Motor News

Kia has released three teaser images of the upcoming redesigned Sportage.The new model will debut in July and should reach the U.S. market in 2022 for the 2023 model year.We expect it to offer a hybrid powertrain for the first time.We’ve already gotten an idea of what the next Kia Sportage will look like, and now Kia has shared some teaser images showing the exterior and interior of the new version of its compact SUV. The company also confirmed that the Sportage will make its global debut in July, meaning it should reach the U.S. market early in 2022 as a 2023 model.

Kia

The front end looks to have an interesting lighting setup, while the rear end is shapely and has taillights that look similar to the new EV6 electric car’s. Kia’s new logo is, of course, prominently displayed up front. The interior features a huge screen setup that appears to span nearly the entire width of the dashboard; we think it’s likely that there will be separate digital gauge cluster and infotainment screens connected by a single piece of glass.

Kia

Kia has not yet shared any info about the Sportage’s powertrains, but we expect them to mirror the related 2022 Hyundai Tucson’s offerings. That means a 2.5-liter inline-four as the base engine and a hybrid drivetrain with a turbo 1.6-liter inline-four as an option. The Kia may offer a more powerful turbo-four as well, in keeping with the current SX model.Look for more info to come soon on the new global version of the Sportage, and U.S. specs to be shared later on this year.
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For the next episode of Inside Track, Road & Track’s virtual Q&A series, Editor-in-Chief Mike Guy is sitting down with screenwriter, comedian, and podcast host Spike Feresten to chat about his hugely popular Spike’s Car Radio podcast and his experiences writing for comedy icons—and car lovers—David Letterman and Jerry Seinfeld.It’s all happening on Wednesday, June 9, at 7:00 p.m. ET (4:00 p.m. PT), and we’d love for you to join us!Register Here In this episode, Mike will chat with Spike about what it’s like hosting a podcast alongside industry leaders and Hollywood’s biggest gearheads. We’ll also learn what it’s like working as a screenwriter for some of TV’s biggest hits including Seinfeld, Saturday Night Live, and Late Show with David Letterman (to name a few). If you want to see it all go down, head over to our sign-up page here. Inside Track is one of the many offerings of the newly revamped Road & Track magazine. We’re hosting live events, virtual experiences, and adventures around the globe. We’ll also be hosting driving rallies at race tracks and on the most epic roads, holding discussions and debates on cool topics with some of the most influential people in the car world, and giving you the white-glove treatment at concours and auto show events.Register Here If you want to get in on the fun, become a member of The Track Club. You’ll get every issue of the magazine, plus a whole lot more. Find more details on the membership tiers and exclusive discounts at roadandtrack.com/join, and check out our experiences lineup at experiences.roadandtrack.com.This content was provided by the Road & Track marketing team.

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It was a different time, a time when you could just shove huge hunks of metal off the edge of your property and onto the Lake Michigan beach below.This is what residents in Saint Joseph, Michigan did in the 1960s, after trying other bulky items in the ’40s and ’50s, as they tried to stop the erosion wearing away their homes. The state put a stop to the practice, but the rusted cars are still there today. Desperate times call for loud, gravity-based measures. Saint Joseph, Michigan, in the late 1960s experienced just such a time, and the physical effects of local citizens’ desperate measures found a home on the Lake Michigan shoreline. There, when conditions are right, the rusted remains of hundreds of automobiles can be seen piled up on the beach even today, as this video from TV station WZZM shows:
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Now overgrown, this “car graveyard” has been common knowledge in the area for decades, but it’s not a popular tourist destination. It was created out of necessity, when homeowners on the bluff above started rolling old cars down the hill as a way to try to prevent the lake from eroding the land their homes sat on.

