You don’t often hear about disasters befalling the annual luxury gathering that is the Monterey Car Week. However, this year catastrophe struck when a priceless Ford Ghia Probe 1 Concept Car went up in flames leaving the event and now a second multi-million-dollar motor has been destroyed in a fire following the meet. The Kia … Read more
One of the featured classes at last weekend’s 2024 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance was the Italian coachbuilder Frua. There was a Maserati-specific Frua class, as Maserati is celebrating its 110th anniversary this year, and a class for Frua designs of other brands. My favorite car of the bunch (and certainly the largest), was this 1971 … Read more
Image: Mecum Auctions Another Monterrey Car Week has come and gone, along with the fantastic array of classic vehicles and futuristic concepts strutting their stuff on the golf course green by the sea. Many car enthusiasts dream of attending such a lush event, though few think they’d ever be able to walk away with a … Read more
The last time the Mercedes-Maybach subbrand offered a droptop was in 2016 with the limited-run S-Class Cabriolet, and since then loyal Maybach customers have been asking the brand for not only another convertible, but a sports car at that. Enter the 2026 Mercedes-Maybach SL680 Monogram Series, a luxurious and outlandish version of the seventh-generation SL … Read more
Porsche didn’t invent the word “Speedster” as it existed in the pre-war American motor car lexicon, well before Porsche existed. At this point, however, Porsche has pretty much owned the term since the 1950s after importer Max Hoffman slapped the name on a lightweight motorsport-oriented open-top 356 variant. After the 356 Speedster ended production, there … Read more
Photo: Volkswagen As crossovers have gotten more popular, it only makes sense that a few automakers would try selling convertible versions. On paper, it’s a great idea, but the first two that we got — the Nissan Murano CrossCabriolet and Land Rover Range Rover Evoque Convertible — were sales disasters and quickly canceled. And yet, … Read more
Since the formal merging of Mercedes and AMG in 2005 to form Mercedes-AMG GmbH the German performance subbrand has been on an interesting trajectory, especially with the relatively recent introduction of diet-AMG models like the 43 and 53 cars. Where spotting an AMG badge on the back of a Mercedes-Benz used to mean something seriously … Read more
I suppose it’s the time my friend and I decided to do a top speed run in my ‘72 240Z while heading south towards Mexico through San Diego. This happened back in the later part of the 80’s, when I was still technically a teenager, but old enough to drink in Mexico. I was counting … Read more
As a Los Angeles County native, we always referred to visiting Orange County as crossing the orange curtain because of the stark shift in political tendencies. We know things work a bit differently in OC, but that’s no excuse for the wacky convertible conversions that come out of Newport Convertible Engineering in Huntington Beach, California. … Read more
Image: Logan K. Carter Queer folks love cars. I’m a part of a friend group with a lot of self-proclaimed car gays, and when you work in the automotive world you quickly learn that it’s a very queer space. That was a pleasant surprise for me when I first joined Mercedes-Benz Research and Development as … Read more
