Kurt Ernst, Contributor
Articles
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Lexus has redesigned its flagship LS sedan for the 2013 model year to be more luxurious and more refined than the model it replaces. Unfortunately, these changes (and the strong Japanese yen versus...
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Magnus Walker, 'Urban Outlaw' And Porsche Collector: VideoMagnus Walker doesn’t look at all like what you’d expect a Porsche collector to look like. He wears oil-stained jeans, not designer slacks, and it’s a safe bet that none of his shirts come with a tiny alligator logo on them. He wears his long hair in dreadlocks, and you can tell...
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IMSA Confirms Eligibility Of DeltaWing Racer For 2013 ALMS SeasonThe fan-favorite Nissan DeltaWing racer will make its North American competition debut at the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta, scheduled for Saturday, October 20. While many thought this would be a one-time running of the car, which last turned a wheel in anger at this...
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Volvo Kills Off Its C30 Compact HatchbackIf you want to get your hands on a Volvo C30 hatchback, we’d advise you not to wait much longer. In order to “better position Volvo for the future,” the automaker will discontinue C30 production in December, ending the compact hatch with the 2013 model year. Volvo’s official...
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Jay Leno And The Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse: VideoJay Leno has a passion for early Bugatti automobiles, and has numerous examples in his collection. When Bugatti chose this year's Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance for the North American debut of the Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse, the ultra-luxury automaker even sprayed the car in the same white...
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Felix Baumgartner Breaks The Sound Barrier, Sans Vehicle: VideoIt takes a special kind of crazy to think that piloting a giant balloon to a height of 128,100 feet, opening the door of your capsule and jumping into space sounds like a good idea, but Felix Baumgartner is that kind of crazy. On Sunday, the Austrian skydiver and helicopter pilot broke several...
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Stock car racing isn’t always about keeping the accelerator mashed to the firewall and out-driving the competition, especially in longer races. These days, winning a 500 or 600 mile race is as... -
NASCAR Bank Of America 500 Preview: The Chase Heads To CharlotteAnd then there were 11: with this week’s announcement that Dale Earnhardt Jr. would be sidelined for two races after suffering his second concussion of the season in the closing-lap wreck at Talladega, the 2012 Sprint Cup champion will be crowned from the remaining 11 drivers. As the Chase...
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Big Muscle Drives The World’s Nicest 1971 Chevy Camaro: VideoWhen it comes to hot rods, muscle cars and pro touring cars, superlatives are often handed out as freely as bumper stickers on the campaign trail. Everyone claims to have the best handling, the fastest or the most artfully-built ride, but chances are good you’ve never heard of the car that...
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Chrysler Showing An Impressive 24 Vehicles At SEMA 2012To mark 75 years of Mopar parts and accessories, Chrysler is pulling out all the stops for this year’s SEMA show. With plans to display 24 Mopar modified vehicles (plus parts and accessories), the automaker has taken a 15,300 square foot booth in Las Vegas. Top draws to the exhibit will...
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MINI Ends Its Involvement In WRC CompetitionCiting “a very difficult commercial environment,” BMW Senior Vice President MINI Business Coordination and Brand Management, Dr. Kay Segler, has announced that MINI will end its factory involvement in the FIA World Rally Championship at the end of the 2012 season. The announcement comes...
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Ariel Announces The New Atom 3.5When it comes to minimalist cars that deliver maximum driving pleasure, few are better known than the Ariel Atom. Beloved by Top Gear’s Jeremy Clarkson and distributed worldwide, the Ariel Atom is very much a modern interpretation of Colin Chapman’s philosophy behind the original Lotus...
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Jaguar Land Rover has announced the recall of certain 2012 Range Rover models, which may have had their windshields improperly installed during the assembly process. As a result, the windshields can... -
Mercedes Falling Behind BMW, Audi In Global Luxury Car SalesMercedes-Benz has committed to developing and launching ten new models by the year 2020, and a fresh product line may be exactly what the luxury automaker needs to combat lagging sales. That said, can Mercedes-Benz introduce new models quickly enough to catch rivals Audi and BMW, and will the...
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Next Ford Focus RS To Get 350 HP, Active Differential: ReportFord’s Focus RS has earned a well-deserved reputation for pushing the boundaries of a factory-built, front-wheel-drive hot hatch. The ultimate version, the RS 500, went out of production in 2010, but set the bar at 345 horsepower from its 2.5-liter, turbocharged five-cylinder engine. Even...
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2011 Lotus Evora S Models Recalled For Oil Line ProblemLotus has announced the recall of 80 model year 2011 Evora S models built between February 2011 and September 2011 to correct a potential defect with an oil line that supplies the cylinder head. Oil supply lines that use a three-piece, flexible tubing design can rupture, spraying oil on the engine...
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Ford Showing Off Four Tuned Fusion Sedans At SEMAWhen Ford showed us its Evos concept in the summer of 2011, we immediately said “build it.” J Mays, Ford’s head of design said, “sorry, not going to happen - but don’t be surprised when a new model comes to market with many of the Evos’ design cues.” That...
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Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s Chase Hopes End With A Diagnosed ConcussionCurrently in 11th place in points, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was a longshot to win this year’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship. Sadly, his run for 2012 is now officially over, as the Hendrick Motorsports driver has been diagnosed with a concussion, suffered in Sunday’s last lap crash at...
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Aston Martin is announcing the recall of 169 V12 Vantage Coupes, built for model years 2010 to 2012. At issue is the programming of the cars’ Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS), which...
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Dale Earnhardt Jr. Clarifies His Position On Daytona And TalladegaIn the aftermath of last weekend’s carnage at Talladega, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was remarkably outspoken about the dangers of restrictor-plate-track racing, saying, “If this is what we did every week, I wouldn’t be doing it, let me put it to you like that.” As if that...
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Honda Executive Hopes For Return To Formula OneHonda’s involvement in the sport of Formula One racing began back in 1964, when the fledgling automaker constructed its first Formula One car. In 1965, the Japanese automaker won its first F1 race, a feat it would repeat just once before the death of driver Jo Schlesser caused the company to...
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Injured F1 Driver Maria De Villota's Recovery ContinuesLast July, Marussia F1 test driver Maria De Villota was seriously injured during straight-line testing of the team’s current formula one car. Upon returning to the pit area, De Villota’s car seemed to suddenly accelerate, impacting the rear of the team’s support truck. The...
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Jeremy Lin Goes His Own Way, In A Volvo XC60: VideoWhen Volvo announced it was signing NBA star Jeremy Lin as a pitchman for its cars last March, “Linsanity” was everywhere. It seemed impossible to turn on televised news without hearing the latest exploits of the New York Knicks’ unlikely superstar point guard. In the seven months...
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Subaru BRZ To Star In 'The Fast And The Furious 6'Just in case you can’t get enough of Subaru’s new rear-drive sport coupe, the BRZ, here’s some good news for you: the car will get a featured role in the upcoming The Fast And The Furious 6, tentatively set for release in May of 2013. Motor Trend reports that Subaru has delivered...
Kurt Ernst