Indholdsfortegnelse for April 2023 i MotorTrend

May you live in interesting times” is perhaps the most cutting and cunning insult in the English lexicon. There’s a much more hammer-to-the-nose version in Yiddish—roughly translated as, “May two of your ships come in, and that’s still not enough gold to pay for your operation.” But I digress. If you love cars, specifically sporty, fun-to-drive machines—a.k.a. performance vehicles—we are living in the most interesting times imaginable. However, like the opening quotation, this can be viewed two ways, as both an auspicious opportunity and a straight-up curse. What does this have to do with cars? Well, we just drove and evaluated 21 of the best new performance machines on the market, and while some dripped with epoch-defining awesomeness, others came up severely short. So it seems quite safe to deem…

Car enthusiasts often point to sound as the reason they’ll never consider an electric car. Others point to range or charge times or EVs’ alleged unsuitability for motorsports because of it. Porsche continues its effort to prove those people wrong. Its Mission R concept demonstrated what its electric GT race car might look like as much as how it can drive, while the new GT4 E-Performance—essentially an electric 718 Cayman GT4—aims to show people how electric racers can actually perform. We’ve driven the Mission R (March 2022), and Porsche recently gave us the opportunity to ride shotgun in the new electric GT4 with Formula E and IndyCar driver Simona de Silvestro behind the wheel at the company’s Experience Center in Franciacorta, Italy. Built from the guts of a 718 Cayman…

Our favorite EV startups have all shared a penchant for innovation—from SUVs with falcon-wing doors to trucks with gear tunnels to sedans with 500-plus-hp motors tiny enough to fit in a roll-aboard suitcase. Now comes the Canoo Lifestyle Vehicle (LV), a 21-window retrotastic van with mosh-pit seating, swappable “top-hat” bodies, and a truly fresh take on vehicle life-cycle planning. Simply climbing aboard the Microbus-esque LV is a unique experience. The front doors are wide and rectangular, creating open space right where your head usually ducks under an A-pillar. The rear doors are also wide and feature rear-mounted hinges. The rear bench seat is positioned behind the C-pillar, leaving space sufficient for practicing yoga (or fitting a wheelchair ramp). Jump seats can be mounted to the doors; when deployed, their occupants…

Planet Earth consumed 25 petawatts of electricity in 2020. That’s 25 hitched to 15 zeros. More than 40 percent of those electrons were routed through electromagnetic machines. Motors. Even modest improvements in electric-motor efficiency could save mankind gigawatts of power. So why do the workaday motors powering every mundane gadget look mostly like they did a half-century ago? Texas-based Infinitum has entered production with a new axial-flux motor design that promises a modest (10 percent) improvement in operational efficiency. But the knock-on effects promise to snowball the cost and energy savings. The Printed-Circuit “Aircore” Motor Infinitum’s attention grabber is its stator design, which eschews the industry-typical iron or steel armature wrapped in round- or square-section copper wire. In its place, intricate copper conductors are etched on a round, flat epoxy-glass…

Plastic bags, ballpoint pens, frozen chicken, and the collapse of the Soviet Union. That’s how the screaming madness of a 1,600-hp twin-turbo flat-plane-crank V-8, the brain-melting complexity of a nine-speed transmission with seven tiny clutches, and the space/time warp of hand-built 310-mph hypercars all began. The through line? Christian von Koenigsegg, serial entrepreneur, self-taught engineer, and steadfast lateral thinker. Christian Erland Harald von Koenigsegg was born in Sweden on July 2, 1972, and grew up near the country’s capital, Stockholm, before being sent to an elite boarding school in the countryside 180 miles west of the city at the age of 14. He knew by then what he wanted to do with his life—he wanted to make cars. Today, almost 45 years after he first saw it, mention of The…

JUDGES/TESTERS Erick Ayapana Associate Road Test Editor Jonny Lieberman Senior Features Editor Miguel Cortina Mexico Editor Frank Markus Technical Director Scott Evans Features Editor Mac Morrison Executive Editor Mike Floyd Director of Editorial Operations Alexander Stoklosa Deputy Editor Alan Lau Road Test Analyst Chris Walton Road Test Editor…

