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• They don’t make them like this anymore, but I remember driving one of these back when they did, sometime in the mid-’90s.• The one shown here shows only 1200 miles on the odometer and is up for online auction with Bring a Trailer.• With the auction scheduled to end on Friday, August 12, bidding is just over $14,000.Sometime around the mid-’90s, when I was rolling around in my 1985 Chevrolet Camaro IROC-Z, I stopped by a local car dealer to ogle the then-new Impala SS. I asked if I could take it for a test drive, and a sales guy who looked like a Sopranos extra glanced up from his folding chair near the front door and said, “If everybody drives it, nobody buys it.” He threw me the keys to a Monte Carlo SS, though. One much like this one, our Bring a Trailer Pick of the Day.

Bring a Trailer

With the IROC lending me some form of credibility, or at least collateral, I motored off down Route 1 to see what this Monte Carlo was all about. Because honestly, I didn’t get it: It looked fast, it had that NASCAR connection, but Chevy clearly hamstrung it on performance. Probably this was a GM internal thing, protecting the supremacy of the Buick Grand National, but it resulted in the curious machine you see here: all rakish go-fast attitude, but packing a carbureted 181-hp 5.0-liter V-8 under the hood. The same engine in my IROC, same year, with tuned-port fuel injection, made 215 horsepower. With a lot less car wrapped around it.

Bring a Trailer

But as I got a few miles behind me on my test drive, I started to understand the deal with the Monte Carlo SS. This isn’t a car about winning pink slips at the drag strip or shredding corners on some mountain road. It’s about rolling around and feeling badass in a big American coupe, V-8 burbling through dual exhaust, surrounded by burgundy velour. This car was on the tail end of the rear-drive GM coupe’s run of dominance, soon to be supplanted by the front-drive V-6 cars that never recaptured this brand of confidence, even if they eclipsed its performance. It’s not just that there aren’t cars like this anymore—there haven’t been cars like this for at least three decades. This one, with 1200 miles, is about the closest thing to new you’ll likely ever find. It looks better than the one I drove circa 1994, for sure. And while some people might describe the color as plum, I’d say it’s mighty cherry.

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Lucid is adding a new option to the Air, an appearance package called the Stealth Look.It will cost $6000 extra and includes dark exterior trim and either 20- or 21-inch black wheels.Lucid says it will be available starting in the first quarter of 2023.The Lucid Air is hardly a cheap proposition to start with, but $6000 still strikes us as a lot for its new appearance package. Called the Stealth Look, this new option is effectively the same as the blacked-out trim packages offered on so many vehicles these days.

The option essentially swaps out all of the standard car’s platinum-colored exterior trim for darker trim pieces. That means the roof, C-pillar, mirror caps, headlight surrounds, lower-door trim, are all finished in either gloss black or satin graphite. The wheels are also black and feature a different design, with either 20-inch or 21-inch sizes available. Lucid doesn’t mention any design changes for the interior.

