مجله خودرو ام وی ام

In this episode of the Autoblog Podcast, Editor-in-Chief Greg Migliore is joined by Yahoo Finance‘s Pras Subramanian for a look at the business side of recent automotive news. They cover the demise of the Chevy Malibu (again), BMW’s aversion to building a pickup, Tesla’s Supercharger situation (and the company’s broader headcount initiatives) and Rivian’s big Q1 drubbing. From there, it’s time to talk some cars. Pras got to spend some time in a Porsche 911 T, and both he and Greg have sampled the new Kia EV9. Greg also has the latest on Autoblog‘s long-term Mazda CX-90, and Pras talks about spending some time with the BMW X5 PHEV. 

Autoblog Podcast # 831

Get The Podcast

• Apple Podcasts – Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast in iTunes
• Spotify – Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast on Spotify
• RSS – Add the Autoblog Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator
• MP3 – Download the MP3 directly

Rundown

• News
• What we’ve been driving

Feedback

Autoblog is now live on your smart speakers and voice assistants with the audio Autoblog Daily Digest. Say “Hey Google, play the news from Autoblog” or “Alexa, open Autoblog” to get your favorite car website in audio form every day. A narrator will take you through the biggest stories or break down one of our comprehensive test drives.

Related video:

The beginning of the end for station wagons arrived as the second half of the 1980s dawned, thanks to Chrysler’s introduction of its game-changing minivans and AMC’s introduction of the even more influential XJ Jeep Cherokee (both as 1984 models), but few noticed at first. At that time, GM’s Chevrolet Division still offered wagons in three different sizes: the Cavalier, Celebrity and Caprice Classic; today’s Junkyard Gem is an example of the middle type, found in a Denver self-service yard recently.

The Celebrity was based on GM’s front-wheel-drive A Platform, which was derived from the X Platform that underpinned the Chevrolet Citation and its kin. It was built from the 1982 through 1990 model years and was a huge success with well over 2 million sold. The Celebrity has all but disappeared from streets and car graveyards by now, so this is a rare opportunity to follow up the base-model ’87 Celebrity sedan we saw a few years ago with a loaded longroof version.

The Celebrity’s near-identical siblings were the Buick Century, Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera/Cruiser and Pontiac 6000.

I have some personal and not-so-pleasant family experience with the Celebrity. My parents were patriotic Midwesterners who chose Detroit machinery (with a couple of notable exceptions) to drive from the time I was brought home from the hospital in a 1956 Olds 88 after my birth until I was off at college during the middle 1980s. They’d had an unpleasant experience with a 1979 Ford Granada, writing it off to simple bad luck, but then my dad decided to trade in his 1978 Pontiac Bonneville on a new Chevrolet Celebrity Eurosport sedan (above is the only surviving photo of that car, shot past the snout of my now-legendary 1965 Impala sedan). That car was an across-the-board lemon, failing repeatedly under warranty and then even more repeatedly later on, and it drove my parents into the waiting arms of Toyota and Mazda, from which they never returned to Detroit iron.

That said, my family’s Celebrity experience wasn’t universal, and there are still devoted Celebrity enthusiasts to this day. That becomes relevant when telling the tale of today’s Junkyard Gem, because it will lead us to a heartwarming junkyard happy ending.

This car’s interior was just beautiful, leading me to believe that the 43,977 miles showing on its five-digit odometer represented the actual mileage. What a waste of nice interior parts, I thought, but then I remembered that I knew a Celebrity wagon owner!

Yes, the same married couple of Denver-area 24 Hours of Lemons racers who compete with a Chevy Vega and bought a 1990 Dodge Omni for their 16-year-old (because it’s a cool old car that, amazingly, came with a peace-of-mind-providing driver’s-side airbag) picked up a Celebrity station wagon to drive in the Route 66 Lemons Rally last month. Since my tip about a junked 1988 Plymouth Horizon led them to a bonanza of Omni parts, I let them know about the super-clean Celebrity in a nearby boneyard.

As it turned out, they had too many weird hoopties in their stable and had just sold their rally Celebrity to an enthusiast in Iowa who owns several nicely restored Celebrities. He would be flying out to Denver to pick up his wagon and was elated to learn of a nearly-impossible-to-find parts donor in a Mile High junkyard.

After picking up his new ride, he drove the 10 minutes over to U-Pull-&-Pay and harvested all these Celebrity goodies to take home.

As an added bonus, he found the original build sheet under the rear seat and sent a photo. Look at all those expensive options!

As the build sheet states, this car was built at the Oklahoma City plant and then sold new at Osborn Chevrolet on South Havana Street in Aurora (now Celebration Chevrolet at the same location). You can get incredible Korean food in that neighborhood today, by the way.

