The Le Mans 24 Hours is part of the holy trinity of motor races alongside the Monaco Grand Prix and the Indianoplis 500. It’s the race that the drivers want to win – but more importantly, perhaps even more than the other two, it’s the race that the manufactures want to win. That’s why major [...]The post LE MANS ’85: PORSCHE WIN #10 – BUT THE WRONG CAR appeared first on Speedhunters.
For the fourth time in the same number of years, the gang over at Mopar—Chrysler’s service, parts, and customer-care brand—have pulled a car from the Chrysler Group lineup and massaged it into a limited-edition vehicle to showcase some of their latest developments in technology and performance. Having already performed its magic on a trifecta of [...]
We’ve been pretty effervescent in our enthusiasm for Subaru’s first-ever rear-wheel-drive performance car. So ebullient, in fact, that we named the BRZ along with its Scion FR-S identical twin to our 10Best cars roster for 2013. The new Subie sports coupe’s poise and balance on the road are incredible, as are its tactile responses to [...]
Kia will be unveiling the Cee’d GT And Pro_Cee’d GT at the 2013 Geneva Motorshow. They are the most focused performance Kia cars yet and the turbocharged 1.6-litre GDI petrol engine will produce 201 bhp and 265 Nm of torque. Acceleration will be a warm 7.9 seconds to 62. The pro_cee’d GT is anticipated to [...]
Honda has announced that later this year, any customer with a 2013 Accord or 2013 Acura ILX or RDX can have Apple’s Eyes Free Siri integration fitted to their cars. To recap, Eyes Free tech enables Siri use through a car’s Bluetooth connection, utilizing a car-mounted button to activate the iPhone’s digital personal assistant instead of the [...]Kia’s relationship with DC Entertainment is by now well known—the duo created a batch of superhero-themed Kias for last year’s SEMA show—and now the partnership has resulted in a Superman-themed Optima hybrid, set to debut at the 2013 Chicago auto show. Comparison Test: 2012 Kia Optima EX vs. Honda Accord EX-L, Hyundai Sonata SE, Toyota [...]Kia is going crossover coconuts, it seems, and has announced a second crossover-concept debut for this spring, this time for the 2013 Chicago auto show. The Cross GT concept, which Kia is previewing with the photo above, will appear in the Windy City before the vaguely named Urban Vehicle two-door crossover-ish-looking show car bows at [...]
What do you remember about the 1980s? What things does that decade make you think of? Were you even born then?! To some people, the decade recalls a new wave of questionable music, terrible fashion crimes, big hair, the rise of MTV and soap operas like Dallas. More seriously there were nuclear meltdowns, ill-thought out [...]The post RACING’S THE LAST GOLDEN ERA: THE 1980s appeared first on Speedhunters.Cutting down on fuel consumption and emissions is costly, and that’s why automakers are fighting excessive regulation. And listening to them, it might seem as if all conventional ways to improve fuel economy have been exhausted. Downsizing often requires new engine generations, and, of course, forced induction of some sort. Beyond that, things get really [...]
What It Is: The next-generation Audi S3 cabriolet, caught by our spy photographers in light disguise. Based on the third generation of the Audi A3, the next A3 convertible will be aimed squarely at the U.S. market for the first time. Audi’s American dream is why the new ragtop will be based on the upcoming [...]Mazda often has created race cars with a twist, dating back to when Car and Driver campaigned a Wankel rotary–powered RX-2 in 1973. Come 1991, the last year before the rotary was banned from the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and the Japanese automaker took its 787B Wankel-powered racer to a win in that round-the-clock [...]Lamborghini’s Gallardo is a dead model walking, er, rolling—a new one is coming for 2014—but that doesn’t mean the Italian automaker can’t squeeze just a bit more juice from the current version. Last year, the company refreshed the Gallardo and subsequently released an updated LP570-4 Super Trofeo racing version. Now the Gallardo GT3 race car is [...]
Both eminently lovable and deeply flawed, the last Quattroporte behaved like an Italian sports car tormented by its four-door body. Ferrari’s bastard child with its Maserati subsidiary, it was a thrilling and capable machine destined never to wear the black-equine seal because it was born with the defect every pur-sang sports-car showroom shuns: quattro porte. [...]On Monday, we presented this week’s shifter and asked you to identify the make and model of the vehicle whence it came. The first commenter to correctly identify it as a 1986 Suzuki Samurai was Matt Hadden, who will receive a Save the Manuals button and sticker as a reward. These Samurai photos are from [...]It was 2002 when Daimler manager Hans-Joachim Schöpf said that from 2010 onward, the fuel-cell electric vehicle would be a viable alternative to conventionally powered cars. That date has long passed, and so have other targets announced by various automakers. It certainly needs to be taken with a grain of salt when Daimler, Renault-Nissan, and [...]There was a time when the 24-hour sports-car race at Daytona International Speedway was something of an oddity. We loved it for being the first serious race of the year, but it also was like the poor step child of the Daytona 500. The crowds were okay, but not crushing. Not anymore. These days the infield [...]Depending on which metropolis you call home, parking is anything from a major annoyance to a genuine source of hardship and strife. That is, unless you’re one of the lucky one-percenters who has so much money that other people’s problems aren’t really your problems. While most urban dwellers fret about finding an open parking space [...]Nearly 18 months ago, Subaru re-expressed its intent to roll out a hybrid system of its own, and now The Detroit Bureau reports that the new hybrid model will debut this spring. The timing makes sense for two reasons: First, the New York auto show opens in April, which would give the reveal a convenient [...]
