Cars

The 2019 Volkswagen Jetta has entered the record books after setting the land speed record for its class and displacement at the Bonneville Salt Flats. The Jetta set the record with a run that reached 210.16 mph, breaking the previous record of 208.472 mph. The achievement didn’t come with its share of problems, but ultimately, Volkswagen and the team behind this particular Jetta, THR Manufacturing, managed to troubleshoot their way into the record books, putting a successful lid on an attempt that was months in the making.

Other automakers need to learn from Volkswagen when it comes to how to keep a model fresh, no matter how old it is. Volkswagen introduced the 2019 GTI Rabbit Edition in the U.S., which feels like a tribute to the original iteration of the hatchback. It will be slotted between the base ‘S’ trim and mid ‘SE’ trim.

Vanity has never been one of Ram’s strong suits, but the hulking pickup brand is making an exception with the launch of the Ram 2500 Power Wagon Mojave Sand Edition. Essentially an aesthetics package, the 2500 Power Wagon Mojave Sand Edition takes advantage of the Mojave Sand beige color, which has become the fastest-selling shade on the Ram Rebel. Now, the color is appearing for the first time on a Ram Heavy Duty model. Only 1,500 units will be built, with each model priced at $54,830.

In line with the 100th anniversary of Zagato, Aston Martin is producing a pair of limited-run, special-edition models for the Italian coachbuilder. The models, called the DB4 GT Zagato Continuation and the DBS GT Zagato, are limited to just 19 units each. If you’re interested in buying these special edition models, Aston Martin is placing a “take-both-or-leave-them-alone” policy on both. That means you’ll have to buy both the DB4 GT Zagato Continuation and the DBS GT Zagato together. The cost of the two vehicles? Only £6 million, or roughly around $7.9 million, not counting local taxes.

Ferrari shocks everyone again and launches two open-top sports cars for the road as part of a new program called Icona. They are the Monza SP1 and SP2; they look like bonkers re-imagined ‘50s racers, and will be made in very limited quantities – all of which have been already sold.

Just as I was lamenting the other day about the disappearance of coachbuilding, Ferrari decides to get up and unveil a whole new line of cars under the Icona moniker. We know about Ferrari’s Special Projects program that builds one-off models, sometimes starting from a clean piece of paper, for Maranello’s most-trusted and respected buyers. The cars that will come through the Icona program won’t be one-offs, but you still won’t see more than 200 made of each. That’s, apparently, how many new Monzas they will build and, despite a $1,400,000 price tag, all have been sold. Indeed, it’s a cheap price to ask considering a one-off Ferrari – for which all slots have been reserved all the way until 2021 – starts at about $3,000,000.

With the occasion of Ferrari’s Capital Markets Day, the Italian automaker debuted the Icona program on the premises of its new Centro Stile facility in Maranello. The program, which is slated to run until 2022 for the very least, will see more cars built using the same recipe: design philosophy that harkens back to the old days in combination with the latest Ferrari underpinnings.

BMW tuner extraordinaire G-Power has a new tuning upgrade for the BMW M5, and it’s packing three stages worth of power upgrades. The new program is dedicated to the current-generation M5 F90, and in addition to the extensive modifications to the M5’s 4.4-liter, twin-turbo, V-8 engine, the tuning kit also includes a number of aerodynamic changes to go with a new set of wheels.

Nissan revealed a highly modified version of its Navara pickup truck at the Hannover Motor Show, called the Navara Dark Sky Concept. The pickup is designed to transport astronomers to remote locations to observe the night sky; but of course, it will also appeal to the romantics and star-gazers.

At its Charged Event in Northern California, Audi revealed its first all-electric SUV - the 2020 Audi E-Tron. As the newest electric vehicle on the market, the Audi E-Tron brought a wealth of new equipment, and some of it is truly cutting edge. Among the latest invasion of electric SUVs (the EQ C, the I-Pace, the iX3), the Audi E-Tron, despite its conservative appearance, surprisingly seems to be the most advanced of the lot. I will list here 15 facts and features that make the newest Audi electric SUV the most advanced, and possibly the most appealing, electric SUV on the market.

A Chinese property developer is offering a BMW 3 Series or a BMW X1 to anyone who buys a three-bedroom unit or townhouse at its development property in Shanghai. The developer, China Merchants Shekou Industrial Zone Holdings Co., is pulling out all the stops to lure buyers in the wake of lending curbs and funding constraints that have squeezed their finances. The giveaway is just one example of the lengths Chinese property developers are going to for the sake of boosting sales.

Lamborghini has revealed the most aggressive version of its smallest offering, the $430,000 Huracan GT3 Evo racer, which as its name suggests, is an evolution of the original Huracan GT3. It improves the first GT3 in several ways and is available for purchase both as a standalone model or as an upgrade for any existing Huracan GT3.

Winning not only the GT Asia Series Championship in 2016, as well as the Rolex 24 at Daytona and 12 Hours of Sebring, the Huracan GT3, has proven highly successful, and the Evo is further refined and enhanced to bring out its qualities. The main point of focus was enhancing the car’s aerodynamics with the help of the Dallara Engineering.

