(The Sports Xchange) – Tampa Bay right-hander Chris Archer recorded the third shutout of his career as the Rays salvaged a series split with a 1-0 victory over the Houston Astros on Thursday. Archer (11-9) allowed just one hit and issued one walk while recording 11 strikeouts, and needed only 98 pitches to stifle the Astros (66-56), who required walk-off, extra-inning wins to claim the middle two games of the
– Hold your horses, pony-car fans, Chevrolet’s full online configurator for the 2016 Camaro isn’t live—but its more limited-scope, preliminary version is! That means you can go to Chevy’s website and “build” a sixth-generation Camaro coupe or convertible, but your choices are limited to superficial items like paint colors, wheel options, interior treatment, and even some stripe packages. There are glimpses at the car’s trim-level structure, as well as what
– Typically, when a new car is priced several thousand dollars above the base price of its predecessor, it is cause for ire. The fanboys will yowl in protest. Armchair car pricers—if there were such a thing—will declare it a bust, robbery on the highest order. Faces will melt like that guy’s in Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark. Or will they? Chevrolet has just announced pricing for the
– – On his first-ever U.S. visit—to Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, and New York next month—Pope Francis will wave from a Popemobile created from a Jeep Wrangler, the Vatican has announced. This is not the first time the pontiff has used a Jeep—a four-door Wrangler (seen above) served papal duty on the Pope’s trip to Ecuador in July. – The exact configuration of the U.S. Popemobile has not been announced,
– Update, 8/21: Tesla has raised $738 million from the newly issued stock, according to Bloomberg. After initially announcing it would sell up to 2.1 million shares, plus another 315,000 shares for the underwriting banks, Tesla ramped up those amounts to a total of 3.1 million and sold them at $242 per share. CEO Elon Musk now has a 22-percent stake in the company. – Tesla wants to raise $500
– Trust us when we say the Land Rover Defender tilts, leans, dips, and generally dislikes any amount of lateral acceleration. Slow, polite roundabout speeds are about all Her Majesty’s 4×4 is comfortable with. So it is with reservation that we’d recommend this lowered, fat-tired Defender that puts out nearly as much power as our long-term Jaguar F-type. – What you’re looking at is the JE Zulu2 Super Defender, which
– Takata may be forced to recall every airbag manufactured with ammonium nitrate propellant if the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration turns a Congressional request into a formal order. – – A letter from Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.) urges Takata to recall all of its airbags using the questionable propellant after a side airbag produced by the Japanese supplier ruptured on a 2015 Volkswagen Tiguan in
– Externally, it appears that there’s a lull at Bugatti. The last Veyron, “La Finale,” was sold before it appeared on the stand at this year’s Geneva motor show. Its successor has not been formally announced, although rumor suggests it will appear at next month’s Frankfurt auto show. In between, there’s been a flurry of activity in Molsheim, keeping Wolfgang Dürheimer, head of both Bentley and Bugatti, a very busy man.
The 2017 Ford Raptor is coming, with its 450-hp twin-turbo EcoBoost V-6 and its 10-speed gearbox and nifty 4×4 drivetrain. But between now and the autumn of 2016, when Ford says the thing will go on sale, there’s still some testing to be done—including shakedowns of an off-road variety. – We’ve already seen Ford conducting some off-road verification of the rad new Raptor’s capabilities. And, frankly, the ’wheeling in this
We are, it’s safe to say, extremely excited about the 2017 Alfa Romeo Giulia. The tidy rear-drive sports sedan very clearly has BMW in its gunsights—particularly in 510-hp, twin-turbo V-6 Quadrifoglio spec. And from what we’ve heard so far, it’s got a scintillating soundtrack. This Nürburgring video of a lightly camouflaged example only confirms that. – Posted by Nürburgring maven and solid YouTube poster “cvdzijden,” what we have here is
