Industry News

It’s Veterans Day, and all of us here at TopSpeed would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to those brave men and women that have served our country. In honor of this day, we’ve put together a video compilation that highlights some of the more interesting machines used by militaries across the world. Included is a list of 25 cutting-edge ground vehicles, a look at how vehicles are tested before they are put into service, and a list of the top five military trucks and armored cars.

If you’re looking for a way to help out a veteran, Military.com has a nice list of charities to check out, including the Wounded Warrior Project, Homes For Our Troops, and the USO. You could also check out volunteering opportunities at Veterans Affairs hospitals and facilities, or possibly get involved with the Veterans Initiative at Canine Companions for Independence. You can also simply say “thank you” to a veteran.

Continue reading to check out the videos.

The Alfa Romeo 4C was the sports car that marked the Italian company’s return to the U.S. after many years. But, as Alfa Romeo’s sales plummet and FCA starts to cut back, the 4C Spider has been canceled - just like the standard 4C at the end of 2018. Alfa Romeo has already stopped production, so the only 4Cs available as of November 2019 are those left in dealer inventories. So, if you want one, you better hurry up and get it.

FCA and PSA are merging; this much we know is true. With this in mind, and the reminder that Peugeot has been itching to get back into the U.S. market, we’ve realized that this new merger with FCA could streamline and speed up that process in a big way. Furthermore, it opens the door for brands like Citroen, Vauxhall, and DS to ease into the U.S. market without taking too large of a risk. So, if this all plays out in the most favorable way possible, what cool cars could end up on U.S. roads in the near future? Let’s dig into it and look at the possibilities.

The 2020 Porsche 911 is finally available with a manual transmission instead of the eight-speed automatic. There is a catch, however, as the seven-speed manual transmission is only available in the Carrera S and Carrera 4S models (in both coupe and cabriolet versions).

My wife will be the first to tell you that I suck at math, but after reviewing Cars Direct’s findings of lease cost for the 2020 Toyota Supra and 2020 BMW Z4, even I can tell you things don’t add up properly – and that’s saying a lot. In short, the more expensive BMW Z4 is cheaper to lease than the Toyota Supra, even when you go for the Z4 M40i and compare it to the entry-level Toyota Supra. Yikes!

Porsche is creating a new concept vehicle, only this time, it’s not the kind of concept that we’re accustomed to. The German automaker is teaming up with Lucasfilm — yes, Lucasfilm — to create a spaceship — yes, a spaceship — for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. The intergalactic vehicle isn’t expected to be included in the movie, but it will be created and displayed at the premiere of the new Star Wars movie extravaganza on December 20. The timing of this Porsche-Lucasfilm collaboration could point hints to the possible use of Porsche’s new Taycan — Porsche’s first-ever EV is also slotted for a December world debut — in the design and development of the aforementioned spaceship. It’s a curious thing to say, let alone imagine a Porsche-designed spaceship for the Star Wars universe.

Well, this is some big news that will interest all the Jeep Wrangler fans out there. JLWranglerForums has received a scoop on the pricing of the diesel engine option. As it turns out, the famed 3.0-liter EcoDiesel engine will be available as optional on the 2020 Jeep Wrangler JL for $6,000.

This includes the price of the eight-speed automatic gearbox as well. But there’s a catch. Although the premise of this engine making its way under the hood of the Wrangler is exciting at the onset, we are utterly disappointed that this engine cannot be mated to a manual transmission. Come on, Jeep. Why can’t you let us have the cake and eat it too this one time?

It’s 2019 and we’re still happily buying and driving gas-powered and diesel-powered cars but the days of the internal combustion engine - at least the one as we know it now, powered by fossil fuels - are numbered with the looming threat of global warming growing seemingly by the minute. As almost every major player in the automotive industry pushes for electrification, we see customers do so too with more and more EVs being bought every year. Moreover, countries all around the world are preparing laws that could see the sale of ICE-powered vehicles outlawed. This may become a reality in the United Kingdom by 2035 and the U.S. could follow suit sooner rather than later although such a dramatic shift won’t happen overnight.

Can you feel it? The wind of change is blowing hard nowadays. Researchers say that, by 2022, owning an EV will be cheaper than the cost of living with a diesel-powered or a gas-powered alternative. By 2040, it’s said that around 50% of the cars on our roads will be electric and you can see how this may happen as the sales of EVs have gone up by an astonishing 92% in the first six months of 2019 to 765,000 units sold across 41 different markets around the globe. It’s still a niche with just 1.7% of the global market being taken up by BEVs but this percentage grows all the time and the process will be accelerated once nations start enforcing partial and then across-the-board bans on fossil fuel-powered vehicle that’ll leave people and business no choice but to switch when the moment comes to buy a new car.

There’s something to be said about attention to detail, and we’re all for it – especially when we’re talking about cars that venture across the six-figure barrier or even the seven-figure barrier. But, at what point to attention to detail become an OCD problem or, even worse, arrogance? Well, we’re not really here to argue that, but we are here to tell you that Porsche is so anal about its cars that the center caps in each wheel have to be aligned in a certain way. We’re not even kidding, folks. Get a load of this.

It’s blatantly obvious that SUVs are viewed as the greatest thing since toilet paper. They seem to dominate every parking in a 4:1 ratio to cars, if not worse. It’s so bad that automakers like Ford, among others, have decided to nix almost every car it sells here in favor of SUVs. But, do you remember or even know why SUVs are so popular today? Well, there’s a long story to be told, and I believe that automakers have forgotten a big contender that deserves a comeback: The Station Wagon.

Ford hasn’t launched theHigh-Performance Package for the 2.3-liter EcoBoost Mustang quite yet, but it launches Fall of 2019, so we’re not too far off. We’ve talked a lot about it, but to our knowledge, nobody had seen it so far. That was until MSN Autos apparently managed to get behind the wheel of one and they say that it gives the base, four-cylinder Chevy Camaro a hardcore beatdown – even worse than it did before. So, how bad does the EcoBoost Mustang Performance Package put a hurting on the Chevy Camaro?

After just three years on the market, the fourth-generation Ford Super Duty has been issued a commanding update, the most noticeable of which comes in the form of an updated 6.7-liter, Turbodiesel, V-8 that now delivers 475 horsepower and 1,050 pound-feet of torque right off the production line without the need for any upgrades. This positions the Ford Super Duty at the top of its class in terms of power and torque, towing capacity, and payload capacity. So what is the Ford Super Duty capable of now?

The BMW i3 always stood out from the rest of BMW’s premium lineup. It’s Bimmer’s first-ever fully electric vehicle and six years after it was introduced, the i3 still draws a lot of attention, thanks in large part to its quirky styling, electric powertrain, and a surprisingly spacious interior.

The i3 served a purpose when it was launched in 2013. It was BMW’s first foray into battery electric vehicles and it was intended to gauge customer interest in electric cars without compromising BMW’s mainstream lineup of models. Well, the i3 served its purpose. Like most automakers, BMW is in the midst of a full-on assault on electric vehicles with plans to release 13 EVs by 2023.

Unfortunately, the i3 won’t be part of that future anymore now that BMW announced that it wouldn’t renew the i3 past this current generation. It will still build models for the next few years, but as far as a next-generation model is concerned, that’s no longer happening. So pour a 40 for Bimmer’s quirky little electric ride. It’s had a good run, but like all things in this world, that run will have a finish line.