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Sabine Schmitz, the racing driver and TV personality known across the world as the “Queen of the Nürburgring,” died Tuesday after a battle with cancer. She was 51.Schmitz was born in 1969 and raised at the edge of the Nürburgring. Her family ran a local hotel with a bar and restaurant beloved by ‘Ring aficionados, the Pistenklause, festooned from floor to ceiling in racing memorabilia. It was an auspicious start: Schmitz and her sisters all began racing at a young age. Soon, Sabine began racing, becoming the first woman to win at the 24 Hours of Nürburgring in 1996, driving a BMW M3.She was also a ‘Ring Taxi driver, taking passengers for full-speed laps of the 13-mile track during “tourist” lapping sessions. It was this job, where she logged an estimated 1200 laps of the track per year, that helped launch Schmitz to international fame. In December 2004, Schmitz had her first appearance on BBC’s Top Gear, tutoring host Jeremy Clarkson on how to set a fast lap at the Green Hell. Under her guidance, Clarkson lapped the track in 9 minutes and 59 seconds. Schmitz, with classic bubbly boastfulness, told Clarkson, “I could do that lap time in a van.” It became one of the most famous moments in Top Gear history, one of the first automotive videos to go viral.
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Schmitz was a natural television personality. Charming and bright, she had an effervescent and playful sense of humor and a deep, thorough knowledge of cars and racing. After her first Top Gear appearance made her famous, Schmitz went on to be a regular guest on the show and became a full-time co-host in 2016 alongside Chris Harris and Matt LeBlanc. Schmitz was active in numerous forms of racing, having competed in several 24 Hours of Nürburgring races with Frikadelli Racing, the team she ran with her husband, Klaus Abellen. But she always maintained her connection with the Nürburgring, where she always seemed to be embarrassing other drivers with her otherworldly mastery of the track. Upon news of Schmitz’s death, tributes poured in on social media from the world of racing and from her television colleagues. Dale Lomas, another ‘Ring expert, wrote on his website, Bridge to Gantry: “She was bullshit-free, cold beers in a smokey Pistenklause after a hard day driving the Ring-Taxi sideways through Brünnchen. She was Eifel-Blitz at 2 a.m. on a rainy Sunday morning, she was Frikadelli Porsche carving through the pack after a pitlane start.”
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The next episode of BBC’s Top Gear, which airs in England on Sunday, will be dedicated to Schmitz. Clare Pizey, Top Gear executive producer, said in a statement: “Sabine was a beloved member of the Top Gear family and presenting team since 2016, having first appeared on the show in 2004, and everyone who had the pleasure of working with her on the team is in shock at this news. Sabine radiated positivity, always wore her cheeky smile no matter how hard things got—and was a force of nature for women drivers in the motoring world. Like everyone else who knew her, we will truly miss her—Sabine really was one of a kind. Our thoughts are with her partner, Klaus, who was always by her side and who we welcomed to Dunsfold many times, and her family in Germany.”

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Hyundai unveiled the 2022 Tucson plug-in hybrid with 32 miles of electric-only range. This Tucson will compete with the 2021 Toyota RAV4 Prime in the plug-in corner of the compact-SUV segment. The 2022 Tucson PHEV will be available this summer.In addition to U.S. specs on the upcoming 2022 Tucson N Line, today Hyundai also released details on the 2022 Tucson plug-in hybrid (PHEV). These vehicles will join the regular gas-powered and hybrid models of the Tucson and bring the variant count to four. The plug-in version of the compact SUV will take on Toyota’s surprisingly quick RAV4 Prime PHEV and be available this summer.

