Honda will end production of the Clarity fuel-cell and plug-in-hybrid models in August 2021.The Clarity was initially available as an EV as well, but that model was dropped last year.Honda says the Clarity will still be available to lease through 2022.The Honda Clarity, initially available as a plug-in hybrid, a hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle, and an EV, will end production in August 2021. The announcement was first reported by Nikkei and Honda confirmed the news to C/D. The EV version was dropped last year, and now the PHEV and hydrogen versions will soon disappear from the lineup as well.

So far in 2021, Honda has only sold 1896 examples of the Clarity, and full-year sales in 2020 totaled just 4215 units, down from 11,654 units in 2019. Honda does not break out sales of the hydrogen fuel-cell Clarity, which is available only for lease in certain states. The company does say that production through August of this year will allow for the Clarity to be available to lease through the 2022 calendar year. This will leave the Toyota Mirai and the Hyundai Nexo as the remaining hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles on sale in the U.S.We don’t think that there is be a direct replacement for the Clarity on the horizon, but Honda is planning several new electric vehicles. A new Honda EV SUV model using GM’s Ultium battery packs will arrive for the 2024 model year, and the company has set a goal to gradually increase its electric and hydrogen-powered vehicle offerings over the next two decades. By 2040, Honda says it will sell only battery-electric and hydrogen vehicles.
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The 2023 Ram ProMaster receives revised front-end styling and new optional features.Ram’s full-size commercial van now offers a third, higher roof option and a roll-up-style rear door.The ProMaster also now offers a park-assist feature for parallel and perpendicular maneuvers.The most notable change to the 2023 Ram ProMaster lineup of full-size commercial vans is that they all have prettier faces. That’s because Ram replaced the ugly old headlights with a pair of brighter and sleeker ones. Along with the new front-end design, the ProMaster benefits from a handful of new options and appearance upgrades.

Ram says the redesigned standard halogen headlights are 29 percent brighter and provide 15 percent more range than the ones they replace. Likewise, the optional LED headlights are 70 percent brighter with 50 percent more range. Below the main lighting elements is a revised front fascia that looks more modern. It also incorporates a modular bumper that now includes a built-in step that’s meant to make cleaning the windshield and changing the wiper blades easier.
Along with the new face, the ProMaster lineup adds more appearance options. Paint choices now include Ceramic Gray and Spitfire Orange, and there are newly optional wheels that come in silver or black. For the most sinister look, the new Black Appearance package includes dark trim for the exterior badges, grille, and rims. The 2023 ProMaster lineup also now offers a third roof height that’s taller than the existing low and high options. Dubbed the super high configuration and only available on the 13-foot cargo van, Ram says it provides the most cargo volume and headroom in the segment. Last year, Ram enhanced its full-size vans with a plethora of new modern safety features. The list of available upgrades ran the gamut from a 360-degree camera system to adaptive cruise control to lane-keeping assist. For 2023, the ProMaster can new be equipped with a park-assist feature that helps the driver execute parallel and perpendicular parking maneuvers.
The 2023 ProMaster is still only offered with front-wheel drive. A 3.6-liter V-6 with 276 horsepower and 250 pound-feet of torque continues to pair with a nine-speed automatic transmission. The ProMaster’s hauling capacities also remain the same as last year, with a maximum towing capacity of 6910 pounds and a payload rating of up to 4680 pounds. The addition of an optional aluminum roll-up-style rear door is intended to make the process of loading and unloading payload more efficient.The 2023 Ram ProMaster will be available starting in the third quarter of this year. While Ram hasn’t yet announced pricing, we don’t expect a significant increase compared with the 2022 lineup. For context, the ProMaster 1500 cargo van with the standard low roof and short 118.0-inch wheelbase started at $38,320; the 3500 passenger van with the high roof and 159.0-inch wheelbase started at $47,315.
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The auction site Bring a Trailer has just listed a 1988 Callaway Corvette, but not just any Callaway Corvette.This C4 Vette was part of Project Sledgehammer, Callaway’s program to create the fastest, most uncompromised roadgoing Corvette ever. Its predecessor was part of a Car and Driver multi-car test in 1987 called “A Gathering of Eagles.”The auction ends on May 23, and bidding has already exceeded $450,000.Today, a very special Corvette has gone up for auction on Bring a Trailer: the 1988 Project Sledgehammer Callaway Corvette. Anyone who’s followed the storied history of the Chevrolet Corvette likely knows about Callaway, a specialty vehicles company that develops performance modifications and packages for production vehicles with an emphasis on Corvettes.