Water levels were high in 1967, the year the first cars were turned into a breakwall, according to local TV news station WZZM. Erosion under the homes became a thing after the city of Saint Joseph built piers along the city’s main channel and out into the lake. The piers redirected the lake’s natural current toward the 50-foot bluff, which then eroded over time. As the bluff kept disappearing into the water, larger and larger items were sent to their final resting place through the 1940s and 1950s. The problem, of course, is that these home-brewed efforts just kept redirecting the current, local historian Nathan Voytovick told WZZM.”All that did was push the problem to the neighbor next door,” Voytovick said. “The people began panicking. They began chucking debris, anything that they could find, over the bluff to stop the waves. Washing machines, dryers, beds and even cars were tossed over the edge.”Saint Joseph resident Carl Kuyat was the first to push a car over the edge, and Voytovick said more than 150 cars ended up on the shore. Other put the number at closer to 230 cars, but however many made the fall, they’re still there today.
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The video above, posted to YouTube by Ruin Road in 2017, gives some up-close views of the hunks of metal, plus other debris, like a child’s tricycle and concrete chunks, that were used to stop the erosion. It also shows how plants have now made their own homes in the pile. When water levels in Lake Michigan are low, the rusted frames and ruined tires look easy to access, but there are signs warning people not to attempt to climb down from above.

A 2020 video report by the South Bend Tribune (St. Joseph is near the Michigan-Indiana border) showed how recent erosion exposed the mess to the lake’s waters once again. The video says “it is unknown if fluids were drained from the cars,” but we have our guesses.
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The SSC Tuatara is one of the more extreme cars on sale right now. With a 1750-horsepower twin-turbo V-8 and a verified top speed of 282 mph, there isn’t much else out there that can compete. If you think those numbers just aren’t extreme enough, don’t fret. The company has just revealed two new variants of the car, each more extreme than the next. The first, dubbed the Tuatara Striker, gets a heaping of added downforce over the normal car thanks to a new fixed rear wing with an added active element, a vertical stabilizer, a large splitter, dive planes, vaned side rockers, and an augmented diffuser out back. SSC claims approximately 1100 pounds of downforce across the car at 160 mph—triple what the base car produces at the same speed. The weight is distributed 45.4 percent front and 54.6 percent rear, “ensuring optimized balance, predictability, and exceptional confidence in stability,” according to SSC. The 1750-hp drivetrain remains unchanged, suggesting top speed is down versus the standard car thanks to all the additional drag (SSC did not release performance figures for the Striker).

Then there’s the Tuatara Aggressor. It’s a track-only variant that takes many of the upgrades found on the Striker and adds a bunch of customer bespoke options not available on the street-legal version, allowing buyers to customize nearly every aspect of the car to their liking. Add-ons include things like five-point harnesses, racing buckets, and even a custom-tuned exhaust sound. The Aggressor can also be ordered with a power upgrade option that bumps output to 2200 horses.

SSC says production of the Tuatara and its newly announced variants is already underway. The company plans to build 100 examples of the base and Striker versions combined, and another 10 Aggressors. If you want one, we suggest getting your order in sooner rather than later. Just be prepared to lay down the $2 million plus for the opportunity.

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Yes, the venerable British automaker Morgan is still around and still making sports cars.Both the Plus Four and Plus Six now ride on a new bonded aluminum platform.Model year 2022 will see those cars get some very minor improvements.Morgan is still making cars over in Jolly Old and still selling them here in the U.S. In fact, it has just released the new 2022-model-year version of its Plus Four and Plus Six roadsters, with a small smattering of minor improvements throughout each model.But before we get into that, first maybe we’d better remind you of all that Morgan is and has been. The company was founded in 1909 when H.F.S. Morgan built his first car, a three-wheeled sporty thing called, appropriately, the Three Wheeler. Morgan still makes a Three Wheeler—two in front and one driven wheel in back—that is legal for all U.S. roads.

The company still has Morgan family members involved, too, with the fourth generation now of age. But the majority shareholder is a company called Investindustrial, with holdings in everything from water parks and chocolate to health care and . . . sports cars. Through it all, Morgan has managed to remain true to its roots promising products made of “ash, aluminum, and leather.” (Sounds like that bumper sticker you had on your custom van in the ’60s.)

