This could possibly be Nicks favorite episode of all time as it’s jam packed with Challenger news, then we discuss the new Stealth Film from Xpel, which due to a random turn of events and a missing Lamborghini, got applied to Nick’s beloved Bertha. And of course we were obliged to put their paint protection film to the test with a few massive power slides in a vacant gravel lot.

Then we get to this weeks car review with the mighty Cadillac CTS SportsWagon, and pine after the awesomeness that is the Porsche GT3 all of which you can see in the galleries at the bottom of this post. For those of you listening on Itunes or Stitcher, trust me you’ll want to stop by our site at www.burnoutradio.com to see some of the best automotive eye candy in the history of everness.

Xpel Stealth Film Install on a Dodge Challenger SRT8

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Cadillac CTS SportWagon

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Porsche GT3

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This stands to be the shortest podcast in all Burnout Radio’s history, but for a good reason. You see we were just going to record last weeks show tomorrow as a special road trip broadcast, but then we got a phone call from GM inviting us to drive down to Austin, Texas to drive the Chevy Volt. And that we felt was worth a podcast all to it’s self. So with out further ado, let me present you with the train wreck that was/is Episode 88 2.0, completely and totally dedicated to the pure awesomeness that is the Chevy Volt, which of course leads us to ponder the future of after market tuning in this electric age.

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Who would have though so much fun could be had in such a quirky looking package? The Suzuki SX4 is one of those cars that is defiantly more than the sum of it’s parts. An absolute riot to drive, and more amenities than it’s price tag  ($17,900) would suggest, the Suzuki SX4 is only let down by one thing… it’s looks, quirky, awkward, and odd would be an appropriate description.

Aside from driving like maniacs down a dry river bed in a really fun car, there is a bit of a downer to this episode. As you may have noticed, we have missed quite a few weeks without recording a show this season and as such Episode 87 will be the last Saturday night podcast, which means Amber will no longer be joining us every week, due to the new time conflicting with her work / school schedule.

From now on you can look for the live broadcast to be at our new (old) time of Friday afternoons. But for now, sit back and enjoy the show, and don’t forget to check out the car porn  in the gallery below.

Oh and Nick just has the Black Lung, he’s not really going to cough and hack himself to death…

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What happens when the Burnout Radio crew descends on the sleepy backwoods towns of Mena Arkansas, and Talhinia Oklahoma? Shenanigans of course. Especially when we come thundering up the mountains with the Growling v8 of an uncorked 2010 Corvette Grand Sport,  accompanied by baritone roar emanating from the V6 power plant belonging to a 2010 370z.

We were there to drive one of the best roads with in a days drive of Dallas Texas, the Talimena Skyway. This is a special road, built not for transportation, but to capture the beauty of the surrounding mountains. It’s an enjoyable drive, made even more so by two of the hottest convertibles money can buy.

But first we’ve got a guest. You may know him from twitter as @sandbarmark, his real name is Mark Stevenson and he’s the proprietor of the newly formed Shift and Drive, an automotive site dedicated to car geeks.

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Suzuki has thrown down the gauntlet, and offered up $100 dollars to anyone who test drives their Kizashi against one of their competitors, namely the Acura TSX and Audi A4, and doesn’t buy the Kizashi. We were more than glad to oblige, on Acura’s behalf of course.

We snatched up an Acura TSX we happened to have laying around, found a deserted back country road, and proceeded to flog the crap out of both cars for an afternoon. The results may surprise you.

You read it correctly. We’ve managed to put thousands of miles on high performance hot rods, Mustangs, Camaros, Corvettes, Z’s and CTS-V’s, yet when we review a Hybird, possible the slowest car we’ve ever reviewed, guess who scores Burnout Radio’s first ticket in a press car. None other than the one and only Nick Malone.

After we finish poking fun at Nick’s misfortune, we get down to the business of deciding which one of these two Ford Fusions is the bomb digitty. You see we’re not reviewing just one Ford Fusions, but two… The aforementioned Fusion Hybrid, which in our opinion is the best Hybrid on sale in the U.S., and the Ford Fusion Sport, the only American mid-sized sports sedan on sale in the U.S.

So with out further ado we present you with a bit of Spy vs Spy, Burnout Radio style.

Apparently I hate old people. At least that’s what Nick, Amber and the chat room decided when I proposed that after a certain age, every one should have to be medically approved to pilot the 2 ton death missiles we call cars. So I guess that means I hate old people. So stay the hell out of the fast lane and turn yup your hearing aid for Episode 83 of Burnout Radio.

And we’re back? Did you miss us? It’s been a looooong time since we’ve recorded an episode. So long in fact that we couldn’t remember what episode this was.  Chalk it up to NASCAR, Jimmy Buffett and a very angry wife. Rest assured we’re back from our forever long hiatus with not one, not two, but three new shows!

This week we revisit the 2010 Mustang GT500 only this time it’s in convertible dress. But before that we’ll discuss Car and Drivers 25 Cars Worth Waiting For.

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We’ve had a number of listener requestes to see a behind the scenes look at a media drive. So I figured there couldn’t be a better media drive to showcase than the 2011 Mustang Drive. So here’s day one with the 305 HP 31 MPG v6. The SoCal weather was good, the roads were great and the car was awesome. Check out day two with the 5.0L v8 in the video response box below!

Special thanks to Adam Barrera from www.highmileage.org for guest hosting and to Shawn Carney from Ford Engineering for melting the tires on our v6 for us.

Note: The audio is kind of jacked for the first 1:20 because I forgot to turn on the preamp for the microphone.

Here’s day two with the 412 HP 5.0L v8. The SoCal weather was good, the roads were great and the car was awesome. Don’t forget to check out the v6 from day one as well. Very impressive.

Special thanks to Adam Barrera from www.highmileage.org for guest hosting and to all the folks from Ford for providing us with this once in a lifetime opportunity.

So I’m a very lucky individual, and I happen to have to best job on earth. Case in point, last week the good folks at Ford invited me out to Southern California to drive the all new 2011 Mustangs on some of the best roads in America. So sit back and listen as we wax eloquently about the goodness that is the new 5.0L and v6 Mustang.

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You heard right. In some states if you kill it they’ll grill it! PURE TASTINESS!!!!

Nick is laying low for this episode. He caught some nasty little kid disease, so he’s broadcasting from an FDA approved Level 5 Containment Facility to fill us in on our review of the week, the 2010 Nissan Altima Coupe 3.5  RS. This would have been the shortest episode ever on the account of a total lack of preparation on our part, but for the first time in history we decided to let our itunes listeners join in for the post show, which has typically been the domain of our live viewers.

This week it’s all about one bad Caddy, the all new CTS Wagon, which just happens to be Ambers new favorite ride. We even got to pit the CTS Wagon head to head against the SRX Turbo.

Amber’s back, and just in time for our chat room to christen Nick with his very own nick name. (get it? get it?! haha i kill me some times…) Then I try and review the hellatiously good Mazda Speed3. Which is one of the best cars on the market for under $25K. But for some reason Nick and Amber just won’t cooperate.

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Talk about your ultimate sleeper. The Infiniti FX50s in not only bad to the bone, its dead sexy to boot. Everything about this is done to perfection. From the gorgeous sculpted body lines to the aluminum roof rack and wave textured front grille insert every singe surface has been caressed by a designer. It’s no different on the inside as you are wrapped in excellent quality leather with high end wood grain inserts.

And then there’s the tech. Holy crap. Every bit of tech in the car is turned up to 11. It’s got a 5.0L V8 putting out 400 ponies through a 7 speed paddle shifted gearbox with some seriously short shifts a sport tuned suspension you can adjust on the fly, all wheel steer to go along with your all wheel drive, and more computers than you can shake a stick at. All for the low low price of $63,000.

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Take one Montery Blue Nissan 370z add dash of snowpocalypse and a pinch of your typical Burnout Radio antics, let that simmer and BAM! throw in an ass ton of NISMO goodness to really spice things up! That’s right not only did we get our hands on a brand spanking new 2010 370z, we also got our hands the number 5 NISMO produced!

If you’re wondering what the title has to do with the show, let’s just say that’s the color Nick should have ordered his Challenger in.

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Several weeks back Nick and I celebrated our birthdays with a podcast while were watching the 24 Hours of Daytona, with a few of our friends. (Yes I know this is really late deal with it.) Several beers later, this is what we ended up with. Much Toyota hate, a debate on the applications and philosophies of Drivers Education, some of Nick’s infamous news bits, and finally we wax eloquently about the 2010 GMC Terrain and the 2010 V6 Mustang which just happend to be living in the Burnout Radio stable that week. Then just when you think we’d be done we delve into the 2010 Buick Regal which I got to spend some time with at the Huston Auto Show.

