This comes to us from the hallowed halls of Teamspeed, where one of their forum members spotted this sucker at local South African dealer. Just like the headline suggests, the carbon fiber is coated in diamond impregnated resin to give it that ridiculously expensive, ultimate warlord status symbol finish. Imagine the repair bill when your little warlord-in-training crashes his tricycle into it and leaves a nice long scratch. [TeamSpeed]

Name: No, Speed Racer, No

Motto: "To Boldly Slow…Where No Man Has Wanted to Slow Before."

Club Principles: A support group for people with too many points on their license to continue speeding. You probably know the feeling, even if you haven't bumped up against your state's license-pulling limit: The first ticket is almost a non-event, more a speeding tax than a deterrent. By the second, you begin to analyze how, where, and why you haul ass. By the third, you're well and truly paranoid, eyeing overpasses and frantically glancing into the trees. ("The pigeons. They have radar guns." "Honey, they're just birds." "Are you kidding? That's what they want you to think.")

Have six months left before it's safe to flat-foot it? Your next five-over going to get you arrested? Everyone needs a hand to hold on to.

Name: The Zipcar Abstinence Group

Motto: "Keep it Zipped."

Club Principles: Exactly what it sounds like-a club dedicated to stopping people in big cities from using Zipcars for prostitution and random sexual acts. (This happens. Seriously.) Achin' for some on-the-go bacon? Dying for a good old-fashioned game of Hide the Shift Knob, only without the time-consuming cleanup? Sorry, pal—some of us actually use these things to get around in, and nothing ruins the morning traffic slog like the smell of someone else's man-butter. Do the rest of us a favor and stick to your own garage—or at least the nearest bus station.

Name: We Bad

Motto: "You suck. Admit it."

Club Principles: A club for bad drivers who want to improve their skills behind the wheel. Don't worry—this isn't you. It's never you. It's always the other guy, and if he weren't such an asshat, you wouldn't have driven your car over that cliff and into that orphanage and ruined little Timmy's Christmas and now you're in jail and wait until your lawyer sees what you did to that guy with the shiv you made out of that iPod, only seriously, it wasn't your fault…

Name: (No) Love and Theft

Motto: "Steal my car. Please."

Club Principles: A club for people who drive vehicles so desperately crappy that they would literally be better off walking. You may not have been here, but you probably know someone who has. This is for the folks who avoid driving like the plague, the people who hate their cars with a passion. Ford Topaz catch fire on a daily basis? Datsun Honey Bee once give you the Hanta virus? Welcome home. Leave your conscience at home, leave your keys on the table, and leave the building before your insurance company finds out.

Name: Art and Science, My Ass

Motto: "Get off my lawn!"

Club Principles: A club for people who think old-school, front-wheel-drive Cadillacs are just fine, thank you very much, and who don't like the division's current styling direction. There are several thousand of these people, and they all live within a hundred-mile radius of Boca Raton, Florida. Most of them drive a gold-plated DTS and believe the internet to be a compellingly old-fashioned mystery show featuring Angela Lansbury. Which is probably just as well.

At this point, it's not clear why or how this suicide occurred, though the mayor of the town where his business is located said he'd been told by Richard Burd himself that business was good and mentioned they were in the process of replenishing their sold-out stock. It's possible he was just one of the many Americans suffering from depression and the location of this suicide isn't significant. Until the police release a note or details it's all just speculation.

You can see Christine in one of their "Burd Is The Word" commercials below. (Hat tip to Carrew!) [IndyStar]

Photo Credit: MICHELLE PEMBERTON/Indianapolis Star

Like the AK-47 assault rifle and the RPG–7 bazooka, the Toyota pickup truck has become an icon of irregular armies worldwide. When mounted with an anti-aircraft cannon or a rocket laucher on its bed, it is called a technical and technicals have helped militas wage and win war against armies equipped with mechanized divisions. There was even a conflict in 1987 called the Toyota War, in which Chad’s Toyota-equipped troops defeated Muammar al-Gaddafi’s Libyan army.

The practice is not local to Africa. In Afghanistan, it was an influx of Toyota pickups from Pakistan’s ISI spy agency which transformed the Taliban from a Kandahar militia to a force which took over most of Afghanistan with remarkable speed, defeating established mujahideen commanders with decades of experience.

