Featured (was)
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After more than a decade of heart-crushing defeats, Toyota finally won the historic 24 Hours of Le Mans on Sunday, claiming both the overall win and the LMP1 class. Piloting the number No. 8 Toyota TS050 Hybrid were Sébastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima, and Fernando Alonso, with Nakajima behind the wheel at the end of the race. The No. 8 car started the race on Saturday in the pole position, and ran 1-2 with its No. 7 Toyota Gazoo Racing teammate throughout the race. Critics have called this year's race boring to watch, and said Toyota's win rings hollow as its main rivals in the LMP1...
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Why is Toyota developing a new hypercar?On Friday Toyota announced it would build a hypercar and that development has already begun. On Sunday, the Japanese automaker finally won the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Don't for a second think these two developments aren't related. When Toyota showed the Gazoo Racing Super Sport concept at the Tokyo...
Joel Feder -
VW details the engineering behind charging ID R Pikes Peak racerVolkswagen will attempt to set a new record at the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb for the electric-car class with the ID R electric racer on June 24. But even before the car hits the course, an incredible amount of planning has gone into ensuring the ID R is a has every chance to compete...
Sean Szymkowski -
2018 Porsche 911 GT3 first drive review: Country roads and chicken liversThere’s one place where you can get great fried chicken livers on a Sunday morning in Georgia, before church is out. It’s a low-ceiling kind of place, tacked on to a gas station, the hallmark of fine low-priced dining across the south. Over the first glorious spring weekend this year, I...
Martin Padgett -
2019 BMW 8-series coupe: return of the bodacious 'BahnstormerAfter 20 years, the BMW 8-Series is officially making its return. BMW showed the 2019 M850i xDrive luxury coupe on the sidelines of the 24 Hours of LeMans Friday where its sibling, the BMW M8 GTE race car, will compete in the FIA World Endurance Championship. The 8-Series moniker denotes that the...
Kirk Bell -
2019 Volvo V60 first drive review: A matter of inchesAs I sit in the 2019 Volvo V60’s supremely comfortable seats and drive through a flash flood in Tarragona, Spain outside of Barcelona, I ponder just how much three inches really matters. You see, the V60 is a wagon—the kind of car that Americans don’t like to buy—but it...
Kirk Bell -
Formula 1 race cars are amazing feats of motorsport engineering. Equally as amazing, however, are the LMP1 prototype racers that run in the various endurance events around the globe, including the 24 Hours of LeMans. Each type of cars represents the pinnacle of what's currently possible with a race car. Each is capable of tremendous speed and the production of brutal G forces. How do they stack up with regard to braking power, though? Brembo sat down with its slide rules and calculators to figure out the differences, and the results are quite interesting. To start, we should examine the...
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Aston Martin Vantage GT3 and GT4 customer race cars revealedAston Martin has sprung a surprise on those attending the 2018 24 Hours of Le Mans this weekend. On Thursday, the British performance and luxury brand revealed the 2019 Vantage GT4 and GT3 customer race cars. The GT3 will ultimately replace the highly successful V-12 Vantage GT3 racer, which most...
Sean Szymkowski -
2019 Audi S7 spy shots and videoAudi’s A7 didn’t start the modern coupe-like sedan trend, but with its muscular proportions, beautiful surfacing and Kammback rear it managed to make us almost forget the segment’s progenitor, the Mercedes-Benz CLS. The handsome four-door has been redesigned for the 2019 model...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
2019 Volvo S60 first with Polestar Engineered performance upgradeThe redesigned 2019 Volvo S60 due to be revealed on June 20 will be the first of the Swedish automaker's cars to receive the new Polestar Engineered treatment. Recall, Polestar is now a standalone brand so will no longer be building dedicated performance offerings for Volvo like the current S60 and...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
2019 Aston Martin Rapide AMR revealedAston Martin has a new addition to its growing AMR family: the Rapide AMR. The car was shown in concept form during the launch of Aston Martin's AMR sub-brand at the 2017 Geneva auto show, but now we have our first look at the production version due in showrooms by the end of the year. Pricing for...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
2019 Ford Mustang Shelby GT350 thunders in with upgraded aero, tires, brakesThe Ford Mustang Shelby GT350 is a special thing, with it's flat-crank 5.2-liter V-8 engine wringing out to 8,250 rpm. For 2019, it gets a host of improvements, Ford announced on Monday, ranging from performance to daily niceties. The most important updates for GT350 fans? The performance...
