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How to Drive StickEvery clutch is different. Some standard-shift cars have heavy clutches, clutches you can barely push to the floor without pulling a quad muscle. Others are so thin, the clutch so light and easy, they threaten to stall after you’ve let the pedal up no more than a few inches off the floor. Most are somewhere in the middle. But in the most important way, every clutch is the same, because every clutch has a sweet spot, that precise place as it travels up the floor where it catches, connecting the drivetrain to the motor to move the car forward....

Media Platforms Design TeamYou must look hard and close to see the differences in the styling of the 2008 model Cadillac STS when compared with the 2007 model. It appears that changes will be confined to the front end, especially the grille texture and surround. What we see in the closeup below at right of a prototype STS that was spotted near a GM research center in Michigan are heavier bars surrounding the grille opening and larger sections in the grille itself....

Media Platforms Design Team CHICAGO — In the boldest statement yet of its intent to sell clean diesel engines in the U.S., Audi organized a 4200—mile fuel economy test drive across America. The route went the long way from New York to Los Angeles, using a fleet of specially prepared Q7, Q5, A4 and A3 vehicles. We joined the second leg of the event at the W Hotel in Chicago, where we met up with a Q7 3....

Media Platforms Design TeamMedia Platforms Design TeamMORE BREAKING NEWS FROM THE 2008 L.A. AUTO SHOW• 2008 LA AUTO SHOW: All of Our Updates and Analysis in One Place The Smart is about to get a small shot of adrenaline, thanks to tuner Brabus. This limited production run of leaner, meaner iterations of the Daimler’s microcar will become available in early 2009. The buffed up Brabus will feature upgraded interior trim, a more aggressive exterior appearance, and enhanced handling....

Any company with the cojones to brand its products “Confederate” must be a rebellious sort, eh? Well, the rebellion at Birmingham, Ala.-based Confederate Motor Company focuses on motorcycle design, and they’re busy developing and producing some of the coolest, quickest and most eye-popping bikes this side of Jesse James’s garage.For a motorcycle manufacturer, we’re talking about a small product line here: two models available now, plus a third planned for 2008....

Media Platforms Design TeamWireless High-DefinitionMedia Platforms Design TeamTransmitting low-bandwidth music around the house is easy. But the massive amount of data needed to send high-definition digital video through the air makes it a challenge. New technology now makes it possible to cut the HDMI cord and beam hi-def video directly to your TV from a cable box or Blu-ray player. The end game: a completely cable-free house. Wireless high-definition technology is being built directly into some new TVs, and it can be found today in theDell Latitude Z Laptop (starts at $2000), which uses an add-on receiver to give monitors the ability to pick up the PC’s high-definition transmission....

Media Platforms Design TeamLast week, Samsung revealed its latest tablet line: the Galaxy Tab S. And, once again, it’s evident that the Korean giant wants to challenge the iPad. Yes, Samsung already has a bloated family of tablets across two different groupings—the Galaxy Tab line, which targets the ordinary consumer, and the stylus-ready Note line, aimed at business power users. But of all the models, the Galaxy Tab S is the slate that appears to most directly take aim at Apple....

Media Platforms Design Team GENEVA — Talk about deja vroom. Audi got rave reviews earlier this year when it showed off a spectacular R8 concept with a hugely powerful twin-turbocharged V12 diesel engine at the Detroit auto show. That clean-power supercar was silver. And while not much has changed here at the Geneva Motor Show except the color, this red diesel R8 still makes 500 hp, racks up 737 lb.-ft. of torque, tops 185 mph and delivers 24 miles per gallon—not too shabby....

Media Platforms Design TeamThe pundits have spoken, and the resounding take on the new BMW 3-series is that the 328i (pipsqueak turbocharged 4-cylinder engine seen here) steals the show from the beefier twin-scroll turbocharged inline-6 powered 335i.Surprised? You shouldn’t be. I certainly saw the argument when I sampled both rides at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. The 328i was lighter and more tossable than its more premium stablemate. It’s also no slouch, accelerating to 60 mph as quickly as a 1995-era M3, while returning 36 mpg on the highway....

Few things are annoying in quite the same way as having company over and then rooting around for the extra table leaf so nobody has to be exiled to the couch. But you’d never have to worry about it again if you had this brilliant and mesmerizing table that simply expands when you twist it. Designed by Scott Rumschlag—who also built what is quite possibly the world’s best standing desk—this table is just a prototype, but an impressive one at that....

