Cars

With Christmas around the corner, the Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye is the latest car to get a sleigh makeover. Introduced as part of Dodge’s “Big Finish” campaign, the Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye Sleigh stars in a new commercial called “Upgrade” alongside retired WWE wrestler Bill Goldberg, who happens to play a pretty jacked-up Santa Claus. With muscles coming out of his ears, Santa decides to keep with the profile this holiday season by commissioning his elves to make improvements to his current sleigh. The result, as you can see, is a sleigh that’s going to make a lot of pony car enthusiasts wish they had the means to do the same thing.

Introduced in 2008 as a replacement for the Chevrolet Cobalt (and its Pontiac G5 and Saturn Ion doppelgangers), the Cruze is two years into its second-generation as of 2018. Available in both sedan and hatchback body styles, it’s offered with two gasoline engines and a diesel engine in other markets. But, unlike its predecessor, it isn’t offered in performance-oriented guise yet. This could change soon, as Chevy unveiled a beefed-up concept car at the 2018 Sao Paolo Motor Show.

Powered by an engine that generates almost 300 horsepower, the concept goes by the name Cruze Sport6 SS. The "SS" badge, most famous for adorning the Camaro, is not new to compact GM cars, having been used on the Cobalt SS, a 260-horsepower coupe sold until 2010. On top of the beefed-up engine, the Cruze SS also features more aggressive exterior features and a sportier interior. It actually looks ready to go into production, but the fact that Chevy chose to unveil it in Brazil without much fuss on social media may be a sign that it’s not going into production anytime soon.

The state of Faraday Future has officially turned depressing. It’s bad enough that the company has fallen on hard times and is desperate to raise more money to keep operations afloat, it’s another level of misery when its employees resort to setting a fund-raising campaign on Go Fund Me just to keep their own families afloat. The $50,000 campaign was started by Hector Padilla and Asim Sher, both of whom work for Faraday Future. At the moment, the page has raised over $17,000 since it launched on November 1, 2018. The goal, according to the campaign, is to “help all of those Manufacturing Team members that are in need of financial support because of lay off or mandatory furlough.”

The wildfires engulfing the state of California have shown no signs of slowing down as high winds continue to spread the fire. As of today, more than 30 people have died from the wildfires sweeping the state, while more than 200 people remain unaccounted for. Two separate wildfires on opposite ends of the state are still ongoing, one in Northern California and one in Southern California. The fire in the north, called the Camp Fire, has effectively burned down the entire town of Paradise, consuming 109,000 acres and destroying more than 6,700 homes and businesses in the area. Meanwhile, the fire in the south, called the Woolsey Fire, has consumed 83,000 acres of land and destroyed at least 177 buildings. A third fire near the Woolsey Fire, called the Hill Fire, has done its own damage, scorching 4,530 acres of land.

Are you of the opinion that there’s entirely too much young blood in motorsport? Are you tired of seeing 16-year-olds drive with audacious precision, incredible consistency and pace and humiliate the old and experienced? Well, now, the old have a place of their own: the Jaguar Series Elite for drivers over 50 years of age.

Jaguar is barely getting the I-Pace eTrophy series off the ground, a series that’s supposed to give Formula E race-goers a little more bang for their buck, and now they’re looking to expand their footprint in motorsport with a new project: the Series Elite. It’s supposed to be a series centered around wealthy gentleman drivers who are at least 50 years old and want to bang door handles in Jaguar’s XE SV Project 8.

Jaguar expects to have a grid of 20 "mature drivers", as they put it, by the time the series kicks off next May. The 20 XE SV Project 8s the 20 well-to-be adrenaline junkies will be lightly modified for track use but Jaguar stated that they can be turned back to the road legal specification quite quickly.

Volkswagen will introduce the cheapest model of its upcoming I.D. family of electric models in 2022, and it will cost no more than $23,000. For that money, you get a five-door compact crossover that will probably spawn similar versions in the Seat and Skoda lineup which will probably come at an even cheaper MSRP.

We already know that Volkswagen’s I.D. family, which will take the electric car market by storm hopes the German manufacturer, is set to feature production versions of the Buzz, Crozz and Vizzion concepts as well as the Neo. Now, sources within VW confirm that the manufacturer has approved the production of another model that will sit at the bottom of the range, price wise.

