BMW-LITE: NEW M235I xDRIVE GRAN COUPE

Posted on October 19, 2020 by MartynL

Based on the soft-roading X2 compact crossover, the ’20 BMW-LITE: NEW M235I xDRIVE GRAN COUPE should be Prozac on wheels. It's far from it, says Road Test Editor Howard Walker. Now this is a first. Let's take a play-in-the-mud sport utility and turn it into a sports sedan. Give me that again? In its seemingly never-ending quest to fill every niche in the automotive marketplace - well, perhaps not the pickup and minivan markets - BMW has given us the cute, but somewhat confusing, 2-Se...

ULTIMATE CARGUY: CARROLL SHELBY!

Posted on October 8, 2020 by MartynL

High-performance automotive historian Scott Oldham blogs about the horsepower and heritage of Shelby American and America’s ULTIMATE CARGUY: CARROLL SHELBY! Photo: Mike Matune @ Laguna Seca With the possible exceptions of Henry Ford and Mario Andretti, Carroll Shelby is America’s most famous automotive personality. That was probably true before the movie Ford v Ferrari hit it big last year, and it’s certainly the case in its wake. He’s been called America’s Enzo Ferrari. It was meant as ...

MID-ENGINED CORVETTE: STINGS LIKE A RAY!

Posted on October 3, 2020October 3, 2020 by MartynL

The Supercar world got all shook up last year when GM pulled the wraps off the long awaited mid-engine 'Vette. Now Road Test Editor Howard Walker has tried it for size and says all the hype is for real, the MID-ENGINED CORVETTE: STINGS LIKE A RAY! If you're a lover of adrenaline-pumping, finger-tingling, punch-in-the-solar-plexus Supercars, I have two little words for you: New Corvette. Just feast your eyes on the thing. There's more visual drama here than RuPaul and Gaga combined. More...

GNX: MAXIMUM MUSCLE FROM BUICK!

Posted on October 2, 2020October 2, 2020 by MartynL

The 1980s were lean years for musclecar enthusiasts. There were some bright spots: Corvette, 5.0 Mustang, IROC Camaro, Firebird Trans-Am and turbocharged-intercooled Buick Grand National/GNX. Arguably, the rare, high-boost GNX was the car to beat on the street and strip. If heavy metal music were a car, it would be a GNX: MAXIMUM MUSCLE FROM BUICK! “The GNX is an ax-wielding barbarian laying waste to everything in its path. It rockets to 60 mph in 4.7 seconds and squirts through the qua...

TOP TEN: DEALER-BUILT MUSCLECARS

Posted on October 1, 2020October 1, 2020 by MartynL

Scott Oldham, who grew up with a ’69 Baldwin-Motion 427 Camaro in the family garage, blogs about the TOP TEN: DEALER-BUILT MUSCLECARS in the 1960s-1970s. 1967 Royal Pontiac Bobcat GTO During the horsepower wars of the original muscle car era, it wasn’t just the car companies duking it out for supremacy on the street and strip: Many dealers also got into the ring, adding cubic inches and horsepower over and above what the factory was offering. They were building some of the quickest muscl...

DYNAMIC DRIVING: ’21 JAGUAR F-TYPE R

Posted on September 25, 2020 by MartynL

Seven years after launch, Jaguar has given its athletic F-Type two-seater a mid-cycle makeover to sharpen its lines and re-boot its appeal. Road Test Editor Howard Walker takes the 380-horsepower DYNAMIC DRIVING: ’21 JAGUAR F-TYPE R-Dynamic for a spin. OK, so let's get the kitty-cat puns out of the way before we drive. Yes, Jaguar's newest-generation F-Type convertible could well be the purr-fect sports car with its fur-midable performance and paws-itively awesome handling. Certainly...

RETRO RODDING: ROADSTERS RULE!

Posted on September 22, 2020 by MartynL

ROD and CUSTOM’s Pat Ganahl brings back a blast from the past: RETRO RODDING: ROADSTERS RULE! This feature derives from http://carguychronicles.com/hot-rods-customs-cruisin-angelos/ In it, among the many bright-colored photos of then-contemporary 1970s and early-1980s hot rods, I showed these three black roadsters gathered under one light, stating that “…this was just the beginning of the retro-rod movement…” It took a couple of days, but this jogged my memory. It was almost a bad memory, but l...

HELL BENT HEMI: DODGE CHARGER SRT HELLCAT WIDEBODY

Posted on September 19, 2020September 19, 2020 by MartynL

Multiple variations of the HELL-BENT HEMI: DODGE CHARGER SRT HELLCAT WIDEBODY has been around for 16 years.But the almost-ultimate Dodge Charger may be this one – a Hellcat Widebody that chews up the asphalt while carrying four adults in comfort, blogs Dan Scanlan. Dodge took the standard 75-inch-wide Charger Hellcat with its 707-horsepower HEMI V-8, and added 3.5-inches so there’s room for 20-inch by 11-inch wheels wearing fatter P305/35 ZR20-inch Pirelli P-ZERO tires. That supercharged 6.2-li...

HOT RODS & CUSTOMS: CRUISIN’ ANGELO’S

Posted on September 10, 2020September 10, 2020 by MartynL

Pat Ganahl digs into his archives and retrieves memories of living in Anaheim in the late-1970s, early-1980s and shooting HOT RODS & CUSTOMS: CRUISIN’ ANGELO’S for So-Cal mags. I think it was one of my Instagram readers who mentioned recently that a photo reminded him of cruising Angelo’s on State College in Anaheim. I hadn’t thought about that in quite a while. But we lived in Anaheim from 1977 to 1984 – in fact son Bill was born there – and Angelo’s was just a little more than a m...

SALON PRIVÉ CONCOURS: RARE FORD GT40

Posted on September 2, 2020 by MartynL

Some of the most revered cars - revolutionary veterans and stylish post-vintage thoroughbreds to famous post-war competition cars, will be showcased at SALON PRIVÉ CONCOURS: RARE FORD GT40 presented by AXA. The Concours lineup is set to provide a welcome challenge to the judges – led by ICJAG President of the Jury Ed Gilbertson – on the finely manicured lawns of Blenheim Palace. It took a long time for someone to end Ferrari’s domination of endurance sports car racing, and in the end it was For...