Autoblog

President-Elect Barack Obama thinks we have an oil addiction and he wants to do something about it. That something is developing a plan for energy independence. While that might have seemed easier to discuss when oil was at $147 a barrel, Obama thinks it's even more important to talk about now, with oil hovering around $60. "It may be a little harder politically, but it's more important," Obama told 60 Minutes in his first post-election interview. Obama explained that our addiction to oil causes a mental transition from "shock to trance." As oil and gas prices go up, it creates "a flurry of activity." When the prices go back down, however, people seemingly forget, and "we act like it's not important. And, as a consequence, we never make any progress." He considers it an addiction and knows it needs to be broken. Our next top executive thinks now is the time to break it.

Along with energy independence, Obama also addressed the auto industry bailout, and GM's situation in particular. Acknowledging that a complete collapse would be "a disaster in this kind of environment," but he's not in favor of handing the industry a blank check. He feels that discussions with the Detroit Three should be focused on figuring out what a sustainable U.S. auto industry will look like so that the bridge loans the government is offering lead to a definable goal rather than being open-ended. Unlike some critics, Obama doesn't think the country would be better off if General Motors was allowed to go into bankruptcy. Unlike the situation with the airlines where they could restructure and reorganize and still operate during that process, GM could be cut off completely if it isn't helped out, potentially preventing it from continuing on.

You can read the transcript of the complete interview and watch the video here.

[Source: CBS News]

As Fiat's in-house tuning arm, Abarth stands for high performance and unique design. The firm hopes to have hit on both of these qualities with its latest adventure in the art of co-branding, the new Powerplay Extreme gaming desktop. The crew definitely got the unique design part down, with a soaring, bridge-like truss holding a giant fan at the very top of the inner workings of the computer, which is powered by Intel's latest and most powerful chip ever, the Core i7 Extreme.

This new pint-sized desktop machine will be launched to kick off Intel's new "Friday Night Game", which is an Electronic Sports League sanctioned event that pits elite gamers from 30 different countries against each other. As far as the actual hardware goes, we see the expected firewire and USB ports along with an external serial port for terabytes of fun. The exposed motherboard sports a slew of heatsinks and LED-colored fans to keep things cool. Plus, it controls a Blue-ray/HD DVD player and, of course, a couple of CD\DVD burners. We're sure it all runs on an Intel chipset, but there aren't any details yet on the RAM or hard disk space. The best part? How 'bout that big red Start Engine power button?


[Source: Carscoop]

Hermes has decided to continue its recent trend of modifying iconic cars and celebrating their birthdays. First it was the Bugatti Veyron Fbg by Hermes, followed by a special commemorative edition of the Citroen 2CV for its 60th anniversary. Now, Hermes has taken on the smart fortwo, issuing a special edition of the diminutive city car, which has now been on the market for a decade. As you'd expect, the Hermes fortwo sees its interior swathed in leather along with a special canvas called Toile H. These two unique textures cover everything from the seats to the car's tridion safety cell. On the inside, the Hermes signature orange is a nice color option, as are nine others including indigo, gold, lime and, uh, pink. High fashion never comes cheap, and the Hermes Smart is no exception coming in at $48,500 in U.S. dollars or 38,000 euros and on sale now in both hardtop and convertible versions. Hey, at least you get a standard umbrella. Thanks for the tip, JW!


[Source: Sybarites]

After Daniel Craig's triumphant return as James Bond in Casino Royale, my family and I were really looking forward to seeing his sophomore effort in Quantum of Solace. We were among the guests at a Ford preview screening of the new Bond flick last night, and after we walked past the gorgeous Aston Martin DBS placed in the lobby (talk about product placement), the movie got off to a promising start. The opening chase sequence with Bond's DBS being pursued by a crew of Alfa Romeo 159s was classic 007. In fact, the first third of the movie was actually quite promising. Unfortunately, my wife, who is a film buff, noticed something during the opening credits that is usually a bad omen: three different screenwriters. That's typically a sign that other writers had to be brought in to fix the original script.

In this case there were a number of plot elements that seemed to pop up and then be forgotten, while others seemed to appear with no explanation. It's almost as though the three writers were each assigned one act to write and not allowed to read the work of the other two. Given that Ford hosted this screening, it should come as no surprise that Ford vehicles figured prominently. Fortunately, having multiple brands in the family allows for some extra variety in the movie vehicle fleet. While the Ford Edge dominated after the opening, Volvos, Range Rovers, and Jaguars also appeared. Now that Aston Martin, Land Rover and Jaguar have been divested, it seems unlikely that Ford will be a part of the next Bond Film. What about the stuff besides the cars? Read on after the jump.

