Recently we shared a video of Marshawn Lynch chatting about some of his cars. If you enjoyed that than you will certainly enjoy this latest video! He is back again with Tim from 503 motoring, only this time they are actually test driving some cars! Everything from the new Volvo XC90, to a BMW 7-series, and Mercedes AMG GT! Marshawn even shares some of his thoughts on the interior of the Tesla Model S. It's absolutely worth a watch!
If you’ve ever wanted to move sideways into and out of a parking spot or have a much smaller turning radius, Liddiard Wheels may soon have your answer. Inventor William Liddiard posted a video of what he claims is the first set of “bolt-on” omni-directional wheels for any wheeled vehicle.
In order to showcase his new invention, Liddiard bolted his prototype omni-directional wheels onto his personal Toyota Echo coupe. Liddiard says that “unlike other omni capable wheels, my wheels do not require the vehicle to be built around them. This is a world first bolt-on application for anything with wheels.” He even asserts that the wheels can be used in any weather or road conditions.
Advantages of the omni-directional wheels include the ability to drive in all directions or rotate the vehicle 360 degrees. The tires can be had with various tread patterns and with different siping and grooves.
While Liddiard says his design produces 24,000 pounds of torque, he says the production versions would likely be offered with a taller gear specific to the application.
Check out the video below to see what is claimed to be the first universal set of bolt-on omni-directional wheels.
The post Parallel Parking Solved: Inventor Shows off Omni-Directional Wheels appeared first on Motor Trend.
A Florida driver of a Tesla Model S was killed in a crash while using the car’s Autopilot feature. The incident is the first self-driving car death on record, the Associated Press reports.
The accident happened when a tractor trailer made a left turn at an intersection with no traffic light in front of the Tesla. The crash occurred on May 7 in Williston, Fla., and the driver died of injuries he sustained in the wreck.
Tesla said in a blog post that the Model S was traveling on a divided highway with Autopilot engaged when the big rig crossed its path.
“Neither Autopilot nor the driver noticed the white side of the tractor trailer against a brightly lit sky, so the brake was not applied,” the post reads. “The high ride height of the trailer combined with its positioning across the road and the extremely rare circumstances of the impact caused the Model S to pass under the trailer, with the bottom of the trailer impacting the windshield of the Model S. Had the Model S impacted the front or rear of the trailer, even at high speed, its advanced crash safety system would likely have prevented serious injury as it has in numerous other similar incidents.”
The automaker said it is saddened by the death of the driver, who was a “friend to Tesla and the broader EV community.” Tesla went on to say that the death is the first in 130 million miles of Autopilot operation, and that the risk of injury will decrease as Autopilot gets better over time. Whenever Autopilot is engaged, a warning is displayed reminding the user that the technology is in public beta and they need to maintain control at all times.
Per its procedure, Tesla notified the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration when it learned of the accident. The AP says the government is investigating Tesla’s Autopilot system.
Source: AP
The post Tesla Model S Crash is First Known Fatality Involving Autopilot appeared first on Motor Trend.
In the absolute truest sense of the word, Carroll Shelby was a legend. Sure, toward the end, some of the cars carrying his name were little more than appearance packages with a shouty exhaust, but in the 1960s, he was a performance powerhouse. Of course, we can’t talk about the glory days of Shelby without first paying reverence to the immortal Shelby AC Cobra. Many of these original roadster commanded top-dollar at auctions in the past few years, with prices reaching well into to the seven-figure range. Now, for the first time in history, the original Shelby Cobra heads to auction, and there is a very strong chance Cobra CSX2000 will breach the eight-figure mark.
RM Sotheby’s, the auction house overseeing this sale, bills this as the “most important American sports car to ever be offered for sale.” That very well might not be an overstatement, as this car represents a catalyst that sent shockwaves through not only the American performance car market, but the world of motorsports as a whole.
Cobra CSX2000 was created in 1962 by Carroll Shelby and a “handful of hot-rodders.” With backing from AC themselves, Shelby shoehorned a 4.2-liter (260 ci) Ford V-8 under the hood of the voluptuous roadster, mated to a rough-and-tumble Borg-Warner T-10 transmission. The Cobra was a revelation; its extremely low-weight construction and the American-bred horsepower rampaging under the hood created something of a giant-slayer. Contemporary road tests pegged a 0-60 time of 4.2 seconds, with a quarter-mile time of 13.8 seconds, and given enough room, the little Cobra would rush up to a top speed of 153 mph. The production-spec Cobra thundered onto the sports car market later that same year, butting heads with the Chevrolet Corvette, Ford Thunderbird, and the Jaguar E-Type.
While Cobras were dominant during competition, the CSX2000 abstained from the motorsports circuit. Don’t think it lived a charmed and pampered life, however, as the CSX2000 remained active and regularly-driven up to Carroll Shelby’s death in 2012. Initially, the Cobra was used on the show circuit, stirring up interest around the country. Each time the Cobra appeared at a show, Shelby had it repainted to create the illusion of multiple Cobras, despite only one in existence at that time. The car eventually settled down, and was prominently displayed at Shelby Heritage Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Finally, after 54 years, the car will arrive in a new garage. If this has you digging for change in your couch, you’d better be prepared to write quite the hefty check. No sale estimate is provided, but it won’t come cheap. Typically, a run-of-the-mill early 1960s Cobra will see a hammer fall of right around $850,000-$1,000,000, according to Hagerty. Of course, this isn’t a regular Cobra, and taking into account the incredible history and significance, it wouldn’t surprise us in the least if it took home $15-$20 million.
Look for our report on the Monterey auction later on this summer after the sale occurs mid-August.
The post The First Shelby Cobra Ever Heads to Monterey Auction appeared first on Motor Trend.