This has nothing to do with good guys, bad guys or tribal affiliations and all to do with the Toyota pickup’s extreme reliability on hostile terrain. You have no doubt seen the famous Top Gear episode where a Toyota Hilux is subjected to every manner of destructive testing short of a thermonuclear explosion yet it keeps on ticking—but you may not have seen this image from 2002, where US Special Forces soldiers ride in a quad cab Toyota identical to the ones used by their Taliban foes:

But all that may be about to change.

The only clue is a few pixels of an illustration which accompanies Seymour Hersh’s latest piece for The New Yorker, where he reports on the safety of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal—or its lack thereof. It was created by the acclaimed French illustrator Guy Billout and if you lean in close, the truck you see the Taliban soldiers riding in is rather striking:

It’s not a Toyota. It’s a quad cab Dodge—a Dakota to my untrained eye, but it could be a Ram as well. This might be an inconsequential detail if the magazine in question was not The New Yorker, famous for their fact checking team. And the truck is definitely not some sort of generic placeholder pickup: it has a Dodge grille.

Cooperation between American companies and the Taliban would not be without historical precedent. Back in 1995 before they conquered Kabul and became host to Al-Qaeda, Unocal executive Marty Miller was involved in negotiations with the Taliban leadership for a natural gas pipeline which was to run from Turkmenistan to Pakistan, straight through Taliban territory. While the deal eventually fell through, Miller visited Kandahar several times and at one point even had Taliban leaders flown to Houston for Christmas, of all holidays.

Perhaps Toyota, with its humbling losses and its exit from Formula One, has gone over the hill—while Chrysler has found itself a particularly lucrative market for trucks, where demand for new vehicles is guaranteed not by rebates but by American firepower. And nobody likes to stick with a loser. Least of all the Taliban.

Photo Credit: SAEED KHAN/AFP/Getty Images, TERENCE WHITE/AFP/Getty Images, Paula Bronstein/Getty Images, Guy Billout, EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP/Getty Images, U.S. Air Force

The line between awesome and obnoxious is a fine one, but these ten vehicles (and a bonus!) end up on the wrong side of it. We'll just take a long-wheelbase Executive Town Car, thanks.

Started Life As: An Excalibur
Turned Into: A neo-classical car that's even worse to drive
Appropriate For: A wedding officiated by a Rodney Dangerfield impersonator.
Suggested By: Maymar

Started Life As: Hummer H2
Turned Into: A Yellow Tiger-Print Monstrosity
Appropriate For: A nightmare trip to the Zoo.
Suggested By: Jagvar

Started Life As: Lamborghini Countach (we think) or a Fiero!
Turned Into: None of the privacy of a limo or the handling of a Ferrari... complete with a built-in jacuzzi full of crabs!
Appropriate For: Taking your friends to a White Snake reunion tour.
Suggested By: AtlasFugged

Photo Credit: LosAngelesExoticLimos

Started Life As: Some sort of boring Ukranian car
Turned Into: The visual approximation of Viktor Yushchenko's face.
Appropriate For: Celebrating your victory over taste, Russian-backed political parties.
Suggested By: Buster Brew

Started Life As: Ferrari 360
Turned Into: A waste of one Ferrari and about $1,000 an hour
Appropriate For: Marrying someone who wears Ferrari team shirts but actually drives a Ford Escort.
Suggested By: Scandanavian Flick

Started Life As: Toyota Prius
Turned Into: A rolling monstrosity that takes up a lot of space on the road, uses more gas, and is a waste of six doors since we can't imagine six people getting into it.
Appropriate For: Taking an Angry Green Girl to the Teen Choice Awards.
Suggested By: Oddfish

Started Life As: Mini Cooper
Turned Into: A waste of over 1,000,000 swarvoski crystal
Appropriate For: Princess Regina of Kazakstan, who is driven around in it.
Suggested By: Sharkd

Started Life As: PT Cruiser
Turned Into: It's definitely pink
Appropriate For: A 15th birthday party in Hello Kitty hell
Suggested By: K5ING

Photo Credit: Limofan.net

Started Life As: A Pontiac Grand Prix
Turned Into: Something actually worse than a Pontiac Grand Prix
Appropriate For: A NASCAR-themed funeral
Suggested By: Firepwr

Started Life As: Cadillac EXT
Turned Into: A giant limo with a tiny bed
Appropriate For: Going to homecoming... with your cousin.

