Art Center Summit 2009

The Art Center Summit, now in its third year, has finally seen the rest of the world catch up with its preoccupations. Initially conceived in 2006-07 to bring government, academic, and business leaders to Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA, to discuss issues related to mobility and sustainability, the summit has benefited from the financial turmoil that has recently gripped the world. Previously, the event was highly speculative and appealed mainly to designers working in the advanced mobility community; this year, the summit occurred against a backdrop of meltdown in the US auto industry, chaos in the global financial sector, and a growing realization - supported by the incoming Obama administration - that energy and transportation policy will form a key part of a Green future.

Travis Pastrana canes the Global RallyCross Dodge Dart: Video

While Erik Carlsson showed the world that lunacy had an appropriate place in rallying—they didn't call him "Carlsson on the Roof" for nothing—it took Ken Block's marketing savvy and the paste-it-anywhere-and-watch ubiquity of YouTube to get a broad swath of American kids amped on the antic fun that can be had with an all-terrain compact car. In a bid to get that same group excited about the new Dodge Dart, Chrysler enlisted Travis Pastrana to pilot its Global RallyCross entry. And in a sort of low-budget, less-elaborate version of Block's wacky-upon-zany Gymkhana videos, Pastrana puts the Dart through its paces, losing the passenger-side rear corner of the bodywork in the process.

Rare Porsches--even a tractor--gather in Illinois for annual event

It's not often that Americans see more than a couple dozen Porsches in one spot at the same time. But those who make it to the annual Porsche Club of America Parade in St. Charles, Ill., can wander among seven hundred Porsches of all ages--even a tractor--from the United States and Canada.