Autos

The first of Lotus’s three new sports cars will be called the Type 131, and production will begin by the end of this year at the automaker’s new production plant in Hethel, Norfolk. We all likely remember what happened at the 2010 Paris motor show, which makes skepticism toward this latest news understandable. As a refresher: six new models were promised, and not one came to fruition. The situation Lotus is in now, however, is markedly different from the Dany Bahar-era debacle and flubbed timelines. Lotus’s parent company, Geely, recently poured more than $137 million into the new Hethel production facility. That will create some 250 new jobs on top of the 670 people Lotus has already hired since 2017 (when Geely took over). In other words, Lotus already has the cash, fac...

If you look at any “Worst Cars Ever LOL” lists around the internet (or even in books), you will inevitably find a photo of the Edsel’s schnoz featured prominently. Many remember Ford’s failed marque solely as a failure for sundry reasons, but few remember the details of the Edsel lineup itself. That includes the 410 cubic-inch Edsel-475 V-8 in the top-range Corsair and Citation models, which is worth a few words. See all 5 photos We won’t spend a whole lot of time talking about why the Edsel failed, but the year-long “slam dunk” marketing campaign that anticipated the car’s release flopped. You can read entire books about that if you want, but the engines designed for the Edsel’s 1958 release played a central part in how Ford hoped it w...

In the near future, could your adventure van be electric? Seems like it’s going that way. And while its early days yet to get the sort of raw energy density necessary to, say, overland for a month off the grid, a tiny electric camper such as this e-NV200 Winter Camper Concept van might be great for brief excursions in the not-so-remote countryside. See all 9 photos Nissan Europe is exploring this idea with this camperized version of its tiny electric van, which is similar to the NV200 cargo van sold in the United States, except for the fact that it uses a battery-electric drivetrain. Anyone who’s seen one of these things in person can agree that it’s just the right size for smaller commercial vehicle use, but it appears to be a bit claustrophobic for camping duties—as the...

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...