PROS • Sweet, powerful inline-six • Good value • Some of the old BMW magic shines through CONS • Weighty for its size • Feels like a rear-drive car, so why not just have RWD? • Tougher to love when the 230i is so good The BMW M240i not making it to the finalist round at Performance Vehicle of the Year is what happens when you have too much of a good thing. Not only was this year’s field unusually stacked, but the six-cylinder 2 Series is also squeezed even within its own lineup by both the four-cylinder 230i and the upcoming M2, which is shaping up to be an absolutely monumental performance car. On paper, the M240i presents as the maximal 2 Series coupe available today—again, until the new M2 arrives—with…

PROS • Hot hatch in an SUV body • Fantastic engine • Reasonably practical CONS • Torque steer • Its performance plateaus too soon • The Elantra N exists As a driving enthusiast, you may wonder what the future holds as the market goes all-in on SUVs. The answer, it turns out, is to dress up the classic hot hatchback as an SUV. Sure, it’s a little taller and its center of gravity is a little higher, but throw the right speed parts at it, and guess what? The formula still works. Enter the 2022 Hyundai Kona N, the surprise hit of our Performance Vehicle of the Year competition. “Expectations grossly exceeded,” technical director Frank Markus said. Senior features editor Jonny Lieberman called it “surprisingly capable, surprisingly competent,” and “just a good,…

PROS • Terrific chassis grip • Respectable acceleration and braking • Looks the business CONS • Squishy and unsupportive seats • Lifeless steering and brake feel • Overly introverted Polestar produced a one-off Goodwood Hillclimb special, internally nicknamed “the Beast,” and then decided to make 270 more or less identical copies of that car, perhaps 47 of which will make it to the U.S. So this may have been the rarest vehicle competing in our annual performance vehicle smackdown. But perhaps as a reflection of the brand’s stoic Scandinavian roots, we found the Polestar 2 BST Edition 270’s mien to be anything but beastly. Performance is undeniably amped up relative to the standard Polestar 2, with software tweaks boosting its dual-motor drivetrain’s power and torque from 408 hp and 487 lb-ft to…

PROS • Finally, a manual • Punchy inline-six • Great exhaust note CONS • Handling issues on the track • Too tail happy • Makes the driver work too much Since its launch in 2019, the Toyota GR Supra has undergone numerous updates. First came the addition of a four-cylinder engine, then the six-cylinder got a decent power bump, and now the automaker has introduced a six-speed manual to pair with the 3.0-liter I-6. We tend to get excited whenever a manual becomes available, as the option is increasingly in danger of extinction. But after spending some time behind the wheel of the manual GR Supra, we started asking ourselves whether its new three-pedal option makes the Toyota sports car any better. Opinions were mixed at best. Although most editors praised Toyota…

PROS • Absurdly fun to drive • Available with a manual • Did you see the price? CONS • Mixed opinions on the manual • Really likes to oversteer • The Civic Type R exists Just when it felt like the days of the sport compact car were numbered, along came Hyundai. A brand with no significant motorsports or performance vehicle history in the U.S. showed up with a new subbrand and a trio of impressively dynamic budget cars ready to take on the old guard, and the Elantra N leads the charge. Stop a moment and take stock. Here’s a compact sedan with an overboosted motor, a limited-slip differential, and electronically adjustable dampers, one that comes with a manual or a dual-clutch automatic and retails for as little as $33,245. As…

PROS • Thrilling driving experience • Striking, aero-centric design • Explosive sound CONS • Thin, hard seats • Compact cabin • Eye-wateringly expensive Strap yourself into the 2022 McLaren 765LT Spider as we did, and you’ll quickly forget about its $490,810 as-tested price tag. In fact, you’ll want to pawn all your belongings and sell your house just so you can keep driving it. Few cars deliver an experience like the 765LT Spider, and even fewer impress our editors like this car does. “The level of performance, control, confidence, and precision the McLaren offers up is on another level, in another league, from another planet,” senior features editor Jonny Lieberman said. Corner after corner—whether you’re on a track or your favorite canyon road—the 765LT Spider will let you push harder and harder…

