Etc : Car Reviews And News

You’d think that car companies had been crash testing vehicles since the dawn of cars. But the idea didn’t come along until the 1930s, when General Motors conducted the first known crash tests. Other automakers would gradually follow.

A massive typhoon had just blanketed the majority of Japan in torrential rain, and shortly after letting-up, my wife tells me that we were going shopping. Unsure as to whether anything would be open I opted to tag along, secretly hoping to discover another interesting Japanese automobile.

While most of us associate the short-lived DeLorean DMC-12 with Back to the Future, there was a time when the DeLorean Motor Company thought the car would be a huge success with sports car enthusiasts. Here’s a look at how DMC pitched the car to its prospective dealers back in 1981, including its innovative design, construction and lofty safety and fuel economy ambitions.

Not every vehicle needs to be a six-figure supercar to be amazing. Take, for instance this custom built Star Trek shuttlecraft on wheels that was photographed by Redditor Kalvious. Trekkies will immediately recognize this as the shuttlecraft Goddard from Star Trek: The Next Generation. 

Sure, we’re all about real cars here on 95Octane, but we occasionally enjoy playing with toy cars too. So sit back and enjoy for the next five minutes or so, and watch and hear what it would be like to sit behind the driver’s seat of a scale electric slot car.

Until airless tires become a regular occurrence, most of us are stuck having to keep our tires filled with good old compressed air (or nitrogen). If we want our vehicles to be safe, perform well, and to maximize fuel economy, they need to have the right amount of air pressure in them as well.

During a recent outing to the Bundy Hill Off-Road Park park in Jerome, Michigan, I spotted a vehicle I’ve never seen in person before. Among the Wranglers and Raptors, between the ATVs and the dirt bikes was this incredibly strange and wonderful sight – a Sherp.

Thanks to their custom-tuned and custom-built engines, Hennessey Performance makes some seriously badass vehicles. Now, the Sealy, Texas tuner is showing off one of the most powerful V8 engines we’ve seen this side of a top fuel dragster. The engine for the Venom F5 (nicknamed “Fury”) is based on the classic V8 architecture, but there’s nothing ordinary about it.

Hot on the heels of my tiny Italian carspotting in Japan a couple of weeks back, comes a far more modern, mid-engine approach to automotive engineering. Commonly referred to as “the new NSX’s baby brother,” the Honda S660 is a Japan-exclusive two-seat roadster that fits neatly within the Japanese kei car category, so it has to have less than a 1.0-liter

Fiat is discontinuing sales of the smaller 500 in the United States. So instead of throwing a fit over the demise of the little Fiat 500 and its feisty Abarth doppelgänger, let’s take a look at the vehicle that first sported the triple digit badge: The aptly named, “Fiat Nuova 500.” It’s not often that you come across classic Italian cars in rural Japan.

The newly-updated-for-2020 Nissan Versa is no longer the least expensive new car on sale in the United States, but it does retain the title of least expensive new Nissan. On the other end of the spectrum, the 2020 Nissan GT-R NISMO is the most expensive Nissan in the company’s lineup, and the most expensive GT-R to date.

Ever wondered what things looked like inside an engine when it’s running? This video gives you a glimpse into the inner workings of a hot rod’s V8 engine, thanks to a special clear valve cover. What’s interesting to note is just how clean the rockers and springs look at idle.

If you like to off-road after dark, you need a good LED light bar. There are plenty of aftermarket options out there, and a couple of truck makers even offer them as a factory option. But I can say with a high degree of certainty that none of them are as bright as the one that rctestflight installed on a truck.

Fresh from the factory, most cars come with at a shiny clear coating to give it a shine and to protect its painted finish. I’m not sure how many coats OEMs typically apply, but I can say with 100% certainty that they don’t use 35 coats.

While this video clip is just 17 seconds long, there’s still something immensely satisfying about it. After all, it features a 1986 Porsche 911 doing donuts in an unusual location – on a sandy Oregon beach.