Kirk Bell, Senior Editor
Articles
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When it comes to automotive excitement, no auto show tops the annual Geneva International Motor Show. Held in the backyard of the European automakers, it is not only a place where Audi, BMW,...
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Next-gen Ford Fiesta ST gets 3 cylinders, 3 drive modesWhen does 3 equal 4? When you turbocharge the 3. That's the philosophy with the next-generation Ford Fiesta ST, which was revealed this week at the 2017 Geneva auto show. The most notable change is the switch from a turbocharged 1.6-liter 4-cylinder to a turbocharged 1.5-liter 3-cylinder engine...
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600-hp Pininfarina Fittipaldi EF7 track toy debuts in GenevaHow would you like driving instruction from a man who won the Formula One World Championship twice and then went on to take two checkered flags at the Indianapolis 500? What if he also developed the car for you, with the help of the legendary Pinninfarina design firm and some German engineering? At...
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Aston Martin hypercar named Valkyrie, presented in GenevaThe V naming strategy at Aston Martin dates back almost 70 years to 1951, when the British brand gave a DB2 about 20 more horsepower and applied the Vantage name to the new “high performance” 125-hp car. Now, Aston Martin is applying Norse-power to the hypercar it is co-developing with...
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Anatomy of a record-setting Top Fuel runUnless you've ridden on top of 11,000 horsepower, Leah Pritchett has more stones than anyone one of us. She's a Top Fuel dragster driver and she holds the record for the fastest pass in NHRA history with a 3.658 run over the 1,000-foot distance at the NHRA Arizona Nationals. She set that record on...
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Volkswagen Arteon fastback sedan revealed, on sale mid-2018Volkswagen design hasn't been very exciting of late, but then again, it hasn't been that exciting for quite some time. One car that has exuded style since it was released is the Volkswagen CC, and the next generation of this fastback sedan has just been revealed ahead of its formal debut tomorrow...
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A lawsuit filed by a Ferrari salesman from Palm Beach, Florida, may have aired some of Ferrari's dirty laundry. According to a lawsuit filed in a Southern Florida district court by former salesman...
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Electric Corvette reaches 209 mph, sets new standing mile speed recordGenovation Cars is intent on proving that electric cars can perform. Last year, the Rockville, Maryland, company set the standing mile record for a street-legal electric car and then the land speed record. Now it's at it again. Running its prototype Genovation GXE based on a C6 Chevrolet Corvette...
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Aston Martin expanding Q personalization options at GenevaAston Martin lost $200 million last year, but things are looking up. Sales spiked nearly 50 percent in the fourth quarter thanks to the introduction of the new DB11 and now the brand is looking for more ways to improve profitability. At the Geneva auto show next month, Aston Martin will introduce...
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What's better for rally driving, left-foot or right-foot braking?Left-foot braking. It's a tool performance drivers can add to their skill sets, but does it really make a difference? The folks at Team O'Neil Rally School have made a video to answer that question, at least when it comes to rally driving. To find out if right- or left-foot braking is better when...
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2017 Ford GT Competition Series cuts weight from already light carbon fiber supercarThe Ford GT is a pure supercar, so you figured it was designed to be as light as possible, right? Wrong. Ford has just released information on the Ford GT Competition Series, a limited edition model that cuts weight from the carbon fiber-bodied supercar. Weight-savings measures include a...
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2018 Audi S5 Sportback carries stuff, hits 60 mph in 4.5 seconds for $55,375Audi continues the rollout of its A4 family of cars with the newest model, the 2018 S5 Sportback. A hatchback with a coupe-like profile and a powerful engine in the mold of the larger S7, the S5 is set to make its debut in the United States this spring. The powertrain is taken straight from the S4...
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Thinking of getting yourself a Mercedes roadster for tooling around in the summer sun and the standard dealer fare just isn't cutting it ? Well, Mercedes will soon offer a trio of special edition...
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2018 Audi S4 previewThe Audi A4 is an appealing compact luxury sedan with the cachet of the Audi name and the inherent goodness of German engineering. So, what's the S4? Well, it's just that much better. The 2018 Audi S4 is also better than the car it replaces. Under the hood sits a longitudinally mounted, twin-scroll...
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David Brown-driven 1949 Aston Martin DB Mk II prototype up for auctionThe name David Brown is key to the history of Aston Martin. The entrepreneur and former tractor builder purchased the company in 1947. The first car built under Brown's ownership was the 1948-'50 2-Litre Sports, a roadster that used a tube-frame chassis and a 2.0-liter 4-cylinder engine. The next...
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Margot Robbie races BladeGlider around Monaco as Nissan's new EV ambassadorYou may know Margot Robbie from such movies as "The Wolf of Wall Street," "Suicide Squad," "The Big Short," and "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot." You may recognize the Nissan BladeGlider from the 2013 Tokyo motor show and the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio De Janeiro, where Nissan took folks for rides in two...
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'McLaren' movie trailer will inspire, tug at heartstrings"I feel that life is measured in achievement, not in years alone." Those words from race driver Bruce McLaren come at the end of the new trailer for the upcoming film "McLaren." Born in 1937 in New Zealand, Bruce McLaren seemingly came from nowhere to take on the big boys of racing and beat them at...
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The merits of heel-and-toe vs. clutchless shifting on snowHeel-and toe shifting is a pretty cool trick that you can pull out to try to impress your car guy buddies on the street. If you get it right, maybe they'll be impressed. If that passenger is your wife, boss, any other non-car person, odds are they won't even know what you are talking about, and...
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Yesterday, Bimmerpost and BMW Blog spotted order code ZL9 for the 2017 BMW M2 in the U.S. BMW dealership ordering system. It specifies the 2017 M2 Performance Edition. We reached out to a spokesman...
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2017 BMW 740e xDrive iPerformance first drive reviewThe word hybrid is indelibly attached to the Toyota Prius, a vehicle renowned for its frugality. And when the suffix plug-in is added, perhaps the first car to come to mind is the Chevrolet Volt. Both cars are true green machines that save owners money over the course of ownership, as well as at...
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Hagerty speculates on top 10 future classic cars, and we weigh inWouldn't we all love to be Marty McFly? Then we could travel back in time to 1955, play Chuck Berry's 1958 song "Johnny B. Goode," and look like geniuses. The car guy equivalent would be going back to 1995, buying a Porsche 911 GT2 for just over six figures, socking it away for a couple decades...
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Ford invests $200M in new wind tunnel facilityFord has announced a $200 million investment in a new wind tunnel complex. Construction of the facility will begin later this year. The goal is to improve the aerodynamics of the brand's road and race cars, for speed in the case of race cars and for both fuel economy performance for street cars...
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Driver, instructor die in crash at Las Vegas performance driving experienceA driver and an instructor died Sunday afternoon in a Lamborghini at the SpeedVegas performance driving experience. According to a report on LasVegasNow.com, the driver, in his 30s, lost control and hit a wall. The car erupted into flames and both the driver and the instructor, a man only described...
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2017 Bugatti Chiron previewIn the supercar world, a V-8 will cut it, a V-10 is better, and a V-12 is the most desired engine. Then there's Bugatti, the French brand that laughs at your measly V-12 and ups the ante to 16 cylinders. Bugatti started its 16-cylinder, ungodly power onslaught in 2005 with the Veyron. The car's...
Kirk Bell