Martin Padgett, Editorial Director
Articles
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The Dodge Charger gets the Hellcat treatment, we drive the new Cadillac ATS Coupe, Land Rover and Jaguar dig deep into the past, and Cadillac's already updating the Escalade. It’s The Week In...
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Cadillac ATS, Mitsu Evo, New Jaguar Engines, And GTI Recalls: The Week In ReverseCadillac’s ATS sedan is still relatively new on the market, but it’s getting a light update for the 2015 model year. The ATS will adopt Cadillac’s latest crest logo, which comes without the classic laurel wreaths. Models powered by the two-liter turbo four get a 14 percent...
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2015 Bentley Continental GT Speed First DriveCruising at a cool mile of altitude over a carpet of lush green Scottish turf—Highlands to the left, Lowlands to the right—our seaplane bobbles over some ripples in the wake of Ben Lomond. In a few minutes, we top out at something like 165 miles per hour, not bad for an airborne mutt...
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#GiveAShift: The 7 Best Manual Transmissions You Can DriveEvery single day, a sportscar gets overlooked. Abandoned. Rejected. It’s fast, it’s beautiful…but it has a stick shift. Automatics, CVTs, dual-clutches—they find their forever homes while thousands of stick shifts are left behind. It's sad, but it's true. Manual...
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2015 Alfa Romeo 4C first drive reviewQuick--ignore these unabashedly erotic images, pretend you never saw a thing...and name this car. It’s a mid-engined two-seater not from Germany or Japan. It flaunts a supercar monocoque and a humbler suspension. It cauterizes corners courtesy a dual-clutch gearbox and turbocharged power...
Martin Padgett -
2015 Bentley Flying Spur V8 First DriveWhen last we left the Bentley Flying Spur, we were wending our way through Beijing traffic, hurtling toward the Great Wall and dodging an Olympian course of randomly placed and chosen obstacles, all while soaking up the Spur's leathery, woodsy accoutrements and the sonorous W-12. A year later, and...
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Al Oppenheiser can rattle off from memory the Chevy Camaro's many brushes with doom. Let's not even count the one that threatens overhead--a blanket of thick, low clouds intensifying from light to...
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2015 Jaguar F-Type Coupe R First DriveWhen last we left the Jaguar F-Type, it was hustling substantial ass somewhere on some choice, shall-remain-unnamed mountain roads of north Georgia. Locked in close competition for our hearts and minds with the Porsche Cayman S, Mercedes-Benz CLA45 AMG, and Chevy Corvette Stingray, the F-Type was a...
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Volt Dance-Off? Ford Checks The Eighties For Bizarre 2015 Mustang PromoThe Ford Mustang is new for 2015, and so far, it's rekindled its love affair with the 1964 New York World's Fair, and found itself chopped up and stuffed into the elevator shafts at the Empire State Building, all in an extravagant display of...heritage? ALSO SEE: GM Limiting Chevrolet Camaro Z/28...
Martin Padgett -
Land Rover Discovery Concept Solves First-World Problems With Lasers, Cameras, And TweedSo, you thought cooled cupholders, touchscreens, and high-speed connectivity were the very latest in SUV technology? This Land Rover Discovery Vision Concept has lasers for eyes and it can be driven by smartphone. MUST SEE: How To Put A 2015 Ford Mustang On Top Of The Empire State Building: Video...
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2014 Mini Hardtop first drive reviewThe essence of the classic Mini Cooper is easy to define: it's endearingly small. What happens when you mess with the "small" part? In more than a decade since Mini transformed into MINI, its makers have laid progressively larger patches on the road with models like the Clubman, the Paceman and the...
Martin Padgett -
Volkswagen T-Roc concept debuts at 2014 Geneva auto showWhile America waits for a homegrown Touareg to call its own and a bigger Tiguan, Volkswagen's brewing up a third crossover SUV for its global lineup--and the VW T-Roc is the early look at what's coming. The T-Roc made its world premiere this week at the 2014 Geneva Motor Show and is essentially an...