This week I challenged my fellow co-hosts to find the best sports cars money can buy… for under five grand. But first Nick manages to drag up every boring, dreary, and dull bit of automotive related news that happened over the past week. Then we touch on the new 2010 Buick Lacrosse CXS.

So as I’m sure all of you heard on Episode 70 (You DID listen to Episode 70 right?!), we got to hang out with Berry Lowman of Team Hall-N-Nass fame at the Cadillac Culinary Tour. What was the CCT? A fun filled night of fast cars and really good food at some of the best restaurants in Dallas all provided by the good folks from General Motors.

So what happens when you mix Half of Burnout Radio, half of Team Hall-N-Nass and a side of 306 hp Sports Wagon? Well it’s a culinary  recipe for major hoonage all of which you can read about over at the Team Hall-N-Nass blog. Rest assured I’ll have something up over here in my defense shortly.

We’re back from our yearly Christmas / New Years / Uber Laziness hiatus for the kick off of Season 3. This week we’ve got some juicy tid bits from the NAIAS briefings like the Buick Regal GS Concept and the 2012 Ford Focus. Then we shift gears to talk about some sweet new Volt Tech courtesy of OnStar, and Ford’s new take on Sync the are calling myFord. Then we shock the industry with the announcement of the return of the vaunted 5.0 in the 2011 Mustang… no wait that was way back in episode 68, but it’s official now! But wait there’s more! GM also announced a new special edition color for the v6 Camaro on top of all that we heard tail of the new Ferrari 420 Dino.

The new GT500 is like a snake, a very, very pissed off snake that’s looking to try and kill you and that’s what makes it so fun to drive. You always feel like you’re driving on the edge even when your not. This car is far from practical, but once you mash down on the skinny pedal none of it’s impracticality matters because once that 540 horse power super charged v8 starts to sing it’s siren song all you can think about is MORE MORE MORE!!!!!!

Without further ado here’s the video you’ve been waiting for and once you’re finished with that you can listen to our indepth review of the 2010 Mustang GT500 here.

Well folks this is it. We are bringing our second season to a close, and that means it’s time for the prestigious Burnout Radio Awards. But first we have to talk about the 2010 CTS-V. I know what you’re thinking “Holy crap they gave Burnout Radio a CTS-V?!” Well not exactly. We kind of  ”borrowed” it from the Cadillac Culinary Tour, at which we were supposed to be driving the CTS Wagon and the SRX, but we just couldn’t resist taking the V for a quick joyride.

From all of us at Burnout Radio, thanks for making this a great year. And a very special thanks to our guests on this show, Berry Lowman of Team Hall-N-Nass fame, Gary Ragland, for performaing his rendition of the URPA song, and of course Amber Walters, who joined us in studio for the Burnout Radio Awards. Speaking of which, don’t forget to stop by the site and vote to see if Amber will be joining us full time next season.

One last side note, this is our new longest podcast ever at over 2 hours in length! So feel free to use your fast forward buttons as necessary. We’ll see you guys on January 15th for the Season 3 kick off!

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Picture this… You adjust the temprature down a few degrees, turn on your seat ventilation and ask your chauffeur to open the panoramic roof so you can enjoy the beautiful Southern California sun. Then you sip your artisan spring water that’s been kept chilled by the built in refrigerator to quench that parched throat. How do the peasant folk survive? Now sit back and enjoy the beautiful scenery along Pacific Coast Highway… that is currently flying by at 80+ miles an hour.

That’s exactly how my trip to San Jose went this past summer. You see my chauffeur for the afternoon was none other than Jack Baruth, vetran of the CTS-V Challenge, author of Avoidable Contact, and professional racing driver extraordinaire. We’re not in just any luxury cruiser either. No, we are in the 2010 Lincoln MKT equipped with the 3.6L EcoBoost and All Wheel Drive, which makes this quite possibly the fastest station wagon ever manufactured in the United States. It’s fast enough to keep pace with a very distraught BMW 6 Series up ahead who’s driver is quite frustrated with the fact he can’t shake this 5000lbs station wagon off his tail, not even in the twisty bits. Yes it seems the designers and engineers at Lincoln have reinvented that quintessential “Hot Rod Lincoln”.

As we’re winding down the Pacific Coast Highway out in California, I can’t help but wonder if this is the start of a revolution in America. For years we have had to sacrifice luxury for performance or vice versa. You couldn’t have both. You could either have a pillowy soft suspension devoid of any feedback or you could have a wonderful kidney jarring experience every time you stepped in to your underpowered v8 “muscle” car that got shit for gas mileage. Not anymore. With Ford’s new EcoBoost technology you can have your cake and eat it to.

We’re talking V8 power (355hp.) in a Twin Turbo V6 with the flattest torque curve I’ve ever seen (350lbs.-ft. @ 1500 – 5700 rpm). Add to that All Wheel Drive, and a luxurious interior and now you’re pushing the right buttons.

However there are a couple of things I find a bit lacking with all of Ford’s new EcoBoost hod rods. First is the suspension. It could be a bit more planted. In it’s current form it gives a wonderful ride, but in the twisty bits it does not inspire confidence. Second is the Breaks. There is no way to tip toe around this… they suck. Not just in the MKT but in the MKS and the Taurus SHO as well. They are adequate for daily driving, but if you are as predisposed to “spirited driving” as we are (this show is called Burnout Radio after all isn’t it?) then the breaks fade pretty quickly and they just aren’t big enough to stop 4000 to 5000 lbs. vehicles with 350+ hp. So Ford / Lincoln listen up because apparently you missed the memo, $40,000+ “performance” vehicles get break upgrades these days. And my last complaint is fuel mileage. There is no Eco in EcoBoost so far. Don’t get me wrong I love the 3.5L EcoBoost. It is my current favorite motor. 22 miles per gallon just ain’t going to cut it for anything named EcoBoost. Yes I understand this is a 350hp motor powering a 5000lbs. station wagon, but it gets practically the same fuel mileage in the MKS and the SHO.

Even with the set back in suspension, breaking, and fuel economy, the MKT is still one of the best cars in it’s class. It has iconic styling thanks to its bow wave grill, curving shoulder line, and it’s delightfully weird rear end.

Even with the set back in suspension, breaking, and fuel economy, the MKT is still one of the best cars in it’s class. It has iconic styling thanks to its bow wave grill, curving shoulder line, and it’s delightfully weird rear end. Lincoln has also updated their color palate to include colors like Tuxeo Black and Metallic Cinnamon. Mmmmm tasty.

I’d never thought I’d say this but I’m in love with a Lincoln, and it’s a station wagon to boot.  Somehow it just doesn’t seem right. A superpower twin turbo v6 in a giant station wagon / suv thing with a luxury interior and it’s been styled by designers not accountants. Congratulations Lincoln you making good cars again. Now I just have to come to grips with my new love affair.

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So one of our listeners asked us a question we get quite often, Should I get a Mustang for my first car? As much as we love the Mustang, we had to say no… and here’s why.

Yup you read right. The guys from Expo Motors and Spyker agreed to let me drive one of their quarter million dollar super cars. And not just any old Spyker, the new production prototype Spyker C8 Aileron. It’s just to bad they wouldn’t let me take it home.  Believe me I tried. But before we get to that we’ll take you guys along for our 45 minute trip to the L.A. Auto Show where we got to see things like the Volvo S60 Concept.

Don’t forget to see the interview with Spyker’s Vinnie Russo and the image galleries below.

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Volvo, like most of the auto industry is in dire straights.They desperately need a flagship car for the future to bring in potential buyers. Because let’s face it, the only thing that stirs your pulse less than a Volvo is a Toyota Prius. In the past Volvo’s tended to be be at best beige and uninteresting and at worst down right coma inspiring. And so far only the Japanese and the Koreans have figured out how to coma inducing cars.

European cars need to have a sense of Euro-Sheik, a European flare if you will. We as American buyers want to be able to picture ourselves winding down and Alp, cruising across Millau Viaduct, or through the streets of Monaco.  Those things are decidedly un-Volvo… or are they?

