Motor News

This week’s challenge comes from the vital fringes of the automotive industry: find the best car-commercial jingle and a car to go with it. According to the contestants, catchy hooks have been hard to find of late. If this week’s episode of Window Shop were a radio station, it would be dedicated to the oldies.John Pearley Huffman, known for his radio voice intros and love of old cars, combined both talents. He played a repurposed 1964 song out of Nashville that hawked a 1983 Volkswagen from Pennsylvania. Pearley then hit the high note with a listing for a little red hatchback so sweet it could have given Prince ideas about a little red Corvette. California girl Elana Scherr bopped to an English cover of a song by California group Sonny & Cher. Considering the age of the Plymouth advertised, unless Scherr is reincarnated, we don’t know when she would have seen the commercial before digging it up on YouTube. We suspect she just wanted to plug the fact that her personal Dodge version of that Plymouth was for sale on eBay. Joey Capparella stuck to form with his jingle, keeping it simple. An upbeat ditty out of Brazil advertised a smorgasbord of Mazdas by repeating a single word for 30 seconds. He broke his own mold with his listing, however, cueing up one of the most complicated and delicate Mazdas ever sold in the U.S. Bacon- and bourbon-loving Jonathon Ramsey went for a heartland anthem, calling on George Thorogood’s help selling a Buick. Nothing should make an enthusiast pine for the good old days faster than hearing classic song lines turned into shilling like “200 horsepower, no time for chrome.” Speaking of the heartland, Tony Quiroga’s jingle was another American standard, based on a song about a train ride that almost everyone remembers. Almost no one remembers the Cutlass that jingle advertised except the despondent men reportedly in the core demographic. This week’s episode proved that earworms might not sell cars, but they can be more memorable than the product they’re flogging and sometimes of better quality.

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On Friday, Porsche revealed the Porsche 963 endurance-racing car at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.The car is the result of a collaboration between Porsche Motorsport and Team Penske first announced in 2021.The Porsche 963 will compete in both the FIA World Endurance Championship and the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, as it’s built to new-for-2023 LMDh specification.After nearly 15 years of separation, Porsche Motorsport and Team Penske have gotten back together. This time, the collaborative effort, known as Porsche Penske Motorsport, will field a new endurance race car, the Porsche 963, which was unveiled Friday at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. The renewed partnership was first announced in May of 2021 with the intention of running factory entries in both the FIA World Endurance Championship and the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. That dream has now come to fruition with the 963 set to debut in the new GTP class at the 24 Hours of Daytona in January 2023.
The hypercar is built to LMDh specifications, with a LMP2-category chassis supplied by Canada-based Multimatic and spec hybrid components from Bosch, Williams Advanced Engineering, and Xtrac. However, the star of the show is the 963’s 4.6-liter twin-turbo V-8, which is based on the hybrid 918 Spyder’s engine. The powertrain will deliver 680 horsepower to the rear wheels in an effort to snag overall victories in races like the Le Mans 24 Hours and the 12 Hours of Sebring. The body of the 963 is reminiscent of the smooth, rounded look of previous Porsche-Team Penske collaborations like the Porsche 962 of the 1980s, but sharper headlights and a rear light bar reminiscent of the current 911’s give the 963 a more modern look. The paint design, too, is at once retro and sleek. Black, white, and red color blocking give a traditional race-car look, while gradient white-to-black lines arching over the red section inspire images of air flowing across the vehicle.
LMDh cars are new for 2023, and they are the first category of hypercars to be able to race in championships both in North America and across the Atlantic. The use of spec parts like the chassis and hybrid systems also cuts costs for OEMs, so the category has attracted entries from many manufacturers, with Acura, BMW, and Cadillac in addition to Porsche already confirmed for 2023. The 963 has already seen 4900 test miles and will get a full practice run when it drives non-competitively in the FIA WEC’s 8 Hours of Bahrain in November. After that, Porsche Penske Motorsport will prepare four total cars to be based in Mooresville, North Carolina, and Mannheim, Germany, and compete in the IMSA and FIA WEC circuits.
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Bentley’s second Le Mans–inspired re-creation made its debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed today. Just 12 will be made, and all are sold already.It features a 200-hp 6.6-liter straight-six engine and a claimed 125-mph top speed, for the very brave.Bentley is a brand that often tells us of its urgent desire to move forward into an electrified future. This definitely isn’t that, although it is truly glorious. Having previously produced an all-new “continuation” version of the famous Blower that drove at Le Mans in 1930, the British company is now following up with another seven-figure re-creation, this time of the slightly slower, but more successful, Speed Six that actually won the race.When we drove the Blower Continuation last year, we emerged from the experience wearing fly-spattered goggles, and amazed that Volkswagen Group’s lawyers had allowed such a vehicle to be built in the careful age we live in. The Blower’s imprecise steering and almost entirely ineffectual brakes meant it felt like a driving adventure at 80 mph—with Bentley saying it was capable of 125 mph flat out. Now a lucky few will have a chance to experience something similar with the Speed Six.
Bentley’s Mulliner division is going to build just 12 of the new car, with each one costing more than $1.8 million at current exchange rates. Don’t bother sending an appropriately Edwardian telegram or a carrier pigeon to the company’s Crewe factory expressing interest: the entire allocation have already been sold.

