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No surprise here, the Suzuki Alto Works Turbo F Limited ie/s absolutely smashed it, pulling a massive 251-vote victory over the Toyota Crown Super Deluxe to take the trophy. Just kidding, we don’t actually have any trophies. Still, with that angry little engine and puppy dog eyes, who wouldn’t love buzzing about in that hot little Suzuki? If you’re into cars, you’ve likely heard of the Bathurst 1000, an event where Ford and Holden fans across Australia gather to smash cans and throw hands, with a legendary motor race breaking out among the commotion....

The Audi has it easily. I am not surprised, nor do I disagree. The words “BMW” and “head gasket” are enough to strike fear into the hearts of the most seasoned shitbox aficionados. You know what else is a scary phrase? “Salvage title.” A car that has been totaled, stolen, or junked and then returned to service is something of a wild card. What exactly happened to it? How well was it repaired?...

Break out the hubcap helmets, because it’s David by a landslide! Maybe the vote would have been closer if I’d been able to find a Nissan Pao, but I shudder to think what a $2500 Pao would look like. Probably full of spiders. [Editor’s Note: I was robbed. DT going to hold this over my head forever. Crap. – JT ] You know what probably isn’t full of spiders? The cubbyholes behind the seats of a Buick Reatta, or the center armrest of an Eagle Premier....

If you’re getting a sense of déjà vu, fear not because I have an explanation: In 2020, California Governor Gavin Newsom issued an executive order that sought to phase out the sales of gasoline-powered vehicles by 2035. But until now, that has only been a goal. On Thursday, the California Air Resources Board will vote on the ban. As reported by the New York Times, if passed, the impact will be huge....

She’s running rough, but won’t quit. Ever, as far as I can tell. at some point it’ll just become one giant check engine light you can ride in straight into the mouth of hell itself. I still miss that car. It always ran, you could fit an absurd amount of cargo in there by laying down the seats, and it got decent mileage. I like my new car just fine, but always wonder whether I should have kept the xB....

Well, not much margin of error there. I agree that the Nissan is the better choice, but I wouldn’t dismiss that Blazer out of hand either. That 4.3 is an excellent engine, and I’m still a fan of the first-generation S-10 Blazer’s styling. But that’s all behind us now, and the only way to go is forward. Today, that means a visit to New York City (where good salsa is not made) and Boston (where the college janitors are math wizards)....

And there you have it. Respect the tailfins. That big blue Imperial really would be the most satisfying project of the four, I think, whether you go electric or just pop another big V8 into that engine bay. And I learned something: I had no idea the goth community was such a big fan of ’50s Chryslers. But hey, if that’s the Cure for what ails ya… Anyway, moving on: Back when I was growing up in the ’70s and ’80s, our family’s “foreign” cars marked us as oddballs, though not quite outcasts....

Really, I can’t think of a car less suited to the brutal deserts of Dune. The 1800 was only FWD, didn’t have that much ground clearance, and it’s sure as hell not getting anywhere in the sand on those tires! Plus, that rhythmic pulsing of its either 1.8-liter straight four or 2.2-liter straight six is sure to attract a massive sandworm, and who needs that kind of hassle? So why then did British Leyland’s marketing people go through the considerable time and expense to load an 1800 HL on a Guild Heighliner and make the trip?...

As I suspected, a Toyota truck is hard to beat for that price. I still like the idea of that D50 for a small-town handyman or mobile mechanic or something. That Toyota is still up for sale as of this writing, so whoever wants it, get on up to Washington and get it. We here at the Autopian seem to be a fairly pro-RV bunch. Mercedes has her little U-Haul camper, and a couple attempted bus conversions before that, I’m pretty sure Torch still has a broken-down motorhome [Editor’s Note: Yes, I do....

He presses his cheek against the clay and gently massages the surface, squinting along its rounded form. He then takes a T-shaped metal tool and begins to gouge deep cuts into the pliable clay, thick curls of milk-chocolate falling to the floor in Cinemax slow motion, piling around his black leather Miu-Miu Chelsea boots. In this commercialized vision, there is the surreal vibe of “the bedroom at the end of the universe,” from 2001: A Space Odyssey....