“The all-new S60 will be one of the strongest players in a segment where the competition is razor-sharp,” says Volvo Cars President and CEO Stephen Odell. “Your damn right it is!”  is what I say. Provided it looks like the concept we saw at the 2009 L.A. Auto Show. I never thought I’d say this but, that is one sexy Volvo!

Sweet Jesus it looks like Volvo finally hired a designer! The panoramic glass roof, the killer chrome wheels, the elongated tear drop head lights and the knife thin tail lights, where in the hell did they come from? Not to mention the asymetrically split seat in the interior, the floating center console and did I mention the panoramic glass roof?! PANORAMIC GLASS ROOF!!!!!! It looks like the entire top of the car is glass. Look how they split the roof from the rear wind shield, it’s gorgeous!

I’m in love with the way the top of steering wheel’s hub slopes right in to the steering column and how they packaged all the controls, gauges, and screens to be driver centric thus creating an asymmetrical dash. That asymmetry is carried through out the interior.

Volvo claims this the S60 is inspired by Scandinavia with touches like Viking longboat inspired headlamps, and an open roof , continually flowing lines, and a shoulder line that has two separate and distinct curves. (Outside the long boat thing I’m not real sure what the rest of that has to do with Scandinavia but, hey if it works…)

One of the touches that really impressed me was the use of lighting as a design element something that seems to be becoming quite a trend in the auto industry. Volvo’s designers used something they are calling a DNA light on the front grill next to the head lights, and the transparent mounts for the rear view mirrors are also illuminated and work as part of the turn signal indicators.

This cars speaks of speed, but it’s not aggressive, loud, or overbearing. Hell they even painted it a lovely shade of beige, well they are calling it “Warm Liquid Copper” but we all know it’s beige. Strangely enough I like this car in beige. Here’s why. The world is full of boring cars and loud obnoxious cars. What we lack are beautiful, sexy, classy cars that are at the same time some how… understated. What surprises my is that Volvo, is the company poised to provide that classy yet understated luxury, that is if the S60′s style survives the engineers and accountants on it’s way to production.

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Well maybe not but it sure as hell should be able to! This week on Burnout Radio it’s ALL about the Corvette Grand Sport. 0-60 mph in 4.0 seconds, and this car is so easy to launch your grandma could do it. We also found a BMW owner that’s a complete and total douche bag, and Low Flying Pelican strikes a Bugatti. Apple wants to ruin the automotive industry and we try to figure out just what in hades is an Arash?

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That’s right this week we are reviewing none other than the 2010 Ford Mustang GT500! It’s big. It’s bad. And it looks like, given half a chance, it would eat you. What more do you need? Listen along as I try to review the GT500 and Nick keeps obsessing over his beloved Challenger.

In other news we found the widest road ever built. We now know why Nick is possibly the scariest driver ever. There’s yet another new Ferrari, while Mclaren is delaying the launch of it’s new supercar. Then Chrysler is offering exactly what we don’t need in a moving vehicle… live tv! We’ve also found some of the ugliest cars of the past 50 years, and Toyota announces the FT-86 concept.

Ok we’ve finally gotten around to posting our review of the 2010 Camaro SS. Holy Jesus this car rocks! I’d bore you with the other stuff we covered in the podcast, but let’s be honest do you really care? So I’ll just leave you with some Camaro porn.

So this has been sitting around for damn near a month becuase I lost the files. Luckly we were able to salvage them but the audio quality is not the greatest. It is definatly worth a listen since Scott Settlemire, The Fbod Father himself, was awesome enough to agree to be on our show while he was in town setting up for the State Fair of Texas. We gave over the entire show to all things Camaro so sit back  and enjoy an hour of Camaro history.

According to CBS News Dimitrios P. Biller, the former managing counsel for Toyota claims his complaints about the company’s legal misconduct cost him his job.

Biller’s 75-page complaint says that when he came to Toyota after nearly 15 years in private practice, he was “surprised and alarmed” to discover that the company was not producing e-mails and other electronically stored information to plaintiffs as he said was required. According to the lawsuit, Biller repeatedly complained to supervisors that the company was illegally withholding evidence.

- CBS News

Biller apparently suffered a mental melt down over the issue and was forced to leave with a $3.7 million dollar severance package. News of the impending lawsuit has peaked a few lawyers intrests who hold suspicions that foreign automakers have been withholding evidence.

Toyota states that the chargers are “inaccurate and misleading,” and in a statement made to CBS News Toyota states that, “Toyota takes its legal obligations seriously and works to uphold the highest professional and ethical standards.”

Toyota denies the accusations, calling the lawyer a disgruntled former employee out for revenge. Analysts say the allegations, if true, could have enormous financial consequences for the company. “The petition alleges conduct by Toyota that would cause every case ever resolved by Toyota in the past 10 years to be reopened,” said one Texas lawyer. “We intend to ask the courts to re-open these lawsuits.”

The Newser reports that:

Toyota denies the accusations, calling the lawyer a disgruntled former employee out for revenge. Analysts say the allegations, if true, could have enormous financial consequences for the company. “The petition alleges conduct by Toyota that would cause every case ever resolved by Toyota in the past 10 years to be reopened,” said one Texas lawyer. “We intend to ask the courts to re-open these lawsuits.”

-Rob Quinn

Regardless of the cases outcome this does not look good for Toyota’s Public Relations.

It’s true! Apparenlty in Australia it rains Frozen Koalas duing WRC Rally Races. Honda realses images of the new Crosstour and let just say it didn’t get rave reviews. In the world of Formula 1 Force India finally gets a podium finish only to have Ferrari steal their star driver, Giancarlo Fisichella. Then we find out that the government still can’t add. BMW rocks out with the new Efficent Dynamics concept, and Audi has been bisy this past week, with the rumors of the impending release of and electric R8, and Audi’s president Johan de Nysschen, calls the Chevy Volt a car for idiots thanks to it’s $40,000 price tag. Then we have the most stolen cars in the U.S. and car rentals by the hour with www.ZipCars.com.

It looks as if the guys over at fordbastards.org can take one bastard off their list… or can they?

Sadly enough the SHO is not what it’s cracked up to be, but that is NOT a bad thing, it’s just not the SHO we were expecting. What we got instead was one bad ass full sized sedan. Gone are the days when the Taurus was the boring beige sedan of the rental car stables. The 2010 Taurus is beige done right and if you opt for the SHO version you will be pleased.

The 2010 Taurus SHO makes one hell of a sleeper thanks to it’s austere exterior. Anyone that misses the small SHO badge on the trunk will be surprised when you uncork that twin turbo v6 monster hiding under the hood. And yes it is a monster, but a mild mannered one. Cruising at highway speeds, Ford’s EcoBoost v6 lopes along at 1200 rpms, but a slight blip of the throttle raises the engine to 1500 rpm where it makes peak torque all the way to 5200 rpm. That hefty torque curve sends the SHO screaming to 60 mph in just over 5 seconds and then it rockets on to the quarter mile in just 13.92 seconds at 100 mph! Hard to believe that from a 5.5ft tall 4,000 lbs 4 doors sedan, but the video below proves it.

It may have one bad ass motor and a good 6 speed electronic gear box, but the spongy suspension, and Good Year all season tires will left me wanting more in the handling department. In hard corners there’s just too much body roll, and the all wheel drive system is setup to bias the front wheels, so it suffers from massive under steer thanks to the all season tires and the SHO’s 2 ton bulk. It doesn’t end there, as soon as the under steer is under control, the all wheel drive system sends power to the rear wheels resulting in tail whipping over steer.

So, no the Taurus holds no love for the twisty bits of road, but to dwell on the lack luster handling would be to miss the point of this new Taurus SHO. Ford may have missed the mark on recreating the old SHO, but what they ended up with instead is one of the best highway cruisers I have ever driven.

The car looks the part too, it’s low slung appearance hides it’s 5.5 height and it’s massive bulk. Earl Lucas has done a wonderful job with the exterior styling. The huge 20 inch tall wheels and low profile tires give the Taurus SHO an aggressive stance. That combined with the raking shoulder line, narrow projector style headlights, and a touch of chrome in the grill, narrow windows, and faux finder vents all serve to give the 2010 Taurus SHO an attractive yet unassuming design… beige done right. Who better to tell us about the exterior design that Earl Lucas himself as he was nice enough to give us a wonderful interview about his role in designing the exterior of the 2010 Taurus, which we’ve included below.

The interior of the Taurus SHO is one of the best in it’s class. Every single person I have seen get in to a new Taurus has said exactly the same thing, “Wow! This is a Taurus?” The exterior may have a subdued attractiveness but the interior fit and finish is anything but subdued. There is no mistaking the comfort and luxury afforded the occupants of the 2010 Taurus.