Media Platforms Design TeamMyFord Touch promised powerful features and an elegant interface when it debuted at CES in 2010, but has since become a sore spot for Ford when it was widely criticized for being buggy and overly complicated. Ford made a valiant effort in 2012 to satisfy frustrated customers by issuing a free software upgrade to 300,000 owners, but their latest move just might be radical enough to save the beleaguered follow-up to Microsoft Sync....

Media Platforms Design TeamIt was tough making the selections for our 2006 Editor’s Choice Awards. The CES show floor is an over-the-top electronic landscape; 1.6 million sq. ft. of stuff that makes you say, “That is so cool!” Some practical, some not. It’s hard to fit everything in.One of the buzzwords at the show this year was Home Cinema. Not Home Theater, but Home Cinema, as in life-size images on a mammoth screen inside your home....

Media Platforms Design Team Ticket-happy traffic cameras, the bane of many a driver’s existence, are back in the spotlight again this week after the state supreme court in Ohio heard arguments over whether cities there can fine commuters for running red lights—an infraction typically under state jurisdiction that lets drivers off with just a citation. Now the fate of traffic cameras all across Ohio is being questioned after an Akron attorney sued the city when local law enforcement officials mailed a citation to his wife....

The Federal Aviation Administration is vulnerable to cyberattacks and needs to strengthen its digital security pronto to prevent attacks on the nation’s air traffic control system. That’s the upshot of a new report just out from the Government Accountability Office.The latest findings by the GAO underscore the problems with the system currently employed by the FAA, which, CNN says, hasn’t updated its strategic security plan since 2010 and has yet to even conform to a cybersecurity law written in 2002....

LOS ANGELES – Tonight, at the Kodak Theatre here, DiamlerChrysler, Audi and VW jointly announced they would share BlueTec clean diesel technology. The BluTec exhaust emissions treatment system recently won a Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Award as one of the top American innovations of the year. It reduces nitrogen oxides (NOx) with either a particulate filter and oxidizing catalytic converter or an even more effective water-based additive called AdBlue. AdBlue is injected into the exhaust gas and releases ammonia, which reduces NOx almost completely, say the manufacturers....

Media Platforms Design TeamUnless you live under a rock, you’re probably aware that Lamborghini took the wraps off a new car last week. But even if this isn’t the first you’ve heard about the freshest Italian supercar, we’ve rounded up the five most important things you need to know about the latest Lambo.The youngest kid on the supercar block is the Lamborghini Huracan (or technically the Huracán LP 610-4), and this raging bull from Sant’Agata Bolognese replaces the late, great Gallardo....

If you own your own house, perhaps you’ve thought about throwing some solar panels up on the old roof in order to cut costs. But exactly how much cost would that cut? And goodness, that seems like a lot of work just to figure out if it’s even worth it.Enter Project Sunroof.View full post on YoutubeProject Sunroof is Google’s latest little doodad and brainchild of engineer Carl Elkin. Using data already present in Google Maps, the service takes into account weather, obstructions, and roof angles to calculate how many solar panels could be theoretically installed and how much money that might save you in terms of electricity....

Media Platforms Design TeamLast February, Apple announced Thunderbolt, an Intel-designed standard for connecting displays, hard drives, and other high performance peripherals to Macs and PCs at superfast speeds: a max of 10 gigabits per second, up to 20 times faster than USB 2.0 and 12 times faster than Firewire 800. The company promised a host of third party gadgets would be soon to follow. But by the end of the year, aside from Apple’s own Cinema Display and a handful of drives from makers like LaCie, Thunderbolt options were scarce....

Media Platforms Design Team The headlines are dire: Two and a half years after the nuclear disaster at Fukushima Dai-ichi, contaminated water is leaking from the plant at a faster rate than most people realized, getting into the groundwater and the Pacific Ocean. , saying it will no longer leave the issue with Tepco, the utility that has been trying to stem the leaks. But how did this happen, and what does it mean?...

Media Platforms Design TeamWhat does a $400 flashlight do that a 10-buck Rayovac can’t? Sure, both illuminate dark hallways and guide you toward circuit breakers mid-blackout, but only one is designed by aerospace engineers, hand-assembled from more than 80 parts, housed in nearly indestructible titanium alloy (in our tests, it survived repeated hard pitches at a brick wall), and powered by a cornea-searing 240-plus Lumen LED light. The Gatlight V3 even comes with a wooden box to give your flash some splash, because the junk drawer just isn’t good enough for this thing....