Hybrid in Limbo, Porsche Builds a Diesel
 

Porsche is still trying to figure out hybrids, so in the meantime it's building a diesel -- with someone else's engine.<br style="clear: both;"/>
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Carbon Footprint Be Damned, the Cannonball Run Is Back
 

The Great American Run brings back the glory days of cheap gas and unfettered speed with a modern take on the famous Cannonball Run that leaves a Shaq-size carbon footprint.<br style="clear: both;"/>
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Gallery: Auto Test Tracks Revealed From Above
 

<img src='http://www.wired.com/images/slideshow/2008/06/gallery_test_tracks/milford_t.jpg'></img>: Photo courtesy the Center for Land Use Interpretation<p>During the early days of the automobile, new cars were tested out on the open, public roads of the United States. As the technology grew more sophisticated and proprietary, car companies, beginning with GM in 1924, began to build vehicular test tracks that allowed them to privately assess the workability of new cars and features. </p>

<p>Often stretching for miles through rural areas, the proving grounds are easily visible in satellite and aerial photographs, even though at ground level, they look like standard roads. These labs for automotive tech are the connection between the drawing board and the car lot, which is why they are often shrouded in (trade) secrecy and guarded like national treasures. </p>

<p><strong>Left:</strong></p>

<p><h3>Milford General Motors</h3></p>

<p>This first true proving ground was built in 1924 in rural Michigan outside Milford about halfway between Detroit and Flint. Its distinctive circular track measures about 4½ miles around and the whole site covers more than 4,000 acres. Each year, test cars burn more than 2.5 million gallons of gasoline while driving more than <a href="http://media.gm.com/about_gm/tech_center/milford_2.html">15 million miles</a>. </p>
<img src='http://www.wired.com/images/slideshow/2008/06/gallery_test_tracks/dearborn_t.jpg'></img>: Photo courtesy the Center for Land Use Interpretation<p>Built on the site of the old Dearborn Airport, Ford's original proving ground helped spawn the 1964 Ford Mustang. Now it's getting a major tech upgrade. A couple of years ago, Ford poured $43 million into the site to essentially allow it to recreate every driving condition in the world. </p>

<p>Whereas the other tracks in this gallery are rural, the Ford proving grounds are built in the middle of this Detroit suburb. </p>

<p>There's even a road-condition simulator they call "World Roads" that allows GM engineers to create "varying types of extreme road conditions found anywhere from Belgium to California to Michigan." </p>
<img src='http://www.wired.com/images/slideshow/2008/06/gallery_test_tracks/chelsea_t.jpg'></img>: Photo courtesy the Center for Land Use Interpretation<p>Since opening in 1952, the Chelsea proving grounds have added a massive oval with 2¼ mile straightaways, a skid traction facility and 750,000 square feet of buildings. </p>

<p>Near Ann Arbor, Michigan, the test track has been a part of automotive history as well. Back in 1969, Buddy Baker drove a Dodge Charger Daytona stockcar <a href="http://www.reliableplant.com/article.asp?pagetitle=Chr ysler's%20Chelsea%20Provi ng%20Ground%20gets%20trac k%20facelift&articleid=53 55">203 miles per hour</a>, becoming the first person to have broken 200 on a closed course. Later, the Dodge Ram SRT-10 broke the record for fastest pickup truck.</p>

<p>With its tracks in near-continuous use, the Chelsea Proving Grounds end up using about 900,000 gallons of gas a year. </p>
<img src='http://www.wired.com/images/slideshow/2008/06/gallery_test_tracks/romeo_t.jpg'></img>: Photo courtesy the Center for Land Use Interpretation<p>Ford's other Michigan testing facility is located about 35 miles north of the Motor City and sits on more than 3,500 acres. The site plays host to the engineering competition known as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formula_SAE">Formula SAE</a>, in which students design and build a small-scale Formula 1 vehicle and race against competitors from across the world. </p><img src='http://www.wired.com/images/slideshow/2008/06/gallery_test_tracks/mesa_t.jpg'></img>: Photo courtesy the Center for Land Use Interpretation<p>More recent test tracks have clustered in the Arizona desert where land was once cheap and plentiful. The area had two other advantages: The extreme heat allowed for excellent heat testing of the cars and there was no one around to spy on the companies' operations. </p>

