Checklist- On Aluminum Stock, Single Engine Retrac. Gear & Vari. Prop. Ckl-0106 on 2040-parts.com

Ford Taurus SHO-stopper in Chicago?

The new Ford Taurus SHO is shaping up to be a sleeper. Spy shooters have caught what appears to be the performance version of the new Ford flagship--and it looks almost exactly the same as the regular car. There's a SHO badge on the back--which is stickered over--and uh, nothing else.

Redesigned Ford Focus expected to get 40 mpg highway

The redesigned 2012 Ford Focus will get an estimated 40 mpg in highway driving with an all-aluminum 2.0-liter engine mated to a six-speed, dual dry-clutch automatic transmission. The normally aspirated engine combines variable camshaft timing and high-pressure direct fuel injection to crank out 160 hp and 146 lb-ft of torque. That compares with 140 hp and 136 lb-ft from the aluminum 2.0-liter engine used in the current-generation Focus.

Ram introduces CNG-powered pickup

Aside from the Honda Civic Natural Gas, compressed-natural-gas-powered vehicles have usually been converted after the fact, generally for fleet use. Chrysler is hoping to carve out a niche in the corporate-pickup segment by selling a factory-built CNG Ram 2500 that can seamlessly switch over to gasoline operation when the natural-gas tanks run dry. The twin 4.6-cubic-foot CNG tanks (which store the equivalent of 18.2 gallons of gas) take up a section of the bed, while an eight-gallon gasoline tank provides fuel during start-up and then reserve capacity when the compressed tanks are tapped out, allowing the bruiser a measure of operational flexibility.