Aurelia Butler

We’ve all been in this situation: You want to leave a party, but you keep getting sidelined on your way out the door. This year’s Burning Man festival abruptly dumped 70,000 people into that scenario when torrential rains turned the hardpan of the Black Rock desert into a soupy, muddy mess and organizers told attendees to shelter in place and conserve food and water. COURTESY OF NAVE BLACKIf that sounds like a major harsh on 70,000 mellows, it was, particularly for those Burners who had somewhere else to be. Among that crowd was Nave Black, who’d been camping in a rented 30-foot RV trailer. Conventional wisdom says you can’t tow a 30-foot trailer through deep mud, but it turns out conventional wisdom doesn’t apply when there’s a guy who really wants to leave Burning Man and has the keys to a 2023 Ram TRX.”Nobody was even trying to get out, and definitely not with a trailer,” says Black. “But my wife is at home with our baby, and I said, ‘Either I have to try to get home or she’s going to shoot me.’ And I decided to take off.” The Venn diagrams of RV towing and mud running don’t typically overlap, but Black may have invented a new sport in his haste to peace out. This was on Saturday, when organizers were forecasting that roads wouldn’t be passable until Wednesday.The Venn diagrams of RV towing and mud running don’t typically overlap, but Black may have invented a new sport in his haste to peace out. A video shot by fellow attendee Brendan Cogbill shows the supercharged, 702-hp Ram charging through the muck and rounding a corner, spraying mud and issuing determined high-rpm crackles from the exhaust as the trailer seemingly hydroplanes across the soup—a tandem-axle toboggan meets freestyle tow-boggin’. Courtesy of Brendan CogbillAs many viewers of the video have noted, the RV’s stairs are still down. That, says Black, isn’t because he forgot to stow them, but because his escape from Black Rock really was a spur-of-the-moment decision. “I had the stairs down because I initially only planned to move the trailer a little bit. But once it got moving, I said, ‘Fuck it, I’m getting out of here!'”The scene at Burning Man this year.picture alliance|Getty ImagesAs Cogbill’s video and another one show, Black is a successful adherent to the “when in doubt, add throttle” school of off-roading, which is particularly relevant when dragging thousands of pounds of RV through a rich silt mousse. “It was two or three miles in the mud, and if I didn’t keep moving, I would have been stuck,” he says. While this was his first time driving his TRX in the mud, Black does have some prior off-roading experience by way of the Israeli military. (When it comes to Burning Man, you never know what kind of training will turn out to be useful.) In one video, Black is going fast enough that he appears to be drifting the trailer, which is the kind of thing you might expect to earn skill points in some demented offshoot of Forza Horizon but never see in real life. Courtesy of Nave BlackAs for the rented trailer, well, it got muddy. “I called the owner and said, ‘Look, this thing is so muddy that I might have to actually buy it from you,’ ” Black says. But on the way out, he discovered a carwash set up by local Native Americans. “They worked on it for two hours, and after that I called the owner and said, ‘Forget what I told you. It’s cleaner now than it was when I picked it up.’ ” Given all that transpired, will Black ever return to Burning Man? “Sure, no question,” he says. “It was a good experience. But you’re hearing that from someone who got out. I think a Ram TRX is the minimum truck you need there.”The More You KnowSenior EditorEzra Dyer is a Car and Driver senior editor and columnist. He’s now based in North Carolina but still remembers how to turn right. He owns a 2009 GEM e4 and once drove 206 mph. Those facts are mutually exclusive. More

Toyota has revealed a new version of the Century that takes the shape of an SUV.The Century sedan has existed for many decades and is a highly exclusive model only for Japan meant for chauffeuring important people.The Century SUV has a plug-in-hybrid powertrain with a 3.5-liter V-6 engine.The Toyota Century has long occupied a special place in the Japanese automaker’s lineup, serving as a highly exclusive, Japan-only model meant for customers who want to be chauffeured. Debuting in the late 1960s, the stately Century sedan was previously offered with a smooth V-12 engine and most recently switched to a hybrid V-8 powertrain when its latest generation arrived several years ago. Now, the Century is transforming yet again into a new shape: an SUV.The new Century SUV follows many of the design cues that are characteristic of this model, and Toyota says that the sedan will continue to be sold alongside this new body style. Boxy, subdued, and ornate, this new Century is essentially as big as many full-size SUVs but only seats four, as the two rear seats recline in all sorts of ways and offer features including an entertainment system and even a driving mode meant to smooth braking jolts for the rear-seat passengers.There will be more customization possibilities for this version, as it will offer several different exterior colors including two-tone schemes and numerous interior upholstery possibilities. There’s also a GR-badged “sporty” version that has sliding doors and different wheels and tires.Under the hood of the Century SUV is a plug-in-hybrid system with a 3.5-liter V-6 and all-wheel drive. It sounds similar to the powertrain found in the new 2024 Lexus TX550+ which makes 406 horsepower and claims 30 mpg and a 33-mile electric driving range in that three-row SUV. Toyota hasn’t yet provided detailed specs on the Century, other than its dimensions and a prodigious 5600-plus-pound curb weight.Toyota only plans to build 30 units per month, and the Century will be only for the Japanese market. It will start at the equivalent of nearly $170,000.More on the CenturyThis 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.Senior EditorDespite being raised on a steady diet of base-model Hondas and Toyotas—or perhaps because of it—Joey Capparella nonetheless cultivated an obsession for the automotive industry throughout his childhood in Nashville, Tennessee. He found a way to write about cars for the school newspaper during his college years at Rice University, which eventually led him to move to Ann Arbor, Michigan, for his first professional auto-writing gig at Automobile Magazine. He has been part of the Car and Driver team since 2016 and now lives in New York City.   More

