Autos
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2022 Porsche 911 GT3 First Ride Review: Big Talent
Porsche 911 Full Overview There’s the merest hint of a twitch, caught instantly with the tiniest flick of the wrists. Andy Preuninger keeps his foot down. The corner opens onto a short straight running between trees with hints of the red and gold and brown of autumn among the green. The tach needle swings past 8,000 rpm, a steely manic snarl behind us as Preuninger reaches for the shifter on the center console and plucks the next gear. “A Porsche 911 GT3 is like a human being,” he says, watching like a hawk for damp patches on the tarmac. “It likes warmth. It likes operating in the same temperatures we do, 15 to 25 degrees centigrade. When the dampers and the tires are cold it communicates that it’s not happy.” Andreas Preuninger’s anthropomorphism...
Latest 2021 Ram 1500 Built to Serve Edition Pickups Honor the Marines
Ram is paying tribute to five branches of the U.S. military with a battalion of special-edition pickups. Celebrating the active service members, reserve members, and veterans who make up seven percent of the U.S. population, these thousands of 2021 Ram 1500 “Built to Serve Edition” come complete with unique paint colors and patriotic design cues. The latest models honor the Marines, featuring a choice between Tank and Flame Red exteriors. Ram will introduce 1,000 copies of each color for the truck honoring the Marines. All models, including the trucks paying homage to the other military branches, feature black accents on the grille, bumpers, bezels, side steps, and exhaust tips. These details pair with unique 20-inch aluminum wheels and body-color wheel flares. A special “...
Ford Ranger Now Available Without a Pickup Bed In Europe, Just as Option Disappears from America
Say you’re looking for a small pickup truck, minus the pickup bed. It might seem pointless—does a bedless pickup become just a truck? A two-seat oddity?—but if it strikes you as such, you probably don’t live in the commercial realm, where upfitters bolt any number of useful, typically specialized configurations to the chassis behind the truck’s cab. To open up its midsize Ranger pickup to such possibilities, Ford is releasing a new chassis-cab version, sans cargo bed, but only in Europe. See all 11 photos The bedless Ranger is a blank canvas for…whatever a builder would like to do to it. Go ahead, bolt on a flatbed, or an enclosed cargo box, or even a boom. (Ford has helpfully illustrated a few of those options here.) Ford Europe says its Ranger chassis cab, which is base...
Yenko’s Back With a TRX-Rivaling 800HP Supercharged Chevy Silverado Pickup
If you feel like this Yenko hot rod Chevy was introduced earlier this year, you’re not entirely wrong. You’re also not entirely right, as the tuner previously showed off its lowered Limited Edition truck. This, however, is the Off Road. Like the Limited Edition, the Off Road features the same supercharged V-8 engine and six-speed automatic transmission. Likewise, the engine carries the same host of modifications: a blueprinted LT-1 aluminum block; forged crankshaft, rods, and pistons; CNC-ported heads; and an upgraded fuel system and injectors. Drivers can mash the throttle confidently, knowing that a three-year/36,000-mile warranty backs the engine and transmission. See all 9 photos Suspension improvements come courtesy of a BDS four-inch coilover lift system (with front ...
Build Your Own Electric Rivian R1S SUV and R1T Pickup—the Configurators Are Now Live
Better late than never, right? Rivian is finally taking reservations for its sleekly styled electric pickup and SUV, and after a weeklong period during which only reservation holders for the R1S and R1T electric SUV and pickup could access the automaker’s online configurator tool, you, too, can now virtually build your dream Rivian R1S and R1T. The first thing you’ll notice when you visit Rivian’s build-your-own tool is that the limited-production R1S and R1T Launch Editions models are sold out. These variants were scheduled to arrive in the middle of next year—June for the R1T and August for the R1S. Launch Editions come with upgrades like special badging and a unique army green (aptly named Launch Green) paint option. If you didn’t get your hands on a Launch Editi...
Who Needs Baby Yoda When You Can Have a Baby Bugatti II?
Way back in 1926, Bugatti Automobiles founder Ettore Bugatti gifted his 4-year-old son a unique birthday present: a half-scale version of Bugatti’s Type 35 race car, which won the Grand Prix World Championship in the very same year. The one-off kiddie car was nicknamed the Bugatti “Baby”, and Ettore’s VIP clients soon asked him to make one for their own children. Some 500 Bugatti Baby kid cars were built and sold by the time production ended in 1936, making them very rare and expensive collectibles for well-heeled Bugatti fanatics today. But now, you can buy a brand-new Bugatti Baby II kiddie car to go along with that Bugatti Chiron Pur Sport or Super Sport 300+ you have on order. Oh, to be a (wealthy) kid again. Bugatti Baby II Prices and Specifications Three diffe...