The four-cylinder Morgan Plus Four.
Morgan Motor Company

In 2019, when Investindustrial took over, Morgan introduced a new bonded-aluminum platform called CX-Generation. The first model to get it was the Plus Four, so called because it has a four-cylinder engine. The following year the Plus Six got the CX-Generation platform. The Plus Six has, obvs, a six-cylinder powerplant. Both powertrains are from BMW, a power source for Morgan for the past two decades. The Plus Four gets a 2.0-liter TwinPower Turbo good for 255 horsepower at 5500 rpm and 258 pound-feet of torque between 1000 and 5000 revs. You can choose between a six-speed manual or an eight-speed automatic transmission. Get the automatic, since it gets to 62 mph quickest, in 4.8 seconds.The Plus Six gets a BMW B58 TwinPower Turbo inline-six making 335 hp at 6500 rpm and 369 pound-feet, with 62 mph coming up in a brisk 4.2 seconds. Which leads us now to the updates for the 2022 model year. Okay, they’re not a lot of updates, but they’ll make for a more comfortable Morgan:A new hood keeps the water out of the engine compartment and eliminates the need for those hood rail fasteners”Vastly improved” seals around the windows and doors, again to keep the rain out, along with some noiseA new Morgan “wings” badge, the first new badge in 10 yearsActive sport exhaust lets you set the sound level of your four- or six-cylinderNew seats offer more comfort and better bolsteringLockable storage More lights insideUSB ports!

Morgan will make just nine of these Plus 8 GTRs, and you may or may not be able to import one to the U.S.
Morgan Motor Company

Morgan is also working on a special project involving several “found” Plus 8 GTRs.”The Plus 8 GTR gives Morgan designers and engineers the opportunity to reignite one of the marque’s heroic legacy models with a ‘gloves off’ special edition,” Morgan said in a release. The project will produce no more than nine examples, and it marks the first in a line of Morgan special projects set to commence this year.”The Plus 8 GTR has only been possible because of the recent availability of a number of Plus 8 rolling chassis, which have been reacquired from a third party following a discontinued project,” Morgan said. Does that sound like a certain Shelby Cobra project from decades ago? “These were all built by Morgan before 2018, and were never used for their intended purposes. All are to be recommissioned and will benefit from the upgrade of selected mechanical components.”Okay.Power for all nine Plus 8 GTRs will come from a 362-hp BMW N62 4.8-liter V-8 engine, mated to your choice of six-speed manual or ZF six-speed automatic gearbox. The catch may be in whether you can import one of these stateside. Morgan states that “the transformed special project will be available in certain worldwide markets, subject to local rules on the importation of European vehicles.” So who knows?
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There are 12 Morgan dealers in the U.S., as well as one in Mexico and another in Costa Rica. So get to one of those and buy one or two of these. You’ll be doing your part to keep a now-113-year tradition alive.
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(c)RMLSMN via Realtor.com

What was originally supposed to be a luxury estate for a high-flying developer in Minneapolis turned into an eyesore when he divorced and later went to jail for tax fraud. A local restaurateur decided to complete the project, complete with an eight-car garage that you drive to through a tunnel with a built-in carwash (sadly, not pictured).An outdoor pool, a private movie theater, and a sauna, plus five bedrooms and nine full baths, mean you really get your money’s worth here.Fifteen million dollars can buy you a lot of house almost anywhere, but only in Minnesota does it get you a home on a private island with an eight-car garage and a hidden access tunnel that features a carwash.

