Honda CBR1000RR

Honda's Fireblade revolutionised the sportsbike market in 1992, setting new standards in performance, handling and excitement, but over the years - like all of us - it has become slightly more civilised, and now even comes with optional luggage. Could the Fireblade's fire be fading? Chris Moss finds out.
Racetracks are the only place to test the latest generation of road-going superbikes. Their huge power and speed dictate no other environment is sensible enough to sample them to the full in any sort of safety. That's clearly what Honda thinks too. and the Losail MotoGP track was the venue chosen for the press to ride its new 2008 Fireblade.

Ford F-150

For Matt O'Leary and Pat Schiavone, P415 was just another assignment. To their bosses in Dearborn, though, P415—the internal codename for the 2009 Ford F-150—was almost certainly the Ford Motor Company's single most important new-model design and development program this decade. The F-150 is a phenomenon: More than 33 million have been sold since the nameplate was launched in 1948, and the F-Series has been America's best-selling truck for 31 years straight. Last year, one in three vehicles carrying the Blue Oval badge sold in America was an F-Series. On a world scale, the F-Series accounts for 13 percent of global Ford Motor Company sales—including Volvo, Jaguar, Land Rover, Mazda, the lot. This thing is a big deal in Dearborn.

Cadillac CTS-V

THIS IS IT. The fastest, most powerful Cadillac ever built. The fastest, most powerful American sedan in history, for that matter. Locked, loaded, and gunning for Europe's heavy-hitting sport sedans—BMW M5, Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG, Audi RS6. Read all that again. Now pinch yourself. No, you're not dreaming. Motown— well, GM at least—has its mojo back. Meet Cadillac's monster new CTS-V. Cadzilla, if you will.

Kymco Super 8

KYMCO have gained quite a stronghold on the UK scooter market in recent years thanks to their competitively priced and well-built scooters. The latest offering to land on our shores is this Super 8, an attractive 125cc with a price tag of just £1699 on the road.

One of the reasons behind KYMCO's UK success is the experience of their importer, Shrewsbury-based MASCO. The well established firm operates from a unit located close to Ironbridge Gorge, the birthplace of Britain's industrial revolution. From their HQ a dedicated team oversee the spares and technical backup for the UK dealers and new machines are put through their paces around the leafy lanes and open countryside of rural Shropshire.

Chevrolet Corvette 2008

ALTHOUGH the rumor mill has been churning with details about the 2010 C7 Corvette, don’t think Chevy is done with the C6 just yet. Introduced as a 2005 model, he 2008 C6 gets a sizeable mid-production-cycle mechanical makeover, along with a muchneeded tuneup of its touchy-feely bits. Its LS3 engine’s output will be upped to 430 horses at 5900 rpm and 424 pound-feet at 4600 rpm (previously 400 horses and 400 poundfeet) due to a bump in bore that raises the displacement from 6.0 to 6.2 liters.

Custom Scooter

Normally the guys from BYS choose to customise scooters that aren't so popular here in the UK and are more widely seen in European countries such as Holland and Germany. They have previously customised a Suzuki Street Magic, Yamaha Slider and Yamaha Aerox. But this one is a well-known UK scooter model -the Piaggio NRG mc3.
If you haven't heard of Boost Ya Scoot, then where have you been for the last COUple Of years. Just Mick through previous T&G issues and you'll see other creations that they have built. This NRG belongs to Sam Eaton, son of the owner of BYS, who along with his brother Adam and dad Kevin created this little beauty.

Lotus Exige S 240

Taking it to the Street, The Art of The Possible. Has long been known as a pure enthusiast's car, but with its new 2008 Lotus Exige S 240, the company is showing it hasn't forgotten about taking these vehicles to the streets of your own neighborhood.
The Exige S 240 gets a power bump from 220 horses to 240, hence the name, and a torque increase from 165 pound-feet to 170. Along with this added oomph, Lotus upgraded the clutch plate cover to handle the extra twist, which is expected to be good for 0-to-60 in 4.0 seconds and 100 mph in just under 10 seconds.

