And we enter the week of the American holiday of Thanksgiving, which means diddly-squat will be happening this week in automotive news. Enjoy your day off, everyone, we’ll be here, desperately combing for anything to talk about.

For 11/24, due to reasons beyond my control (read: college), the actual podcast will be going up tomorrow. However, as for right now, we have the text of what you’ll be hearing me say later on tomorrow, anyway! It’s situated right below the jump.

11/25 is the first victim to fall prey to the ravages of the Thanksgiving vacation, as we talk about rumors surrounding a new range-topping VW Scirocco and the mass exodus from the upcoming 2009 North American International Auto Show. It’s only 2:36 people, you can’t even boil an egg in that amount of time.

 

 SSL Radio 11/25/08 [2:36m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Read the rest of this entry »

Click for Larger Image

Just a week after the debut of the 2010 Mazda sedan at the Los Angeles Auto Show, Mazda has published teaser photos of the Mazda3 5-door ahead of its debut at the 2008 Bologna Motor Show. Mazda hasn’t provided much detail about the new 5-door, but we can assume most of the new features found on the sedan version will make it over to the 5-door, including the newly developed 2.5L engine.

Additional photos and full press release after the jump.

Click for Larger Image

Read the rest of this entry »

Click for Larger Image

Volvo has released two teaser images of the new Volvo S60 Concept set to debut at the 2009 North American International Auto Show this coming January. Volvo says that this is a clear indication of what the next-generation S60 will look when it is introduced in 2010. Full press release after the jump.

Click for Larger Image

Read the rest of this entry »

Click for Larger Image

Porsche has released the first photos of what it is calling the Panamera Gran Turismo, the first four-door in Porsche’s lineup. Officially, Porsche will be marketing the Panamera as a four-door grand touring sports car, meaning potential Maxima buyers will have another choice to consider.

The Panamera will feature three engines, ranging from a 300-horsepower V6 to the range topping direct injection 500-horsepower turbocharged V8. Power will get to the rear wheels via a six-speed manual gearbox or Porsche’s new seven-speed PDK Doppelkupplungsgetriebe transmission. We’ve found that Doppelkupplungsgetriebe is a far more impressive in conversation than double-clutch, so practice up on your German.

Porsche says that the Panamera will make its world debut in the Spring of 2009 and will arrive at U.S. dealers in the Fall of 2009.

As a side note, after looking at these photos for a few days, I’m convinced that rear end is something that only Sir-Mix-A-Lot could love. What do you think of the Panamera? If it were YOUR money, which sport four-door would you buy? We love to see your comments!

Click for Larger Image

Yes, it’s time for the LA Auto Show! I’ll be there, bringing you coverage of all the cars that we actually give a crap about. Also, as this is the first week of our new daily podcasting schedule, the format of this post might change a bit from day to day as we figure out what the Hell we’re doing. And please remember to, as always, Share and Enjoy™.

First, the podcast for 11/18, wherein we kill time before the LA show opens by talking about the VW Touareg V6 TDI, go over Ford’s sale of part of their stake in Mazda, find one great deal on two awful cars, and rediscover just what makes Bernie Ecclestone so damn evil.

For 11/19, we wonder why ABC News is wasting our time complaining about the fact that corporate CEOs are acting like coporate CEOs, and cover the few interesting debuts from the LA Auto Show that we haven’t done previously, which only leaves the Nissan Cube and 370Z and the 2010 Ford Mustang.

11/20 has come and gone, and brought with it news of Porsche finally committing that final sin, and economic crises and the stupid Congressional pissing matches that cause them.

And finally, the podcast for 11/21 contains news of the pricing for the 2010 Ford Fusion refresh, the debut of the US-spec Smart Fortwo Brabus, and final proof of why we’re so awesome.

 

 SSL Radio 11/18/08 [5:01m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 SSL Radio 11/19/08 [4:33m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 SSL Radio 11/20/08 [3:34m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 SSL Radio 11/21/08 [5:19m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Click for Larger Image

Story by Jack Baruth, photograph by Sideline Sports Photography

Nearly two decades ago, I had the unique privilege of attending Dr. John Romano’s ENG 131 class at Miami University. I say “privilege” because Dr. Romano taught me two important things. The second thing he taught me was that standards matter. Although I had received an “A” on every paper I had submitted in his class, he gave me a “B” at the end of the semester. Why? It was simple: he’d indicated that it was unacceptable to miss more than two classes, and I had missed three. Why had I missed three, you ask? I was in the hospital with some grotesque cycling-related injury. When I explained this to him, he explained to me that his expectations did not come with pre-printed excuse notes for “hospitals, sniffles, and unrepentant laziness”. This “B”, one of two I would receive during my time at the English Department at Miami, served as a harsh introduction to the real world, where nobody wants to hear your excuses.

