Autos

Alfa Romeo, eight-cylinders—that’s a rather evocative cluster of letters. If you’re any sort of Alfisti like us, the very mention of an eight-cylinder Alfa has you slack-jawed and glaze-eyed with thoughts of Alfa’s pre-war straight-eight monsters that claimed world championships and terrorized Italian farmroads, and then onto dreams of Alfa’s high-revving racing V-8s from the 1950s and 1960s that begat the outrageously stylish Tipo 33 Stradale and the later Montreal. Eventually, you’ll settle on the Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione from the late 2000s, shredding tires and breaking hearts with its Ferrari/Maserati V-8. This 1974 Alfa Romeo Alfasud is none of those. The tinny and rust-prone Alfasud was likely the last Alfa to enter your mind during that dayd...

It’s a classic tale, really. Man sees lottery giving away a Chevy Corvette and some cash. Man purchases scratch-off lottery ticket hoping to win said Chevy Corvette and some cash. Man wins the lottery—but the lottery can’t source a Corvette for the winner, and now lawyers are involved and you’re reading about the whole kerfuffle here. So maybe that isn’t a tale as old as time, but it sure is kind of amusing. Really, how could the Georgia lottery not have lined up a Corvette for the ultimate winner of its Corvette giveaway ahead of time? It’s like the U.S. Treasury sending you an I.O.U. for your tax return because it forgot to print checks. Expectant new Corvette owner Dennis Kahler won the lottery fair and square, and according to the Corvette Forum where this...

Way back in 2015, Congress passed the Low Volume Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Act (LVMVMA). It required the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) to come up with guidelines to allow certain small vehicle manufacturers (those that sell less than 5,000 vehicles globally per year) a path toward producing turn-key replicas, instead of kit cars, in a limited number and with a variety of restrictions. And then … nothing happened. Until now. The NHTSA has finally gotten its act together after prodding (and lawsuits) from SEMA and others, and we finally have a look at the LVMVMA’s final rules (PDF document). Here’s the gist: these companies can build up to 325 replica cars annually for sale in the U.S., and they don’t have to be kit cars. More imp...

Going, going, gone. If you wanted a 2021 Dodge Durango SRT Hellcat and haven’t already secured your order, you’re too late. Set to be built in relatively limited numbers, the Durango SRT Hellcat’s order books are full. If this were pretty much any other SUV we’d just say “well, there’s always next year,” but unfortunately for prospective buyers who haven’t already gotten their hands on one, there won’t be a next year. Durang-nooo! See all 74 photos Dodge was only ever going to build 2,000 examples of the hellcat-powered three-row SUV during its only model year—2021—after which the powerful model would cease to exist. The supercharged Hellcat V-8 engine won’t pass new emissions regulations that come into effect for the 2022 model y...

If you have been counting the years until the U.S. gets the Volkswagen ID Buzz, the all-new, fully electric microbus redux, sit down and fret because your wait has gotten longer. The U.S. was supposed to get the ID Buzz next year, but the bus’s launch is being delayed until 2023. The update came from Scott Keogh, CEO of Volkswagen of America, during a panel discussion as part of an Automotive News panel discussion in conjunction with CES 2021. See all 33 photos The modern take on the retro hippie-era van will be built in Hanover, Germany, for export globally. The plant is being retooled for production next year of the low-volume lifestyle vehicle. But the microbus must share capacity with a small electric commercial cargo van for Europe and that has been deemed a priority. (With...

Smile, you’re on candid camera when you’re in a modern car with sophisticated driver-assist systems. And in the near future, those cameras will be joined by lidar VCSEL and radar sensors, as well. Yes, the same gadgets that vehicles must use to perceive the environment sufficiently to drive themselves will soon be keeping tabs on you and your passengers inside, too. Ah, progress …   See all 13 photos GazeSense Lidar VCSEL Driver Monitoring You may have seen those unflattering black-and-white images showing how a computer “sees” you when it’s trying to figure out what you’re looking at. Most of these are shot with infrared cameras, but Switzerland-based Eyeware has teamed up with Belgium-based semiconductor supplier Melexis to develop the GazeSe...

A Shelby Cobra is a Shelby Cobra is a Shelby Cobra—except when it isn’t. Shelby managed to complete just over 1,000 original Cobras between 1961 and 1968; add another zero and triple, maybe quadruple, that to account for all the Cobra replicas shaking windows and terrorizing tire shops around the world. Carroll Shelby’s drawn-out fight with RepliCobra peddlers was perhaps his toughest and highest-profile battle since he brought the fight to Ferrari at Le Mans back in the mid-1960s. Finally, after numerous lawsuits and chest-high columns of cease-and-desist letters, Shelby acquiesced and reached an agreement with a dossier of manufacturers including Superformance, Factory 5, Kirkham Motorsports, and even AC Cars, who held the rights to the AC Ace and AC Cobra shape to begin...

There will be repercussions. Stellantis will start life with seven FCA brands and another four from PSA. That seems unmanageable. Every merger creates duplication and results in the death of products, brands, positions, plants, and plans. PSA Group CEO Carlos Tavares, who becomes CEO of Stellantis, has a history of turning brands and companies around with tough cost targets and the discipline to axe where necessary. See all 5 photos Fate of FCA Brands On the FCA side, Jeep and Ram are the profitable powerhouses and, quite frankly, the reason the automaker was an attractive dance partner in the first place. Jeep will only grow in stature with a greater international presence. Ram will remain mostly centered on the North American market but could increase its market reach, especially with co...