Houston is a sprawling city with a well-earned reputation for being crisscrossed with freeways. It’s so big, in fact, that you can fit the entire bustling downtown of an Italian city inside the area of just one of its many freeway interchanges.
Read MoreIf you think the Oceanbird is the stegosaurus-looking result of one drunken night of passion between an airliner and a cargo ship, you are not too far off.
Read MoreIf you want to buy an electric car with an American spirit, born in the fires of an emerging industry with a legacy of remarkable performance, you look at a Tesla. If that isn’t doing it for you, then you’ll be happy to hear the Ford Mustang Mach-E just got a price discount.
Read MoreAs Jalopnik’s resident car buying expert and a professional car shopper, I get emails. Lots of emails. I’ve decided to pick a few questions and try to help out. This week we are discussing trading in a car with potential issues and whether to sell a car just to take advantage of today’s used-car market.
Read MoreAs I’m sure you’re aware, prices on air-cooled Volkswagen buses and especially campers have gotten insane over the past few years, largely fueled by the boundless reserves of now-rich Boomers’ nostalgia. There’s a VW camper on Bring a Trailer at the moment, though, that, while arguably even cooler than the standard pop-top Westfalia, seems to be immune from the Boomer Nostalgia Price-Inflating rays and as such is still not insanely-priced. It is a little bonkers, though.
Read MoreSam’s MDX was rendered inoperable by a freaky, but accurate, lightning strike. He is taking this opportunity to buy something a bit more interesting, but he still needs it to be a 4x4 that is family-friendly. What car should he buy?
Read MoreTesla updated its website configurator for the Tesla Model S electric car to include its new Plaid performance trim, which promises a 0 to 60 mph acceleration time in under two seconds flat. If you get all of the goodies, that means the Model S now costs up to a whopping $156,490.
Read MoreIt seems as though Acura is starting to reclaim some of the sporty-casual lux energy that made the brand appealing originally. Like early Acuras, the 2021 TLX isn’t radical but it is nice looking, nice to drive and a lot of car for what it costs.
Read MoreThough COVID-19 has had a profound effect on the car market, it has not brought the often-predicted revolutionary changes in the dealership experience. While remote deals and online transactions have increased, the old-school way of buying a car persists, and that means dealing with hard-sell tactics in the finance office.
Read MoreFew cars have caused me as much inner conflict as the new Supra. It’s so cool that this nameplate is back! Bummer it’s not an original Toyota product.
Read MoreAs Jalopnik’s resident car buying expert and professional car shopper, I get emails. Lots of emails. I’ve decided to pick a few questions and try to help out. This week we are discussing spotting online car scams and buying a car at the end of the lease.
Read MoreZack is from NJ and has driven trucks and Jeeps. He wants to change it up with something compact and sporty with a manual transmission that can also fit his bike. He has a fairly modest budget and would like something somewhat unique. What car should he buy?
Read MoreCoronavirus has had an unprecedented and somewhat unpredictable impact on the car market. Despite the economic downturn, car sales are hot with new car inventory, in some cases, being limited due to factory closures and used car inventory at record highs. However, for some cars like the Bolt EV, the deals are pretty awesome.
Read MoreWhen it comes to motorcycle communication, there are two standout brands: Cardo and Sena. It’s not at all surprising that these two companies are in an arms race, and the Packtalk Bold is Cardo’s newest volley in the battle for riding audio supremacy.
Read MoreAs Jalopnik’s resident car buying expert and professional car shopper, I get emails. Lots of emails. I’ve decided to pick a few questions and try to help out. This week we are discussing the pros and cons of direct car sales and how to stay safe when selling a car privately.
Read MoreMatt lives in Pennsylvania and drives a Civic Type R. It’s a fantastic car, but he is realizing it’s just not a fit for him anymore. He wants to take advantage of the current market value and get something cheaper, more relaxing.
Read MoreThe 2020 Aston Martin DB11 AMR reintroduced me to a cool class of performance car: Hot-version GTs. This is a comfortable, high-speed, high-stability luxury touring car with stiffening tweaks to make it aggressive. The concept seems slightly counterintuitive but it works. It really, really works.
Read MoreYour car’s tires are its most important parts. I tell people that whenever I get the chance, but not everyone needs optimal automotive performance. If you’re just trying to get fresh tires painlessly, TireScanner requires an extremely minimal amount of work to get your car re-shoe’d.
Read MoreAs Jalopnik’s resident car buying expert and professional car shopper, I get emails. Lots of emails. I’ve decided to pick a few questions and try to help out. This week we are discussing buying a car with an open recall and whether or not to put a deposit on a Cybertruck.
Read MoreIf you’ve been worried the potential lack of legacy of modern electric vehicle batteries means you wouldn’t be able to get great used deals on them down the road, government acquisitions are here to save the day. The LAPD fleet of hardly-used electric BMW i3s is being sold for dirt cheap.
Read MoreAfter nothing fun for the first-generation, the new 2020 Audi SQ7 is the first-ever S-model of the Q7 in the U.S. While its 500-horsepower powertrain and Quattro all-wheel drive are nothing to snark at, the car itself bails on the typical uncomfortable, hard-edged sporty bullshit for something extremely refined.
Read MoreJim, like many of us in our current circumstances, has had a dramatic reduction in his commute. He wants to take this opportunity to toss his good but not exciting daily driver for something cheaper and more fun. What car should he buy?
Read MoreEven though the used car market is showing signs of cooling off, pre-owned cars are still in high demand. According to a recent study by iSeeCars.com certain vehicles are seeing some pretty dramatic price increases over the past month, while others have seen some fairly modest decreases.
Read MoreAutomakers love owner loyalty and will often reach out to folks who have done extraordinary things in company cars to make sure they keep driving whatever brand it is. This time, Ford has offered to replace a charitable lawn-mower’s 330,000-mile Ford Edge and he’s thrilled.
Read MoreIt’s that magical time of the year when we get the blooming of a new Honda Civic, and it looks like the 11th-generation model is embracing its dicey past by going full-blown Honda Crosstour all over again.
Read MoreIt was only three weeks ago when GM announced it would take a partnership stake in Nikola, the truck startup. Two days after that, a short called Nikola an “intricate fraud.” And then last week Nikola’s founder quit. This week, GM said the deal with Nikola “has not closed.” Life comes at you fast.
Read MoreThere were two GM-related press releases issued and an unscheduled event at the White House on Monday. One press release was from GM. The other, more interesting press release was from the Ohio Development Services Agency. The White House event was, uh, we’ll get to that.
Read MoreUber, like its competitors Waymo, Zoox, Cruise and others, has been trying and failing to get autonomous cars up and running for years now. The business opportunity — no more of that having-to-employ-drivers nonsense — is obvious, but it’s funny how everyone in the self-driving business seems to have stopped talking about self-driving.
Read MoreTwo unrelated driving games that came out recently utilize an aesthetic I would call whimsical, though they are really not similar to each other. I haven’t played Art Of Rally or Inertial Drift yet, but I really appreciate the unique looks both of these new games are bringing to virtual driving.
Read MorePolestar’s latest concept, the Precept, is officially heading into production. The machine, a 4-door electric vehicles designed with sustainability in mind, could have been relegated to concept hell, with its coolest features cannibalized for other projects. Thankfully, Polestar is going to make the Precept a reality by manufacturing it in the company’s China plant.
Read MoreThe new Ford Bronco is Ford’s biggest launch since the sixth-generation Explorer, which was bungled. Ford is eager not to repeat those mistakes, but also interesting will be to see how Ford’s reservation system will play out, after reservation money was also taken for the Mustang Mach-E.
Read MoreThis week General Motors has issued an immediate stop-sale order on six models across multiple brands. The cars affected are as follows: Buick Encore GX, Cadillac CT4, CT5, XT4, and Chevrolet Trailblazer and Corvette. GM has notified the NHTSA about an upcoming safety recall for these vehicles, which stems from a sensor in the brake booster system.
Read MoreThe Nissan 350Z was meant to be a back to basics return for the Z, coming after the big, bad 300ZX of the 1990s. But there was a middle step that never made it to production, even simpler than the 350Z that came after it.
Read MoreInfiniti’s North American lineup contains exactly five vehicles, each continually raising the question of why Infiniti tries at all, considering that sales were down across the board last year. But that doesn’t mean things are hopeless. Infiniti can pin some hope on its soon-to-be second-generation QX60.
Read MoreAttention, everyone, attention! I am about to embark on a journey, a journey in a colossal Ford F-250 Tremor that will be carrying me, my requisite urine containment jugs, my awesome 1.1 horsepower Changli EV — the cheapest new EV in the world — and a dream.
Read MoreNow, you may say that 360 horsepower is weak given that that’s not much more than what a base Ford Mustang makes. But you wouldn’t be Peugeot, which says the 360 horsepower its 508 Sport Engineered produces makes it Peugeot’s most powerful production road car ever. It also happens to be a PHEV.
Read MoreCalifornia announced Wednesday that it would ban the sale of anything but zero-emissions cars come 2035. Certainly, that’s more than I, personally, have done to cut down greenhouse gas emissions, but it’s far from a radical move.
Read More“Davey, c’mere til I tell ye about the day Frank Tompson decided to dry his mother’s hair with a motorbike.”
Read MoreYou know what’s a shitty truth about reality? It’s that the old story about that magic monkey’s paw was far more accurate than we’d like to believe. Sure, there’s no bewitched, severed primate hand granting wishes, but the deeper truth, that everything you think is good can have unforeseen consequences, comes up all the damn time. A perfect example of this has to do with modern driver assist systems in cars.
Read MoreThere’s been a lot of talk about the new BMW M3 and M4 and how they may well be the ugliest BMWs ever. That might be true, but these arguments are all wrong. The problem isn’t the tall, vertical grilles, no matter how porky they may look.
Read MoreWhat struck me most about Battery Day was how un-Tesla the whole event was. There weren’t any too-outlandish-to-believe claims and there wasn’t a new prototype that you might never hear about again. It was, in a word, boring, which is how automaker events are supposed to be. This new grown-up posture apparently also had a hilarious side effect on Wall Street.
Read MoreIt’s pretty weird that Rolls-Royce hasn’t really taken a serious approach to electric cars yet, and only just announced it’ll have a car by the end of the decade. Apparently Rolls customers just haven’t demanded the change, and it’s only happening now because some cities may soon ban combustion cars.
Read MoreYou remember Lynk & Co, right? The Geely-owned company that shares platforms with Volvo and shoves food into your mouth unbidden on press events and wants to sell you cars on a subscription plan? Well, they just showed their first battery-electric vehicle concept, and they’re saying it’ll go into production in 2021 and have an impressive 435-mile range. It looks pretty good, too! It’s called the Zero Concept, which sounds like it has or is no concept at all, which it, um, isn’t. Because it is? A
Read MoreIf the dog is in the house, eventually the dog is going to end up in the car, too. The great thing about most pets is that they can adapt to their environment well, which makes car journeys for them possible and sometimes even fun. But have you ever gone out of your way to make sure your pet was safe and comfortable?
Read MoreWe’ve seen the inside and basically all of the outside of the all-electric Volkswagen ID.4 already, but VW gave us the rest of it today in its global reveal.
Read MoreI’ve participated in the Lemons Rally before, and it’s a ridiculously fun and ridiculously tiring trek in an assemblage of some of the worst cars you’ve ever seen. Craigslist garbage that everyone else passed on gets picked up for a song and thrashed into something resembling working condition to go on a lengthy and grueling road trip. Often the cars receive modifications in the tradition of Lemons, and every year someone outdoes everyone who came before. This year that honor has to go to the Ho
Read MoreOkay guys, this is getting ridiculous. I thought we’d reached the peak of quarter mile insanity when Lucid told me that the tri-motor Air could spit out a 9.3-second run down the 1320. In Tuesday’s Tesla Battery Day announcement, however, company mascot and lunatic prophet Elon Musk announced that the Model S Plaid was even quicker. My irresponsibly fast EV can beat up your irresponsibly fast EV.
Read MoreTesla’s Battery Day was today, in which CEO Elon Musk said the company has the technology or will soon have the technology for a 56 percent reduction in how much it costs them to make batteries. This is all part of Tesla’s plan to someday make a $25,000 car.
Read MoreNikola Motors CEO and prolific Twitterist Trevor Milton stepped down from the EV startup yesterday amid accusations that he had misled investors. But it seems to have taken public accusations of sexual assault, from a family member, to finally push Milton into permanently deleting his most beloved social media presence.
Read MoreThe 2021 Kia Sorento, a large-medium sized SUV, bowed today and a lot of the look is clearly cribbed from the successful full-sized Kia Telluride. It totally works, too. I’d count on seeing quite a few of these on American roads soon.
