Autos
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2021 Genesis G80 Improves Big Time on Old Model’s Fuel Economy
The all new 2021 Genesis G80 sedan broke cover earlier this year, and it immediately caught our eye. Its new face, swooping roofline, and overall good looks made a sparkling first impression. Of course, what’s underneath the fabulous sheetmetal matters too, and today we finally know what kind of fuel economy the all-new mid-size luxury sedan will offer. <!– –> Two engine choices will be on offer when the new G80 finally reaches U.S. shores. Even though power figures are still under wraps, the EPA-estimated fuel economy gives us our first good idea of how the newest entrant in the luxury mid-size sedan segment will stack up against its competition. Both engines will come with an eight-speed automatic gearbox as the only transmission option. The smaller engine is a 2....
Rivian’s R1T EV Truck Is the Unsung Hero of Ewan McGregor’s New TV Show
You know that the MotorTrend App is completely stuffed with amazing adventure driving shows such as Dangerous Roads and Idris Elba: No Limits, right? We think we have the greatest car shows around, but we’re also down to tell you about particularly exciting things happening outside of the MotorTrend App universe. Take the new Charlie Borman (who incidentally is featured in a Dangerous Roads episode) and Ewan McGregor show Long Way Up, a sequel to the fantastic Long Way Round and Long Way Down miniseries. The premise has always been somewhat the same: put Ewan and Charlie, old friends who love adventure travel, on the back of two huge and heavily laden adventure bikes and send them around the world or across a continent. Predictably, Long Way Up follows a similar setup, and it takes place m...
Suzuki Jimny Black Bison Edition Is a Jeep, Bronco, and Land Rover Mashup
Along with the Ford Ranger Raptor, the Suzuki Jimny is one of the most desirable off-road vehicles we don’t get here in the U.S. And while the Jimny is typically known for its spartan rugged charm, the folks at Japanese outfitter Wald International have made the little 4×4 flashier with additional off-road design cues and a posh interior. Up front, the Suzuki Jimny Black Bison Edition features a new grille with headlight covers. The front bumper receives new LED lights, and additional lighting elements can be found on the roof. A special aero hood adds to the more aggressive look. In the rear, there is a new bumper panel and spoiler. It’s also hard to ignore the beefy overfenders and the off-road-ready tires. Inside the cabin, Wald is offering plenty of luxury. Along with quilted-patt...
1957 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR First Test
With the recent reveal of the 2021 Mercedes-AMG GT Black Series, we thought now would be a great time to revisit the AMG GT’s legendary predecessor. From our April 1957 issue, here’s our First Test of the legendary Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR. Every time Daimler-Benz returns to racing, success is achieved by a single-minded concentration of effort and resources, giving the appearance of inevitability. The cars, which open up new perspectives in design for high performance, are retired to places in the Daimler-Benz museum at Untertürkheim, and it is a rare occasion when the opportunity arises to study a design in detail. In the case of the famous World Championship Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR, the veil has been lifted. In the spring of 1956, a few of us sat in the sun outside the elegant Schloss Solit...
Joe Biden Hints at All-Electric, 200-MPH Chevy Corvette in Campaign Video
Former Vice President and current Presidential candidate Joe Biden is an unrepentant fan of the Chevrolet Corvette. In fact, he personally owns a green 1967 Corvette convertible, which just so happens to have a starring role in a recent video he tweeted out in support of his presidential campaign. There's been a lot of talk about my vetting process lately. Here’s an inside look: pic.twitter.com/tFRKJOE3hi — Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) August 5, 2020 As much as we love hearing the sound of a V-8 spinning toward redline, we know this clip ultimately serves as a prop toward Biden’s political ambitions. We’re not taking a stance one way or the other on the race—this is MotorTrend, not PoliticTrend—other than to point out that it truly seems as though the former Vice President of th...
Turbofan Wheels: The History and Appeal of These Awesome Rims
For any given era and social niche, there are certain markers, certain cultural icons, that serve as symbolic bywords for that era and culture. Clothing can easily become such a reference: bell-bottoms, backward clothes, flannel, JNCOs, skinny jeans—each has had its heyday. So, too, with cars, some icons standing in as rolling representations of their eras—Wolf of Wall Street, anyone? But what about what the cars roll on? Do the shoes make the car, too? In the case of “turbofan” wheels, at least, the answer is yes. What Is a Turbofan? Originating from the time when racing’s top levels were just beginning to figure out the “how” of creating downforce and minimizing aerodynamic lift in the 1970s, turbofan wheels were another step in that direction. Perhaps capturing that nascent but incomple...