I think that we can all agree that the car that shaped the supercar landscape of today is the Ferrari F40. Not only was it the first proper and true supercar, but it spruced a whole line of successors, each of which was a breakthrough in its own right. Now, more than 30 years since its inception, we are still praising it for its remarkable technological proves and astounding performance. However, one guy – an automotive designer – went a bit further and actually reimagined the Ferrari F40 using the styling cues of the modern Ferrari cars. He made sure that the car he designed resonates with the extrovertness of the old one, but also with the sophistication that new Ferrari supercars/hypercars brought to the world. Samir Sadikhov, a graduate of the Istituto Europeo di Design, invested heavily in designing the Ferrari F40 tribute. He did it in his own time as he is currently employed as a designer at Genesis. Previously, he worked on a line of astounding Rezvani cars. Yet, if you are deep within the world of cars, you may know him for a number of astounding designs he did over the years.

Nevertheless, this particular Ferrari F40 seems like one of his most striking works.

The second-generation Aston Martin Vantage was introduced in 2018 as the company’s latest entry-level model. It replaced the Vantage model that the British firm offered from 2005 through 2017. With a brand-new model on public roads, Aston Martin is now also offering a couple of race-spec versions, one of which is the Vantage GT3.

Developed to replace the Vantage V12 GT3 that Aston Martin has been racing since 2012, the new Vantage GT3 is closely related to its GTE-spec sibling. The British company will use it as a factory race car, but it will also offer it as a customer racer for GT3-spec series around the world, including the Blancpain GT Endurance Cup and the Sprint Cup.

Continue reading to learn more about the Aston Martin Vantage GT3.

Hyundai will switch from the i30 N TCR to the Veloster N TCR for 2019 and aims at continued success in the Blancpain GT World Challenge TCR division as well as IMSA’s Michelin Pilot Challenge series. The new car will be offered through Bryan Herta Autosport in the U.S. for just $155,000 plus shipping charges.

Hyundai has ramped up its motorsport presence in the past few years. They’ve taken on the World Rally Championship and, more recently, entered the highly popular TCR scene with thei30 N hatchback. The car proved successful in both the World Touring Car Cup and the U.S.-bound Blancpain GT World Challenge.

After taking the team’s title this season the TCR class, Bryan Herta Autosport will offer the i30 N TCR’s replacement, based on the Veloster N platform, next year as a turn-key option for aspiring privateers. What is more, Hyundai will back teams competing in both IMSA-sanctioned and USAC-sanctioned championships next year.

The Jeep Gladiator is the company’s upcoming pickup truck based on the latest-generation Wrangler. The first Jeep-badged truck in almost three decades, the Gladiator will make its public debut at the 2018 Los Angeles Auto Show. A recent leak confirmed the Gladiator name too, following rumors that it might be called the Scrambler.

The Gladiator has been confirmed for some time now, but Jeep has been quiet on the details until recently. Between spy shots and insider information, we knew the pickup will have the upcoming 2018 Wrangler JL’s frame, front styling, cab, interior, and powertrains. Fortunately, the truck leaked ahead of time and now we have both photos and some information about it. Check it out in our speculative review below.

Ever since BMW entered the SUV market with the X5 back in 1999, enthusiasts have been clamoring for the Germans to produce a pickup truck. Now that Mercedes-Benz is offering the X-Class, a BMW-badged truck seems to make more sense. With the flagship X7 unveiled a few weeks ago, we can’t help but wonder whether BMW should consider a truck version at last.

After years of rumors regarding an entry-level R8 model fitted with a smaller turbocharged engine, we now know for a fact that Audi’s fledging supercar will only be available with the naturally-aspirated V-10 that we’re all familiar with.

Ever since a leaked image supposedly showcasing Audi’s release schedule over the next couple of years hit the internet, people have been talking about the possibility of a more affordable model to complete the range. Since the arrival of the second-generation R8, back in 2015, Audi dropped the V-8 engine option the R8 originally had at its core.

Now, with most manufacturers choosing forced induction to minimize the size of their engines and the number of cylinders, the R8 would have been a likely suspect of receiving this treatment in the near future.

Just before its official unveiling at the L.A. Auto Show, BMW released the first specifications about the best G20 3 Series revealed so far - the M340i xDrive. It is not an M3, but it is really, really close to being one. Actually, the M340i is the most powerful 3 Series ever revealed. Save for previous two generations of the M3.

Taking the G20 3 Series architecture to a level unachieved by any BMW 340i of before, the 2020 BMW M340i xDrive comes with a standard, electronically controlled, mechanical limited slip differential, a 382 horsepower engine, and specially tuned eight-speed transmission with Launch Control.

The 992-generation Porsche 911 is about to go official. We’ve seen it without camouflage and we know a thing or two about its drivetrain options. It should break cover in just a few months, but Porsche is using this remaining time for extensive testing all over the world.