One of the best ways to experience the thrill of motorsport is at the now-legendary Live Action Arena, which features a raft of improvements and an even more spectacular range of demonstrations, as well as some breathtaking wheel-to-wheel racing.

Some say the Audi TT is fine—for the male hairdresser—but argue that it’s just not a real sports car. So here’s the more powerful, 265-hp Audi TTS, and we say who cares what those guys say. Sports car, gran turismo, sports coupe—the distinctions are slippery. What matters are capabilities, and the TTS has capabilities galore: speed, agility, grip, brakes—not to mention good looks and an interior that’s an unfailing treat to the eyes as well as the tactile senses.

In the early 1900s, cubism was the avant-garde movement pioneered by Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso. Sadly, this provocative artistic trend was quickly rendered obsolete by the invention of the cardboard box, an art form later perfected and made affordable by the movement that would become known as Federal Express.

The show is held at the Geneva Palexpo, a giant convention center located next to the International Airport. The Salon is scheduled by the Organisation Internationale des Constructeurs d'Automobiles, which considers it a major international auto show.

It has taken about 10 years, but European automakers are finally wrapping their heads around the idea that perhaps diesel engines aren’t the only solution to fuel efficiency. Several European automakers are joining in on gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles, once the sole domain of Toyota and Honda. Mercedes-Benz will feature the technology in a luxury car, though the system in the S400 BlueHybrid is unrelated to the two-mode system codeveloped with BMW, Chrysler, and General Motors. For the S-class hybrid, Mercedes is relying on a less complex system developed by Continental Automotive for the S400 BlueHybrid.

Hyundai knows 210 horsepower in a 3380-pound car won’t astound anyone. It imagines the base Genesis coupe with its 2.0-liter turbocharged four as a blank canvas for tuners and speed-widget makers chasing the young buyers who will be hooked by the turbo’s $22,750 starting price. One thing is certain: There will be lots of zoom parts available. The 1998cc four is the same basic engine as in the 291-hp Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, both engines being byproducts of the Global Engine Manufacturing Alliance, a joint venture among Hyundai, Mitsubishi, and Chrysler.

Autosport International, the world’s biggest motorsport show, provides a perfect start to the season with the NEC Birmingham filled with exciting cars, drivers and motorsport personalities. The upcoming show promises a fresh look with a new layout that will see visitors enter directly in front of the all important Autosport Stage.

Over the past couple of decades we’ve reviewed several impressive European Ford models that are not available to American buyers. Now, at last, here is one that will be coming to the U.S., the first product of CEO Alan Mulally’s “One Ford” global car policy: the new Fiesta. Launched in Europe this fall, it will be built in Mexico and sold in the U.S. in 2010. Although the emphasis in the U.S. will be on the sedan version, Ford plans to offer the five-door hatchback as well, currently the most popular version of the car in Europe.

Since the last pill-shaped F-body Camaro rolled off the line in 2002, the long-fought, often contentious pony-car game has been one of solitaire, played solely by the Ford Mustang. The Mustang went all retro in 2005, and the ensuing craze prompted Dodge and Chevy to rouse their own dormant nameplates (and fans) to take on the foeless leader. Dodge was first in 2008 with its resurrected Challenger, and now—just as Ford is launching its significantly updated 2010 Mustang—Chevrolet has finally commenced production of its reborn Camaro, completing the new-age pony-car trifecta.

The International Geneva Motor Show (Salon International de l'Auto) is an annual auto show held in March in the Swiss city of Geneva. The show started in 1905. The show is held at the Geneva Palexpo, a giant convention center located next to the International Airport.

At 86 years old, Carroll Shelby should consider putting his name on something more appropriate. Bags of prunes, perhaps? But there it is, pasted across the rump of a 540-hp, Corvette-priced, mega-Mustang. The faithful rejoice. The 2010 Shelby GT500 goes on sale in May at a base price of $48,175, replacing the 2007–2009 Shelby GT500, as well as the limited edition, $80,000 2008–2009 Shelby GT500KR.

The Mercedes-Benz E-class is the sedan that bridges the showroom gap between the six-figure S-class and the $30,000 C-class. Without the E, the Mercedes lineup would simply encompass two extremes of luxury sedans, with a bunch of SUVs occupying the space between. Mercedes has thoroughly redone its mid-size E-class range for 2010. Thoroughly means this is not a mere styling refresh; but the design indeed has evolved, and it’s the most obvious change. For its past two generations, the E-class has worn four oval-shaped headlights, a look that became iconic enough for the Koreans to copy it on the Kia Amanti and the previous Hyundai Sonata.

The Australian International Motor Show has plenty on display this year, both inside and outside the main halls of the venue. There's something for everyone, so come down and check it out.