BONUS LIMO
Started Life As: A DeLorean DMC
Turned Into: A stretched DeLorean Limo, which is either obnoxious or awesome, we can't tell the difference right now.
Appropriate For: Marrying Elizabeth Shue
Suggested By: TheCharles411

FIRST IMAGES OF THE ALL-NEW VOLVO S60 – SCULPTED TO MOVE YOU

Here are the first official pictures of the all-new Volvo S60 – sportier and more dynamic than any previous Volvo car.
"The all-new Volvo S60 is sculpted to move you. It looks and drives like no other Volvo before and the car's technology will help you to be safer and more confident behind the wheel," says Stephen Odell, President and CEO at Volvo Cars.
The Volvo S60 can be equipped with Pedestrian Detection – a groundbreaking safety feature that can detect pedestrians in front of the car and brake automatically if the driver doesn't react in time.
The all-new Volvo S60 will be unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show in the beginning of March next year. Production of the sporty saloon will start early summer 2010 at Volvo Cars' plant in Gent, Belgium.
"The customers in this segment want emotional appeal, sporty design and dynamic driving properties. The S60 has it all. We are convinced that it will be one of the strongest contenders around," says Stephen Odell.

BMW plans to officially unveil the more 7 Series-like 2011 5 Series at 2 PM EST / 11 AM PST on November 23. For the moment, however, we're left with the plethora of spy photos and this much-less-revealing but very artistic side profile teaser of the new 5 Series. So how'd they BMW make it?

Easy. BMW designers made use of their kinetic sculpture exhibit located at the automaker's Museum in Munich. Take a look at the artsy-fartsy video below:

This information can be heavily qualified because this is only through the first three quarters of the year and comes after Toyota drastically cut back on production in the first half while Volkswagen took advantage of cash-for-clunkers schemes and other government support for its vehicles in markets like China.

But none of that changes the fact that Volkswagen has quickly passed Toyota and GM at the top of the heap. We'll see if it lasts all year and, hopefully, if it works out any better for them. [The Guardian]

Photo Credit: Matt Cardy/Getty Images

Before we go any further, let's make one thing clear: When I say "sideways," I mean sideways. What we have here is some unhinged, prescription-strength, industrial-grade madness. And the cars—bone-stock Evolution Xs—do it happily, and they ask (beg, plead, pray) for you to keep it up, and all four tires burn like the Cuyahoga while you dance the dance of a thousand rally stars. If you listen closely, you can hear Tommi Mäkinen laughing.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

For the most part, one-day driving schools are not the stuff of legend. You show up, you take a class, you play on a skid pad, and you go home. This is not what happens at the one-day Evolution Experience. Mitsubishi Motors and Russell are well aware of the Evo X's strengths, and as such, the Evo school's curriculum was designed to highlight the car's killer chassis and all-wheel-drive system. Over the course of eight hours, you become intimately familiar with both the laws of physics and the Evo's staggeringly talented rear differential. You also spend most of your time leading with your taillights.

If the whole process sounds boring, then you're either the type of person who gets carsick in the parking lot at church or you have no soul. The school's exercises are spread across two large skid pads and all of Infineon Raceway's 2.5-mile track; the program is aimed at drivers of modest skill, but the ass-out exposure to one of the best all-wheel-drive production cars on the planet should be enough to draw more experienced 'shoes. As with most Russell programs, the emphasis is on tailored instruction and at-your-own-pace improvement; the school's instructors are happy to vary their teaching style based on student skill and need. Counterintuitive lessons abound—the Evo's unique all-wheel-drive system and active rear diff ensure that a lot of old-school techniques don't apply, and you can find yourself at minimum yaw if you try and go with your instincts. (A tip: Countersteer less, throw the car around more. And don't be afraid to throw it hard.)

All told, the Russell program isn't so much driving school as treatise on the Evo's genius—by showing ordinary folk the ins and outs of sliding a rally rocket on dry pavement, it merely reinforces the Lancer's formidable legend. At $1000 tuition, is it a bit too expensive for what you get? Probably. Is the whole production simply an elaborate advertisement for the most capable Mitsubishi ever built? Of course. Does that make it any less worthwhile? Not in the slightest.

