Autos
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2021 Mercedes-AMG GLA 45 Closer Look: A Manic Mighty Mite from AMG
There’s an even more manic version of the Mercedes-AMG GLA coming: The Mercedes-AMG GLA 45, with 382 hp and 354 lb-ft of torque, will join the GLA 35 in U.S. Mercedes dealerships before the end of the year. Pricing has year to be announced, but don’t expect much change from $55,000. And what does paying something like $8,000 more than you would for the GLA 35 buy you? It buys you the world’s most powerful 2.0-liter production engine, for a start. Codenamed M139, and each hand-built by an AMG technician in Affalterbach, it makes its 382 hp at 6,500 rpm, with the 354 lb-ft of torque available from 4,750 to 5,000 rpm, enough to clip 0.7 second from the GLA 35’s 5.0-second zero-to-60 acceleration time. Although identical in terms of bore and stroke to the turbocharged f...
This 1965 Shelby GT350R Prototype Is the Most Expensive Mustang Ever
In the moments following the record sale of one of two ex-Steve McQueen and Bullitt film cars, a weathered and battered Highland Green 1968 Ford Mustang GT 390, we wondered if another Mustang could ever match its final price of $3.74 million. We didn’t have to wait long to find out. Just half a year later, 1965 Shelby GT350R serial number 5R002—the first of two Shelby Mustang team prototypes for the 34 subsequent production Shelby GT350Rs—has sold for $3.85 million, resetting the world-record Mustang sales price. Any time bidding reaches the seven-figure range for a Ford Mustang variant, it’s a big deal, but in this case, it was really no surprise. See all 12 photos When Ford launched its Mustang sports coupe in 1964, the pony car was heavy on style but light on performanc...
2021 Chevrolet Silverado Yenko/SC: An 800-HP Truck That Preempts a Hellcat Ram 1500
The modified Silverado starts (and largely ends) with a 378-cubic-inch LT1 V-8 with a blueprinted aluminum block, forged crankshaft and pistons, and CNC-ported heads, then adds a centrifugal supercharger and custom quad-tip exhaust system for a whopping 800 hp and 720 lb-ft of torque. The Yenko/SC Silverado can be had in either two- or four-wheel drive, but in either configuration you’ll get an upgraded heavy-duty six-speed automatic transmission. Both the engine and transmission come with a three-year/36,000-mile warranty. See all 7 photos Like other products from the Yenko brand, which is now owned by Specialty Vehicle Engineering, the Yenko S/C Silverado will be built in limited quantities. In this case, just 50 trucks will be built for the 2021 model year. And unlike other turnke...
2019 Ram 1500 Laramie Long-Term Review: Our Verdict After 12 Months’ Hard Labor
If you don’t already drive a truck, you might wonder why so many people do in America today. Used to be a truck was a tool, a blunt instrument designed to do a job and nothing else. That hasn’t been true in more than a decade, and no truck proves it like my long-term 2019 Ram 1500 Laramie. Old-school truck guys like to complain we critics put too much emphasis on how a truck rides and drives, how many cupholders it has, and how big its touchscreens are and not on how it tows and hauls. Thing is, the Ram does all those things well. That’s why we made it our 2019 Truck of the Year. A truck may do everything right when you drive it off the showroom floor, but the proof is in how it holds up to abuse. If you’re buying a truck for any reason other than just to look cool,...
This Lifted, Safari-Style Toyota Corolla AE86 In Ironman Livery Gives Zero Trucks
We recently wrote about a safari-style Porsche 911, a lifted and off-road-ready sports car. Think of it as an speed-addled, desert-racing truck, minus the truck part. We love safari takes on cars—practically anything is a set of knobby tires, some raised ride height, and maybe a light bar or two away from nailing the look. Or maybe we’re suffering from pandemic cabin fever, and are wound up by these safaris’ seeming unbound sense of adventure. Definitely. And @track_hype, who shared these images with us, is throwing gasoline on our cabin’s wood stove with this Toyota Corolla AE86 rocking a vintage-style Ivan Stewart Toyota off-road racing livery. This is safari hotness on a whole ‘nutha level. The designer takes the theme to its extreme with a convincing load-o...
McLaren F1 Designer Gordon Murray Thinks His Cosworth GMA Is the World’s Best V-12
Gordon Murray thinks the Cosworth GMA V12 will be one of the most iconic engines of all time. The ultra-light, ultra-compact, naturally aspirated V-12, developed by Britain’s Cosworth Engineering to Murray’s precise specification, will power a pure, driver-focused, lightweight three-passenger hypercar called the T.50, a car designed to be the successor to his ground-breaking McLaren F1 that rocked the 1990s. The Gordon Murray Automotive (GMA) T.50 will make its public debut on August 4. But GMA has released a wealth of detail on the extraordinary engine that will power it. We brushed the surface of the engine’s magic recently, but consider this the deep dive. Murray wanted a 12-cylinder engine for the T.50 from the outset. “To be truly remarkable, an engine nee...