Lucid

The Stealth Look will be offered with any of the Air’s five exterior color options, which include Stellar White, Infinite Black, Cosmos Silver, Quantum Grey, and Zenith Red.The Stealth Look will be offered on all models except for the base Air Pure, meaning you can spec it for the 1050-hp Grand Touring Performance, the 819-hp Grand Touring, or the 620-hp Touring. But Lucid says that vehicles equipped with the Stealth Look won’t be available until the first quarter of 2023.
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Toyota announced a recall for the bZ4X electric vehicle in June, acknowledging that wheels might detach from the car because of malfunctioning hub bolts and asking customers to stop driving the vehicle.The automaker had been offering free loaners to affected bZ4X owners, but the deal has now been increased with more sweeteners as well as a new offer: Toyota will buy back the bZ4X outright.Only 258 bZ4X EVs were sold before the recall was announced, but the vehicle has an outsize role to play in Toyota’s slow embrace of all-electric vehicles.When Toyota first announced a recall for its new, electric bZ4X SUV, it said that the hub bolts used on the wheels might loosen “to the point where the wheel can detach from the vehicle.” That was a noticeable black eye for one of the world’s largest automakers launching a crucial new model.The bZ4X is Toyota’s first all-electric vehicle since the company worked with Tesla on the RAV4 EV around a decade ago. The RAV4 EV was discontinued in 2014, and Toyota has been on the outside looking in when it comes to EV sales ever since. The bZ4X is expected to change things.The recall was announced after Toyota sold 258 units. Toyota’s first offer for buyers was to have local dealers give them a loaner vehicle free of charge until a remedy could be found for keeping the hub bolts connected. “The cause of the issue and the driving patterns under which this issue could occur are still under investigation,” Toyota said in June. After a few months of research, Toyota has now sent a letter to bZ4X owners (and then posted it to Reddit) expanding the benefits it is offering, including a complete buyback. For starters, bZ4X owners can continue to drive a loaner vehicle while the dealer stores their EV at no cost to the driver. Toyota will pay for the fuel used in these loaner vehicles and will also offer buyers $5000 toward their lease payments or as a check if the EV was purchased outright. Toyota is also extending the time frame for bZ4X drivers to get complimentary charging at EVgo stations and is extending the warranty period.If all of that’s not enough for you, then Toyota will buy back your bZ4X, although the details might vary depending on the situation. Toyota has not said how it will handle any dealer markups originally applied to the purchase price, for example, but the fact that it’s offering to completely take back a brand-new EV over something as seemingly routine as hub bolts is notable. Toyota has also issued a recall for the 2022 Tundra because of a problem with the nuts on the rear axle assembly that can loosen over time.The bZ4X recall also includes 403 units of the 2023 Subaru Solterra, which shares the Toyota’s platform, although documents filled with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) state that none of those have gone out to dealers or customers yet.Problems with selling new units of the bZ4X could hit Toyota extra hard because any EVs purchased from the automaker after September 30 are not eligible for the full federal tax credits under current law. While the rules are likely to change under the Inflation Reduction Act, as it stands now, Toyota is running out of time to offer its buyers a $7500 credit if they can’t buy a new bZ4X any time soon.In the meantime, owners of this EV who want to keep abreast of the situation can check the NHTSA recalls website for updates.

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• This 1971 Fiat 500F Jolly clone on Bring a Trailer looks like an ideal vacation vehicle.• It has wicker furniture for seats, basically a big beach towel for a roof, and no doors, but also—sadly—no cupholders.• With six days left until the auction ends on Thursday, August 11, time is running out to move to a tropical locale by the time you buy it.If I had two tickets to paradise—hell, if I even had one—I’d want something cool to cruise around in. While cool might suggest something exotic like the red Ferrari 308GTS that Tom Selleck used to race around Hawaii in Magnum P.I., I’m actually thinking of something equally Italian, albeit infinitely more leisurely. Enter this 1971 Fiat 500F Jolly conversion that’s currently up for auction on Bring a Trailer—which, like Car and Driver, is part of Hearst Autos.

If you’ve never heard of a Fiat 500 Jolly before, join the club. I’ve probably seen the quirky cruiser in some movie or another, but the first time I realized what I was looking at was today when I scrolled upon this example on the BaT website. I was instantly struck by its tan-tasseled canopy, tiny whitewall tires, and jolly orange paint that perfectly encapsulates its namesake. A quick Wikipedia read-through taught me that the original Jolly versions of the Fiat 500 were custom-built by the Ghia design house. History!

Bring a Trailer

The one that’s up for auction in these photos isn’t a real Jolly, though, it’s a clone based on what was once an ordinary ’71 500F. While collectors will obviously care about that, I couldn’t care less. I just want to buy it and have the seller ship it from its current home in Italy to someplace warm and tropical where I can immediately retire and spend the rest of my days putzing around paradise.Sure, this Jolly won’t get me anywhere in a hurry, not with its half-liter two-pot engine that likely has fewer horses than most farm stables, but that’s fine because I’d have nothing but time. I could also keep my left leg in shape by exercising its third pedal, but I can’t imagine going so fast that I’d ever need to reach top gear with its four-speed. Although it’d be interesting to see what would happen if it did go 120 km/h (about 75 mph), the peak indicated by its speedo. With its super light curb weight and big cloth top, could this Jolly Fiat turn into a flying Fiat? It’s probably best if no one finds out.

Bring a Trailer

My biggest complaint is that I don’t see any beverage holders inside the buggy. Where am I supposed to secure my piña colada (non-alcoholic, obviously)? I guess I’ll just have to hold the glass between my legs while I sit on the Jolly’s wicker furniture that replaces traditional seats. I won’t lie, they’re my favorite feature. However, I’d be fibbing if I said they look comfortable. Chalk up another reason to keep this thing at a golf-cart-safe pace. With six days left to go before the auction ends on Thursday, August 11, this jolly-looking Fiat 500F currently has a high bid of $15,000. I would love one for myself, but that love is mostly dependent on the location I get to drive it in. A wonderful vacation vehicle? Definitely. As primary transportation in southeastern Michigan? Not so much.
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One month before the royal couple married in the summer of 1981, Prince Charles gave Lady Diana Spencer a silver engagement present. No, not jewelry; it was a Ford Escort Ghia sedan, with the 1.6-liter engine. The car had four doors and 79 horsepower and was in all respects quite ordinary and even deeply boring. In an era of austerity for many British commoners, Charles’s gift broadcast a message of respectability: the newest addition to the royal household would upset no teacups. But as we now know, a coming tempest was brewing, and just four years later, Princess Di was coming on boost.