The first important thing Romano taught me came during his lecture on the opening of The Canterbury Tales. “Ah, spring,” he sighed, “it promises so much, and delivers so little. Not unlike, I would say, many of you young ladies in this audience.” The reaction in the lecture hall was closely akin to what I suppose it would have been had Romano produced a Labrador puppy from one of the folds of his voluminous tweed overcoat, held it up to the sky, and snapped its neck. The shocked silence lasted for what seemed hours before the bespectacled, bewhiskered old professor smiled and resumed reading Chaucer in his ragged, creaking baritone. It would take me several dinner dates and a long “study session” with one of my distaff ENG 132 classmates before I realized that Romano had it exactly right. The payoff rarely meets the promise; the juice usually isn’t worth the squeeze.

Not so today, dear readers. I’ve promised you something simple: that if you read, comprehend, and implement the suggestions in this column you will, I repeat, absolutely will go faster. For many of you, the resultant benefits will exceed anything you could gain by spending thousands of dollars tuning your car; thus the photo above of a beautiful, fully-prepared, track-dominating 350Z being snuggled-up to by an absolutely bone-stock fifty-two-hundred-pound luxury sedan in VIR’s infamous Climbing Esses. I intend to deliver on this promise, so take a moment, clear your mind of your losses in the stock market, the pressures of work, and the burning question of whether or not Vanessa Hudgens was actually just fifteen years old when she took that camera-phone photo, and let us continue as Dr. Romano would wish: slowly, carefully, and with attention to detail.

Read the rest of this entry »

Detroit Must Die. That was the title of a column written by Mark Morford of the San Francisco Chronicle’s SFGate (dot com). Those terms should be enough for you to google your way into that abyss of idiocy if your self loathing compels you to do so. Originally, this week’s column was going to be an educational one. I was going to point out the impacts, both far-reaching and highly localized, of a hypothetical Chapter 7 collapse of the country’s largest auto maker. And then I got a link to Mr. Morford’s article. And I was disgusted.

Read the rest of this entry »

Hello, and welcome to the first of our new daily editions of SSL Radio. We figured it’d be a good idea to make this first edition a special one, and so we present to you an extra-long podcast, all about the current crisis the US automotive industry (GM, mostly) finds itself in. We break down the current debate over the potential new bailout for Detroit, discuss how the Big Three are doing at the moment and if they’re likely to live to see a bailout, and finally, I do Chris Matthews from MSNBC a solid and present my own answer to the question that he and many others have been asking for the last few days: What the Hell happened to the Big Three? If you have any questions, comments or hate mail about this podcast or the new format, my email address is kasey@speedsportlife.com. And as always, Share and Enjoy™.

 

 SSL Radio 11/17/08 [14:49m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I apologize for my voice, the fact that half of southern California is on fire and the other half is coated in ash (just in time for the LA Auto Show) has played havoc with my voice today. This week, we have cool leftovers from SEMA, a confusing new Ferrari, some nice diesel news, and all the coverage you could want for the slow collapse of the American automotive industry.

On another note, we will be attempting to move the podcast to a nightly schedule instead of a weekly schedule. Now, that might sound like more work for me, but it should really allow us to get more content to you, the listeners, and more on time, as less news per day means we can cover more esoteric stuff and not have to pound out four or five pages of text for a single podcast. We’ll just have to wait and see how it goes this week, so wish us luck.

 

 SSL Radio 11/16/08 [12:19m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Imagine I said something devastatingly witty here, something that caused women to desire me and men to envy my rhetorical skills, at least until I put up a real summary of this episode. Until then, Share and Enjoy™.

Edit: Alright, it’s amazing what actually sleeping will do for one’s disposition. Anyway, here’s what you can expect from this week’s podcast (no promises, though). Audi drops the basic stats for the upcoming TT-S, a bit of rumblings and rumors from Ford, Rolls-Royce muses about a cleaner, greener Phantom, and the British are planning to break the sound barrier yet again. We’re unfortunately forced to talk about the GM-Chrysler merger rumors, the auto industry continues its death spiral, the FIA compounds its mistake, and we get to add a new marque to the “featured on” list in this week’s Useless Automotive Tchotchke.

 

 SSL Radio 11/06/08 [14:45m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download