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This ex–SpeedSource/Mazda Lola B12/80 competed in the IMSA prototype class from 2014 to 2016, and now it’s up for auction on Bring a Trailer.Important detail: It doesn’t come with an engine. Bidding is currently at $52,888, and the auction ends on Monday, February 14. This 2014 Lola/Mazda IMSA prototype racer, our pick of the day from the auction site Bring a Trailer—which, like Car and Driver, is part of Hearst Autos—is most intriguing for what it doesn’t have: an engine. But it has pretty much everything else you need to go racing, including pushrod-actuated Multimatic DSSV dampers, carbon-carbon brakes with AP Racing calipers, and an XTrac 1059 sequential gearbox. But as it sits, it’s just a human-scale Pinewood Derby racer. And that’s part of the fun—daydreaming about what kind of powerplant you’d stuff into the space between the cabin and the rear wheels.

Bring a Trailer

That XTrac gearbox is rated for 590 pound-feet of torque, which means there are lots of possibilities as to what you might bolt to it. A Mazda rotary would be appropriate, of course. Or how about an LS7? Or maybe something like this. You probably won’t use an engine of the sort that originally powered the car at the 2014 24 Hours of Daytona—a four-cylinder diesel. That was back when Mazda was promoting its Skyactiv diesels as the future, a future that never quite materialized. This car spent two seasons as a diesel before racing a final season with a turbocharged gas four-cylinder. We’d also guess that whoever wins this car won’t install a turbo four. Unlike Mazda, we don’t have to think on-brand, here. “Siri, will a Lamborghini V-10 fit in a Lola B12/80 chassis?”

This car, chassis MM07, never finished better than fourth place in any given race (that was with the gas engine). But you’ll definitely win your local track day if you show up with this monster, turn the key, and unleash the ragged blat of a Metzger air-cooled Porsche flat-six. Or an Alfa Romeo 2.9-liter turbo V-6. Or . . . Okay, you get the idea. But we’re just saying that if you’re already shelling out the money for this delectable assemblage of road-course-slaying hardware, you may as well spend another $40,000 for a 10,000-rpm, 600-hp naturally aspirated four-rotor rotary. That is all.

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Valentine’s Day is coming up and we decided to celebrate by choosing hypothetical gifts for each other. On this week’s episode of Window Shop, the contestants were each assigned to shop for someone else with the goal of finding a car that could serve as an automotive soulmate. The budget was set at $50,000 with the stipulation that we could stretch to $100,000 if the car was red or pink.This meant carefully considering the tastes of our fellow window shoppers. Road & Track senior editor John Pearley Huffman, shopping for cars director Tony Quiroga, kicked things off and immediately broke the rules with a nice low-mileage Toyota Land Cruiser in silver that went way over budget considering the color-based rules. Senior editor Joey Capparella went next and chose an obscure luxury sedan with a name you may not recognize for contributor Jonathan Ramsey (we won’t ruin the surprise).Ramsey found a Porsche 911 in a specific color for Pearley and then deputy testing director K.C. Colwell went the JDM direction for noted Japanese car enthusiast Capparella. And finally, Quiroga selected a supercharged Lotus Elise—the only red car of the episode—for deputy testing director K.C. Colwell.We voted based on who we thought selected the best gift and, as always, chaos ensued while we tried to determine a winner. Check out the episode in full above and a happy Valentine’s Day to all.

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Aston Martin’s front-engined sports cars, the Vantage, DB11, and DBS, are all set for major revisions for 2023. That’s according to chairman Lawrence Stroll, as first reported by Autocar.One of the most important changes is a new infotainment system, which trades the clunky trackpad for a fresh touchscreen interface.The alterations will be so drastic that they will be, in Stroll’s words, effectively “all-new cars,” but the DBS will retain its 5.2-liter V-12. Aston Martin revealed its all-new AMR22 race car for the upcoming Formula 1 season yesterday. It sported a new livery with lime green accents that echoes the paint job on the Valkyrie Pro. But along with showing off Aston Martin’s latest F1 challenger, chairman Lawrence Stroll also dropped some details about major updates to the brand’s front-engine sports cars, as reported by the U.K. publication Autocar.

Aston Martin

Stroll reportedly said that the changes to the Vantage, DB11, and DBS for the 2023 model year would be so extensive that they would be like “all-new cars.” Significantly, Aston Martin will ditch the Mercedes-Benz–based trackpad infotainment system for more modern touchscreens. A previous agreement had laden Aston Martins with a version of the Mercedes COMAND infotainment system that was originally launched in 1998 and was last overhauled in 2016, although Mercedes itself switched to the new MBUX system in 2018.”How can you have an Aston Martin that sells for £150,000 [about $204,000] with three-year-old technology?” Stroll said. “It is a silly thing the previous management agreed to.” It appears the updated Aston Martin infotainment will be based on the newer MBUX system, with Stroll emphasizing that Aston Martin will distinguish its interface from the Mercedes platform with “our own faces, our own voices—a proper English accent.”

The updates to the front-engine sports cars will also include revisions to the suspension, engines, and gearboxes. Stroll confirmed that the DBS will retain its 5.2-liter V-12. The 4.0-liter V-8 found in the Vantage and DB11 will likely receive the latest tech from AMG. The current Vantage and DB11 can make up to 528 horsepower, but the a newer version of the same engine found in the recently-revealed Mercedes-AMG SL63 is rated at 577 ponies. Some design changes are also expected, with Stroll quoted as saying “there’s no similarity at all to the current cars” except for “some carryover” on the rear end. The updated sports cars should be revealed towards the end of the year, and the move is part of a push to sell 4000 front-engined sports cars per year.
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