Another close call, but the Volaré wins it, making this the first time a Volaré has won anything since Motor Trend’s 1976 Car Of The Year. And that means our third contestant for today’s Track-Daily-Burn is the Pinto. (I won’t make the easy joke, I won’t make the easy joke…) Just in case you weren’t with us last time we did this, the rules are simple: You must choose one of these cars to drive daily, one to compete in some sort of motorsport event (not necessarily a traditional race track; it can be a dragstrip, a dirt oval, a Gambler event, or whatever), and one to destroy by fire....

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. That Porsche IPO Reportedly Still Might Happen Hi, we’re Volkswagen Group. Welcome to Jackass. Alright, so maybe an IPO in today’s market might not bring about the same testicular pain as Knoxville and Co....

VinFast was started in 2017 by Vietnam’s first billionaire, Phạm_Nhật_Vượng. Phạm (that’s his surname; I didn’t realize this before, but Vietnamese convention has the surname first) made his fortune by starting an instant noodle company in the Ukrainian market, and then sold that company to Nestlé. This may be the first car company to be started with instant noodle money, though Sakichi Toyoda started out making weaving looms, and what is a thread but a textile noodle, right?...

My first car, a 1984 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme Brougham sedan, came with several kilos of hot peppers and was so bad that I had to give it away rather than sell it for actual money. I’m convinced that it only still exists to spite me. My 1996 GMC C1500 pickup truck had its own ecosystem growing on the truck cap and ended up with a sweet Alpine audio system. The seller of my old Crown Victoria dropped a racial slur on the test drive, and I promptly ruined that Crown Victoria by dumping it on its nuts, installing a mini-spool, and having far too much fun....

[UPDATE: I know a number of you want to “read” our “stories” without “crippling headaches” so for you I painstakingly flipped it all right-side up for you, and you can read it by clicking here. You’re welcome. – JT] ¡punos puɐ ǝɟɐs ǝɹǝɥ ǝɹɐ ‘sǝuɐldɹᴉɐ ɯoɹɟ pǝʇᴉqᴉɥoɹd ǝɹɐ sʎɐs ʇǝuɹǝʇuᴉ ǝɥʇ uo ǝɔɹnos ʎɹǝʌǝ ɹɐǝu uɯɐp ɥɔᴉɥʍ ‘sɹǝqɹosqɐ ʞɔoɥs pǝƃɹɐɥɔ-sɐƃ ʎW ¡ɥƃnoɹɥʇ ʇᴉ ǝpɐɯ ƃuᴉɥʇʎɹǝʌǝ ʇɐɥʇ noʎ llǝʇ oʇ pǝllᴉɹɥʇ ɯ,I ‘llǝM ˙∀S┴ ǝɥʇ ʎq pǝʇɐɔsᴉɟuoɔ ǝq plnoʍ ʇɥƃnoɥʇ noʎ ɟo ʎuɐɯ ʇɐɥʇ sɯǝʇᴉ ǝɯos ƃuᴉɹq pᴉp I ‘llɐ ɹǝʇɟ∀ ˙sƃɐq uᴉ-ʞɔǝɥɔ ʎɯ ɟo ǝʇɐʇs ǝɥʇ ʇnoqɐ ƃuᴉɹǝpuoʍ ǝɹɐ noʎ ɟo ʎuɐɯ ǝɹns ɯ,I...

With the collapse of parent company British Leyland, some great brands disappeared either permanently or for a long period of time, sports car maker MG probably being the most notable. Lacking money to create new models, the lineup of MGs in the late seventies was made up of nearly twenty-year-old designs with black rubber bumpers and jacked up suspensions to meet headlight height requirements. source: Mecum and Mecum Attempts to continue the name by BL went nowhere; probably for the best considering the rather wonky Triumph TR7-based MGs that were proposed....

This week, you’re getting a double dose of car finds! As a twist for this round, I let my wife, Sheryl, pick four of the vehicles. While I love outlandish European cars and piles of junk that threaten to bankrupt you, Sheryl tends to gravitate toward cars that may outlast you. Well, maybe not the rotary truck in this list.. [Sheryl’s note: This week features not one but two of my all-time dream cars: the best-ever Trans Am, and the best-ever Z....

Despite the absolute terror of old German car problems, it looks like the 500SL took the win over the Oldsmobile. In fairness, I’d also choose the 500SL, simply because I love that old Mercedes build quality and this cabriolet seems ripe for a six-speed swap. From flagships to dinghies, let’s switch gears and look at two cars barely bigger than those ginormous FILA dino-stompers you see Instagram influencers wearing. Of course I’m talking about tiny little sports cars from many, many decades ago....