<p>A couple of years ago, however, as development stretching out of Phoenix drove up land prices, GM sold of a large part of its Mesa testing site for more than $300 million. </p>
<img src='http://www.wired.com/images/slideshow/2008/06/gallery_test_tracks/wittmann_t.jpg'></img>: Photo courtesy the Center for Land Use Interpretation<p>In 2005, reporters were allowed a rare peek into the DaimlerChrysler proving ground. <a href="http://www.allpar.com/corporate/arizona-proving-grounds.html">One observer described</a> how the track featured streets that had been designed to simulate a variety of driving conditions like, "reinforced potholes, uneven pavement, broken pavement, simulated washboard, cobblestone." Then, interestingly, he noted that the track had "several roads that were built to specifically simulate actual streets in Detroit and Stuttgart." </p>

<p>Then, in 2006, in what was then the largest Arizona real-estate deal in history, DaimlerChrysler sold its 5,485-acre proving ground to Toll Brothers, one of the nation's largest builders with revenues topping $4.5 billion. They plan to build 16,000 new homes on the site. Coincidentally, the developers could end up building new roads that still mimic the streets from real cities like Detroit, or more likely, Los Angeles. </p>
<img src='http://www.wired.com/images/slideshow/2008/06/gallery_test_tracks/maricopa_t.jpg'></img>: Photo courtesy the Center for Land Use Interpretation<p>After the Wittmann and Mesa sales in 2006, the housing crisis cooled real-estate prices across the nation, even in high-growth areas like Arizona. Car companies that didn't cash in on the preceding bonanza are now focusing on putting money into their testing facilities. </p>

<p>Nissan, for one, is <a href="http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/ss/byauthor/77724">investing more money</a> into its 3,000-acre Maricopa desert proving ground that already features mile-and-a-half straightaways along its oval track. The biggest problem for the company now is that new neighbors are beginning to move in, cutting down on the privacy the facility once enjoyed. Nissan is considering erecting barriers to keep prying eyes away from their latest innovations. </p>
<img src='http://www.wired.com/images/slideshow/2008/06/gallery_test_tracks/wittmann_volvo_t.jpg'></img>: Photo courtesy the Center for Land Use Interpretation<p>Volvo is another company that spurned the proving-ground-selling sweepstakes. They have not only kept their facility intact, but decided to add <a href="http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/ss/byauthor/77724">$25 million worth of new testing areas</a>, including new wet- and dry-asphalt pads and a mechanical garage. </p>

<p>Still, the encroaching development from the nearby town of Surprise is a problem. Volvo is working with a developer that owns property adjacent to the site to build dirt berms and brick walls to block views into the site and (supposedly) to keep noise complaints down. </p>

<p>You can also check out this <a href="http://www.sacc-usa.org/arizona/volvo/album/index.html">gallery of pictures</a> from inside the fences, and see a snapshot of a <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/oybay/2181261865/">hilarious Volvo mailbox</a> shot by flickr user oybay. </p><br style="clear: both;"/>
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Airports Slowly Greening Up
 

We all know that commercial airliners are essentially polluting machines that fly. What about the airports where they land? Pretty grim, too. But the people in charge say they are trying to green up. To be fair, the task is daunting. And there are some examples of innovation. But overall, the report card is pretty underwhelming.<br style="clear: both;"/>
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Hurry Up and Wait for Clean Jet Fuel
 

