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Cadillac struck out with engines in the early 1980s. The V8-6-4 was a good idea in search of the engine management of the future. Despite a diesel-crazy public after a pair of fuel crises, General Motors had so botched the execution of its V8 diesel program that only recently have diesels from all brands been able to shake the severely damaged reputation. It was into this morass of dissatisfaction that General Motors pushed the HT4100 V8 in an attempt to stem the tide of failure.

The HT4100 was a lighter and smaller clean-sheet design built in a new highly-automated, computer-intensive plant. "When the engine works so well for you, it's no surprise," says this GM video, "we knew it would, and so did the computer." That's a shocking disparity compared to the real world experience of HT4100 owners. "We call it high technology, but we hope you'll call it just another pleasant Cadillac experience." The HT4100 was yet another example of GM's ability to engineer but not execute engine-wise, and it was the third failure for Cadillac within a very short timespan. Pleasant is far from what leaking, failing, iron-head, aluminum-block HT4100s were called.

Check out the video below, and remember that Cadillac's next attempt at atonement and a "pleasant experience" was the Cimarron. It's a good thing there's all this past experience for GM to reflect upon, so that it doesn't launch the 2.5-liter four-cylinder ATS with disastrous results or completely alienate the premium European buyers it seeks. Let's hope they're paying attention in history class.

Now that we're familiar with Bulgarian tuner Vilner Studio, we shouldn't be surprised by the generous application of quilted leather in its latest project, the Mercedes-Benz W113 Gentle Pagoda.

A comprehensive luxification of a Pagoda-roofed SL, two-tone leather in cafe and latte hues are cross-stitched throughout the cabin, and set off with chrome, aluminum and a mahogany-rimmed steering wheel. Incredibly, the nicest part of the car could be the trunk, which is so well turned out you'd need to think about which valuables are worthy of putting in it. Take a closer look at it in the photo gallery above.

We may love our cars, but we certainly don't spend much time with them.

The 2012 Emerging Trends in Parking survey by the International Parking Institute reveals a number of interesting facts about the place the vehicles we love spend the most time: Parking spaces.

According to the survey:

• 30 percent of most traffic in a city comes from people looking for parking spaces.
• Most cars are parked 90 percent of the time.
• Urban planners, architects and politicians are the three groups most in need of a parking expert.

While often an afterthought, creating good parking spaces is essential in creating a more efficient, more sustainable and even more walkable environment. Parking lots need to be easy to enter, a breeze to leave and easy to pay for. If not, parking can make any place a frustration for someone to visit or live, the survey points out.

The survey also says emerging technology has become more important to parking planners, as they look for ways to electronically pay for a parking space, locate spaces while in a car and better plan urban spaces. It's obvious when you think about it, but only then. Our parking lots on the whole, it appears, need a lot of work.

We're not finished with the 24 Hours of Le Mans yet, and this could be the best of it: fifteen minutes of race action in super slow motion. You'll see a Corvette spitting flames and another dragging pieces, an Audi on three wheels, a Nissan on three tires, and how kerbs and G-forces put wear on suspensions and carbon-fiber tubs.

It's more uplifting than the crashes that were last week's news, but just as riveting. The video's posted below.

Want to watch something strangely beautiful? We suggest the BMW M5 footage crafted by BMW of Canada in the video below. No scantily clad women, no overtly gratuitous tire smoke – just a 560-horsepower super sedan doing its best impression of a bullet.

Shortly after getting "shot" out of a makeshift barrel, the M5 hurdles its way at something we approximate to be its artificially limited top speed of 155 miles per hour at a series of targets, taking them out one by one in slow motion.

It's two minutes of your life that we don't think you'll regret spending. See for yourself by scrolling down below.

This Craigslist abomination is certainly a sign that something very, very evil has gone down in the Appalachian hills of eastern Kentucky.

The monstrous mashup is advertised as a "1962 International rat rod?". Note the question mark. It is possibly the most important piece of punctuation in the entire listing. For this is no rat rod. Sure, it's cobbled together with pieces of several other vehicles, and at least some of it is unpainted. But rat rods are cool. This is, well, rat wrong. Or maybe just rat.

Features include the best of all three vehicles. It's got an Olds dashboard, tilt steering, cruise control, power seats, and, we think, alloy wheels. Below the beltline are the ribbed side panels of a Pontiac Grand Am and in back its "duel" exhaust. And plopped right behind the engine is the primer-red cab from a 1962 International pickup truck with Grand Am door handles "allready" installed. Three orphaned nameplates right there in one (un)tidy package.

