Aurelia Butler

Currently up for auction at Cars & Classic in the U.K., “The Beast” is a one-off custom car with a 27-liter V-12 engine. Yes, twenty-seven. Not a typo.The Beast’s owner, the late John Dodd, was legendary for his legal battles with Rolls-Royce.At one time, this was officially certified with a Guinness world record as the fastest production car in the world, clocked at 183 mph.In 1972, the most popular car in the U.K. was the Ford Cortina. If Sir or Madam had more sporting intentions, the related Capri offered Mustang-like coupe styling, and an available 2.0-liter engine good for 86 horsepower. Imagine zipping down the M1 motorway in your new Capri, thinking you were cracking on a bit, when this 19-foot-long monstrosity hurtled past in a roar of V-12 thunder. It would be like being back in the Battle of Britain again.Car & Classic AuctionsIn fact, it would be exactly like the soundtrack of the Battle of Britain, because the 1972 Beast is powered by the same Rolls-Royce engine found in the nose of a Spitfire. Its creator, the late John Dodd, died last year at the age of 90. Now his vehicle is being offered for auction on the U.K.-based website Car & Classic.The Spitfire is still considered one of the most elegant piston-engine fighter aircraft to have taken to the air. The Beast is rather a more homely affair, with a hood long enough that you could probably land a Spitfire on it. Or land a 747 on it. Seriously, this thing has a nose bigger than Cyrano de Bergerac’s.Car and DriverCar and DriverUnder that long bonnet is a Rolls-Royce–built Merlin V-12, a naturally aspirated version of the engine found in the Spitfire. The first engine in this car was sourced from a Centurion tank, and the second from a training aircraft. It displaces a jaw-dropping 27 liters and produces somewhere in the neighborhood of 700 to 800 horsepower at just 2500 rpm.If you think that’s insane, strap in. The Beast first emerged with box-frame construction built by that most dangerous of creatures, a British man with a shed. Paul Jameson built several one-off cars—he once created another Merlin-engined car, this one a convertible with six wheels—and he created the Beast around a war surplus engine he got for basically scrap value. We Car & Classic AuctionsDodd was an automatic transmission specialist, and supplied a three-speed auto with some Jaguar parts. Later, he was surprised to receive a call from Jameson: would Dodd like to buy the rolling chassis? Dodd would, and he set about getting it bodied in fiberglass.The completed Beast was said to have a 55:45 front-to-rear weight balance and excellent handling. This can’t possibly be fully true, as the car is as long as an aircraft carrier, and an undressed Merlin V-12 weighs more than two Chevrolet LS V-8s. A lot of the information about the Beast is more speculation than specification.Car & Classic AuctionsHowever, it did receive a Guinness World Record, and it was certified by the Royal Automobile Club (RAC) in 1973 as capable of hitting 183 mph. A Ferrari 365GTB/4 Daytona of the period was 10 mph slower. Take that, Enzo.While it vaguely resembled a Capri that had been involved in some unfortunate Willy Wonka taffy-puller accident, the Beast was a hodgepodge of parts, and one of them caused a great deal of fuss. It wasn’t the Interceptor windshield or the Reilant Scimitar rear glass; it was Dodd’s insistence on using a Rolls-Royce grille, topped with the Spirit of Ecstasy. His reasoning was: after all, Rolls-Royce built the Merlin V-12. Rolls-Royce executives were Not Amused. Spirit of Ecstasy? More like Spirit of Bad Acid Trip.Things were not improved by Dodd’s impish provocation. He delighted in ringing up Rolls HQ, pretending to be some well-heeled sort who was interested in purchasing an example of the long-nosed coupe that had just passed at a high rate of speed. Rolls-Royce deployed the lawyers.More Conventional FareDodd drove the Beast to every day of the trial, except for once when he showed up with his entire family on horseback. He lost, and the court moved to enact punitive damages. Dodd hopped in the Beast and ran away to Malaga, Spain, where he rebuilt his automatic-transmission business and seemed to have generally had a lovely time in a sunny climate.The Beast lost its Rolls-Royce grille for one with John Dodd’s initials, though it is still titled as a Rolls-Royce (doubtless this would please Dodd immensely). It has just over 10,000 miles on it, which is hardly surprising for a car that would struggle to hit 2 mpg.For one lucky bidder, the Beast represents the peak of British automotive eccentricity. It is just a completely preposterous car, too big, too thirst, and too silly. And yet, it is also extremely funny and built to ridicule the rules by a man who lived to a ripe old age while thumbing his nose at the authorities. John Dodd could have bought himself a Capri. Thank goodness he didn’t. The auction takes place March 9 and will be streamed on the Car & Classic website.Car and driverCar and driver Lettermark logoContributing 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

