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1. Fun to drive
2. Great hybrid
3. Fast ST trim

1. Awful interior quality
2. Awfully expensive
3. Awful brakes on the ST

Over the past 30 years, the Ford Explorer has grown with us. It started out as a plucky little off-roader in the ’90s, morphed into a big, V-8-powered SUV in the early ’00s, and spent the past eight years as a large front-drive-based three-row family SUV and, well, a cop car.

The redesigned 2020 Ford Explorer, then, is less a return to form and more of the latest evolution of Ford’s venerable SUV as it grows, changes, and molds itself to America’s needs.

Read about other SUV of the Year contenders—including models from Ford, Cadillac, and Honda—HERE.

The Explorer’s popularity with Americans is a testament to all the boxes it seemingly ticks. Like the version immediately preceding it, the 2020 model seats up to seven. Embracing global emissions and fuel economy [...]

I used to be blown away by the Citroën 2CV Safari’s complexity. Answering a need for four-wheel drive in its African colonies, Citroën added another engine, transmission, and fuel tank to the lowly 2CV instead of just an extra drive shaft to the rear wheels. Now that I’ve driven the new 2020 Polestar 1—the plug-in hybrid sports grand tourer from Volvo’s Tesla-fighting electric brand—that old 2CV Safari really seems quite quaint.

Given that we’re at peak internal combustion engine right now, the Polestar 1 represents peak complexity. Up front, under its carbon-fiber sheet … fiber … sits a 2.0-liter super- and turbocharged I-4 and an eight-speed automatic driving the front wheels, producing a healthy 326 hp and 384 lb-ft of torque. That superturbocharged setup alone would be incredibly complex to manage, as the Polestar’s computers must make the low-end-rich supercharger play nice with the high-rpm turbocharger while managing the engine itself and the transmission’s shift [...]

Vallelunga, Italy, a 2.5-mile wriggle of a racetrack just north of Rome. The edgy snarl of a race-tuned V-10 shatters the morning calm. A finned, winged, wedge-shaped blur flashes past pit lane: Brap, brap, braaaaap. That’s fourth, fifth, sixth gear, just before the daunting Curva Grande, a fast right-hander with a big compression on the apex and a left-hand kink on the exit that’s tighter than it looks. The quick guys barely lift, threading the needle at 145 mph.

The garage buzzes with activity, engineers playing with software, mechanics bustling with hardware, a racing hive mind in Lamborghini Squadra Corse black and gray, trimmed with acid green. The chatter of rattle guns announces a set of freshly warmed slicks for the Lamborghini Huracan race car in front of me. I glance over at a young man wearing a fireproof race suit just like mine. Man? Boy really, barely old enough to shave, at least 10 [...]

Currently the most extreme version of the Lamborghini Aventador, the Aventador SVJ comes with a 760-hp 6.5-liter V-12 and all-wheel drive. The brand’s patented ALA 2.0 active aerodynamics system, which provides extra downforce and minimizes drag, also comes standard on the Aventador SVJ, turning it into proper track weapon. It features all kinds of air intakes, splitters, and a giant wing out back to work its magic. Our recent Lamborghini Aventador SVJ test reveals an unhinged track-ready beast with exceptional performance.

The Lamborghini Aventador SVJ’s performance figures secure its status as the top dog of its lineup. When pushed to its limit, offering unflappable grip befitting of a supercar. Despite having some understeer, the all-wheel-drive system allows for some sideways action. The most hardcore modern Lamborghini excels on the track where you can exploit its capabilities to its fullest. During track testing, the Lamborghini Aventador SVJ’s 0-60 time clocked in at just 2.5 seconds, making [...]

Hybrids have been around for a long time now. The first mass-produced hybrid, the Toyota Prius, was released before the turn of the new millennium and has been a massive sales success for the world’s largest automaker. And while the vast majority of hybridized vehicles have had fuel economy as their main focus, recently, some clever engineers have used hybrid technology to make cars (slightly) more efficient and faster.

The Porsche 918, Ferrari LaFerrari, and McLaren P1 may be the trio of cars that immediately spring to mind here, but there are plenty of other fast hybrids on the market. Luckily, MotorTrend has tested plenty of them, and we took a deep dive into our spreadsheets to find the fastest accelerating hybrids from 0-60. Anything hybrid goes; that means PHEVs, mild-hybrids, and fully hybridized powertrains are all fair game. With that in mind, let’s get started.