Hyundai says the 2022 Tucson PHEV will offer up 32 miles of electric-only range from a full charge with its 13.8-kWh battery pack. Hyundai estimates fuel economy will be in the 70-MPGe range. To keep the pack topped up, the vehicle supports up Level 2 charging up to 7.2 kW and, like most PHEVs, is engineered more for at-home overnight charging instead of being hooked up to charging stations in the wild.Powering the Tucson PHEV will be a 261-hp 1.6-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine connected to Hyundai’s six-speed automatic transmission. The vehicle has a tow rating of 2000 pounds and like the rest of the Tucson lineup, and it’s available with all-wheel drive with a dedicated Snow mode.Its natural PHEV rival is the Toyota RAV4 Prime. The Toyota appears to best the Tucson in electric-only range with an EPA-rated 42 miles. Hyundai hasn’t yet released pricing information, but we estimate the Tucson PHEV will start at approximately $35,000 making it roughly $4000 cheaper than the more expensive RAV4 Prime, which starts at $39,220. The 2022 Tucson plug-in hybrid will be available in showrooms this summer.

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Ford has shown off the new 2021 F-150 Police Responder ahead of the spring government bid cycle.According to Ford, the new police truck has a higher top speed of 120 mph, up from 105 mph, and it comes with specially designed all-terrain tires for on- and off-pavement performance.The F-150 Police Responder comes standard with the F-150’s twin-turbocharged V-6 engine with 400 horsepower and 500 pound-feet of torque.Ford unveiled the 2021 F-150 Police Responder today, based on the new F-150 but built to the needs of police officers. The F-150 Police Responder is pursuit rated and can reach 120 mph, up from the previous limit of 105 mph. It rides on specially developed Goodyear Wrangler Enforcer all-terrain tires so it can go from pavement to dirt without hesitation.

The F-150 Police Responder has a new torque-on-demand transfer case with a 4-Auto mode. On pavement, the system automatically switches to rear-wheel drive to allow the pickup to corner better, Ford says, and on slippery or gravel road surfaces, it goes into four-wheel drive. The pickup’s off-road ability is enhanced by skid plates and an electronically locking rear differential, both found in the standard FX4 Off-Road package.

Ford

This pickup comes standard with Ford’s 400-hp twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter V-6 with 500 pound-feet of torque, and that power is routed through a 10-speed automatic transmission. The Police Responder is offered with “Police Idle,” which allows an officer to get out of the truck and remove the key while leaving the engine running. The engine can then power lights and sirens without depleting the battery.

Ford

Inside the new truck, there’s a dashboard tray that lets police departments easily install aftermarket lights, radar equipment, radios, and other tools of the cop trade. The F-150 Police Responder also comes with Ford’s fleet management system, Ford Telematics, which can inform a fleet operator of driver behavior and also to help the operator perform upkeep and reduce costs.Ford released the F-150 Police Responder prior to the spring government bid cycle.

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The EPA has released fuel-economy estimates for the 2022 Genesis GV70 equipped with the car’s more powerful twin-turbo 3.5-liter V-6: 19 mpg in the city, 25 mpg on the highway, and 21 mpg combined.
The twin-turbo V-6 makes 375 horsepower, while the standard engine is a 300-hp turbo 2.5-liter four-cylinder. The EPA has not yet released estimates for the base engine.
The GV70 will go on sale in the U.S. later this year and will slot below the GV80 in the Genesis lineup.
The 2022 Genesis GV70 will arrive in the U.S. this year as the smaller SUV in the Korean luxury brand’s lineup. Just as the larger GV80, the brand’s first SUV, is based on the G80 sedan, the GV70 shares its underpinnings with the G70 sedan. Both SUVs use the same engines: a standard 300-hp turbocharged 2.5-liter four-cylinder and an optional 375-hp twin-turbo 3.5-liter V-6. The EPA’s numbers reveal that the GV70 will only be slightly more fuel efficient than the GV80 when both are equipped with the six.

Genesis

So far, the EPA has only released estimates for GV70s equipped with the Sport model’s (pictured above) twin-turbocharged V-6 and all-wheel drive. It’s estimated at 19 mpg in the city and 25 mpg on the highway with a combined rating of 21 mpg. That’s just 1 mpg more in the city than the GV80 and 2 more on the highway. However, these estimates do make the GV70 slightly more efficient than the more expensive Audi SQ5 with its 349-hp twin-turbo V-6, which is rated at 18/24 mpg and 20 mpg combined.

