News

The “spiritual successor” to the Phantom coupe, the conservatively styled 2024 Rolls-Royce Spectre EV breaks little new ground stylewise but, as an EV, heralds a major sea change for the 116-year-old carmaker.Its smooth dual-motor electric powertrain should complement traditional Rolls-Royce virtues of quiet and calm, with a carefully engineered, heavily assisted electronic chassis that’s promised to deliver a “magic carpet ride.”Power should be sufficient, in the Rolls tradition: 577 horsepower and 664 pound-feet of torque, enough to get the coupe to 60 mph in a claimed 4.4 seconds. The first cars will reach customers in late 2023.“The electric car is perfectly noiseless and clean. There is no smell or vibration. They should become very useful when fixed charging stations can be arranged.”So said Charles Stewart Rolls in the year 1900, six years before he’d come to launch the gasoline-fired Rolls Royce Motor Cars concern with Henry Royce. Rolls predicted a future that seems likely to come to pass starting now as the company bearing the two men’s famous surnames has just fired the opening salvo in a mission to sell nothing but electrically propelled motorcars by the year 2030.This content is imported from youTube. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.Rolls-Royce Spectre | A Prophecy FulfilledWatch onThe virtues of electric propulsion seem especially suited to those claimed by the concern since its inception, only never will these sterling attributes—instant torque and near silent operation—have been more fully realized than they will be here. While the 102EX, Rolls’s Phantom-based electric concept car, made the press rounds in 2012, the Spectre entering production late next year incorporates a decade’s worth of new technology and investment, and it shows. It’s a Rolls, All RightTo look at the Spectre, however, is to see the unmistakable form of a modern Rolls-Royce coupe. It would have been easy, perhaps easier, to make the first electric offering an SUV, as Mihiar Ayoubi, the company’s director of engineering, told us, but it was not the expression of luxury the company was after. Almost 18 feet long and seven feet wide, the four-seat Spectre fastback is an unabashed rich person’s express that bows before no one. Riding on a 126-inch wheelbase, it tips the scales at 6559 pounds unladen, with a Brobdingnagian turning circle of almost 42-feet, even with standard four-wheel steering. Environmental efficiency may be the goal, and it may be as claimed the most aerodynamic Roller ever, but there is nothing particularly futuristic, downsized, or less than maximally badass about the Spectre. Not that we would have expected otherwise.There’ll Always Be an EnglandTaking in the visuals, its lower than traditional expression of Rolls’s Pantheon grille, handsomely backlit in the way of so many new electric models, is flanked by split headlights for a fresh take on an old look. The firm’s widest grille ever, it reminds us that BMW, the industry’s most ardent champion of oversize front apertures, writes the checks for Rolls. Behind that record-setting grille is not a frunk, but a proper machine room to house the voluminous hard- and softwares behind an intensely complicated suspension, with dedicated controls for each of 141,200 separate sender-receiver variables, which help it rapidly anticipate and execute needed adjustments of shock and anti-roll-bar settings to adapt to coming road conditions—for instance, temporarily decoupling the anti-roll bars for brief intervals to spare unseemly intrusions on occupants’ comfort. The achievement of silken ride properties was made more challenging by the fact that the Spectre’s variation on Rolls’s flexible aluminum space-frame chassis architecture as seen in its other current models boasts 30 percent more torsional rigidity than ever before, making the business of keeping it settled and comfortable more daunting if not impossible. A lower center of gravity—courtesy of its substantial batteries’ location low down in the center of the car, with motors riding between both front and rear axles—will aid flat cornering. Heavy though they are, the batteries, it is observed, double as more than 1500 pounds of additional sound deadening. Along with all the other tricks Rolls has learned about quieting the cabin, engineers actually had to work to reintroduce some sound to the interior, though as yet no artificial sound enhancement of the ersatz internal-combustion variety is planned.Sufficient Power—and 260 Miles of RangeIn keeping with this overriding spirit of civility, Rolls chose not to participate in the senseless horsepower wars that have captivated many an EV maker of