To my mind, the pinnacle of Detroit-Italy mashups is the Bizzarini A3C, but considering those are hen’s teeth I would say the successful Pantera stands out as the best.

Yes, that’s true. Porsche has basically admitted in press materials that the marketers have long since messed with the old consecutive numbering system.

The grille change was probably not necessary. Randall American, the dealership famous for its 401 Gremlins also did some V8 conversions for early Pacers without having to alter the hood or grille. Another possible engineering issue was the standard V8 radiator, which was taller than the one used for the sixes and had…

That’s fair. I think Saab’s seats are pretty good but definitely overrated. What was pretty awesome in 1990 is not that remarkable 30 years on, and the headrest design is awful for drivers who are long in the torso. I’m only 5'10", 150, so it doesn’t take much seat for me to be comfortable.

Later Saabs usually had a manually-adjustable lumber section. Which made the seats even better, even if the car around them was maybe less good. 

It’s smart of Toyota to spread the RAV4 Hybrid drivetrain around, and doubly smart to do it with a crossover that has style. It looks a little small inside for its size, though. Especially if it’s priced in the mid $30s as I suspect it would be.

I instantly thought of that option. It’s shocking how much Cayenne you can get for $17K. The one caveat, of course, is that there’s a good reason why they are so cheap, and it’s not because they are not capable....

I remember when this came out it lost a comparison test to the slower Trailblazer SS, which tells you something. My only explanation for the price is that Jeep has made a bunch of hotter GCs since, so maybe that has kept prices higher. But really this should be somewhere around $10K, if that.

You’ve been breathing in soot on your bike for decades. Diesel exhaust often contains soot. That opaque dark smoke? Yes, literally soot. A new diesel vehicle might not create any visible soot because most of the larger organic or inorganic compounds are combusted. But for older vehicles or trucks? Just look around.

FCA probably wanted to position Maserati and Alfa more effectively, but I’m guessing the gravitational forces of Ferrari had something to do with the fact that Maser, a one-time racing brand, has had to make an SUV, the Levante, its halo performance car. I suppose it was like that in the ‘80s when the Q-porte was the…

It’s interesting to consider that Tesla’s switch from cobalt-based lithium battery chemistry to lithium-iron-phosphate was probably motivated more by manufacturing considerations than by performance. I could be wrong, but I don’t think you could get away with this sort of packaging for a conventional lithium-ion…

If anything, Jalopnik missed an opportunity to make a jab at Musk for not ditching the old and inefficient 18650 architecture earlier.

Those bad PM numbers have supported about 20 years of epidemiological studies that have suggested strong ties between PM and shortened life spans from respiratory diseases. It’s mostly PM2.5 and PM10. PM2.5 is very common in vehicle exhaust.

That’s a fantastic anecdote. I don’t remember what the weight distribution was on these, but most of the V6 front-drivers of that time were very front heavy. Good traction in snow, but the front brakes and tires suffered for it.

VW was on the ropes in the early 1990s and sold only 60,000 cars in 1993. This was a company accustomed to selling between 200 and 400K cars a year. Early ‘90s VWs were fairly rare even before the attrition.

I’m with you. I’ve driven a Corrado with the G60 and its nice, but for the heavier, softer Passat I’d rather have the unfussy and even more powerful 12v VR6, which actually gave better performance figures.

That’s interesting. The K was designed when Mazda was still heavily into motorsport so the homologation angle is believable.

I was shocked to learn Skoda actually built a Group 5 car out of the 130, even installing a 16-valve four at one point. That’s about as advanced as it got.

Is that an R2 unit behind the front seats?

Agreed. The pre-packaged tunes end at around 590 hp. After that it’s much cheaper to go with a supercharger. Once you get to the point of installing M159-style parts things get pricey fast. Even the hottest SLS “only” made 622 and that was at the expense of some torque.