We obsessively cover the auto industry…

When we want to know how a car company is doing, one thing we typically look at is how many cars it's selling. That means Toyota is the largest, General Motors the second, followed by Volkswagen, then down the line. But there are other metrics by which to evaluate how an automaker is doing. That, in the case of publicly-traded companies like GM, is stock price. And the General seems to be doing pretty well.

Following the government bailout and the restructuring of one of America's largest corporations and employers, GM issued its Initial Public Offering in 2010 at $33 per share. Prices have meandered in the years since, but The Detroit News reports that GM's stock has now broken through the $40-per-share mark for the first time since hitting the market over three years ago. That's an all-time high for "New GM." Interestingly, some analysts, including Morgan Stanley, are predicting that the share price will continue to rise to $45 or even $47 per share.

The rise in price reportedly resulted principally from the US Treasury Department approaching complete divestment from the company, selling off the remainder of the 61 percent stake it acquired when it bailed GM out for nearly $50 billion.

When Kia introduced the updated 2014 Sportage back in September, one of the biggest things that stood out to us was that the base model was dropped. Not only did this mean the Sportage would no longer be offered with a manual gearbox, but we also expected a price increase to follow. We were right.

The entry-level trim for the 2014 Sportage is now the LX, which starts at $21,600 (not including $850 for destination). This is only a $400 increase over the 2013 Sportage LX, but it represents a $2,600 jump (13.6 percent) in the Sportage's starting price point. At this new price, the Sportage is now priced higher than the Mazda CX-5, Hyundai Tucson and Mitsubishi Outlander Sport and lower than many other compact crossovers like the Ford Escape, Chevy Equinox, Nissan Rogue, Jeep Cherokee and Toyota RAV4. Pricing for the 2014 Sportage EX has increased by $800, starting at $25,000, while the sportier, turbocharged Sportage SX holds steady at $26,900.

In addition to other minor changes like slightly refreshed exterior styling, a sportier suspension setup for the LX trim level and more available cabin tech, the other key update made to the 2014 Sportage is the addition of direct injection to the base 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine. This brings a slight bump in power output (from 176 horsepower and 168 pound-feet of torque in 2013 to 182 hp and 178 lb-ft for 2014), but, for some reason unknown to us, it dings fuel economy. With ratings of 21 miles per gallon in the city and 28 mpg on the highway, the front-wheel-drive Sportage loses 2 mpg for the highway rating compared to 2013, while the all-wheel-drive model's 19 mpg city and 26 mpg highway is a drop of 1 mpg for both figures.

When the FIA revealed the final calendar for the 2014 Formula One World Championship, it was lacking in one specific area: namely, the proposed Grand Prix of America that was set to take place in New Jersey just across the river from Manhattan did not make the cut. But the organizers behind the race insist that it has not been canceled – merely postponed.

In a statement released hot on the heels of the FIA's decision, GP America chairman Leo Hindery, Jr., noted that the setbacks were primarily financial. The endeavor is being undertaken entirely with private funding and no government assistance, and with another year to work it out, the promoters hope to get the race back on the calendar for 2015.

"There is great demand for a race in New Jersey," added F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone, "and I have no doubt we'll be racing at Port Imperial in 2015." The race is earmarked to take place on a temporary street circuit running 3.2 miles along the Hudson River between the New Jersey towns of Weehawken and West New York.

Generally speaking, the Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG S Wagon is no slouch. It's considerably more sporting than some full-blown sports cars, all while being able to haul the kids to soccer practice or make a quick trip to the grocery store. What if you want more, though? Well, if the E63's 577 horsepower and 590 pound-feet of torque aren't enough to sate your appetite for power, the team from Brabus is just a phone call away, and now the German tuning house has turned its hand to the E63 Wagon.

This might be the only 838-horsepower, 848-pound-foot car to be disappointing, although that's merely because its sedan counterpart comes to market with 850 horsepower and 1,069 lb-ft of torque. Despite these lower power figures, though, Brabus is claiming that the 850 6.0 Wagon is actually faster to 62 than the Sedan - 3.1 seconds in the long-roof and 3.5 in the four-door. Top speed is limited to 186 miles per hour.

All the extra fury is thanks to a bored-out version of the E63's 5.5-liter, biturbocharged V8. Now displacing 5.9 liters, it's been fitted with heavily revised internals and sports (naturally) larger turbochargers. Brabus tells Evo that the lower power output of the Wagon is all in the name of engine life, but if it's really faster to 60, we can't imagine owners will be all that bothered. We've got a fairly hefty gallery of images of this long-roof rocket up top, so scroll up and let us know what you think.

A charity drive from Singapore to Malaysia went quite awry when a convoy of Lamborghinis smashed into each other on one of the city-state's highways, with one of the cars catching fire. And while it's easy to assume that the supercars were at fault, initial reports contradict that assumption.

