Aurelia Butler

Bob Bondurant, who went from winning races on the international stage to teaching others to win races at his famous driving school, has passed away at age 88.Bondurant had been in an assisted living facility for some time.In racing, Bondurant was part of a small cadre of American drivers who travelled to Europe in the early 1960s to take on the world’s best in sports cars and in Formula 1, after several years driving sports cars in the U.S. Bondurant started out in the burgeoning West Coast sports car racing scene, competing against the likes of Dan Gurney, Carroll Shelby and Ritchie Ginther before any of those guys were famous. At first he raced Corvettes, winning the LA Times Grand Prix in 1962.From there he started racing for Carroll Shelby and switched to Cobras. After U.S. wins driving Cobras, Bondurant went to Europe for the 1964 season, where he competed in races that are now legend: Spa, Nurburgring and the Targa Florio. But it was his class victory driving the Cobra Daytona Coupe at Le Mans that year that may have been his crowning achievement on a race track. He won the GT class at Le Mans co-driving with fellow American Dan Gurney. The following year he helped bring home the FIA Manufacturer’s Championship for Shelby and Ford. He also drove a Ford GT40 MkI, Ferrari 365 P2 and a Corvette in sports cars in 1967.In Formula 1 Bondurant raced for Ferrari, BRM and Dan Gurney’s AAR team. His career-best finish was a fourth place at Monaco in 1966 piloting a BRM.

Bondurant won his class racing the Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe at Le Mans, bringing the championship home to the U.S. in the process.
Bondurant School

A crash the following year at Watkins Glen spelled the end of his racing career. But when the driver’s side door closes, another door opens, and it lead to a second career as an instructor. He helped coach the actors in the 1966 John Frankenheimer film Grand Prix, and went on to start the Bondurant School of High Performance Driving in 1968, after working for Carroll Shelby as an instructor. Two of the school’s first students were actors Robert Wagner and Paul Newman. The experience lead to a lifelong interest in racing from Newman, who remained friends with Bondurant throughout both mens’ lives. A press release for his school from about ten years ago sums up Bondurant’s switch to teaching people how to drive instead of just driving himself.“…he is better known as the leading authority on advanced driver training and has been at the forefront of professional driving instruction since the late ‘60s. Utilizing the Bondurant Method, over 250,000 students ranging from housewives, racers, and celebrities to teenagers, professionals, and police officers have learned from Bondurant’s expertise. “On Feb. 14, 1968, the doors opened at Orange County International Raceway, near Los Angeles, with three students. The next week there were two students, Paul Newman and Robert Wagner, training for the film ‘Winning.’ Bondurant was technical advisor, camera car driver and actor-instructor for the film. Ever since then, both Bondurant and his school have enjoyed success after success.”

Bondurant and actor Yves Montand during the filming of Grand Prix in 1966.
Getty Images

It was successful for almost 40 years. The school ultimately ran into problems, though, plagued with accusations of mismanagement, and it declared bankruptcy in 2019. Its assets were sold to new owners, who did not, apparently, buy the Bondurant name. Under the new owners the school is still going strong, with new asphalt and many of your favorite instructors, but it’s under the name, Radford Racing School.When it was still the Bondurant School, and Bob was there every day, those who worked for him loved him.“I knew Bob really well, he handpicked me to go work for his racing school right after I graduated high school and worked there for about four years,” said racing driver and instructor Tommy Boileau. “I spent almost every day with him for about four years. Bob was just, he was absolutely incredible. He was just a kind soul and to listen to him tell the stories of back when he was in his prime and racing in Formula One for Ferrari, doing all those cool things, and then just all the amazing actors and celebrities he worked with over the years of the racing school, he was just one of a kind for sure, he was a character.”

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2021 is the fourth year of the Hot Wheels Legends competition, in which builders vie to have their car chosen to be re-created as a small-scale collectible Car and Driver was invited to join Jay Leno, Ted Wu, Bryan Benedict, Brendon Vetuskey, Henrik Fisker, Sara Choi, and Mad Mike to choose a winner. The judging will be livestreamed on Jay Leno’s Garage on YouTube or Hot Wheels Facebook Live at noon ET on Saturday, Nov 13.Hot Wheels started its Legends Tour in 2018, and each year since has hosted a traveling car show to choose regional winners, and finally, an all-out champion from car builders all over the world. We were on hand for the debut of the 2020 winner, Riley Stair’s 1970 Firebird, and now, this year, we have the pleasure of helping choose which of the 2021 finalists will get to see their big car made small and ready to go through the loop-de-loop.

The judging is taking place in Jay Leno’s garage in Burbank, California. Just being in Leno’s garage is already like falling into a car toybox, so it’s the perfect place to see some of the Legends contestants in person, and argue passionately for a winner. The judges, besides me (Elana, trying hard not to shame Car and Driver by being too excited about absolutely everything), include several designers from Hot Wheels, full-size car designer Henrik Fisker, customizer Mad Mike, and drifter Sara Choi.

