With good news often comes bad, and the new Civic Type R appears to be significantly heavier than the old model. According to this brochure, the new Civic Type R is said to clock in at 3,160 pounds (1,430 kg), up 88 pounds spec-for-spec over the outgoing car. Obviously, weight is another area where the JDM and USDM cars may slightly differ, but 3,160 pounds is a pretty solid ballpark figure....
First, I want to point out how the text in the main shot above of the Invader Wagon – Invader was the Acadian’s sinisterly-named entry-level model – notes a “long-wearing rubber mat” which should leave you understandably breathless. If you think you can handle more excitement, check this shit out: First, may favorite: Aw hell yeah, some taillight love! Distinctive and functional? Please, Acadian copywriter, I can only get so hard!...
Let’s first have a peek at last week’s Shitbox of the Week results: The XT6 wins, and let’s all be honest about why: this manual shifter: What’s certainly good is that I’ve got some USDA-certified Grade A crap to show you, courtesy of the netizens of Opposite-Lock, that marvelous not-quite-always-off-topic car forum that rose like a magnificent phoenix from the ashes of the old Kinja blogs, and more recently served heroically as Carpathia to DriveTribe’s Titanic....
Zeekr is part of Geely, which also owns Volvo and Polestar and Lotus, among other brands, which is also why you shouldn’t be surprised to learn that the design was done at least in part in Volvo’s hometown of Gothenburg, Sweden, and that the 009 shares Geely’s Sustainable Experience Architecture (SEA) with the yet-to-be-released Polestar 5. Specs-wise, it seems the 009 is likely to have options for a single 272 horsepower motor or a twin-motor setup with about 536 hp, good enough to get this big, luxurious box from 0 to 62 mph in 4....
The mix of very American styling and proportions with Japanese detailing and design vocabulary (that front end, the wing mirrors, those color-coordinated hubcaps) is really a fantastic combination. Also, the coupé version had the nickname Butaketsu, which translates to “fat butt,” so you have to love that, right? I mean, I can not lie. Mine is a 91 and even then it still feels like an odd mix of American and European cars....
If you didn’t know that was supposed to be “Givenchy,” how would you read it? Jimmnly? Junumlry? There’s no way that first letter looks like a cursive “g.” Look, here’s some cursive Gs and Js: Granted, the cursive G is weird, especially that second one, which always felt arbitrary to me. The neon there isn’t exact, but it does feel more like a J. Anyway, these were the two-tone Continentals of the era, big, ponderous things driven by old people and, I guess, chrome people....
This week continues my hankering for something that I wish that I could drop money on, but being an adult (without extra space to park something) is holding me at bay. Oh heck, I did try to buy a Ford Bronco II today. I’ll warn you right away, some of these may be downright stupid or crappy cars. Some of them are questionably modified. Some of them may be suspiciously cheap....
Welcome back to Holy Grails, the Autopian series where we show off some of the coolest, most underrated cars that you love. After years of us yammering on about our own grails, it’s awesome to see what you have in store for us! We still have a pile of grails to work through, and we love every single one of them. If you know of a car that’s underrated, perhaps very desirable, maybe a little weird, or largely unknown, send it our way!...
Some quick notes on the latest article by the other (more secret) designer here at The Autopian: Per his stereotype, I have spent long hours at my spotless drafting table wearing my black turtleneck, and getting imaginary clay all over my Zara black suede Chelsea boots (as a non-chief designer my budget doesn’t run to Miu Miu). I always hated working with clay, as it stinks and gets everywhere, even if you’re a snooty designer (as opposed to a clay modeler) just applying tape lines to a model....
I mean, look at the body language here: one hand draped over the steering wheel, leaning completely out that window, elbow and pushed-up jacket sleeve on that door, everything in the service of putting the moves on the blonde on the stallion. Plus, he seems to have driven all the way out into a field, not a road in sight, to corner Svetlana there and tell her that if she needs a ride, she can just toss that big dumb animal in the hatch and hop in the car....