The base engine in the Celebrity was the 2.5-liter Iron Duke four-cylinder, but this car has the optional high-output 2.8-liter V6 and its 125 horses/160 pound-feet. A 4.3-liter diesel V6 (which was an Oldsmobile design not related to the Chevrolet 4.3-liter V6) was available for the 1985 through 1986 model years, but had been dropped by the time this car was built.

The HO 2.8 got multi-port fuel injection, while the ordinary 112hp 2.8 had a two-barrel carburetor.

For 1986, Celebrity buyers could get a four-on-the-floor manual transmission as base equipment with cars built with Iron Duke or carbureted 2.8 engines (almost none did), but the HO 2.8 cars got this four-speed automatic. Just to confuse matters, the Iron Duked ’86 Celebrity could be purchased with a three-speed automatic.

This AM/FM/cassette radio with auto-reverse and Dolby noise reduction is serious audio hardware for a low-priced American car of the middle 1980s. Celebrity buyers for 1986 got nothing as standard audio equipment, as in the only tunes you’d get in the car were the ones you sang yourself; this unit (which was the second-to-the-top radio option for the 1986 Celebrity) cost a cool $319, or about $909 in 2024 dollars. You really needed it, however, if you wanted to do justice to the hits of the era.

Junkyard employees generally don’t have time to futz with malfunctioning GM hood latches when it comes time to yank the battery and drain all the fluids, so they’ll take this kind of drastic prybar action to open a hood quickly. That’s a shame, because this car’s body was in good shape when it arrived here.

Interestingly for a Detroit wagon with so many options, this one doesn’t seem to have the rear-facing “wayback” seat.

It will be crushed soon, but at least many of its parts went to a good home.

The Celebrity sedan was replaced by the Lumina, with the Lumina APV minivan taking over midsize family-hauling duties. The very last new Chevrolet station wagon available in the United States was the longroof version of the 1996 Caprice.

Drive today’s Chevy. Live today’s Chevy.

The roomiest front-drive wagons in America.

پورشه برای 718 Cayman GT4 RS پکیج جدید و گران قیمتی دارد. انگار که 493 اسب بخار ویژه روز پیست از قبل به اندازه کافی دلگیر نبود، این پکیج جدید بر اساس کیتی که روی خودرو نصب شده بود که بیش از 6 ثانیه از زمان زنگ زدن GT4 RS را در دست داشت جمع آوری شد. از راننده حرفه ای پورشه، یورگ برگمایستر.

بیایید یک چیز را روشن کنیم: 718 GT4 RS به خودی خود یک هیولا است. دور زدن Nordschleife در کمتر از 7:10 در نوع خود بسیار چشمگیر است. اما البته این برای پورشه کافی نبود. یا به عبارت دیگر، شرکت مطمئناً در مقابل آن ایستادگی نمی کند از دست دادن هر گونه فروش با ارائه یک ماشین حتی سریعتر، پس چرا آن را انجام ندهید؟ مطمئناً هزینه برای مشتریانش فاکتوری نیست، زیرا به نظر می‌رسد از هر مدل خاص، محدود یا غیر استانداردی که پورشه می‌تواند استفاده کند، راضی هستند. حتی با قیمت 53946 دلاری، انتظار داریم این باندل هیچ کمبودی برای مشتریان پیدا نکند.

با حدود 15000 دلار کمتر از قیمت پایه یک پورشه ماکان، شما یک پکیج متمرکز روی مسیر را دریافت می‌کنید که شامل یک سیستم تعلیق کویل‌اور کاملاً قابل تنظیم با فنرهای جلوی بسیار سفت‌تر، هوای اصلاح‌شده که نیروی رو به پایین در سرعت 124 مایل در ساعت تقریباً دو برابر می‌شود و مقداری ترمز فولادی بدون انعطاف را دریافت می‌کنید. خطوط با پرداخت 5890 دلار دیگر، یک پکیج هوای تکمیلی دریافت خواهید کرد که جایگزین پرده‌های گلگیر جلو می‌شود و یک فلاپ بزرگ‌تر پشتی به اسپویلر عقب اضافه می‌کند که هر دو از فیبر کربن خالی ساخته شده‌اند. پورشه می گوید که فلاپ اصلاح شده به تنهایی حداکثر نیروی رو به پایین در محور عقب را تا 4 درصد دیگر افزایش می دهد.