Constructed by the same team behind the Blower Continuation, the Speed Six Continuation is based on new parts built to match carefully scanned cars that competed at Le Mans. The first of these is a genuine works car, “old number three,” which competed in 1930 but crashed out after two hours. The second is a 1929 road car wearing identical Vanden Plas bodywork to those of the works cars; these were the days when you really could buy a race winner and drive it on the street. Along with original blueprints, these were used by Mulliner to create a 3D CAD model of the car, which will be used as the basis for the new dozen.Bentley won the 1929 Le Mans 24 hours in dominant style, the Speed Six driven by company chairman Woolf Barnato and Sir Henry “Tim” Birkin finishing seven laps ahead of a chasing pack of 4.5-liter Bentleys that took second, third and fourth places. Competition was tougher in 1930 with the entry of a powerful Mercedes SSK driven by Rudolf Caracciola and Christian Werner, one that was a strong favorite before the race started. But Birkin, driving a privately entered supercharged Bentley Blower, set a pace that caused both his and Caracciola’s chasing car to break. Barnato’s Speed Six took another victory, with a second works car finishing in second place.Bentley’s eponymous founder, W.O. Bentley, didn’t like supercharging and so had given the Speed Six a brawny naturally aspirated 6.6-liter engine. In roadgoing form, it made 147 horsepower—at a time when the Model T Ford made 20 hp—and in race trim the ‘Six was claimed to make 200 hp.Having announced the Speed Six Continuation at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, Bentley says it will be building a prototype version in the second half of the year, with the run of customer versions following behind. Just don’t forget your flying goggles.

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A new version of the Chevy Colorado pickup is coming for 2023.This teaser shows the ZR2 model, which has numerous add-ons for off-roading.The new truck will debut July 28, and a similar GMC Canyon AT4X is coming too.A new teaser video shows an updated 2023 version of Chevrolet’s mid-size pickup truck, the Colorado, bounding around the desert ahead of its official debut July 28. Both of GM’s smaller trucks, the Colorado and the closely related GMC Canyon, are being redesigned for the 2023 model year, and the company describes the trucks as “all-new.” We reckon that means they will both have new bodies and upgraded interiors, although we think the trucks’ underpinnings will largely stay the same.

In the teaser, we can see that the Colorado’s front end looks different, as do the taillights. The version shown is the off-road-oriented ZR2, which has chunky all-terrain tires, a light bar behind the cab, and what Chevy calls a “Safari Bar” on the front. Like the current ZR2, the new model will likely have suspension upgrades including different shocks and a higher ride height. The Chevy’s GMC sibling, the Canyon, will also add an off-road model called AT4X that should be equivalent to the ZR2; that model has also been teased and appears to have a different body than the current truck.The current Colorado and Canyon offer three engine choices: a 2.5-liter inline-four, a 3.6-liter V-6, or a turbodiesel 2.8-liter inline-four. We’re guessing that the base four-cylinder might be dropped, and that GM could add the Silverado’s turbocharged 2.7-liter inline-four as an option. Both rear- and four-wheel drive will remain on the menu.Stay tuned to learn more about the 2023 Colorado and Canyon, as the Chevy will debut July 28 and the GMC should follow soon after.
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You recharge an electric car by plugging it into the electric grid, where renewable solar energy may make up part of the power supply. But what about using solar panels mounted directly on EVs to recharge their batteries? A new electric car from a Dutch automaker does just that.Vehicle startup Lightyear says it will begin production late this year of its Lightyear 0 (“Zero”)—and Car and Driver was able to drive a pre-production development vehicle. The mid-size four-door sedan promises up to 6840 miles a year of added range in the sunniest climate from the 54 square feet of solar cells under glass that cover its roof, hood, and liftgate. The price is roughly $265,000, steep for a car in the same category as the Tesla Model 3, which starts at one-fifth that price. But Lightyear intends the Zero to be a proof of concept. It will build and sell just 946 examples, to show the technology is workable and also gain data about the real-world performance of its solar panels.

