Presented in a Hungarian catalog of prewar newsreels, this is what the copy on the title card says:

HOW MUCH CAN A CAR TAKE?

American carmakers test the endurance of their new products with difficult and peculiar tasks.

Peculiar indeed, when you consider the effects of hitting a wall of fire at speed.

Chevrolet at the Los Angeles International Auto Show
November 17, 2009

o U.S. premiere of the all-new Cruze, delivering up to 40 mpg highway
o Volt electric vehicle to be available in select markets in 2010
o Camaro, Equinox and other hot-selling Chevrolet vehicles also on display

DETROIT – Chevrolet affirms its commitment to fuel solutions and building refined, eco-friendly vehicles with the debut of the U.S. production version of the Cruze sedan at the Los Angeles Auto Show, on Dec. 2. The Cruze, along with the much-anticipated Volt electric vehicle, will give visitors to the L.A. show a close-up view of Chevrolet's expanding lineup of gas-friendly to gas-free products.

"With expected highway fuel economy up to 40 miles per gallon, Cruze will be extremely gas friendly while the Volt electric vehicle can be operated gas-free," said Brent Dewar, vice president, Chevrolet. "Chevrolet's focus is on forward-looking technologies to the benefit of our customers, such as the highly efficient, small-displacement turbocharged engine in the Cruze or the Volt electric vehicle with extended range."

The Cruze has already launched to high acclaim in Europe and Asia and has undergone refinement for America. It goes on sale in the U.S. in the third quarter of 2010 but has already logged more than 4 million miles in quality and durability testing worldwide, making it one of the most globally tested Chevrolet products prior to a U.S. launch.

Cruze is designed to achieve class-leading highway fuel economy using a new family of efficient engines that include a 1.4L turbo. It will lead the way for Chevrolet in small-displacement, turbocharged engines that are designed for excellent fuel efficiency and durability – while also being fun to drive.

Defying preconceptions of what a compact car can be, Cruze will offer a more spacious interior and cargo capacity than the Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla, and upscale infotainment amenities such as a navigation system, Bluetooth connectivity and XM Satellite Radio. Ten standard air bags that provide a safety cocoon for occupants – along with OnStar– also make it one of the safest vehicles in the segment.

The Chevrolet Volt is an electric vehicle with extended-range capability. It is expected to drive up to 40 miles on electricity without using gasoline or producing tailpipe emissions. When the Volt's lithium-ion battery is depleted of energy, an engine/generator seamlessly operates to extend the total driving range to more than 300 miles before refueling.

Chevrolet will announce plans for initial retail markets where the Volt will be sold. Chevrolet will also announce the winner of a nationwide consumer competition to name a Volt unique paint color. Consumers determine the winner by voting now for their favorite of three finalist names at www.chevroletvoltage.com, until 8 a.m. Eastern time on Dec. 1.

From Nov. 27-29, the Volt will be on display next to Bloomingdale's at the Westfield Century City mall in West Los Angeles. During regular mall hours, visitors to the Chevrolet Volt display may get two free tickets each to the L.A. Auto Show, while supplies last. The L.A. Auto Show opens to the public Dec. 4.

Production for the Volt is expected to begin in late 2010. Pricing has not been announced.

The Chevrolet show exhibit also will feature the all-new, 2010 Chevrolet Camaro sports coupe and Chevrolet Equinox compact crossover SUV. The popularity of these vehicles helped Chevrolet boost sales by 9 percent in October, including a significant 31-percent increase in retail sales.

The Camaro continues to distance itself from its closest competitor as a fuel-efficient interpretation of a 21st century sports car, achieving 29 miles per gallon on the highway when equipped with the popular 304-horsepower direct injected V-6. Camaro has been a leader in the regular sports car segment for the last five months.

Demand for the Camaro continues to be strong, as Chevrolet now has more than 36,000 sold orders for the car.

The all-new 2010 Equinox is a compact crossover that combines distinctive design, extensive functionality and outstanding efficiency. At 32 mpg highway, the Equinox gets better fuel economy than the Honda CR-V and the Toyota RAV-4. It even beats the Ford Escape Hybrid while costing $7,000 less.