Joel Feder -
BMW has just unveiled a redesigned X5, and one of its main rivals, the Mercedes-Benz GLE, will soon be redesigned as well. We now have fresh spy shots and video of prototypes for the new generation of the Mercedes mid-size luxury SUV. The current GLE was introduced for the 2016 model year but is really just an update of the M-Class launched in 2012. We expect the redesigned model on sale in late 2018 or early next year. It should arrive as a 2019 model. 2019 Mercedes-Benz GLE spy video from Motor Authority on Vimeo. We know this is a GLE because of its size and proportions but also because...
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Porsche 911 Speedster Concept honors brand's 70-year anniversaryOn June 8, 1948, the first Porsche 356 Roadster received its operating permit. Porsche celebrated that milestone Friday with a "70 years of Porsche Sports Cars" event in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen, Germany. And what better way to link to the past than to reveal a concept car that pays homage to that...
Kirk Bell -
Porsche Taycan chosen as name for production Mission EPorsche continues to prepare its assault on Tesla, and on Friday the German automaker announced the production version of the Mission E concept will be called the Porsche Taycan (pronounced "tie-con"). Likely to be unveiled later in 2018—possibly at the 2018 Los Angeles auto show—the...
Joel Feder -
Porsche creates replica of the first 356 to mark 70th anniversaryPorsche has had a long and complicated history, and the first true Porsche is quite a hard thing to pin down—for some, it's the earliest cars designed by Ferdinand Porsche in the early 20th century. For others, it might be the striking pre-war Type 64 race car, and for others...
Jeff Glucker -
Meet the Kahn Design Vengeance inspired by the HulkHaving felt that the second-generation Aston Martin Vanquish lacked the aggression of its predecessor, Afzal Kahn, founder of British coachbuilder Kahn Design, was inspired to come up with its own successor to the original Aston Martin super GT. The result was the imposing WB12 Vengeance unveiled...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Volvo gives glimpse into its future operationsVolvo has spent a good part of the past decade transforming itself into a luxury car brand on par with the German brands, a goal the automaker has well and truly achieved judging by its latest products. The next phase for Volvo will be an even more radical transformation. As outlined by CEO...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Hyundai is working on a new full-size SUV and the Grandmaster concept unveiled Thursday at the 2018 Busan auto show gives us a good idea of what's to come. Code-named HDC-2, the big and bold SUV concept presents Hyundai's newest design language in production-bound form. The design language, expressed by the words “sensuous” and “sportiness,” was first shown on the Le Fil Rouge concept unveiled in March at the 2018 Geneva auto show. It combines proportion, architecture, styling and technology to achieve a harmonized result. Hyundai's aim is to enhance the emotional...
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2020 Aston Martin DBS Superleggera spy shots and videoAston Martin has just unveiled its redesigned Vantage, and the next model in the automaker’s ambitious Second Century plan is a replacement for the Vanquish, prototypes for which are shown here. However, the car won't be called a Vanquish as earlier thought. Instead, it will be called a DBS...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
2019 BMW X5 previewCrossover SUVs are all the rage right now, and one of the key nameplates that helped ignite the segment, the BMW X5, has spawned a new generation. It represents the fourth iteration of the popular luxury mid-size SUV, and it's the biggest yet. The length is 194.3 inches (up 1.1 inches), the width...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Audi Q8 revealed, presages new look for Audi SUVsAudi on Tuesday revealed the new Q8. The reveal took place in Shenzhen at an event celebrating 30 years since Audi started its hugely successful strategy of producing cars in China, originally with the 100 sedan. The Q8 is the new flagship SUV of the Audi brand and is set to compete with coupe-like...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Dodge Viper to return? Marchionne leaves the door openIn August 2017 the last Dodge Viper slithered off the assembly line, and for a second time, it was said to be dead forever. In recent weeks, however, reports have popped up stating that the Viper would return in 2021, minus the iconic V-10 engine under its hood. Last Friday at an investor...
Joel Feder -
Fiat Chrysler's 5-year plan: What happened last time, what didn't, and what's coming?On Friday, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles laid out an ambitious product roadmap for the next five years. Product details were sometimes hazy but the message was clear: FCA's future lies in trucks, crossover SUVs, performance vehicles, and electrification, with self-driving tech sprinkled in for good...
Joel Feder