Jamison Anton is a former-Jalopnik super-reader, and is now just my friend Jamie. The guy rules; he texts me when he sees stuff at the junkyard that I might want, he invites me over to hang out with his college friends and his awesome family, and he always lends a wrenching hand when I need one. I don’t know if him being a dad has anything to do with this, or if it’s just that he’s still in the engineering field, but his mind works a little differently than mine....
Called crownvetch, it turns out these innocuous flowers have played an enormous role in road construction for the last 50 years, all while beautifying the countryside and saving millions in maintenance costs. But their popularity has also come with some drawbacks. Who knew flowers could be so controversial? The average driver probably doesn’t think about the road, unless something is wrong with it. The car enthusiast may notice whether a road is fun to drive on and how their car handles it....
How did this even happen? I bought my 1979 Jeep Cherokee Golden Eagle five years ago. The vehicle actually ran and drove just fine, aside from its propensity to stall under load, though this was probably just an ignition timing issue. Just listen to this thing idle!: Shared post on Time Honestly, an hour of basic tinkering, and that thing should have been humming down Woodward Avenue, sucking down gas like semi truck....
Back in June, I cracked open my mini warehouse with the goal of rearranging my cars. When I got the unit, I sort of just shoved cars in there without thinking about optimizing my use of the 39-foot space. As my fleet is constantly changing, I always have a need for just a little more room. So, I started getting obsessive over how to use the space to its maximum....
That car is a March 83G, built by a British engineering company and using the 3.5-liter engine from the BMW M1, the same car that Andy Warhol used as the canvas for his famous BMW Art Car. Later the team, led by Dave Cowart and Kenper Miller, switched to a 3.3-liter air-cooled turbo flat-six from the Porsche 935. More importantly for this particular little post you’re reading right now, though, is that the March 83G had a pair of huge pontoon fenders that were ideal for painting huge lobster claws on....
If my name is familiar to you, chances are you’ve seen my work on that German lighting site or perhaps on Opposite-Lock, where I’ve called myself Miss Mercedes for years. I’m incredibly happy to be here and am even happier for what is in store. I hope to not just spread the joy of all things with an engine, but to tell stories that make you feel all warm and fuzzy, and not because there’s an ATF-fueled fire going on in your engine bay....
Welcome to The Morning Dump, bite-sized stories corralled into a single article for your morning perusal. If your morning coffee’s working a little too well, pull up a throne and have a gander at the best of the rest of yesterday. Kia Goes All-In On NFTs Are we seriously still doing this? Kia’s updated the Soul crossover and needed to put out a new commercial, so the South Korean brand has decided to go with NFTs on this one....
Anyway, onto the car news for Friday’s Morning Dump: We’re talking about Mercedes-Benz’s new EV charging network, BYD’s new luxury brand, and Tesla’s new discount offers in China. Let’s get this knocked out before the FBI shows up at my house with a warrant. Mercedes Puts Its Money Where Its Mouth Is Say what you will about Tesla, but I believe there are a few things that company has done extraordinarily right over the years....
If you somehow haven’t noticed by now, I’m a lifelong fan of travel trailers, motorhomes, and really any kind of vehicle designed to be a little house on wheels. I love the idea of being able to take a little bit of home with you. And you can sleep in places where there aren’t hotels and where conditions may be a bit too uncomfortable or dangerous to rough it in a tent....
Before that, though, let’s just go over one more time why the original GMC Motorhome was such a big deal. Other than perhaps Volkswagen with its Westfalia-camperified Type 2 Microbuses, no major automaker was selling its own, in-house-designed RVs or motorhomes, certainly not ones built on a purpose-built chassis. But that’s exactly what GM did. The state of RV design in the early 1970s was crude, even the good ones like Winnebagos: corrugated metal, pink insulation, boxy, curve-less designs on heavy chassis....
