Aurelia Butler

The 2023 Jeep Gladiator adds the limited-production Rubicon FarOut edition that signals the end of the truck’s diesel engine.Jeep will only sell 1000 FarOut editions, each with upgraded features and unique decals but also a hefty $71,790 price tag.With the diesel 3.0-liter V-6 ending after the 2023 model year, the Gladiator is poised to add a 4xe plug-in-hybrid powertrain.The Jeep Gladiator’s torque-rich diesel 3.0-liter V-6 will end production after the 2023 model year. To commemorate the engine’s run, Jeep has introduced a limited-production FarOut edition, which is based on the top-of-the-line Rubicon.FarOut, ManThe Gladiator Rubicon comes standard with copious off-road hardware. The FarOut edition has all that and a host of optional upgrades, including the Cold Weather package (heated steering wheel and front seats), leather interior, LED lighting package, trailering package, and myriad driver assists. Visually, the truck has body-color fenders and “FarOut” and “3.0 D” badges on the tailgate as well as black side decals and a “Diesel 3.0L” hood graphic. Jeep says it will only sell 1000 copies of the Rubicon FarOut edition. The 2023 Rubicon with the diesel starts at $59,690, but the FarOut treatment adds $12,100, which pushes the special edition’s starting price to a lofty $71,790.The 2023 Jeep Gladiator Rubicon EcoDiesel we tested wasn’t especially quick, but we appreciated its 442 pound-feet of torque and impressive fuel efficiency. On our 75-mph real-world highway route, the diesel model returned 27 mpg—6 better than the standard gas-fed 3.6-liter V-6. While the latter is currently the only other engine available on the Gladiator, the diesel’s demise paves the way for Jeep to give its pickup the 4xe plug-in-hybrid powertrain that’s available on the Wrangler. We expect the Gladiator to get that option for the 2024 model year.Meanwhile, the 2023 Jeep Gladiator Rubicon FarOut edition is now available to order through the end of September, with deliveries expected sometime in the months ahead.More Gladiator ReadingThis 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 EditorEric Stafford’s automobile addiction began before he could walk, and it has fueled his passion to write news, reviews, and more for Car and Driver since 2016. His aspiration growing up was to become a millionaire with a Jay Leno–like car collection. Apparently, getting rich is harder than social-media influencers make it seem, so he avoided financial success entirely to become an automotive journalist and drive new cars for a living. After earning a journalism degree at Central Michigan University and working at a daily newspaper, the years of basically burning money on failed project cars and lemon-flavored jalopies finally paid off when Car and Driver hired him. His garage currently includes a 2010 Acura RDX, a manual ’97 Chevy Camaro Z/28, and a ’90 Honda CRX Si. More

EV startup Fisker, which recently began delivering its Ocean SUV, has released additional information about the Rōnin halo car first revealed last week.Production of the Rōnin will be limited to just 999 units, with prices starting at a whopping $385,000.The 1000-horsepower powertrain will shoot the Rōnin in a claimed 2.0-seconds while also providing a targeted range of around 600 miles. Last week, California-based startup Fisker unveiled three electric vehicles that will join the Ocean crossover in its lineup over the coming years. Along with a subcompact crossover called the Pear and a pickup truck called the Alaska, Fisker showed off a flashy four-door sports car, dubbed the Rōnin after the eponymous John Frankenheimer film famous for its thrilling car chase scenes. Now Fisker has released additional information on the Rōnin, including the price and expected arrival date.FiskerFisker will only build 999 examples of the Rōnin, with the startup automaker aiming to begin deliveries in the second half of 2025. According to CEO Henrik Fisker, the Rōnin is meant to serve as a modern version of the “classic grand touring car” for “people who love to drive.” But the Rōnin is still supposed to be practical—despite the slinky body, the convertible sports car has seating for five people and is said to “provide exceptional cargo capacity.” Fisker pitches the Rōnin as a response to the trend of high-performance SUVs from iconic brands, with the electric platform allowing for a capacious cabin but smaller overall dimensions. The Rōnin will offer blistering