Cien, Elmiraj, Escala, Ciel–need I go on? I’m afraid that I have to because Cadillac has unearthed yet another stunning concept left on the proverbial cutting room floor. It doesn’t have a name but we do know this “expressive coupe” was an internal design exercise. A comprehensive one we might add because the designers also drew up an interior.
If it looks a bit familiar, there are a couple of reasons for that. The achingly beautiful coupe takes after the Escala. Back in July 2018, a mysterious patent filing from General Motors showed this very same concept on the United States Patent and Trademark Office website. At that point, we noticed design similarities between the trademark design shown on the USPTO site and one of the Escala sketches.
Cadillac claims the unnamed coupe served as the design foundation for current products such as the CT5 and its hot CT5-V Blackwing sibling. It’s easy to imagine a production version going up against the BMW M8 Coupe, but it sadly never happened. The concept is brought into the limelight via social media on GM Design’s Instagram account. This reveal is the latest installment in the “From the Vault” series.
After ending production of the ATS Coupe about five years ago, Cadillac doesn’t have a two-door model in its lineup. If the stars align, there might be a hypercar down the road. Earlier this month, GM’s design boss Michael Simcoe hinted at the prospects of a flagship performance vehicle:
“Could we build a hypercar? Yes. Would we like to build one? Yes. Are we building one? That would be giving too much away.”
Even a lower-tier coupe would suffice in a sea of SUVs sprinkled with a couple of sedans. A new ELR-styled car or something to that effect would provide a nice change of pace. If GM has no issues with selling a Buick luxury minivan in China, we deserve a low-slung coupe with a Cadillac crest.
However, the harsh reality is coupes are not a lucrative segment, which is why more and more automakers are giving up on selling two-door cars. It’s easy for us to ask Cadillac to build this car, but there’s a big risk it won’t sell enough to make financial sense.
Something critical I’ve learned in all my years of ruini—sorry, modifying cars is to lean on common sense. It’s an easy lesson to forget, especially when forum bros will tell you that wheels, tires, brakes, and a tune are day-one mods. But the simplest mods make the biggest difference, and one often overlooked mod can simply fix a car without doing almost anything else: Installing a proper aftermarket bucket seat.
I strive not to ruin my brand-new 2023 Subaru BRZ, but rather modify it to reach the extent of its out-of-the-box capabilities. Luckily, as the BRZ is such a relatively affordable car, there’s low-hanging fruit aplenty, like the aforementioned wheel, tire, and brake mods. One out-of-the-box bother I didn’t fully anticipate: the stock seating position is terrible. Same with the stock seats.
My old Type R going maximum attack at Buttonwillow Raceway with stock seats.
This might be because I came from an FK8 Honda Civic Type R, which has some of the best performance seats fitted to any car at any price. Even running a modded CTR, at a track pace five seconds faster than stock, I found those seats supportive enough, low enough, and comfortable enough to keep my wallet away from the aftermarket.
My BRZ does not benefit from good factory seats, especially for track use. While they were adequate for canyon driving, they were not comfortable. My lower back and bottom screamed after long trips, and the seating position was too tall for a sports car. I needed more support all around.
In my experience, most aftermarket seats are too extreme. Almost every seat maker has a different philosophy for the correct amount of seatback recline, the hip angle between your legs and torso, the amount of thigh support, and shoulder width. Not to mention the ever-critical lumbar support and seat padding. You have two choices down this path: Reclining seats and fixed-back seats.
Without getting into the weeds, I knew that reclining seats would not suit my needs. A reclining bucket seat would be an improvement over the stock seats, but only a fixed-back seat would offer enough support. Either way, I knew who to call: Recaro.
I chose the Recaro Pole Position for a few reasons, but one stands out: It is easily the most comfortable fixed-back seat I’ve sat in. A few seats come close in comfort, but the Pole Position is perfectly judged for a combination of track and street duty. My other choice would’ve been a Bride Zeta IV, which is reasonably comfortable for long trips but has aggressive leg side supports that make it impossible to stretch out and lounge. The Pole Position relies mostly on hip, midriff, and shoulder support to allow your arms and legs more mobility.