McLaren has launched the online configurator for the new 600LT supercar. Launched at the 2018 Goodwood Festival of Speed back in July, the track-prepped Sports Series supercar brings back the Long Tail heritage for McLaren. The 600LT is lighter and more powerful than the 570S. It’s powered by the same twin-turbo, 3.8-liter, V-8 that’s used throughout the entire Sports Series lineup. The 600LT’s V-8 engine is tuned to produce 592 horsepower and 457 pound-feet of torque, 30 horsepower and 14 pound-feet of torque more than the 570S. Now that the supercar’s online configurator is live, it’s time to go have some fun with it.

This is the new Kia Ceed GT - something called a warm hatch and is destined to reach Europe in an effort to upscale the entire Ceed family there. It will do so along with the new Proceed Shooting Brake. None of these cars will ever be available in the U.S., but they do show rather impressive effort focused on Kia’s reimagination of its brand. Kia isn’t a super-cheap car producer anymore. It has a coupe-like sedan with 373 horsepower, a grille called Tiger Nose, and now the Ceed GT that is powered by a 1.6-liter, turbocharged engine that develops 201 horsepower and 195 pound-feet of torque. Yup, the very same engine you can get here in the Veloster. Actually, imagine that I am whispering to you now - the Ceed GT is really, really similar to the Veloster Turbo R-Spec. Only, it has a normal number of doors.

Hennessey Performance’s new engine upgrade package for the Challenger Demon raises the muscle car’s output to 1,200 horsepower. Called the HPE1200, the program makes the Demon’s standard output of 840 horsepower look like a puppy by comparison. Hennessey put its crown jewel Challenger Demon program to the test, and as you’d expect it, “mercy” wasn’t in the muscle car’s vocabulary.

The Lola Mk. 6 GT is genuine cornerstone material in the racing world as it laid the groundwork for what would become Ford’s answer to Ferrari: the GT40. It was also one of the first mid-engined GT sports cars to race at Le Mans, its philosophy transforming into the go-to recipe for endurance racers for years to follow.

This year, we celebrated 50 years since Ford’s third win on the trot at Le Mans. One more was on the cards for the following year, and all was possible because of Eric Broadley’s Lola Mk. 6 GT which debuted at London’s Olympia Racing Car Show in January of 1963. It was a sleek, yet simple design that blazed a trail that many would follow in the construction of purposeful endurance sports cars as well as many road cars that we now look at and consider the forefathers of the supercar.

It all happened thanks to a change in the regulations of the rebadged World Sports Car Championship, which would be known as the International Championship for GT Manufacturers for 1962. This rebranding exercise also led the way to FISA launching a new class for Experimental Grand Touring cars. These were, in effect, closed-top sports racers that didn’t need to worry about any homologation requirements that were in line for production-based machinery. While still retaining the GT moniker, these were, for all intents and purposes, prototypes that had to retain some degree of roadworthiness to be road legal.

This was very much the case with the Mk. 6 GT which, in innovative fashion, featured monocoque construction, although it wasn’t a “full monocoque.” Another innovation laid in the construction of the bodywork which was made entirely out of fiberglass, something quite uncommon at the time. For all the stir int produced upon launch, the Mk. 6 GT fell short on its promises, Broadley’s limited pockets effectively cutting the wings of his new design which seldom showed up at a race meeting, and when it did it never lasted too long.

Only three of these cars were ever made and, thankfully, all survive to this day. While you may think they are only a footnote in the Ford vs. Ferrari saga, if it weren’t for Lola raising Henry Ford II’s eyebrows at Le Mans 55 years ago, we may never have gotten the GT40 the way we know it today. Yes, the follow-up Lola T70 is the much more revered design, and the Ford GT40 is the one that gathered all the accolades in the winner’s circle, but the Mk. 6 GT deserves to lavish in much more attention than it gets for the pioneering act that it is.

Keep reading to learn more about the Lola Mk. 6 GT and its intricate history and historical relevance.

Following a round of teasers, Mercedes-AMG has finally revealed its latest fire-breathing hatchback - the 2019 A35 4Matic.

“Body shell, suspension, all-wheel drive, transmission, driving programs, fine tuning - every detail has been designed for maximum driving dynamics without compromising on everyday comfort,” Merc announces.

The main party piece can be found under the hood, where Mercedes stuffed the hot-to-trot A-Class with a turbocharged four-cylinder making as much as 306 horsepower and 295 pound-feet of torque. Properly applied, its enough to send the A35 to 100 km/h (62 mph) in a scorching 4.7 seconds, while top speed clocks in at 155 mph. The boost snail is a twin-scroll unit for sharper response.

Routing the muscle is a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission, which feeds an AMG-tuned, electro-mechanical 4Matic AWD system. The torque split can vary between front-wheel drive only, to a 50:50 split front-to-back.

Keeping it shiny side up are MacPherson struts up front and a four-link for the rear. There’s plenty of aluminum to keep it all light, while a set of adaptive dampers can be had for a little extra outlay. Large four-pot brakes clamp the front, with brake rotors that measure in at 13.8 inches in front and 13 inches in the rear.

The A35 looks the part of a hooligan thanks to AMG’s classic styling chops, which includes a unique grille in the nose, aero-optimized 18-inch wheels in the corners, and a large spoiler mated to a pronounced diffuser in the rear.

Inside the cabin, you’ll find the latest MBUX infotainment goodies, plus AMG’s signature upholstery treatment and a flat-bottom steering wheel. A fully digital instrument display provides the feedback.

Look for the 2019 Mercedes-AMG A35 4Matic to strut its stuff early next month at the 2018 Paris Motor Show.