Read MoreI’m pretty sure that, overall, most of us orthodox gearheads are at the very least, accepting of windshield wipers. While they may not be the part of the car that gets most enthusiasts’ giggle-glands pumping, sometimes there’s interesting setups, like Mercedes’ monoblade for example, or the triple arms of an MGB. This is why I’m so puzzled by something, and I want to see who else has encountered this as well: why are some drivers so loathe to turn on their wipers?
Read MoreTomorrow is Tesla’s Battery Day, in which it will likely unveil some battery advancements and in which CEO Elon Musk will likely make some grand claims. I’m gonna watch because Elon Musk is nothing if not entertaining but for comparison’s sake let’s have a look back on the last time Tesla did this.
Read MoreI do realize that, of course, this is a serious thing. It’s bad news when cars run into people. I do get that, I promise. But I’m also not going to pretend that watching this Model 3 smack into that pedestro-bot and send its limbs flying around like a sneezed-out mouthful of un-chewed french fries isn’t hilarious, because it is, especially with the unexplained background music on this clip. Trust me, this will make the start of your week a bit better.
Read MoreTrevor Milton, the founder of electric truck start-up Nikola, has stepped down from his roles as executive chairman and board member at the company, Nikola announced this morning. Milton said that Nikola is “truly in my blood.”
Read MoreCadillac has been slowly rolling out Super Cruise, its “hands-free” driving system since it first appeared in the CT6 in 2018. Buyers got three free years of Super Cruise, a period which is about to end for the early buyers. Cadillac has now said that it’ll cost up to $25 a month if they want to keep Super Cruisin’ after that.
Read MoreIf you’re into very fast off-road pickup trucks designed to take the glory of nature out behind the middle school and work it over but good, then you’re likely aware that the Ford Raptor now has some real competition, the Hellcat V8-powered 2021 Ram 1500 TRX. In case you weren’t quite sure that the target of this adrenaline-drunk brute was the Ford Raptor, a little Easter Egg on the TRX should make this very clear.
Read MoreGenesis recently announced that it would cease production and sale of its Genesis G70 compact luxury sedan equipped with a manual transmission due to poor sales. Considering this is a car that was highly championed by this website and its audience, it’s only right we try to learn something from its failure.
Read MoreWhile almost every major economic system throughout history has at one point or another been accused of being corrupt or run by crooks, a giant scam, or all of that, there’s only one country in the world that truly embraced people’s seemingly inherent predilection to crime: the Svindle Collective. The Svindle Collective is the only country in history to base an economic system on graft. The cars built in the Collective, as a result, have adapted some features that make them pretty remarkable in
Read MoreOn Tuesday morning, when a familiar number came up on my phone, I just knew it. It was Pat Barbour, the wife of a friend I first wrote about in 2018, and the pitch of her voice was a few notes lower than usual.
Read MoreThere are many routes to take if you’re going coast-to-coast in the U.S. You can take I-80 if you hate yourself. You can take Route 50 if you’ve never turned off the Golden Oldies station in your life. You can even route yourself over the Great Lakes if, actually, probably not at the moment.
Read MoreFord promised to listen to Bronco customers calling for its seven-speed manual transmission to be paired with the Sasquatch off-road package. One publication thinks Ford is doing just that, and the evidence is intriguing.
Read MoreIf you’ve been following American automotive manufacturing for the last decade, you might have heard of the tiny Utah-based three-wheeled roadster builder Vanderhall. The company has been building front-wheel drive three-wheeled roadsters powered by GM drivetrains since 2012, with its first electric model, the Edison, coming in 2018. This week the company announced it would be doubling the size of its factory to produce the new electric off-road buggy called Navarro by 2022.
Read MoreShortly after Indian automaker Mahindra introduced its off-road-only side-by-side, the Roxor, Jeep filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission. Jeep feels that the Roxor’s CJ-5-inspired looks infringe upon Jeep’s trademarks, so the FCA brand pushed to stop sales of the Mahindra. Mahindra responded by redesigning the Roxor, and now it appears that a further redesign is coming. And it is wacky.
Read MoreThe 2021 Mazda CX-30 will get a 2.5-liter inline four cylinder turbocharged engine as an option, the company said Thursday. That’s the same 250-horsepower engine also seen in the CX-9, CX-5, and the Mazda 6, and is probably enough power to turn a few heads in a CX-30.
Read MoreRimac, the Croatian electric supercar maker, is in the process of acquiring Bugatti from Volkswagen, according to a couple of reports this morning. This is apparently because Volkswagen is tired of spending boatloads of money on Ferdinand Piëch hobbyhorses.
Read MoreAmong small convertible sports cars, it’s usually the Mazda Miata, Honda S2000, and even the first-gen Audi TT that tend to get all the love. Cast aside like an automotive reject, though, is the third-generation Toyota MR2 Spyder, and—after having driven one for a month—I’ve decided that this is just unfair. Here’s why.
Read MoreFerrari introduced the Portofino more than three years ago as its entry-level car, replacing the California. Today, Ferrari unveiled a slightly better Portofino it’s calling the Portofino M. It has 20 more horsepower, another gear in its transmission and starts at the low price of $244,000.
Read MoreYou may remember way back to yesterday, the day we finally maybe detected bacteria farts in the atmosphere of Venus, that a Ford engineer confirmed that no, the new Ford Bronco will not be getting an optional V8. While this is very important news to have, I nevertheless felt it didn’t go far enough. So, I pushed further, and can now with great certainty say that the new Ford Bronco will also not be getting a V4 engine, either.
Read MoreThe Nissan Z Proto, an official forerunner for a tentatively promised next-gen Z car, has bowed and it incorporates some features I like. Namely a cool, long-looking body that’s built around two supportive seats and a real three-pedal manual transmission. So far, so good.
Read MoreLast week I launched an archaeological expedition to my parents’ basement. The prize: My old PlayStation 2 and a handful of games. Among them was Tokyo Xtreme Racer Zero, which I’d committed countless hours to in the early ’00s. It’s been a week since I rediscovered it and my thumb already hurts from mashing the throttle. I will become emperor of the highway once again.
Read MoreOver the weekend I was a judge at the 24 Hours of Lemons race at Carolina Motorsports Park. It was a pretty clean race overall—surprising number of fires, though. While trolling the paddock area looking for interesting cars, I came across an old mid 1970s Honda Civic, and seeing that car reminded me of a strange, mostly forgotten automotive design trend: turn indicators that look like they’re pretending to be foglamps. Let’s take a moment to reflect on this odd little trend, why not?
Read MoreThe new electric Hummer will debut next month to eventually do battle with the Tesla Cybertruck, if and when that latter vehicle materializes. GM had previously hinted one of the Hummer’s tricks would be crab-related, and now we get to see it in action a little bit.
Read MoreHyundai’s new fourth-generation Tucson is here to take on the rest of the compact CUV market with bold exterior styling and a minimalist touchscreen-heavy interior. This hugely competitive segment has been a big one for Hyundai since the Tucson first came on the scene in 2004. As usual it will slot in under the Santa Fe and Palisade, though this generation has increased in length and width over the outgoing model.
Read MoreSome preproduction test models of the upcoming track-focused Cadillac CT5-V — these apparently with muscular V8 engines — showed up at a Michigan car show this past weekend, and they sounded extremely supercharged.
Read MoreFollowing the fanfare at the reveal of the all-new 2021 Ford Bronco a few months back, it seemed increasingly likely that the automaker would bow to enthusiast interests and inevitably put a V8 engine in the new off-roader. But the Bronco’s chief engineer says it ain’t going to happen.
Read MoreYesterday, a Nikola short published an exhaustive report detailing a series of allegations and calling Nikola an “intricate fraud.” Nikola founder Trevor Milton said last night he would have a “clear, factual, low-emotional answer to the report” out “before market opens.” Today, Milton said the report wouldn’t be made public for now.
Read MoreThey say water signs are abnormally observant, intensely emotional, apt to get lost in thought, desiring of inclusivity, a bit on the mysterious side, and are limitless in their creative potential. Those born under the sign of the crab are summer babies, like me—born July 22nd. I don’t know what any of that has to do with Hummer, but apparently it’s a Cancer and proud of it. So proud that it has gone and tattooed it’s assumed Zodiac sign right into its logo.
Read MoreI know how you’re feeling now. You’re hurt and confused, possibly a little horny, but mostly you feel rage and disgust. And for good reason: We have changed our look. This change is, of course, a personal affront to you, and as such is unforgivable. I’m here to tell you it will be OK, we will get through this, together, and to prove it I’ll show you how many redesigns we’ve survived already. We can do this again.
Read MoreA Nikola short released an extensive — and salacious — report today detailing all manner of allegations against the electric truck startup Nikola. The report accuses the company of staging one of its “in motion” videos and says one of its deals fell apart after allegations about prostitutes, among many other things. Nikola founder Trevor Milton has been busy on Twitter responding.
Read MoreChurning out endless high-powered, well-engineered supercars for two decades hasn’t been enough to secure McLaren from hardship amid the COVID-19 pandemic. As part of a new restructuring plan, McLaren plans to sell its iconic McLaren Technology Centre headquarters in the U.K.
Read MoreTesla’s stock has been on an absurd streak that began roughly around this time last year and culminated with the company opting for a 5-to-1 stock split that was all possibly a way to engineer a stock price of $420. But steep losses in recent days mean Tesla would also be more than happy with $420 now.
Read MoreLucid hasn’t even launched its first car, the 1080-horsepower Air sedan, but it is already working on a sophomore album in the form of this sleek and refined electric SUV based on the same architecture. Not much is known about the SUV, not even a name, but we can guess that it’ll debut with the same dual-motor and floor-battery setup as its Air sibling.
Read MoreMaserati unveiled its MC12 successor today after we got an early glimpse of it yesterday. Called the MC20—”20" is for “2020,” as in the year—the MC20 makes 630 horsepower and can get to 100 kph in under 3 seconds, Maserati claims. To my eye, at least, it is all just enough without being too much.
Read MoreI haven’t really understood how Volkswagen names cars since the air-cooled era. It used to be easy: Types 1, 2, 3, or 4, and they got names that fit how the cars looked: Beetle, Squareback, Fastback, Microbus, hell, even Thing. Then in the water-cooled era they got into wind-based names like Scirocco and Passat, even though it seems the Golf was named for a horse. Sometimes sports stuff, like Polo or Gol (“goal” in Portuguese). But recently, I have no idea what they’re doing, unless the goal is
Read MoreBy now, a large screen in the center of the dashboard — what automotive geeks call a center stack screen — is pretty much expected in every modern car. This screen is designed to be used by both driver and, if present, a passenger. It’s where the media/radio controls are as well as a nav map, and, if your carmaker hates you just a little bit, air conditioning and heating controls. At the moment, no mainstream car has a center stack screen that can be oriented more to the driver or passenger at w
Read MoreVolkswagen said today it would be unveiling a new compact SUV next month, in the market segment smaller than Tiguan, which includes cars like the Honda HR-V, Toyota C-HR, Kia Seltos, Hyundai Kona, and probably Subaru Crosstrek. Sure!
Read MoreThe Venture Brothers isn’t just one of my favorite animated shows, it’s one of my very favorite TV shows period. Adult Swim ended one of the longest-running shows in its line up this week after 81 episodes over 17 years. If you’ve never seen it (There’s no excuse, it’s been around for 17 years. Seriously, get your life together) the show explores the equal parts wacky and depressing adult life of the thoroughly unimpressive Dr. Thaddus ‘Rusty’ Venture, former-boy adventurer à la Johnny Quest. He
Read MoreHey, they updated the site, everybody relax. It looks different. It’ll be fine.
Read MoreYou know how sometimes it feels good to look at shit on the internet that you know is going to piss you off? We’ve all done it, there’s no shame, at least not from me. If you enjoy this at all, boy to we have a good one for you: this dipshit who blew all his money buying himself a Lamborghini but thinks it’s too slow so he’s asking people to help him raise $100,000 for a big-ass turbo kit. Most incredibly, people have donated.
Read MoreNissan has a lot of problems to manage at the moment. The Japanese automaker seems to be taking the path of least resistance when it comes to facing enthusiasts’ loudest rallying cry because a teaser for the upcoming new Nissan Z prototype suggests the sports car is keeping a stick.
Read MoreIs there anything vehicle lighting systems can’t do? If you think they can’t assist in saving the life of a child, then, buddy, boy are you wrong. And it’s not just me saying that: drivers in the remote town of Igugig, Alaska proved this a few days ago when they came together and used their cars, SUVs, trucks, and four-wheelers lights to help save a kid.
Read MoreRemember my fellow North Carolina Pao-owner friend Attila? I wrote about his photos of an amazing steering wheel before. He’s had a bit of mixed luck lately, with a tree branch shattering his Pao’s windshield on the bad side, but on the plus side, he’s also recently acquired an incredible and very obscure 348-page factory Pao dealer book and accessory catalog. It’s full of amazing stuff, including what I’d consider to be the Holy Grail of Pao accessories.
