Arias Pistons 12.5:1 Compression 82mm Bore Honda B-series on 2040-parts.com

Secrets of bidders: Is this your year to steal a car at the Arizona auctions?

Each January, enthusiasts flock to Arizona for the most exciting events on the auction calendar. Seven companies--Barrett-Jackson, RM Auctions, Gooding & Co., Russo and Steele, Kruse International, ICA Auctions and Silver Auctions--will duke it out, with more than 3,000 collector cars on the block. But with real estate tanking, the economy in a tailspin, consumer confidence at an all-time low, retail car sales bottoming and automakers begging for loans in Washing-ton, is this any time to buy an old car at auction?

First look: 2014 BMW M3 and M4

The BMW M3 is back, faster and more powerful than ever before -- but only as a four-door sedan. For its iconic 3-series-based performance model, BMW will dispense with a 26-year tradition of high-revving naturally aspirated engines in lieu of turbocharged six-cylinder power. Revealed here in production-car guise for the first time, the new 425-hp M3 sedan will be joined at the outset by its sister model, the M4 -- a mechanically identical but stylistically sleeker two-door coupe previewed in lightly veiled concept-car form at the Pebble Beach concours in California last August.

New Porsche Panamera GTS takes to the track (video)

New Porsche Panamera GTS takes to the track The new Porsche Panamera GTS is the latest Panamera variant to arrive – the ninth Panamera, no less – and is, as all Porsche GTS models are, a harder-edged take on the more mainstream variants. With its naturally aspirated 4.8 litre V8 producing 425bhp, and pushing those horses through a PDK ‘box to all four wheels, the Panamera can scoot to 62mph in a very respectable 4.5 seconds on its way to a top speed of 179mph. Not bad for a big saloon car that eschews forced induction and can carry proper-sized passengers in comfort.