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EcoCar3 will convert Camaro to bitchin' eco rides

In the 47-year-history of the Chevrolet Camaro, there have been countless college-age kids spending a ton of time getting under the hood and souping 'em up. Now, General Motors is adding a twist to the concept by donating 16 Camaros for the EcoCar challenge that puts university teams together to wring out better fuel-efficiency out of various vehicles. No word on whether there will be donuts on anyone's lawn, as suggested by 80's punks the Dead Milkmen, but the idea's never a bad one. EcoCar3 will feature 16 teams such as Arizona State, Penn State, Ontario's University of Waterloo and, of course, Detroit's Wayne State University. They'll spend the next four years "[reducing] environmental impact, while maintaining the muscle and performance expected from this iconic American car," as the EcoCar organizers say. The goal is to maintain body design and safety standards while boosting efficiency and lowering emissions, but the actual process is far more complicated than that description suggests. The California Air Resources Board (CARB) and Bosch are among the sponsors of the contest, which is also put on by the US Department of Energy and managed by Argonne National Laboratory. Penn State won Year Two of the three-year EcoCar 2 competition with its E85 plug-in hybrid electric vehicle converted out of a Chevy Malibu. The grand-prize winner of EcoCar2 will be announced in June. Check out the EcoCar3 website and see the announcement video below for more details. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee teases return with a Countach

Unless you have an intense aversion to Jerry Seinfeld, it's hard not to find something to like about his show Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. After all, the series combines funny people telling often hilarious stories while riding in ridiculously cool vehicles. The trailer for the sixth season is now online, and based on this tease, this definitely looks worth watching no matter what part of the videos interest you. Of course, it's the automotive portion that really grabs us, and Seinfeld has quite a fleet to showcase for season six. The trailer shows off a Lamborghini Countach, a '57 Chevrolet Bel Air convertible, a classic Volkswagen Beetle in the green and white German Polizei livery, a Morgan, an Aston Martin DB5, and a Ferrari 308. On the more humorous side of things, the guest list at least includes Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jim Carrey, Steve Harvey, Stephen Colbert, Bill Maher and upcoming host of The Daily Show Trevor Noah. Season six of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee premieres on Crackle on Wednesday, June 3, at 11:30 PM ET.

Personal testimonies show real-world effect of plugging in with Chevy Volt

At this point, there are tens of thousands of individual stories about what it's like to live with a Chevrolet Volt. But it also remains informative to take a look at one of these in depth. For example, one Atlanta-area Volt owner says he's cut his cents-per-mile ownership costs by almost 40 percent compared to his previous car primarily because of his ability to drive almost all the time on electric power. Jeffrey Cohen told Clean Technica that he put about 14,000 miles on his Volt extended-range plug-in hybrid for the year that ended October 2013, and that more than 92 percent of those were on electrons. He estimates his "lifetime" miles per gallon rating at a whopping 384 mpg, a figure pushed upward by the fact that he installed a Level 2 charger at home while his employer added an external 110-volt charger at work. Cohen is spending 45 cents a mile for his car, compared to 73 cents in his Infiniti M35. As a result, he's spending 45 cents a mile for his car, compared to 73 cents a mile with his prior vehicle, an Infiniti M35. About two-thirds of those Volt costs are for the $349-a-month lease payments, while 15 percent is insurance, 11 percent is for the charger and seven percent for the gas and electricity that actually powers the car. Helping lower that last figure is an overnight electricity rate that's about 10 percent of Cohen's daytime rate. Chevy parent General Motors hopes such testimonies will re-trigger sales for the Volt in 2014. Last year, GM sold 23,094 Volts, down 1.6 percent from 2012. We expect our readers have similar stories they'd like to share in the Comments. Related Gallery 2011 Chevrolet Volt: Review View 22 Photos News Source: Clean TechnicaImage Credit: Lead image: AP Photo/Jae C. Hong Green Chevrolet GM Electric running costs