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It's been ten years already, but if you still haven't absorbed the reality of a Porsche SUV, brace yourselves. There's a second one--and it's probably the best crossover SUV we've driven.
Let us...
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2014 SRT Viper TA First Drive VideoAn autocross run doesn't have to be long, or wide, to turn into a breeding ground for envy. Make it short, make it quick, whatever. Just bring out a whiteboard to document lap times. All of the sudden, the Italian in everything and everyone comes out: Piloti, Brembo, Borgia, Machiavelli. Then bring...
Martin Padgett -
Harman Signal Doctor Can Un-Suck Your Car's Sound SystemCars are where people listen to music most often--but the digitally compressed music we carry on iPods, USB sticks, CDs, or stream from the Web has turned our cars into lossy echo chambers. It's all in the acoustics. Studio-quality audio files become a source of anger for audiophiles, as the...
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2015 Subaru WRX First DriveThe 2015 Subaru WRX may be the most perfect shelter ever ginned up for Internet trolls. We're already super-familiar with their super-tired take on the new turbo all-wheel-drive sedan. To paraphrase: "This car, which is not substantially changed in feel or intent, and which I do not own, is...
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2014 Aston Martin Vanquish Volante first drive reviewThe Aston Martin Vanquish Volante is probably the sexiest car in the planet--the Internet says it is so--but what good is it in winter? If you're in the third of the country currently buried under a soul-crushing blanket of ice and snow, the only transportation you really want right now is a...
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2015 Aston Martin V12 Vantage S First DriveFlorida's the home of the bucket lists, for obvious reasons, our national Last Chance Saloon. So this week, I took "driving, Florida-style" off mine. Here's how: First, I drilled an Aston Martin V-12 Vantage S up to 143 mph in a straight line andthenIhitFULLPANICBRAKE, yanking it and me into a...
Martin Padgett -
If Monte Carlo had a sister city, would it be Sin City? Glitzy condo canyons, matte-red Italias parked in no-parking zones, lots of places named "Palace," and an ample supply of two-name celebrities...
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2014 Rolls-Royce Wraith first drive reviewIf you're truly rich--or its more discreet cousin, wealthy--you'll barely notice the pricetag on the Rolls-Royce Wraith. BCC your CFO here: It's $289,000, and that's before you've even dabbled in the fittings and finishes that can shave another hundred grand from your offshore accounts. Before...
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2016 Mazda MX-5 Miata Spy ShotsMotor Authority's spy photographers have just scored new images of what could be the 2016 Mazda MX-5 Miata, the next-generation of the popular roadster and the basis of a new Alfa Romeo Spider. Wearing a current-generation MX-5 body, the mule has bodywork add-ons that suggest the future hard points...
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Does Tesla Need To Worry About A Cadillac Plug-In Hybrid, Or Vice Versa?GM has even broader ambitions for its Cadillac brand than today's lineup. Its latest vehicles, the ATS and CTS, have won rave reviews, and its own version of the Chevy Volt architecture comes late this year in the form of the Cadillac ELR extended-range electric car. But could the brand have more...
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2014 BMW M3 and M4: More Power RumorsThe speculation goes on regarding the output of the next BMW M3 and M4--especially now that the 2014 4-Series is out in the wild. Now, a new blurb at F80 Bimmerpost suggests the upcoming BMW M3 will extract some 425 horsepower and 370 pound-feet of torque from the latest 3.0-liter in-line...
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Porsche 911 Turbo Cabrio Priced, Vettel Dominates F1: What's New @ Motor AuthorityPorsche's on a roll, rolling out the 911 variants in the usual blistering cadence. What's coming for this fall's Los Angeles Auto Show? The 911 Turbo Cabrios, of course--top-down 0-60 mph times of 3.1 seconds are yours for just a hair under $200,000. Sebastian Vettel proved his mettle this weekend...
Martin Padgett