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

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.

Inexpensive personal transportation has never been cooler or more stylish. Which explains why the Vespa motor scooter has been ruling the streets of Italian cities since its debut at the 1946 Milan Fair. Product placement in movies wasn’t the phenomenon it is now, but the sight of a young, handsome Gregory Peck taking a beautiful, elegant Audrey Hepburn for a spin around the Colosseum in the 1953 film Roman Holiday spurred Vespa sales (from 60,000 in 1950 to over 100,000) and did wonders for its image throughout the world.

An E30 BMW cuts through a brisk Denver, Colorado night.

Chances are a lot of people owe their very existence to WD-40. Maybe their future father sprayed the stuff on his damp engine so he could get the car started to make that date with the hot chick who became their future mother. Or perhaps because it was developed to inhibit corrosion of intercontinental ballistic missiles, which kept the West safe during the Cold War.

With snow shrouding the winter landscape of Alberta, Canada, Mr. Chin caught this Ferrari 599 napping in the garage at Avant Garde Motorsports in Edmonton. If machines could dream, this one dreamt of spring.

While there’s no doubt G-Power systems add copious amounts of power to BMWs, they seem to be a cut above the rest through myriad advantages over their competition. I got a chance to visit the facility in Schrobenhausen, Germany, and was instantly sold.

When the pregnancy announcement went out, I could almost hear my friends mocking me in a sing-song chorus: “Pablo’s gonna get a minivan!” I started to panic.

We stand on the cusp of one much-loved icon entering its sixth generation. The BMW 3 Series will be differentiated by a new factory code (if there’s anything car geeks love, it’s referring to a favorite car by its internal number): F30.

Despite being more than a decade old, Porsche’s 944 still cuts an intimidating profile.

It is difficult to know at what moment a person becomes a legend and the name becomes a brand, or in that most revered state, a definition. Something to which others (and objects) will inevitably be compared and will attempt to emulate. We are all familiar with the man from Italy who gave us the cars of the prancing horse; now it’s time to consider one Bruce Leslie McLaren. The man simply could not be categorized or labeled so easily. While his sudden passing during a test session at Goodwood in 1970 would have meant the end of some teams, the work ethic, the preparation and the engineering brilliance that Bruce brought forth was matched by the dedicated crew at the McLaren workshop in Feltham. That spirit of continuity has been at the center of McLaren through the decades of changing ownership, personnel and motorsport business partners. A personal pinnacle of excellence and professionalism is expected when one walks through the doors at the Woking facilities of the McLaren Group just as it had been decades earlier at Feltham. The strength of any successful enterprise is in the people, the old and the new, junior and senior, and the commitment they bring. How else can a business go from a small 3,000 square-foot building to a major mover with more than 1,300 personnel?

Ronnie Renaldi caught this Ferrari 458 Italia cutting through the woods of Colorado

Most of the features we take for granted in modern watches, like being waterproof, dustproof and self-winding, first appeared in a Rolex, the definitive Swiss timepiece. Which is funny because the company behind it started trading in London back in 1905.

Sit your Aston Down

Most of the time, those ideas we get while drinking At the bar don’t work out. This one did. It has even ascended to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History to illustrate how molten rock behaves. The lava lamp has gone from an egg timer to a kitsch piece of interior decor to a design icon.

If you want to start a fight among car enthusiasts, bring up the topic of electric cars. Many enthusiasts reviled battery-powered vehicles until 2008 when the high-performance Tesla Roadster changed the idea that electric cars were simply glorified golf carts. Since that time, the concept of the electric car has become a political football; and most particularly during the first six months of 2011, the future of an electrified transportation system in America has seen ups and downs. High points include Nissan’s launch of its all-electric LEAF, Chevrolet’s launch of its plug-in hybrid Volt, MINI’s ongoing research project with 600 electrically powered MINI E models, and BMW’s announcement of a new sub-brand called BMW i that will begin selling electric vehicles by 2013. In addition, Fiat will have an electric version of its diminutive 500 model by next year and even staid Rolls Royce showed off its electric concept vehicle at this year’s Geneva Auto Show. Other positives have shown up on two wheels as more than half a dozen electric motorcycle manufacturers have hit the streets with everything from sport bikes to commuter machines to off-road dirt bikes.

I’m a loser. Not in the “my life really sucks” kind of way, but I don’t ever win anything without considerable effort. The most I think I ever won was a pencil in the 3rd grade. I think I still have it somewhere.

Set the Way back Machine to 10 years ago and the mighty B5 Audi S4 reigned supreme. Its 2.7-liter twin-turbo V6 readily accepted powerful modications that made it now and forever a tuner favorite.

Enzo Ferrari called it the most beautiful car ever made. He wasn’t the only one. The Daily Telegraph, one of the smarter newspapers in the United Kingdom, said virtually the same thing when it compiled a list of 100 comely cars. Defunct American magazine Sports Car International named it the top sports car of the 1960s. And really, we have all seen one and fought the instinct to drool as it purred down the street, even now, 50 years since it first came out.

The Audi Quattro was the first rally car to utilize a four-wheel-drive system in accordance with updated regulations for the 1980 WRC season. The Quattro immediately began to dominate not only WRC but also in a variety of other racing series worldwide. The use of proprietary Torsen differential technologies gave the Quattro such a significant advantage that it was eventually banned, which only served to make it more desireable.

Denmark hasn’t given the world much... bacon, beer and Victor Borge are the first things that spring to mind. Then there’s Bang & Olufsen, the high-end home entertainment company. Tom Kristensen is the most successful Le Mans driver ever, with eight wins. Metallica’s drummer, Lars Ulrich, is also a Dane. But nothing comes close in popularity than a little plastic brick that can snap together with other little plastic bricks.

Starting from humble beginnings, Igor Akrapovic (pronounced Ack-rap-o-vich) began designing and building custom exhaust systems for his own racing motorcycle. Work spread to friends and the local community to the point where his became a viable niche business in 1990. For the past 20 years the Slovenian company Akrapovic has skillfully and diligently worked to bring its high-end brand of street, track, and off-road motorcycle products to true legendary status among riding enthusiasts and factory race teams alike. With that mountain climbed and development and production ongoing in the motorcycle aftermarket and racetracks worldwide, Akrapovic challenged itself further in 2007 by setting its sights on its next target: the automobile.

In a purely classic sense, this image has little in the way of nuance or complex arrangement. However, it is the type of photo that can inspire people to attain greater things. Stay in school, work hard, and someday you can make the same image in front of your own house. Chances are it will wind up on some kid's bedroom wall with the promise of: "Someday this will be me."

Shoot to Kill

It’s supposed to be cats that have nine lives, not basset hounds. But in the world of iconic footwear, it seems anything is possible. Hush Puppies are among the highlights of Malcolm Gladwell’s book, The Tipping Point, as the author theorizes on how this once-popular but struggling brand achieved a fresh momentum thanks to a handful of New York City hipsters.