Benny Kirk
1,660 ARTICLES
Lotus' New Type 136 e-Bike Takes Inspiration From Olympic Gold Medalists and Mars Landers
1 Nov 2023, 20:13 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Simplify and add lightness. This is the motto that Lotus' founder Colin Chapman personified in all-too-short life. It's the mantra that's kept Lotus a true-to-form lightweight sports car maker long after all its rivals became huge an...
This Might Be the Last Clean '79 Oldsmobile Cutlass Salon Brougham on Earth
31 Oct 2023, 20:08 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / In terms of telling the story of the American auto industry, the late 1970s might as well have been a black hole. Almost nothing of style, substance, or even remotely agreeable performance figures came out of Detroit factories in the wake of the Oi...
This RS3-Swapped Mk7 Golf R Deserved a Spot at SEMA, Busy Being a Daily Driver
31 Oct 2023, 19:32 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / It's easy to get caught up in all the amazing custom cars and trucks on display at the 2023 SEMA show. It's almost to the point it's easy to tune out all the stuff not on display this year. You know, custom vehicles that real people ...
Urban Automotive Tricks Out Range Rovers and Rolls-Royces With Carbon Fiber Kits at SEMA
31 Oct 2023, 17:39 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / At SEMA, the specific models of vehicles chosen to be modified and shown off to millions are almost immaterial. Why? Because ultimately, everything on display stops being just a car or a truck and becomes an artist's easel on four wheels. Stil...
Meet FJ Bruiser, The NASCAR-Swapped Toyota FJ45 Making a Roar at SEMA
31 Oct 2023, 16:55 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Many huzzahs! The Toyota Land Cruiser is coming back to the US domestic market. That's right. All that classic Japanese dependability and off-road capability is making its way back to North America, seemingly to prove it can still make mince m...
Nextbase Unveils iQ AI-Powered Dashcam, the Next Generation of Vehicle Security
31 Oct 2023, 15:09 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Across Europe and North America, rates of road rage, smash and grabs, and general automotive theft are skyrocketing in a post-global health crisis world where everyone appears to be letting off steam all at once. In a world full of sub-par dash cam...
Avro Canada Jetliner: How the World's First Jet Airliner Almost Came From Ontario
31 Oct 2023, 03:11 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / This history of the Canadian aerospace sector can best be described as a series of proverbial kicks to the nads by countries more powerful than itself. Never mind that the AEA Silver Dart, the first heavier-than-air flying machine to be built large...
Abarth Touts Brazil-Exclusive 2024 Fastback Coupe SUV, an X4 on a Budget?
30 Oct 2023, 18:18 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / It's only been a year since Stellantis re-introduced the Abarth brand to the Brazilian Domestic Market. But in that time, the drive towards offering a cool, fashionable performance vehicle brand to young Brazilians hasn't wavered even sli...
This 6BT-Swapped Kaiser Jeep J3000 Is More Capable Than a Modern Gladiator
30 Oct 2023, 16:59 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Called it a Wrangler with a bed at the rear or not a real truck all you want, but the modern JT-series Jeep Gladiator is a powerful force in the mid-size truck segment. Over 75,000 Gladiators left Jeep dealer lots last year, but the question of lon...
Hyundai Flexes Kona Jayde Concept at 2023 SEMA Show, a New Breed of Urban Crossover
30 Oct 2023, 15:34 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / The Hyundai Kona is a force to be reckoned with in the North American subcompact crossover segment. With unparalleled drivetrain options between gasoline, plug-in electric hybrids, and full-on battery EVs, the Kona is setting the scene for how all ...
T-28 Trojan: The American Trainer Plane That Could Outclimb a Mustang
27 Oct 2023, 17:50 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / A military trainer plane is the aeronautical equivalent of level one. A slow, stable platform where novice pilots work up their skills until, hopefully, they wind up in something far cooler and faster. When military aviation museums are full of Mus...
This S2000-Swappeed Corolla SR5 is Like Initial D Plus VTEC
24 Oct 2023, 19:20 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / We dare you to try and explain how the North American Toyota Corolla SR5 technically is and isn't the same as the AE86 Trueno from the Initial D anime without making the person on the other end fall asleep or politely gesture to switch topics....
20 Years Ago Today, the Concorde Supersonic Airliner Bid Its Final Farewell
24 Oct 2023, 18:32 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Is there anything that hasn't been said about the Anglo-French Concorde supersonic passenger airliner that hasn't already been said? Even over half a century after its first flight, no aircraft from the Western world has come even remotel...
This Avro Anson Once Hunted German Submarines for the RAF, Now It's for Sale
24 Oct 2023, 17:47 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Unless you're a fan of war gaming or a particularly studious aviation geek, you think of either the Avro Lancaster or the Supermarine Spitfire when WWII British Warbirds come to mind, and not much of anything else. Bonus points if you show lov...
Your Eyes Do Not Deceive You, This Four-Door 1994 Ford Bronco Centurion is for Sale
24 Oct 2023, 15:29 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Article title aside, we'd forgive you if you took one good look at this vintage Ford truck and said, "Nice! a pretty clean vintage F-150!" Most folks passing this truck in a parking lot or on the road would think the same. But then y...
Airbus A340: The Story of the Wimpiest Quad-Jet in the History of Aviation
24 Oct 2023, 00:02 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / A short while ago, we told the story of the Boeing 757, pound-for-pound the most overpowered twin-jet passenger airliner of the jet age of aviation. It was and still is the kind of jet that can legitimately impress fighter jets with its climb-to-al...
War Thunder's 'Kings of Battle' Update Looks Wicked, Adds F-111 Aardvark to U.S. Tech Tree
21 Oct 2023, 18:32 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / In real life, the General Dynamics F-111 was a plane that even the U.S. Air Force seemed to forget it operated at times. Heck, even its "Aardvark" nickname was only christened right as the plane was due to be retired in 1996. Twenty-seven...
Forget a New Hot Hatchback, We Wanna Drive This VR5-Swapped Citroen C2 VTS
21 Oct 2023, 17:02 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / The Citroen C2 is nothing short of an oddity by North American standards. Neither a full-sized family hatchback nor an urban-optimized city car, B-segment vehicles of its type occupy a peculiar European niche that most North Americans would describ...
Insane Hydrofoil-Launched Soviet Space Shuttle Comes to Life With CGI
20 Oct 2023, 15:55 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / A couple of years ago, we shared with you the story of the USS Plainview, a U.S. Navy hydrofoil ship that was powered by the same General Electric J79 turbojet engines you'd find in a jet fighter. If you thought this was the ultimate form of b...
Operation Desert Storm: The Greatest Assembly of Military Aircraft of All Time
20 Oct 2023, 03:37 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Intriguing things happen when a country spends decades and trillions of dollars prepping for war with a peer-to-peer adversary, only to spend decades more fighting guerrilla insurgents on their home turf in the desert. This, in a nutshell, is the m...