The Autopian’s first-ever press trip will involve me flying to Texas to drive the Ford F-150 lightning. It’s going to be cool, though I do have some concerns about what will happen to this website when it’s being 100% run by Jason Torchinsky. I’m just going to preemptively apologize for whatever happens or doesn’t happen tomorrow and Wednesday. Anyway, let me know what questions you have about the Lightning. Do you have technical questions you’d like answered?...

As some of you have already noticed, I’m officially married! Sheryl and I tied the knot on October 1 inside of the Experimental Aircraft Association Museum in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. In planning our wedding, we found that EAA was far cheaper than more traditional venues. For the price of $5,000, we rented an entire museum filled with aviation history. Our guests got to walk around and learn about planes while having some cold snacks....

This was the text I received on a random Tuesday morning at about 8 a.m. I was just starting my day hanging with The Autopian team in Slack, perusing the local bottom-of-the-barrel automotive ads, and looking for my next backyard rescue. The guy who sent the text has been a good buddy of mine for decades and has done quite a few Solid Friend Moves for me over the years....

I’m sure many of you are wondering about the state of my check-in bags. After all, I did bring some items that many of you thought would be confiscated by the TSA. Well, I’m thrilled to tell you that everything made it through! My gas-charged shock absorbers, which damn near every source on the internet says are prohibited from airplanes, are here safe and sound! Unfortunately, those shocks — plus a heavy cast iron master cylinder and a bunch of other heavy car parts — ended up destroying one of my roller bag’s caster wheels, so I had to drag that 50 pound bag all across town as the wheel rubbed against the concrete; my whole body hurts as a result....

Let’s start with the big party piece, the cargo area. Press a button on the Activesphere and the glass on the liftgate slides forward to reveal a hard-lined truck-like bed. There’s even a mid-gate for larger cargo and a drop-down tailgate for loading. It’s as cool as it is difficult to execute, and it gives credence to the car’s off-road motif. Speaking of the off-road motif, check out those tires....

I recently attended a huge car show in Dubbo, New South Wales in Australia, where you could make the reasonable argument I should be fixing a rusted-out 1969 Chrysler Valiant ute instead of looking at a bunch of cars. After that show, which I’ll write about soon, I drove to another car show (again, I know I’m on a time-crunch, but car culture here is just too good!), where I spotted a Jeep CJ-5 that’s not like any CJ-5 I’ve ever seen:...

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 2022 Jeep Wrangler Is Still Tippin’ Alright, I’ll confess: Vehicles don’t really get tired during crash testing, but that didn’t stop the 2022 Jeep Wrangler from rolling onto its side in the latest Insurance Institute for Highway Safety small-overlap test....

To be honest, I can’t blame the Chinese market for wanting a nicer Explorer. Frankly, I don’t even think the Explorer we get is nice enough for the North American market. General fit-and-finish on my last test car wasn’t spectacular, some interior plastics felt quite cheap, and the hybrid powertrain had a weird clunk when transitioning out of regenerative braking while coming to a standstill. I’m not a huge fan of how the Explorer looks on the outside, and I feel like the interior’s quite far from the interiors of segment leaders....

With styling this cute, pricing this low, and the low running costs of an EV, it shouldn’t be surprising at all that the Sakura is a smash hit. Sales started in May and by July, Nissan reportedly received more than 23,000 Sakura orders. That’s greater than the total number of EVs sold in Japan last year. Let that sink in for a second. Nissan has effectively dominated a segment in its home market by making a small EV that people can actually afford to buy, which is really the key to mass EV adoption across the globe....

Saying that, when I got Daniel Simon to sign my Art of Tron: Legacy book he royally fucked up the light cycle sketch he was doodling for me inside, although, like a true pro, he saved it in the end. Back when I was a kid I was always drawing cars, and because of my eye for detail I was pretty good at it. Sadly this creativity was never encouraged for a variety of reasons so I fell out of the habit for years until I started studying in my mid-30s....