late, settling on motive force figures not dissimilar from one of its current V-12 battle cruisers. While final EPA figures have not been announced, its twin motors’ combined 577 horsepower and 664 pound-feet of torque are expected to move the big coupe to 60 mph in 4.4 seconds, which is plenty fast in our book—”sufficient,” in Rolls Royce’s delightfully vague former description—yet not so rapid as to risk passenger nausea and driver blackouts under hard acceleration. Significant regeneration with one-foot driving was felt to be off-brand and unlikely to be in attendance, while a top speed of 155 miles is anticipated along with an all-electric estimated EPA range of 260 miles. We’ll know more once we drive it next year.Recent investment in the company’s enviro-friendly Goodwood plant in Sussex will allow bodies—pressed in Germany, then shipped to England—to be assembled and finished on the same line as the firm’s other models, adding to flexibility. Rolls’s copious and growing list of options and bespoke upgrades includes newly available Starlight doors, with 4796 “stars” subtly lighting up the door and rear side panels the way the popular Starlight headliner option (pictured above) already does. How Much?Rolls-Royce predicts Spectre base pricing will fall somewhere between the Cullinan ($351,250) and Phantom ($460,000); $400,000 or so might be a good guess.With 2.5 million test miles claimed and numerous marketing clinics with Rolls’s faithful under its belt, the firm is confident that its entry into the as yet unpopulated ultraluxury EV super-coupe market will be ready for success when it reaches customers in the fourth quarter of 2023. Order books are filling rapidly, we are told, and sometime during its first year on sale, the company predicts, the Spectre will provide 20 percent of the company’s overall volume. Lending credence to the prediction, Rolls reveals that its typical owner is, surprisingly, today the youngest of any ultraluxury brand.Now if only, heeding Charles Rolls’s instruction, they can get the world’s fixed-charging-station situation fixed. This content is imported from poll. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.This content is imported from OpenWeb. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site. More

The 2024 Cadillac Celestiq debuts as the most extravagant and expensive model the brand has ever built.The electric Celestiq is an avant-garde, four-seater hatchback that’s made by hand and built to order. Cadillac fits every model with an expected 600 horsepower, an estimated 300 miles of range, and a base price of more than $300,000.When was the last time Cadillac was truly considered the Standard of the World? If you’re like us and have to phone a friend to answer that question, then you might need to have your grandparents’ landline on speed dial. The point is it’s been a long time, but the brand looks to return to those former glory days as a legit luxury coachbuilder with the 2024 Celestiq, a moonshot model the company claims is one of the most important in its 120-year history.Celestiq Selected ReadingFor those already familiar with the Celestiq concept that Cadillac revealed back in July, the production car’s specialness won’t be a surprise, especially since it’s nearly identical to the preceding show car. Cadillac basically just replaced the concept’s camera-fed exterior mirrors with traditional ones and called it good. Still, here’s a quick recap or primer: The Celestiq is a battery-electric avant-garde four-passenger hatchback that’s built by hand and tailor-made for individual customers. It also features a bespoke platform based on General Motors’s Ultimum battery technology A Caddy for Kings and QueensIf you haven’t already connected the dots, this Caddy isn’t attainable for blue-collar folks, no matter how fat their yearly bonus check is. And that’s the point. Cadillac commissioned this ambitious car to reconnect with its heritage, reboot its image, and be the flagship of the brand’s plans to go entirely electric by 2030. Needless to say, the Celestiq is extremely expensive, with a $300,000-plus base price that’ll rise based on customers’ individual customizations. Cadillac also says it will only build a limited number every year at GM’s Global Technical Center in Warren, Michigan. Those allocations will only be available to those on a waitlist. So, what does Celestiq mean and where did the name come from? That’s not important. What’s important is that it doesn’t have a generic alphanumeric moniker like some other models Cadillac sells. It also maintains Cadillac’s plan to use the suffix “iq” at the end of its electric vehicles’ model names, a trend that began with the