McLaren’s 593-hp MP4-12C supercar isn’t exactly in dire need of more power, but Hennessey Performance Engineering may have us rethinking such narrow-minded notions. HPE has announced plans to build its own version of the 12C, called the HPE800 Twin Turbo—that’s 800 as in, 800 hp. (HPE didn’t provide an exact figure but says the final product [...]
Remember the old joke about how to lose 10 ugly pounds? Right, cut off your head. Here’s an automotive sequel. Although this car didn’t lose weight when its football-helmet Coupe top was lopped off—it’s actually about 90 pounds heavier than its hard-shelled sibling—it definitely lost a lot of ugly. Keep Reading: 2012 Mini Cooper S [...]
: skip to main skip to sidebar Tuesday , January 31, 2012 EMCO NOEL DOWLER SET TO RETURN IN 2012 January 31, 2012. Sherwood Park , Alberta’s Noel Dowler , driver of the 5 EMCO Dodge and EMCO Corporation have reached a multiyear partnership agreement that will see Dowler competing in the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series in 2012 and . beyond Following a successful rookie season in 2011 Dowler looks forward to taking the next step in his career this coming season as he competes in the entire NCATS season in a DJK Racing prepared . car With the progress the 5 EMCO Dodge team and Noel Dowler made during their rookie season there is plenty of reason to be excited about the . future I‘m really pleased to have this partnership with EMCO” said . Dowler We came together last year and planned on competing
Chrysler’s Mopar parts division turns 75 years old this year. To celebrate, the company has begun gifting itself customized products, including the Mopar-ized Chrysler 200 Super S and Dodge Charger Redline that appeared at the Detroit auto show. Among the latest birthday presents is this limited-edition Chrysler 300, which has been built up mainly from [...]
While its primary business is offering replacement parts and fluids for Chrysler products, Mopar is of course best known among enthusiasts for peddling performance add-ons for brands such as Plymouth, Dodge, Jeep—and now, Fiat. This Mopar-fettled Fiat 500 Stinger, which showcases parts and mods available in the brand’s catalog, debuts at next week’s Chicago auto [...]
To keep the spotlight shining on the all-new 2013 Dodge Dart, Chrysler has unveiled the Mopar-massaged 2013 Dart GTS 210 Tribute. The car pays homage to the performance-oriented Dart GTS of the 1960s, according to Chrysler, and incorporates many of the 150 Dart accessories that Mopar will offer once the Dart goes on sale later [...]
The Compass has always been one odd duck of a Jeep. A face lift for 2011 brought Grand Cherokee–esque styling and a “Trail Rated” version, but few choose to take the Compass or its Patriot sibling far astray of blacktop. This beefier Mopar Compass True North concept aims to change that. It previews an upcoming Mopar [...]
Author: Tony Lewin Paperback: 540 pages Publisher: Merrell Publishers Ltd (14 Oct 2011) Price: £24.95 (RRP) Recommended? Yes The A-Z Of 21st Century Cars is being sold as “The most comprehensive guide available to the international automobile industry of the first decade of the twenty-first century“. Whilst this is quite a specific remit, the fact [...]
With fewer than 8000 miles to go before the conclusion of its stay, our Mazda 2 continues to serve primarily as a spunky ’round-town runabout. The car has racked up nearly 10,000 miles since September, most of which were turned within the borders of our home state; a sprint to Virginia accounted for the rest. [...]
The EPA just released fuel-economy ratings for the recently debuted 2012 BMW 3-series, and the numbers are very impressive—and not just for the luxury sports-sedan segment. The 328i, which is powered by a turbocharged 240-hp four-cylinder engine, is rated at 24 mpg city and 36 highway when equipped with the optional eight-speed automatic transmission. The [...]
Tesla has revealed a teaser shot of the electric Model X crossover in an email invitation to the car’s February 9 debut; the image shows only a darkened front three-quarter view of the high-riding EV. The visible portions of the grille and hood imply that its basic look won’t differ greatly from that of its [...]
It’s Monday, and that means it’s time to present this week’s shifter. You’ll have until mid-day Wednesday to identify the make and model of the vehicle from whence this shifter came. The first person to respond correctly in the Backfires section below will win a Save the Manuals button and sticker*. Good luck! (* Offer [...]