Finally, the Recaro offers the best padding and shaping, bar none. It’s a soft seat, with zero pressure points on my body, with good in-built lumbar support that is also adjustable with padding.
Oh, and the Pole Position has dummy swag. That’s another unfortunate truth of aftermarket seats. There are many makers, but the coolest of them all are Recaro and Bride, with Sparco trailing that group. Like my wheel discussion in my previous project post, swag is important for me with the BRZ, and the Pole Position has undisputable clout.
Recaro sent me a black Pole Position N.G., which is the narrower FIA-certified version. The wider, road-going ABE offers a bit more room at the hip–something I considered but didn’t need for my 33” waist. I also wanted to be sure that I could use the seat in competition events.
Then, there was the issue of mounting the seat to the car, which was surprisingly fraught. A dizzying array of mounts cloud your decision, all without clear guidance on measurements, mounting styles, or even the parts included. Recaro doesn’t make car-specific mounts, which slightly complicates the issue. I’ve also used seat mounts in the past that failed miserably in terms of construction and fitment.
After some research, I found the perfect solution from a company called Pro Car Innovations, better known as PCI. They’re a small outfit based in Los Angeles that makes specialized fabricated car parts, with seat mounts being one of their bread-and-butter commodities. It’s all designed and made in-house, and they tossed me their updated BRZ/GR86 sliding seat mount that made the install ridiculously easy.
Installation was simply a matter of removing the crap stock seat and installing the Recaro in its place. There are two things to be aware of, however: the seat belt buckle and airbag sensor. With the Recaro install, I understood I’d give up the extra safety of the factory airbag, but I didn’t want a light on my dash.
A 3.3 ohm 1-watt resistor inserted into the airbag plug solves the problem, just make sure to wrap it in electrical tape to seal it from the elements. Once the seat is installed, make sure to route the wire from the buckle underneath without pinching it and plug it in.
I then solved the seat belt buckle issue by getting a small extender because it was too short and angled toward the seat too aggressively. Not my favorite solution but I’m going to try to slightly bend the buckle or find a different buckle with a compatible plug in the future to avoid the extender. After a few tries I set my recline and height with the adjustable mounts, and found that the innermost of three positions for the seat rails worked best for the BRZ with a Pole Position.
Voila. I sat at least two inches lower than stock, finally my body at a height appropriate for a sports car. With the proper recline dialed in, I was more comfortable than in the stock seat by a considerable margin. I could do four-hour road trip stints whereas the stock seats had me looking for a snack stop within an hour. The new assembly also weighed in at 36.4 pounds, almost a full 10 pounds lighter than the stock seat, with a lower center of gravity to boot.
Most importantly, I was completely hooked into the car around corners on the track, and found backroad drives to be infinitely more enjoyable now that I wasn’t subconsciously bracing myself against the steering wheel. As a bonus, it isn’t all that difficult to get in and out of the seats with the slider mount.
Driving it with the new seat, I found almost zero downsides, save for the loss of the side airbag. And it had a distinct bonus: The seat also made the car feel different and better by virtue of stabilizing my body and cutting down the material between my backside and the car’s floor pan–I could feel the minute movements of the rear suspension and steer using my fingertips and palms rather than with my entire grip. And just seeing the seat in the car produces instant street cred.
It goes to show just how important comfort and seating position are to a sports car. They can make or break a driving experience. While my BRZ was already extremely good to drive, I now actively pine to drive it because it feels like a more special environment. Yet, as ever, there is more to do, and up next is taking a look at better brakes.
Lexus gave the GX a major update for 2024. The all-new SUV wears appropriately chunky styling that exudes ruggedness and versatility with all the luxury fixin’s you’d expect to get for $65,000. But a new concept in collaboration with the luxury appliance brand Monogram proves you can add just about anything to a car.
Lexus decked out the GX with Monogram’s 30-inch electric oven for baking a pizza, fancy artisanal bread, or whatever else you can fit. It’s accessible through a split liftgate. It also has chilling compartments for your drinks in the center console and rear and all the necessary cutlery, hardware, and storage space for the gear.