It comes as no surprise that one of the most successful racing teams turned automaker would break several production car performance records. A new video shows a McLaren P1 LM shatter the Goodwood Festival of Speed Hillclimb record for street-legal cars.
Retired Swedish racer Kenny Bräck completed the course in 47.07 seconds in the hybrid hypercar during the 2016 Festival of Speed Supercar Shootout.
The McLaren P1 LM is based on the track-only McLaren P1 GTR and modified by Lanzante Motorsports for street-legal status (in markets outside the U.S.). Power for the McLaren P1 GTR comes from the automaker’s 3.8-liter twin-turbo V-8 and an electric motor. In the P1 GTR, the combo makes 986 hp or 82 hp more than in the standard P1. Other performance enhancing bits include a wider track with racing slicks as well as revised aerodynamics and more downforce.
While no details have been revealed in the transformation from the track-only P1 GTR to the street-legal P1 LM, Lanzante Motorsports will only convert five examples. The P1 GTR and P1 LM suffixes are throwbacks to the legendary McLaren F1 GTR and McLaren F1 LM cars.
Check out the video below to see Bräck set the new street car record at the 2016 Goodwood Festival of Speed Hillclimb.
Source: Goodwood via YouTube
The post Watch the McLaren P1 LM Set the Production Car Record at Goodwood appeared first on Motor Trend.
It’s hard to believe the Honda Accord is only 40 years old, given it’s such a staple among mainstream car buyers in the U.S. Over the past 40 years, Honda has sold over 12.7 million copies of the Accord here.
The Accord first arrived in June 1976 as a three-door hatchback (pictured above), which incidentally, had a smaller wheelbase than today’s subcompact Honda Fit. It wasn’t until 1979 that the Accord sedan came to market. Three years later, the Accord began rolling off the production line at Honda’s first U.S. plant. The new facility in Marysville, Ohio, made Honda the first Japanese automaker to build cars in the U.S.
Soon after, the Accord would also become the first U.S.-made car from a Japanese automaker to be exported overseas. In 1987, Honda shipped Ohio-made Accords to Taiwan. The next year, Honda began producing the Accord Coupe exclusively at the Ohio factory, exporting copies to Japan.
Other milestones followed in the coming years, including the addition of a V-6 Accord in 1994 and a new hybrid model in 2005. By 2014, Honda marked the 10-millionth Accord built at its Ohio facility. Today, Honda has produced more than 10.5 million Accords in the U.S. The model is now in its ninth generation.
The Accord was Honda’s first step toward become a major full-line automaker and establishing a presence in the U.S., the automaker says. Although eclipsed by sales of the smaller Civic here, the Accord remains a top-seller. Through May, Honda sold 140,548 copies of the sedan, up significantly from last year. It’s the fifth best-selling car so far this year (excluding trucks), with the top being the Toyota Camry with 167,199 units sold.
Honda says the Accord has remained the top-selling car in the U.S. for the past three years in terms of retail sales. It also says the Accord is the top-selling midsize car for buyers under 35 years old. Currently, more than 99 percent of all Honda vehicles sold in the U.S. are made in North America.
Check out the video and gallery below for more about the evolution of the Honda Accord.
The post Honda Accord Celebrates 40th Birthday appeared first on Motor Trend.
Sedans and crossovers are the most popular body styles on sale today in the U.S. In fact, crossovers have grown so popular that they’re displacing sedans as consumers’ preferred vehicle type, even more so now that the subcompact crossover segment has emerged. Does that mean you should follow the trend? Or should you buck it? Here are four reasons you may want to go against the grain and stick with a sedan and five more to join the subcompact crossover craze.
No raised suspension and a lighter weight means that sedans are bound to have better fuel economy than small crossovers. The lighter weight also means you’ll likely have a smaller fuel tank, easing the pain on each trip to the pump.
All that body cladding and the raised ride height usually means there’s a premium to pay, so that small crossover you’re looking at will likely be more expensive. The equivalent sedan, on the other hand, is less expensive for the manufacturer to build, so you can get more bang for your buck if you put that extra money into some tech and safety features instead of the premium for the baby crossover.
Many sedans are turned into performance vehicles, as they start off with better handling compared to small crossovers. The superior agility also eases stress in case you have to make an emergency maneuver, and you’ll have plenty of confidence doing so.
Thanks to their wedgelike design, sedans are inherently more aerodynamic than small crossovers, and that means better high-speed stability. Being able to cheat the wind also pays dividends in fuel economy, which, along with the weight, should help keep money in your pocket in the long run.
One of the biggest selling points of a crossover is the utility it brings, and the smallest of the crop are no different. You can get an interior space that can rival that of a larger vehicle without having to deal with a cumbersome behemoth every single day.
Many consumers buy a crossover because they offer additional ground clearance, which sedans, wagons, and hatchbacks usually don’t have. That means you’ll be able to clear tougher trails should you go out into the wilderness and, in the case of some small crossovers, do some mild rock crawling.
The raised suspension on crossovers gives the driver a more commanding of view of the road—you sit higher up, so you have better visibility. For some consumers, being higher up gives them more confidence and helps them be more alert than they would driving a vehicle that’s lower to the ground.
Perhaps one of the biggest advantages of a small crossover over most sedans is the availability of all-wheel drive. This expands the accessibility of subcompact utility vehicles because it gives them capability in weather where most traditional cars would falter.
Because they’re essentially hatchbacks and wagons with a lift kit, small crossovers will fit anywhere and everywhere, making them ideal for those who live in crowded cities but still need utility beyond what a sedan offers—or for anyone else who needs a vehicle that’s space-efficient inside and out.
The post Four Reasons You Should Buy a Sedan Over a Small Crossover and Five Reasons Not To appeared first on Motor Trend.