C’mon, really? Hyundai? No pedigree. No racing history. No factory museum filled with dusty glory machines. Yet here’s what Hyundai dares—dares!—to call the phosphorescent-Slurpee spill of paint on our Genesis coupe: Lime Rock Green. Puh-leeze! Weren’t these jokers riding around on donkeys when Bob Sharp was running 240Zs at Lime Rock? There’s also Nordschleife Gray and Interlagos Yellow. On a Hyundai? They can’t be serious!

Kia needs a “breakout” vehicle that—like Hyundai’s latest Sonata—finally achieves what marketers call front-of-mind awareness. Kia’s Borrego V-8 might have been that vehicle, had its debut not ­coincided with $4-per-gallon gas and the wholesale cratering of heavy-metal SUVs. But hard on the butch Borrego’s heels comes the bubbly five-door Soul, awash in political correctitude and practicality. So excited is Kia about this car that it shipped one Korean-spec Soul to each of its 640 dealers just so buyers could peek at the thing before U.S.-legal cars alighted.

The automotive world has been turned on its ear over the past year, and this year’s Toronto auto show reflects some of that new reality, according to the show’s organizers. The 2009 Canadian International Auto Show (CIAS) will offer a “stunning glimpse of where the industry is headed,” according to the CIAS web site.

In car-speak, acronyms have their pros and cons. Alphanumeric, gobbledygook names force customers to use the parent company’s name every time they identify a car, casting a halo effect for the brand. “I drive a Legend,” for example, did less for Acura than, “I drive an Acura.” And so the RL was born. Now apply that thinking to Mercedes-Benz, which, to be fair, has always used alphanumeric names. But as the company expanded its lineup to some 15 separate nameplates—not counting the AMG models—it resulted in confusion on the showroom floor and significant marketing challenges in promoting individual models. Things needed to get simpler, and they have. The replacements for Mercedes’ mid-size CLK-class coupe and cabriolet models will henceforth be identified as part of the E-class family. (The CL coupes will become part of the S-class lineup.)

It can easily be argued that companies that play it safe probably have the greatest chances of surviving the malaise currently afflicting the automotive industry. And it can be argued that Toyota Motor Corporation and its Lexus luxury division have played the game as safely as any other company in the world. Case in point: the Lexus RX, both the bestselling luxury crossover and the bestselling of all Lexus models. It’s a cash cow for the brand, and when time comes to redo it, Lexus knows not to mess with a good thing. So it’s no surprise that the third-generation RX350 and its hybrid sibling are largely the same as they’ve always been—pleasant and inoffensive, two veritable shades of beige, despite being completely redesigned.

The main attraction of the prestigious car show is the Trans Sport Show Cup Competition, which has modern and vintage ‘show cars’ competing for the “Best of Show” award.

Change! It was the hottest thing last year, and anyone selling it did good business in a soft market. Sure, the new Mazda 3 has more emotion, more refinement, and a bit more power, but otherwise it’s basically the same thrifty little corner darter as before. Summon the firing squad. Hey, you said you want change. Cheat-grass-fueled flying landaulets—that’s change, brother. And while you’re waiting for the real change, watch as Mazda dares you to love nuanced change, change by inches.

When the SL65 AMG debuted, we said that, in terms of the global horsepower war, Mercedes-Benz was taking off a glove and slapping the rest of the industry in the face. As a follow-up, Mercedes has decided to moon every other automaker with the debut of its SL65 AMG Black Series, and those rosy cheeks are low, wide, and made of carbon fiber. But figuratively speaking, this latest Black Series car is much more serious than our childish analogy suggests. As did the two previous Black Series cars—an SLK55 that wasn’t sold in the U.S. and the CLK63 for 2008—the SL65 version represents the ultimate in performance and exclusivity in a Mercedes-Benz. The cold facts are: 661 horsepower, a $300,000 price tag, and a limited run of 350 cars, of which 175 are coming to our shores starting in January.

If you love cars or motorcycles, on Auguys 11th you gotta be at Aloha Stadium. They will have car & bike shows, displays, sexy lingerie contests, various demos, vendors, prizes, and live music... Be sure to mark your calenders...

Hybrids are supposed to be supremely boring torture chambers, the vehicular equivalent of watching a documentary on the color brown while sitting on a giant-ass cactus. So what happened here? It’s true that the Mercury Milan hybrid, all-new for 2010, isn’t going to incinerate your synapses with adrenaline-laced excitement, but neither will it make you want to give up driving forever. It’s actually sort of fun, and taken with the mechanically identical Ford Fusion hybrid, it’s the best mid-size hybrid sedan on the market today.