recently introduced Lyriq electric SUV. That’s better than the Celestiq being called the CT7 or something similarly uninspiring.Dramatiq CelestiqWhat’s not uninspiring is the Celestiq’s dramatiq (see what we did there?) proportions. We were lucky enough to see it in person, and to call it stunning is an understatement. Shining in hand-painted Santorini Blue (just one of 200 available exterior colors Cadillac mastered for the Celestiq, not counting the infinite color-match options), the big EV looks incredibly long and low-slung. We’re told its windshield is angled steeper than that of the latest Corvette. Unlike the mid-engined Chevy sports car, the electric Celestiq’s bodywork is tastefully sculpted. Its slippery surface hides extensive carbon-fiber body panels that are virtually void of defined lines. There’s no belt molding or door handles, either. The large power-operated front and rear doors open at the touch of discreet buttons on the B-pillar, but not before the Celestiq welcomes the driver with a light show when it detects the key fob is within 15 feet. We’re told the sequence takes advantage of Cadillac’s first-ever “digital micromirror” headlights that feature 1.3 million pixels each. CadillacWhile the Celestiq’s grille design and hockey-stick-like taillights look similar to those of the Lyriq, its remaining details offer a unique showcase of the particular manufacturing processes Cadillac employs to build this machine. The Celestiq’s underbody consists of six mega-sized aluminum castings that are said to reduce normally necessary components by 30–40 parts apiece. Every model also features 300-plus fabricated bits that are made through a process that can bend and fold metal like origami (as opposed to traditional stamping techniques). Cadillac also went crazy with 3-D printing on the Celestiq, and the EV boasts 115 such parts on the likes of its steering wheel and interior trim.Let the Cabin Be Your CanvasCadillac’s elegant approach to design is reflected inside the Celestiq, which features a refreshingly simple layout that’s intended to serve as a canvas for customers. The company wanted the interior materials front and center, and the individualization offered is virtually endless. It’s all about how far down the rabbit hole you want to go, as one Cadillac spokesperson told Car and Driver. There’s even an option for leather-wrapped flooring because of course there is. The cast-aluminum piece on the dash allows for custom engraving; the same goes for the metal elements on the door sill, edges of the floor mats, etc. If you think the 38 inches of curved OLED screens in the Cadillac Escalade are impressive, prepare to pick your jaw up off the floor. The Celestiq features 55 inches of glass that spans from the left front pillar to the right front pillar. The single piece of glass hides two separate screens, with the driver facing one and the front passenger facing the other. For safety reasons, the passenger’s side has a privacy feature that shields it from the driver’s view so they can’t side-eye a movie while driving.The Celestiq’s interior technology also consists of an 11.0-inch touchscreen that sprouts up from the front center console. While there’s an ominous lack of physical buttons, there’s a rotary controller and a volume knob on the center console. Phew. Those in the Celestiq’s two individual and highly adjustable rear seats even have their own digital command center by way of an 8.0-inch touchscreen display. The setup includes settings for the Gentherm four-zone climate system that’s said to allow intimate tailoring of temps, including those for the heated and cooled cushions.While some of the Celestiq’s features wouldn’t be out of place on a Mercedes-Benz S-class, others are more in line with the Caddy’s hefty price tag. Take the Celestiq’s smart glass roof that uses allows people to control the amount of light that comes through in four separate sections. Every Celestiq is also equipped with GM’s Ultra Cruise hands-free driving-assist technology that uses a combination of cameras, radars, and lidar in order to work on more than two million miles of various roadways (including but not limited to highways) in the United States and Canada. The Flagship of Electric CadillacsCadillac didn’t just build the Celestiq to be a big comfy cruiser that looks like more than a quarter of a million bucks, and every one of these big EVs comes equipped with an air suspension system and the fourth generation of GM’s magnetorheological shocks. Additionally, the Celestiq also has rear-wheel steering and a variable-ratio electric steering system. It also marks the debut of Cadillac’s active anti-roll bars. The front and rear