The details: Jim Russell Racing Driver's School. Infineon Raceway, Sonoma, California. One thousand ($1000) dollars tuition per driver. www.jimrussellusa.com.

My name is Sam Smith. How did I get here? Why is my brain so fried? What the hell was I doing with a garbage bag full of candy in my house yesterday, and how did I manage to go through all of it in one sitting? What does a titanic sugar crash feel like on no sleep whatsoever? More important, which YouTube videos did I watch, and were they any good?

Some answers:

1. Me: I'm a writer. Always have been, always will be, always wanted to be. By way of illustration, I have four memories of my life before the age of six. Two of them involve weird old British cars, one has me sticking a piece of chocolate-chip cookie up my nose in the back seat of a BMW 2002, and one centers around being told to "put that lousy book away and pay attention" during first-grade math. (Predictably, I cannot balance my checkbook but possess an extensive library of vintage car books.) Five years later, I discovered Peter Egan, Gay Talese, and Ayrton Senna, and my life changed forever.

2. Candy Overdose and Sleep Dep: It feels like the music of Warren Zevon, were the music of Warren Zevon wrapped around a gold brick, attached to the front of a speeding fire truck, and hosed down with the juice of a hundred lemons. Then the sugar wears off and you want to die. (The sensations are similar, but your teeth ache and the whole world smells like Lemon Pledge.) Oddly enough, a good long week of margaritas seems to accomplish the same thing.

3. The videos: Yes, the videos rocked. (Try searching for "Ari Vatanen Climb Dance," but don't do it if you've got someplace to be.)

My road here was a long and twisted one. I've done time as an Alfa Romeo mechanic, helped edit a major car magazine in southeast Michigan (Sam's talking about Automobile Magazine. — Ed.), and held an amateur racing license for most of the past decade. I live in San Francisco but grew up in the Midwest, which means that I miss driving in the snow and occasionally freak out when I can't find good barbecue. I have an unhealthy attachment to rally racing, weird old motorcycles, German film cameras, and the BMW E30 M3. I learned to drive in a car with a crash gearbox, and I love the smell of bourbon. I have a tendency to pay for things in nickels, but I hate change.

I'm happy to be here. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go take a nap.

Photo Credit: Andrew Yeadon/Automobile Magazine

While a production date has not been set, the Converj will join the Caddy lineup as its second hybrid following the Escalade, though it'll be considerably more serious about fuel mileage than that behemoth. With a 40-mile all-electric range just like the Volt, the Converj will be able to command a higher premium at the dealer, or at least not induce the sticker shock everyone has over the Volt. The entire Volt program now makes a lot more sense to us financially. [Detroit News]

I'm not a huge energy drink imbiber, so when the giant NOS box with a canister-like blue bottle and ugly t-shirt showed up I turned to the one place I was sure to find numerous caffeine addicts: a political field office. The job of a field organizer on a political campaign is to identify every potential voter within a given geography and then turn them out on election day.

It involves long days of knocking down doors/making calls and longer nights of entering the information into database. Therefore, it involves drinking a shit ton of caffeine at every turn. I selected Cameron as my victim tester because he exclaimed "Oh, I've never tried that one."

Because it wouldn't be a real review unless I actually tried it, I warmed up with my palette with an appropriate amuse bouche (a Shipley's Bulls Eye Do Nut, which is a yeast donut filled with creme, topped with chocolate, and then topped with whipped creme). Pouring the NOS into a white cup you get to see what you're drinking and it's pretty clear why they've done all they can to disguise it with an opaque bottle.

It looks like radioactive piss.

Fortunately, it tastes better than I can remember radioactive piss tasting (ahh... college). It's clearly citrus-based, sort of a Fresca meets Mountain Dew with an undeniable hint of Flintstone's chewable vitamin you get in any drink that's got a high Taurine content. Cameron rates it a 7/10 but I could really give a shit what he thinks about how it tastes. He's here for one reason: to see how long before he can enter data before the crash.

He downs the drink at around 8:00 pm and we're making bets on just how far he can make it while entering voter IDs into the voter database — a job about as interesting as watching flies fuck. My guess was the witch's brew of taurine, inositol, ginseng, B vitamins, and L-Carnitine (whatever that is) would keep him juiced for a couple of hours before the inevitable crash.

