Like any good enthusiast car to come out of Japan, the Subaru WRX has so many variants it takes some real study to get all the permutations down. But if you ask a Subaru nut what the greatest road-going Impreza of all time is, you’re likely to get a humble-sounding model as the answer: 22B. And you’ll likely get that answer very, very quickly. The reason for the 22B’s hold on Subie fans? A combination of extreme rarity, WRC rally car looks, and hints that it might be even more formidable than Subaru claims. For one, only 424 were built—400 for Japan, 16 for the U.K., five for Australia, and three prototypes. That’s it. And those looks, sure, Subaru has the WRC cred to back them up. The 22B was built to celebrate three consecutive FIA World Championship tit...
Given the newness of the mid-engine Chevrolet Corvette C8, its limited quantities, and general lack of second-hand examples, those looking to heavily modify a C8 don’t have that many options. Why pay full price for a factory fresh example when you’re just going to cut it up, juice the engine, and more? This 2020 C8 Corvette might be just the ticket for you, if you’re looking for something both affordable and unlikely to spill tears from a Vette fan dismayed to see you significantly alter it. Or, hey, maybe you’re that Vette fanatic, and you’d like to save this C8 from the crusher or a wayward modifier and restore it back to its original glory. Either way, this C8 suffered some misfortune in its brief life so far. It quite literally was dropped as a baby. The s...
The Ferrari F40 is an incredible vehicle, a refugee from an alternate universe in which Ferrari entered Group B rallying with a fury. Descended from the 288 GTO, it was also one of Enzo Ferrari’s pet projects in his twilight years, one of the final incarnations of his legacy. For the rest of us, it was one of the perfect poster vehicles, offering fascinating and otherworldly shapes and angles from every viewpoint—the perfect thing to lay in bed and contemplate. Details such as the wing and its little gills, the pop-ups over the glassed-in elements, the NACA ducts in the hood, and the all-business mesh panel housing the absurdly simple taillights. The “F40” logo itself. It’s all outrageous, more an air superiority fighter sans wings than a beautiful Pininfarina road ...
We love driving fast. We like SUVs. When you merge those two together, you get fast and powerful SUVs. Sounds like fun, no? BMW’s M division and Mercedes-AMG are both known for their performance coupes, but lately they’ve been crafting sporty SUVs with the aim of delivering the same go-fast experience you’d expect in one of their high-performance cars. Sure, SUVs are bigger, taller, and heavier, but when you add a powerful engine, retune the suspension, and add all-wheel drive, the result is a thrilling experience. The BMW X6 M Competition and the Mercedes-AMG GLE 63 S are two gripping SUVs whose job is simple yet difficult to achieve: enchant the driver. The two automakers share the same objective, but each goes about the execution in its own way. Which one does it best?...
There are bigger Basecamps about to be established in the woods, in the form of the new 2021 Airstream Basecamp 20 and 20X. The all-terrain travel trailer—and its off-road-enhanced X-Package variant—is a longer, taller, and wider version of the original Basecamp (now known as the Basecamp 16 and 16X), Airstream’s best-selling travel trailer that was originally launched in 2007 and redesigned in 2016. All Airstream trailers share a nomadic heritage of free-spirited travel, as well as an aluminum aesthetic, but the modern-looking Basecamps are specifically tailored toward gear-hauling outdoor adventurers. The Basecamp travel trailers—designed to be smaller, lighter, and higher off the ground—are made from the same riveted aluminum as Airstream’s other traditional travel trai...
Why make one derivative of your hypercar when you can—and should—have two very distinct versions, each of which takes the already wild base car’s attributes to the extreme? That’s the thought-process at Bugatti, as it continues to capitalize on the dynamic capabilities of the Chiron. See all 36 photos Bugatti Chiron Pur Sport: Designed for Cornering Bugatti de-emphasized the Chiron’s top speed with the Pur Sport. In fact, engineers reduced the Chiron’s 261 mph top speed to 217 mph in the Pur Sport. The goal: To make the quad-turbocharged 8.0-liter 16-cylinder hypercar more fun to drive at lower speeds on a twistier tarmac, Bugatti’s deputy design director, Frank Heyl, said. Heyl’s design team worked closely with the French brand’s engineers during ...