The heated and ventilated front seats are equipped with both 5 way adjustable lumbar support, and massaging seat backs / bases. Making them comfortable even on the longest of trips. The back seats are more than comfortable and have ample space for three adults. They are even equipped with seat heaters and rear air-conditioning vents.

The high center console in it’s slick piano black finish and the wraparound dash, give the feeling of sitting in a very large cockpit although some of the head unit controls are a bit difficult to reach. All of the storage bins are hidden under flush mounted covers that open by merely touching them. Under one of those covers hides the buttons that control the rear window shade and the ambient lights located throughout the interior.

With a tech options list that reads like a Mercedes: blind spot detectors, active cruise control, a collision detection system that primes the breaks in preparation for an emergency stop, back up cameras, back up sensors, and cross traffic alert that keep you safe in those ever dangerous mall parking lots; the new Taurus SHO has everything you could imagine in a car but for me in the end it is Ford’s Sync system that really rises to the top as one option I can’t do with out. Sync’s voice activation makes using the system’s many features very intuitive such as asking for directions; simply say Italian food and Sync will show you a list of nearby Italian eateries.

Sync’s Bluetooth interface allows complete voice control over your cell phones contacts list by simply loading your contacts into the system. Add to that A2DP connectivity, which allows you to stream your music (or even the Burnout Radio podcasts) wirelessly to your cars speaks. No wires to plug in, and nothing to connect.

I could go on for days singing the praises of Ford’s Sync system but that is for another article, suffice to say, Sync is the icing on the cake that is the 2010 Ford Taurus SHO.

So, no the new SHO is not what we were expecting, it’s something completely different. What it turned out to be, is possibly the best luxury sedan under $45,000.

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Last week CNN 650 AM asked us to to an interview with their morning show about our involvement with the Fiesta Movement. So of course I recorded the whole thing to bring to our listeners complete with all the technical issues you’ve grown to love!

No Nick didn’t shave his head, you’ll understand when you listen to this weeks cast. This podcast was so rife with technical difficulties it’s not even funny. We tried switching to stickam.com to stream the cast but it kept locking up, then our guest couldn’t get though on skype so in the end we just gave up on all the internet technology and recorded it old school style. Just me and Nick jaw jacking in to a couple of microphones, hence the title.

All technical difficulties aside there were some really cool developments in the automotive industry this past week. First we have Mini releasing a few rendering of the new Mini Coupe, Ford Racing puts on a good show in the desert, and we found out about a little known car called the Rossion Q1.

Bonus time! So we got a call from Team Hall & Nass who just got in from the Dustball Rally offering to come on our show last week and we of course couldn’t turn them down. So we all got together with Trent Landreth from Reflections of the Drive and came up with bonus episode for you guys chock full of Dustball goodness.

This week we brought in Demetri Cassius from Trophy Nissan to let you guys in on the other side of buying a car. We all know that purchasing your next ride can be a bit of a chore and Demetri’s here to help make that chore into a fun experience, after all as any gear head knows buying that big v8 muscle car of your dreams should be a day you cherish, right up there with your first born child.

If you guys have anymore questions for Demetri you can reach him at askdemetri@yahoo.com. Tell him you got his email off burnoutradio.com and we’ll give you 20 internet dollars.**

**Internet dollars are only redeemable at sites such as youtube and wikipedia. Internet dollars are not redeemable for cash and thus have no cash value. Internet dollars are void where prohibited by law including but not limited to Sweden, Botswana, Thailand, and the United Arab Emirates.

***Oh and my apologies for the bad audio quality. I screwed up and recorded the entire cast from the wrong microphone.

Well it looks like after a 103 year reign the Stanley Steamer’s world land speed record of 127 mph have been shattered by Charles Burnett III diving a car simply known as The Steam Car. check out cnet for the full story.

This one is just a tad bit late. I found this gallery of images just languishing on our server without a post to house it so I decided to give it a home.  A few months back we visited the RiceKiller.com Exotic Car Show. With cars like the Ferrari Enzo, Lamborghini Gallardo Ford GT, and Aerial Atom it’s probably the only time you’ll ever see this much car porn sitting in one place for free.

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And gearheads every where rejoice! Because not all of the great American Iron was destroyed as part of this ill conceived government plan. As a matter of fact most of the trade in were American SUV’s.  

In case you ‘ve been living under a rock for the past few weeks, I’ll fill you in on how the program works. You take your old gas guzzler down to the dealership and they give you $3500 – $4500  cash for it provided it:

• gets horrid gas mileage
• has been insured for the past 12 consecutive months
• has been registered for the past 12 consecutive months
• and has been owned by you for the past 12 consecutive months

You are then allowed to trade it in on something green and tree hugger friendly, preferably something like a Toyota Prius, or a Honda Insight, but in reality you can swap it out for anything that gets something like 6 or 8 mpg better that your old ride.

That doesn’t sound so bad now does it? It really doesn’t and Cash for Clunkers has been a huge “success” and I use the term loosely, because although we the American people have paid out over 3 billion in U.S. tax dollars to bail out SUV driving soccer moms everywhere, the majority of that money did not end up in the hands of U.S. car manufactures.

As you can see from the two list’s below, ALL that’s right ALL of the top 10 traded-in vehicles were U.S. trucks and suv’s. Where as 8 of the top 10 vehicles purchased under the CARS program were Japanese or Korean.

CAUTION SOAP BOX WARNING!

Since when did the American government start giving tax payer money to foreign auto manufactures? Especially ones located in countries that limit the number of cars America can export to them, while they sell hundreds of thousands of cars here in the U.S.? WTF?! Is it a requirement that once elected to office and upon arriving in Washington, all politicians must turn in both their commonsense and their calculator?!

Seriously, I am 100% against sending tax payer dollars overseas. If the government feels obligated to spend billions to help out AMERICAN owned companies then fine, I may not like it but I can at least understand it, and I probably wouldn’t have a problem with Cash for Clunkers if it only went to benefit American companies, but I see no reason why we should send 80% of the tax payer dollars spent on Cash for Clunkers overseas.

END SPOAP BOX!

It seems to me that Cash For Clunkers was the first government bail out to put cash in the hands of real American people, and that was the reason for its success. The bad thing is that the program was skewed towards imports because of the fuel mileage restraints and thus it missed it’s mark. It did not help out our American auto manufactures and instead it helped out their competition.

In the end we survived the CARS program and many many soccer mom mobiles have been removed from the roads, so in that I will rejoice.

So you’re a broke bastard dreaming about just how you’d put together your ultimate Mustang GT. You know, the one you’ve dreamed about since you were a little kid? We’ll Ford has been nice enough to develop a program you can play with call The Customizer. It allows you to make the perfect image of your dream ride and then download it to your desktop so you can use it as your background of the week. Don’t worry if you find yourself weeping sobs of sorrow because you know yrou wife won’t let you get that dream car, *sniff* There are many many guys out there like us doing exactly the same thing.

Finally GM is listenening! We now have the affordable Corvette we’ve always wanted! this bad body falls right in between the base Vett and the Z06. Base vett price with Z06 performance… err well close enough. Bravo GM!

Do you bleed Ford blue? If so then this show was perfect for you. Earlier this month we got the chance to attend the Yellow Rose Classic, which is an all Ford or Ford related car show held at the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, Texas.

Not only were there plenty of the requesit Mustangs in all varieties but there some anchient Model A’ s and T’s as well as a number of Tigers and Panteras. Not to mention some beautiful examples Shelby Cobra Kits and a handful of some of Ford’s more rare cars. Don’t worry you can see many of these fine rides in the gallery below. But first a little Yellow Rose history…

The Yellow Rose Classic is the North Texas Mustang Club’s answer to the demand for a quality indoor show-featuring classic, antique, and collectible Ford automobiles and trucks. This annual event began in 1990 with 50,000 square feet of display space at the Amon G. Carter, Jr. Exhibit Hall. Demand exceeded space and this show grew to 100,000 square feet of space in 1992. Show participants include individuals, Ford enthusiast car clubs, and both local and nationally known vendors.

