VW Vortex - EuroSport Post about stolen 1975 Yellow Rabbit

Cheers-

We introduced you some of the weirdest aircraft of the 20th century before, but now it's time to talk about Earth's fleets of flying saucers. Check out these vehicles and concepts that show how we've been building UFOs all along.

VZ-9 Avrocar, a VTOL aircraft developed by the Canadian Avro Aircraft, introduced in 1958

Only two of them were built for the U.S. Army. It had serious stability problems and the project was cancelled in September 1961.

(via Bzuk 1 - 2 - 3 and Alvintrusty)

A patent for a ferris wheel-like flying machine by Friedrich Alexander Jone, June 14, 1898

(via Google Patents No. 605,579)

The Umbrella Plane or the McCormick-Romme plane, 1911

The famous aircraft builder Chance Vought built the first ever disc-form aircraft, the umbrellaplane, in 1911. It flew several times at Chicago's Cicero Field, according to contemporary sources.

(via The Airodrome Forum and Lincoln Beachey)

Nemeth Circle Aircraft or Roundwing, 1934

The aircraft with a circular wing on top of the fuselage was designed by an aeronautical engineer named Stephen Paul Nemeth.

(via Flickr/Kitchener Lord and Modern Mechanics/June 1934)

Vought-Zimmerman V-173, the "Flying Pancake", designed by Charles H. Zimmerman for the US Navy during WWII

The first flight was on 23 November 1942, and it had almost 200 more (in 131.8 hours) to 31 March 1947, when the experimental test aircraft was retired.

(via San Diego Air & Space Museum Archives, US Navy, Fiddlers Green and Space.com)

Sack AS-6, the Luftwaffe's only flying saucer, designed by Arthur Sack, 1944

Most of the parts came from a wrecked Messerschmitt Bf 109b and the engine from a Messerschmitt Bf 108. After some unsuccessful takeoff runs in 1944, the AS-6 was broken up to salvage the wood.

(via Luft46)

The Northrop NS-97 concept, designed by Nick Stasinos, 1950

(via Unconventional Space and Plattsburgh Press Republican, November 28, 1950)

Couzinet RC360 Aerodyne, by the French designer René Couzinet, 1952

(via Laesieworks)

Avro Project 1794, 1956

You can read the 117-page declassified document about the concept here.

(via National Declassification Center/PDF)

Saucer-Shaped Aircraft, invented by Constantin P. Lent, 1957

(via Google Patents/US 2801058)

Avro Weapons Systems 606A (WS-606A), late 1950s

(via hitechweb)

A Patent of a Fluid Sustained Aircraft, by Leonor Zalles Freeland, 1963

(via Google Patents/US 3072366)

The Dynafan by the Astro Kinetics Corporation, 1963

(via Popular Mechanics, July 1963 and xplanes)

The British Rail flying saucer, designed by Charles Osmond Frederick, patented in 1970, granted in 1973

The inventor wanted to use this saucer as a large passenger craft for interplanetary travel. It was to be powered by controlled thermonuclear fusion reaction, using laser beams.

(via Retronaut)

The Russian Flying Saucer, the EKIP or Tarielka, a series of experimental Soviet aircrafts built by Lev Nikolaevich Schukin between 1978 and 1996

The first tests were successful, but after the fall of the Soviet Union the funding of the project was stopped. Schukin and few other scientists could continue the project until 1996, when it was finally ended.

A 300 ton version could carrying 100 tons of passengers and cargo, according to Schukin.

(via Laesieworks)

The Thermoplan, under development in Russia since the late 1980s

The main section is filled with helium, and the other is filled with air that can be heated or cooled.

The project was cancelled in the 1990s, but it was revived by the company Lokomosky under the name Locomoskyner.

(via Lokomosky)

Disc-Shaped Submersible Aircraft, patented by Gennady Ploshkin, 1997

(via Google Patents/US 5653404)

The unmanned Fenstar 50, by the British firm GFS (Geoff's Flying Saucers), 2002

It has an internal combustion engine and works by blowing air over its top.

(via Aviation Week)

Moller M200X, M200G Volantor (recently renamed to M200 Neuera), designed by Paul Moller

The M200 Neuera uses eight computer-controlled fans to hover up to 10 ft (3 m ) above the ground. Moller is attempting to build a successful flying car since 1974.

(via Roswell UFO Museum and Moller)

Welcome to Must Read, where we single out the best stories from around the automotive universe and beyond. Today we've got reports from Co.DESIGN, The Truth About Cars, and Octane.