suspension both feature independent five-link configurations. Large 23-inch wheels, which are wrapped with a set of Michelin Pilot Sport EV summer tires that were specially developed for the Celestiq (they even have a unique sidewall graphic), serve as the mediators between the Caddy’s chassis and the road below.The Celestiq is motivated by a pair of electric motors (one at each axle) that work together to generate an estimated 600 horsepower and 640 pound-feet of torque. Cadillac claims this allows the all-wheel-drive Celestiq to race to 60 mph in 3.8 seconds. Maintain a light enough right foot, though, and Cadillac estimates the Celestiq will go 300 miles on a full charge of its 111-kWh battery pack. (That’s gross capacity, as Cadillac’s currently mum on the pack’s useable capacity.) To maximize interior space, Cadillac positions the Celestiq’s battery cells horizontally.As with most ultra-luxury cars, the 2024 Cadillac Celestiq, which enters production in December 2023, really has to be seen in person to be appreciated. Unfortunately, its exclusive nature will likely make it a rare sight. Of course, that’s what Cadillac wanted when it set out to design the Celestiq.This content is imported from poll. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.This content is imported from OpenWeb. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site. More

The 2023 Jeep Avenger is the brand’s first fully electric model, and today it debuted at the Paris auto show.Unfortunately for fans of the adorably rugged little EV SUV, Jeep will not be offering the subcompact Avenger in America.Jeep also revealed the Avenger 4×4 concept that features blue front tow hooks, wider fenders, and chunkier tires.Don’t worry, all you EV-loving Jeep fans who live in America. The company won’t sell the 2023 Jeep Avenger—its first fully electric model—in the U.S., but the electron-fueled Recon and tentatively titled Wagoneer S will fill that void when they both eventually arrive on our shores in 2024. While we wait, let’s take a closer look at the Avenger, which today made its debut at the Paris auto show.Jeep EVs: Read All About ‘Em!The Jeep Avenger has been on our radar for a while now. We caught our first glimpse of it back in March when Jeep’s parent company, Stellantis, announced its future EV plans. A lot was said, but what really caught our attention was the image of the chunky, yellow model that accurately previewed the Avenger’s appearance. Then, early last month, Jeep revealed details about the upcoming Recon and Wagoneer S as well as the Avenger’s official name, its production design, and that it wouldn’t be sold in America. Womp.Jeep Avenger, Assemble!The Avenger’s small dimensions are well-suited for Europe. It’s considerably smaller than the already stubby Jeep Renegade—about a half-foot shorter, actually. Jeep says the Avenger is about 4.1 meters long, which equals about 161 inches, and it rides on 18-inch wheels. Thanks to short overhangs, the tiny ute has a 20-degree approach angle and a 32-degree departure angle. It also has about 7.9 inches of ground clearance. Jeep says it even has hill-descent control and skid plates. Of course, we doubt many Avenger drivers will try to tackle truly treacherous terrain. At the Avenger’s core is a 400-volt electrical system that pairs with a single electric motor powering the front wheels; a dual-motor, all-wheel-drive 4xe model is reportedly coming, too. Oddly enough, there will also be a gas engine option available at launch, but it’ll only be offered in Italy and Spain. Regardless, the front-drive Avenger EV has 154 horsepower and 192 pound-feet of torque. Its electric motor draws power from a lithium-ion battery pack with a gross capacity of 54.0 kWh. The Jeep’s DC fast-charging speed tops out at 100 kW, and that’s said to take the battery from 20 to 80 percent in approximately 24 minutes.Cockpit and Really Cool 4×4 ConceptInside, the Avenger’s cabin features a clean dashboard design that’s highlighted by a body-color panel that connects the front pillars and includes integrated air vents. Along with a 10.3-inch touchscreen infotainment system, the driver faces either a 7.0- or 10.3-inch digital gauge cluster. There’s also a parcel shelf bisecting the dash that provides a perfect place to store small items. The front of the center console has a unique foldable magnetic cover, and the space it protects has a wireless charging pad and can hold a 1.5-liter bottle. Need to store bigger stuff? The rear cargo area will swallow 13 cubic feet of junk.While a tiny electric Jeep is cool, especially one that looks like the Avenger, we weren’t too bent out of shape about its forbidden-fruit status—at