By now you’re probably tired of the “Corvette-as-underdog” story. For nearly 70 years, America’s sports car traded on its “value”—affordable pricing that more often than not begat cheaply executed interiors and tacky design aimed at, let’s face it, Middle American old guys. It was a car designed in Michigan and built in Kentucky, and it looked the part; never mind it was capable of performance equal to or near some of the world’s most pedigreed sports cars. Often head-scratching compromises didn’t just happen to the Corvette like some act of God, like a flood or a tornado or plague of locusts—they were intentional. General Motors wanted the car to be attainable and able to swallow golf clubs. In other words, here’s your world-beating power and handling—hope you can stand floppy…

“Remote smart park assist is a fun party trick, but it’s not very useful.”Miguel Cortina Service Life 6 months/10,258 miles Average Fuel Econ 19.7 mpg Unresolved problems None Maintenance cost $208.21 (oil change, inspection, tire rotation) Normal wear $0 Base price $54,195 As tested $64,670 EPA City/Hwy/Comb fuel econ 19/25/21 mpg Do you remember Hyundai’s “Smaht Pahk” Super Bowl commercial? It featured Massachusetts-born actors Chris Evans and John Krasinski, Saturday Night Live alum Rachel Dratch, and Boston Red Sox Hall of Famer David “Big Papi” Ortiz, and it was probably the funniest car commercial of 2020. The star of the show was the 2020 Hyundai Sonata, parking itself in a tight spot. But what does that have to do with our long-term GV70? Well, our SUV of the Year comes with the same remote parking assist feature as…

Ken Block, professional rally driver and the driving force behind the Hoonigan brand, died January 2 in a snowmobile crash in Utah. He was 55. The Wasatch County Sheriff’s Office posted to social media that Block was “riding a snowmobile on a steep slope when the snowmobile upended, landing on top of him. He was pronounced deceased at the scene.” The sheriff’s office also shared that Block was alone at the time but had been riding with a group. Block was a transcendent action sports star who competed in skateboarding, snowboarding, and motocross events. He was also famous for his Gymkhana series of extreme driving videos, and he co-founded the DC Shoes brand. To many of us, Block was that affable guy who wheeled cars in unimaginable ways in cool…

Acura recently gave us a brief taste of what may turn out to be the best thing the company has done with a gasoline engine since the original NSX: the upcoming Integra Type S, the performance version of its new-for-2023 hatchback. We were given few specifics, and technical details were as follows: 2.0-liter turbocharged VTEC engine, six-speed manual, limited-slip differential. This should sound familiar because it applies equally to the 315-hp Civic Type R. That and the fact the regular Integra uses the Civic Si’s powertrain feeds our suspicion that S more or less equals R. Company staffers didn’t come right out and say so, but they did include the CTR in the conversation, saying the Type S is meant to offer a more emotional and road-focused driving experience, as…

Technoboss Kudos to Frank Markus, who is an unsung hero. His column is the one I turn to when I get the latest edition of MotorTrend. There are times when Markus writes things that are above my head, but I always get the gist of his articles. He and Angus MacKenzie put the industry into perspective, which is exactly why yours is the only automotive periodical I still subscribe to. Of course, I enjoy other scribes’ observations and opinions, but Markus deserves special acknowledgment for lifting the hood on many new and intriguing technologies. The auto industry is changing much quicker than anyone imagined, and unlike some others, I embrace an electric future and whatever innovations it brings. Frank Orienter Rochester, New York Ghost in the Machine I was rather…

The fratelli Maserati got their automotive start building 2.0-liter grand prix racers for Diatto while overseeing their own spark plug manufacturing business. In 1926, when Diatto suspended racing operations, the brothers started building highly successful Maserati race cars. To improve profits and ensure funding for their racing efforts, the brothers set about adapting their winning 1.5-liter racing engine and chassis for road use in 1941, with the resulting A6 1500 Gran Turismo appearing in 1947. Today, circumstances are once more forcing Maserati down a new path—this time toward electrification—and the brand will again incorporate motorsports tech on its first production EV. Fittingly, it will be a grand tourer. But rather than adapting a competition car for road use, this time Maserati co-developed a Formula E race car alongside the GranTurismo…

