Sports Cars
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For those saving their lunch money to buy an SLS AMG coupe or convertible, we’ve got some bad news for you: both are now out of production, gone from U.S. dealer showrooms (carry-over inventory excepted). In their place, Mercedes-Benz is shipping the new SLS AMG GT, which is proof positive of the old adage that too much is never enough. If the former version’s 562 horsepower (570 PS) wasn’t impressive enough (and trust is, it was), the SLS AMG GT now comes to market with 583 horsepower (591 PS), though torque remains at 479 pound-feet. The GT comes with stickier Dunlop...
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2014 Porsche Cayman Live Photos And Video: 2012 L.A. Auto ShowIf you've read our first drive report on the 2013 Boxster, you know just how much we love it--and how much you should too, if you're into fast, fun, good-looking and feature-packed cars, at any rate. Now, the hardtop Cayman joins its drop-top sibling, bringing with it the same upgrades and...
Nelson Ireson -
MINI Prices The Paceman And The John Cooper Works GPIf you’ve been waiting to get your hands on a MINI Cooper Paceman, the coupe variant of its Countryman crossover, here’s what you need to know: the Paceman will go on sale on March 16, 2013, priced from $23,900, including the required $700 destination charge. That money buys you the...
Kurt Ernst -
Jaguar's F-Type Stars With Damian Lewis In 'Desire': VideoAutomakers have gone a bit over-the-top in recent years, using stylistic videos to pitch their wares. While BMW’s The Driver series was a hit with fans and critics alike, Aston Martin’s promo for the Rapide, called True Power, was just plain bizarre and off the mark. To promote its new...
Kurt Ernst -
2013 Fiat 500 Abarth Cabrio Preview: 2012 Los Angeles Auto ShowLove the Fiat 500 Abarth but really want to get an open-air driving experience? Well then, Fiat has just the thing for you as it's revealing the 2013 500c Abarth, where the c stands for cabriolet. Basically, take the sliding soft-top from the 500c, put it on a 500 Abarth, and you have the right...
Joel Feder -
2014 Nissan GT-R Preview: 2012 Los Angeles Auto ShowFew other automakers spend as much time, money and effort in honing their range-topping sports cars as Nissan devotes to the GT-R. Proof of that was seen in May of 2012, when the automaker entered a near-stock GT-R in the Nürburgring 24 Hour race, finishing first in class and 30th overall. As...
Kurt Ernst -
BMW is working on a new sedan based on its latest 1-Series range that will be aimed at customers in sedan-loving markets such as the U.S. and China. It will compete against the upcoming 2014 Audi A3 Sedan and 2014 Mercedes-Benz CLA Class, though won’t be available until the 2015 calendar year at the earliest. And, with its rivals destined to spawn their own performance variants, an S3 Sedan for Audi and a CLA45 AMG for Mercedes, BMW’s 1-Series sedan is likely to feature an M-tuned model. Instead of creating a dedicated M model, however, the new high-performance 1-Series sedan will...
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Costco's 'Ultimate Garage Package' Simplifies Holiday ShoppingAre you struggling to come up with holiday gift ideas for the gear head in your life? We’ll make things simple: head on over to the Costco website and order up item number 675375, the warehouse store’s “Ultimate Garage Package.” Since there’s both good news and bad...
Kurt Ernst -
Nissan GT-R Chief Engineer Hasn't Retired, Plans Meet With U.S. OwnersKazutoshi Mizuno is often considered to be the father of Nissan’s range-topping sports car, the GT-R. Like all Nissan employees, it was assumed that Mizuno would retire following his 60th birthday, in accordance with company policy. Mizuno turned 60 this year, leading many to believe that...
Kurt Ernst -
Audi Working On Lightweight Version Of Next-Gen TTAudi is believed to be working on a lightweight version of its next-generation TT sports car built along the lines of the Porsche 911 GT3 and aimed at track enthusiasts. Designers are targeting a 2,200-pound curb weight for the car, which would make it one of the lightest sports cars on the market...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
BMW Turns The M6 Into A Printing Press: VideoIn it’s most elemental form, a rotary printing press consists of a cylinder that’s coated with ink, rolling across a sheet of paper. Though neither economical nor practical, it’s entirely possible to turn a car into a printing press, once you engineer a solution to spray the...