When it comes to green cars, the popular play these days is the Hail Mary, a long, high toss down the field for maximum-efficiency yardage and maximum brand polishing. Cost: irrelevant. Production: atomic-level, to hold down inevitable initial losses. Every automaker has a slightly different attack plan. Toyota has a new and improved Prius coming next year. Honda has a hyperexotic FCX hydrogen fuel-cell car as well as a new Insight, a Prius-fighting hybrid that will appear next year. And GM will unplug its Volt plug-in hybrid in 2010, the same year Nissan plans to debut a pure electric vehicle for the Japanese market with global sales perhaps by 2012.

Trans Sport Show has always drawn the support and participation of Filipino car aficionados and craftsmen who display a keen passion for automobiles.

For years, the Opel Vectra has been the stalwart for General Motors in Europe. In 2005, this mid-size family sedan, which is also sold in the U.K. as a Vauxhall, was given an extensive face lift. At the same time, GM decided to adopt the European style of Opel for its Saturn brand in the U.S. So, superficially, the Saturn Aura is a lot like the Opel Vectra.

Toyota didn’t get where it is today—the biggest, richest car company on the planet—by taking chances. With the notable exception of the Prius hybrid, Toyota styling is conservative to the point of boredom. And aside from its hybrid leadership, Japan’s automotive giant is rarely an innovator. The trend toward downsizing, in both cars and engines, ought to be in Toyota’s favor. But although the company has plenty of economical babies in its global portfolio, it lacks a premium minicar. Mercedes’ Smart brand and BMW’s Mini have shown the world that small cars don’t have to be cheap.

Great Wall Motor, China's largest maker of light pickups and utility vehicles, will display two electric cars and a hybrid vehicle at the upcoming 2008 Beijing Auto Show.

Volvo has been a longtime leader in the mommy-car milieu, a position that has imbued the Swedish company with a safety-oriented persona that’s given it the high ground in the family market. But that persona doesn’t translate very well with singles or young couples who want utility yet value cool above sensible.

You like the contemporary urban styling of Audi’s A4 Avant wagon. You’re concerned, however, that you might get stuck for lack of ground clearance, scratch your bumper on a steep incline, or even tear off your oil pan as you climb over rocks and boulders during off-road excursions. Nope, can’t risk it—time to shop for a burly off-roader.

Trans Sport Show never ceases to amaze the staunchest car fanatics or hobbyists with prized possessions themselves.

The Volkswagen Touareg and its Porsche Cayenne sibling serve as the perfect example for the synergies between VW and Porsche. Porsche developed both SUVs, while VW builds them at its Bratislava, Slovakia, plant. Porsche fits V-8 engines into the SUVs’ bodies in its Leipzig, Germany, facility, while the V-6 engines of the entry Cayennes are fitted at VW’s plant in Slovakia. The partnership has worked well: the Cayenne has served Porsche's existing customer base while bringing new buyers to the brand, and the Touareg bolstered VW's claim that it is a premium carmaker more convincingly than the ill-fated Phaeton.

Don’t let the badge mislead you. The Jeep Commander commands its brand only in name. It is among the youngest nameplates in the Jeep lineup, and its sales figures command little more than an exasperated groan. From a 2006 high of over 88,000, yearly sales fell to 28,000 in 2008. Like the disaster that beset another beleaguered commander, General George Custer, at Little Big Horn, what happened to the Jeep’s sales is well chronicled: The price of gas bloated, killing demand for SUVs; and then the value of everything else imploded, killing demand for cars of all types.

THE Tokyo Motor Show, which opened to the public in this suburban city on Saturday and runs through Nov. 11, is a showcase of the automobile industry’s split personality. The industry indeed seems increasingly to be of two minds, and the split between them is becoming more like a fracture.

The Ford Focus RS is the world’s best hot hatchback. A sweeping statement, to be sure, but if you look at Car and Driver’s favorites among these sporty but practical small cars—the Mazdaspeed 3 and the Volkswagen GTI—the latest and greatest Focus beats them in all respects. Except one: You can’t buy it here. Yet.

This weekend’s running of the 24-hour endurance race at the legendary Nürburgring is not just playing host to racing dreams, but also to the launch of the Volkswagen Scirocco R. The third and latest generation of the VW Scirocco is not for the U.S., but it's still fun to keep tabs on, especially since the R gives us a glimpse of the Golf R that should arrive on our shores later this year.

The International Geneva Motor Show (Salon International de l'Auto) is an annual auto show held in March in the Swiss city of Geneva. The show started in 1905. The show is held at the Geneva Palexpo, a giant convention center located next to the International Airport.