Amazon shoppers who need replacement parts or vehicle accessories now have an easier way to get what they need in the new OEM Automotive Parts Shop.The personalization is integrated with Amazon Garage, which Amazon started in 2006 and has been growing by 20 percent a year since 2020.Once you’ve found what you’re looking for, you can have the part delivered, pick it up, or send it to a local service provider that will be listed on Amazon’s site.Amazon has launched a new OEM Automotive Parts Shop that can share your clicking habits with your local dealer to ensure you get the part you need for your specific vehicle. The new shopping feature lets customers find official OEM parts using filters for most vehicle types, from cars, SUVs, and trucks to ATVs, motorcycles, and scooters. The trick lies in how Amazon now offers hundreds of thousands of parts and accessories in connection with local car dealerships.The new Shop allows far more than letting people sell parts on Amazon and mail them out. Amazon’s new OEM Automotive Parts Shop is like a middleman between someone who needs to find the correct oil filter and that filter sitting on the shelf of a local dealer. Amazon said the new Parts Shop displays “transparent price listings for each item, as well as detailed product and fitment information directly from manufacturers and sellers to ensure they are purchasing the right product.”Amazon said its collaboration with automakers means that selling partners, including dealerships, can now offer discounts to both local and national customers. So, with your 5 percent coupon in hand, Amazon can now ship the filter to your door or to a nearby service provider listed right there on the product page. Other options include in-store, with same-day pickup available in some situations.SHOP AT AMAZON’S OEM PARTS STOREAmazon launched its Garage feature in 2006, allowing customers to enter their vehicle information and filter shopping results by their make and model. Amazon Garage also allows customers to reorder parts and track service recommendations. This personalized functionality encouraged Amazon to work with automakers to integrate their parts supply and local dealers on this updated Shop. “Since 2020, we’ve seen an average 20 percent increase annually in the number of vehicles U.S. customers have saved in the Amazon Garage, showing a clear customer interest in shopping for parts and accessories for their vehicles similar to the way they shop for other consumer products,” Ernie Linsay, Amazon’s director of automotive, told Car and Driver. “This inspired us to collaborate with OEMs to enhance the overall selection available to customers online.”The OEM Shop still needs to be polished. The brand list, for example, doesn’t include some companies, like Tesla and Mini. Tesla isn’t a part of the Amazon deal, but Mini is. In fact, a separate Mini section is currently promoted at the top of the screen, and Mini parts are available under the BMW filter. We feel ya, Mini drivers.Contributing EditorSebastian Blanco has been writing about electric vehicles, hybrids, and hydrogen cars since 2006. His articles and car reviews have appeared in the New York Times, Automotive News, Reuters, SAE, Autoblog, InsideEVs, Trucks.com, Car Talk, and other outlets. His first green-car media event was the launch of the Tesla Roadster, and since then he has been tracking the shift away from gasoline-powered vehicles and discovering the new technology’s importance not just for the auto industry, but for the world as a whole. Throw in the recent shift to autonomous vehicles, and there are more interesting changes happening now than most people can wrap their heads around. You can find him on Twitter or, on good days, behind the wheel of a new EV.  More