Presuming it raises more capital, Lightyear’s second vehicle—the Lightyear 2—will be a compact crossover in the same segment as Tesla’s Model Y, according to CEO Lex Hoefsloot. He spoke to Car and Driver during a drive event in a pair of prototype Lightyear Zeros held in the hot, mostly sunny Navarre region of northeastern Spain. The target price for its second vehicle, which Lightyear hopes to launch in late 2024 or early 2025, is a far more affordable $31,700.Secret Sauce: Ultra-Efficient EverythingTo build a car for which today’s solar panels could provide substantial added electric range required engineering every aspect of the vehicle for extreme efficiency. Our 20-minute test drive of the pre-production Lightyear Zero development vehicle didn’t include any high-speed highway driving. It covered roughly 12 miles of two-lane country roads, numerous roundabouts, and a jaunt through one village. Under those conditions, indicated power usage was 91 to 134 Watt-hours per kilometer (4.7 to 6.9 miles/kWh)—versus 3 to 5 miles/kWh in most of today’s production EVs.The Lightyear Zero’s 60.0-kWh battery pack can be smaller and lighter than those of other EVs with similar capacities because the company strictly limits the stress on its cells. The car is far from a speed demon; the company quotes a zero-to-62-mph time of roughly 10 seconds—slow compared to a Tesla Model 3. Lightyear is still tuning the powertrain and said it expects to add 10 percent to maximum torque while retaining the same efficiency. Top speed is limited to 100 mph.
Longer Tail, Lower DragThe car itself is as close to a teardrop shape as you’ll find in any vehicle today, with a long tail in particular. That produces a very low claimed drag coefficient of 0.19. (Note that without a standardized measuring system for drag coefficients, claimed Cd figures aren’t necessarily comparable among different carmakers.) Active grille shutters, flat wheel covers, and partially enclosed rear wheel wells further reduce drag. Its carbon-fiber shell (made largely out of carbon-fiber waste recaptured from other uses) gives it an exceptionally light weight of a claimed 3500 pounds including 770 pounds of battery. And the Lightyear Zero will be the first production passenger car to use in-wheel hub motors, developed through several generations to be smaller and lighter for the power they deliver while eliminating driveshafts and other components. All of this translates into lower energy use. We couldn’t test the car’s energy use ourselves in the brief time we had to drive it, but Lightyear benchmarked its production-intent prototype against a Tesla Model 3 Standard RWD Plus. Their car, they said, used 10.5 kWh to cover 62 miles at a steady speed of 68 mph, while the Tesla required 16.1 kWh to do the same. The range provided by its 60.0-kWh battery was 350 miles, while the 50.0-kWh Model 3 returns 225 miles in the same tests.The upshot is a very efficient EV that goes farther per kilowatt-hour than similar vehicles, with the added bonus that energy from the sun translates to more added miles than it would in less efficient competitors. Lightyear expects the official range rating under the WLTP cycle to be 388 miles.On the RoadGetting into the low car with its steeply raked windshield requires careful head placement, but once inside, the seats are nicely shaped and very supportive. A digital instrument cluster and separate horizontal center touchscreen are conventional, though Lightyear is still working on display graphics to present energy usage in a more easily comprehensible way than the present list of numbers.Getting underway is as simple as pushing the “D” button in the row at the front of the console. Every Lightyear team member we spoke with stressed that the steering and accelerator mapping wasn’t final. Indeed, the steering was heavy and somewhat slow to respond, while the accelerator felt entirely linear, which produced leisurely takeoffs from a standing start. The car’s roadholding on relatively narrow tires was fine for daily use, though we squealed a front tire coming out of a roundabout. The car isn’t intended to be a sports sedan, as our Lightyear engineer riding along stressed. On our short drives, we perceived no ill effects from the heavier unsprung weight of the wheel motors—which weigh 82 pounds each plus another 9 pounds for the integrated inverter. Adding Range, Reducing Plug TimeThe team’s primary goal for the development prototypes was to ensure the solar generation aspect worked correctly. Testing at noontime, apps for the two test vehicles showed their panels producing 492 and 673 watts. The maximum solar charging rate is just above 1 kilowatt, the company says, about the same as what a 120-volt household outlet can provide, which can add up to 43 miles of range a day—or 6840 miles a year. You’ll note that that annual claim isn’t just the maximum per-day range multiplied by 365, because you don’t get long sunny days year-round. And the reason that it can add relatively so many miles is due to the Lightyear’s super-high efficiency; the number of miles the same solar array on a mainstream EV could add would be substantially fewer.The idea, then, is not that the sun provides all the needed charging for the car. Rather, it’s that the car can slowly charge during daylight to extend its range and reduce the frequency of charging, perhaps substantially depending on usage patterns.Assuming an average commute of 22 miles, Lightyear says solar energy can extend the time between recharges in daily use for as long as two months in a cloudy climate like its home country of the Netherlands—and up to seven months in a sunny area like Portugal.The Lightyear Zero won’t come to North America, so we won’t have a chance to see how efficient it is under American drive cycles. The Lightyear 2 will, however. We could imagine EV drivers in LA or Phoenix liking the idea of a more efficient car they don’t need to plug in as often.

