2010 Mazda 3, 4 Door, on 2040-cars

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Bauer Catfish is a Miata-based trackstar in the making [w/videos]

We're not trying to make a joke here. The creation you see above really is called the Bauer Catfish, and while the name is about as attractive as your average bottom feeder, the car itself is built on a sexy notion. Take the mechanical bits of one 1990-2005 Mazda MX-5 Miata, add in a tube chassis for as little weight as possible, complete with some custom body work and go forth. Bauer says the finished product weighs in at just 1,550 pounds, and the company will be happy to pull the stock four-cylinder to drop in a healthy General Motors LS V8.
The pre-production prototype shown above competed in last year's 25 Hours of Thunderhill, finished the race and earned a spot on the podium in the "anything goes for sports racers" ESR class. Very cool.
If you're looking for a dedicated track car, it may not get any better than this for the money. Expect to pay around $13,900 depending on options, plus the cost of your donor Miata. That's a good sight cheaper than a used Chevy Corvette Z06 and likely to be quite a bit more fun. After you're done watching it in action in the brief videos below, check it out over at Bauer Ltd.

Mazda CX-5 Luggage Test | How much cargo space?

We're already seen how Mazda's largest crossover, the CX-9, does at stuffing luggage inside its cargo hold. Now it's time for the next rung down the Mazda ladder. The Mazda CX-5 has 30.9 cubic-feet of space behind its raised back seat, which on paper, is considerably less than its top competition. The Hyundai Tucson leads the way with 38.7 cubic-feet, the Honda CR-V (39.2) and Toyota RAV4 (37.5) are basically the same, and the Subaru Forester has between 33 and 35 depending on options. However, the CX-5 does have more than the Chevrolet Equinox (29.9), Jeep Compass (27.2) and Ford Escape when its sliding back seat is in its aft-most position (33.5 when all the way forward).  Basically, this compact Mazda's cargo area is midpack, which makes it a good choice for my first luggage test of the segment. Let's see how much of the luggage in my garage fits inside. As a refresher, I use two mid-size roller suitcases that would need to be checked in at the airport (26 inches long, 16 wide, 11 deep), two roll-aboard suitcases that just barely fit in the overhead (24L x 15W x 10D), and one smaller roll-aboard that fits easily (23L x 15W x 10D). I also include my wife's fancy overnight bag just to spruce things up a bit (21L x 12W x 12D).  I started by keeping the cargo cover in place to see how much fits underneath it. The answer is the four largest bags. The two smaller ones did not. OK, now let's remove the cargo cover, which is an unusual design. Rather than a roller-type cartridge that you manually pull into place or a rigid hatchback-like unit that rises up when the liftgate goes up, the CX-5 basically combines the two. The forward bit is attached to the liftgate and unspools when opened.  To detach it, you need to unfasten these plastic clamps and then remove the cartridge reel much as you would a normal cargo cover. OK, and now here's how much the CX-5 can fit with the cargo cover removed.  All of it! That above configuration is just the first thing I came up with, but there's likely additional Tetris formations to be found. Note that the tailgate does close here but the middle cases' wheels are awfully close to the window.  I'm not going to stop there, though. I went ahead and rummaged through my garage to see what it would take to fill'er up. There you go: one duffle bag and one gym bag stuffed into the spaces. You could probably fit a grocery bag right in front there, too.

Japanese automakers welcome North American trade deal, fear what's next

TOKYO — Toyota, Nissan and Mazda welcomed on Tuesday the revised North America trade deal that left Japanese automakers unscathed, but they may face a bumpy ride when Washington and Tokyo hold new talks on over $40 billion of annual U.S. auto imports from Japan. The United States and Canada reached an agreement on Sunday to update the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement after Washington had forged a separate trade deal with Mexico in August. The updated deal effectively maintains the auto industry's current footprint in North America, and spares Canada and Mexico from the prospect of U.S. national security tariffs on their vehicles. Mazda, which ships cars to the United States from Mexico and Japan, called the deal a "big step forward". Nissan, which makes the cars it sells in the United States locally as well as in Mexico, Japan and other countries, said it was "encouraged" by the agreement. Toyota, Japan's biggest automaker, said it was "pleased" that a basic deal was reached. Other automakers were not immediately available for comment. While the deal has removed the risk that the disintegration of the pact would have posed to automakers, bigger risks loom large for Japanese firms as a chunk of the roughly 7 million cars they sold in the U.S. last year were shipped from Japan, and a trade deal between Washington and Tokyo has yet to be agreed. The United States and Japan last week agreed to begin fresh trade talks, with U.S. President Donald Trump seeking to address Japan's $69 billion trade surplus, of which nearly two-thirds comes from auto exports. Washington is also investigating the possibility of slapping 25 percent tariffs on auto imports on national security grounds, although it has agreed with Japan to put any new tariffs on hold during the talks. Analysts say the United States may take a tougher stance on auto imports from Japan than from its neighbors. "If Japan requests an exemption from the 25 percent tariffs under consideration, Washington could propose a more strict cap on imports than it agreed to with Mexico and Canada," said Koji Endo, senior analyst at SBI Securities. "That would be a risk." This could be a big blow to Japan, as the United States is a key source of revenue for Japanese automakers including Toyota, Nissan and Honda. The U.S. market accounts for a quarter or more of their annual global vehicle sales, and of their total U.S.