It’s because of coronavirus-related supplier issues, and the Sasquatch off-road package with the manual transmission won’t arrive until 2022. More

The light and nimble Lotus Elan was the embodiment of founder Colin Chapman’s design philosophy. This refurbished 1972 example is powered by a 1.6-liter engine paired with a five-speed manual transmission.This Bring a Trailer online auction ends on Wednesday, July 19.Car and DriverNo company exemplifies a philosophy of Less Is More the way Lotus does. When its tiny Elan launched in 1962, it was Jaguar E-type money, for which you got a small-displacement four-cylinder engine and a featherweight chassis. But where the Jag was muscular and beautiful, the Lotus was mongoose-agile and hard to catch.Related StoriesUp for auction on Bring a Trailer—which, like Car and Driver, is part of Hearst Autos—is a late-model example of that Lotus magic touch. It’s a 1972 Elan Sprint, fitted with a five-speed manual for a little more livability, and painted in colors that recall the Gold Leaf-sponsored Lotus F1 racing team of the late 1960s.Bring a TrailerThe 13-inch wheels are fitted with 185/70 Avon tires, and behind them lurk disc brakes at all four corners. A limited-slip differential helps get the power down out back, and the cabin has been cosmetically refreshed (despite the small size, the Elan is surprisingly roomy inside).The Elan wasn’t the first roadgoing Lotus, but it remains one of the best of the breed. Certainly, Mazda’s engineers thought so, as the original Miata is very nearly a modernized clone of an Elan.Bring a TrailerBut even a Miata looms over this Lotus. Measuring just under twelve feet long and with a curb weight of around 1500 pounds, the Elan is all about cutting every gram. For instance, the fiberglass hood doesn’t even have hinges, but rather just slots into place.Under that hood in this case is a 1.6-liter four-cylinder twin-cam engine good for a claimed 140 horsepower. When new, this engine was rated for 105 horsepower, and an Elan would sprint to 60 mph in a little over seven seconds, so this car should be very quick. The five-speed manual is from a later Elan 2+2 and should make highway cruising a little calmer.Bring a TrailerBut it won’t be boring. The light weight of an Elan means that it has hardly any inertia to overcome when accelerating, braking, or turning. It flits and flickers over a winding backroad with its buzzy four-cylinder engine on the boil, an internal-combustion hummingbird. The closest driving experience to it is its descendant, the Lotus Elise, which ceased production in 2021.The brand’s most recent product, the all-electric Eletre, has strayed far from this ethos. It’s as fast as you like with up to 905 hp, but it’s also the size of a Honda Pilot and tips the scales at 5500 pounds.Here’s your chance to rage against the dying of the lightweight. Per pound, the Elan may look fairly expensive when the dust settles. But as a prime example of Colin Chapman’s “Simplify, and add lightness” maxim, it’ll be worth every penny.Bring a TrailerContributing EditorBrendan McAleer is a freelance writer and photographer based in North Vancouver, B.C., Canada. He grew up splitting his knuckles on British automobiles, came of age in the golden era of Japanese sport-compact performance, and began writing about cars and people in 2008. His particular interest is the intersection between humanity and machinery, whether it is the racing career of Walter Cronkite or Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki’s half-century obsession with the Citroën 2CV. He has taught both of his young daughters how to shift a manual transmission and is grateful for the excuse they provide to be perpetually buying Hot Wheels. More

Porsche and Tag Heuer created a pair of bespoke 718 Cayman GT4 RS models to honor the Carrera Panamericana rally race in Mexico.The pairing is part of Porsche’s Sonderwunsch program—which means special request in German—which allows customers to create things like the recent Pixar-inspired Porsche Sally special based on the 911 Carrera GTS. The cars are intended to invoke design elements from the Porsche 550 Coupe, which two customer teams raced in the 1953 running of the Carrera Panamericana rally. When you have a stable full of historical racing cars as big as Porsche’s, you’re sure to have customers who want a modern take on classical favorites. The manufacturer’s newest examples are a pair of custom-made 718 Cayman GT4 RS models produced in conjunction with Swiss watchmaker Tag Heuer. The pair is part of Porsche’s Sonderwunsch “special request” customization program and were built to commemorate the 70 years since two customer teams took part in the Carrera Panamericana rally in Mexico. PorscheThe cars are painted in Le Mans Silver Metallic, a special color in the Porsche history books, which was created for the 911 Carrera GTS Le Mans Centenaire Edition, and references the paint on the 1951 Le Mans winning 356 SL Coupe. The cars are distinguished from one another with the racing numbers 152 and 154 painted onto the doors and roofs of the respective models. Inside the special editions, the seats and door pulls are finished in Guards Red, while stitching on the steering wheel and dashboard is done in the signature red, white, and green colors of the Mexican flag. The door guards and the cup-holder panel are milled with a special “GT4 RS Panamericana Special” insignia, and the floormats proudly announce that each car is a product of the Sonderwunsch program. In addition to the hood and rear wing side plates, the Tag Heuer logo is embossed on the center armrest to mark the partnership. Car and DriverPerhaps the coolest addition to the Panamericana Special is the Tag Heuer stopwatch module in the center console of the 154 car. The clocks were designed and made by Tag Heuer exclusively for this project and are not available otherwise. According to Porsche, the left clock that displays the time has the typical Heuer Carrera Design, while the piece on the right is a stopwatch with a scale that helps the driver maintain the average speed during rallies. More on the 718 Cayman GT4 RSCar 154 will be driven in the first and second stages of this year’s Carrera Panamericana by actor Patrick Dempsey, while car 152 is slated to be auctioned for charity in early 2024. This content is imported from poll. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.Associate News EditorJack Fitzgerald’s love for cars stems from his as yet unshakable addiction to Formula 1. After a brief stint as a detailer for a local dealership group in college, he knew he needed a more permanent way to drive all the new cars he couldn’t afford and decided to pursue a career in auto writing. By hounding his college professors at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, he was able to travel Wisconsin seeking out stories in the auto world before landing his dream job at Car and Driver. His new goal is to delay the inevitable demise of his 2010 Volkswagen Golf. More