Ducati Multistrada

Living with the Multistrada.
Don't worry about choosing correct lines, the Multistrada knows them all and can alter mid-corner to suit any poor decision made by the rider. The trademark, steel trellis frame may not look as sexy as the huge alloy items found on most other machines but this minimalist design works better than most. With high spec Showa upside down forks holding the front end up, the handling is beyond reproach. Hanging off those long travel forks are a pair of Brembo Goldline calipers and massive 320mm discs, without even pulling a lever you just know that baby is going to stop with bags of feel and power, and it does every time.

Superbyke SBS125

The recent influx of budget machines from the Far East has made it relatively cost effective to start biking and, in fine style too. Using much technology (and thinking from the Japanese sector, in this case, the Honda CGI25 line), these small capacity machines offer much of the reliability and practicality of the original article, just at a far lower price.

Black Nightmare

A typical home-grown custom scooter will be nothing more than a fancy paint job and a few engine mods and maybe a bit of polishing. In the rest of Europe paintwork is secondary to a host of well thought out and carefully executed modifications. Time trouble and money are spent creating eye-catching details rather than simply relying on the talents of a sprayer to provide the eye candy.
Twenty-one-year-old Barrie Bone may only be a youngster, but the Belgian lad has built this show-stopping MBK Nitro - a scooter with more details to feast your eyes over than most British custom autos put together. Barrie's English is about as good as my Dutch, so bear with me because things might get lost in the translation...

Dodge Viper ACR

WITH 8.4 LITERS AND OVERHEAD VALVES UP FRONT, THE VIPER ACR SEEMS AN OLD-SCHOOL SUPERCAR. UNTIL YOU DRIVE IT.
YOU'RE took ng at Dodge's answer to the Porsche 911 GT3 RS or Lotus Exige, a road car you can drive to the track, hot lap all day, and drive back home, tires, brakes, and ego intact. The Viper ACR is raw. It's wired. And it's probably the best weekend racer yet from Detroit.

Government Issue

Love the smell of diesel in the morning ?
You're a sniper and have to sneak up on a target you've been assigned to eliminate. You have a long distance to travel and must go undetected by the enemy for some 200 miles to the targets lasl known sighting. You've parachuted into hostile territory and have no ground support except for the HDT M1030MI diesel-powered motorcycle that made the air-drop with you.
At least that was the scenario going through my head as 1 made my early-morning rendezvous with HDT's Fred Hayes and Bryon Schmidt-who arrived in a diesel Sprinter van-in the high-desert at 0-dark-30 for a ride of the Marine Corps-issue diesel dirtbikc. Shortly after we rolled up, Clark Jones, our guide and IIDT's hired-in suspension engineer, arrived. As the 61 lec diesel Single warmed up in cold crisp morning air, its industrial clackity cadence made it clear that this was no ordinary enduro.

Chevrolet Malibu LTZ

While the town of Malibu seems to be a magnet for natural disasters—wildfires, mudslides, beach erosion, Hollywood A-lisiers in rehab Malibu, the car, seems to radiate mostly positive energy (see our First Drive, February 2008). And the praise is well deserved for this new front-drive midsize sedan whose styling reflects a certain European sensibility and whose chassis, based on the Epsilon architecture found in the Saturn Aura, Saab 9-3, etc., is a no-excuses improvement over the outgoing model's.

Chevrolet HHR SS

Chandler, Arizona - Thanks to General Motors Vice Chairman and ultimate car-guy Bob Lutz, the engineering team responsible for creating an HHR truly worthy of the Super Sport name did a great deal of the car's development work on the famed Niirburgring circuit in Germany. And it shows.

BMW HP2 Sport

ONCE A BASTION OF TWO-WHEEL CONSERVATISM KNOWN PRIMARILY for sensible, durable touring bikes with superior saddlebags and high technology, BMW has done something strange: It's added plastic sliders to the cylinder heads of its latest, most performance-oriented bike ever. Further, those plastic, replaceable inserts are mounted in carbon-fiber valve covers. Crazy times, yes. but, get this: those covers enclose dual overhead cams. And there wasn't a saddlebag to be found at the recent BMW HP2 Sport press launch.

