MONTEREY, Calif.—Few car brands have managed to stake out the kind of mindshare occupied by Porsche. Celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, the company just held its seventh Rennsport Reunion, a car show crossed with a race meet at the Laguna Seca racetrack in Northern California. It drew a crowd of more than 90,000 Porschephiles at the end of September.

From its start in the aftermath of World War II, Porsche has concentrated on using clever engineering to make cars for people who like to drive. Much of that clever engineering was first proven at the racetrack before making the jump to something a bit more road-legal. And almost all of it was on display at Rennsport Reunion, from early engines with twin spark plugs and early experiments with aerodynamics through turbocharging, hybrids, and now extremely high-performance EVs.

There’s quick, and then there’s launching a car with such brutality that you can legitimately feel your cheeks pulling away from your face. It takes the Automobili Pininfarina Battista just 1.8 seconds to accelerate to 60 miles per hour. Yet somehow, that isn’t the most eye-popping detail about this hand-built Italian hypercar. Ditto its $2.5 million asking price. //

Those EV guts consist of a T-shaped 120 kWh battery pack and four electric motors, one at each wheel. Max output is a yes-you-read-that-correctly 1,877 hp (1,400 kW) and 1,726 lb-ft (2,340 Nm) of torque, and while the aforementioned 1.8-second 0-to-60-mph sprint is ludicrous in its own right, even more impressive is that the Battista never lets up. It takes less than five seconds to hit 124 mph (200 km/h), and you’ll see 186 mph in just over 10 seconds. The Battista’s top speed? 217 mph (350 km/h). You’ll be there in no time.

To avoid inadvertently launching the Battista out of your driveway, output is restricted to just—just!—670 hp (500 kW) and 863 lb-ft (1,133 NM) of torque in the default Calma drive mode. The Battista uses only its two front motors in this setting, and by the way, how hilarious is the thought of a 670-hp front-wheel-drive car? Exercise some restraint with your right foot and Pininfarina says you can actually see a driving range of 300 miles (482 KM) in Calma mode. But man, good luck not flooring this thing on every stretch of open road. //

Everything the Battista does is immediate. The power delivery, the brake force, the steering response—there’s no delay to any of this hypercar’s actions. Credit goes to the absolutely phenomenal chassis, which allows you to carry absurd speeds through turns with perfect balance and composure. Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires are a boon for traction, but there’s still so much sheer force being sent through the Battista’s quad motors that the car occasionally skips a beat if you floor it while exiting a corner. Everything is controllable, and that playful skittishness is always on the driver’s terms.

The power, the punch—it’s an absolute thrill. The Battista is like nothing I’ve ever driven. And that includes a Bugatti Chiron. //

Did I mention this thing is definitely a cop magnet?

There’s a fully built-out infotainment system to the right of the steering wheel, which I admittedly did not use much because I was too busy melting my face off. //

Also, it’s worth noting that, despite this test car being an early prototype that’s been through a lot of customer and media test drives, the whole thing is holding up shockingly well for a hand-built Italian car. (Not something I can say about most Lamborghinis, honestly.) During my drive around Malibu, California, not a single squeak or rattle was present.

18 drivers and 18 hybrids and EVs, tested on the same day on the same route.

INNengine of Granada, Spain had produced a opposed-piston engine that packed a pretty powerful punch in an extremely tiny package.

There's no cylinder head in this motor. Also no crankshaft, no camshaft, and no valves. That's why it's no surprise that this engine tips the scales at just 85 pounds. Somehow, it still produces 120 horsepower with just half a liter of displacement, thanks to what the company calls a single-stroke combustion cycle. //

Despite having four cylinder banks, the INNengine (depending on its configuration) actually has eight pistons. This is because the engine is an opposed-piston motor, meaning that each piston's compression stroke is performed against a second piston placed in the same cylinder bank rather than a static cylinder head. It still only has four combustion chambers, though, which means it sounds similar to a four-cylinder engine.

There are no connecting rods to be seen in this motor (at least not in a traditional sense). Instead, the pistons sit on rollers that ride against a lobed circular plate which can be adjusted to affect the engine's timing and compression ratio. As the lobe reaches its peak, the piston rushes towards top-dead-center where fuel is directly injected into the cylinder and a spark plug ignites the compressed air-fuel mixture.

https://www.thedrive.com/uploads/2023/07/14/innengine-1.gif?auto=webp&optimize=high&quality=70&width=750

The mechanical configuration also allows for better engine balance. That means typical drawbacks of an internal combustion motor (often referred to as noise, vibration, and harshness) are minimalized.