least not until we saw the rad Avenger 4×4 concept that Jeep also revealed at the Paris auto show. It features wider fenders and a wider track as well as chunkier tires. There’s also additional front lighting and a unique hood with a black decal and a blue-trimmed vent that ties in with the other blue accents on the front tow hooks. We’re told the 4×4 concept improves on the regular Avenger’s off-road attributes with more ground clearance and slightly steeper approach and departure angles. Needless to say, now we are a little bummed it’s not coming to our shores.The 2023 Jeep Avenger will be built at Stellantis’s factory in Tychy, Poland, and it’s slated to arrive in European showrooms early next year.This content is imported from poll. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.This content is imported from OpenWeb. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site. More

HBOMax will release a full-length documentary on land speed racer Jessi Combs on October 20.Combs died in August 2019 in Oregon while trying to break a 512-mph record as a driver with the North American Eagle team. The movie, titled The Fastest Woman on Earth, is the result of a seven-year filmmaking project. HBOMaxIt should surprise no one that drivers striving to set land speed records aren’t ordinary people. Nor are they necessarily successful and accomplished racing drivers, which is why names like Andretti, Earnhardt, and Schumacher aren’t in the speed record books. Instead, they tend to be thrill-seeking daredevils who enjoy the limelight and eschew conventional life. This new HBOmax documentary, The Fastest Woman on Earth, clearly illustrates that such people come in all genders.This content is imported from youTube. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.The Fastest Woman On Earth | Official Trailer | HBO MaxWatch onJessi Combs was a gifted car fabricator with a powerful affinity for both cars and motorcycles. She parlayed these talents and passions into a number of successful off-road race drives and a career as TV personality with a long list of shows to her credit—Overhaulin’, Mythbusters, The List: 1001 Car Things to Do before You Die, All Girls Garage, Full Throttle TV, Xtreme 4×4. More about Jessi CombsIn the process she connected with Ed Shadle and his San Diego-based team that had created the North American Eagle—essentially a 60-year-old Lockheed F-104 jet fighter shorn of its wings and fitted with wheels—to try to take the 763-mph land speed record from the British Thrust SSC team. Created in 1998, the team made slow but steady progress and set its intermediate goal as taking the unofficial 512-mph women’s land speed record set in 1976 (the women’s record is unofficial because the FIA, which tabulates speed records, understands that a car’s performance is unrelated to the sex of its driver). With her automotive background, on-camera skills, strong following, and daredevil nature, Combs had found her next quest.Land speed record cars are two to four times as fast as Indy, NASCAR, or Formula 1 cars. And the rules are wide open. So long as the car rolls on wheels, pretty much anything goes. Yet despite the fact that the cars are so much faster and their designs so much more original, the budgets of the teams fielding these earth-bound rockets are a small fraction of what is spent by a professional racing team in a major series. Speed-record teams are often barely more than amateur organizations—almost LeMons racers (as in the very amateur racing series) to the 10th power.For Combs, being involved in such an effort, as well as maintaining her TV appearances and high social media profile, clearly required an extreme commitment. Combs acknowledges as much, concluding that having a more normal life and a family seem unlikely for someone with her ambitions, especially as a woman in what is largely a man’s world.In one of the movie’s most interesting sections, Combs seeks out the existing women’s speed record holder, Kitty O’Neil, who was a former stuntwoman in Hollywood and had her record ambitions cut short for various unfair reasons. The connection between the two women, who are clearly cut from similar cloth, is fascinating and touching.I would have liked more technical explanation about the North American Eagle and the details of the various runs, but then I’m an engineering nerd. But watching the speeds increase during the years spent running at the Alvord Desert in southeastern Oregon gives you an idea of what a long and painstaking process it is to achieve a record. Especially when your ambitions are delayed when weather conditions render the desert surface unsuitable in some years. Combs eventually does achieve her goal—and pays the ultimate price.The movie goes live on HBOmax on October 20 and is well worth watching for anyone interested in land speed record racing, breaking gender stereotypes, or unconventional life choices. Most of us will marvel at all that Combs accomplished, while also being grateful for our more sedate lives.Csaba Csere survived a 200-plus-mph flip at Bonneville in 1995 while pursuing a much more modest production car speed record.This content is imported from OpenWeb. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site. More