(c)RMLSMN via Realtor.com

Located on Lake Minnetonka, the gaudy home started as a 2003 idea by then-developer Jeffrey Wirth. Wirth called it the “Isle of Windemere” after the boyhood summer home of Ernest Hemingway, but it was a case of to have and have not for the developer, who stopped construction in 2006, in part because he was going through divorce proceedings. The New York Post said the property “sat half-finished and overtaken by weeds while the price dropped to $4 million” once Wirth got into trouble with the law, and those problems escalated in 2010. In 2012, Wirth was sentenced to four and a half years in prison for tax evasion. Prosecutors said Wirth and his wife paid just $7567 in federal income taxes between 2003 and 2005, despite income of almost $28 million.

(c)RMLSMN via Realtor.com

With Wirth out of the picture, the unfinished Windemere castle was purchased in 2013 for $1,875,000 by local restaurateur Kam Talebi. The Post says he then spent around $5 million to complete the project and make it look mostly the way Wirth originally planned. The builder with whom Wirth originally worked, David Erotas, came on board to help Talebi finish construction. Erotas told Artful Living Magazine in 2013 that Talebi planned to “scale down the interiors—which were admittedly pretty over-the-top, but many of the unusual features he’s going to keep.”
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Talebi has now decided to sell the mansion, so if you like the idea of approaching your garage through an underground tunnel with the aforementioned carwash, then you might also love the glass elevator and chandeliers, the marble countertops, and plenty of panoramic windows where you can confirm that the sun also rises over the surrounding lake. There’s an outdoor pool, a small movie theater and bar, and a weight room and sauna, along with five bedrooms and nine full bathrooms. All this for the $15 million plus annual property taxes of just over $71,000.

(c)RMLSMN via Realtor.com

(c)RMLSMN via Realtor.com

It’s not that guests are forced to go across the river and into the trees to come visit, but they also don’t have to use the carwash tunnel. There’s a bridge to a terraced motor court, the Post says, where you can get into the garage from the side. Erotas told the local city council in 2014 that forcing visitors to enter the garage gives the owner the “opportunity to screen the entrance from adjoining properties . . . another consideration was security.” Because you never know who might be stopping by to try and snag a free carwash.
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As much as we’d love to have a vast collection, most car lovers can’t afford, maintain, store, or look after a bunch of cars. Life and income limits many of us to two cars, which inspired this week’s challenge, the two-car solution. We set a generous budget of $40,000 to find the perfect pairing to suit all of our needs wants.Regular viewers will notice that contributor Jonathon Ramsey isn’t on the show this week. Stranded by a shattered windshield in a small-town hotel without decent WiFi means we don’t get to see what sort of unhinged two-car collection he would’ve gathered. So, we invited back Luke Sellenraad, a C/D staffer and now GM-employee. Sellenraad chooses a 2003 S2000 and a 2010 Lexus GX460. We could see Ramsey choosing both of those, but probably not at the same time. Road & Track’s newest staffer, John Pearley Huffman who rarely reads the challenges and believed the budget to be $30,000, selects two low-mileage Mazdas with manual transmissions. His fun car is a 2006 NC-generation Miata, while his practical choice is the slower-than-slow CX-5 manual. Pearley admits to never having driven the CX-5 with a manual, which leads the rest of the crew to try to warn him about how slow the things are. We also bring up the body roll of the early NCs, but in typical Pearley fashion, he dismisses all of our concerns.Senior editor Joey Capparella follows Pearley down Miata way. However, Capparella’s 2016 Miata is ten years newer and while we can’t fault the vehicle choice, the price seems quite high for a five-year-old Miata with 50,000 miles. To balance his two-seater, Capparella selects a 2011 Acura TSX Wagon that draws respect, but we wish the wagon had been offered with the TSX sedan’s manual gearbox.By the time deputy testing director K.C. Colwell’s choices are revealed, we almost expect to see a two-seater as his “play” car. Colwell presents his Japanese-market 1995 Toyota High-Ace pickup first, leading some of us to think it’s his fun choice, but his enthusiast choice is actually a garnet-red 2008 Lexus IS-F. His 416-hp V-8-powered sedan might not have a manual, but Colwell expects it to outlive everyone else’s choices.Last to present is deputy editor and host Tony Quiroga who opens with a rust-free but slightly ratty 1988 Mitsubishi Montero two-door manual similar to the four-door Montero we compared back in 1991. Pearley believes he sees rust in the radio, which is as ridiculous as that sounds. The remaining $33,000 of the $40,000 budget goes to a fine-looking 1991 Porsche 911 Carrera 4 convertible that looks pleasingly original, but the choice gains no traction with the rest of the shoppers. Pearley, with zero evidence, seems to think that the 911 is a scam. Lots of laughs in this one, but hopefully Ramsey will get a new windshield installed before we record next week.

