The XK Coupe also topped all cars in its category as the 'Best Coupe', out-beating competitors in the BMW 6 Series and the Porsche 911. The launch of the new XK earlier this year marked the beginning of an exciting era for Jaguar in terms of design and engineering which further extenuates the brand's reputation for building beautiful, fast cars that are thrilling to drive and gorgeous to look at. This award is yet another feather in Jaguar's cap as the new XK was awarded the 'Most exciting car to be launched in 2006' awarded by What Car? Magazine, the 'Engineering and Technology Award' at the prestigious Prince Michael International Road Safety Awards and the 'World Traffic Safety Symposium's Traffic Safety Achievement' Award in the Automaker category. It has been recognized for an all-new industry-leading feature - the pedestrian deployable bonnet which is designed to help mitigate the severity of injuries to pedestrians in the event of a collision with a car.

Overcoming the Diesel Challenge

For the past 32 years, fuel economy requirements for cars and trucks in the U.S. were stagnant. That all changed in December when President Bush put his signature on a new law that slowly raises gas mileage standards for cars and trucks by 40%, to an average of 35 mpg by 2020. As a result, carmakers will begin marching out a parade of new, advanced technologies to boost miles per gallon in their vehicles.

One of the most effective and feasible solutions may seem surprising to many U.S. drivers. But diesel-engine vehicles, especially in Europe, are on the rise, and could overtake hybrids as the darlings of the green car world. Bradley Berman, editor of HybridCars.com, spoke with Johannes-Joerg Rueger, vice-president of engineering for diesel systems for Robert Bosch in Farmington Hills, Mich., a leading manufacturer of diesel vehicle technologies.

Santa Anita has been the place for chaos

For the moment, the Great Race Place isn't great. Santa Anita is having the winter of its discontent.

Traditionally, the thoroughbred horse race meeting that begins the day after Christmas, at the track at the foot of the scenic snow-topped San Gabriel Mountains, has the most expensive horses in the country and the best jockeys to ride them in an annual showcase for the sport.

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Sales tax increase turned down as town grapples with funding

The state-mandated 5 percent cap on next year's budget means the town of New Shoreham has $330,000 more to spend this year than last, Finance Director Amy Lewis said at Monday night's Town Council meeting. But $194,000 of that is already allocated to the school, leaving only $136,000 for any other increases, including cost-of-living raises for town employees.This situation has brought the town and the town employees association to arbitration (See story below).Asked if utility or insurance increases could constitute an exception to the cap, First Warden Kim Gaffett said that increases had to be 15 percent higher to make the town eligible for an exception. They are not that high yet. The town will be able to request an exception for debt authority on the Old Harbor project, however.The additional 1 percent sales tax the council had considered last month as a new levy was not acceptable to the state.

RIM announces BlackBerry platform enhancements

Phone Scoop reported on the RIM announcement that BlackBerry owners will be receiving updates for their devices that adds enhanced functionality and security. These new software updates will be phased in over the first half of 2008 and if you buy a new device in mid to late 2008 it should have the updates already installed.

The updates include enhanced messaging and collaboration, simpler management and support for IT departments, enhanced security, and expanded application support. End users will primarily see the enhancements in messaging that include integration of DataViz's excellent Documents To Go product for viewing and editing Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files, remote search for older messages no longer on your device, free-busy calendar lookup of coworkers, HTML and rich text email support, and IBM Lotus enhancements.