Autos
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Ultimate Ballistic Machine? First-Ever Armored BMW X7 Now Available From INKAS
It’s getting tough out there for an oligarch. Mounting sociopolitical pressure against the moneyed elite is at risk of reaching fever pitch; you just don’t feel safe leaving your compound wearing your Richard Mille anymore, and your Bugatti is just too conspicuous. Time to dust off the Rolex and pick up an armored S-Class … See all 11 photos Not into the ubiquity of Mercedes’ primo executive sedan? The ballistics experts over at Inkas will armor-up just about any large and full-size SUV on the market, not to mention a range of trucks, sedans, and vans that fit any lifestyle and level of conspicuousness. Aside from the usual Escalade and Land Cruiser fare, Inkas is also proud to offer the world’s first armored BMW X7, making it one of the better-driving full-sized ar...
2021 Polaris Slingshot R First Drive: Shot in the Dark
Polaris redesigned its surprise hit Slingshot three-wheeler for 2020, and the improvements make a night and day difference. With that kind of work put in already, you might be surprised to hear the company is making more changes a year later, but they’re some of the key improvements I was hoping to see, making the 2021 Polaris Slingshot R the best one yet. The biggest upgrades are software-related. Polaris has gone through and recalibrated its “Autodrive” five-speed automated manual transmission after only a year on the market to improve shift time and smoothness. A five-speed manual remains standard and it should be noted the automatic is a $2,000 upcharge. 2021 Polaris Slingshot R: Updated Gear If I’m honest, I didn’t notice much of a difference. The Autodri...
2021 Nissan Altima or Maxima: An Intra-Brand Sedan Battle
Nissan Altima Full Overview Although the Nissan Altima and Maxima are nearly identical in length, the two sedans are more different than you might think. Both sedans have been a part of Nissan’s lineup for decades, serving customers who don’t want another Honda Accord, Toyota Camry, or Toyota Avalon. So if your search has narrowed to the 2021 Nissan Altima and 2021 Nissan Maxima sedans, which one is the better buy? Let’s break down their differences. Altima Over Maxima: Efficiency and Range See all 10 photos Thanks to its lighter weight and all-four-cylinder lineup, the Nissan Altima is more efficient than the Maxima, and it’ll take you farther on one tank of fuel. That’s true regardless of whether you’re comparing the six-cylinder 300-hp Maxima to the 1...
Lexus Teases New F Sport Model
Lexus says “a new era of F Sport performance vehicles is coming.” We’d elaborate, but that’s all the automaker has said while at the same time releasing the image above of an F Sport badge on what looks like some sort of carbon-fiber panel. In short—as short as Lexus’s statement—this could be anything. Rather than speculate, let’s recap what F Sport is. To the Lexus brand, it is a sport-themed trim level that on most models adds more aggressive styling bits and a host of “F Sport” badging. You can find F Sport variants of the Lexus UX, NX, and RX crossovers and SUVs, as well as the IS, ES, and LS sedans, not to mention the RC coupe. Notably missing from this lot is the brand’s LC and LX flagship coupe and SUV. M...
Adorable Alpha Motor EV Spawns Jax Off-Roader, Ace Performance Edition
An adorable retro-inspired electric vehicle got a lot of attention a few weeks ago. The Alpha Motor Ace, an electric coupe with an aesthetic that can only be described as mid-century modern European, seemed to capture the full potential of EVs to break out of contemporary car styling and explore unusual and interesting forms. With fewer constraints from packaging hardpoints, EVs—and in particular, skateboard-chassis ones—are ripe for this sort of thing. The Ace’s cartoonish (in a good way) proportions communicate fun in a way no Nissan Leaf can. Carrying that to its next logical extreme, there’s the Jax, an off-road inspired variant (that still only exists in digital form), and a sleeker Ace Performance Edition. See all 34 photosfalse It must be said that we were hoping the nex...
This Is the New Nissan Xterra That Nissan Isn’t Building—But Should
Off-road SUVs are having something of a moment. Put another way, the Jeep Wrangler is getting some direct competition for the first time in years from the upcoming Ford Bronco, and automakers are rushing to add capability to crossovers and SUVs of all sizes and prices. Even so, there are some holes in the playing field: Toyota long ago killed off its retro-flavored FJ Cruiser, as did Nissan its burly Xterra 4×4. And as of now, neither Japanese SUV is due for a comeback, even though Nissan just unveiled a thoroughly modernized Frontier pickup—the same pickup that shared components with the old Xterra. That got us thinking … If Nissan were about to reveal a new Xterra today, what might it look like? We turned to our speculative artist wizard, Abimilec Arellano, for a rendering of ...
