Show Cars

The ’50s were a strange decade: on the one hand, the danger of nuclear annihilation grew bigger and bigger as tensions between East and West reached new peaks and, on the other hand, automotive design also reached new peaks - peaks touched by the ultra-high fins of cars like the 1959 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz Convertible, a true symbol of its time.

When you think of American cars from the ’50s, depending on who you are, you’re bound to first picture in your head one of three cars: the 1957 Chevy Bel Air, the 1955 Ford Thunderbird or the 1959 Eldorado Biarritz Convertible. The latter is most definitely the showboat, figuratively and literally, of a whole design trend; a trend that climaxed with this very car that, in a way, managed to kill off the trend altogether. The trend I’m talking about is of aeronautical inspiration, and it took off (pun intended) in the late ’40s and early ’50s thanks to concept cars like the Buick Le Sabre and a host of other GM Motorama creations.

No, those chrome-bathed fins didn’t help the cars corner better nor did they aid the back end in sticking to the ground better - they were just for style, and 1959 was the year of all-out chrome and all-out fins. Some think those cars are everything that’s wrong with American cars, others simply think they’re flamboyant while others still adore them. I guess it’s a matter of personal preference but, undoubtedly, the ’59 Eldorado continues to turn heads 60 years later.

The Pontiac GTO is widely regarded as one of the first muscle cars but, by 1970, even one of the stalwarts of the segment wasn’t able to sell as it once did. Still, The GTO of 1970 remains a cornerstone example of muscle cars at their absolute peak.

The Pontiac GTO was born as a sportier version of the Tempest, aimed at a younger clientele. The car debuted in 1964 and by-passed in the process GM’s policy that was limiting A-body intermediate models to a maximum engine capacity of 5.4-liters. As such, the original Tempest GTO came with the 6.4-liter V-8 that was also used by the larger Bonneville and Catalina models.

By 1970, the GTO had lost most of its chromed trim, instead sporting an Endura polyurethane nose and aggressively flared fenders. Of the 40,149, GTOs built in 1970, only 3,797 were ordered with the Judge trim level that had been introduced the year before. Sales kept plummeting from then on thanks to ever-increasing insurance costs, stringent pollution-related rules, and regulations and a general shift in the market’s interest from performance cars to economy cars just as the oil crisis hit.

Keep reading to learn more about the 1970 Pontiac GTO Judge

The BMW M3 Competition and BMW M4 CS might look pretty much identical, but put them side by side in a drag race, and there’s one very clear winner.

Subaru has launched the Impreza WRX STI Diamon Edition, the most powerful Impreza ever made. If you want one, you have to get to South Africa. Here’s why you should consider it: 349 horsepower and 342 pound-feet of torque are barely contained under the hood, and all that power is matched by an outrageous body kit.

Subaru has built numerous special edition Imprezas over the years. For instance, think about the 22B or the RB320, both dedicated to the late Richard Burns, or the Japan-only S208. Now, this latest super-Impreza is the work of Subaru South Africa who built it to mark the 30th anniversary of Subaru Technica International or STI.

This isn’t the first limited-edition model built by Subaru South Africa and, like the 15th-anniversary edition, it will most likely become extremely sought after as only 30 will be built. All of them are, probably, already booked and will be shipped to their very lucky owners in January of next year.

The Mercedes-Benz 190 SL was the more laid-back version of the legendary 300 SL and, like its much more exclusive big brother, was a huge hit in the U.S., practically establishing the SL model in Mercedes’ range for decades to come.

The 190 SL, like the 300 SL, was born out of a suggestion from U.S. executive and luxury foreign car importer Max Hoffman who thought that a less expensive but still exciting and luxurious version of the 300 SL would appeal to the U.S. clientele. He’d previously come up with the idea of the road-going 300 SL as well, reckoning that America’s rich and famous would love to blitz down the country’s infinite highways aboard a more friendly version of Mercedes-Benz’s 1952 Le Mans winner, the W194 300 SL designed by Rudolf Uhlenhaut.

Due to Hoffman’s significant success as the Mercedes importer, the Stuttgart-based company decided to follow suit on his bold ideas and debuted prototypes of the two SLs at the 1954 New York International Motor Sports Show in February of that year.

