/Interests/ Last Updated: Mon, Jul 5th, 2021 @ 2:20pm EDT

Motor Trend Blog

Angus MacKenzie

2021 DBA Mini Remastered Oselli Edition First Drive: Classic Style, Total Riot

My first car was a Mini, a 1968 Australian-built Mini Deluxe. Its previous owner(s) had added chrome wide wheels, a rorty sports muffler, and a Saas wood-rimmed three-spoke steering wheel, all of which delivered plenty of street cred in the high school parking lot. But the 2021 DBA Mini Remastered Oselli Edition (phew!) is a Mini beyond anything 16-year-old me could have imagined.

My Mini packed 38 hp and 52 lb-ft of torque, courtesy of the 998cc version of the BMC A-series four-banger under...

Motor Trend Blog

pmcrae

How to Navigate Car Culture with Kevin Hart’s Muscle Car Crew

Getting older and growing apart from your friends is a sad fact of life. Kevin Hart and the Plastic Cup Boyz—John “Burgandee” Clausell, Ron “Boss” Everline, Will “Spank” Horton, Harry Ratchford, and Joey Wells—are lifelong friends and will do anything they can to stay close with one another, but careers, family, and life in general often find a way of foiling those plans. The Plastic Cup Boyz aren’t going to let that happen, and it was their shared love of cool cars and a...

Motor Trend Blog

Aaron Gold

G-Wooden? Watch a Mercedes-AMG G63 Painstakingly Crafted From Wood

Today we have a video of Mercedes’ inimitable G63 AMG SUV being made from a few boards of Fujian cypress. But this isn’t just any old video of Mercedes’ inimitable G63 AMG SUV being made from a few boards of Fujian cypress: This anonymous woodworker, whose skill is clearly matched only by his obsessive-compulsive tendencies, has created what may be the best toy car ever. No, really, trust us.

The video starts out as everything you thought you could hope for in a car-from-wood film,...

Motor Trend Blog

Erika Pizano

2022 Honda Civic Touring Sedan First Test: New Generation, New Story?

All it takes is one look at the 2022 Honda Civic sedan to tell that it’s a decidedly different car. Gone are the outgoing Civic’s busy front mug, C-shaped rear light banks, and noisy character lines. In their place is a more mature exterior with a wider stance, glassier greenhouse, and sharp beltline. Inside, the cabin’s snazzy hexagonal mesh (real metal!) dash trim, slick new digital gauges, and smudge-resistant surfaces are also significant updates you can see and touch.

Ah, but has...

Motor Trend Blog

Erika Pizano

2021 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro Review: Farewell, We’re Ready for the New Tundra

Age is just a number, right? Well, not in the automotive world. In an industry that’s reinventing itself faster than ever, the 14-year-old Toyota Tundra stands as one of the oldest vehicles on sale. First released in 2007—with a major face-lift in 2014—the current Tundra is without a doubt on its last leg. But a new one is right around the corner, so we thought we’d take one last look at a 2021 Tundra TRD Pro to see if the new truck could learn anything from its predecessor.

Interior...

Motor Trend Blog

Alex Kierstein

GM Invests in Low-Cost Geothermal Lithium Mining Project

Given the current state of battery technology, lithium is an essential material in most EV batteries. But most of it is sourced overseas. GM, in the midst of an EV push centered around its Ultium battery tech, wants to change that, announcing a major investment in a California lithium extraction project taking place at a geothermal energy plant near the Salton Sea. Given the battery pack size of a massive vehicle like the upcoming GMC Hummer EV, the appeal of significant local lithium...

Motor Trend Blog

Alexander Stoklosa

Ford’s Electric Mustang Mach-E SUV Outsold the Gas Mustang Last Month

Reading into sales figures can be a bit like reading tea leaves or palms. Sometimes, you can draw clear conclusions: Of course a lame cheap hatchback is outsold by, say, a full-size pickup truck. This is America, after all. But Ford’s announcement that, in June 2021, the gas-fed Mustang coupe and convertible were outsold by the new all-electric Mustang Mach-E SUV is fully in “shake the magic eight ball for answers” territory.