How Cadillac Designed A Comeback – Fast Company Co.Design

I'm heavily quoted in this article about Caddy's comeback, which focuses on design and provides a deeper look at how aesthetics played into their reversal of fortunes. Also. CHIMSL. Let this be a guide to Lincoln.

Legend has it, GM execs met in an informal meeting sometime around 2000 or 2001 to discuss Cadillac’s future, and from this, they planned a reboot fueled by $4.3 billion in investments to save the brand. Maybe it really was one meeting. Maybe it was a series of meetings. The people I speak to at Cadillac don’t seem to know, and they honestly don’t seem to care.

Of Miatas And Men: A Father’s Day Story – The Truth About Cars

Derek, who apparently reached his adult height at age 3, provides a sweet description of how his father supported his early car nerd tendencies.

I still don’t know what compelled me to make my Dad come out to his office every single weekend. I know that as a child, I had was obsessed with collecting car brochures. I had to get a new one each week, and Honda had a big rack of brochures in the lobby, where visitors waited. What better place to get my fix. Like a real junkie, the initial rush had to be fed perpetually, and soon the brochures from the rack weren’t enough.

Ferrari 333SP – OCTANE

The subhead breaks it all down: The F50 was an F1 car for the road. So, what about turning an F1 car into a sports racer? Enter the 333SP.

Except the classic sports-prototype wasn’t done just yet. Witness the Ferrari 333SP with its 3997cc F1-derived V12. The Scuderia had pulled out of frontline sports car racing back in 1973, and it was left to adapted road cars to make up the numbers into the early ’80s – and then nothing. However, following protracted lobbying, Ferrari bowed to pressure and created this fabulous machine with a little help from a few friends such as designer/constructor Gian Paolo Dallara and Tony Southgate, whose resumé included F1, Indy 500 and Le Mans winners. At a stroke, the 333SP lent credibility to the new-for-1994 IMSA WSC category, but it would also go on to do rather well in Europe.

If punk rock and tire smoke is your thing (it sure as hell is mine), this video is perfect for you.

If you like engines that sound like evil vacuum cleaners sucking out your soul, this video is perfect for you.

If you like nature but think it could use more drift cars, you can't really do better.

What's better than a massive MotorWeek comparison test? A massive MotorWeek comparison test involving high-performance cars from the early 1990s, including the Supra, RX-7 and Corvette, that's what!

Reach back to one of our favorite eras in performance as John Davis and the MW crew put the Toyota Supra, the Nissan 300ZX, the Porsche 968, the Mazda RX-7, the Dodge Stealth R/T (a Mitsubishi 3000GT in a cowboy hat, basically) and the Chevrolet Corvette through their paces.

Turbos! Airbags! Bland interiors! Absurd price tags! What a wonderful era for performance cars. Which one would you take home?

MotorWeek Theater is our showcase of some of our favorite classic reviews from public television's finest motoring program. How does this video only have 12,628 views on YouTube? It's a sports car-palooza!

Jalopnik got a hold of some juicy details on Top Gear's next season and lemme just tell ya: it's gonna be awesome. There will be yacht races, taxi races, a new reasonably priced car, and tons of supercars all premiering on June 30th.

Here are some highlights of next season, courtesy of our secret source... Topgear.com. Warning, spoilers ahead.

• In typical Top Gear fashion, the three geniuses decide to show off Britain's economic superiority over another nation. Britain ain't doin' so hot financially, but Spain's way worse off. To make themselves feel better, the guys take a couple of expensive supercars to visit their Iberian friends.
• Richard Hammond hoons the crap out of a bunch of taxis to see which is best.
• Jeremy drives a BAC Mono. Yea, that's the 280 horsepower Formula 3-inspired rocket we showed you a while back. I'm curious to see if his face will blow off his head.
• Top Gear knows what its viewers want. They know we dig races between cars and other modes of transportation. Not to disappoint, the Brits are headed to New Zealand to give us a race between a rally car and an America's Cup Yacht. This should be entertaining. Word on the street is they're already pissing off the locals.
• The Mercedes SLS AMG Black Series is an incredible car. With a 622 horsepower V8 under the expansive hood, the thing is both fast and beautiful. The Mercedes SLS AMG Electric Drive is just as beautiful and, with 740 horsepower, even more powerful. But how will the heavier electric SLS handle when pitted against its gasoline-powered brother? We'll find out when Jeremy hoons them in a comparison test.
• Jeremy and James decide to figure out what the hell a "crossover" is. They hook up trailers to some of the world's most popular crossovers and quality informative television ensues (read: mayhem).
• The boys try to engineer a vehicle capable of taking on the world's worst floods. Using hovercraft technology, they hope to finally build something that isn't complete garbage. Based on their past engineering feats, this oughta be good.
• Our American brother Richard Hammond conducts a hot-hatch comparison between three of the quickest hatchbacks on the market.
• Jeremy, Richard, and James are proud of the British car industry. Sure, there's not much left of it, but what is left is pretty awesome. To prove this point, Jeremy tests the beautiful new Jaguar F-Type, Richard drives the new Range Rover Sport, and James drives the new Bus For London. James definitely drew the short straw, but I'm sure his review will be highly entertaining. Either that, or overly technical and boring. We'll see.
• Mr. Clarkson takes us to Scottland in a brand new 730 horsepower Ferrari F12 Berlinetta.
• Top Gear will present us with the new reasonably priced car. We'll see if any of you were able to guess right. To celebrate the new reasonably priced car, the guys at Top Gear decide to host a barbecue.

