Awesome Cars

To celebrate the Atom’s 10th anniversary, Ariel teamed up with Mugen to create the Atom Mugen. The super-lightweight car has a 270hp Honda K20Z Type R engine, allowing it to go from 0-60 in 2.9s.

A stretched ’05 Kawasaki ZX-10 piloted by Nick “Apex” Brocha takes on a Corvette-powered RX-7 driven by Jim Guthrie in a twisty, high speed drifting battle. Who will win? (Thanks Matt!)

Honda recently unveiled their Civic sedan and Civic Si coupe concepts. Aside from a natural gas model, the Civic Si will also have a hybrid model, which will have Li-ion batteries alongside a 1.5L engine.

West Coast Customs pimped out an Audi R8, giving it a Tron-themed makeover to promote Monster’s line of Tron audio gear. We’re not sure why they made it chrome instead of just black though.

You wouldn’t know it by its polished looks, but the F500 Mind is only used for testing new features. It has cameras and recording gear, and its switches, buttons and pedals have unusual features.

LA Design Studio’s collection is comprised of a sofa, an armchair, a coffee table, desk and a lamp with aluminum parts fashioned to look like they were components of the classic Shelby 427.

Some of the finalists in the Radically Porsche pattern design contest. The winners will get a masters degree scholarship and will have their designs applied on actual Porsche Caymans.

(NSFW language) Although this ad, from Artcore for the Romanian car company Dacia, blasts a variety of socioeconomic and cultural groups with its filthy insults, it’s still pretty darn funny too.

With its 1.6-liter, 138hp engine, it’s not the most powerful little car – but the sub-compact Veloster is definitely one of the more sporty, and high-tech rides to emerge from the Korean automaker.

With its stainless-steel counters and museum-style installations, Ralph Lauren’s D.A.D. Garage is filled with dozens of the world’s rarest cars, all in ideal condition and all driven by the designer himself.

Porsche has revealed their latest concept, the 918 RSR. Combining racetrack technology with the GT3 R Hybrid, the 918 RSR uses a flywheel energy recovery system for added power and traction.

Made by Giant Robot publisher Eric Nakamura and Len Higa of Onimotorworks, the car is filled with 8-bit references, from the boxy, button-filled exterior to the cartridge that turns the car on.

This gorgeous 1955 Ford Thunderbird concept car is from industrial designer Bo Zolland. The car features classic curves on the exterior, and will be built on a 2009 Ford Mustang platform.

GWA Tuning is working on this one-of-a-kind gullwing based on the experimental Mercedes-Benz C111. The Once has a 408hp M120 V12 engine, and brilliantly updates the C111’s retro styling.

Handmade by Rick Dobbertin, the amphibious HydroCar has a 762hp Chevrolet engine for its car mode and a 750hp ASD-6 Arneson Surface Drive for propulsion on water. Videos here.

This amusing Dutch Volkswagen Golf ad shows us the truth about buying a car from a little old lady; she looks like she only drove her car to church on Sunday – and then at the Nürburgring on Monday.

TeamSpeed member CaptainStradale spotted an actual working model of the BMW Vision EfficientDynamics, the 328hp diesel-hybrid car said to achieve 62.5 miles per gallon. Short video here.

The ultra-compact, all-electric POP concept vehicle from Kia is more modern sculpture than small car, requires little more than 3 yards of parking space and features helicopter-inspired oblong windows.

Things are looking up(scale) for the 2011 Chrysler 300 sedan, with lots of chrome and soft lines on the outside and a luxurious interior facelift; expect a new 3.6L Pentastar V6 as a powertrain option.

The release of the 2011 BMW M3 marks the 25th year of the famed brand. In this rather subdued video, BMW takes a look back at the car that started it all – the first and the fastest BMW M3.

Think you can do better than Ken Block? You can try in DiRT 3. Practice your tight turns, daring leaps and slides without thinking of the cost of wrecked tires in the new Gymkhana Mode.

Auto Express got their hands on a prototype of Mercedez Benz SLS AMG E-cell. It’s got more torque and less horsepower, but the real loss here is the roar of the stock car’s mighty V8 engine.

What could possibly make a 1972 Chrysler wagon awesome? Maybe the fact that this particular one was driven by John and Yoko to help them travel incognito. It just recently hit the auction block.