Silverstone Auctions

Specifically, Her Royal Highness was spooling up the boost on this little rocket, her 1985 Ford Escort RS Turbo, which coming up for sale at auction this month. It was never sold on this side of the pond, but any fan of performance-oriented Fords will have clocked the RS designation and correctly deduced that the princess’s tastes extended to a pretty serious hot hatch. Perhaps even to some royal hoonery?

Silverstone Auctions

Diana’s Escorts were third -eneration cars, and she had three of them. After the rear-wheel-drive Mark I and Mark II Escorts—both still popular with collectors and vintage rally racers—Ford’s European small family car now came with front-wheel drive. It was a modern choice for a modern British family. It took the Escort just two years to be crowned the bestselling car in Britain.

Seeking to stir up a little excitement to fend off the likes of the Volkswagen GTI, Ford developed a tuned version of the two-door Escort hatchback called the XR3 (later XR3i, as fuel injection arrived). The XR3 was scrappy enough for its day, but the relatively new technology of turbocharging promised performance dividends.The Escort RS Turbo was the fastest the third-generation Escort got. Thanks to an aluminum head, an uprated camshaft, and factory turbocharging, output was 132 horsepower at 6000 rpm, with a boot of 133 pound-feet of torque at 3000 rpm. Not huge figures by today’s standards, but pitted against a curb weight that was barely over 2000 pounds, the RS Turbo was plenty quick.Initially, Diana replaced her meekly humdrum Ghia with a bright-red convertible Escort, but the move upset her security detail. The droptop was simply too high-profile. Messages passed back and forth between the Royalty Protection Command and Ford’s PR division, and a compromise was reached. Diana would get the Escort RS Turbo she wanted, painted black on the production line, the better to fly below the radar.While almost all other Escort RS Turbos were white, the three black cars were built for Diana and her protection detail. She drove hers often between 1985 and 1988 and was often spotted driving around London, usually with the young princes William and Harry in the back seat. A plainclothes detective rode shotgun.One of the three, the car Diana herself drove, crosses the block at Silverstone Auctions on August 27. The car is offered at no reserve and is expected to fetch at least six figures, owing to its connection to a still beloved public figure.In a time when fractures were appearing in her fairy-tale marriage, this unlikely hot hatch represented one more facet of Princess Diana’s independence. The expectation was that she would be modern but dutiful, a four-doored People’s Princess. What emerged was a freer spirit, one determined to keep her own hands firmly on the wheel.In her hot little turbocharged Escort, out running around town, Diana did just that. Revs climbing, turbo spooling torque, bodyguard nervously reaching for the grab-handle on the roof as the next sharp corner approaches. She lived her life like a cambelt in the wind.

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The Ringbrothers tuner firm has turned its hand to the famous 1964-1/2 Ford Mustang with a handbuilt body shaped to update the original’s appearance by widening and lengthening it one inch. A 5.0-liter Coyote V-8 crate engine puts power down through a 10-speed automatic transmission and connects to a Flowmaster exhaust.The creation of “Caged” took over 4200 hours and is built with nearly 100 percent Ringbrothers one-off pieces.The Ringbrothers have taken the cloth off their most recent restomod, a Mustang convertible they’re calling “Caged.” The car was designed in conjunction between the firm and the customer, who asked for a “subtle, stock-like appearance.” Hidden under the familiar body lines is an extensively reworked chassis. The bodywork was widened and lengthened by one inch, and the chassis was converted into a unibody.

Ringbrothers

Putting more than 4000 hours into the process of building the car from start to finish, in Ringbrothers fashion, the end product is one of a kind. The only factory Mustang parts used in the build are the center caps for the wheels. “Every piece of this car has been touched and updated with the original design cues in mind, down to the iconic Mustang taillight bezels, gas cap, and running horse emblems,” according to Jim Ring of Ringbrothers.Tucked under the hood and behind a redesigned front grille sits a 5.0-liter Coyote V-8 crate engine paired to a 10-speed automatic transmission. Exhaust is handled by custom-built headers and a Flowmaster exhaust system. “Caged” rides on a set of 18-inch Evod Industries wheels meant to mirror the style of the original rally wheels, while shock absorption is performed by Penske Racing Shocks RS Edition coil-overs. The car also features an independent rear suspension and a set of Baer brakes to slow the new old horse down.

