I don't know what horrible thing happened in Tym Switzer's early life, but apparently it had something to do with Bugatti. Maybe, one hot July day a young Tym was walking down the street, holding a brand new, frosty ice cream cone. He hadn't even had a bite yet. He was just staring at it in wonder the way kids do when they're so happy and excited they can't even function. And then a bully named Franz-Josef Paefgen popped out from behind the bushes and after a brutal attack using noogies and wedgies, walked off with Tym's ice cream.

That bully grew up to be the CEO of Bugatti. If I learned anything from Lethal Weapon it was, "Don't get mad, get even." With the new 1000hp Switzer Nissan GTR R1K, that's exactly what Tym is doing. Make the jump to see the stats and watch the testing videos. Can you say "Rolling AWD burnout."? I thought you could.

Say “station wagon” to the average American and chances are the first picture that pops into his or her noggin is a big, Disco Age American land schooner wearing green paint and mouldings and veneers made from only the finest plastic trees. With so many of today’s car buyers having spent their formative years in these motorized mastadons, is it any surprise contemporary wagons seem to be such a hard sell over here today? (The shortage of manufacturers willing to take the risk of selling them in this hemisphere makes it a bit of a chicken-and-egg situation, but bear with us.)

In Europe, however, the honeymoon with the station wagon (or “estate cars” or “kombis,” depending on where you are over there) hasn’t ended. In fact, wagons are so popular in the Old Country that many manufacturers offer high performance versions thereof. But in the mid-‘90s, the species Stationwagonus Wickedfastimus as we know it today didn’t really exist. It took a collaboration between two then-distant (now less so) corporate cousins from the Fatherland to create this category. And the Adam/Eve of the segment they came up with – the Audi RS2 Avant – was a real humdinger.

To say we’re longtime fans of Mercedes-Benz’s fullsize hardtop coupes is a gross understatement. While we’re most partial to the achingly pretty W126 2-door (probably because we own one of its similarly-handsome sedan siblings), we can certainly appreciate all generations of Stuttgart’s big coupes, be it the baroque swagger of the W112, the just-this-side-of-overengineered W140, or the two generations that have been built during this century. Now the storied marque is giving the current generation CL-class (codenamed C216) a mid-cycle refresh, and that includes tweaking the high-po AMG lineup as well.

The big news on this front (other than the tweaked front and rear styling) is the fact that the CL63 AMG ditches its normally-aspirated 6.2L V8 in favor of AMG’s all new 5.5L twin-turbo V8. Yes, we’re puzzled by the decision to not revive the CL55 AMG moniker too. What we’re not puzzled by is why the atmo mill was sent packing: Looming clampdowns on fuel economy and emissions by governments in many of the markets where Mercedes-Benz does business.

The percentage of roadgoing automobiles in the world packing in excess of 700hp is, not surprisingly, quite tiny. The biggest chunk of that slice of the vehicular population is comprised of purpose-built supercars, with the occasional late-model or classic muscle car or super-tuned Japanese sportscar thrown in for good measure. Compact hatchbacks? Even fewer and farther between, but that hasn’t stopped German tuner MTE.

You see, a few years ago the company got its collective hands on the Mk. 4 Volkswagen Golf R32 you see here. While the Porsche-look alloys and so-inconspicuous-it’s-conspicuous camoflage livery are the most obvious deviations from stock, the real news was under the hood, where the addition of two Garrett turbochargers and other go-fast hardware and software upped the 3.2L VR6’s output from 240hp to 730hp. This would be a recipie for wrist-snapping torquesteer on most hot hatches, but since both generations of R32 were all-wheel-drive, putting the power down wasn’t such a huge problem. Want proof? Hit the jump to see this bad boy pedaled up to over 190 mph on the Autobahn.

Subaru feels people get something special from their cars. This is probably most true with their high-performance model, the Impreza WRX STI. Owners of these incredible machines make sacrifices in the name of performance.  For example my 2006 didn't even have a trunk release button on the key fob. I didn't care. Knowing this, they find creative ways to illustrate it in their ads.

For the 2011 Impreza WRX STI, Subaru wants to highlight an attribute the car provides: G's. I'm not talking about the kind Snoop Dogg stacks in his private bank vault, I'm talking about the kind you get from an F-16. It's a simple concept really; AWD + 305hp=Lots of G's. But Subaru wants to make sure anyone in the public understands what this means. So they put 5 different people in the passenger seat of an STI driven by Rally Driver Dave Mirra and filmed 5 videos to illustrate it. I hope they can wash that seat. Make the jump to see why.

On Sunday July 18, 2010, the Long Beach Convention Center hosted one of the hottest, most anticipated car shows - Spocom 2010! Hot cars, hot women, and hot weather; what more could you want on your last day off from work for the week? Each and every year Spocom raises the bar for automotive events, and this year they definitely didn't disappoint. With the American economy in shambles, it's always nice to get away from reality and check out amazing cars, with my college tuition invested in them. And having 200+ models in attendance didn't hurt either. 

From new to old, bling to ratty, Spocom 2010 Long Beach had it all. This definitely isn't the car show of 30 years ago, where your girlfriend gets bored after walking around, while you look at and talk about cars for a couple of hours. Now days car shows are less focused strictly on cars, and have instead become a full day of entertainment for both men and women. The planners of Spocom kept a very strict schedule throughout the day, and I want to commend the staff for their successful efforts. The show offered live music, dance competitions, a bikini contest and, my personal favorite, a lingerie contest! Did I mention they had a lingerie contest?! 

The Cobra is, much to Carroll Shelby’s chagrin, the most copied car in the world. The mixture of the famous shape and a steroidal American V8 creating a ridiculous power to weight ratio is a time tested formula that, although no longer much of a match for the world’s best, still provides heaping helpings of ear-to-ear grins (with the occasional side of soiled undergarments). But it’s worth noting that the fundamental shape and structure of the Cobra (and many of its imitators) are based upon the British AC Ace, a car that dates back to 1951.

Fitting, then, that AC Cars has teamed with American firm ICONIC Motors to help them launch their vision of a Cobra for the 21st century. Called the ICONIC AC Roadster, this new breed of beast features a state-of-the art chassis (with a carbon fiber passenger compartment and pushrod front suspension) cloaked in body formed from aircraft-grade aluminum and styled to look like a Cobra with more contemporary styling front and rear, though at least one member of the globe-spanning peanut gallery that is the Internet says the new nose reminds him of the Stay Puft Marshmellow Man from Ghostbusters. Moving on…

Middleweight superbikes are highly underrated. They are to motorcycles what that 3rd string QB with a 100-yard arm is to football; all the skills without the heavy ego. Everyone knows 600s are where you start, and the "liter bikes" (motorcycles with 1000cc motors and almost 200hp) are the big leagues. But if you climb off your 600 and want to upgrade, don't think of the 750 class as a stepping stone, but rather a heavenly compromise. It's a partnership of more power with little weight gain, and when you want to go fast that's the perfect match.

Nowhere is this idea better executed than with the new 2011 Ducati 848 EVO. It's V-twin engine has picked up 6hp from the last model, for a total of 140hp. I know 6hp doesn't sound like a lot, but when that power is only pushing 369lb (40lbs less than a Honda 600RR), 6hp is like adding 40 to your car. This makes the Ducati the most powerful motorcycle in its class.