Creating a new award and the massive program behind it is a double-edged sword. Our other Of The Year programs are pretty locked in. We have standard tests and procedures, established venues, staff with years of institutional knowledge and experience, and long-standing criteria. Performance Vehicle of the Year remains a bit different. It’s not just new venues and alternate weighting of our key criteria. In only its second year, we still don’t know what the absolute best format is yet. Like any other OTY, it begins with instrumented testing on the ultimate closed course: an automotive proving ground. But rather than beginning our subjective evaluations there, as we do with other OTYs, or on real-world roads, as we did last year, this year we headed straight to the track. No,…

PROS • Solid looks • Quality interior • Relatively quick CONS • Needs more sport • Too much body roll • Slow steering If your kid participates in sports, they’ve probably gotten one or two of these in recent years: the participation award. The “you played” medal. Don’t get us wrong, we get why it’s important to positively affirm. If we were giving away something similar at this year’s Performance Vehicle of the Year, the G80 3.5T would have gone home with one. Let’s start by checking off the good stuff. The G80 in its 3.5T guise comes with standard AWD, and its 3.5-liter twin-turbo V-6 has more than a fair amount of grunt, rated at 375 hp and 391 lb-ft of torque routed through an eight-speed automatic. The combination is enough…

PROS • Quick off the line • Improves on regular EQS’ handling • Decent steering CONS • Looks more puffy than athletic • Not remotely track-ready • Floppy body control It’s strange to describe something capable of 0–60 mph in 3.0 seconds, an 11.4-second quarter mile, and 0.95 g of lateral acceleration as anything but sporty. This is Performance Vehicle of the Year, after all! Those stats would seem to qualify it as a strong contender. But that they were generated by the Mercedes-AMG EQS is something of a funky surprise, like watching your dog somehow paw food into their mouth using a fork and knife. Indeed, this AMG feels like little more than a more powerful version of the EQS 580, the mightiest regular EQS. It’s all the more baffling when…

PROS • Porsche-appropriate performance • Perfect power apportionment • Wears the 911 look well CONS • Brake feel • All-touchscreen secondary controls • Insufficiently visceral driving experience Physics is the problem with the Taycan GTS. A tire’s mechanical grip is simply the product of its coefficient of friction times the normal force pressing it to the pavement. When both are crazy high, your 5,127-pound car on staggered-width, low-profile 21-inch Pirelli P Zero NF0 tires corners like it’s on rails. That analogy is generally applied as high praise, but it can also equate the driving experience with that of commuting on the Amtrak Acela. Don’t get us wrong, we regard the new Taycan GTS as the sweet spot in the Taycan lineup, between the entry models and the bonkers Turbos, with features editor…

PROS • Rambunctious handling • Unique engine • Fun torque-split modes CONS • Lake of brake pedal feel • Laughable pricing • Tight cabin The RS 3 is one of the most characterful Audis you can buy today, right up there with the V-10 R8 supercar. Where other Audi models are famously cold, executed beautifully but with a sterile detachment to their moves, the hottest A3 sedan is white-hot. This spicy ball of spätzle ditches the turbo I-4 engines of lesser A3s for a 401-hp 2.5-liter turbocharged I-5 and backs it up with torque-vectoring AWD and sticky tires. It’s little wonder, then, why our judges voted the RS 3 as a finalist, though it entered with a few reservations. For one, its price is absurd, as if Audi poured some digits on…

PROS • Huge power • Drift monster • Fun, fun, fun CONS • Sloppy dynamics • Limited range • Awkward interior controls To date, there aren’t a lot of EVs on the market you can point to and call flat-out fun. The kind of car you bound out of after a couple of laps on the track and cackle about how entertaining it was to chuck around. Yes, there are higher-horsepower, more dynamically proficient, and more technologically advanced all-electric machines out there, but the 2023 Kia EV6 GT is a car that combines high levels of those attributes in one truly riotous package. Of course, the EV6 GT still has plenty of muscle, to the tune of 576 horsepower and 545 lb-ft of torque combined from its front and rear electric motors.…

PROS • Insane and loud sound • Tracer-bullet handling • Easy to drive quick CONS • Insane and loud sound • Questionable value • Ride not as comfortable as some others The 718 Cayman GT4 RS, like the Honda Civic Type R, could have easily been our Performance Vehicle of the Year, but it simply didn’t land at the very top of each judge’s ballot in this incredibly close competition. Regardless, the hottest factory-built Cayman to date delivers driving thrills that had everyone talking as they climbed from the cockpit. With its inherently advantageous mid-engine balance now combined with the 911 GT3’s 4.0-liter flat-six and more grip compared to the standard GT4, the handling limits are what serious drivers dream of. Helping the dynamics, too, are less weight, bigger brakes, wider track…

