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

Toyota launches "A Glass of Water" website

Spring water. Purified water. Vitamin water. Smart water. Glacier water, Fiji water, Oxygen water.

You'd think that, given the fact that we all live in the wettest part of a particularly wet country, we'd be past the habit of toting litres of the life-giving fluid everywhere like we are crossing the Gobi Desert every time we take the bus to work. Does anybody even remember what taps are for?

Oh that's right, washing your hands 400 times a day.

Well anyway, Toyota is confident that keeping drivers hydrated is a good way to save on gas. The self-styled kings of eco have been hard at work on a new driving philosophy called "A Glass of Water," which now has its own website at www.aglassofwater.org.

Essentially, Toyota's challenge to you is to drive everywhere as though you have a full glass of water perched on the dashboard. Not only will this method warn of impending T-Rex attacks à la Jurassic Park, it favours smooth throttle inputs, gentle braking and leaving plenty of stopping space, all behaviours which will save you gas.

Toyota says that up to 10 per cent can be saved on your fuel bill by driving the Glass of Water way. I'm going to cheat and freeze mine.

New Brunswick man builds ultimate Camaro

Speaking about wet parts of our country, there's always something special about the folks who live on Canada's coasts. Sure, we need people in the Prairies to raise cattle and pump oil, people in Ottawa to misspend our tax dollars and people in Toronto to have a crappy hockey team and an inferiority complex about New York, but really all the best sorts live near an ocean. Even if we're often a bit nuts.

You need an example? Well, how about Serge Leger of Shediac, N.B. This gentleman, who must be the coolest dude to ever sport a mullet, just created what is possibly the ultimate version of General Motor's redesigned Camaro.

Not satisfied with the stock car's puny 400+ horsepower output, Mr. Leger bought himself some go-fast parts: a new engine, turbochargers the size of a Volkswagen Beetle and an exhaust system that could double as a Translink tunnel.

Then he spent some more money bolting everything together and tuning it, with the total build cost coming to $320,000. Now, after you've picked yourself up off the floor, I'm sure the first question you have is, "Why not simply buy something cheap, like a Ferrari or Lamborghini?" I'll tell you why.

This car, which is as black as Darth Vader's underpants, makes 1,400 horsepower. That's an entire Camaro SS more than the million-dollar Bugatti Veyron.

Of course, there are some drawbacks to owning a muscle car with more horsepower than an aircraft carrier, including having to buy rear tires in a size originally intended for steamrollers, and fuel economy that has to be measured in centimetres per litre. Still, it's a Camaro so cool, it might just reanimate the original lineup of Lynyrd Skynyrd.

New Zealand man claims parallel-park record

Kiwis are great. If you imagine Australia as being a bit like the U.S., then New Zealanders are a lot like Canadians: superficially polite, but completely cuckoo for cocoa puffs underneath it all.

Therefore it comes as no surprise to find that they've been hard at work Down-Under-And-Over-A-Bit trying to crack the world parallel-parking record. The current record was held by a Chinese gentleman for slotting a car in a space that was only 32 centimetres larger than the car. That is to say, if you measured the front and rear gap after parking, the total was only about as long as a school-supply ruler.

Now before you go imagining 64-point turns and much wheel-shuffling, the method for parallel-parking in tight spaces is actually quite, erm, vigorous. Basically, piloting a front-wheel drive car, stunt driver Peter Bell approached at speed, cranked the wheel and hauled on the handbrake to slide perfectly into a spot that was only 27 cm longer than his car, thus ensuring a new world record.

Mazda planning new RX-7 by 2013

Most people take their piston-driven internal combustion engines for granted. Oh sure, you can get it in a flat-four or a V-8, but what if you want something a little weirder?

Well you head over to Mazda, that's what. They'll be happy to sell you one of their sweet-handling RX-8s, with its creamy smooth, non-piston, rotary engine. Now, I'm not going to try to tell you how a rotary engine works, as poorly-worded explanations chock-full of incorrect facts are what Wikipedia is for, but just know that you need to drive one at least once in your life. They're lovely.

Unfortunately, rotaries have a few drawbacks, one of which is that they haven't got enough torque to screw in a lightbulb. Therefore, (and hooray by the way) the announcement that Mazda is bringing back turbocharging for the upcoming RX-7 is more welcome than an unexpected tax refund cheque.

Turbos add torque, and the turbocharged RX-7 of the early 1990s, known as the FD by enthusiasts, was probably the best pure sportscar Japan ever built, next to the Miata. Unfortunately, the old one tended to explode so much that even that bomb-disposal guy from The Hurt Locker couldn't safely own one, so let's hope the intervening decade has allowed Mazda to figure out how to boost a rotary safely.

Thumbs down of the week: Dan Neil

Earlier this week, in a review of the Porsche Boxster Spyder (which he didn't like), Wall Street Journal auto-journalist Dan Neil issued the following sneer: "Purists out there still clinging to your six-speed manuals, please go home. Your black-and-white TV is on the fritz."

This statement, of course, was in reference to Porsche's excellent PDK double-clutch transmission, which joins similar transmissions from Nissan, VW and Mitsubishi at being faster and more efficient than a manual, while still providing a level of control. Now, Mr. Neil has a Pulitzer, and I don't even have a pullet, and I know that some autojournos are given to the odd occasional hyperbole, but sometimes you can be just plain wrong.

The point of the manual gearbox is, and has always been, the feel of the thing. Sure double-clutch trickery is great, but it's not the same as heel-toeing a perfect down-change in a Miata. Also, the alternative to manual in many econo-boxes isn't some expensive twin-clutch, but rather a slushy automatic. Driving a stick might be the only fun thing about your car.

So Mr. Neil, on behalf of all manual enthusiasts out there, go microwave your iPhone.

Watch this space for all the week's best and worst of automotive news, or submit your own auto oddities to brakingnews@gmail.com.