In the last decade, wildfires have wrought considerable havoc in Southern California, often testing the limits of firefighting crews as well as requiring assistance from out of the state. In cases where the fires spread to urban environments, causing people to become trapped in buildings and cars, saving lives becomes crucial. That’s where facilities like the Rio Hondo Regional Truck Academy in Santa Fe Springs come in. Rio Hondo offers courses designed for professional firefighters to train and also educate emergency medical responders about saving lives in emergency situations, including vehicle accidents where time and techniques in rescuing occupants from stranded vehicles are critical .

Kia Motors recently aided Rio Hondo’s programs by donating 26 Borrego SUVs to the academy for instructional training. These vehicles will be used in a variety of scenarios that simulate real fire and emergency situations, plus as late-model vehicles they allow both students and instructors to learn about the latest in modern technology features such as airbags, while utilizing the right tools to remove the occupants quickly and safely. The donation also comes at a time when many states, particularly California are struggling with budget issues, including funding for emergency services.

“We know many government agencies are in need of support during these difficult times and providing Rio Hondo with these vehicles is an ideal fit,” stated  VP Marketing, Kia Motors of America.

David Kang, Truck Academy instructor for Rio Hondo, added, “without this donation from Kia Motors, we would not be able to do this training. The use of these Kia SUVs will allow firefighters from all over Southern California to learn the latest in vehicle technologies and save lives.”

[Source: OC Metro]

Several weeks back, while at Mosport International Raceway, we had the opportunity for a ride-along in one of the World Challenge race cars. The series provided a lineup of different models, including a race-prepped Acura TSX, a Dodge Viper and a Volvo S60. Under most circumstances, we’d choose the Viper – but not this time. You see, while the TSX runs in the mid-level GTS class, the Volvo is a serious track monster, competing in the top-level GT Class alongside the Viper and other high-powered machines.

The term “competing” is a bit misleading, however, with series veteran Randy Pobst driving the K-Pax Racing Volvo to victory two and a half seconds head of the Viper in race one of the weekend. Pobst then managed a second place finish in race number two, succumbing to the faultless skills of Ron Fellows, a man who’s won so many international championships for Corvette Racing that they named a car after him. Oh, and did we mention this is Fellows’ home track? They don’t call him the Mayor of Mosport for nothing.

And as excited to get a ride in the Volvo S60 as we were, the decision was made that much easier when we found out the Pobst himself would be driving.

Now at these sorts of ride-alongs the pace is usually set at 6/10ths or 7/10ths, as much for legal reasons as to not scare the participating journalists too much. Having met Randy before and with close ties with both the series and the K-Pax team we made a special request for an all-out hot lap on what is easily one of the world’s fastest race tracks.

Randy said he’d oblige.

See the video of AutoGuide editor Colum Wood getting his skull slapped around like a bobble-head after the jump and give us your thoughts:

GALLERY: K-Pax Volvo S60 Race Cars

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Driver Will Chan and his twincharged Enmo Racing Honda Civic turned the Time Attack world on its ear with a dominating performance at the Redline Time Attack Autobahn Country Club event (near Chicago), where Chan won the Street FWD class by 5-seconds over the nearest competitor and reset the class track record by over 3-seconds. In fact, Chan’s car was so fast his time was just 0.2-seconds off the Street AWD record.

Proving that racing is often a fickle mistress, the Enmo Racing Civic was then unceremoniously rear-ended by a Mitsubishi Evolution VIII that slid off the track in the same puddle of oil that the little Honda encountered just moments before. As the pictures available after the jump show, this left the oil-spewing Honda S2000 that started the unfortunate chain reaction and the Enmo Civic sitting in a dangerous spot on the outside of an oil-covered corner, and before the corner workers could throw a red flag to warn the oncoming Mitsubishi, it too hit the slick patch and careened off the track into both Hondas.

Enmo Racing hasn’t let this cruel twist of fate slow them down though, so expect to see this amazing turbocharged and supercharged old school Honda tearing it up at an upcoming Redline Time Attack event, perhaps even at the legendary Sebring road course in August as well as the series finals in November.

[Source: Enmo Racing]

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You’d think that parents would want to set a good example for their teens, especially when it comes to good driving habits. But now a new study shows that adults are just as bad, maybe worse, than teens when it comes to sending and receiving texts while driving.

A study conducted by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project looked at adult distracted driving habits. They took these results and compared them to a teen survey done by Princeton Survey Research International. The survey found that 47 percent of texting adults say they have sent or read a text message while driving compared to 34 percent of texting teens doing so.

Other interesting result from the survey found 75 percent of adults who own a cell phone admit they talk on their phones while driving. Compare this number to the 52 percent of cell-phone owning 16- and 17-year-olds – that translates to 61 percent of all adults, compared to 43 percent of teens. It makes you have to wonder if teens are smarter than their parents

Another surprising stat revealed was that 17 percent of the adults surveyed admitted to hitting another car or stationary object because of distracted driving. Other results show that around half of both adults and teens say they have been in a car while a driver was texting. Forty-four percent of adults and 40 percent of teens also noted dangerous cell phone use by the driver while they were passengers.

[Source: Ride Lust]

Forget all the jokes you’re heard about senior drivers. A new report from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) shows that fatal crash rates have dropped significantly with elderly drivers.

This report found that fatal car crashes for elderly drivers over 70 years old from 1997 to 2008 dropped dramatically by 37 percent. Even drivers who were over 80 years old were staying safe – the crash rates this group fell by almost half. For the rest of you young whipper snappers aged 35 to 54, you didn’t fare quite as well – the rates for this age group only dropped by 23 percent.