EPA

The GV70’s standard engine is a 300-hp turbocharged 2.5-liter inline-four, and it’s likely to be only slightly more efficient than the GV80 2.5T’s 23-mpg rating (22 mpg with all-wheel drive). Both engines are paired with eight-speed automatic transmissions. In our testing, the more powerful twin-turbo six-cylinder engine launched the GV80 to 60 mph in 5.3 seconds, and the smaller GV70 should be slightly quicker to that mark.
With all-wheel drive and the optional V-6, the 2022 GV70 is just slightly more fuel efficient than the 2021 GV80. The entry-level turbo four-cylinder’s estimate has yet to be announced.

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France’s Scarabée armored car can lock its front and rear axles to move sideways across a battlefield.
The vehicle is designed to serve as an air-droppable scout car, collecting battlefield intel.
Scarabée also features a hybrid electric drive system that reduces its infrared signature.
France’s Arquus has released new details on its Scarabée light armored vehicle. The car, designed to act as a scout on the battlefield, can get itself out of tight spots by locking its front and rear axles, allowing it to move diagonally like a crab.
This ability lets the vehicle move forward to an observation position without exposing its flanks or rear, where armor is the lightest. The Scarabée also has a tight turning radius of just 36 feet, according to Defense News.

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The eight-ton Scarabée carries a crew of one driver and three passengers and features a 4×4 wheel layout. It can climb a 60-degree gradient, cross a 2.9-foot-wide ditch, and ford water obstacles almost three feet deep. The vehicle can be embarked in a C-130J Super Hercules, an A-400M Atlas transport, or a larger military transport aircraft.
Arquus, originally Renault Trucks Defense, built the Scarabée as the first hybrid electric drive military vehicle in France, NATO, and perhaps even the world. The vehicle is powered by both a V-6 engine providing 300 horsepower and an electric motor with a 70-kilowatt output. While these features provide extra electricity to power sensors and weapons, they also give the Scarabée more low-key capabilities.

Arquus

Scarabée is designed to complete its mission using stealth—but not the radar kind. The low-slung vehicle can also run off a built-in electric motor. This reduces the vehicle’s acoustic and infrared signatures, making it quieter and difficult to pick up with imaging infrared sensors.
While Arquus is marketing the Scarabée unarmed, future buyers will almost certainly load it up with weapons and sensors, like the U.S. Army’s Common Remotely Operated Weapons Station (CROWS) or mast-mounted electro-optical sensors and radar. An image on Arquus’s website seems to depict Scarabée with a 30-millimeter chain gun, such as the M320LF.
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Traditionally, reconnaissance and scouting teams on the battlefield have been divided into two camps: “fighting reconnaissance,” made up of heavily armed teams capable of probing enemy defenses, and “sneak and peek reconnaissance,” which quietly monitors enemy forces. The Scarabée, with its infrared masking capability and low acoustic signature, is firmly in the “sneak and peek” category.

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BMW introduces the latest version of its iDrive infotainment system, called iDrive 8.
The new interface includes a huge curved display, enhanced voice-recognition software, and diverse interaction options.
Later this year, iDrive 8 will debut on the new all-electric iX SUV and i4 sedan.
BMW’s latest infotainment system–called iDrive 8–aims to offer an even better user experience than iDrive 7, with enhanced voice-recognition software, a massive touchscreen, and myriad new features. And, yes, it still has a rotary controller.

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While iDrive 8 will eventually proliferate throughout the rest of BMW’s portfolio, it will initially debut later this year on the new electric iX SUV and i4 sedan. In these applications, the interface will be sourced through a massive curved display on the dashboard. There, a 12.3-inch fully digital instrument panel seamlessly converges with an enormous 14.9-inch central touchscreen.