Wet Hot American Outboard: Mercury Marine’s New 600-HP V-12
It looks like everyone’s feeling the environmental squeeze these days. Even outboard motor super-maven Mercury Marine is looking for more fuel-efficient methods of blowing your hat off when you pin the hand-throttle out on your local lake. So, in the pursuit of sipping fuel at a rate less like cheap light beer and more like fine whiskey, the 82-year-old manufacturer just launched its first-ever V-12 outboard motor. Wait … what? Alright, while we’re joshing around a bit, Mercury Marine does claim that strapping two of these 600-hp V-12s to the back of your craft will provide the same 1,200 combined horsepower but cut down on fuel consumption by an impressive 20-percent when compared to a triple-stack of Yamaha V-8s. So, not exactly a waterbound Toyota Prius Hybrid Synergy D...
Chevrolet Chevette: Awful Car or Unappreciated Revolutionary?
Thirty-five years after it was mercifully euthanized, the Chevrolet Chevette remains synonymous with crappy motoring. The Chevette may have been humble and horrible, but it was also one of the most significant cars in General Motors history. It marked a major turning point in GM’s fortunes, the company’s first acknowledgement that the world was changing in ways it didn’t yet understand. Chevrolet Chevette: Cure for a Corporate Emergency Like the rest of Detroit, GM had steadfastly avoided making subcompact cars—”Mini-cars, mini-profits,” as Henry Ford II so eloquently put it—but the 1973-74 energy crisis changed all that. GM’s corporate average fuel economy was 12 mpg, worst in the industry. Big car sales dried up instantly and General Motors’ mark...
2021 Porsche 911 Turbo Cabriolet First Drive: Money Moves
Porsche 911 Full Overview In the summer of 2012, for reasons still unknown, a family friend and father to one of my old schoolmates threw me the keys to his then-new 997.2 2012 Porsche 911 Turbo Cabriolet. He took delivery of this GT Silver over red streak just a few days before he jetted out of town for business, so naturally, he thought the best course of action was to entrust his fresh 493-hp super-toy to a college-aged ultra-dweeb for a few days. That week of sublimating on-ramps and hosting high-speed joyrides with friends and family left this nascent enthusiast dazed and confused, like some sort of weird vehicular DMT bender. That wasn’t entirely because of the 911 Turbo’s wild performance. The sharpest memory of that weeklong blur occurred while charging around my friend...
Maserati’s New Nettuno V-6 Engine Has Clever Tricks Up Its (Cylinder) Sleeves
The Maserati MC20 has been developed without any input from long-time benefactor and engine supplier Ferrari, and its first all-new engine—the twin-turbo 3.0-liter V-6 Nettuno—is quite impressive. Its Formula 1-inspired pre-combustion chamber got all the headlines during the car’s launch last year, but we just had a chance to (virtually) tour the Maserati Engine Lab where MC20 engines will be assembled (on the site where engines were built when the Orsi brothers first moved Maserati from Bologna to Modena) and learned some interesting clarifications and new facts about this historic new engine. Pros and Cons of That 90-Degree Bank Angle Pros of the engine’s 90-degree bank angle cited by chief engineer Matteo Valentini: It provides a good compromise in overall engine w...
The 1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited 5.9 Was the Warning Shot for Modern Hellcat Madness
See all 18 photos Big Engine, Old Grand Cherokee To appreciate how goofball the “5.9” was, you must first backtrack and revisit the original “ZJ” Grand Cherokee. In 1998, the Jeep was nearing the end of its first-generation, having been introduced for 1993. Despite its semi-modern window dressing, tidy dimensions, and comfortable interior, the Grand Cherokee was still an SUV in the traditional sense. Its narrow, boxy body teetered high atop a pair of solid axles, and four-wheel-drive models carried beefy low-range transfer cases engaged by a muscular lever between the front seats. The modern, independently sprung, wide-tired, lowered Grand Cherokee SRT this was not. Presaging modern-day Chrysler’s go-to move—shoving supercharged Hellcat V-8 engines into nearly...
2021 Mercedes-AMG E63 S vs. Audi RS6 Avant Comparison Test: A Tale of Two Super Wagons
Mercedes-Benz E-Class Full Overview Case in point: The Audi RS6 starts life at $110,045, and the E63 S Wagon begins at $113,500. Emphasis on begins, as by the time a few option boxes are ticked the total kitty for the Mercedes is $129,120. Not to be outdone, the Audi’s price swelled to $131,645 as tested. Not cheap, not even kinda cheap, though for some, well worth the scratch. We’ll get to why that’s so in a moment. Back to the similarities, both high-performance haulers are wagon variants of their respective brands’ brot und butter midsize sedans. The RS6 is underpinned by the (we suspect) quite fine A6 Avant, whereas the AMG is a hot-rodded version of the (no doubt) excellent E-Class Wagon. Why my uncertainty? For reasons too cynical to breathe air into, neither ...
