Sports Car

2011 BMW X3 xDrive35i Base price: $41,925 (including destination charge) Price, as tested: $53,015 Powertrain: 3.0-liter, DOHC, 24-valve inline turbocharged six-cylinder; eight-speed automatic transmission with Sport mode and manual shifting Horsepower: 300 at 5,800 rpm Torque: 300 pound-feet at 1,300-5,000 rpm 0-60 acceleration: 5.5 seconds Curb weight: 4,222 pounds Wheelbase: ...

Your life is about to change, and your sports car is terrified. A Peg Perego Duette child stroller. The pair of Old English mastiffs you're dog-sitting indefinitely. A glee club. A metamorphosis of priorities has dropped one or more of these into your world, and suddenly your slick little two-seater won't work for you anymore. So let me offer a suggestion: Check out BMW's redesigned 2011 X3 xDrive35i. It's not necessarily the best all-around vehicle in the luxury compact SUV segment, which includes the Audi Q5, Mercedes-Benz GLK and Acura RDX. But without question, this second-generation X3 is the fastest, sportiest and most fun to drive of its peers.

It's a rare car that can lose its top. Only the most iconic, and sporty, of vehicles are typically selected for the retractable roof treatment, such as Chevrolet's latest: the 2011 Camaro Convertible. Trotting outs its new pony car not only marks the kickoff to Chevy's centennial anniversary this year but also celebrates the Camaro's newfound success. Last year, it overtook the Ford Mustang as the sports car segment leader for the first time since 1985. The Camaro is one of Chevy's best-known models.

When it comes to luxury sport cars, efficiency and performance have been terminally at odds. Twinning the two ideas is akin to pulling together the polarized ends of a magnet. But with its CLS 63 AMG for 2012, Mercedes-Benz has, mein gott, done it. Not only has Mercedes' luxury performance car division increased the fuel economy an astounding 32% over the previous version of this svelte, 7-year-old model. (Now, it gets 16 miles per gallon in the city and 21 mpg on the highway.

Three teenage boys triggered chaos in a Boyle Heights neighborhood Monday afternoon when their car ran a red light, killed a pedestrian and upended a school bus, injuring the driver and 20 Roosevelt High School students, authorities said. Two of the teenagers were arrested after they were chased down and apprehended by a construction workers, California Highway Patrol Officer Miguel Luevano said. A third youth was arrested after arriving at an area hospital later in the evening, seeking medical treatment.

Though it's been around since 2002, the Cayenne S has finally earned its Porsche crest with the 2011 rendition. When the company decided to call its SUV the Cayenne, it probably had no idea how apt the moniker would be. The mere idea that Porsche would relent to consumers' infatuation with sport utility vehicles elicited a reaction from Porsche purists not unlike eating a tablespoon of the namesake pepper: a red face, a sweaty brow, a fit of...

Wall Street found a new darling Tuesday in Tesla Motors Inc., an electric sports car maker whose shares surged more than 40% on its much anticipated first day of trading. Shares of Tesla, the first American automaker to go public in more than half a century, shot up $6.89 to close at $23.89 despite a plunge in the global markets. The Palo Alto company has yet to post a profit since it was co-founded by Internet entrepreneur Elon Musk in 2003. Still, investors snapped up Tesla shares amid what analysts said was more hype over the first public offering by an electric car maker than the potential for it to alter the auto industry.

Electric-car maker Tesla Motors Inc. plans to raise about $167 million by selling stock to the public later this year. The Palo Alto maker of the $109,000 Roadster electric sports car said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Tuesday that it planned to sell as many as 12.8 million shares for between $14 and $16 each in an initial public offering. The offering is "highly anticipated" and puts the value of the company at about $1.5 billion, according to IPO research firm Renaissance Capital.

His pristine Ferrari 512 BBi "Boxer" sits in the middle of Holger Schubert's living room in Brentwood, right next to stylish furniture, a built-in bookcase and a flat-screen TV that slides on tracks past walls of glass that frame an ocean view. But Los Angeles officials are about to slam shut forever the garage door that leads to the city's most extravagant parking space City planners have withdrawn permission for Schubert to use a bridge to connect his Ferrari's third-floor resting spot with North Tigertail Road.