Once combustion happens, the piston is pushed back against the plate and forces the plate to rotate. This motion is synced between each half of the motor via a shared shaft—meaning, no extra timing components. Both pistons in the same cylinder bank mimic one another's movements almost exactly.

When the pistons reach the bottom of their strokes, a respective intake and exhaust port is uncovered. One piston is timed to reach bottom-dead-center slightly prior to the other, this allows the exhaust gasses to escape out of the exhaust port and create a vacuum inside of the cylinder—this technique is called scavenging. Fresh air is then pulled in via the intake port as the combustion byproduct is expelled. This effectively gives the pistons double duty, performing the work normally handled by valves in a typical combustion engine—which means that the common drawback of direct injection, carbon-laced valves, is a thing of the past. //

Now, here's the thing: this motor isn't a one-stroke engine. It has a compression stroke and exhaust stroke, making it a two-stroke cycle. INNengine acknowledges this and has said that it brands the motor as such because people would assume that a two-stroke engine would need to have oil mixed in along with fuel. Most two-strokes do. The company says that the one-stroke name was suggested by an "external ICE institution" and they found it to be "catchy," so INNengine stuck with it. //

the company seems to be instead targeting the EV market as a range extender, especially since that's the way the industry is ultimately headed.

The end for manuals is nigh, and one of these might be the last stick standing.

anon-95jb
18 minutes ago
Fact of the matter is that trucks and SUVs SAVE LIVES - let's have a look at those statistics: https://www.consumerreports.org/car-safety/study-shows-how-death-rates-for-drivers-vary-by-car-size/

Deaths per million registered vehicle years:
Cars: 48
Pickup trucks: 29
SUVs: 25
Minivans: 22

Study Shows How Death Rates for Drivers Vary by Car Size

Luxury SUVs had the lowest death rates in the three-year study by the highway safety research organization. Small cars had the highest. //

The IIHS study, which reviewed makes, models, and vehicle categories for 147,324 driver fatalities, provides an additional data point for safety-conscious consumers shopping for cars, to complement already available crash-test data and lists of available safety equipment. Crash tests are meant to compare vehicles within a specific class, the IIHS says. The death rates over time are one way to evaluate how cars and trucks in a variety of sizes compare against each other. //

Death rates are per million registered vehicle years, as indicated.

Cars: 48
Minivans: 22
SUVs: 25
Pickup trucks: 29

It's probably a little early to be warning of extinction, but in some new cars, buttons are becoming hard to find. Given that a screen has to go into the dashboard anyway (thanks to things like backup camera requirements) and the fact that people increasingly won't consider a car without Android Auto or Apple CarPlay, touchscreens make life easier for automakers in terms of design and assembly.

It's just that they don't make life easier for drivers. Instead, we're treated to bad interfaces that don't create muscle memory but instead distract us while we should be driving. And now, Swedish car publication Vi Bilägare has the data to prove it.

VB tested 11 new cars alongside a 2005 Volvo C70, timing how long it took to perform a list of tasks in each car. These included turning on the seat heater, increasing the cabin temperature, turning on the defroster, adjusting the radio, resetting the trip computer, turning off the screen, and dimming the instruments.

The old Volvo was the clear winner. "The four tasks is handled within ten seconds flat, during which the car is driven 306 meters at 110 km/h [1,004 feet at 68 mph]," VB found. Most of the other cars required twice as long, or more, to complete the same tasks.

What is it about the straight-six engine design that makes it almost completely bulletproof? Take a look through the history of American automotive design, and you'll discover a trio of motors that have a hard-won reputation as being unkillable, able to keep running for hundreds of thousands of miles with only the most minimal maintenance required. Some of these engines have even been known to survive catastrophic conditions that would have felled more delicate power plants, requiring only a fluid top-off and a fresh set of plugs to put in another tour of duty. //

AMC/Jeep Straight Six
The 4.0-liter inline-six cylinder engine originally found in the ultra-popular Jeep Cherokee XJ was the last AMC motor to be sold in America. It had been developed in the early 1980s, and was based on the brand's previous experience with straight-sixes. Featuring the same excellent crankshaft balance that is gifted to all inline engines, as well as seven main bearings, the lack of vibration, excellent oiling, and strong build quality of the 4.0 would see it offered from 1986 all the way to 2006, giving it a whopping 20 years of continuous production. //

Ford 300 Straight Six
Way back in 1965 Ford debuted an engine that would serve for more than 30 years as the backbone of its entry-level, task-focused trucks and vans—not to mention pull duty in a long list of agricultural, industrial and commercial vehicles, too. //

Chrysler Slant Six
Chrysler's famous 'slant' six (so named because its block leans 30 degrees to the right side in the engine bay of the original 60s-era econo cars it was installed in, in order to clear the hood) came in three distinct flavors. There were 170, 198, and 225 cubic inch versions of the motor available, but the 225 is the one that has garnered the strongest reputation for never saying die.

