Sports
-
Electric-car maker Tesla Motors has a lot on its hands right now, with deliveries of its Model X electric SUV at the end of the month, a battery gigafactory under construction, a mass-priced electric car to unveil next spring, and so forth. So it's encouraging to learn that the company is now starting to deliver the new battery pack that's one component of the "Roadster 3.0" upgrade kit. The $29,000 replacement battery consists of a new, higher-capacity pack and upgrades to the power electronics module that together deliver "over 35 percent" more range. DON'T MISS: Tesla Roadster 3.0 Update...
-
2016 Mazda MX-5 Miata: The Greenest New Sports Car You Can Buy?
The 2016 Mazda MX-5 Miata is the newest generation of the world's most popular sports car. The iconic two-seater passed the British MGB more than a decade ago to become the highest-volume sports car in the world, and the latest iteration brings it into the current decade. In fact, we'd argue that...
John Voelcker -
2015 BMW i8 Video Road Test
The BMW i8 is sleek and stunning, but it's no V-8-powered supercar. Is it the car that will give plug-in hybrids sex appeal? First, you need to know what makes the i8 go. This is no straightforward supercar: The i8 gets power in a complex way--it can be front-wheel drive, rear-wheel drive, or...
Joel Feder -
Tesla Roadster 3.0: 70-kWh Battery, Aero Kit, New Tires, For 400-Mile Range
Tesla Motors announced today that it has prototyped a "Roadster 3.0" package, which Roadster owners will be able to purchase in the future to update the battery pack, aerodynamics, and tires of their 2008-2012 Tesla Roadster electric sports cars. Taken together, the updates are expected to boost...
John Voelcker -
Tesla Roadster Battery Upgrade Details: Coming This Week, Musk Says
Say what you will about Tesla Motors chief executive Elon Musk, he's one of the very few global automaker CEOs who personally responds to owner questions via Twitter. And he's at it again, promising late Friday afternoon that details will be coming this week on the promised battery upgrade for the...
John Voelcker -
Strong Demand For BMW i8 Plug-In Hybrid Coupe May Presage Production Rise
BMW may increase i8 production to reduce wait times.
Stephen Edelstein -
Last week's media days at the Paris Motor Show were the usual mix of cars and marketing. They brought together stunning concept cars, more prosaic production models under pin spots, and speeches laying out how important every single model actually was to the future of the automotive world. DON'T MISS: Volkswagen XL Sport With Ducati V-Twin Engine: Paris Motor Show Photos One of the genuinely interesting concepts, though, was the Volkswagen XL Sport. It offers a Lotus-like case study of why tiny and light vehicles designed for ultra-efficiency can make remarkably interesting sports cars when...
-
2016 Mazda Miata: Sexy New Roadster Highlights Low Sales Of Two-Seat Cars
The Mazda MX-5, formerly Miata, holds a Guinness World Record as the highest-selling two-seater sports car in history. More than 940,000 MX-5s have been made since 1989, and the new 2016 MX-5 has just made its debut. Despite those impressive sales numbers though, the MX-5 is actually the perfect...
Antony Ingram -
Polaris Slingshot: Is A 173-HP, $20K '3-Wheeled Motorcycle' A Car?
Three wheeled vehicles get a lot of attention from hardcore fans of performance cars. They also get plenty of attention from hardcore fans of green vehicles--as they share many of the same desirable characteristics, like an aerodynamic teardrop shape with surprising stability, and light weight...
Antony Ingram -
Carice Electric Sports Car Is Tiny, Beautiful, Kinda Expensive
Electric sports cars are not a major priority for automakers right now. Traditionally, sports cars of any sort don't sell in huge numbers (Mazda's Miata is still shy of a million units and it's a quarter century old now) so electric ones are even more of a niche. That means it's up to companies...
Antony Ingram -
Even Ferrari To Cut Carbon Emissions, With Hybrid V-12 & Turbo V-8 Engines
The fastest, most expensive sports cars and supercars must constantly boost performance to stay competitive--and now they're also having to cut their carbon emissions at the same time. Ferrari, possibly the best-known among sought-after supercar brands, plans to cut average carbon emissions across...
John Voelcker -
Trident Poised To Launch World's Fastest Diesel Cars
British sports car brand Trident is set to launch two new variants of its Iceni sports car--billed as the world's fastest and most fuel-efficient diesel sports cars. The Iceni convertible, the fixed-roof Iceni Magna and the Iceni Venturer wagon use a 6.6-liter turbodiesel V-8 engine to deliver huge...
