Evergreen
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American supercar collector Kris Singh isn't coy about his love affair with exotic automobiles. His collection notably includes a Lamborghini Veneno and a Koenigsegg Agera RS. His most recent purchase is a real rarity, however: a Pagani Huayra BC. The car honors the late Benny Caiola, Pagani's first customer, and only 20 of them are being produced for customers around the world. Singh's BC isn't just a regular example because he decided to put his own twist on the supercar. It wears the Macchina Volante suffix, which honors renaissance man Leonardo da Vinci. The historic figure long dreamt of...
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Street-legal, hightailing hut hits 96 mph—with nitrous boostNot all sheds are built for losing tools. Say hello to the world's fastest shed. A man in Britain called Kevin Nicks has a passion for sheds. (Eds note: He may be the only one.) Nicks broke the record for operating the fastest shed in the land, which was astonishingly 88 mph before Nicks' 96-mph...
Jeff Glucker -
Porsche needed the Boxster to save itself, because 911s aren't cheapPorsche is a shining star of Volkswagen Group these days, but times weren't always so prosperous. In fact, Porsche was in crisis mode in the early 1990s as sales of its 911 slipped. In fact, it sold just 3,713 cars in the United States in 1993, according to the automaker. What's a sports car brand...
Sean Szymkowski -
Here's how you build a rally carSo you want to go rally racing? Well you're going to need a car, and it's going to need to be strong. The folks at Team O'Neil Rally School know all about rally-car prep, and instructor (and amazing driver) Wyatt Knox is here to share his knowledge with regards to building up a car for rallying in...
Jeff Glucker -
Watch Bruce McLaren's 1967 M6A hit the track after 50 yearsBruce McLaren never got the chance to see just how amazing his racing team and the motor car company that would arise from it would become. In fact, he never knew his name would be applied to supercars as his company built amazing racing machines at the time of his death during a test session in...
Jeff Glucker -
Watch FCA's Ralph Gilles track his Voodoo Viper ACRRalph Gilles has been a positive fixture in the Fiat Chrysler Automobiles [NYSE: FCAU] world for a number of years now. He's the cheerful head of design who clearly shares the same passion for automobiles that burns strongly in the rest of us. He's also happy to hit the track in his own vehicles...
Jeff Glucker -
It was a common practice of American automakers decades ago. Take a family sedan, swap out the plain-Jane engine, drop in a big V-8, and you have a muscle car. The Chevrolet SS was one of the final examples of such a practice, albeit not a very American one from the start. For those unaware, the Chevrolet SS—a four-door sport sedan that flew so low under the radar during its time on the market that some sales personnel weren't aware of it—actually came from humble Australian beginnings. The VF-series Holden Commodore commuter sedan, the homegrown successor to the equally...
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The history of the Toyota SupraThe Toyota Supra is an iconic Japanese sports car with humble beginnings. Unlike Nissan, which took until 2009 to offer the really cool GT-Rs in the United States, the Supra was always a part of the U.S. market. In this video by Donut Media, we learn the history of the Toyota Supra. The Supra's...
Sean Szymkowski -
Patrick Long piloting a 1968 Porsche 911 T/R at Laguna Seca is vintage racing magicAre you ready for 13 minutes of Patrick Long flogging an old Porsche 911? You should be because it's wonderful and the man knows what he's doing in the car. The particular car in question is a 1968 Porsche 911 T/R and Long is beating on it at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca at the Rolex Monterey...
Jeff Glucker -
This hand-made 1/3-scale V-10 actually runsAs much as we love full-size engines, it's sometimes the smaller scale stuff that sets our hearts aflutter. Working in the smaller scale allows us to get up close and personal with the inner workings of an engine. You can see all of the parts working together to create the magic that is internal...
Jeff Glucker -
It took 350,000 Lego bricks to make this F1 Ferrari race carWe love Lego. You and/or your kids can craft the stuff of dreams in scale from random bricks or from one of the kits following the directions. Sometimes, however, a team comes together to make that scale 1:1 and that's where some really magical stuff snaps to life. Such is the case with this...
Jeff Glucker -
Travis Pastrana thought NASCAR was boring, learned it's intricateTravis Pastrana has been pretty damn good at nearly everything he tries. He's best known for being a pioneer of freestyle motocross and winning motorsports events on two wheels, but he's also quite skilled on four wheels. He has four Rally America championships to his name, the record time for a...