External storage cubbies are built into the rear-most windows with cutouts for bottles of wine and bourbon, a bottle opener, and glasses needed for the bar. The GX also has, according to Lexus, “the first and only heated ice press in the US” that creates spherical ice cubes. It sits between the rear seats.
Two-tone camel leather with a custom pattern adorns the seats and door panel trim, with brass and titanium metal and Dekton slate stone accents. The leather also frames the rear oven, the side cubby, and the rear storage bins, which secures the pizza peel. The SUV wears custom rims and unique exterior trim.
The full list of upgrades includes:
Monogram 30” Smart Flush Hearth Oven Monogram Forge Heated Ice Press Exterior Wine and Bourbon Storage Chilling compartments Plating Station Wine and Spirits Bar
The concept makes its public debut this weekend at Aspen, Colorado’s, Food and Wine Classic.
December 2023 was a sad month for muscle car enthusiasts. That’s when Dodge built the last Camaro and the final Challenger. Ford’s pony car is still going strong, and the Blue Oval isn’t missing an opportunity to take a jab at its defunct rivals. In a new video for the Mustang GT3 ahead of Le Mans this weekend, we see the race car flanked by its fallen adversaries.
The animation, which looks like A-ha’s “Take on Me” music video but with cars, mentions how the Mustang has “forged on” while “others fell by the wayside.” The cheeky clip also references past race cars from Dearborn. The ‘Stang originally raced at Le Mans back in 1967 and once again in 1997. However, Ford mentions this is the first time the beloved sports car “races with specific intent in the World Endurance Championship circuit.”
At the start of the 92nd edition of the famous 24-hour endurance race on Circuit de la Sarthe, the Proton Competition team will field three Mustang GT3s. The #77 car will be raced by Ryan Hardwick, Ben Baker, and Zacharie Robichon. The #88 vehicle will be piloted by Giorgio Roda, Dennis Olsen, and Mikkel O. Pedersen. In the #44 racing machine, Christopher Mies, John Hartshorne, and Ben Tuck will take turns behind the wheel.
This year’s Le Mans is scheduled for June 15-16. The Mustang GT3’s road-legal counterpart will also be there as Ford will publicly display the GTD at an adjacent fan zone for the model’s European debut. The ultimate Mustang with a license plate costs $325,000 in the United States where the preorder process has stopped. The company already has enough orders to keep busy for the entirety of the 2025 and 2026 model years.
Applications for buyers in Europe are about to begin. To draw interest, Ford also intends to showcase the Mustang GTD at the Goodwood Festival of Speed (July 11-14).
The Yamaha brand means different things to different people. Some think of motorcycles while others see the company as one of the most important musical instrument and audio equipment manufacturers. From golf karts and ATVs to generators and swimming pools, Yamaha has a diverse product lineup. Its involvement in the automotive segment is known to a lesser extent.
However, it did help Toyota develop the 2000GT in the 1960s. In addition, it engineered and built Ford’s V-6 SHO and V-8 SHO. Not only that, but it also collaborated with Lexus for the V-10 of its high-revving LFA supercar. It worked on a V-8 that went into a couple of Volvo models. There were also four-bangers that powered the Celica and MR2 as well as the Lotus Elise.
2015 Yamaha Sports Ride concept
Yamaha also toyed around with the idea of making its very own car. The 1992 OX99-11 was supposed to go into production in 1994 with a V-12. However, the early 1990s recession killed what would’ve been an F1 car for the road. The Japanese company revisited the idea of a building a car in 2013 with the pint-sized Motiv. That one didn’t make the cut either. A couple of years later, the Sports Ride was presented at the Tokyo Motor Show as a potential Mazda Miata fighter.
The diminutive two-seater coupe built around Gordon Murray Design’s iStream chassis weighed a remarkably low 1,653 pounds. That made it considerably lighter than the ND-generation MX-5 that was just coming out back in 2015. The rear-wheel-drive sports car was only 153.5 inches long, 67.7 inches wide, and 46 inches tall, so roughly similar proportions compared to a Miata.
The concept’s presentation at the 2015 Tokyo Motor Show wasn’t the end of the story. Subsequent patent images of a different design, presumably a closer-to-production version, emerged as part of a IP filing in 2018. It had a toned-down, Lotus-esque design and the exhaust tips were gone. That lead people to believe the Sports Ride had morphed into an EV.
