AUTOS
– Following our recent peek at the unique chassis of the new 2015/2016 Ford Mustang Shelby GT350 and GT350R, Ford Performance engineers finally popped the hood of their zesty new track rat for a closer look at its very special 5.2-liter, flat-plane-crankshaft V-8. That racy, high-revving engine—which we now know produces 526 horsepower at 7500 rpm and 429 lb-ft of torque at 4750 revs—is not only the centerpiece of Ford’s
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––—
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––—
– If you’ve been paying, like, any attention at all, you know the Nissan GT-R LM NISMO is one weird racer. – It’s a front-engine, front-wheel-drive car competing against a field full of mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive racers in the Le Mans Prototype class—the segment that Audi has nearly completely dominated since it began racing at Le Mans in 2006. – But Nissan didn’t make all these unconventional choices at random. The
-It was only a matter of time. – After hitting the rev limiter at “only” 195 mph in a black supercharged 2015 Mustang GT with 717 horses, the folks at Hennessey Performance had one singular goal in mind: – The 200 mph barrier. – Clearly, the 717 horsepower provided by the tuner’s HPE700 kit wasn’t enough—never mind that the limitation seemed to be gearing, not power. Enter the HPE750 Supercharged
– Even by the high standards of eccentricity set by Britain’s small sports-car makers, Bristol was always in a class of its own. This is the carmaker that made Morgan look like Mitsubishi. – Bristol’s former boss, Tony Crook, refused to let journalists drive its cars for many years on the (possibly reasonable) grounds that they “wouldn’t understand them.” The company last published production figures in 1981, when it built
-The standard open differential in most cars is a brilliant piece of engineering, allowing you to take the tightest turns without fighting your tires or tearing apart your drivetrain. But even if you understand implicitly how a car’s differential works, it’s kind of difficult to explain. – That’s why this instructional film from 1937 is so fantastic. It simplifies the car differential down to its most basic representation—three sticks of
-What’s an automaker to do when customers abandon their mid-size sedans in hot pursuit of crossovers and pickups? The smart ones respond with irresistible crossovers and pickup trucks. The brilliant ones do the same without turning a cold shoulder to products they’ve nurtured for decades. READ MORE ›› –
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––—
– Takata, after 11 years of chasing uncontrolled explosions in its airbag inflators, said it would “rapidly” phase out ammonium nitrate as a propellant after its association with more than 100 injuries, six deaths, and extremely high failure rates that have led to the auto industry’s largest-ever recall. – In a Tuesday hearing with the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee, Takata executive vice president Kevin Kennedy said the Japanese