-North Texas Mustang Club

And now a little Yellow Rose history for our listeners not lucky enough to reside in the great state of Texas…

“The Yellow Rose of Texas” is a traditional folk song which has long been popular in the United States and is considered an unofficial state song of Texas. The actual author is unknown…

…the song is based on a Texas legend from the days of the Texas War of Independence. According to the legend, a free African American woman named Emily D. West, a mulatto and hence the reference to “yellow”, seized by Mexican forces during the looting of Galveston, seduced General Antonio López de Santa Ana, President of Mexico and commander of the Mexican forces. The legend credits her supposed seduction with lowering the guard of the Mexican army and facilitating the Texan victory in the battle of San Jacinto waged in 1836 near present-day Houston. Santa Ana’s opponent was General Sam Houston, who won the battle literally in minutes, and with almost no casualties.

- Wikipedia

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This week Thomas from MicrocarMag.com fame stopped but to talk what else but micro cars and Fiesta with us, and then we get all giddy about one bad ass Chevy Camaro 2LT RS!

This car should be illegal because it will stop traffic everywhere it goes. Autoblog has some awesome pics on their site which you guys can see here.

I love the center console, and the way the radio screen hides in the dash and the steering wheel controls look to be dead simple. But we all know that no one is going to care what the inside looks like when the exterior looks like that. ^

It’s time for a bonus round! So after yesterday’s podcast I went back out to visit with Adam Barrera after a fun filled night at the final Scion Drag-n-Brag hosted at Texas MotorSpeedway where we exposed the scandal at Mayor’s Cup Challenge Media Race. Then we speculate on the “What is 230?” debate. (now we know it’s the proposed gas mileage for the Chevy Volt) and after all that we wrap up the cast with a round table discussion of the new 2010 Taurus SHO! Be on the look out for our video review which should be posted in the next few days. After we wrapped up the show we headed out to the Yellow Rose Classic which is an all Ford car show put on at the Amon Carter Museam over in Fort Worth by the North Texas Mustang Club. Its too bad Nick couldn’t make it for this cast. He had some excuse about having to work a real job or something like that.

Now you guys know that I’m not the biggest fan of BMW’s. I got much respect for what they build but they are just not my cup of tea. A bit to techy for my tastes. And the designs tend to be pretty beige. But then I found this over at BMWBlog.com… and I fell in love. If BMW can design something like the M1 Homage pictured to the left then what to we keep getting the boring drivel they call the 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,9,10 series? They may be decent looking super nice, super quick cars, but they just blend in with everything else on the road.

This M1 on the other hand, now that is a beauty. It’s just too bad it’s only a design exercise.

The purpose of the new M1 project is uncertain and the M1 Hommage is strictly a design exercise meant to celebrate the past of its supercar. The car displayed at the Villa d’Este Concours was  a non-functional prototype, with no engine and interior, but with working lights and steering. Of course, the speculations will start flowing now and many people will probably look forward to a future design similar to the M1 Hommage, but there are no clues on whether BMW will ever manufacture an M1.

- BMWBlog.com

If you guys will remember, awhile back we talked about the Garlic Bread Baron who offered to buy Viper from Chrysler Motor Corp. Well it just happens to be that the infamous Garlic Bread Baron goes by the name of Mr. Devon and he owns a little company called Devon Motorworks. In case you are not familiar with them they are the master minds behind the GTX which is the lovely beauty you see to the left… the car not the woman. Although I must say their taste in both is impeccable. Just look at this beautifully designed car.

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So what is the GTX? Well it’s exactly what it appears to be. A Dodge Viper with a body kit… or not really. That’s like saying a full on Saleen is just another Mustang. Take a look at the video below and see what I mean.

So we’ve established that it looks sexy as hell. So what about power? We’ll all we’ve got to go on is a rumored 650 ponies. Not too shabby considering the base Viper V-10 is pushing out just 510 horse power and 530 ft.lbs torque.

Beneath the skin of the Devon GTX is an 8.4-liter (510 cubic inches) V-10 engine that produces 650 horsepower (484.7 kW) at 6100 rpm. The V-10 engine is mated with a track-proven six-speed manual transmission.

- Devon Motors

Deveon didn’t stop there, the entire body is made from ultra lightweight aircraft grade carbon fiber. So that’s a combo that put the GTX in the books at Laguna Seca. Don’t believe it? Here’s more video proof below.

The GTX isn’t  just a boy racer though. It’s a full on super car as is apparent by it’s price. a whopping $500,000 dollars. Yes you read that right that’s 5 zeros. And for a half million dollars Devon Motors has got to deliver the goods and it appears they do with some trick stuff like fold a away gauge cluster and “sensory touch switchwork” that replaces mundane things like door handles and knobs. I’m not exactly sure what “sensory touch stichworks is”  but I’ll bet it translates roughly as “expensive” in English.

The Devon GTX is – on one hand – a race-inspired performance car, offering a 650-horsepower engine and a complimentary transmission and induction/exhaust system that will make it the most powerful naturally aspirated production powertrain system on the market today. On the other hand, the vehicle’s muscular shape represents a new expression of modern industrial design, blending both classic and futuristic cues to warn of the awesome power that exists within its shape.

- Devon Motors

It may be expensive but it appears you get a lot of techy gadgety stuff for that half million price tag and seeing as how Devon Motors is only building 36 GTX’s per year they shouldn’t have any problems finding some ex-hedge fund managers to buy them.

So it may be just another toy for the rich, but I’ll guarantee that little kids all over the U.S. will be hanging posters of what promises to be the next American super car. Not a bad first try from the upstart underdog, but if I could offer a few words of advice, the next Devon Mortors car needs to be an all Devon Motors car not a re-skinned something else. Source the motor that cool, but build the car yourself.

With that I’ll leave you with a bit more car porn courtsey of Devon Motors.

To produce the next Tata Nano of course. In an age where most manufactures are cramming as much tech as humanly possible in to every price segment to satisfy new safety laws, fuel economy regulations, and the consumers insatiable demand for more and more modern amenities, it seems as if GM is racing to produce a car that seems to be heading in the wrong direction.

That is if you only look at the American and European markets as we are used to doing. It’s when you consider the eastern half of the world that this product begins to make a measure of sense.

“When Tata Motors in India came out with their $2500 Nano vehicle, it put a lot of automakers on the spot,” said GM executive vice president of international operations, Nick Reilly, at a recent press conference in Brazil

…”So we are looking at lower-cost vehicles, but do not know yet where it will be made or where will it be sold, though most likely in Asia.”

- MotorTrend

Take this into account along with GM’s decision to keep Buick, which is very popular in China, but not so much so in the States, and is appears as if GM is setting themselves up to be a major player in the Far East, going head to head with Honda, Toyota and Hyundai / Kia on their home turf so to speak.

This week we’re hearing rumors about something called the Smart For3, and Adam Barrera from HighMileage.org joins us with James Redman to discuss what the U.S auto industry can do to shake that bad image they seem to be draging around.

So Ford has a really cool program call The ’10 Gets Unleashed where people submit their Mustang Dreams and then they get to go live them Vaughn Gitton Jr. style. This time around a student gets to challenge his former teacher at the track!

Ever wished you could challenge one of your teachers to a competition? Ford Motor Company gave Derek Murrell of Lake Mary, Florida, the chance to do just that, pitting him against his high school shop teacher Bill Rosenblum in a 2010 Ford Mustang GT drag race grudge match.

A racer in the local central Florida scene, Mr. Rosenblum was a big influence on Derek and his passion for cars. Hearing Mr. Rosenblum talk up his racing skills in class, it became Dereks dream to face off against his teacher and mentor. Derek submitted this racing dream to the 2010 Mustang Unleashed contest, and to his surprise, he was selected by Ford and arrangements were made to build and test Mustangs for a drag race.

To watch the entire “Mustang Payback diary from race preparation to the showdown, head to www.the2010mustang.com. While you’re there, be sure to submit your Mustang dream for a chance to have your story featured in an upcoming episode

There’s two bonus episodes but to see those you’ll need to become friends with FordMustang on YouTube

We all know racing old school high dollar cars around Laguna Seca may be every gearheads dream but, AutoBlog was kind enough to remind us that that dream can quickly turn in to a nightmare.

Caution: clicking on the image to the left may make you cry like a little girl, so you may not want to open this at work.

We happened to be at the Corkscrew, camera in hand, when the 250 TR went off course, and were able to capture Love’s off-track excursion. If you can handle seeing a beautiful, multi (multi) million dollar Testa Rossa getting damaged, then check out the entire sequence of photos in the gallery below.