The high-end supercar segment is a little like Formula 1 racing—it’s a club that doesn’t include many Americans. Of the nearly 800 drivers who’ve ever competed in the series, only about 7 percent have been Americans, and a pitiful number of them have won many races, with the last to do so being Italian-born Mario Andretti—in 1978. Perhaps not coincidentally, of all the hyper- and supercars available globally, just a meager handful are built here in pickuptruckland—mostly at boutique shops like Hennessey, Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus, and SSC North America—and sold mostly for seven-figure prices. Into the breach comes the 2023 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 with the Z07 package from the decidedly un-boutique house of General Motors, seemingly meeting all the qualifications for membership in the fraternal order of supercars. Should buyers…

  “The Defender is great for when you want to leave all responsibilities (and pavement) behind.”Christian Seabaugh Service Life 11 months/13,714 miles Average Fuel Econ 15.2 mpg Unresolved problems None Maintenance cost $0 Normal wear $0 Base price $64,050 As tested $74,960 EPA City/Hwy/Comb fuel econ 17/22/19 mpg I’ve noticed the older I get, the more weekends become a time for chores and projects and less about actually resting and recuperating. It sucks. But every once in a while, the calendar is miraculously free and clear, and vehicles like the Defender 110 really help make the most of those rare days. Faced with a free Saturday, my wife and I decided to load up the pups and make a beach day out of it. Oceano Dunes, about 200 miles north of Los Angeles, is one of…

  “A (second) year on the Hydrogen Highway with Toyota’s Mirai shows there are still bumps in the road.”Aaron Gold Service Life 13 mo/13,822 miles Average Fuel Econ 67.8 mpg-e Base price $50,495   As tested $52,330 Options Advanced Technology package ($1,410: bird’s-eye view cameras, f/r parking assist w/automated braking, front seat foot Illumination), premium paint ($425) Problem areas None Total fuel cost $0 ($2,996 spent against the $15,000 fueling-cost debit card included with purchase or lease) Maintenance cost $0 (2x inspection, tire rotation; in-cabin air filter) Normal wear $14.99 (wiper blade) 3-Year residual value* $21,000 (40%) Recalls Stability control system update *IntelliChoice data; assumes 42,000 miles at the end of three years. With so many battery electric vehicles (BEVs) hitting the market in recent years, we wanted to check in with the newest hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles…

Ram’s first all-electric model, the 1500 Revolution pickup, is so bold you might forget it won’t hit the market until 2024, well after most of the competition. The truck is just a concept for now, but the real deal will break cover in a few months with much of the styling and feature set intact. (One confirmed change: The Revolution name will be shortened to Rev.) It lays the rails to Ram’s future with a mission to redefine the pickup segment, CEO Mike Koval Jr. said. “Everything you see from now on will be a direct descendant of this.” Ram has indeed had a good long look at what other electric trucks have to offer, and Koval spent the past year saying the brand will use its come-from-behind status to…

The Lucid Air, if you haven’t heard this enough, is an exceptional car. Of course, for more than $100,000, it better be. To date, most of the Airs we’ve driven have been closer to $200,000, as production began with the spendiest versions. But now less expensive, lower-trim Airs like the Touring might make those more costly ones difficult to justify, because the Air Touring is superb. The major differences between the Touring and top-spec Grand Tourings are in price, range, and output. The Touring starts at $109,050, the Grand Touring at $139,650 ($180,650 if you want the Grand Touring Performance). The Touring goes up to 425 miles on a charge, while Grand Tourings go as far as 516 miles. The Touring delivers a combined 620 hp and 885 lb-ft, the…

