When the Summer X-Games rolled into Los Angeles last month, organizers offered a behind-the-scenes look at the rally-car racing that tops off the extreme sports event.

While the younger crowd got their share of skateboards and BMX bikes, adults seemed more drawn to the rally racing course built into the streets around the city's Staples Center.

The rally-car world is of particular interest to some consumers because it's built around cars that most people can afford. Average drivers aren't going to hop into the Ferraris of Formula One or the Audis of Le Mans. But they can purchase a Ford Fiesta or a Subaru STI.

Of course, rally racing serves up heavily modified versions of these cars worth many times their assembly-line cousins, but the heart of rallying is powered by the small hatchbacks and sporty sedans that fill our roads. … Read more

If you've been eyeing a Cadillac CTS-V Coupe but feel like 556 horsepower just isn't going to cut it, perhaps Hennessey Performance's limited-edition Caddies are more your speed. The performance turning house plans to produce a dozen 1000 horsepower Twin Turbo CTS-V Coupes next year that have been customized inside and out.

The performance-tuning house has been offering 1000 horsepower Cadillacs for a while, but setting the limited-edition CTS-V apart from other souped-up Caddies is its modified body and custom interior. Like the V1000 upgrade offered on all CTS flavors, the sports coupe will be outfitted with … Read more

People make a lot of crazy mods to cars, as witnessed in our LOLcars gallery, but Infiniti is sponsoring a group of students to do away with the car altogether, and come up with a boat inspired by the QX56 luxury SUV. As a centerpiece, the boat will use the 5.6-liter V-8 engine from the QX56.

Infiniti, which as part of Nissan has its U.S. corporate headquarters in Tennessee, is working with students at the Tennessee Technical Center-Nashville and Nashville State Community College to build the custom boat. The first step was to take the engine out of … Read more

Going all the way back to the original red-highlighted Batmobile on up to Christian Bale's modern and aggressive Tumbler, Batman has always had the coolest, most powerful cars.

Casey Putsch at Putsch Racing took the inspiration for his personal Batmobile from the 1989 Michael Keaton film version. He calls it the world's only real Batmobile. He makes that claim based on a very powerful and loud argument: a turbine engine.

That's right. Let's linger on that a moment. This car has a military-spec Boeing turbine engine culled from a drone helicopter. Turn up your speakers and watch the video below to get an idea of what it sounds like.… Read more

The battle between telematics services is starting to heat up with Ford treading into GM's territory by adding live operator assistance to Sync.

Ford's cloud-based Sync Services is an automated system that lets drivers use voice commands to look up businesses, directions, traffic updates, and other information, such as sports scores, stock quotes, and horoscopes. Sync Services can send turn-by-turn directions to vehicles.

However, even with 14 million business listings, Sync Services isn't perfect. Looking up nearby businesses or entering directions is a hit-or-miss experience, and around the third or fourth time you scream "Starbucks" … Read more

You may have seen old vans or other beater cars festooned with plastic toys and wacky paint jobs trundling around the streets. These art cars became popular enough in the last couple of decades to spawn art-car shows. But BMW has been commissioning art cars since the mid-1970s, and now makes them available for viewing in a well-designed online exhibition.

The first BMW art car was a 3.0 CSL, used as a canvas by Alexander Calder in 1975. Since then, artists such as Andy Warhol and Jeff Koons have taken paintbrushes to BMW cars, covering models from the M1 to the Z1. … Read more

The idea of a pimped Prius isn't new, as any visitor to SEMA can attest, but now Toyota is offering a limited number of Plus Performance packages from the factory for the iconic hybrid. If the pedestrian nature of the standard Prius has been keeping you from its 50 mpg fuel economy, maybe a body kit and low-profile tires will make this car palatable.

We read with glee that the Plus Performance package will add contoured ground effects along the lower edges of the car. When Toyota's press release mentioned "race-inspired 17-inch forged alloy wheels," we thought, OK, lighter wheels could add something to a hybrid. But noting the low-profile tires restored the sense that this package would be something like adding a wing to a Yaris. … Read more

Environmental responsibility is all the rage with European royalty these days. Prince William and Kate Middleton drove away from their nuptials in a bio-ethanol-powered Aston Martin DB6, and now Monaco announced that Prince Albert II and Charlene Wittstock will make a post-ceremony procession in a Lexus hybrid.

The Monaco royal car won't be a humble HS 250h or even an RX 450h SUV, but a flagship LS 600h L, specially converted with a Laundelet roof. To install the new roof, Belgian coachbuilders Carat Duchatelet had to remove the existing roof and strengthen the car's body with Kevlar and honeycomb structures to restore lost rigidity.

The roof itself is a polycarbonate transparent shell covering the rear seat. It was designed by a French company that also builds canopies for helicopters and other aircraft. The 8-millimeter thick shell weighs 57 pounds and can be removed for an open-air rear seat.

The Lexus 600h L retained its original drivetrain, a 5-liter V-8 enhanced with an electric propulsion unit. The wedding procession, which occurs July 2, goes from the palace down to Monaco's harbor, and then along Boulevard Albert I to Sainte-Devote Church. The procession's slow speeds will allow the LS 600h L to operate under electric power for most of the route, according to Lexus.

After the wedding, the car will go on display at Monaco's Oceanographic Museum. … Read more

If you're like me and you don't like little sharp metal objects jingling around in your pocket, scratching up your phone, and ripping holes in your pants, you may be looking for a way to manage your keychain. The Keyport Slide aims to do just that, replacing your keychain with a slick looking aluminum chassis that sheathes your keys, creating a solid unit that doesn't jingle around and weighs next to nothing--as long as you aren't carrying more than six keys around at a time.

The Slide measures 4 inches long by 1.25 inches wide … Read more