VW’s new Scout-branded trucks and SUVs are scheduled for 2026, and now we know they will be built in the Palmetto State.The $2 billion plant will create an estimated 4000 jobs and will be able to produce 200,000 EVs a year.Currently, VW builds the ID.4 in Chattanooga and has plans to increase EV production there, but the South Carolina plan will be Scout-specific. Volkswagen will build electric vehicles for its upcoming Scout Motors brand in South Carolina, the company announced this week. The EV plant will be VW’s second vehicle production facility in the U.S., but it won’t make anything but Scout models. This content is imported from twitter. 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.⚡ New e-car factory for the U.S. 🇺🇸 #Scout Motors plans to produce electric pick-up trucks & rugged SUVs from 2026 in South Carolina 🏭 🚙 $2B investment, 4,000 new jobs & more choices for our U.S. customers. 🎉 Big part of growth program for North America. @SCGOV @henrymcmaster pic.twitter.com/PnjRhWjPWs— Volkswagen Group (@VWGroup) March 3, 2023VW’s board of management has announced that the company will build a new assembly plant for Scout vehicles in Blythewood, South Carolina, at a cost of $2 billion. The plant is expected to begin producing an electric pickup truck and “rugged” SUVs with the Scout name in 2026. The new Scout EV plant will create an estimated 4000 jobs and be able to make over 200,000 vehicles a year when fully operational. These will all be Scout vehicles, not EVs for other VW brands, a VW spokesperson told Automotive News. See Some IDVW currently operates one factory in the U.S., in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The company announced last May that it will spend over $7 billion in North America over five years to “boost its product portfolio, regional R&D, and manufacturing capabilities” in the region. Volkswagen started building the ID.4 in Chattanooga in July 2022, with plans to produce 7000 EVs a month. This number should increase throughout 2023. The automaker also started up a battery engineering laboratory in Chattanooga last year and has said it intends to “build up” battery cell production in the U.S.VolkswagenThe new Scout plant fits in with other commitments VW made as part of the $7.1 billion announcement from last May. At that time, VW said it would launch not only the American-assembled ID.4 in 2022 but also the ID. Buzz in 2024 and “new electric SUVs from 2026.” VW also builds EVs in Europe and China and has talked about a new Canadian battery plant. VW took control of the Scout brand in 2021 when it acquired Navistar (which was the successor to International Harvester, which created the original Scout). VW officially revived the brand in 2022. Scout Motors CEO Scott Keogh, formerly CEO and president of Volkswagen Group of America, wrote about the plant on LinkedIn and said that “What started in 1960 comes full circle today. Scout is once again reimagining the adventures that an off-road vehicle can deliver – only this time, it’s with an all-electric platform. Today, we are closer than ever to putting an important American icon on the road.”Nowhere in these factory announcements did we learn any details about the vehicles themselves, but Keogh’s words hint at some all-electric outdoor fun is on the way. “Scout has always been the vehicle that takes your family camping and also shows up on the job site every morning,” he wrote. “This is not changing. Scout’s versatility remains intact, and America’s love of driving will be revived.” Contributing EditorSebastian Blanco has been writing about electric vehicles, hybrids, and hydrogen cars since 2006. His articles and car reviews have appeared in the New York Times, Automotive News, Reuters, SAE, Autoblog, InsideEVs, Trucks.com, Car Talk, and other outlets. His first green-car media event was the launch of the Tesla Roadster, and since then he has been tracking the shift away from gasoline-powered vehicles and discovering the new technology’s importance not just for the auto industry, but for the world as a whole. Throw in the recent shift to autonomous vehicles, and there are more interesting changes happening now than most people can wrap their heads around. You can find him on Twitter or, on good days, behind the wheel of a new EV.  More

The Vietnamese automaker VinFast has delivered the first 45 of its 999 VF8 City Editions.The vehicles were all delivered to customers in the company’s nine California locations. The VF8 City Edition SUV’s production will be limited to 999 units, with two battery choices: the VF8 City Edition Eco is claimed to have 207 miles of range, while the more powerful VF8 City Edition Plus has only a 179-mile range. On March 1, after a series of delays and some changes in promised range and pricing, Vietnam-based automaker VinFast has delivered the first 45 of its City Edition VF8 SUVs to its sales outlets in California. The company plans to bring 999 City Edition VF8 SUVs to California, which is the only U.S. state where they are currently set to be sold.More on VinFastThe City Edition’s battery is different from that of the standard VF8 and has considerably less range. There are two