BMW

More and more automakers are beginning to ditch physical switchgear for touch controls, so it’s notable that BMW’s newest iDrive system will continue to offer its defining feature, a center-console-mounted rotary controller. Although iDrive 8 has about half as many buttons and switches as its predecessor, users can pick their preference between physical controls, touch inputs, and voice commands.
BMW puts a stronger emphasis on dialogue-based interaction and natural voice recognition with iDrive 8. The system’s artificial intelligence–called BMW Intelligent Assistant–can effectively visualize itself on the displays and even distinguish which passenger is talking to it.
The AI, which can be given a name of the user’s choosing (we like Clarence, for example), can also handle an assortment of vehicle functions, including the HVAC system. So, if we say, “My feet are cold,” it can increase the temperature in the footwell. Thanks, Clarence!

BMW

Other noteworthy additions to iDrive 8 include increased personalization options through the new BMW ID and My Modes. The former feature allows users to create a profile and save various vehicle settings, essentially replacing the current BMW ConnectedDrive. Eventually, through the magic of over-the-air updates, the company says BMW ID will have the capability to be transferred between different vehicles.
My Modes is a similarly new feature of iDrive 8 that’s set to replace Driving Experience Control on future BMW models. The initial version that’s available on the iX and i4 allows up to 10 customizable and preset settings that not only apply to the color of the interior ambient lighting and the design of the dashboard displays, among other things, but also drive-mode characteristics such as steering feel and throttle response.
Every iDrive 8 system also features popular content such as Apple CarPlay and Android Auto capability, and it’s compatible with 5G mobile technology. BMW says additional third-party apps for communication and music streaming are now integrated within the system, too.
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Shelby has long provided a seemingly endless supply of high-performance and special-edition Mustangs, and 2021 is no exception.
Four new Mustang-based cars are out for 2021, in a limited run of 98 each to commemorate the late Carroll Shelby’s 98th birthday and collectively marketed as a “bundle of snakes.”
At the top of the line is the 825-hp Shelby Super Snake, which also comes in a sleek Speedster version.

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Shelby American, founded by the late great Carroll Shelby, has long been providing Ford Mustang and F-150 truck owners with special editions and performance packages for their vehicles. To commemorate the 98th anniversary of Carroll Shelby’s birth, a just-announced set of Mustang-based Shelbys will have a limited run of 98 units. They include the Shelby GT, Shelby GT500SE, and the Shelby Super Snake and Super Snake Speedster.

Shelby

The most exciting of the new batch of Shelbys is the 825-hp Super Snake ($133,785) and its Speedster variant (at a $4995 upcharge), featuring a hard tonneau cover where the top stows that runs up to the back of both headrests. The Super Snake will come with a 5.0-liter Coyote V-8 with a sizable Whipple supercharger nestled in its valley. It will also receive upgraded half-shafts, a Shelby-exclusive extreme cooling package and Borla exhaust, a short-throw shifter and one-piece driveshaft on manual models, and transmission cooling on automatic models.

Shelby

It also gets the Ford Performance track handling pack, 20-inch forged aluminum wheels, and Shelby-specific Brembo brakes with a proprietary Shelby cooling system. Shelby claims that the Super Snake will accelerate to 60 mph in 3.5 seconds. At $133,785 for the manual-equipped Snake, you’ll either hope you speak Parseltongue or really want to fork over the big bucks if you want one in your driveway.

