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The idle has a little lope to it because the engine is equipped with a “Fast Road Cam,” giving it more valve lift and duration than stock— just enough to move the horsepower and torque curves up a touch. It has this camshaft because a previous owner either set the valve lash wrong or used the wrong oil or both, and destroyed the original cam and lifters. “It needed replacing anyway” is as good an excuse to add go-fast parts as any....

It’s taillight-related because of course it is. Here, look: It’s that phrase “flashing indicators of correct intensity” that really gets me. It’s hard to think of a more space-filling bit of copy than crowing about how your car’s indicator flash with the “correct intensity,” which I’m certain was something many potential buyers crossed off their list of demands with satisfaction. I’m sure thousands of hours of R&D and testing went into confirming that those lights flashed with an intensity that fell within the demanding, narrow “correct” range....

The bad news is that only 75 will be made, and basically all of them are already sold out. But for those of you not buying three of them, let me explain what makes the new one so special. First, the chassis is what Donkervoort calls a “hybrid tube-steel/carbon fiber” setup, based on the company’s proprietary Ex-Core technology, which is used to building Formula One cars and yachts alike. The end result is something that, all in, weighs just 750 kg, or about 1,650 pounds—some 800 pounds less than an ND Mazda Miata....

Last Friday, we didn’t have a poll, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have results. The general consensus seems to be that the Grand Am would make the best daily driver out of the bunch, and I’m inclined to agree. But a lot of you want to attempt to track that Infinit convertible and set the Pinto ablaze, and to me that seems backwards. The Pinto is a blank slate, and there are just so many things you can turn it into....

You see, Cressida is a woman’s name, which would certainly not be unusual in itself for a car name, especially a Japanese car of roughly this era, which included such cars as the Gloria or the Silvia. What makes is odd is that the name Cressida is most commonly associated with a woman who lived during the Trojan War, and her story involves her declaring her love for a Trojan prince, but then ending up with a Greek warrior, and as a result she’s become sort of a symbol for a disloyal lover....

[Editor’s note: Hi, David Tracy here. I told Huibert — our seasoned suspension engineer who led design on vehicles you may know like the Ford GT and Tesla Model S — that he can nerd out as much as he wants on The Autopian. So he decided in this article to teach folks the basics of suspension design. Enjoy! -DT] Suspension Is All About Controlling Motion Of The ‘Knuckle’ There are many things a car’s suspension has to do....

Wow, to the untrained eye, that looks exactly the same as the old I-Pace. Look a bit closer though, and you’ll see some tasteful styling updates. For starters, the lower fascia and lower door trim is now body-color for a sleeker appearance, as it should be. Black bezels and window trims are now standard from the R-Dynamic SE trim up, while the false grille ditches internal combustion pretensions in favor of an honest shade of gray....

Now that is a surprise. This might be the only time a Porsche has lost anything to a Fiero. Perhaps if the 928’s running status were known, the outcome may have been different. Oh well. Anyway, for Fridays, I still like to do something a little special, and I got today’s idea (well, half of it) while listening to an old album by The Refreshments at my day job: why not look for cars in Mexico?...

Wow, close one! But Ziggy says there’s a 51% chance you’re supposed to take the Quantum leap, so we’ll call that the winner. And I do apologize for wrongly invoking the name of Carroll Shelby; I trusted the seller, and I should have checked. In my defense, it’s just me writing these in the evenings between walking the dogs and fixing dinner; it’s not like I have a team of researchers at my disposal or anything....

Well, that’s the long and the short of it. And for what it’s worth, I agree; I still dig the Mini, but if it’s between this Mini and this Maxima, then for me the name is Nissan. I already have one cantankerous British hatchback to deal with; I don’t need another. (Yes, I know this one is technically German. That doesn’t make it better.) Today, our choices may have some younger readers scurrying off on a Google search to learn just what the hell they are....

Yesterday we learned two things: One, David Tracy needs to brush up on his car-chase-movie canon, and two, I am not infallible. As readers pointed out, the 9C1 Chevy Caprice in the early ’90s came with a 4.3 liter V8, not a V6. The V6 was only in the taxi package, SEO code 9C6. I knew that. In my defense, I worked at a garage in the ’90s that gave special rates to taxi fleets, and I probably serviced a couple thousand taxi-spec V6 Caprices in that time....

Here, look what this place is like on the inside: This is an office. It feels, looks, and smells like an office. The lighting is office-awful, as in your options are buzzy flickery-sickly overhead fluorescent lighting or pitch blackness. The bathroom’s lights are on a motion sensor, too. The kitchen area is so much a break room I expected to open the fridge and find tupperware with moldy casserole in it labeled CHERYL’S DO NOT TOUCH....

Looking at the results of the survey, 29 out of 204 answers were correct, with one person even noting it was “Malaga red in color.” That’s, what, 14% or so? Pretty damn good! Anyway, good work, super-sleuths! But there is one car that stumps everyone. The unsolvable case. The little blue car turning out of a London side street in the 1960s. Many have tried. All have failed. Can the Autopian crack it?...

Since day one, our goal with The Autopian has been to create a sustainable media business built to last for many, many years to come, and firewalled from the ups and downs this industry regularly endures. That means building diverse revenue sources so that we don’t have all our eggs in one basket—a common reason for failure in this world. So far, we’ve been delighted to count more than 550 readers as paying Autopian members (seriously, thank you!...

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. Ford Reinvents The SuperVan Hey you. Yes you, internet-roaming automotive enthusiast. You remember Ford’s absolutely bonkers SuperVan Transits, right? A series of batshit mid-engined high-performance vans meant for hauling ass rather than cargo....

Here, you should watch the video, and stay for the end, because it’s a tiny payoff, but somehow a huge one, too. I actually wrote about this very car right when we got back because I just couldn’t help myself. This strange and beautiful machine, as much sculpture as car, as much organic-looking as mechanical, as much unreal as real, had a deep effect on me, a feeling that I feel deep in my chest, an ache of appreciation and something that feels like longing but very much isn’t, because its the opposite....

Right off the bat, there’s a bit of a problem. Chevrolet’s styling department has made some odd decisions regarding front fascias lately. While the new Colorado features many different front end treatments to distinguish trim levels, none really seem to hit the mark. The Work Truck and Trail Boss feature a giant hunk of unpainted plastic, the LT and Z71 are fussy, and the ZR2 has a weird painted lower grille....

Interestingly, the seven-seat version adopts a 2-3-2 seating layout, with a three-person bench in the middle. While this is great news for occasional third-row users, it doesn’t provide walk-through access for families really looking to get the most out of the third row. However, this configuration could very well change by the time the ID.Buzz comes to America as it appears the three-row model pictured is based on the European short wheelbase variant....

My experience at the RV Open House in Indiana has been that of wonder. I’m like a kid in a candy store and I already have lots of stories to write for you over the coming days. Just when I think that I’ve seen all of the cool stuff, I see even more. The RV manufacturers making the biggest splash at the show are goliath conglomerates like Thor Industries. This show is not really for the public or the media, but to get camper dealerships to buy these companies’ new RVs....

These kits include everything a Renault 4L, 5, or Twingo owner needs to switch to electric power from a 10.7 kWh lithium iron phosphate battery pack to a motor controller to professionals doing the installation. There’s even a two-year warranty, and R-FIT will sort out registering the vehicle as an EV. Oddly enough, Renault claims that the kit uses the 4L’s original gearbox, in case you want to row gears in an electric car....