Gabriel Air Shocks/front Shocks 74-75-76-77-78 Chrysler New Yorker/newport on 2040-parts.com

Rare foreign cars head to Carlisle this weekend

Every spring, Carlisle, Pa., (otherwise known as the Woodstock of the classic-car hobby, a title it now fully shares with Hershey) hosts a weekend event just for foreign cars. Last year, over 1,000 cars gathered in central Pennsylvania, with rare foreign machinery making its way from all over the lower 50 and parts of Canada. The longest-traveled cars we spotted last year wore British Columbia plates, which should give you a clue as to the event's following, though we're still unsure which cars we spent the longest time gawking at.

Red Bull race in L.A. draws 111,000

No one really knows the precise makeup of the stuff that fills those ubiquitous Red Bull energy drink cans, but the compelling mixture seems to make people accomplish extraordinary things. For instance, on Saturday in Los Angeles, it got the city to shut down a long stretch of Grand Avenue and part of 5th Street for the wacky and spectacular Red Bull Soapbox Race Los Angeles. These events have been held regularly since the inaugural race in Belgium in 2000.

2012 Volkswagen Beetle to launch with Black Turbo edition

Volkswagen is borrowing a page from sister company Porsche and will turn to the color black to sex up the soon-to-arrive 2012 VW Beetle--and to draw attention to a preorder program launching this year. The Beetle Black Turbo edition follows in the lineage of Porsche 911s augmented with Black editions, and the VW will sticker for $25,720, including shipping. Power comes from a 2.0-liter four-cylinder rated at 200 hp and 207 lb-ft of torque, which is the same as the regular turbo Beetle--and VW's hot hatch, the GTI.