Kirk Bell, Senior Editor
Articles
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We announced Monday that the Motor Authority Best Car To Buy 2019 is the Chevrolet Corvette ZR1. But how did we get there? The ZR1 faced off against a class of strong contenders that included the...
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Chevrolet Corvette ZR1: Motor Authority's Best Car To Buy 2019Each year the Motor Authority editors place our butts in a slew of new luxury and performance cars. We drive them on the road and on the track. We treat them like we own them and like we stole them. This year we whittled down a particularly strong class of candidates to five finalists: the Audi RS...
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2018 McLaren 570S Spider first drive review: Baseline dream machineIn Hales Corners, Wisconsin, last Saturday night a 14-year-old boy named Sam reached over and pushed down on his mom’s knee to get the family’s Chrysler Town & Country moving. Her foot went to the floor, the Chrysler Pentastar V-6 perked up, and the van accelerated at a modest clip...
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2019 Ford GT adds lightweight Carbon Series, gets $50,000 price bumpFord on Tuesday announced the new Carbon Series model for the 2019 GT supercar. A replacement for the Competition Series model, the Carbon Series cuts 39 pounds from the race-inspired coupe while also adding aesthetic changes. The most noticeable element of the Carbon Series is the exposed carbon...
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2019 Hyundai Veloster N first drive review: Hot hatch, Korean style, Nürburgring bredAct One: Track time Four cars head out onto the east course at Thunderhill Raceway Park outside of Willows, California. The cars are Hyundais. Yes, Hyundais. This track can be terrifying, with a couple of blind crests, one of which leads to an off-camber right turn. I’m not too worried...
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2019 Mercedes-AMG A35 spy shotsMercedes-AMG's current crop of 45 series cars are little rockets. Their heavily breathed on 2.0-liter inline-4s makes otherwise ordinary cars quite lovable, not to mention shockingly quick. For its next generation of compact cars, AMG will offer two levels of performance, starting with the A-Class...
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Ford had previously announced that it would build 1,000 units of its GT supercar. On Friday in Dearborn, Michigan, the Blue Oval announced it would expand that total to 1,350 cars and build them...
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2019 Audi A8 first drive review: Technology enabling luxuryI’m hustling through the Spanish countryside getting a back massage, attacking roundabouts with gusto in a car that can sprint from 0-60 mph in less than 5.0 seconds, and my passenger is sound asleep. This car does just about everything well. It’s quiet, fast, smooth, spacious, and...
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Audi e-tron prototype drive, 2019 Rolls-Royce Cullinan, 250-mph Bugatti Veyron: The Week In ReverseWe drifted a 2019 Audi e-tron prototype around the desert; a Czech businessman drove his Bugatti Veyron 250 mph on the autobahn; and we drove the 2019 Rolls-Royce Cullinan. It's the Week in Reverse, right here at Motor Authority. The 2019 Audi e-tron is the brand's first mass-market battery...
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Porsche North America CEO: Porsches will always have a steering wheel and pedalsPorsche drivers want it all. So says Porsche North America CEO Klaus Zellmer. When it comes to self-driving cars, that means Porsche drivers want to hand off the driving when it's tedious and take it back when it's fun. At Rennsport Reunion VI last month, Zellmer told Motor Authority that...
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Porsche North America CEO on the next-generation 911The eighth generation of the Porsche 911 is on the horizon. The so-called 992-generation 911 will likely be shown in production form within the next six months and released by the end of next year. The 911 is one of the all-time great sports cars and the current 991 generation has proven to be the...
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The time Jacky Ickx almost drove in NASCAR for Junior JohnsonJacky Ickx had a storied racing career racing almost every type of car—except the most popular competition in the U.S. His resume includes six 24 Hours of Le Mans wins, eight Formula One victories, a Can-Am championship, the grueling Dakar Rally, and he even raced motorcycles for a time. The...
