With the buff books claiming the Nissan GT-R does runs of 0 – 60 in only 12 parsecs (yes, I know a parsec is a measurement of distance, Han Solo) and over 470 horsepower on tap, it was only a matter of time until someone made their GT-R look like it went through a blender.. A member of the forums at Drift.Com.My, a Malaysian drifting community website, just posted a gallery of shots of a pile of metal that used to be called a GT-R. Posters there are saying the car appears to be from Singapore, although wherever it's from, it's hardly a car anymore. Just because you can afford it, doesn't mean you have enough brains to drive it responsibly. I'm not saying such a powerful beast should be illegal, just that its drivers should have to be chemically castrated and wear ankle GPS bracelets at all times and give up their search and seizure protections. In any case, here are the pictures of the wreckage [thanks to Autoblog for the tip]

In India, Suzuki has over 50 percent of the market share. You might have heard this factoid on Wednesday's podcast, you might have read it during our coverage of the NYC auto show. I've said it for a third time because it really is quite amazing. Part of their sales success is down to Suzuki's extremely well developed small car lineup, anchored by the Swift, which is not on sale in America because Suzuki hates freedom. And import costs, currency fluctuations and low profit margins. (We do have a Swift-related car however, the fun-to-drive SX4 crossover). Back to India, where Maruti Suzuki is taking names and kicking behinds. They've just unveiled a sedan version of the normally attractive Swift hatchback, and it might just be the most awkward car of the year. There are other uglies out there like the Mercedes ML and the MINI Cooper Clubman John Cooper Works. But this might just take the cake for bizarre mass market car [outside of China]. Oh, and as if it wasn't weird enough, they're calling it the "Dzire" and marketing it as "The Heart Car." In sum, ew.

I've been kvetching about the overcylinderization of BMWs M cars for a while now. The first M3 had an inline four. The next two gens holstered straight sixes. And now the M3 has a high-revving V8. BMW's mighty M5 went from two generations of straight sixes to a V8 to a high-revving V10. All this horsepower excuses BMW from having to lighten its cars and focus on improving dynamics. It seems that BMW CEO Norbert Reithofer is thinking along the same lines. Speaking to the German magazine Auto Motor Und Sport, Reithofer said he wants to trim down to fewer cylinder engines in the M cars and the rest of the BMW range. In particular, he said that BMW's diesel V8 (which is rather popular over in Europe) would be replaced with a twin turbocharged I6. And he indicated that the M range would also probably be downsized as well. Turbocharging, not displacement and cylinders, would be the path to improvements in M cars' horsepower and weight distribution. (Not to mention CO2 emissions.) Hey, if it works for the Nissan GT-R…

…and yet they're not on a plane to Vegas or ringing-up their stockbroker. Anyway, the mag's posted a roadmap of Jaguar and Land Rover's (JLR) product plans for the next umpteen years. Oh, one qualification: Tata has only committed to follow Autoweek's guide for the next five years. Might I remind everyone that the Indian automaker has guaranteed Ford it will follow JLR's five-year plan. And it will… right until it doesn't. Anyone who thinks Ford knows how to run JLR for the next five years should look at the last five years. Or ten. And I'm sure Tata's done that due diligence. The only Autoweek prognostication you can reasonably expect to deliver 100 percent truthiness is the arrivals of the new, 5.0-liter V8; the engine's development is nearly done. Autoweek estimates that the new powerplant will stump-up a reasonable 380 horses in naturally-aspirated form and nearly 500 when supercharged (the latter being a little optimistic). And without a doubt, this engine is bound for Jags and Range Rovers alike. (Well, duh.) Otherwise, the real vision for Tata's future are in Ratan Tata's brain, and he ain't sayin' nothing. Yet.

"Uh oh." That's the unofficial line out of Ford Australia today in response to FoMoCo's announcement that they're developing a rear wheel-drive (RWD) platform in America. Officially, the Australians have responded with "it's too early to speculate." Ford OZ already has a RWD platform underpinning the Falcon. Thanks to a lack of engineering foresight (i.e. international beancounting), the Falcon can't be built as a left hand drive car for the U.S. market. Since the dollar is weak and engineers plentiful, Ford chose to keep the new platform's development stateside. The Australians are hitting the Pepto-Bismol over [entirely justifiable] concerns that all of Ford's RWD operations would be relocated to the U.S., denying the Blue Oval's Australian subsidiary a chance to design the next Falcon– or much of anything else, really. Roughly a thousand engineers' jobs are at stake. 

