Auto News 5

The Forte Koup is a great little package. Like many Korean designs, the Forte's exterior styling is derivative but the Koup, more than its sedan sibling, is really crisp and attractive and should appeal to the under-25 demographic Kia has set its sights on with this new compact. I'm not a big fan of the two-tone wheels but as standard wheels go on an $18,000 car, they are distinctive, and more importantly, made of alloy, not steel, a rarity for this class.

Thirty years ago this month, a Hollywood stuntman with balls the size of celestial objects lit the fuse of his Budweiser rocket car on a dry lake bed at Edwards Air Force Base and blasted off into the greatest controversy in land-speed-racing history. Driver Stan Barrett insists that he broke the sound barrier eighteen years before Andy Green officially managed this feat in the ThrustSSC. But for various reasons, Barrett's one-way run wasn't recognized by the FIA, so it's been relegated to a footnote in the annals of LSR racing.inline_mediumwraptextright30994305/features/news/0912_stan_barrett_greatest_record_never_set0912_01_z+stan_barrett+breaking_sound_barrier.jpgTrue

Remember when enthusiasts all decried the imposition of regulations on emissions, saying that government regulation would make our cars pale shadows of what they had been? And they all believed that, never imagining that we would arrive at the present situation, with luxury limousines like BMW's Active Hybrid 7 - to use the official nomenclature - accelerating to 60 mph in less than five seconds, running to 155 mph (an artificially restrained Gentleman's agreement figure), while being both more economical and cleaner.inline_mediumwraptextright27094561/green/reviews/0911_2010_bmw_activehybrid_70911_06_z+2010_bMW_activeHybrid_7+front_three_quarter_view.jpgTrue