Classic Cars
Would You Pay $370,000 for a Subaru? The Impreza 22B Complicates Things
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...
The 1991 Ferrari F40 Is Still an Outrageous Poster Child, 30 Years Later
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 ...
Cancel Culture Comes For Ferrari’s 250 GTO Trademark
Fun fact: You can trademark a shape. Ferrari did so in 2008 for its then-44-year-old 250 GTO sports car. And, now, Ferrari lost that trademark in a dispute with Ares Design, a custom-car shop located right down the street in Modena, Italy. The decision could pave the way for outside companies to build and sell GTO lookalikes. Ares, which wanted to build its own take on the rare 250 GTO, took Ferrari to the mat in the European Union Intellectual Protection Office’s Cancellation Division, arguing that the company filed its original trademark in bad faith—essentially, to block efforts at recreation models. It also noted that Ferrari had not used the GTO mark in at least five years, which under EU intellectual property law makes it eligible for cancellation. As Ares stated in its ca...
The Willys M274 Mechanical Mule Looks Goofy but Seriously Hauls
The Willys MB Jeep (and its direct civilian descendants) gets all the glory, but there are plenty of military vehicles that play important roles well away from the front line. Think about the trucks that deliver fuel to frontline tactical vehicles, fight fires, or transport tanks and APCs…they get less of the glory but are a critical part of any battlefield success. The M274 Mule looks ridiculous, frankly, but with more cargo capacity than a contemporary Jeep and its tiny dimensions, it served a very useful role in the Vietnam War era and beyond. See all 11 photos Developed by Willys, the Mule was as bare-bones as you could get. Think of it a bit like a tiny flatbed that happens to have an engine and a minimalist driver’s station attached. The rest of it is platform, able to haul a v...
These Eagle GT Jaguar E-Type Restomods Take 8,000 Hours to Build
The 8,000-hour process to build an Eagle Lightweight GT starts with stripping down an original Series 1 Jaguar E-type and replacing its original steel bodywork with aluminum in a more durable grade than the original Lightweight E-types. This alone takes nearly 2,500 hours, Eagle says. Other changes are made for improved drivability, including deeper side sills which increase torsional rigidity, larger wheel wells to house wider 16-inch wheels, and a 4.7-liter straight-six engine that Eagle touts is an “evolution” of the original “XK” mill and produces 380 horsepower and 375 lb-ft of torque. A new alloy block, big valves, and special crankshaft, pistons, and connecting rods make the power gain possible. See all 11 photos Other details include making various castings ...
This 1968 Winnebago F17 RV Is a Funky Fresh Time Capsule
The year 1968 changed America and the world, with unforgettable events both entertaining, awe-inspiring, and devastating. There was the “Game of the Century,” an NCAA basketball matchup between the UCLA Bruins and Houston Cougars. The unstoppable Bruins—led by Lew Alcindor, who would become future Los Angeles Lakers great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar—had a 47-game winning streak that came to an end with a two-point loss to Houston, 71-69. Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy were assassinated. Apollo 8 orbited the moon and returned safely to Earth. Future pop-culture superstars were born: actors Will Smith, Josh Brolin, and Molly Ringwald, along with skateboarding legend Tony Hawk. In the middle of it all, the cute and fabulously awkward Winnebago F17 RV/motorhome was traversin...
Acura’s Type S Sub-Brand Returns After a Decade-Plus of Dormancy
The Type S name is making its return with the 2021 Acura TLX. We’ve known for quite some time that the second-generation TLX would get a hotter version bearing the brand’s iconic Type S nomenclature. But the Type S name has a longer history than you might imagine, and we’re taking a look at the Type S models that came before the 2021 TLX. 2001-2003 Acura CL Type S See all 69 photos Believe it or not, the Type S name is nearly two decades old. The mark was first applied to the 2001 Acura CL, and it brought a comprehensive list of upgrades to the coupe. Power from the car’s 3.2-liter V-6 (which—no surprise—included the brand’s VTEC variable valve timing tech) rose from 225 to 260 horses. Additionally, the CL Type S boasted other sporty bits such as bigger wheels...
Mercedes Made a Concept Car That Was a Convertible, a Pickup, AND a Wagon
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...
From Roadsters to Rocketships at the Indy 500
This year, for the first time ever, the Indianapolis 500, The Greatest Spectacle in Racing, will not be held in the month of May. Due to the global health crisis, Indy race fans will have to wait until Sunday, August 23, to hear the sound of Honda and Chevrolet race engines shrieking at 230 mph around the fabled 2.5-mile track. They like their tradition at Indy, from the yard of bricks at the finish line that is the only remnant of the surface Ray Harroun’s Marmon Wasp rumbled over en route to victory in the very first 500 in 1911, to the rousing rendition of Back Home in Indiana that sets the stage for the most famous command in racing: “Start your engines!” And that’s what makes the Indy 500s held from 1963 through 1968 the most fascinating of them all. See all 46...
Wait, Kramer Drove an Experimental Chevrolet on “Seinfeld”?
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” ...
Michigan Flooding Destroys Local Fiero Repair Shop
It hurts to see something like this. From all reports, Fieros Forever was a work of love by a man named Tim Evans, and his specialty shop worked on, preserved, and displayed Pontiac’s sporty little mid-engined runabout. The shop, located in Midland, Michigan, was struck by floodwaters that were released when the Edenville Dam failed during immense rainfall this month. The floodwaters then crested the Sanford Dam, upstream on the Tittabawassee River from Midland, where Fieros Forever is located. As you can see, the result is heartbreaking. Of course, these are cars, which can—given time and money—be repaired. The human cost of the flooding will be harder to fix than a handful of Pontiacs. But what happened to this Fiero shop is just a slice of the unfolding tragedy in the Tittabawasse...
Watch Big 1970s Cars Decimate Their Smaller Siblings in Vintage Crash Test Footage
You might remember that a while back, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety crashed a few modern cars into their vintage counterparts to show, in part, how far crash safety had progressed. But what stuck in our minds wasn’t how intact the passenger cells of the modern cars remained, but rather how mangled the old cars were. We’re thinking in particular of the ’59 Bel Air slamming into a 2009 Malibu, and the Nissan Tsuru (an early 1990s Sentra sold in Mexico until 2017) crashing into a modern Sentra. Yowzers. How about two 1970s-vintage cars crashing into each other? And make one of them full-sized in the 1970s sense of the term—aircraft carriers, basically—and the other the relevant company’s compact. We’re talking about the Ford Pinto, Chevrolet Vega, an...