I was out last week, and thus wasn’t able to give Autopian readers their weekly dose of cars for sale. That will be rectified this week, and you’re going to be getting some crazy vehicles this time. I search the entire country for a good balance of price and vehicle condition. But sometimes, some really cool cars end up for sale with really high prices. It’s disappointing, of course, but there’s nothing wrong with window shopping and dreaming....

A post shared by David Tracy (@davidntracy) The Lotus Elan, you may recall, ended production after 1995, and was powered by a 1.6-liter turbocharged Isuzu engine that made about 160 horsepower. Here’s Lotus’s rundown of that car, per its website: The big idea for this new car was that it would be front-wheel drive. Ditching the traditional front engine/rear-wheel drive layout would appeal to new generation of potential Lotus customers....

Of course I like the picture because it shows two favorites of mine together – Oldenburg and Beetle – and I also like what rough shape his Beetle is in. It’s only about eight years old at this point: I think it’s a ’55 because even though those low-mounted front indicators were used from ’55 to ’57, in ’56 VW went to dual exhaust pipes, and I think I only see the shadow for one back there behind the car....

The Proton Arena (native Malasian markets ) or Jumbuck (exports) is based on their Wira sedan, which in turn was based on the Mitsubishi Lancer. I’ll be honest, I’m not exactly sure what Lotus did in tuning the handling, but they did something, and I suspect this is one of the very few times Lotus tuned a rear suspension with leaf springs in it. This thing is cool. Respect to our Proton-owning readers!...

Yep, that’s about what I expected. While the Echo is a reliable, trustworthy form of transportation, the 330i is a whole step up across a litany of categories. Anyway, back to fun cars for Hawaii. While Thomas Magnum could borrow a Ferrari 308 anytime he liked, we’re on a bit of a budget here. Still, that doesn’t mean we have to forgo fun, quick European cars, as I’ve found a pair for you to choose from....

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. Elon Musk Says Something True Elon Musk is a spectacular troll and shit-talker and this sometimes makes it difficult to give full credence to what he says, but Reuters reports that he said something that seems quite basic and also quite true at a conference in Norway earlier today....

First, let’s see how our Ohio players did: Looks like the Saturn wins it handily. Park that in your garage, and it becomes a room with a Vue. Anyway. Today’s contestants are both from a rust-free part of the country, both are six-cylinder Toyotas known for mechanical immortality, and neither has any damage beyond normal wear and tear. You wanted “good” cars? You got’em. Be careful what you wish for....

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. The Base F-150 Lightning Now Costs $56,000 (+$1,895) Car companies have learned that they can launch a car with an extremely low price, grab a lot of headlines, and then quickly raise that price and just face a few headlines like this....

Just so we understand how pervasive frunks have gotten in the EV space, here’s a partial list of mainstream EV makers that are selling cars and/or trucks that have some sort of cargo compartment up front: Ford, Tesla, Rivian, Kia, Hyundai, Volvo, Polestar, Chevrolet – there’s a lot. It’s by no means all, but it is a pretty significant number of mainstream EVs. Now, it’s not that these frunks necessarily offer so much extra cargo room (though some, especially the ones found on electric pickup trucks, certainly do) but more that the extra space is useful for things that tend to rattle around in trunks anyway: tire inflation equipment, first aid kits, maybe a blanket, brake fluid bottles, rags, ice scrapers, you know, utility stuff that I bet you have in your car right now....

The specs and backstory of the Lucid Air read like something out of a dream. It’s a second shot at a high-end electric luxury sedan by Peter Rawlinson, the former Chief Engineer of Lotus who went on to be the Vehicle Engineer for Tesla’s Model S. It packs a high-voltage electrical architecture capable of accepting more than 900 volts, Dolby Atmos audio, a posher cabin than the Tesla Model S, more than 500 miles of range when properly equipped, and north of 1,000 horsepower in performance trims....

In most taillight-focused bars, clubs, bathhouses, bathhomes, mahjong parlors, arcades, and so on, there will be an “outer” club and an “inner” club. If you want the good stuff – the finest form of pretty much any vice you need to satisfy – then you want to be on the inside. To get there, though, you’ll need to find a contact to lead you to whomever is responsible for gatekeeping the inner club; I can’t help you with that, though....

When we acquired this Carter Town Shopper a few years ago, the title (and the California black license tag) said it was a 1942 model. I thought that was very interesting, as not many manufacturers were building cars during World War II. I posited that as a new, small, company they weren’t building enough (or any) cars to be pressed into the war effort. What I failed to realize was that our other Towne Shopper project car (yes, with an “e” on the end of “town”), was titled as a 1948....