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Superman IV was a disastrous end to a beloved movie series from the 1970s, turning heads for all the wrong reasons. The SuperVan 4, on the other hand, is turning heads for all the right ones as an astonishing addition to a beloved, if completely ridiculous, series of vehicles started in the 1970s. Ford unveiled the Frankensteinian marriage between its Performance division and a nearly unrecognizable E-Transit Custom body on June 23 at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, where it will show off its because-we-can bag of tricks for the first time.

The original SuperVan.
Ford

Officially known as the Ford Pro Electric SuperVan, the SuperVan 4 is the fourth Ford utility van to be retrofitted with a race-car-caliber powertrain, after the first SuperVan stuck a Transit bodyshell on a GT40 chassis back in 1971. This time, though, Ford Performance collaborated with Austria-based electric race and rally specialists STARD to bring the super-powered show-and-tell vans into the future with an all-electric design.

The SuperVan 4 harnesses the capabilities of a mid-mounted 50.0-kWh liquid-cooled battery, located where previous SuperVans’ ICEs were, to power four electric motors that promise to deliver 1973 horses and a zero-to-62-mph time of under two seconds via an all-wheel-drive system. The SuperVan 4 comes complete with a full roll cage and racing seats built to FIA standards, as well as motorsport-grade brakes.

Ford

It also utilizes a Sync display, not only to do the regular stuff but also to control the SuperVan 4’s funky driving modes and transmit real-time data for optimal performance, just as racing teams do. The aforementioned driving modes include road, track, drag, drift, and rally modes, plus a “Tyre Cleaning mode” that brakes one axle and spins the other, ostensibly to clean and warm the tires before performance runs; head-turning burnouts are just a bonus.However, all these high-tech components are not so much contained in a Transit Custom—which Ford brags is Europe’s bestselling van—as they are housed by a steel spaceframe and composite body panels made to look like a Transit-inspired spaceship. While distinctly van-shaped, the SuperVan 4 has extravagantly futuristic styling courtesy of Ford’s Cologne, Germany-based design team. It features a front splitter, rear wing, dorsal fin, and huge cutaways to generate more downforce, as well as neon-green accents and a front light bar for exotic flair.

Ford

Still, the SuperVan 4 has a cargo space behind the driver and a sliding door to load it, lest you forget that the “van” component of the SuperVan is just as important as the “super” component. Ford even intends to add an electromagnetic cargo-securing system, because God forbid cargo shift even slightly at supersonic speeds. To put the fantastical contraption to the test at Goodwood, Le Mans–winning driver Romain Dumas is suiting up in the cockpit of the SuperVan 4. Aside from his multitudinous endurance-racing accomplishments, Dumas has also set outright records at Goodwood and Pikes Peak in the fully electric Volkswagen I.D. R. Who knows, maybe a new record could be on the clock when the SuperVan 4 climbs the hill this weekend. Regardless, the ludicrous but fun box of speed will certainly be something to watch.
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According to a study performed by a Subaru dealership, Americans say they are willing to travel an average distance of 469 miles for their next car. The state prepared to travel the farthest is (somewhat unsurprisingly) Alaska at 722 miles.The survey consisted of 2690 drivers in March 2022. Gas prices are high. Very high. That hasn’t stopped Americans who are looking to battle equally high, record-setting monthly car payments. As means of fighting against rising car payments, prospective buyers are traveling farther out from their local dealership groups than they may have in the past. According to a study conducted by a Subaru dealership in Lexington, Kentucky, Americans say they are willing to travel an average distance of 469 miles to find their next car. The study surveyed 2690 drivers and broke down the miles consumers were willing to travel on a state-by-state basis. Relatively unsurprisingly, the state willing to travel the largest number of miles is Alaska at 722. The state least willing to travel is Vermont, with prospective buyers willing to travel 286 miles.