Welcome to the first installment of the 24 Hours of LeMons Good/Bad Idea of the Week series, where we’ll share good racing ideas that go terribly wrong, bad racing ideas that go unaccountably right, and the general maelstrom of fabrication genius/madness that one encounters at every 24 Hours of LeMons race. We’ll start off with [...]
It’s the recently redesigned Dodge Charger with the Pentastar V-6. We’ve already tested a 2011 Charger with the V-6, though. That one was even rear-wheel drive, too, just like this example. So why are we testing this one now? The first car weighed just three pounds less, and it was orange with a black and [...]
Honda has priced the new four-cylinder version of the humpbacked Accord-based Crosstour—note that it’s no longer called the Accord Crosstour—from $28,465. That figure applies to the entry EX model; the EX-L adds leather and costs $31,515, while the top-shelf EX-L with navigation rings in at $33,615. Pricing for the V-6 Crosstour starts at $31,150 for [...]
The Chrysler product-planning department may want to avoid running for public office, lest they be labeled flip-floppers: After a confirmation followed by a cancellation, a Honda Civic–sized Chrysler is back in the company’s plans. Sergio Marchionne, the CEO of Fiat and Chrysler, told the Detroit Free Press this week that such a car is happening, [...]
Acura is less than two weeks away from revealing its production-ready ILX compact sedan at the Chicago auto show, but our spy shooters spotted a test vehicle and managed to take a clear picture of the car’s dash. The ILX concept, which appeared in January in Detroit, was an exterior buck with no interior. Surprise, [...]
At the 2012 Chicago auto show, Ram trucks will introduce a new top trim level, the 2012 Ram Laramie Limited. Think of it as a city-slickened counterpart to Ram’s luxurious, Southwest-themed Laramie Longhorn; the Limited packs a similar amount of goodies, but swaps the country kitsch for a sleeker, more contemporary flavor inside and out. Specific [...]
At some point during a two-day drive of the all-new Mercedes-Benz ML63 AMG, something interesting happened. Your author learned to stop worrying and love the bomb. Keep Reading: 2012 Mercedes-Benz ML63 AMG – First Drive Review
As they do with celebutante Kim Kardashian, most people fail to understand the BMW X6. But while Kim is always burnishing her image, the X6 is just now receiving its first major revision, one that includes a mild face lift and some enhancements under the skin. (Each also has a giant—er, skip that one.) The X6′s [...]
If the offerings of BMW’s M Performance line can be likened to cupcakes, the initial U.S.-market model is a cupcake without frosting. (Note that M Performance does not mean M: These will be hotter than typical Bimmers, but not as reworked or expensive as full-bore M cars.) The frosting in this analogy that’s being reserved [...]: skip to main skip to sidebar Wednesday , January 25, 2012 Preparation Begins For 2012 Season for Dillon Sallows and DKD Racing Team to Participate in Local Car Show in March By Craig Revelle Finish Line Web Design As the 2012 racing season quickly approaches , preparation is well underway in the DKD Racing shop , as they get ready for an exciting new year . After a breakout year in 2011 that produced his first feature win , Dillon Sallows is anxious to get back on the track and build on their success from last . year Before the racing season gets underway in April , several off-track events are on the horizon as the annual Frontenac Mall Car Show in Kingston , Ontario is set for March 22 nd to March 24 th Cars will enter the mall on March 21 st and will last throughout the weekend . The
Prior to his current job as head of Mini, Kay Segler ran BMW’s M division. It seems almost obvious, then, when he tells us that he wants JCW to serve the same purpose for Mini that M does for BMW. Once the JCW Countryman arrives, Mini will offer John Cooper Works packages for all of [...]
Introduced as 2007 models, the current Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra full-size pickup twins are due for a revamp. Our spy photographers (dressed like snow leopards, we hope) have nabbed several shots of both extended- and crew-cab versions during cold-weather testing. While it’s difficult to make out much in the way of design aside from [...]