- Drew Philips @AutoBlog.com

This week BMW is leaving F1, just in time for Shumacher to come back (at the time this show was recorded Shumacher had yet to renounce his come back). In the super car world Porche’s dream job just got a bit better, Ferrari anounces the 458 Italia. Aston Martin and Elite team up on the LMV/R , Jalopnik says we might have a new Bugatti, and Audi is tinkering with an all electric R8. On the American side of the pond, Ford plans for Mustang to join NASCAR, and Cash for Clunkers is already out of cash (and has since received $2 Billion in additional funding). Then across the Pacific Toyota and Subaru have united to build the Toyobaru, but now it’s leaner and not any meaner.

Well the guys over at Autocar say hell yeah it can. They ran them both around Millbrook and as it turns out the ZR1 gives the SV a run for it’s money. Let’s hear it for some good old American Muscle. Check out the video after the jump.

This week the Fiesta climbs Pikes Peak, Valentino Rossi may make the jump to F1, Nick finds proof that Germans can’t drive, and the Wienermobile just won’t fit in your garage no matter how hard you try. Then some nut job finally went and did it, they’ve gone and built a car for the blind! Ford puts the 1.6L ecoboost in to the 2011 Focus. Aston Martin finally comes to their senses about the Lagonda. And then it’s time to Get Thee to a Nunnery. Oh and I almost forgot, the French are angry agian.

Note: I am aware this is really late and that we are 5 podcasts behind, but rest assured they have all been uploaded and will be releasing one per day all week long. Thanks for hanging in there while we were away.

Infiniti Essence look like a clone of the Fisker Karma design, but it’s still dead sexy. See the video after the jump.

“Web Exclusive: Nissan Infiniti design chief Shiro Nakamura on the Essence debut at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance and the future of the two global brands.” – Fox Business

Looks like the guys from Garage 419 are back in action with a new show called The Smoking Tire. You can see their first episode below. Their first episode is an awesome one, the Ford SVT Raptor. Yeah baby!

I love it when manufacturers create one off customs based on production model cars. Ford has done exactly that with the AV-X10. Check out the video below. Not only is it a cool one off custom car being auction off for a good cause. It’s built to pay tribute to one of my favorite airplanes the P-51 Mustang, and it’s sporting some nice nose art in the form of the Dearborne Doll.

Well this one is a bit late in getting to the masses. And that’s all my fault I’ve been extremely busy, and real damn lazy about getting these podcasts uploaded. But this episode’s worth the wait. We got our hands on a 2010 Mustang GT that Ford hooked us up with for a whole week. (I know right, what were they thinking.) After we put it throught it’s paces, which you can see over below, then three of us sit down and have a round table discussion about this reborn American classic.

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Watch this! Watch it now! You will be awed as the 800 hp Ford Fiesta flys up Pikes Peak during the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb.

We’ve got a special show for you guys this week. About a week back I got to spend the day with Adam Barrera at the Ford Transit Connect Media Event. Yes, yes I know this episode is really late in getting aired but I’ve been side tracked with the new toy Adam dropped off for us. What toy? Well you’ll just have to listen to the show and find out. Now incase you guys don’t know who Adam Barrera is then you need to head on over to www.highmileage.org and check out his work. He’s one of the best freelance automotive journalists in Texas if not the country and he agreed to hang out with us on our podcast too.

We didn’t cover just a whole lot of material in this episode but we did discuss our thoughts on Ford’s new Transit Connect, and then we got side tracked with some discussion about “our fellow sideways hat enthusistis” as Adam would put it which led to topics like the new Ford Mustang vs. the new Hyundai Genisis Coupe, and the we geeked out for a while talking about modern classics like the Corvette and Viper.

How cool is that? Terry Box did an awesome write up on us and the Fiesta Movement in Today’s Dallas Morning News. You guys can check it out here. (link works after the jump)  There’s also a really good video, although we sound like goobers in it.

For some reason this week we couldn’t stay on track. However we did manage to put together a new record for our 50th episode and at nigh on two hours long we have a new longest podcast ever! Anyway we took a look at what Business Week calls The 25 Most Iconic Cars of the Past 20 years. And then after some news we launched in to our epic compairson of the Ford Fiesta vs. everything else in the sub compact class. It was a close race but to find out who came out on top you’ll just have to listen to the podcast.

Can you believe this is going up two weeks after we recorded it? Anyway, we sat down with the guys from Gear Head Haven and put together almost 2 hours of gear head goodness. This week we’ve got loads of good stuff out of F1:  Jensen Button gets win number 6, Lotus may come back to F1, and FIA and FOTA go head to head. And when the powers of Chrysler and  Fiat unite it’s enough to make bond holders cry themselves to sleep at night . Then we’ve got a few tasty tidbits about an all wheel drive Ferrari, and a possible BMW Y series. The car god himself has spoken on Saturn’s new focus on electric cars. And from our friends from across the pond, we’ve got a Bugatti Veryon for only $25K,  the world famous Top Gear Test Track is now on the endangered species, and the Aston Martin Rapied has been spied. And in the realm of new and uber cool we’ve got the one the only Ferrari Enzo II and the return of the CobraJet! And ofcourse we’ve got our weekly Fiesta Update.

This week on Burnout Radio, we start with a new format which hopefully over the next few weeks will be hammered into something glorious, but knowing us, probably not. Obama states that he wants nothing to do with GM. GM files bankruptcy, and they managed to sell both Hummer and Saturn. We found some nifty spy photos of the new Ford Fiesta sedan. Devon motors releases a trickle of info about the new GTX super car and let’s not forget the Scorpion and the Bewerp. We also found out that the U.S. Airforce tried to top the National Guard for the “who has the cooler car award” with the Mustang X1 and the Challenger Vapor. Speaking of custom cars, we also try and figure out if American Muscle can be green. Then we ask the question, “What have we come to as a society when thieves don’t have the common curtosy to at least put your car on blocks when they steal your wheels?”

Holy Jesus I have to have this.

And for those of you who want to see it in action.

What happens when two Fiesta Movement teams unite? Shenanigans ensue of course! We got to geek out with a couple fellow gear heads, Bryan and Brandon, from Racetech Performance about the new 2010 Ford Fiesta and hopefully we’ll have them back on the show after they get a chance to run it around a track or two. We also found out that your new Viper just may come the show room smelling like garlic bread. Chevy hints at a drop top Camaro, and the new BMW GT Hatch is butt ass ugly. Bring back the Bengal Butt!

If you guys are in to street bikes, or motor cycles in general. Get a hold of this video. It’s a training video the Marines put together for their guys because more of them were dying in motorcycle accidents than they were loosing in Iraq. There is some bad ass stunts in this video. Very Very well done. I’m currently trying to find the full version, but no luck so far. I guess it’s not for sale yet.

Be Our Guest! Be Our Guest! Be Our Guest! OK enough with the Beauty and the Beast references. This week we have a truly awesome podcast lined up for you guys. We add a third member to our podcasting posse for this episode. We’ve got some awesome Fiesta news from the Pike’s Peak International Hill Climb. In the weekly Obama update, the Government buys GM, and GM’s bondholders become stock holders all in a doomed attempt to save GM from bankruptcy. JP Morgan’s Auto Analyst thinks one fifth of all cars on the road will be hybrids by the year 2020.

And then, you guys have been asking for it and we’ve finally delivered. We have our FIRST GUEST EVER on the show! Steven Kursar, Ford’s Communications Manager for the South Central Region, was kind enough to agree to be on our show today. He gave us an awesome interview and has set the bar high for all of our future guests. Many many thanks to Jason Woods for inviting us out last week to show off The Beast, and also to Alvaro Cabal for putting this interview together.

We got a call from Mission Control telling us to “Grab a friend, blindfold them, drive them to a place they know and see if they can guess where they are.” Which we intepreted as “Grab a friend, take them to the middle of nowhere, dump them off with the Fiesta, and tell them to find their own way back to civilization.”

So, of course we chose Jini. She’s the voice you hear at the beginning of all our podcasts, and we wanted to say thank you for all the hard work she does for us. And as we all know there is no better way to say thank you to a friend then dumping them off all by themselves in a strange place with no directions home.

So, needless to say we failed gloriously. Not only did we get the mission instructions wrong, as it turns out, the middle of nowhere we picked out for the mission happened to be right down the street from Jini’s friend’s house.

So Vaughn Gittin Jr. is a huge name in drifting. Right up there with Tanner Foust and The Crazy Sweed. Apparently Vaughn got to live out his life long fantasy of drifting all the best tracks in Japan. What car did he use? Why the 2010 Ford Mustang of course. Which is only fitting since he is sponsored by Ford.

