Benny Kirk
1,648 ARTICLES
In Desperate Need of Four Wheels? a Crusty, Dented 2005 Chevy Malibu Classic Beats the Bus
14 Aug 2022, 18:09 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Remember when the Chevy Malibu used to be a cool car? Neither do we, as most of us weren't fortunate enough to grow up in the late 1960s. But that doesn't mean later model Malibus are completely useless. They may not have a fraction o...
This Restored Grumman Mallard Flying Boat is Classier Than a Yacht, More Useful Too
14 Aug 2022, 17:08 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / It's Sea Month here at autoevolution. A month in which we celebrate all things that sail across the world's seas and oceans (or seas and oceans on other worlds in some cases). For some people, the only sea vessels worth talking about are ...
Lightly Used 2018 Koenigsegg Agera RSN Looking for Fabulously Wealthy New Owner
14 Aug 2022, 16:53 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Koenigsegg is a supercar brand perpetually on the outside, looking in on the established aristocracy. One can only assume long celebrated German and Italian supercar makers get pretty salty when a scrappy Swedish company builds something that does ...
Here's Why the Germans Never Used Their Only Aircraft Carrier in Combat During WWII
13 Aug 2022, 14:33 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / If you buy into some of the more dubious beliefs regarding German military technology during World War II, you're probably inclined to believe they were capable of building just about anything. From ballistic missiles to atomic weapons and...
NASA Recovery Ships, Two Ordinary Vessels With an Extraordinary Payload
13 Aug 2022, 14:27 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / You're bound to see a slew of different seafaring vessels during autoevolution's Sea Month. Cargo ships, pleasure yachts, megayachts, flying boats, and anything else that floats on the world's oceans (or the oceans of another world)....
Saro Lerwick: the Infernally Awful Polar Opposite of the American Catalina
12 Aug 2022, 19:46 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Whether intentional or not, military airplanes tend to exude a mystique of badassery about them. There's just something about giant engines and menacing camo paint jobs that can turn even the average cargo plane into a machismo-oozing weapon o...
Convair Sea Dart: A Cold War Navy Fighter Prototype on Water Skis
11 Aug 2022, 19:06 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / In our last item about seaplanes here in Sea Month, we looked at a U.S. Navy flying boat that nearly carried nuclear weapons into battle. But the Martin P6M SeaMaster was not the only attempt by the U.S. Navy to make a jet-powered seaplane into a w...
Martin P6M SeaMaster: Half Flying Boat, Half Strategic Jet Bomber, 100 Percent Awesome
10 Aug 2022, 20:50 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / If the U.S.Military wants something done, it gets done. This is the seemingly eternal paradox of the military-industrial complex. You or I might find a jet-powered strategic bomber with a ship's hull for an underside to be a silly idea. But be...
93 Years Ago Today, The Graf Zeppelin Departed New Jersey on a Trip Around the World
8 Aug 2022, 21:35 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / It can be hard to believe it in hindsight. But before the 1940s, the relationship between Germany and the United States wasn't all that different from any other influential European country. That's why, 93 years ago to the date, the Germa...
Regular Car Reviews Hoons a Tesla Model S Plaid, the Least Regular Car That Ever Existed
8 Aug 2022, 17:08 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Brian of Regular Car Reviews on YouTube is the kind of guy more likely to point out the positive points of a bone stock mid-80s Dodge Omni before he'd sing the praises of an unobtanium psycho-supercar. But when it comes to the Tesla Model S Pl...
Westen Champlin Hates Boats, Won't Stop Him From Towing One With a Cummins-Swapped Mustang
7 Aug 2022, 02:19 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Westen Champlin is a man with simple tastes. Big turbos, bigger engines, and lots of long, straight Kansas roads surrounded by cornfields on either side to do burnouts in. But for no other reason other than a lust for something to tow with his belo...
Liberty Ships: the Toyotas of WWII American Production
6 Aug 2022, 06:00 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / During the Second World War, it wasn't just manpower, overwhelming firepower, and cutting-edge tactics that saw the Allies to victory. More than anything else, the nail in the coffin for the Axis forces was raw, relentless production. We s...
Before Gigantic Airports, Water Was an Airplane's Playground
6 Aug 2022, 05:57 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Airports are kind of a pain in the you-know-what for most cities. They take up more land than most zip codes, fill the air with CO2 and noise pollution, and in some cases, the property values of the homes near a major international airport are stil...
These U.S. Companies Are on Call if Russia Abandons the International Space Station
5 Aug 2022, 07:26 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / In many ways, the Russians were the heart and soul of the International Space Station. They launched Zarya, its first human-rated station component, into Low Earth Orbit. They also shouldered the bulk of the launch burden to get to the station afte...
Car Wizard Tells All on a 1999 Silverado 1500, a Bulletproof Truck With a Few Issues
5 Aug 2022, 05:46 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / If there's one thing we love to do around here, it's to direct our readers towards YouTube channels, subreddits, and so forth that can help you learn key tricks of the mechanic's trade. That's why Dave, the "Car Wizard"...
This US Aircraft Carrier Hosted a College Basketball Game on Its Deck, It Was Wonderful
5 Aug 2022, 04:40 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / USS Midway (CV-41) may have made its final voyage from Yokosuka bound for Pearl Harbor in August 1991. But in the pages of history, The story will read that this mighty post-WWII aircraft carrier had its final battle over two decades later. Not on ...
An Original Type 35 Bugatti is a Seven Figure Antique, This Replica is 1/250th the Price
4 Aug 2022, 04:11 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Before the Chiron, the Veyron, and the EB-110, Bugatti was forging its path in history with some of the finest designs of the 1920s and 30s. Original, mint condition versions of these old gentleman's racers, like the Type 35, are easily seven ...
Hoovies Garage Transforms a Maserati Levante Into a Wicked Overland Rig, Has He Gone Mad?
4 Aug 2022, 03:02 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Depending on your perspective, Tyler Hoover of Hoovies Garage on YouTube is either one of auto-vlogging greatest savants or one of its biggest clowns. With his trusty team of mechanic buddy's help, he's come up with some wacky ideas for t...
Turbo-Cummins Swapped Mustang Pulls Cement Truck and Does a Burnout at the Same Time
4 Aug 2022, 01:47 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Westen Champlin is a renaissance man, a jovial Kansas farmboy whose biggest passion is making more horsepower than anyone ever really needs in their life. His Cummins turbodiesel-swapped late model Ford Mustang, the "Smokestang," might be...
France to Deploy Laser Weapon to Shoot Down Drones at 2024 Olympics, What Could Go Wrong?
3 Aug 2022, 15:46 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / If you've watched any of the Summer or Winter Olympic games over the last dozen or so years, chances are good you've spotted remote-powered drones flying over Olympic villages. Generally, they're little more than a nuisance to the pe...