It's been four years since I last attended the Kirkland Concours d'Elegance and though it was a good show then, it has developed into a world-class international concours. So I don't intend to miss it this year since its the only one of of its type to be held in the Pacific Northwest. (Kirkland, should you be wondering, is a Seattle suburb on the east shore of Lake Washington.) The concours setting, on the grounds of Carillon Point, home of the Woodmark Hotel, is quite lovely, although the year I was there it rained and the entire show had to be moved to an underground parking .........

Italian photographer Matteo Ferrari took pictures of people who drove the same car for many, many years.

Scientists at Purdue University have determined that raising the speed limit from 65 to 70 on Interstate 65 in Indiana has not increased the probability of fatalities or severe injuries. "These findings are important because the influence of speed limits on roadway safety has been a subject of continuous debate in the state of Indiana and nationwide," said Fred Mannering, a professor of civil engineering. "Indiana highway-related accidents result in about 900 fatalities and 40,000 injuries annually and place an incredible social and economic burden on the state"........

My memories of actor/racer Steve McQueen are just two: the first came during a Sebring 12-hour race when a colleague pointed him out. I wasn't a movie fan in those years so his presence meant little. The second happened when I was applying for a copywriter's job in a Toronto ad agency and with little agency experience worried that I might not be accepted. With time to spare I went to a local theater showing McQueen's "Cincinnati Kid." McQueen, a young gambler under the tutelage of Jackie Gleason, was cool, confident; a winner. So inspired, I got the .........

You can't always trust your GPS gadget. As researchers have long known, perplexing electrical activity in the upper atmospheric zone called the ionosphere can tamper with signals from GPS satellites. Now, new research and monitoring systems are clarifying what happens to disruptive clouds of electrons and other electrically charged particles, known as ions, in the ionosphere. The work may lead to regional predictions of reduced GPS reliability and accuracy........

The number of road traffic deaths in China has soared almost 100% in two decades, reveals a study reported in the journal Injury Prevention. The pattern was not restricted to areas of major urbanisation and development, but was also seen in rural locations and sparsely populated areas, the findings show........

As per research reported in the recent issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons, the new generation of airbags not only helps protect motor vehicle collision (MVC) victims from injury and death, but also are linked to dramatic cost saving to trauma centers. The study shows that the deployment of airbags in MVCs, especially in conjunction with the use of a seatbelt, significantly reduce injuries to the brain, face, spine and chest; as well as lower in-hospital mortality rates, injury severity and hospital-acquired infections for MVC victims........

Yamaha Recalls 2008 Rhino 450 and 700 due to possible brake failure. .........

A car that navigates city streets without a driver - steered only by a computer? That might seem impossible to a number of. But scientists from Fraunhofer and the FU Berlin are presenting such an automated vehicle at this year's Hannover Messe on April 21 through 25, 2008 (Hall 25, Stand H25). Its core element is a three-dimensional laser scanner........

he demo drive is an essential step along the Road to the Sale for automobile salespeople, but as test-drives go, this one was a marathon. .........

Scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a strategy to capture, store and eventually recycle carbon from vehicles to prevent the pollutant from finding its way from a car tailpipe into the atmosphere. Georgia Tech scientists envision a zero emission car, and a transportation system completely free of fossil fuels........

The number of airline mishaps attributed to pilot error significantly declined between 1983 and 2002, as per an analysis conducted by scientists at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. While the overall rate of airline mishaps remained stable during that time, the proportion of mishaps involving pilot error decreased 40 percent. The rate of mishaps correlation to a pilots poor decision-making declined 71 percent. The scientists attribute the decline to better training and improvements in technology that aid pilot decision-making. The findings appear in the January 2007 edition of Aviation, Space, and Environmental Medicine........

It is difficult for me to write anything positive about the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, who allied with Hitler in the lead-up to WW2. Nevertheless when a car Il Duce once owned is offered for auction I'm obliged to pay attention. Actually, Autoblog was the source for this article, based on an item in Italiaspeed. The car is an Alfa Romeo 6C 2300 Pescara Spyder, ordered in 1935 with custom coachwork by Carrozzeria Touring. Included was an auxiliary jump-seat and an engine tuned to 95 horsepower, up from the standard 68 hp. Ah, though Benito may have been a car fancier he didn't .........

It's Friday. Time for a little fun. Again, a tidbit from Leslie Ungar, take this quiz to learn what kind of car you .........

Every year at this time I start dreaming of winter getaways and find myself tempted by visions of spending the entire month of March in Florida. What a month for car enthusiasts! My dream trip would start at Amelia Island, March 7-9, for the annual Concours d'Elegance and RM auction. In 2008 Amelia Island will feature the cars of the 1966-1972 Trans-Am Series, appropriately honoring the great Parnelli Jones, an Indy driver who was equally skilled on road courses. I'd see, among others, the Bud Moore-prepared 1970 Boss Mustang 302 driven by Jones and the 1968 Penske-Sunoco Camaro .........

Research on hydrogen-fueled cars may be one step closer to application thanks to a new form of hydride discovered by researchers at the ESRF. The material, lithium borohydride, is a promising energy storage system: it contains 18 weight percents of hydrogen, which makes it attractive for use in hydrogen-fueled cars. Its drawback is that it only releases hydrogen at quite high temperatures (above 300 degrees C). The team at the ESRF has found a new form of the compound that could possibly release hydrogen in mild conditions. This discovery, completely unexpected from the point of view of theoretical predictions, is published recently as a Very Important Paper in Angewandte Chemie........

Engineers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed and tested a laser-based ranging system to assess the performance of automobile collision warning systems. Scientists in industry and at the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) will be able to use the NIST technology to accelerate the development and commercialization of safety systems that alert drivers to multiple, and sometimes virtually simultaneous potential crash hazardsboth from forward or side collisions as well as from running off the road. DOT believes that such warning systems could reduce substantially the number and severity of injuries to motorists and save lives........

It's energy efficient, it's clean, compact and simple, and, above all, it's very cool. All of these factors could be significant in getting people to adopt a lightweight, electrically powered scooter designed by William J. Mitchell, the Alexander W. Dreyfoos Professor of Architecture and Media Arts and Sciences, and several of his students in MIT's Smart Cities Group, in collaboration with SYM, a major scooter manufacturer in Taiwan, and ITRI, Taiwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute. A prototype of the new design was a hit at the Milan Auto Show, where it was unveiled earlier this month........

Thanksgiving marks the heaviest travel weekend of the year and that means large increases in the number of fatal car crashes, especially in rural areas. And nowhere is that more true than in states that dont adequately enforce seat belt laws. The University of Minnesota Center for Excellence in Rural Safety (CERS) today released an analysis showing a strong correlation between states lacking strong seat belt laws and states with a high proportion of fatalities on rural roads........

TU Delft will demonstrate how improved control techniques can reduce the risk of aircraft crashes. The demonstration involves reconstructing troubled flights such as the El Al flight which crashed in the Bijlmer area of Amsterdam in 1992 in a flight simulator and adding the newly developed technology........