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I’ve been looking for an excuse to borrow an Alpine A110 for a long time now. I had a chance to sample the car when the base model hit Japanese dealers a few years back, and was instantly intrigued. These compact, mid-engined French sports cars do surprisingly well in Japan, having seemingly found a niche audience amongst purists who want something different than the Porsche Cayman, Alfa Romeo 4C or Lotus Elise norm. The A110 really appeals to people who understand where the small French sports car brand comes from, and why Alpine has done what’s done with this modern interpretation of…
Subaru power in a Volkswagen is nothing new, and the Porsche 911 is really just a spicy Volkswagen. Sort of. Any any rate, Austin Barnett of Billetworkz thought it would be fun to put a turbocharged EJ25 in his 911. He was right, and the result of Austin‘s work is a paint-flipping Porsche that’s insane both inside and out. Austin says, “I never had an appreciation for classic 911s until a friend of mine – Willy Izaguirre from Nostalgic Grains – was selling his 1976 roller with no engine.” After purchasing it with the idea of re-powering it with a Subaru power plant, Austin…
This 1989 Toyota Supra A70 by Wektor is one of the most unusual cars I’ve photographed this year. In fact, during the shoot I constantly needed to remind myself that we are in 2022, not in the 1980s capturing images for a bedroom poster. Wektor is a long-forgotten German tuning house, but back in the day European car magazines were creaming over their cars and comparing them to those from Koenig Specials. The company was founded by Johann Bergmeier in 1988, and at that time Wektor were taking brand new top-of-the-line Mk3 Supras and transforming their looks with a fibreglass wide-body conversion that added 400mm (15.7 inches)…
Marc UrbanoCar and Driver Every year, we test hundreds of new cars, trucks, SUVs, and vans. Our testing procedures run the gamut and include digging into everything from a vehicle’s real-world highway fuel economy and driving range to its cargo-carrying capacity. The more fun stuff takes place at the track, where we push the vehicles we test to their limits, stabbing at the brakes from as fast as 100 mph and pinning the accelerator to clock a given model’s straight-line acceleration. While this includes the likes of a quarter-mile run, 30-to-50-mph and 50-to-70-mph passes, and more, the trip to 60…
For a while, I was the fastest farmer in Washington County. No one could touch me. Kids in their lifted, souped-up Tacomas? Forget it. Dudes in tuned diesel Rams and Silverados? Nah. I was the man.This ruling of green lights and passing lanes was unusual. Our regular farm truck is a 2022 F-150 crew cab with Ford’s silky but hardly muscle-bound 2.7-liter twin-turbo V-6. But recently, I got a chance to swap internal combustion for battery-electric power, in the form of a 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning Extended Range. It was a Lariat, just like my truck. Unlike my F-150, this…
Marc UrbanoCar and Driver As a country, we love ourselves some trucks. Just look at the top three bestselling vehicles in the United States—all trucks. In a normal year, Ford’s F-series pushes 1 million units sold. Last year, decidedly not a normal year, still saw Ford move more than 725,000 F-series trucks. Add those to offerings from Ram, Chevrolet, Toyota, and Nissan, and you’ve got yourself tons and tons and tons of trucks. With each passing year, automakers have the tricky job of improving performance while minimizing large vehicles’ drag on their government-mandated CAFE targets. That tension between federal law…
When it comes to our dedicated community of automotive enthusiasts there’s always a difference of opinions, but if there’s one thing we can all get behind on it’s our quest to save the manual transmission. That’s why we enlisted the help of Toyota Pro Driver Jhonnattan Castro to join our noble, manual-saving crusade on The Streets of Willow Springs International Raceway. There, he put on a master-class demonstration on one of the most well-respected lineups in the world of automotive performance—the Gazoo Racing family of Toyota street cars, a brand built by enthusiasts for enthusiasts.James LipmanJames LipmanEvery family has its…
These cars are meant to go fast off the line and in your garage. Drag racing is one of the most adrenaline-fueled ways to enjoy a fast car, and just about the only thing better than being a part of a drag race is winning one. Wielding immense amounts of power and being pinned to the back of your seat as your car crosses the finish line is an unforgettable experience, and with some of the world’s fastest cars on the drag strip at your disposal, you’ll be able to add the joy of victory to the memory of pushing…
Quick Facts About Car Prices While finding a new car today can be tricky, striking a good deal is tougher. It’s a seller’s market. In other words, even the fairest dealers don’t have an incentive to dicker, so be prepared to pay sticker. With that bit of folksy poetry fixed in your mind, you’ll need to guard against any dealers treating today’s short supply of cars like a winning lottery ticket. Many are tacking thousands of dollars in dealer markups to the manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP). By law, window stickers on every new car available for sale must display…
Quick Facts About Car Prices In November 2022, average new car transactions were up nearly 24% compared with the same month two years ago. New car transactions were nearly $11,000 higher in November 2022 than in February 2020. You can easily find a new Buick, Jeep, or Ram, though not necessarily a Honda, Kia, or Toyota. Car shopping comes with rules. Rules like “the sticker price is just the starting point and negotiate down from there” and “cars are cheapest at the end of the month and end of the year.” That rule book got thrown out in the last…