– If you’ve never been, General Motors’ Tech Center in Warren, Michigan, is an impressive sight to behold. The campus sprawls over 326 acres and features neat jet-age architecture, expansive water features, and the brand’s famous design dome. It’s also exceptionally old and in need of some renovations, and so GM has announced that it is dropping a full $1 billion on updates and expansions for its Warren campus. That’s a
– Back in college, I got the idea that I wanted a V-8–powered Volvo 240. The V-8 Volvo is synonymous with Ross Converse, a mad genius whose brochure included a photo of a diesel-badged 240 doing a righteous burnout. I loved the notion of a sleeper 240 packing a Mustang 302, so I arranged a visit with Converse at his house in Portland, Maine. I was hoping he’d have a
– After driving Volkswagen’s für die Amerikaner verboten 292-hp, all-wheel-drive Golf R SportWagen and the under-the-radar Golf GTD SportWagen, you could say we’re harboring a yearning desire for a hot compact station wagon here in the U.S. There’s no relief for our affliction in sight, but it has flared up again now that VW’s Spanish subsidiary SEAT has announced that its 280-hp Leon ST Cupra wagon is officially the quickest long-roof car to circle the Nürburgring
– From the June 2015 issue – We all like firm, solid-feeling brake pedals. But even on good performance cars, modern brakes often feel vaguely synthetic, with more pedal travel than seems strictly necessary. Then there’s the Alfa Romeo 4C. Its creators wanted the 4C to have a hard edge. “Our goal in development was to deliver the racing feeling and sensation,” says Alberto Cavaggioni, head of Alfa’s marketing, planning,
-What can we say about the Volkswagen GTI that we haven’t said before? After subjecting the perennial 10Best winner to innumerable reviews, it’s hard to come up with any praise or criticism that hasn’t already been heard. But just as the new seventh-generation Golf exists in many forms, there are many flavors of GTI, too, all of which are worth knowing from a raw-numbers standpoint. So this time, we’ve strapped
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– Ever since Jeremy Clarkson was let go from Top Gear and James May and Richard Hammond vowed not to return without him, rumors have been swirling that the trio could bring their brand of automotive entertainment to Netflix. Now, British tabloid The Mirror adds some fuel to that whispered possibility, with an Underwood-style twist: Apparently, the team wants to call the show House of Cars. – That, of course, would
– The test mules are rolling and we expect the endurance-racing version of Ford’s GT supercar to be presented next month (June) in Paris shortly before the 83rd running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Until then, here are some tidbits of information—some new, some merely reminders—dribbled from Ford’s severely restrictor-plated PR engine at a recent media event. – The twin-turbo EcoBoost 3.5-liter V-6 engine will share bore and stroke dimensions
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– Hey, you! Stateside moneybags enamored of Speed Speedback’s baadasssss song! British boutique concern David Brown Automotive informs us that you’re finally in luck! Their Astonoid Speedback GT is coming to the United States and will make its American debut at The Quail during Monterey’s August cavalcade of high-dollar automotive things, stuff, ’n’ spendy whatnot. – – Priced at $795,000, the Speedback isn’t exactly what we’d call cheap. Built on