In this video we discuss the Mini Cooper SE and go through the logic of why it might be the ideal EV.
Why not treat those who very much want to live the three-pedal life? Still, the base 2022 Mini Cooper is a great all-around subcompact, and any enthusiast would get a kick out of putting it through its paces on a winding mountain road.
As a joint project between Subaru engineers and the rally-bred mad scientists at Prodrive, the UK300 was created to celebrate the rally success the Impreza had found in the UK over the previous years, and featured styling work carried out by Peter Stevens who designed the famous McLaren F1 and Subaru WRC rally car. The “300” denotes the total number of units produced.
When we got a chance to take the new Mini Cooper and Cooper S for a spin around the back roads of Puerto Rico earlier this year, we were slightly disappointed to learn that our time in the S model would not include a third pedal on the floor. Fortunately, this week we’ve got our hands on the Cooper S with the six speed manual gearbox, which is connected to a twin-scroll turbocharged 2.0-liter inline four-cylinder engine that generates 184 horsepower and 201lb-ft of torque.
Back in 2005, when Ford unveiled the newly retro-inspired Mustang, designers from Chevrolet and Dodge took notice of the excitement Ford was generating for nostalgic design coupled with modern performance and convenience and set to work creating their own responses, which resulted in the fifth generation Camaro and the third generation Challenger, the latter of which returned after a twenty five year hibernation. The Challenger SRT8 in particular caused quite a stir – its visual presence and torquey, rumbling 425 horsepower Hemi V8 was considered by many to be the most convincing and honest reinterpretation of the classic.
While we enjoyed our time in the all-new 2015 Cadillac Escalade, its that luxury SUV’s blue-collared cousin, the Chevrolet Tahoe (and its long wheelbase variant, the Suburban), that will really steer the course for this generation of GM’s full sized sport utilities.
We’ve spent some quality time with the convertible version of the Jaguar F-Type over the past year or so, and while that car in both V6 and V8 flavors delivered some pretty divine open-top motoring and, in the case of the V8 model, offered one of the most compelling exhaust notes we’d ever heard in a production car, we were anxious to get behind the wheel of a hard top F-Type and see if the coupe’s added rigidity would translate to a substantially more capable F-Type.
This week we’re taking a look at Jaguar’s mid-sized all wheel drive sports sedan. The XF has stiff competition in the segment from the likes of the BMW 5-Series, the Audi A6, and Mercedes Benz E-Class, but this cat’s claws might just be sharp enough to steal some sales from the established leaders.
If there’s one thing that American Audi enthusiasts bemoan, it’s the fact that we don’t get the all the top-spec performance models that the Europeans do, such as the RS4 Avant and the RS6 Avant sport wagons. Like many automakers selling cars in America, Audi would likely point out that we just don’t buy high performance wagon in significant quantities. They would likely also point out that the Audi RS7 is for sale in the US, has five doors, and is absurdly fast.
Today we set our sights on this Swedish sports sedan from a brand that’s perhaps been best known for its focus on safety in the past, but now looks to be making a run at stealing some sales from Mercedes Benz and BMW’s performance divisions.
This week, multimedia editor Chris Amos takes a spin in Honda’s refreshed Civic Si Coupe, the sport-tuned variation of the Japanese automaker’s bread-and-butter compact.
Come along for a quick spin in the new, all-electric version of the seventh generation Golf, known as the eGolf. Featuring standard auto climate control, navigation, heated windshield, and Volkswagen’s first use of LED headlights, the eGolf doesn’t skimp on the creature comforts for the sake of driving range.
