Ken Block’s Rally American season got off on a wrong foot after he failed to even make it to the finish line in the season’s inaugural race but if his past performances at the 100 Acre Woods Rally are any indication, you could say that Block will bounce back rather nicely in the next race.

The American rally car is aiming to bag his fifth victory at the event this weekend and this video of him dusting off his new Ford Fiesta Moster World Rally with navigator Alex Gelsmino – he’s a chatty fellow, isn’t he? – at a ranch near 100 Acre Woods shows that he‘s about as ready as ready can be to get down and dirty over muddy gravel this weekend.

Ken Block takes practice run for 100 Acre Woods Rally originally appeared on topspeed.com on Friday, 26 February 2010 02:27 EST.

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Alfa Romeo fans in the US have long been waiting for the day when they’re car brand of choice would make its touted return to the land of milk and honey. Well, according to Fiat Group CEO Sergio Marchionne, the day has come for all of you to rejoice.

According to Marchionne, Alfa Romeo will make its triumphant US return by the end of 2012.

A company spokesperson confirmed Marchionne’s statements during an interview with Automotive News and the latter was even quoted as saying that Alfa Romeo’s return to the US resulted in renewed confidence by the brand with their latest product offering, one in which it believes will be greatly accepted in the US and Canada.

“I’m a lot more confident now that Alfa Romeo will reconstitute a product offering that is acceptable globally, and more in particular in the United States and Canada,” Marchionne was quoted as saying.

“There is a strong likelihood that the brand will be back here within the next 24 months.”

Alfa Romeo has already announced that the new Giulia sedan will be the first model to cross the Atlantic to replace the Alfa Romeo 159 that’s currently being phased out slowly in the company’s international markets. What’s more, Alfa Romeo is also expected to manufacture the Giulia in North America around the same time frame of 2012.

While we’re not counting our chickens until they hatch, which means that we’re going with the age old ‘to see is to believe’ adage, but Marchionne’s announcement is as strong a statement as we’ve had in a while regarding the status of Alfa Romeo’s return to the US. And for that, you can’t blame us for getting a little pumped for that time to finally come.

Fiat boss announces Alfa Romeo’s return to the US by 2012 originally appeared on topspeed.com on Tuesday, 16 February 2010 06:55 EST.

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While the perception in society points to men becoming “tied-down” after they get hitched, we should all be reminded that perception isn’t always reality. It seems a little short-sighted and naive to think that men have become a little too predictable once we become domesticated.

That being said, as far as the new Dodge Super Bowl commercial is concerned, they seem to think that all men, no matter the course of action they take, will, at some point in time, end up on sort of leash in their lives.

But as the ad puts it in the end, men will abide by the rules for as long as they have something – even just one thing – to go crazy about.

And for Dodge, that ‘one thing to go crazy about’ is the new Charger.

On some levels, we cringe at thought of seeing men – husbands, specifically – get stereotyped in the way Dodge did it. But on the other hand, we can all agree that, while some men do indeed fall on that label, the thought of speeding off on a new Dodge Charger is something a lot of us do go crazy about.

Dodge’s Super Bowl Ad highlights Charger as ‘Man’s Last Stand’ originally appeared on topspeed.com on Monday, 8 February 2010 16:00 EST.

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If you have a Tom Tom navigation unit in your vehicle you may not know that the aftermarket direction providers have been keeping an eye on just how fast you’re driving. Apparently, over the past two years the portable GPS based in car navigation system has been collecting data as part of their Speed Profiles program in an attempt to help fleet drivers find the fastest routes from coast to coast in order to boost their efficiency and get them to their destinations even faster.

As part of their findings, their study has shown that American drivers tend to be law abiding citizens on the highway, although we do seem to be pushing the upper limits of those designated speed zones. It makes sense that the less densely populated areas across the country’s midsection show the highest average speeds, with Mississippi leading the pack showing typical speeds of just over 70 MPH followed closely by New Mexico. However the single fastest interstate in the continental U.S. happens to be a stretch of I-15 that runs from Utah into Nevada, showing an average speed of 77.67 MPH. So don’t worry if you were one of those drivers pushing the envelope, Tom Tom isn’t sharing your speeding habits with the fuzz, they are just trying to help all of its clients get to where they want to go a little quicker.

Let us know if you have any Top Speed roads of your own.

Press release after the jump.

Tom Tom shows the the fastest roads in the U.S. originally appeared on topspeed.com on Wednesday, 27 January 2010 18:00 EST.