Why is this such a big deal? Because Ford wants to share the love with their new program The ’10 Unleashed They want you to live out your once in a lifetime fantasy in a 2010 Ford Mustang. All you have to do is follow this link and tell them what you want to do in 250 words or less and you could be one of 6 lucky people chosen actully live out their once in a lifetime opportunity.

I found an intresting article over at www.rpmgo.com. Turns out that if you do the math Tesla Motors is now worth more that General Motors. Say what?! Yup you see it works like this. Daimler paid a cool $50 million for a 9% stake in Tesla Motors. If you multiply that you get $550 million dollars. And seeing as GM’s stock prices are still hovering around the dollar bill mark (as in one George Washington) that means Tesla is worth more. So that means one of two things, either GM is at an all time low or Daimler is pretty dumb. But I think I shall take a third option. GM is at an all time low, and Daimler is dumb. We all know why GM is sucking it up right now, but the Daimler thing takes a bit of explaining. Daimler paid $50 million dollars, for a company that has sold todat around 450 cars. Each at around $100K. So if I whip out my handy calculator we can see that Tesla Motors has done a total of 45 million dollars in revenue and they just managed to sell 9% of their company to Daimler for 5 million dollars more than their entire revenue. Talk about getting to wool pulled over your eyes. Poor Daimler never saw it comming.

This week the Italians Invade the U.S, China plots to take over Sweden and the Japanese manage to beat their own record, which still leaves them slacking behind the U.S. We expound on the rumored 370z Hybrid, discuss the Scirocco R20T, then we pine after the Bentley Continental Super Sports. And last but ceartinly not least the good folks at Ford invited us to bring the Fiesta out for a visit with them at their Dallas office where they hooked us up with some cool Mustang swag and we got to get behind the wheel of the new 2010 Ford Fusion Sport for a quick trip around the block, which we will defiantly have to take for an extended test drive later. And as always we’ve got your weekly Obama update.

For the love of God why does VW keep all the cool cars in Europe?!This drives me nuts! Incase it wasn’t bad enough that the Scirocco isn’t comming to the U.S., Volkswagen  is releaseing the R20T.  Well wait just a second, I just happend to find this little article on How Stuff Works.

Here’s an excerpt:

It’s not a done deal yet, but VW’s new sporty compact coupe may be coming to America after all. With GTI spirit and sexier style, the reborn Scirocco should be a bona fide European driving machine with good fuel economy and a reasonable price.

Regardless to whether or not this bad boy is due to hit the States, the Scirocco has a 2.0L 4 cylinder pumping out around 200hp. Not to mention it’s beautiful. But then agian I’m a tad partial to the hot hatch segment and the Scirocco is one hot hatch. The R20T is rumored to be powered by the same 265hp 2.0L 4 cylinder found in the Audi TT-S. Which leads one to wonder if the Scirocco would inherit the Audi’s all wheel drive system?

The R20T may be making it’s debut at the 24 hours of the Nurburgring. Which if you are unsure what that is, it’s possibly the best race track int he world. And you can drive it when ever you like, so long as you care to fly to Germany.

SWEET JEBUS! The Mustang 5.0 will live again! Or at least it is rumored to be in the works. According to Jalopnik Ford will replacing the current range of v-8 engines in the F-150 with the new 5.0L Coyote V-8 which will be shared with the Mustang. What makes me all giddy inside is the fact that the block is supposed to made out of aluminum and the intake manifold is as well! No more plastic intake! Awesomeness!

Well this week we were a tad off our game. We actually managed to get our podcast broadcasting live on ustream, but then ustream wasn’t playing nice with skype and our recording software, so our sound drivers crashed about halfway though, so then we just kill the broadcast and recorded it as per usual, well as usual as you can get with Nick’s baby crawling around the room and chewing on my toes. So the random little kid noises you hear are of course as always Nicks fault. But I have to admit, it was a nice change of pace for recording the cast. Bailey is much better looking than Nick.

As for this weeks topics, GM’s Exec’s dump their stocks for pennies on the dollar, Obama kills funding for hydrogen technologies. Nick doubts the greatness that is Fisker Automotive, and the Formula 1 gods piss off the race teams with the new spending cap rules for 2010.

It looks like Nissian has plans to drop the drive train its developing for the Infinity M35 in the 370z. Finally some one has been listening to the crys of gear heads like me that want a hybrid sports car! 

Though it seems like the new hybrid Z may have a bit of a weird clutch going on. It’s rumored to be a dual clutch, but it’s not like the dual clutch gear boxes we’ve been seeing in recen years. Supposedly there’s a clutch for each motor. Even with a funky clutch this promisses to be a sweet ride. 370z performance with Honda Civic fuel milage.

If these rumors are accurate, expect the fuel-saving sports car to be equipped with a lithium ion battery from corporate partner NEC that feeds power to a lone electric motor sandwhiched between the Z’s 3.7-liter VQ V6 engine and transmission. The dual-headed powertrain is reportedly expected to achieve 35 miles per gallon on the mixed cycle, though those are likely Japanese figures that don’t often jive with U.S. EPA numbers.

-AutoBlog.com

The Beast a 2009 Euro Spec Ford Fiesta

Have you driven the Fiesta? Then tell us about it! We want everyone who has driven The Beast, that’s what we named our Fiesta, or if you’ve drive another agents Fiesta we want to here about that too! And if you’re an agent then we defiantly want to hear from you too! Basically, we want to hear from any and every one who has driven the Fiesta. Tell us what you think about it. What did Ford get right? What do you think needs to be changed for the Fiesta to be better suited to the U.S. market?

• 50 miles per gallon! #fiestamovement #

Thats right we’re on the news! Miss Vanessa Brown did an awesome piece on us and the Fiesta Movement for KDAF.

Tell us what you think! We’ll also be on her show, DFW Close Up, Sunday at 7am.

Sorry about the audio quality on this one guys, we were out of the studio again since we were busy recording our Fiesta Movement Mission for this month. You can check that out over at www.youtube.com/burnoutradio . But this week we’re bringing you our review of the Fiesta after two weeks of driving it around town. Next week we’re back in the studio and attempting a live broadcast for the first time. So join us Friday afternoon on Ustream.

This week Audi turns 100, Toyota drops the price on the Prius to compete with the insight, Chrysler is going to provide some electric mini vans to the Post Office. We found a 550 hp Fiesta Rally Car, Gm is selling Pontiac which makes me want to fire bomb China, and then we take a look at the Lexus LF-A. We also found an entry level Rolls Royce for all you failed hedge fund managers in the new Ghost. Novitec Released a new Super car called the TuLesto, and then Nick gets his jollies off on the Mantide.

I am truly speechless…

Today’s Topic Comes from the 2009 Aaron’s 499 at Talladega. There were two huge wrecks during last weekends race. And there is some question over what NASCAR should do about it. Here are a link to the videos of the wrecks:

The Big One
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TncQI…
The Second Big One
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oIqka…

The cause of the wreck was two fold, first is the restrictor plates that reduce horsepower and force drivers to race in packs and the second is a rule that doesn’t allow any driver below the yellow line dividing the apron from the track.

So the questions is this: Is nascar to blame for the accident and subsiquent injury of 8 fans? If so what should they do? should they get rid of the yellow line rule? Should the slow the cars down with a more agressive restricor plate or is there another solution?

Yup GM made the executive decision the give Pontiac the ax so that they can keep Buick alive. Why did they decide to keep Pontiac over Buick? Well i did a bit of research and fond out that Chinese people love them some Buick, and since the Chinese car market went up by 6% while the rest of the world went down, Buick stays, and Pontiac gets the boot. So tell us what you think? Should GM sell off the Pontiac brand or should they just close the doors?

You Ladies have it easy. That little black dress works for any occasion. Not so for those of us belonging to the more masculine persuasion. So today I ask you what should men wear to a cocktail party. I ask because we were invited to attend the Grand Opening of the North Texas Auto Museum, which just happens to be a cocktail party and I have never attended one, so I don’t know what to wear.

Yes he did, all by himself with absolutley no help from me. So this time I can honestly say, “I blame Nick!” Three days ago he some how screwedup the background image trying to upload his avatar to the site.

Why he was trying to upload an avatar when we use gravatars I don’t know. Nor do I quite understand why the button marked upload background image apparently reads change my avatar in Nick Land. But regardless he broke the site and I have yet to figure out exactly how he did it. So until then you get to stare at my feet. hope you enjoy them!

