The new ATS-V has little more than half the displacement of the even newer CTS-V. It develops 464 turbocharged horses compared to its brethren’s 640 supercharged Detroit ponies (on two fewer cylinders I might add). It starts at nearly $26,000 less than the CTS-V. There’s clearly a little bro, big brother relationship going on here, and there’s nothing wrong with… Read more →
Category: Canadian Car of the Year
2014 TestFest: Viva Niagara!
What a week it has been, my friends! I just returned home from six days and six nights in the beautiful and vivacious gorge town known as Niagara Falls, Ontario. It was no second honeymoon and, no, I wasn’t there to gamble. I did break even at the Fallsview Casino roulette wheel though — the only gambling device I’ve ever… Read more →
Tested: 2014 Porsche Cayman
Cayman’s got bite! At the Automobile Journalist Association of Canada’s (AJAC) TestFest event last fall, the 2014 Cayman went up against a host of “all-new” models in the annual Sports Performance car shoot-out. These new or significantly-updated 2014 models include the BMW 435i xDrive (663 pts.), Corvette Stingray (673 pts.), Jaguar F-Type V6 S (637 pts.), Mercedes-Benz E 350 4MATIC… Read more →
Tested: 2013 Genesis Coupe, Scion FR-S and Subaru BRZ
Choosing a Scion FR-S over the Subaru BRZ or vice versa is like picking black or white at the start of any new game of chess. Everyone knows you should choose white in order to go first, but whoever gets black has the benefit of seeing the first move. The 2013 Scion FR-S and Subaru BRZ are both powered by… Read more →
Pirelli Photo Contest ’12 Entries
2012 Pirelli Photo Contest Every year the Automobile Journalist’s Association of Canada (AJAC) hosts an annual awards banquet to reward its journalist members in a host of different writing, photography and design layout categories. For the 29th edition of this banquet, I entered six of my photos into the Pirelli Photography contest, much as I have in several years past.… Read more →
Top 5 Drives of 2011
Riding shotgun with legendary endurance racer Hurley Haywood for some hot laps in a Porsche 911 GT2 RS at the Porsche Sport Driving School USA last year at Alabama’s Barber Motorsports Park is a definite highlight of my professional life. Trying to chase him down with one of the school’s 911 Carrera 4S’ was a real treat too. And, although… Read more →
Aiieee Canada!
Canada’s next car of the year will be Korean! And, my money is on this Kia. The Automobile Journalists Association of Canada (AJAC) today announced the top three finalists in its 2012 Canadian Car of the Year competition at the Montreal International Auto Show. The finalists in the three categories are [drum roll]: for, 2012 Canadian Car of the Year,… Read more →
Fuel economy the new performance?
Russ Bond’s calling and he wants me to explain how the Veloster won best new sports performance car under $50,000 in AJAC’s 2012 Car of the Year competition. As if I had something to do with it. It’s not that the Hyundai isn’t a good choice. It has a fuel efficient engine and six-speed manual transmission. For $22,499, it looks… Read more →