The 1968 Honda S800 coupe you see here that garnered plenty of attention during the 2019 SEMA Show isn’t the rushed effort of a build team slapping a car together just in time to be pushed onto the red carpet at Las Vegas’s biggest annual convention. Furthermore, this S800 didn’t emerge from the garage a lifelong Honda fanatic that just had to have a crack at something older and rarer than the usual Honda CRX and Civic builds. In actuality, this reimagining of Honda’s 1960s-era icon came about after a lust at first sight (and sound) encounter followed by a near death experience and a second chance for its owner to take some personal time and simply do what felt right.
As an actor, director, producer and family man, Daniel Wu isn’t often left with bouts of free time. A few years ago, between his hectic work and home schedule, he managed to put together [...]
Have you been waiting for the marriage of Land Rover off-road prowess with the efficiency of a plug-in hybrid? If so, get a hobby, but now that you’re here, that dream is now a reality. The storied British brand is adding the gas-electric plug-in hybrid Range Rover Evoque P300e and Land Rover Discovery Sport P300e to its lineup. Both are available with all-wheel drive and can drive along on electric power alone.
But these latest variants are forbidden fruit on our side of the ocean, and will stay that way. The new Range Rover Evoque P300e PHEV and Land Rover Discovery Sport P300e PHEV are available to order now in Europe but there are no plans to sell them in North America, a U.S. spokesman confirms. That’s too bad, because they’re delightfully oddball—well, off-beat—in their execution, at least compared to the 48-volt mild-hybrid (MHEV) SUVs which is what we have in America. Discovery Sport P290 [...]
Stop us if you’ve heard this before: Lotus is planning on building a car for the masses. At least, that’s what CEO Phil Popham said in an interview with Bloomberg. The car historians among you might recall the Lotus Carlton as one such endeavor. Another such Lotus includes the Elite; a funky, breadvan-shaped two-door with enough room for four.
The new Lotus doesn’t have a name yet, but Popham told Bloomberg it will be a sports car with enough interior space for day-to-day use. It will also serve as the brand’s last car with an internal combustion engine. Admittedly, you could use one of the British sports car brand’s current offerings, such as the Evora GT, as a daily driver—you’ll just likely tire of doing so after some time. Sure, the recently introduced Evora GT410 sounds like it’ll be more comfortable than the more hardcore, buttoned-down Evora GT, but it’s still a rather small vehicle [...]
Teslas are making surprising appearances in commercial fleets around the world. A little while ago we reported that the Tesla Model 3 has been approved for Taxi Cab duty in New York, and more recently Elon Musk announced that driverless taxis would arrive by the end of 2020. What’s more, Teslas are starting to make appearances as police vehicles, and a Thai police department recently leased seven Model 3s, according to an apparently translated invoice that appeared on Blink Drive.
They can been seen in the images here. All of them are decked out in police liveries, and each one comes with a sweet roof-mounted light bar. Even though electric cars might not seem like the best choice in extreme cases—like with long-distance police chases (wait, are those a thing?)—electric vehicles make sense for other, more everyday police activities. The Model 3’s base range of 250 miles should prove adequate for most low-speed city patrols, [...]
As the world’s largest market for recreational vehicles, the U.S. enjoys a huge variety of options for those looking to go RVing. But when it comes to small, capable campers with cool names, the Japanese market has us beat. Whether it’s their just-right size for #vanlife, their widely available diesel engines and four-wheel drive, their forbidden fruit appeal, or a combination of all those factors, JDM RVs and camper vans put our boring commercial-van-based RVs to shame. We’ve assembled a list of 10 JDM campers that may trigger intense feelings of want—and many of them can be imported to the U.S. now that they’re more than 25 years old.
There are a few caveats, however. Though you can legally import just about anything 25 years after its production date, finding an importer willing to source a JDM camper for you can be tough. These are niche vehicles even in Japan, and shipping some of the [...]