Heating and cooling the cabin of electric vehicles needs to be more efficient to avoid loss of range.

One of Only Two Surviving 1934 Auburn 652X Broughams Now on Display in Indiana

While you're there, don't miss the other 140 or so vintage cars in a restored Art Deco building that used to be Auburn Automobile's showroom. //

Nearly 90 years later, only two remain. Now, one of those extremely rare vehicles will now be on display at the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Automobile Museum in Auburn, Indiana after a donation from a couple in Baltimore, Maryland. //

In 1934, Donald Duck was introduced to the world as Mickey Mouse’s comedic sidekick and the Auburn Company was still in business designing gorgeous pre-World War II builds. Long before Toyota made the bZ4X and BMW launched the X5 xDrive 45e, Auburn was all in on using numbers as names and they weren’t any less confusing: in 1934, the company was making the 850X and 850Y with a powerful straight eight under the massive hood and the 652X and 652 Y with an inline six. The X and Y referred to the trim.

There were around 1.5 million deer claims for the industry between July 1, 2019, and June 30, 2020. State Farm also advised not to swerve or veer off the road for the deer but to instead just slow down. In fact, State Farm has a full list of helpful tips:

Stay alert. Pay attention to “deer crossing” and other signs and be cautious in areas near woods or water.

Use high beams. Flicking your high beams on a deer in the road may cause the animal to scurry away. High beams also help illuminate dark roads.

Don’t swerve. If an animal-car crash is inevitable, maintain control of your vehicle and don’t veer off the road.

Brake as necessary. If you can avoid hitting the animal, reduce your speed, honk your horn and tap your brakes to warn other drivers. If there are no drivers behind you, brake hard.

Remember peak season. Deer crashes happen most during October through December, which is hunting and mating season. Collisions are most likely to happen in West Virginia, Montana, Pennsylvania and South Dakota.

Remember meal time. Watch for animals in the road between dusk and dawn.

Watch for herds. If you see one deer, there are probably more nearby.

Don’t rely on a whistle. No scientific evidence supports that car-mounted deer whistles work.

Wear seat belts. Always obey speed limits and wear seat belts.

"They are a wonderful driving experience. But at the same time, they're an enormous burden in time and in energy in finding chargers and getting them charged," Anderson said. "And you’re not really saving much in terms of charging costs ... you may be paying more.”

Costs to drive an EV compared with a gasoline car are detailed in a report Anderson Economic released Thursday called "Comparison: Real World Cost of Fueling EVs and ICE Vehicles."

The study has four major findings:

• There are four additional costs to powering EVs beyond electricity: cost of a home charger, commercial charging, the EV tax and "deadhead" miles.

• For now, EVs cost more to power than gasoline costs to fuel an internal combustion car that gets reasonable gas mileage.

• Charging costs vary more widely than gasoline prices.

• There are significant time costs to finding reliable public chargers — even then a charger could take 30 minutes to go from 20% to an 80% charge. //

A mid-priced internal combustion car that gets 33 miles per gallon would cost $8.58 in overall costs to drive 100 miles at $2.81 a gallon, the study found. But a mid-priced EV, such as Chevrolet Bolt, Nissan Leaf or a Tesla Model 3, would cost $12.95 to drive 100 miles in terms of costs that include recharging the vehicle using mostly a commercial charger. //

“That’s apples to apples and includes the extra EV taxes, the commercial charging and the home charging and the allowance of driving to a gas station, which, for most Americans, is very short compared to driving to a commercial charger for an EV owner," Anderson said. //

The study differs from some reports that show it's cheaper to drive an EV than a conventional car. For example, a 2018 study from the University of Michigan's Transportation Research Institute found the average cost to operate an EV in the U.S. was $485 per year compared with a gasoline-powered vehicle at $1,117. Anderson said most studies include only the cost of residential electricity and don't factor in the four other costs that this study does.

