire pressure, and limiting idling can actually increase gas mileage by almost 25 percent.

This was the result of a four-day test conducted by Ford and a Phoenix-based Pro Formance Group, which used the aforementioned tips — and some savvy driving — to drop gas consumption by an average of 24 percent.

This is one of the latest efforts by Ford to remake itself into a “green” car company, after decades of relying on the F-150 and Explorer

According to Ford, here are some of the top tips for Eco-Driving:

This concept has been kicking around for a while, but we’re wondering whether the renewed interest in smaller cars will revive this sporty Solstice variant.

After an unfortunate experiment with a free host, we’re back with the host we’ve had the most success with. Unfortunately, though, our tech guru — that would be me — wasn’t very diligent in saving backups and we lost most of our posts.

We could probably retrieve most from various caches but we’re looking at this as an opportunity to start fresh, with a new look and new content.

This is just stupid, in the conventional bad way. There’s no reason in the world, even looks, to roll around on 40-inch rims. A car stops being a car at that point and becomes a rolling testament to human idiocy. Yeah, sure…everyone can chose to do what they want with their cars…free expression…one person’s style belongs only to them…yadda, yadda, yadda.

If we saw this we would still point and laugh; in fact, we’re doing it right now.

Much love to the folks at Jalopnik for bringing this atrocity to light.

BoredStop.com - Ridiculously Large 40″ Rims

We’ve lusted after the Ariel Atom for most of the past year, and certainly since the excellent Top Gear video of the insanely quick little beast making Jeremy Clarkson’s wattles flap like an old lady’s triceps. The mini-rocket bandwagon is getting crowded with the recent announcements of the the GTM 40TR and the KTM X-Bow.

300 crank horsepower in a 1,300-pound package? Yup. It’s a no-brainer.

Better acceleration and cornering than a Lotus Elise? Got it.

Better performance than a Porsche 911 GT3 for a third of the price? I’ll sell my left testicle.

But….You have to feel sorry for the kit car guys. For year, the only way to get a superlight car with decent power was to build it yourself, or hope you got lucky with EBay and didn’t get a “locost” that was poorly built or thoroughly trashed. All the attention to the Atom and its sexy new friends has to be pissing off the guys who spent 500 hours in their garage over a couple of years putting together a Caterham 7 replica like the Brunton Stalker

YouTube - Top Gear: Atom

Wow…we certainly slept on this one: GM is rebadging the Saab 9-3 SportCombi as the Cadillac BLS Wagon and is going to market it in Europe…where it will compete directly against the Saab 9-3 SportCombi. Not sure of the rationale behind this, although Bob Lutz semi-explains in the FastLane entry:
“…we’re continuing to build the Cadillac brand in Europe, where we aim for it to be a true contender in the luxury market, so we’re expanding its offerings, both in terms of product and powertrain, to meet the needs and expectations of European customers.”

On the plus side — if there is one — the BLS will be built at the same Trollhattan plant as its Swedish brother, so that might keep the Saab-building Trollhattan “trolls” happy and employed for a while

GM FastLane Blog: BLS Wagon Announced

After some hellish times bouncing between domain and site hosts, we’re at a stable home. We’ll be moving over old content as soon as we can, but things may look a little bare until then, so bear with us….

We lived in NYC in a previous life and remember the adrenaline rush of riding a bike down Broadway after training rides in Central Park. Much of that feeling of exhilaration/terror was the jostling for road space with a two-ton cab driven by someone with a limited grasp of the concept of right-of-way. And, often, with a limited grasp of English.
With the planned introduction of the Americanized version of the smart fortwo, the oh-so-cute lower-case European minicar, drivers will get to experience that same twinge of fear, but in a fun, gas-frugal way. The little buggers get about 40 MPG on the highway in current spec, but your mileage may vary once the car is dressed out in full DOT-conforming trim. We haven’t seen any data on the amount of weight gain expected. Three models will be available beginning in 2008 and will be distributed by UnitedAuto Group, the mega-dealership organization headed by Roger Penske.

When you’re older than God and have nearly as much money, it’s natural to demand action sooner than later. The New York Times has an excellent package on the likely rationale for billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian’s push for an alliance between GM — in which he owns nearly 10 percent — and Renault-Nissan, the Euro-Japanese giant. The plan would be for Renault-Nissan to buy about 20 percent of GM, giving the ailing US company an infusion of cash just as its turnaround was kicking into gear. Or so Kerkorian hopes.

This was apparently good news to other GM investors, who sent the company’s stock higher during Friday’s trading, but smart money is waiting to see how this pans out. GM’s partnership with Fiat was a nightmare, and the joint effort with Subaru produced the Saab 9-2x and little else.