More than half of America's air traffic control centers have exceeded their useful lifespan and many have "obvious structural deficiencies and maintenance-related issues," the government says.

The company that helped Tesla Motors and Chrysler build their electric cars is working on a battery-electric that will work just like the Chevrolet Volt but be a whole lot sportier.

Small startups are leading the way with electric motorcycles you can buy today, but the big companies are developing hybrids, e-motorcycles and even hydrogen-fuel-cell bikes.

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While most Lotuses are bred to tear up the track, the company's newest racer is built to skate across ice and snow. The prototype Concept Ice Vehicle will scout for crevasses as it leads a caravan of explorers in the Moon-Regan Trans Antarctic Expedition.

Planned for November 2009, the journey aims to raise awareness of the impact of climate change, so the CIV's design specs required that it not spoil the southern continent's pristine atmosphere. To that end, Lotus converted a highly efficient BMW motorcycle engine to run on E85 bioethanol.

The 115-horsepower, two-cylinder motor spins the ultralight propeller fast enough for the CIV to glide over small gaps at a top speed of 84 mph, and the independent suspension (a Lotus specialty) helps the craft pull emergency slaloms around larger hazards. It shouldn't come to that: An onboard GPS-enhanced radar system will detect such voids well ahead of time, and the driver can radio the coordinates back to the rest of the crew — if he's not too busy busting out power-slides in the most badass snowmobile ever.

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Engine
Two-cylinder, 115-hp BMW power plant is oil-cooled and modified to run on bioethanol.

Suspension
Three skis are independently dampened with both coil springs and hydraulic shock absorbers.

Brake
Like a spring-loaded crampon, the brake snaps down and digs its teeth into the ground to stop.

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Lotus has built the extreme Concept Ice Vehicle (CIV) prototype to aid explorers in the Moon-Regan Trans Antarctic Expedition. In addition to being a pathfinder to larger six-wheeled Scientific Support Vehicles (SSC), the CIV will also serve as a test bed for use of E85 bioethanol in extreme cold.

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The Concept Ice Vehicle will act as a lead vehicle in the Moon-Regan Trans Antarctic Expedition scheduled for November 2009. The goal is to raise awareness of the impact of global climate change.

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An micro-cooled, 2-cylinder BMW motorcycle engine sends 115 HP to a tri-blade, mirco-light propeller mounted behind the driver cell. Because E85 fuel (85 percent ethanol, 15 percent gasoline) won't atomize at temperatures below -15 degrees Celsius, the CIV's fuel tank wears a heated jacket.

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When you ski recreationally in normal conditions, the snow melts beneath you, easing the path forward. But when you're 10,000 feet above sea level in very dry conditions and exceptionally low temperatures, there is no liquefaction of snow beneath the ski, which causes unwanted friction.

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To ensure that the CIV could withstand the rigors of Antarctica, the shrinkage rate of every major component was calculated, and the entire machine was tested to -35°C in Lotus' cold chambers. In all, Lotus engineers went through eight different ski configurations and six outrigger designs during the development process.

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Lotus has over-engineered the single-passenger Concept Ice Vehicle to survive at -72 degrees Celsius and cover 3,000 treacherous miles across choppy frozen grounds 10,000 feet above sea level.

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Like Lotus' hardcore Elise sports car, the CIV uses a bonded aluminum structure and glass-fiber composites to keep weight down and maintain structural integrity. Three large skis, each mounted on independent suspension, have been specially designed to traverse Antarctica's jaw-rattling corrugations.

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The Concept Ice Vehicle will lead two six-wheel-drive Science Support Vehicles [SSV] from one icy Antarctic coast to another. An advanced GPS radar system allows CIV to spot dangerous crevasses in the ice ahead.

Electric-powered ice resurfacers are about as common as Jamaican ice skating champs, but they're starting to appear in Toronto and National Hockey League arenas. The iconic Zamboni may soon be a thing of the past.

We get the inside scoop on how the guys with their eyes to the skies keep tabs on St. Nick.

Toyota will quietly unveil an electric concept car alongside the next-gen Prius at the Detroit auto show.

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Is the household gearhead driving (pun intended) you nuts incessantly blathering about the latest supercar? Try putting one of these sweet auto-related gifts under the tree to shut him up for 10 minutes.

