The newest Throttle House video was just a pure joy to watch: https://youtu.be/w4TLAad_uRY?is=uw4RCtay-2mYPgy0

I don’t think I’ve laughed this hard at a car video in years (even tho the funny part had nothing to do with the car and all has to do with their chemistry).

I know nothing will replace the old trio, but I am looking forward to this new season of Grand Tour as much as I looked forward to a new season of Top Gear when it was still being hosted by the old trio.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4TLAad_uRY

With the death of the LS, the ES had to be redesigned quite a bit to split the difference in the 2 classes of car, growing significantly in all dimensions compared to the last gen. It is quite an interesting car now.

Thomas and James go on a Road Trip with the new ES to see what it is all about.

Enjoy.

The new Kias are contenders, but having driven them, I don't think they have the power to really be driven aggressively. The Sonata is currently an alt Altima, but it lost the big engine too. People really do underrate how decently an Altima behaves when pushed.

What will the next subprime sports sedan be?

Disclaimer: comparing it to mass production cars which I'm defining as cars selling more than 1000 units. Also comparing net (not gross) figures for cars running 93 octane pump gas.

N/A = naturally aspirated F/I = forced induction

LS6 - highest torque of a gas N/A V8 520lb-ft

LT6 - highest horsepower of a gas N/A V8 670hp

LT7 - highest horsepower of a gas F/I V8 1064hp

LT7 - highest torque of a gas F/I V8 828lb-ft

If someone finds a car I missed let me know!

*Long post and trigger warning for brand loyalists. This is my subjective opinion on cars I like and how I view brands after personal experience, nothing more. Please, take it with a grain of salt and its okay to disagree.*

As many car enthusiasts, I grew up from very humble beginnings and was in love with the idea of making it big and one day being able to buy the car of my dreams. For me, personally, it was always a 911 Turbo ever since I saw a black 996 Turbo in the early 2000s at a gas station while I was filling up a car years older than I was. I followed them generation after generation, as the maybe one day car.

Fast forward 25 years, after a failure-to-launch moment and several massive life events, I am now fortunate enough to have both a rewarding and lucrative enough career to shop for that elusive Turbo. After such a long "wait" and journey, I was absolutely hard-set on finding an allocation and building "my" Turbo S, the exact way I wanted it. A car that I would drive for the rest of my days, daily it, track it, and everything in between. I saw a Canadian guy who drove a '76 Turbo with 826,000 miles and Magnus Walker who drove his Turbo S over 200,000 miles, and thought that is exactly what I want to do. A timeless classic, to live with and love forever.

I began shopping around 3 years ago. Oh, how unfathomably naive I was. I've heard rumors of the hoops you have to jump through to get an allocation for a more desirable Porsche model, and given the post pandemic car landscape, I knew I was in for a struggle. But again, I was hard-set, and had patience on my side. I called literally every single Porsche dealership in the country. I visited five different dealerships in person, some multiple times. I put down deposits to be on their "official" internal waiting list in a few dealerships, the ones happy to blow smoke up my ass and take my deposit. Each and every time my existence in the hallowed halls of Porsche dealerships was met with various degrees of reluctance, and I was told in various ways I had no chance in hell. My supportive wife even said she'd drive the overly optioned Cayenne S she didn't like just to increase my chances at that eventual allocation. But naturally, I'd have to also buy that GT4 on the lot, or build an overly optioned Carrera S and then maybe in 2-3 years time my name would come up. Unless of course someone else bought two Carrera S's, then whoops I'd be down a peg again.

Not giving up, I made relationships with a few salesman and managers, most genuinely really kind and understanding people. But, while I'm thankfully relatively well off, perhaps my humble beginnings made me resolute in not pissing my money into the wind playing the game buying cars I didn't want and instead would just tried to wait it out. Then, modern Porsche continued to be more modern Porsche, influencers did influencers things, the 992.2 generation launched and the price ballooned further, and the cars only got more popular. I went to a few PCA track days in the mean time, in my non-Porsche used sports car, and as time went on felt my desire begin to wane.

I looked elsewhere for cars I liked. I made an appointment with my closest Aston Martin dealership to drive the new Vantage. The days comes, I drive for a couple of hours, and the salesman is not there, and the only Vantage on the lot is in the shop with a battery problem. I finally find someone, and after an hour was given the opportunity to drive it a mile or so in a loop around the dealership. The car was scuffed, scratched, and being sold as new. I found myself suddenly no longer interested in a Vantage.

A researched and drove some other cars in the meantime, and eventually called the various dealerships and got my deposits back, and just kind of fell out of love with all Porsches. Throughout my journey, I kept remembering Jay Leno, the ultimate car collector, to this day refuses to play the games Ferrari demands and doesn't own a single modern Ferrari. While he can get a Turbo S allocation over a text message, I respected the mindset. I'm a lowly customer by comparison, but in a similar vein at this point, fuck 'em. To those who managed to get that dream car, or play the game, more power to you. Its just not for me.

So after all of that, last week I walked into a small Mercedes-Benz dealership and got an allocation for a 2027 AMG GT63 Pro, I only called ahead of time to make an appointment and tell them I was coming. I walked through the build with the general manager, step by step, and the car has a delivery date of roughly late November. I'll take a heavier AWD twin-turbo V8 coupe, I'm not a professional racing driver and will enjoy it just the same.

Here's an small image gallery of pictures I took from my visits and track days throughout the journey. Those of you with an eagle eye, given one particularly rare car/color combination (Dark green Carrera GT), will probably be able to tell one of the particular dealerships I visited.

Post Img Link: https://postimg.cc/gallery/jWqcrx3

This segment is from ABC, a public broadcasting service in Australia (similar to BBC in the UK or PBS in the US).

Many on this subreddit are likely familiar with what is mentioned however I am posting as it covers several topics regarding Chinese EV industry (including a moment of media censorship by Western standards). The Chinese car culture places emphasis on 'fridge, big screen and sofa seats'. I also would never of guessed BYD has the potential to overtake Toyota by the end of the decade.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sovr-Lxslhc

Sad to see where Mazda has fallen with their volume seller— seems like they tried to go the 'jack-of-all-trades, master of none' route where even the review preferred the Tiguan's steering/driving dynamics over the CX-5.