performance, with a claimed 1000 horsepower from the three-motor powertrain and all-wheel drive contributing to a claimed 2.0-second run to 60 mph. Fisker also claims the Rōnin will be capable of a 170-mph top speed, and the automaker is targeting a 600-mile range. The Rōnin is based around a lightweight aluminum space frame and rides on carbon-fiber 23-inch wheels.FiskerThere are plenty of flamboyant supercar touches such as front and rear butterfly doors and a carbon-fiber hardtop that retracts into the trunk to provide open-air driving. There is also only one set of door handles on the rear doors—the front doors are opened by swiping the handle or using your phone. The cabin is said to be decked out in sustainable, recycled materials and will center around a 17.1-inch screen, although the shadowy image of the interior doesn’t give a detailed look at the design. Order books for the Rōnin are already open, and Fisker says the 1000-horsepower grand tourer will cost $385,000. Although the targeted delivery date is only around two years away, Fisker did not say where the Rōnin will be built. The company doesn’t own any factories, contracting assembly of the Ocean out to Magna Steyr in Austria and planning to have the Pear built by Foxconn in Lordstown, Ohio. The model shown at Fisker’s product launch last week did not look production-ready—it was the only vehicle that didn’t move under its own power and didn’t have a visible interior—so we wouldn’t be surprised if the Rōnin gets delayed.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

The movie Gran Turismo opens today for “sneak preview” in many theaters and nationwide on August 25.Based on the PlayStation video game of the same name, it also takes its story from the real-life adventures of racer Jann Mardenborough, who got his start via PlayStation’s GT Academy.Watch for spoilers ahead, but we confess we enjoyed this movie. At this point, hating on motorsports movies is a required activity to retain car-guy cred. You drive stick, you went to Radwood before Hagerty bought it, and you can name every automotive inaccuracy in every racing movie from Barney Oldfield’s Race for a Life in 1913—real racing almost never involves having to rescue a lady tied to the railroad tracks—to the recent Ford v. Ferrari in 2019—The Corvette hood! It’s wrong!Sony PicturesWe’re certainly not immune, having hated on our share of vehicular cinema. So we went into the screening of Sony Pictures’ video-game docudrama Gran Turismo with a ready serving of jaded irritation in our hearts. Know what? It’s not that bad. Initially, hearing Sony was making a Gran Turismo movie, we assumed it would be a cartoonish fictional piece; an empty-headed, bang-shifted, action movie at best, a chaotic two-hour commercial for the PlayStation Gran Turismo video game (sorry, driving simulator) at worst. While there is plenty of product placement in Gran Turismo, the plot is based on a true story and has some genuinely thought-provoking and heart-pounding moments among the crashes and clichés. If You Keep Going, Watch for SPOILERS AHEAD Gran Turismo is more than loosely based on the story of a racer who got his start in Nissan PlayStation’s GT Academy, which was a marketing move by Nissan and Sony to take high-performing drivers from the virtual world of online Gran Turismo competition to real-life race cars. Many of the participants did go on to race in GT and endurance classes. The movie follows Jann Mardenborough, the 2011 winner, who went on to a class podium at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, although it makes free with what years and in which cars events occurred. Sony PicturesYes,Gran Turismo does stupid movie things like, my personal peeve, constantly have the drivers glare at each other through the side window.Right off the bat, yes, Gran Turismo does stupid movie motorsports things like have the driver put their foot down mid-straightaway and suddenly have more speed, or send crashing cars skyward in balls of flame, or—a personal peeve—constantly have the drivers glare at each other through the side window as if they aren’t locked in neck restraints and hopefully paying attention to their racing lines. It also compresses years into months, invents people who didn’t exist, and rearranges Mardenborough’s timeline in multiple ways to make for uninterrupted drama. We’re not going to list every instance, because we’d be here all day, but know that if you’re writing a school paper on Mardenborough, Gran Turismo is not a reliable source for your facts. This content is imported from youTube. 