The Fast and the Furious series is back again, but this time around it actually includes most, if not all, the characters from the original. You remember Dom Torretto, right? That psycho yet super cool bald dude played by none other than Vin Diesel and, of course, Brian the undercover cop played by Paul Walker, or in simpler terms “the blonde dude that all chicks pretty much dig”? Also returning is Jordana Brewster who plays Toretto’s sister Mia, and Michelle Rodriquez who plays Toretto’s mean streak girlfriend.

This time, however, it seems as though the actors are not the main stars in the movie. The autos are.

The main races involve video game-esque scenes, such as a highway race, an urban city street race, a cool mountain tunnel race almost like you would see in a Bond movie, and an all-terrain race ending with a nice big finale. Yes, I did say race at least five times in that last sentence, but what did you expect? This is an article on a Fast and Furious movie.

The movie was released in theaters on Friday April 5, and in its first night alone it brought in a little over $30 million at the box office (The original Fast and the Furious only made $15 million total during its opening).

The action packed movie starts out with Torreto racing in a car with his girlfriend alongside a large oil tanker in cahoots with some other nearby drivers attempting to steal, you guessed it, gas! In the original they did pretty much the same thing, only the trucks they were ripping off were carrying name brand electronics.

The beginning scene itself ends when Diesel’s emotionless character Toretto plows towards an oncoming fireball of destruction. For you guys out there who love intense action sequences, need I say more?

The movie itself features a long list of stars (cars):

• a 1970 Chevelle SS454
• a fixed up 67′ Chevy pickup
• an 89′ Chevy crew cab with 6 wheels
• an 87′ Buick Grand National GNX
• a 73′ Camaro F bomb
• a 1970 Plymouth Roadrunner (nicknamed Hammer)
• a 1972 Ford Gran Torino
• a 2009 Subaru WRX STI
• a custom BMW M5

As you can see the list is long and in total nearly 240 cars were built for the movie (including those completely destroyed during stunt scenes), and they merely represent 12 on screen vehicles. Doesn’t that leave a nice taste in your stomach?

Just imagine the vehicles that were destroyed while making this film.

*Shivers

Nicola Tesla was known for his work with electrical engineering; Tesla Motors is known for their stylish electric autos.

The Tesla Roadster, which already is cruising on highways and streets, was designed specifically to allow electric car users a better performing vehicle. On average, most hybrid and electric cars take nearly 10 seconds total to accelerate from 0-60 MPH after the driver steps on the gas. The Roadster, on the other hand, goes from 0-60 MPH in 3.9 seconds flat; not bad at all for a purely electric car. Other Roadster specs include a 14,000 RPM redline and EPA rating of 244 miles per full battery charge (3.5 hours). The amazing body style doesn’t hurt either. It’s sleek and sexy, but the price tag might hurt a little. The Roadster starts at $101,500.

Tesla is fairly new in the automotive industry, as the Roadster is actually the first car they ever released. However, they do have another on the way. The Tesla Model S Hatchback is a completely revamped hatchback sedan, designed to be devoid of the same body design and materials as the Roadster. This car not only has more of a family friendly approach with specs and design but with the $49,900 base price as well. The base model will include a smaller size Lithium battery pack that rates about 160 miles per charge, but larger battery packs are available as upgrades that increase mileage to 230 or 300 miles. The Model S tops out at 130 MPH and can accelerate from 0-60 in 4.8 seconds (sport model) or 0-60 in 5.6 seconds (standard model). The downside is that Tesla will not begin widescale production on the Model S until sometime in 2011.

Now that Obama has been elected President of the United States, the White House security staff is working hard to increase protection for our new leader. Obama is the first black US president, after all. There is no telling what could happen to him during his run, especially when you consider the Bush/dangerous shoe incident.

In order to protect our president, the Secret Service has pushed a brand new limousine into commission (obviously not them personally), which is a very large Cadillac limo outfitted with a 5-inch thick body frame, 8-inch-thick doors, run-flat tires, a completely sealed cabin and super thick bulletproof windows. The exterior trim has a slick and glossy black finish until you hit the bulletproof doors however which are an unattractive and dull grey color. The vehicle looks somewhat like a demolition derby car that was pieced back together with random parts.

A news agency even commented that the vehicle could withstand “a direct hit from an asteroid”, but the GM spokeswoman, Joanne K. Krell just laughed in reply.

Although the car is not as attractive on the outside, Krell has admitted that it is a true luxury Cadillac and jokingly commented, “And it will fix you a latte if you ask”.

GM also has helped design a unique terminator-like Suburban fully equipped with a huge Gatling gun that ejects via the roof. This allows the Secret Service to pose as a very powerful sentry and fight off many different kinds of caravan attacks, should the need arise.

The United States Secret Service have given the President’s new limo a name, “The Beast”.

GM parked a jet-like automobile in the Antique Auto Museum located in Hershey, Pennsylvania, for display to the public in October 2008. The new autos look very similar to military fighter jets and run on nearly the same turbine engine; the only difference is that these vehicles are meant for travel on the ground instead of the air.