Read MoreHyundai and Kia are calling 643,575 vehicles in the U.S. and Canada because leaking brake fluid could cause a fire. Lots of Optimas, Santa Fes, and Sorentos are about to head to the shop.
Read MoreIn January, Bugatti announced that Bugatti of the Americas COO Maurizio Parlato had resigned for personal reasons. This week, we may have learned what one of those reasons was, as federal prosecutors announced that Parlato had pleaded guilty to two charges relating to a kickback scheme on supercar sales.
Read MoreMercedes unveiled the seventh-generation S-Class today, the best car in the world at any given moment, with the best version of that—the Mercedes-Maybach S 650 Sedan—currently powered by a V12. But Merc’s CEO said today that the future Maybachs could go electric, which makes more sense the longer you think about it.
Read MoreCrash testing seems pretty damn important, but some vehicles just never make it to the independent smashing science lab here in the U.S. That includes all Jaguar, Porsche and Land Rover vehicles currently on sale.
Read MoreNext week, Maserati is launching the MC20, a direct descendent of the $1.5 million MC12 (in good ways and bad), and Maserati’s first new car in over four years. It’s very likely the most interesting thing Maserati’s done in a bit longer than that.
Read MoreA few weeks back, I got an email from a journalist writing a story for VW Vortex, a writer named Sebastien Bell. Sebastien sent me some pictures of a strange Volkswagen Type I-based one-off car that was advertised as a 1970 Volkswagen Concept Car. Sebastien was smart enough to find it all a bit questionable and asked me for some input. And just today I saw it showed up in an article in Der Spiegel. So what’s going on?
Read MoreIf you don’t live in Massachusetts, which most of us don’t—a good thing because it’s not exactly a roomy state—then you likely haven’t seen the commercials aiming to persuade people to vote “no” on Massachusetts Question 1, the “Right to Repair Law” Vehicle Data Access Requirement Initiative. I’m going to say it’s a good thing these ads haven’t crawled across your screen because they are absolute fear-mongering bullshit, funded by almost all of the major automakers currently selling in America.
Read MoreI used to own a Volvo P1800, and I’ve always loved the look of the car because I am a human with a pair of functioning eyeballs. The proportions are just right, the amount of detailing and brightwork is restrained but has enough jewelry to keep you interested, and there’s plenty of nice details without cluttering the look. It’s just a wonderful design. The Volvo/Lynk & Co-focused racing company Cyan Racing agrees with me, which is why it built this fantastic Volvo P1800 Cyan, a 420 horsepower li
Read MoreTesla’s stock split this week, which was maybe an attempt to get its stock price down to $420 though it felt more like a flex. Tesla’s stock price has soared so high that it simply had no other choice, you see.
Read MoreThe great angry American dad sports car is reportedly about to get way, way angrier. A new rumor claims the upcoming mid-engine Chevrolet Corvette Z06 trim’s 5.5-liter flat-plane crank V8 will rip at over 9,000 RPM.
Read MoreIt felt like Toyota took forever to deliver the current Supra and now Nissan is taking its sweet time developing a convincing replacement to the current Nissan 370Z. A new prototype will finally be revealed on September 15, but we may not be able to buy the car for another three or four years.
Read MoreThe song burbles and snaps beneath the beat of a droning metronomic drum machine. A synthesizer warbles, like the underlying score to a dystopian thriller. The lyrics are spoken more than sung, in an accent that sounds vaguely European. After calling out bread and cheese, fine white wines, chic designer clothing and fashion magazines like L’oumo Vogue and GQ, we get to this verse:
Read MoreJalopnik is hiring! We’re looking for three new staff writers, no experience necessary. We’re especially interested in hearing from people who don’t see their experiences in car culture represented in automotive media.
Read MoreEvery so often, I come across a van that looks on the outside how I feel on the inside. This 1974 Dodge Van Tradesman is such a van, and it can be yours if you act quickly on its eBay listing.
Read MoreThe Audi RS5 hasn’t been through a major overhaul for 2021, but the coming model year updates do include the addition of two limited-run launch edition trim levels with some fantastic new paintwork, including the return of the stunning Ascari Blue.
Read MoreLast week, we all got the bitter taste of the next few years of BMW design with the new BMW M3 sedan and M4 coupe and their huge, aggressively forward, nostril kidney grilles. In the days since, many have attempted to “correct” the look, and now it’s my turn.
Read MoreThe Ferrari Omologata – Google says that means approved in Italian – is...
Read MoreThe new look of the 2021 BMW M3/M4 has been rattling around the internet for about 24 hours now. I thought maybe the haze of my initial shock would burn off, and the cars would look a little friendlier on day two. But, no, in fact now that I’ve seen the M Performance options I’m sure: This is a really weird-looking car.
Read MoreThere hasn’t been a truly fun BMW M car since the E39-generation M5. That’s an indisputable fact and deep down in your heart of hearts you know it to be true. For nearly twenty years BMW’s M division has taken itself way too seriously to be any fun at all. Way too German, and not in the good way. Craving ever faster lap times at the expense of driver involvement and enjoyment alike. But the carbon bucket seats in the new BMW M4, likely a Competition version or something, that leaked out on Tuesd
Read MoreIf you ever felt like the previous-generation BMW X5 never quite had enough displacement, a new company in Vietnam is now producing the SUV with a redesigned body and a 6.2-liter V8 engine sourced from General Motors stuffed under the hood.
Read MoreOur pals over at Car Design Archives have uncovered another absolute treasure cache—pictures of prototypes of the Renault Rodéo, the fun car-version of the Renault 4, much like what the Volkswagen Thing was to the Beetle, or the Citroën Mehari was to the 2CV, or Austin Moke was to the Mini. These sorts of deliberately minimalistic cars pose some interesting design challenges, and there’s one here—a version that didn’t make it to production—that I think had the potential to be a genuine design ic
Read MoreThe tiny British jeep/golf cart thing you might have seen cruising around beach towns and island communities is called a Moke. It’s a low-speed multi-terrain getaround vehicle that came out in the 1960s and, I guess, “is back” according to a press release. More pressingly: The online configurator is fun.
Read MoreNissan finally pulled out of its torpor and did something exciting that didn’t involve smuggling a disgraced CEO in a suitcase: they finally showed a new Z car. If Nissan still has an iconic car in its stable, it has to be the Z, which has been around in various forms since 1969. The new Z Proto is clearly heavily inspired by the original Z, but also shows some other crucial design approaches that I think are important even without the retro inspirations. Let’s dig in a bit.
Read MoreDo you ever have to confront yourself first thing in the morning when you climb in your car? What’s that? You left yesterday’s 7-Eleven pizza lunch in your Volvo S90 and it smells? Well, worry no more—the automaker has designed a new air quality control system that will freshen your car before you ever have to get in.
Read MoreThe rumored Alfa Romeo 8C sports car was reportedly canceled late last year. This year, we suddenly get the all-new Maserati MC20, which the automaker claims it managed to develop in under two years — including a new 621 horsepower 3.0-liter turbocharged V6 engine. Could there be a connection?
Read MoreWhen cars get a mid-generation style refresh it’s typically something cost-effective, like a light here, a vent there, maybe a new spoiler in the back. But Genesis is desperate for growth, and it needs attention for that to happen. Enter the incredible 2022 Genesis G70.
Read MoreThe Aston Martin Victor, a privately commissioned one-off car I only just found out about from British friends on social media, might be the coolest vehicle to come out in 2020. I mean, come on: Weird multi-era styling, cashmere headliner, V12... manual transmission?!
Read MoreThe press release announcing the 2021 Mercedes-Benz S-Class this week was over 20,000 words long. (It has a table of contents.) The most visually interesting aspect of the generally reserved-looking car may be that its rear wheels can turn, quite a bit actually, to give this long land yacht tighter turning abilities. We’ll get into specifics on that below.
Read MoreWe’ve just seen the all-new Jeep Grand Wagoneer, the fancy-ass, LCD-crammed new luxury SUV Jeep wants you to go into a bit more debt to buy. But do you even want to consider a Grand Wagoneer without the option of sides slathered in tree meat, be it genuine or fake? Because wood paneling has been a Grand Wagoneer staple for decades. Could it still be possible on the new one?
Read MoreThe automotive world from Europe to Japan to Detroit had better not be caught resting, because Korea is coming for their lunch money. With grandiose and bold designs like the upcoming Tucson, Hyundai is proving that it’s out for blood in the compact utility segment. The visuals here are just teasers, but with big design features like the Saab-esque rear lights and sharp front LEDs, this thing is bound to look out of the ordinary.
Read MoreDesigner Ian Callum retired from Jaguar with a portfolio envied the world over including designs driven by millions of people every day. So what happens when a guy like that wants to remake one of his most iconic cars, the Aston Martin Vanquish? You get the 580 horsepower CALLUM 25—manifested nostalgia in a beautiful $587,000 package.
Read MoreThe Rolls-Royce Ghost, as we’ve known it for the past decade, has been built on the same platform that BMW uses for the 7 Series. Now there’s a new Ghost and R-R moved it to the same architecture used on the big Phantom and Cullinan. That’s important business news, but one thing sticks out on the ownership experience.
Read MoreNissan has released a fun little Z hype video along with an ultra-shadowed teaser silhouette of what it’s calling the “Z Proto.” That means the company’s hedging the car’s release a little, which is fine. It gives us another excuse to talk Zs.
Read MoreOne of the best decisions made by any automaker in the last few years has been Hyundai’s hiring of BMW M performance bosses Albert Biermann and Thomas Schemera. The fruits of their labor are immense, with new racecars, a midengine hatchback concept, the fantastic new Veloster N and now the upcoming Hyundai Elantra N sedan with its new engine.
Read MoreBMW just ripped the mask off of the new BMW M3 and M4 performance sedan and coupe. While those come with up to 503 horsepower and the option of a manual transmission, BMW’s performance M division is already cooking up its first-ever all-electric model, and it should be something completely new.
Read MoreTesla has been building reasonably mainstream electric vehicles for almost a decade, and in volume for maybe three years. It’s a little bit of an understatement to say that the company has been making ambitious moves in all that time, and the car world is probably better for it. The Model 3 is the one that the company bet its future on, and it seems to have paid off, but if it really wants to make waves, this sub-3 compact is going to be its real magnum opus.
Read MoreThe Jeep Grand Wagoneer Concept debuted yesterday to the usual concept car reception of some people saying that they hate it, others saying they didn’t, and still others assessing it as, “fine.” More interesting to me, however, is the price, because this thing is gonna be expensive.
Read MoreI really should just make a find-and-replace template for this article, because we’ve had to write about idiots sleeping at the wheels of their Teslas driving on Autopilot so many times now. If these are the ones getting reported, it’s very likely this happens far more often. That, I suppose, is why we should cover all of these: because this is stupid and dangerous, and will get people killed. Autopilot is not autonomous driving. So don’t fucking sleep at the wheel if it’s on, dummies. Our curre
Read MoreSure, the protestors who have filled the streets all summer with their anti-racism, anti-fascist message say they aren’t a well-regulated secret force on the payroll of the Democratic party. But they would say that, wouldn’t they! Luckily, one reportedly drunk Portland man who ran his truck up a utility pole guy-wire in front of a local convenience store moments after he was denied more alcohol knows the score. His eyes are wide open, even if everything looks wavy and the ground won’t stop movin
Read MoreThe North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation has been called into its neighboring state to investigate the fatal hit-and-run of 55-year-old Joe Boever, who died after he was allegedly struck by a vehicle driven by South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg.
Read MoreThe alarming trend of increased speeding violations and, in some cases, a year-over-year doubling of traffic fatalities during the COVID-19 pandemic continues into the fall, as police agencies around the country report it’s an all-out death race on America’s roads right now.
Read MoreIn Manhattan last night, a car plowed into and through protesters marching for Daniel Prude in Times Square. People quickly figured out that the car was filled with pro-Trump agitators. And that the NYPD had all but given them an escort. And that the car belongs to one of those cop-car wannabe guys. Everything about it, including the NYPD’s investigation, gets worse and worse.
Read MoreMinnesota police are seizing cars from innocent people, selling the cars and keeping the proceeds under a wildly permissive civil forfeiture law supported by, you guessed it, the Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association.
Read MoreLand Rover (and Jaguar) have been pretty big fixtures in James Bond movies, which makes sense because of the shared Britishness, but I couldn’t help but notice all the Rovers kind of get womped in today’s new No Time To Die trailer while an old Toyota triumphantly escapes destruction!
Read MoreWhile pawing through photos coming out of the Beijing Motor Show this week, a recurring theme caught my attention: cool retro stuff! Some of these cars feel like Americana, while others are unique. They’re all pretty strange.