هر دو مرکز تجربه پورشه در ایالات متحده، تست درایوهای 718 مجهز به سیستم تعلیق Manthey را ارائه خواهند داد. اگر در نزدیکی آتلانتا یا لس آنجلس هستید و می خواهید برای رانندگی برنامه ریزی کنید، می توانید برای ثبت نام به PorscheDriving.com مراجعه کنید. مشتریان فعلی نیز خوش شانس هستند. پورشه تایید کرد وبلاگ خودکار این کیت می‌تواند روی خودروها قبل یا بعد از تحویل نصب شود، بنابراین در هر کجای سفر مالکیت GT4 RS خود هستید، می‌توانید سوار قطار Manthey شوید.

ویدیو مرتبط:

Manthey-Racing continues to expand its offerings in the U.S., this time with an upgrade for the Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS.

Manthey is a German motorsports and engineering company with close ties to Porsche, and has in the past been tapped to oversee some of Porsche’s racing programs.

It recently entered the game of offering upgrades for some of Porsche’s road cars. The upgrades in most cases have been developed with Porsche and are available through the automaker’s showrooms, and thus won’t void the original factory warranty when installed at an approved workshop.

The upgrade for the 718 Cayman GT4 RS focuses on the aerodynamics and chassis components and reduces the already capable sports car’s Nürburgring lap time to 7:03.121, down 6.179 seconds compared to stock, according to Manthey’s own testing. In both cases the tires used were Michelin’s Pilot Sport Cup 2 Rs.

Key among the upgrades is a new coil-over suspension with spring struts that can be adjusted to four positions, as well as adjustable rebound and compression stages. The adjustments can be made without the need for tools. The spring rates on the front suspension have also been increased by 20%.

2024 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS with Manthey Performance Kit

In the area of aerodynamics, there’s a wider rear wing with four levels of adjustment, one up from stock, resulting in downforce rising to 372 pounds, up from the stock 196 pounds. And for the brakes, the engineers added steel hoses that help ensure optimal stopping power on the track. Brake pads suited for track driving are also available.

No changes have been made to the powertrain, which means the car’s 4.0-liter flat-6 generates a peak 493 hp, all of which is sent to the rear wheels via a 7-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission.

The cost of the upgrade is $53,946, excluding installation. For an additional $5,890, a new front fender louver design and a larger gurney flap on the rear ductail spoiler can be added, the latter further increasing the downforce by 4%.

Interested buyers have the opportunity to try the upgrade before buying. The Porsche Experience Centers in both Atlanta and Los Angeles will offer driving programs featuring the 718 Cayman GT4 RS equipped with the upgrade.

Manthey also offers a similar upgrade for the 992-generation Porsche 911 GT3, which the company launched in the U.S. last year.

Police in Milton, Florida arrested a man after he pulled a gun on an Uber driver earlier this week who was dropping his daughter off. Sean Hollonbeck forced the driver out of the car and onto the ground and has since been charged with false imprisonment and aggravated assault with a weapon, WEAR News reports. After pulling him out of the car, Hollonbeck reportedly forced the driver to lie down in the roadway, show his driver’s license so he could photograph it, and allow him to photograph his license plate, his Uber account and the address where he picked up Hollonbeck’s daughter.

As it turned out, the 13-year-old snuck out of the house Saturday night and took an Uber to Pensacola, about 30 minutes away. When he discovered she’d snuck out, he reportedly called both the Santa Rosa County and Escambia County sheriff’s offices, but didn’t get much help from either department. So when she got back home, he made the only logical decision and pulled a gun on the completely innocent Uber driver.

It’s not entirely clear what kind of gun Hollonbeck used. WEAR News said it was a .22 rifle, but Fox 35 Orlando reports it was actually an AR-15. Either one could be deadly at close range, and having any gun pointed in your face is going to make for a bad day.

If you assumed Hollonbeck would have seen the error of his ways after his arrest and being fired from his job, though, you couldn’t possibly be more wrong. He is doubling down, insisting that he did everything right.

“That vehicle was completely unmarked. In my mind this was not good, right?” he told WEAR News. “And everybody knows what’s going on in this country with fentanyl and child trafficking and rape. Terrible stuff.”

He also really wants people to know he’s a veteran, saying, “I served 31 years, I was an Army doctor, I trained as a Navy flight surgeon, I served with the 7th Special Forces Group, I served with the 160th. I served six tours.” That, of course, only makes things worse since he’s not some yokel who’s never been taught the rules of firearm safety or when it’s appropriate to pull a gun on someone.

“The vast majority of this story has not been presented to the public whatsoever. And the vast majority of this is related to parental rights,” he said, later adding, “In this country, you’re innocent until proven guilty. If it goes to trial, I look forward to it because I want to get 12 moms and dads on that jury and judge if what I did was fair — because I called for law enforcement, and I didn’t get them.”

Something tells us the jury will probably see things differently, but it is Florida, so you never know. Maybe they’ll decide it actually isn’t illegal to pull a gun on your daughter’s Uber driver. Crazier things have happened in the past.