The vehicles on display were the Firebird I, II, and III. All three vehicles were created by GM as early as the 1950′s by GM’s Allison Aircraft Division in Indianapolis. GM Vice President Charles McCuen (active in 1949) was interested in producing a turbine powered automobile for ground and roadway travel. After much work and research GM finally unveiled the Firebird I in 1954.

Since then both the Firebird II (1956) and Firebird III (1959) models have been revealed as vehicle prototypes to the public.

During their time the vehicles were used to test out the turbine power concept but eventually helped give birth to the automatic climate control system, ultrasonic keyless entry, antilock brakes, and automatic headlamps. The Firebird III also introduced a “Unicontrol” joystick which was used to drive the vehicle instead of a steering wheel.

In October, when the vehicles were introduced, GM Restoration Specialist Mike Erdodi gave a small demonstration on the turbine engines. Unfortunately when he started the vehicles they were running on backup 10 horsepower piston engines; the turbine engines, as it turns out, are just too costly to run.

All three vehicles were transported to the museum by way of a truck, which means none of the cars traveled. So much for turbine ground travel, especially if it costs an arm and a leg just to start.

Over the past decade many of the big auto companies have released retro mock-ups of their biggest car models. Some great examples are the new retro Mustangs, Chevy HHR, Chevy SSR, Chrysler 300, PT Cruiser, Dodge Challenger, Dodge Charger, and Ford Thunderbird models. There are also a countless number of other newer autos designed with a complete old-school look. Probably the biggest new, and retro, automotive scheduled to hit the market is the modern Chevy Camaro. Plans to release the Camaro coupe sometime in spring 2009 are still active, even with GM’s imminent closure on the horizon.

The original Camaro models were born nearly 40 years ago and have now been revived to add some competition to Ford’s retro Mustang models. If that wasn’t enough competition, in light of the old Nixon-era big three (contending auto companies including Chevy, Ford, and Dodge), Dodge also just released a new retro Challenger model.

The brand new Camaros will be sold in two separate coupe models- the V6 and the V8. The V8 has been tacked as the “Camaro SS” and will be the top end model for the series. The V6 edition will be marketed as “LS” or “LT trim” models and will include higher end options, such as bright HID headlamps with integrated halo rings, a rear spoiler, specific tail-lamps, and fully custom 20-inch wheels.

An early concept version of the new Camaro appeared in 2007-2008, in the Transformers movie, specifically the character known as Bumblebee. The car is first shown as an older Camaro model and then is later coaxed into transforming into a newer Camaro by another character. The actual car featured in Transformers was not a real Camaro because the real models weren’t anywhere close to finished when the movie began filming. Many will be surprised to know that car was built from the ground up using many parts from a new GTO; a lot of the body parts were even made out of fake plastic and were designed to look like real metal, such as the door handles and the Plexiglas windows on the car.

The brand new Camaros are set for an official release in spring of 2009, with a special convertible model set to retail around nine months later. With the recent drop in gas prices there is a chance the new Camaros will sell well, but then again with the sinking economy the release could go both ways. In a similar comparison, the retro Mustang that was released by Ford sold increasingly well, but Ford has reported that sales are now beginning to cool off.

Chrysler announced on Friday, October 24^th, that they were indeed going to lay-off 25% of their salaried work force as a start in a large series of planned budget cuts to keep up with the sinking stats of U.S. automotive sales. Chrysler has an estimated total of around 18,500 white-collar employees, and the budget planning will affect about 5,000 employees of that overall total. Those being released actually work for other companies and are simply under contract with Chrysler.

“We recognize that in order to strengthen our competitive capability, and reduce the time and cost to achieve our objectives, we cannot operate as we have in the past,” said Chief Executive Bob Nardelli.

“In the near future, we will be making organizational announcements as a result of restructuring actions reflecting the need to find new ways to operate.”

Automotive industry analysts also believe that due to the Chief Executive’s comments about the current budget cuts that he has also mentioned future layoffs and plant closures as the company resizes to compliment the industry sales changes.

There also have been rumors and press releases stating that Chrysler may be sold off to General Motors or even Nissan. It would certainly explain the large budget cuts, which usually happens when a company is gearing up to fall under new ownership.

Either way this turns out in the end, this is surely a disheartening clip of news as the sinking U.S. economy begins to take several more casualties. Sadly enough, Chrysler may not be the only automotive manufacturer being sold off or sinking into bankruptcy. General Motors is slowly dwindling away assets and will likely be bankrupt within a year or two if the company doesn’t slow down its spending. Auto sales in the U.S. have fallen to a considerably low percentage as consumers pocket more money to deal with the current recession.

Analysts report that the automotive sales industry is not slated to pick back up and recover until sometime in 2010.

In a major coup for General Motors, the completely redesigned 2008 Chevy Malibu won the Car of the Year at the Detroit Auto Show. The newly designed car hopes to take on the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord in the ever popular and hard-contested sedan area.

The Malibu’s interior has a twin-cockpit design that mimics classic Chevrolet Corvettes. Its exterior shape, with smooth sides, wide rear window pillars and side turn signals, is intended to resemble European luxury sedans.

For the struggling auto maker, General Motors, this offers a ray of hope that they have turned the corner and are hoping to put out designs that consumers will be attracted to.

Read more about the Chevy Malibu by visiting the GM site:

http://www.chevrolet.com/2008malibu/