So I was talking with the guys over at Dynamat on twitter the other day and they gave me permission to show our listeners this…

Now that my friends is freaking sweet! I think I have a new favorite hotrod. They’ll be releasing more photos over at www.dynamat.com so be sure and check them out. Their sound deadening stuff rocks too. I used it in my trunk and it killed about 30% of the road noise in my ’08 eclispe. Now I just got to get the cash together to buy the material to do the rest of my ride.

So twitter has been full of fiesta agent woes over the manual transmission in the Fiesta. I could have sworn one of the first thing they asked me on the phone was “Are you comfortable drive a manual transmission?” To which my reply was “Hells yes! And I’d prefer it if the car was a manual.” But it appears some of my fellow agents are a tad rusty with their up shifts and down shifts, so I though I’d help them out. Here’s a video from ehow.com show you guys how to drive a stick.

How to Drive a Car with Manual Transmission — powered by eHow.com

Today’s topic is a rehash of last Friday’s question, becuase well, Nick was the only one to respond to it and he doesn’t count. So we want to know what you’re rollin’ in. What’s your daily driver, or your weekend toy?

Today we want to know what you’re rollin’ in. Your daily driver, or your weekend toy. And as always if you don’t want to leave a video response, stop by our website at www.burnoutradio.com and leave a comment in the box below.

More super lateness. Guess what! Saturn’s for sale, the Fiesta outsells the Golf, Oboma’s Building a highspeed rail, and Big cars are safer! No crap. And as for stuff you might actually care about Top Gear gets a museum. the 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8 is announced, and we look at the BMW 760Li and the Cadillac Converj. And let’s not forgets that Bill Gates is plotting to take over your soul, er… I mean car.

I know this isn’t exactly gear head related, but I’d hazard a guess that most of us are football fans as well.

Well he’s been the voice of football ever since i can remember and even before that. As of today, his reign is no longer.

http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/30246064/

Hey guys today’s topic is pretty easy. We want to know that your first ride was? Was it a busted up Pinto or a sweet Camaro you restored? Or something in between?

As usual, you can reply on seesmic, or leave your comments in the box below.

EDIT: We’ve done a podcast on this very subject. Please click here to see what cars we came up with.

The title says it all. I’m looking for a toy and my budget is $5k or less. And i figured who better to help me decide what to buy than an internet full of gear heads.

The choices so far are:

• miata (until you’ve driven the piss out of one you just won’t understand, but this may help http://www.flyinmiata.com/projects/dog.asp )
• imprezza
• 300z twin turbo
• an f body of some sort preferably a trans am
• mustang, anything but a fox body, that is unless it’s a 5.0…
• on old vette
• jeep or maybe a ranger 4×4 trail rig.
• 3000gt but it’d have to be the turbo awd version and I already own one Mistu, not really interested in another.

We just launched a new section of the site to hopefully get a more active response from our listeners. Every day we will be posting up a topic over at www.seesmic.com/burnoutradio, which we hope will spark a response from you guys and get you to leave a video comment about the topic.

GM is desperately trying to avoid bankruptcy, but let’s cut to the chase, they are going to have to file bankruptcy. 

The question is how are they going to do it. There is some talk of a sort of surgical bankruptcy, where GM’s would sell off it’s good assets to a new GM company, and only retain it’s bad assets under the current name, thus only filing bankruptcy on their screw ups, and keeping things like the volt, and camaro from going under the knife so to speak. 

Now from what I understand this new GM would still receive billions in federal aid, even though they would be basically debt free. So I’m not real sure if I’m itching to let GM hit the rest button so fast. What do you think? Should GM get off basically scott free after receiving 10′s of billions in federal aid, as well as more aid in the future? Or should they have to loose face, admit they screwed up and fix it the hard way?

Leave a comment in the box below, or… head on over to www.seesmic.com sign up for an account, and leave us a video reply. We may even use your reply in the next podcast, so you could be interweb famous like us!

It’s a tad after 1 am and we just got done with Hot Import Nights. Not at all what I was expecting. Way to many ricer civics there. There were only about 10-15 cars there that were really well done. It was nothing like we saw on TV. We were told that it was because the Austin show is not a big as the rest of the HIN tour. Regardless fun was had by all. There was some some crazy guys flipping dirt bikes, and a Formula Drift competition. Not only that but we met some really hot NOS girls, and an awesome sargent in the National Guard who built the car pictured here. Sargent Ashby was nice enough to gives us a really good interview we’ll be uploading in the next couple of days. We also got to meet a bunch of other really cool car nuts who will hopefully be joining us here. All in all it wasn’t what we expected, but we still had a blast, met some awesome people, and got to get really drunk down on 6th street last night. Pretty damn good way to spend a weekend if I do say so myself. now all that’s left is the drive home in the morning.

Day late and a dollar short. Though a whole bunch of convoluted excuses this podcast is over a month late getting uploaded. Anyway Steve from Australia invited us to come for a visit and check out some of the car Australia has to offer, and well we couldn’t resist. To bad our visit consisted entirely of surfing a bunch of .au car sites to find out what we could about the Holden Commodore SS, and the Ford Falcon. It just so happens the Pontiac G8 is just a rebadged Commodore, so I got the chance behind the wheel of one for a quick test drive.

 I don’t get it. I was just poking around over at Autoblog yesterday and I found this.

When the next step in the road to 35 mpg by 2020 CAFE standards was announced recently, those in the know made it clear that the Obama administration’s upcoming goal of 27.3 mpg by 2011 would not be hard for automakers to meet. In fact, the 2007 average was already 31.3, so the 2011 goal would not require any change in product lineup (more difficult changes are scheduled to come into effect down the line). The 2011 standards were so light, in fact, that the Center for Biological Diversity took the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Department of Transportation to court last week, saying that the Obama administration’s standards “ignore greenhouse gas emissions and the climate crisis, are illogical, illegal, and very disappointing from a president who has promised to make the United States a leader in the fight against global warming.”

Not something I was expecting out of the same administration that wants to tax carbon emissions… Wait, never mind, this makes perfect sense now…

On a slightly less political note. Let’s take a look at the Proposed CAFE standards for fuel economy for a minute.

The EU, as expected has by far the highest standards, and Japan is pushing a close second. And surprisingly enough China has set their standard at 35 mpg in 2009 and it doesn’t look like it’s moving. Australia, Canada, S.Korea, all have 30+ mpg standards already. Seems to me that the U.S. is the only one lagging behind. And we are pretty damn far behind.

California seems to be ahead of the rest of the country….wait… what?… WHY THE HELL IS CALIFORNIA ON THIS LIST!!!!! Now I am more in-line with their view on fuel mileage as I see no reason why manufactures should be waiting until 2020 to clear the 35 mpg average on their new cars in the U.S when they are already producing fuel efficient cars for other parts of the world (Japan and the EU already receive cars with an average of 40mpg). But California is a state not a country, or as in the case of the EU a group of nations, and as such should have no ability to regulate cars that are NOT PRODUCED IN THEIR STATE. (My GoogleFu could find no major manufactures that produced cars in California. Please note that I said major. Tesla is not a major manufacture.)

Back on topic. So why are we lagging so far behind in fuel economy? The technology currently exists to produce more fuel efficient cars. Europe already has them. So why are our standards so low? Cheep gas. Yup that’s right cheep gas. So long as our fuel prices stay so much under what the rest of the world is paying we will continue to drive large gas guzzling cars. (And by we I mean the collective SUV driving soccer moms of the country) Don’t get me wrong I love the throaty roar of a big displacement v8, but I also realize that most drivers will never even use the power that a modestly tuned 4 banger can put down.

As proof I offer this: Most of you know my daily driver is a 2008 Mitsubishi Eclipse GS, you know the one with the 4 cylinder, and I drive it like I stole it. It’s plenty fast for every day street use, it’s a hoot to drive, and it gets almost 30 mpg.

Want something even quicker? You’ve got the Subaru WRX, VW GTI, the Evo, Cobalt SS and yes even Honda has something to offer in the Civic Si. That’s just off the top of my head. But you notice how there’s only one U.S car in the list? That’s becuase all the really cool feather weight hodrods we have to offer live in Europe. Cars like the Ford Focus RS, The Fiesta  Zetec S, and GM’s just came up with the Spark concept, but it is destined for Europe.

So Americans can produce a good small car, we just don’t sell them here. But the Big Three are aim to fix that little issue, with Ford leading the way in 2010.