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Yeh, but the FD had two huge advantages: Weight and RWD. The Mazda 6 has a prodominantley FWD platform with active AWD which pretty much makes it crap compared to a RWD car, and also the 274/280 is probably not actual wheel HP/torque as Mazda is famous for fudging the numbers under absolute perfect weather conditions. All in all the Mazda 6 as a daily driver/grocery getter is great (except compared to other vehicles in its class it is a bit difficult to see out of), but the Speed version leaves much to be desired.

i saw some stuff earlier in this thread about the UCAV's. My father's company helped develop them with Northrop Grumman and various other govt contract companies. The arsenal is generally unlisted, but from what my dad told me it's pretty impressive, and the UCAV's are very easy to remotely pilot. I actually got to see and mess with all of the prototype smaller scales before they got approved for production. The company he works for is here www.aurora.aero ... they also make a bunch of other spy planes and other cool gadgets and put great use to modern materials like transparent aluminum and special carbon fiber.

mine's an hour too

I'm jumping in a bit late, but this is great! I grew up watching Dr. Who and Red Dwarf with my dad, and they were without a doubt some of the best shows on television. I can't wait to be able to switch into Sci Fi and share some newly written history with my children.

the V6 in the 6's suck anyway, he's actually better off with the I4 with a manual. Which makes you wonder why they'd name it the 6 if the V6 they put in it is garbage, even the speed version has a Turbo I4. I never thought the Countach was all that great looking. The various Diablo's i always thought looked chub worthy, but i heard were as crappy to drive as the Countach which immediately evokes shrinkage. So far the only Lambo's that i think had any place as a decent cars and not a trophy are the miura and the gallardo (eventhough i despise VW).

which Mazda 6 did you get? Speed? hatch?

guess so. doesn't sound like much of a shoot off though if you ask me.. more like a nissan and a toyota chasing a sports car I like that new G35 couple tho. The best move Infiniti made in years was ripping off the new benz CLS for the new M35 and I'm glad more CLS stuff showed up on the G35 coupe (headlights). 359480[/snapback] The CLS and the M35/45 were released the same year, and the M35/45 headlights are more indicative of the S15 Silvia's more than anything else. As for the shootouts, I think it all depends on what the M3 has to offer. If they really do stick a V8 in it (like they said they were going to do like 4 years ago) then it puts it into a whole new class because price is going to reflect that. If it sticks to the Inline 6, then that motor has pretty much hit its limits unless they super/turbo charge it, which BMW doesn't do since the motors are already fickle as they are. In any case, sticking a V8 in the M3 is going to require a lot more work into that car to make it at the performance level of it's previous generations in that they have to offset the front end weight, and work the suspension for the same cornering performance.

i also have some old collectibles like a Comodore 64, and a Turbo Graphics 16. The SNES is the only one i really play, (Metal Warriors, Final Fantasy, few other great games) which is why i'll probably be purchasing both a revolution and PS3. Revolution for some classic nostalgic fun, and the PS3 for the cutting edge moods.

aw crap, i forgot about that, i have an Atari too, though my wife plays it more than i do as ironic as that is.

mandatory HD and digital is already in force. If you put an HD antennae on your roof right now you can get all of your local channels in HD for free (so long as your TV can handle it). and it's not so much that the XBOX 360/PS3 will have been outdated by its newer mandates but more that it will still comply with future standards. I don't know about you, but i still own an NES and SNES and actually enjoy playing classic games on those more than any new system that have been released. So in 10 years when your eyes are used to HD, you will still be able to play what will then be considered "classic" games in modern format.

They got the Vette License and last time i checked (it could have changed) GM had a big stake hold in Lotus along with Toyota, so i'm sure it would be fairly easy to license an Elise BB

Being bought out by FIAT was by far the worst thing that's happened to Alfa. The Milano/75 was the last true Alfa, and despite the fact that the new Alfas are gorgeous the FWD platform really turns me off. That said, new parts/platform sharing between them and Maserati and the upcoming Brera AWD give me hope. 359106[/snapback] This has to be the first time you have ever agreed with me on anything

that's neat... do you plan on replacing the tail lights, technically they're slightly different.

just for clarification of some people's views on HD and how people don't have it. The FCC has already fledged full support for HD (and other digital media) and within the next 10-15 years want to see HD in the main stream (all local channels, movies, cable/satellite, etc.) they have already written up and passed a set of regulations to make sure that audio/video manufacturers comply with these terms, making it so all TV's are in the least digitally compatible. Also so local channels (fox,abc,nbc,etc) in the next 10-15 years can close down their analog frequencies and only use digital and HD frequencies, allowing the FCC to reallocate the analog frequencies for other uses (extra cell phone coverage, radios). Whether or not people want Digital or HD in the next ten years, they really have no choice, as the local channels are going to be the first to shut down their analog doors, with cable and satellite soon to follow. Which is the biggest reason why you see these gaming systems moving to the new standard early, as not to be stuck behind the visual standard loop later. Whether or not that has any affect on BD or HDDVD is totally up to who has more money to push the technology. When DVD was making the push over LD and VHS, a lot of the big movie studios were the ones that had to push DVD releases before the other companies decided it was safe to join in. I'm going to assume that's how the decision process will filter itself out with BD and HDDVD. Sony in that sense already has an advantage (sony pictures) and can push all of its titles out on this format, and pray that other companies follow suit. Then again MS has enough money to just throw it at whoever to get HDDVD on the go just to ensure market success. I guess in the long run only time will tell.

