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Monday, April 13, 2020

What You Missed | Your Autoblog Daily Digest for April 13, 2020

Apr 13, 2020

Top Stories of the Day

Second-generation Acura TLX could inaugurate a turbocharged V6

The second-generation TLX will inaugurate a turbocharged V6 engine developed specifically for the Acura brand, according to a recent report. The six will power a range-topping, performance-oriented variant of the sedan. Honda's luxury division gave …

2021 Toyota Highlander Review & Buying Guide | Better and now sportier

While the latest RAV4 underwent a revolutionary redesign to reset its look, character and capability, a far more evolutionary approach was taken with its big brother Highlander's own redo last year. The 2021 Toyota Highlander represents the second ye…

Ford Bronco Sport production delayed two months for the obvious reason

It's hard to put on a splashy public reveal for a historic nameplate at the New York Auto Show when that show's been canceled and people can't safely stand within six feet of one another. It's also hard to put that historic nameplate into production …

Dodge restores Brass Monkey wheels to Challenger and Charger SRT Hellcat

For the first part of 2020, Dodge removed the option of its Devils Rim aluminum wheel design in Brass Monkey finish for the Hellcat-powered Challenger and Charger models. Mopar Insiders reports the wheels will return to the menu once Dodge starts pro…

NASCAR's Kyle Larson suspended for using racial slur during iRacing event

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — NASCAR star Kyle Larson was suspended without pay by Chip Ganassi Racing on Monday for using a racial slur on a live stream during a virtual race. Larson was competing in an iRacing event Sunday night when he appeared to lose commu…

[VIDEO] Jacob & Co. Bugatti Chiron Tourbillon puts a mini W16 engine in motion inside a watch

In early 2019, Bugatti ended its 15-year watch partnership with Swiss watchmaker Parmigiani Fleurier and inaugurated a new collaboration with New York watchmaker and jeweler Jacob & Co. — the latter firm once known for helping define the bling-bl…

2020 BMW X7 M50i Wayback Seat Driveway Test | A first-class third row

The 2020 BMW X7 M50i is BMW's top shelf crossover. It's the 7 Series of crossovers, and the experience in the wayback seats show it. That third row is loaded full of luxury we didn't expect to find. First, you have to get back there. This being a su…

Maserati MC20 bringing twin-turbo V6 to September debut

There is a touch more information on the pieces going into the Maserati MC20, starting with intel to Car and Driver that the mid-engined coupe will launch with a "new twin-turbo V6 rumored to make more than 600 horsepower." Last time we heard about t…

This portable EV charger is powered by gas ... seriously

Blink Charging, self-described as a leader in public electric vehicle charging that aims to hasten EV adoption, has unveiled a new portable emergency charger designed to help EV drivers who find themselves stranded and without a plug. There's an iron…

Friday, April 10, 2020

What You Missed | Your Autoblog Daily Digest for April 10, 2020

Apr 10, 2020

Top Stories of the Day

Toyota RAV4 crosses 10 million sales

The Toyota RAV4 is quickly cementing itself as one of the bestselling car models in the world. At the end of February, the compact crossover's total sales since the introduction of the first generation in 1994 crossed over the 10 million mark. Specif…

iRacing gets real: Indy 500's Sage Karam shares his winning secrets and setup

Sage Karam's sim setup. / Kirby Arnold As mainstream motorsports shut down their seasons amid the coronavirus pandemic, IndyCar driver Sage Karam welcomed them into his world – virtual racing. Karam, a 25-year-old who has raced six times in …

Rare 1999 Acura NSX Zanardi Edition sells for $135,000

Somebody just bought a 1999 Acura NSX Zanardi Edition for $135,000 on Bring a Trailer . And to that we say, we're jealous. The Zanardi Edition is one of the more sought-after NSX models out there. Acura only ever sold 51 of them (named after racer Al…

