Aurelia Butler

Paging Brian O’Conner to the Fast & Furious white courtesy phone: It’s a turbocharged Eagle Talon on Bring a Trailer!Few of these cars survived the sport-compact craze.This one has just 30,000 miles, making it an ideal ’90s collectible.Twenty-three years ago, on movie screens all around the world, an Eagle Talon went 150 mph in a parking lot. In retrospect, it kinda seems implausible. But in terms of cultural impact, we’re still feeling the echoes of that first Fast & Furious film today. Family. Coronas. And yes, Chrysler-Mitsubishi coupes built in a factory in the improbably named town of Normal, Illinois.Talon! Arguably the best-named of the Diamond Star Motors (DSM) trio—the others being the Plymouth Laser and the Mitsubishi Eclipse—this Eagle-branded coupe was a potent performer in its day, and not just on-screen. This last-of-the-breed 1998 Eagle Talon TSi AWD with the desirable five-speed manual transmission is up for auction on Bring a Trailer (which, like Car and Driver, is part of Hearst Autos). This is real-deal turbocharged compact performance, the closest we got to a Lancer Evolution at the time. Bring a TrailerMore than 25 years after this car rolled off the showroom floor, the Talon’s styling still holds up. The asymmetric hood bulge, the blacked-out roofline like a fighter-plane canopy; even the rear spoiler isn’t over the top.Courtesy: Bring a TrailerOf course, what really made the Talon so appealing is underneath. Factory-rated output is modest at 210 horsepower, but the turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder 4G63T engine made its name in the tuning world for being capable of huge numbers. Slap on a bigger turbo, get more fuel in the combustion chamber, and watch your rivals disappear in the rearview shouting, “Monicaaaaa!”Courtesy: Bring a TrailerOr don’t. What makes this particular Talon so special is that it hasn’t been messed with by a bunch of would-be Dominic Torettos. A set of Tein coil-overs has been installed to dial in a little lower ride height, but there’s no tacky fiberglass body add-ons or hacked-up engine modifications to be found. Most Talons didn’t survive the era of ham-handed backyard tuners when they were on their third or fourth owners. This one has just 30,000 miles on the odometer, and appears to have successfully avoided any tomfooleryCourtesy: Bring a TrailerYou could get away with a little subtle engine tweaking for more performance, but as it stands, this Talon is a collectible survivor from when sport compact performance was nearing its peak. The Normal factory now turns out Rivian EV pickups and SUVs, either of which is faster in a straight line even than a boosted up Diamond-Star coupeCourtesy: Bring a TrailerSo leave the drag race stuff to fictional street racers, and don’t miss out on your chance to drive and enjoy a fun machine that was one of the quickest on sale in the 1990s.Related StoriesHead on over to Bring a Trailer for your chance to bid, and leave the bottles of NOS at home. The auction ends on August 6.Brendan 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

Maserati is planning to reveal a new “super sports car” at this year’s Monterey Car Week in California. Maserati says the new model will be an evolution of the current MC20 luxury sports car. The automaker has released a single teaser photo of the new car, with the full reveal scheduled for Friday, August 16. It’s August, and that means it’s almost time for Monterey Car Week and all the wild car reveals that go along with it. Maserati kicked off the party by releasing a teaser photo of a new “super sports car” it will reveal at this year’s event. There’s not much to go on beyond a lone teaser photo. Maserati calls the new car a “further evolution of the MC20” and says it “inherits the racing spirit of the Maserati GT2,” which starts life as a production MC20, even though it ditches the name. The teaser shows off an aggressive set of louvers cut into the front fender. However, unlike the GT2 or the MCXtrema track car, the model shown in the teaser isn’t wearing a massive lip or dive planes. Instead, the front of the car looks nearly identical to the standard roadgoing MC20, suggesting that the new model will be street legal. Whatever the new model winds up being, it’s likely to retain the twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter V-6 Nettuno engine in some form. In the standard coupe and convertible (Cielo) versions, the 90-degree powertrain cranks out an impressive 621 horsepower and 538 pound-feet of torque, which launched the coupe to 60 mph in 3.2 seconds in our testing. The new model will be revealed in full at the Quail, A Motorsports Gathering, as part of Monterey Car Week. The event will take place on Friday, August 16, with Maserati bringing along the MCXtrema and limited-edition MC20 Icona to the event. Related StoriesJack 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

For 2025, the Chevrolet Corvette Stingray coupe and convertible start at $69,995 and $76,995, respectively, which are the same as last year.Prices for the Corvette E-Ray rise by $2000, starting at $108,595 for the coupe and $115,595 for the convertible.The Corvette Z06 coupe and convertible will also likely receive a $2000 price hike, pending the EPA’s certification of the mandatory gas-guzzler tax.CORRECTION 8/2/24: This story has been updated to correctly state that for the 2025 model year the Stingray convertible’s base price is unchanged and that the Z06 coupe and convertible will likely see a $2000 price hike.Chevy revealed the highly anticipated 2025 Corvette ZR1 on July 25, and this ultimate C8 Vette looks to be an absolute monster with its 1064-hp twin-turbo V-8 and colossal rear wing. Chevy has yet to reveal the ZR1’s price (we’re estimating close to $200,000), but we now know how much the lesser, albeit still excellent, cars in the 2025 Corvette lineup will cost. The good news is that the base price of the Stingray hasn’t gone up at all. The Stingray coupe’s cheapest 1LT trim remains at $69,995, and pricing for the 2025 Stingray coupe is the same as the 2024 model across the board. That means the 2LT coupe still costs $77,095 while the 3LT coupe costs $81,745. Prices for the Stingray convertible are also unchanged, with the 1LT starting at $76,995, the 2LT at $84,095, and the 3LT at $88,745.Marc Urbano|Car and DriverPrice Hikes for E-Ray, Z06The hybrid E-Ray, introduced last year, pairs a front-mounted electric motor with the Stingray’s 495-hp 6.2-liter V-8. The E-Ray’s prices jump up by $2000 for the 2025 model year, with the base 1LZ coupe now costing $108,595 and the 1LZ convertible going for $115,595. The 2LZ will sticker for $114,095 in coupe form and $121,095 in convertible form, while the 3LZ will require $119,545 and $126,545, respectively.The Z06 also undergoes a price change for 2025, but we’re still waiting for the EPA to certify its gas-guzzler tax, which was $2600 on all but the Z07-equipped models that came with a $3000 GGT. If the previous gas-guzzler tax holds, the ’25 Corvette Z06 coupe and convertible will cost $2000 more than before. We estimate the 1LZ coupe will start at $116,395, the 2LZ at $125,295, and the 3LZ at $129,945. Meanwhile, we estimate the 1LZ convertible will start $123,395, the 2LZ at $132,295, and the 3LZ at $136,945. We will also update this story once the 2025 Corvette Z06’s gas-guzzler tax has been certified.This story was originally published on 7/31/24.More on the CorvetteCaleb Miller began blogging about cars at 13 years old, and he realized his dream of writing for a car magazine after graduating from Carnegie Mellon University and joining the Car and Driver team. He loves quirky and obscure autos, aiming to one day own something bizarre like a Nissan S-Cargo, and is an avid motorsports fan. More