You get to see what all the fuss is about when the first episode airs on June 30th. After looking at the pictures above, what are you guys excited about?

There are a crap ton of cars at the 24 Hours of Le Mans this weekend, and let's be real here, class-by-class they all look pretty much the same. Now you can ID them all with this excellent Nismo spotter guide.

It's done by Andy Blackmore, the spotter guide extraordinaire. All the liveries are up to date, and the recently-dismantled Lotus LMP2 cars are still on there as it looks like they'll actually run.

Since these guides may be updating through the race, go right here on Andy Blackmore's site to get the guides for free in various forms. We've added the basic images here below, too. Also, we're a "media partner" this year which means we agreed to put up this post (joke is on Andy, we love his stuff so much we'd do it anyways) and he put our logo on the guide.

Prototypes

GT Cars

Track Guide/Info

Oh, and here's a key for how to read them at a glance.

The current E92 BMW M3's V8 engine is a glorious powerplant, a testament to all that is good and wonderful about internal combustion. But I'll always have a soft spot for the straight six in the old E46 M3. There's just something right about it.

And arguably the best iteration of the E46 M3 was the CSL, which stood for Coupé Sport Lightweight. Cutting down on nonessential components dropped this M3 down to a smidge over 3,000 pounds, plus power was added and the suspension was revised. Only about 1,400 cars were produced.

Sadly, the CSL never came to the U.S. But they continue to frolic over in Europe, and more than 50 of the cars' owners recently gathered in Munich to celebrate its 10th birthday.

What we do get is some great video of a ton of CSLs at play on the street and on the track, and some words on what went into making the car.

When exactly can I import one of these?

The common stereotype of the polite, restrained midwesterner entirely breaks down in a little sliver of insanity called Lincoln, Nebraska. All the people have the reserved countenance and robustness of the God-fearing flatlander, yet that only serves to hide the real truth: These people are nuts. Is it football? is it the water? What is it about Lincoln?

Driving a shiny orange R8 across the country brought attention in every corner, but nowhere else did it raise as much notice as in that football-stadium-with-a-city-attached known as Lincoln. From the moment we dropped off the Interstate we were surrounded on all sides by gawkers.

They leaned out of cars, they jumped up and down on the sidewalk, and they did all they could to let me know they loved my (well, Audi's) new car. It wasn't even the polite two-finger-off-the-wheel salute you normally get from most Midwesterners. Whole hands reached out for the car, like zombies do for tasty human thinkmeat in horror films.

My cousin and his wife set out a beautiful table of meats and cheeses upon our arrival and I could barely start to enjoy my dinner before it became clear I'd have to move the car from his corner as cars and people circled the block like sharks hoping for a better view (or more).

On their advice we drove it downtown to the garage where the bankers park. Lo and behold, when we got there in the morning there was this note on the car:

I didn't call, but nice try.

That same morning I took a trip out to Sasquatch Bakery, where my cousin's wife Allison makes what I can conservatively say are the best cookies in the world, including one called the Salty Dumptruck which is topped with pretzels and potato chips.

Weird, strange people.

After a quick ride around the block I was all set to leave when one of the employees at the connected Honest Abe's burger joint literally ran out of the restaurant, curious why the hell there's a brand new R8 in the driveway. Then he started jumping up and down.

"Wait… Jalopnik? You're MATT HARDIGREE!" he screamed. This caused my cousin to burst into laughter as, up to this point, he wasn't entirely sure anyone would know who I was.