Shelby

In more reasonable territory is the 480-hp Shelby GT, starting at $62,310 (when equipped with the six-speed manual transmission) but still not exactly what we’d call cheap at nearly $25,000 more than a base, manual-equipped Mustang GT. It does sport some nice additions over the production GT, including Shelby-embroidered Katzkin leather seats, custom 20-inch wheels, a unique hood scoop, and a Borla exhaust that Shelby says is responsible for the bump in horsepower to 480. If all that still isn’t enough, buyers can opt for a 700-plus-hp Ford Performance supercharger kit to spice things up.
Also new for 2021 is the GT500SE, short for Signature Edition, which offers a heady 800-plus horsepower and is priced at $104,900, a handsome upcharge of $29,995 over the GT500. That gets you upgraded leather seats featuring Carroll Shelby’s signature and a placard with the vehicle’s run number on the dashboard and engine cover. However, this package isn’t really about looks—the GT500 already comes from the factory well adorned. To make that big horsepower number, the SE receives a smaller supercharger pulley that will allow for more boost; to handle the extra stresses of that power and the heat that comes with it, there are beefier half-shafts, a high-flow intercooler and high-flow heat exchanger for the supercharger, a recalibrated suspension with new springs and anti-roll bars, lightweight forged aluminum wheels, and a new carbon-fiber hood that reduces weight by 30 pounds.
The Super Snake is being sold at select Ford dealers starting in April, while the other cars come directly from Shelby American.
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While the contract that was recently awarded to Oshkosh Defense came at the end of a five-year search, it still might not be the end of the road.
Two Democrats from Ohio and one from California want to investigate how Oshkosh was chosen and why only 10 percent of the new mail trucks might be electric.
The USPS said it would like to increase that 10 percent number, but it needs more money from Congress to make that happen.
The five-year search for a new, electric U.S. Postal Service van might not be completely over just yet. While the USPS made a decision last month to award a $482 million contract to Oshkosh Defense for the Next Generation Delivery Vehicle (NGDV), questions about the way the company was selected as well as about how the new vehicles will fit into the federal government’s push for all-electric vehicles in its fleet leave a few questions unanswered.

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The two items are connected, but let’s start with the Oshkosh question. The $482 million is just the next crucial step towards designing a NGDV in what could end up being a $6 billion contract over 10 years as Oshkosh delivers somewhere between 50,000 and 165,000 vehicles. That’s a fair amount of money, but Postmaster General Louis DeJoy recently told Congress that the USPS might only ask for 10 percent of the NGDVs to be all-electric models. The remaining NGDVs would be gas-powered, like the majority of today’s postal vehicles, but the new models would have low-emission powertrains.
The 10 percent number EV was enough for two Congressional representatives from Ohio, Marcy Kaptur and Tim Ryan, and Jared Huffman from California (all Democrats) to put forward a resolution that calls on Congress to investigate how the Oshkosh contract was awarded. In part, it “urges the United States Postal Service to freeze the recently awarded contract to purchase 165,000 new vehicles until an expedited review is conducted to determine there was no inappropriate political influence” and to ensure the contract is in line with the Paris Climate Accord and President Biden’s climate-crisis executive order.

USPS

The resolution notes that the USPS currently uses a civilian fleet of more than 200,000 delivery vehicles and that almost 140,000 of them are the classic Grumman Long Life Vehicles (LLVs) that were put into service between 1987 and 1994. People might like the look of these LLVs, but the resolution makes clear they are “aging, fuel inefficient, and carbon emitting.” They were designed to last just 24 years and all are over their limit by now, causing some to catch fire along with other mechanical issues. Since they all need to be replaced, making just 10 percent of the NGDVs electric is not in line with President Biden’s push to electrify the federal vehicle fleet, the representatives said. Workhorse, an electric vehicle startup that was also in the running for the USPS contract, is located in Ohio and could benefit if there’s a shift to more EVs.
The USPS said that it would like to procure more EV delivery trucks, but that it needs more money from Congress to make that happen.
“The challenge remains the Postal Service’s billions in annual operating losses, which is why we welcome and are interested in any support from Congress that advances the goal of a Postal Service vehicle fleet with zero emissions, and the necessary infrastructure required to operate it,” the USPS told Trucks.com. “With the right level of support, the majority of the Postal Service’s fleet can be electric by the end of the decade.”
Whatever their powertrains, Oshkosh’s first NGDVs could start delivering mail in 2023.
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