Back in 1988, the Callaway team set out on Project Sledgehammer with the goal of pushing the C4 Corvette platform to its absolute limit in order to create the most uncompromised roadgoing Vette ever. It eventually resulted in a road-car speed record of 254.76 mph in 1989 that stood long past the turn of the century.

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[image id=’54efd29e-c240-4686-af06-09e3fbda2cde’ mediaId=’8ac1e550-2fc3-4896-9cb2-97c1f01cd809′ align=’center’ size=’medium’ share=’true’ caption=” expand=” crop=’18×11′][/image]The Sledgehammer even has a history with Car and Driver. Its predecessor, nicknamed the Top Gun Corvette, made an appearance in the story “A Gathering of Eagles” in our December 1987 issue. The story tells how it logged a speed of 231 mph at the top-speed event we held on the Transportation Research Center’s 7.5-mile oval. Snippets of the event and background on the car can be found in this YouTube video:
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In the years since that record-setting run, the 200-mph club has steadily grown, but none has gone quite as far to separate itself from the pack as the Sledgehammer. In order to make the leap from the 231-mph mark measured at our Eagles event to the target of 250 mph required major modifications: pieces of the frame had to be removed for packaging purposes, an entirely new body kit for improved aerodynamics had to be developed, and a new 5.7-liter twin-turbo V-8 built by John Lingenfelter with a stronger rotating assembly, new heads, a new camshaft, and larger turbochargers capable of more boost replaced the Callaway-designed mill. When all was said and done, the Sledgehammer was able to produce a massive amount of power—especially for the time—to the tune of 880 horsepower and 772 pound-feet. Perhaps best of all is that, despite all the changes it went through, the Sledge never lost its manual transmission.

Bring a Trailer

The Sledgehammer’s BaT listing states that it has just over 2000 miles on the odometer and has spent the majority of its time in a museum environment—and from the photos it sure looks like that’s the case. It’s hard to say how quick this car would’ve been on the street; we only had a chance to test the standard Callaway Corvette back then, but it’s safe to say the Sledgehammer would better those numbers and then some. As of this writing, the bid sits at $325,000. The auction will go for another 11 days and you’ll need a lot of coin—quite possibly into the seven figures—to get a chance to test it out for yourself. With its one-off rarity and rich history, it’s unlikely the mighty Sledgehammer will see much more than museum-parking duty for the rest of its life, and that’s probably for the best. In a world rapidly proliferating with electric vehicles it’s important we don’t forget the past.
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Behind similar styling, the new 2023 Mercedes-Benz GLC is bigger than its predecessor.Mercedes says the new MBUX infotainment interface is quicker and smarter.A turbocharged 2.0-liter inline-four with a 48-volt hybrid system will be the only U.S. powertrain option at first.Where the Mercedes C-class leads, the GLC crossover follows. Given the close relationship between the two cars, which sit on the same platform and share the same powertrain, it’s no surprise that the new GLC that you see here features most of the same technical innovations as its sedan sibling.Not that we were expecting anything radical. The previous-generation GLC sold well for most of its life thanks to its entirely predictable combination of the typical Benz virtues of handsome design and peppy performance. The styling of the all-new version has evolved so gently that we suspect many will struggle to spot the generational shift; reshaped headlights frame a single horizontal metal strip on the radiator grille, where the outgoing version had two, while the narrower taillights are the giveaway at the back.