I should mention, also, that perhaps because of the unrepentant strangeness of Lincolnians (Lincolnites?) I love hanging out there. Next time I'm bringing a Saturn, though.

Thanks to a loophole, one team built their own Porsche 917 and raced it at Le Mans in 1981, ten years after the car was effectively banned. Maison Blanche has the whole story. (H/T!)

The 24 Hours of Le Mans hasn't even started and already a Ferrari has crashed. This impact was big enough to break a tire wall and its retaining fence, as well as red flag the practice session.

Ferrari is a small company in Italy that you may know from the time they crashed a 458 into a Toyota TS030, flipping the prototype through the air. Possibly you remember them from 2011, when they crashed into an Audi R18, bashing the car into a tire wall so hard the prototype flipped into the air.

The driver was Tracy Krohn of the Krohn Racing GTE-Am (the Am stands for amateur) Ferrari team. He was checked at the hospital and released.

(Hat tip to Danimalk!)

Here's the scenario: a "14-year-old in Indonesia" sits in front of a laptop, gives an evil laugh and says whatever is Indonesian for 'check this out.' He furiously types on the keyboard, dramatically hits "enter," and then immediately cars start crashing in LA. AOL says this can happen. We say that's bullshit.

Just so you don't think I'm putting words in the mouth of AOL Autos' Pete Bigelow, here's a direct quote:

Imagine this grisly scenario: You're driving down the interstate with the cruise control set at the speed limit. Without warning, your car accelerates. The speedometer pushes past 100 miles per hour. Suddenly, the car turns left and crashes into the concrete median.

and also

"Can some 14-year-old in Indonesia shut a bunch of cars down because everything is wired up?" That's the question U.S. Senator Jay Rockefeller posed to a panel of automotive experts during a Senate Commerce Committee hearing last month.

The short answer is yes.

While technically some of what's described in the article is certainly true, the fear-mongering tone, calculated to terrify the rapidly aging AOL dial-up readership, is uncalled for at this point. Let's break down exactly why this is.

First of all, here's what is true: modern cars are packed full of computers. Even so, reducing cars to "rolling computers" as stated in the AOL article is absurd. Yes, they're full of computers and software and probably blinking lights, there's still a hell of a lot of real, mechanical equipment on a car. And, as importantly, there's certain key pieces of equipment that are not on cars, at least not yet.

One of the major pieces of missing equipment would be key to the "Suddenly, the car turns left and crashes into the concrete median." part of the story, and that's a true steering-by-wire system. Currently, only one car maker, Nissan, has started to implement this sort of system. And it's only available on their new Infiniti Q50. So for almost everyone who may read this article, that part of the horrorshow just can't happen.

Plus, Nissan's system still includes a conventional steering column and system as a backup, and the data from the potentiometer that indicates steering wheel angle isn't just sent to the servos controlling the steering without check — it knows the speed the car's travelling, and there are speed-based safety protocols in play.

Of course, even complaining about that all presupposes that getting an outside signal into your car's brains is happening, and the truth is while it has been done, in lab environments, by experts, it's not likely to happen by an attack from that hypothetical 14 year old Indonesian kid who for some reason really wants to wreck your car.

In fact, modern cars internal networks (known as the CAN bus) aren't normally equipped to receive wireless instructions, with the exception of the tire pressure monitoring system (a very short range wireless link) and the radio/nav/infotainment system.

These systems can be wirelessly compromised, but even studies that did successfully compromise a wide variety of vehicle systems (beyond the TPMS, etc) acknowledge that normally, some manner of physical access to the car's systems is required, and if you have that access, there's easier ways to screw with a car:

However, the threat model underlying past work (including our own) has been met with significant, and justifiable, criticism (e.g., [1, 3, 16]). In particular, it is widely felt that presupposing an attacker’s ability to physically connect to a car’s internal computer network may be unrealistic. Moreover, it is often pointed out that attackers with physical access can easily mount non-computerized attacks as well (e.g., cutting the brake lines).

I don't want to diminish what these researchers did achieve: they did manage to send wireless data to a car and get control or at least interrupt a variety of systems, including door locks, radio volume, wipers, and most alarmingly, some brake functions.

