“Whether it’s your thing or not, you’ve got to admit that this is pretty fun,” I told the Mustang, feeling the intoxicating thrust from the 315 horsepower.

A Dodge Viper may get more attention, but the XKR is less likely to go insane, carry you into a tree and kill you.

“Aw, nuts,” I said to myself when I stepped out of the Volkswagen R32.  “Now I’ve got to add another parking spot to my dream garage.”

Even though construction materials for dream garages are cheap, I don’t say that as frequently as you might think.  This time I had a good reason to because the unassuming Volkswagen Golf you see here is a very special car indeed.  The 2004-only R32 is the hottest Golf ever to grace U.S. shores.  It’s also the first North American Golf with 4Motion all-wheel drive (which …

Turn the key and it’s instantly obvious that this is not your average Audi.  Instead of a silky V6 purr, the distinctive burble of a V8 engine resonates through the dual exhausts.  It’s impossible to miss, especially if the top is down.  You don’t need to be told what happens when you give the accelerator a shove, do you?

Audi’s high-performance S4 lineup gets a new addition for 2004.  The S4 sedan and Avant wagon are joined by an S4 version of Audi’s slick A4 cabriolet, bringing high power and athletic …

Just try to behave yourself, and wear sunblock.

Any video game fan knows about “easter eggs” and “cheat codes,” those secret commands that can be used to reveal more powerful weapons on many electronic games.  If there were such a thing as a cheat code for economy cars, the result would look a lot like the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution.  This Lancer seems to have undergone a rapid transformation from “normal” to “attack” mode.

That’s because, unlike all of the Honda Civics and Nissan Sentras running around with spoilers and scoops and big wheels, the Lancer Evolution is actually based …

It does take a moment to get beyond the giddy, star-struck feeling of “Holy crap! I’m driving a 911!” Take a few deep breaths and get that out of your system, though, because there’s a lot to see and experience here, and you don’t want to miss any of it.

Georgia car manufacturer Panoz Auto Development has been quietly building sports cars since 1990, but outside of the car world, they’re not exactly a household name.  Will that change with the introduction of the ever-evolving 2003 Esperante?  Well, probably not.  But that’s not a bad thing; the race-bred Esperante isn’t for everyone anyhow.  Driving it in traffic is, in fact, not unlike walking a Rottweiler through a cat show.

For drivers looking for eye-popping performance in a chassis that didn’t come from Europe and wrapped in a body that’s not a …

The addictive roar from the quad tailpipes is accompanied by a sledgehammer blast of acceleration, barely held in check by the stability control. There is nothing to hold back the involuntary mad-scientist laughter that will tear itself from your throat when this happens.

After two years of beating up on unsuspecting (and more expensive) German sports sedans, the Subaru WRX’ natural enemy has finally arrived on our shores, with Mitsubishi’s announcement that it will be bringing its rally-bred Lancer Evolution to the U.S. this year.  Unfortunately for Mitsubishi, the WRX hasn’t grown fat and placid on its steady diet of hapless Nissan Sentra SE-Rs and Audi A4s.  Quite the opposite, in fact.  Even as the Lancer Evolution is getting geared up, an even angrier WRX is making its debut.

If the all-wheel drive, 227-horsepower …