Benny Kirk
1,675 ARTICLES
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...
Allison V-1710: How America's First Muscle Engine Conquered the Skies and the Drag Strip
19 Oct 2023, 20:01 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / What qualities come to mind when you think of the archetypical big American internal combustion engine? Is it giant, hulking leviathans where anything less than eight cylinders is paramount to commie propaganda? You know, the kind of machines that ...
This Audi 1.8-Swapped Porsche 944 is Basically Just a Race Car Now, Has Body Kit to Match
17 Oct 2023, 18:01 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / The Porsche 944 was the kind of mid-level sports car that ordinary people could realistically afford if they pinched their pennies enough. Though it didn't have a V8 engine or even a turbocharger until 1985/86, the 944 took the classic Europea...
HEMI-Swapped '74 Plymouth Duster Proves That Good Times Didn't End After 1973
17 Oct 2023, 16:54 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / You might have this idea in your head that American muscle cars died after the 1973 oil crisis. The common belief is that once the oil-producing nations put their foot down and ended the good times, Americans wouldn't see a decent new domestic...
Tired of Coyote-Swapped Broncos? This LS7-Swapped GMC Jimmy Cleanses the Palate
16 Oct 2023, 17:03 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / We spend a lot of time oohing and ahhing at restomod trucks around these parts. If we had a nickel for every Coyote-swapped Bronco we've come across in the last few years; we might have enough coin saved up for a down payment on one. Okay, not...
Lockheed Martin's NGI Missile Defense System is Bonkers, Passes "Major Design Milestone"
16 Oct 2023, 16:04 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / The Cold War may have been over for three decades by 2023, but don't tell that to Lockheed Martin's Next Generation Interceptor (NGI) program team. Despite the Iron Curtain having long fallen, ballistic missile attacks, either nuclear or ...