Read MoreThe Honda e:concept is being presented at the 2020 Beijing International Automotive Exhibition (also known as Auto China 2020 or just the Beijing auto show.) It seems to combine a lot of elements that I don’t like, yet ends up creating something that’s actually pretty slick.
Read MoreAre you looking for a truck that’s not a truck? A VW that’s not a VW? Here is a recently-imported Toyota Sprinter, reading “FULL-TIME 4WD” on the door, with a five-speed on the floor and a 2.0-liter diesel under the hood.
Read MoreThe first-generation VW Touareg is an epic machine. Some say that it — along with other impressive engineering feats like the Bugatti Veyron supercar, Audi A2 fuel-sipper and VW Phaeton luxury sedan — was part of Ferdinand Piëch’s onslaught of automotive “moonshots” meant to show the world that VW Was The King of automobile tech. The Touareg is included in this elite class because the SUV was ridiculously well-equipped and offered real off-road chops thanks to locking differentials, tons of gro
Read MoreI already own two cars that are located more than 2,000 miles from my Troy, Michigan house (One of these cars I haven’t yet revealed, because I’m ashamed.) So what’s a third, really? If my 250,000 mile diesel manual Chrysler Voyager (aka “Project Krassler”) craps out, why should I not buy this Trabant? Seriously, I need reasons. This thing is tempting.
Read MoreI am hardly an off-road enthusiast. Certainly not on the order of a Collins or a Tracy, so I’ll usually defer to them. But I am a wheel enthusiast, and when I see a rare and weird set of wheels, it just gets my blood pumping. I haven’t done an Vintage Aftermarket Wheel Of The Week post in a very long time, but that’s how I cut my teeth on this very website a handful of years ago.
Read MoreThe 2020 Honda Grom is an inexpensive, compact, fuel-efficient commuter with shrunken sport bike flair. You probably wouldn’t want this as your only motorcycle, but as an around-town bop it’s hard to beat.
Read MoreThey say you meet the nicest people on a Honda, but I’ve been riding the CB650R in the middle of a global pandemic, and the last thing I want to do is interact with strangers. In this case, I used this Honda to avoid civilization altogether.
Read MoreA sad reality for many people parked around the United States right now is that their cars are being blanketed with ash from the western wildfires. Obviously the physical threat to humans and animals is more urgent, but if you’re being affected by fire and have the mental bandwidth to care about your car’s paint, you may appreciate some tips that could make life easier.
Read MoreOn Sunday evening I walked into the U-haul location a few blocks away and dropped a whopping $15 to rent one of the company’s exquisite motorcycle haulers, and an additional $8 for the bonus insurance. Baller, I know. After hauling it empty for 250 miles and then loaded down with a big Ducati for 250 miles, I’m a big fan.
Read MoreIn what may prove to be the biggest deal in the off-road vehicle community, the leader of the segment, Polaris, has teamed up with comparatively tiny Zero Motorcycles to develop the future contents of toy-haulers all over America. With this exclusive 10-year deal, Polaris gains Zero’s 14 years of electric propulsion expertise, and Zero gains a broad platform and the potential for its technology to end up in the hands of literally millions of adventure seekers. We spoke to the CEOs of both compan
Read MoreInterestingly, BMW’s Motorrad division has existed for longer than its M\\\ performance division, but the two have never collaborated on a performance motorcycle before. Or at least the latter has never leant its name to the former until now. The new BMW M 1000 RR is obviously an extension of the already potent S 1000 RR with even more spunk. Homologation special cars basically don’t exist anymore, but in the world of bikes it’s still running strong, which is why this bike exists.
Read MoreIt’s been thirteen years since the man who would be Obi Wan and his buddy Charley Boorman last embarked on one of their two-wheeled world travel sojourns. The original trek around the world from London to New York, Long Way Around, is a legendary piece of gearhead media, and the follow-up from John O’Groats at the tip of Scotland to Cape Town at the very bottom of Africa is equally entertaining. After a long hiatus, the pair have returned for Long Way Up, from Tierra del Fuego to Los Angeles thr
Read MoreBefore you send in emails that Peugeot isn’t owned by Mahindra, know that Peugeot isn’t Peugeot anymore. Yes, Peugeot Cars is part of the massive French Group PSA with Citroën, DS, Opel and Vauxhall. But Peugeot Motorcycles, the company responsible for a massive gob of small-displacement scooters and mopeds all over Europe and Asia, was purchased by Mahindra in 2019. Lock, stock, the whole lot.
Read More58-year-old actor Tom Cruise is at it again. In every one of his movies he always has to find a way to one-up himself in the stunts department. Ahead of the new Mission Impossible 7 movie, the big stunt has been shown off. How did he increase the Tom Cruise level of this new movie? He’s not hanging off a building, or a helicopter, or a cargo plane, or HALO jumping. This time he’s riding a motorcycle off a giant ramp off a giant cliff. Yeah, he has a parachute, but still.
Read MoreNative Californian motorcycle racer Tyler O’Hara has been racing everything on two wheels since he was five years old. He’s got victories in flat track, dirt, supermoto, superbike road racing, and Pikes Peak. But none of that could possibly have prepared him for this next challenge. Racing an Indian Challenger bagger at Laguna Seca against 13 other baggers (one other Indian from Roland Sands’ shop, and 12 Harleys). He’ll be scraping knee pucks—and possibly hard bags—during the inaugural MotoAmer
Read MoreThe ‘K5’ Suzuki GSX-R 1000 was a revised version of the long-standing Gixxer dynasty, with a stellar totally new chassis, a totally new engine, more power, and less weight than the model it replaced. With a wet weight of 444 pounds and 147.3 horsepower, it was an instant speed demon. But a decade and a half later it’s surely been beaten as king. I mean, look how far cars have come in 15 years. Leaps and bounds, right?
Read MoreAnyone with a brain could tell that putting on the gigantic Sturgis Motorcycle Rally this year would be a bad idea. Now we have a scientific study to affirm this was a worst-case scenario, an event that appears to be accountable for 250,000 cases of COVID-19 at a public cost of $12 billion.
Read MoreMost major national music tours require a bus full of people and a shedload of instruments. Playing shows all over the country requires a team of people and a bunch of vehicles negotiating a ton of moving pieces. That is, unless the country is in the grips of a massive viral pandemic and you want to play free acoustic sets for healthcare workers in outdoor venues. Then you can pack everything you need for a 13 day 17 stop tour on the back of your Ducati Multistrada. That’s exactly what rocker Fr
Read MoreFormer UAW President Dennis Williams pleaded guilty Wednesday to conspiracy to embezzle union funds, making him the 15th person convicted in the ongoing corruption investigation and the second former UAW president. This was a long time coming.
Read MoreAny time you combine a tiny car from yesteryear with a superbike engine from modern times, you’ve got a really incredible concoction brewing. It doesn’t matter which car or which superbike, but mix them together and it’ll be a potent little sonofabitch. In this case, this hill climb special Fiat 500 is hustled around with a Suzuki Hayabusa engine driving all four wheels. Oh yes, you know that’s a marvel of engineering wizardry underneath.
Read MoreI’ve got a diesel Volkswagen Amarok as a loaner vehicle here in Germany, with plans to use the beast to haul wood that will turn my Chrysler Voyager from a van into a mobile apartment. As we don’t get the Amarok in the U.S., some of you may have some questions. Hit me with them.
Read MoreThe new 2021 BMWs M3 and M4 are not supposed to be officially released until tomorrow, but images of them have been leaked in various places around the internet, so the inner peace we all once enjoyed before having seen these new BMWs has been shortened by a day. Sorry. Based on these pictures, it looks like BMW is really doubling down into the naked mole rat/Tycho Brahe without his fake brass nose look, for better or worse.
Read MoreThe first trailer for Top Gear’s 29th season is out and, you won’t believe this, but the boys at Top Gear have once again been out doing zany things with cars.
Read MoreThe CT5 is Cadillac’s midsize sedan... think Audi A6 or BMW 5-Series. The CT5-V is the performance-oriented version of the CT5, but not the only performance version. There’s another one coming, so there will end up being at least two performance-oriented CT5-Vs. If you’ve heard this before, it’s because it’s the only part of the CT5-V that anyone has talked about since it was introduced. Which is too bad, because it’s actually a pretty good car.
Read MoreSpotted recently on I-80 not far from Sacramento, California, was a Scion xB pickup with a bicycle hanging out of its cargo bed. But this isn’t just a typical xB pickup. (Yes, I said typical, because apparently chopping up xBs is a thing.) No, it’s a convertible xB pickup, with what looks like a Jeep Wrangler soft top clamped to the car’s roof rails.
Read MoreWildfires have recently been roaring along the west coast, so far burning 900,000 acres of forest in Oregon, 2.5 million acres in California, and 480,000 acres in Washington according to the New York Times. Many of those forests were the stomping grounds of some awesome old cars, which are now destroyed. Let’s have a look.
Read MoreLucid has put a lot of effort into creating headline-worthy statistics for the Air luxury electric sedan: 1,080 horsepower. Top speed over 200. Runs the quarter mile in 9.9 seconds. Up to an estimated 517 miles of EPA range, Lucid says. Any one of those would make me sit up and take notice, but all of them from the same car? That has got to be something special.
Read MoreAhead of its official public debut on Wednesday, presumed official photographs of Maserati’s new MC20 supercar have leaked out onto the internet, as near as we can tell sourced from autotimesnews.com. This new mid-engine flagship is said to be constructed of a combination of aluminum and composites. The V6-engined coupe is said to weigh in the neighborhood of 3240 pounds.
Read MoreThe Broadmoor Pikes Peak International Hill Climb is one of the most insane and dangerous races I have ever done in my career. With high-speed corners obscured by century-old trees, 140 mph blasts along a cliff’s edge and high-speed corners with only sky as your reference point, it challenges every skill I’ve ever earned as a driver. It is also one of the most addicting races I’ve ever competed in, unsurprisingly for those same reasons.
Read MoreThe seller of today’s Nice Price or No Dice custom open-top Ford Expedition says it was built to resemble the Himalaya Expedition, a display built for the 1999 Specialty Equipment Market Association show in Las Vegas. That kind of makes it the fanfiction of Ford trucks. Let’s see how real the seller has been about setting its price.
Read MorePorsche never offered a front-engine car powered by its iconic air-cooled flat-six, but as evidenced by today’s Nice Price or No Dice Mooney you could get that layout in airplane form. Let’s see what this rare piece of Porsche history should appropriately cost.
Read MoreTalk Like a Pirate Day may have been last week, but that won’t stop us from referring to today’s Nice Price or No Dice Jag as an S-Type “Arr.” You could even throw a “matey” in there at the end if you want. Let’s see if this supercharged saloon is worth giving up a chunk of your booty to buy.
Read MoreWhile the premium electric-car market is now heating up, Tesla’s been in the game long enough that pre-owned cars like today’s Nice Price or No Dice Model X can be just as viable as new. Let’s see just how viable this one’s price makes it out to be.
Read MoreYou may not know that today’s Nice Price or No Dice ’91 Prizm GSi was a model that ever existed. With only about 240 of these hatchbacks sold that year, it almost didn’t. This may very well be the last one around, and you’ll have to decide if it’s priced to keep that memory alive.
Read MoreThe GLI has long been VW’s GTI with a trunk. At least it was until the last generation — like today’s Nice Price or No Dice car — diverged from the Golf for the first time. Let’s see if it still has enough GTI in its DNA to make you want to pay its Do-Re-Mi.
Read MoreThe seller of today’s Nice Price or No Dice BMW 330xi makes some onerous demands of those wanting to take the car on a test drive. Let’s see if its price is a little more flexible.
Read MoreThe modern Honda Civic Si makes 205 horsepower, just 45 more than that of today’s Nice Price or No Dice 1999 edition. That’s not off by much, but this Canadian car’s price is way off that of a new one. Let’s see if it’s “off” enough.
Read MoreToday’s Nice Price or No Dice Corvette is claimed to have lived its entire life in the Southwest. Arizona is a hot place to spend even one summer, so let’s see if its price makes it a hot commodity no matter where you are.
Read MoreTwo-door SUVs like today’s Nice Price or No Dice Trooper used to be a hot ticket. That’s not the case anymore, as four-doors dominate the market. That just makes this Isuzu all the more interesting. We’ll have to see how interested you are in what that special appeal would cost.
Read MoreThe seller of today’s Nice Price or No Dice Alfa Romeo 164 S boldly claims the car to be in “mint condition.” We’ll just have to see if it takes a mint to buy it.
Read MoreAs we all know, Porsche’s 924 was originally planned to be an Audi and in the beginning used that marque’s engine. Today’s Nice Price or No Dice 924 S is at the other end of the model’s lifespan and uses a proper Porsche mill. Let’s see what that might properly be worth.