This blacked-out, unnamed (more on that later) Grand Cherokee concept isn’t a radical show car. Instead, it previews a potential future special-edition model. The SUV is being shown at the Houston auto show today, where Jeep says it will study the public reaction to the “concept” to determine whether to put it on sale. There may [...]
The cuckoo clock in Zuffenhausen struck high noon recently and out popped a new 911, an event so freighted with anticipation by our little community that we lay in extra supplies of ink and binding glue for its arrival. Keep Reading: 2012 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 vs. 2013 Nissan GT-R vs. 2012 Porsche 911 Carrera S [...]
MG has announced today that they will run an entry in the BTCC in 2012. Two MG6 GT cars will run in the all-new MG KX Momentum Racing team piloted by double BTCC champion Jason Plato and BTCC rising star Andy Neate. The cars will be prepared by Triple Eight Race Engineering, one of the [...]
The Ford site’s page for the new 2013 Escape now displays a configurator with pricing (sort of) for the crossover’s four trim levels, as well as feature and engine availability in each trim. We say “sort of” because the prices listed online are actually variable by up to $1000 for the same model. As the [...]
Rummaging through the parts bin to build several cars out of the same basic bits is nothing new and, in rare cases,can even result in cars with distinct personalities. Porsche’s Boxster, Cayman, and 911 don’t suffer from sharing a multitude of body, chassis, and powertrain components. Now Porsche’s transmission engineers have moved parts-sharing down to [...]
One of the hits of the 2012 Detroit auto show was the 2013 Ford Fusion, and the NASCAR Sprint Cup version of the Ford is the hit so far at this week’s NASCAR media tour at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The automaker debuted the race car to the press this afternoon, and it’s impressive, looking far [...]
Now that the third-generation Porsche Boxster has been announced, predicting its closed-roof variation is almost a no-brainer. This, dear readers, is what we believe the new Cayman should look like. You will remember that this mid-engine coupe was introduced as a derivative of the second-gen Boxster—and that Porsche surprised the industry with the chutzpah to [...]
The redesigned 2012 Ford Focus is pretty popular here in the C/D office—we awarded it a 2012 10Best honor—and the same goes for manual transmissions. We like what happens when you put the two together, especially since it allows buyers to avoid the less-than-stellar dual-clutch automatic that’s offered in the Focus. The only problem with [...]
Question: When is a Nissan GT-R not a Nissan GT-R? Answer: When it’s a fat-fendered piece of lunacy with the face of a Nissan Juke. In other words, when it’s a Nissan Juke-R. Keep Reading: Nissan Juke-R – First Drive Review
Volvo has added a new, lineup-splitting T5 AWD version of its S60 sedan, one of the brand’s few successful U.S. offerings. John Maloney, Volvo’s new U.S. president, revealed the information during an interview at the Detroit auto show. The T5 AWD announcement is hardly exciting stuff, but in light of recent subtractions from its U.S. [...]
On Monday we presented this week’s shifter and asked you to identify the make and model of the vehicle from whence it came. This week’s challenge apparently wasn’t difficult enough—the first commenter to correctly identify it as a 1967 Mazda Cosmo Sport was also the first to post a guess. SBro will receive a Save [...]
A Mazda with a diesel engine finally will arrive in the U.S. in early 2013, spokesman Jeremy Barnes tells us. “It’ll be here between 15 and 18 months behind the launch of the Skyactiv-G gasoline engine in the Mazda 3.” That car hit the market in October of last year, so the math says to [...]
Car and Driver writers have been rubbing Bar’s-Leaks-smeared elbows with the miscreants who put on the 24 Hours of LeMons since the very first race, and so it follows— the way the Daewoo Maepsy followed the Holden Gemini—that we’d make an inexplicable sponsorship arrangement out of this common interest in a strangely competitive race series [...]
Volkswagen dropped a non-surprise today in the form of the five-door variant of its Up! city car. We’ve pretty thoroughly covered the three-door Up! since its debut at last year’s Frankfurt auto show, including a first-drive report, and found it to offer handsome styling, decent road manners, and excellent fuel economy. This five-door version was [...]
