To just about anybody who visits downtown Tempe, the lush ficus trees are nothing short of iconic.

Can former open-wheel star Juan Pablo Montoya steer his stock car where no foreign NASCAR driver has ever driven before? NASCAR and Chip Ganassi Racing are betting on it.

The foundation for Mesa’s iconic Diving Lady neon sign soon will be in place to help solidify her stance on the springboard once again.

August 1, 2004

The iconic Diving Lady neon sign is poised to resurface at Mesa’s Starlite Motel after an outpouring of support from groups and individuals who miss seeing the 50-year-old landmark.

The iconic Diving Lady neon sign is poised to resurface at Mesa’s Starlite Motel after an outpouring of support from groups and individuals who miss seeing the 50-year-old landmark.

Since Tempe’s founding, its iconic downtown landmark has been an industrial building that milled grain into flour. Its downtown scene for at least a generation relied largely on college students, bar food and beer. And the neighborhoods around Mill Avenue mostly vanished.

Seeing a 62-year-old man’s face pop up in a Victoria’s Secret TV commercial would be disconcerting enough — hardly an inducement for women to run out and buy an "Angels" bra.

For aftermarket-accessories aficionados, the showroom at Unique Autosports is worth the trek to Long Island for the shiny wheel collection alone. But the walls are also filled with photos of Unique Autosports owner Will Castro posing with his famous friends and clients. It’s an open-book history of the everyday business that goes down here. The real Castro is much like Castro the reality-TV personality on Unique Whips, broadcast on Speed TV. He’s the quintessential native New Yorker: boisterous; matter-of-fact; and endearingly charming.

A school holiday, free admission for young tire-kickers and dirt-cheap entry fees for their parents should attract a crowd today to the usually posh and pricey Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Auction.

Barrett-Jackson shattered an auction record Saturday when auto industry icon Carroll Shelby’s personal vehicle, the 1966 Shelby Cobra 427 “Super Snake,” sold for $5.5 million.

Celebrity status came early in life for Kenny Wayne Shepherd. The Shreveport, La., native and precociously gifted guitar player signed his first record deal while still in high school. By his late teens, Shepherd’s scorching bluesrock style made him a six-string superstar with millions of records sold to date. As Shepherd’s career accelerated, he was able to use that success to satisfy the car craving he had since, well, forever.

NEW YORK - Dean Avery recalls being awestruck when his mother’s date picked her up in a 1965 blue fastback Mustang. Avery, 11 or 12 at the time, thought the car and its sloping back window were cool.

TEL AVIV, Israel - A bomb exploded in a car carrying one of Israel's top mafia kingpins on Monday, killing him and threatening to unleash an all-out war in Israel's increasingly violent underworld.

ROME - The car being used in the latest James Bond film plunged into a lake in northern Italy while being driven to the set.

SAN JOSE, Calif. - In the latest boost to its dominance in portable music players, Apple Computer Inc. is teaming with General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Mazda Motor Corp. to integrate the iPod into car audio systems.

An Ahwatukee Foothills man scored the original 19-foot-long black, bubble-topped car used in the 1960s “Batman” TV show for $4.2 million Saturday night at the Barrett-Jackson car auction at WestWorld in Scottsdale.

The DeLorean parked in front of Classic Automotive in Queen Creek can’t really travel through time. But it does turn necks to rubber.

Visit Berge Ford at US60 and Mesa Drive for a look at the American icon, the Shelby GT Mustang, or have your Ford truck "lifted" and experience the Berge Ford difference. And coming soon is the state-of-the-art SanTan Motorplex near the San Tan Freeway and Val Vista in Gilbert.

Chapman Dodge of Scottsdale will soon carry the 2008 Dodge Challenger. This very popular muscle car is making a comeback after over 30 yrs being out of production. Only produced by Chrysler from 1970 to 1974 this muscle car quickly became one of the most popular cars on the race car circuit and by muscle car fans everywhere. With such a rich heritage to live up to, in creating the new Dodge Challenger for 2008, Chrysler design engineers knew they had to get this vehicle design just right.

Before interstate freeways and TripAdvisor.com, Mesa's Main Street glistened with neon to lure weary travelers to motels.