Autoblog

Motor Trend's Arthur St. Antoine heartily recommends that you enroll in a quality performance driving or racing course if you ever have the opportunity to do so. As you're all aware, that kind of instruction doesn't come cheap, so while you keep plugging that spare change into your piggy bank, he has four basic free tips that can improve your ability behind the wheel. They are:

• Be Smooth
• Turn Later
• Look Ahead
• Brake like...uh, well...suffice to say it's something you experience regularly. And by "regularly," we mean in the Metamucil sense.
  

Arthur goes into detail for each tip in his latest editorial. Straightforward, good-practice stuff. As for that braking thing, once you read his explanation, it kinda sounds like a stealth plea for print subscribers if you ask us.

[Source: Motor Trend via Instapundit]

Rick Wagoner must be doing something right as the Chairman and CEO of General Motors, as the auto-pundits at Motor Trend have named him the No. 1 auto industry power broker in their 2008 Power List of the top 50 players. While we haven't received our February 2008 issue yet and don't have all 50 names to share with you, MT was nice enough to reveal the top 10 and a few notables (see below).

GM and Volkswagen are most well-represented automakers in the top 10. The General landed Bob Lutz, Ed Welburn and its new CFO Fritz Henderson on the list in addition to Wagoner, while VW had three in the top 10, including Supervisory Board Chief Ferdinand Piëch, Chairman Martin Winterkorn and Group Design Chief Walter Da Silva. Curiously, no Autoblog staff members made the top 10.

Personalities of note on the 2008 Power List include:
#14 Alan Mullaly – Ford Motor Company Chief Executive Officer
#32 Kazunori Yamauchi – Polyphony Digital President, Gran Turismo 5 Designer
#33 John Dingell – U.S. Representative (D-Mich.), Chairman of Energy and Commerce Committee
#38 Liz Pilibosian – Chief Engineer, Cadillac CTS
#45 Jay Leno – NBC "Tonight Show" Host, Car Enthusiast

Follow the jump to see the top 10 players on the 2008 Power List from Motor Trend.

[Source: Motor Trend]

click image for more pics from our own review of the 2007 Toyota Tundra

Motor Trend awarded its 2008 Truck of the Year award, the last of its three yearly awards, to the Toyota Tundra today. New for the 2007 model year, the Tundra beat out the Chevy Silverado HD, GMC Sierra HD and Ford's line of F-250, -350 and -450 Super Duty trucks. What's interesting about MT's TOTY competition is that because these trucks have such a wide range of capabilities and purposes, they are not pitted against each other, bur rather against specific criteria determined by the magazine's editors. Each is scored in the areas of "superiority", "value", and "significance". They use this strategy in both the Car OTY and SUV OTY award competitions, as well.

While we think the Tundra is the most significant truck that hit the market this season, at least in terms of how it has increased competition in this segment to new levels, we're not so sure that it stacks up as well in the other two categories. For one, it's difficult to call the Tundra "superior" when it's been saddled with a number of quality issues, including most recently its first official recall of 15,600 trucks for a driveshaft issue. And how exactly is the Tundra a better value than its competitors in the class when all can be had with a bed full of rebates and incentives?

Our money was on the F-450 for this award, as the truly super truck from Ford is rather peerless in the market. But we're not the editors of Motor Trend, and it's their award to give to whomever they choose. We're sure they're ready for the onslaught of armchair automotive journalism that's coming their way. Toyota, no doubt, is thrilled with the honor. Expect to see new commercials for the Tundra with those golden calipers on the hood any day now as the automaker attempts a last ditch effort to reach its goal of selling 200,000 units in 2007.

[Source: Motor Trend]

When we read in Motor Trend that the Alpha platform would find its way beneath the bow tie instead of the next G6, we were a little disappointed. It didn't make sense that GM would forego the performance-oriented image of Pontiac that Blogger Bob promised us for the more family-friendly, high volume Chevy brand. If you can believe that Maximum Bob returns emails from fanatical Cheers and Gears message board posters (we definitely wouldn't put it past him), then we have nothing to worry about.