The seller claims the only thing wrong with it is "the aircondition is low of freon," but it drives fine and (somehow) retains the International's good title. So despite the heat, and the inevitable run-ins with hordes of pitchfork wielding locals trying to burn it at the stake, just $3,000 (price is firm, btw) drives this unholy wreck right on home. Why would anyone want to part with such a work of, um, art? The seller says he has too many other projects to do.

Someone, for the love of Harley Earl, please stop this guy before he strikes again.

Car and Driver is reporting that Mini has confirmed the three-door version of the Countryman will debut at the September Paris Motor Show. Rechristened "Countryman Coupe," the production version of Mini's 2011 Detroit Auto Show Paceman Concept will go on sale early next year as a late-arrival 2013 model.

C&D doubts that the real deal will have the bronze accents of the concept, but says the rest will be "nearly identical." The Countryman Coupe specs and options lists will likely follow suit with the four-door version of the crossover, according to the report.

If you need a refresher on the Paceman, be sure to click through our gallery.

If you've been wanting to get your hands on one last new Saab but missed out on the great Saab sell-off when Saab Cars North America declared bankruptcy, well, your ship has now come in.

Actually, it came in last year – but hundreds of new Saabs got waylaid at ports in California and New Jersey because of the bankruptcy, according to SaabWorld.net. Those cars are now slated for auction, some 900 of them, which will be available for dealers, exporters and rental car companies to bid on beginning next week. Eventually, 300 of these cars should make their way to Saab dealers, where they're expected to be sold off at 30- to 50-percent discounts. The other 600 will either be exported or used as rentals, according to the report, so "the price of Saabs will not be severely depressed."

Besides the new cars, some 67 company cars, including some interesting stuff like a 1960 Saab Quantum IV and a 1970 Sonnett III, will also be auctioned off, according to the report. Of the new cars, just over half are 9-5 models, some 400 are 9-3 sedans, another 60 are 9-3 wagons, and about a dozen are convertibles. According to the report, 28 are actually 9-4X crossovers, which is more than 10 percent of Saab's total 2011 sales for that model.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened new investigations concerning the Chrysler 200 and Ford Explorer. All of the vehicles in question are from the 2011 model year, with 87,000 200s and 83,000 Explorers being investigated.

NHTSA's Chrysler investigation concerns possible stalling problems, with the organization stating that it has received 15 complaints of the 200's 3.6-liter Pentastar V6 stalling. "All 15 incidents reported stalling without warning during low-speed decelerations such as braking for a stop sign or traffic light," NHTSA's official release states. This investigation does involve both the sedan and convertible models.

Moving to the Explorer, NHTSA is investigating reports of power steering failure with the electric power-assisted system. In some instances, owners have complained that the system completely stops working, while other drivers simply noted greater effort being needed to turn the wheel. NHTSA writes:

"Some of the complaints indicated observing a power steering warning message when the failure occurred. In some cases, the condition was corrected by turning the vehicle off and restarting. However, some reports indicate the condition returned after restart."

No accidents have been linked to either the Ford or Chrysler issues.

Keep in mind, these investigations are not recalls – merely a way for NHTSA to probe a certain model and determine if an official recall is actually necessary. Click here and here to read both of the NHTSA investigation reports.

When you're the boss, parking is never a problem on the jobsite. Not even if someone has taken your reserved spot. Not even if they've taken your spot with, um, the office.

Because the boss drives a Mercedes-Benz G63 AMG and uses at least part of his V8's 560 pound-feet of torque to subtly – OK, not so subtly – create a space where the office formerly sat.

Oh, that's power. Not just the Geländewagen's 544 horsepower, but also the boss's power to jeopardize the health and well-being of his underlings, the condition of his $129,000 rolling anachronism, and do it without fear of consequence. Oh, and since the G63 isn't available in the States, he's probably doing it with a pretentiously amazing German accent.

Either that or there is MUCH more money to be made as a construction worker than we ever imagined.

Video proof below.

No, General Motors is not recalling the Chevrolet Cruze because DVD copies of Steven Seagal's seminal 1997 hit Fire Down Below were left in the trunk of every car that's been sold. If wishing made it so. Rather, the Cruze has been recalled to modify the engine shield that's located under the vehicle. The worry is that any fluids that might leak from above could potentially collect on top of the shield and then ignite and start a fire.

