Etc : Car Reviews And News

There are two things that got me into cars as a child. One was Catherine Bach in her Lamborghini in Cannonball Run II. The other was Roger Moore as James Bond in that white Lotus Esprit that turned into a submarine in The Spy Who Loved Me.

Ford was having none of wrestling superstar John Cena selling off his 2017 Liquid Blue Ford GT ahead of the 24-month period the automaker stipulated in its buyers’ contracts. Ford originally went after Cena looking for $75,000 in damages, the right to buy the car back for what Cena paid, and all profits made from the sale.

A storm was brewing at the Mid-Ohio race track, and it wasn’t the typical type of gale one might expect to find during the first of the month of May. For years the MINI race team has been the eager underdog in the Street Tuner Class of the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge Series, a rabid little beast with surprisingly sharp teeth and an insatiable appetite for trophies. But this year things looked a little different for the MINI race team, both in a good and a bad way.

Have you ever seen the film Lost in Translation? The one where a completely washed-up Bill Murray goes to Tokyo in order to ride whatever fame he has left in his sad career by selling his image via Japanese whiskey commercials?

It’s mid-March in Yokohama, and I’m feeling a bit on edge over the weather. The forecast calls for rain, followed by slushy snow, and then a massive mess of sticky-sweet sakura pollen. My sinuses don’t feel up for it, my head is swimming from the time difference, and there are a slew of things I still must do ahead of my big day with Nissan.

Hot on the heels of our review of the utterly enormous Mercedes-Benz AMG Petronas F-1 paddock by LEGO, with it’s richly detailed shop space and cleverly equipped camera gear, comes a far simpler LEGO kit for auto enthusiasts.

If you’ve ever seen a prototype car being tested or one of the many leaked images of upcoming cars floating around the internet, you know that they’re often covered in these strange camouflage patterns. Those patterns are specifically engineered to mess with your brain and make it difficult to recognize shapes beneath them, theoretically preventing you from making out the design of the car underneath that wrap.

What started life as the Scion iM, and then later rebadged as the Toyota Corolla iM is getting a well-deserved do-over as it bids adieu to its shaky start and becomes a proper Corolla hatchback for 2019. For 2019, the little 5-door received a dramatically improved new front end, which looks far more aggressive than the timid looking grille of its predecessor.

Honda rolled out something it called the Mean Mower back in 2013, and the crazy lawnmower had a 1000cc V-twin engine out of a Honda Firestorm motorcycle tucked inside. That mower was able to hit nearly 117 mph, and was very impressive indeed.

BMW has announced that it is the “Official Car of MotoGP,” and as such the German automaker will be providing some awesome vehicles for the MotoGP racing season. Pretty much all the officials at the race get to drive sweet BMW M vehicles.

Have you really put any thought into how strange it will be to be in a car that you can’t control? Not only that you can’t control, but a car that has no human at the wheel?

When I was recently handed some life-changing health news, along with a phone call a few weeks later explaining my grandmother’s passing, I flat-out lost all hope, and everything in my life was suddenly put on hold.

Some potentially bad news has emerged concerning the future of manual transmissions in Subaru vehicles. As many of you might already know, the company is in the midst of a big push towards safety and automation with their Eyesight system.

Mere months after witnessing Chevrolet reveal its all-new generation of Silverado trucks at the Detroit Auto Show, the Bowtie Brand has returned for another round of ruggedness. Referred to simply as “Silverado Class 4, 5, and 6 chassis cab trucks,” the American monsters pictured here are the brand’s first swing at hardcore conventional cabs, and are set to kick-start into production later in 2018, with order guides arriving this spring.

Ford has brought forth a lot of neat machines over the years, and has discarded quite a few as well. From the questionably named “Probe” to the bucking “Bronco,” Americans have bought, owned, and mourned the loss of a multitude of Blue Oval automobiles over the years, with the Ranger being one of the most sorely missed here in the US.