VW is updating the ID.4 for 2024 with new electric motors and a revised interior.The base rear-wheel-drive version now makes 282 horsepower and the all-wheel-drive version has 330 hp.The updated models will start arriving early in 2024, and pricing isn’t available yet.Volkswagen is adding more oomph to its electric SUV for 2024 courtesy of new electric motors. Both of the ID.4’s powertrain configurations, which include a rear-wheel-drive single-motor setup and an all-wheel-drive dual-motor version, get a big power bump for the new model year. This only applies to models equipped with the larger 77.0-kWh battery pack, and not to ID.4s with the base 58.0-kWh battery. There are also revisions to the interior and new wheels, along with a few new features for certain trim levels.The 77.0-kWh RWD ID.4 produces 282 horsepower, compared with the old model’s 201 hp. This should significantly improve acceleration compared with before, which we measured at 7.6 seconds to 60 mph in our test of a 2021 ID.4. The dual-motor AWD ID.4, meanwhile, goes from 295 hp up to 330 hp; that model previously recorded a sprint of 5.4 seconds in our testing, and it will likely get quicker too.VolkswagenVolkswagen also says that the new electric motors will improve range, but EPA estimates are not yet available. It’s currently rated at between 255 miles and 275 miles with the larger battery pack, so we can expect incremental improvements over those numbers once the official ratings are out.More on the ID.4VolkswagenOther upgrades include a larger 12.9-inch infotainment screen for upper trim levels, which is said to offer improved menu structures and simpler climate controls compared to the old 12.0-inch screen. The steering wheel and shifter designs are also revised. Cooled front seats are now standard, and the S Plus trim level gains a Harman/Kardon audio system. 20-inch wheels replace 19-inch wheels, and the S Plus now has 21-inch wheels. (VW hasn’t yet released exterior photos of the U.S.-spec 2024 ID.4, but pictured at top is a Euro-spec model with 21-inch wheels.)The 2024 ID.4 will start arriving at dealerships early next year. Pricing isn’t out yet, but we’ll update this story once it is.Senior EditorDespite being raised on a steady diet of base-model Hondas and Toyotas—or perhaps because of it—Joey Capparella nonetheless cultivated an obsession for the automotive industry throughout his childhood in Nashville, Tennessee. He found a way to write about cars for the school newspaper during his college years at Rice University, which eventually led him to move to Ann Arbor, Michigan, for his first professional auto-writing gig at Automobile Magazine. He has been part of the Car and Driver team since 2016 and now lives in New York City.   More

The manual transmission will die with the current generation of Mini Cooper, the company’s boss told Top Gear at the launch of the next-generation hatchback.The new Cooper hatch will come with both electric and internal-combustion powertrains, but the gas-powered models are expected to be automatic only.The final manual-equipped versions of the current Cooper will be produced in February of next year.Cars with manual gearboxes are truly becoming an endangered species. After Volkswagen announced the death of the stick-shift Golf GTI last week with the GTI 380 special package, it now appears that the manual transmission will soon disappear from the Mini lineup. The British marque recently revealed an all-new generation of Cooper hatchback, but according to Top Gear, the do-it-yourself gearbox won’t return for the updated model. MiniThe head of Mini, Stefanie Wurst, told Top Gear, “We won’t have a manual unfortunately.” A Mini representative left the door open for a future addition to the lineup, saying, “It doesn’t look likely that the next-generation Mini ICE hardtop and convertibles will come with a manual transmission at launch.” This could suggest that the stick-shift gearbox could be offered down the line if demand is strong enough, but we think it is unlikely. This news comes after Mini reintroduced the manual transmission on the Cooper hatchback for the 2023 model year, after it had removed the option in May 2022 due to supply-chain constraints. The six-speed manual was offered on the two-door Hardtop Cooper, Cooper S, and John Cooper Works variants. More about MiniMini has only disclosed details on the electric version of the 2025 Mini Cooper so far, but the EV will be joined by gas-powered models that are expected to use carryover engines. The outgoing Cooper was motivated by either a 134-hp turbocharged 1.5-liter three-cylinder and a 189-hp turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder, which should continue to be hooked up to an eight-speed automatic in the new model. The final versions of the current-generation Cooper with the manual gearbox will roll off the assembly line in February 2024, according to Mini. 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 EditorCaleb 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