The final Mitsubishi Eclipse. Image: Mecum Auctions
The Mitsubishi Eclipse has been around for 22 years and four generations, and in the early part of its life, the car defined “affordable performance.” The first and second generation cars could be had with either front-wheel-drive or all-wheel-drive, and the AWD cars (and their badge engineered cousins, the Eagle Talons) dominated both club and pro racing for years. Read More…
The Abarth 695 Competizione. Image: Fiat
In 2009, Fiat tuner Abarth got a crazy idea: work with Ferrari to build the world’s fastest Fiat 500, then put it into limited production at a cost-be-damned price just under $50,000. The result was the Fiat 500 Abarth 695 Tributo Ferrari, and the Italian tuner soon found that the stratospheric price was no barrier to sales. Since the car’s launch in July 2010, some 1,300 examples have been delivered to customers. Read More…
In mud, there's happiness...
Here’s how this is supposed to work: every year, vintage car, clothing and lifestyle fans from all over Germany converge on Teterow, a small town in northeastern Germany. If all goes well, they enjoy races, time trials, camaraderie and more than a little bit of beer. If things don’t quite go as planned, you wind up with the mud-bogged mess captured in the latest video from our friends at Chromjewelen and Faust & Heiser. Read More…
The 2012 Porsche 911 Carrera S. Image: Porsche AG
Porsche’s 2012 911 Carrera and 911 Carrera S make their official world debut at the upcoming Frankfurt Motor Show, but you can see the 911 Carrera S on the road in the video below. At first glance, the 2012 Porsche 911 looks a lot like the 2011 version, until you view them side by side. The new car is longer, wider, and just a bit shorter, which gives it a lower center of gravity and allows for slightly better weight distribution. It’s shed some 100 pounds since last year, and both versions get more powerful engines for 2012. Read More…
Image: Jaguar Land Rover
The Land Rover Defender is known the world over as a non-nonsense SUV that will get you anywhere you need to go. Period, end of sentence. It has no luxury aspirations, but it enjoys a rabid cult following that ranges from British farmers through explorers and adventurers to well-off suburbanites who like to portray the image of adventure. The Defender will get you to the grocery store, even if you have to take game trails or forge your own path to get there; in fact, long after the human race has been wiped off the earth, giant cockroaches will probably be driving the last remaining Defenders, at least until fossil fuel runs out. Read More…
Ford's Evos Concept. Image: Ford Motor Company
When I was in Detroit with Ford last week, the highlight of the opening night dinner was the presentation of Ford’s Evos concept car, which will make its debut at next month’s Frankfurt Motor Show. We were sworn to secrecy and told not to write about the car until August 31, but the universal response from every journalist in the room was “build it.” Read More…
The 2012 Porsche 911 Carrera. Image: Porsche AG
When it comes to an iconic sports car like the Porsche 911, change is usually measured in gradual increments. A millimeter here, a slight change to a curve there, update the technology and call it done. What Porsche can’t afford to do is alienate the brand loyalists who’ve purchased the 911, in all of its forms, over the past 48 years. Read More…
Cadillac's Ciel Concept. Image: © GM Corp.
When you think of big, ultra-luxury four-seat convertibles, two cars come to mind: the Rolls Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe and the Bentley Azure Convertible. The Bentley is the cheaper of the two, with a starting price of just $365,000 or so, which is $85,000 less than the Phantom’s price of admission. Back in the day, Cadillac used to build grand convertibles as well, although not in the same price league as Rolls-Royce or Bentley (in the modern era, at least). Enter the Cadillac Ciel (pronounced C-L) concept, which harkens back to the Caddys of old with a nod to the future as well. Read More…
The light at the end of the tunnel gets dimmer for Saab with every passing day. Despite a series of global investors sinking money into Swedish Auto, Saab’s parent, there have been no indications that Saab will restart production at the end of August as planned. You may recall that Saab shut down production last April, when suppliers cancelled deliveries due to non-payment of invoices. Since then, Saab’s raised a boatload of cash by selling cars to Chinese distributors, selling off real-estate holdings and even selling shares of common stock on two separate occasions. Read More…
Convertibles are wonderful machines. They let you feel the wind in your hair, are amazing on a 70-degree evening when the moon is out and give you the feeling of freedom as your cruising down the highway. However, when it comes to racing let’s just say that drop-tops have no place there. A perfect example of why they shouldn’t race was seen a few weeks ago at the Silverstone Classic in Northamptonshire, England when a Morgan Roadster driven by Luther Blissett took a tumble. Blissett walked away unharmed thanks to his roll-cage but you can bet next time he’ll think twice about running that open-air Morgan on the track. Click through for the video.
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