On Monday, when we reported on Audi's newly revised turbocharged four-cylinder engines, commenter Joshvar said "Still no DSG?" Well, according to Ward's Auto, now there is. Audi is finally moving ahead with a dual clutch transmission (DCT). Supposedly, they developed the new box completely in-house (BorgWarner makes the current DSG in the A3 and GTI). Ingolstadt's version offers seven (count 'em seven) gears and can handle up to 406 ft.-lbs. or torque. On top of that, it's been specifically engineered for the longitudinal setup of engines throughout Audi's lineup. This writer's guess: as soon as they can make enough of them, there will be a DCT available in every car Audi sells. Now, where the Hell is Porsche's paddle-shifted semi-manual miracle?

Farago said it might never happen, but it did: Tata's bought Land Rover and Jaguar. Bloomberg says the announcement will come tomorrow morning, perhaps even before the NYSE opens for the day. Tata has purchased Land Rover and Jaguar for $2.65 billion, or about the cost of dinner for four people at a pub in London. As we've said all along, the best English high tea in the world isn't served in England; it's in Hong Kong and India. So 150 years after flooding China with so much opium that the Chinese government started two wars with England to get it to stop, Chinese businesses bought what remained of Rover. Now the Indians are having their turn, as Indian industrial giant Tata (recently in the news for selling the cheapest new automobile in the world), have completed the deal to buy the former crown jewels of the British automotive manufacturing industry, Jaguar and Land Rover. Ford purchased Jaguar in 1990 for $2.5 billion and Land Rover in 2000 for $2.73 billion, making this a multi-billion dollar loss even if they hadn't been operating the companies for a total of 25 business years. Here's to hoping for a brighter future for these storied companies.

Remember how US bumper regulations ruined the design of 1970s Porsches and so many other cars? Although the U.S. now has integrated bumpers (that defeat the purpose of minimizing costly repairs from "fender benders"), we still have a requirement for butt uglification. In looking at pictures of Honda's upcoming subcompact car, the 2009 Fit, I realized just how much our regulations affect car design. In this particular example, the American version is much longer – especially up at the front, where it seems like there must be an extra two feet ahead of the front wheels. The example should serve to remind all of us of one of the litany of complications that comes with Americanizing a car for sale. And back on the topic of the Fit, the shorter Japanese version looks better.

If you recall, Hyundai presented the production version of the rear wheel-drive Genesis Coupe at the New York Auto Show last week. We can now bring you some specs. The base engine is a turbocharged and intercooled 2.0-liter four-cylinder mill, cranking-out. 212hp at 6500 rpm, and 217 ft.-lbs. of twist at 2500 rpm. The optional 3.8-liter V6 is good for 306 horsepower at 6000 rpm, with 263 ft.-lbs. of torque at 4700 rpm. Both cars feature a six-speed manual as standard (which means most American buyers will be paying more for a slushbox). The turbo four gets an optional five-speed auto while the V6 gets an outstanding optional ZF six-speed auto. Now for the bad news. The V6 weigh-in at 3549 lbs and the four-banger ain't no featherweight neither (3439 lbs.). That puts the Genesis Coupes almost exactly on par with FoMoCo's V6 and V8 Mustangs. Hyundai's only performance estimate: the V6 will make it to 60mph in "under 6 seconds." So why not fir the Genesis with a 250-horse version of the blown four that Kia showcased in their Koup concept? Why not indeed.

Click here for a Pixamo gallery of the Genesis Coupe 

For the second time in a week (clock analogy again), Bob Lutz made an accurate prediction. GM's Car Czar told journalists he'd like to put a 200 horse turbocharged four in a big car, tuned for torque and fuel economy. Sounds like a good idea. So good, Audi's doing it… The current Audi A4 has a great engine– the 2.0T–  that's most useful with either a manual transmission or DSG. But since some 80 percent or more of the A4 2.0T sold in America have a slushbox (six-speed or CVT), acceleration is less than idea (i.e. slow). So Audi's boffins bumped-up the horsepower (from 200 to 211) and added scads 'o torque (from 207 lb ft now to 258 ft.-lbs.). That's more torque than Audi's 3.2-liter V6 provides. If Audi really wanted to test the turbocharged waters for Maximum Bob's dream (nightmare?) of big ass cars with 200 horses, Ingolstadt should offer Yanks the revised 2.0T in the A6. You can just hear the bankers whining. "I'm not spending 55 grand on a car with four cylinder engine!"