Ford Transit Connect camper van conversion beckons, for under $15K

It's only natural to daydream about escaping into the Great Outdoors in your own self-contained rig as a way to break free of the coronavirus and its various psychic and physical constraints. We totally get it, though we can't in good conscience reco…

The 2020 BMW X7 M50i's exhaust is a convincing full M imitator

The 2020 BMW X7 M50i is the fastest and meanest of the few X7 variations out there. It's new for the X7's second model year, and we expect it to be the quickest of the bunch — BMW won't (at least we hope) build a full-on X7 M. The X5 M and X6 M alrea…

2020 Hyundai Sonata Review & Buying Guide | Back to its old (stylish) ways

One-of-three Puch 500 GE headed to RM Sotheby's Essen auction

Puch G sounds like a Soundcloud rapper or a kid still trying to come up on the rap battle circuit. The truth is stranger, and mystifyingly arcane. In 1971, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, shah of Iran and major Mercedes stockholder, suggested Mercedes build a…

2020 Caterham Super Seven 1600: a '70s-themed interpretation of a '50s car

Every model in the Caterham range traces its roots to the Lotus Seven introduced in 1957, but some take the retro treatment a step further than others. None embrace heritage more than the new Super Seven 1600. The company explained it designed the S…

2020 Lamborghini Huracan Evo has the biggest price discount in America

Right now, buyers of the 2020 Lamborghini Huracan Evo are paying an average of $248,000 to drive the brand-new supercar off the dealer lot. That's a hefty chunk of change, but it represents $16,269 off the car's average $264,969 retail price, accordi…

Junkyard Gem: 1994 Subaru Legacy LS 4WD Sedan

I live in Denver, where Subarus rule the roads, and that means that all my local car graveyards are packed with worn-out vehicles displaying the Pleiades logo on their battered grilles. These days, most of those discarded Subarus will be second- and …

Thursday, April 9, 2020

What You Missed | Your Autoblog Daily Digest for April 9, 2020

Apr 09, 2020

Top Stories of the Day

Koenigsegg Gemera and Jesko Absolut strut on the supercar maker's runway

The world seems like a pretty terrible place right now, but there are good things in it, like the two monster Koenigsegg supercars the company revealed a month ago. The Koenigsegg Gemera four-door supercar and the Jesko Absolut high-speed hypercar we…

Automakers ready to get plants running again with coronavirus precautions

MILAN/DETROIT — Global automakers reeling from the coronavirus pandemic are accelerating efforts to restart factories from Wuhan to Maranello to Michigan, using safety protocols developed for China and U.S. ventilator production operations launched i…

[VIDEO] 'Race Motion' videos capture gnarliest jumps and hardest landings of off-road racing

Even if you're not a die-hard fan of off-road racing, you're probably a fan of seeing purpose-built machines being used at (and beyond) their design limitations, especially if that means bad-ass trucks flying off sweet, sweet jumps. "Go into the wo…

General Patton's Dodge WC57 Command Car headed to auction

Indiana will see some excellent vintage metal on several auction blocks this summer. Mecum Auctions has the 1965 Pontiac GeeTO Tiger and 1963 Shelby Cobra that was a Ford demonstrator planned for in Indiana in late June. Two weeks before that, and as…

Pontiac Aztek rises from the ashes of infamy in Firebird Trans Am guise

What if the Pontiac Aztek , one of the most widely ridiculed vehicles ever built, was reimagined with a little flair from one of the former brand's more legendary cars? Well, it turns out that someone not only came up with that idea, but followed up …

2020 Volvo S60 Review & Buying Guide | Luxury, tech and efficiency with lots of style

Without a flagship luxury badge on its nose, the 2020 Volvo S60 is often overlooked among European luxury cars, but its luxury credentials make it worthy of serious consideration. While the S60 may not have the same cachet as Europe's better-recogniz…

Watch a 50-ton rotator truck pull a Ford Mustang Boss 302 out of a canyon

Going for a spirited drive on the Angeles Crest Highway is a blast, but the slightest error can send you, yours, and your prized possession into the landscape. That's how a Ford Mustang Boss 302 ended up about 400 feet below the road, and a video pub…

