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Can’t Get Tickets to the Vegas GP? Get Your Track Fix at the Velocity Invitational

Gp

During the 2022 Velocity Invitational at Weathertech Raceway Laguna Seca, I was passed in the corkscrew by Pato O’Ward in Ayrton Senna’s 1990 championship-winning McLaren MP4/5B Formula 1 car while I was in the (left-hand) passenger seat of a McLaren F1 GTR being driven by racer and stuntman Tanner Foust. It’s an experience that defied my ability to describe it, but if forced to try, I’d say it was something like: Whooosh, Slide, Squeal (tire), Squeal (me), Squeal (Foust), Vroom, Giggle, Cheerful Cussing, Hard Breathing, Total Blackout from Joy. I…

2023 Porsche 911 Sport Classic, a Rear-Drive, Manual Turbo

2023 Porsche 911 Sport Classic, a Rear-Drive, Manual Turbo

As we sat close, the burrito artist gave the 2023 Porsche 911 Sport Classic a short, two-word review. “Nice spec,” he said, pointing to the big truck we had backed into the center parking spot. The editor in our heads thought that words like “awesome,” “wicked,” or even “bitchin’” would have fit the car’s vintage vibe better. He had no idea how right he was. It makes me think of the 2010 911 Sport Classic and earlier models. With the same gray paint, an indented hood from the air-cooled era,…

Chevy K5 Blazer Conversion Is a Badass SEMA Build but Costs $202K

Chevy K5 Blazer Conversion Is a Badass SEMA Build but Costs $202K

Every major automaker now offers at least one off-road or four-wheel-drive SUV model. In 2018, the Arkansas-based restomod business Flat Out Autos transformed a 2022 GMC Sierra 1500 into a 21st-century Jimmy SUV. The same business attempted a contemporary Chevrolet K5 Blazer for this year’s SEMA exhibition. Renewed K5 Blazer Flat Out Autos came up with the ingenious appellation KR2 for the updated model, a play on Chevy’s current off-road-oriented ZR2 designation. The KR2 is essentially a shortened and wider 2023 Silverado in appearance. Under the skin, the KR2 is…

2023 Audi TT Says Bye-Bye with Beautiful Final Edition Roadster

2023 Audi TT Says Bye-Bye with Beautiful Final Edition Roadster

After the 2023 model year, Audi will no longer produce the TT, but before it goes out, it’s releasing a special “Final Edition” roadster. With a Palomino Brown interior and a gray cloth convertible top, the Audi TT Final Edition looks great in Goodwood Green pearl paint. At its current price of $68,895, only 50 copies of the Final Edition will be imported to the United States. It’s a shame to see the Audi TT go into retirement after the 2023 model year, but sports vehicles have a short lifespan.…

2024 Alfa Romeo Tonale Tested: Lite Italian

2024 Alfa Romeo Tonale Tested Lite Italian

When automakers with a history of producing sports cars and sports sedans decide to produce an SUV, it’s past the point of concern. However, this does not mean that infusing these cars with corporate identity is simple; in fact, the added complexity of electrification makes things considerably trickier. However, for a first model, Alfa Romeo’s high-strung Stelvio performed admirably. Now comes the Tonale—smaller, cheaper, and constructed on a shared base using a largely electric motor. It’s understandable that the Tonale’s identity pales in comparison to those of its more exciting…

Tested: 2024 Kia EV9 Boldly Leapfrogs the Telluride

Tested: 2024 Kia EV9 Boldly Leapfrogs the Telluride

Taken from the Car and Driver issue for December 2023. We can only assume that when tasked with creating a new three-row SUV, most auto designers don’t exactly jump for joy. There’s just so much you can do with a two-box shape, and the market is so cutthroat that it’s better to stick to tried-and-true methods than risk extinction. But Kia disproved those claims not too long ago with the Telluride, and it’s doing it again with the new EV9. The EV9 is impressive from a distance of one hundred…

Tested: 2023 Mercedes-Benz S580e PHEV Upstages the EQS

2023 Mercedes-Benz S580e PHEV Upstages the EQS

While Mercedes’ EQS sedan tries to be the S-class of electric cars, it doesn’t feel quite the same as the brand’s most popular model. While keeping the Sonderklasse’s history alive, the brand-new plug-in hybrid Mercedes-Benz S580e takes a confident step into the future. It does this with few sacrifices. The PHEV S-class has an electric motor and a 3.0-liter turbocharged inline-six engine. The EPA said it could go 46 miles, but in our 75-mph range test, it went 58 miles on electricity alone. That’s farther than any other PHEV we’ve…

Hoonigan’s Honda IndyTruck Is the Best Sort of Insanity

Hoonigan's Honda IndyTruck Is the Best Sort of Insanity

What takes place when an IndyCar engine from 2022 is put into a 2017 Honda Ridgeline? What kind of fun? The Electrikhana video of Ken Block tearing up tires on the Las Vegas Strip came out a week ago. Now, Block and the rest of the Hoonigan crew are back in Vegas at the SEMA show with something new. That “something new” is a 2017 Honda Ridgeline truck that has had a 2022 IndyCar engine put in. The Hoonigan team says it has an aluminum 2.2-liter twin-turbocharged V-6 engine that…

Nissan Rallys the Z Sports Car with a Custom SEMA Build

Nissan Rallys the Z Sports Car with a Custom SEMA Build

As trucks and SUVs have become more popular, off-roading has become more popular as well. To make their cars stronger, automakers have launched new sub-brands like Subaru’s Wilderness and Honda’s TrailSport. People who want to go anywhere have also started making sports cars, like the 911 Dakar from Porsche and the Huracán Sterrato from Lamborghini. Tommy Pike Customs made this Safari Rally Z Tribute for Nissan to show at the 2023 SEMA show, which starts this week in Las Vegas. It’s their take on the style. Nissan already paid tribute…

The Bring a Trailer auction pick today is a 2019 Porsche 935 Track Car.

The Bring a Trailer auction pick today is a 2019 Porsche 935 Track Car.

There are only 77 of the new 935 that were made. It looks a lot like the 935 that won the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1979. That car had a really cool paint job. Soon, we’ll talk about this 2019 Porsche 935’s past. For now, just take a look at it. Take your mind off of things by looking at the deep black paint and the vents that are carved into the carbon-fiber-composite body parts. The rear wing is huge. What a beautiful car! This tribute to the famous…