Whatever you think about what was going on in America in the 1960s, I feel like it should be absolutely an unassailable fact that the era represented the high water mark for human and stripe interactions. I’m not sure humano-stripian relations have ever been better or more fruitful and creative. Look at these pictures from Ford’s 1966 brochure. The stripefulness is just off the charts, a real reminder of what we were once able to achieve....

After having driven machines like the Rivian R1T, Tesla Model 3, Kia EV6, Hyundai Ioniq 5, and Honda E, I’ve gotten used to the “weirdness” that tends to accompany EVs. Some might also call it novelty. It’s the wacky column shifter in the Hyundai, the absurd number of electronic gadgets and storage offerings in the Rivian, it’s the Tesla’s humongous screen in an otherwise oddly understated cabin, it’s the whole vibe of the Honda E....

In case you’ve purged what the 2022 Honda Accord looks like from your mind in favor of more immediately useful information like the oil pan drain plug torque spec on your daily driver or that new ridiculously complex password your workplace’s IT department gave you, here’s a brief reminder: Pretty handsome, right? Sure, the chrome monobrow and massive grille date the front end a touch, but the long wheelbase, sloped roofline, and sharp character lines cut a great profile....

Welcome to The Morning Dump, bite-sized stories corralled into a single article for your morning perusal. If you’re morning coffee’s working a little too well, pull up a throne and have a gander at the best of the rest of yesterday. Up Rock Creek Without A Skid Plate People really seem to be craving lumberjacked-up crossovers on all-terrain tires, so Nissan is giving folks what they want with the 2023 Pathfinder Rock Creek....

If you’ve played a racing game, watched some Top Gear, or read some car news in the past 17 years, chances are you’ve at least heard of the wild work of Bugatti. I certainly remember watching Top Gear and its tests to see if the Veyron could really hit its incredible top speed of 253 mph. Part of the magic behind the speed is Bugatti’s legendary W16 engine. And like many awesome bits of history with Volkswagen AG brands, it comes back to Ferdinand Karl Piëch....

Citing a competitive analysis source, this news comes down from the folks at Autoweek. And honestly, it’s a little bit of a shocker. The American cargo and passenger van market has been undergoing some pretty big changes since the 2010s. The Euro-chic Ford Transit arrived on the block, joining the smaller Transit Connect and leading to the old E-Series being reduced to just a chassis cab. FCA (now Stellantis) started bringing over Fiat vans and slapping Ram badges on them....

And it’s the VW Quantum by a nose. You’d think that AMC’s giant schnoz would put it in front, but the Quantum’s long front overhang from that Audi five-cylinder was too much for it. Now then: Raise your hand if you ruined a good car when you were young by doing something stupid to it. I’m betting there are a lot of hands up out there, and mine is certainly one of them....

I was informed about the importance of the 1999-2005 Grand Am when I was invited to a Backlighter gathering at the only Backlighter-specific establishment, The Clear Nacho. Because the Backlighter sub-subculture is so small, they can’t really support any bars or clubs, so the primary Backlighter gathering place is a combination food truck that sells nachos and serves them in a portable steam room. Granted, the combination of what should be crunchy nachos eaten in a steam room that rapidly turns them into limp corn Kleenex triangles is pretty ill-considered, but the Backlighters seem to have embraced the experience of eating soggy nachos while wearing nothing but a towel inside a tent full of hot steam, so I did my best to play along and try to enjoy it....

Most people, not just car people, know about the famous Peel P-50, regarded as the smallest production car ever made. Just in case you’re a Disneyland enthusiast and have stumbled onto this website while looking for tickets for the Autopia ride, I’ll give you a synopsis of Peel Engineering. Founded in 1940 as a fiberglass manufacturer by Cyril Cannell, Peel Engineering was named after its hometown. The tiny seaport town is on the northwestern coast of the Isle of Man, located off the coast of Scotland, so technically this is a British company....

First, some exposition. The engine in the Bronco isn’t actually anything new. Ford’s revised second-generation 2.7-liter Ecoboost turbocharged V6 first saw use in the F-150 pickup truck way back in 2018, so this isn’t some case of a brand new engine not having the kinks ironed out. Of equal importance, the second-generation 2.7-liter Ecoboost engine has developed a reputation for being fairly reliable. For example, manufacturer communications for 2018 F-150s with the 2....

