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Lamborghini is expected to drop the sheet on its replacement for the Gallardo later this month (think of it as an automotive Festivus gift), which means that speculation on the new supercar's looks and performance is reaching a fever pitch. While the discussion centers on powertrains, though, we're overlooking something equally important - the car's name.

We've been operating under the impression that it would be named Cabrera, after the Detroit Tigers eight-time All-Star and Triple-Crown-winning first baseman a famous line a fighting bulls, as per Lamborghini tradition. Now comes word that Lambo might be moving away from the bovine nomenclature, based on a 2012 trademark filing for the name Huracan. (Of course, it's entirely possible that Lambo historians will dig up some dusty lineage on a fighting bull with a breezy name).

That's left some wondering if the collective auto industry has it wrong. As AutoExpress points out, though, the Huracan trademark was filed at the same time the Italian brand registered the "Urus" name for its SUV concept. During that filing, Lambo also registered the name "Deimos," so really, this should all be taken with a grain of salt.

Whatever the car that will replace the Gallardo is called, we can expect to see it in the very near future.

16 of the 23 new launches will be for the North American market.

2014 is shaping up to be a big year for Ford Motor Company, as it's announced an onslaught of 23 new global product launches which will help create 5,000 new jobs in the US. As part of the new product push, three more manufacturing plants will be opened.

"Next year, we are embarking on our most ambitious global launch year ever to meet customer demand for our products around the world," Raj Nair, Ford's group vice president of global product development said. "We are investing even more through our One Ford plan to serve more customers, in more segments – and deliver profitable growth."

16 of the 23 new launches will be for the North American market and will include new products for long-suffering Lincoln. While we know about a few of these – Lincoln MKC, Ford Mustang, Transit and Transit Connect are named specifically – we don't have a full list of the new offerings (that's a cue for speculation to begin in Comments).

Those 5,000 new US employees, which will include 3,300 salary positions, will represent the company's biggest hiring push since 2000. The hiring surge will focus largely on product development experts, as well as manufacturing, quality and IT personnel. They'll be joined by 6,000, mostly hourly employees in China.

Two of the three new factories will be in China - an assembly plant and a transmission facility in Chongqing – while the other plant will be in the Camaçari Engine Plant in Brazil. "This is the fastest and most aggressive manufacturing expansion the company has undergone in 50 years," Ford's executive vice president of global manufacturing, John Fleming, said." The last time Ford was growing like this, Dwight D. Eisenhower was the US president."

We have an extensive press release on Ford's 2014 plans that you can view down below. As for what we asked above, of those 16 new US products and seven out-of-market additions, what are you expecting? Is there any segment you'd like to see Ford or Lincoln play in that they aren't currently part of? Have your say in Comments.

In October of last year, Matt Farah, host of The Smoking Tire, toured a seriously impressive car collection that included a number of Saleen Mustangs, some very rare German sports cars and a few gray-market Japanese imports. At the time, there was no mention of who this extensive and impressive collection of cars belonged to. Now, the video has been republished on CarBuzz with confirmation that this vast collection belonged to the late Paul Walker.

Part of the reason we've been so broke up about the Fast and Furious star's death is because Walker was a car guy, he didn't just play one on the big screen. He was real, and genuinely into the industry and its products. It was this trait that is most apparent both in his collection and in his tragic death. Sure, there are a few of the more cliche "celebrity" cars, like a Rolls-Royce Phantom, but how many actors make a point of buying a BMW 850CSi? Take a look below for the full video from The Smoking Tire, and enjoy the wonderful collection Walker put together over the years.

Acura is recalling nearly 20,000 of its 2014 MDX crossovers fitted with all-wheel drive over driveshaft concerns. The affected vehicles were built between May 6, 2013 and October 14, 2013, and have bolts that attach the driveshaft to the transmission that may not have been tightened properly.

Needless to say, an improperly secured driveshaft could lead to a number of problems, including everything from excessive drivetrain noise to full driveshaft detachment, a condition which could result in a loss of power and crash.

There's been no reports of accidents, injuries or deaths relating to the driveshaft issues. Acura will begin notifying all 19,197 owners in question of the recall, and will request that they report in for repairs, which will consist of tightening the driveshaft-attaching bolts. Scroll down for the official bulletin from NHTSA.

It's still in the early going, but it's looking more and more like the 2014 Mercedes-Benz CLA is a verifiable home run for the German brand. According to a new report from Bloomberg, the new small car isn't just widening the sales gap between Mercedes and BMW, it's attracting a new, younger breed of customers into the brand's showrooms. But that early success is straining supplies of the turbocharged four-door.

Dealers have been warned that the first half of 2014 will see limited supplies for CLA, with a letter to dealers indicating that "tight inventories and low days supply" will exist from February through June, despite the car's Kecskemét, Hungary plant running at full tilt.

