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Off the line: Fun cars and social responsibility Autoweek op-ed stands the test of time

It's been almost 21 years to the day that Autoweek printed Matt DeLorenzo's column “Off the Line: There's room for fast, fun cars in diet of social responsibility.” And in those two decades plus, not much has changed except the vehicles themselves. For example, sports cars like the Bugatti Veyron and Pagani Huayra have astronomically high performance and safety levels; similarly, sport-utility vehicles that haul entire families (and most of their earthly possessions) achieve fuel economy similar to that of 1970s midsize sedans. To read all of DeLorenzo's thoughts and his case for automobiles, click the links to download the article.

2012 European Car of the Year shortlist announced

The shortlist for the 2012 European Car of the Year award has been announced today. There were 35 cars on the original list, but the first round of voting from the 59 jury members (including CAR Magazine’s editor Phil McNamara, and our European correspondent Georg Kacher) has whittled the list down to just seven. They are… • Citroen DS5• Fiat Panda• Focus Focus• Opel (Vauxhall) Ampera/Chevrolet Volt• Range Rover Evoque• Toyota Yaris• Volkswagen Up There will now be a second round of test drives, before the European Car of the Year jurors submit their scores and a winner is announced live at the Geneva motor show on 5 March 2012.

Concept Car of the Week: AMC AMX/2 (1969)

Like Detroit's Big Three, AMC rapidly understood the importance of the youth market after the success of the Ford Mustang. In the late 60s, the design team produced a series of "Think Young" concept cars to reach the younger audience as well as exciting new showroom offerings like the Mustang-inspired Javelin, the two-seater AMX and the Rambler. Presented at the 1969 Chicago auto show, the second opus of the American Motors Experimental series, the AMX/2 was not just AMC's most daring concept car ever, but one of Detroit's first acknowledgments that the future of high-performance sports cars would be mid-engined.