The commercial-aviation industry scrambles to find alternatives to jet fuel, which is hitting record prices. Algal fuels are promising, but so far from viability that the industry is looking at quicker -- and dirtier -- alternatives to petroleum, like tar sands.<br style="clear: both;"/>
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Chrysler Brings 'Infobahn' to Autobahn
 

<p>Chrysler wants to turn your car into a rolling WiFi hotspot where you check your Facebook profile, upload pictures to Flickr, and eventually be part of a nationwide traffic-control network. </p>

<p>The UConnect Web system Chrysler will unveil Thursday -- and introduce next year -- marks the start of the dot-car era and puts Chrysler in front of BMW in their race to bring wireless internet access to your dashboard. Most of the other automakers, <a href="http://blog.wired.com/cars/2008/02/microsoft-wants.html ">not to mention Microsoft</a>, are right behind them, and there's <a href="http://blog.wired.com/cars/2008/05/gearing-up-for.html ">a push to bring some standards</a> to the hardware.</p>

<p>"It's something everyone's looking at," says Aaron Bragman, an auto-industry analyst at Global Insight. The rush is fueled by the runaway success of Sync, Ford's hands-free iPod and cellphone system. "It's very popular, and it drives a lot of sales," Bragman says. </p>

<p>Sales are something Chrysler desperately needs, and it hopes that filling its cars with gadgets will lure buyers. Among the toys it's showing off next week are rear-seat swivel screens, blind-spot cameras and something it calls "rear cross-path sensing." </p>

<p>But UConnect Web is the star of the show, and Chrysler's betting on it to make its cars appealing to millennials — the <a href="http://www.autoobserver.com/2008/04/ford-microsoft-find-theyre-in-sync-with-young-buyers.html">twenty-something buyers who've made Sync so successful</a>. The company clearly wants to gain a reputation for high-tech cars. </p>

<p>"In today's market, Chrysler's mission is to bring innovation to market more quickly," Chrysler Vice President Frank Klegon says. </p>

<p>Chrysler says UConnect Web uses cellular and WiFi technology to provide "instant access" to the internet. Anyone in the car will be able to check e-mail, download music, play games and even upload photos from an SD card directly to Flickr. Chrysler says any wireless device and "all major gaming systems" will work with UConnect. </p>

<p>It remains to be seen which models will get UConnect and what it will cost. Chrysler says it will be competitive with laptop wireless cards, and customers won't be tied to long contracts. </p>

<p>It also remains to be seen what regulators might have to say about all those added distractions -- "How long before California bans it?" asks Bragman -- and whether consumers want them. Although car buyers love hands-free systems like Sync, nothing suggests they want to surf the web behind the wheel. </p>

<p>"There could be some opportunity there, but we constantly see that internet access in the car is pretty much at the end of the priorities for consumers," says Thilo Koslowki, an IT analyst with the tech research firm Gartner. "The car is not being seen as an internet-browsing platform." </p>

<p>Koslowski says automakers are "leapfrogging consumer demand" and should focus on making their cars compatible with iPhones, BlackBerrys and other devices. "I don't think the industry is looking at it from that perspective," he says. "Right now most of the emphasis is on replicating what you do at home on your desktop or laptop." </p>

<p>But the drive to bring connectivity to cars is about more than Twittering from the road, and the dot-car era won't get rolling until the <a href="http://www.its.dot.gov/index.htm">Intelligent Transportation Systems</a> is sorted out, says Egil Juliussen at Telematics Research Group. The idea -- which has been promised for years -- is to have cars communicate wirelessly with each other and with the road to increase safety, relieve congestion and manage traffic. Among other things, such a system would allow cars to track everything around them and respond accordingly to avoid collisions. It could also provide real-time traffic information -- so drivers could avoid backups -- and create a national system for paying tolls electronically.</p><br style="clear: both;"/>
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Submit Your Best UFO Pics
 

Police in Britain say a flying saucer almost hit their helicopter, which makes us wonder -- who else out there has had a close encounter with a UFO? Submit your favorite pics.<br style="clear: both;"/>
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