Rumor has it that Audi will eventually replace the R8 with an EV, but for now, the supercar thrives on V-10 power. For the 2021 model year, Audi is getting rid of the base V-10, which makes 562 hp, leaving the 602 hp variant of the engine as the sole means of motivation. There’s still a chance to snag the less powerful model, though, as a limited-edition 2020 Audi R8 goes on sale this summer. The model combines the base V-10 with a host of upgrades from the more powerful R8 Performance. For one thing, the appropriately named R8 Limited Edition gets a carbon-fiber front sway bar. This feature, previously reserved for R8 Performance variants, sheds 4.4 pounds of mass. Buyers of the Limited Edition will also enjoy the R8 Performance’s sport exhaust system. See all 46 photos Availa...
When we tested the new Toyota Corolla sedan at our 2020 Car of the Year competition, we were surprised by how much fun it was to drive. Now, Toyota is looking to maximize the sporting potential of its (newly minted) smallest four-door with the new Corolla Apex Edition. Not only is it literally the apex predator of the Corolla range, it also aims to quite literally clip apexes both on and off track. Toyota plans to make just 6,000 Apex Editions, each offered in one of three different color options. You have your choice of Cement with a black roof, Super White, also with a black roof, or Black Sand Pearl. Regardless of color, the Apex features a racier aero kit that includes a new front splitter, redesigned fog light covers, sporty body side moldings, a reworked rear bumper, and a trunk-lid ...
The 2021 Ford Bronco’s cool and unusual seven-speed manual transmission (with a “dogleg” shift pattern that includes a crawler gear at the bottom left position and six, typically placed, forward gears for day-to-day driving), is the sort of thing that gets our attention. For one, there’s no denying the extra level of connection you get from driving a manual transmission vehicle—if you get it, you get it. And that crawler gear, combined with the Bronco’s robust four-wheel-drive system’s two-speed transfer case and various off-road driving modes, should provide some incredible low-speed control over any really technical stuff. But if you want it with the Sasquatch package, then, for now, you’re out of luck. Ford states the Sasquatch package will...
If you haven’t heard by now, the next Jaguar XJ will embrace battery-electric technology. However, due to the global pandemic that’s stricken the automotive industry, the British brand is reportedly slowing down the development of its upcoming flagship sedan. We expected to see the new XJ as soon as early 2021, but it turns out that may no longer be the case. According to Autocar, the reveal of the big EV Jag won’t happen until the end of next 2021. Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is reportedly cutting back on nonessential spending. What that really means is—thanks to COVID-19 and its effects on vehicle production and development—JLR needs to focus on building and delivering cars that can make money right now before it can finish developing the EV XJ. When we reached out for...
Look, we get it, this is sacrilege. We’re slapping God in the face, going against nature, all of that, but we just couldn’t help ourselves—we just had to know what the 2021 Ford Bronco would look like with a Jeep Wrangler‘s face. And then, once we had that mongrel rendered, our curiosity for what the Wrangler might look like with the new Bronco‘s face got the best of us. So, we rendered that, too. You either are very, very welcome—or we are so, so sorry. Why the face swap? Because the Bronco is here to try and take the Wrangler’s lunch in the mid-size, hard-core off-road 4×4 segment. Both SUVs promise more capability than most owners will ever need, both can have their doors and roofs stripped off with relative ease, and both reach back in time to distant...
You’ve probably heard of auto employee discounts at new car dealerships before. Sometimes carmakers run “everyone gets employee pricing” promotions. But there are actually a few ways you can participate in these employee pricing plans without being an actual employee, a relative of an employee, or working at a company supplier. And with the new 2021 Ford Bronco‘s debut getting fans excited even while the 4×4’s $100 reservation system doesn’t prevent dealer markups, we’re going to tell you about a Ford employee discount program that’s available to (nearly) everyone: Ford X-Plan. There are some hoops to jump through in order to get X-Plan eligibility—it’s not a magic word that unlocks lower pricing simply by uttering it. But before w...