Q&A With Young Gun Behind Hummer's Eco-Friendlier HX

Yes Virginia, we are training a new generation able to design even uglier SuVs than what we got on the road right now:

[From Q&A With Young Gun Behind Hummer's Eco-Friendlier HX]

My very first reaction was that it looked too similar to the Toyota FJ Cruiser but that was just an optical illusion due to the low roof line. If the interior is anything like the H3, I already know I won't fit in it. I rode in a coworker's H3 a couple of years ago and it had very little headroom. One would think that riding in a SuV the last worry should be about having enough space.

Ban All Cars Getting Less Than 35 MPG? | Autopia from Wired.com

The former head of Royal Dutch Shell has gone way out on a limb and urged the European Union to ban all vehicles that get less than 35 mpg, saying it is the only way to significantly address global climate change and force the auto industry to build more efficient vehicles.

"We need a very tough regulation saying that you can't drive or build something less than a certain standard," the Telegraph quotes him saying. "You would be allowed to drive an Aston Martin - but only if it did 50-60 mpg."

[From Ban All Cars Getting Less Than 35 MPG? | Autopia from Wired.com]

Either it is a slow news day, or there is more than the usual car related traffic in my RSS feeds.
This reminds me a lot of all the noise in this country about the Corporate Average Fuel Economy regulations. Thanks to some clever math, US car makers can keep building gas guzzlers as long as their overall passenger cars sold average 27.5 MPG, with different figures for light trucks and a shitload of exceptions based on weight and usage.
He is of course smoking crack. The Europeans like their luxury cars and feel no real urge to make them stick to the same conventions as the kind of cars that us common folk will usually drive. Even if such a law is passed, it is guaranteed that it will have a clause that excepts carmakers that sell under X units per model per year. All this means is that the luxury carmakers that have slightly higher sales volumes (like Porsche) may have to break their product lines a bit more to make sure that each model sells within the acceptable cap.
Maybe it is time to force people to buy smaller displacement engines. There are too many cars sold here with big V6 engines that barely perform the same as some of the fancier normally aspirated inline-4 engines. Change the way cars are registered so the displacement of the engine, power and weight are factors. Two identical models, one with a V6, the other one with a much bigger V8, should not cost the same to register unless the V8 is advanced enough to shut down cylinders whenever the engine is coasting or idling.

Camaro Enters the 21st Century - With a Hybrid? | Autopia from Wired.com

Motown loves old-school muscle cars with big V8 engines, fat tires and rear-wheel drive. We're not sure why - maybe its all those Baby Boomers with disposable income trying to relive their youth - but Detroit keeps trying to build the perfect car for 1968.

[From Camaro Enters the 21st Century - With a Hybrid? | Autopia from Wired.com]

And you thought Eli Manning being handed the keys to a Cadillac Escalade Hybrid for making MVP in the Superbowl was nothing more than weak marketing. The way things are headed, in five years or so you will probably see more hybrid cars than single mode gas/diesels. Even Porsche is planning a hybrid power train (and worse, a four door coupe).
Ferrari, on the other hand, is trying something different. Instead of cutting fuel consumption, they are going to finally acknowledge that Lotus was right over 40 years ago.: weight matters.
Lotus figured out long ago that if you make a very strong and light body, you can afford to do with a much smaller and weaker engine. Ferrari kept pushing their 8 and 12-cylinder engines and eventually moved to lighter chassis, but now their goal is to hit a much lower weight class, which will make their monster cars 200 or so pounds lighter than a Mazda Miata MX-5.
My first and third MX-5s had less than 120 HP, my second one had less than 140 HP. This new Ferrari is expected to have 660 HP and hit 225 MPH, while producing 40% less emissions than the Ferrari Enzo.
Oh yes.
It would still be 200 or so pounds heavier than the Lotus Elise, but the Elise's base model is still only 190 HP.