Edmunds' stalking of Mitsubishi engineers' Evo X shakedown continues. This time, they've captured the long-awaited hotshot at Willow Springs, on the Streets of Willow road course, engaging in a few lukewarm laps to test the 2008 Evo's componentry. Apparently, the test session capped off a round of fine cuisine and four-star hotelling for the test crew. That and a few extra hot laps in a BMW M3 for comparison's sake. Tough life. Latest word is that the Evo will debut in Frankfurt, not Tokyo where it would likely be overshadowed by Nissan's new GT-R. – Mike Spinelli

Hot lapping with the 2008 Mitsubishi Evo X [internal]

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Spy Photos: Mistubishi Evo X [internal]

Eighteen eighty five is so 122 years ago, Karl. All the coolest engineers and great thinkers were inventing cars back in 1478. Well, if by "car" you mean self-propelled conveyance, then yes, this is totally a car. (If you're going to be a d-bag and insist on internal combustion, then no, but you'd have to be Canadian to define it so narrowly.) Okay, Enough hubris; back to the retro-futuristic innovationism that is the Da Vinci car. The engineer in me really gets hot over the linear output of the spring-drive system big Leo D designed for this thing. Normally a spring drive just can't provide linear output, but DaVinci was kind of a genius and he figured out how to do it. Also new for the 1478 model year was the ability to steer and brake. Some nerds at the Museum of the History of Science in Florence, Italy decided to recreate this thing from Leo's original notes. What you see above is the result. Nobody really knows if DaVinci built a prototype, but who cares? It's cool and old. Wait a week and there will be a YouTube vid of some hooligan with JATO bottles strapped to it.–Ben Wojdyla

L'Automobile di Leonardo Da Vinci [Museum of the History of Science (in Italian)]

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Motorwagen and Ramen [internal]

The one time we went to Willow Springs, we woke up with a brutal hangover to find out that the once and future Kindergarten Cop was now our governor. Then we drove lightly-prepped race cars around the Streets for a few hours, sat outside at Burbank Airport listening to the Ramones piped over the outdoor sound system, and then flew back up north. These characters from IWSTI, an online Subie forum, did us one better. They went out to the track complex near Edwards Air Force Base, made like a ground-bound Chuck Yeager in a 300hp Ariel Atom and hung out with Jeremy Clarkson. Apparently, the Top Gear presenter has gone back on his prior assertion that he was never going to America again. [Thanks to Kevin for the tip.]

Drove an Ariel Atom Yesterday! [IWSTI]

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Jay Leno's Ariel Atom Is Out Of Gas, Gas, Gas! [Internal]