Car Moon

The upcoming Tuning World Bodensee auto show in Germany that runs from May 13 through 16 will see British car specialist Arden taking the wraps off its latest proposal based on the recently facelifted 2010 Range Rover.

The tuner is keeping details about the AR5/10 under a tight lid, but apart from the cosmetic upgrades seen in these teaser photos, buyers should also expect a raft of performance enhancements.

A couple of days ago, 67-year-old Ralph Hudson backed his Mercedes-Benz C-Class out of a parking garage in Tulsa, Oklahoma (let's hear it for the Golden Hurricane!).

Only problem is, he was 7 stories up. According to his statement, his foot was caught between the accelerator and brake pedals. Luckily, he wasn't hurt or killed.

The same can't be said for some of the cars below, which got beat up by falling bricks. Ah well, accidents will happen... Video after the break.

The Bavarian State Police has begun testing a prototype version of the BMW X3 fitted with all the necessary equipment to patrol the German highways. The all-wheel drive X3 police car is powered by a 218HP turbocharged six-cylinder diesel engine and comes equipped with more LED lights than a Las Vegas Christmas tree show. You can check out the rest of the pictures right after the jump.

Drift fan Darren sent us some sweet pics from Formula DRIFT Singapore 2010, which took place on April 24th and 25th.

According to Darren, "Forty-two drivers...from Asia-Pacific countries such as Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Thailand and New Zealand took part." Some even used smoke screens to mess with the competition's heads.

When perusing the gallery below, keep an eye out for this year's champion, the FX Formula Bridgestone Tandem Assassin Nissan 200SX driven by Tengku Djan Ley.

Sent over by Señor Chris Harris from EVO were these tasty videos featuring an "unauthorized comparo" between Ferrari's 458 Italia and Porsche's GT3 RS. According to Mr. Harris, "I'm probably banned from Maranello for life. Hey-ho. At least I got to rinse a 458 and a GT3 RS."

HEY-HO indeed.

For an interesting run-through and comparison of these two track-day supercars (Ferrari isn't releasing the 458 Scuderia/track model for a while), check out the vids after the jump. Don't forget, we over here aren't afraid of no stinkin' Ferrari. I'm watching you, Montezemolo.

Fiat has chosen a unusual way to celebrate the production of the 500,000th 500 mini just 31 months after its launch. The Italian automaker is going to create a special edition version of the 500 entirely covered by 1,500 photos displaying the faces of Fiat 500 customers, celebrities and fans.

In a continuation of the Porsche-Volkswagen takeover/stock controversy, 18 hedge funds added their names to a list of people taking Porsche to court in a $2 Billion lawsuit here in the States.

Porsche, Wendelin Wiedeking (former CEO), and Holger Härter (former CFO) are said to have committed fraud and "manipulated the market" over a four-year period in order to keep the company out of bankruptcy.

The alleged shady dealings were "an attempt to recoup large losses suffered by [Porsche, Wiedeking, and Härter] after a VW share price surge in 2008 triggered by Porsche's takeover attempt on Europe's largest carmaker."

Honda Motors' Acura division is recalling 167,255 of its 2004 - 2008 MY TSX sedans with the 2.4-liter inline-four in the U.S. because the power steering hose can potentially deteriorate prematurely and leak fluids causing a fire hazard.

"Oil leaking onto a hot exhaust pipe will generate smoke and a burning smell, and could potentially result in an under hood fire," Honda said in a notice on the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration website.

Atomik Cars wants to make an electric Abarth 500, which is a good idea from the start.

Claimed to have "supercar performance in a city car's size", Atomik's 500 features a bunch of fancy tech under its carbon fiber skin: "high performance LiFePO4 batteries", brushless synchronous motors, two new transmissions (resulting in permanent AWD), a ceramic heater, and a carbon/Nomex rear chassis (by the way, Nomex is what Batman's suit is made out of).