Is it a big deal that a curvaceous electrified crossover...

Motor Trend Blog

Angus MacKenzie

2022 Mercedes-Maybach S680 4Matic First Drive: Big Luxury in Every Sense

The 2022 Mercedes-Maybach S-Class S680 4Matic is a glittery thing. The grille and the front intakes, the trim down the middle of the hood and across its broad rump, the frame around the greenhouse, the exhaust pipes, and the wheels all sparkle as brightly as a diamond-encrusted Rolex in a Miami nightclub. Subtle it ain’t. But, as Mercedes-Benz has learned, when it comes to Maybach, all that glitters is gold.

It didn’t start that way. Panicked by Volkswagen’s purchase of Bentley and...

Motor Trend Blog

Erika Pizano

Tesla Model S Plaid and Dodge Charger Hellcat Redeye: More Alike Than You Think

A strange thought lingered briefly in my mind the other day for about the same 9.34 seconds it takes the new Tesla Model S Plaid to clear the quarter mile: Is the Model S Plaid essentially just an electric Dodge Charger Hellcat Redeye? The electric Jekyll to the Charger’s internal combustion Hyde?

Initially it sounds ridiculous to compare the Model S Plaid and Charger—and maybe it’s the g forces talking—but they have a lot more in common than you probably think (aside from the fact...

Motor Trend Blog

Aaron Gold

Sung Kang’s Five Favorite Cars from the Fast & Furious Series

We caught up with actor Sung Kang, who plays Han Lue in the Fast & Furious series. His involvement with the movies has turned him into a die-hard car enthusiast, and MotorTrend asked him to name his five favorite cars from the series.

5. Ford Maverick, Fast 5

“The love for the Maverick came from that scene in Brazil where we were doing the recon scene. Dennis McCarthy paired me up with the Maverick and I was complaining: ‘How come everybody gets all these cool cars and I get this hunk...

Motor Trend Blog

Erika Pizano

Tesla Arcade Review: How Good Is the Model S Plaid for Gaming?

The new Tesla Model S Plaid—the 1,020-hp version of the electric sedan that can hit 60 mph in an absurdly tiny amount of time—arrives as part of a comprehensive model update that also brings a more powerful infotainment system. What makes it powerful? The system’s chipset comes with AMD’s Navi 23 graphics processing unit (GPU) based on RDNA 2.0 architecture supporting ray-tracing. If that means absolutely nothing to you, it’s a more complicated way of saying it’s expected to...

Motor Trend Blog

Duncan Brady

2021 Maserati Ghibli Trofeo First Test: More Than a Participation Trophy

The Maserati Ghibli has been an easy car to poke fun at since its introduction for 2014. Although it carries the same nameplate as the wedgy Giugiaro-designed grand tourer and distinctive turbo coupe of Maserati’s past, the modern iteration is sometimes dismissed as a collection of dolled-up mediocre Chrysler parts cobbled together in an attempt to ramp up Maserati’s sales numbers.

This year’s Ghibli Trofeo invites us to look deeper and see Maserati’s midsize luxury sedan for what it...

Motor Trend Blog

Monica Gonderman

The LEVC e-Camper Is a PHEV London Taxi for the Wilderness

LEVC has unveiled a few sketches of its upcoming e-Camper, a spry PHEV campervan. The leisure van aims to appease environmentally conscious adventures looking for greener mobility solutions in the campervan market—or those just looking for a way to get out and explore, which is perfectly acceptable too.

The Geely-owned London Electric Vehicle Company (LEVC) was born in 2017 but traces its history back to 1908 with the London black cab, a vehicle that was the backbone of taxi services for...

