In the beginning, Saabs were sleek, teardrop-shaped machines that sliced through the wind. Behold the SAAB 92001, or Ursaab. It’s the product of postwar aircraft designers, pure form following function. And it’s gorgeous.

The Ursaab was designed in the late ’40s by a team of engineers at aircraft manufacturer SAAB, led by the incredibly named Gunnar Ljungström. The thing had a monocoque chassis, 108-inch wheelbase, and 50-percent less drag than any other car produced at the time. It was powered by a transverse mounted two-stroke engine driving the font wheels. Seems run-of-the mill today, but this was 1946, a time when most cars rode on ladder frames and bullied their way through wind.

The original 92001 clocked 329,000 miles in testing, mostly on rutted forest roads in Sweden. Three years and several prototypes later, the Saab 92 went into production.

Saab savior Spyker says that they want to return to those streamlined roots for the upcoming Saab 9-2 luxury compact. I can’t wait to see what they come up with.

Source: Autoblog

Compared to this, even you look like a gas guzzler. Students at Cal Poly have built a super-streamlined ride that clocks a record 2,752.3 miles per gallon. They call it the Black Widow. The all-carbon-fiber three wheeler weighs a scant 95 pounds and is powered by a seriously tweaked 3-horsepower, four-stroke Honda 50cc single. Its coefficient of drag is an astounding .12. It uses 20-inch bicycle wheels, two in the front and one in the rear. Yeah, it tops out at only 30 miles per hour, but still, it’s an incredible feat.

Source: Inhabitat

Infants learn the rhythm and tone of their native language before they’re born. In fact, newborns from different countries have different cries. My mom brought me home in a 1970 Austin America. I can’t consciously remember it, but it burned an obsession with tiny, quirky hatchbacks into the synapses of my brain.

Every car nut dreams of building a custom ride, a one-off wonder that reflects its owner’s heart and soul. But not even the fantastic fever dreams of a madman could conjure this. The guys at Hector’s Chop Shop in Santa Rosa, Ca., are building an electric, rear-drive ‘69 Honda N360.

The compact car market has been in full swing for some time. Cars like the Mini, Smart and Scion have helped pave the way for these new little beasties and help them become solidified as something more than just and automotive trend. While walking through the GM display I noticed two new little guys that I had not seen before. The Chevrolet Aveo RS show car and the GMC Granite were drawing oohs, aahs as well as they occasional WTF, from onlookers.

Up first is the Chevrolet Aveo RS show car. Now keep in mind, this is based off of the standard Chevy Aveo – a car that is by no means a performance oriented compact. For the show car however, Chevy took hold of the little 1.6 liter I-4 Ecotech and slapped a turbo charger on it. This bumped power from 106 hp to a semi-respectable 138 hp that is put down by a 6-speed manual transmission. Granted at 138 hp this is no pavement shredder, but when you consider the car weighs in at just over 2500 lbs. it’s actually not that bad.

It’s a good year for those of us who lust after German hot hatches. According to VW, the 2011 VW Golf R will be coming to the U.S. The R will come packed with a TSI four good for 265 horsepower and 258 foot-pounds of twist. The all-wheel-drive monster will be available with a six-speed manual or a super-quick DSG automatic. It’ll reportedly hit 60 mph in 5.5 seconds (5.7 with the manual gearbox) and run all the way up to a 155 mph top speed. And it’ll carry you, your dog, and a small flat’s worth of furniture.

Hit the jump for more pics.

Via: Autoblog, AutoGuide

Model bloat is an epidemic. Cars swell with each generation, gobbling up extra gizmos, safety features, insulation, and mass like a katamari tumbling through a shopping mall. You end up with Yokozuna-weight Toyatas and Hondas and heavyweight Chevys that can go toe-to-toe with their solid-steel-framed ancestors (at least on the scales, if not in a crash test). And weight kills driving dynamics, not to mention performance and fuel economy. Thing is, most people don’t notice model bloat.

Let’s take a look at a car that I have a unique kinship with: The Mazda GLC/323/Protégé/MAZDA3. The first car I can remember was an orange ‘78 GLC five door. The first real car I drove regularly was a silver ‘88 323. My second car was a “mocha frost” ‘93 Protégé LX and my current daily driver is a white ‘03 Protégé 5. Now before anybody goes apoplectic, I realize the Mazda 3 is built on a different chassis than the Protege, but it is a direct descendent and takes up the same spot in Mazda’s model lineup.

Full disclosure: the next journalist to use some variation of the word “cracked” to describe the Honda P-NUT’s debut is getting kicked in the shins at the next auto show. I’ll be watching.

Unlike the majority of the unpalatable concepts that have littered Honda’s booth for the better part of 2009, the Personal-Neo Urban Transport (P-NUT) does not immediately offend the senses. As a matter of fact, the angular front fascia and the well-defined, sloping shoulders are actually quite attractive and almost lend Honda’s design department an air of hope. “Almost” being the operative word.

Unfortunately, the P-NUT unveiled live in Los Angeles last week is not a production-ready urban crawler but a purely a conceptual interpretation of the soul-sucking enviro-friendly vehicles Honda promises to roll out in the future. Apparently, the RWD, rear-engined P-NUT’s primary objective is to demonstrate that there is hope for the ultra-compact city car beyond the ugly, underpowered options currently available today, which is basically akin to performing a digital makeover. The immediate reaction is positive…and instantly killed by the harsh smack of reality.

Bottom line: if you want small, fun, cool and only slightly fruity, buy a MINI Cooper. If you want small, marginally faster than a pair of Rollerblades, and guaranteed to score you plenty of dude poon, buy a smart ForTwo. See Honda? Theoretical problem solved. Now get back to work on the CR-Z.

On the heels of the patent drawings that leaked yesterday depicting the new Nissan Micra, Nissan has announced a new model will hit the U.S. lineup in 2010 that will sit below the compact Nissan Versa. While Nissan has not explicitly confirmed the mysterious new micro compact will be the revised version of the Micra spotted yesterday, they have said that it will be built atop the new V-platform which, coincidentally, is scheduled to make its first debut underpinning the Micra’s next-gen European successor.

Compared to the PR storm that usually follows any action made by Nissan (for further reference, see: GT-R, Nürburgring), the new 2011 Micra has made barely a ripple on the industry radar. Granted, it isn’t scheduled to officially bow until March 2010 at the Geneva Motor Show but a vague due date has never stopped the Nissan PR machine before, and it looks like their new global compact car will no exception. Two teaser sketches of the 2011 Micra were released on the first of this month and given the quality of the renderings, we assumed there was nowhere to go but up. We were, of course, wrong.