Auto News 5

Enthusiasts across the land depressed by the ever increasing curb weight and dimensions of new vehicles can breathe easy today. The 2010 Cadillac SRX is actually a little smaller than the car it replaces, and it boasts some impressive new technology under the hood.

Delivering fuel to the fire was every early engine designer's worst headache. In the 1890s, Rudolf Diesel proved the merits of his engine during four years of research. But it was Robert Bosch who made diesels practical by developing the first fuel-injection system, a fifteen-year effort. On the gasoline side, when Henry Ford was anxious to get an experimental engine running on Christmas Eve in 1893, he assigned his wife carburetion duty. While Henry whirled the flywheel, Clara dripped gas into the intake pipe. Their collaboration worked: Ford's single-cylinder engine shot flames from its exhaust and shook the kitchen sink it was clamped to until Henry signaled Clara to cease fuel delivery.

These are strange days for the American auto industry. Maybe that's why I felt like an ER doc heading to the emergency room this morning. But I wasn't speeding to a hospital. Dragged out of bed at an ungodly hour, I was off to the Monticello Motor Club, one of those new subscription-racetrack-cum-country-clubs springing up for millionaire supercar owners, this one 100 miles northwest of New York City.