Plus, all those vulnerable computers do more than just sit around waiting to be hacked. They're constantly checking and evaluating the conditions the car is in, and they're programmed not to do anything that would kill you or your car even if their input suggests it. And that programming is not something that's going to be changed remotely as you drive by. For example, in the University of Washington study, researchers found

Most our results while driving were identical to our results on jack stands, except that the EBCM needed to be unlocked to issue DeviceControl packets when the car was traveling over 5 MPH. This a minor caveat from an actual attack perspective; as noted earlier, attack hardware attached to the car’s CAN bus can recover the credentials necessary to unlock the EBCM.

Which basically means that their pure-wireless attacks were filtered out or ignored at speeds over a walking pace, and the only way to get access to unlock those protections would require a physical connection to the car's CAN bus. I think that's more than a "minor caveat."

Also, nothing they managed to do remotely was dramatically remote — as in from, say, Indonesia. There are services like OnStar that can access some functions (engine shutdown, say) from very remote locations, but there are additional security protocols in place there far beyond what's on normal cars. Hacking is theoretically possible, but not an easy prospect.

Other forms of hacking referenced in the article require physical OBD-II pass-through devices or trojan-horse-type security breeching programs loaded into the car via an encoded file on a CD or USB drive. Again, while this is possible, if you have direct, physical access to a car, you may as well just cut some brake lines or shove a pipe bomb in the frame.

While most of what was pointed out in the article is hypothetically possible, at least in lab environments by teams of very smart people, this article is still, essentially, just needless fear-mongering.

You're far, far more likely to die in your car because of something stupid you or someone else on the road does. Driving in a car anywhere carries some inherent danger, but worrying that your car will be remotely hacked into from the other side of the earth is about as useful as worrying about all the meteors that could hit your car.

Just don't text and drive, pay attention to what your car's doing, and focus on driving instead of boogeyman "terrorists" trying to get you.

If you're still concerned, I have two pieces of practical advice for you:

• Practice yanking fuses. In many cars, the fusebox is accessible from the driver's seat, usually to the left and below the dash. If you get a message that your car has been PWND by 733t H4X0Rs on your dash, and they've locked out your off switch or key, just start yanking fuses. In a panic, I'm sure you can empty that fusebox in seconds.

• Buy and drive a vintage car. No hacking, no computers, no worries. Just driving joy.

What appear to be three very stupid criminals shot and killed a man three weeks ago in suburban Toronto, but not before slowly driving past five neighborhood security cameras. Can you help the police identify the car?

The homicide is particularly tragic. The victim was 38-year-old Surenthira Vaithlingam, who was just laying some bricks for his backyard in preparation for his son's upcoming birthday party when he was shot.

Toronto PD recently released surveillance footage from neighbors' homes, showing the car driving slowly through the neighborhood, possibly scouting out home of Vaithlingam, reports CBC News.

The police believe the car to be a 1999-2003 Mazda Protege. I agree with that assessment, but can you help them narrow down the model year of this car?

Here are the five surveillance clips released by the police.

With little fanfare or widespread media attention outside of Indiana, Carbon Motors filed for bankruptcy on June 7. It would seem that the saga of their purpose-built police cars with powerful BMW diesel engines has finally come to a sad and ignominious end.

The last we had heard from Carbon Motors, they had just sort of up and left their Connersville, Indiana car plant back in April.

The Indianapolis Business Journal reports that earlier this month the company filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection, listing liabilities of $21.7 million and assets of just $18,976.

Now that Carbon is officially dead, here come the lawsuits. From the IBJ's story:

The assets consist of a prototype police car, miscellaneous furniture, books and records, and the company’s intellectual property, said Henry Efroymson, a partner at Ice Miller LLP, who is representing the company.

Much of the liabilities listed in the bankruptcy are claims from investors who had sunk millions of dollars into the company. Among the biggest claims: $3.6 million from Chicago billionaire Joe Mansueto, the founder and CEO of investment research firm Morningstar Inc.

Other debtors include German car company BMW and Troy, Mich.-based Inteva Products LLC, both suppliers to Carbon Motors, who claim they are owed more than $3 million between them.

It's a pathetic end for Carbon, which had one of the better ideas among startup car companies in the last few years: the E7, a cruiser built from the ground up for police duty, without the compromises that officers must deal with when outfitting existing cars like a Ford Crown Victoria or a Dodge Charger for patrol.

It was to be powered by the same 3.0-liter diesel straight six that BMW used to put in the 335d, a monstrously powerful and fuel-efficient engine. Carbon reportedly paid BMW close to $2 million to order the motors. (Earlier reports indicated they had placed orders for 200,000 engines, but the math doesn't quite make sense for that.)