Life is full of unexpected detours, and here’s a good illustration: We set out to quantify the performance distinctions between two new Hyundai Veloster Turbos, one equipped with a manual transmission, the other with an automatic. But we seem to inadvertently have also conducted a tire test. Or, more accurately, a demonstration of the difference [...]The U.S.-bound, seventh-generation Volkswagen Golf will be made in Mexico. The German automaker has announced that production of the new, MQB-based model will commence at its Puebla, Mexico, plant in early 2014. VW says that the decision to build the Golf in Mexico safeguards from currency fluctuation, protecting the brand in the fight between the [...]Each week, our German correspondent slices and dices the latest rumblings, news, and quick-hit driving impressions from the other side of the pond. His byline may say Jens Meiners, but we simply call him . . . the Continental. BMW and Toyota have announced the next steps in their cooperation: Following an exploratory phase, they [...]Make no mistake, the original Trans-Am series deserves the heady reputation it earned in the early 1970s for fender-to-fender action, but you should know we now have the Continental Tire Series and it’s just as exciting. Okay, this Trans-Am remix might not have the big-name drivers, like Mark Donohue, Parnelli Jones or Sam Posey, but [...]Pricing for Jeep’s updated-for-2014 Grand Cherokee SUV has found its way online, appearing first on a Jeep forum. Pricing for the mildly refreshed Grand Cherokee is, for the most part, unexciting and predictable, but the leaked info gives away one exciting tidbit: how much the SUV’s newly optional diesel V-6 engine will cost. The short [...]Toyota will unveil the all-new 2014 Tundra full-size pickup February 7th at the 2013 Chicago auto show, and we expect big changes. This is a bit of déjà vu all over again as Chicago played host to the debut of the first truly full-size Tundra pickup—the 2007 model—in 2006. That 2007 truck made big waves with [...]
To kick off my Spotlight-O-Rama from the 2013 New Zealand Festival of Motor Racing held last weekend (and this coming one), I thought I’d take a look at one of the coolest cars occupying space in the Hampton Downs Motorsport Park pits. Yes, you’re looking at genuine Zakspeed Ford Escort Mk2. Like every car I [...]The post NZFMR 2013: SPOTLIGHT-O-RAMA appeared first on Speedhunters.Working from the inside out, Chrysler has released a single interior image of its upcoming Mopar ’13 limited-edition vehicle. Set to debut next month at the Chicago auto show, the Mopar ’13 follows in the footsteps of the limited-edition Mopar ’10 Dodge Challenger, Mopar ’11 Dodge Charger, and Mopar ’12 Chrysler 300. The sole image provided reveals just one [...]
Good things come in small packages and they quite often come at a reasonable price too. The Ford Fiesta ST (2013) is a case in point, as it is priced from £16,995 – up to £2,000 less than similar hot superminis. The new Fiesta ST develops 182PS and peak torque of 290Nm. Sprinting from 0-62mph [...]
There are plenty of things to mess with when it comes to cars, and the results can range from the sublime to the ridiculous. When a regular ride just won’t do, there are plenty of amazingly odd cars on offer to make your driving dreams come true: Double Decker Car This little beauty is the [...]
Granted it may be in the camo vinyl finish that most manufacturers use when testing, however this is evidently the McLaren P1 being tested. Naturally, McLaren has some very specific words to offer, and to this end here they are: A dedicated team of McLaren engineers, technicians and racing drivers are running a fleet of [...]
Since 2010, over two weekends in January the Hampton Downs Motorsport Park has played host to the New Zealand Festival of Motor Racing. A celebration of circuit racing both past and present, in its inaugural year the event recognized the achievements of New Zealand’s own Bruce McLaren. In 2011 it was Kiwi-born Ferrari works driver [...]The post NZFMR 2013: WHERE CAN-AM MEETS GROUP A appeared first on Speedhunters.
Tsukuba Circuit. The modest race track located in the countryside of Ibaraki Perfecture outside of Tokyo is a place of legend. All across the world Tsukuba is known as the proving ground for Japan’s tuners and as the birthplace of Time Attack. Besides all of the history that’s been made at the track, Tsukuba has [...]The post TSUKUBA DORI: THE MSC ALL-JAPAN CHAMPIONSHIP appeared first on Speedhunters.