Tesla's value on the stock market far exceeds the number of vehicles it contributes to the automotive market. According to a report from Automotive News, Tesla is currently valued at US$8.8 billion. Almost unbelievably, though we've never claimed to have a firm grasp on the inner workings of the stock market, that's a full billion dollars more valuable than Fiat and three times more valuable than PSA Peugeot Citroën, says the report.

How unfathomable is that statistic? Consider the fact that Tesla, a ten-year-old company, just managed to turn its very first profit last quarter and has produced fewer than 10,000 vehicles in its lifetime. How does that compare to an automotive giant like Fiat? Well... it doesn't – The brand sold well over 50,000 cars in North America alone in 2012, and it owns or controls the Chrysler portfolio of brands along with Ferrari and Maserati... not to mention the hundreds of thousands of cars Fiat Group sells yearly in the rest of the world.

Granted, the number of vehicles sold by a brand is just a small portion of its value, but you may still wonder, why is such a seemingly small player in the global automotive marketplace such a big deal on Wall Street? According to AN, it has a lot to do with its controversial and headline-grabbing CEO, Elon Musk, and the way he disseminates company information to his investors. How so? We suggest you take a good look at the article here for the whole story.

Click through to get Musk's advice on starting a new business in the following video clip.

Strategic Vision has released its annual Total Quality awards, and some of the winners may come as a surprise. To quote Alexander Edwards, President of Strategic Vision, "For the first time in over a decade our comprehensive and complete study of Quality resulted in more domestic winners than imports."

That's not to say import brands performed poorly. Volkswagen was voted the best overall corporation in Total Quality for the eighth-straight year, and Audi tied with Lexus for the best individual brand. Breaking things down on a model-by-model basis, here are some notable victories:

• Dodge Dart, Best Small Car
• Ford Fusion / Chevrolet Volt, Best Midsize Car
• Volkswagen CC, Best Large Car
• Hyundai Genesis / Audi A4, Best Near-Luxury Car
• Lexus LS, Best Luxury Car
• Chevrolet Corvette, Best Premium Coupe
• Chrysler Town & Country, Best Minivan
• Volkswagen Tiguan / Toyota FJ Cruiser, Best Entry Utility
• Chevrolet Traverse, Best Midsize Crossover Utility
• Dodge Durango, Best Midsize Traditional Utility
• Chevrolet Avalanche, Best Full-size Pickup
• Ford F-250 / F-350, Best Heavy Duty Pickup

Scroll down below for the full list of winners, both import and domestic, in each and every category.

Well-known NASCAR racer Dick Trickle has dies of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. Trickle was 71 years of age.

According to reports, police in Lincoln County, NC were informed via an anonymous phone call (very likely made by Trickle himself) prior to the suicide where to find the body. Trickle's body was found at the Forest Lawn Cemetary in Boger City, NC, next to his pickup truck.

Our thoughts go out to Trickle's friends and family. Click through to watch a video report on his passing.

We've seen it (in concept form, in officially rendered form and in Martini Racing livery), we've heard all about its 4.6-litre V8 with 608 horsepower, buoyed as it is by twin electric motors, its sophisticated all-wheel-drive system and carbon fibre monocoque chassis. We've even taken a ride in one. What we haven't had, up until now at least, is had all of these details about the Porsche 918 Spyder in one convenient press blast. And we also now know that it will be a introduced as a 2015 model.

Along with the official specifications, Porsche has seen fit to release a new batch of images showing its production body from all angles. We get a good look at the car's interior bits and pieces, including a few shots showing how people fit underneath the removable hardtop panel.

Porsche sums up its baby with the following words: Maximum driving fun with minimal fuel consumption. We like the sound of that, and we think it's cool that the 918 can travel up to 29 kilometres (18 miles) on electricity alone, with performance statistics that aren't far off what we had from sports cars from a few short decades ago.

We think you'll find plenty of interesting information in the press release below, but first, you'll want to browse through the high-res image gallery above to take in all the unique visuals. Enjoy!

Infiniti makes plenty of good cars, crossovers and SUVs. The premium Japanese brand also has a well-defined presence in racing on the world's largest stage in the form of a partnership with Red Bull in Formula 1. What Infiniti doesn't have, though, is a range-topping halo car.

A report from Autocar in the UK suggests that Infiniti's gaping top-shelf hole may soon be plugged by 2016 with a new hybrid sports car along the lines of the well-received Emerg-E and Essence concepts. This report is contrary to news we heard from Autocar late last year, when company officials reportedly told the publication that a swoopy and fuel-efficient machine like the Emerg-E wouldn't be produced.

