John Voelcker, Contributing Editor
Articles
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Crossovers and sport utilities are now an established part of luxury-car lineups--even Jaguar showed a crossover concept--and hybrids are all the range these days.
So why not blend the two?
Range...
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2015 BMW i8 Revealed, Priced From $135,925Power output of 362 horsepower and torque of 420 pound-feet is reasonable for a 3,300-pound sports coupe with a low drag coefficient of 0.26, but it's nowhere near the top of the power charts. But suppose you combine those specs with advanced carbon fiber construction, the ability to run...
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1972 Porsche 914 Truck: The World's Only Mid-Engine Pickup?Tens of millions of pickup trucks have engines in the front. Then there are the ones with engines in the rear (think Volkswagen Type 2 pickups, for instance). But have you ever seen one with an engine in the middle? This 1972 Porsche 914 pickup truck is most likely one of the only two in the world...
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Five Green Cars That Make Supercar Drivers See RedYou're finally living the dream, with that exhaust note ripping and shrieking behind you, the leather-covered, heavily bolstered carbon-fiber seat holding you snugly in place a mere 3 inches above the asphalt, and pedestrians stopping in their tracks to gape at you. You're driving a supercar...
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2014 Range Rover Evoque: Driving The New Nine-Speed AutomaticNot so long ago, a five-speed automatic transmission was pretty advanced--but we're in a new age now. Six speeds is the norm now even in smaller cars--when they're not fitted with continuously variable transmissions (CVTs), anyhow--and even the eight-speed automatic pioneered by Lexus a decade ago...
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South Africa's Franschhoek Motor Museum: The Best Cars Of A CenturyIt’s less than 10 years old, but the Franschhoek Motor Museum in South Africa contains a remarkable collection of classic cars that ought to be better known than it is. The highlight of our last day on a three-day tour of the Garden Route through South Africa’s southwestern Cape region...
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Sure, hybrids don't have the greatest reputation for driving appeal.
But would you feel better about saving gasoline if you knew that the hybrid system in your car used Formula One technology?
That's...
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Tesla Motors To Issue More Shares, CEO Elon Musk To Buy SomeYou may never have heard of a "short squeeze," but Tesla is benefiting greatly from it right now. The stock of the Silicon Valley startup electric-car maker has soared in recent days after Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] announced its first-ever profitable quarter and plans to build and sell 21,000 Model...
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Classic Audi 100s Gather In Germany: The Car That Saved Audi (Photo Gallery)On a crisp, sunny day in the German city of Koblenz last weekend, dozens of old Audis gathered at a riverbank park where the Mosel meets the Rhine. Few Americans realize that the Audi luxury sport sedans they drive today owe it all to the original Audi 100, the car that kept Audi independent within...
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Tesla Model S May Get Battery Swapping Soon: ReportThe 2013 Tesla Model S has received rave reviews, including the best score that Consumer Reports has given any car in six years. The stock of Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] is on a roll, the company is delivering hundreds of its Model S all-electric luxury sport sedan every week, and it just turned in...
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James Bond-style 1967 Toyota 2000GT sells for $1.15MJames Bond may be irretrievably linked to Aston Martins, the DB5 in particular, but he's driven quite a number of other vehicles during his 50-year movie career. Unloved orphans like the AMC Matador may not have been high points of the Bond oeuvre. But the sleek, sexy Japanese sports car he drove...
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Handicapping Tesla's Fate: Independent Or Acquired?
It's been a great run for Tesla Motors these last few months. The startup electric-car maker delivered 4,900 Model S luxury sport sedans from January through March, got a rave review from Consumer Reports, and reported its first-ever profitable quarter. CEO Elon Musk even dropped hints that it...
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While Aston Martin is among the most storied British sports car brands, it's had its share of ups and downs over the decades.
Now it appears that the man who helped return Aston Martin to prominence...
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Classic Jaguar E-Type: Abducted, Shot, Rescued, Then IgnoredThe Jaguar E-Type is nothing less than a legend, a classic, a car that stands alone. And striking cars should come with startling stories. A certain Jaguar 1968 E-Type Coupe offered for sale in Rockville, Maryland, has that, in spades: In its 45 years, it has been loved, abducted, found, denied...
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How Did This 2012 Honda Civic Si Get So Strangely Mangled?We see a lot of wrecked cars in our part of New York City, but this one is a real head-scratcher. It's a near-new 2012 Honda Civic Si four-door sedan that was damaged badly enough that both front wheel carriers have snapped. That means that during the process of towing it to the curb, both front...
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E-Type To F-Type, The Legend: 30 Days Of 2014 Jaguar F-TypeLaunched in 1961, the Jaguar E-Type became an icon almost instantly. It's been displayed in New York's Museum of Modern Art and was the third car to enter MoMA's permanent collection, after a 1948 Cisitalia 202 and a 1990 Ferrari F1 car. The E-Type sprang from a pair of concept cars in 1957 and...
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ANOTHER Wrecked Bentley! Just One Of NYC's Many Car CrashesAmazing. It happened again. Yes, a wrecked, all-but-brand-new 2013 Bentley Continental GT just showed up at the side of the street in Manhattan last night. Courtesy of an NYPD report taped to the windshield, however, we know a few more details on this one than we did on the wrecked Continental GTC...
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BMW's 1.5-Liter Three-Cylinder Engine: First Drive Of Test CarIt's inevitable: With increasing pressure from fuel-efficiency and emission regulations globally, engines are going to get smaller. But BMW has simply taken its time-tested design principles and applied them to a new type of engine: its first-ever three-cylinder, which you can think of as half of...
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You'd never know it today, but there once was a time when Britain had the second-largest automotive industry in the world.
A bit of that heritage surfaces this month as one of the seminal auto...
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2014 Cadillac ELR previewSay what you may about plug-in electric cars, the 2014 Cadillac ELR unveiled at last week's Detroit Auto Show is a stunning piece of design. The four-seat range-extended electric luxury coupe is little changed from the Cadillac Converj show car that debuted four years ago at the 2009 Detroit show...
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New, More Efficient VW Engines for 2014 Passat, 2015 Jetta To Be Made In MexicoA modern global auto plant has no discernible nationality. Aside from language and perhaps the ethnicities of its workers, the inside of the latest engine plant on one continent is identical to the same location in a similar plant on another continent. That was clear at the opening of...
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Volkswagen CrossBlue concept debuts at 2013 Detroit auto showFollowing the successful launch of its Passat mid-size sedan last year, Volkswagen continues to target popular U.S. market segments. Their latest concept car, launched today at the Detroit Auto Show, is a mid-size crossover utility vehicle that aims right at the popular Honda Pilot and Toyota...
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Volkswagen Passat Performance Concept: Detroit Auto Show PreviewVolkswagen has big plans in store for next week's Detroit Auto Show, where media preview days begin Monday. One of several cars it will show is the Volkswagen Passat Performance Concept, a "sneak peek" of a new, sportier model of its U.S.-built Passat mid-size sedan with an all-new 250-horsepower...
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1972 Nissan GT-R: Ride In The First Generation (Video)Last week was Nissan's Advanced Technology Briefing, held in and near its headquarters town of Yokohama, Japan. And one of the unexpected delights of the program was rides in two different cars from the Nissan Heritage garage in Zama, a stunning collection of 330 Datsun, Nissan, and related...
John Voelcker