If you haven’t heard by now, Top Gear America is hard at work on a new project. The goal? A car that gets 70 mpg, does the 0-60 dash in under 7 seconds and costs less than $7,000. It’s no surprise the team settled on none other than a 1981 VW Diesel Rabbit. After all, [...]

I’m not exactly sure what I’d do with one of these, but there’s something clicking in the back of my mind that says I need one like Augustus Gloop needs chocolate. It’s a 5-Axis CNC router manufactured by Matsuura, and in the video after the jump you’ll see it doing the deed on a massive [...]

Tuners and hot rodders everywhere dove into a horsepower-induced coma when GM announced its epic LS9 would be available as a crate engine. The company has rolled out its 2009 performance parts catalog and sure enough, the engine’s there – complete with a $21,000 price tag. Steep? Depends on where you stand. With 630 horsepower [...]

Ford’s got a good chunk of time and money invested in its fabled Ecoboost program. All-new engine architecture and turbo research isn’t cheap, no matter how you slice it. Of course getting cheeseburger-happy Americans to give up their big-ol’ honkin’ V8’s for V6’s and swap six-pots for four-bangers just might be a hard sell. To [...]

You’ve gotta love the LS1. Besides making silly push-rod power, the Bow Tie block can find its way behind the headlights of almost any rig with a little cutting. It’s the hot rodders’ bread and butter, and it takes boost like a champ. The video after the jump is a true gem of do-it-yourself ingenuity. [...]

Yup, fifty years old. That’s quite an accomplishment for anything automotive, let alone an engine. And just imagine all the crap Bentley’s had to live through for the last 50-years. Like basically become a beaten redheaded step-child of Rolls-Royce. But, jokes on everyone else now, as Bentley has seen record year after record year since [...]

One of Ford’s buzzwords at the 2009 NAIAS was EcoBoost. Forget having a Hemi in it — you want an EcoBoosted engine under hood. Why’s that? Well, you love power, right? All us red blooded types do. But power by itself isn’t enough anymore. The kids want a clean planet. And hate paying for pricey [...]

I’m addicted to diesels. No doubt about it, I can’t get over the decent power and massive fuel economy capable out of these oil burners. Volvo has just pulled the sheets off its newest power plant – a 2.4-liter, twin-turbo diesel that should find its way into the S80. With 205 horsepower and 309 lb-ft [...]

And Infinitis and Renaults, too! Looks like Renault-Nissan has been hard at work on an oil-burner of its own. The 3.0-liter V6 should put out around 235 horsepower, but there’s no word on torque just yet. With a reported 32 mpg, the engine should do well in the likes of the Nissan Maxima and Pathfinder [...]

Never underestimate what a man, money and a garage can do. For example: a first-gen Mazda Miata powered by a Jaguar V12. This guy gets a permanent slot in the Fiend hall of fame. There’s a full year in rebuilding the V12 alone, not to mention the unbelievable amount of fabrication that went into this [...]