Mack Master Manual Torque Limiting System Transmission 10.10 December 1980 Specs on 2040-parts.com

Transmissions gone wild!

If you've been car shopping recently, or just paying attention to Autoweek car reviews, you've noticed that the six-speed automatic -- de rigueur as recently as a year ago -- suddenly has ratio envy. The new hotness? Eight- and nine-speed automatic transmissions.

Electric car lease deals are better than ever

This may be the beginning of a golden age of affordable electric cars: There are now or will soon be three electric cars available in California leasing at $199 a month, one for $249 and one for $259 a month. They are all perfectly wonderful subcompact four and five-seaters, any one of which could fit nicely into your urban or suburban lifestyle. Where else are you going to find a car for $199 a month?

One Lap of the Web: Porsche at Le Mans, F-150 reclaims the flag and Foose talks classic rods

We spend a lot of time on the Internet -- pretty much whenever we're not driving, writing about or working on cars. Since there's more out there than we'd ever be able to cover, here's our daily digest of car stuff on the Web you may not otherwise have heard about. -- We covered the 24 Hours of Le Mans top to bottom including every make and class, but if your preferred marque is Porsche you might enjoy the Porsche Purist's look at how cars from Stuttgart fared during the endurance classic, complete with photos, stats and results.