Carbon blamed their troubles in part on getting turned down last year for a $310 million loan they sought from the U.S. Department of Energy, a loan they said they were led to believe would be approved. Like most of the companies who applied for those loans, Carbon is now officially dead.

However, as great as Carbon's idea was, it's hard to imagine such an exotic vehicle being feasible and cost effective with small police departments, as Jason noted when he wrote about them in April.

And there are some questions about Carbon's business model that should have been asked as well. As David Hester writes in The Truth About Cars, "the company’s business plan seemed to revolve around borrowing money from the government to build cars that they would then sell exclusively to the government."

Also worth scrutiny is this investigative report in the Indianapolis Star, which reveals that the company received $7 million in grants, "most of it from a regional economic development program funded with riverboat casino revenue," that is now gone. In addition, that money may have been obtained through political connections:

You, the Internet, raised $22,226 for "Easier Said Than Done," the next great rally documentary. Here's the trailer, and it looks amazing.

When Matthew Johnston was raising money on Kickstarter and Indiegogo to make this doc, he said he would travel the world (eight countries) use helicopters, RC copters, and super-slow-mo high-speed cameras. As you can tell in this trailer, it paid off. It paid off big time.

The movie started out just being about the first all-American team to run in WRC Rally Finland, but it's clearly become the full-fledged comprehensive view of rallying I had always hoped it would.

You've seen the stars of "Easier Said Than Done" before. Rally Finland vet Chris Duplessis answered questions here, as did Antoine L'Estage and WRC world champion Petter Solberg.

The movie comes out September 28, and then it will debut on the Internet on October 1. I can't wait.

(Huge hat tip to Rally Extraordinaire McNewbie!)

Derek Jenkins arrived in a dune buggy. A vicious little Meyers Manx street rod, snarling and popping from dual Webers and a Yoshimura motorcycle exhaust, sinister in semi-glossy gray paint—it's a Lamborghini color in fact, Grigio Telesto.

Jenkins had built it from the ground up, hand-fabricating the delicate tube chassis himself and building a brand-new 1800cc air-cooled engine. "Isn't it bitchin'?" he asked. "I loved dune buggies as a kid. I used to build them with my dad."

If anyone imagined the stereotypical, pop culture-driven life of a Californian, they'd imagine a youth spent surfing and driving dune buggies, of sitting in beanbag chairs in the back of Dad's Chevrolet G10 van — a life filled with Volkswagens of all kinds and sizes and Things, the latter which Jenkins restored as a teenager. What a Southern California mainstay. When Jenkins finally ended up working at Volkswagen, he drew from this heady zeitgeist to form one of the most memorable concepts in recent memory: the Microbus, which debuted in 2001 to stoke the nostalgic fires even of those who never grew up in the '60s.

He talked to us about the Microbus—as well as the current state of Mazda design (he wasn't a fan of the smiley face either), designing the cult-status Audi A2 and the beautiful second-generation A8 (before four-door coupes were vogue), and what it was like to work with Freeman Thomas and J Mays at Volkswagen. J? Inspirational! Freeman? "Relentless!"

Read the full interview at Autoweek.com. Below, some gratuitous RX-7 GTU and Cosmo action for you.

We love wagons and we want to see more of them on the road instead of SUVs and bloated crossovers. Unfortunately, car makers are often afraid that the wagon body style won't sell well while driving up manufacturing costs.

That's probably why you can't buy a BMW M5 wagon today.

The car you see above is a 1975 Ferrari Daytona shooting brake. It's a one-off made by British coach builders Panther Westwinds.

Naturally, you can still turn anything into a wagon with deep enough pockets, but which car should have been a wagon as well straight from the factory?

Photo credit: Bonhams

Mazda hasn't formally announced it yet, but the car you're looking at is almost certainly the 2014 Mazda3. It showed up in some Japanese magazine scans earlier this month, and now here it is in person, having popped up on a Russian Facebook account of all places.

The red car in this photo certainly looks like the blue hatchback from those magazine scans.

Overall, it's not a bad design. It looks much sleeker and streamlined than the outgoing Mazda3, although part of me feels like it looks too much like a shrunken down CX-5. Not that that's bad or anything, it's just a bit derivative.

We'll see if this is accurate when the car gets revealed later this year. More than anything, I just hope it's as rewarding to drive as the current Mazda3.

Also, go ahead with any Russian dash cam jokes that have popped into your head now.