2020 Honda Civic Si HPT Sedan Long-Term Arrival
Sometimes in this line of work, there’s that one car you just never seem to drive. Not some million-dollar exotic no one else will drive, either, but something totally normal and common. For me, that bogey always seems to be a Honda Civic. The universe has made a sudden course correction because I’m now responsible for our 2020 Honda Civic Si HPT Sedan for the next few months. In keeping with the pattern, though, I won’t be driving this one a full year. Let’s see what we have to work with then. It’s a short and sweet list, but it requires a little decoding. The Si is Honda’s storied mid-tier performance sub-brand, focused more on handling and driver involvement than raw power. In this case, it means the turbocharged 1.5-liter I-4 has been tuned up from 1...
2021 Mercedes-AMG GLA 35 First Drive Review: AMG All the Things?
AMG all the things! Mercedes-Benz product planners have been in the grip of AMG mania for the best part of a decade now. Once, the storied AMG badge was only applied to a handful of suitably enhanced Mercedes vehicles. Now it seems almost anything with the three-pointed star is a candidate for an AMG makeover: more horsepower, more noise, stiffer suspension, bigger wheels and tires, all served with a soupçon of menace and carbon fiber. It’s proven a highly successful formula, with premium-priced AMG models now accounting for 12 percent of all U.S. Mercedes sales. But the 2021 Mercedes-AMG GLA 35 proves that buying the badge doesn’t necessarily mean you’re buying a better Benz. The GLA 35 is, of course, being pitched as the hot version of the redesigned 2021 GLA 250 and 25...
This Dakar-Style Porsche 911 Can Tackle Steep Driveways, Actual Deserts
The go-(almost)-anywhere Porsche 911 “safari” trend is in full swing, and we’ve seen concept from Gemballa, Ruf, and many others. Now Delta4x4 of Germany is getting into the action with this customer commission, visualized here and due to be built in 2021. The car is a 992-generation Porsche 911 Carrera 4S, and the customer’s wish is to drive straight to Dakar from his home in southern Germany. To do that, this car will need a bit of help on the rough patches. This is a mission the 911—and its 4×4 953 and 959 siblings—have famously done before. And so, too, has Delta4x4, albeit with a much lower profile. In 1982, the company prepared a Suzuki Jimny and completed the Paris to Dakar race in it—no small feat, even if it doesn’t rise to the level of Porsche&#...
Lamborghini Aventador SVJ Xago Edition Is a Hectare of Hexagons
We live in a virtual world, and Lamborghini is celebrating this new reality with a very rare special edition with a name as weird as the one Elon Musk assigned to his kid on Twitter. Limited to ten customers who personalize their car virtually, the Lamborghini Aventador SVJ Xago Edition is easier to pronounce and features a hexagon-heavy design theme inside and out. A fading hexagonal motif joins the fading hexagonal name (“Xago” is just, well, the middle part of the word “hexagon”) and is splashed prominently across the sides of the Aventador, for starters. Why hexagons? Lamborghini apparently took inspiration from “the hexagon cloud shapes at the North Pole on the planet Saturn and the strength of the hexagon in nature.” This “hexagonita” p...
Iconic Dean Moon “Moonburst” Dragster Found After 43 Years in Storage
Around 1980, Michael Lightbourn spotted an odd, enclosed car trailer off to the side of a cotton farm on the outskirts of Fabens, Texas. He eventually met the owner, Bob Kimpel, who unlocked the trailer’s door and let Lightbourn peek inside. There, he eyeballed the back of a single-seat, tube-frame race car that stretched 188 inches as it ran toward the trailer’s nose. Kimpel explained this old race car was named “Moonburst” and had been featured in an issue of HOT ROD magazine; it was also spun from famed hot-rodder and racer Dean Moon’s shop—if you somehow don’t know the name, you definitely know the Mooneyes logo. Feeling the sense of awe and wonder that comes with uncovering buried treasure, Lightbourn was eager to buy. Kimpel didn’t want ...
Listen to the Sweet Snarl of Hennessey’s C8 Corvette Exhaust System
If a 12,000-hp Corvette sounds a bit like overkill, then Hennessey has another delectable C8 upgrade for you. Hennessey Performance has introduced a new exhaust system that boosts output on the eighth-gen Corvette and gives the sports car an even sweeter soundtrack. In the video below, Hennessey walks customers through the kit’s somewhat involving installation process. While the tuner recommends taking the parts to a professional auto tech for installation, expert assemblers can certainly DIY the upgrade if they have a few tools on hand. Made of 100 percent stainless steel, the exhaust upgrade adds 21 hp and 19 lb-ft of torque to the Corvette’s mid-mounted V-8 engine. Top speed is 205 mph, according to Hennessey. The upgrade also sheds 10 pounds from the regular Corvette’...
