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Category: Highlight

Gunther Werks Speedster, Gordon Murray T.50s, 2022 Mercedes-Benz C-Class: This Week’s Top Photos

California’s Gunther Werks returned this week with another carbon-bodied stunner based on the 993-generation 911. This time the company delivered a wide-body speedster to complement its coupe from a few years back.

2022 Hyundai Ioniq 5

The first model based on Hyundai Motor Group’s E-GMP dedicated electric-vehicle platform was revealed this week in the form of the 2022 Hyundai Ioniq 5. The vehicle is a handsome crossover coming to dealerships this fall as a challenger to the Tesla Model Y and Volkswagen ID.4.

Gordon Murray Automotive T.50s

Last year Gordon Murray showed off the T.50 supercar as a spiritual successor to the McLaren F1 he designed in the early 1990s. This week he revealed an even more extreme version of the T.50 designed for track use.

2022 Land Rover Defender

Land Rover announced some tweaks being made to the Defender for 2022. Among them is the long-awaited availability of a V-8 powertrain, specifically a 516-hp version of Jaguar Land Rover’s familiar 5.0-liter supercharged mill.

2022 Mercedes-Benz C-Class

The redesigned 2022 Mercedes-Benz C-Class was revealed. It’s an impressive sedan (and wagon if you live outside the United States), though sadly there aren’t any 6- or 8-cylinder engine options planned—not even in the high-performance variants from AMG.

Ferrari LaFerrari once owned by Sebastian Vettel – Photo credit: Which Car/Tom Hartley Jnr

Formula One driver Sebastien Vettel accumulated an enviable collection of Ferraris during his career driving for the Italian supercar maker. Now he’s off to Aston Martin, so he’s selling off those fabulous cars. Luckily, Aston Martin makes some desirable cars, too.

Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus 007 Le Mans Hypercar race car

Another hypercar in the headlines this week was the new 007 Le Mans Hypercar racer from Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus. The new season of the World Endurance Championship is nearly upon us, and the 007 has just made its initial shakedown test ahead of April’s season opener in Portugal.

2023 BMW M2 spy shots – Photo credit: S. Baldauf/SB-Medien

And finally, BMW was spotted testing a prototype for its next M2. We currently expect the car to debut in 2022 with a detuned version of the 3.0-liter twin-turbocharged inline-6 borrowed from the M3 and M4.

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February 27, 2021
Ring Brothers 1968 Mercury Cougar combines old school style with modern running gear

Wisconsin-based hot rod builders Ring Brothers are known for their resto mods. Mike and Jim Ring specialize in taking old cars and revitalizing them with modern components. Their latest project is a 1968 Mercury Cougar.

The badge may say “Cougar,” but there’s a Coyote under the hood, as in Ford’s 5.0-liter V-8. It produces 460 hp, and drives the rear wheels through a 10-speed automatic transmission from a Ford F-150 Raptor.

The car got a frame-off restoration, with new floor pans and a new transmission tunnel, as well as a new front bumper, grille, and badging. A performance suspension by DSE was installed, as were modern brakes. The Cougar rides on HRE Series C1 C103 forged three-piece alloy wheels and Michelin Pilot Sport tires.

Ring Brothers 1968 Mercury Cougar

While some of Ring Brother’s past builds have had flashy paintwork and heavily modified sheetmetal, the Cougar looks largely stock. The main giveaways are the aforementioned forged wheels on the outside, the F-150 shifter on the inside.

Launched in 1967 as a companion to the Ford Mustang, the Cougar never escaped the Ford’s shadow. The Cougar eventually shifted to a platform shared with the Ford Thunderbird, becoming larger and more luxurious in the process, and was then reimagined again as a compact front-wheel-drive coupe. That final generation ended production in 2002, and the Mercury brand followed it into oblivion a few years later.

“We had never done a Cougar before, so this was a fun build,” Mike Ring said in a statement. “I love working with new shapes and coming up with new ideas. Ring Brothers would normally unveil a newly completed car at the annual SEMA aftermarket show in Las Vegas, but that wasn’t possible due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Mike Ring said he hopes the car can be shown to the public soon.

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February 26, 2021
Toyota begins construction of its smart city

Just before the coronavirus pandemic hit, at the 2020 Consumer Electronics Show, Toyota announced an ambitious plan to build an entire city in Japan as a showcase for futuristic tech. Despite everything that’s happened since that announcement, Toyota is still going ahead with this scheme.

Toyota held a groundbreaking ceremony for the project, dubbed Woven City, Tuesday at a construction site adjacent to one of its former factories. The automaker didn’t give any other updates on construction, or on its efforts to recruit people to live in the city.

Woven City will be built from the ground up on 175 acres of land at the base of Japan’s iconic Mt. Fuji. At its CES 2020 press conference, Toyota said the city would allow for testing and development of autonomous vehicles, robotics, smart-home systems, and other future tech in a real-world environment.

The name Woven City comes from the use of designated streets for three types of traffic: faster vehicles, mixed usage for lower-speed personal mobility devices (such as scooters), and pedestrians, as well as pedestrian-only zones. There will also be one underground road to transport goods, according to Toyota. The name also refers to Toyota’s roots in the textile industry.

Toyota’s Woven City

Toyota previously said it would deploy working versions of its e-Palette and LQ concepts in Woven City, plus an assortment of scooters and mobility aids for the pedestrian-only areas. The e-Palette is a reconfigurable box-shaped autonomous vehicle designed for both ride-sharing and delivery services, while the LQ is a small hatchback with an AI interface and some degree of autonomous-driving capability.

Danish architect Bjarke Ingels, whose team designed Google’s Mountain View headquarters, was commissioned to design the city, which will be built from sustainable materials and powered by renewable energy, including hydrogen fuel cells (a Toyota favorite) and rooftop solar panels.

Toyota also previously said homes would have robots and sensors to monitor occupants’ health, and that all buildings, vehicles, and people would be connected through a citywide network managed by AI.

Initially, Woven City will have just 360 residents, mostly older adults, families with young children and inventors. Toyota plans to eventually house more than 2,000 people, including some of its own employees, in the futuristic city.

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February 25, 2021