It should have made headlines all over the American music press, from CMJ to Raygun. After spending the first half of the decade apart, the original members of Washington D.C. hardcore legends Bad Brains reunited in the studio with the late, great Rock for Light producer Ric Ocasek for an album boosted by an even more unlikely ’80s icon: They joined the likes of Meshell Ndegeocello, Alanis Morissette, and the Prodigy on the roster of Madonna’s Maverick Records. And, apparently, it was another brand new Maverick signee in Deftones frontman Chino Moreno who convinced them to draw up the papers. “We had just gotten signed to Maverick Records in ’95, and one of the first conversations I remember having with [label head] Guy Oseary was him asking me what my biggest influences were,” Moreno expl...
Like ships passing in the night, Cadillac’s two most iconic nameplates barely shared dealership floor space. The two-door Eldorado—that symbol of mid-century American automotive glamour and luxury—was being put to rest just as a new E-named vehicle, the Escalade, was arriving to restore Cadillac to the forefront of automotive vogue. In only 20 short years, with no prior pedigree, the Escalade has come to dominate and define the luxury SUV space. But what if it had some existing lineage? What if Cadillac had first thought up the Escalade back in the 1950s when it dropped the Eldorado on an increasingly affluent, booming America? Great question, and it’s been answered by talented designer Abilemec Arellano, who imagined what a 1959 Cadillac Escalade might have looked like if the ...
Pickup trucks are still the best-selling vehicles in America. Millions and millions sell every year, for moving furniture, hauling construction gear, or towing your boat to the river. Throw in higher profit margins than SUVs or cars, and you have a vehicle segment the automakers will always covet and want to expand. A ton (or half-ton) of redesigned trucks have hit the market in the past few years, but there are still more to come in this highly competitive segment. Meanwhile, minivans may still be fighting to shed their image of parental capitulation, but it’s a fiercely fought segment all the same. We may not be buying as many crumb cruncher carriers as we used to, but when we do, we want them to be the absolute pinnacle of family transportation. So work continues to make them more...
When you’re shopping for a car, you must first identify your specific vehicular needs. If you’re buying it for work, where you’ll regularly need to haul things, then you’re probably looking for a truck. Need a family car? A sedan or wagon—or SUV, these days—might fit the bill. Or maybe this is a “treat yo’ self” occasion and you want a convertible. Those are all very different vehicle types, and rarely can you have the best of two worlds—let alone four—in one car. But in 1995, Mercedes-Benz challenged that notion with the transformable VRC concept. The Variable Research Car, or VRC, made its debut at the 1995 Geneva Motor Show. Its main gimmick was its interchangeable bodywork that allowed the concept vehicle to be configured in one of four body st...
Toyota’s legacy as an engine designer and producer is inextricably intertwined with the inline-six. After all, four of the power plants on this list fall into that configuration, including the desirable 2JZ-GTE from the A80 Supra. But Toyota’s talents go beyond six-cylinder engines. Think about the high-revving V-10 from the Lexus LFA or the flat-four the company co-developed with Subaru for the 86 and BRZ. More Videos 6 Reasons Why the MKIV Supra Became a Classic 2005 New York: Scion t2B Concept Video Of The Year: Scion xD – Motor Trends 2008 Car of the Year Contender Video SUPER STREET’s 8 Favorite Cars of SPOCOM Anaheim 2018 Rare Metals: Classic Cars of the 1990s at Throwback Meet II Behind the Wheel: the 2020 Toyota Supra Watch This! The Lexus LF-30 Electrified Need t...
The Leibniz Supercomputing Centre (LRZ) in Munich, Germany, contains no ordinary supercomputer. Sure, it has thousands of servers, or nodes, stacked in rows in a windowless vault with technicians working diligently on huge data crunching conundrums for research organisations; running simulations to try and better predict future natural disasters like tsunamis and earthquakes. But it is eerily quiet. Almost too quiet. The familiar whir of hot air being whooshed away by power-hungry computers is almost entirely absent. Where are all the fans? Almost all gone, as it turns out. The LRZ SuperMUC NG, which uses massive arrays of Lenovo’s ThinkSystem SD650 servers, requires nearly no fans at all – just those for cooling the power supply units and in the in-row-chillers on every eighth row. As a r...
At the age of five, when kids start to develop early interests like Pokémon card collecting or tee-ball, most parents can safely cross DJing off the list of potential hobbies. Most parents. The parents of five-year-old DJ Archie are not most parents. At a time when other kids his age are learning how to color inside the lines, he is dropping house heaters on his way to becoming a barnstorming international EDM artist. The son of renowned British television host and award-winning “Dear Lovejoy” podcast Tim Lovejoy, entertainment courses through DJ Archie’s veins. Essentially, it was only a matter of time before this miniature prodigy made waves in the music industry. He’s like a can of soda—too much energy on the inside, and it explodes. And we ar...
They may be out of favor right now, but traditional three-box cars will never go away. To make sure, automakers around the world are pouring enormous resources into design and engineering to keep sedans, coupes, and convertibles as interesting and as compelling as possible. Whether they’re built for fun, luxury, a bit of both, or just to get you where you need to go, the cars of the near future will offer more style and technology than ever as they try to woo you away from joining the SUV herd. Cadillac Celestiq See all 13 photos What’s New: The Celestiq is a massive four-door, four-passenger, full-size electric car with big wheels and a hatch instead of a trunk. It will be a hand-built grand tourer with tons of executive-style space in the very wide back seat. A tinted glass r...
The current-generation Mazda CX-9 has been around since 2016, and it represented a critical step forward for the automaker. Based on the SkyActiv platform, Mazda’s midsize crossover got a polished look thanks to the new Kodo design language, making it more premium inside and out. Like with all Mazdas, the CX-9 is one of the best-driving SUVs in its segment thanks to its punchy turbocharged engine and well-tuned transmission. For the 2020 model year, the CX-9 got a midcycle refresh, and that includes important updates to its interior, as well as an increase in torque. More Videos Need to Know: Mazda CX-9 Signature 2015 LA Auto Show Mazda CX-9 First Test: 2019 Mazda3 From the Pressroom: the 2019 Mazda CX-5 2019 Hot Wheels™ Legends Tour: Charlotte 5 Cool Things: the All-New 2020 ...
It’s no secret that Jerry Seinfeld is a car enthusiast. In fact, his namesake television show includes numerous nods to his automotive interests: Jerry’s fridge features a Skip Barber Racing School magnet; posters of Porsches line the walls of his apartment; and Kramer, Jerry’s across-the-hall neighbor, drives an experimental 1973 Chevrolet Impala. Yes, Kramer’s green Impala—the car that famously dons the license plate “ASSMAN” in the Seinfeld episode “The Fusilli Jerry“—is no ordinary Chevy, but one of 1,000 1973 Impalas that General Motors furnished with an experimental front airbag system dubbed the Air Cushion Restraint System (ACRS). How do we know? Well, take a look at the car’s interior in episodes such as “The Race” ...