For many automotive enthusiasts, the BMW M3 has, for decades, been the gold standard by which all other sport coupes have been judged. Over the course of the seven year production run of the outgoing generation of the M3, denoted as the E90 (sedan), E92 (coupe) and E93 (convertible), the sports car landscape has changed fairly dramatically. Suddenly, $30,000 Mustangs were now capable of giving the M3 a run for its money both in a straight line and at the track, several new entries in the M3’s price bracket came out of the gate playing in leagues well above the M car’s performance envelope, and increasingly stringent government-mandated fuel economy standards began to force engineers to rethink their approach to vehicle and engine designs in fairly sweeping fashion. This new pair of cars, denoted as the F80 M3 sedan and the F82 M4 coupe, offer a new visual aesthetic, ditch the high-revving naturally aspirated V8 in favor of a torquey, twin turbocharged inline six cylinder and, for the first time in M history, bring a drop in curb weight when compared to its predecessor. There’s plenty of promising news there, but is all of it good? We headed to Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, home of Road America racetrack and some genuinely great twisty backroads, to find out.
This week we setting our sights on one of most potent muscle cars on sale today, the Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. While it boasts plenty of performance right off the showroom floor, once the engineers at Lingenfelter got their hands on this blown drop-top, things get especially interesting.
This week multimedia editor Chris Amos rows his own in a manual gearbox-equipped Audi S4 Quattro. This Misano Red example comes equipped with the Black Optic package, which includes 19-inch wheels, summer tires and high-gloss black appearance tweaks.
The seventh generation Golf GTI, denoted as “Mk7”, has been racing around the streets of Europe for over a year now, but we here in the U.S. have had to sit idly by, waiting our turn for a go in VW’s newest iteration of the car that put the hot hatch segment on the map. Now, that wait is finally over. The new GTI sees a number of changes over its predecessor, including a more spacious cabin, a direct-injected engine boasting both additional power and improved fuel economy, and a new, lighter platform. But does it ultimately add up to a better car?
This week we’re setting our sights on one of the fastest road-going vehicles on sale today, the Porsche 911 Turbo S. Cranking out 560 horsepower and 553lb-ft of torque with its biturbocharged 3.8-liter flat six engine, the Turbo S is capable of 0-60mph in a neck-snapping 2.8 seconds on its way to a top speed of 198 miles per hour.
When we stepped out onto the front drive of Fairmont Miramar Hotel in Santa Monica to get a closer look at the we’d be tooling around the backroads of Malibu the following day, the realization that the i8 – as an actual production car bound for showrooms in the very near future – finally dawned upon us. In contrast with the typical catalog of vehicles one sees on the road, even in this part of Southern California, it seems almost implausible. But there it is, a hybrid spaceship of a sports car that any mere mortal can raise the door of, hop in and drive – provided they’ve got the coin for admission, of course.
General Motors takes their Voltec plug-in hybrid technology – first seen in the Chevrolet Volt – upmarket with the Cadillac ELR coupe. With a full driving range of 340 miles between its 16.5kWh lithium-ion battery pack and 1.4-liter,gas-powered generator (or 37 miles on electricity only), the ELR offers an alternative to premium all-electric offerings like the Tesla Model S to buyers who’re concerned about range limitations and charging times.
As the first Porsche with its engine in the middle to wear the GTS badge since the 904 Carrera of 1963, the Boxster GTS supplants the S model as the top spec version of the drop top. Still often regarded as the 911’s little brother, the latest iteration of the Boxster and Cayman sees a new level of performance prowess. But can this new, sharper Boxster GTS able to outshine the venerable 911 Carrera?
While we may be living in the golden age of performance right now, there will always be a place in the hearts and minds of gearheads the world over for the classics.
We are in the midst of a season of somewhat confusing electric vehicle launches. The confusion stems from the way these recent and upcoming EVs challenge conventional thinking about the value proposition for new cars.
The term “beast” gets thrown around almost casually in the automotive industry, as do the terms “track focused” and “high performance”. But if you’re seeking the pure definition of these terms rather than some marketing line, Chrysler’s SRT division has a car for you. Limited to just 159 examples, the Viper TA – which stands for “Time Attack” – is a road course weapon of the highest degree, riding the line between street and track so tightly that one is left to ponder where “sports car” ends and “race car with a stereo” begins.