In the alleged email, the industry's most outspoken executive cut right to the chase to tell the wide-eyed emailer that Motor Trend's story was "totally untrue." Heck, maybe we'll get the best of both worlds and the General will make a Alpha-based performance Pontiac and a stylish, fun and affordable Chevrolet. We've been denied many of the best overseas platforms for too long, but nothing can make us forgive and forget faster than a couple of world-class RWD sedans that aren't the size of a freighter.

[Source: Cheers and Gears via The GM Source]

Has Ernie Boch Jr. let the cat out of the bag? Autoblog reader Jason tipped us that he heard a fleeting mention of the 2008 Honda Accord being Motor Trend's Car Of The Year during a commercial for a seasonal promotion at the national sales champ dealership. Could it be that Jason's sharp ear has uncovered Motor Trend's announcement traditionally made in November? Boch Honda's website mirrors the statement that Jason heard, as well, offering a "newly redesigned 2008 Honda Accord LX, Motor Trend's Car Of The Year" for a $198/month lease. Motor Trend, on the other hand, remains mum so far on its pick. The press always blows the automaker's embargoes, how meta is it that a dealer appears to have deflated the COTY balloon? We'll be giving Ernie a ring on Monday, stay tuned.

Thanks for the tip, Jason!

In our own little subsection of society, few men have had as much influence on our pistonhead way of life than Wally Parks. Over 94 years, he was a test driver for GM, founded the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA), had a hand in starting Motor Trend in 1948, co-founded Hot Rod magazine and deemed a quarter-mile as the length of a drag race. Far better scribes have eulogized him after his death on Friday, and we'd ask you to check out the NHRA's website for every detail and facet of his life, rendered in heartfelt words and historic pictures. Godspeed.

Click the mash-up above to see more of MT's digital hallucinations

One of the problems with modern digital technology is sometimes people just don't know where to stop. Just because you can do something with Photoshop, it doesn't necessarily mean you should. All of us here at Autoblog know what can happen when you've been up way too late writing posts, especially when we're on the road. That's why we usually rely on our ever-helpful leads like John before our ramblings get committed to the archive that is the web.

Arthur St. Antoine over at MT seems to have spent one or more of those late nights committing his hallucinations to digital posterity, and provides us with a spy shot gallery even the illustrious Lehmann, Dunne and Priddy couldn't have offered up. VW Jabba? GMC Yukon Cornelius? Who knew!?!?!

[Source: Motor Trend]

As of right now, VW has a very incomplete US lineup that consists of a bunch of Jetta-sized models, the midsize Passat and the big and heavy Toureg. Volkswagen is trying to rectify that situation with the forthcoming Tiguan, which in concept form is a CRV-fighting crossover with some panache.

Motor Trend was lucky enough to get to try out an early edition of the Tiguan in far off Namibia in Southwest Africa, and they came away impressed. All four vehicles tested came equipped with the European market 1.4-liter Twincharger engine (supercharger and turbocharger) packing 150 HP and 177 lb.-ft. of torque, and a Haldex AWD system. VW must be serious about the Tiguan's off-road prowess, considering the dusty conditions used for testing and the special "Track and Field" edition models with a 28-degree approach angle. Initially, Tiguan buyers will be able to choose either a six-speed manual or an automatic transmission, but expect the latter to be replaced by VW's DSG within a year.

[Source: Motor Trend via The VW Gazette]

click above image to enlarge

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]

It appears that today is the day for shedding divisions, as in addition to news that Daimler has sold a majority stake in Chrysler to the Cerberus Group, we've also learned that Primedia has finally unloaded its Enthusiast Media division to Source Interlink. The Enthusiast Media division of Primedia includes 70 magazines titles and 90 websites, including Motor Trend and Automobile Magazine, among others.

Source Interlink appears to work in the field of distribution, which should fit well with the Enthusiast Media division that produces dozens of magazine titles each month needing to find their way onto newsstands across the world. It appears that the purchase will make Source Interlink a vertically integrated producer and distributor of content from this point on. Though a copy of Motor Trend goes for about $4 on the newsstand, Source Interlink paid $1.2 billion for it and its siblings thanks to financing support from Citigroup Global Markets, Inc.

Like the sale of Chrysler to Cerberus, only time will tell if these sell offs benefit the seller, the sold and the buyer. You can read the full press release from Source Interlink detailing the sale after the jump.

[Source: Source Link via Winding Road]