Ford's been talking about Ecoboost since around the time of the Crimean War. And now, finally, we can bring you some definitive information. First, it's going to be a $700 option – which is paltry as automotive options go, to say nothing of engine options that run into the thousands. Second, the first FoMoCo forray in Eco-Boostland will deliver a twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter V6 engine. The blown powerplant should make well over 300 horsepower in vehicles like the Ford Flex and Lincoln MKS. Both could use a serious dose of tire-shredding power. Ford is also planning to Eco-Boost the F-150. Automotive News reports the variant will make more than 340 horsepower, 340 ft lbs of torque. The savings in gas is approximately 20 percent versus a V8 engine – keeping in mind that Ford's V8 engines actually makes less than 340 horsepower. Speaking of which, where does this leave Ford's V8 engine program? I'm not sure, but I can tell you with certainty that (1) a 340 horsepower twin-turbo V6 Mustang would be pretty phenomenal and (2) Ford is still going to need some V8 engines for image if nothing else. Especially in the 'Stang.

First, this post dovetails nicely with the Ask the B&B question on homoerotic truck ads. I mean, if the testosterone-laden Torque.tv's announcer's tongue isn't firmly in his cheek, well… Anyway, the video also suggest a click on over to Paul Niedermeyer's excellent editorial on the coming showdown between the 2010 Prius and the 2010 Honda Hybrid. Personally, I find the producer's choice of cartoon clown xylophone background music a bit OTT. But I'm glad the torque team pointed out that a properly-flogged Prius can suck more unleaded than a 'Vette. It brings back fond memories of the time I tried to discover how much gas I could use in a Prius. I never got it below 17mpg. Guess I wasn't trying hard enough.

H2H Ep12, Honda Civic Hybrid Vs. Toyota Prius

What happens when a Audi Q7 (the SUV that looks like it eats subcompacts for breakfast) crashes with a minuscule Fiat 500? The result is predictable (Audi vs Fiat 10:0), but the reasons are somewhat surprising. German auto club ADAC has been testing the so-called crash-compatibility of cars for 15 years. The Fiat 500 is an up-to-date car, with five Euro-NCAP stars and even equipped with knee airbags. In this 50 percent-offset test, conducted at around 40 mph (56 km/ h, but equivalent to 80km/h for the lower-mass Fiat), the Fiat fares much worse than it would if it just hit a wall. This is because the Audi's longitudinal beam misses the Fiat's frame and bores right into the smaller car's footwell. Subsequently, the Fiat's frame collapses and the driver's overtaxed airbag ruptures. For the Fiat's occupants, such a crash would likely be fatal, while the Audi's passengers would suffer not much more than some bruises. ADAC's Rolf Ambos says this result is quite unnecessary: with cross members and longitudinal beams in similar heights, damage would be much lower. "We at ADAC call for regulations that require larger cars to have energy-absorbing beams on several levels. Most heavy sedans already take compatibility into consideration; SUVs should too." Yet another nail in the SUVs coffin?

We recently pitted the next gen Toyota Prius against the forthcoming Chevrolet Volt. The contest was theoretical, predicated on the arrival of the Volt in 2010 (and performing as advertised). Meanwhile, there’s no question about the reality (and viability) of Honda’s new hybrid sedan. It’s set to hit the showroom floor in April 2009, around the same time as the new Prius. While the Volt waits in the wings, the Toyota – Honda gas – electric rivalry will be an epic showdown.

As a high school soccer player, I shared a locker room with the football team. Apparently my choice of the world's most popular sport indicated that I and my fellow teammates were all homosexual. Huh? Not that I debated the point with the tight end, but I reckoned there was a distinctly homoerotic undertone to our tormentors' camaraderie (me thinks thou dost towel whip too much). And I've started to notice that truck advertising– always mucho macho– is wandering into the same hyper-male territory. I refer here to the glossy Silverado pimpatorial in September's Car and Driver. "If you're a man's man, you need to be driving a truck's truck." What does that make a Honda Ridegline, an F-150's bitch? I like functional tools as much as the next guy, but I'm beginning to think truck maker's might want to ease-off on the gravelly-voiced steroid approach. Or not. What's your take?