Having ingested only donuts but also involved in boring labor, I worked as the lame control group and decided to check in every 30 minutes. Through the first couple of hours there was no discernible crash and he continued on with an extra bit of zest. Unfortunately, having not ingested an energy drink I wasn't able to stay up long enough to track just how long Cameron went before passing out — but he claims 2 AM, which isn't bad.

Overall, it's not the worst tasting energy drink. it's certainly better than Monster but not quite as refreshing as Bawls. In terms of energy it does the trick, providing about four hours before a crash. The t-shirt I got with it wasn't great, but Cameron was happy to take it off my hands as a reward for his work. And the packaging works if you're mostly an idiot, and I'm guessing mostly-an-idiot is going to be the demo buying this.

Infrequent bursts of fawning published in these pages will prove that the Citroën SM, in its quiet yet revolutionary way, is perhaps the most remarkable automobile ever manufactured. Yet owning one is clearly out of the picture.

Consider: if the engine goes, you’ll have to find a mechanic familiar with 40-year-old carbureted Maserati engines. Then, if anything else goes, you’ll need another mechanic intimate with 40-year-old hydropneumatic Citroëns. If you multiply the respective probabilities of finding such mechanics, you will feel the blood drain from your face.

The nightmarish nature of this scenario is not specific to the United States: contrary to popular belief, Europe does not have trees with mixed bunches of Maserati and Citroën mechanics cavorting on low-hanging branches either.

Yet the SM exerts a powerful visceral tug. Its parts are remarkable by themselves, but the SM is clear testament to the idea that on occasion the whole is indeeed greater than the sum of parts. The strange yet mellifluous 90° V6, the DIRAVI steering, the hydropneumatics, the incredible cabin: the SM’s components combine to make a car that has the ability to cruise in complete comfort at 125 MPH between fillups without breaking down.

Think about that: neither occasional bursts of speed for joy or overtaking nor a single cross-continental blitz with the result of you being on time and your car a smoldering wreck, but a grand tourer for regular grand tours.

The world has since moved on from such earthbound flights of fancy. The SM’s was a world infinitely less hostile to the automobile than ours. Its vehicular contemporaries were:

1. A hypersonic civilian jetliner flirting with time travel
2. A military spy plane made of titanium which could outrun anti-aircraft rockets
3. An air-cooled twelve-cylinder racing car with 1500 HP
4. A giant space rocket which regularly whisked American men from the gravitational pull of the Earth to deposit them on the surface of the Moon
5. The Lamborghini Miura

Yes, wow. That was four decades ago.

Perhaps we should all just forget about the Citroën SM. Ours is a world not of grand tours but of shuffling in socks through airports and molassing along at 65 MPH in plastic cabins.

Yet imagine! Just imagine a contemporary SM.

The Japanese would have to build it. The Japanese are less interested in haphazard, grandiose revolution than in taking established concepts and polishing them to perfection. The way Toyota usurped Mercedes-Benz’s lead in luxury sedans to produce the last word in personal transportation inside motorized whales, the Lexus LS600hL.

But a modern SM is not a Toyota job. In spite of occasional displays of deep petrolhead inspiration—the 2000GT, the AE86, the LFA—Toyota does not make touring cars you’d like to tour in high style in. The modern SM should be a Honda, built on Soichiro Honda’s legacy of mechanical madness and racing chops.

In fact, Honda has already made something akin to a modern SM: the NSX of 1991, a perfect, luxurious grand tourer disguised as a mid-engined sports car and generally mistaken for a Ferrari. Plus, they have taken the SM’s glass headlights enclosure and installed it on the current Civic, which is as close in chutzpah to the SM as a mass-market hatchback can be.

(And it’s not like cooperation between Japanese and French carmakers is such a long shot either. In fact, Citroën already makes a crossover called the C-Crosser on a Japanese platform, the Mitsubishi GS: a base for excellence like the Evo X and also for the abomination that is the Chrysler Sebring.)

Honda could pull it off. As for what our slow world could do with the perfect idea of the touring car executed with Japenese attention to detail, I do not have a clue. But do we really want to go down in history as the generation which has all but abandoned forward motion?