Kurt Ernst -
Nissan Announces Details For One-Off ‘Bolt Gold’ GT-R AuctionEarly last month we told you that Nissan, together with its new brand ambassador, world’s fastest man Usain Bolt, would be auctioning a special ‘Bolt Gold' GT-R sports car to help raise funds for charity. Nissan has today revealed that the particular car will be a custom gold-painted...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
In 1968, American Motors introduced a short-wheelbase, two-seat sports car called the AMX that many saw as a shot across the bow of the Chevrolet Corvette. Despite serving up reasonable performance (especially when equipped with the 390 cubic-inch V-8, rated at 325 horsepower) at bargain-basement prices, the AMX coupe never took off with buyers. In 1971, the AMX (which stood for American Motors eXperimental) was discontinued as a production model, but introduced as a trim and performance package on the four-seat AMC Javelin. Since not many were delivered new, AMX coupes have seriously gained...
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New Porsche Cayman Spotted Ahead Of Los Angeles DebutPorsche has promised the introduction of a new compact sports car at the 2012 Los Angeles Auto Show later this month, and that car will almost certainly be the updated 2013 Porsche Cayman. We’ve published plenty of spy shots of the car in development, but hadn’t seen any images of an...
Kurt Ernst -
Chevy Starts New Trailer Series For 2014 Corvette: VideoOne of the most anticipated cars of the coming year, the 2014 Chevrolet Corvette, or "C7" as it's known to fans, is set to be revealed for the first time on January 13 before making an appearance at the Detroit Auto Show the very next day. In the lead up to its arrival, Chevrolet is dropping bits...
Nelson Ireson -
Watch KTM’s X-Bow RR Lap The ‘Ring In 7:25German racing driver Christophe Haase has taken a KTM X-Bow RR around the legendary Nürburgring Nordschleife in a brisk 7:25.72, and while the car he was piloting is in fact a racing version of the KTM X-Bow, his achievement is still very impressive as you’ll see in this video. It shows...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
2014 Corvette To Get Eight-Speed Aisin Automatic: ReportGeneral Motors is hard at work developing eight-speed transmissions for both transverse (front-wheel-drive or all-wheel-drive) and longitudinal (rear-wheel-drive or all-wheel-drive) applications, which will ensure the brand’s competitiveness with others in terms of both performance and fuel...
Kurt Ernst -
Porsche To Throttle Back On Production In ZuffenhausenPorsche has spent the past few years ramping up its production to meet demand. In Leipzig, Germany, its plant is running three shifts to meet global demand for the Cayenne SUV, while an expansion is underway to add another line for the upcoming Macan crossover. Things had been equally busy in...
Kurt Ernst -
To outsiders, the life of an automotive journalist is second only to the life of fictional spy James Bond. After all, we get to travel to exotic locations, drive the latest, fastest cars and eat meals we couldn’t possibly pay for on our own dime. Sadly, the reality of the job is countless hours spent in strange (or familiar) airports, or twelve-hour days chained to a desk, pecking at a keyboard like a pigeon in a Skinner Box, hoping for positive reinforcement and a pellet of food. The pay isn’t what it used to be either, so most of us who make a living writing about cars do so...
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Magnus Walker Brings His 911T To Jay Leno's Garage: VideoMagnus Walker, star of the documentary Urban Outlaw, has an extreme passion for early Porsche 911s. While he owns numerous examples, one of his favorites is a 1971 911T built as a “streetable race car.” Walker’s 911T is built much like any club racer, with a nod towards increasing...
Kurt Ernst -
Caterham Supersport R Adds More Power To Its LightnessCaterham's Lotus Seven-styled cars are famous for their uncompromising continuation of the original's legacy, while mixing in some of the best of modern powertrain and other technology. Today, the company's enthusiast cred grows a stronger still, with the introduction of the Supersport R. A more...
Nelson Ireson -
Scion FR-S, Subaru BRZ Could Get KERS Hybrid: Tetsuya TadaTurbocharged, supercharged, STI--we've seen and heard it all, and even done some of the speculation ourselves. But the chief engineer of the Scion FR-S, Subaru BRZ, and Toyota GT-86, Tetsuya Tada thinks that's the wrong direction. Instead, he's talking about a KERS-type hybrid like that seen on the...
Nelson Ireson -
Porsche Confirms New Compact Sports Car For L.A. Auto ShowThe U.S. remains Porsche’s single biggest market, and within the U.S. the state of California has one of the biggest concentrations of its iconic sports cars and SUVs, so it should come as little surprise then that the German automaker typically makes a big deal of the Los Angeles Auto Show...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Nissan GT-R Chief Engineer Talks About What's New For 2014The Nordschleife has claimed its fair share of cars in races, in open tourist days, and in vehicle development. Nissan has set about turning the tables, claiming the Green Hell for the GT-R. For the 2014 model, the emphasis on Nürburgring was even greater, with engineers working to perfect its...
Nelson Ireson