You may recall that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration began investigating the Cruze in April over engine fires and then last month expanded its investigation to include 370,000 vehicles spanning two model years. The official recall announced today affects 413,418 Cruzes for the 2011 and 2012 model years that were built in the United States through May 2012. That includes every Cruze built so far at the company's Lordstown, OH assembly plant through the end of last month.

GM is also simultaneously executing a second, smaller recall on up to 249 Cruzes that may have partially completed welds in their trunks.

This is not the first time that nearly every Cruze sold to the public has been recalled. In May 2011, GM recalled the Cruze to inspect each unit's intermediate steering shaft covers to ensure they were properly installed.

Father's Day was this past weekend, and in case you're a dad who didn't get what he really wanted, Autoblog is holding a whole week's worth of giveaways to make up for it. You can of course enter to win even if you're not a dad (the childless and females are also eligible), but winning will be all the more sweeter if you spent your Sunday pretending to like that tie your kids got you.

Day 5/5 Grand Prize: Win a Traxxas 1/16 Ford Mustang BOSS 302.

The Prize: A Traxxas 1/16 Ford Mustang BOSS 302 valued at $299.00. This is the grand prize ending our week of Post-Father's Day Giveaways, and a fitting grand prize it is. You've got the Mustang BOSS 302's good looks scaled down to 1/16 size and wrapping a state-of-the-art RC chassis and electronics from Traxxas. It's the one prize we thought every father would like, and Traxxas was gracious enough to oblige.

Make sure to get your entry in and earn up to 15 additional entries by also Liking the following Facebook pages.

• Traxxas
• AOL Autos
• AutoblogGreen

Provided by: Traxxas
URL: http://www.traxxas.com/
Facebook: facebook.com/traxxas
Twitter: twitter.com/traxxas




The Rules:

• Click here to enter. Requires that you Like the Autoblog Facebook page. Five additional entries each are offered for choosing to Like the prize provider's, AOL Autos and AutoblogGreen Facebook pages.
• Contest is open to all residents of the 50 States, the District of Columbia, and Canada (excluding Quebec), 18 or older!
• The winner will be chosen randomly. One winner will win a Traxxas 1/16 Ford Mustang BOSS 302 valued at $299.00.
• If you are chosen, you will be notified by email. Winners must respond within three days of being contacted. If you do not respond within that period, another winner will be chosen.
• The full list of rules can be found here.
• Entries can be submitted until June 25, 2012 at 2:59PM ET.

For a division whose sole purpose is to remove the understatement from its parent company's cars, AMG headquarters in Affalterbach, Germany are nondescript. From the outside it might almost be easier to believe that the small complex makes spatulas or spreadsheets, as opposed to some of the world's most luxuriously brutish automotive machinery.

Until you step inside any of those buildings, that is, such as the lobby that normally feels like an upscale dealer showroom but on certain days features AMG wares worthy of SEMA, or the studio area where customers have dropped their cars off for personalized modifications.

Everything that comes from AMG comes from this secluded plot of land. You can take a personal tour of it but you can't take pictures, so Mercedes-Benz has done it for you with a seven-minute, digital trip through the AMG factory hive. Scroll down to take the virtual walk-through – but don't let it stop you from actually visiting.

We're pretty sweet on the resurrected Fiat 500. The quirky little hatch is an engaging driver with adorable looks. It is not what we'd call fast, however – even the Fiat 500 Abarth just barely lands itself in "quick" territory.

Fortunately, there are hard-working souls out there willing to remedy the machine's acceleration deficit. Lazzarini Design has done some measuring and discovered that, with a little body work, the 500 can play host to much more formidable powerplant. How formidable? The crew wants to yank the beating heart from the Ferrari 458 Italia and plop the 4.5-liter V8 behind the seats of cinquecento. You know, where the car gods intended the engine in the 500 to be.

These are clearly our kind of people.

But they aren't entirely off their medication. The engine has been detuned from 570 horsepower to a more reasonable 550 hp. Lazzarini says the project actually stretches the 500 wheelbase by almost a foot in order to fit the engine and transmission safely aboard. The whole machine weighs in at 2,200 pounds, even with ballast on both front corners to keep the car planted. If you like what you see, the studio says it is currently looking for an investor to help build the machine. Lazzarini Design estimates the project will cost around $550,000. Check it out over at the Lazzarini site.