Martin Padgett, Editorial Director
Articles
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It's called a "motorsports gathering," but to the observers sipping crisp local wines and sampling the world of classic cars one continent at a time, The Quail is more than a gathering. For us here...
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Quail 2010: VSR Concept is a Cadillac Hot RodIt's rare to see a new concept car at a megawatt event like The Quail, without an official manufacturer badge on its flanks. But the VSR Concept Sports Rod is no ordinary concept, and its chief designer is no unknown. The VSR is the work of Wayne K. Cherry, who led GM's design department through...
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2012 Ford Mustang 302 BOSS: Live Photo GalleryThe Monterey classics weekend is on, and this morning, we're live from Laguna Seca to show you the first live photos of the 2012 Ford Mustang 302 BOSS Laguna Seca to go with our full preview of the 302 BOSS you've seen earlier today. It's a long name, one associated with a long history of...
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Who's The Boss? The 2012 Ford Mustang Boss, That's WhoThe Boss is back. And no, we're not talking about Bruce Springsteen or Tony Danza. There's a 302 involved, which takes us back to a completely different boss: the original, championship-winning Parnelli Jones 1970 Trans Am car.
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2011 Infiniti G37 Coupe IPL Bows In At Pebble Beach ConcoursInfiniti is heading down the road already strafed by the likes of BMW's M division, Mercedes-Benz' AMG sub-brand, and Audi's S and RS offspring, with a new performance badge dubbed IPL. The Infiniti Performance Line bows today in Pebble Beach, California, where the luxury brand is gathering with...
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2010 Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance: Facts and FiguresIt's almost time for the most prestigious classic-car event in America. This weekend, High Gear Media will be covering the 2010 Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance from stem to stern--with some driving time with a pair of exotics, a side trip through The Quail's impromptu collection of singular...
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When MINI set out on the road to building a bigger, taller crossover, the car world's ears perked up--and if they could have, they'd have formed question marks. A big MINI? Isn't that like jumbo...
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2011 MINI Countryman Opens Pandora Box With ConnectedThe 2011 MINI Cooper Countryman is on its way to dealers later this year. When it arrives, it'll be one of the first MINI products to bring the world of Internet radio and Twitter into the car via a new setup dubbed MINI Connected. Earlier this year, at the 2010 Geneva Motor Show, MINI laid out the...
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New Photos: 2011 MINI Cooper CountrymanThe 2011 MINI Cooper Countryman is on its way to America--and this week, it's on its way across America with the cross-country MINI Takes the States owners' rally. We showed you the Countryman earlier this year at the Geneva Motor Show, and yesterday, we hopped on as a co-driver for the Countryman...
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Photo Gallery: MINI Takes the StatesIt's part road rally, part charity drive--and this week for nearly 3000 MINI Cooper derivatives and their dedicated owners and fans, it's a chance to let MINI rule the road. While you're tussling with Excel spreadsheets or being micromanaged into insanity, thousands of MINI maniacs are heading...
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This Ain't Your Car: Someone's Going to Pay For This Chrysler SebringHave you ever wondered if you've over-modified your car, crossed some boundary of good taste? Thank goodness, this ain't your car. Yesterday the gang at SportsCarMonitor showed you a homemade Batpod spotted rolling the mean streets of, uh, Palo Alto. Today, also from the streets of San Francisco...
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VIDEO: Mercury Lives On--In Hawaii Five-O RemakeHollywood doesn't call them remakes--they euphemize 'em as "reboots" these days. But with this fall's new version of the CBS classic, Hawaii Five-0 is trying to stay as authentic as possible with a raft of new Fords on screen--and at least one old one. CBS may be the only place you'll see a...
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Exotic coupes are a dime a dozen -- actually, more like a million dimes each and up -- but inexpensive sporty hatch-coupes are a fading lot. From the ranks of the old Mitsubishi Eclipse, Toyota MR2,...
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Driven: 2010 Rolls-Royce GhostA car review is a car review is a car review. Like me, you're probably tired of reading the endless inside-baseball chatter concerning brake-disc size, 50-70 mph passing times, even plug-in driving ranges. If you drive the right car, it's...well...academic, isn't it? Thank goodness the Rolls-Royce...
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2010 Los Angeles Auto Show Promises 20+ World DebutsWe're still months away from the 2010 Los Angeles auto show, but organizers are teasing us--and you--this morning with a tightly worded release promising more than 20 world debuts of new vehicles at the fall show. With the addition of another 20 North American debuts, many from global...
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Video: Five Truly Terrible Car Commercials (And One Good One)Today's car ads are hip and sophisticated--they know what they're doing when it comes to attracting members of Generation Y. But that hasn't always been the case. Take a look at this ad for the new Fiesta and you will see what I am talking about. Here, Ford's used pop art to show off the...
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George Michael Is The Worst Celebrity Driver, EverYou can have your Dreyfusses and Lohans--for our money, George Michael is the Worst Celebrity Driver Ever. This weekend, Michael hit a building after only recently getting his driver's license back from his last scuff with the law. In 2007, Michael was found under the influence of drugs in his...
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Car Video Break: Bad Brits on A Double-Decker JoyrideYou can tell the world economy's gone sour when local badasses resort to joyriding...in a double-decker bus. The U.K. Register reports today that three royal subjects--two teenage girls and an adult man--made off with a high-top bus in the town of Amesbury last week in the wee hours. While they...
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Nissan is crossover happy: there's the Rogue compact, the Murano, and now there's the 2011 Nissan Juke.
A small five-door with muscular styling and a small turbocharged four-cylinder engine, the Juke...
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Ask Motor Authority: Why Doesn't AMG Go Twin-Turbo?
Mercedes-Benz has one of the best brands-within-a-brand in its factory-tuner AMG division. Far from a body-and-trim badgeworks, AMG is building its own engines and developing its own cars these days. Its latest cars, like the 2010 SLS AMG, are powered by a normally-aspirated 6.2-liter V-8. But...
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2010 Geneva Motor Show Preview: Rinspeed UC? ConceptWith Aston Martin city cars, Ferrari hybrids, Porsche hybrids and Audi diesels dancing through its halls, it's no wonder the 2010 Geneva Motor Show attracts its share of off-message green machines. Perhaps no nameplate in the world is as off-message, in toto, as Rinspeed. In past years, the wacky...
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2010 Aston Martin Rapide first drive reviewSo, I wanted to give you a few more days to build up some slack-jawed anticipation for Motor Authority's first drive of the 2010 Aston Martin Rapide, which just happened Tuesday. Also, to give myself some sentient moments on the other side of jetlag. But embargoes and souls are made to be broken...
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2010 Aston Martin Rapide: Aston Tells Porsche to Bring It OnThis week, MotorAuthority is live in Valencia, Spain, for the first drive of the 2010 Aston Martin Rapide--"the only four-door sports car in the world," according to the CEO of the company that's now flying solo since it was sold by Ford to a Kuwaiti-funded investment group three years ago. CEO Dr...
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2010 Detroit Auto Show CoverageIt's another winter of discontent in the Motor City, with automakers still reeling from bankruptcies, new fuel and safety rules, and a world that cares roughly half as much about buying new cars and trucks as it did 18 months ago. Still, as we plumb the depths the 2010 Detroit Auto Show this week...
Martin Padgett