In case you somehow haven’t seen the video yet, here it is: Holy shit, right? Did you see the one with the trailer? Have you ever driven with an empty trailer? They feel about as stable and controllable as dragging a coked-up toddler behind you through the candy section of a grocery store; this Ukrainian was towing that trailer through a literal fucking minefield. Sure, there looks to be enough room and a straight, if diagonal path through those mines, but the nerves you need to have to even give this a go are absolutely impressive....

There’s definitely some moose-fur-like surfacing, and perhaps some moose shapes in that nose, too. Maybe moosey proportions, also, tall and narrow. The huge, exposed front wheels are interesting, as are the hooded lights. These black box AI systems are weird, no question, and I don’t think whatever is going on inside them is even remotely related to what we understand as intelligence, but in this case, I think a pretty effected moose/car hybrid has been achieved....

One of my favorite developments in new RV technology is the modular floorplan. RV manufacturers often offer their wares in a variety of floorplans and one of them may be perfect for you when you buy. Then, later on you may end up feeling that maybe you could use a little more cargo room. Or, maybe you want some space to store a bicycle or dirt bike. You can’t really do that with a fixed floorplan, but you could if your camper allowed you to move things around....

The premise of an electric Gymkhana car sounds pretty neat. Electric motors generate tons of torque, so glorious tire smoke is essentially guaranteed. Plus, it’s great seeing people prove that electric cars can very much be hooned. Upon first watch of Electrickhana though, I wasn’t completely enthralled. Something felt missing, so I went back and re-watched Electrikhana and various Gymkhana videos to figure out why. Let’s compare this latest Gymkhana to say, Vaughn Gittin Jr....

Your childhood friend has become a multi-millionaire, thanks to a lot of capital he got of a healthy payout from both Kraft Foods and Prestige Brands, maker of the cleaner known as Comet, because the similarities of their shiny green cylinders caused unfortunate consequences for both dinner and toilet cleaning when he was in middle school. You know, like this: Anyway, he invested the payout money into a variety of enterprises that paid handsomely over the years, including developing the world’s best-selling brand of ham repellent....

Water-based vehicles are a good target for automating because the water environment is, generally, a lot more forgiving than automobiles on roads are. The speeds tend to be lower, reaction times tend to be more generous, there’s no pedestrians (I guess maybe some swimmers occasionally), and collisions are generally less severe. This is all even more true in the case of the particular Roboat use cases, which are on canals, using low-speed boats....

Kinda-sorta close, but Grandma wins it! Ice-cold Ensures all around to celebrate. Never underestimate the appeal of a good comfy place to sit. Lots of commenters felt somehow guilty or sullied voting for our cushy old Chrysler, but honestly, it’s all right. You can admit you have a soft side. Now hurry up, it’s almost 4:30, and we don’t want to be late for the early-bird dinner specials at Denny’s....

I had no idea what to expect when I started driving towards the RV Open House. Now 55 years old, the Open House is a show meant for dealerships. At the Open House, the nation’s largest RV manufacturers all roll out their best campers for dealerships to explore and play with. And the big guys aren’t alone, as they’re joined by small and independent companies also trotting out their best....

Yes, Superfly. It’s very much a blaxploitation film, and likely doesn’t really portray the best archetypes of characters, especially to modern eyes, but mostly I just want you to see the hero car in the film, which is featured pretty prominently in the trailer: See that thing? It’s a car that’s based on a 1971 Cadillac Fleetwood Eldorado, modified by a company called Dunham Coach. That distinctive, over-the-top, chrome-slathered, pimped-out look is largely the creation of Les Dunham, at least according to him, in this video, which also lets us know that he made the Corvorado (a Corvette/Eldorado hybrid):...

Called the Sion, this EV holds no relation to Scion, so good luck totaling one of these at 100 mph and finding yourself upright on miracle status. However, like Toyota’s dearly departed Scion sub-brand, the Sion packages fresh ideas in a small, funky, upright form. Let’s delve into this upcoming electric car and find out why it’s so fascinating. First thing’s first: Let’s start with propulsion. While the Sion won’t win many range contests, its battery pack has a refreshingly small capacity of 54 kWh and is made of cheaper lithium iron phosphate cells....