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.Now, if you just want to spend some time in a nice air-conditioned theatre with the sound of racing cars and some pleasant-faced actors to look at, you could do far worse than a ticket for Gran Turismo. Archie Madekwe plays Mardenborough with an earnest sweetness. It’s refreshing to have a racing main character whose primary personality characteristic isn’t aggressive confidence. Madekwe, who grew up in London, not only didn’t have any racing experience going in, but didn’t even have a driver’s license when he accepted the role. “I would get home from this other job I was filming, and take a driving lesson that night. The producers kept on phoning me. ‘Have you passed yet? Have you passed yet?’ and as soon as I did, they sent me a simulator, and then I had to learn to drive in the game too.” The real Mardenborough does much of the on-track stunt driving in the film, but Madekwe is proud to say that all the gaming scenes in the film are his driving.Stranger Things’ David Harbour Is a StandoutThe scene stealer is Stranger Things’ David Harbour, again playing a gruff adoptive father figure. Harbour plays fictional driving coach Jack Salter, who battles his own failures as he attempts to ready Mardenborough to face off against snobs in Porsches and rich, mean boys in golden Lamborghinis. This seems to involve a lot of dropping heavy emotional stuff on Mardenborough as he’s on track, which we would argue is a poor approach to coaching, but their relationship in the movie is the most developed and engaging of the movie. Some Weak PointsMost of the other characters are supporting at best, the bad guy being a bad guy just because we need one, the girl invented because it’s 2023 so we need one. Two, really: Mardenborough’s fictional love interest is played by Maeve Courtier-Lilley, and his scrappy fellow GT Academy participant will be a familiar face to Corvette racing fans, Emelia Hartford. Both are pleasant; neither is necessary to the story. Sony PicturesOne wishes for more detailed character development of either of Mardenborough’s parents, who travel the typical movie arc from lovingly disgusted with his gaming ambitions to supportive once he proves it’s a possible career—or the Nissan marketing executive based on Darren Cox. In the movie he’s reimagined as Danny Moore, played by Orlando Bloom with such bad hair that the real Cox should be offended. Moore’s character bounces between heroic out-of-the-box thinking in coming up with the GT Academy and an intriguing, but never followed up on, moment of villainy when he attempts to rig the academy results in favor of the more polished and more white second-place finisher. Visually, Gran Turismo is torn between director Neill Blomkamp’s gritty realism and an obvious Sony push for pandering to video-game fans. The occasional game graphics that overlay the action could be funny or expository if they happened more regularly, but as it is, they take the viewer out of the story without adding much but a reminder as to who paid for the movie. Otherwise, the shots are wide and exciting, the cars dice it up with a sense of physicality, and it’s a pleasure to see endurance racing and scenes of contemporary Le Mans on the big screen. Trivia moment: The final Le Mans scenes were shot in Hungary, at the Hungaroring F1 track, which was dressed up to look like France. The first half of Gran Turismo is slow, so eat your popcorn and take your bathroom breaks then. The second half, which follows Mardenborough’s push to qualify for a license and the 24 Hours of Le Mans, is much more energetic. It may be unrealistic in its superfast leap from gamer chair to GT qualifying, but it’s interesting to see depictions of multiple race losses on screen. These days, when fans bemoan even a momentary slump in a favorite driver’s performance, it’s good to get a reminder that the real world involves a lot of backmarker moments. Sony PicturesThe slough of Mardenborough’s despond comes towards the end of the film when a crash at the Nürburgring results in the death of a spectator. This is based on a real event in Mardenborough’s career, although one that happened several years after Le Mans. In interviews, Mardenborough says that including the incident was important to him. “It’s part of my life. It is my life . . . It’s a very dark moment in my