Author: Car and Driver

The special-edition Mini that talks to you: It isn’t annoying, but it also isn’t cheap.

Watch the Video: 2010 Mini Cooper 50 Camden Edition – Video

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1. 2010 Mini Cooper Camden and Mayfair Debut, New Concept Generates Music to Match Driving Style
2. 2009 Mini Cooper John Cooper Works Convertible – Auto Shows
3. 2009 Mini Cooper / Cooper S Convertible

Got an iPad? You’ll want to download the interactive digital edition of Car and Driver, complete with in-story photo galleries and video. We’ve got a quick tour above for your viewing pleasure.

The Zinio app is available in the iTunes App Store.

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Hit play for an audio recording of a mystery car’s exhaust note, and then share your guesses or get a few hints from other visitors in the comments below. Be sure to check back on Thursday for the answer!

Related posts:

1. Name That Exhaust Note, Episode 8: Audi S8
2. Name That Exhaust Note, Episode 15: Ferrari F430
3. Name That Exhaust Note, Episode 16: Porsche Cayman S

Here’s an idea: Celebrate the collapse of Soviet Communism 20 years ago by driving a perfectly derelict Škoda to a thermo-nuke silo in the evil empire.

Watch the Video: Czech, Mate! Road Trip Through Eastern Europe in a Soviet-Era Škoda

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Ferrari-like Lexus hits 60 in 3.7 seconds. In other words, the LFA is PDQ.

Watch the Video: World Exclusive! 2012 Lexus LFA Tested – Video

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1. World Exclusive! 2012 Lexus LFA Tested – Short Take Road Test
2. 2012 Lexus LFA – Video
3. 2012 Lexus LFA Nürburgring Package – Car News

Hit play for an audio recording of a mystery car’s exhaust note, and then share your guesses or get a few hints from other visitors in the comments below. Be sure to check back on Thursday for the answer!

Related posts:

1. Name That Exhaust Note, Episode 8: Audi S8
2. Name That Exhaust Note, Episode 15: Ferrari F430
3. Name That Exhaust Note, Episode 16: Porsche Cayman S

Cinéma Vélocité: Provide your friends with undeniably convincing evidence that you’re every bit as smooth as Senna was.

Watch the Video: Do-It-Yourself (Car) Porn: Car-Mounted Video Cameras Tested – Video

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3. Top 10 Muscle Car Tests of 2009 – Video

Below is a timeline of the Toyota recall fiasco. In the (highly likely) event that there are more events, we’ll update this post.

For more about the recalls, see our roundup of information.

August 28, 2009 – A Lexus ES350 crashes at over 100 mph and bursts into flames, killing an off-duty California Highway Patrolman and three members of his family. The cause of the crash is determined to be a throttle that stuck open. At the time of the crash, the officer’s brother-in-law, a passenger in the car, is on the phone with police frantically reporting that the car won’t slow down.

September 29, 2009 – Toyota announces floor-mat “customer safety advisory,” saying the floor mats can become entangled with the accelerator and cause it to stick. The company advises people to remove the floor mats from their cars and says it will provide “safe” replacements.

November 25, 2009 – Toyota recalls 3.8 million vehicles for floor-mat issues. The company also announces that it will redesign its floor mats and install brake-override systems in its new cars. This functionality, standard across some automakers’ lines, cuts the throttle when the brake pedal is pressed. This is helpful for people afraid of what will happen if they press the brakes hard, but our instrumented testing proves that hard application of the brakes will overpower full throttle in pretty much any car, including a 540-hp supercharged Roush Stage 3 Mustang.

January 21, 2010 – Toyota announces recall for non-floor-mat-related accelerator-sticking issues. This covers millions of vehicles.

January 26, 2010 – Sales of models affected by the recall are suspended. Fear begins to simmer in the psyches of thousands of Toyota drivers.

January 27, 2010 – The recall is widened to include Toyota-built vehicles such as the Pontiac Vibe, which doesn’t need an official stoppage to not sell.

January 29, 2010 – The recall is further widened to include European models, none of which have been reported as suffering from any problems. Their ability to find the appropriate pedal and do more than panic in a moment of confusion is the firmest evidence yet that the average European driver is superior to their American counterpart.

February 1, 2010 – Toyota announces accelerator-pedal fix, which involves a shim inserted into the pedal assembly to prevent the throttle from becoming stuck open, and foolishly believes this will cap public paranoia.

