Sports Car Net

Drivers who appreciate the incredible experience of piloting the Audi R8 with its optional 525-horsepower V-10 engine that revs to an eardrum-stimulating 8,700 rpm may find themselves seeking an indulgence from the priests of the new green religion.

The new dogma decrees that transportation is a painfully necessary activity that’s required for functional purposes and not for fun. Sort of like the view of sex taken by some of the older churches.

Unreformed sensualists (and those who can afford the $150,200 base price) will enjoy the opportunity to immerse themselves in the R8 and its race-ready direct-injected V-10 engine, however. The notion of an exotic mid-engined supercar from Germany may be surprising to those who associate such things with Italy.

[Read entire article on MSN]

If you are a sports car owner… heck, if you are a car owner, you have been thinking and paying much attention to the fuel gauge in your car. With regular unleaded gas prices averaging over $4 a gallon and many of our premium sports cars requiring $4.50+/gallon premium, high octane fuel this topic is likely on the forefront of your thoughts.

While some selected segments of our automotive niche certainly rate on the lower end in fuel mileage, many modern models sport better than average fuel consumption rates. Road and Track featured a series entitled The Fast & The Frugal that looks at 10 sports cars that excel in fuel mileage. The list is quite surprising when you notice that some of the best in class in performance are also on this list as gas sipping machines. Cars like the Corvette Z51, the Lotus Elise and others would be attractive even to the non-fuel-mileage conscience buyer for their excellent performance all around.

When you look at the sports car development pipeline I think we can expect this list to grow. Manufacturers like Audi are already deep into their diesel racing engine development programs in their GT cars and others are following suit. I think we can all rest easy that we will not have a repeat of the late 80′s / early 90s where it was the dead sea for sports car fans. It looks like this time around, we will have plenty of choices even in a market where gas mileage will dictate model line ups in all automotive manufacturers.