Autos
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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...
Texas Man, Like Florida Man Before Him, Uses PPP Loan Money on Lamborghini
No offense to the state of Florida, but it’s typically a good idea to avoid following in its male citizens’ footsteps. Or, at least, to never appear in a sentence like the title of this story. That’s because it can be assumed that any news item that begins “Florida Man…” involves some kind of brazen, insane, or otherwise non-model behavior. Take one Florida Man from last month, who used fraudulently obtained Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan money intended for coronavirus business relief to purchase himself a Lamborghini Huracán. Well, one Lamborghini-lovin’ Texas Man just couldn’t help himself. While it’d be funny to write that the Texas Man at the center of a new Justice Department criminal complaint said something like “ho...
Even Watching a Street Race in Atlanta Could Net You a Huge Fine
Street racing is nothing new, but it may have found an opening of late. As we’ve reported previously, while the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has kept most people inside and cars off the roads, and according to some local news outlets, speeders and street racers have been taking advantage of those extra-empty streets—Atlantans included. They’ve been holding street races and road takeovers with hundreds of spectators, sometimes multiple nights in a row. Authorities are summoning a response. In an effort to crack down on street racing—and, more specifically, the massive crowds these events tend to attract—the Atlanta City Council recently approved legislation that punishes bystanders, in addition to racing participants. We all know you can be sent to jail and have your license suspen...
This 36K-Mile 1976 AMC Hornet Sportabout Is Preserved Malaise-Era “Luxury”
Sometimes you’re looking for a time capsule, not a track time. If you’re longing to spend some time in a bygone era, there’s not a lot that encapsulates the mid-1970s quite like an AMC product. And this Hornet Sportabout is basically a leisure suit dripping with disco sweat, sporting a Jimmy Carter campaign button and ready to dig into an open-face meatloaf and mashed-potato sandwich. Unlike many trends from an oft-mocked decade, however, this AMC (being offered up over at Hemmings Auctions) looks like it’ll endure. There are just 36,000 miles on the clock, and that’s barely broken in for the 258-cubic-inch inline-six, as it’s an engine with a legendary reputation for longevity if not outright power. The “deluxe” interior is described as like-new and looks it, although its vast plast...
