wheel wells

It sounds preposterous, and it is—just look at this thing! This striking Volkswagen GTI concept features a host of performance upgrades and some dramatic design modifications to accommodate them. Most notable are the flared wheel wells to house the really big tires, necessary to manage the 650 horsepower being delivered by a six-liter W-12 engine. Zero-to-60 in 3.7 seconds. Top speed: 202 mph. Ferrari F430: dusted. —Eric Adams

Link for more photos [leftlanenews.com]

You think a Mini cooper is small? Ha! A third of Japanese drivers buy kei ("light") cars, which are so compact, owners get a special permit to park free in crowded cities. Kei are 11 feet long, 6.6 feet tall and 4.9 feet wide-or less-and legally limited to 660cc's and 63 horsepower. (They're longer but narrower than Smart cars.) Until now, the vehicles were simply shrunken versions of bigger models. But Mitsubishi designed its new "i" model from scratch to make the safest, roomiest and most high-tech kei yet.