Benny Kirk
1,278 ARTICLES
Vietnamese Carmaker VinFast Ready to Steal the Stage at the 2021 LA Auto Show
18 Nov 2021, 06:41 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / The Vietnamese carmaker VinFast debuted on the North American market by displaying two models at this year's LA Auto Show. For a company yet to celebrate its fifth birthday, VinFast of Haiphong, Vietnam, is on as good a track as any brand ...
This Boneheaded British Gift to the Soviet Air Force Haunted NATO for Decades
18 Nov 2021, 00:00 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / In the immediate aftermath of World War II, the newly founded U.S. Air Force was essentially untouchable, or so they thought. As one war turned into another and that notion was tested over the skies of Korea, it turned out that American air superio...
Decades Before Lambo, This Tri-Engined Biplane Bomber Was the Most Bonkers Italian Vehicle
17 Nov 2021, 21:58 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / You probably think bonkers Italian engineering is some sort of modern phenomenon. Or that the whole craze began when Ferrari and Lamborghini started duking it out for the crown of the most insane designs possible in the late 60s. That line of th...
V12-Swapped, Mid-Engined Toyota HiAce Van Is Part Ex-Taxi, Part Lamborghini Aventador
16 Nov 2021, 21:04 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Please don't ever, EVER, doubt what a group of people with knowledge and time at their disposal are capable of accomplishing. Because the end result of what they can muster can boggle the mind even more than what established automakers can com...
Here’s What You Should Know About the 2021 LA International Auto Show
16 Nov 2021, 20:12 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Having an auto show go off without a hitch is no guaranteed thing these days. The canceling of this year's San Diego and New York International Auto Shows are living proof. But Southern California is an especially important venue for petrolhea...
Subaru Boxer-Swapped VW Van Doesn't Need Exterior Mods to Look Wicked
16 Nov 2021, 17:23 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / We live in an era when the idea of camper vans usually appeals, at least stereotypically, to people who are into doomsday prepping and telling their friends about the upcoming apocalypse as its tentative date goes farther and farther back. But befo...
1961 Nash Metropolitan Does Fusion Dance With Honda S2000, in Move Straight Out of DBZ
16 Nov 2021, 06:27 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Classic American car fans and JDM enthusiasts used to exist in separate but equal spaces in the automotive cultural zeitgeist. Never to interact or mingle with one another, lest they get into a particularly spirited debate on how one is objectively...
Ford 302-Swapped MGB Is an Anglo-American Collaboration on Par With the Shelby Cobra
15 Nov 2021, 21:45 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / For those of you saying The Beatles was the greatest Anglo-American import that ever existed, you're mistaken because this MGB swapped with a Ford 302 V8 is better, at least to petrolheads. Don't believe us? Keep reading. The MGB was o...
This Fully Juiced-Up '69 Camaro Sports a Big-Block Engine Powerful Enough To Warp Gravity
15 Nov 2021, 20:30 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Remember when the 502 GM big-block crate engine felt like the most ludacrous thing in existence? Well, times change quickly, but not enough for tuners with cash to burn from keeping up. To some, any replacement for old-fashioned displacement must b...
Custom '48 Chevy Stylemaster Has a Great Name, Even Greater 383 Stroker Engine
15 Nov 2021, 18:34 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / The late 1940s were a time before the auto industry had gotten into the rhythm of naming cars in a way that excites their audience. One glaring exception has to be the 1948 Chevrolet Stylemaster. Even saying the word "Stylemaster" makes y...
Toyota Unveils Supra Drag Car, Joins NASCAR Cousin in Battle Against Yanks
15 Nov 2021, 16:35 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Suppose you thought Toyota, a Japanese manufacturer fielding their Camry followed by their Supra in NASCAR Racing, was a bridge too far. In that case, we're sorry to say you're in the minority there, and it's about to get even worse ...
Nissan Announces Profitability for First Time Since Chip Shortage Began
15 Nov 2021, 15:02 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / To say the last five years or so have been tumultuous for the Renault-Nissan Alliance would be the understatement of the century. But with their former CEO smuggled out of Japan to avoid jail time for financial crimes, new boss Ashwani Gupta has de...
Turkey Builds Over 100k Cars in October, Despite Cratering Global Auto Industry
15 Nov 2021, 14:26 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / 108,078 vehicles, that's how many cars factories of the Turkish auto industry cranked out in October 2021. Even as the industry around them fell to its knees at the hands of a chip shortage that shows zero signs of letting up. While factories ...
![Bombshell: McLaren Reportedly Acquired By Audi [UPDATE: McLaren Denies]](https://s1.cdn.autoevolution.com/images/news/bombshell-audi-confirms-acquisition-of-mclaren-which-now-shares-real-estate-with-lambo-174199-2.jpg "Bombshell: McLaren Reportedly Acquired By Audi [UPDATE: McLaren Denies]")
Bombshell: McLaren Reportedly Acquired By Audi [UPDATE: McLaren Denies]
15 Nov 2021, 12:25 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Petrolheads in America and around the world woke up to a supercar landscape peculiarly different than the one they'd gone to sleep knowing, as the cash-strapped McLaren Automotive had reportedly found a new home underneath the Audi umbrella, o...
Unhinged Democrat Senator Joe Manchin Slams $4500 EV Tax Credit for Union Laborers
12 Nov 2021, 20:29 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / When American politics affect its auto industry, it's usually in ways that aren't conducive to headlines or even marginally entertaining journalism. But the latest remarks by the Democratic party's most conservative lawmaker by a cou...
Automakers Cut Annoying Holiday TV Commercial Budget Over Cratering Sales, Mercifully
12 Nov 2021, 17:15 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Have you always longed for a welcome bit of reprieve from tone-deaf, ham-fisted car commercials? Do you envision a time when no anthropomorphic hamsters, no Matthew McConaughey, or some other calculated media trick to try and get you to break out t...
Mitsubishi Mirage Continues Quiet Renaissance, Passes Chevy Spark for #1 in U.S. Sales
12 Nov 2021, 09:45 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / The highly unexpected second renaissance of the polarizing Mitsubishi Mirage is one of the few heartwarming stories of an otherwise very mixed bag in the year of the great microchip shortage. If the used car market drying up all its available relia...
The Humvee May Be Retired Soon, Let’s Pay Tribute to Its Very Oldest Ancestor
12 Nov 2021, 09:15 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Well, it looks like the mighty AM General Hummer's days as the king of U.S. Army ground vehicles may soon be at an end, with military-industrial giants like Oshkosh and AM General competing for a new contract with the U.S. armed forces, guaran...
This Cold War Jeep Packed Mean Horsepower in Its Comms Array, but Not Under the Hood
12 Nov 2021, 07:30 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / When it comes to vehicle mods, you're pretty strapped when it comes to choices. You could turbocharge your engine or add a nice infotainment head unit, for example. But if you're the United States Military in Vietnam War-era Indo-China, y...
Here’s Why Tuners in Southeast Asia Love the Mitsubishi Mirage
11 Nov 2021, 23:56 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / In America, the three-cylinder Mitsubishi Mirage is a car that just can't stop being joked at by people who call them wimpy, puny, or heaven-forbid a "pansies" car. As despicable as it is to appropriate one's choice of car wi...