THE BIG PICTURE
Dakar rally 2012
- Traversing over 8000 miles through Argentina, Chile, and Peru, the Dakar rally pits drivers and riders against each other and against extreme terrain. The 14-stage race attracts competitors from over 50 countries to race 465 vehicles - motorcycles, quad bikes, cars, and trucks - through deserts, rivers, and mountains. (37 photos total)
Boston auto show features small engines, big rides
- The hottest cars at this year’s New England International Auto Show pack smaller, more fuel-efficient engines without trying to compromise performance or style.
Cars’ Internet connections may change driving life
- About 40 percent of the cars sold in the US last year can already connect to wireless data networks; the next step will be cars that constantly monitor online data.
CarMax opens first Mass. dealership
- With its fixed pricing, CarMax, which opened its first dealership in Massachusetts last month, could be a real competitor to the state’s current dealers, analysts said.
One man’s tiny addiction
- Car enthusiast Charles Gould’s passion for collecting vintage vehicles is exceeded only by his reluctance to part with them.
Future fuels: Thorium, lasers, and electromagnets
- Pies in the sky never seem to land on my plate, but two preposterous-sounding proposals passed my desk last week. Technological entrepreneurs make for interesting proposals.
Was that a Prius that just whizzed by?
- Was that a Prius that just drove by? The odds are better if you’re on the islands of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard or in Boston’s leafy suburbs.
24 Hours of LeMons
- Why would someone knowingly buy a lemon, and then enter it into an endurance race? We’re not talking about a demolition derby. This is legitimate weekend-long racing against clunkers worth no more than $500 apiece. This is the 24 Hours of LeMons (not to be confused with LeMans, the famous French racetrack).
Reunited Cars get their engines, longtime fans revved up
- After a nearly 25-year layoff, it wasn’t surprising that it took a little while for the Cars to get into gear last night at the House of Blues. But once the iconic, Boston-spawned rockers locked in, their engine purred as if almost no time had passed.
Car horns are a country choice, says Ford
- We pretty much take the horn on our vehicles for granted — until the day they don’t work. That happened on my motorcycle the other day. The button that used to create either a light beep or a prodigious HONK barely managed a pathetic blaap, and that only after a lot of static.
