Festivals of Speed is a fun little event that happens just down the road from the Omni at Amelia Island. The cars that show up at this event are quite varied and this year ranged from a tasteful Toyota Supra Turbo to a truly mental Mercedes-Benz G65 AMG 6×6. Luckily for us, there was plenty of cars to go around. Drawing my eye cooking in the Florida sunlight was a drop-dead stunning old Ford. Continue reading 1954 Ford Sunliner Custom at the 2016 Amelia Island Festivals of Speed
Matt Farah shows us the new turbocharged Porsche 718 Boxster S in action. It seems very impressive, but it will also definitely be divisive.
To start with, it sounds like a Subaru. Whether that’s a good thing or not will be hotly debated. I, for one, kind of like it.
Regardless of your opinion on the new four-cylinder Boxster, there’s no denying that it has some serious performance. The base model 718 Boxster has 300hp now, and the S has 350hp. With tuning options soon to come, these things should be insane.
I like it.
-Nick
The Ariel Atom is hopelessly impractical, ah, but there is a solution!
Now you can tow your own trunk, and carry all kinds of do-dads everywhere you go.
Things for the home, things for the track, hell, you could probably even tailgate with this.
Now you have one less excuse not to drive an Atom every day!
-Nick
As all of you know, Roadkill is basically what happens when two guys who know old cars have money to burn and too much free time on their hands. After a few months off, Roadkill is back and this time, Finnegan and Freiburger travel up to Colorado to pick up a custom-built Ford tow truck with a big block V8, converted 4WD, and plenty of floor holes. They then learn what happens when snow packs up a radiator and disallows the engine from warming up. Welcome back, Roadkill. We missed you. I do hope to see this new tow truck appear in more episodes–it’s quite a cool piece of engineering.
-Albert S. Davis
We got our first, in-person look at the new Porsche 911R at the 2016 New York International Auto Show. With its 500hp 4.0L engine hooked to a manual gearbox, it’s definitely a proverbial golden calf for us Porsche enthusiasts.
Porsche is only building 991 examples of the 911R, so it won’t ever be a common sight. These cars are also so heavily sought after that those lucky 991 buyers will likely be able to flip their 911Rs (if they want to) for a healthy 6-figure profit.
The good news for everyone not getting a 911R is that Porsche has confirmed that the next 911 GT3 will come with the option of a manual gearbox. It would seem the clear demand in the secondhand market has gotten through to Porsche management, and they’ve realized the mistake they made with the first 991 GT3.
Despite the coming manual 991.2 GT3, the 911R will remain the only manual 991 equipped with the monstrous 4.0L flat-six, shared with the mighty GT3 RS.
There is no doubt that 911R values will be sitting up with the 997 GT3 RS 4.0 and GT2 RS on the secondhand market. This is a stratosphere Porsche to be sure.
-Nick Walker
Supposedly it drives like a truck, but those looks are timeless.
-Nick
Richard Petty truly is the King. Say what you want about King George, or King Midas, or King Felipe VI. But, to me, Richard Petty will always be The King. Back in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Chrysler Corporation ruled NASCAR with a lethally fast combination of the aero-bodied Charger 500, Superbird, and Charger Daytona, all of which were powered by the unstoppable 426 Hemi. They were so dominant, in fact, that in 1971, NASCAR handed the boys from Auburn Hills an ultimatum–either get rid of the aero body or drop the Hemi. Chrysler responded accordingly, by putting the 426 in the newly-rebodied Road Runner and Charger for the 1971 season. Petty, as per tradition, took the keys to this #43 Corporate Blue Road Runner and drove it for the entirety of that season. Continue reading 1971 Plymouth Road Runner, raced by Richard Petty, at the 2016 Amelia Island Concours
There is absolutely no substitute for seat time when judging a car. I thought Alfa Romeo had sold themselves out when they built the 4C without the option of a manual gearbox. I mean, who on earth would want a light little sports car without a clutch pedal and a gear lever? But the truth is, building a good car is a lot like cooking a good meal. Each ingredient must be executed well in its own right, but then the most important thing is how it all comes together as a whole.
