Autos
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Yeah, Buddy: 2021 Ford Bronco Sasquatch Will Offer a Manual After All
Citing feedback from reservation holders, Ford confirmed it has decided to offer the Bronco’s seven-speed manual transmission with the Sasquatch gear on both the SUV’s two- and four-door body styles. As a refresher, the gearbox is a Getrag-sourced 7MTI550 seven-speed manual, with six forward gears in a conventional pattern and a crawler gear (marked “C”) located left and down from the first set of gates. The crawler gear—also known as a granny gear—is a super-low ratio that allows the Bronco to, well, slowly crawl over almost anything in its path. (For more, check out our explainer on crawler/granny gears.) The Sasquatch package is available on every Bronco—base, Big Bend, Black Diamond, Outer Banks, and Badlands, and standard on First Edition and Wildtrak—and bring...
Toyota GR Super Sport Hypercar Makes Surprise Debut at Le Mans
This year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans was all about Toyota. Again. For the third year in a row, the Japanese brand took the checkered flag at the famed French endurance race. But Toyota didn’t simply make news for winning the race. In fact, the company made sure to steal the spotlight just before the green flag fell by publicly showing off a prototype mule of its forthcoming hypercar, the GR Super Sport. See all 12 photos This was no static display, either, as the low-slung camouflaged car made its way around Circuit de la Sarthe. Predictably, the GR Super Sport appears to crib many of its design cues from the Le Mans-winning TS050. Bulging front and rear fenders, a pointed schnoz with space for a proper Toyota badge, a wide front splitter, and a large rear wing all give the gasoline...
Touring Superleggera’s Aero 3 Is an Ode to an Italian Legend
Before you consider the new Touring Superleggera Aero 3, think of Carrozzaria Touring Superleggera itself, the Milanese coachbuilder and design house that thrived in the 1930s-1960s. You’re instantly prone to visions of the gorgeous, streamlined, almost fragile-looking automotive creations that emerged from its doors. Those cars often did so with Touring’s signature Superleggera or “super lightweight” construction methods, which stretch nearly paper-thin alloy panels over featherweight tubular structural frames. The first car to feature this Superleggera styling was a special 1937 Alfa Romeo 6C 2300 B earmarked for the famous Mille Miglia 1000-mile open–road race occurring in the same year. It’s fitting, then, that Touring’s new Aero 3 pays a homag...
2021 Nissan Maxima Gets Feature-Filled 40th Anniversary Edition
We don’t completely agree with Nissan’s claim that the Maxima is a sport sedan—its too soft and lacks the ultimate agility that aligns with the best of that breed, but we will go along with the idea that it’s a sporty sedan. We appreciate its potent V-6 engine, well-tuned ride, and plush interior. For 2021, the Nissan Maxima gets a little but sweeter—but no sportier—thanks a new special edition celebrating the nameplate’s 40th anniversary in the U.S. We know, right—can you believe the Maxima’s been around for four decades? It indeed has, launching as a trim of the Datsun 810 in 1981 and subsequently becoming Nissan’s longest-running nameplate in America, and this special version of the current, eighth-generation car features a variety of cosmetic up...
Jaguar’s XJR9 Is a Bonkers British Racer and Le Mans Legend
Sir John Egan, the man who pulled Jaguar out of the state-owned morass that was British Leyland, was a shrewd salesman. He knew Jaguar had enough money to launch the XJ40 sedan in 1986, but not a lot more. He realized the company’s long-term future, therefore, lay in persuading one of the global auto giants to fund the ongoing R&D needed to improve the XJ40 and build a replacement for the aging XJ-S, as well as invest in the news that Jaguar would be returning to Le Mans in 1986 with a factory-backed team, and aiming for an outright win, delivered exactly the sort of image-building media coverage Egan wanted. Built and developed by Tom Walkinshaw’s TWR Racing Team, and painted in the distinctive purple, white, and yellow of the team sponsor, the Silk Cut Jaguar XJRs became ...
2022 Jeep Wagoneer: What We Know About the Full-Size SUV
Where Does the Wagoneer Fit in Jeep’s SUV Lineup? That’s the big question among observers, and a key clue is hiding in plain sight right on the Grand Wagoneer concept: a lack of Jeep badging. Like the new Ford Bronco “family,” Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer will serve as a subbrand under the broader Jeep umbrella. Both will sit atop the Grand Cherokee in the lineup, and both will use the same Ram 1500-based platform and three-row layout. How Will Jeep Differentiate the Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer? Since we haven’t seen the production version of either the Grand Wagoneer or the regular Wagoneer, and only a concept version of the former, we don’t know for sure. But we can certainly fill in the blanks based on what Jeep has inferred. We’ve referred to th...