The active deregistration of someone’s car — something they likely paid thousands upon thousands of dollars for — just seems wrong. Why can’t they simply be grandfathered in, and then strike forth a date decreeing that in the Year of Our Lord, 2021, no more horseless carriages without FMVSS certificates shall be allowed to register on the king’s roads?

Looking at this without my enthusiast glasses on, I could see how this could simply be looked at as an insignificant issue that upsets a vocal minority of car dorks. And maybe it is.

However, it seems wrong that a state can simply decide one day that your legally registered, legally imported, and legally paid-for vehicle can now suddenly not be driven on the road. No grandfather clause, no refunds, and no exceptions. To that I say — no, thanks. ///

How is this not an ex post facto law? I bought the vehicle and registered it in good faith based on the law at that time. Now you have invalidated the law and caused me to lose the value of my investment. How is that not an unjust taking?

Our free VIN decoder can be used to determine everything from vehicle trim level to fuel tank capacity to crash test ratings.

Before you waste a bunch of money on some crossover you're not even excited about, consider this useful truck.

The 2022 Ford Maverick is one of those rare vehicles that almost impresses me more for what’s not there than what is there. That’s because what’s not there is something that’s pervasive in not just the automotive world, but so many aspects of life: bullshit. The bullshit content of the new Maverick is near zero. When the bullshit is stripped away, what’s left behind is an extraordinarily clever, honest, flexible, practical, efficient, and appealing machine, and that machine is even cheap. I really like what the Maverick is.

Growing up, we had a 1980 Honda Accord four-door sedan, a rolling tribute to rationality if there ever was one. As reliable as noon and almost as exciting, the Accord was a great, sensible car that defined Honda in my young brain. Perhaps that’s why I’m so smitten with the Honda Vamos, the least-rational four-wheeled Honda ever made. It’s also arguably the least car Honda ever made and sold, at least in terms of how much raw “car” you get for your money. //

Honda made their fun car out of their interesting little mid-engined T360 pickup truck, the first four-wheeled vehicle Honda built, starting in 1963.

The T360 was a really clever design for a little truck, with the engine low and in the middle and plenty of room above it for cab and bed. When the Honda Vamos was introduced in 1970, Honda had only been building cars for seven years, and the tool they used to turn the T360 into the Vamos seems to have been an eraser.

The Lincoln Continental died last year, with production ending almost a year ago now. And yet there are apparently still brand new Lincoln Continentals to be found at dealers. Ford said Monday that it sold all of 14 Continentals last month. //

I have many questions about these 14 Continentals, mainly: Who the hell is buying a Lincoln Continental in 2021? Who are the 14 classiest people in America? Or is it one extremely cool person who bought 14 Lincoln Continentals? Is it a fleet, and where can I find this fleet?

Also, why now? //

If you are one of September’s Continental buyers, please show thyself.

So, when I first started gassing up my own car, I used anything that was cheapest — much to the horror of the man who would become my husband. Because in America, 85 octane fuel could actually void your warranty.

In high-altitude areas, 85 octane fuel is offered because it’s less likely to cause engine knock since the air is far less dense — but this specific octane is still advised against in the owner’s manuals of newer vehicles (as in, basically, cars made within the last 30 years).

That’s because of the construction between older and newer vehicles. Older engines had mechanical control of fuel injection and ignition timing — and that depended heavily on your manifold pressure. In higher altitudes, you’re not going to get the pressure you need because the ambient pressure is low.

Newer engines, though, have electronic fuel injection and ignition timing — which enables those newer engines to compensate for any low ambient air pressure. You’ll still lose power, but the engine is able to compensate for any losses. So, the problem won’t be quite as obvious as it would be with a car from, say, 1962.

I just finished a 3,000-mile road trip from Los Angeles to upstate New York in a U-Haul truck and Mitsubishi Montero (I was helping my friend and former Jalop Andrew Collins move). Since I need to somehow get back to my house in Michigan, I had no choice but to buy a car. So on a whim, I purchased a 1965 Plymouth Valiant, and though it may look like just a standard old 1960s sedan, trust me: There was a method to my madness.

Andrew keeps telling me that there is a cheaper, easier way to travel long distances — something having to do with “1/2 ρ V2 × S × CL” — but I’m just not buying it. We all know that the most effective way to go anywhere is to travel by Plymouth. And not just any Plymouth, one powered by the Leaning Tower of Power.

That’s the nickname for the most unkillable American motor in history: The Chrysler slant six — so named for the 30-degree angle that its cylinder bores make with the Z-axis