"This is our best launch in 20 years," said Steve Cannon, the US boss for Mercedes. "The CLA has been a phenomenal success right out of the gate." The numbers certainly support that. We reported in early October that Mercedes moved 2,300 CLAs in its first week on sale, and now Bloomberg is saying CLA sales were almost singlehandedly responsible for Benz's November sales gains. Mercedes' annual sales are up 14 percent through the November, and it's enjoying a healthy 7,600-car lead over BMW.

More than just driving sales, the CLA has widened the brand's appeal, bringing in much younger customers that might not have otherwise consider a Mercedes. The median age for the sleek four-door is 46, while the next vehicle up the brand's ladder, the C-Class, has an average age of 54 and the brand itself sits at at 57.

BMW is definitely going to have its hands full at next month's Detroit Auto Show. The big news might be the debut of the M3 and M4, which were previewed in our Deep Dive, but joining those performance cars under the bright lights will be the all-new 2015 BMW 2 Series Coupe.

While we already know most of the details about the 2 Series and its available M Performance parts, BMW has now announced that the Coupe will go on sale in the first quarter of next year with a starting price of $33,025 (*plus $925 for destination) for the base 228i. This price is about $1,500 more than the current 1 Series Coupe, which starts at $31,500, while the M235i's starting price of $44,025 is almost $500 more than the existing 135is Coupe. There is still no indication as to when we'll see 2 Series Convertible unveiled.

In addition to new M cars and the 2 Series, BMW's display will also reveal another new color-theme package for the Z4. Last year we saw the Hyper Orange package, and this year will give us the Ivory White Burnt Sienna Z4 available in an exclusive Sparkling Brown Metallic exterior paint color. Scroll down for the full press release of production vehicles BMW has planned to showcase at Detroit's Cobo Hall next month.

Ice Cube, Kevin Hart and Conan O'Brien get into a stranger's car. This isn't a setup for a joke, it's the premise of a video from O'Brien's TV show, which sees the late-night host paired with comedian Hart and rapper-turned-actor Ice Cube to test out Lyft, an increasingly popular ride-sharing service. For those that have yet to experience it, Lyft basically allows drivers to use their personal cars as cabs, shuttling strangers to and from their destinations, but in a manner that is more relaxed and less formal than a traditional cab.

The driver arrives in a Kia Sportage with a pink mustache on the front (the visual trademark of any participating Lyft vehicle), and from there, hilarity ensues. The video is a bit long, at just under 10 minutes, but it had us laughing throughout. It may be slightly unsafe for work, simply due to a few bleeps and some of the jokes, but if you've got some time and need a laugh, this is a great way to spend your lunch break. Scroll down for the video.

In the car world, there is a segment of the population that believes tried and true trumps what's novel or new most of the time. A car is a machine with a purpose – be it to deliver your kids to school or afford you the best lap time – and machines are better when they're less likely to fail. Or so the theory goes.

In the gaming world, that sentiment has almost never been true. Retro gamers, and "casual" gamers are changing this paradigm to a certain extent, but historically, newer has meant better when it comes to video games.

With the debut of Gran Turismo 5 in 2010, many believed that the most popular simulation-style racing game of all time had finally relinquished its title as the best, most advanced, mainstream sim racer. Even I, a dyed-in-the-wool GT fan, was forced to admit that Forza Motorsports 4 had caught up with the Polyphony Digital series in that generation.

Three years later, now in the midst of one of the single best Christmas-gift seasons for video games that I can recall, Gran Turismo 6 has arrived to re-light the fires of enthusiasts everywhere. It is, unquestionably, the deepest, most accurate and most entertaining iteration of the franchise to date. The question remains: is it good enough to keep loyalists from looking for kicks at the bleeding edge of technology, with a next-generation console?

BMW may be set to expand its US operations with a new engine plant, Bloomberg reports. The Bavarian automaker already has its Spartanburg, SC factory which builds the company's X3, X5 and X6 crossovers. According to the story, Mexico is also under consideration for the BMW engine factory, with the report claiming a final decision will be made in 2014.

"Establishing local motor manufacturing abroad is more complex than assembling cars, but it's a logical step for them to eventually start making engines in markets where they're expanding vehicle production," Juergen Pieper, an analyst for Bankhaus Metzler tells Bloomberg. Building engines in the US or Mexico would save BMW from having to ship engines for some of its most popular models across the Atlantic.

BMW, for its part, hasn't said anything concrete. Spokesman Mathias Schmidt is quoted in the story saying, "As part of our long-term growth strategy, we're frequently looking at different countries for possible locations of future production facilities. No decisions have been made yet, though, for an additional plant."

What do you think, is this a good idea, or would having a non-German powerplant in its new models remove some of the company's mystique? Have your say in Comments.