In just a few short months, Equinox has captured 10 percent of the critical compact crossover segment, its best share since August of 2007 and up 4.6 percent from a year ago. More than half of 2010 Equinox customers traded in a non-GM vehicle (based on internal PIN data). Demand is so strong for the Equinox that the plant where it is built recently added a third shift.

About Chevrolet

Chevrolet is one of America's best-known and best-selling automotive brands, and one of the fastest growing brands in the world. With fuel solutions that range from "gas-friendly to gas-free," Chevrolet has nine models that offer an EPA-estimated 30 miles per gallon or more on the highway, and offers three hybrid models. More than 2.5 million Chevrolets that run on E85 biofuel have been sold. Chevrolet delivers expressive design, spirited performance and strives to provide the best value in every segment in which it competes. More information can be found at www.chevrolet.com. For more information on the Volt, visit http://media.gm.com/volt/.

The Celebrity Eurosport was one of The General's many last-ditch attempts to win back all those un-American traitors who defected to the Honda and Toyota camps after a decade of Chevettes, Citations, and J2000s. It had more interior room than the old rear-wheel-drive Malibu and handled better than the regular Celebrity, but after that it becomes tough to find things to love about this car. But maybe we're all wrong about the Celebrity Eurosport! Maybe pristine unrestored examples will fetch six-figure sums at Barrett-Jackson in a few years!

We've already seen Jesse's '66 Datsun 411, his '61 Austin Mini, his '70 Puma GT (now sold to a buyer in Denmark), and his '83 Toyota 4x4 truck. Now he's added this classic Detroit cartruck to his stable.

This El Camino is in very solid, rust-free original condition, and the original Tonawanda-built 2-barrel 350 still sounds fresh. Could this be the only '69 El Camino in the world that doesn't have headers and a Holley 750 double-pumper by now?

The one questionable modification that's been done to this machine might be the "vinyl top" made out of protective bed-liner coating. It looks OK and is likely impervious to meteorite damage, but just doesn't seem like a good idea.

I'm not enough of an El Camino expert to know whether the proper term for this one is "El Camino Malibu" or something else; the '69 El Camino being a Chevelle with a truck bed meant that the Chevelle's Malibu trim package was an available option. Any of you experts out there got an opinion on the subject?

Suffering a a fate worse than the 1906 earthquake, yesterday's custom '75 caprice convertible fell to a 78% Crack Pipe vote. Its pristine restoration was overcome by its questionable presentation, something today's candidate doesn't suffer from.

The Chevy S10 pickup truck- workhorse of gardeners nationwide- would not be the first choice of many for hot-rodding. While the engine bay is roomy enough for a pony-packing motor, the light rear end means putting the power down requires sandbags or a sextet of drunken frat boys in the bed to keep it from hopping around like a horny rabbit. But all that changes when you shift the center of mass to be more rear-weighted. That's the thinking (and apparently a lot of beers) that went into this 1987 S10 with a Cadillac 500-cid engine in the back. Looking at the pictures, you can see that not much thought has been given to practicality, but that's okay, this is more of a "watch this" than "help me with this" kind of truck.

The seller doesn't say, but we assume the original S10 motor and transmission have been yanked, which will change the driving dynamics from pickup truck oversteer to why won't it turn, doesn't it see that tree! understeer. But you get the impression that this truck was intended only to be turning at the end of a quarter mile run. The ad claims 500-bhp, and makes the recommendation of wheelie bars. Whether that's pure hyperbole or not, it's fun to imagine lighting it up and popping that nose in the air.

While it looks like a redneck special, and the seller's grasp of spelling and grammar indicates an unfamiliarity with anything higher than 6th grade, that's not to say it hasn't been well done, and possibly wouldn't try and kill you the first chance it gets. And Dr. Papstinstein is only asking $2,500 for his creation, which he says is crasy crasy

Would you also be crasy crasy to plunk down $2,500 for the opportunity to bed this pickup? Or, does that price make you pop a wheelie in your pants?

You decide!

Madison "crasy crasy" Craigslist or go here if the ad disappears. Hat tip to tempesjo!