Interestingly, Infiniti is said to sense strong demand from so-called "little emperors ... who are used to getting what they want," many of whom live in Asian countries, who are also environmentally conscious. Infiniti exec Andy Palmer told Autocar to expect something "like the Tesla sports car option, but with more flexibility in terms of range."

Reading between the lines, we picture a luxurious coupe with some combination of electric motors and gasoline engines providing power levels between 400 and 500 horsepower. We may not qualify as "little emperors" ourselves, but we certainly welcome the notion of high-performance machines that also happen to be fuel efficient.

Click through to watch a video showing one of Infiniti's concepts.

Does the mere desire to own a ridiculously high-performance and stupendously expensive supercar automatically make its prospective owner a little selfish? Not necessarily, but if said supercar has just one seat, a case could certainly be made that its megalomaniacal owner simply doesn't want to share the experience with his friends...

For such an owner, Lamborghini has presented the Egoista Concept – perhaps fittingly, the car was unveiled at a private 50th birthday party that the automaker seems to have thrown for itself. From what we can glean without any official announcement from Lamborghini to go by, the Egoista Concept has room for a single occupant, is powered by a 5.2-litre V10 engine and boasts styling said to be inspired by an Apache helicopter.

Details from Lamborghini can be found in the videos and press release below, and we suggest you click through the image gallery above to view the Egoista in high resolution. Clearly, the Egoista joins the Veneno as one of the more memorable self-given birthday presents in recent memory.

According to a report from Reuters, South Korea's government has drafted strict new rules for automakers to follow when calculating fuel economy. The legislation comes after a major snafu by Hyundai and Kia that resulted in the automakers changing the estimated fuel mileage rating of many popular models, including the Soul subcompact above – and compensating owners in the US and Canada for the reduction in fuel efficiency.

The new fuel economy rules were announced by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy in South Korea and will see average mileage ratings worsen by roughly three to five per cent, according to the report. In addition, manufacturers found guilty of overstating mileage figures will be liable for fines of up to US$900,000.

These sweeping new regulations will go into effect in the second half of 2013 and, while they won't have any effect on fuel estimates for Hyundai and Kia vehicles in North America, they are expected to result in new ratings for the two automakers in their home market of South Korea, where they enjoy a whopping 70 per cent market share.

Scroll down for a video report.

The annual Pikes Peak International Hill Climb is one of the few events in motorsport with an Unlimited Class that is truly... well, unlimited. To put the word 'unlimited' in perspective, consider the Red Bull-sponsored Peugeot 208 T16: its 3.2-litre bi-turbo V6 engine puts out 875 maximum horsepower, sending power to all four wheels through a six-speed sequential gearbox. That's powerful enough to catapult the T16 from 0-100 km/h in a scant 1.8 seconds. Keep it planted and it'll hit 200 km/h in 4.8 seconds and 240 km/h in 7.0 flat. That, ladies and gentlemen, is freakishly fast.

Just ask Sébastien Loeb, a man who's no stranger to high-performance machinery, having won nine World Rally championships, who said of the T16 after his first testing session: "I've never driven anything that accelerates so fast! ... It's got the downforce of a Formula 1 car, the wide tires of an endurance racing prototype and a differential like a WRC car."

And that right there is the automotive definition of 'Unlimited.' Oh, did we mention that the T16 is one of the meanest looking four-wheeled vehicles we've ever laid eyes on? See for yourself in the high-res image galleries, press release and video below.

We love Morgan for its quintessentially British approach to motoring charm, and while the automaker has recently ventured into more modern machinery with the launch and development of its Aero line, it's the classic Plus 8 and Roadster that have stood the test of time, having first been released back in 1968.

Of course, classic cars are all well and good for those who covet the joy of driving, just so long as it's kept to weekends and sunny days, but there's always room for tinkering and improvement to bring things up to modern levels of performance and reliability. With that in mind, we suggest you scroll down below to watch Jay Leno put a hot-rod Morgan Plus 8 through its paces with its builder, Jason Len of XKs Unlimited, along for the ride.

For the first time ever, the Crown Range, New Zealand's highest paved road, was closed off for the drifting pleasure of one man. That man is Mad Mike Whiddett, and the machine he's piloting is a heavily modified Mazda RX-7 sponsored by the energy-rich crew from Red Bull and powered by a 750-horsepower quad-rotor engine. There will be smoke. Lots and lots of smoke!