I have never been fans of any Hasbro toy products, except for the Clone Troopers, but even those have things that bother me (like why there's one with possible legs and not possible arms, then one with possible everything except legs... ugh...) and very select GI Joe lines. So i can only expect them to royally screw up Toybiz's greatly engineered Marvel lineups. Marvel Legend's as said before was finally getting to the third tier characters and now none of those will ever come out.

BTW, Did you ever replace your M3?

A7 already covered that news along with the Challenger. If they didn't mention the name of the car i would have guessed it was a Firebird/TransAm. It really doesn't come off as a Camaro on first glance.

There has been talk about Mazda releasing an RX-7 Successor in the near future, but none of the concepts that have been released at any of the autoshows truly expresses that. I think also with the great success they had with the RX-8 formula and the failure of their third gen RX-7 formula (In America) they're a little hesitant to experiment further with another true rotary sports car. As for the RX-7 being the best sports car out of Japan? Probably top 5 but definitely not number 1. Nissan/Honda/Mazda/Subaru are all guilty of using uniform styling, it's the trend in design right now. If you look at the head lights of any Nissan, they pretty much look the same on all of them, same with Mazda, and Subaru. The idea is to market distinct styling cues so people will immediately recognize the company (now that i think of it, even all the Porsche's look the same). Also as everyone knows concepts are meant to look extravagent and different, but when it comes to production time, it'll fall right back into line with all of the same styling cues as the rest of the lineup. And Nissan will decide to launch their Infiniti lineup in Japan like they have everywhere else (In Japan, it's just a matter of rebadging their current lineups). Honda is also thinking of following suit since in Japan and UK there is no Acura (and the RSX is still the Integra). Alfa Romeo makes some awesome and distinct cars, but since their now under the Fiat/Ferrari/Maserati ownership, they're purpose as a company has been flattened to crackerbox cars that can every once in awhile get something amazing done to them. It's not like the old days where an Alfa Romeo had something that no other car company had, now they just seem to get the left overs of their counterparts.

That sucks! I have a feeling like Hasbro is going to give Marvel characters shooting weapons and awful proportions, like Toybiz back in the 90's. Finally, when Toybiz starts to get things right, it all goes down the toilet.

wow, the new G35 looks friggin sweet. I'm glad they finally pumped up the rear fenders a bit, that was my biggest complaint with the original G35 coupe. It looks like the new IS is going to get some healthy competition, especially since the G35 still beats it in a lot categories and the car is several years old. Now all we need is a new M3 and the top 3 can have a proper shoot off.

The Sulaco was awesome. You kinda feel bad for the modeller(s) who made it since so much time and money was invested into its creation and the model only got like a minutes worth of screen time.

it's about as likely as seeing the three wheeled peugot that looks exactly like it.

Those Fisker's have to be one of the most pointlessly expensive coach builds ever. I haven't seen anything new so far, i was hoping they would unveil some new concepts that haven't been shown at previous autoshows. I remember the spaceship Maserati, i thought it was neat. And the new Porsche 4S is exactly the same motor and drivetrain wise, but to help it's poor rear motor layout they widened the crap out of the body. Nice pictures A7

The Challenger looks decent but to me it seems to have some odd proportions. The front looks great but somewhere in the rear quarter i'm not satisfied with the proportions. The entire front half of the camaro looks god awful IMO. It looks like knight rider came back from the dead and decided to take its rage out on the Camaro. Dodge is usually hit or miss with performance, so hopefully the Challenger will have more to offer than it's Charger frame work. As for the Camaro, I hope it is much more than a rebadged Vette. They already have the GTO, I hope they do something special (maybe a DOHC motor since GM has a perfectly good one laying around) to make the Camaro more unique. I really think now is a great time for motorsports in general. It seems like all of the car companies have really took performance to mind in at least one of their cars. I can't wait to see everyone's lineup in 2010 and what kind of modern performance jumps are made.

actually volvo had a really awesome motor that not many people knew about. For a few years (it was discontinued last year due to production costs) Volvo made an all aluminum 2.9liter inline 6 twin turbo motor that really put out some juice. A few people were putting that motor into old CL240's slapping huge turbos and boosting em up creating super volvo's (how embarassing would it be to get whooped by a Volvo). As for the Veyron, i'm just not a big fan. It was really just a big dump of money by a company that nets over 2 billion dollars a year (VW) just to make a car that can drive like a jet in a straight line. It holds it's own pretty well on a track from what i've read because of it's wide wheel base and AWD, but that's also it's downfall since it eats up the equivalent of two cars parked next to each other. I just remember the Veyron's first unveiling around 3 or so years ago, where it flew off the track and almost blew up into a billion pieces. And then again a year later when the transmission blew up. And then again a little later where the car was still barely able to hit over 200mph. I agree that the philosophy of that car just doesn't quite cut it for me, where you have companie's like Ford Saleen Ferrari and Porsche who come out with a super car with estimated numbers and they either meet or beat them on the first run out and then work on improving from an already workable platform. The Veyron took a more trial and error approach and three to five years just to get it working. I really think any car company that feels like throwing millions of dollars into a super car just to say they have the best one is going to accomplish it. And I'm sure if any other car company did, it would be better than VW's.