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The 1970s-era Opel Manta was mainly a Europe-market car, although it was sold in the U.S. for four years. The earlier Manta A has become a cult favorite, so it makes sense that Opel chose it as the subject of a restomod to showcase electrification in the Manta GSe ElektroMod.It’s small, light, and low on horsepower and range, but we love it anyway. Too bad Opel has no plans to manufacture one.Few Americans remember the Opel Manta, even though it has been sold here from ’71 through ’75 and, as we wrote in our November 1976 issue, “has always found favor with this magazine.” It’s a different story in Europe, where the original Manta had a successor that was built into the late 1980s. But while the Manta B was long seen as a tacky pseudo-racer, its image just recently beginning to recover, the Manta A has always been regarded as a real designer piece: a car priced for the masses, but of almost stunning beauty and sensuality.Prices for vintage Manta A models have long been on the rise, and given its cult status, it was a natural fit when Opel was looking for a suitable candidate for a restomod as a showcase for electrification. And so Opel’s engineers took a Manta A and turned it into a compact, sporty stand-alone EV that makes us long for a time of smaller, lighter cars—and perhaps even look forward to an electrified future.

Opel

The original Manta was fitted with 1.2-, 1.6-, and 1.9-liter four-cylinder engines, rated between 60 and 105 horsepower; the top-of-the-line GT/E was rated at 117 mph and took around 11 seconds for the zero-to-60-mph sprint, underscored by Opel’s typical brawny sound.

The electric conversion bumps power to 147 horsepower, which are still transmitted to the rear wheels through a four-speed manual transmission. Rowing through the gears is possible but not necessary. You can also just leave it in fourth gear. The instantly available 188 pound-feet of torque renders the first three gears strictly optional.The relatively small 31.0-kWh battery pack, which can be recharged at 9 kW, limits range to a modest 125 miles, but it also helps keep weight at just around 2500 pounds. This EV is nimble and likes to be tossed around corners, especially since its 195/40R-17 front and 205/40R-17 rear tires, on Ronal wheels, provide far more grip than the Manta’s original rubber.

Opel

Opel calls the one-off EV the Manta GSe even though, back in the Manta A’s time, the GS and GS/E designations were reserved for the upmarket Commodore range. Visually, it is a highly successful restomod effort: the glass and panels remain untouched, the chrome bumpers are gone, the quad headlights make way for Opel’s current headlight style, and the quad taillamps are replaced with LED units. The black hood, a signature element of Opel’s sporty models, remains, and the “visor” that takes the space of the grille can display messages, such as the slightly cringeworthy “I am on a zero e-mission.”

Opel Manta A Kiesenberg Watch

KIESENBERG
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$74.90

The interior is enhanced with ultra-futuristic display panels, the original airbag-less steering wheel gets a 12-o’-clock mark, and the headliner is now clad with Alcantara. As a fun touch, the recuperation rate can be adjusted with a classic slider positioned below the central screen.Keeping sensitivities of the collector scene in mind, Opel is quick to point out that the Manta GSe was created from a car that needed restoration anyway; no pristine example has been touched. And they even point out that it would be possible to revert this example to its original condition. To which we say: Don’t do it. And figure out how to put this one into production.
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