Autos

Lightning is back. Except, the 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning shares absolutely nothing with the original Lightning pickups that first debuted in the early 1990s. Even the old sport truck’s iconic Lightning badge has been redesigned for the all-new EV pickup truck by the same name. And though it is often said history repeats itself, in this case history has reincarnated itself into something somehow both more powerful and less sinister. The Power of Lightning The original 1993 Ford Lightning was, according to our archives, “a Mustang Cobra with a cargo bed.” It had a 5.8-liter V-8 under its huge hood that made 240 horsepower—which in today’s context isn’t much, but in 1993 it was plenty. The Lightning also was a relatively low-key project that was commissioned by F...

You don’t trot out Walter Röhrl for fast laps at the Hockenheimring if you’re just doing a photo op with a pedestrian SUV. That’s why Porsche has our complete attention with the latest release, which features the legendary rally driver (and, more recently, Porsche test driver) getting some wheel time in a new version of the Cayenne Coupe. See all 46 photos Now, hold that thought and flash back to a few years ago, when our own Jonny Lieberman heard from a well-placed insider that Porsche’s GT division was finally going to do an SUV—the slinky Cayenne Coupe, per the source. Meanwhile, across the hall, senior editor Scott Evans heard directly from Mr. GT himself—Andy Preuninger, head of said division—that Porsche Motorsport was responsible for turning a “regular&...

Here’s your problem: You’re dying to go see the latest Fast and Furious installment, F9, when it opens on June 25th, but you just don’t know what to drive to the theater. Well, friends and neighbors, out of a fog of NOOOOSSSSSS comes the solution: Paul Walker’s orange 1994 Toyota Supra from the first F&F movie! One of the original movie cars will be up for sale at Barrett-Jackson’s Las Vegas auction taking place June 18-19, just before F9 arrives. For those who can’t remember 2001’s The Fast and the Furious, this was the orange Supra that Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker’s character) built up from a wreck after his green Eclipse (the one with the 17-speed manual transmission) was unceremoniously detonated. O’Conner later uses the S...

In a brief statement, Mazda has announced it will “discontinue the CX-3 and Mazda 6 for the 2022 model year.” That means after the current run of 2021-model-year 6 sedans and CX-3 small SUVs are sold, they won’t be replaced by 2022 models, at least here in the United States. Mazda noted its decision is related to customer tastes—”as consumer interests continue to evolve … “—which is shorthand for sedans continuing to lose out to SUVs and, in the case of the CX-3, a tiny SUV that wasn’t holding its own against the new, better-looking, more powerful, and slightly larger CX-30 crossover. See all 12 photos So Long, Mazda 6 The current Mazda 6 has been on sale since 2013, though it has been steadily upgraded over its eight-year run. A major mid-cycle up...

We all need to get away sometimes, and if you live in the American Southwest, getting out to open land to thrash your favorite desert toy can be the perfect escape. But, there are a myriad of vehicles to choose from—take these offerings from Top Gear America hosts, Dax Shepard and Rob Corddry: The 2020 Jeep Gladiator Mojave and the 2020 Polaris RZR Pro XP. Both very capable vehicles in locations like the Mojave Desert, but with totally different styles of driving and ownership. How do you choose?!  The Jeep Gladiator Mojave takes the already capable bones of the base Gladiator, then ups the ante with 2.5-inch Fox internal bypass dampers and 33-inch tires and the first ever factory-equipped pneumatic front bump stops on a pickup truck. The Polaris RZR Pro XP has 22 inches of independen...

The F-150 has been the best-selling truck for 44 years running, and Ford has tampered with it big time to produce the new electric Lightning. (Ford used the name previously on its SVT-branded performance pickup discontinued after the 2004 model year.) The F-150’s combustion engine is replaced with batteries and electric motors, normally an insignificant, regulation-satisfying pivot in today’s car market, but on a high-volume vehicle such as the F-150, it potentially represents a seismic shift—not just for Ford but also for the industry and its overall adoption of EVs. And with the base work truck carrying a starting price of $41,669 (the MSRP minus the required destination charges is just under $40,000, and it qualifies for Federal and state EV tax incentives), Ford sends a str...

Let’s look closely at the F-150 Lightning numbers we know and ponder the significance of the ones we don’t, as we wrap our heads around Ford’s latest move in the (increasingly electric) pickup truck wars. 563/775 – Ford is hoping the 2022 F-150 Lightning will achieve its target of 563 horsepower and 775 lb-ft of torque. These are big numbers and only applicable to trucks optioned with the larger battery. Compare this to the (previous-generation) 2020 F-150 Raptor‘s 3.5-liter EcoBoost V-6, which manages 450 hp and 510 lb-ft—113 hp and 265 lb-ft shy of the Lightning. Lightnings with the regular battery manage a still-healthy 426 hp—and the same prodigious torque figure. See all 64 photos 300 – Opt for the extended-range model with a larger battery pac...

The Volkswagen Beetle had its trunk up front when it came out in the 1930s, but it took the Tesla Model S in 2012 to make the word “frunk” part of the vernacular. As in, a front trunk—combined helpfully into a single, catchy word. With more and more electric vehicles entering the market, and fewer engine bays needing to hold engines, frunks are here to stay, and we can quickly see them becoming competitive battlegrounds. And the new Ford F-150 Lightning has one. The folks in Dearborn say the 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning full-size electric pickup truck has the biggest and most powerful frunk in the industry. The 2022 GMC Hummer EV electric pickup is the logical challenger to that claim, but GM has not revealed all its specs yet. The 2021 Rivian R1T is a smaller truck with a smaller...