When artificial intelligence finally figures out that its creators are inconvenient pests in the way of its quest to control the entire world, some of the first machines created by the supercomputers will be motorcycles. Come on, it makes sense, doesn't it? Single-track vehicles can go places that their four-wheeled brethren can't fit, and are quicker in getting there to boot. Of course, it's a bit harder to fit a butt-load of weapons on a two-wheeler, but AI is smart enough to have that problem fixed with gyroscopic turrets on each side, particularly when there's no carbon-based rider.

Looking at the early preproduction pictures of the concept Moto-Terminator makes us pretty excited to see what else is in store for the fourth Terminator installment. We're pretty geeked by the way the bike's backbone is made up of a mechanized humanoid, complete with the requisite red eyes up front instead of headlights. In a word, awesome.


[Source: Next Autos]

California-based Piloti Inc. has earned a solid reputation among enthusiasts for their driving shoes, combining a comfortable fit with fashionable styling, everyday wearablity and optimal heel-and-toe shifting. Now the company is ambitiously expanding into the motorcycle market with its new Moto 800 boot.

The latest addition to the Piloti range promises to offer the same comfort as their driving shoes in a package designed to meet the needs of the two-wheel riders. The Piloti Moto 800 will sell for $150 a pair when it goes on sale in January, but it's already won the Editors' Choice Award from Popular Mechanics. Not a bad start to a new venture.

[Source: Piloti and Popular Mechanics]

AutoWeek has announced that it's switching to a bi-weekly distribution schedule for its print magazine, which it claims in the press release after the jump will benefit readers. We think it will benefit AutoWeek in that the once-weekly rag will save a bunch on paper and distribution costs. In return for receiving half as many issues over the course of a year, AutoWeek promises to up its page count per issue and do more "comprehensive editorial features and vehicle reviews". This isn't the first time AutoWeek has changed its distribution schedule, either. It started in 1958 as a bi-monthly motorsport newsletter called Competition Press, and in the '60s added "AutoWeek" to the title and began publishing every seven days. If the economy gets even worse, maybe it'll switch back to bi-monthly, but chances are they'll still call it "AutoWeek".

[Source: International Business Times via TTAC, Photo by cindy47452 | CC2.0]

As 2008 officially draws to a close, the time has come for all of us to look back and remember what defined our lives for the last twelve months. For most Americans, and in fact the entire globe, fuel prices were very much responsible for how we lived our lives. That's why it's not at all surprising that Oxford Dictionary's Word of the Year for 2008 is "hypermiling."

For those outside the green movement, hypermiling is defined by the word-meisters of Oxford this way: "Hypermiling" or "to hypermile" is to attempt to maximize gas mileage by making fuel-conserving adjustments to one's car and one's driving techniques. Rather than aiming for good mileage or even great mileage, hypermilers seek to push their gas tanks to the limit and achieve hypermileage, exceeding EPA ratings for miles per gallon.

So, there you have it. How long 'till hyper is replaced by wondermileage or excessivemileage? Thanks for the tip, Rebecca!

[Source: Oxford University Press Blog]

Click above for high-res gallery of this really low drag truck

How low can you go? When we first walked past this booth at the SEMA Show in Las Vegas, we thought the convention hall floor had turned to quicksand. We are in the desert after all. Then we figured out what we were really seeing: a completely slammed truck that could win just about any quarter-mile limbo contest. It's literally knee-high to a grasshopper and powered by an Apollo rocket. Draggers, Inc., Go-EZ and Air-Zenith all share responsibility for this incredible piece of pickup passion. It's right-hand drive, lower than low and has one heck of a huge motor in it, and that's about all we know. Check out the gallery for a bunch of high-res pics.


Photos copyright ©2008 Frank Filipponio/Weblogs, Inc.

Click above for high-res gallery of goofiness from SEMA

Even with the avalanche of posts we've brought you from SEMA this year, we ended up with a ton of extra random photos showing things that stopped us in our tracks and had us asking, WTF?! Below is a gallery that highlights some of that flotsam and jetsam for all of you to see. It's the kind of random madness that makes SEMA, well, SEMA: Tribute cars, skyscraper lift kits, cartoonish body kits, Technocolor paint jobs, and, of course, the outrageously inappropriate wheel and tire upgrades. Granted, most of the vehicles on display here in Vegas are designed to attract attention, but if they scare people away, we don't know if they're really serving any purpose. Still, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and most of these projects have hundreds, if not thousands, of man-hours in them, so we don't want to be too critical. One man's trash is another man's treasure, as they say. Just seems we've hit the jackpot here.


Photos copyright ©2008 Brad Wood, Frank Filipponio/Weblogs, Inc.