The folks at Saab passed me off to Sander Van Dijk, marketing manager for Saab's new owner, Spyker. I met him at the Spyker Pavilion at Pebble Beach for a test drive.

Spyker is known for a few things: a minimalist, driver-first approach; bold styling; and fast cars. The company's newest model, the C8 Aileron, was off somewhere else. Instead, we slid open the gull-wing doors and jumped in the C8 Spyder SWB -- a car Van Dijk promised me would be more "essential" to the Spyker brand.

Van Dijk got behind the wheel first to let me get a feel for it. During his drive, he explained some of the inspiration behind Spyker vehicles. Aircraft are a major source of design details, from the rows of toggle switches to the brushed-aluminum interior to the propeller blade details on the air vents. The brand is notoriously allergic to man-made materials, preferring an all-natural approach; this means that the curb weight of 2,750 pounds is kept low without the help of materials such as carbon fiber.

 

Does an AutoWeek reader own one of the oldest Porsches in America?

We hope so, and Porsche has thrown open a Web site registry at www.porsche60years.com to find out. Called My Classic Porsche Search, the program is intended to find and document the oldest of the brand's models in the United States as part of the company's celebration of its 60th anniversary in the United States.

Owners in 12 model ranges--including the Porsche 356, the 911, the 912, the 914, the 924, the 928, the 944, the 968, the Boxster, the Cayenne, the Carrera GT and the Cayman are encouraged to enter their cars. In addition to finding the oldest Porsches in each model range, the search will identify the oldest Porsche ever sold in the United States. The search ends Oct. 1.

 

(UPDATED at 1:53 p.m. on Friday): For those who guessed this was a replica -- or, possibly, an original -- Mysterion by Ed Roth, you are correct. I was contacted by Nathan at JMPR, who will be putting me in touch with an expert on Ed Roth vehicles sometime this weekend, so I can learn more about it.

 This has been parked in the lot at the hotel in which I'm staying, and I've passed it a bunch of times. There are always gawkers, but no one (yet) who can tell me what, exactly, it is.

From the looks of it, it's a single-seat, ultramodded hot rod ... thing, with a touch of Adam West's Batmobile and a curb weight of no more than several hundred pounds. Other than that, I'm stumped. 

UPDATED--Ed Whitacre is stepping down as General Motors Co. CEO on Sept. 1. He will be replaced by Daniel Akerson, who joined the GM board in July 2009 after a long career in telecommunications.

Akerson, 61, has been head of global buyouts for private equity firm The Carlyle Group since July 2009. His career was highlighted by stints as chairman and CEO of XO Communications from 1999 to 2003. He was CEO of Nextel Communications Inc. from 1996 to 1999 and also was chairman of the company's board from 1996 to 2001.

Whitacre, 68, said he would stay on as chairman until Dec. 31. When he leaves, Akerson will become chairman as well, Whitacre said during a conference call with analysts and reporters on Thursday.

Whitacre said the GM board has been aware since he became CEO in December that he didn't want to stay a day longer than he had to. Whitacre was named GM chairman in June 2009 and took over as CEO after the Dec. 1 departure Fritz Henderson.

 

"Top Gear": irreverent, wacky, cheeky, addictive, English. Well, not so English anymore -- the U.S. version, after a stalled attempt by NBC to bring the show stateside, will be appearing on the History Channel this fall. And there's a shiny new trailer to prove it.

The three hosts -- stunt driver Tanner Foust, comedian Adam Ferrara and racing analyst Rutledge Wood -- manage more "dudes" in the two-minute-plus trailer than have likely been uttered in the past decade on the version seen by the Brits. They are younger than the British version's Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May -- then again, that trio has been on the air together for an incredible 15 years, so they weren't older men when they started the show, either. In any case, they seem to be having fun, and that's all that really matters. Well, that and ratings. And advertiser revenue. You get the idea.

Check out the action after the jump. 

A Buick LaCrosse hybrid sedan probably will join a new small car and new crossover as Buick expands its lineup in the next three model years.

The brand, which sells four nameplates now, eventually wants a six- or seven-vehicle lineup, says John Schwegman, Buick-GMC's top marketer.

Buick seeks to revive its reputation for performance and stylish luxury to appeal to middle-aged professionals who often buy Asian luxury brands.

Here are highlights of the brand's plan for the 2011-13 model years.

 

During the height of the Toyota unintended-acceleration scare, there was some speculation that the company’s problems were software-based instead of mechanical, as the automaker claimed. Everyone from TV pundits to lawmakers seemed to think that something in the electronics of those runaway Camry and Prius models had gone awry. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, those technophobic sentiments may have been misplaced. Federal investigators just presented their findings on 58 cases of unintended acceleration – none of which could be attributed to electronic malfunctions. 

Is Lamborghini preparing a four-door-fighter to take on the Porsche Panamera and the Aston Martin Rapide--perhaps along the lines of the Estoque? Maybe.

Lamborghini CEO Stephan Winkelmann again raised that possibility recently.

“A third model would fit Lamborghini very well,” Winkelmann, 45, told Bloomberg. “A four-door car would be a very feasible approach.”

Lamborghini most recently considered the concept of a four-door with the Estoque sedan, a prototype revealed at the 2008 Paris motor show. But since then, the Italian company has been mum about the car's fate, except for a statement last year indicating that no decision had been made either way for production. AutoWeek named it the Best in Show in Paris.