According to the Bible, God toppled the walls of Jericho, parted the Red Sea and made the sun move backwards in the sky. Now He's taken a few minutes out of working on world peace and a few other projects to drop the price of gas in the U.S. by 20 cents a gallon. Rocky Twyman, described by BBC News as a "veteran community campaigner," has been holding "Pray at the Pumps" meetings all over the country since April. Twyman told BBC when they prayed in Huntsville, Alabama, "immediately the owners came out and changed the gas prices. They brought it down." They're not resting on their laurels, though. They plan to continue their prayer meetings to drive gas prices down even more. Hopefully the group won't stop until gas is back down around $1/gallon. Only then can every American exercise their God-given Constitutional right to drive the biggest, gas-suckingest SUV or pickup the automakers can screw together. Then we can all say with the poet, "God's in his Heaven – All's right with the world." Can I get an "Amen"? [thanks to KatiePuckrick for the link]

Germans are fond of testing the heck out of machines, no matter how oddball the configuration. They even turned testing into a world-class industry, what with companies such as TÜV expanding into unlikely places such as China. The newest and strangest crash test was carried out for the German insurance industry association, as shown in this video via Spiegel TV. Surprise, surprise! If you drive your Segway down a sidewalk at top speed (15 km per hour) and a car pulls out in front of you, the resulting crash can be fatal. "At slow speeds such as 9 km/h, the Segway is fun and safe, but at higher speeds, even a helmet cannot prevent serious injury, because the full impact force is on the driver's jaw", says test engineer Siegfried Brockman. The rest of the video is worth watching for the pirouetting meter maids, and the "World's Funniest Video"-style clips of people (including GWB) falling off their Segways. But isn't life about choices? One could wear a full-face helmet (and scare small children), or hope for an airbag-equipped Segway in 2010 (just kidding). Or maybe just walk.

As you may or may not know (and may or may not care), Porsche doesn't look kindly upon media outlets that use the word "targa" in connection with anything other than a [slow-selling] Porsche product. So what of the legendary Targa Florio race ("Besides the course which traversed mountain roads unchanged since the Punic Wars, there were severe changes in climate, bandits and wolves. Each hairpin competed with a sheer abyss for the driver's attention over a 3 lap race of 277 miles")? Never mind. The so-not-a-targa Veyron (V?) 16.4 is a Grand Sport by name, $2.05m by price (or 21 Porsche 911 Targa 4Ss). Bug owners can store their Veyron's [no extra charge] polcarb top, but not within the targa car. Thankfully, Pistonheads reports that "There is also an emergency soft top that can be fitted to protect the driver from a sudden downpour. In Bugatti’s own words, the soft can be 'stowed in the trunk like an umbrella'… If you go for the soft top then you won't be allowed to go over 80mph." Allowed? By whom? Doesn't VW own Bugatti, and isn't Porsche the Maus that Roared? It all sounds suspicious to me. But fun. Lots and lots of fun.

I guess most of you have seen www.one-77.com by now, the teaser web-site for the next Aston Martin supercar. I was so impressed I bought the company! No, seriously, although dark and mysterious, AM's design sketch reveals lots of details. The most visible and surprising element of the design: the shape of the side vents. They remind me of the Corvette C5 concept. Some could find them as an evolution of the air exhausts found on the DBR5 (but not until they had a couple of beers). The one-77's front spoiler is also new. It shows two ascending creases that melt into the front lights. The peepers show an angular design with new optical elements. We can't tell from the Aston teaser sketch, but I bet the traditional grille will stay in place. A discrete lower intake completes the front styling in an elegant manner. Although it's designed as an extreme supercar, the one-77 looks a lot more subtle than the DBS. Only the four vents placed on the hood indicate that a beast needing lots of air is caged within. Sometimes I am ashamed that I get paid for having so much fun. [ED: at these prices, don't be] I thoroughly enjoyed my virtual business trip to the land of fetishistic elegance.

[Read Justin's review of the AM Vantage on Wednesday.] 

Reuters quotes a source with "direct knowledge of the matter" (i.e. themselves) that claims Chinese SUV maker Changfeng Motor Co. took at a look at buying GM's Dead Brand Stunting and said "Hahahahaha. No." More journalistically, "Changfeng, partly owned by Mitsubishi Motors Corp decided not to proceed with the talks after a tour of Hummer's U.S. production facility, as it saw only limited potential for it to market the vehicle, the source said. 'The Hummer is way too expensive for the Chinese military and demand from civilian buyers is not big enough to justify a purchase, especially with oil prices running near an all-time high,' the source said." OK, if that doesn't sound like a made-up quote, nothing does. Despite the fact that Reuters should have filed this one under Wild Ass Rumor, it's certainly true that the HUMMER brand is a drug on the market, and it ain't Viagra. CNN reports that India's Mahindra and Mahindra is also taking a pass. After Russian "oligarch" Oleg Deripaska said "nyet."

