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Rutledge Wood wins Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race in Long Beach

Rutledge Wood took home the checkered flag at this year's Toyota Pro/Celebrity race at the Grand Prix of Long Beach. The Top Gear USA presenter, Fox Sports commentator and Honda Wagovan owner managed to take pole position in qualifying, but lost his lead early in the race to Mark Steines. Steines has competed in the Pro/Celebrity race four times so far, but the Hallmark channel host of Home and Family couldn't quite hold on to the lead. Wood eventually made up the ground he had lost for the win. This year, all the participants went fender to fender in identically prepared Scion FR-S racers.
Meanwhile, Adam Carolla took first in the Pro category, and Toyota donated $5,000 on behalf of each participant to Racing for Kids. The charity benefits children's hospitals in the Long Beach area, and this year Toyota donated a total of $90,000. Check out the full press release below for more information.

Ryan Tuerck's Ferrari-powered Scion drifts, crashes, fixes, and drifts again

We were pretty astonished when Ryan Tuerck and Gumout shoved a Ferrari 458 V8 into a Scion FR-S. And as awesome as that fact alone may be, it's even more amazing that it's a fully functional drifter, not just a show car. Tuerck recently took it out to Portland, Ore. to do some sweet drifting on a mountain road. Unfortunately for him and the car, he did something substantially less sweet right off the bat. As you'll see in the video, in just the second corner of the course, Tuerck drives the front corner of the GT4586 right into the dirt cliff on the side of the road. For a moment, it looks like things are all right, but the car starts pulling to the right and he stops the car for repairs. After fixing bits including a thoroughly bent tie-rod, the GT4586 is good as new. We're glad the car wasn't down for long, because the drifting show following the repairs was fantastic. In the video, Tuerck throws the Scion into high-speed, super smoky drifts. And all of it happens to the tune of a shrieking Ferrari V8. It's well worth a few minutes of your time to watch. Related Video: Image Credit: YouTube / Donut Media Ferrari Scion Coupe Racing Vehicles Videos toyota gt86 toyota 86

J.D. Power study sees new car dependability problems increase for first time since 1998

For the first time since 1998, J.D. Power and Associates says its data shows that the average number of problems per 100 cars has increased. The finding is the result of the firm's much-touted annual Vehicle Dependability Study, which charts incidents of problems in new vehicle purchases over three years from 41,000 respondents.
Looking at first-owner cars from the 2011 model year, the study found an average of 133 problems per 100 cars (PP100, for short), up 6 percent from 126 PP100 in last year's study, which covered 2010 model-year vehicles. Disturbingly, the bulk of the increase is being attributed to engine and transmission problems, with a 6 PP100 boost.
Interestingly, JDP notes that "the decline in quality is particularly acute for vehicles with four-cylinder engines, where problem levels increase by nearly 10 PP100." Its findings also noticed that large diesel engines also tended to be more problematic than most five- and six-cylinder engines.