Yes, There Was A Mitsubishi Starion With Gullwing Doors
For a couple weekends, I’ve been posting Sunday content here on Jalopnik in place of Max Finkel, who is currently away from the keyboard documenting weird cars in undisclosed locations.
Antti Kautonen
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Stories By Antti Kautonen
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The Quad-Rotor Mercedes-Benz C111/II Prototype Is Already Half A Century Old
Quick! Name a gullwing supercar concept with a quad rotor engine. If you can’t name one, great: you’re probably a normal human being. If you can correctly name the 1970 Mercedes-Benz C111/II, you’re a proper automotive trivia nerd and should be congratulated as such.
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Here Are Only Some Of The Good Cars We Saw In Romania (Yeah, They're Mostly Dacias)
Last Sunday, I published a great big load of photos I took on our roadtrip through Ukraine. Driving on Ukrainian roads, you’re pretty sure to see a very weird variety of cars ranging from old Soviet era vehicles to Western cars you would never expect to see in Ukraine, such as a Mercury Topaz. But our trip didn’t end in Ukraine, as we crossed the border south to Romania with the famous Transfagarasan highway in mind.
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The Citroën XM Came With A Hidden Trick Window
One form of baguette measuring contests between enthusiasts of French cars is the question of the last “true” Citroën. There are a fair few answers to that question, not only because Citroën cars continue to be built even today. For some, the last real Citroën was the CX, built until the early ‘90s in estate form, as the CX was conceived before the 1974 Peugeot merger which gave birth to the PSA Group. Some say it’s the C6, as the 2000s flagship still had hallmark Citroën oddities and unmistakab
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What Car Would You Be Happy With Even If You Could Never Drive It?
I own a 1993 Mazda MX-5. I’ve had it for around five years now, and I’ve driven it around northern Europe enough to know I really like driving it. Currently, for some unfathomable reason, it gets neither fuel nor spark, and instead of successfully fixing it I just pushed it to the garage before winter to wait for more diagnosing time and eventual repair. I’ve already gotten two other automotive journalists to look at it, and while we replaced the main relay and forced the fuel pump on, the corre
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Real Trooper Mounts 1960 Rolls-Royce Phantom Body On Isuzu Chassis
Some sentences start in one place and end in another and you have no idea how the ends are part of the same sentence. Often, some of the weirdest possible descriptions can be found written in eBay ads, and despite having trawled through quite a few of them in my time I can’t remember another sentence that would quite top this one.
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Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus Offers Connecticut Factory To Be Used As A Temporary Hospital If Needs Must
While it would be a relief to be able to tune out all the coronavirus news and keep pounding out car content paragraph after paragraph, the stark truth is that the outside world is dealing with an unprecedented event. Looking at news feeds from manufacturers means reading one press release after another where the company announces production has been halted or an event has been rescheduled or canceled altogether, and it takes the strength of the global car enthusiast community to act sensibly an
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Subaru Is Readying The Final Editions For The BRZ
When Volvo adds “Classic” after the model designation, you know they’re running out the old ones to make room for the new ones. Subaru is a little more to the point with the BRZ, as the “Final Edition” of the Toyobaru has been announced on the German market.
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The Pink Pig Livery Confirms The Taycan Is A Great Design
Earlier this week, Porsche published a Facebook post about the upcoming Amelia Island Concours event. In the photo post were three Taycans done up in classic Porsche racing liveries, and people could try and connect a certain livery with the racing car that originally wore it. But really, what the post did was strengthen the belief that the Taycan simply looks great, even in pink.
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The Best Way To Combat Viruses On Car Interior Surfaces Is Alcohol: Report
These days, even automotive websites are crammed full of Coronavirus related news and posts, meaning that petrolhead sites aren’t the kind of safe haven where one could completely escape the doom and gloom. (I should know, I’ve penned a couple of COVID-19 stories today). Except, of course, you actually enjoy the inventive pandemic memes spread all around the web, or figure out you might as well educate yourself about the virus to stay safe.
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Here Are Only Some Of The Good Cars We Saw In Ukraine
Late last July we packed our bags into a small Fiat and headed for a tour of Eastern Europe. Our route took us through the Baltics and Poland, but the main attractions for us were Ukraine and Romania, for their mountain roads, good beer and cooking and especially the weird cars.
