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General Motors to keep green car technology in house

For the first time in its 100-year history, General Motors plans to design, develop and manufacture electric motors for its growing array of gasoline-electric hybrids and electric vehicles. The electric motors used in GM's current lineup of hybrids are made to GM specifications by outside vendors. GM wants to bring the design and manufacturing in-house to save money and to apply its own technology to boost performance, lower weight and reduce power consumption, said Larry Nitz, GM's chief hybrid powertrain engineer.

Mercedes C 63 AMG Coupé drifting at Laguna Seca (Video)

Mercedes C 63 AMG Coupé drifting at Laguna Seca To celebrate 2 million views on their YouTube Channel, AMG has taken a C 63 AMG Coupe for a bit of a blat round the Corkscrew at Laguna Seca. Car makers are slowly waking up to the joys of the Interweb as a way to promote their wares, and they’re all busy feeding their Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and YouTube channels with new content to keep fans amused. It’s never exactly the most unbiased content so it often needs taking with a pinch of Maldon’s finest, but YouTube, in particular, gives car makers the chance to showcase their cars in action, and if they can do that and makes ‘fans’ feel a part of it, so much the better.

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.