First impressions last. Wrong. Psychologists say humans develop their strongest positive feelings to someone or something if they hated it at first. For instance, I once detested Hondas. After spending some time driving various Hondas, the brand earned my no-longer-grudging respect. The converse is also true: we reserve our most negative assessments for someone or something that we loved at first. The human psyche doesn't like to be disappointed.  Sadly, the 2003 Ford Thunderbird falls into this latter category.

Anyone who thinks GM isn't in a cash crunch better come up with some serious spin stat. The American automaker has officially confirmed that it's withdrawing from the Oscars. No, I don't mean it's removing itself from contention for "The Most Shameless Product Placement in any Movie Since Cinema Was Invented" Oscar. We're talking about ad sponsorship. As in no more. Which also means the Autoblog gallery-filling pre-Oscar stars and our cars "Style" event is toast. The Wall Street Journal makes the contrast with years past. "Not only has GM — the maker of brands such as Cadillac, Chevrolet and Saturn — aired a slew of commercials during the popular awards show, it also has paid extra to be the exclusive auto advertiser during some of the Oscar broadcasts. GM's marketing around the program has included on-the-ground promotions, such as giving the show dozens of GM vehicles to shuttle celebrities to the event and to Oscar-related parties." What, no Escalade Hybrid limos? Nope. And no Emmy sponsorship. And the next Olympics will not have anything shiny and blue paying the bills. It would be nice to think that all this money saved will be going towards new product development. But it's not. It's what the non-technical analysts call throwing shit overboard to stop the ship from sinking. 

Hurricane Fay decided to crash my mini (small m) break here in alcohol-sodden Key West. Store keepers boarded-up their shops, tourists packed-up their rentals, polydactyl cats dove for cover and Starbucks kept everyone properly caffeinated. Watching the queue of cars on Highway 1 heading towards the mainland, Monica and I delayed our departure as long as possible. Sanity, and US Air Force safety policy, intervened with our procrastination. So we provisioned our rented Dodge Grand Caravan with extra water, Swedish Fish and coffee. Facing untold hours of driving, I had time to reflect on the evacuation-worthiness of our refrigerator white box on wheels. Fit 'n Finish are Chrysler Corp. standard (the panels don't fit and it's not finished). The van's lack of power complements the confused autostick four-speed tranny. The constant bands of rain have however produced some unseemly driving characteristics, such as constant accessory belt squeal and skittering tires, followed by abrupt traction control. The flat and unsupportive seats are not our friends. Stay tuned for updates on our progress from Key West to Ft. Lauderdale.

Me, never. Why would I? But I know plenty of pistonheads who have. I remember a particularly coke-fueled neighborhood Porsche driver who was crazy enough to get some serious distance from the local po-po, who were Hell bent on throwing his dangerous driving ass in jail. He screeched into his [blacked out] garage, stripped, jumped in bed and pretended to be asleep. Mind if we have a look around? Long-suffering wife: with all due respect officers, talk to my fucking lawyer. These days, it's not enough to evade the long arm of the law. If you're way cool, you race the cops, videotape the result and share your criminal activities with the world. To wit: superspeeders.com, "where horsepower rules, and the rules of the road don't apply." And their teaser video for same, via Streetfire.net [Note to the SF guys: please don't pull the link. This is instructive stuff.] I guess discretion is no longer the better part of stupidity. If it ever was. Anyway, you ever done shit like this?

Cops have a little run in with Ford GT

Steven Cole Smith is The Orlando Sentinel's automotive editor. You may remember Smith as Car and Driver's executive editor and/or as a syndicated New York Times car columnist. Or perhaps you've seen his byline at Edmunds or AutoWeek. Now I'm not going to say Smith pulls his punches to please his paper's patrons, be they carmakers or car dealers. But I will say the Aveo is one of the nastiest cars I've ever driven, and I'm pretending this is 1977. Smith disagrees. "The 1.6-liter, four-cylinder engine is surprisingly smooth and quiet, and while gas mileage isn't great for a car this small, it's pretty darn good: an EPA-rated 25 mpg in the city, 34 mpg on the highway in our test car." And "Headroom in the Aveo5 is generous, and rear-seat room isn't that bad, unless you have some long-legged people in the front seat. That room comes at the expense of luggage space in the back, but the rear seat folds down." And then he gets NASTY, in a loving kind of way. "Inside, for the most part, the Aveo looked and felt surprisingly upscale, but there were a few tipoffs to the fact that this is an inexpensive car: While the flip-down sun visors had vanity mirrors, the mirrors were uncovered, meaning that when the visors were down, they reflected you and everything behind the car. It was annoying enough that I'd have to use a strip of duct tape to cover them if I owned the car." Wait. Smith would actually consider owning one of these shit-boxes? Not bloody likely.