Autoblog

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The new issue of Motor Trend arrived in the mail and our eyes were instantly attracted to this story that just went live on motortrend.com. The MT crew has learned that the supercharged V8 slated for use in the next-gen Cadillac CTS-V will be none other than a "detuned" version of the 7.0L LS7 powerplant debuting in the Corvette Blue Devil, or rather, Corvette Z07. The MT editors expect the version used in the CTS-V to produce about 600 horsepower, or around 100 horses short of what the Z07 will produce.

Pick any possible competitor for the next CTS-V and it's obvious that all will come up short to Caddy's new mega muscle sedan. The BMW M3 and Audi RS4 both produce only 420 horsepower, while the horsepower happy AMG team stuffed only 503 in the Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG. Even the BMW M5, which is larger than the CTS, will come up short with an upcoming horsepower bump into the low-500 horsepower range. In short, the CTS-V will offer the same amount of horsepower as the 2008 Dodge Viper, which is pure insanity. GM's got stones, folks, and Cadillac is clearly the prime beneficiary of its newfound fortitude.

Much thanks to Motor Trend editor-in-chief Angus Mackenzie for allowing Autoblog to republish the rendering above. The July issue (you can subscribe here) is thicker than a Thesaurus and our fave in a string of recent good issues from the MT team.

[Source: Motor Trend - pic used with permission, do not reproduce]

While perusing our latest issue of the autowriters.com newsletter for February, we noticed an announcement by Truck Trend editor and Motor Trend writer Mark Williams that reveals the end has come for Motor Trend Classics, the bi-monhtly publication that was obviously a labor of love for the MT staff that produced it. Apparently, not enough advertising could be secured to keep it going.

MT Classics was one of our fave rags to buy at the airport before a long flight. Devoid of any new car reviews, instrumented testing or industry gossip, it live or died by the quality of its writing, and it was actually quite good. The magazine's shape was big in the classic Euro tradition, which meant each page was a wall of pictures and text for the reader to slowly digest. Williams says that the people at MT responsible for the book are optimistic it will live on in some form, perhaps as a once-a-year specialty publication or as a new web asset for MT. Either way, we're a bit sad to see this one go, as its pages were filled with examples of automotive journalism stripped down to its essence – passionate people talking about cars they love.

Follow the jump to read the entire quote from Mark Williams of Trucks Trends and Motor Trends. You can also hit this link to see a video of Motor Trend Editor-in-Chief Angus Mackenzie explain the rationale behind the creation of MT Classic.

[Source: autowriters.com February 2007 newsletter]

The Toyota Camry, despite being knocked by many enthusiasts as soulless and bland, has still managed to outsell every other car on the market. Second on the list is its own sibling, the Corolla. And sales keep going up, so it obviously has a lot going for it. First it wins "Most Popular" award for its sales record and now it has won Motor Trend's Car of the Year for 2007. We'd say it's a shoe-in for Miss Congeniality, too. Motor Trend Magazine's Editor-in-Chief Angus MacKenzie issued a statement that said the award goes to the whole Camry range for its innovation and wide appeal. This is, amazingly enough, the first win for the Camry. It beat 26 other nominees for the title.

The MT COTY awards are reserved for vehicles that are all, or significantly new during the model year. This explains, for instance, why last year's winner, the Honda Civic, wasn't nominated. Looking at the list of competitors, we see 10 Japanese cars, six Americans, five Koreans, four Germans, one Brit and one Swede. A pretty good group of cars, including the Chevrolet Aveo, Chrysler Sebring, Dodge Caliber, Honda Fit, Hyundai Elantra, Hyundai Entourage, Infiniti G35, Jaguar XK, Jeep Compass, Kia Optima, Kia Rondo, Kia Sedona, Lexus ES 350, Lexus LS 460, Mercedes Benz S-Class, Nissan Altima, Nissan Sentra, Nissan Versa, Porsche Cayman, Saturn Aura, Saturn Sky Redline, Suzuki SX4, Toyota Camry, Toyota Yaris, Volvo C70 T5, Volkswagen EOS, and Volkswagen Rabbit.

Did it deserve the golden calipers? Sound off in the comments.

[Source: MSNBC]

Thanks for the tip, Justin!