Read MoreThe ad for today’s Nice Price or No Dice Cadillac misspells Biarritz in the title, but we’ll cut the seller some slack since that model name is on loan from the French. Let’s see if you’d consider a loan to own this big beautiful beast.
Read MoreToday’s Nice Price or No Dice Audi S4 was built by Allroad Outfitters for the 2018 SEMA show. Now — if its price feels like a deal — it could be showing up in your driveway.
Read MoreMazda once touted the superiority of its cars by claiming that while reciprocating engines went boing-boing-boing, rotaries went hmmmm. Today’s Nice Price or No Dice RX2 is a throwback to that “humm-ble” time. Let’s see if its asking price makes this restored coupe a real humdinger.
Read MoreYou don’t need to be a fanatic of the brand to acknowledge that today’s Nice Price or No Dice Volvo is a nicely equipped and seemingly well-preserved example of the company’s first midsize front-driver. Will its price, however, be just as easy to appreciate?
Read MoreThe directive “some assembly required” has never been more apropos than it is with today’s Nice Price or No Dice Honda. Let’s see if this project car’s price is cheap enough to have you assembling both the cash and a parts list.
Read MoreThis being Labor Day here in the U.S., it’s a great opportunity to reflect on how hard we all work and what sort of rewards that work can afford. One such reward could be a cool Italian car like today’s Nice Price or No Dice Maserati, that is if its price works for you.
Read MoreIt’s hard to imagine in today’s crossover-crazy world, but here in the U.S., car-based pickups were once kind of a thing. Today’s Nice Price or No Dice GMC is just one such car/truck and it’s a diesel to boot. Let’s see if its price can turn back the clock.
Read MoreNot all that long ago, Volkswagen made an attempt to eschew the whole “people’s car” schtick and sidle its product line up-market. The result was cars like today’s Nice Price or No Dice W8 Passat, which is the fanciest Passat there ever was. Let’s see if that makes its price a fancy feast.
Read MoreBMW’s M-Roadster was the raw-edged take on the more genteel Z3, and yet as today’s Nice Price or No Dice Dinan-massaged edition proves, there’s always more raw to be had. Let’s see if this rare ride’s price tag demands a premium for that added power.
Read MoreToday’s Nice Price or No Dice Mini is one of four KISS tribute cars, each wearing an interpretation of one of the band members’ iconic face makeup. If that rocks your world, let’s see what such a tribute might demand.
Read MoreQantas, Australia’s largest international airline, officially retired its fleet of Boeing 747 passenger aircraft this month. To celebrate, the airline raided the booze cabinets, and then put them up for sale for less than $1,000 online.
Read MoreFinnish researchers have done something new to combat the detection of COVID-19: they’ve hired four dogs to sniff it out. And it seems to be working with a near foolproof accuracy.
Read MoreFinally, a form of leisure travel more detestable and tedious than cruise ships. Some airlines are so desperate to retake the skies that they are now offering sightseeing trips that begin and end at the same airport. It’s a horrifyingly wasteful practice and, with tickets proving extremely popular with jet-setting customers tired of being grounded by COVID-19, it’s probably not a passing fad. From USA Today:
Read MoreThe deadly crashes of two Boeing 737 Max airliners can be chalked up to a company keeping everyone in the dark and giving Boeing employees the authority of federal regulators who could then be pressured by their company. That’s according to a new report released Wednesday that could lead to big changes in how the Federal Aviation Administration works with the entities it is meant to regulate.
Read MoreWhen so many of us this year are asking daily “oh god, what now?” some residents of the Garden State looked up to the sky in hope and thought they saw the answer: a UFO. Unfortunately, this was no free ride off our doomed rock.
Read MoreThe wildfires currently consuming large swaths of California and turning the skies of the American West an apocalyptic orange are so bad that the state’s National Guard is out rescuing stranded people by the Chinook-full.
Read MoreThe Dune series has lots of things about it that makes it novel in the world of science fiction, um, novels. There’s a spice-based economy, a near-complete lack of computing devices, and spaceships piloted by gross fishy mutants that live in what looks like paprika farts. Another interesting quirk of the books and movies is the extensive use of ornithopters for travel. You know, flappy-wing aircraft!
Read MoreHistory selectively chooses its heroes. In a world where two men simultaneously developed the theory of evolution, we’ve opted to remember Charles Darwin over Alfred Russel Wallace. In the development of calculus, we remember the name of Isaac Newton and not Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. But in many cases, it’s the women whose discoveries and accomplishments go unnoticed. Such is the case of Lilian Bland, the first woman to design, build, and fly her own plane.
Read MoreGenerally, for most commercial airline pilots, the view out the window at around 3,000 feet can be pretty monotonous: sky, clouds, some birds, other aircraft, clouds shaped like Bullwinkle (kinda), maybe a sun or moon or two. That’s about it. But things got a lot less boring for pilots approaching LAX yesterday, as multiple pilots reported seeing “a guy in a jetpack” on Sunday night.
Read MoreThe 2021 Porsche 911 Turbo S is an animal, a monster, an apex predator on asphalt when you push the gas pedal into the carpet. Otherwise, it’s a competent touring car. But you knew that. Seriously, why are you reading this review? It’s a fucking 911 Turbo. It’s amazing. Obviously.
Read MoreWay back in 1970, it was The King Richard Petty who won the last dirt oval race in NASCAR’s top flight class. Back then it was called Grand National and they raced at the North Carolina State Fairgrounds, but today it’s just known as Cup. The series has announced a plan to bring dirt oval racing back to the series, allowing the best stock car drivers in the world to prove their mettle on the bullring known as Bristol with 15,000 truck loads of dirt coating the traditionally concrete track.
Read MoreIf you are the one person among your friends with a manual-shift car, you may worry about letting someone else learn on your car. They might wear out your clutch! Trust me, that’s nothing compared to letting an F1 driver take the helm, at least in the case of the great Robert Kubica, a BMW M4 and the Nürburgring Nordschleife.
Read MoreThis is a Chevy Monza, one of the objectively shittiest cars America has ever produced. But this Monza is different, because it is a power-shifting, howling, monster of a race car better than any sense of reason would have it.
Read MoreThere’s just something about racing movies from the 1980s through the early 2000s that brought out the worst in film studios. I don’t know what encouraged someone to look at a stock car and say, “this, but so cheesy you can’t even comprehend it,” but they did, and I love it. And now I want to know your favorites.
Read MoreFan-favorite IndyCar driver James Hinchcliffe found himself in a tight bind at the end of the 2019 season: Arrow McLaren SP opted against signing him so late that all Hinchcliffe could piece together was a three-race deal with Andretti Autosport. Now, he’s adding three more races to his 2020 package after the early departure of No. 26 driver Zach Veach.
Read MoreNew Zealander Scott McLaughlin has had three dominant years in the Supercars championship, and this weekend, he scored his third consecutive championship win one race before the season finale at Bathurst.
Read MoreThe Arrow McLaren SP IndyCar team has been one of the more impressive efforts of the 2020 season. Fielding two young drivers who have both proved massively competitive, it seemed the team’s youthful risk paid off. Now, though, veteran driver Helio Castroneves will be replacing rookie Oliver Askew after the latter driver reported suffering concussion-like symptoms since a crash at the Indy 500 in August.
Read MoreAlejandro Agag, founder of both the Formula E and Extreme E championships, has just announced the formation of an all-electric powerboat league called the E1 World Electric Powerboat Series. Once again, the whole goal of the series is to draw attention to the environmental concerns that impact marine life.
Read MoreLewis Hamilton raised some eyebrows in the Formula One paddock when he donned a t-shirt stating “arrest the cops who killed Breonna Taylor” on the podium at the Tuscan Grand Prix. While the FIA denied that they would penalize Hamilton for the shirt, it did implement a new rule that explicitly bans anything but race suits on the podium. That means no political t-shirts allowed.
Read MoreYesterday, KTM’s Pol Espargaro claimed that the MotoGP rider who wins the Catalan Grand Prix will be the one who cares the least about crashing and remains upright—and he wasn’t wrong. The crash-heavy event at Barcelona was a wild one, and it ultimately favored Fabio Quartararo, the only rider who has won repeat races this year.
Read MoreAfter a lull following his strong start to the season, Valtteri Bottas picked up his second win of the season at the Russian Grand Prix. His teammate Lewis Hamilton had already pegged him as a significant challenger, but the British driver’s two five-second time penalties certainly didn’t help matters. After serving his penalty, Hamilton was no longer a challenger for the win, leaving Bottas to take the victory.
Read MoreGracie Trotter made history in the ARCA Menards West Series by becoming the first woman to win a race yesterday at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway Bullring. While there’s been some disagreement about what qualifies as a series distinction, she is still only the second woman to win in the series’ history.
Read MoreBeginning at the Talladega race on Oct. 3, 2020, TikTok will be officially sponsoring a NASCAR Xfinity Series team. Driver Ryan Vargas will pilot the No. 6 machine for the final six races of the year, and even if he doesn’t finish at the front of the field, he does have one big advantage: His car looks damn good.
Read MoreThere are big changes coming at the acme of Formula One’s management. Liberty Media, the company that owns F1, has announced that Stefano Domenicali will replacing the well-mustachioed Chase Carey as president and CEO of the series. Domenicali served as team principal for the Ferrari F1 team from 2008 to 2014, then headed to Audi before being appointed CEO at Lamborghini in 2016.
Read MoreWhile many disciplines of motorsport have done a solid job with their COVID-19 safety protocols, nothing has been foolproof. Drivers and team personnel have contracted the illness, but this weekend sees the impact of the virus on a much wider scale. Whether it be IMSA drivers or Formula One presenters, this weekend serves as a stark reminder that life still hasn’t gone back to normal.
Read MoreOn Sept. 14, 2020, a rumor surfaced that the FIA would punish Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton for wearing a shirt that read “Arrest the cops who killed Breonna Taylor.” While the FIA denied the claim, Hamilton still believes that a new series of guidelines regarding appropriate dress will be released during this weekend’s Russian Grand Prix.
Read MoreIt’s been a year of firsts for the MotoGP series, and qualifying for the Catalan Grand Prix has been no different. Yamaha rider Franco Morbidelli secured his first-ever pole position in Barcelona after a battle with his fellow Yamaha riders as well as future teammate Valentino Rossi.
Read MoreThreats of rain, cancelled laps, and red flags: the qualifying session for Formula One’s Russian Grand Prix had it all, but it wasn’t enough to stop Lewis Hamilton. The British driver secured yet another pole position, but he had one hell of a difficult time getting there.
Read MoreThe Haas Formula One team has been on the forefront of the rumor mill these last few weeks, specifically regarding its driver lineup. Team boss Guenther Steiner has made it obvious that he hasn’t been very happy with Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen, and there are other talented drivers in the unemployment pool.
Read MoreWelcome to the Jalopnik Weekend Motorsports Roundup, where we let you know what’s going on in the world of racing, where you can see it, and where you can talk about it all in one convenient place. Where else would you want to spend your weekend?
Read MoreCharlie Martin has pushed for racing to be a more inclusive place for years, and this weekend she’ll make both LGBTQ and racing history by being the first transgender car driver to race in the Nürburgring 24 Hours.
Read MoreVolkswagen has basically set the standard for electric performance with its ID.R prototype. This car over the course of the last handful of years has set astonishing new overall records at the Pikes Peak International Hillclimb, China’s Tianmen Mountain, and the Goodwood Festival of Speed hillclimb. It also holds the electric record for a lap time at the Nurburgring Nordschleife. It’s fast, like ridiculously fast. It’s not fast for an electric, it’s outright fast.
Read MoreAcura has renewed its involvement in IMSA racing, and it’s doing so with Meyer Shank Racing and Wayne Taylor Racing. Starting in 2021, the ARX-05 Daytona Prototype International will hit the track with these two single-car teams. Both will debut at the 2021 24 Hours of Daytona.
Read MoreBubba Wallace dropped the news 11 days ago that he would be leaving the team where he got his Cup Series start—Richard Petty Motorsports—at the end of the 2020 season. Without any announcement of where he would be going, speculation ran rampant. For those 11 days, he was perhaps NASCAR’s hottest free agent. Today on Twitter Denny Hamlin announced that Wallace would be driving a car for the team he and NBA legend Michael Jordan started together.
Read MoreThe FIA Formula E Championship celebrated its sixth birthday a week ago, marking exactly six years since the first race event was won by Lucas di Grassi in his Audi Sport ABT Spark SRT01-e. The series has evolved so much in that six years, becoming one of the most exciting single-seat racing championships in the world. On Monday the series announced that it had successfully offset every ounce of carbon emission that have been expelled on behalf of the series since its inception.