Photo credit news.auto.ru

Back in April Orlove and I went to Team O'Neil Rally School for their "one day rally experience," which if I were in charge would be renamed "shit everyone should learn in order to be better, safer drivers." At the end of the day the instructors took us on a ride through the facility on the roads used in the more advanced classes (a clever strategy to show us all why we ABSOLUTELY MUST COME BACK FOR THE FIVE DAY CLASS!!!!11!!1!). Raph and I ended up in the car driven by rally veteran and one of the school's most senior instructors, Al Moody. That grin Orlove's wearing lasted all the way back to Massachusetts where he dropped me off and probably back to New York and into work the following Monday.

A few weeks ago, we spent 48 hours in Beijing trying to find out about the car culture in China's capital city. What we found was that, to quote Rush like the nerds we are, "big money goes around the world."

On this episode of /DRIVEN take a trip to the other side of the world, where customs fees add up to 150 percent to the price of a multimillion-dollar supercar, and that still won't deter the country's new rich from plunking all of that money down. Visit a government-owned city of tuning shops. Take a jaunt to the Great Wall in a new Bentley Flying Spur.

We only wish we could have spent a few more weeks there, trying to find this guy.

This video is from the Acropolis Rally in Greece a few weekends ago. It's amazing to see what looks like dust shooting out of the rear window. What you're really seeing is very refined management of high and low pressure zones to keep the car stable at high speed.

Don't expect that Chevy Cavalier with a bare metal wing on the back to be this competent.

Gathered here are the Oppositelock posts that people have put a good deal of effort into writing from the last 24 hours. Today it includes an homage to an old truck, taking a CLK AMG Black Series for a spin, and more.

• Boswell's Life Of Porsche 924 - TheDailyTurismo

In the late 18th century a Scot by the name of James Boswell wrote a detailed biography of Dr Samuel Johnson, a game changer in the world of literature. With a similarly innovative leap, in the late 20th century a German car company created the first modern sports car, the Porsche 924.

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• Does The Car You Grew Up in Affect Your Taste In Cars Today? - JQJ213

I am in the market for my first car. What started with random clicking on ads has turned into a very precise search. Due to these criteria, it made me wonder: do the cars we grew up in affect our taste in cars today?

• That Time I went on my first West African road trip... - TheBigBossyBoss

So...by this time I have been in Ghana almost a month. It's time for a west african road trip. By the way, the bus company we took to Kumasi is owned by none other than Greyhound. It was called STC. Currently the ticket from Acrra to Kumasi costs $12. Anyways, let's get on with it...

• My First Pagani [Sighting] - Mochimaster

I recently wrote an article about a white Arabian Pagani Huayra visiting Beverly Hills U.S and how unforeseen of an event it was. After I learned about it, I decided I really should take a look myself, because not only are Paganis rare in the U.S, but any car with Middle Eastern license plates in this country is in general very uncommon. So yesterday, I went on a quest to look for Beverly Hills' best kept automotive secret…

• Random fun car fact: Subaru Shutdown Turbo Cooling! - UKPKDWRX

Turbochargers have a problem. They get hot, very hot. In fact the development of early turbochargers and early jet engines was very much intertwined. The performance of both is limited primarily by how much heat the hot section (turbine) can tolerate before it turns into molten slag. As such they both relied heavily on the development of special high-temperature steel alloys going back to the 40's, 50's, and 60's.

• They Say You Don't Know What You Got Till It's Gone... - 05Sonic3Valve

A little over a week ago I made a big change in my vehicular line up. I decided to trade in my fuel guzzling F350 and my non-smog-able Mustang as a two for one deal on a 2011 Audi S4. My F350 had room enough for six and was relatively comfortable while the Mustang was 450 horsepower, raw, and unrefined. I decided on the S4 as it is somewhere in the middle of performance and comfort with room for five. The S4 has been fun (I've already put well over 600 miles on it), it's surprisingly quick, and yet often feels as if I am driving on a cloud, but this is not a review of the S4. This is a story about an old adage and an old truck.

• A rookie driver's look at drivers ed and driving, Part I - SomethingWittyer

As some of you guys know, I recently managed to get my MVA learners permit. That means until I’m 16 and 6 months, I’m allowed to drive with anyone 21 years of age who’ve had their license for 3 years. It also means I have to take a mandatory 10 day, 3 hour each drivers ed course where they show us videos like this. So yeah, as someone who gets most of their information on how to drive from places like this, I guess shouldn’t expect they’re going to have 4 whole classes about car control and knowing the limits of your car.