During our recent audience with GM Car Czar Bob Lutz, Maximum Bob proclaimed "diesels are not the answer." While cynics might say that even a stopped clock is right twice a day, props to Bob for doing the math. Reuters reports the average price for a gallon of diesel has hit $4.06. It's as high as $4.60/gallon in places. As MB pointed out, "asking people to pay a 20 percent premium for a diesel engine and a 20 percent premium at the pump makes no sense at all." True dat. Without huge gains in fuel economy over regular gasoline counterparts, manufacturers are going to have a hard time getting people to switch to diesel-powered propulsion. The next step: the feds intercede to drive down the cost of diesel and diesel cars, as they are doing with ethanol and E85-compatible vehicles. And then high mileage U.S. oil burners will fly off the showroom floor. [Note to Bob: will GM be ready?] Lest we forget, $4.00/gallon diesel has a huge impact on our truck-based shipping infrastructure. And that could be a BIG problem… News of an April first trucker's strike to follow. 

Here's a story with a number of improbabilities: Ford developing anything new, Ford putting money in rear wheel-drive (RWD) and any manufacturer developing a new car right here in the U.S. But with a weak dollar compared to other sites of engineering and manufacture– Europe or Australia– American R&D and production makes sense. As for the other parts of this story from the Detroit News, it's anybody's guess. Does Ford need a new RWD platform? They are, in fact, bound to make the Mustang for the rest of time, and it has to be RWD. To that end, FoMoCo might as well maximize economies of scale and use the 'Stang platform to underpin some other cars. And we don't know how "new" this new platform will be. It could be a yet-again-revised version of the Mustang's current platform, or it could be a version of Australia's Ford Falcon platform– no spring chicken itself. Using the Australian platform straight-up is out of the question; it's RHD only. As an enthusiast, an announcement like this is exciting. As a bean counter, it's dumber than a box of hair. Ford should put this money into their bread and butter cars, like the next generation Ford Taurus. 

Remember when Hummers were cool and the people that attacked them were just fringe lunatics? You might also remember how last month, GM moved 2608 examples of the Hummer H3, its most fuel efficient (ahem) Hummer. That's down some 18 percent compared to February '07. The biggest problem with the H3 isn't the mileage though, it's the irritating 5-cylinder engine and craptastic interior. GM has finally moved to address the first of these problems; the H3 will get the 3.6-liter direct injection V6 out of the Cadillac CTS. In the baby Caddy, it makes 300+ horsepower, and it should do the same in the Hummer. There's also some speculation on the ol' interwebs that GM will also give the H3 a 4.5-liter diesel V8 in the next year. Before kvetching that diesel is now well over four bucks a gallon, remember that some people are less concerned about per gallon costs and more interested in the authenticity and feel of a vehicle. "Good fuel economy" is only a lifestyle for Prius buyers. For some people "diesel powered mutant army truck" is all the lifestyle they want– regardless of MPG.

In rounding out our coverage of Hyundai's offerings in NYC, we've got shots of the facelifted Sonata and Genesis Coupe. Both are much, much better in person than in pictures. The Sonata's biggest aesthetic improvement is the interior, which goes from zero to hero. Build quality and fit and finish are way better, and it no longer is ergonomically challenged. Hyundai's Mission: Bland sedan has, dare I say, some style. As for the Genesis coupe, while I thought the initial press shots showed a hideous Lexus IS knock-off in coupe form, in person it's more of an Infiniti G37 coupe knock-off. Very slick car, and with Kia's use of a 290 hp turbocharged four in the Koup concept, the turbo four that Hyundai announced for the Genesis coupe sounds promising. Although Hyundai didn't have any prices, you'll be glad to know that Hyundai's trademark olfactory character is unchanged in this RWD coupe: even the preproduction show car's interior smelled like a Hyundai interior, which I'd describe as musty crayon.

Click here for Pixamo gallery