Rally and gymkhana driver Ken Block is torturing tires with a Ford Fiesta these days. So our Microsoft friends at Turn 10 Studios, makers of Forza Motorsport 3, have their version of Block and his rally Fiesta sliding their way around some open space and through the warehouse available for viewing. So here you go. And keep an eye out for the subliminal advertising of your favorite car-enthusiast magazine.

 

We've covered vehicles that run on compressed natural gas (CNG) before, though mostly in their use as fleet vehicles. Despite the efforts of enormously wealthy former oilman-turned-environmental-crusader T. Boone Pickens to make CNG vehicles a reality, in terms of consumer vehicles they exist in far fewer numbers than hybrids and, if we had to guess, probably even pure electrics at this point.

Despite the fact that compressed natural gas burns far more cleanly than gasoline and is also far less expensive, in the U.S. the only commercially available CNG-powered car is the Honda Civic GX NGV, and up until recently it was available only in California, New York and Utah, where CNG refueling stations are (relatively) available. Oklahoma has just been added to that list, as well, boosting the number of major markets to just four. 

When you see the smooth, flowing lines of the redesigned Buick LaCrosse, the extended wheelbase of the Rolls-Royce Phantom and Mazda's Mazda2 compact sedan, you're seeing three examples of the same thing: how China is shaping the look and feel of automobiles destined for every part of the globe.

China is now the world's largest market for automobiles, and as this article over at CNet points out, size matters.

Everything from extended wheelbases to extra-roomy back seats to high-tech features to fuel-efficient 3-cylinder engines are incorporated with at least a partial eye to China's incredible demand for cars. GM, whose Buick vehicles have been far more popular in China than the U.S. of late, even has a word for the design language: the C-factor. 

There's an interesting article in Gizmag today about the new world record for most expensive speeding ticket.

As with any law, the particulars vary from country to country. In some places, like Switzerland and Finland -- previous countries of origin for world's most expensive speeding fines -- speeding tickets are calculated based on a combination of the severity of offense and the offender's net worth to discourage the ultrawealthy from flaunting the law, which led to the aforementioned fines of about $290,000 and $200,000, respectively. Those records have not only been broken, but shattered.

In the Netherlands, egregious speeding can be punished, in the most severe cases, by the forfeiture of the vehicle being driven, which recently led to the seizure of a Bugatti Veyron priced at about $2.35 million. And get this: The Veyron's owner wasn't even driving the car. 

Add the mighty Chevrolet Corvette to the list of recalled cars.

General Motors is recalling some 2005 and 2006 models for a steering-column problem. About 40,000 cars produced between March 2004 and January 2006 could be affected.

The problem is that repeated movement of the tilt-and-telescoping steering column could cause a signal interruption, resulting in a warning message appearing and the brakes coming on.

 

BMW and Research in Motion have been hard at work on a system that will allow the carmaker’s iDrive system to “read” BlackBerry users’ e-mails over the car’s stereo, just like a hands-free cell phone call. Using Bluetooth Message Access Profile, the system transmits the e-mail to the BMW iDrive system, where a text-to-speech program then broadcasts the body of the text over the car’s speakers. Users won’t be able to send replies just yet, but it should add an extra level of accessibility to a company that prides itself on its business clientele. And while the new tech should also keep BlackBerry users from trying to read their e-mails while driving, it adds yet another layer of distraction to an already demanding driving experience. 

Hype around electric vehicles is in full swing, thanks to a bunch of concepts hitting the floors at every car show in town -- not to mention the eagerly awaited Chevy Volt just months from rolling onto dealer lots.

And it's not like the related questions of range anxiety and recharging infrastructure haven't been brought up more than a few times -- but that's hardly the end of questioning EVs' current viability, retired fuel-systems engineer Tom Kuchnicki says in a piece for Automotive News.

Some of the questions he poses have to do with cost. For example, has there been any thought as to taxing electricity for car use to help pay for the roads, as is the case for gasoline now? And if, as is the case now, there is no viable recharging infrastructure, doesn't that make EVs essentially nothing more than a commuter vehicle -- and who can afford $25,000 for something that just takes you to work and back? 

The Automotive X Prize is chugging along, with the 12 teams (and 17 vehicles among them) now at the stage where they can run their vehicles through the actual tests that will be used to determine the winner of the $10 million prize.

The main criterion, of course, is that the winning vehicle must achieve the fuel-efficiency equivalent of 100 mpg -- "equivalent," of course, because the vehicles run the gamut of power sources, from all electricity to gas-battery hybrids to even, amazingly, steam. However, that doesn't mean that it's the only requirement. Teams must show their cars can handle properly, accelerate and brake sufficiently, and pass a number of other tests.

To that end, the X Prize team contacted those widely regarded as the best vehicle-testers in the world: our friends over at Consumer Reports. A number of the Consumer Reports staff were on hand to help out, and the result is a pretty cool behind-the-scenes video during the this week's shakedown stage. Check it out after the jump, and see Consumer Reports' own post about the experience here.