Etc : Car News And Reviews

These days, we take off-road vehicles for granted, but they’ve only been around for about 100 years. The earliest known off-roader was built as a custom job for Russia’s Czar Nicholas II who needed a vehicle that could handle difficult terrain.

While the official reveal of Koenigsegg’s upcoming One:1 is planned for the 2014 Geneva Motor Show, a couple of early pics have already leaked onto the Internet. Two images turned up on the Instagram account of one Quianyu Zhao, and they shows the showing off the lightweight, 1340 horsepower sports car being prepped for the show.

Here in the U.S. and in Europe, we take for granted the significant advancements in automotive safety which protect us from injuries or worse when in a crash.  While many automakers will jump to take credit for safety innovations, Mercedes-Benz engineer Béla Barényi was definitely a major force behind some of the most important car safety systems we find in cars today.

Ken Block’s rally racer was pretty much destroyed in a crash at the 2013 Lake Superior Performance Rally back in October. But it seems Hoonigan Racing and the rest of Block’s team are ready for the 2014 season and are returning with a new livery that’s sort of a black-and-white 8-bit tiger (covered in sponsor logos, of course).

Road America is one of the America’s great road courses with a long tradition of racing. Located in beautiful Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, the track is a popular destination not only for pro drivers but also amateurs who want to get out on a track and for racing fans.

Volvo has announced an innovative new technology that would allow a delivery service like FedEx, UPS, and your local grocery to make package deliveries straight to your vehicle instead of to your home or office. The appeal of the service is obvious since many times a delivery service won’t leave a package in an unsecured location.

In 1999, Chevrolet introduced the Chevrolet Nomad concept, a new direction for the Nomad wagon which Chevy had produced in various flavors on and off since 1955. This concept was built on a powerful F-body chassis (the same as used in the fourth-generation Camaro) and had a 5.7-liter V8 under the hood.

We’ve never been to Moscow, but this awesome time-accelerated video sure makes it look like a great place to drive – especially at night. Pascal Viola shot this mesmerizing short film using only a Nokia C7 smartphone and Adobe Premiere Elements 10, proving that you don’t need a budget to create an awesome video – just vision and talent.

Volvo Polestar Racing pulled the wraps off its 650hp V8 S60 in Sydney recently with a drive across the Sydney Harbour Bridge. We’ve already seen this awesome new Volvo V8 on the test bed and the car is equally impressive.

If we lived at the bottom of the hill on a country road someplace that got a lot of snow and ice, our first choice of winter vehicles would probably not be a Fiat 500. But that didn’t stop this guy from making that decision.

It seems as if every time a sports car gets announced, somebody out there decides that a shooting brake version would be a good idea. And while we’re not opposed to the mini-station-wagon format of these cars, we’re not quite sure the style works on everything you apply it to.

Have you ever wanted a classic car like a Cobra 427, a Ford GT40 or a Jaguar XK120? While you could spend hundreds of thousands on an original, a replica is a much better way to get into one without having to deplete your kids’ college fund.

Nissan has launched an innovative marketing campaign that uses Google Maps to show you how much better your daily commute would be if you drove a Nissan Rogue. By visiting The Detour and entering your home and work address (or whatever addresses you’d like, for that matter) you can zoom to work in your new Rogue while being entertained by the song stylings of M.I.A.

Richard Usher worked at RAC Auto Windscreens for many, many years and decided to take his savings and open his own racetrack. His baby, Blyton Park, is built on a former RAF air base and wasn’t simply built as a hobby, but as a viable business.

As everyone pretty much knows by now, there was a slight mishap during the opening ceremonies of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, which resulted in the failure of the Olympic rings to properly open. The fifth ring got stuck, so it looked like an asterisk.