Vyrus unveils Alyen 988, 'essence of an artistic concept' from another world

At one point in time, Italian motorcycle shop Vyrus was home to the most powerful production motorcycle in the world, the 987 C3 4V . That bike was powered by a Ducati-sourced 1,198-cc supercharged V-twin engine that made a claimed 211 horsepower. Ten…

2020 Hyundai Sonata Safety Tech Driveway Test | Excellence in abundance

Hyundai offers one of the most comprehensive suites of standard driver assistance and safety tech features on the market, but just as importantly, those features are extremely well executed. Although I got to experience them far more during a road tr…

1986 Honda Accord AeroDeck is one sweet shooting brake, and it's for sale

Attention to Honda and longroof fans alike. And frankly, anyone who is into the rad era of automobiles. There is a 1986 Honda Accord AeroDeck for sale on Bring a Trailer right now, and it's very much rad. For the uninitiated, the Accord AeroDeck is…

Wednesday, April 8, 2020

What You Missed | Your Autoblog Daily Digest for April 8, 2020

Apr 08, 2020

Top Stories of the Day

Geico joins Allstate, offers 15% insurance credit as coronavirus cuts driving

Geico will offer about $2.5 billion of credits to its 19 million auto and motorcycle policyholders, reflecting the decline in driving and therefore car crashes stemming from the coronavirus pandemic. The insurer, part of billionaire Warren Buffett's …

2021 Lexus LC gets modest updates including less weight, new colors

The Lexus LC is already one of our favorite cars , and the 2021 Lexus LC aims to be even a little better. The luxury automaker has made a number of minor changes to the suspension, infotainment and color schemes. Starting under the skin, Lexus found …

Mercedes-Benz 600's restomod took seven years and $3.2 million

Mercedes-Benz's Classic division received an unusual request in 2007. An enthusiast from Germany wanted to turn a 1975 600 into a Maybach, and the person had a wallet thick enough to cover cost of the unprecedented conversion. The company accepted th…

Gemballa Mirage GT supercar driver arrested in massive NYC wreck

Police arrested the driver of Gemballa Mirage GT — an ultra-rare exotic based on the Porsche Carrera GT — after it struck several other vehicles and left a trail of destruction on 11th Avenue in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan Tuesday mo…

2020 Chevy Corvette Z51 wrecked less than 24 hours after delivery

Writer's note: explicit language in video and Facebook posts As the owner of this car joked in the video below, there's a new option for the 2020 Chevrolet Corvette C8. It's called the 24-Hour Smash Package, and a man who identifies as June Bug is t…

Kia Telluride takes World Car of the Year honors

The Kia Telluride has been named 2020 World Car of the Year , an award that recognizes the most significant new-vehicle introduction as determined by an international jury of automotive journalist judges. The Telluride adds to its string of honors by …

GM awarded $489.4M federal contract to build ventilators for coronavirus

The federal government will pay General Motors $489.4 million to build ventilators to treat coronavirus victims in a new contract under the Defense Production Act announced Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It's the late…

Possible Porsche Cayenne Coupe GT spied, plus exhaust note clip

Here's our second sighting of what might be the ultra high performance Porsche Cayenne Coupe GT. We wrote about the possibility of the car's existence nearly a year ago, and the first spy photos surfaced at the beginning of this year. Just like befo…

2020 Mini Clubman John Cooper Works First Drive | Personality at a price

An abundance of power isn't typically associated with products named Mini Cooper. Even the John Cooper Works (JCW) editions have most recently been making do with 228 horsepower from their turbocharged four-cylinder engines. That's plenty to feel qui…

16 things I learned about the Isuzu VehiCROSS

There are plenty of cars I remember existing, but actually know very little about due to the passage of time or just not particularly caring when they were new. Take the Isuzu VehiCROSS, which I fondly recall as this wackadoo off-roader from the late…