Mad Mike hits speeds in excess of 225 km/h (140 mph) over the course of the road's 10 kilometre length, which boasts 47 individual corners at over 3,500 feet of elevation. Scroll down for all kinds of fire-belching, tire-squealing and smoke-inducing action in the video below. Or, as Mad Mike himself puts it, "A dream turned into reality."

There are very few vehicles available today that compare directly with the Scion FR-S and Subaru BRZ twins. A case could be made for the Mazda MX-5 Miata, and possibly even six-cylinder versions of domestic coupes like the Ford Mustang. Pretty much everything else is either too expensive or is powered by the wrong set of wheels.

The boys from EverydayDriver on YouTube decided the only fair way to judge the inherent qualities of the Toyobaru twins was to pit them against two standard-bearers of years past: The Honda S2000 and Mazda RX-8. Neither of these cars is an exact matchup, with the Honda boasting a convertible top and the RX-8 offering more practicality via a rear seat and two reverse-opening doors for easier access. What they do offer, however, are similar performance stats and proven reputations for excellent handling.

None of this talk answers the real question, though: Which one wins the comparison test? Scroll down to watch the video, and be prepared for something of a surprise conclusion.

Volkswagen has pushed up the power for the new half-model year. For 2013.5 (yep, this isn't a 2013 and it's not quite a 2014), the 2.0-litre turbocharged TSI engine offered in the Beetle Turbo, Beetle Turbo Convertible and Jetta GLI now makes 210 horsepower, an increase of 10 ponies over the previous version of the long-running engine. Torque remains unchanged at 207 pound-feet.

According to VW, the Beetle Turbo can accelerate from 0-60 (0-96 km/h) in 6.6 seconds, which is a 0.2-second improvement over the previous car. The Jetta GLI does the run to 60 in 6.7 seconds, according to the automaker. Those worried about economy will be pleased to know that the increase in performance extends to the pump – VW claims increases of four to eight per cent in city and combined fuel economy.

The Beetle Turbo is fitted with new R Line bumpers for 2013.5; a separate R Line package that includes the new bumpers, a diffuser at the rear, 19-inch Tornado wheels and badging inside and out. Meanwhile, the Jetta GLI gets LED taillamps, and the automaker isn't mentioning any increase in price on the Jetta GLI. Want to know more? Scroll down below for the press release.

It's the end of an era. The Summer X Games have been held in and around downtown Los Angeles for more than 10 years, but the summer of 2013 will be the last appearance for the foreseeable future of the X Games in The City of Angels. For those keeping track, the X Games first took place in Rhode Island, followed by San Diego and San Francisco and then finally Philadelphia before finding a semi-permanent home in LA.

So, where will the Summer X Games be in 2014? That has yet to be decided, with ESPN (which runs the event) announcing a list of potential locations: Chicago, IL; Detroit, MI; Austin, TX; and Charlotte, NC. Whichever city wins will get a contract with the X Games for three years, meaning there may be another host city in 2017.

According to ESPN, "Detroit has been the most vociferous in its desire to host the games." We'd love to see X Games in Detroit, not that we have any sway over the decision, and you're welcome to watch a teaser video from some Detroit X Games backers down below.

Toyota still holds the title of World's Largest Automaker. The Japanese automaker ceded the claim to General Motors in 2011 following a series of natural and man-made disasters that stifled production in Asia. Production is back up to full speed and, coupled with the introduction of a new Camry midsize sedan, Toyota retook the title in 2012 and has so far been able to keep it by selling 2.43 million vehicles in the first quarter of 2013.

The race is still tight – General Motors reports sales of 2.36 million vehicles, earning it the second spot globally with Volkswagen's 2.27 million sales nabbing the German automaker third place. It's not all smooth sailing for Toyota, either, as the brand's first-quarter figures were down 2.2 per cent when compared to last year. GM posted a 3.6 per cent gain and VW managed a 5.1 per cent gain over the same period.

Sales in China may be a deciding factor as to which automaker performs best in 2013. Toyota's figures were down 13 per cent in China. Meanwhile, GM and VW are continuing their upward trajectories in the crucial Chinese market.

As ever, each of the automakers says publicly it doesn't care much about the title. Shino Yamada, a spokesperson for Toyota, told The Washington Post, "Rather than pursuing numbers, we try to sell one car at a time, producing good cars. We aren't focused on being number one." GM spokesperson Jim Cain echoed a similar note, saying, "A day doesn't go by that we don't try to increase our sales all over the world."

Click here to watch a video report on the close car sales battle that's been brewing.