First drive

38 Special 2,500 rpm in a family sedan generally isn't a whole lot to get excited about. In fact, it's traditionally closer to idle speed than anything offering the possibility of real entertainment. But each and every one of those 2,500 revolutions in this 2013 Nissan Altima offers a frisson of ...

The Biggest Hammer Of Them All Is Sharper Than Ever We would love to be able to look you square in the eye and say, "All you need to know about the 2013 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 can be summed up in one figure: 662." After all, that's the obscene amount of horsepower ripping at the rear tires ...

Affalterbach Additions Transform Benz's Heavy-Hitting Droptop Saint-Tropez is a charming town in southeastern France nestled along the Mediterranean Sea. Internationally recognized as a summer playground for the wealthy and famous, it is also famed for its "clothing optional" beaches where more ...

A Rare Mid-life Updo Comes To The Starter Ferrari Every time I travel to Maranello for a test drive, the three hours or so prior to turning the red key are driven in a U.S. Interstate-style straight line along Italy's A1 autostrada in my 99-horsepower 2001 Opel Astra station wagon with ...

Proof That Less Of Some Things Can Equal More. It's been fascinating to sample Audi's new greener edition of the EA824 V8 in all of its various incarnations. Our first crack at the new TFSI powerplant with cylinder-on-demand was in Audi's own 513-horsepower S8, and we then went on to try it out ...

Meeting The Best Small Car Dodge Has Ever Made Chrysler has managed an impressive turnaround since the dark days of 2009. After carpet-bombing the market with a spate of new or refreshed models, the automaker saw its retail sales jump a whopping 43 percent in 2011, helping it report a modest ...

We Finally Sample Scion's Irresistible Lightweight At Home Five months ago, we flew nearly 11 hours to spend a fleeting afternoon with the highly anticipated Scion FR-S at Japan's Sodegaura Forest Raceway, a track located just outside of Tokyo. Last week, we were in the air for less than an hour ...

Faint Praise For The World's Nicest Honda Civic Acura has a long and storied history of being an innovator since its creation in 1986. As the first luxury brand from Japan, the marque brought with it the first variable valve timing technology, the first drive-by-wire electronic throttle, the ...