• When to Vandalize Someone’s Property and When to Leave it Ruddy Well Alone - VDiddy210

I’ve seen a trend on our fair Jalopnik; whenever there is an “asshat parking” article half of the commentators seem to talk about who’s actually at fault or why it’s ridiculous to park in such a way, and the others all seem to clamor onto how to “teach that asshat a lesson” The most recent of which had the commentators debating on the best way to do such a thing…

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• How does FiatUSA survive on the 500 alone? - DanMosqueda

I was pursuing an article on Autoblog about yet another variant of the Fiat 500 (the Cattiva) and wondered how on earth Fiat can grow in the US. At some point this veritable tigre di carta (paper tiger) will fold unless the company offers a broader selection of desirable vehicles. I popped over to the Fiat web site (not Fiat USA, but the actual Fiat site in Italy) to see what they offer.

• Now that your inbox is your mailbox, should recalls be emailed? - Juan Barnett

One year ago Congress provided the Secretary of Transportation expended authorities on how vehicle recall notifications are conducted. The goal, according to the legislation was to “improve efficacy.” When I asked the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration (NHTSA) how they would use this new authority, they responded, “There will not be any changes. We are going to keep it the way it is.”

• F1. Lose sleep. Gain passion - SpeedMonkey

Formula One motor racing has always been a circus. It has a ring master, lions and tigers, bears, a snake charmer and a trapeze act. Granted it has over the years had a bearded lady or two with questionable tyre compounds, stupid politically driven decisions, daft regulations and incompetent management. But when that circus hits its groove, and the fire eaters, acrobats and human cannonball hit their marks on time every time, you can’t help but leap off your sofa and punch the air.

• Quick Spin: Mercedes-Benz CLK63 AMG Black Series - HoonThatSC

As I eyed my most recent “spot in the wild”, my mind was adrift in a wonderland of flared wheel arches, carbon-fiber splitters, and waves of “I absolutely dare you” aggression pouring out of the CLK63 AMG Black Series brooding in front of a café. I was DTM dreamin’…. And all of a sudden, I was sitting behind the wheel. The owner noticed my enthusiasm, and decided I was worthy to go for a brief self-directed, high-speed jaunt through the back alleys of the parking lot.

• The Solution to the Manual VS Auto - TwinTurboBMW

The new Porsche 911 GT3. The drivers car, the track monster, is nowlimited to a PDK. Don't get me wrong, the PDK is one of the best autos ever, but it still isn't a manual. Although Porsche would be happy to offer one, there is no market. Everyone who dreams about these exotic cars wants the driving pleasure of a gear stick and a clutch, but the people who buy them don't. The same problem goes for Ferrari, Lamborghini, Pagani, Maserati, and even Aston Martin to some extent. Sure there are some exceptions; occasionally you will see a manual California or Gallardo but rarely.

• Fusion Drivers Wear Gloves, Too - Spasoje

So Ford announced that they'll be adding some buttons to MyFord Touch soon. In my opinion, that can't come soon enough. Here's why. Early last year, an alarming proportion of my friends all treated themselves to new iPhones, within days of each other. While the existence of a minor conspiracy is debatable, what’s certain is that they all experienced the ‘new gadget high’ very recently. Flying high above Silicon Valley, beaming new owners surgically extract the ‘newborn’ out of its packaging – lest they give it any unwarranted scratches – watching the reflection of their ear-to-ear grin wash away in the appearing image of the touch-sensitive home menu...

As always, If I've missed something and you would like me to include it, let me know.

Fun Discussions

There were several posts that asked questions and sparked some good discussion over the the last day. Take a peek and chime in on some of them listed below:

• Who is your dream passenger?
• Show Me: The best car badges
• 911 vs Cayman?
• Google maps salvage search
• Does anyone remember when Aston Martins had class?

Just the #tips

• Trailer from Easier Said Than Done Rally Documentary
• Minivan
• The Aston Martin Vanquish Volante configurator
• The odd Parking garage somewhere in France
• Young men try to provide an alternate to airport rental cars & (predictably) slot into airport crosshairs.
• Fortune's "10 cars that got a bad rap"
• Nissan to Unveil 2014 Garage 56 Contender on Friday
• Things are looking up for a Red Bull Raikkonen combination

Honourable Mentions

These posts have already been shared with Jalopnik directly but deserve to be mentioned again because they were first posted in Oppositelock:

• How Fiat helped incite the protests in Brazil
• Got a V8 Vantage? Pull fuse 22 immediately.