2018 Yamaha sports car design trademark
2018 Yamaha sports car design trademark
The trademark application listed on the European Union Intellectual Property Office shows Gordon Murray as one of the designers. Interestingly, we found a video published by Yamaha with the updated car undergoing testing in 2017, at which point it had become the T40. It clearly still had a combustion engine, even though the patent images had hinted at an all-electric setup.
Yamaha never disclosed the engine’s identity but it did say the headlights took after those of the YZF-R1. The sports bike had a 1.0-liter four-cylinder that produced 200 horsepower and revved to 14,000 rpm. Just imagine that engine in a coupe that weighed practically nothing. It would’ve given the Miata a run for its money.
Seeing the car undergoing testing with a production-like design suggests Yamaha was serious about selling it. Unfortunately, it abandoned all of its car development plans in 2019, so the Subaru BRZ/Toyota GR86 competitor never came to fruition. Affordable sports cars compete in a rarified segment and it’s a shame the T40 was left on the cutting room floor.
The original Dodge Viper is not an off-roader. Low-slung, sporty, and stiff, its main purpose is to deliver joy via twisty tarmac and big, open, smooth-paved highways. Apparently nobody mentioned that to the builder of this Viper, which has gone through extensive modifications to make it a competent desert runner. Somehow, the looks rad as hell.
The SuperFastMatt YouTube channel has spent the past year disassembling, cutting, and reassembling this bright-red first-generation Viper from the 1990s. The project has gotten to a point where the host, Matt, felt comfortable enough to take the car to the desert for a thorough round of tests that included donuts, jumps, and rock-crawling.
In addition to the cut fenders and giant all-terrain tires, Matt designed custom uprights for the front suspension to work with aftermarket long-travel shocks and springs. Out back, the factory Viper suspension has been totally thrown out in favor of a solid axle taken from a Jeep Wrangler Rubicon, complete with a locking differential. The 8.0-liter naturally aspirated V-10 and six-speed Tremec T-56 transmission have, thankfully, been left alone.
Surprisingly, Matt’s testing reveals just a few small issues with the safari Viper. The locking diff means donuts are easy, but even with an upgraded radiator, coolant temperatures climbed higher than he would’ve liked. And while slow-speed rock-crawling was a success, the lack of a low-speed transfer case made torque modulation difficult.
Matt was brave enough to take the Viper off several jumps, made possible by the balloon-like tires and big-travel dampers. Though the car handled the landings fairly well, some of the interior trim fell off, and a couple of the custom suspension pieces were beginning to separate from each other. Nothing a few extra welds can’t fix.
Lanzante is back with another 930 Turbo creation. This one, dubbed the TAG Championship, is lighter and more powerful than the previous iteration of the unique British-built restomod. The company is building just three examples of the new Porsche, each representing one of McLaren’s three Formula 1 wins in the 1980s, which will be unveiled at this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed.
The three cars will pack raced-used examples of the twin-turbocharged 1.5-liter V-6 TAG TTE P01 Formula 1 engine. Cosworth re-engineered and built the units, upgrading the pistons, valves, and cams while installing lightweight titanium turbochargers, which McLaren certified. The car also has a new airbox, improved cooling, and an upgraded exhaust system.
The new hardware and a fresh ECU from Cosworth increase the engine’s output to 625 horsepower and allows it to 10,250 rpm, more than Lanzante’s earlier car. It channels the power to the wheels through a modified 993-generation six-speed manual transmission with bespoke ratios, allowing the 911 to reach 200 miles per hour.
Stopping power comes from upgraded carbon-ceramic brakes with four-piston calipers front and rear, which hide behind the 18-inch magnesium and carbon wheels wrapped in Michelin Pilot Sport 4 rubber.
In addition to the increased power, Lanzante trimmed some weight using carbon fiber for the hood, doors, wings, roofs, bumpers, and front splitter. It now tips the scales at 2,028 pounds, about 948 lbs less than the original donor car.