Antony Ingram -
With awareness of the 2014 BMW i3 battery-electric car starting to rise--it will arrive at dealers in late April or early May--it's sometimes easy to forget that BMW has a second plug-in car following close behind. And unlike the i3, whose looks are controversial, there's very little debate over the design of the 2015 BMW i8 plug-in hybrid sport coupe. MORE: 2015 BMW i8 Live Photo Gallery: 2013 Frankfurt Auto Show Pretty much everyone thinks it looks just fantastic. And that's even before neat technological breakthroughs like the laser headlights. And adding to the style quotient, we learned...
-
Corvette Stingray Gets 29 MPG (Highway), But Only With A Clutch Pedal
With the 2014 Corvette, buying a stick-shift nets one mpg in all categories.
Stephen Edelstein -
Configure A 2015 Porsche 918 Spyder Plug-In Hybrid Sports Car For Yourself
Build your own version of Porsche's plug-in hybrid hypercar online.
Stephen Edelstein -
Porsche 918 Spyder Live Photo Gallery: 2013 Frankfurt Auto Show
The long-awaited Porsche 918 Spyder plug-in hybrid supercar debuted in production form at the 2013 Frankfurt Auto Show.
Stephen Edelstein -
Tiny Kei-Car Engine For Iconic Caterham 7 Sports Car
Putting a tiny engine in a hairy-chested sports car doesn't seem like the perfect recipe for fun, but British sports car companies have always been a little... different. Caterham is one of those companies. Back in 1972, it bought the rights to Colin Chapman's lightweight Lotus Seven sports car...
Antony Ingram -
Delays At Detroit Electric Postpone Electric Sports Car By A Month
Forgive the cynicism, but color us not all that surprised at the news that startup automaker Detroit Electric is postponing production of its SP:01 electric sports car by "at least a month." Launched in a flurry of media attention in early April, the plug-in electric SP:01 sports coupe is...
John Voelcker -
It was a Mercedes-Benz icon before it became a performance flagship. Now it's a messenger for the future: the gullwing's going electric. The SLS AMG Electric Drive electric car is closing in on series production, converting the octane-addicted supercar to fit a greener vision of the future. We've told you before how we're green with envy over the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Electric Drive--the all-electric version of Benz' fabulous gullwing sportscar. Now we've had a brief drive in the South of France, at Circuit Paul Ricard, to confirm that it's the real thing--though Mercedes is still coy about...
-
Tesla Will Sell 5 Models In 2016; Small SUV And Sports Car Added
Along with the news that Tesla expects to build 80 Model S electric cars this week, CEO Elon Musk also released a few more details of the company's plans for additional models in 2016. Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] has already said that it will launch the Model X crossover within the next year or so...
John Voelcker -
2014 Porsche 918 Spyder Tackles Nurbürgring, Announces Martini Sponsorship
Between 1973 and 1978, Porsche race teams were sponsored by Martini, favorite tipple of fictional British spy James Bond. Now the pairing is set to make a comeback with a special edition of Porsche’s highly-anticipated 2014 918 Spyder plug-in hybrid. Still a year away from launch, the latest...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Morgan Plus E Concept Car LIve Gallery: 2012 Geneva Motor Show
Visit this year’s Geneva Motor Show, and you’d be forgiven for passing one very important electric car by without even realizing it. The Morgan Plus E concept car. Complete with the sweeping fenders that morph into elegant running-boards, the Morgan Plus E looks just like the...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Morgan Plus E Electric Roadster: Modern Battery In Classic Car
Morgan Motor Company is now the largest UK-owned car company in Britain. Its Plus 4 "classic" model, the latest evolution of a 1930s roadster design, is still built with ash body framing and the century-old "sliding pillar" front suspension. Nonetheless, the quirky family-owned British maker of...
John Voelcker -
Gordon Murray Announces New Teewave AR.1 Electric Sports Car
Gordon Murray may need little introduction among gearheads following his work on the McLaren F1 supercar back in the 1990s, but his most recent projects, the T.25 and T.27 minicars, certainly raised a few eyebrows. Sports car fans need not have feared however, as today Gordon Murray Design (GMD)...
Antony Ingram