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Wandering the halls of the SAE 2009 World Congress, I came upon the Scuderi Group booth. I immediately stopped because I had lingered in their display back in 2007 to study their split-cycle engine concept. At that point, all the company had were the mathematical formulas on thermodynamics that seemed to prove the potential for their innovative combustion cycle. An animated video showed how the engine might work.

BMW has redesigned its roadster for 2009, and the change amounts to comprehensive maturation, if not quite the obvious transformation from newborn Z3 to adolescent Z4. The new two-seater retains the name Z4, but it adopts two clumsy new model designations, the sDrive30i and sDrive35i. You'll notice there's no M roadster anymore, and word is that none is forthcoming. Nor will we see a return of the historically slow-selling hatchback coupe variant.

There is a reality that is hard to escape; if you want to conserve energy regarding transportation, it helps to reduce the mass one needs to transport.

As technical editor Don Sherman implied when he reviewed these updated trucks, the Colorado/Canyon twins should have been launched like this--with a small-block V-8 under the hood instead of the weakling four-cylinder or the not-much-better in-line five. The V-8-powered Colorado now has increased towing and hauling capabilities, and it's significantly quicker than its fewer-cylindered stablemates (less than seven seconds to 60 mph, according to both Sherman and General Motors). But what really struck me is the fantastic sound of the 5.3-liter V-8. Floor it between about 2500 and 4500 rpm, and the mill just roars. I actually opened the sliding rear window just so I could hear a less insulated rendition of the motor music. I even think this Colorado deserves more prominent tailpipes (big-tipped, straight dual exhausts, anyone?) to announce its power; I blew away a GMC Canyon at a light, but I don't think the other driver had a clue about what had happened.

At SAE 2009, in the basement of Detroit's aging Cobo Center, I met Jon Bereisa, Director of GM's Fuel Cell Propulsion program. I had just completed a drive in one of the hydrogen-powered Chevrolet Equinox SUVs.

One standard of the utopian vision for civilization's future is clean, low-impact, personal transportation. The Segway scooter seemed to embody much of that vision, but with a price starting at $5,000, the geeky looking gyro-balanced scooter hasn't quite taken the nation's sidewalks by storm.

Now this is what a luxury SUV should be. The Range Rover is fast - especially between 40 and 80 mph - its power delivery is velvety smooth, and its suspension tuning is nearly perfect. It's amazing how well the Range Rover smooths out rough surfaces and even potholes while still being able to tackle the most extreme off-road tasks. The steering is communicative and nicely weighted without being too heavy at low speeds. The turning radius is also impressive.

Months in Fleet: Three
Mileage to Date: 13,542

Months in service: Nine
Miles to date: 22,720

I'm driving through General Motors' Warren Technical Center at about 30 mph, and see some Canadian geese in the distance. "They'll move," I think, and hit the throttle a little harder. As I get closer, they show no inclination of moving. In fact, it's as if I'm not even there. It's only as I slow down and veer away from the plodding birds that I realize: of course the geese can't hear me, I'm driving a Chevrolet Volt prototype. There's no noise for them to hear.

2010 Bentley Continental GTC Speed

This truck is nothing short of incredible. Too bad nobody had time to do anything awesome with it during the time it spent in our fleet. The last time I drove a diesel F-250 I towed another diesel F-250 to South Carolina. That's a good use of this truck and one of the only ways to really appreciate the capability of the platform.

The arrival of the controversial X5M and X6M might be confirmation that BMW has dumped every engineering principle that made its M cars so distinctive and consistently good for the last thirty years. Until now, all M cars have had a high-revving, normally aspirated engine, a manual or automated manual gearbox, rear-wheel drive, and a sedan or sports car shell. You won't find a single one of these qualities in M's latest efforts.

Malicious tongues claim that the X1's psychedelic-swirl paint job marks the ultimate expression of Chris Bangle's flame- surface design philosophy, but this is not the case. The wild circles printed on thick adhesive foil do a better job of disguising a car's contours than the matte-black cladding used in the past. It was required attire for the preproduction prototype X1 that we drove.