Want a Mint 1999–2000 Honda Civic Si, But Don’t Want to Pay Bring a Trailer Money for It?
We’ve been in a nostalgic haze over the 1999–2000 Honda Civic Si coupe for a while. The two-door’s zingy 1.6-liter four-cylinder engine, which crested the magic 100-hp-per-liter benchmark thanks to Honda’s VTEC variable valve timing system and its ear-splitting 8,000-rpm redline, steals the show. So, too, does the economy car’s simple interior and manual transmission. We’re not the only ones pining for these emerging classics, however, as evidenced by the recent over-$50,000 sale price of a clean, low-mile example on Bring a Trailer. Is that the new pricing benchmark? Perhaps not, and there is hope for those in the hunt for a similar EM1-generation Civic Si at GR Auto Gallery in Grand Rapids, Michigan. <!– –> Mitten state locals surely know o...
2021 Ford Broncos Get Trail Rated, Beat Up on Jeep’s Rubicon Namesake
The 2021 Ford Bronco easily was one of the most anticipated debuts of 2020, and now that the internet has had a few weeks to pore over and digest the reborn SUV’s myriad details, things have gone relatively quiet on the Bronco news front. But just when you thought the hype was starting to die down, Ford conspicuously rolls through the famed Rubicon trail driving a team of new Bronco prototypes to stir things up again. You know, the trail Jeep names its hardest-core Wrangler trim level after? The massive test group was spotted on the Rubicon over the weekend by dozens of off-road enthusiasts also attempting the trail, who subsequently posted their photos on the Bronco 6G forums. A number of different Bronco variants can be seen, including both two- and four-doors and hard- and ...
Project Cars 3 Is Coming to Xbox One, Playstation 4 First—Not Series X or PS5
Microsoft just dropped a new trailer for the new Project Cars 3 video game, and we’re just as excited by this as we were when the new Gran Turismo and Forza Motorsport games were announced. There is one big difference, however: Project Cars 3 isn’t a next-generation game like its well-established counterparts, destined for the newest Xbox Series X and Playstation 5 consoles. Instead, the newest installment of Project Cars will likely be the last major racing game released for today’s Xbox One and Playstation 4. Project Cars 3 should be quite the treat for those of you—so, well, all of you—with current-generation consoles, giving gamers/racers one last hurrah. The previous Project Cars games featured a truly incredible amount of customization, something that has made the f...
Interview: Polestar Design Director Max Missoni on the Future Look of Volvo’s Premium Electric Brand
For most automotive designers, taking their CEO through a design review can be a fraught process. The auto industry is mostly run by accountants and engineers, number crunchers who rely on systems and processes to produce something that sells on emotion. Polestar design director Max Missoni has a slightly different challenge, however: His boss, Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath, is himself a designer. When Ingenlath left Volkswagen to become head of Volvo design in 2012, he brought with him to Sweden the Austrian-born Missoni, who’d worked for the German automaker since graduating from London’s Royal College of Art in 2002. Missoni was made vice president of exterior design for Volvo in 2014, and in 2018 he became Polestar’s design director after Ingenlath was made CEO of the premium electric ...
A Look Back at Lincoln’s Rich History of Great Coach-Built Cars
During the rollout of the 2020 Lincoln Continental Coach Door Edition Coach Door Edition, the press has fallen all over itself comparing the car to the midcentury modern JFK “suicide-door” fourth-gen Continentals. But 334,345 of those cars were mass-produced by Lincoln in Wixom, Michigan. No, the modern Continental Coach Door Edition deserves to be compared with classic Lincolns dating back to the earliest days of the brand. Did you know in that era Lincoln offered more custom bodies in its catalog than any other American manufacturer? Ugly cars designed by Henry Leland’s milliner brother-in-law, Angus Woodbridge, were killing his nascent brand. (Ladies hats are very different from cars; who knew?) So as soon as Henry Ford bought Lincoln and ousted the Lelands, his design-oriented son Edse...
Infiniti Teases Its 2022 QX55’s FX-Like Rear End Behind Some Guy’s Head
Let’s hope the 2022 Infiniti QX55 is better than this teaser image the Japanese luxury brand released of the upcoming crossover SUV. Because if this picture is representative of the project management that went into developing the QX55, then we have low expectations for Infiniti’s swoopy sibling to the QX50 compact crossover. Don’t get us wrong. We get this teaser is designed to preview the newest member of the Infiniti model line without giving everything away. But why did Infiniti decide to put a portion of a person in the image, as well? Is there a larger story to tell about this individual? What role does this person play in the QX55’s debut? We don’t know, and frankly, it leaves us with more questions than answers. Admittedly, we like what little we see of the model in this teas...