The city of Boston, Massachusetts has become the first city in America to officially approve of Ford's Transit Connect (2010 North American Truck of the Year) as a taxi.

Mark Cohen, Boston PD Licensing Division director, says this about the Transit Connect: "It's the closest thing to a purpose-built vehicle for taxi use that I've seen in 25 years." I guess he's never been to the UK...

For many places, the issue with replacing the large, Panther-based Crown Victorias has been the regulation of vehicles that are allowed to perform taxi duties. A successor would have to meet various size/measurement/cargo/safety standards before approval, and the city of Boston has deemed the TC Taxi worthy of the job.

AutoTrader Classics' Michael Boulton snagged the very first photos of the finished BRE Edition Nissan 370Z racer that was revealed on Thursday during the Brock Racing Enterprises reunion dinner honoring Peter Brock (not to be confused with the famous Australian racing driver who passed away in 2006) and crew.

Built to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Brock Racing Enterprises' (BRE) win at the SCCA National Championship at Road Atlanta with a 240Z in 1970, the specially modified Nismo 370Z racer features the classic vintage red, white, and blue BRE paint scheme.

Following a teaser announcement back in early March, French carmaker Peugeot has fully revealed the Hoggar, a new pint-sized pickup truck designed and developed in Brazil for the domestic market.

Borrowing a name from a two-seater buggy concept from 2003, the Hoggar pickup makes use of a hybrid platform developed from the rear end of the Partner van and the front end of the Brazilian-market 207 supermini, which itself is derived from the older Peugeot 206 and not the latest 207 hatch sold in Europe and other parts of the world.

The facelifted version of the Fabia supermini has become the second model in the Skoda range after the Octavia to enter full-cycle production at the VW Group's Kaluga plant in Russia, the automaker announced today. Full-cycle production includes welding and painting.

The Volkswagen Group opened the factory in Kaluga in November 2007, and its planned capacity is 150,000 cars a year.

Once again, our spy photographers have snagged the brand new iteration of Porsche's Boxster model during testing in Germany.

The prototype version seen here continues to be under camouflage, though to a lesser extent than previous. According to our spies, the new model appeared to be slightly longer and wider than the current version, something that should benefit the roadster's interior space.

As with most Porsches, the exterior looks of the new Boxster will be a subtle evolution over the previous model. However, bigger changes are expected in the interior that will most likely take styling cues from the Panamera.

Earlier today, Hyundai pulled the wraps off the all-new 2011 Avante, or as we will come to know it, the next generation of the Elantra sedan. Along with the first details and photos, the South Korean automaker also released an animated film on the new Elantra that you can check out right after the jump.
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Temple University Economics Professor William Dunkelberg recently posted a nice, succinct article on how GM really didn't repay us after all.

He explains that the $8 Billion that GM gave back was clearly nowhere near the $80 Billion of TARP funds US taxpayers "invested" in GM and Chrysler. Instead, taxpayers received 61% of GM ("and a block of stock for the UAW").

Dunkelberg slams GM by saying that such a loss hardly represents the returns necessary to drive up the stock price "needed to insure a return of taxpayer money", hinting that he really doesn't believe GM will be able to pay everything back.

From Alpine325Ci, the 'Bimmerpost' artist who created last week's pretty 6-Series photoshop (and those previous M5 renderings), comes another look at the next BMW M5.

As we can see, his take on the big M retains the new 5's attractive snout while gaining the M division's dumbfounded-expression front bumper and more aggressive skirts.

The mirrors also get a little tweak, and it wouldn't be a stretch to believe the F10 M5 would be coming with that carbon fiber roof.

Another edition of Best Car, another rendered speculation. In its latest edition, the Japanese magazine features a story on a more hardcore version of Toyota's forthcoming rear-wheel drive sports coupe which it names the "FT-86F".

Being that the article was written in Japanese, details are limited, but we assume that the magazine suggests the "F" version would fit between the standard FT-86 and the track-ready "G" model that was previewed in concept form at this year's Tokyo Auto Salon in January.