459 hp, 0-60 in 3.9 sec, and AWD – meet Mitsubishi’s new-age electric EVO [video]

From the March 1995 issue of Car and Driver. Let’s be honest here: the reason sport-utility vehicles are selling faster than earplugs at a Michael Bolton concert is not because global tem­peratures are down and average snowfall is up and Americans need four-wheel drive in order to reach the video store for those adult-education tapes hidden behind that veil of beads. It’s because, in contrast to other roomy conveyances like station wagons and minivans, every SUV projects an image. The Hummer wears a Gold’s Gym body. The Grand Cherokee is as outdoor­chic as an Orvis flyrod. And the Mitsubishi Montero SR, the object of this review, packs all the techno-wizardry of a Sharper Image catalog. Aaron Kiley|Car and DriverThose who enjoy Pentiums and DirecTV and EOS cameras will feel immediately at home in the SR. The instru­ment cluster is straight off the set of The Hunt for Red October, with gauges for everything from four-wheel-drive mode to oil pressure to volts to a useful new elec­tronic compass and exterior-temperature display that replaces the frivolous “lean­-angle” inclinometer. Why, the SR has more buttons than a Marine Corps parade.

Tyler Reddick won his sixth race of the season and his first in six months at Phoenix Raceway, keeping his championship hopes alive with a 61-point day. Reddick started the season with a three-race streak and then went five for nine, with his last win coming at Kansas Speedway on April 19th. A once-championship favorite that fell out of conversation as other drivers stacked wins and points through the summer and first half of the playoffs. His win halved his points deficit to the leader; he entered 114 points behind Kyle Larson and, with Larson’s no-points day, finished 56 points back. Larson’s lack of pace, followed by a tire failure and a DNF, means that every driver in contention for the championship behind them just saw the door crack open. Denny Hamlin entered Phoenix second in the championship, and 49 points behind; now Joey Logano is just 44 points behind Larson and sixth in the standings. Reddick restarted fourth on the final restart with 23 laps to go, becoming the first driver to pit for right-side scuffs, with Chase Briscoe, Chase Elliott, and Ty Gibbs ahead on 10- to 14-lap-old tires.

A few weeks ago I was in Rome for the reveal of Bridgestone's new Formula E tires, and luckily I had a few hours of free time to walk around the city, see some incredible ancient ruins and, more importantly, do some carspotting. Not even five minutes after setting down my bags and leaving my hotel, I spotted what must be the most perfect way to get around Rome: This bright red Fiat 500 Jolly. In 1957, Fiat boss Gianni Agnelli wanted a vehicle he could load onto his yacht and use around town on vacations, commissioning Carrozzeria Ghia to design and build something based on the then-brand-new Fiat 500. Ghia removed the roof (though you could get an awning-like canvas one), chopped the windshield, gave it custom bodywork without any doors and side windows, and stripped out the interior, replacing the regular seats with wicker ones. The ultimate beachside ride was born, with Ghia building a few hundred Jollys based on both the 500 and the slightly larger 600.

For decades, one of the biggest debates among off-road enthusiasts has been whether gas or diesel trucks make for the better off-roader. There are plenty of good reasons to run both types of vehicles on your favorite trails, but gas and diesel enjoyers alike have a new issue to worry about. That would be the new kid on the block: electric SUVs with purported off-road chops for days. While it might've once been inconceivable that an electric vehicle could even come close to matching the performance of off-road all-stars like the Toyota Tundra, the Subaru Forester Wilderness, and even the Mercedes-Benz C-Class, the introduction of the Rivian R1S and R1T in 2021 turned the off-roading world upside down. As it turns out, modern EVs aren't just highly capable on pavement; they can also be tuned for seriously impressive rock crawling, and they even have some significant benefits over their competitors with traditional internal combustion engines. For one, many EVs have excellent ground clearance, and they need fewer pieces of specialized gear to excel on even the most challenging wilderness trails.

Over the past few years, LEGO has quietly added an impressive array of plug-powered machines to its block-based lineup, from hybrid racers to battery-powered excavators and garbage trucks. We’ve rounded them up here. In putting this list together, I thought it best to group the kits by LEGO theme, which also serves as a rough guide to building difficulty. In other words: the further down the page you go, the bigger, badder, and more involved the builds will tend to get – and by the time you get to the app-controlled Caterpillar DX-11 electric drive dozer and Volvo EC500 Hybrid excavator kits, you’ll be looking at some seriously impressive (and seriously expensive) block-based builds.

Classic gems, tasteful customs, legendary supercars - for Silvian, they're all fair game. He's been in love with cars and motorcycles for as long as he can remember, so it made perfect sense to eventually turn that passion into a full-time writing career. Around six years and more than 3,000 articles later, he is still going strong and doesn't plan on hitting the brakes anytime soon. Brabus is so much more than a regular tuner in our day and age. It is a fully-fledged luxury lifestyle brand involved in a wide variety of pursuits not related to cars, including fashion, high-end real estate, and aviation. But to us car guys and girls, its core identity will always be rooted in car tuning and wild customization. The company’s partnership with Smart started more than two decades ago and is still going strong today, having yielded some fascinating results in the meantime. And with the tiny Fortwo discontinued to make way for the all-electric #2, you can bet your bottom dollar on this replacement getting the Brabus treatment.