BY ERIK JOHNSON, PHOTOGRAPHY BY JORDAN BROWN AND THE MANUFACTURER

The difference between paper and pavement is staggering.

Sixty mph in 4.8 seconds. A quarter-mile time of 13.6 seconds at 102 mph. Braking from 70 mph to a stop in 162 feet. On paper, it looks like this test subject is a mildly interesting performance car with an above-average ability to go and a somewhat ordinary ability to stop.

On pavement? Oh, on pavement the whole script flips. It isn’t until you whirl the wheel of the car to which those numbers are attached that you realize what an incredible machine you’re piloting. It amazes like a Dwyane Wade drive to the hole; nothing should be able to move the way it does. It is, in short, breathtaking. (more…)

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BY STEVE SILER, PHOTOGRAPHY BY MORGAN J. SEGAL

The quickest BMW you can get that doesn’t start with an M (until the 135i arrives, that is).

It used to be easy to write about the BMW 3-series. For the most part, we knew what we were gonna say before we ever got in the car. On the other hand, there were nuances about the character of the car that were extremely hard to put into words to convey just how good these cars feel. But we’d try, and it usually came out in the form of unbridled praise for perfect steering, elegant interior simplicity, and a brilliant ride-and-handling balance.

Maybe BMW got bored of hearing the same thing over and over again, because suddenly we had to come up with new words to describe the 3: controversially styled, technologically overwrought, and now this: quicker with the automatic. (more…)

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BY PATRICK BEDARD, PHOTOGRAPHY BY BILL DELANEY

Resort Wear: We suffer balmy days and soft breezes, not to mention mussed hair, to shake out three value-priced convertibles.

ust in time for those lazy, hazy days of summer, a comparison of convertibles that don’t break the bank. (more…)

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BY JARED GALL, PHOTOGRAPHY BY MIKE VALENTE

Peugeot’s first-ever SUV comes from the unlikely pairing of Peugeot-Citroen and Mitsubishi.

Perhaps inspired by the mountain vistas surrounding the Geneva show, Peugeot is going soft-roading with its first-ever sport-utility vehicle, the 4007. Based on the Mitsubishi Outlander, the 4007 retains most of the look of that trucklet from the A-pillar back, but with a Peugeot face planted between the Outlander’s bulging, flared fenders. (more…)

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BY RAY HUTTON, PHOTOGRAPHY BY MIKE VALENTE

This bizarre creation has a carbon-fiber chassis with cycle fenders, 720 hp, and wood paneling. It can be yours for a mere three-quarters of a million dollars.

How do you fancy spending three-quarters of a million dollars on a tandem-seat road car which is tailored to your specification, which means fixing the seat and pedal positions to your personal dimensions? (more…)

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BY NICK KURCZEWSKI

Chinese cars are now on sale in Europe, so we go for broke and try one at top speed on a German autobahn.

Yes, Chinese cars are coming to the U.S. The catch is that no one, not even the Chinese car manufacturers themselves, can provide a clear answer as to when and how. But we wanted to see how a Chinese car fares on real roads”and we wanted to know right now. (more…)

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BY JOHN PHILLIPS, PHOTOGRAPHY BY JEFFREY G. RUSSELL

A really big bang for the bucks.

Like the Tucson and Santa Fe before it, Hyundai’s third crossover SUV”and easily its largest”is named after a sunny tourist destination. In this case, the Mexican state of Veracruz on the Gulf of Mexico, a region renowned for umbrella drinks and for depleting the wallets of bleary-eyed Americans. (more…)

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BY TONY QUIROGA

A 425-hp kit car that might be worth insane money.

This one is hard to believe. Here we have a kit car that is livable, refined, stupid fast, and just might possibly be worth nearly six figures. For sure, that’s an insane amount of money to spend on a car that requires lengthy explanations at every stop, but dealing with a curious public turns out to be the most trying part of the Noble experience. (more…)

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Dodge’s entry-level vehicle offers all-wheel drive, but the Caliber isn’t all that good.

Forget about any Dr. Evil“esque puns. For starters, the Dodge Caliber isn’t nearly as pretty as a fembot. The look, echoed by Dodge’s anything but cute advertising tagline, is a purposeful departure from the Caliber’s predecessor, the bug-eyed Neon. Moreover, the last Caliber we tested finished sixth out of seven in our May 2006 comparison test of $15,000 entry-level cars. (more…)

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BY DAVE VANDERWERP

Lotus addresses the Exige’s biggest flaw by adding a supercharger. Its organic responses were already among the best, so how sweet is it now?

The Exige is a very strange car. Almost no other four-wheeled anything produces such polar-opposite responses from our staff as does the Exige, which is essentially a more-track-ready version of the already extreme Elise that Lotus brought to market last year. An announcement of an Exige purchase could be met with anything from a jealous congratulation to a sour, scrunched-up face that could be confused with the reaction given a Buick Lucerne. (more…)

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