Yokohama Tire Corporation set a new standard for premium all-season tires with its AVID ENVigor®. Now, the benchmark tire, which has been dubbed the "best Grand Performance Tire", comes with Yokohama's unique runflat technology. The AVID ENVigor® ZPS® (Zero Pressure System) goes on sale February 1 and will come in five sizes.

• Jack Roush gets first GRAND-AM win in the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge Series with Billy Johnson and son Jack Roush Jr.
• Michael Shank Racing captures the overall and DP win while Magnus Racing claims GT win at 50th Rolex At Daytona.
• Ganassi triple stints on Continental Tires amidst other team's double stinting.

• The most fuel-efficient 21st Century Beetle, with predicted fuel economy of 29 mpg city, 39 mpg highway
• Beetle TDI goes on sale this summer as a 2013 model
• The first Beetle TDI Clean Diesel model since 2006
• Available in three well-appointed trim levels
• Choice of six-speed manual or dual-clutch DSG® transmissions

The recently introduced Audi R8 GT Spyder is a hand-built, limited production vehicle with just 333 units produced world-wide and 50 units coming to the U.S. Similar to the R8 GT Coupe unveiled last year, each car will be uniquely distinguished with an individual vehicle number displayed on the gear shift.

• Audi on the grid in Australia with designs from the animal kingdom
• Formula 1 know-how at Audi Sport Team Rosberg
• Exhibition and conference appearances for Audi factory drivers

• Debut of new development for the North American market
• Two customer teams to contest entire season
• Both cars classified in 24-hour race at Daytona

The new, sixth-generation Jetta was launched as a conquest car. It’s a cornerstone, maybe the cornerstone, of Volkswagen’s strategy for world automotive domination, that is, to be the biggest car company in the world.

RD Sport's RS46 sits patiently on a dry lakebed in anticipation of the coming sunrise. Daylight couldn't come soon enough.

Resonator
Chores for grandma may turn up barnfinds in Poland

Tales of valuable classic cars turning up as barn finds are the stuff of legend. And when you dig deep into the history and the lives of their owners, the story behind such a car is usually a fascinating one.

It’s a question of some import: How do you improve upon the most bad-ass 911 the Porsche factory has ever produced? A car that carries the marketing tagline “Respect required” and has earned the ominous nickname of “Widowmaker.”

The sun bears down hot and bright on the tightly wound road course at Spring Mountain Motor Resort and Country Club in the desert just outside Pahrump, Nevada. You’re in Third gear, winding a high-strung turbocharged five-cylinder engine to its 7000-rpm redline. You careen toward Turn 3, a tight, decreasing radius number with a really late apex.

The new Ferrari 458 Italia is about as ostentatious as most of us would like to go. It’s in-your-face enough. But Khourosh Mansory caters to a different breed. Wallflowers simply need not apply as his cars command—no, they demand—attention. Lots of it. So unless you’re the kind of guy that can pull off wearing shades indoors, at night, the Mansory Siracusa probably isn’t the car for you.

• Debut for new Audi R8 GRAND-AM customer sport race car
• Private teams APR Motorsport and Oryx Racing are on the grid
• Driver line-up includes Audi legend Emanuele Pirro

Mein Hanzy:
Like a scene from a North American version of Mad Max, I recently found myself beset upon by a pack of raging Porsches the likes of which I have never before seen. Squinting into my rearview mirror, I watched, horrified, as they began to chase after me, fanning out with a wail like Teutonic banshees that easily infiltrated the sepulchral silence normally dominating the cabin of my borrowed Cayenne Turbo S. I stabbed at the accelerator and provoked the turbos into force-feeding the big V8, feeling its enormous torque claw into the pavement as if this incredible machine, given enough traction, could arrest the Earth’s rotation. I felt my face flatten and my spine shrink as I was pressed deeper and deeper into the folds of the luxurious seat and the Cayenne rocketed down the road, leaving all but the best of the turbo 911s and GT cars in her generous wake. I was gathering some serious speed down a long straight section of roadway, far beyond what I am normally accustomed to. I could sense my vision beginning to narrow as my thundering world morphed into a blur like an impressionist painting, and I was soon caught inside a frightening form of tunnel vision not unlike peering through a periscope. Only instead of making six or seven knots, my speedometer was well into triple digits and rising with an exuberance that can only be described as maniacal. I had two and a half tons of extruded and pressed steel about to shatter the sound barrier when I became aware of a long turn in my immediate future. I glanced in my rearview mirror and could see that I was holding my own, but I knew I was going way too fast for the upcoming turn. I warily pondered the big Porsche’s impressive bulk.