For Two Coupe

IS THIS SOME SORT OF CRUEL JOKE, HAVING THE LARGEST GUY on staff (all 6 ft. 4 in. of me) write the road test of the smallest production car we've ever tested? If so, it didn't work. Interior space is far from a problem in the smart fortwo; rather, it's one of the new city car's strong points. Built at a Daimler-owned factory in France, the smart fortwo is a model of packaging efficiency, able to comfortably accommodate two large adults and a couple of suitcases in a tidy overall package that's 39.5 in. shorter than a Mini. Parked nose to tail, two smarts take up less space than a Chevy Suburban. That's short, and the upright car is about as tall (60.7 in.) as it is wide (61.4 in.).

Symply 125

Sometimes testing scoots can be tough. You'll put a day or two aside to go out and get a few miles on a new machine, then the weather scuppers your plans and messes up your photos. If you happen to be reading this copy of Twist & Go overseas you'll probably be basking in some February sunshine, while we'll still be wearing our wellies and winter coats!

TesLa Roadster

Nikola Tesla was a genius who, more than 100 years ago at the dawn of the electric age, invented alternating electrical current, the radio, and the AC motor, among other things, that are instrumental to our modern life. Now, in the 21st century, Tesla Motors is trying to reinvent the automobile, and we spent a day driving the company's first product, the Tesla roadster.

BueLL XB12S

THANK GOODNESS MOTO insanity is a fully cross-cultural disease. It means that idealistic and inventive stateside maniacs like Erik Bucll get to make
their start building strange sportbikes in their garages using big, air-cooled American engines, and then get hired into the Bigs by none other than Harlcy-Davidson for mass production. And that an equally mad Frenchman named Ludovic Lazareth, working half a world away, gets to take the product of Buell s innovative mind a step farther.

Aprillia Mana 850

FOR SOME 20 YEARS, Piaggio has been toying with the idea of an Ultimate Scooter. Through that time, the project had moved forward, then been killed, then brought back only to get killed again. Finally, though, with Aprilia's new V-Twin 750 and 1200 engines (the smaller as fitted in the Shiver) the company thought it had the right powcrplanl to use as a basis for a production machine.

Saturn Astra XR

The most striking aspect that people will notice will be in the interior. The Astra exudes an aura that is definitely not of this continent. The font used on the gauge text isn't traditional, nor is the radio stack. It takes but a few seconds to adjust to the unique layout, but it's certainly not 'Murican. The tilt and telescoping steering wheel has audio controls (standard on XR variants), and the turn-signal and windshield-wiper control stalks have nothing in common with any other domestic product. The turn signals are of the "smart" type, which means a momentary application of the stalk causes the blinker to (lash three times before resetting itself. At the very end of the turn-signal stalk are the controls for the standard cruise-control system.

Peugeot Geopolis 250

Although not very popular with British riders, big wheeled scooters represent a commuter proposition. Peter Henshaw argues the case for Peugeot's Geopclis
What is it about the British and big-wheeled scooters? A nation that seems quite happy to ape our Transatlantic cousins when it comes to bigger being supposedly better, prefers its scooters with tiddly 12 or 13m wheels. Which is a shame, because big-wheeled scooters handle far better than the small-wheeled ones, and one's first ride on a big-wheeler can be a revelation of stability by comparison. Just three inches on the wheel size makes that much difference. A lot of motorcyclists say the reason they don't like scooters is that they don't handle very well on their little wheels. And yet they don't buy big-wheeled scoots either, and nor do many of the commuter types, who you'd think would welcome the extra stability.

Porsche Cayenne GTS

ALgarve, Portugal—Porsche a marque distinguished for setting sports-car standards throlighoul the automotive realm, decided in 2002 that it would inch out on a limb and launch its own line of Sport Utility Vehicles. The birth of the Cayenne proved a smart move and arrived in multiple trim levels from a base V-6 model to the Iop-of-the-line turbocharged V-8 juggernaut Cayennes are competent on-road performers and yet fairly capable off-road explorers, but therein lies the compromise. Porsche's desire to keep its brand identity prominent within each model line has inspired the most road-focused Cayenne yet. the GTS.