Motor Trend Blog

Eleonor Segura

The V-10-Powered 2004 Ford Shelby Cobra Concept Is Up For Sale, Comes Carroll Approved

Among the many aspirations of Carroll Shelby later in his life was to build a modern Cobra. With the original AC-based sports car having become a valuable classic—in spite of the ready availability of far more affordable knockoffs—Shelby felt the new millenium held promise for a Cobra revival. The famed automotive designer teamed up with Ford to develop a fully functional prototype and announced their collaboration at the 2003 Pebble Beach Concours d’?Elegance. The Ford Shelby Cobra...

Motor Trend Blog

christianseabaugh

Watch the Tesla Model S Plaid’s Record-Breaking 0–60-MPH Run

Are you curious what it’s like to be in a new Tesla Model S Plaid as it sprints from 0–60 mph? While we can’t bring the feeling of nearly 1.30 g of accelerative force slamming your body into the electric sedan’s seatbacks, we can offer the next best thing: onboard footage of the new Model S Plaid at the drag strip.

Watch as the Model S Plaid gets into its “Cheetah Stance” and rips off a 1.98-second 0–60 mph time and a...

Motor Trend Blog

Alex Kierstein

GM Pulls the Plug on Its Chevy and GMC Full-Size Vans … Available CD Player

Of all the vehicles on sale today, it somehow makes sense that the full-size van twins from General Motors—the Chevrolet Express and GMC Savana—still offer a CD player as a factory option. It’s part of the vans‘ fanciest available sound system. After all, the Express and Savana have seemingly been on sale since just after the last Ice Age. But like taxes, death is inevitable. And so the painfully obsolete CD option has been consigned to oblivion, as reported by GM Authority. The...

Motor Trend Blog

Monica Gonderman

The LEGO 2021 Ford F-150 Raptor Is Cool, Still Doesn’t Have 702 HP

Behold! You can be the proud owner of a 2021 Ford F-150 Raptor for less than a hundred bucks. Better yet, you can gift Ford’s aggressive off-roader to any dirt-loving enthusiast in your life and forever be the favorite friend or family member. Like all things that sound too good to be true, there’s a caveat. The LEGO 2021 Ford F-150 Raptor is about 17 inches long, 8 inches wide, and 6 inches tall. And it’s made of LEGO bricks. Yes, a LEGO Raptor is now a thing.

Don’t get us...

Motor Trend Blog

NickkWhyy

Toyota GR Heritage Parts Program for A70, A80 Supra Detailed Further

Update 7/1/21: There is now a full product list of GR Heritage parts available for the Toyota 2000 GT, the A70 (MkIII) Supra, and the A80 (MkIV) Supra. The list for the two Supras is nowhere near as long and in depth as the one for the rare ’60s-ea 2000 GT, but more parts will likely be available in time. If you want to check out the parts lists, you can view them on Toyota’s Gazoo Racing site here. There’s also a form to fill out if you want to request a specific part as well as...

Motor Trend Blog

Eleonor Segura

Slim Trim: Maserati’s Sedans and SUV Get Mild Updates for 2022

Maserati is glamming up its lineup for the 2022 model year by introducing three new trims: GT, Modena, and Trofeo. Complementing innovation, performance, and design, the new trims will be available on the Ghibli and Quattroporte sedans, as well as the Levante SUV.

Let’s start with the base GT trim level. So-equipped Ghibli and Quattroporte models get 19-inch wheels, while the Levante GT comes fitted with 20-inch wheels. GT models also receive special interior treatments. The Ghibli...

Motor Trend Blog

Alisa Priddle

GM CEO Doesn’t Want Electric Cars Available Only to the Rich

The first splash in a new wave of electric vehicles from General Motors is the $112,595 2022 GMC Hummer EV full-size electric pickup truck. So, does that mean GM sees EVs as transportation for the rich? Not at all.

GM chairman and CEO Mary Barra wants “equitable climate action” and put some money behind her words in announcing a new fund to address climate change and help bring electric transportation to all.

Speaking at the Aspen Ideas Festival, Barra expressed her concerns that the EV...

The selection and placement of stories on this page were determined automatically by a computer program.
The time or date displayed (including in the Timeline of Articles feature) reflects when an article was added to or updated in LooksNeat.