With the waving of the green flag to start the January 27th BMW Performance 200, the opening round of this year's Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge, the 2012 North American sports car racing season gets underway for more than 50 BMW drivers gathered for the Grand-Am Sports Car Series 50th Rolex 24 at Daytona weekend.

Sport utility vehicles ain’t what they used to be. Thank goodness. Most of us really don’t need an old-school, body-on-frame, gas-guzzling galoot. Mercedes-Benz knows this and has given us the M-Class midsize crossover, made with a unibody construction. Sorry to use the cliché “car-like” but that’s exactly what it is.

Recruitment efforts officially get underway in seven U.S. markets to find 700 BMW "Electronauts" to join the 2012 ActiveE Field Trial, a collective mission to help define the future of mobility

Woodcliff Lake, NJ - BMW today revealed the first images and information about the newly updated 2013 BMW X6 Sports Activity Coupe which arrives in US BMW Centers this spring. The world's first ever Sports Activity Coupe stills offers a unique combination of sporty dynamics, versatility and unmatched character. Select design updates and innovative features further hone the profile of the new BMW X6 as a distinctive model within the premium segment of all-wheel-drive vehicles. Its ongoing popularity is due to both its highly expressive design, which combines the athletic and elegant lines of a coupe with the unique character of a BMW X model, and the outstanding driving experience provided by two powerful engines featuring BMW TwinPower Turbo Technology and xDrive, the intelligent all-wheel-drive system. The BMW X6 continues to offer Dynamic Performance Control which gives the Sports Activity Coupe unparalleled agility for a vehicle in this segment.

• New safety cell for Audi A5 DTM extremely efficient and safe
• Audi Board Member Michael Dick compares Audi A5 DTM and V8 quattro
• Rahel Frey at the ADAC Motorsport Show in Erfurt

Just as non-car enthusiasts still know what a Rolls-Royce is, most of us are familiar with Steinway & Sons. The name represents a gold standard in grand pianos. From Sergei Rachmaninoff to Sir Elton John, a Steinway has been the instrument of choice for so many major musicians. Indeed, the company practically invented the modern grand piano; it holds more than 125 patents, many of which were developed in an unprepossessing factory in a distinctly unglamorous suburb of New York City.

This thing is the Black Panzer. That isn’t meant to be a play on “Germanglish”—the G-Power X5 M typhoon is far from a kitty cat.

We’re nearing a historic moment in automotive history. As a new BMW 3 Series platform looms on the horizon, and with it a new M3—which, it’s speculated, will be powered by a turbocharged version of the BMW inline six-cylinder engine—the naturally aspirated BMW M car as we knew it will have ceased to exist.

After attending my share of tire launches, I’ve become accustomed to the routine. Wake up early, sit through a presentation highlighting the latest and greatest technology, then get handed the keys to a car for a test drive. While these presentations are informative, I’m often left wondering if it’s all just a case of a placebo effect. Did I really experience a novel and innovative technology when I drove the car, or did it seem more fantastic since they told me it would be?

I needed to be reminded what it’s like to have a totally carefree, relaxed motoring experience. Bought new nearly 14 years ago, my car has developed a few nagging noises and personality disorders. Lucky for me the rest of the staff was committed to other vehicles or trips so into the 2011 BMW 535i sedan I went.