I’ve heard all the supposed arguments. It seems every time anything even tangentially related to electric cars is published, certain people feel compelled to share their own research. You’ve probably heard it all, too: A Prius is worse for the planet than a Hummer. EVs are coal-powered cars. Electric cars produce more CO2 than internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles. Lithium mining is uniquely bad for the environment. Cobalt mining relies largely on slave labor, if not child slave labor. Actually, that last part is sadly true. But the rest? Lies. And I’m not even going to get into the hypocrisy of posting anti-EV rhetoric from a lithium-ion-battery-powered phone or laptop. The first thing we should talk about is direct versus indirect emissions. Gas-powered vehicles have both direct and indirect emissions,…

Much of the development work on both this GranTurismo and the MC20 supercar was conducted prior to the construction of a single prototype, using the advanced dynamic simulator at the Maserati Innovation Lab. The company swears the lap times generated here were matched by the same pro driver in an actual car running the same calibrations. The sim rig perches a realistic cockpit atop a six-axis lateral motion unit to generate acceleration, braking, and cornering g loads. Three angled actuators add pitch, dive, and roll, and five more shakers contribute higher-frequency powertrain and chassis vibrations. Then there are a five-point harness and seat-cushion bladders that help sustain the impression of acceleration and braking events that may last longer than there’s physical room to simulate via moving the cockpit. Naturally, there’s…

PROS • Big power • Fun to drive (for an SUV) • Has an X-factor CONS • Big and heavy • Needs more tire • Steering ratio should be quicker The DBX707 accomplished the near impossible by eliciting feelings of happiness and joy from nearly all our judges. This is no easy task, we assure you. Unanimity is the rarest of occurrences at MotorTrend (we can’t even agree on where shift paddles should be mounted—wheel or steering column?), so getting six of seven judges to feel roughly the same about any vehicle is an accomplishment in and of itself. The 2023 season just turned out to be one of those embarrassment-of-riches years, where we could only bring along so many finalists. To put it into tournament poker terms, the DBX707 bubbled. Had we…

PROS • 516 lb-ft of torque • Fast-charging technology • Sharp styling inside and out CONS • Only 235 miles of range • Needs better tires • Not a great overall performer After evaluating the Genesis GV60 Performance during our 2023 SUV of the Year competition, we approached the first all-electric SUV from Genesis with a different mindset for our Performance Vehicle of the Year event. Given the GV60 has impressive horsepower and torque numbers and the word “Performance” in the top-tier trim’s name, we were hoping for some, you know, all-around performance. But after a couple of laps around Streets of Willow, we realized it’s best enjoyed in a straight line. “I honestly expected more from this car,” features editor Scott Evans said. “I thought this was supposed to be pretty…

PROS • Great V-8 engine • Strong straight-line performance • Relatively nimble handling CONS • Dislikes slow corners • Transmission tuning • Stiff ride even in Comfort mode We’d looked forward to the new SL-Class’ arrival, and our Performance Vehicle of the Year program represented another bite at the apple, in particular the AMG SL 63 4Matic+. We already tested this version—there’s a lesser SL 55, too—as part of our 2023 Car of the Year program, and it returned for further review as a PVOTY contender. Ultimately, after running it around Streets of Willow, we found it to be the same mixed bag as before. The new SL 63’s all-wheel drive (an SL first) and thundering twin-turbo V-8 make for smashing off-the-line performance, as expected, and that’s a strong selling point to…

PROS • Classic WRX feel • Engine loves getting to redline • Plenty of room CONS • New but feels old • Weak brakes • Needs more power The WRX proved to be a tricky competitor at this year’s PVOTY competition. The thing is flawed—in both obvious and not so obvious ways. Yet it’s difficult to dismiss a performance car that’s so darn lovable. It’s like hating your favorite shirt because it’s gone out of style. A few years ago, New York Times food critic Pete Wells caused a stir by dissing Brooklyn’s venerable chop house, Peter Luger. He argued Luger had lost it: “After I’ve paid, there is the unshakable sense that I’ve been scammed.” I counter—and a recent trip confirmed—that Luger’s steaks are what they’ve always been. Same is true…

PROS • Dynamically outstanding • Plenty powerful • Excellent seats CONS • Jouncy road ride • Tame exterior style • Some frustrating settings There are far more powerful cars. Cars with more exotic and expressive styling. Cars that feature what’s considered a better configuration. But none of that matters when the new Civic Type R blazes its way around a track and decimates performance car expectations. Everything we loved about the previous Civic Type R, the first such model to reach our shores, has been reinforced and built upon for the redesigned 2023 version. The new car is boosted in the horsepower and torque departments, but not dramatically so. Yet none of our Performance Vehicle of the Year judges complained, because sheer power isn’t what the CTR is about. “I know some…