February 3, 2010 – Transportation Secretary Ray McCarthy—er, LaHood—tells Americans that they should stop driving their Toyotas immediately. Nothing like a good, old-fashioned government freakout to throw people into a panic.

February 5, 2010 – Toyota president Akio Toyoda apologizes for the “problems,” bows deeply.

February 8, 2010 – Recalls for braking issues are extended to 2010 Prius and 2010 Lexus HS250h because of “inconsistent pedal feel” under braking on slick or uneven surfaces. More than 437,000 vehicles are involved, bringing the total to more than 8.5 million Toyotas recalled. We get apoplectic, readers accuse us of “kissing Toyota’s butt.” We direct those readers to any article we’ve ever written on a Toyota vehicle other than the RAV4.

February 12, 2010 – Toyota recalls Tacoma trucks for prop-shaft issues; mainstream media latches onto another “broken Toyota,” fails to notice the hundreds of thousands of vehicles recalled every year by every other automaker.

February 22, 2010 – A professor from a Podunk university looking to make a name for himself teams up with ABC News to dupe the populace into believing their Toyota has a ghost in the machine, a.k.a. an electronics glitch that can cause acceleration independent of pedal involvement. The process by which he rigged the car to accelerate is shown later by Toyota and a team of researchers from a real college—Stanford—to work on vehicles from virtually any maker.

February 24, 2010 – Toyoda testifies at his own witchhunt in Congress, apologizes again, and gets scolded. The whole thing is a circus sideshow with little to no value to the American public.

March 8, 2010 –A California man calls 911 from the freeway and reports that he can’t stop his Prius. California Highway Patrol is dispatched and coaches him to a stop. In the following weeks, neither Toyota nor NHTSA can reproduce any of the problems he reported, and Toyota says the car’s data logger shows the driver shifted from gas to brake multiple times during the incident. No one outright accuses the man of anything unsavory, and the cause of the incident remains a mystery.

March 9, 2010 – Some woman in New York drives her Prius through an intersection and plows into a wall. She blames unintended acceleration, but her car’s data logger shows she was on the gas the entire time and never pressed the brake.

March 24, 2010 – CNN bites on reports that Toyota knew about Camry accelerator problems in 2002, which turns out—surprise!—to be false. While it is true that there were complaints about surging acceleration, the occurrences were caused by the torque converter, were fixed with a simple recalibration, and, taking place solely between 38 and 42 mph, had absolutely nothing to do with sustained, uncontrollable acceleration.

Related posts:

1. Shift into Neutral, Dummy: The Toyota Recall Fiasco – Feature
2. Toyota Recall: Scandal, Media Circus, and Stupid Drivers – Editorial
3. Toyota Adds 1.1 Million Vehicles to Floor-Mat Recall, Now Includes Pontiac Vibe

A jumpin’ orange flash that needs no gas, gas, gas.

Watch the Video: 2010 Tesla Roadster Sport – Video

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1. 2010 Tesla Roadster Sport – Short Take Road Test
2. Tesla Adds Lease Program for Roadster and Roadster Sport
3. Name That Exhaust Note, Episode 30: 2010 Tesla Roadster Sport

On Tuesday, we posted an audio recording of a mystery car’s exhaust note. To hear it again, click play above. One person correctly guessed the engine, a Cummins turbo-diesel. That means it was installed in a Ram (né Dodge), specifically a 2010 Ram 3500 Heavy Duty Dualie.

Like it? Download the MP3 and quiz your friends, make your own ringtone, or just lull yourself to sleep with sweet, sweet diesel clatter and wind woosh.

2010 Ram 3500 Exhaust MP3 (Right-click to Save As…)

Related posts:

1. Name That Exhaust Note, Episode 18: 2010 BMW X5 M
2. Name That Exhaust Note, Episode 28: 2010 Audi R8 5.2
3. Name That Exhaust Note, Episode 12: 2010 Toyota Prius

Ford shows its base pony car some love and churns out a sweetheart.

Watch the Video: 2011 Ford Mustang V-6 – Video

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3. 2011 Ford Mustang GT – Video

The new 5.0 is one hell of an engine, and it’s installed in one hell of a car.

