Ford shows off their new engines

The Ford F-150 has four new engines to choose from.
Photo supplied by Ford.

The Ford "Built Ford Tough Tour" stopped in at Castrol Speedway in Edmonton on Wednesday to show off their four new engines that will be used in the 2011 Ford F-150s.

Most prominent amongst these engines was the 3.5L twin-turbo V6. Ford claims this engine is capable of rivalling a V8.

So the big question is: did it match up?

Camaro ZL1 revealed in Chicago

The 2012 Camaro ZL1. Photo credit auto123.com. 

As you may know, my stance on the muscle cars of today is that they simply can't compare to the muscle cars of the past, at least from a coolness perspective. Even so, I am perfectly willing to give credit where credit is due and in this case Chevrolet may deserve some praise.

Even though they have recently decided to be finicky about whether or not their employees are allowed to call them chevy or not, they have also managed to find some time while dealing with such trivial matters to build the new Camaro ZL1.

Winners announced at Detroit Auto Show 2011

The Volt takes home the prize for Car of the Year.
Photo Credit Tannen Maury/EPA.

The winner of the North American car of the year were announced at the Detroit Auto Show on Monday.

The Chevrolet Volt won the award, beating out the Nissan Leaf and the Hyundai Sonota to win.

Chevrolet's electric car has been in the works for many years, and now that it's arrived, people are starting to see the genius of it. It is an electric car, but it has been able to do something other electric cars haven't.

Winter carnundrum

Winter takes its toll. Photo credit thetruthaboutcars.com.

It is now, in Canada at least, the middle of winter and despite all the snow and ice, people still need to get around the city.

Some switch over to public transportation, but it can be hard to make the change from the convenience and greatness of a car, to the bus.

I could go on and on about how much better cars are than buses, trains, walking, or even biking which some hardcore environmentalists continue to do even in the -30 degree weather. I could talk about how you can listen to your own music without having the yabo sitting in front of you blasting his "beats" drowning out your modestly volumed iPod, or the fact that in your own car you control the smells that come aboard.

I could spend a lot of time ripping on the bus, but today it's going to get off easy.

There is different group of people that deserves a tongue-lashing today. And they already know who they are.

Muscle car atrophy

'67 Mustang. This was the definition of a muscle car. Photo credit photobucket.com

As James May, one of the famous Top Gear Presenters once said, “The recipe for making [muscle cars] is very simple. Massive engine, crude, simple suspension, very low price and finally some orange paint.”

By this formula, building good, solid muscle cars should be a breeze. Car makers don’t have to worry about putting new technologies like satellite navigation, or G-force readers in a muscle car because muscle cars are supposed to be simple. 

In fact all a muscle car really has to do is make a lot of noise, and go quickly in a straight line.

So what happened?

Convertible Camaro coming soon

The new Chevy Camaro convertible. Set to be released in 2011.
Photo credit autoblog.com.

According to their website, Chevy will officially announce the Camaro convertible on November 17 at the Los Angeles International Auto Show.