Porsche Taycan Slides Into World Record DMs With Longest EV Drift Ever
Porsche just set the world record for longest drift with an electric vehicle. While BMW still holds the record for the longest continuous drift with a gas-powered car, Porsche put a more eco-friendly spin on the feat by attempting it in a rear-drive version of its Taycan EV—a variant it currently sells in markets such as China. The record was set at the Porsche Experience Center in Hockenheim, Germany. Instructor Dennis Retera took to a wet, 200-meter (approximately 656-f0ot) radius skidpad in a Taycan and drifted it for 55 minutes continuously. Retera covered 26.2 miles (the exact distance of a marathon) “without the front wheels ever pointing in the same direction of the curve.” In layman’s terms, he was drifting the entire time. Porsche’s new world record was com...
GM Offering Cadillac Dealers Up to Half a Million Bucks to Ditch the Luxury Brand
Most, if not all, new Cadillacs around the world will be electric within the next 10 years. No doubt, this will be a huge transition for a brand that currently sells no EVs, and recognizing this reality, General Motors is reportedly offering to buy out dealers who don’t want to invest in the ambitious transformation plan. According to Automotive News, the buyouts range from $300,000 to $500,000 per dealer. It won’t be the first time Cadillac tries to trim its dealership network, but this is quite a large sum of money on offer. Dealers have until the end of November to accept the money. “We wanted to move fast and make sure dealers are ready for the acceleration,” Mahmoud Samara, vice president of Cadillac North America, told the publication. “This is purely an option for those dealers who ...
OnStar Insurance Could Save GM Vehicle Owners Money—If They Drive Nicely
Car insurance in the 21st Century is a bit more complicated than it was a few short decades ago. More technology in cars means more potential repair costs to consider, but it also gives insurance carriers the ability to tailor premium rates to each individual driver—as long as you let them into your car to look over your shoulder. Companies like Progressive and State Farm have offered services that monitor your driving habits and reward good behavior for years, and now General Motors is looking to get into the telematics-based insurance game with OnStar Insurance. Unlike other services that rely on external devices that plug into your car’s onboard diagnostics (OBD-II) port or connect to it via Bluetooth, OnStar Insurance uses the systems already built into every GM vehicle. OnStar Insuran...
2021 Genesis GV80 First Test Review: Cool, Not Hot
The SUV market has been red-hot for the better part of a decade, so plenty of confused-cat emojis ensued when Genesis pushed its nascent brand by launching a trio of sedans. Y NO SUV, guys? Well, the wait is over. The Korean luxury marque, the premium offshoot of Hyundai Motor Co., finally has put a crossover on the market. Although the 2021 Genesis GV80 has all the touches one would expect from a luxury brand vehicle and will likely serve many upscale families well with its lavish interior, it may leave those looking for an enthusiast feel behind the wheel or a proper luxury vehicle ride wanting. On paper, the GV80 looks ready for action. Like most midsize luxury SUVs such as the BMW X5, Mercedes GLE-Class, and Lincoln Nautilus, the GV80 provides a choice of two powertrains: a 300-hp, 311...
This Wild Ford Bronco Sport Badlands Build Is Just MAD About Living Up to Bronco Name
The 2021 Ford Bronco Sport might not be the full-blown Bronco of your dreams, but it is an affordable way to get into something with surprising off-road chops and that iconic Bronco badge. That doesn’t mean, however, that with a little imagination the baby Bronco Sport can’t be turned into something even more capable and totally badass. Cue the MAD Bronco Sport Badlands—a concept designed to show what the smallest Bronco can really do. <!– –> Originally intended for the 2020 SEMA show in Las Vegas, which was cancelled thanks to the ongoing pandemic, Ford debuted the concept at what it called “Ford Auto Nights” in the tuner show’s stead. The digital auto show has already debuted a number of sweet concepts such as the Bronco Badlands Sasquatch ...
2021 Ford Ranger Tremor SEMA Show Truck Ready to Shake Up Some Adventure
The pandemic has cancelled just about every big event in 2020, including the annual automotive spectacle that is the SEMA Show. In normal times, SEMA would already be behind us by now. But this year the world’s largest automotive aftermarket show is going virtual, and once again Ford is rolling deep with its modified vehicle debuts. Revealed online alongside a Mustang Mach-E drift car, overland-prepped Bronco Sport, two-door Bronco built for the dunes, and others, this custom 2021 Ford Ranger Tremor makes us want to escape the confines of our home offices and enjoy the great outdoors. The truck began life as a 2021 Ford Ranger XLT Tremor SuperCrew and was transformed by Ford’s vehicle personalization team into the wilderness-ready vehicle you see here. The build mostly uses parts available...
