FEBRUARY 3, 2016

Editor-In-Chief’s Note: If “The End of Cardolatry” eliminates some of the most egregious sins that have grown up around the car “thing,” like the faux urgency and overinflated pricing that is emblematic of the collector car bubble that was on display just last week in Scottsdale, then I am all for it and it can’t come soon enough. I find it interesting that some of the auction houses have created a cottage industry by enticing manufacturers to auction off their new, limited-production cars for staggering prices, all wrapped around the noble notion that “It’s all for charity.” It's a perfectly unimpeachable conceit. Meanwhile, they’re absolutely hosing the average, unsuspecting Jills and Jacks who are trying to sell their cars with gaudily jacked-up prices and exorbitant fees. A giant bubble of Not Good. -PMD

Scion. Editor-In-Chief's Note: The death of Scion? No one should be surprised. Scion was Toyota's novelty brand designed to go after the youth market, and despite some mildly interesting marketing tactics used at launch it ended up attracting older buyers instead, at least briefly anyway. Because after the first couple of years the brand was on a downward spiral that it never recovered from. The oddball designs didn't help either, because there's a fine line between finding a quirky design language/personality and veering into Clown Car Land, and too often Scion ended up in the latter. Toyota will rebrand some of the cars and fold them into its lineup, but the Scion brand will go away. It won't be missed. At all. -PMD

(GM Photos)
General Motors has opened its all-new GM Powertrain Performance and Racing Center, described by GM PR minions as, "a state-of-the-art facility designed to enhance the development processes for the company’s diverse racing engine programs." The new, 111,420-square-foot facility is connected to GM’s Global Powertrain Engineering Center and is part of a $200-million investment at the Pontiac, Mich., campus. It relocates the Racing center from Wixom, Mich. to the Pontiac Powertrain Campus, bringing together under one roof an additional team of nearly 100 engine builders, engineers and other support staff. The Performance and Racing team is responsible for developing engines for NASCAR, NHRA, IndyCar, IMSA and other racing series. The racing engines under responsibility at the new center include: Corvette Racing's 5.5L V8; the NASCAR “R07” V8; the IndyCar 2.2L Twin-Turbo V-6; NHRA COPO Camaro V-8 engines and the Cadillac ATSV.R Twin Turbo. High-performance crate engines and crate powertrain systems offered by Chevrolet Performance will also be developed at the new facility.

(Mercedes-Benz)
Cigarette Racing and Mercedes-AMG have teamed up for the sixth consecutive year to come up with a bad-ass boat. This year's theme? Ignore Gravity. The Cigarette Racing 41’ SD GT3 will be on display along with the Mercedes-AMG GT3 race car at the Miami International Boat show from Thursday, February 11 until Monday, February 15, 2016. Visit Cigarette Racing at the show to see this impressive pair in person or visit Cigarette Racing at www.cigaretteracing.com on February 11, 2016 to see the full reveal. #cigaretteracingteam #mercedesamg #ignoregravity

Check out the latest episode of The High-Octane Truth on AutoextremistTV below. -WG