The Internet loves a scoop, and car lovers love to speculate on new models. That's the perfect environment in which to incubate Photoshop renderings of sports cars hinted at, but unconfirmed. The latest engagement of wishful thinking hit the Internet this past weekend. It's a take on a car BMW officials have yet to announce but which the German media has been predicting for several years: the return of the BMW M1, a two-seat sports car the Munich-based company built in the mid-1970s.

Could new federal fuel mileage regulations kill sports-car specialists like Porsche? Probably not, but those companies may have to pay heavy fines as the cost of doing business or radically change their US product mix. That's AutoWeek's interpretation of new rules proposed by the Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

High drama in the electric car world: According to the New York Times, electric sports-car manufacturer Tesla is suing Henrik Fisker and Bernhard Koehler of Fisker Coachbuild, charging that Fisker “fraudulently” signed on to design Tesla’s “White Star” sedan, sabotaged the sedan project by doing substandard work, then stole confidential information and went on to build a competing car—the Fisker Karma.

Transport a 2008 Toyota Camry back to the "Car of Tomorrow" exhibit at the 1964 World's Fair and they'd never buy the hype. "Seven airbags?" they'd say, "And no jet pack? Yeah, sure." Those were the days before Ralph Nader penned his auto-safety call to arms, "Unsafe at Any Speed," putting auto safety on regulators' and engineers' short lists for the next several decades. And it's far from over: A massive road-safety research initiative in Europe is aiming for a technological framework within which cars would be entirely smash-proof.

In 2007, registrations of new hybrid vehicles jumped by 38 percent to 350,289 vehicles, according to a new report from R.L. Polk & Company. Gee, I wonder why? Maybe it's got something to do with rising prices at the pump, or climate change. Or maybe there's something bigger at play.