PROS • Hall of fame V-10 • Exceptional handling • Can (probably) fit your luggage CONS • Funky brakes on the street • Tires hate the cold • Not an STO, is it? The Huracán Tecnica follows in the footsteps of Huracáns that came before it. The wilder, less practical STO wowed us last year at the inaugural PVOTY competition and finished second, and the Performante and the Evo won our now-deceased sports/supercar event, Best Driver’s Car. Rest assured the Tecnica was a no-brainer finalist at this year’s showdown, though a few flaws kept it out of the top spot. Still, what a thing! The Tecnica takes most of what’s exceptional about the STO (full power, rear drive, incredible tires, excellent steering and suspension tuning) and makes the car more livable. The…

PROS • Playful demeanor • Confident on-limit handling • Feels like something special CONS • Pedal placement • Narrow powerband • Brakes warp when hot For this GR Corolla to show up at our event alongside a McLaren, a Lamborghini, and a Corvette Z06 and be referred to as “exotic” gives you some idea of just how special the latest offering from Toyota’s Gazoo Racing tuning arm is. “It has that exotic sense you get from only a few cars on the market today,” editorial ops director Mike Floyd said, “what with the wild fender bulges, aggressive front and rear fascias, funky I-3, and its programmable AWD.” It surprised and delighted our editors, especially senior features editor Jonny Lieberman. “From expecting disappointment to having the mighty GR Corolla be one of my…

“For the next few years, we’ll answer every pressing question about Ford’s electric pickup.”Christian Seabaugh Base Price $69,269 As Tested $80,889 EPA City/Hwy/Comb Fuel Econ 78/63/70 mpg-e Vehicle layout Front-/rear-motor, AWD, 5-pass, 4-door truck Motors Permanent-magnet elec Power (SAE Net) 580 hp Torque (SAE Net) 775 lb-ft Transmission 1-speed auto Curb Weight (F/R dist) 6,781 lb (50/50%) 0-60 mph 3.9 sec Quarter mile 12.6 sec @ 107.0 mph Braking, 60-0 mph 132 ft Lateral acceleration 0.75 g (avg) MT Figure eight 27.1 sec @ 0.64 g (avg) EPA range, comb 320 miles For a huge swath of Americans, their first experience with an electric vehicle won’t be behind the wheel of a Tesla, Rivian, or even a Ford Mustang Mach-E. It’ll be with the battery-powered version of America’s bestselling vehicle: the Ford F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck. And the Lightning has inspired every bit…

“Sometimes the choice to go electric is easy. But Volvo gives consumers much to consider.”Erick Ayapana Service Life 12 months/16,811 miles Average Fuel Econ 23.9 mpg Unresolved problems None Maintenance cost $0 (oil change, inspection) Normal wear $0 Base price $41,945 As tested $44,890 EPA City/Hwy/Comb fuel econ 22/30/25 mpg If you’re considering the XC40 T5 for your next car but wish it were more eco-friendly, you’re in luck. The P8 Recharge, an all-electric variant sitting above the gas-powered T4 and T5 in the powertrain lineup, should be on your list if your goal is zero-emissions travel. Recently, a P8 Recharge arrived at MotorTrend headquarters, which gave us a chance to stage a miniature comparison between our long-termer and the electric variant. Here are a few takeaways: Visual differences between the T5 and P8 are minimal. The P8 features…

“Tesla is a story stock. It trades higher or lower based on the story that CEO Elon Musk and other Tesla enthusiasts spread about the company’s potential to completely take over the global auto, energy, technology, and transportation industries in the long term.” So wrote Wall Street pundit Wayne Duggan back in 2021, when Tesla was on its way to becoming the world’s first trillion-dollar automaker. As this is written, Tesla stock, which peaked at $407.36 in November 2021, is trading at little more than $100. In the final three months of 2022, more than $660 billion was wiped off the value of an automaker that was once breathlessly compared with trillion-dollar tech giants Apple, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and Facebook. True, all big tech stocks have had a bumpy ride…