After Mini’s American arm removed the manual transmission from the brand’s lineup in May as a result of supply chain constraints, the automaker announced it’s bringing the stick back for 2023. Starting with vehicles produced in November, the manual transmission option for two-door Hardtop Cooper, Cooper S, and John Cooper Works variants will once again be available. Mini is simplifying its trim levels by dropping the base version of the Hardtop Cooper, in turn, driving the entry price from $24,250 to a much higher $28,600.We’ve been talking about saving the manuals for years around the Car and Driver office, and yet they continue to disappear. Mini’s American arm removed the manual transmission option from the brand’s vehicles in May, as a result of constrained supplies affected by COVID and the ongoing war in Ukraine. Now, Mini is bringing the option back for U.S.-bound two-door Hardtops in Cooper, Cooper S, and John Cooper Works guises, with production of these stick-shift 2023 model-year vehicles due to kick off next month.More from MiniOn the flip side, Mini is dropping the $24,250 Cooper Classic trim from the Hardtop for 2023, making the $28,600 Signature 2.0 the model’s new entry-level trim. Mini cited global supply chain constraints as its reason for abandoning the more affordable Classic trim. Newly standard power folding mirrors and auto-dimming rearview mirror ought to make the 2023 Mini Hardtop’s higher starting sum a bit easier to swallow. MiniOther changes for the 2023 model year include the addition of two new exterior colors: Melting Silver III and Nanuq White. Alas, Pepper White, White Silver, and Moonwalk Grey are taken off the little hatchback’s color palette.This content is imported from poll. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.This content is imported from OpenWeb. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site. More

For 2023, the Honda Civic’s LX base model is no more, meaning the Sport is now the least expensive trim.The better-equipped Sport starts at $25,745, which is $2100 more than last year’s LX trim.Other trim levels are up by between $500–$700 compared with last year for both the sedan and hatchback bodystyles.The elimination of the base model is becoming a common refrain at Honda—and many other automakers. The new 2023 CR-V dropped the lowest LX trim level for its redesign, resulting in a significant rise in its starting price, and now the 2023 Civic sedan and hatchback are following the same lead. There will be no Civic LX for 2023, meaning the lineup now starts with the Civic Sport, which costs $25,745, or $2100 more than the 2022 Civic LX.Fortunately, you do get more for your money, as the Sport comes with extra equipment including 18-inch wheels, proximity-key entry, and paddle shifters for the continuously variable automatic transmission. The Civic Sport is now the only version of the Civic with the naturally aspirated 158-hp 2.0-liter inline-four engine; the higher EX and Touring trims come with a more powerful 1.5-liter turbo-four. The Civic Sport hatchback, which starts $100 higher than the sedan, still offers a six-speed manual transmission as a no-cost option.More on HondaHonda says that these pricing and packaging changes are meant to “better align availability with demand.” Honda, and the Civic in particular, has faced significant supply-chain issues this year, and Civic sales are down by more than 50 percent through the first three quarters of this year. Automotive News data shows a 20-day supply for the Civic as of October 1. Skewing the mix towards the more expensive trims also surely helps Honda’s bottom line, as those models are likely more profitable for the company.Budget-minded compact-sedan shoppers may do better to look elsewhere in the meantime, as models including the Hyundai Elantra ($21,595), Kia Forte ($20,585), and VW Jetta ($21,510) now undercut the Civic by thousands of dollars in terms of base price.This content is imported from poll. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.This content is imported from OpenWeb. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site. More