Lexus is throwing another dart at the blue-and-white bull’s-eye that is BMW. Toyota’s luxury division knows that 30 percent of BMW 3-series sales are coupes and convertibles, and it wants a seat at that buffet. Introduced nine years ago and well into its second generation—Toyota doesn’t act without exhaustive study, apparently—the entry-luxury IS sedan finally gets an additional body style: a hardtop convertible.

Here are a couple of rules sane people live by. First, never eat a stick of butter in less than a minute, even if there’s money involved. And second, never buy a V-6 family sedan. We’ve been tempted by the butter thing, but what about that second one?

I suppose really, that Autosport is not about the cars. F1 plays a very limited role in the show, with only the occasional team showing up to take part. You couldn’t really say that you were going there for F1. What you could say you were going for is the girls and the gifts. Walking around the arena, it’s almost impossible to find a stand without a scantily clad girl holding out a bag full of bits and pieces for you to take.

Volkswagen bills the Routan as a “stylish alternative to the minivan,” and we have it from no less an authority than actress Brooke Shields, who in Routan ads claims that its German engineering drives women to motherhood (to qualify for ownership). The TV spots starring Ms. Shields, herself a mom, were clearly zunge in der wange (German for tongue in cheek), but we confess that this minivan alternative looks a lot like a real minivan (German for minivan) to us. If it weren’t for the VW fascia and big VW logo (six inches in diameter), you might even mistake it for, say, a Dodge Grand Caravan. Which, of course, it is. Mostly.

Walter de'Silva, Volkswagen's chief designer, is wasting no time deploying his new styling language across the VW lineup. After the debut of the Golf VI, VW needed to pull the Golf Variant—known in the U.S. as the Jetta SportWagen—forward to match the base model's new looks. VW is now launching the new Golf Variant in Europe, and its new nose (if not its powertrain lineup) will transfer to the U.S. later this year.

The Manila International Auto Show is the Philippines’ biggest motor show in terms of visitor count, cars on display, and exhibitors. The show, previously known as The Manila International Motor Show, is an annual venue for car buyers and enthusiasts alike to take a closer look at the latest models and significant concepts from the Philippines’ premiere auto makers.

The arrival of the MKS sedan last year spurred hopes that it might revitalize Ford’s historically uncompetitive luxury brand, helping Lincoln to better compete with Cadillac, Lexus, and other aspirational marques. Most of the hype stemmed from the stunning MKR concept that debuted at the 2007 Detroit auto show; it floated the idea that future Lincolns wouldn’t be dowdy, livery-service specials like the current Town Car.

Usually, we herald the introduction of a brand-new BMW. Even when it challenges our preconceptions about the brand—as did the 1999 X5, the 2002 7-series, and, more recently, the oddly appealing slant-back X6—we try to keep an open mind. But BMW is pushing the limits of our love with its 2010 5-series Gran Turismo, aka 5-series GT, which we first saw in concept form at the Geneva auto show. BMW claims the inaptly named GT's pragmatic sheetmetal will attract Lexus buyers.

I don’t think it will be any surprise to you to hear that we weren’t the first people knocking at the door of the NEC in Birmingham. If you’ve been reading for a while, you know we’re always late. If you’re new to Sidepodcast, that’s everything you need to know about us.

There are luxurious cars, and there are fuel-efficient cars. There are even some that offer moderate levels of both characteristics. But no vehicle has managed—or even attempted—to take luxury and fuel economy simultaneously to such high levels as has the 2010 Lexus HS250h, the industry’s first dedicated luxury hybrid. Think of it as the Prius of Lexuses or the Lexus of Priuses—your choice—and you won’t be far off.

The GTC Speed is a more sporting version of the “entry level” Bentley convertible, just like the Speed models of the 1920s were higher-performance variants of cars such as the 3-liter and the 6 1/2-liter. Outwardly, it’s distinguished from a Continental GTC by striking 20-inch wheels, a trunklid lip spoiler, and a matte-finish grille. Inside, you’ll find a three-spoke sport steering wheel, a knurled-chrome and leather shift lever, drilled alloy pedals, and diamond quilting on the leather that adorns the seats, rear quarter-panels, and door pads.

The North American International Auto Show (previously called the Detroit Auto Show and often abbreviated NAIAS) is an annual auto show held in Detroit, Michigan. It is among the largest auto shows in North America.

When gas prices spiked last summer, carmakers started talking about downsizing. They would fast-track the production of lighter cars with lower-displacement engines, and we’d use less gas and have smaller carbon footprints. World peace would follow shortly thereafter. Less than a year later, downsizing is here: The Audi S5 cabriolet will be among the first vehicles to hit the market with significantly reduced engine displacement and fuel consumption compared with the model it replaces. (In this case, that’s the 4.2-liter V-8–powered 2009 S4 cabriolet, since this is the first-ever S5 droptop.)