Car Moon

One of the most memorable movies quotes of all time is from the 1994 comedy-drama Forrest Gump, in which Tom Hanks’ character said: “Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get”. Fast-forward to today, and eBay seems to be the proverbial box of chocolates with some truly sweet surprises, like this VW Beetle-based 1973 Air Force project car, named Talon.

Now, before someone adds a comment of the sort "in other related news, Audi unveiled the new A6", let us make it clear that we're not reporting on the actual Car of the Year (COTY) 2011 results, which were announced in late November 2010, but on the special ceremony that took place at the Pavillion Gabriel in Paris earlier this week to hand over the trophy to this year's winner, the new Nissan Leaf.

For more than thirty years now, BMW has been producing a special range of security vehicles that offer armored protection against everything from pistol fire to small explosions. These vehicles are developed at a special test facility located in east Germany, in a former soviet base, said to have been the biggest military airport in Europe during the Cold War. Here, the Bavarian automaker tests its armored vehicles and hosts a special driver training program where instructors teach participants how to react in dangerous situations and push the cars to their limits. You can watch the video right after the jump. Read more »

* Standard 2011 Volvo V60 shown in photos

The 2011 Geneva Motor Show will host the world premiere of the Volvo V60 Plug-in Hybrid, a near production-ready model that is said to return a very impressive 125 mpg US (1.9 lt/100 km), with CO2 emissions under 50 g/km. In order to achieve this, engineers entered a new variable into the plug-in hybrid equation: a diesel engine.