Jeff Glucker -
Rolls-Royce released it's seventh-generation Phantom in 2003. In just five years, the automaker produced nearly 5,000 cars. The one above is most likely the only one you'll ever find that hides a Japanese secret. Some absolutely wonderful mad person in Tokyo has decided to came up with a unique solution to an expensive problem. When the car's original 6.5-liter V-12 engine gave up the ghost (pun intended), our hero fitted it with an engine that should take up about half the space. The owner swapped in a 2JZ inline-6, the engine best known for powering the Toyota Supra, to do the job formerly...
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With production over, take a look back at the Dodge Viper’s highs and lowsFiat Chrysler Automobiles this month built its final Dodge Viper, and despite the ramblings of CEO Sergio Marchionne about a possible successor, it looks like the 2017 model year will be the nameplate’s last. The final car was a red GTS, which FCA plans to keep in its heritage collection...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Could electric cars use manual transmissions?There's concern among many enthusiasts that the manual transmission is on its way out. This coincides with the notion that electric cars are the future and internal combustion engines will continue to fall out of favor as electric car charging infrastructure and technology exits infancy. If there's...
Sean Szymkowski -
What is powder coating?You've heard the term before, but do you really know what powder coating is all about? It's not simply an airgun spraying a powdery substance that magically turns into a bonded surface on your wheels. There's a whole lot of science going on, which means we need to turn to our favorite engineer...
Jeff Glucker -
Jay Leno explores a bit of BMW history with a 1967 BMW 1600BMW vehicles produced between 1962 and 1977 are referred to as the New Class. Well, Neue Klasse if you want to get all German about it. These cars were the ones that helped BMW rise up from the depths of massive financial challenges and usher its vehicles onto a viable global stage. There were...
Jeff Glucker -
Is it OK to skip gears on a manual transmission?For those who daily drive a vehicle equipped with a manual transmission, it's likely a common practice. Rather than rowing through all five or six gears, drivers will skip from third to fifth, fourth to sixth and so on. But is this practice safe to do? Engineering Explained tackled the common...
Sean Szymkowski -
When you want to learn how to drive a rally car, you have two main options to choose from if you're living in the United States. On the West Coast, there's Dirtfish. While on the East Coast you have the Team O'Neil Rally School. The latter's been cranking out a lot of videos lately, and each one provides tremendous insight and information into the world of rallying. In the latest clip, you're going to get a lesson in rally tires and how they differ from your road car tires. Your street car needs to have a set of tires that are relatively quiet, provide a comfortable ride, and last as long as...
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What it's like to drive a concept carWhen an automaker says its concept vehicle is powered by unicorn farts, emits only cotton candy, and can accelerate from 0-60 mph in two shakes of a lamb's tail, don't believe them. What they are actually saying is, "If we ever develop the technology to build this thing, that's what it could do."...
Kirk Bell -
Fan crafts his own Lego Nissan GT-R NismoThe types of media that an artist can use to create brilliance are limitless. You'll find thousands of examples of artwork that aren't crafted using pen and ink, brush and paint, or sculpting clay. One such piece of art is the incredibly detailed Nissan GT-R Nismo Firas Abu-Jaber built using Lego...
Jeff Glucker -
Documentary reveals Mercedes-Benz AMG developed the CLK GTR in just 128 daysNo one at Mercedes-Benz knew it at the time, but the Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR would ultimately go down as one of the 1990's most iconic Grand Touring Championship cars and spawn one of the era's wildest limited-edition supercars. It's easy to assume such a project took months, even years to develop...
Sean Szymkowski -
Jesse from "The Fast and the Furious" lives a quarter mile at a time in a Nissan GT-RA lot has changed since 2001, the year the original "The Fast and the Furious" opened in movie theaters. The DVD players the film's protagonists sought out aren't really hot items anymore and the Nissan GT-R has finally come to America. Jesse, one of the first film's staple characters, finally got...
Sean Szymkowski -
What does a 97-year old think of a Tesla Model S?It would take thousands of words to describe what has changed in the automotive industry over the past 97 years, but this video may do some of the work for us. YouTuber Zev Gitalis recently introduced his 97-year-old grandfather to his Tesla Model S and it proved to be a semi comical and...
Sean Szymkowski