Lanzante also stripped the interior to save weight, eliminating the electric mirrors and windows. However, it didn’t remove all the creature comforts one would want—the builder did install a lightweight climate control system. Passengers sit in lightweight Recaro seats with six-point harnesses while the driver gets to grip a suede steering wheel.
There’s no mention of price for the TAG Championship, though it’s safe to assume that with all of the bespoke bodywork and an irreplaceable engine, it won’t be cheap.
Throughout eight generations, the Volkswagen Golf has spawned a multitude of special versions. The most desirable ones had six-cylinder engines in an unassuming package. Although the VR6 lineage ended after the fifth-gen model, the team from Wolfsburg did build a prototype of a Golf Mk6 with the VR-6 powertrain. Had it gone into production, it still would’ve been the most potent Golf ever.
Motor1 chatted with VW to learn more about the secret six-cylinder hot hatch that never came to be. According to Enrico Beltz, Head of Content, Classic Communication & Media Relations, the Golf Mk6 with a VR-6 was a one-off built back in 2009. It was a forerunner of the Golf R (Mk6) and had a 3.2-liter engine from the Rothe Motorsport racing team. The six-cylinder mill was based on the same engine that powered the Golf R32 (Mk5).
While the original naturally aspirated engine made 247 horsepower, its evolution was massaged to develop a massive 463 hp. Torque was considerably boosted as well, from 236 lb-ft to 384 lb-ft. As you can imagine, the VR-6 codenamed “BUB” underwent many changes to extract the additional oomph. Notable upgrades included a Garret GT35 turbocharger, custom pistons, a new intake manifold, different injectors, and aluminum hand-welded pressure pipes. Here’s the full list of mods:
Fuselage engine R32 code letter BUB
Rothe Motorsport pistons with compression reduction
Compression ratio 8.5:1
Crankshaft finely balanced with weight optimization
Camshafts Schrick
Cylinder head machining
Rothe Motorsport exhaust valves
Exhaust manifold Rothe Motorsport cast iron
Intake manifold Rothe Motorsport
Garret GT35 turbocharger
Suction 80mm aluminum hand-welded
Pressure pipes 60mm aluminum hand-welded
Intercooler Rothe Motorsport hand-welded
Trouser pipe with exhaust system Rothe Motorsport 89mm stainless steel
Rear silencer with flap control
Injectors Rothe Motorsport
Rothe Motorsport air duct made of GRP
There was more to this elusive Golf Mk6 than its six-cylinder engine. VW gave it the front brakes of an Audi RS6 and 19-inch wheels from a Lamborghini. In addition, the punchy compact hatchback received a Bilstein B16 suspension kit and a slightly modified interior. The cabin was covered in Alcantara and had a leather-wrapped dashboard with contrasting decorative stitching.
Performance numbers aren’t disclosed but the car must be a pocket rocket given the high power and a relatively low curb weight of 3,000 pounds. Add into the mix an all-wheel-drive system and a seven-speed, dual-clutch automatic transmission, the Golf VR6 (Mk6) would’ve been a proper sleeper. The fifth-gen model with the DSG did 0 to 60 mph in less than six seconds when tested by magazines back in the day. VW told us this unknown prototype can top out at more than 155 mph.
As to what happened to the car, it was used internally for a while before becoming a permanent member of the Volkswagen Classic fleet. The German brand has decided to unearth the Golf VR6 (Mk6) as part of the model’s 50th anniversary celebrations. It’ll be publicly displayed at the GTI Fanfest in Wolfsburg between July 26 and 28.
Meanwhile, the one-of-a-kind Golf was recently featured in a video from Halle77 starring VW boss Thomas Schäfer. The VR-6 prototype was strapped onto the dyno where it pumped out 457 hp and 392 lb-ft, so slightly less horsepower but a bit more torque compared to the factory rating.
It’s worth noting this wasn’t the last Golf built by VW with a VR-6 engine. When we did a retrospective of the 10 most interesting concepts based on the Golf, we mentioned the 2013 Golf Design Vision GTI concept with a VR-6 packing two turbochargers for more than 500 hp. A couple of years later, the 2015 Golf GTI Supersport Vision Gran Turismo was envisaged with a VR-6 dialed to 503 hp.
