Categories: Aftermarket

As if automakers aren't installing enough dubious technology into their offerings, Microsoft decided to get in the game. The technology company that millions of Americans rarely go a day without commissioned help from West Coast Customs in building a very special Mustang.

Microsoft has codenamed the car "Project Detroit," and West Coast Customs calls it the Micro-Stang. Whatever you want to call it, this is one serious tune.

The 1950s Mercedes-Benz 300 SL “Gullwing” has one of the most beautiful bodies in the world, automotive or otherwise. Between 1954 and 1957, only 1400 of these curvy creations were built—1,371 in steel, 29 in aluminum—ensuring that they’d forever be a hot (read: EXPENSIVE) commodity.

Values have been rising rapidly to an “average” of nearly $1M. One—an alloy-bodied 1955 model—set a world record at auction in January with a winning bid of $4.62 million. It’s clear, then, that there’s a market out there for 300 SL replicas. Problem is, as Mercedes-Benz puts it, “The body shape of the legendary gullwing model has been trademarked by Daimler AG.”

So what happens when M-B finds out you’ve been violating said trademark? Bad things. Bad for you and VERY bad for the car.

Reader discretion is advised…

If you're ever looking for a gift for that difficult-to-buy-for car fanatic in your life, you should note that most supercar makers have a line of lifestyle products, typically aimed at men. Sometimes they design these in house, as is the case with Porsche Design, and sometimes they license their brand name to other high-end manufacturers. It's kind of a cool way that the average guy can 'own' a Lamborgini, Ferrari, Aston Martin, and on and on.

The latest products to slide into our awareness are a pair of hair clippers and a blow dryer from Ferrari. The clippers will cost you a lot more than the Wahl kit you can buy at Walmart, but a whole lot less than an actual Ferrari.

It takes a special kind of person to see nature’s most useful vehicle and—for whatever reason—convert it into something like the “trucks” you see here. Were these vehicles’ owner/builders overcompensating for something? Were they convinced that gasoline has a shelf life such that if they didn’t burn it all as fast as possible that it’d “go bad”?

You can (presumably) put these questions—and any others that might come from you reading about these rigs in a second—to said owner/builders directly at Mecum Auction’s Kansas City, MO, sale, March 29-31.

Just make sure you’re “diplomatic” about the whole thing. The kind of mind it takes to create something like one of these probably won’t cotton to dealing with your brand of humor. At all. Trust me on this one…

New research reveals that car owners are eeking out every last mile of their vehicles. The record-breaking levels of car ownership duration are the result of both poor economic conditions and better-built cars.

According to a recent study by market research firm Polk, the average length of US vehicle ownership has risen to a record 71.4 months - just shy of six years (72 months). That figure relates to vehicles that were purchased as new. Ownership for used vehicles averages 49.9 months. Together, the average length of ownership for new and used vehicles is 57 months. That's an increase of 23 percent since the third quarter of 2008, a time period that equates to the economic downturn.

Ahhhh....Jay Leno. We may not love your late-night comedy, but we love your garage and videos thereof. Not only do you bring us up close and personal with the most awesome supercars and concept cars, but you switch gears and give us a look at what's probably the coolest Jeep of the year. Hat tip to you. In the latest episode of Jay Leno's Garage, we get a look at a shiny red Jeep Wrangler Unlimited all decked out in Mopar's JK-8 pickup kit.

The JK-8 featured in the video is a model that was assembled by VWerks, a third-party company that assembles JK-8 kits for Chrysler/Mopar, for Red Jacket Firearms, the Louisiana gun company featured on Discovery's Sons of Guns. More extensive than the average JK-8, the Red Jacket model features a lift kit, rock rails, fenders, a winch and other upgrades over the base kit.

It's taken us a while to think of the Nissan in the same way as more traditional sports and supercar legends like Ferrari, Porsche and Lamborghini. But ever since it debuted, the Nissan GT-R has done nothing but kick ass, providing more performance for the price than any car we can think of.

Thinking of the Nissan Juke small crossover in the same way we do the GT-R is going to take even more time and effort. But this new video gets us off to a solid start.

The video was released in support of the Juke R's role as the pace car for the 24 Hours of Dubai rally race, which took place last month. It pits the Juke R against such flashy supercars as the Lamborghini Gallardo, Mercedes SLS AMG and Ferrari 458 Italia.

Pop quiz, what is the single most unlikely car to make an athletic showing on your local drag strip? Aside from a Smart, the third generation Toyota Corolla is probably the next worst option. But not in Australia, the land of recent Frankenstein-like mechanical recreations, this particular Corolla laid waste to the expectations of challengers and onlookers.

Such is the Tao of a true sleeper.

From the outside, the vehicle looks like an off white, straight from the dealership, people hauler which offers no indication of the devious threat lurking within. Upon further inspection, however, viewers might pick up subtle cues of hidden glory – small slicks appear menacingly cute on the vehicle’s rear wheels and few could miss the open hostility of a whining turbo.

To see the Corolla’s full aspect, one must venture further, beneath the confines of the vehicle’s outer shell.

Look quickly at the car above and you might think you're looking at the Juke Nismo concept from last month's Tokyo Motor Show. However, it's January not December; it's the Tokyo Auto Salon not the Tokyo Motor Show; and it's a new Nismo Micra concept not the Nismo Juke.

Nissan appears to be quite serious about putting that new headquarters to work and letting Nismo build more models. Within a little over a month, we've seen a Juke Nismo, Leaf Nismo and now a Micra Nismo. Soon, we'll stop asking which Nissan models will get Nismo versions and start asking which Nissan models won't be wrung through Nismo's Yokohama plant.

Typically a car as weird as a 485-hp small crossover is something that you'd only be able to find from a tuning house. In the case of the Nissan Juke R, though, it was actually Nissan that thought the concept up. Not surprisingly, the Juke R is inspiring tuners to create their own suped-up versions of the Juke.

Even tuners known for extreme automobiles weren't quite twisted enough to think about dropping Nissan's GT-R powertrain into a Juke. But after seeing Nissan do it step by step, they're inspired enough to try something similar.

Need to be entertained in the dwindling hours of work? Smartphone app. Need directions to the bar where your co-workers are gathering for happy hour? Smartphone app. Need to make sure that combination of light appetizers and cheap drinks didn't leave you too inebriated to drive? Smartphone app.

A new smartphone app called BreathalEyes gives you an approximation of your blood alcohol level to prevent you from getting behind the wheel.