Unlike the 300 SL, for which a purpose-built tubular spaceframe chassis was created, the 190 SL exhibited a tweaked version of the Mercedes-Benz 180’s underpinnings. As such, it received the W121 nomenclature with the sedan known as the W120.

Keep reading to learn more about the 1958 Mercedes-Benz 190 SL

You can pretty much see anything and everything automotive related at the SEMA show. From pure-bred muscle cars, wild exotics, monster trucks, and full-on race cars. SEMA has something for everyone to love. On the other side of that spectrum, there is a lot that may not be to your taste. From the crazy awesome to the crazy clueless, here you can find a bit of each.

One hundred forty thousand people descend upon the Las Vegas convention center for the largest aftermarket automotive trade show in the world. Welcome to SEMA 2018, where many of the top automotive aftermarket manufacturers, builders, and shops come together to learn, shop, and show off the best products and some of the best custom rides in the game. I overheard one SEMA organizer saying that if you were to walk up and down every aisle in every pavilion you would walk almost 54 miles and I believe it! Sadly, most of SEMA is very boring and very repetitive (I mean seriously, how many booths about tires does one show need?) but, there are always those automotive gems to look at and once in a while a new product that just makes you stop and say "wow." So, here are a few of those cars that made me stop and actually take a look.

Car customization can make your dreams come true - even if that dream is turning your mid-80’s domestic into a Porsche supercar. Case in point is this, uh, unique Pontiac Fiero, which someone transformed into a hilarious parrot of the Porsche Carrera GT.

The best part is that it’s listed on Ebay UK, so if you really want it, and have an extra $16,881 to spare, it could be yours. Don’t worry, we won’t judge you.

BMW is reportedly readying an even hotter version of its M2 to sit above the M2 Competition - they are the M2 CS and M2 CSL, and our spies believe that’s what they captured in these photos. Some older reports from before the Competition model was launched, called it the M2 GTS. The white prototype features several changes over the M2 Competition and, as a Whole, it looks like a more aggressive, track-focused machine.

It has been suggested that the M2 CS would be a North America-only limited model available from 2020 and that the CSL would be even more extreme and sold on other markets from 2021, but right now it’s too early to make these predictions. Both will clearly be lighter, more powerful and better around a track than the Competition which in turn is one step up from the base M2.

Hyundai is not yet sure it wants to make a full production version of the Santa Fe Cabriolet (and it probably won’t), but if it did, it’d be the world’s first seven-seater convertible... that’s also an SUV.

Koenigsegg has admitted to being bowled over by Tesla’s performance claims for its new Roadster to the point that company engineers went straight to work after realizing that the Roadster’s performance times were indeed possible. Speaking with Top Gear, Koenigsegg chief Christian von Koenigsegg admitted that Tesla had thrown the gauntlet, and it was up to his company to respond. In typical bravado fashion, Koenigsegg is embracing the challenge with plans that could set up an industry-altering showdown with Tesla.

Jaguar Land Rover has some good news for classic car fanatics. The British automaker is opening a classic car refurbishing and restoration center in North America. Apart from restoration, the center will also sell and service JLR’s classic vehicles. The facility will open in Savannah, Georgia in the summer of 2019.

TopSpeed is at Monterey Car Week 2018, and we’ve already stumbled across so many cool cars that we couldn’t help but share them with you. For the first day of Monterey Car Week, we spent some time checking out the area and visiting the Gordon McCall’s Motorworks Revival. To finish out the day, we cruised on over to the Monterey Jet Center but not before we stumbled across none other than the McLaren Senna and a bunch of other really cool cars. We even managed to snag a video of a really cool Ferrari racer, and we were lucky enough to catch the startup of a dragster in all its glory. Check out the videos and more than 200 images below!

Rolls-Royce is bringing four different versions of the Cullinan to Monterey Car Week as part of the luxury SUV’s public debut in the U.S. All four versions of the Cullinan will sport different paint jobs. They’ll also be joined by a handful of special edition Rolls-Royce models, including the Umbra Black Badge, the Paradiso, and Nebula Collections. All three collections feature Dawn, Ghost, and Wraith models, though the Dawn will be showcased as an exclusive model, called the Dawn Black Badge Adamas Collection. The luxury automaker will also bring a one-off Phantom that’s earmarked for Rolls-Royce enthusiast Michael Fux.