BMW R1200GS

SENSE OF ADVENTURE. In the right hands, BMW's GS can be a formidable overlanding tool, but we're not all Dakar experts and something as sizeable as the BMW can be a tad intimidating to those less experienced. Chris Moss took on a steep learning curve at the launch of the 2008 R1200 GS Range.

Nissan Murano

NISSAN'S strange place with the Murano. It sells more every year—annual sales are nearly double what they were after the Murano came out for the 2004 model year—but the Murano was getting stale. Plus, fresh new entries are overwhelming the segment: There were only a handful of crossovers five years ago; now there are more than 25, and that number could go up to 35 by the end of 2008. How does Nissan make the Murano better without changing what makes it sell?
The new model adheres to the basic Murano theme—sporty drive, functional yet stylish cabin, wrapped in a unique-looking shell.

Audi Cross Coupe Quattro

AFTER FINALLY entering the SUV segment with the Q7, Audi is preparing to slice it up with an A4-based Q5 hinted by the Roadjet concept and a smaller Q3 hinted by the Cross Coupe quattro. The Q3 will slot below the Q5 as a response to tighter European Corporate Average Fuel Economy regulations, like proposed U.S. CAFE regulations.

KIA Borrego

AS WE go smaller and greener and move away from big, body-on-frame V-8 sport/utilities to more compact crossovers, Kia branches into a new segment with its V- 8 - po we red, b ody-o n -f ra m e, seven-passenger Borrego sport/ utility. It features the same powerful (about 375 horses!) 4,6-liter V-8 you'll find under the hood of Hyundai's new Genesis. Kia says the V-8 Borrego (Mohave in South Korea) will go on sale just ahead of the Genesis V-8. So let's talk timing. When Kia began developing the Borrego some four years ago, gas was under $2 per gallon, automakers were still touting the sustainability of the big-truck boom, and Toyota was working on its huge new Sequoia.

Honda CB600F Hornet

The Hornet 600 is one of Honda's better known and best selling bikes, and it's easy to see why. The first advantage it has is style, and plenty of it. Accepting that the colour of our test bike in its divisive Marmite-esque hue certainly won't please all eyes, few could argue that the Hornet isn't one of the better looking bikes from Japan. The sharp, yet flowing lines of its bodywork are bang up to date and the hi-level exhaust can add to the modernity. With mast of its mechanicals also on view to give it extra life and individuality, it makes a refreshing change from many of the plastic-covered and more anonymous offerings we usually get from the land of the rising sun.

Honda FCX Clarity

HOOFING it out of the convention hall after Chevrolet's press update on the Volt at the Los Angeles auto show, I came away feeling that I, finally, once-and-for-all, absolutely, had the future of the automobile figured out. Mo question about it: Plug-in hybrids like the Volt [or as GM prefers to call it, an extended-range electric vehicle) will be how we and our kids will get around in our looming SIOO-plus per-barrel-oil and climate-changing world. "The Volt's on schedule," they confidently stated, and its first set of development batteries—which arrived on Halloween at GM's research center in Warren, Michigan—"turned out to be a treat not a trick,"their battery czar quipped. It's nice when the light above the road to tomorrow is suddenly so brightly illuminated like this.

Ford Interceptor

PRESS THE electrically triggered chrome door handle and the door pops open. The sculpted one-piece leather seats are as stiff as the suspension, and you slide onto them as into a Barcelona chair. A 21st-century "shaker "looms in your view, and the rest of the hood is long and upright.. .you're overlooking a similar expanse of sheetmetal as in a Chrysler 300.Hit the electronic ignition button on the headliner just aft of the header, and the 5.4-literV-8 fires up with a rumble.

Jaguar XF Supercharged

YOU'LL notice the heartbeat every time you enter the driver's seat of the new 2009 Jaguar XF sedan. Not just your ticker—the car's, too.
Slide into the cockpit, and immediately your eyes are drawn to the keyless start/stop button on the center console: It's beating a rhythmic red, as if theXF is coming alive. Press it, and the supercharged 4.2-liter V-8 twists into a muted whir, concealed air vents in the dash glide open, an innovative rotary shift knob—the so-called JaguarDrive Selector— rises out of the transmission tunnel. You've just witnessed "the Jaguar handshake,"the first of several servings of pizzazz that differentiate this striking new four-door from such classmates as the Mercedes-Benz E-Class and the BMW 5 Series.