2020 Honda e First Drive Review: Electrified Object of Desire
The 2020 Honda e and the original Acura NSX have a few things in common. They are both rear-wheel drive. They both roll on a staggered tire setup, the rears wider than the fronts. And they are both among the most desirable cars Japan’s most individualistic automaker has ever built. The Honda e is not Honda’s first all-electric-powered vehicle—the company has been working on EV technology since the late 1980s and has released several production battery electric vehicles, including the EV Plus, a handful of which were made available on a lease-only basis in the U.S. in the late 1990s. But Honda has never truly embraced the EV, preferring instead to spend precious R&D time and money on fuel-cell powertrains that combine the zero tailpipe emissions of an electric motor with the...
2020 Cadillac CT6 4.2TT AWD: We Test the CT6’s Blackwing
This should’ve been it. The American luxury/performance flagship sedan to finally stand up to V-8-powered German sedans like the Mercedes-AMG E 63 and S 63, BMW M5, M6 Gran Coupe, and 750i, and Audi RS 7 and S8 cars (and maybe even the Lexus GS F) that have dominated the continent-crossing swift-sedan market forever. But before we even got a chance to properly test a 2020 Cadillac CT6 4.2-liter twin-turbo Platinum powered by the mighty Blackwing V-8 introduced in 2018—let alone compare it against its competitors—the car was cancelled. Production ended in January. Powertrain Fitness It’s a crying shame, really (and probably a fire-able offense for the decision makers involved) to have designed and developed this high-tech engine from scratch, only to sell fewer than 1,400 exampl...
Jaguar’s Late 20th Century Woes: From Failed Le Mans Bid to Management’s Missteps
The 1955 Le Mans race is grimly remembered for Mercedes driver Pierre Levegh’s horrific crash on the pit straight, which claimed the lives of more than 80 spectators. But it’s an event that also deeply affected Jaguar: The only son of company founder Sir William Lyons, John, was killed in a car crash en route to the race. John Lyons was just 25 years old when he died, and it is by no means certain he would have succeeded his father at the helm of Jaguar. But the lack of a successor is often cited as one of the reasons Sir William abruptly decided to merge Jaguar with the British Motor Corporation (BMC)—the company that owned Austin, Morris, MG, Riley, and Wolseley—in 1966. The delicate, six-month-long merger negotiations put the XJ13 program on hold, a fatal delay that meant it...
NASCAR at Le Mans: When a Dodge Charger and Ford Torino Raced in Europe
“They’re going to run what? Where? For how long?” This was likely a common reaction when it was announced that two full-figured NASCAR stockers were going to compete at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1976. Wasn’t that a race in a faraway land called France, contested only by funny little furrin’ cars? No, not since 1966, anyway, when Henry Ford II went there with his all-conquering GT program and the notion of trumping Enzo Ferrari at his own game. The result was the original four-peat: back-to-back factory wins in 1966 and 1967, plus two privateer victories by the Gulf-Wyer team in 1968 and 1969 (in the same car, no less). Sportsman/driver/car-builder Briggs Cunningham tried it a decade and a half before, with creditable results including a third overall. Goodnes...
Report: VW Group Considering Selling of Bugatti to Rimac
Reports from several sources out of Europe point to a Bugatti sale to Croatian automaker Rimac in the near future. The details are yet to be confirmed by the relevant parties, but the rumors are compelling. And the big takeaway here is that the future seems to be electric. Reuters is reporting the basics of the rumor in question: Rimac, the eponymous company from founder Mate Rimac, wants to acquire Bugatti from the Volkswagen Group. Over the years, Volkswagen has acquired many companies and folded each into the group umbrella—consider Lamborghini and Ducati, for example. Bugatti seems to be a crown jewel, but perhaps it’s not so core to the Group’s business than its superlative status would indicate. Rimac, in case you’re not familiar, builds electric hypercars such as t...
2020 Porsche Cayenne Turbo Coupe vs. 2021 Mercedes-AMG GLE 63 S—Stuttgart Enemies
For decades, Porsche has established the benchmark in many (if not all) vehicle classes that it competes in. From the 911 to the Macan, every Porsche is known for its superior handling, body control, and finesse. The Porsche Cayenne is no exception. Since its inception in 2003, the Cayenne has proven naysayers wrong, winning comparison tests and even MotorTrend SUV of the Year. Now, as a new generation emerges, the Cayenne is once again making some noise. The Mercedes-Benz GLE has had a lot of the same success as the Porsche (its predecessor, the Mercedes ML, won Truck of the Year in 1998), but it’s never been a segment standout like the Cayenne. That doesn’t mean it’s far behind, though. As the line’s highest performance variant, the Mercedes-AMG GLE 63 S‘ ma...
