Piper Tripacer Pacer on 2040-parts.com

AutoRama: Hot-rodding, chrome and speed return

Chop, drop and roll--that's the unofficial motto at AutoRama, the 57th-annual festival of hot rods and custom cars in Detroit. Chop--as in slice the roof off your speedster with some unnatural surgery to the A- and C-pillars. Drop--as in drop the biggest motor you can find under the hood.

One Lap of the Web: Diesels, Deadmau5, Excalibur and Excelsior!

-- It's the 50th anniversary of Excalibur, the company with fine craftsmen who keep the neoclassical motoring dream alive, or in some vaguely zombielike semblance thereof. And while the Excalibur's retro vibes arose from the mausoleum of the Mercedes-Benz SSK, Hemmings has discovered Brooks Stevens's other neoclassic: the Excalibur 35X, meant to look like a Bugatti Type 35. Just 27 were built in Italy on the chassis of Opel Commodores, fitted with inline-sixes.

Audi at the Paris motor show 2008

By Ben Whitworth Motor Shows 02 October 2008 16:52 Audi’s sparkling new A1 Sportback – a thinly camouflaged version of its 2010 A1 Mini-basher – as well as its frugal A4 Concept E and a rather large trophy were the highlights of Ingolstadt’s Parisian offerings this year. In essence this follows on from the Metroproject that Audi unveiled last year. Slightly bigger in five-door guise than the Mini, Audi is keen to play on the A1’s practicality as well as its aspirational qualities.