The Italians are known for treating their cars exactly as they treat their food, as works of art. Alfa Romeos, in particular, have always had a sense of living soul, even if, at times, there wasn’t much else good about them. My friend, Evan, had an old Alfa Spider that only ever worked properly when he was taking a girl out on a date in it – now, isn’t that the most Italian thing you’ve ever heard?
Alfa Romeos are cars built on an ideology of passion and emotion first, and everything else second. Sure, in the past that has sometimes meant questionable dependability, but at least they never committed the atrocity of making life boring or mundane. Life is worth more than just living, it’s worth enjoying, and that is what Alfa Romeos are all about.
This white 4C Spider is actually the first Alfa Romeo I’ve ever driven. It marks the return of Alfa Romeo production cars to the USA, and will be soon followed by the new Giulia sedan. Being my first Alfa, I admit that I had underestimated the way they can make the ingredients of a car come together into one delicious masterpiece of a machine.
I quickly realized that the Alfa Romeo 4C Spider has something very special about it. I drove 8 very cool cars in the same weekend, including a Ferrari and some Porsches, but this Alfa 4C was the one I just couldn’t stop thinking about. Here’s why…
Continue reading Alfa Romeo 4C Spider Review: A Recipe Perfected
The New York Auto Show finished its run on Sunday evening and was home to a multitude of concept and full debuts, including Lincoln’s Navigator concept (complete with a massive gullwing door) and Mazda’s MX-5 Targa Retractable. This year, the show wasn’t nearly as glitzy as previous years, but I had an enjoyable day all the same. Although I wasn’t intent on taking as many photos (as I had spent a massive amount of time at L.A. a few months back), there was still plenty to see. Fiat showed off the new 124 Abarth, and Porsche had the 911R on display for all to see, just ahead of the new 718 Boxster roadster. Enjoy the brief gallery of what was on display this past week, with some more to follow. Continue reading New York International Auto Show General Gallery
Lincoln showed off their fancy new Navigator Concept at the 2016 New York International Auto Show to much acclaim. It was all over the news, and people were going mental over it. I mean, what’s not to love about a sparkly blue SUV with massive gullwing doors and fine wooden steps up to its luxurious cabin?
Yes, if it were real, the Navigator Concept would be a game-changer in the SUV market, but it isn’t real. People often miss the word “Concept,” and I must’ve had around ten people ask me if I had seen the incredible new Lincoln Navigator, as if it were actually the new production car. Sadly, I then had to break all of their hearts by telling them it was just a pipe dream that would never come true. An automotive strip-tease with no happy ending.
I was sold on the electric car the second I experienced 0-84mph in a Tesla Model S P85D. It’s not just brutal acceleration, it’s brutal acceleration you can actually use from any speed, available immediately. Even just squirting from 0-30mph off a city stop light is a total riot. It is the kind of enjoyment you can only have in an electric car. There is no engine, no gears, and no delay. Thrills come simply at a push of the button, or pedal, in this case.
I thought Elon Musk summed up Tesla’s path brilliantly. Prove electric can be fun with the Tesla Roadster, then prove them practical and desirable with the Model S and Model X. But now comes the make or break moment for Tesla Motors, a truly affordable, mass-production car, the Tesla Model 3. It must be practical, it must be dependable, and it must be quite desirable to out-compete fierce competition.
Only time will tell for dependability, an issue that Tesla has been working on. Any new car company should expect some bumps in the road, it’s how they deal with them that counts. This factor gets greatly amplified as you move into the mass-market realm.
What we did find out last night in the short part one of the Tesla Model 3 reveal is that the car will be quite desirable and quite practical… so long as Musk’s promises are kept.
Continue reading The Tesla Model 3 looks promising if promises are kept
When it comes to Trans-Am racing, the first car most people think of isn’t what you’re staring at right now. In fact, it’s usually a blue and yellow Chevrolet Camaro, which is of course one of the most highly celebrated Trans-Am cars of all time. If you think of a Mopar, a Challenger may come to mind before one of these. However, Dan Gurney and his cronies crafted three ‘Cudas–and this one is one of those three, and after some further research, this is a car with some technology that could rival the infamous Smokey Yunick. Continue reading Dan Gurney’s #42 Plymouth AAR ‘Cuda at the 2016 Amelia Island Concours
Mind Over Motor 