As car enthusiasts, there isn't much that's more devastating than being told you physically can't drive. Whether due to injury or illness, that loss of mobility can be a wildly frustrating experience. Fortunately, we humans are fairly good at healing, and in the case of some injuries are back in action within a few weeks. But in the case of broken bones, how long should you wait before sliding back behind the wheel?

A recent story on The New York Times' Well blog tries to answer that question, although the results are fairly confusing. For example, there's no commonly accepted measure of when it's safe to get behind the wheel after a broken bone. While this is largely because every injury and more importantly, every patient, is different, the lack of clarity can be confusing for the average driver.

Making matters worse is that litigation-fearing doctors mistakenly believe they can be sued by "clearing" a patient to drive, although the NYT reports that insurance companies and police place responsibility for any post-op driving accidents on the head of the patient.

The entire piece is well worth a read, particularly if you're recovering from an injury. Hop over to The New York Times Well blog for the full story.

General Motors is not obligated to honor a pre-bankruptcy contract between the automaker, its affiliate, Delphi, and the United Auto Workers to cover $450 million in retiree medical benefits, a federal judge says, according to Reuters. The contract in question was enacted two years before GM's June 2009 bankruptcy filing.

When UAW entered a medical benefit contract with post-bankruptcy GM in July 2009, the payment reportedly was not included. Contrary to UAW's claim that GM is obligated to make the payment because Delphi emerged from bankruptcy in October 2009, US District Judge Avern Cohn says that the language in the July 2009 contract made it clear that GM doesn't owe that $450 million in medical benefits.

"Whether New GM has a moral obligation regarding the payment is another matter and not relevant," part of Cohn's 36-page decision reportedly reads. "The UAW's efforts to turn the absence of language into language is reminiscent of the efforts to capture a 'will o' the wisp."

Bob King, UAW's president, says the union is considering whether to appeal the decision or not.

Preparing for a big debut at the Detroit Auto Show next month, the all-new 2015 Chrysler 200 was out for a late-night photo shoot fully undisguised, and our spy shooters were there to capture its all-new design completely uncovered. While there's no camouflage, the cover of darkness proved to be almost as effective, but we still get a good idea of what this former sore spot in the brand's lineup will look like after its clean-sheet redesign.

The first thing we notice is the stylish four-door-coupe roofline doing its best to impersonate something like the Audi A7, or maybe the Volkswagen CC. The front-end styling is a departure from recent Chrysler designs with narrow headlights and an equally short, chrome-trimmed grille. In profile, the bullet-nosed 200 is somewhat reminiscent of the Tesla Model S. This new design language should definitely help the 200 get noticed in a segment filled with hot sellers like the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord, as well as more stylish offerings like the Ford Fusion and Mazda6.

Our spies also caught up with the 200 testing in daylight and got some good shots of the interior. The instrument panel design looks similar to what is found in the Dodge Dart, including the oversized instrument gauges and possibly even the LED accent lighting. We would have to assume – and hope – this prototype is a test model due to its small touchscreen display, as Chrysler's 8.4-inch screen would look much better in its place. The center stack and console are clean with minimal buttons and knobs, but we do see a rotary gear selector, which may confirm reports from last year that suggested the 200 will use a nine-speed automatic transmission to help hit 38 miles per gallon on the highway.

There's no official word yet on powertrain, but we'll get our first up-close look at the car in less than a month. Until then, check out the naked 200 in all its glory by viewing our gallery above.

To celebrate 50 years of Mustang, Ford and Stern Pinball are collaborating on a new pinball machine that will feature the muscle car in all its glory, Polygon reports. Even better, Camilo Pardo, the guy who designed the Ford GT, will provide art for the table; Tanner Foust, Top Gear USA host and professional driver, will handle narrating duties; and a Sony Music soundtrack spanning five decades will provide the tunes.

"The Mustang is one of the most iconic, American cars ever made... What better way to celebrate 50 years of Mustang than with the launch of the Ford Mustang pinball game?" says Stern Pinball CEO Gary Stern.

Watch the promotional trailer for the upcoming Mustang pinball machine below, which will have to hold you over until pricing and availability are announced in early 2014.

Formula One racecars have changed a lot over the years, and you can tell that much just by looking at them. Engines have moved to the back, cylinder counts have changed, tires have gotten wider, centers of gravity lowered to within an inch of the ground, aerodynamics have dictated the form, sponsor liveries have replaced national racing colors... All this in gradual increments until we get to the jet fighters on wheels that we know today.

This may not be the first animated video we've seen showing just how the changes have occurred, and we still really dig the last one. But this minute-and-a-half clip – released to promote this year's Brazilian Grand Prix and portraying the cars magically changing on a kid's scale racetrack – is no less fun to watch, taking us from the days of From the days of Fangio and Nuvolari through Clark, Piquet, Senna, Schumacher and Vettel. Check it out for yourself below.