I’d first heard about The Betsy while interviewing former American Motors employees for a documentary I’m producing. Vince Geraci, Bob Monacelli, and Susan Tassi all worked together in AMC’s design department during the late 70s and happily shared memories of when Hollywood came to Detroit. The Betsy was an adaptation of a 1971 novel by the same name, featuring the dysfunctional family behind a failing automobile empire. When the movie’s producers wanted to film inside a real-life design studio and a working assembly plant, they turned to American Motors....

Today, our readers have been relentless in their scorn for automaker shenanigans. We published a story on the BMW i Vision Dee Concept and our resident grumpy designer Adrian wrote a follow-up rant begging automakers to just let the 1980s go. And wowie, both comment sections are full of sizzling hot with your takes. It seems that ’80s nostalgia is everywhere today, from the types of cars that show up to sell tons of money in online auctions, to entire television shows themed in the decade....

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/Hyundai Kicking Ass And Chewing Bubble Gum And Reportedly Bereft Of Chewing Material It’s hard to look at anyone’s sales and assume much right now. There’s such a dearth of product and such an abundance of supply chain issues that the most meaningful statistic one can draw is that, hey, maybe this company knows how to make cars and is geographically/logistically well equipped to do so?...

A full 60% of the Triumph lineup shown here are convertibles: a Spitfire, TR6, and the Stag. The first two look like normal roadsters of the era, but the Stag is different. It seems to be wearing some sort of strange orthopedic device over the front seats, something that looks kind of like a cross between a rollbar and a T-top, and it’s flanked by framed windows on the front doors....

Maria Teresa de Filippis was born in 1926 to an Italian count and a Spanish noblewoman. As the youngest of five children, she quickly picked up an interest in sport. According to The Guardian, tennis, skiing, and equestrian sports were some of her favorites. However, as the 1940s progressed, de Filippis developed a common desire – one to prove her siblings wrong. See, two of her brothers believed she couldn’t drive fast....

Here’s the abstract to the study, which gives a good sense of what MIT found. I guess that’s literally what an abstract is supposed to do, isn’t it? Anyway, here: Holy crap, that’s an alarming reference, as much emission output as all data centers? We’ll get to that more in a bit. I mean, think about it: All cars today are driven using energy-hungry computing power, it’s just that the computer in question there lives in your skull and is powered by fistfuls of Pizza Rolls and lots of caffeine....

The truth is, I’ve been wanting to leave Michigan for years, but what happens is: 1. November rolls around, things get cold, and I tell myself “I’m out of here.” Then 2. I fly to Germany or Hong Kong to be with my family for Christmas, and stay over there for a month working remotely. 3. I get back, spend a few months in cold Michigan and then the sun comes back out in April....

The wagon has it, it seems. And it also seems everyone has a K-car story; those little boxes were such a huge part of the American vehicular landscape for so long that it was almost impossible to avoid them. Thanks all for the votes, and the memories! These days, love ’em or hate ’em, Americans drive trucks. They’re everywhere. Ford sells more than 2,000 trucks per day on average alone, and its competitors aren’t far behind....

That painting is really remarkable, with its extremely naturalistic car and people in the foreground, and a background that almost feels like analytical cubism, but you know, creepy. Those trees, the rocks, the leaden sky, that moon – it feels cold and damp and there’s very strong suggestion that there are warewolves about, lurking hungrily, waiting for some delicious snacks to be delivered in a Dart Phoenix, the highest-spec Dart, complete with those bifocal-like reverse lamps flanking the license plate and all the chrome bits Chrysler could stick to sheet metal....

Torch will hop on in a bit; he’s doing Passover stuff. For now it’s Thomas Hundal— our car-obsessed news-writing contributor — and me, just chillin’ here in the comments section of a website that, just a few months ago, was just a figment of Jason and my imagination. Now I have an unbelievable number of responsibilities: editing basically all day, everyday; trying to get a moment to actually write my own articles; staring out at my driveway, praying I can get a single moment to wrench on a Jeep....