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BRAKING NEWS: Grab onto something and enjoy the ride

Auto world has gone mad with high-powered hijinks
Porsche Cayman
Porsche has unleashed the Cayman a little by releasing a new GT4 model. Big brakes, a manual transmission and a giant wing add to the fun.

A biweekly roundup of automotive news, good, bad and just plain weird:

Ford Focus RS announced for global launch

OK, hold on to your hats. This week is all about performance reveals in the automotive world, which appears to have gone completely cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs. Don't worry, we'll tuck some minivan news in at the bottom.

First on our parade of speedy sheetmetal is Ford's Focus RS, confirmed to be coming to North America this time. The old RS was always at the top of the list any time I corralled all the best cars we don't get. And this one's even better. With somewhere north of 315 horsepower coming from the same 2.3-litre turbo four-banger as the Mustang Ecoboost, the RS has punch aplenty. It's also got all-wheel drive for added grip this time, with a clever system that can actually send 70 per cent of the power to the rear for more hoontastic handling - and it'll pull more than one G on the skid pad.

Also, it's manual only and it comes in blue. Does some Ford engineer have a picture of me up on a board, because that's spooky. Oh well: thanks guys! Can I have one for free?

Sadly no. Prices to be determined, but I'm guessing around the $40,000-45,000 mark, like the Golf R and Subaru STI.

Ferrari 488 GTB: From Maranello, with boost

Mark it on your calendars, the Ferrari 458 is going to be the last mainstream Ferrari with a naturally aspirated engine. From here on out the manufacturer is going forced induction to meet torque requirements and emissions standards.

It's a very sad day indeed. Wait, 660 h.p. and 561 foot-pounds of torque? I think . . . I think I might just be able to somehow pick up my shattered dreams and move on. Somehow.

Of course, the last mid-engined turbo Ferrari was the F40, a car that still haunts my dreams and waking moments, and is underlined twice on my bucket list of must-drive cars. This modern version, the 488GTB, will have many more amenities than the F40 (which had none, not even a radio), and still blast to 100 km/h in three seconds flat and look like a star-fighter with the wings clipped off.

It's a brave, boosty new world, but I think Ferrari fans will live. But what about the rest of us?

Porsche unhobbles the Cayman with GT4

Well, sort of. But say hello to the new GT4, which is basically a Porsche Cayman with a lot of the best bits of the 911 GT3. A 3.8-litre flat- six makes 385 h.p., there are big brakes and a giant wing, and unlike the GT3 this one only comes as a stick shift.

If, like me, you are a family man, you've just immediately gone on eBay to see about selling your children off for medical experimentation. Drat. Looks like they don't have a category for that. Just kidding honey! *nervous, forced laughter*

Anyway, this little two-seater looks awesome, with a 0-100 kilometres per hour time of slightly more than four seconds, and a top speed approaching 300 km/h. Porsche says it'll lap the Nürburgring in 7:40, the same time as the old 911 GT3, and as the current Cayman GTS is so good, this ought to be even better, for even more money.

But why doesn't it have 400 h.p., same as the 911 Carrera S? I'm sure Porsche will claim that it's to do with cooling or exhaust packaging, but I ain't fooled — this car is going to be fantastic, but it's also about what Porsche thought they could sell more than how fast they could make it go. Still, manual only? Sign me up. Figuratively speaking.

Mazda MX-5 specs confirmed: 155 h.p., 2.0-litre

Cheapest, lightest, and least powerful of any of the cars we've just talked about, the new MX-5 is going to get a 155 h.p., 2.0-litre four-cylinder, which is actually a slight decrease in power over the old car. As that's the same power output of the current Mazda3, Mazda's indicating that premium fuel is a recommendation, not a requirement. What's more, 100 km/h is now 2,500 r.p.m., so this new car should be more efficient than ever.

But look at me nattering on about efficiency and premium fuel — if you're a fan of any generation of the MX-5, you want to know if it's still fun. Well, I had a chance to drive one last week, and let me tell you: yes. Oh dear Lord yes. It's so wonderful, doctors should prescribe it as an anti-depressant when nothing else works.

And that was just the 1.5-litre JDM version I drove. The Canadian-spec cars are going to get the 155 h.p. 2.0-litre, as mentioned above, and 17-inch alloys, and a few other tweaks like that. Weight is down enough that the power-to-weight ratio is improved, but it's the handling that has been improved the most. This fourth generation car should be within 10-20 kilograms or so of the original car, and is actually 10 centimetres shorter in length. Back to basics, Mazda, you gotta love it.

Nine death-proof cars

Let's round out this week's driver-oriented buffoonery with a more consumer-oriented piece of news that proves we're entering into a golden age of motoring. Sure, the extra power everything has these days is great, but what about safety?

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, an organization out of the United States, has just released a study showing a whopping 40 per cent decline in driver fatalities over the last few decades. That's pretty impressive, but there's still work to be done. But consider this: the IIHS also released a list of models sold in the 2011 model year for which there have been no recorded fatalities in the U.S. None. Everyone who drove these cars or rode in them as a passenger is totally fine. Unless they got out and were eaten by a hippopotamus run amok or something.

The vehicles are: all-wheel-drive versions of the Audi A4, the Honda Odyssey, the Kia Sorento two-wheel drive, the Lexus RX350, the Mercedes-Benz GL-Class, the Subaru Legacy, the Toyota Highlander Hybrid, the Toyota Sequoia, and the Volvo XC90.

OK, so looking at the list, driver behaviour's got to be part of it too. These are all big, heavy crossovers (and one minivan), so they aren't likely to be found blitzing the speed limit through an intersection.

Even so, it's pretty impressive to think that these cars, which often carry children, have got so safe as to have a death rate of zero. Perhaps, someday soon,

being fatality free will be the norm, rather than worthy of special recognition.

Watch this space for all the week's best and worst of automotive news, or submit your own auto oddities to mcaleer.nsnews@gmail.com Follow Brendan on Twitter at @brendan_mcaleer.