Lexus LX570

Bodacious Ballerina SURE, SHE'S A DANCING HIPPO, BUT SHE'S LIGHT ON HER BIG FEET. A JET-LAGGED, carb-loaded mind is wander-prone, so while the Lexus rep described how the cross-linked variable-rate shocks use a spring-rate valve to help limit dive, squat, and roll in the new LX 570, improving its dynamic handling, I daydreamed first of hippopotami in ballerina skirts, then of the rubenesque Motormouth Maybelle dancing to "Big, Blonde, and Beautiful" in the musical adaptation of John Waters's "Hairspray.'This largest Lexus has no more business vamoosing through chicanes than it does scaling 45-degree slopes, fording two-foot-deep streams, or straddling nine-inch-tall rocks; yet it's capable of doing all the above.

Scooter Buyer's Guide

Never go alone; always take a mate, preferably a knowledgeable one, and take off the rose-tinted specs.
Do your homework on the particular model before you go - little pointers here and there can make all the difference when you see it in the flesh. Don't make rash decisions and be prepared to walk away from anything that simply doesn't sound right.
If it sounds too good to be true then the chances are that it will be. There are plenty of bikes out there, so don't be frightened to miss this one. Make sure the name on the logbook ties in with the guy who is selling and the venue you are viewing it at. After all, who really does let a mate sell a bike on their behalf? And yet the amount of times that story is used is beyond belief.

Suzuki Intruder M1800R

Ride an M1800 and you'll leave behind a trail of onlookers sore from rubber-necking. It's no wonder really, as the Suzuki is as outlandish and eye-catching as a Las Vegas casino. It simply can't be ignored. A neighbour of mine who witnesses just about every bike I bring home to test, a collection that's included exotica like MVs and Ducatis, is rarely moved to give them more than a passing glance, but when I rolled up on the Intruder he just about tripped over his own front door as he rushed out to get a better look.

Ford Fusion SeL

This wasn't the Fusion we wanted. Its as-tested price was far too high, due mostly to its optional sunroof, nav system, andseveral other gratuitous gewgaws—all of which we tried to ignore. Still, if you specify just the five-speed automatic ($875), the sport-tuned suspension ($895), and the leather skins ($895), you'll wind up with a quite luxurious little sedan fetching just over 23 grand.

Dodge Avenger SXT

It may looklikea seven-eighths-scale Dodge Charger, but any other claim the Avenger may lay to its big brother's well-earned reputation is a stretch.
What most damages the Avenger is its 173-hp, 2.4-liter "world engine," built just down the road from us in Dundee, Michigan. It produces way too much racket—the noisiest in our group at full throttle and at 70-mph cruise. And the sound quality was alternately described as "walnuts in a Cui-sinart," "a weed whip with a loose spool," and "four shot wheel bearings,".

Toyota Camry LE

There's a scene in a Seinfeld episode in which George Costanza's father, played by Jerry Stiller, screams, "Serenity now!" He should have been driving a Camry.
This Toyota goes about its business with regal deliberation and narcotic tranquillity, offering the sort of ride you'd expect from a limousine. It was also the quietest at idle, and no other contestant was quieter at a 70-mph cruise. "An engine like a cage full of finches," wrote an editor.

Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid

Mention hybrid, and most people think of fuel misers, such as the 40-to-50-mpg Toyota Prius. But a hybrid pow-ertrain can save fuel in vehicles of any size, as demonstrated by this Chevrolet Tahoe, which represents the first example (along with the GMC Yukon and 2009 Cadillac Escalade) of hybrid technology applied to a large SUV. As such, it gets a big-time fuel-economy bump, but as a 5840-pound vehicle, it isn't—and can't be—a fuel miser by anyone's definition.

