Car and Driver November 2021

NOT A SHOCK I can’t even begin to imagine the onslaught of angry “This magazine sucks!” letters you must’ve prepared for when the decision was made to put out an EV of the Year issue [July/August 2021]. —Derrick W.Colorado Springs, CO Thanks for the recent issue concentrating on EVs. Please don’t ever do that again. —Mickey SkamangasFredericksburg, VA That whirring sound you hear is not an electric motor. It is Brock Yates spinning in his grave. —Mike BruceLincoln, IL In over 276 months, I’d never put down a C/D before I wiped until this lame EV issue. I’m an oilman, so I take pride in my unbiased opinions about EVs’ uselessness. —NickBitchita, KS Have you ever tried being a castor-oil man?—Ed. Received the July/August 2021 issue in the mail today. As a multidecade subscriber, I can say with confidence that…

Once you sit with your 17-year-old and listen to him process how he wants his life-insurance dividends distributed in case he dies, every other fear you have about him joining the Marines becomes easier to handle. And there are so many beyond the obvious and greatest—bad tattoos, the lure to get married and thus be able to move off base, and the temptation to buy an expensive car. About those cars. There’s no data on how enlistees like to spend their money, but anecdotally, they have a penchant for Camaros, Mustangs, Chargers, Challengers, F-150s, Silverados, Rams, Tacomas, and maybe even the WRX. That’s according to Jon Simkins, a longtime Military Times reporter (and former Marine himself) who has written about the car-buying trouble that the newly enlisted can find themselves in. Captain Philip…

The hot-V layout is a turbocharging setup that allows short and direct exhaust plumbing out of an engine’s center valley to improve turbo efficiency and response. Applying that approach to your standard 60-degree V-6 leads to fitment problems, because there’s not enough room in the valley of the V to efficiently mount turbochargers. It also won’t work with a 180-degree (flat) six, as in a Porsche 911, because packaging a turbo close to the engine and exhaust manifolds would mean mounting the engine higher, negatively affecting the car’s center of gravity. But consider the 120-degree V-6. Both McLaren and Ferrari have, and soon we’ll be seeing the outcome in the McLaren Artura and Ferrari 296GTB. McLAREN M640 Two turbochargers fit nicely into the wide V of the M640, McLaren’s 120-degree V-6. But…

The Hot Wheels Legends Tour is a build contest in which professional and amateur fabricators put forward their rides in hopes of having them minimized to one day be sent hurtling off tabletops to the delight of small children (and no small number of adults). Riley Stair’s alcohol-burning, wide-body, tube-frame 1970 Firebird is the third winner since the competition began in 2018. It took him 18 months to build the ’Bird. The Hot Wheels team had half that time to re-create it in one-64th scale. Here’s how they do it. 1. Mattel’s small-car toy empire includes more than 2500 people who work around the world, but it all starts in the design department in El Segundo, California, with sketches and renderings based on photographs and notes about the full-size car. 2. Next,…

What’s blasting from your car speakers, and more important, how does it sound? For sound-system engineers at the audio-equipment manufacturer Bose, a playlist is more than tracks that slap. To test stereos, they need songs representing a variety of sounds and recording techniques to make sure new systems can re-create a song with the depth of the original recording. To have a common reference point, Bose engineers all over the globe share a master playlist. “Every system engineer knows these tracks inside and out,” says Mark Armitage, head of the acoustical-engineering team at the company’s Michigan field office. “It makes for a universal language we can use when testing and tuning.” Armitage says the 54-track Bose playlist is updated periodically, and engineers can use it alongside a smattering of their personal favorites…

Alex Taylor started drag racing at 16. Now 24, she grew up around cars at her parents’ hot-rod shop in Booneville, Arkansas, and still uses it as a home base for her automotive YouTube channel, Riding with Alex Taylor. While the shop specializes in fast drag cars with a classic look—like her dad’s ’55 Chevy gasser and her 1968 Camaro—the Taylors are happy to take on the task of making any car quicker. They got a chance to test their skills on a modern canvas when Dodge invited Taylor to participate in a Challenger build-off competition. Dodge provided competitors with a bone-stock Challenger or Charger Hellcat to modify as they pleased. The winner would be last builder standing after a street-style drag matchup. The rules: stock-appearing body, stock engine block,…