NHTSA probes Grand Cherokee fires

U.S. auto safety regulators are investigating the 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee SUV after complaints about fires inside the car. In a filing Monday, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it has received three reports of fires in the headliner of the SUV near the passenger-side sun visor.

John Hennessey unwinds modified Chevy SS

Perhaps it's not as impressive as John Hennessey's recent 200mph blast down Houston's new Grand Parkway in a warmed-up Stingray, but we figured we'd show you his latest run down the same road in a Chevrolet SS equipped with his company's HPE600 Supercharged package. Thanks to GM's engineers, the four-door hits its top speed of 163 in 5th, rather than 6th, but what impressed us the most was watching the numbers climb on the VBOX — the car pulls John-Bonham-hard all the way up to its top speed. Hennessey hasn't released details of the mods performed on the SS yet, but we're anxious to see what this anodyne-looking monster will do on the top end once the gearing nag's sent off to the glue factory.

Terrafugia's next flying car to be a tiltrotor?

It took Bell, Boeing and the United States military decades to get the V-22 Osprey from idea to deployable platform. But with one flying car in the final stages of development, Terrafugia's looking to the military tiltrotor for inspiration. With their Transition model slated to begin deliveries in 2015 or 2016, Terrafugia's TF-X has hit the drawing board.