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Here's Why You Should Care More About Four Door Nissan Skylines
One of the most recent mechanic memes that made me chuckle went like this:
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Some Of The Funkiest Cars Had Three Lug Wheels
We once had an animated discussion with a group of friends about the one defining feature in one’s taste in cars. At the time, the answers ranged from a certain way of engine orientation or placement, to the drive type, or perhaps pop-up headlights, but the question kept bothering me until recently. I was sound asleep when the answer hit me like a thousand volts. Three, three is the magic number. Three-lug wheels. Some of the funkiest cars I like have three-lug wheels!
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I Put My Project Car Plans On Hold Because Of Coronavirus And You Might Too
I have one of those long-form car deals brewing. You know the type, the kind of a car purchase that can take years to work out even if the car isn’t really worth that much. You see a reasonably rare example of a given model driving around town, or maybe parked for a long time in a car port, and you eventually approach the owner and leave details because you feel it might work out.
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Suzuki New Zealand Converts Jimnys Into Tiny Flatbed Trucks
Last Sunday, we wrote about the fascinating Suzuki Jimny museum which has been set up in Japan. It features a wide range of Jimny models within its walls, but here’s something it might not have quite yet. A new Jimny mini truck conversion!
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This Italian Airshow Maneuver Looks Like Italy Battling The Coronavirus
Italy has been severely affected by the Coronavirus pandemic. There are currently around as many Coronavirus cases in Italy as in the rest of Europe combined. The entire country is now on lockdown to slow the death toll from rising, and Italians have taken to social media to build some team spirit to pull the country out of the situation.
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The Makers Of The New Stratos Might Just Save The Cadillac Blackwing Engine [Corrected]
Consider, for a brief moment, the De Tomaso Pantera. Italian design and build. Mid-mounted American V8 power. Perfection, really. Not many sports cars have used the same recipe, which is a kind of a shame. Still, there’s hope in the horizon for fans of the combination, if everything goes to plan.
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The Suzuki Jimny Museum Is The Coolest Shrine To The Coolest Little Truck
For the past few weeks, it seems like almost all our collective travel dreams have been put on hold due to the coronavirus situation. But it doesn’t mean that we should stop dreaming about visiting faraway places when the virus scare eventually has subsided. For example, I’ve never been to Japan in my life, and day by day more and more fascinating travel spots in Japan seem to come up, places worth visiting if you’re in any way interested in cars. Take the Suzuki Jimny Museum, for example. Japa
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Here's How Weird It Is To Drive A Right-Hand-Drive Car As Your Daily Driver
I recently bought a right-hand drive car, to drive around here in Finland, where people drive on the left side of the car, as is proper. My justification for this wasn’t exactly the same as with most people who end up with the steering wheel in an unexpected location.
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What's The Rustiest Car You've Tried To Save?
A friend of mine from Slovenia enjoys working on older German cars. A while ago Metod, a design student by day, successfully put the 16-valve M42 engine from a newer 3-series into a first generation 3-series, a base model E21. The surgery was a success and the patient lived to enjoy its days at a considerably quicker pace than with the standard issue eight-valve four-banger with which it left the factory.
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There's An NSU Ro80 For Sale In Cleveland Of All Places
Let me start with reciting the background story. The Wankel engine, which is sometimes called the rotary engine is something that’s often connected to Mazda, as the Japanese brand championed these engines for decades. Instead of conventional pistons, a Wankel engine utilizes triangular rotors and a very small displacement to burn a lot of fuel and cause some grief but in a very smooth fashion.
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Nissan Claims The Qashqai Created The Crossover Segment, Is Wrong
Nissan has upgraded its Sunderland, UK factory in the face of upcoming refresh of its Qashqai crossover. The news is not only remarkable because it’s about investing in the UK even after Brexit, but because the press release from Nissan contains this line:
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Mazda Is Bringing Back Eunos But Only For A Limited-Edition French Miata
Mazda is taking us right back to the early 1990s with a new special edition of the MX-5. For sale only on the French market, the MX-5 Eunos Edition features a similar black on red combination as the one-year-only Miata Limited Edition way back in 1993.
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The Formula One Bahrain Grand Prix Will Happen But The Stands Will Be Completely Empty Thanks To Coronavirus
The Coronavirus pandemic has killed thousands already, and it is difficult to understate both its virulence and danger. That’s proving very challenging for event organizers globally, and Formula One is no different. The Bahrain Grand Prix will go on as planned, but reportedly without any spectators at all.
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