An enterprising Russian tuner shop laid to waste the body of a Cadillac Escalade EXT, replacing it with a very custom GAZ-51-inspired pickup body. Commence "In Soviet Russia" jokes... now!

This as-yet-unfinished GAZ-51 Custom is close to completion and was built by a company called Grande-Garage in Russia. Little is actually known about the truck other than they took a Cadillac Escalade EXT and stripped it of its bodywork to create this one-off supposedly for a Russian tycoon with too much money on his hands. We love the outcome and can't wait to see the final truck, but until then, check out our galleries below of the killer GAZ-51 Custom build process.

[cardesign via carscoop]  [ Source: jalopnik.com  Read The Full Article ]

The Tri-Hybrid Stealth (above) and Tri-Hybrid are on display at the Washington Auto Show in of the Green Car Pavilion. Not exactly cars, but certainly very green, the Tri-Hybrid is part recumbent bicycle, part covered trikes and part hybrids. A tribrid, actually, since it can operate on battery, leg, or motor power (not all of the time, though). The wicked-looking Tri-Hybrid Stealth had its official unveiling at the show. The seats two, should get 150 mpge, has "full safety features" and its designers are confident it can do well in the Auto X Prize.

These vehicles, and many more, are available from ExerTrike, the company behind the bike/boat combo the Pedal Paddle. C'mon, guys, let's get all of these technologies into one vehicle already.

[Source: ExerTrike]  [ Source: autobloggreen.com Read The Full Article ]

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has commissioned a study that seems to indicate that a dramatic increase in roof safety is in order. The group's resulting newly proposed standards would require a vehicle's roof to withstand two-times the specific vehicle's weight. According to the IIHS, this change could reduce the risk of fatalities in a single vehicle rollover by more than 20%.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration also supports the tougher standards, though the Bush Administration had allowed three separate deadlines to pass without updating its requirements, which have remained the same since they were first instituted in 1973. Those initial rules standards require that the roof of a vehicle be capable of withstanding 1.5 times the vehicle weight.

So far, automakers have supported this standard, although they are requesting that the new requirements for roof strength be phased in gradually, partially over concerns of rising vehicle weight that negatively impacts fuel economy.

[Source: Detroit News]  [ Source: autoblog.com/ Read The Full Article ]

 The know badass mobb-style actor Al Pacino Drives A Lexus LX.

 [ Source: jalopnik.com Read The Full Article ]

(Ford's Rouge River Works was the first car plant in the world where coal, iron, steel and wood were poured in one end, and completed cars drove out the other - Today, the Mustang is built at the plant, and it's one of the industry's more environmentally-friendly car factories).

According to the Detroit News, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY, is attacking the allocation of money from the proposed $900 billion stimulus bill to allow the federal government to replace older and less efficient vehicles with newer, cleaner cars and trucks as "wasteful spending," and further deriding the plan as "$600 million to buy new cars for government workers."

And the newspaper reports that, privately, auto industry lobbyists have said they expect the section to be pulled from the bill.

As President Barack Obama finally went on the offensive yesterday in the realpolitik world of Washington, DC, News Corp, Fox News, the Wall Street Journal and hate radio, Republican legislators continue to demonstrate that Rush Limbaugh is their party's leader, snarky labels and talking points repeated ad nauseum are the key to all victories and some of the world's largest, most important corporations - and their workers; especially the workers - can go to hell.

 (President Obama spoke at the Department of Energy yesterday in support of $600 million to buy new, fuel-efficient cars and trucks for the government; it's called "priming the pump" for an important industry, and it works).

For More: REPUBLICANS TO AUTO INDUSTRY: "DROP DEAD!"

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There are few things as tragic as a missed opportunity. So if you've been sitting at home crying over your chance gone by to grab one of the 84 examples of the simply stunning Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione to reach American shores, cheer up, because the miracle of eBay has come to save the day yet again. Not one, but three U.S.-spec 8Cs have popped up for sale on the auction site's automobile section.

Of course, this sort of design perfection doesn't come cheap. Not by any stretch of the imagination. One example in St. Louis is rolling off the block today with a starting bid of $243,900. A second one in Minneapolis is up for grabs with a starting bid of $305,800 and a Buy-It-Now price of $329,995. And a third example is available out of Houston with a Buy-It-Now price or Best Offer at $295k. They're all in red (naturally) and are far from priced to sell, but can you really put a price on beauty? Well, apparently you can, but that doesn't mean anyone's going to pay it.

The University of Minnesota has released a study on the benefits of three types of fuels: gasoline, corn-based ethanol and cellulosic ethanol. The conclusion was what most readers know: corn-based ethanol doesn't have that many benefits. Corn still needs tractors to be harvested, and some kind of fuel and/or electricity for distillation. However, the study doesn't discard biofuels entirely and puts an emphasis on the benefits that cellulosic ethanol could bring. For instance, the study calculated the total environmental and health costs of making each type of fuel. A gallon of gasoline was about 71 cents, compared with between 72 cents and $1.45 for corn-based ethanol and 19 to 32 cents for cellulosic ethanol, depending, of course, on the technology and type of plants used...

[Source: Star Tribune and Martha Schlicher]  [ Source: autobloggreen.com Read The Full Article ]

Mission One Electric Motorcycle
Today at the TED conference, the nascent Mission Motors is debuting its Mission One electric motorcycle. It was designed by world-renowned designers Yves Béhar and fuseproject, and Mission Motors claim that it is the "world’s fastest production all-electric motorcycle." Will it do for electric motorcycles what the Tesla Roadster did for electric cars?

 [ Source: treehugger.com Read The Full Article ]

The European Union is set to make tire pressure monitoring systems (TPMS) mandatory in 2012. This measure is intended to not only improve vehicle safety, but also to reduce CO2 emissions. Only correctly inflated tires run with the intended low rolling resistance and hence deliver maximum fuel efficiency - tire manufacturer Continental states says CO2 emissions can drop by 45 percent with correct inflation. Consider this: one out of three cars in Germany are driven with underinflated tires and studies show that car running costs in Europe alone could be reduced by 3.4 billion euros a year if all tires were kept at optimum pressure (although a British study found that to be exaggerated). Although the EU is considering systems that would inform the driver when pressure dropw below 25 percent, Continental believes that this limit should be set at 10 percent, because some drivers would drive around on underinflated tires simply because manual tire checks would be regarded as inconvenient and they will wait for the alarm warning.

[Source: Continental]  [ Source: autobloggreen.com/ Read The Full Article ]