Aaron Cole, Managing Editor
Articles
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Self-driving cars inched closer to reality this week (all by themselves) when the California governor approved a bill that would open small sections of public roads for testing.
California governor...
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Power to the people: 2017 Ford F-150 Raptor makes 450 hp
Credit Ford Motor Company [NYSE:F] for keeping the new 2017 F-150 Raptor at the forefront of the automotive news cycle. The Raptor gets new tires, it's news. The Raptor gets fancy drive modes, it's news. The Raptor gets more gears than a mountain bike, yup. The Raptor saves an infant from a burning...
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Ram just unveiled the Hellcat-powered Ram Rebel TRX concept
Ram just got serious about competing with the 2017 Ford Motor Company [NYSE:F] F-150 Raptor. The truckmaker unveiled Thursday its Ram Rebel TRX concept, powered by a supercharged 6.2-liter V-8 that makes 575 horsepower. Yup, that 6.2-liter supercharged V-8. This may be as close as we'll get to a...
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The 2017 Volvo V90 Cross Country is the tony wagon you didn't know you needed
Volvo unveiled Thursday its newest Cross Country model—the fourth in the company's history—in a simultaneous worldwide reveal in Sweden, Switzerland, and Vail, Colorado. The locales are no coincidence—the swank wagon is priced much higher than competitors from Subaru and Audi. The...
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See 2016 Goodwood Revival in pictures
The United Kingdom's Goodwood Revival should be on every car nut's bucket list. The annual celebration of all things 1948-1966 is an elaborate festival that pairs beautiful vintage racing cars, celebrated drivers, and automobile aficionados from all over the world. This year's distinguished guest...
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We photographed an old school race with an old school camera
Old film cameras are hopelessly overrated. Fabulous magazine covers have been shot anonymously with smartphones; "geniuses" have shot with disposable film cameras, yielding photos only slightly better than I took on my seventh grade aquarium field trip in 1992. (Yet, Terry Richardson still gets...
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Life is too short to lap massive parking lots looking for open spaces.
That's why Mercedes-Benz, along with automotive supplier giant Bosch, announced last week that its cars would eventually be able...
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Price for Tesla's Autopilot jumps $500 without hardware change
Buried somewhere between longer range and furious acceleration (and resulting "meh" by the collective automotive journalism brain trust), Tesla on Tuesday nudged up the price of its Autopilot feature. The fine folks over at Electrek were paying attention and noticed that Tesla's online configurator...
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Industry take on Tesla P100D ranges from tepid to terrible
Tesla announced Tuesday that its increased battery capacity for its Model S and Model X meant the car could go farther, faster than ever before. The response from several industry analysts shortly after sunk faster than a lead balloon. “A clear and realistic path to profitability and...
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How Porsche gave the world more turbos, faster
Buried deep within the 2017 Porsche 911 Turbo is an engineering "no-duh." Talk to anyone with a cursory knowledge of the widowmaker from Stuttgart and they'll say the old Turbo 911s required three feet in any given corner: one for the brake, one for the clutch, another to feed the throttle so...
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2017 Porsche 911 Turbo first drive review
The more the 2017 Porsche 911 Turbo talks, the more it sounds like the end. In many ways, it's coarse and gruff—the way a 911 Turbo should sound. Noise from the turbochargers force-feeding a 3.8-liter flat-6 to within an inch of its life howl through the straights, rear tires wail from...
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Lamborghini Centenario would 'surprise' even famous founder, says chief engineer
The head of Lamborghini's research and development says the Lamborghini Centenario, a car developed to celebrate Ferruccio Lamborghini's 100th birthday in April, would have surprised the car company's namesake. “Our jobs, in our imagination, is to develop a car that would surprise Ferruccio...
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Did you know each of the pistons in Agera RS weigh about 10 ounces? How about that its catalytic converter improves performance by about 300 horsepower?
Impressive 0-60 mph times are fun on paper,...
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Every car from 2016 Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance Dawn Patrol
It started at 6:21 a.m. when Marc Behaegel's 1954 Siata 208S Motto Spyder roared to life and didn't end until nearly 8 a.m. when Joan and Bernard Carl's 1970 American Motors AMX/3 Coupe crossed the line. Exactly 185 other cars had passed. Each year, dozens—not hundreds—of people brave a...
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The Quail at Carmel 2016 features stunning classics, exotic cars
The Quail at Carmel's motorsports gathering this year didn't disappoint. Bugatti made its North American debut of the Chiron, and Lamborghini showed off its new Centenario Roadster, but there were plenty of other cars on display at the annual gathering at the golf course. The best of show was an...
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Cadillac just unveiled a flagship luxury sedan concept in Pebble Beach
Cadillac has strong Pebble Beach game. (Remember the Ciel concept from 2011? Or the Elmiraj from 2013?) This year the automaker took the wraps off its Escala sedan, a four-door flagship sedan built from the same CT6 bones on sale today. The Escala, Spanish for "scale," measures 6 inches longer than...
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2017 Toyota Tacoma TRD Pro starts at $41,700, ain't no mountain high enough
We saw it coming, but that doesn't soften the blow much now that it's here. Toyota announced this week that prices for its 2017 Toyota Tacoma TRD, an off-roading pickup powerhouse, will start at $41,700, including destination. That's the entry price for a 6-speed manual transmission pickup with all...
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2017 Aston Martin DB11 first drive review
Aston Martin turned out garage rock and roll for decades. Of course, the small British carbuilder got some big help from deep-pocketed benefactors who tried every way to Sunday to turn a profit. They failed. But the sound from the factory at Gaydon has always been raw, reckless, and—excuse...
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While the 2017 Aston Martin DB11 may not be the exact same car featured in "Spectre," the slinking grand-tourer is every bit the DB10's successor.
The differences? That car had an ejector seat and...
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Guilty pleasures: Cars we loved that you hated
It's not a critic's job to convince you they're right—whenever that actually happens. On a good day, a critic champions what's new with biting insight and relatable commentary, because rock and roll needed a cheerleader once. On other days (read: most), we're just bitter asses. A "good" car...
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Aston Martin clears the air on new DB11's 'AeroBlade'
In 1967, Lotus put a sky-high wing on the rear of the Lotus 49 to convert wind flowing from the top of the car to aerodynamic weight to press harder down on the rear wheels. Carmakers have gotten down on what came up ever since. Nearly all high-performance cars on the road now utilize not only some...
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CARB tells VW to quit blowing smoke for 3.0-liter diesel fix
Volkswagen's proposed fix for roughly 85,000 illegally polluting 3.0-liter diesel engines isn't good enough, a California Air Resources Board letter said Wednesday. The air quality regulators rejected VW's plan and said the proposals were "incomplete, substantially deficient, and fall far short of...
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10 things you won't like inside new cars
New cars are like playgrounds for adults. There are many exciting places to explore and crawl around, but like a hot slide in July, not all of them are great. No matter the price, some cars just don't come standard with common sense. Here's a short list of things we could do without in our new...
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Fatal crash in Florida is first reported Tesla Autopilot death
An Ohio man is dead after the Tesla Model S he was riding in crashed into a semi-truck on May 7, Florida Highway Patrol officials confirmed. According to witnesses and authorities, the man may have been watching a movie before the crash. In a statement posted on its website, Tesla confirmed the man...
Aaron Cole