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Yesterday's 1979 Cadillac Eldorado drank from the diesel teat, which was part of the reason that 83% of you downed the haterade in its condemnation. But enough about the hate, let's talk about some love- and if you love sourdough bread, foggy summer mornings, and the enduring legend of an island prison escape, then have we got the car for you!

This 1975 Chevy Caprice convertible would be an interesting car even if it were bone stock. Seventy five was the last year for the convertible Caprice, and only 8,349 drop tops left the factory that year. But this Caprice Classic is no ordinary Chevy- and its $14,000 asking price reflects this fact. No, the seller has pimped out this car, not in donktastic or low-ri-duhr fashion, but as a jaunty sky blue and white tribute to California's FOURTH largest city. What the color scheme has to do with San Francisco is a bit of a head scratcher, but the trunklid mural (and this last of the gargantuan Caprices has room for the entire cityscape) depicting the iconic structures of the city, including its bridge which is neither golden, nor possesses a gate. The only thing lacking on the car is to have oro en paz, fierro en guerra in script below the driver's window.

Not lacking, is what's under the hood of this 4,321-lb boulevarder. The seller claims an over-bored 460 with all the friction-reducing, power-adding mods you could think of, and topped by a cherry of a 670-cfm 4-barrel to feed those hungry, hungry hippos. A 400 THM and 373 Posi rear-end keep the power to the pavement, and the billet grill and HID headlamps will left everybody know you're coming through.

So, could you leave your heart in this $14,000 Caprice convertible? Or, does the price and the city homage styling make you want to move out of town?

You decide!

Left my heart in Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.

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Don't get us wrong, it's not weak-ass in power output, rather it's weak-ass that by putting a 550 HP LS crate supercharged engine under the hood, there's not a chance in hell it'll ever be built. And that's just sad because it'd be cool as hell to see a Raptor vs. Dodge Power Wagon vs. Silverado ZR2 match-up. Ah well, a man can dream, can't he?

Full release below:

Silverado ZR2 concept
At a glance, it's clear the Silverado ZR2 concept wasn't designed to haul flowers back from the nursery. With its widened body, tall stance and powerful LS supercharged engine, it is ready to hit the berms, dry washes and gullies of the Baja Peninsula.

The Silverado ZR2 is based on an extended cab/short box body. The custom bodywork includes carbon fiber fender flares that stretch outward to cover the 35-inch-tall Goodyear Wrangler off-road tires and widened stance. Much of the truck's body is made of carbon fiber, including the front fenders, extractor-style hood, rocker extensions and tailgate, which features large, debossed CHEVROLET lettering as a nod to Chevy trucks of the past.

The pickup box, which is protected with a spray-on liner, features a unique locking storage system mounted to the extruded aluminum Cargo Management System rails from Chevy Accessories.

Many of the carbon fiber parts, including the hood, are clear-coated, rather than painted, to show off the intricate weave pattern of the high-tech, lightweight material. The parts that aren't clear carbon fiber are painted Dune Metallic, a color that blends with the desert terrain. A large, more prominent grille is also part of the package and is a vision of what designers would like to see in a production or accessory part. It is very functional, feeding cool air to the 550-horsepower LS supercharged crate engine from GM Performance Parts.

The combination of 20-inch BBS RD wheels – reminiscent of historic Chevy truck wheel – and aggressive Goodyear Wrangler MT/R tires connect to the chassis via BDS shocks and a four-inch lift kit to help negotiate those desert trails. The new front fascia dramatically improves approach angle and skid plates protect the chassis.

The interior features more carbon fiber details on the dash, along with black leather and suede-trimmed seats with contrasting stitching to those trail runs more comfortable.

"There's more to this concept than meets the eye," said Dewar. "Some of the components are being explored for possible inclusion in upcoming models."

This music video by Da Yoopers starts out with maddening slowness- as in first-year-film-student slow- but things pick up at about 1:00, so hang in there. It's worth it! Thanks to Texan_idiot25 for the tip.

Did Pitt even try sitting in that cave-like backseat? How's he gonna get the entire family in that? This seems like some serious near-sightedness on Pitt's part.