Watch the Video: 2011 Ford Mustang GT 5.0 – Video

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Adult rated, for sure. Ferrari’s 720-hp gentleman’s racer makes no sense. Except it will make the author and 29 rich guys go ecstatic. Which makes perfect sense.

Watch the Video: Ferrari 599XX – Video

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3. 2010 Audi R8 5.2 V10 FSI Quattro vs. 2009 Ferrari 430 Scuderia – Video

You read that headline right—if you’ve got what we’re looking for, you can work for Car and Driver, the definitive voice in automotive journalism. We’re looking for a Senior Online Editor, and the specifics of the position can be found below. Please submit a cover letter, resume, and raw (as submitted) writing samples to [email protected].

Senior Online Editor

Senior editors report to the executive online editor and help set our voice and tone through their writing, editing, and guidance. The position requires strong attention to detail, the ability to work with multiple business units within our organization, and a track record of success with personnel management and handling simultaneous projects.

Responsibilities include:

· Evaluate vehicles and write reviews

· Assign stories to freelancers and staff writers

· Edit stories for voice, content, and house style

· Manage editorial calendars and story placements based on empirical data

· Contribute story and website feature ideas

· Work with other company business units to implement visitor experience improvements

· Act as deputy manager when other managers are out of the office

Qualifications include:

· 3-5 years of professional writing and editing or related experience

· Ability to write clean, well organized copy under tight deadlines

· Strong organization, self-motivation, and communication

· A passion for cars

· Encyclopedic knowledge of modern vehicles

· A degree in mechanical engineering, automotive industry experience, and copy editing experience are desired but not required

Positions are based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Car and Driver Magazine and CARandDRIVER.com are part of Hachette Filipacchi Media, U.S., a media leader in five sectors: automotive, fashion, shelter, women and health, and enthusiasts. Our organization offers a competitive salary, comprehensive benefits package, and opportunity for advancement. Please submit a cover letter, resume, and raw (as submitted) writing samples to [email protected]. We will only contact those candidates whose experience matches our needs. EOE.

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On Tuesday, we posted an audio recording of a mystery car’s exhaust note. To hear it again, click play above. Plenty of you guessed the car correctly, right down to the transmission (one of you even guessed the correct number of doors!). The car in question was the 2010 Volkswagen GTI 3-door DSG that we just reviewed.

Like it? What VW freak wouldn’t? Download the MP3 and quiz your friends, make your own ringtone, or just lull yourself to sleep with sweet, sweet vehicular ear candy.

2010 Volkswagen GTI DSG Exhaust MP3 (Right-click to Save As…)

Related posts:

1. 2010 Volkswagen GTI 3-Door DSG – Short Take Road Test
2. Name That Exhaust Note, Episode 18: 2010 BMW X5 M
3. Name That Exhaust Note, Episode 28: 2010 Audi R8 5.2

We’ve polled our office for an upcoming feature story on 10 cars to drive before you die, and our list is set. Now we want to know what you have to say. What cars do you think someone has to drive before they die? They can’t be just anything. We used two criteria to narrow our choices: It has to be something that wholly embodies an era or a certain type of car, or a vehicle that provides a singular, mind-blowing experience unmatched anywhere else in the automotive universe. Beyond that, anything goes, as long as it’s a production car. New or old, cheap or out-of-your-mind expensive, sold in the U.S. or never available here.

Post your nominees in the comments below, and you’d better explain why you think a car should make the cut. You don’t need to choose 10, and you don’t need to have driven them—or pretend you have. The top vote-getter between here and our Facebook page will make the honored 11th spot on the list. Now, get crackin’.

Update: Voting is closed. Check out the story here.

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On Tuesday, we posted an audio recording of a mystery car’s exhaust note. To hear it again, click play above. We received the most varied responses of any NTEN yet—and still no one even came close. It was, in fact, our long-term 2009 Infiniti FX50S.

Like it? Download the MP3 and quiz your friends, make your own ringtone, or just lull yourself to sleep with sweet, sweet vehicular ear candy.

2009 Infiniti FX50S Exhaust MP3 (Right-click to Save As…)

Related posts:

1. 2009 Infiniti FX50S: Making a Connection [Long-Term Logbook]
2. 2009 Infiniti FX50S: Alphabet Soup [Long-Term Logbook]
3. Name That Exhaust Note, Episode 5: 2009 Honda Civic Si