Read MoreThings haven’t been all that hunky-dory over in the A.J. Foyt Racing camp for the past few years. The IndyCar team has chronically struggled with performance, slipping from the midfield to the rear of the grid. Paired with the loss of its longtime title sponsor ABC Supply and its revolving door of drivers, 2020 promised to be a difficult one. But now that the team has signed Sebastien Bourdais as a full-time driver for 2021 with his duties starting as soon as the next race, the team might just h
Read MoreThe World Endurance Championship has used a winter format since the 2018-19 season, but the COVID-19 pandemic has forced the series to reconsider. Instead, it will cut the winter portion of its 2020 and instead will only contest six races in 2021.
Read MoreAt Formula One’s inaugural Tuscan Grand Prix, Racing Point driver Lance Stroll slid off track and plowed into the retaining wall so hard that his car curved into a banana-like shape. While the driver was okay, the car began to smolder. A group of poorly prepared marshals had run out of tiny fire extinguishers and yelled back and forth while trying to navigate the burning machine off the track. It was a bad look for everyone involved: the track, the promoters, F1, and the FIA. And it’s a reminder
Read MoreBack in 1995, McLaren took home a dominant victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, with its cars coming home first, second, fourth, fifth, and 13th. And, on the eve of the 2020 event, the company debuted five customer-commissioned Sennas decked out in the liveries the winning F1 GTRs wore at the time.
Read MoreSaturday night’s NASCAR Cup Series Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway was one punctuated by chaos and a bit of disaster for a few drivers contending in the playoffs. Only six drivers finished on the lead lap, which meant that competition was fierce to secure the final playoff positions up for grabs before 16 drivers were trimmed down to 12.
Read MoreWith Formula One’s traditional feeder series, Formula 2 and 3, looking to condense their 2021 schedules, there are some gaps left to fill in the normal race weekend. The all-woman W Series wants to fill those empty slots.
Read MoreAt almost every single MotoGP race this year, a new victor has been crowned. At the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, polesitter Maverick Vinales was able to turn his first-place start into a win. But he very nearly didn’t achieve the win had it not been for a late-race crash that took out the leading rider.
Read MoreWhen Wendell Scott contested his first official NASCAR Grand National Series race in 1961, he was already 40 years old and had been racing for 26 of those years. He wasn’t young, he certainly didn’t have anything close to the best equipment, he was going up against some of the sport’s most iconic drivers, and he did it all while carrying the baggage that accompanied the shade of his skin. And his story is a damn good reminder that NASCAR still has a lot of work to do when it comes to reckoning w
Read MoreThere was no stopping Toyota Gazoo Racing at the 2020 24 Hours of Le Mans: the team was dominant from the very start. And while the No. 7 experienced an early heartbreak after leading the opening hours, the No. 8 was ultimately able to secure an overall win. Sebastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima, and Brendon Hartley graced the top step of the podium as victors of the world’s biggest endurance event.
Read MoreAs the final segment of the race began to kick in, the 2020 24 Hours of Le Mans began to shape up to be a much different race than anyone would have predicted at the start. Only one Toyota had stuck it out in the front, and Rebellion Racing instead looked to be the team set to secure a double podium. A sense of calm had firmly set in as the sun rose, but anything can still happen in the final four hours.
Read MoreThe seemingly infallible No. 7 Toyota Gazoo Racing machine finally saw disaster just after the 12-hour mark. The machine befell turbo problems that saw repairs that lasted just under an hour. The No. 8 held steady on the track, taking up the lead, but the damage to one teammate never bodes well for another.
Read MoreNight has descended on the Circuit de la Sarthe, and Toyota hasn’t budged from the top of the charts. It’s a race against the track and against themselves now more than it is a race against their competitors. Can the team maintain its dominance, or will it suffer another mechanical failure in the closing half of the race?
Read MoreAs the sun begins to set over the Circuit de la Sarthe, Toyota has maintained a strong lead over the rest of the 24 Hours of Le Mans field. As had been the case for much of the race up to the eight hour mark, the No. 7 Toyota led the field with virtually no problems. The No. 8, by contrast, has suffered a puncture and a dirty brake duct.
Read MoreAfter some scary crashes during the two races at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria, MotoGP officials decided to implement a new system of alerting riders to red flags that they might otherwise miss. And it’s a simple as a radio message.
Read MoreDJR Team Penske driver and two-time Supercars champion Scott McLaughlin was set to make his IndyCar debut this year at the Indy Grand Prix during the lead-up to the Indy 500 when his plans were dashed by the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. However, he’ll be making up that missed event by contesting the IndyCar season finale at St. Petersburg.
Read MoreIndyCar driver and multi-discipline stunt racer Travis Pastrana are teaming up at Niece Motorsports for the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on September 25 for the Strat 200.
Read MoreAfter years of failed attempts to make it happen, IndyCar confirmed on Wednesday, September 16 that it would definitely be heading to Nashville for a street race in early August of 2021. While the track layout has received some criticism—mainly because it careens over a bridge—we thought it would be best if everyone got a look at the proposed track layout in person. Or, as close as you can get to in person.
Read MoreThe 2020 24 Hours of Le Mans has gotten off to a strange start befitting of a strange year. There have been a handful of yellow flags for drivers who took some off-track excursions, and the weather has alternated between a light drizzle and bursts of sunshine. It was a fairly clean run despite everything, with no safety cars for the first four hours.
Read MoreMaverick Vinales has found his stride at Misano; for the second straight race weekend in a row, the Yamaha rider has set the fastest lap in qualifying and will start Sunday’s event from pole position.
Read MorePeugeot has seen success at the highest level at events like the 24 Hours of Le Mans, but the confirmation that it will be joining the World Endurance Championship’s newly founded hypercar class wasn’t a given. The marque took its time evaluating its options—especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic—and has only barely selected the hypercar as its 2022 make.
Read MoreTwo all-female teams have made the cut and will line up to take the green flag at the 2020 24 hours of Le Mans. It’s been 43 years since the last time more than one of such teams contested the endurance event, which makes this year a pretty special deal.
Read MoreThe Lotus 72 was a masterpiece of a car. Lotus employed this chassis, albeit with year-on-year updates, for five full seasons of Formula One from 1970 to 1975. It was and remains such a stunning beauty of engineering prowess, and the technical drawing rendered by Giorgio Piola for Italian language Autosprint Magazine is no less impressive. Piola himself calls this the most important drawing of his lengthy and legendary career.
Read MoreWelcome to the Jalopnik Weekend Motorsports Roundup, where we let you know what’s going on in the world of racing, where you can see it, and where you can talk about it all in one convenient place. Where else would you want to spend your weekend?
Read MoreOn Wednesday Indycar dropped the news that it was planning a new event in Nashville, Tenn. for next August, a street course that crosses the famed Korean War Veterans Memorial Bridge twice on a weird soup-ladle-shaped track. This is an interesting development as part of Roger Penske’s push for new exciting tracks since purchasing the series last year, and marks the first new street course on the Indycar calendar since 2013's Belle Isle Grand Prix revival.
Read MoreYesterday, there were reports that Lewis Hamilton would be investigated by the FIA for wearing a certain T-shirt at Sunday’s Tuscan Grand Prix. Today, there are reports that, in fact, there will be no formal investigation. Lewis Hamilton, meanwhile, issued his own statement this morning.
Read MoreOver the weekend it was announced that Renault’s Enstone-based Formula One squad would change its name next year to be Alpine. Come Monday, the Alpine team announced it would also be elevating its FIA World Endurance Championship Signatech-Alpine effort from the LMP2 category where it has raced for five seasons—winning Le Mans three times in the process—up to the LMP1 category for the 2021 year. This will mark the first time a team has run Formula One and top-class Le Mans concurrently in at lea
Read MoreLewis Hamilton won his 90th Formula One race at a crash-marred Tuscan Grand Prix on Sunday, at which Hamilton also wore a T-shirt. According to a couple of outlets, the FIA is now investigating Hamilton for said T-shirt.
Read MoreScott Dixon is such a smooth driver that it leaves people asking if he’s actually human—but a difficult weekend at Mid-Ohio showed that even the mighty can stumble. He’s retained the IndyCar championship lead since the first race of the season at Texas Motor Speedway, but this weekend has closed the wide gap he’d built. Now, Team Penske driver Josef Newgarden is legitimately within fighting distance.
Read MoreFans have been asking NASCAR to shake up the race schedule and introduce some short tracks back to the season schedule for a while, but NASCAR’s response—turning a larger track into a short track—isn’t quite how many people expected it to happen. That said, Auto Club Speedway, located less than 50 miles outside of downtown Los Angeles, might be the perfect place to add another short track.
Read MoreAt this point, everyone is aware that it costs millions of dollars just to contest a Formula One season, but a new rule under the recently signed Concorde Agreement dictates that incoming teams will need to pay an extra fee on top of everything else if they want to join the series. And that extra fee comes in at a whopping $200 million.
Read MoreThe Arrow McLaren SP team has exceeded all expectations for its 2020 IndyCar season. While anything with the McLaren name is expected to be quick, it was surprising that its two young drivers—Patricio O’Ward and rookie Oliver Askew—have been so impressive. And it’s looking like the team might opt to add a third car for the 2021 season, likely inhabited by a more veteran driver.
Read MoreModern motorsport has a problem: It’s too damn complicated, and it’s only been getting worse.
Read MoreNo one quite knew what to expect when Formula One announced that it would contend its first Grand Prix at the Mugello Circuit, and fans predicted that it would either be flecked with chaos or boring as hell. As it turned out, we got a little bit of both.
Read MoreYamaha rider Franco Morbidelli secured his first-ever MotoGP win at the San Marino Grand Prix. Starting second, he almost immediately pulled into the lead and didn’t look back to allow anyone to challenge him throughout the duration of the race.
Read MoreFerrari, the longest running team in Formula One history, has spent a significant portion of 2020 in distress—and that is, unfortunately, nothing new. The team threw away its chances at battling for a championship in 2019, and things have only grown worse since. But if you only listened to what the Ferrari camp is saying, you might never realize how dire the situation is. In fact, team principal Mattia Binotto has been frequently insisting that everything is just fine.
Read MoreThe COVID-19 pandemic has had a far-reaching economic impact on just about everyone around the globe, and Formula One’s feeder series, Formula 2 and Formula 3, are already looking ahead to 2021 to determine how to make structural changes that will help reduce the financial struggle of racing. And a big part of that comes down to altering the weekend format.
Read MoreAnother NASCAR driver has been caught using disparaging racial language on the internet. This time, occasional Xfinity Series driver Mike Wallace has been suspended indefinitely due to offensive posts or comments son social media. While it’s not clear what, exactly, resulted in the suspension, Wallace has a history of making or sharing racially disparaging Facebook content.
Read MoreAs the age-old silly season drama sets off in full swing, it is once again time for Haas F1 to tease that it might just sign some new drivers for the upcoming season. Team principal Guenther Steiner has been saying it for years, and he’s saying it again, but there’s a difference in 2020: We have a solid free agent waiting to be signed.
Read MoreWhile many European racing series have done their best to quell the spread of COVID-19, it was inevitable that a handful of athletes would come down with the virus. Now, KTM Ajo Moto2 rider and 2020 title contender Jorge Martin has become the first rider in the MotoGP series to come back with a positive test.
Read MoreSeven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson took the motorsport world by surprise this week by announcing that, after his NASCAR retirement, he’ll be partnering with the Chip Ganassi Racing team over in IndyCar with the promise of putting together a solid season of races. And that’s the kind of announcement that the IndyCar series desperately needs.
Read MoreThe Mugello circuit has never hosted a Formula One race before, which means that Lewis Hamilton has made history by taking pole position at the track ahead of Sunday’s race. And with his time of 1:15.144, Hamilton has also secured the lap record.
Read MoreAhead of tomorrow’s San Marino Grand Prix, Yamaha rider Maverick Vinales absolutely demolished Misano’s previous lap record to secure pole position. Misano looks to be a solid track for Yamaha, with its riders qualifying 1-2-3-4. It hasn’t been the teams best season, but this is a promising change.
Read MoreAna Carrasco, the first woman to win a World Championship in motorcycle road racing with her 2018 WorldSSP300 championship, has suffered a double vertebrae fracture while testing at the Circuito Estoril in Portugal. She was conscious when transported to the hospital.
Read MoreIt takes an awful lot of confidence to design your Formula One car to run specifically at the front, but that’s just what the Mercedes team has done. The only problem is—as we saw during the Italian Grand Prix—that the cars struggle desperately when they’re following in another driver’s dity air. Here’s what’s going on.
Read MoreThe Formula Circuit is heading to the Mugello Circuit for the first time ever this weekend as part of its coronavirus rescheduling, and it’s one of the many tracks that will bring a significant challenge to the drivers. So, in honor of this weekend of mystery, here’s a little bit of what viewers can expect.