Photo Credit: PlingPlöng/Flickr, afghtiga/Flickr, Infinite Jeff/Flickr, cosmicspanner/Flickr, Ignacio Conejo/Flickr, Jim Ross/NASA, nielsvk/Flickr, Steve Kay/Flickr

The Rally Fighter is the first-ever crowd-sourced "creative commons"-like car, is the culmination of 35,000 designs by 2,900 community members from over 100 countries. Local Motors, the company behind it, plans to change forever the way cars are designed.

For starters, Local Motors doesn't even have a designer for their cars on staff. Each major system of the vehicle — whether it's the exterior design, interior design or doors — heck, even the name — are developed in an open source development process. Once there's enough support for any single design, Local Motors will develop it openly. That means members of the Local Motors community not only choose which designs are developed, but also, they get to help develop them. Contests are held for the development and the winner receives a monetary prize based on the importance of the system to developing the overall vehicle. Thus, door design might receive less money than say, exterior design.

That includes the "where" as well as the what. Local Motors cars are built in regional micro-factories. The first vehicle the community chose to build — the Rally Fighter — will be built at both Local Motors' headquarters in Massachusetts, but also in Arizona, where the car — built for off-road and desert races of the American Southwest — will be primarily used. Each car the Local Motors community designs will be based on regional desires, tastes and preferences.

Better yet is the manufacturing — it's done by the soon-to-be-owner. That's right, once design and engineering is fully developed the buyer goes to the local Local Motors Micro-Factory and builds it — with a little bit of their help.

Brilliant idea? Yes. Even better is that they're looking to work with the major automakers and not against them. The best analogy we've yet heard for the available market for Local Motors is to imagine a glass mason jar filled with marbles. The mason jar represents the total potential U.S. automotive marketplace and the marbles represent cars built by major automakers. You'd notice that there's a lot of nooks, crannies and openings in between those marbles. That represents unfulfilled niche markets that, frankly, just aren't covered by current vehicles available from major automakers because they're too costly for them to build in small runs. Rogers wants Local Motors to be the sand that can fill the crevices of that marble-filled mason jar.

That's what separates Local Motors from a company on the brink of failure like Tesla. Tesla, with its designs on the mid-size sedan segment, looks to replace major automakers. Local Motors wants to work with them. Each Local Motors system competition is looking for the best ideas, not new ideas. So, for instance, why design an engine from scratch, when, like the Rally Fighter, it can use BMW's perfectly good M57 3.0-liter turbo-diesel? Why build a tail light from scratch when you can just use a set from a Honda Civic? Need a Transmission? Use the 6-speed ZF auto tranny. Need a door handle? The Miata's works just fine thank you very much. Go through the car's galleries in this post and try and spot what's being used where. I think you'll be shocked at how much parts-sharing is going on here.

But that's just the start. Imagine a company able to help automakers build the niche products they want to make but just can't because the volume isn't there to make it profitable? Are you an automaker with an E85-burning engine? Contract with Local Motors to make a small volume car in the Midwest with its large ethanol production. Have a compressed natural gas engine? Let Local Motors build a car with it in areas with great CNG infrastructure. There's a lot of space in between marbles they're able to fill.

So let's talk about their first product — the Rally Fighter. Thanks to the very concept caresque styling, when you walk up to it, you're immediately struck with how attractive the Rally Fighter looks. It's got a look inspired by the historic P-51 Mustang fighter plane, right down to the pregnant belly bulge in the fuselage. The lines are swoopy in the right places and it's high up off the ground thanks to 18" of suspension travel necessary for clearing the big rocks n' boulders you'll find in Baja and other rally races.

Although the car's built for both off-road and on, because it's lacking so many weighty creature comforts, and thanks to the big BMW diesel engine, it's capable of 36 MPG on the highway or 30 MPG in an off-road setting. All while pumping out 265 HP and 425 lb-ft of torque to the rear wheels.

It's 189 inches long, 69.25 inches high in "high ride height mode" and 61.25 inches high in "low ride height mode." The wheelbase is 115 inches, track width is 69.5 inches and it has a curb weight estimated between 3,000 and 3,200 lbs. It seats four and it's awesome.

We can't wait to drive it. Do you want one? Head over to Local Motors and drop a deposit down now. The full price will be approximately $50,000 and looks to be well worth it.