Although maybe he actually is near-sighted. We mean, check out that color scheme. [TMZ]

Well, that changes now, because we've got this spotless '67 RS convertible for you; it follows in the footsteps of this purple '69 coupe. I'd seen this car at the Park Street Car Show, but it was surrounded by a crowd of other early Camaros and didn't really jump out at me.

This car gets the Murilee Stamp-O-Approval™ because A) the original 327 is still there, B) the original Powerglide isn't still there (the owner ditched the Slip-N-Slide for a Tremec 5-speed, and I say good riddance to a transmission that sucks for any use other than drag racing and beer labels; if you purists think that's a crime, feel free to take a break from studying hose clamp date codes to scrawl a venomous tirade in the comments), C) it's not red or black, and D) it gets driven on the street. Not every day, obviously, and it doesn't sleep on the street, but I caught it while its owner was using it to run an errand to the hardware store. The same hardware store, incidentally, at which I photographed the 1937 London Cab.

The General was late to the party started by the Mustang (and Barracuda), but the snazzed-up crypto-Nova hit the showrooms running and sold like crazy. In 1967, you could get a base V8 Camaro convertible for $2,809 (the Rally Sport option package pushed the price up to $2,914), versus $2,806 for a '67 Mustang convertible with the base 289. Meanwhile, the '67 Plymouth Barracuda V8 convertible went for $2,860. The Chevy had the most powerful base engine (210 horsepower versus 200 for the Ford's 289 and 180 for the Plymouth's 273), but all three could have been stuffed with a monster big-block if the customer's wallet permitted.

After building up your hopes and dreams about a Chevy Cruze wagon, we're now here to crush them into little bits. The picture circulated this morning was nothing more than a well executed fraud. Doesn't mean GM isn't working on a Cruze wagon, just that this isn't it.

[Original sources: IndianAutoblog via WCF]

Frankly, it's pretty uninteresting.

This one feels more like a history lesson and a bit of a commercial for the Camaro. The entire first segment goes to great lengths to draw a line between the first generation car and the new one. The second shows the V6 production at the St. Catherine's engine plant, which shows off the very basics of modern engine manufacturing. Kinda... boring.

National Geographic]

Back in 1970, Ralph Truppi and Tommy Kling built an LS6-equipped Chevelle convertible into a machine that utterly dominated the SS/EA class that season. After that, the car knocked around the country in your typical famous-race-car odyssey, eventually getting restored back to street-legal trim and selling for $1.2 million at Barrett-Jackson in 2006. Last month, the same car fetched... $264,000 at auction. What will it be worth when the Financiopocalypse is over?
[New York Times]

I found this cartruck parked outside Alameda's Tiki Overload Headquarters a couple months back. The bar was having a small pseudo-car-show, and this Chevy was parked just behind the '51 Dodge Wayfarer we saw a while back.

A base, six-cylinder 1959 El Camino listed at $2,352 new, or about $400 more than a half-ton stepside Chevrolet pickup. For those extra bucks you got a car-like ride and those snazzy fins, though cargo-hauling ability wasn't quite up to serious truck standards. Which would you have chosen?

Yeah, we dunno about the last part about suits, but Dewar's full comment on the Chevy Camaro Z28 indicate we should stay tuned for something "official" thanks to lots of excitement for it:

"We have not officially decided to bring back the Camaro Z28....lots of excitement to do it....so stay tuned."

Is someone calling Edmunds' Dan Pund a liar? [Fastlane]

Commenter YankBoffin was cruising through rural Indiana when he spotted this unbelievable headstone, featuring a the visage of the 2007 Corvette Indy 500 Pace Car replica. Of course, he had to stop, even doing that in a particularly Jalop way:

I spotted this near Brookville, Indiana over the weekend, scaring the wife half to death when I pointed and yelled "CORVETTOMBSTONE!!" as we passed a small monument business.

This is in Indiana, so I guess it isn't too surprising that the car etched in granite (yes, it is definitely etched, wished I'd taken a close-up) is an Indy 500 Pace Car C6 convertible.

In case Indiana is too far a schlep for you to pick up your copy of the Corvette headstone, we've hunted down the press image they used, so you can get your own made.