This is a guest post by James from Car Throttle - your performance car experts!

A favorite genre of many auto fiends is the “sleeper” - a car that looks like grandma’s Mercury but goes like stink. In this day and age of flashy, showy performance - with all the standard body kits, huge spoilers and obnoxious red badging automakers seem to believe belong on performance cars, the sleeper is a dying breed. The streets used to be littered with them, too. Buick Regal T-Types with Grand National running gear and a freaking landau roof, Galant VR-4’s with turbocharged 4G63’s and 4WD stuffed into an innocuous Galant body, heck - even the Fox-body Mustang LX 5.0 was a sleeper, with the thundering fuel-injected 302ci “5.0″ (actually a 4.9L) V8 but none of the GT’s plastic trashy bodywork.

Still, for those that would rather not have any show with their go, there are still sleepers left to pick from - if you know where to look. Sometimes you have to look in the strangest of places, but you can find burly horsepower under the hood of some unassuming cars these days. Let’s take a look at the top ten.

10) Toyota Camry SE V6

“A Camry? Really?” I know, I know. The Camry is the equivalent of the Antichrist to anyone that actually likes cars. But that makes it the perfect sleeper, at least in SE V6 trim. You see, under the hood is a very modern 3.5L 24v V6, which makes a rather considerable 268 horsepower coupled with a 6-speed auto.

Without a doubt, the rest of the car is mind-numbingly boring - but if you’re after velvety-smooth horsepower and strong mid-range in an utterly unassuming wrapper, the Camry SE V6 has got you covered. Just remember to take a No-Doz on long trips… the Camry might’ve misunderstood what “sleeper” means, and when you’re not smoking tires with your torquey V6, it’s likely to put you to sleep. Fast enough to embarrass a V6 Mustang, and good enough for 10th place. Continue Reading…

Not everyone can survive owning an smaller economy car, but can’t afford something high-end. Nor can they use an impractical sports car for the everyday slog. That doesn’t mean that this increasing group suffer by driving something drab. So here are some cars that are priced right for their markets and offer some enjoyment of driving to the owner.

2010 Ford Fusion and Lincoln MKZ

The Fusion and MKZ brand new for 2010 to better compete with the offerings from Honda, Toyota, and Chevrolet for the Ford while the Lincoln goes after Infiniti, Lexus and Cadillac.

The Fusion is priced to compete and even undercut its rivals, with a base price of under $20,000. Most other competitors a few thousand more. The MKZ is a bit more expensive, with $34,600 buying you leather, wood and chrome accents on the exterior.

Both cars are all-new this year, riding on the new Mazda6 platform again. The Fusion retains the three-bar front grill to keep in line with the previous-gen car, but now has a more pronounced front-end and Terminator-like headlights. The rear gets more styling cues in the bumper and trunk lid while the LED taillights dip in one corner to give the rear more of an appeal. Continue Reading…

The Detroit auto show has come and gone, and has left the automotive industry with a little more to chew over. As a final wrap-up to quite possibly the most important auto show in America, we chose 10 cars that summed up the best of the show. We chose based on significance and looks, which is why you will see Honda’s Insight on the same list as the Fisker Karma. After much deliberating, here are the 10 we think are the best.

10) Volkwagen BlueSport Concept

Starting at the No. 10 spot, the BlueSport made this list because it is an honest effort to make a sporty car by a company whose most engaging vehicle to date is the Golf GT1 (no, the Bugatti Veyron does not count). It’s not the sexiest roadster available, as the Saturn Sky debatably holds that spot (key word: debatably. Check out the comments at the link above, and add your own opinion). While not terribly exciting to the eyes, it does feature that solid, reliable look that has come to define VW’s “German Engineering”. 57 miles to each gallon of diesel just adds to the charm.

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When Lincoln says it’s news that their new MKS has a THX II Certified 5.1 Surround sound system, the first thing it makes me think of is “So that’s the BEST thing you got to say about your car?”

The second thing it makes me think is, “What a waste”.

I’m not a big believer in car stereos, and “Surround sound” car stereos have even less appeal to me. It’s not that I don’t like music, just the opposite, in fact. I’ve been a musician for decades, and a professional sound designer for just as long. And when it comes to stereo equipment, I probably have enough gear right now to blow your house into the nearest body of water.

Car stereos? Not really my scene.

Cars are a terrible acoustic environment, even more so when the engine is turning over and you’re actually driving. Not to mention that for me, music just gets in the way of driving. I end up paying more attention to the music, or trying to change it, than I do to the road, and that is, invariably, a bad thing.

That said, Lincoln has some how gotten George’s boys up at Skywalker Sound to sign off on giving their new car stereo a THX II certification (which ain’t easy to do, I can tell you). They also crammed in a 600- watt, 16-speaker “premium automotive entertainment system”, which is more than enough grunt for that small of a space. Fancy, and I guess it’ll keep the kids in the back seats more entertained and distracted on those long road trips.

Me, I’ll stick with the music my right foot makes.

Full press release after the jump.

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Ah January … in these cold, bleak days, things are also pretty bleak for the car guy.

Apart from Paris-Dakar (canceled this year, due to parts of Mauritania being crazier than an ER on Halloween night), there’s only one thing that holds interest for a car guy: Auto Shows.

And the big one for America is the Detroit Auto Show, a chance for America to roll out the best and blithest, and try out new ideas and all that (and yeah, I know, both the Euros & the Japanese car manufacturers show there too).

And on offer from FoMoCo’s Lincoln division we have the MKT

Quoth the Blue Oval: “Lincoln today pulls the wraps off a new premium utility concept vehicle – unsurpassed in its balance of spaciousness, comfort and fuel efficiency – that shows customers a new way to tour in style.”

Or to put it another way: “Look, it’s a big luxurious SUV/wagon-thingy that would be real great to drive from San Berdoo to NoLa!” Continue Reading…

On Saturday I posted another update on some of the cool cars that are going to be at the Chicago Auto Show, but there are so many, I can’t help but post again. Here are a few more of the cars that are going to be there in a couple days:

Mazda Ryuga

The Ryuga expands on the “emotion of motion” concept that debuted with the Nagare, and you can see the elements of flow captured in the car’s sheetmetal. The sweeping lines on the doors, for instance, were inspired by the raked pebbles in a Japanese dry garden. The wheels, as well, feature spokes that twist near the hub, as if the torque of the car’s imaginary flex-fuel engine has twisted them. Finally, the color of the Ryuga is meant to evoke flowing lava, with tones and hue that vary from yellow to blue to red depending on the light.

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