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The 2023 Porsche 911 Carrera T is intended to be an affordable, performance-minded model focused on driver engagement. The 911 T only comes as a rear-drive coupe with a back-seat delete, standard manual gearbox, and features not offered on the base Carrera. The 2023 Carrera T starts at $118,050, and opting for the PDK dual-clutch automatic or having the rear seat re-installed doesn’t cost extra.Just because someone’s rich enough to afford a Porsche 911 doesn’t automatically mean they have enough money in the bank to buy a nearly quarter-million-dollar track special like the GT3 RS. Of course, the folks who’d want such a wild, winged thing in the first place are likely the same driving enthusiasts who will get in line for the 2023 Porsche 911 Carrera T, which returns for the 992 generation as the most cost-effective way (relatively speaking) to get a performance-focused 911.The Price Is Righ(T)Starting at $118,050, the new 911 T’s price is right between the base ’23 Carrera ($107,550) and Carrera S ($124,450). Both of those prices are for the coupe because that’s the only body style the T is offered with; there’s no all-wheel-drive option, either. The Carrera T is rear-drive only, and its back seats are removed along with some sound insulation to reduce mass. Don’t worry, though, if you do want the 911’s mostly pointless rear jump seats, Porsche will re-install them free of charge.Remembering the Previous 911 TThe Carrera T’s other weight-saving traits include thinner glass, a smaller battery, and a standard seven-speed manual transmission, all of which Porsche says contribute to the T being 100 pounds lighter than the regular Carrera that’s only offered with the eight-speed dual-clutch automatic (PDK). As with the rear-seat delete, the PDK can be had at no extra cost. Better Parts Than the Base Car Either gearbox pairs with the same twin-turbo 3.0-liter flat-six that’s mounted in the rear of the regular Carrera. Both make 379 horsepower and 331 pound-feet of torque. Porsche estimates the 911 T will go from zero to 60 mph in 4.3 seconds (manual) or 3.8 seconds (automatic) on their way to a claimed top speed of 181 mph. We think both acceleration times are conservative, especially since we’ve seen a 2020 911 Carrera with the PDK hit 60 in just 3.2 ticks.Compared with the regular Carrera, the T has performance hardware that’s not even offered on the base coupe. For instance, every 911 T has a mechanical limited-slip differential with Porsche’s torque-vectoring system. It also comes standard with the brand’s active suspension (a.k.a. PASM) with specially tuned dampers. Another feature that’s not available on the Carrera but is optional on the T is rear-axle steering. A set of grey 20-inch front and 21-inch rear wheels are also inherited from the Carrera S, with the fronts wearing 245-section-width tires and the backs wearing wide 305s.Peer Inside the Purist’s 911The 911 T’s interior isn’t anything to write home about. In base form, its cabin is trimmed with a mix of dark grey, matte black, and glossy black accents (yawn). Its standard front seats only offer four basic adjustments. Thankfully, these buckets can be upgraded to add 18-way adjustments. If those are too luxurious for a car that’s committed to lightness, Porsche offers a set of carbon-fiber seats that can’t be had if you want back seats because of what we just talked about.For those who do want a fancier interior for their Carrera T, there are options to do so. They include a package that adds stitched upholstery, 911 logos on the headrests, and seat belts in Slate Gray or spicy Lizard Green; either of those colors can be applied to stripes on the seat inserts, too. There’s also an option to get grey or green logos and stitching on the floor mats as well as a leather wrap on the dash, doors, and center console. Porsche hasn’t said how much any of these extras cost, however. One other notable thing about the 2023 Porsche 911 Carrera T is that it’s the first one that can be customized with the company’s cool Paint to Sample program, which includes another 110 paint options. The coupe is slated to start hitting dealer showrooms in the U.S. in the spring of 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

The 2023 Toyota Corolla has a revised hybrid powertrain that now makes 134 hp (up 13) and 156 pound-feet of torque (up 51).The hybrid Corolla’s newfound power hurts its fuel economy, with combined EPA ratings that are between 5 and 7 mpg lower.While the hybrid now starts at $1250 cheaper than before, the rest of the 2023 Corolla lineup’s base prices rise by as much as $2315.It appears the 2023 Toyota Corolla hybrid has been hitting the gym. Its fuel-efficient hybrid drivetrain that uses an Atkinson-cycle four-cylinder gasoline engine has been revised to pump out a combined 134 horsepower and 156 pound-feet of torque. Those figures are still relatively puny, but they represent an extra 13 horses and a whopping 51 pound-feet more than 2022 hybrid models. Unfortunately for hypermilers, the penalty for the hybrid Coralla’s newfound power might be felt at the fuel pump.Required Corolla ReadingToyota earlier this year announced a bunch of updates to the 2023 Corolla family, including subtle visual tweaks and the debut of an optional all-wheel-drive system on hybrid models. However, the company has now revealed the hybrid Corolla’s EPA-rated fuel-economy estimates along with its official engine output, which is the same for front- and all-wheel-drive variants. What’s not the same are their mpg ratings. Let’s discuss.Powered Up but Hit at the PumpPreviously, the front-drive-only Corolla hybrid earned 53 mpg in the city and 52 mpg on the highway, netting an impressive combined EPA rating of 52 mpg. For 2023, the front-drive model now sees its combined EPA rating drop by 5 mpg to 47 mpg; its city and highway estimates also drop to 50 and 43, respectively. The new all-wheel-drive hybrid has even lower fuel-economy figures of 47 mpg city, 41 highway, and 44 combined. This means that the hybrid Corolla is expected to get between 5–7 mpg less in combined driving, per the EPA.While it’s a pity that the ’23 Corolla hybrid apparently isn’t as good at being a hybrid, at least it’s quicker, relatively speaking. We tested a hybrid 2023 Corolla SE with all-wheel drive that hit 60 mph in 9.0 seconds. That’s still slow, but it’s a notable 1.7 seconds ahead of a front-drive 2020 Corolla LE hybrid that took a comparatively glacial 10.7 ticks to get to 60. The all-wheel-drive hybrid also returned 40 mpg on our 75-mph highway fuel-economy route, just 1 mpg shy of its EPA estimate. Then again, the ’20 LE hybrid we put through the same test beat its highway rating by 4 with a result of 56 mpg highway.A Hybrid Discount But Mostly Higher PricesAlong with lower EPA ratings, the hybrid (offered only as a sedan) has a lower starting price for 2023. Toyota discounts the entry-level LE model by $1250, putting its base price at $23,895. That’s also $1250 less than the opening price of the 2023 Hyundai Elantra hybrid. The newly introduced Corolla SE hybrid starts at $26,295, and the XLE hybrid at $27,695. All-wheel drive is also available on the LE and SE models for another $1400. The other news for the hybrid variant is the debut of a special appearance package called the Infrared Edition. It adds dark-colored 18-inch wheels and racy red accents inside and out.New hybrid Corolla SE Infrared Edition.ToyotaWe also now have pricing details on the rest of the nonhybrid 2023 Corolla lineup, which loses the base L sedan and drops the previous 1.8-liter base engine. The more powerful 169-hp 2.0-liter inline-four is now standard across the board. As a result, the least expensive Corolla becomes the LE sedan that starts at $22,645—an $1125 increase over the L. The SE sedan now starts at $25,045 (up $1075); the hatchback version is up $1800 to $24,060. The XSE sedan now starts at $27,795 (up $375); the hatchback version is up $2315 to $27,525. The latter price gap is especially large since Toyota no longer offers a six-speed manual transmission on any Corolla. Well, except for the crazy Gazoo Racing version.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 “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