2020 Lulu is among the finalists.
Mattel

We’ll be narrowing it down from 10 cars to only one, and it’s not an easy decision. All the entries would be excellent in miniature form. Some have incredible backstories, others show impeccable work, some have both! There’s also a wide variety of cars to choose from. American muscle, German luxury, Braaaaaaap-ready rotaries, and complete one-off, hand-built customs. Here’s a quickie list of what we’ll be looking at during the judging. 1991 Porsche 911 Baja from Sun Valley, California: This thing is so clean, it would win a purist over to the Safari 911 thing.Custom aluminum racer named “Lulu” from Santa Fe, New Mexico: Paul Kalenian built an Indy-inspired, polished aluminum car from scratch.1969 Daytona Charger Superbird “Scraptona” from Macomb, Michigan: With a NASCAR small-block under its patchwork fenders, the Scraptona is in the running for best-sounding for sure. 2003 Exoskeleton Nissan 350Z from San Mateo, California: What to do with half a 350Z? Make a tube-frame back end, and drive around looking like a render come to life. 1968 Mercedes Benz 250S from Penticton, British Columbia, Canada: Perfect patina and a surprising stance for a classy Merc. 1990 Volkswagen Beetle from Mexico: This is a neat little car. Chopped and stretched, it sits low and looks like a toy already. 1969 Volvo P1800 Gasser from the United Kingdom: This one isn’t just for show, it’s a family-owned race car that regularly runs Santa Pod dragstrip.Wittgenstein from Germany: What’s a Wittgenstein? We’ll all find out together. 1986 Daihatsu Mira from Malaysia: This tiny truck is all forehead. And green glitter. 1973 Mazda 616 Capella from New Zealand: Giving the Dodge some competition on the engine-noise front. Braaap. It’s going to be a real challenge to choose between them.

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Ford is adding a Heritage Edition package to the 2022 Mustang Shelby GT5oo to celebrate its 55-year anniversary.It adds a Brittany Blue paint job with either Wimbledon White or Absolute Black racing stripes to the 760-hp muscle car. It will be available to order next week starting at $76,800.Ford sent off the beloved Mustang Shelby GT350 and GT supercar by giving them Heritage Edition models honoring the company’s history. Now it’s doing the same for its most powerful road car ever made, the GT500, but we hope we don’t have to soon say goodbye to another high-performance Mustang.
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The Mustang Shelby GT500’s Heritage Edition package is inspired by a livery from the original 1967 GT500. It’s finished in a gorgeous Brittany Blue, and customers have the option of two different stripes, either in Wimbledon White or Absolute Black. The hand-painted option costs $10,000, just like on the standard car, while the vinyl option is standard and includes a side stripe.

A supercharged 5.2-liter V-8 making 760 horsepower and 625 pound-feet of torque powers the Mustang Shelby GT500, and it’s paired with a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission. In Car and Driver testing, a GT500 equipped with its standard summer tires reached 60 mph in 3.4 seconds and hit the quarter mile in 11.3 seconds at 132 mph. When we tested the 1967 Mustang Shelby GT500, its 355-hp 7.0-liter V-8 propelled it to 60 mph in 6.5 seconds and through the quarter in 15.0-seconds at 95 mph.Additionally, Ford is adding Code Orange, available on the GT, F-150 Raptor, and upcoming Bronco Raptor, to the GT500’s list of color choices. And there’s a new Coastal Limited Edition available on the 310-hp Mustang EcoBoost Premium that includes unique 19-inch dark-finished wheels, a black grille, unique vinyl side stripes, and it’s exclusively available in Brittany Blue, Cyber Orange, or Rapid Red.
Orders for the 2022 Mustang, including the Shelby GT500 Heritage Edition and EcoBoost Premium Coastal Edition, open on Monday, November 15. The Heritage Edition package adds $2140 to the GT500’s price, increasing it to $76,800, and the Coastal Edition starts at $35,415. They’ll arrive at dealerships in the spring.
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The 2022 Toyota RAV4 adds sleek new headlights on all trims except the base LE and LED fog lamps on the higher grades.There is a new SE Hybrid trim that will slot below the XSE on the sportier side of the RAV4 Hybrid’s lineup.The 2022 RAV4 goes on sale next month, and Toyota will reveal pricing details closer to its on-sale date.Besides the full-sized pickup trucks from the Big Three, the Toyota RAV4 is America’s best-selling vehicle, totaling 313,447 units sold through the third quarter of 2021. Now Toyota has announced a slew of updates for the 2022 RAV4, including new colors, redesigned headlights, and a new SE Hybrid trim.
The new SE Hybrid joins the sportier side of the RAV4 Hybrid’s lineup, positioned below the XSE and with a more athletic attitude than the XLE and Limited trims. Inside, the SE Hybrid features a 7.0-inch touchscreen, a six-speaker audio system, and cloth seats. Buyers can also opt for the Weather package, which adds a heated leather steering wheel, heated front seats, and rain-sensing windshield wipers with a de-icer function and the Convenience package, which includes a sunroof, a power tailgate, and a 9.0-inch touchscreen.

The SE Hybrid trim also brings a new color to the RAV4 range, Cavalry Blue, which can also be had on the XSE and the TRD Off-Road. The XLE Premium Hybrid, Limited Hybrid, and XSE Hybrid all get a new wheel design, while the LE Hybrid, XLE, and XLE Hybrid have a new wheel color. Sharper-looking headlights appear on all trims except the base LE, and Toyota added LED fog lamps for the XLE Premium, Limited, Adventure and TRD Off-Road. The XSE Hybrid also gains the vertical LED running lights seen on the 2021 XSE Prime. Inside there are minor updates including LED interior lighting and, on all trims besides the LE, illuminated switches.
Toyota has yet to reveal pricing for the 2022 RAV4, but we expect a slight increase over the 2021 model. The SE Hybrid should start in the low $30,000 range. Powertrains should carry over unchanged, meaning a 203-hp 2.5-liter four-cylinder, which adds two electric motors for 219 hp in the hybrid models and three electric motors in the plug-in Prime, good for a combined 302 hp. Toyota says more details will be release in mid-December when the 2022 RAV4 goes on sale.
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