It turns out the crash was a chain reaction set off by a local driver swerving toward two Gallardos and an Aventador, sending the latter into the guardrail and causing it to go up in flames. According to the report on CarBuzz, there were no injuries in the incident, although the circumstances - supercars burning in the midst of a charity event - draws some parallels to the tragic accident involving Paul Walker and Roger Rodas.

There's a short video taken after the wreck that can be viewed below. CarBuzz also has a few different images of the accident, aside from the screencap shown above.

A new Canadian kit car manufacturer, Dubuc Super Light Cars (SLC), has unveiled the Tomahawk, a lightweight, mid-engine kit car that's promised to weigh under 2,000 pounds. The Tomahawk will debut at the Montreal International Auto Show in January.

Dubuc SLC says the car will feature a 300-pound aluminum monocoque that's bonded and bolted together and a lightweight polymer body. The kit will be manufactured in Quebec City. A C4-generation Chevrolet Corvette will provide the suspension components and the company says that almost any type of powerplant can be bolted amidships, including an electric motor or an internal combustion engine.

The body and frame kit is priced at 19,995 Canadian dollars ($18,755), and a C4 Corvette will add a bit more to the build. Dubuc SLC says that a "skilled individual" should be able to build a Tomahawk in around 250 hours, but we're thinking it'll take most amateur mechanics a bit more time than that. All in, a complete Tomahawk should require "a total budget of [30,000 Canadian dollars] ($28,140) and more," the company says. That raises an important question: How much more?

Feel free to check out the video and peruse the press release below for more details.

Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton once offered to give his father and former manager, Anthony, a cash gift of up to $4 million after the father-son pair split in 2010. But in a court hearing, he said he never was paid by his son nor accepted cash gifts from him, The Telegraph reports. The court hearing was part of a lawsuit claiming wrongful termination and loss of earnings filed by A. Hamilton against Paul Di Resta, an F1 driver he managed until he was sacked in 2012.

L. Hamilton at some point withdrew the multi-million dollar gift to his father for unknown reasons, and A. Hamilton said in the hearing that he didn't know why his son withdrew the gift. "It is not my place to go money-grabbing to my son. It's not my business. He makes his own decisions," he said.

While A. Hamilton didn't end up taking the gift, he did say under cross-examination that he intended to put it into a HSBC bank account in Guernsey linked to a company in the British Virgin Islands that is registered to Davidson Hamilton, his father. But A. Hamilton said that his intention was not to hide the money by placing it in the account, and he said he wanted his sisters to be the "ultimate beneficiaries" of the money.

D. Hamilton, through all this, was suffering from an unspecified affliction and was not in control of his actions, The Telegraph reports, and Paul Downes, who is representing Di Resta in the case, said that A. Hamilton actually was in control of the company registered to his father. A sordid affair if we've ever heard one...

At 7:48 a.m., Dec. 7, 1941, Japanese fighters began their aerial attack on US ships in Pearl Harbor. On the 72nd anniversary of that moment, Confederate Motorcycles revealed its newest bike, the C2 P-51 Fighter.

The C2 is Confederate's first bike created under the direction of its new head of design, former Ducati designer, Pierre Terblanche. In a video (watch below) on the company's website, Terblanche says the C2 will keep with Confederate's history of using lots of aluminum, titanium, stainless steel and carbon fiber.

A new billet aluminum crankcase for the V-Twin engine shaves 40 pounds off the company's previous design and a new downdraft injection system "will allow us to have more power and also improve the ergonomics of the motorcycle tremendously," Terblanche says.

Details of the newest Confederate are scarce, but the official site says only 31 will be built and will be available beginning in the summer of 2014. With the Birmingham, Ala.-based company's previous creations selling in the $100k range, don't expect this one to be any more affordable.

Scroll down to check out the video.

Given all the money in the world and little else to do with it, we don't doubt that a fair few automotive enthusiasts would spend a big chunk of both traversing the world, and visiting automakers and their museums. And to be sure, there's a lot to be seen, especially when those facilities actually open their doors to visitors. But most of us don't have those resources at our disposal. Fortunately for us, a growing number of those sites have been opening their doors to the Google Street View team.

We've seen Google's cameramen map out Laguna Seca in California, the Lotus test track in England, the Lamborghini museum in Italy and the Honda Collection Hall in Japan. This time they've gotten in to the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, England. The MTC of course is headquarters to both McLaren Automotive and the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes Formula 1 team, as it's currently known (but not much longer as the team prepares to part ways with both Vodafone and Mercedes). It's got assembly lines, carbon-fiber kilns, various workshops, a wind tunnel, restaurants, a swimming pool... even a handful of man-mad lakes.

Arguably one of the best parts is the McLaren Boulevard where various racing and road cars are on permanent display. Most of the time, these facilities remain closed to the public and only accessible to authorized personnel, but you can scope it out in Google Street View below.