career and in my life as a person,” he told the Daily Express. We were surprised to see it depicted, not just because it’s a shocking moment in the story, but because it takes the plot somewhere much darker and sadder than the rest of the movie seems to be leading. In the end, there’s plenty to hate on in Gran Turismo, if you desire to keep the tradition alive, but there’s also a lot to like, from the unusual hero to the detailed pit boxes and track backgrounds. If nothing else, you’ll come out with a desire for a PlayStation setup, which is likely Sony’s main goal. FilmographySenior Editor, FeaturesLike a sleeper agent activated late in the game, Elana Scherr didn’t know her calling at a young age. Like many girls, she planned to be a vet-astronaut-artist, and came closest to that last one by attending UCLA art school. She painted images of cars, but did not own one. Elana reluctantly got a driver’s license at age 21 and discovered that she not only loved cars and wanted to drive them, but that other people loved cars and wanted to read about them, which meant somebody had to write about them. Since receiving activation codes, Elana has written for numerous car magazines and websites, covering classics, car culture, technology, motorsports, and new-car reviews.     More

The original Smokey and the Bandit was so popular, the studio couldn’t stop at just one.Smokey and the Bandit II reprised Burt Reynolds in the titular role, again costarring with a black-and-gold Pontiac Trans Am, this time a Turbo model.This 1980 Turbo Trans Am wears that same livery and is signed by Reynolds himself.Car and DriverForty-six years ago, audiences cheered on a cowboy-hatted ne’er do-well as he headed eastbound and down, loaded up and trucking. Equipped with little more than a CB radio, a total lack of respect for the law, one heck of a mustache, and a screaming quick Pontiac Firebird Trans Am, the man they called Bandit stole our hearts. Now you too can roll like the Bandit in a car literally bearing his signature.Bring a TrailerUp for auction on Bring A Trailer—which, like Car and Driver, is part of Hearst Autos—is this 1980 Pontiac Firebird Turbo Trans Am with just 9000 miles on the odometer. Apart from the model year, it’s an identical match for the car Burt Reynolds drove in 1980’s Smokey and the Bandit II, complete with gold accents and that iconic screaming chicken on the hood.Iconic is a word that gets a bit overworked in the automotive world, but a Bandit Trans Am deserves it. When it rolled onto screens in the original 1977 movie, Firebird sales skyrocketed. The second-generation Firebird was late in its run, but Pontiac was so overwhelmed with demand that it actually pushed off the development of the third-gen model a few years.Bring a TrailerThe original first Bandit car was a 1976 model with snowflake-style wheels and a “6.6 Litre” sticker on the hood. The cars were fitted with the front clip from the ’77 model, and only one of the four survived filming.Bandit II saw both Burt Reynolds and Jackie Gleason (as the memorable Sheriff Buford T. Justice) reprising their roles, but a new Pontiac for the Bandit to drive. Pontiac knew getting its latest product in front of Bandit fans was key, especially as emissions restrictions had seen its larger displacement engine options taken off the table. Thus, Bandit would now drive a Turbo Trans Am, with a 4.9-liter V-8 equipped with a Garrett TB305 turbocharger. A three-speed automatic was the only transmission option.Bring a TrailerWhen new, stock power levels were rated at a modest 210 horsepower, but a stout 345 pound-feet of torque gave the Bandit plenty of grunt to spin those BFGoodrich tires. This example has the desired Y84 Special Edition package, which includes those glass T-tops, 15-inch gold Turbo wheels, and quad exhaust pipes—everything you need.Bring a TrailerBest of all, this car bears the gold signature of Burt Reynolds himself, written on the dashboard. Reynolds died in 2018, and back when the Bandit films were entertaining crowds, he was one of the biggest box office draws of them all.Related StoriesHe’d have other roles of course, but the one that went the distance was as everyone’s favorite Bandit. A black-and-gold Pontiac Firebird Trans Am was a big part of that character, and this one looks like a great way to relive the magic. Just keep an eye out for those smokeys. The auction ends August 15.Contributing 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