Mercedes-Benz

Dimensions have expanded slightly. The new GLC is now 185.7 inches long, making it 2.4 inches longer than its predecessor. The wheelbase has also expanded by 0.6 inch to 113.7 inches. Passenger accommodation is barely changed, with Mercedes claiming that rear legroom has increased by 0.1 inch. The most obvious result of the growth is a useful increase in luggage capacity, with the new car’s 22 cubic feet being 3 cubic feet more than the last one.

The new GLC300 that will be offered in the U.S. initially will have a turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine working in conjunction with a 48-volt hybrid system through an integrated starter-generator. Similar to the C300 sedan, this engine delivers peaks of 258 horsepower and 295 pound-feet of torque and drives a standard nine-speed automatic gearbox. The only significant driveline choice that buyers of the new car will need to make is whether or not to go for the 4Matic all-wheel-drive system; by Mercedes’s claims, both versions are capable of identical 6.2-second sprints to 60 mph (we ran the previous-generation AWD GLC300 through the benchmark in a more impressive 5.4 seconds). Future versions will likely include both AMG 53 and 63 variants, although both of these will use hybridized four-cylinder engines. Mercedes confirms a plug-in-hybrid powertrain will also be offered in the U.S. eventually.

Mercedes-Benz

More substantive changes are found inside the cabin, with the new GLC moving to Mercedes’s new MBUX infotainment system. This uses twin digital displays, an 11.9-inch portrait-oriented central touchscreen (angled slightly toward the driver) and a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster. MBUX supports high-level voice inputs plus the option of an augmented-reality navigation system that superimposes instructions on a live video feed to show you exactly where to go. We are mildly disappointed, although not surprised, that the GLC will follow the S-class and C-class in ditching both physical HVAC controls for touch-sensitive panels and that it also lacks a physical volume knob. Other high-tech functions include a Mercedes’s Level 2 Drive Pilot driver-assistance system, standard LED headlights, and a 360-degree camera system that includes what is described as a “transparent hood,” using cameras to deliver a view under the front of the vehicle to help with maneuvering of the sort of mild off-roading a GLC300 might encounter. There is no word on pricing yet, but we anticipate the new GLC’s increase in standard equipment will be reflected by an increase over the old car. It will begin reaching the U.S. in 2023.
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Hyundai has revealed the Grandeur, a new sedan for Korea and other global markets.This is the evolution of Hyundai’s large sedan that was previously sold in the U.S. as the Azera.Its stunning design and posh interior look appropriate for for a Genesis luxury model.Hyundai doesn’t think that flagships should be exclusive to luxury brands, as that’s what the company is calling its seventh-generation Grandeur large sedan—and this newly redesigned model appears to have the presence to live up to the title. The Grandeur has been around in Korea for decades, but only two generations were sold in the U.S., where it was called the Azera and sold from 2006 until 2017. We don’t think it will be making its return to our market anytime soon, but the new model’s design makes us wish it was coming here.Few mechanical details are available at this point, but we assume that the Grandeur continues to use a transverse-engine, front-wheel-drive platform, surprising considering its dash-to-axle ratio and elegant proportions that look distinctly rear-wheel drive and premium. The slim, full-width headlight and taillight LED bars are reminiscent of other Hyundai models such as the Staria van and look modern and high-tech. The most interesting design element is the B-pillar treatment that incorporates a rear quarter window in a nod to the original 1980s Grandeur, which Hyundai recently celebrated with a restomod EV treatment. The interior looks to have a distinctly lounge-like feel, with cushy-looking seats and a minimally intrusive, flat dashboard that creates an airy cabin atmosphere.We’d guess that the new Grandeur will share its powertrains with the related Kia K8 large sedan, which offers a 296-hp 3.5-liter V-6 along with smaller 2.5-liter and turbocharged 1.6-liter inline-four engines. All-wheel drive will likely be available.The Grandeur is not likely to come to the U.S., as the large sedan segment has all but died out here. But if Hyundai wants a competitor to the new Toyota Crown, a new Grandeur/Azera would surely find at least a few interested customers—as long as it doesn’t encroach too much on Genesis’ territory.More Large SedansThis 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.This content is imported from OpenWeb. 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. More