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In the movie “Night at the Museum," Ben Stiller plays a night watchman who gets caught up in all kinds of hijinks when the museum’s exhibits come alive. Stiller’s Larry Daley...
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Porsche 935 customer race car celebrates 1978 "Moby Dick" 935 racerSuddenly it's 1978 all over again. With WeatherTech Laguna Seca Raceway as the backdrop, Porsche on Thursday unveiled the new 935 customer race car with a look that draws on the legendary 935 race car from the late 1970s and early '80s. The reveal took place at Rennsport Reunion VI, where the brand...
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2019 Mercedes-AMG GT 63 S 4-Door Coupe first drive review: The new king of sporty German four-doorsThe red mist has just descended upon me, and that’s a good thing. It’s my second four-lap stint in the 2019 Mercedes-AMG GT 63 S 4-Door Coupe on the Circuit of the Americas outside Austin, Texas, and four-time DTM champion Bernd Schneider is leading the way in an AMG GT-R. He just took...
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2019 Mercedes-Benz A-Class first drive review: A better baby BenzThe route south from Seattle to Yakima, Washington, winds through the Mount Rainier National Park. Streams and valleys bracket the road, the scenery changes from green to brown, and Mount Rainier stands majestically in the distance, snow-capped even in September. The 2019 Mercedes-Benz A-Class is a...
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Goodwood Revival, one-off Mercedes-Benz G500 pickup, 2020 Kia Telluride: The Week in ReverseWe attended the 20th annual Goodwood Revival and reflected on the past and the future; an off-road enthusiast in California built a Mercedes-Benz G500 pickup; and the 2020 Kia Telluride walked the runway in New York during Fashion Week. It's the Week in Reverse, right here at Motor Authority. We...
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North American Car and Truck/Utility of the Year jury announces 2019 semifinalistsThe North American Car and Truck/Utility of the Year jury announced its official list of semifinalists for its 2019 awards on Wednesday. The list includes 14 cars, 12 SUVs, and three pickup trucks. The NACTOY jurors aimed for a maximum of 12 finalists in each category, but voting by the 60-member...
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Sick of toting the kids to their dorms a state or two away? Would it help for your college student to have a car to get from campus to that internship? Is your new graduate looking for affordable...
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Audi PB18 e-tron combines Le Mans prowess with electric futureAudi dominated the 24 Hours of Le Mans for the better part of a decade with its R18 TDI prototype diesel race car and the German luxury brand is now on the front lines of the race for an electric future. At Monterey Car Week on Thursday, the brand unveiled a concept car that combines the two, the...
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New 2019 BMW Z4 roadster breaks cover with M40i First EditionBMW showed the Z4 concept at Pebble Beach last year and further detailed it a month later at the Frankfurt motor show. This year, we finally see the production version. BMW unveiled the next generation of its two-seat roadster with a special 2019 Z4 M40i First Edition. The lines are now locked in...
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All SRT products undergo 24 hours of racetrack endurance testingPerformance cars need to perform, and that means withstanding the rigors of track duty and the heat buildup it causes. We've seen that Chevrolet tests every Camaro SS and above (plus 1LE models) on a racetrack for 24 hours and that Audi Sport models do almost 5,000 miles on the Nürburgring...
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2019 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye first drive review: Demon spawnHorsepower Hill at Club Motorsports is a 14-percent grade at the scenic road course carved into the side of a mountain in Tamworth, New Hampshire. It’s a heartbreak climb uphill for most cars, but it’s child’s play for the 2019 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye. One big number...
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2019 Mercedes-Benz CLS first drive review: Stylish, safe, and comfortableGrowing up in Sindelfingen, Germany, as the daughter of a Mercedes-Benz engineer who worked on three generations of the E-Class, Jennifer Schefczik heard the same thing over and over. “Child, the E-Class is always about style, safety, and comfort,” her dad told her. Some 20 years later...
Kirk Bell