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In the years that we’ve been covering the auto industry, we’ve seen just about any type of car crash imaginable. From head-on collisions to supercars diving into lagoons, the list is endless on the ways owners seem to destroy their beloved supercars.

On the flip side, we rarely come across a documented video of a supercar escaping a crash by the skin of its teeth so imagine our joy and relief when we saw this video of a Lamborghini Murcielago LP670-4 SuperVeloce come oh-so close to becoming the third SuperVeloce – and the second in as many weeks – to become another car crash statistic.

Check out the video and watch how the owner of the Murcielago SV managed to avert getting clipped by on-coming SUV at the last second. Close call indeed.

Video: Lamborghini Murcielago LP670-4 SuperVeloce loses control and almost gets run-over by an SUV originally appeared on topspeed.com on Wednesday, 27 January 2010 11:45 EST.

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If you call yourself an auto enthusiast, then we fully expect you to be glued to the television on January 11, from 9pm ET to 11 pm ET, to watch back-to-back biographies of two pioneers of the auto industry, Henry Ford and Ferdinand Porsche. The episodes will be shown as part of CNBC’s ’Biographies’ show and will give us an in-depth look at the two men and how they revolutionized the auto industry in their own unique way.

The first episode will feature no less than American revolutionary Henry Ford, the same man who gave us the automobile, assembly line, mass production, and the Ford Motor Corporation in 1930, thereby setting a standard for auto makers the world over who would follow in Ford’s lead for generations to come.

After you immerse yourself with the life of Henry Ford, you won’t have enough time to digest all the information you got because immediately after that episode will be the biography of another individual whose vision for making small and affordable cars spurned the creation of one of the most sought-after car brands in the world today: Porsche.

Continued after the jump.

Ferdinand Porsche and Henry Ford to be featured in CNBC’s ‘Biography Show’ on January 11 originally appeared on topspeed.com on Monday, 11 January 2010 12:00 EST.

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Travis Pastrana is never one to back down from a death-defying stunt so as you can expect, when he talked about ringing in 2010 by jumping 250 feet into the air on board his Red Bull Subaru WRX STI rally car onto a waiting barge, none of us second-guessed his sanity.

After a few botched practice sessions, the time finally came for Pastrana to do his New Year’s jump and as the video of the whole episode will show you, Pastrana surely kicked off 2010 off to a rousing start.

Check it out.

Video: Travis Pastrana kicks off 2010 in grand fashion originally appeared on topspeed.com on Saturday, 9 January 2010 07:00 EST.

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The latest Chevy Volt promo video is now up and running with the folks from GM, led by Volt chief designer Andrew Farah, take their Volt traveling troupe to the parking lot of Dodger Stadium for a quick ‘test lap’.

It’s not the typical test lap we’ve all seen in the past, but it nevertheless shows how the Volt shows off its EV power in a quick lap around a makeshift circuit in the parking lot of Dodger Stadium.

As you can see, Farah pretty much knows the ins-and-outs of the Volt, driving it masterfully around the course without even touching – or grazing – any of the cones that lined up the course. What’s even more impressive is that he does without even burning an ounce of fuel, showing off the true ‘electrical’ value that lies in the Chevy Volt.

Check it out to see for yourself how the Volt did in the ‘Dodger Stadium Test Run’.

Video: Chevy Volt does an EV-lap in the parking lot of Dodger Stadium originally appeared on topspeed.com on Sunday, 27 December 2009 18:00 EST.

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USF1 may be a neophyte in the world of Formula One, but don’t underestimate the hard work they’ve put in to become a competitive team in the 2010 F1 grid.

In this latest video released by the US-based F1 team, it shows the progress USF1 has made since signing the Concorde Agreement to become an official team for the 2010 Formula One season last July 31. This includes the delivery and installation of some pretty-high tech testing equipment at their headquarters in Charlotte.

The video also captures a few of the inner-workings with regards to the building of an F1 car including the creation of some of the smaller and more intricate parts which leads to piecing the whole car together.

It’s an eye-opening video for those who don’t know a whole lot about Formula One, especially in America. Now that a locally-based team is set to compete in the world’s most prestigious racing circuit, it may be time for American racing fans to start taking notice, and watching this video is a good place to start to know more about USF1.

Video: USF1 working in high gear in preparation for the 2010 F1 season originally appeared on topspeed.com on Sunday, 27 December 2009 14:00 EST.

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