While the MV-1 doesn't quite have the fug factor of the VW-Thing-meets-NYC-Taxi look of the Standard Taxi, VPG's planned mobility van isn't going to be winning any beauty contests. It will ride on the same chassis and the low load floor which is roomy in the taxi will be useful in enabling an automatic ramp for wheelchair access in the MV-1.

We're assuming the MV-1 will utilize the same GM 4.3-liter V6 driving the rear wheels, though calls to the company have gone unreturned. Amusingly, the vehicle will use a de Dion rear suspension, similar to what's found in the Caterham 7. (Hat tip to Matt for the pics!)

How can we say such a thing? Well, for starters these aren't Hoverounds SEMA-goers brought with them — these are Hoverounds they rented at SEMA. Seriously folks, this is why you're fat.

The ad was put together by the Richards Group of Dallas (who does all those great Bridgestone ads) and, according to AdAge, may be voiced by company founder Stan Richards himself.

We think the commercial is a bit much, trying to capture the Whitman-esque charm of the new Levi's commercials but, you know, while talking about a truck and not the American spirit. Either way, people who don't know who Walt Whitman is will probably be equally as moved. [AdAge]

But it's not just lighter, it's also powerful thanks to the Boxster Spyder's 3.4-liter six-cylinder engine putting out 320 horses — that's 10 more HP than the Boxster S. So, wait, let's get this straight — it'll be 176 lbs lighter than the Boxster S and get a touch more power? Wow.

If you're already wondering where you sign up — here's better news. The new Porsche also gets an all-new sport suspension that lowers the Boxster Spyder 20 mm providing a lower center of gravity and a standard limited slip differential.

Mate the performance to a unique look reminiscent of the Carrera GT and we already know you're getting your checkbooks ready. But wait, like Billy Mays used to say, there's more — the price tag on the new lightweight Porsche-uh is just $61,200 when it goes on sale in February.

More in the press release below:

2011 Porsche Boxster Spyder: Light, Powerful, Purist Roadster to be Introduced at Los Angeles Auto Show

Porsche's newest entry will be the lightest in its line-up

ATLANTA – November 5, 2009 – Weighing in at just 2,811 lbs., the new 2011 Porsche Boxster Spyder will be the lightest Porsche available – from a company known for lightweight, proficient sports cars. This new mid-engined roadster represents the true, purist form of the sports car – agile, powerful, open and efficient. This third Boxster model will join the Boxster and Boxster S and will make its world debut at the Los Angeles Auto Show, December 2, 2009.

The newest member of the Boxster family stands out from the other versions of Porsche's mid-engined roadster. Its low-slung, lightweight soft top – when closed – extends far to the rear to protect the driver and passenger from bright sunshine, wind and weather. This top, when combined with extra-low side windows and two striking bulges on the single-piece rear lid, provides the Boxster Spyder with a sleek silhouette reminiscent of the Carrera GT.

The Boxster Spyder features a 3.4-liter six-cylinder engine with Direct Fuel Injection upfront of the rear axle. Maximum output is 320 horsepower (hp), 10 hp more than the Boxster S. The combination of 10 more hp and 176 pounds less weight than the award-winning Boxster S, plus an all-new sport suspension that lowers the Boxster Spyder 20 mm, a lower center of gravity, a standard limited slip differential, and exclusive wheels provides the kind of driving dynamics that back up the unique look. Aluminum door skins and lightweight interior door panels from the 911 GT3 RS contribute to the weight reduction.

When equipped with Porsche-Doppelkupplung (PDK) transmission and the Sports Chrono Package, the new Spyder, using Launch Control, accelerates from a standstill to 60 mph in 4.6 seconds. Top track speed is 166 mph – with the roof open.

Fundamentally, the entire Boxster family is the successor to the legendary 550 Spyder and RS 60 of the Fifties and Sixties, all sharing the same mid-engine roadster concept. Low weight and supreme agility combine to provide outstanding driving pleasure.

In 2004 and 2008 Porsche produced limited editions of the Boxster bearing the additional name Spyder, honoring the 550 and RS 60. In contrast, the new Boxster Spyder is a regular, but specially developed and upgraded production model as compared with the Boxster and Boxster S. The 2011 Boxster Spyder goes on sale February 2010. U.S. pricing is $61,200.