Although the Golf downsized to four- and three-cylinder engines after the Mk6, rumor has it that VW wanted to cram in an inline-five in the Mk8. However, Audi allegedly refused, deciding that the 2.5-liter unit would only power its compact RS cars. That said, the five-cylinder engine did eventually go into a non-Audi product as the Cupra Formentor VZ5 uses Ingolstadt’s punchy powertrain. It’s also found in the lesser-known KTM X-Bow.
The VR6 production models and prototypes didn’t have the biggest engine ever put by VW in a Golf. That title goes to the bonkers GTI W12-650, a ludicrous mid-engine concept with 641 hp, based on the Mk5 generation. It was unveiled in 2007 with a 6.0-liter unit from a Bentley Continental GT, complete with a pair of turbos and Audi RS4-sourced front brakes. The rear axle and brakes were taken from a Lamborghini Gallardo.
As it stands, the Mk8 is the last of the Golf breed with combustion engines. VW has already announced the Mk9 will be completely electric when it arrives in 2028 on the Scalable Systems Platform (SSP).
Ford is returning to Pikes Peak later next month with a wild electric pickup. The Blue Oval has been teasing the “EV demonstrator” since March, but today, the automaker gives us a complete look at the truck while revealing it can generate 6,000 pounds of downforce at 150 miles per hour.
The SuperTruck Demonstrator will achieve that figure with its equally wild aerodynamics. The low-slung pickup features a massive goose-neck wing that hangs off the back, towering above the roof of the cab. It also has a wide front splitter, outlets behind the front wheels, and a massive rear diffuser. Ford developed the truck in partnership with STARD.
10Photos
Ford didn’t provide any further details about its electric SuperTruck beyond how much downforce it’ll make. However, it does have some styling similarities to the SuperVan 4.2 that the automaker campaigned in last year’s hillclimb event.
That, too, had a massive wing and an aggressive aero kit that kept it planted through the course’s 156 turns. Its triple-motor setup produced 1,400 horsepower. The new pickup could have a similar setup, but we’ll have to wait for more details. The Ford SuperVan 4.0 had four motors that made 1,972 hp.
This is Ford’s second electric demonstrator. It released the F-150 Switchgear, built in collaboration with RTR, earlier this year. The company based it on the production Lightning platform, enhancing its off-road capability with skid plats, composite body panels, and a new suspension.
Ford will likely continue teasing the pickup leading up to the event’s 102nd running that begins on June 23. We’ll likely learn more details between now and when it runs up the hill. Romain Dumas, the current Pikes Peak International Hill Climb record holder, will pilot the Ford. But the Blue Oval won’t be the only automaker there with an EV. A modified Hyundai Ioniq 5 will also tackle the famous hillclimb course later in June.
No car is perfect, but some, like the Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione, come close. It has the looks and the engine, but it’s always been weighed down by the poor-performing robotized six-speed sequential gearbox. That’s now fixed thanks to a new aftermarket package from Swiss tuner Officine Fioravanti. It ditches the old transmission for a proper six-speed manual while making several other upgrades to the car.
The package includes a new carbon-ceramic brake system, an electronically controlled and adjustable Öhlins suspension, a “significant reduction in vehicle weight,” and new FIA-approved carbon-fiber seats. It also updates the engine calibration software that increases the output, but Officine Fioravanti doesn’t disclose the new numbers. We’ve reached out for more specifics, and we’ll be sure to update this article when we hear back.
15Photos
The 8C Competizione debuted in 2007 with a Ferrari-sourced 4.7-liter V-8 engine that made 444 horsepower and 354 pound-feet of torque. Alfa claimed the coupe could sprint to 62 miles per hour in 4.2 seconds and reach a 181-mph top speed. It only produced 500 coupes and 500 convertibles that immediately sold out, with only a handful making it to America.
Officine Fioravanti first appeared on our radar a few years ago when it introduced a Ferrari Testarossa restomod. Like the 8C, the tuner increased its output, reduced weight, and upgraded the suspension. The tuner also recently introduced a package for the Ferrari 512 Berlinetta Boxer that replaces the ignition and fuel systems.
