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• Gran Turismo 6 is Playstation 3-Bound This Holiday Season [w/ Videos]

  In Video Games / By Tom Anderson / 15 May 2013

  

  After a gestation so lengthy that Axl Rose was quoted as saying “What the hell is taking Kazunori and crew so long?”, Gran Turismo 5 finally arrived in November of 2010. And while it was without question a tremendous game with gorgeous graphics and a mammoth car list, it felt, in many respects, rushed. Hard to believe when you consider it came out almost six years after Gran Turismo 4, but things like a new-but-half-baked damage model, continued use of angry appliance exhaust sounds, woeful under-utilizations of the WRC, NASCAR and Top Gear licenses and, perhaps most aggravating of all, many times more “Standard Cars” (i.e. models ported from GT4 and the Gran Turismo title for the PSP) than “Premium Cars” (i.e. brand new car models built from many thousands more polygons and featuring fully-modeled interiors) left many longtime fans of the franchise feeling underwhelmed, if not out-and-out cheated.

  So you can imagine our skepticism when we heard rumors that the father of Gran Turismo, Kazunori Yamauchi, and his team at Polyphony Digital would not only be revealing Gran Turismo 6 sooner rather than later, but also bring it to market by the end of the 2013 calendar year. Well, following a massive press event (which also served to celebrate the series’ 15^th anniversary) at England’s Silverstone Circuit earlier today, we can report there’s more than a little truth to those rumors. More than a little truth, and some gorgeous, gorgeous visuals.

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• 2013 Geneva Motor Show: The Top 20 Debuts

  In Featured / By Tom Anderson / 5 March 2013

  

  More than a few people think supercars are an endangered species. All the concerns about flaunting wealth inequality and using lots of gas are just some of the forces conspiring to make these most athletic of automobiles less and less desirable for both builders and buyers. So we can look forward to a future with fewer tarmac-melting monsters and more plug-in kumbaya cracker boxes, right?

  Not so fast, kemosabe. If the lineup of world debuts at this year’s Geneva Motor Show is any indication, we may be entering a new golden age of 200+ mph hypercars. The difference this time around is many of them are a bit more responsible, with overdrive (and occasionally double overdrive) 7-speed transmissions and hybrid assist. Of course, these aren’t the only automotive stars in the lakeside Swiss municipality. Here are the 20 premieres that really stir our hot chocolate.

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• KTM X-Bow GT is a Bit More Civilized

  In Auto News / By Tom Anderson / 27 February 2013

  

  If the average performance car is like a chainsaw, the KTM X-Bow is like a pocketknife. It doesn’t have a tire-evaporating hellion of an engine, but it also doesn’t have such extravagances as full fenders, air conditioning, or a roof. It’s not quite as elemental as an Ariel Atom, but you certainly wouldn’t describe it as civilized.

  However, KTM seems to be ready to give its slim-and-trim track toy some better table manners for those who want them. They plan to do this by way of the X-Bow GT, which is set to premiere at next week’s Geneva Motor Show. And even though a couple of the figurative edges have been softened, overall, it sounds like it’s still the same mid-engine wild child.

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• 2013 Dakar Rally is Still Racing’s Ultimate Adventure

  In Motorsports / By Tom Anderson / 18 January 2013

  

  The earliest motor races were as much adventures as they were speed contests. Drivers (and, in most cases, riding mechanics) often dashed hundreds of miles from town to town across open countryside, battling not only other competitors, but also the elements, the condition of the roads (if you could call a rutted, lumpy, unpaved horse trail or cart path a road), and the ever-present specter of mechanical failure. Combine these hazards with essentially zero safety precautions and you start to wonder if the first race car drivers made clanking noises when they scratched their wedding vegetables.

  These days, of course, racing is the safest and most sanitized it’s ever been. That’s good for all parties involved, but it also means much of the sport’s danger and romance is gone. Racing has ceased to be – if you’ll excuse our use of a worn-down-to-the-cords term – epic. But this doesn’t mean all racing in the 21^st century is a watered-down shadow of its former self. There is one notable motor race that still requires man and machine to be in peak fitness, as well as participants to have nerves and gonads of steel. That race, of course, is the Dakar Rally, and so far the 2013 edition has been one for the ages.

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• KTM X-Bow Gets Retro-Cool New Clothes Thanks to Montenergy

  In Tuning / By Ari Cox / 26 August 2011

  

  The KTM X-Bow is often overshadowed by its British rival, the Ariel Atom, which is most unfortunate. Granted, no over-the-top British TV host has ever had his face ruffled by one, but the fact remains it’s still a mid-engine, cycle-fendered, psychotically-fast runabout. Maybe it’s also due to the fact that it has a less-high-strung turbocharged 2.0L engine (sourced from Audi) and the breeze isn’t blowing through the lower part of the cockpit is a turnoff for people who find the Atom’s elemental (emphasis on mental) approach. Either way, the X-Bow seems rather underappreciated.

  One company that certainly does appreciate it, however, is Montenergy. The Italian carrozzeria (coachbuilder in lingua inglese) has already been re-clothing the X-Bow to varying degrees, but now it has unveiled a nearly full-clothed take on this Austrian track star. But that might not be the biggest news; no, that may come down to what the Montenergy designers used for their styling muse.

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• ABT Sportsline Now Official KTM X-Bow Retailer

  In Auto News / By Ari Cox / 13 February 2009

  

  ABT Sportsline is a great tuning operation out of Germany that traditionally has focused on putting out wicked Audi mods and other cars from the Volkswagon Group. They have now teamed up with Austrian motorcycle manufacturer KTM to offer the X-Bow road racer. As the official outlet for both sales and service, ABT will have a lock-down on this ridiculously cool vehicle.

  The KTM X-Bow originally was released with a 2.0L turbocharged V6 capable of 240 bhp. With a curb weight of only 1500 pounds, the car rockets from 0 to 62 mph in 3.9 seconds. With ABT’s tinkering the engine output has been boosted to 300 hp. With the addition of significant carbon fiber treatment, and therefore a reduction in weight, the ABT version should be insanely fast.

  Source: ABT Sportline | KTM