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Driving Toyota's Pro/Celebrity Scion FR-S race cars

At the Streets of Willow Springs, there's a back straightaway that crests over a downhill and into a series of sudden, unsettling left turns. It's one of the most dramatic parts of the track, one that always trips up timid run groups. And as it turns out, heading blindly at 90 miles per hour, skimming the cones of the artificial chicane normally designed to slow lesser drivers who aren't Formula Drift prodigy Ken Gushi, will really put the fear of mortality into anyone who's signed up to ride shotgun -- especially when the car is the brand-new Scion FR-S race car for Toyota's Pro/Celebrity Race Series, here on its first outing.

1984 Ford Mustang SVO: American metal, European performance

If the 1978 Ford Mustang King Cobra II isn't quite your thing, why not give the 1984 Ford Mustang SVO a try? In the Jan. 3, 1983, issue of Autoweek, we previewed a different take on the pony car -- one that promised "visual subtlety with unsubtle performance." Built on the Fox platform, the Mustang SVO (for "Special Vehicle Operations") wasn't supposed to be a flashy package for the wannabe racer -- it was designed from the ground up to be a balanced road car, "a state-of-the-art performance vehicle for the absolutely no-compromises performance buyer." And when we say "ground up," we mean it.

The scramble for scarce tires

North American automakers are struggling with a nagging shortage of tires, caused in part by tire plant closings and rising demand for low-volume specialty tires. Automakers are paying much higher prices -- double-digit percentage increases from a year ago -- as tire makers gain pricing power. "We have been bombarded from every side for additional tires, and we can't keep up," said David O'Donnell, Continental Tire's vice president of original equipment in the Americas.