Read MoreThe Tuscan Grand Prix, racing on Sunday, will be Ferrari’s 1,000th grand prix and the first ever Formula 1 grand prix at Mugello Circuit. The track has already proved popular with drivers, including George Russell, who took a spin ’round it to give us a delightful tour explaining driver strategy.
Read MoreWelcome to the Jalopnik Weekend Motorsports Roundup, where we let you know what’s going on in the world of racing, where you can see it, and where you can talk about it all in one convenient place. Where else would you want to spend your weekend?
Read MoreWe’ve been waiting four months to finally get an official announcement of where we might see former four-time World Drivers’ Champion Sebastian Vettel land for the 2021 Formula One season. While I secretly hoped he would retire, or pull a Nigel Mansell and move to IndyCar, on Thursday it was announced that he would continue in F1 with Aston Martin Racing, the re-branded Racing Point.
Read MoreLewis Hamilton, the guy who got totally clobbered by Pierre Gasly in last weekend’s Italian Grand Prix, has founded a brand new racing team to contest the 2021 season of Extreme E electric off-road racing. If you aren’t yet aware of this Hamilton kid, he’s pretty good. He’s already earned six Formula One championships, he’s well on his way to a seventh, and I wouldn’t be surprised if next year is his eighth. With that kind of international clout, it’s pretty awesome that he’s thrown his not-insu
Read MoreWhile some motorsport series are testing all drivers and team personnel for COVID-19 before each event, NASCAR is one of the series operating almost entirely on the honor system: If you feel ill, it’s up to you to report it. And it’s still a terrible idea.
Read MoreFormula One is in a bit of a rut. Barring disaster, fans are generally able to accurately predict the team that’s going to win every race. It’s easy to guess which teams will be mired in the back of the grid. And, honestly, those same hypotheses would likely hold true for the following year. Now, Sebastian Vettel has some strong words for The Powers That Be in the series regarding its longevity.
Read MoreAmerican open-wheel racing has been in dire straits for years, and it all goes back to a little piece of white paper. Open-wheel sanctioning bodies in the US have only just recently started playing nice, and The IndyCar Wars tries to tell the story of its petty arguments and explosive fights. Unfortunately, it forgets the narrative in favor of listing the facts.
Read MoreIt was bound to happen eventually: as racing schedules around the world were reshuffled in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, it stood to reason that, at some point, a team or manufacturer would face a clash between events from different disciplines. Now, Ferrari’s WEC and GT World Challenge Europe teams are facing a season finale clash on November 14-15, 2020.
Read MoreOne of the most absurd parts of the 2020 Formula One season is over. The Racing Point F1 team has decided that it will no longer appeal the petitions brought against its questionably legal brake ducts. According to the team, it has reached an agreement with its competition.
Read MoreAn absolutely wild Italian Grand Prix saw a little bit of everything: pit stop disaster, crashes, red flags, and, most importantly, a whole new winner. Alpha Tauri driver Pierre Gasly took home his first ever victory in the series.
Read MoreFormula One has been looking for ways to bulk up its COVID-shortened schedule, and one of the coolest has been the addition of the never-before-used Bahrain short course. Without the inner series of tight turns, lap times have been estimated to be around 55-seconds during qualifying. While some drivers are worried about the impact of qualifying, there’s a very simple solution to the problem: single car qualifying.
Read MoreWith a mere handful of laps to go in the Sport Clips VFW 200, leaders Denny Hamlin and Ross Chastain made a crucial mistake during Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity event. Third place Brandon Jones had caught up to the pack and was able to capitalize on their mistake.
Read MoreThe Renault F1 team has committed to running in Formula One until at least 2025, but it’s going to be doing so under a whole new name. Starting in 2021, Renault will change its name to Alpine F1 and will race under a whole new set of colors. Longstanding motorsport fans will recognize that name. Alpine is a French manufacturer known for its sportscars and racing machines, and it has close ties to Renault. A man named Jean Rédélé raced Renault 4CVs in the early 1950s, which encouraged him to st
Read MoreIn case you haven’t heard, there’s a new racing series in town. The Superstar Racing Experience—or, SRX—is an upcoming stock car racing series developed in a partnership between former NASCAR driver and team owner Tony Stewart, crew chief Ray Evernham, former NASCAR executive Sandy Montag, and sports agent George Pyne. Here’s what you need to know about it so far.
Read MoreMotorsport is regulated by various sanctioning organizations, with one of the largest international bodies being the FIA, which awards points to drivers that essentially qualify them for competing in top-level series like Formula One. But in the COVID-19 era, where many racing series have cancelled or postponed events, some drivers will be prone to losing more points than others. Here’s how the FIA is regulating the Super License system in the wake of the pandemic.
Read MoreNASCAR races are long, and they have been for decades. There’s no disguising that fact. The sanctioning body has tried to implement changes to at least make those races more exciting—competition cautions, stages, playoffs, etc.—but there’s very little you can do to remedy the fact that a lunchtime start might drag on through dinner. And driver Kevin Harvick agrees; there’s no need for 500 mile races outside of NASCAR’s crown jewel events.
Read MoreOn August 21, 202, teenage kart racer Chloe Chambers climbed behind the wheel of a Porsche 718 Spyder to do something no one has ever done before: to pilot a car through a slalom of 50 cones in 47.45 seconds—half a second faster than her predecessor.
Read MoreOn September 5, 1970, Gold Leaf Team Lotus driver Jochen Rindt crashed in the run up to the Parabolica corner at Monza on his fifth practice lap for the Italian Grand Prix. 74 days later, on November 18, Jackie Stewart handed Rindt’s widow Nina a trophy. Her husband had won the 1970 Formula One World Drivers’ Championship.
Read MoreMonza is a circuit that brings the same round of problems in practice and qualifying every year: too many drivers hit the track in an attempt to occupy the same space at the same time. And in 2020, we’ve already seen eight drivers summoned to the stewards after practice and a traffic jam in Q3.
Read MoreFormula One designers have been trying to get away with crazy shit for years, and one of the coolest examples of innovation from the early 1990s is the FW14B, the car that Williams brought to the 1992 season. It was one of those machines so damn good that the FIA banned it—and all the things that made it cool—for the following year.
Read MoreThere was a point in time when plenty of Formula One teams were owned by either families or single people. Brabham, Tyrrell, Hesketh, Hill, Jordan, Surtees—all were teams that were once owned or run by either one person or their family unit. Even McLaren has long since been owned by anyone with the eponymous last name. With Frank and Claire Williams stepping down from their team after being bought out by Dorilton Capital, the end of an era is upon us.
Read MoreGreat news for all the Ayrton Senna fans out there: Netflix has a new eight-part documentary series in the works about the Formula One great, and we’ll likely see it sometime in 2022. If Senna and Drive to Survive are anything to go by, this series will be a pretty solid success.
Read MoreJust a few months after Ford announced the all-electric drag racing Mustang Cobra Jet 1400 it has delivered on its promised 8-second quarter mile time. On the first day of the NHRA U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis this weekend Ford rolled out the EV monster for a stonking great run. How quick? 8.27 seconds at 168 miles per hour. Hell yeah!
Read MoreWelcome to the Jalopnik Weekend Motorsports Roundup, where we let you know what’s going on in the world of racing, where you can see it, and where you can talk about it all in one convenient place. Where else would you want to spend your weekend?
Read MoreAfter a positive test at a regional rallycross in Hungary last month, the STARD-built Projekt E electric Ford Fiesta graduated to a more serious test. A quartet of these Project E machines raced against each other for the first time at Höljes Motorstadion during the Swedish round of the World Rallycross championships a few weeks ago. Ford invited Ken Block over to drive the new electric racer, and it’s safe to say he liked it, walking away with the race victory.
Read MoreBack last month when we had a chance to sit down with Sir Gordon Murray himself, we asked if there was perhaps an intention to put the T.50 on a fitness regimen to prepare it for racing. The word then was that there would be 25 additional series production track cars with an intent to possibly start a supercar racing series. We didn’t get many details then, but now the cat is out of the bag. Codenamed T.50S, this is the first glimpse of said track version. It almost looks ready for Le Mans.
Read MoreThis video should be labeled “POV: You are a very fast jackrabbit bounding your way up Pikes Peak.” because that’s what it looks like with the camera mounted so low on the car. Your face is inches from the pavement as it speeds by underneath. If you disregard the engine noises you might think that you’re watching gravity-defying luge video of some lunatic rocketing up a mountain instead of rolling downward. Whatever it looks like, it’s a whole lot of awesome and just a smidge scary as shit.
Read MoreNASA released detailed plans to return to the moon by 2024 on Monday, landing the next human since the last Apollo mission in 1972, and, significantly, the first woman. This time, NASA plans for the moon are designed to be longer-term than the Cold War-era get there fast and jam a flag in the ground plan. The program, known as Artemis, will incorporate long-duration missions, establish a base at the lunar South Pole, place a permanent orbital station near the moon, and reach out to private indus
Read MoreIf you’re American you might be having a tough time over the past couple of months feeling like you live in a functional society. If so, I invite you to watch this footage of NASA testing its SLS Flight Support Booster rockets at Northrop Grumman’s facilities in Promontory, Utah, yesterday.
Read MoreAs you’ve no doubt read on social media by now, the governor of California has sworn a blood oath that by 2035 he’ll grind every gasoline-powered car to dust with the might of his office and force every God-fearing American to submit to the electric car or be summarily executed.
Read MoreThe Hyundai RM20e is an 810-horsepower super hatchback, but it’s also an evolving testbed for the South Korean automaker’s performance technology. Like its predecessors, this prototype is getting whipped around racetracks so that its tech can (we hope) trickle down to roads.
Read MoreThe box on a skateboard concept may not sound like much to get excited about, but that basic concept will come to define a lot of the cars in our electric—and, later—autonomous future. That’s what the startup company Canoo is planning, and the results seem pretty cool, like a very modern take on the iconic Microbus. So far we’ve mostly focused on the box part of this equation, the body and design of the Canoo. It seems Canoo wants us to pay more attention to the skateboard part, because they yan
Read MoreOver the course of a 1,100-mile road trip, we could have counted anything. Vultures. Thunderclouds. Trees. Instead, we tallied Toyota RAV4s, and 436 midsize SUVs later my brain is wallpaper paste.
Read MoreYou know those glass privacy screens in chauffeur-driven cars that the rich people in the back use to separate themselves from the unwashed working-class slobs that drive them around? Of course you do—it’s one of the key iconic elements of limousines. Well, even though it sounds impossible, it seems that rich people may finally be bored with staring at their own reflections, which is why, I assume, BMW has taken out a patent on a privacy divider that can act as a display screen. In some ways, it
Read MoreNine point three seconds. In the quarter mile. From what will ostensibly be a production sedan. Okay, so the 1,080 horsepower twin-motor Lucid Air you can already order can do a sub-10-second run, but 9.3 seconds would put everything else on any dealer lot in the world to shame. The Dodge Demon can run a 9.65 second quarter out of the box? Yawn. This five-seat sedan just made obsolete any metric of acceleration performance the internal combustion engine was still clinging to.
Read MoreI know true Tesla stans like to believe that each and every car is created from a soup of pure matter, assembled at the atomic level via beams from Elon Musk’s third eye before having artificial life fucked into them in a beautiful and arcane ceremony involving Elon in a silken robe, but the truth is really far more mundane. Quality has long been an issue for Tesla, and now owners of Tesla’s new Model Y are discovering some shockingly janky construction methods. Let me show you what’s going on.
Read MoreThere’s probably no good reason the upcoming all-electric Volkswagen ID.4 (the one that will be sold here) doesn’t have a bench seat, and I wish center screens were a little more mobile, but otherwise, I like the minimalism of VW’s design. It is, very happily (to me) not too busy, in new images released today by Volkswagen.
Read MoreVolkswagen is giving its supercar strategy a rethink, Tesla is switching up its batteries in China, and Ford just issued a huge recall. All that and more in The Morning Shift for September 30, 2020.
Read MoreIf you were going to launch a new range of electric vehicles in China, how much do you think you’d have to spend? In the case of VW, you’re looking at a €15bn price tag. All that and more in The Morning Shift for September 29, 2020.
Read MoreJim Farley officially becomes Ford’s new CEO this week, VW thinks the ID.4 will compete with the RAV4 and Tesla’s rivals in China aren’t terribly worried about anything. All that and more in The Morning Shift for September 28, 2020.
Read MoreCarvana has turned its founders into billionaires selling cars online. Tesla has fought tooth and nail to let you sidestep dealers. Now Michigan... wants to keep startups like Rivian from doing the same. All that and more in The Morning Shift for September 25, 2020.
Read MoreHarley says goodbye to India, California is saying goodbye to selling gas-powered cars, and automakers are selling too many SUVs in Europe. All that and more in The Morning Shift for September 24, 2020.