Even when it came to crashes that involved injuries, seniors over 80 years old came out ahead, declining 34 percent from 1997 to 2005 – that’s pretty good, especially when compared to a 16-percent decline for the 35 to 54 age group (those kids are always in a hurry to get somewhere). Senior drivers also saw a drop in crashes that involved property damage with no injuries, which were down 20 percent.

As for the results of this survey, the drops in car accident rates could stem from seniors who are policing their own driving behaviours – this could mean less driving or giving up their car altogether. Also helping keep elderly drivers safe are the polices put into place by 18 states, which include vision tests for older drivers, shorter licensing renewal periods, and prohibiting renewal by mail or electronically. And don’t forget that better health and physical conditioning may result in fewer crashes and help seniors fare better in accidents.

So any previous worries of having a large, aging population on the road seem to be less serious than once thought. However, no studies have been commissioned on the concern about the number of indicator signals that threaten to left on for miles and miles by this growing demographic – we’ll just have to continue to be annoyed until the issue is tackled.

[Source: Consumer Reports]

When we first set our eyes (in person) on the Fiat 500 in Abarth form at Tokyo Auto Salon, we couldn’t help but wonder how awesome it would be to see the Fiat 500 on American soil. And now that we’ve spotted it in Detroit and know it’ll be making its way to dealerships by the end of the year we’re always excited for Fiat news. We think this hot hatch will appeal to a huge crowd from budget, economy car owners to an affluent Ferrari owner looking for a daily driver.

But clearly this story isn’t about the Fiat 500 that we know. Far from it actually. Out in Germany, an unsuspecting blogger was just cruising along the road one day when his eyes spotted something he’s never seen before; something we’ve never seen before – and we’ve seen quite a lot. Staring back at him was a stretched previous-generation Fiat 500 limousine. Yep, while we’re used to seeing stretched Hummers or Escalades cruising the streets, some crazy German(s) took the most iconic Italian city car and added plenty of extra windows to it.

Hopefully we won’t be seeing any of this nonsense once the new Fiat 500 makes it to North America. At the end of the day though, if someone did it we’d still think it’s cool. Terrible, but cool.

[Source: The Italian Junkyard via Fiat on Facebook]

GALLERY: Stretched Fiat 500 Limousine

Get more Fiat news at Fiat500Owners.com

For those into muscle cars, June 19th at the Town and Country Resort in San Diego proved to be a high point of the year, as 102 cars; many of them prime Detroit performance machines from the late-1960s and early-1970s went under the gavel. The auction included a number of high profile Corvettes and Pontiacs, including cars from Jim Wanger’s own private collection.

By the time the auction had concluded a total of $6.9 million in sales had been generated, with an astounding 100 percent sell through rate. The top profile car of the weekend was an ultra rare 1969 Corvette Stingray equipped with aluminum head L88 engine. Approximately 115 L88s are believed to have been built for 1969 and the survivors are highly desirable. This one outperformed it’s pre-sale estimate, going for a healthy $401,500. The next strongest seller was a 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS454 LS-6 convertible – another highly coveted machine, that went for $231,000. Another 1969 Corvette, this time a 427/435 horsepower convertible, also sold for $231,000. It was interesting to note that out of the top 10 highest selling cars, no fewer than five were Corvettes and two were Mustangs, both Boss 429s, today considered the most desirable of breed, thanks in part to their special NASCAR homologated engines.

The sale also included some European exotica, namely in the shape of high performance BMWs and Mercedes-Benz AMG models, but only one made the top ten – a 2003 BMW Z8 roadster, that went for $143,000. Although the auction was a far cry from the days of $3 million dollar muscle cars that we were witnessing just a few years ago, the high sell through rate in San Diego indicates that the hobby is still as buoyant as ever.

[Source: RM Auctions]

Glass’s Guide, car valuation experts from the UK have studied the long-term ownership costs of EVs, such as the forthcoming Nissan Leaf (shown, above.) The news isn’t looking good. Glass’s reports that after 5 years of ownership, EVs will retain only about 10 percent of their value, as opposed to the 25 percent residual value of a comparable gasoline or diesel powered car.

The primary source of this massive depreciation comes from the expected shelf life of 8 years for the battery packs, which can cost up to $15,000 to replace.

Nissan, and European counterpart Renault, have both expressed the possibility of leasing options for EVs, solving the problem of residual value (on the customer’s end, at least.) Renault leases battery packs to owners for about $150 per month, and if you remove the huge battery pack replacement number from the equation, EVs could be the best performing cars on the road in terms of residual value.

[Source: Autocar]

Everyone knows about the “California Roll,” right? Whatever they call it in your neck of the woods, it’s when you roll slowly through a stop sign instead of coming to a complete stop. This author was recently unfairly ticketed by a Redondo Beach, CA Police Officer, who witnessed yours truly perform this very move, on a 50cc Vespa, at about 3 mph.

According to Gary Lauder, Stop and Yield signs are outdated and inefficient, wasting both time and energy. In the video above, taken at this year’s TED conference, Lauder makes his case, and has us totally convinced. Check it out and share your thoughts….

[Source: TED]

We tend to think of hybrid car owners as the most satisfied owners. But it turns out that the smugness radiates not from those silent environment-saving pseudo-hatchbacks, but from vehicles with the three pointed star on the good.

A study undertaken by J.D. Power found that Mercedes-Benz owners were the most satisfied vehicle owners in their home country of Germany. The firm interviewed over 16,000 drivers about their ownership experience, and Mercedes placed first among all brands, with the C-Class and CLK leading their respective segments.

We can imagine that after having plunked down a significant sum of money, one would feel happy no matter what (after all, are you going to be unhappy with your shiny new Benzo), but considering that German drivers get to take their vehicles on the autobahn (where you can regularly use a car like the C63 in the way it was meant to be used), we’d probably be all smiles too.

[Source: Mercedes-Benz]