Quantrell Subaru

As we pointed out in March, finding good deals on cars is still possible for buyers who can remain flexible. That was as true two years ago as it is now, and although we don’t have comparative numbers from pre-pandemic days, part of the needed flexibility appears to be willingness to travel to get the car you want.

Rather than focusing only on deals you can find in your ZIP code, it may be worth traveling beyond state borders in order to find a great deal. It may also be worth considering ordering new vehicles rather than looking at used cars which have seen a significantly larger price jump than their new counterparts. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index Summary, prices for new vehicles were up just over 10 percent in January compared to a year before. Prices of used vehicles were over 40 percent in the same time period. Most importantly, remember that this is temporary. Chip shortages will end, dealer lots will fill back up and prices will come back down. There is a light at the end of the tunnel, and that you’re driving to meet it in your next dream car.
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This long-bed 1995 Ford F-250 XLT comes with an extended cab, four-wheel drive, and a 7.3-liter Power Stroke diesel V-8 engine. With 108,000 miles on it, this diesel pickup has plenty of life left for hauling bags of feed or just looking cool. The auction closes Thursday, June 23, with bidding currently at $15,000.Being born in Texas makes a love of Ford F-series trucks practically genetic. For me, despite living the past seven years of my life in Metro Detroit, I have no more shaken my affinity for the reliable rigs than I have shaken the slight Texan accent that comes out when I say words like “tomatah” and “mornin’.” That’s why this single-owner 1995 Ford F-250 XLT caught my eye. It’s listed on Bring a Trailer—which, like Car and Driver, is part of Hearst Autos. The truck has the top-of-the-line 7.3-liter Power Stroke V-8 diesel engine, a four-speed automatic, and four-wheel drive, and it comes with aftermarket 16.5-inch wheels and CD stereo, cruise control, power windows and locks, a trailer hitch, and dual fuel tanks.

Bring a Trailer

The ninth generation of the F-series was produced between 1992 and 1998, and it was the last generation to use the same chassis for all its pickup trucks as well as to retain the square body introduced in 1980. After the dusk of the ninth generation, the F-250 and the F-350 became their own beefier variant of the F-series known as Super Duty, while the 10th-generation F-series took on a rounder, more fluid look.

That’s part of what makes this particular F-250 so enticing. It’s in the sweet spot of having the classic ninth-generation look plus the 7.3-liter Power Stroke engine, factory rated at 210 horsepower and 425 pound-feet of torque. It was a revelation compared to its indirect-injection predecessor, and trucks equipped with it regularly run for mileage nearly twice the circumference of Jupiter.

Bring a Trailer

However, those aren’t the only reasons this truck called to me. See, generations of my family hail from Melvin in West Texas, population 247. Growing up, I would visit my grandpa, PeePaw, there, and he would sit me on his lap and let me drive around his goat pastures in a truck very similar to this one. PeePaw’s was a 1994 model, painted a rusty red to go with the actual rust adorning the edges of the truck, but it had the same engine and drivetrain as this BaT listing.My dad and uncle affectionately nicknamed the truck “The Turd” in honor of its apparent decrepitude compared to the shiny new trucks going down Highway 87. But as other pickups came and went, the Turd was always there, ready to haul bags of corn to deer feeders or a gaggle of children in the bed to stargaze at the top of the mountain.

Bring a Trailer

When PeePaw died a few years back, the Turd finally reached the end of its journey, but it still holds a special place in my heart. So much so that I saw this listing and wished I had the money to drop on it and relive some of those days back in Melvin. But I don’t, but some other person stands to experience the joys of an old truck the way I did. Sure, it’s got some light wear and tear, but any good truck should look like it’s gotten its hands dirty a few times, maybe even enough to get dubbed a Turd. Bidding on this one closes on Thursday, June 23.

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