AUTOS

Back in the City: Shell Initiates “Project M” with Designer Gordon Murray

  – – Famed road- and race-car designer Gordon Murray is back at work on a urban runabout, a project that appears to pick up on the lightweight, ultra-efficient, T.25 city car (pictured here) developed by Murray and his design firm. After making a splash a few years ago, we’ve heard nothing about the T.25—until now. Re-dubbed “Project M,” it’s actually going to be built—at least for testing purposes—with the

Back in the City: Shell Initiates “Project M” with Designer Gordon Murray

  – – Famed road- and race-car designer Gordon Murray is back at work on a urban runabout, a project that appears to pick up on the lightweight, ultra-efficient, T.25 city car (pictured here) developed by Murray and his design firm. After making a splash a few years ago, we’ve heard nothing about the T.25—until now. Re-dubbed “Project M,” it’s actually going to be built—at least for testing purposes—with the

F is for Finesse: 2016 Lexus GS F Goes Back to Basics

– To ensure that nothing is lost in translation, Yukihiko Yaguchi pulls out his iPhone and scrolls through the photos. The chief engineer of the 2016 Lexus GS F stops on a pic of a mid-90s Toyota Chaser—a Japanese-market mid-size sedan—sporting a tiger decal on the hood and orange stripes across its roof and flanks. It’s a Japanese Touring Car Championship racer in which Yaguchi scored seat time back in

2016 Chevrolet Camaro Will Have Wheels, Brakes, More Structural Rigidity

– Folks, you might as well settle in for the medium haul: Chevrolet’s naughty multi-part tease of the sixth-generation 2016 Camaro leading up to the car’s big debut at May 16 continues. Having already confirmed the latest iteration of the muscle car will get Corvette power, a Cadillac chassis, and weigh less than before, Chevy has revealed yet another nugget of 2016 Camaro info: It’ll be stiffer. Well, its structure

L.A. Testing New, Simplified Parking Signs that Every City Should Use—and they Have Bluetooth

– Los Angeles is a city built by and built around cars. And as is well known, there are a lot of cars there. Thing is, every driver of every car in L.A. eventually needs to find a place to park. Alas, finding a spot—at least of the legal, on-street variety—is a task not easily done nor understood. Behold L.A.’s new, simplified parking signs that convey parking restrictions in multicolor grid

Long-Suffering Honda Crosstour Given Sweet Release, Killed for 2016

– First, the practical but dorky Mercedes R-class was discontinued for the U.S. in 2012. Then last month, the Toyota Venza died. Now, the Honda Crosstour will shuffle off this automotive coil at the end of its 2015 model cycle. Funky wagon-posing-as-crossover things, we hardly knew ye. – – The Crosstour discontinuation makes sense, of course, given that sales were never all that strong. In its first full year on sale in 2010, the

Alfa Romeo Announces Two New Engines, Still Doesn’t Have Cars to Put them In

– So, remember that molto ambizioso plan Alfa Romeo laid out last year? The one where it fully returns to the U.S. market—let’s be real, the ultra-niche 4C sports car isn’t exactly a triumphant re-storming of America’s beach—and adds eight new products (that it’ll sell 400,000 of) by 2018? Well, one year on, we’ve got the first big update: Alfa Romeo has announced that it will produce two of its five previously announced

This Device Determines What Ails Your Car and Finds a Repair Shop—Automatically

– Openbay, an online marketplace that assists with booking auto repairs, is moving the vehicle-repair diagnostic process online. The Boston-based startup recently announced it will roll out its newest service, OpenbayConnect, which allows the company to read error codes in cars and then matches users with local shops that can perform the required service. – The app relies on your car’s OBD II diagnostics port, which was made mandatory for cars built

Monochromeo, Part 3! Chevrolet Silverado HD Custom Sport Joins the Black/White Party

-In the latest episode of GM’s monochrome mini-series, Chevrolet returns to find its heavy-duty pickups escaping to a white party while the duallys go all chrome and black leather. That’s right, it’s funky time at the construction site. – The Custom Sport monochrome trim package has made it to the Silverado 2500 and 3500 trucks, similar to what Chevrolet and GMC offer with the Silverado 1500 Custom Sport and the