It Really Was a Toyotathon Sales of the Toyota Camry in 2011: 308,510 Sales of all Mazdas in 2011: 250,426 Sales of all BMWs in 2011: 247,907 Date of Tōhoku earthquake: March 11, 2011 Date flooding started in Thailand: July 31, 2011 Minimum number of months Toyota operated below 100% production capacity in North America: [...]
Who could have predicted such an outcome? NHTSA has closed its nearly two-month investigation into the fiery deaths of some crash-tested Chevy Volts, concluding that “no discernible defect trend exists and that the vehicle modifications recently developed by General Motors reduce the potential for battery intrusion resulting from side impacts.” Some more choice quotes from [...]
The GT-R, Nissan’s twin-turbocharged hellion, has received upgrades each and every model year since it went on sale for 2009—and 2013 will be no different. Its price has been upgraded along with it: The 2013 GT-R will start at $97,820 for the Premium “base” model or $107,320 for the uplevel Black Edition. Nearly (or more [...]
While in Japan for the 2011 Tokyo Motor Show, we visited Honda’s Twin Ring Motegi racing facility to see some of the company’s future products. Among them was a plug-in hybrid system, a prototype of which was installed in a current-generation Accord. While the car we drove is just a development mule, we can confidently [...]
Considering that French automaker Peugeot hasn’t sold cars in the U.S. for 20 years—and has no immediate plans to return—you’d think the company’s decision to end its participation in big-time endurance sports-car racing, effective immediately, wouldn’t have much impact on the American racing scene. Au contraire: The American Le Mans Series was counting on Peugeot’s [...]
Now that the 2013 Ford Fusion‘s sheetmetal has been exposed, one of our illustrators has grafted cargo space onto the back to create a wagon. And a good-looking one at that. Since the new Fusion will be sold in Europe as the Mondeo, this rendering is more relevant to the continent. But because we’ll never [...]
In a resumption of a dormant series, here’s the return of the ‘Something For The Weekend’ feature – the first for 2012. This car is the ‘ultimate Corvette’ – the ZR1. In time honoured tradition, the ZR1 is a reasonably light supercar with a big block (supercharged) V8 engine producing 638 horsepower! Top speed listed [...]
BMW may be late to the “four-door coupe” party, but the company is devoting considerable effort to catching up with Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, and Audi. The 6-series Gran Coupe is a slightly different take on the idea: While the Audi A7 and the Mercedes CLS stand on known platforms but have unique bodies and the Panamera [...]
This video from Red Bull of the Dakar Rally 2012 is just amazing. There’s fantastic scenery, fast driving and some spectacular crashes. Well worth a watch. Looks like a tough race doesn't it? Taking 14 days to complete more than 8000 kilometres, the route from Argentina, through Chile and to Peru is attempted in a [...]: skip to main skip to sidebar Wednesday , January 18, 2012 Excel Tower Service Racing Announces Charlie Sandercock as Driver for Upcoming World of Outlaw Late Model Events in the Sunshine State By Craig Revelle Finish Line Web Design The 2012 racing season is coming up quickly for Greg Belyea and his Excel Tower Service Racing team . After making the decision to start the season in February and join the World of Outlaws Late Models for their events in Florida , the team has now announced that fellow competitor and friend Charlie Sandercock will take the reigns on the familiar Excel Tower Service car for a stretch of nine races in 10 . nights The team will depart for the sunshine state in mid-February and the first stop will be at Bubba’s Raceway Park in Ocala Florida . The track is open: skip to main skip to sidebar Tuesday , January 17, 2012 Ontario Topless Sprints Announce Tentative 2012 Schedule OTS is Full Steam Ahead With Exciting Events Planned By Craig Revelle Finish Line Web Design After a very successful inaugural event at Humberstone Speedway in 2011, the Ontario Topless Sprints are back for a new season on a much larger scale with events scattered throughout the summer at several different racetracks in Ontario , Pennsylvania and Ohio . The tentative schedule has the Ontario Topless Sprints OTS and the Ohio based Buckeye Outlaw Sprint Series B.O.S.S working together during most of the events on the schedule , as well as one OTS standalone event on the schedule . The OTS and B.O.S.S . will also have a co-sanctioned event with the Michigan Traditional Sprints