battery options for the City Edition, with the VF8 City Edition Eco enjoying a somewhat lackluster EPA range estimate of 207 miles of range, and the more powerful VF8 City Edition Plus with an even lower EPA estimate of 179 miles per charge. VinfastThe vehicles were imported to the U.S. in December, but there were delays before the company was ready to start delivering to customers. Now that the process is underway, buyers will be able to receive their new VinFast EVs either at one of VinFast’s California sales outlets or through direct home delivery. There has been speculation that some of the reason for the delay stemmed from customer complaints that the electric crossover’s range didn’t live up to earlier promises. VinFast’s unusual plan to offer battery leasing has been scrapped, at least for now. When the vehicle was first announced, VinFast told reservation holders they could rent the battery pack in the car, rather than buying it in the purchase price of the vehicle. The plan was to offer tiered mileage allowances in a similar way to yearly mileage restrictions on many car leases. Instead, the price of the battery has been added to the cost of the vehicle. Each City Edition comes at a $3000 discount, with the City Edition Eco starting at $47,200, and the City Edition Plus starting at $54,200. 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

It’s easy to talk about improving diversity in motorsports, harder to make any lasting change. Hang out at the track, any track (although some forms are doing better than others) and it becomes clear that there aren’t too many women working in the garages or suiting up for the hot pits. Now I can say from personal experience—almost 20 years covering various forms of racing—that it’s noticeably better than it was when I was a baby motorsports reporter, and that’s not just me imagining things. Data graphs on the career site Zippia show that the balance of male to female motorsports techs has gone from 96.1 percent male in 2010 to 92.3 percent in 2021. So it is improving, but at that rate, it’s going to take nearly a century to achieve anything close to parity. This isn’t entirely due to the evils of sexism: there aren’t as many women as men applying for racing jobs, and often young women studying engineering and mechanics don’t even realize motorsports work is an option. That’s why initiatives like the PNC Bank and Chip Ganassi Racing Women in Motorsport internship are so beneficial, and why it’s great news to hear that Ganassi Racing is repeating the program for 2023, with plans to continue it in the future.The Women in Motorsport (WIM) program offers three paid internships working with the Chip Ganassi Racing Indycar teams. The goal is both to bring attention to the importance of diversity in motorsports hiring and to act as a pipeline for women in STEM studies to graduate into full-time positions. This worked out as planned for Rebecca Hutton, who was one of the 2022 interns, and who will be joining Ganassi Racing as a simulations engineer for 2023. Hutton told me she knew she wanted to work in racing but had no idea there were so many different kinds of jobs in the high-tech world of modern motorsports.Women and Wheels”There’s definitely space for women anywhere in a race team,” Hutton said. “I think the obstacle comes watching racing on TV and you’re seeing all these men going over the wall and you don’t see the women there. You don’t know what’s available or how to get involved. I think a lot of people think if you’re on a race team, you’re a mechanic.” She laughed and added, “I think some of my friends still think that I’m a mechanic.” Hutton says she loves working in simulations because she’s able to design and test different chassis designs and optimizations and get to see the data her team provides make a measurable difference in the next weekend’s race. “The building of these simulations and building the models is hugely heavy in vehicle dynamics, which was my favorite class in school. I just didn’t know that what I enjoyed in school connected to the roles within a race team, and I’m so glad I found something I like so much.”Rebecca HuttonChip Ganassi RacingAnna ChattenChip Ganassi RacingHad Hutton wanted to be a mechanic, she could have found mentorship there from Anna Chatten, gearbox mechanic on the Scott Dixon #9 Indy car, and a 22-year veteran as a racing tech. “I came into this with little to no support,” Chatten said. “It’s been very cool for me to see the transition over the past 20 years, and there definitely has been one.” But, she says, while changes have been in the right direction, racing hasn’t moved as quickly as she would have hoped. “If you would’ve