Where the hell was I? In the corner of my eye a rooster tail of dirt was moving quickly away from the horizon and toward me. Momentarily transfixed by the speed the vehicle making it travelled across the parched ground, a horrible shrieking and hollering noise began to emerge behind me. Trying to run I found myself fixed to the spot. Panicked, I looked over my shoulder to see something indeterminate, yet terrifying was chasing me....

You know what this feels like? It feels like this: Oh, Gonzo, how are you so great? Thankfully I have neither the funds, time or space to make this dream happen. Regardless, damn you, Torch. https://www.motorbiscuit.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Fonzie-motorcycle-Happy-Days.jpg https://i.pinimg.com/originals/5a/89/85/5a89851a52443c584ef0c250bc31f0c9.jpg Quote from Fozzie in the 1979 classic Muppet Movie: “Ahhh, a bear in his natural habitat – a Studebaker.” https://64.media.tumblr.com/bf0106629fed3064a3378de53c233adc/tumblr_inline_pchwg51Uq71rrje9w_400.gifv Also, Animal and Gonzo are the best Muppets.

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. Stellantis To Pay $300 Million Fine Over Diesel Emissions With civil penalties out of the way for Stellantis, it’s time for the Department of Justice to bring the criminal penalty hammer down over FCA US allegedly cheating diesel emissions standards on certain Ecodiesel-equipped Ram 1500s and Jeep Grand Cherokees....

Exhibit A: The EU Is Trying To Counter US Electrification Rules As Fast As Possible It’s not a secret that the Europeans have been upset with the United States for passing the Inflation Reduction Act, which makes building electric cars and their batteries in North America basically a requirement to be competitive. Fail to do that, the law says, and your cars probably won’t qualify for EV tax credits in America, and could thus become uncompetitive....

The first thing I noticed about Dodge’s electric muscle car is just how big this thing is. It genuinely has its own gravitational pull. Between sheer dimensions and styling proportions, the Charger Daytona SRT EV is so much more imposing than a Challenger in a way that really needs to be seen to believe. Of equal importance, there’s a lot of stuff on this concept that seems near-production. For instance, most concept cars don’t have mirrors....

Think of Heuliez almost like a French Valmet, a contract manufacturer that helped major automakers produce more specialty vehicles. Valmet had the Saab 900 cabriolet, Heuliez had the Opel Tigra, that sort of thing. However, Heuliez made much, much more interesting stuff than what typically rolled out of Valmet. The Citroen CX Break, Citroen XM Break, and Peugeot 604 Limousine all were made by Heuliez, and that’s before we get to the really crazy stuff....

See, auto shows are opportunities for manufacturers to showcase what they can do, which often means bringing out fully-loaded models priced thousands of dollars above the mainline trims of the automotive kingdom. This generally devolves into a pissing match about who can cram the most piano black plastic into a car, which helps absolutely nobody. However, a set of honest hubcaps caught my eye from across the convention center hall and I was drawn to this Rio like a cobra to a clarinet....

First, it’s worth noting that the 914 was the first German car to have power-operated pop-up headlights. Sure, the Opel GT had pop-up (well, really roll over) but those were operated with your own bugling, glistening muscles, via a hand crank. Porsche wasn’t going to make you have to manually crank your lights open, like some sort of filthy animal, so it opted for a pair of electric motors to do the job....

Now, normally, if you’re lost and in an Isar and you saw another Isar pass by, you could be pretty damn sure that you were near an Isar dealership, or the Isar factory, or the breakdown site of a transport truck with at least one other Isar on it. What’s strange about this frankly wonderfully-rendered image is the expression on the dude there. He looks so stiff, like he’s faking everything, and that rictus smile on his face seems to be hiding some sort of nervous secret....

Engine-wise, the new GT3 RS isn’t much of a game-changer. We’re only talking about an extra 15 horsepower (11 kW) over the standard GT3’s 503, achieved mostly through the use of new camshafts. However, this updated engine is mated to Porsche’s PDK dual-clutch gearbox which makes for a manufacturer-quoted zero to 62 mph (100 km/h) time of just 3.2 seconds. Top speed is a mere 184 mph (296 km/h) which seems slow at first, right up until you see a Nimitz-class rear wing bolted to the engine cover....