The Crank: Can an all-wheel-drive 911 be a real Porsche?

By John LeBlanc Welcome to winter. Like the rest of Ontario, you probably woke up to the inevitable First Big Dump this week. But what if you had a Porsche in your laneway. Specifically, a new-for-2011 911 Turbo S, which, to the layman’s eyes, seems like the most ridiculous winter vehicle you could drive. But […]

Feature: Aston Martin Performance Driving Academy

Story by John LeBlanc/Photos by Aaron Kiley. ROMEO, Michigan – Exclusivity is part and parcel when you enter the realm of Aston Martin. Even in its best sales year ever, 2007, the British automaker only rolled out about 7,000 hand-made sports and grand touring coupés. To put that in perspective, Porsche sells about 1.2 million […]

The Crank: Mustang vs. Camaro winner depends on which side of the Canada-U.S. border

By John LeBlanc The bleating from General Motors’ U.S. PR flacks about the Camaro beating its archrival Mustang on the sales charts, can be heard all the way north of the 49th parallel. So far in 2010 in the U.S., Chevy has sold 75,685 Oshawa-built Camaros, 7,421 more than its bitter, pony car archrival, Ford’s […]

Road Test: 2010 Toyota Yaris Hatchback RS

[svgallery name=”2010_Toyota_Yaris_RS”] Yaris cries “Uncle!” Toyota’s subcompact quickly losing ground in competitive class By John LeBlanc In a subcompact segment that’s already crowded and is set to get even more so in the near future, Toyota’s 2010 Yaris is starting to feel its age. This year alone will see more sophisticated rivals like the new […]

The Crank: Why Honda’s hybrids are the right cars, but at the wrong time

[svgallery name=”2011_Honda_CRZ_hirez”] By John LeBlanc Here’s one thing you need to know about the car industry: nothing happens too quickly.Unlike a Nike or Apple, car companies can’t whip off all-new designs and products almost seasonally. It takes years to research, develop, and build new cars. So its natural that sometimes a vehicle is released that […]

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