Straightline

Congress took major steps this week toward crippling what's left of Detroit's Big Three automakers as the House of Representatives passed a 40 percent hike of the federal Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) and the Senate prepared to follow suit. Japanese and German liquor retailers reported record champagne sales. So let's jump in our cyber SUV and enjoy this week's drive around the auto blog block, while we still can.

Want the real low-down on CAFE? Bob Lutz spoke at the Western Auto Journalists meeting in San Francisco and The Auto Channel  has the address on video, conveniently broken in to topic segments.

Chrysler officials reported being flooded with advance orders and deposits this week for the upcoming Dodge Challenger SRT8, according to the company's Firehouse media blog. Firehouse is a limited access deal, but Edmunds.com's Inside Line has the details from, where else, the inside.

Just think, soon there will again be true muscle cars from Ford, Chevy and Dodge and they will be faster, handle better, last longer, go further on a gallon of gas and be gentler on the environment than anything even dreamed of back when Ronnie and the Daytonas were inspired by a little GTO. My preference back then was this.

Now, back to the real world  ....

Bet you didn't know one of President Bush's cabinet officials is an avid motorcyclist. It's Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters, who, according to AskPatty.com, has just embarked on a new motorcycle safety effort. She knows whereof she speaks, having broken a collar bone a couple of years ago when she went down during a ride on an Arizona two-lane.

Also falling down is somebody at Kenneth Cole. The Auto Prophet has the details.

Where do the reviewers at The Truth About Cars find those analogies?  Megan Benoit explains why the new Accord Coupe's handling reminds her of the time she had to persuade a drunken buddy to be the rear man in a horse costume. Honest, I don't make this stuff up, folks.

Yes, Full Throttle, what are Joe and Rose Mattioli thinking?
 
Peter DeLorenzo at AUTOEXTREMIST has the latest chapter in the long, sad tale of Carroll Shelby's descent from icon of American racing to something roughly approximating a certain anatomical feature found at the lower rear mid-section of every human being ever born.

See ya next week!