Vespa SS 180 Rebuild

ONE of the most iconic scooters of the 60s was the son of the legendary GS 160 - the SS 180. Ignore it you can't, with its brave new world styling of angular facets and the minor upset it caused with the Mod set of those days - they still wanted the GS! The arrival of the SS 180 is just about summed up with a quote from a Vespa enthusiast: "I think the SS180 is to scooter fans what Mick Jagger is to women - a bit ugly but somehow irresistible!"

Suzuki GSX-R750

It's a two-year-old model so what's it doing here? Can Suzuki's middle Gixxer match new contenders?
Try as the Honda and Triumph might, but there's no kicking sand in this reluctant bully's face. Even though the pair dance round the Tarmac track and take to the local roads like natives, the Suzuki feels like it can deliver a knockout blow at any point of its choosing.
But rather than the GSX-R750 feeling like a clumsy blunderbuss, blasting its way past its diminutive but daring rivals, the Suzuki somehow feels every bit as cultured as the Honda and ultimately delivers a kick that not even the Triumph can match.

Terminator 3 - Rise of The Machines

THERE are many reasons for producing a custom scooter. For many people, it's the desire to create an eye-catching machine to enter shows, or simply ride to rallies. For Russ Keating the idea was to create a custom scooter that would showcase his newly set up business, Custom Scooter Art. For anyone who hasn't seen Russ with his stall at a rally or event then Custom Scooter Art offer an alternative to both graphics or expensive spray jobs for your scooter. Instead, they wrap your scooter with vinyl that has been printed with the graphics/design of your choice. Hence the building of Terminator 3.

Vectrix The Electric

DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC BIKES ?
Electric bikes seem like they could be the answer to air pollution and disappearing oil reserves. But will we ever see an electric superbike to match the performance of current bikes? we will investigates the possibilities.

Honda CBR600RR

Since the original CBR600RR was released in 2003, Honda has boasted claims of kinship to its far-off relative, the RC21IV MotoGP racebike. Sure, the RR shared technologies with the purpose-made Grand Prix racer, like Unit Pro-Link suspension and such, but in reality, that's where the similarities stopped. The bike was overweight from its inception and was more street-focused than any other 600.

BMW R1200S

After a year's hiatus, BMW's sporty S-model Boxer returns to the company's lineup, leaner, meaner and with 85 more cc of displacement. It's the most powerful Boxer engine to date, cocooncd in the sportiest chassis ever to house a Bavarian flat-Twin. The result is an enticing package.

Mercedes-Benz GL Class

IT'S A FAMILY AFFAIR.
Last year, the Mercedes GL450 emerged as the most desirable luxo ute in a very desirable field. Facing an equally strong challenge for 2008, Mercedes responded by expanding the GL-class from aclass of one to afamily of three. For those who seek thrift and torque, there's the GL320 CDI turbo-diesel, an impressive powerplant that's currently creating compression-ignition converts in service with our long-term test fleet. And for those who find the GL450's 335 horsepower and 339 pound-feet of torque a bit too tame, there's the GL550, with a 5.5-liter V-8 generating 382 horsepower and 391 round-feet.

Honda CRF150R

Very soon, the time will come when kids grow up without ever riding a two-stroke motorcycle. With its new CRF150F, Honda has accelerated that timeframe by being the first to produce a race-ready four-stroke intended to replace its 85cc two-stroke motocross bike. The company is hoping this transition will take place as quickly as it did with the bigger Thumpers, which needed only a few years to take over the two-stroke market in most racing disciplines. For 2007. Honda is selling both the 150 and the CR85R but will drop all two-strokes in 2008.

Ducati 1098

When Ducati introduced its 999 in 2003, the bike's radical styling caused quite a stir. Certainly the sensually shaped 916, 996 and 998 models preceding it proved a very tough act to follow, and sales suffered as a result. But with the new 1098, which is fresh from the ground up, it's visually apparent that Ducati has a winner here.

Aprillia RST1000

LIVING WITH THE FUTURA
Comparing the Futura to other sports tourers isn't really fair, but will always happen as it shares many similar attributes with the likes of the mighty VFR800, and yet deep inside the Aprilia is a heart of a real sports machine. The chassis being little different to the Mille with just a few social niceties added to make life a shade more comfortable for long distance use and a beefier front end to improve stability.