told me when I was 20 if there would still be this few female mechanics in the paddock, I would’ve thought you were crazy. I would’ve thought there would’ve been a lot more by now.” She thinks programs like the Ganassi-PNC internship can make a big difference, and she makes an effort to be a part of them. “When I came into the business there was nobody really for me to rely on or look up to. I have two girls, they’re seven and eight, and if they grow up to work on race cars I would definitely want it to be different for them. I need to participate in that act of change to make that better. Even if it’s emotional support for them on certain topics, that gets you through. You feel way less alone when there’s somebody who says, ‘Oh yeah, I’ve been there.'”It’s not just emotional support. Chatten also offers practical encouragement to interns who might feel intimidated about the hands-on aspect of turning wrenches. “We’re not necessarily exposed to it as young women. There’s a concern as to whether you can physically do it. I always like to bust that myth. I’m not a very physically large person, but there’s always a smarter way to do your job. You can always get a longer wrench or a bigger breaker bar.”For Ganassi himself, a man whose Twitter account includes posts of race results with the hashtag #ilikewinners, the Women in Motorsports initiative is not about personal feelings, it’s about building a better race team. “Listen, Elana,” he said before I’d even finished the first question, “I’ve never been one to do things because I want to check the box. And I don’t do things because it’s the cool thing to do or the current thing to do. I’m interested in one thing in our team, that’s performance. The women applying to this program are motivated, they bring innovation and influence and they just need the opportunity to shine. The women on my team, they’ve been engineers on the car that won Sebring last year, that won the Indy 500. They are here to win races and that’s what they bring to the team.”Chip Ganassi RacingHe says that he notices enough of a difference in team energy and performance that if he could keep his new hires secret, he would. “In some sense, I don’t want anybody to know these women’s names. I don’t want any of the other team owners to know because I don’t want them to take them from me. They’re such good assets of the company. I’m joking, but at the top levels of this business, everyone has everything, all the same cars, tech, software. The only difference between our team and other teams are the people.” He hopes that programs like WIM will mean that future conversations needn’t be about the male/female make up of a team, because it will be so normal to have a mix that it won’t be worth talking about. One place he does think needs more attention is in the race car itself. If women make up only about 8 percent of the motorsports workforce, the numbers behind the wheel are even worse, only 1 to 2 percent of professional drivers are women. Ganassi says that might have to do with when children are exposed to the sport. The internship program aims to attract women in college and grad school, as engineers and mechanics can make a switch to motorsports even if they originally planned on something like aerospace or consumer products. To become a professional racer at the Indy or F1 level requires starting much earlier. “Most of the drivers that are in the sport today all started racing when they were five years old, 20 years ago. There are very few women 20 years ago that were talking about getting into motorsports. And there were even fewer at five years old that had the father or the mother who were talking about it. But you have a lot more of that today, so I think we’ll see more women coming through the smaller series in the next 10 years.”More on IndycarIn the meantime, everyone on Ganassi’s team is excited to welcome the next group of interns for 2023. “The goal is not just to get to some number of women that we feel comfortable with,” said Angela Ashmore, engineer on the Marcus Ericsson No. 8 Indy car (pictured at top). “The goal is to end with the best team possible, and the best teams are diverse teams with unique backgrounds that can bring different points of view to problem solving.”The three women coming in for the 2023 season are Hailey Hein, a mechanic from Arizona; Nicole Goodman, an IT specialist from Indiana; and Raegen Moody, an engineering student from Georgia. PNC Bank and Chip Ganassi Racing will accept 2024 season applications in fall of 2023. Interested applicants can learn more at ChipGanassiRacing.com/WIM.Senior Editor, Features
Like 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