Left: If you've already got a $1.5 million Reventon in the driveway, a $350 Lamborghini hoodie on your back and the $60 Lamborghini baseball cap on your head, the only thing you need to complete your collection are these $120 signature Christmas ornaments. Buy them and you'll truly be the man who has everything.

Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

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It won't make your cigars smell any better or taste any finer, but they'll look smokin' in this carbon-fiber–wrapped humidor from Ferrari. At a cool $1,000, just make sure you put something nicer than Swisher Sweets in it.

Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

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Nothing would look more debonair on a hot day than your crisply pressed shirt sleeve hangin' from your XKE with a pair of Leaping Jaguar cufflinks. They'll leap onto your wrist for less than a C-note.

Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

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You want to tear up the twisties in your 911 Cabriolet, but your wife says it's too cold to put the top down? No problem. Hand her this $900 Porsche leather jacket. It hugs curves better than your 911.

Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

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Make an Audi addict out of your kid with this 1936 Auto Union Type C replica. This pint-sized pedal-powered racer has seven speeds and disc brakes just like your S3. And at 10 grand, it will introduce Junior to the high cost of German engineering.

Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

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If you can afford $350,000 for the Bentley Azure T, you've probably already got a pretty nice watch. But if you've got butter-soft leather under your butt and a jeweled gearshift in your hand, you might as well cough up the cost of a used Honda to put the Bentley watch on your wrist.

Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

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Michael Jordan wouldn't play ball in loafers, and Tiger Woods wouldn't tee off in Topsiders, so why are you wearing those stupid Crocs? For less than the cost of an oil change at the dealer, you can dance on the pedals in a pair of Piloti's Prototipo driving shoes. If they're good enough for the guys racing at Le Mans, they're good enough for you.

Photo courtesy Piloti

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The last thing you want to do when signing the deal for your Ducati Desmosedici is break out a Bic. Reach for this finely tuned writing instrument from Tibaldi. Yes, $850 is a lot for a pen, but if you're spending $72,000 for a motorcycle, you probably don't care.

Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

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Now that you've bought your Lamborghini ornaments, Ferrari humidor, Ducati pen and other trinkets, you want something cooler than a shopping bag to carry them in. Check out this $350 Team Lotus leather duffel from Caracalla Bagaglio. It won't make you as fast as Jim Clark, but then he probably carried his driving shoes in a canvas bag.

Photo courtesy Lotus

A Beverly Hills plastic surgeon used fat collected from liposuctions to fuel his SUV? Uh-huh. Sure he did.

Automakers are notorious for showing off amazing concept cars then hemming and hawing about building them. We're sick of being teased and want these cars now.

With oil prices at a four-year low, now is the time to act. We must increase the gas tax to cut consumption, generate revenue to repair roads, finance mass transit and and put us on a path toward true energy independence.

Danish boutique automaker Zenvo's new ST1 redefines "excessive." The turbocharged supercar accelerates superfast (over 60 mph in three seconds) and the company claims it'll go into production next year.

If Steve Jobs designed a car, it might look something like the autonomous shape-shifting runabout that Anthony Jannarelly dreamed up.

General Motors says its finances are so bleak it has no choice, but it says the Volt's development continues as planned.

The president-elect has promised to spend billions repairing the nation's crumbling infrastructure. He must move cautiously, because he'll only get one shot.

Gearheads have been wrapping their hands around Hurst shifters for 50 years, and to celebrate that golden anniversary Hurst Performance Vehicles is building a limited edition hot rod based on the already-awesome Viper SRT10. Details are sketchy but just hearing the words "Hurst" and "Viper" in the same sentence has our blood octane level at an all-time high.

Solar Electrical Vehicles will slap a solar panel on just about anything, and it has a DIY kit for the Toyota Prius that provides up to 20 miles of electric range and boosts fuel economy as much as 29 percent.

Concept BlueZero uses a common architecture that allows Mercedes-Benz to easily offer a gas-electric, battery electric or hydrogen fuel-cell drivetrain in the same car.

Researchers find that countries where people embrace "active transportation" have lower obesity rates than those countries where everyone's driving.

Shot in high-def and bursting with eye-popping energy, director Tad Fettig's environmental show on PBS reinvigorates the sometimes-stodgy documentary.