If you're in the market for a rugged and capable off-road SUV, the redesigned 2014 Range Rover Sport is quickly proving itself worthy of a second look. Although it may have gotten lost among the 22 SUVs vying for the Motor Trend SUV of the Year, the Range Rover Sport has followed up its Petersen's 4-Wheel & Off-Road 4x4 of the Year award with a similar honor, having just been named Four Wheeler magazine's Four Wheeler of the Year. The Land Rover beat out the 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee EcoDiesel and 2014 Cherokee Trailhawk (in addition to the updated Toyota 4Runner Trail and Dodge Durango, among others.

To qualify as a contender for Four Wheeler of the Year, a new or updated SUV must be on sale before January 15, 2014 with a planned production run of more than 1,500 and an available two-speed transfer case. The five SUVs were tested for a full week before the Range Rover Sport broke Jeep's three-year stranglehold on the award, which won with the Wrangler for the last two years and with the Grand Cherokee in 2011.

No matter the platform, voice commands are kind of awful. Sure, Apple's Siri, Xbox One's voice command and Ford's Sync system are some of the better efforts, but by and large, it's still easier to press a couple of buttons on a controller or make a few swipes on a touchscreen.

Considering the difficulty and sketchiness of voice commands, we imagine this spoof of Apple's Siri system wouldn't work all that well. It's called Steeri, and it seems to have all the same cognition problems as Apple's personal assistant. The video, put together by The Smart Department, is a humorous look at a form of autonomous vehicle technology that remains a really, really bad idea. Take a look below to watch the entire video.

Gran Turismo 6 hits the shelves today, y'all. Unless you're waiting for Santa to stuff a copy in your stocking (or have been embargoed from buying video games until after the holidays by well-meaning loved ones), you should probably go out an pick up a copy of The Real Driving Simulator's latest iteration. We're in the process of reviewing the title right now... stay tuned for more on that next week.

In a particularly cool, and beautifully shot piece of marketing for the launch of GT6, the team at Polyphony Digital has also started this First Love video and live-streaming series. At its heart is the 1948 Hudson you see above, the very first racing car of none other than Mario Andretti.

Gran Turismo is paying tribute to Andretti's amazing career in a couple of very cool ways here. To start, it's restoring the Hudson – live and for all the world to see. You can scroll below to watch the time-lapse video of the first two days of the build, or click through to the live-streaming page to follow along with the project. On December 16, we can expect the long-awaited reunion between the Hudson and its storied driver, too.

Cooler still, from the gaming perspective, the Gran Turismo 6 team will be scanning the Hudson digitally and creating a drivable version of it, available via free download, in the game itself. The Andretti Hudson should prove a welcome diversion, in much the same way driving the Goodwood Revival Hillclimb and in the Lunar Rover have so far... but we're getting ahead of ourselves.

Most of the cars created exclusively for the Gran Turismo video game franchise never make the jump from cyberspace to the real world. The X1 and new X2014 designed by Red Bull's Adrian Newey could scarcely be piloted in real life, and while PSA talked about making a limited run of the otherworldly GTbyCitroën, that never came to be. But the Mercedes AMG Vision Gran Turismo could get such a chance – just not from Mercedes-Benz itself.

J&S World Wide Holdings, an independent Florida outfit led by one Jeff Halverson, was so taken with the static show car displayed at the LA Auto Show that it's committed to building five customer examples. The team plans to use the SLS AMG GT as its base, rebodying it in carbon fiber to resemble the machine in the game.

The 6.3-liter V8 will apparently remain unchanged, with its 583 horsepower driving the rear wheels through a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission, but with 200 pounds shed off the curb weight thanks to the carbon bodywork, could prove to be even faster. The bodywork will get a custom chrome finish, with a retractable rear spoiler, model-specific exhaust and ADV.1 forged alloys. The interior will be customizable to the buyer's tastes, too.

One is earmarked for the US, two for the Middle East and two for Europe. But given the $1.5 million asking price, we have a feeling its creators will be glad to sell them wherever the orders come from.

When something bad happens, it's easy to resort to scapegoating. At least for some of us, that seems to be exactly what has happened following the tragic death of actor Paul Walker and racer Roger Rodas, who were killed on November 30 in a Porsche Carrera GT. Even though officials have not yet determined the cause of the crash, that isn't stopping many theories from being put for – theories that include blaming the Porsche supercar. Rather predictably, not only is the CGT's difficult nature getting examined, but indeed, the nature of all high-performance cars is being put under the public's microscope, with some wondering what the need for all the power is.

A Google search of "Porsche Carrera GT" will find no shortage of articles about the razor-sharp handling and outright speed of the CGT. Pistonheads' Chris Harris has a different, insightful take on both the Carrera GT and the nature of all fast cars. He reflects on the matter, ironically, en route to drive the successor to the car that killed Walker and Rodas, the 900-horsepower 918 Spyder hybrid supercar.

We think it's well worth a read, as it makes a number of good points about modern high-performance automobiles and the way they're used. Click over and take a look.