We can’t rely on gas taxes forever, but there’s no simple, obvious way to integrate electric vehicles and other alternative-fuel vehicles into the funding structure.Texas state senators are discussing a bill that would charge EV drivers between $200 and $250 for their car each year, plus another $190 or more if they drive over 9000 miles.Other states have looked at fees for EVs, as well as road usage charge programs, which would charge every vehicle owner a fee based on miles driven and the weight of their vehicle.America’s current system where roads and other vehicle infrastructure projects are paid for, in part, from gas taxes obviously can’t survive in a world where everyone drives an electric vehicle. There is no single, obviously best solution to modernize the situation, but in Texas the issue has resulted in some Republicans coming out in favor of tax hikes.The bill being discussed in the Texas state senate—Senate Bill 1728—would raise fees on electric vehicle (EV) owners as a way to make up for the gas tax they’re not paying. The legislation would require an annual EV fee of between $190 and $240, an additional fee of over $150 for anyone who drives their EV more than 9000 miles a year, and an annual surcharge of $10 to fund a charging infrastructure advisory council.The state, which couches the fees in “equalization for road use consumption for alternatively fueled vehicles” terminology, said these fees would apply to approximately 300,000 vehicles and raise around $37.8 million for the State Highway Fund (SHF) in fiscal year 2022, climbing to $135,594,000 in fiscal year 2026. If passed, the bill would take effect on September 1, 2021.

Texas is not the first state to look at charging electric vehicle drivers a fee as a replacement for gas taxes, but its numbers appear out of line with the gas tax most people pay. Electric-vehicle advocacy group Plug In America noted in a white paper published in August 2020 that the national average in annual gas taxes for a light-duty vehicle is $73. PIA also found 20 states that have some sort of EV registration fee, with prices ranging from $50 to $200. In other words, in many cases, EV drivers would be asked to pay more to support vehicle infrastructure than drivers of fossil-fuel vehicles. The group’s stance is that “Policymakers need to realize that until EVs reach a certain threshold of all light-duty vehicles on the road in a state, they shouldn’t be incentivized on the one hand and punished on the other.” The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality did have an incentive program for people to buy or lease clean-air vehicles (including EVs, hydrogen, and CNG/LPG), but that program has ended. During the 16 months between September 2019 and January 2021, the state gave out incentives for 1371 EVs and 10 CNG/LPG vehicles. Some local incentives remain available, including an EV charging program in Austin. Tesla, of course, is building a large factory near Austin called Gigafactory Texas that is scheduled to start operating by the end of 2021. Local Tesla and EV fans in the state are decrying the fees that SB 1728 would introduce and have sent out a call to action asking people to ask their state senators to vote no on SB 1728 as a way to vote “FOR thriving jobs and clean trucks and cars made in Texas!”Instead of annual EV fees, which don’t take actual road usage into account, Plug In America and other EV advocates support what are called road usage charge programs, or ways to charge people for the actual miles they drive each year, often factoring in the weight of the vehicle. Seven states are conducting road usage charge tests with help from the U.S. Department of Transportation. Another group, called Road Use Charge West, is made up of 17 western states that have either enacted RUC policy, have pilot programs in place, or are researching if an RUC will work for them.
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Lincoln is recalling 142,734 of its MKC crossovers from the 2015 through 2019 model years over a problem that could lead to an underhood fire.The problem can occur without warning, even when the vehicle is parked and off, according to documents filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).The issue is with a battery monitor sensor, which could experience an electrical short and cause a fire. Lincoln is asking owners to park the vehicle outdoors until it can be fixed.Lincoln will recall more than 142,000 2015–2019 MKC crossovers to fix a problem that could lead to a fire under the hood. The automaker has called for owners to park the vehicles outdoors until a repair can be made. In documents filed with NHTSA, Lincoln said the problem is that the battery monitor sensor could become damaged during battery servicing and cause an electrical short and potentially a fire. To date, owners have reported 19 underhood fires, of which 11 were in the United States, seven in China, and one in Canada. According to the recall report, all fires occurred while the vehicles were parked and off. Dealers have already been notified, and owners will receive letters from Lincoln by the end of June. In the meantime, they are urged not to park the vehicles indoors. Owners can check whether their vehicle is involved in the recall at the NHTSA recalls website.Other Recent RecallsDigital DirectorLaura Sky Brown has been involved in automotive media for a very long time, and she sees it as her calling to guard the legacy and help ensure the continued high quality of Car and Driver. She was one of the first staffers at Automobile Magazine in the ’80s and has worked for many other car magazines and websites as a writer, editor, and copy editor ever since. It has been her privilege to edit many of the greats of automotive journalism over the years, including the ones who currently write for C/D. More