Ringbrothers

“Caged” is a passion project built with the objective to evolve and modernize the original Mustang’s bodywork while also staying true to its aesthetics, and according to Jim Ring, “There’s a lot of nuances that went into the design, and we’re proud of that aspect of the build. Only the expert eye will be able to discern the subtlety of the differences.”
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Ferrari has recalled 23,555 vehicles for potentially leaking brake fluid, which could lead to partial or complete loss of braking ability. The recall affects a variety of models spanning 2005 to the present, including the multimillion-dollar F60 America and LaFerrari cars.The NHTSA report was filed on July 26 and includes a relatively simple remedy of replacing the brake fluid reservoir cap. Ferrari has recalled 23,555 vehicles from the 2005 model year to 2022. Ferraris up and down the model line are affected by the recall, including multimillion-dollar limited-production cars like the F60 America and LaFerrari. The full list is included in the article. The scope of vehicles affected represents a sizable portion of Ferraris produced since 2005.A similar recall detailing brake failure risk was issued in October 2021, and it affected certain 2010–2015 Ferrari 458s and 2016–2019 Ferrari 488s, totaling nearly 10,000 vehicles. However, those models are not included in this recall. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) filings indicate a problem with the brake fluid reservoir cap of affected vehicles, where it fails to vent properly, creating a vacuum in the reservoir which can cause brake fluid to leak. If enough fluid leaks, the car could lose partial or complete braking ability, which is dangerous for the driver. The remedy stated in the documents involves replacing the reservoir cap with a modified version that should vent properly, as well as installing software to provide an alternate warning should brake fluid levels still reach dangerous levels. Dealers and owners will be notified on September 24. In the meantime, owners should pay attention to any brake or brake fluid warnings, and in the event of a warning, pull over and wait for Ferrari Roadside Assistance to tow the vehicle to the nearest dealer. As always, owners can check the NHTSA recalls site to see if their car is affected. Below is the full list of affected models from oldest to newest:2005–09 Ferrari 4302005–11 Ferrari 612 Scaglietti2009–17 Ferrari California2010–11 Ferrari 6122012–16 Ferrari FF2013–17 Ferrari F12 Berlinetta2013–15 Ferrari LaFerrari2015–17 Ferrari California T2016 Ferrari F60 America2017 Ferrari F12 TDF2017 Ferrari LaFerrari Aperta2017–20 Ferrari GTC4 Lusso2018–20 Ferrari GTC4 T2018–22 Ferrari Portofino2018–22 Ferrari 8122019–20 Ferrari 488 Pista2020–22 Ferrari F8 Spider2020–22 Ferrari F8 Tributo2021–22 Ferrari Roma
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For the tens—no, make that dozens—of people who enjoy Car and Driver’s Window Shop, the 100thepisode is a milestone worthy of quiet reflection. Think about how much the world has been changed by petty arguments about obscure cars on a Zoom call. How perspectives have shifted, assumptions shattered, and conclusions overturned. It’s one thing for friends to indulge in obscure banter, another thing to expect others to watch.But several of you have watched. Spending valuable moments of your life watching us obsess over trivial things. For that, we thank you.For this gala 100th episode, editor-in-chief Tony “T.Q.” Quiroga has issued a diabolical challenge: find a running vehicle that costs $1000 or less. Originally the idea had been to find something under $100, but that won’t even buy a tank of gas. So $1000—ten bucks for each of the 100 episodes—is this week’s challenge. As if this “weekly” show is produced with scheduled regularity.The panel expands this time with all the usual gang of goofballs. Besides T.Q. himself, there’s senior editor Elana Scherr once again proving that her inherent sensibility is undermined by a passion for ancient things held together with spray paint. Road & Track’s John Pearley Huffman continues Window Shop’s tradition of featuring a Buick someone has surely been murdered within. Favorite C/D contributor Jonathon Ramsey apparently thinks old Ford Explorers need to be bought in pairs. Executive editor K.C. Colwell offers up something or other. Senior editor Joey Capparella goes with a fermented, ancient Korean thing—like kimchi for the automotive soul. And deputy editor of video Carlos Lago also participates.That’s 100 irregularly issued episodes down, and nothing but an indefinite future laying in front of us. Such are the vicissitudes of YouTube.

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