The only thing I notice that I don’t really like about the car (other than it’s sticker price, though it does sound reasonable for what you get) is that it shows it with a “Hybrid Synergy Drive” which if I’m not mistaken is Toyota’s take on CVT. Personally I find it hard to buy something quick that doesn’t have a stick shift…

Being someone who drives a smaller car than the average American, I’m looking forward to a shift to smaller, more fuel efficent vehicles in the US. I just can’t justify a large vehicle for that 2-3 instances a year that I need one, and I like the intimacy of the drive you get with a smaller car. Even better will be when Denver has the whole new FasTracks plan implemented, but it’s strange to think that I’ll be 40 or so before that’s done..

To give you an idea about how fast this is, I have never heard of anything faster which is still able to be driven on the street, and in fact this car would make most “trailer queens” at the track look silly. A 10 second street car is rare, 9 second track only “door slammer” at an amateur level is almost unheard of, and by comparison 7 seconds just insane by someone without any major sponsorship, etc, much less it being still able to drive on the street.

Anyhow, here are some photos I took of some sort of test mule SUV. I can’t really tell what it is… some sort of Range Rover or Land Rover I’d say?

If for some reason you’d like the rights to publish these (I have the originals of course), feel free to contact me to discuss.

I wonder if they will offer some sort of Eleanor package too? Yum.

Tucson drivers should prepare to pay $2 per gallon for regular gasoline this summer, the AAA travel club warned on Monday.

That price would break the previous record high in Pima County, about $1.85 per gallon, which was established last year during the first week of war in Iraq, said Yvette Ortiz Lopez, spokeswoman for the AAA in Tucson.

“Seeing how far and how fast gas prices are going up,” Lopez said, “we can pretty much put a finger on it and warn motorists that prices are going to hit $2.”

Looks like it might be time to find out where my local Faggio dealer is.

Competition never rests, so neither can the Polyphony team. At this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (aka E3), Kazunori blew away a field of multimarque challengers, including Sega GT Online and Project Gotham Racing 2, by announcing his GT4 plans: more than 500 cars and 50 tracks. Game Over…

No mere GT3 update, GT4 is reengineered to the core with a fresh physics engine, enhanced graphics, new game features, and painstaking attention to detail. Developing such a large-scale game has sent members of the 70-person staff around the globe to obtain the data and images necessary to recreate the cars and tracks with greater specifics than had been previously demonstrated.

Amazing! Read all of the juicy “Under the hood of Gran Turismo 4” and “Behind the scenes of Gran Turismo 4” details for yourself.

Big Red takes this hard-working vehicle a step further with a customized, removable pickup bed mounted on the International 7300 chassis frame rails. With a Class 7 GVW rating, Big Red can carry 27,000 lbs on two axles and up to 70,000 lbs with a trailer, or only 10,000 lbs less than a Class 8 vehicle. Big Red’s steering axle is rated at 10,000 pounds, while the rear axle is rated at 17,000 pounds. As beefed up as it is, Big Red’s 7300 Series chassis also can be toned down — customers can spec a 25,999-lb GVW with an 80,000-psi rail that permits smaller weight-rated axles.

If I recall correctly, you need a CDL to operate one. Hopefully this ends-up in the hands of the right people and not yet another “mine is bigger than yours” tool for the Hummer type crowd.