Read MoreCarvana has already made its father-son owners billionaires. What it hasn’t done is made a profit. All that and more in The Morning Shift for September 23, 2020.
Read MoreBattery Day? Battery Day! Battery Day? Also, Rolls-Royce says it’ll make an electric car at some point and the Detroit auto show moves to fall 2021. All that and more in The Morning Shift for September 22, 2020.
Read MoreIf you’ve followed the story of Uber over the past few years, you’d be entitled to wonder what kind of person invests in a company like that? New evidence suggests: a moron. All that and more in The Morning Shift for September 21, 2020.
Read MoreThe Ford Ranger is “the most American made,” the auto industry is mad it has to reduce CO2 emissions, and Tesla. All that and more in The Morning Shift for September 18, 2020.
Read MoreAn all-electric Ford F-150 is on its way and I get the feeling that Ford thinks its customer base fears change. This is probably wise. All that and more in The Morning Shift for September 17, 2020.
Read MoreGM opened its robe on electric, a Nikola board member says to relax, and Kia. All of that and more in The Morning Shift for September 16, 2020.
Read MoreThe SEC is actually investigating that short-seller’s claims about Nikola’s allegedly misleading tech demos now, Carlos Ghosn’s trial in Japan has started without him, and police traffic stops in Minneapolis are down to all-time lows. All of that and more in The Morning Shift for Tuesday, September 15, 2020.
Read MoreDieselgate is closer to being done and dusted, McLaren has a certified pre-owned program, and Nikola fires back at a short seller. All that and more in The Morning Shift for September 14, 2020.
Read MoreTesla knows the EV battle is an international competition, Nissan has raised billions and Trump. All that and more in The Morning Shift for September 11, 2020.
Read MorePeople are turning to cars because of coronavirus, GM says its wireless battery-management system is good, and Renault. All that and more in The Morning Shift for September 10, 2020.
Read MoreThere are a few constants in the car world: Everyone buys trucks when gas gets cheap, everyone buys compacts when it’s expensive, and everyone always complains new BMWs have lost their edge. Not included in that list are EV subsidies, which are as fickle as they come. But they do work. All that and more in The Morning Shift for September 9, 2020.
Read MoreGM has a successful EV, GM is investing huge in a startup, some GM dealers are kind of mad, and Tesla. All that and more in The Morning Shift for September 8, 2020.
Read MoreDon’t expect many deals on new cars even though it’s Labor Day weekend, Ferrari is trying to get its shit together in Formula One, and Elon Musk. All that and more in The Morning Shift for September 4, 2020.
Read MoreGM and Honda just established a “strategic alliance” here in North America, which could include selling cars together. If this means we’re getting a Chevy-branded Honda E, count me in! All that and more in The Morning Shift for September 3, 2020.
Read MoreRolls-Royce is recovering, there’s a new Mercedes S-Class, and the Los Angeles Auto Show is moving to May. That and more in The Morning Shift for September 2, 2020.
Read MoreThe EU has been able to fine car companies not meeting their ever-tighter emissions standards, but now Europe is getting a tougher rule: It can recall cheating and non-compliant cars. That and more in The Morning Shift for September 1, 2020.
Read MoreRemember all of those classic James Bond movies where the bad guys get around their secret lair in shiny chrome monorail pods? Maybe you kids will recognize the concept from The Incredibles mocking it. Either way, that’s the future we were once promised and never got, and here’s why.
Read MoreI know that ever since the clearance was boosted on that famous 11 foot 8 inch overpass in Durham, North Carolina, many of you may have despaired that the days of enjoying big helpings of can-openery schadenfreude were over. That’s not the case! There are still plenty of low-bridge disasters to enjoy, like this painful sardine-can-opening of a whole bunch of rail cars carrying road-going cars inside, which happened in Memphis last Sunday.
Read MoreU.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao on Tuesday designated October as Pedestrian Safety Month, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration set right to work producing press releases and workbooks for communities around this new month of heightened safety awareness. Pedestrian traffic deaths have been on a dramatic rise for years now, and NHTSA has a possible solution for bringing fatalities down.
Read MoreEven as someone who feels that cities should do everything they can to discourage people from driving, I think NYC’s new plan to drop speed limits on major roads is stupid. But a New York Times report on the city’s justification for it is illuminating: The city’s only plan for actually slowing down cars, it seems, is to jam the roads to gridlock.
Read MoreThe 2021 F-150 represents the fourteenth-generation F-Series, which has been the best-selling American truck since the Carter administration. We’ve already seen all of it, but Ford today gave us some power numbers to go along with the photos.
Read MoreThe Great Wall Black Bullet made an appearance at the Beijing Auto Show this week. It looks like a Hot Wheels execution of an overland vehicle with a healthy dash of evil Toyota Tundra. I’m into it!
Read MoreFound for sale on Facebook Marketplace is a 1980 Chevy LUV “mini-size pickup” with fewer than 15,000 miles on the odometer and only one owner in its history. It is a magnificent gem of a 4x4 pickup, and we should all take a few minutes out of our day to appreciate it.
Read MoreWhen the 2021 Ford Bronco debuted earlier this year, the very special limited run of “First Edition” models sold out in no time. Now weeks later, the lucky 7,000 reservation holders have a big decision on their hands: do they option the bespoke Lightning Blue paint job?
Read MoreA friend of mine in the off-road accessory biz sent me a picture of MaxTrax’s latest product garnish–a turquoise color option for the stuck-truck recovery boards. At first, I thought he was kidding but, nope!
Read MoreHey, General Motors Design? How’s it going, buddy? Man, I still sure love what you did with that Corvair! Good stuff, good stuff. And that new Corvette! Wow, right? I, uh, just happened to be checking out your Instagram page and saw some stuff from your very talented truck designers. Some of what I saw just, maybe, made me want to, you know, check in? Is, uh, is everything OK? I’ll be honest, I’m kind of worried.
Read MoreWhen Ford was excitedly telling everyone about their plans for the electric F-150 and the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center they’re building on Thursday, they showed a teaser image of the new EV F-150's face, giving us a pretty good general idea of what it’ll look like. And it seems the key element here is a glowing white unibrow.
Read MoreThere’s lots of companies out there getting ready to release some very exciting electric trucks. In addition to the major automakers’ electric truck plans, we have Rivian, Bollinger, and, of course, Tesla, with their bonkers Cybertruck. While all of these trucks offer good packaging, power, accelleration, and utility, they all have one huge achilles’ heel: towing. But I think there may be a solution for this problem, and it’s both absurdly simple and perhaps painfully complicated.
Read MoreI expect that most of you are aware that there has been a colossal hole in our primary global communications system, the set of 3,178 emojis that form the vocabulary of most major forms of business and interpersonal communication among humans. That hole has been the lack of a pickup truck emoji. Now, with secretive work from Ford and tomorrow’s release of Apple’s iOS 14, that hole is about to be filled. But there’s a huge problem that must be addressed.
Read MoreA decent barometer Americans’ movement in real-time is to check on the cost of moving trucks in their area and, oh man, are people getting the heck out of cities in California.
Read MoreAfter surviving a 3,000-mile trip from California to Massachusetts in 2020, and the significantly more challenging state-mandated two-week quarantine at my parents’ house (ha, just kidding mom!) I have some insights on-road travel during these strange, sad times to share.
Read MoreThe Ford Ranger Tremor is essentially the fifth off-roady factory special version of this new-for-’19 truck, not counting various trim levels or the vehicle’s surprisingly thick accessory catalog. I mean, why not?
Read MoreIn a little garage space carved out of a Venice, California side street my friend Jake Barba is ramping up a business restomodding International Scouts. This Epsom Green cowboy cadillac is the first completed truck his new outfit’s trotting out, and it’s remarkably nice to ride in. Quite an achievement with an archaic truck built on tractor bones!
Read MoreIt’s only been a few weeks since a Ford employee LinkedIn account seemingly confirmed a new Ford Bronco Raptor was in development, but it appears the new model is already out on Michigan roads to test its new suspension and massive fender flares.
Read MoreThe Toyota Stout is a beautiful pickup that deserves its own article, and yet, in Jalopnik’s 15-year history, the truck hasn’t gotten one. I’m here to change that by enlightening you about the wonders of this incredible pickup.
Read MoreAfter staring at the new Jeep Grand Wagoneer concept yesterday, I decided to sleep on the design before unleashing any hot takes onto this world. You see, upon initially seeing the vehicle on my computer screen, I thought the exterior design was “just okay,” and while that might be fine for the new Camry, it’s not fine for a Jeep Grand Wagoneer.
Read MoreThe new plug-in hybrid Jeep Wrangler 4xe debuted this week as “the most capable Wrangler ever.” However, when it comes to ensuring owners have enough all-electric range to tackle some of America’s best off-roading playgrounds, Jeep isn’t taking any chances.
Read MoreJeep just unveiled the Jeep Grand Wagoneer concept, a vehicle meant to foreshadow a three-row Jeep to be built in Detroit next year. Here’s a first look at the upcoming luxury Jeep.
Read MoreToday the world was introduced to the new hybrid Jeep Wrangler 4xe (pronounced “four-by-E,” FYI) in a livestream presentation proclaiming this electrified 375 horsepower off-roader is the most-capable Wrangler ever. Neat.
Read MoreSometimes I just don’t know what to say. Now is one of those times, because I’m staring at a Craigslist ad for a $1,500 machine that is, as far as I can tell, the work of a mad scientist. Who else would choose to install a Ford Ranchero onto a tall F-Series truck chassis by stacking two Ranchero faces on top of one another? It’s baffling!
Read MoreKC’s one of the best-established truck light brands; you’d probably recognize the smiley-face/sunglasses stone shield if you saw one on a classic 4x4. It’s still one of the better light purveyors and dropped a new one today: The Flex Era 3, which is triangular in shape, which is odd and fun.
Read MoreEven though I’ve spent the past 28 years of my life living and breathing cars, and even though I’m in Germany as part of a vehicle project, the reality is that there’s much more to life than cars. So here’s a look at a day in the life of Project Krassler, my quest to fix and temporarily live in a 500 Euro minivan. You’ll notice that the whole video isn’t entirely about automobiles. There’s some baking!
Read MoreI know this year seems like it’s got 98 months and we’re on month 134, but according to scientists I’ve spoken with, it’s really a normal, 12-month year. That’s why it’s so surprising that it was only six months ago that I bought a Volkswagen Tiguan with a severe, terrifying Achilles’ Heel for my wife, figuring I’d take care of the problem before it could bite me on the ass. I didn’t. It bit me on the ass. Hard. But, I found some very good help and maybe did a bit of growing up. Stick with me, h
Read MoreI’ve been wrenching for over a month on my Graz, Austria-built 1994 Chrysler Voyager (diesel, manual!), preparing it for Germany’s notoriously tough “TÜV” safety and emissions inspection. Here’s every single thing I fixed to give myself the best chance of passing one of the toughest mandatory vehicle inspections on earth.
Read MoreI bring to you a public service announcement aimed at fighting waste: If your wipers are bad, you do not have to replace the whole arm. In fact, doing so could be a silly way to throw away money and precious natural resources. Instead—as I recently learned wrenching on Project Krassler—you might consider replacing only the rubber strip, called the “refill.”
Read MoreEvery bike curmudgeon on the internet will grumble “steel is real” if you trot out an old frame. Steel frames last forever, you’re told, and are easily repaired if anything breaks. Well, my old steel bike broke on its first mountain bike trail, so I took it to custom framebuilder to get brazed back together. The process is fascinating.
Read MoreThe new compact Volkswagen SUV slated for North America will be called Taos, the company said today. Initially, I thought it was more name alphabet soup from the automaker but it turns out the name has roots in the most legendary VW repair guide ever written.
Read MoreAfter one of my neighbors complained, the city of Troy, Michigan told me in June that I had to fix and register my fleet of broken cars by July 31 or else. The problem was that one car needed an entire new front axle, another needed an engine rebuild, one needed to go to the junkyard, and one had the symptoms of a bad head gasket. I already wrote how this wrenching marathon worked out, but here’s what happened in video form.
Read MoreMy own stupidity got the best of me this weekend. I made two foolish wrenching errors while fixing #Projectkrassler—the $600 diesel manual Chrysler minivan that I’m going to live in for a month as I road trip around Europe. Recovering from these mistakes set me back multiple days, so if you want to feel a bit better about your own auto repair skills, read this.
Read MoreIn early August, I flew to Germany to prepare a 1994 Chrysler Voyager (diesel, manual!) for an epic road trip through Europe. The plan was to wrench for a month, then live in the van for a month, visiting readers and cool automotive sites, and just generally have fun. But now the first month has elapsed, and I still have far too much work to do. Especially given that I plan to leave in the next two weeks.
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