Stop the 40-ton presses and cool the autoclaves. There’s a new light/strong/cheap material poised to join the vehicle engineering toolbox, and it’d be recognizable to the designers of Conestoga wagons. Forget titanium, carbon fiber, and high-strength steel. The hot new substance on the automotive scene is … wood?
Yes, wood might no longer be just for dashboards and Morgan body framing. Researchers at the University of Maryland have developed a way to make cheap, renewable, fast-growing, CO2-consuming wood 10 times stronger and tougher than natural wood, aligning its strength with some steels but at one-sixth the weight and vastly lower cost. (The cost savings over carbon fiber apply, as well.)
It’s called “densified wood.” Producing it involves boiling the wood in a solution containing sodium hydroxide and sodium sulfate just long enough to remove 12 percent of the cellulose, 73 percent of the hemicellulose, and 46 percent of [...]
Many prestigious cars are set to storm the hill at this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed, including a number of vintage and modern Ford Mustangs—and even one autonomous pony car. One such vintage ‘Stang is the recently rediscovered 1968 Mustang from the movie Bullitt, which will appear with its modern-day special edition counterpart to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the classic film.
In case you missed the story of how this famous movie car was reintroduced to the world, here’s a quick refresher. The car is one of two Mustang fastbacks that were used in 1968’s Bullitt. After filming wrapped, the two Mustangs were separated. One was found last year in Baja California, Mexico, decades after it was believed to have been crushed. The whereabouts of the other car remained a mystery, as it was sold to an unknown private buyer. That all changed at this year’s Detroit auto show, when the car was revealed [...]
From the Bentley Bentayga to the Tesla Model X P100D, automakers are starting to come out with SUVs that focus heavily on performance. But none of them can quite compete with the Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk. It’s the quickest SUV Motor Trend has ever tested to 60 mph, and it’s even quicker than its fair share of traditional sports cars.
There are other reasons to like the Jeep Trackhawk besides its quickness off the line and its powerful 6.2-liter supercharged V-8 engine. It has all-wheel drive, which helps it put all that power down to the pavement. It’s a surprisingly livable vehicle, and it offers plenty of luxurious features. It can be easily optioned to $100,000.
“The Grand Cherokee Trackhawk might answer a question that no one asked. But the correct answer for enthusiasts is ‘yes please,’” we wrote in our First Drive review.
Check out the video above to learn why the Jeep Grand [...]
I’m no novice at moving, but every time I do it I’m surprised at how much longer it takes than I expected. When you think you’re almost done, more items seem to materialize out of thin air. Normally, I would rent a U-Haul, but since I planned to sell my furniture before I moved, and I wanted the freedom to move gradually over a few weekends, I went for a somewhat risky plan B: packing all my stuff into the Kia Niro.
I’m sure you couldn’t blame me for dreading this endeavor. Turns out, it wasn’t nearly as bad as I anticipated. The cargo area offers 19.4 cubic feet of space, placing it in the middle of the pack among subcompact crossovers, behind the Honda HR-V and Nissan Kicks but ahead of the Toyota CH-R and [...]
The Jaguar XE is a perfectly competent sports sedan that goes toe-to-toe with the BMW 3 Series and Alfa Romeo Giulia, but Jaguar wasn’t content to rest on its laurels. With the Project 8, Jaguar set its sights on a bigger goal: crushing the Giulia Quadrifolgio’s Nürburgring lap record. The result: a four-door sedan that laps the storied track in a record-setting 7:21.23.
In terms of horsepower alone, the Project 8 absolutely stomps all over the base XE, as its 5.0-liter supercharged V-8 produces an tarmac-scorching 592 hp and 516 lb-ft of torque. That’s an increase of 345 hp over the 2.0-liter four-cylinder.
But Jaguar wasn’t content to simply shove its largest, most powerful V-8 into the engine bay and call it a day. Going for the lap record required a host of upgrades throughout the car. All-wheel drive makes the most of that power, handled by a quick-shifting ZF eight-speed automatic transmission. Curb weight [...]
