Benny Kirk
1,645 ARTICLES
Muscle Car EV Conversions: Sacrilegious or a Necessary Evil?
4 Mar 2022, 06:11 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / We're petrolheads around these parts, we like V8s, we adore forced induction, and we pray not to Abrahamic gods but to the holy spirits of Shelby, Hennessey, and Mopar. So we took things pretty darn hard when it became obvious silent electric ...
Here's Why All-Electric Aircraft Are So Much Trickier Than Cars and Trucks
3 Mar 2022, 18:45 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Electric cars, be it of the battery or fuel cell variety, are all the rage. Much to the chagrin of petrolheads everywhere, it really looks like this avenue is the way forward, at least as far as four wheels are concerned. The same can't be...
Coach Built 1932 Lincoln KB Was America’s Answer to Bentley and Rolls Royce
2 Mar 2022, 23:00 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / When you think about luxury cars from the 1930s, you generally think of three automakers. Rolls-Royce, Bentley, and Cadillac. Maybe Packard, too, if you're a real bookworm. But don't get it twisted. Luxury cars weren't the functional...
No, Hydrogen Won't Save ICE Passenger Cars, But it Might Save Race Cars
2 Mar 2022, 21:10 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / A short while ago, our esteemed colleague Gustavo Henrique Ruffo published an editorial where he explains why swapping petroleum for hydrogen in our internal combustion engines is not the way forward for sustainable consumer cars and trucks. No...
Grumman X-29: Just a Prototype IRL, Deadly Fighter in Ace Combat
2 Mar 2022, 20:34 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Grumman Aerospace of Long Island, New York was known for plenty of iconic fighter planes among its ranks. But is it possible the very coolest of their designs often gets overlooked? If some of the old gameplay footage from the now-defunct Ace Comba...
Elon Musk vs Jeremy Clarkson: The Beef That Accidentally Started the EV Revolution
2 Mar 2022, 19:25 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / It's getting hard to remember a world before Elon Musk, and Tesla wasn't the undisputed most buzzworthy name in the global auto industry, bar none. But jostle your memory just enough, and most gearheads of a certain age will be transporte...
The Destroyed Antonov An-225 Must Be Rebuilt, Here's Why
1 Mar 2022, 22:12 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / The Antonov An-225 Mriya was a technological marvel of a super heavy jet cargo aircraft. It was also an astounding feat of engineering that transcended the bounds of its home nation. The apparent destruction and complete loss of the the largest...
The World's First Road Built Just for Cars Doubled as a Racetrack, Here's How
1 Mar 2022, 17:36 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Americans are a people constantly on the move. Be it to work and back, cross country on vacation, or just because they enjoy the freedom of life on the road. But roads dedicated to automobile use first and everything else second had their start, no...
The Engine in This 1-of-1 Sprint Car Racer Alone Is Worth $50 Grand
27 Feb 2022, 19:01 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Our trip to the public race car collection of Mr. Marty Himes of Long Island, New York, was a privilege the likes of which most people born after a certain age are liable never to experience in their lives. But of all the cars in his remarkable col...
Spotlight USA: Meet Marty Himes, The Ex-Racer Preserving Vintage Race Cars All By Himself
27 Feb 2022, 17:40 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Yaknow something? It can be a real drag having this career sometimes. Sitting behind a desk covering and writing up about the day-to-day drudgeries of the auto industry, especially with this chip shortage business. But what we have in store for you...
Razgriz Squadron's F-14A: The Most Gorgeous Fighter Ever to Fly, Real Life or Virtual
25 Feb 2022, 22:04 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / We've been on a bit of a Grumman kick in the last couple of weeks. As it turns out, the Navy aerospace contractor from Long Island, New York, made a lot more than just fighter planes. But let's be real, we're all about the jets aroun...
The 2023 Outlander PHEV Could Save Mitsubishi From the Grave, Here's How
25 Feb 2022, 21:04 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / People don't seem to understand just how close Mitsubishi Motors came to going you-know-what's up in the 21st century. It was as if the death of the Evo 10 heralded a time when Mitsu's American passenger car business had taken a lowe...
Remembering the Aznom Atulux, a Ram 1500 in an Expensive Armani Suit
25 Feb 2022, 20:41 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Luxury SUVs are all the rage these days. It's as if every automaker on this side of the 2020s doesn't want to be caught dead without a top-tier luxury version of their flagship full-sized sport utility vehicle. But most of these land ship...
Bob "Hardcore" Holly: Part WWF Superstar, Part Hot-Shot Stock Car Driver
25 Feb 2022, 20:31 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Working for Vincent K. McMahon under the WWF (now WWE) corporate umbrella is one of the craziest careers you could possibly set out upon. You can expect one hectic environment working for the largest "sports entertainment" company in the ...
1941 Ford: The Last Ford Before the Second Great Boogaloo
24 Feb 2022, 06:08 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / We all know how the American auto industry responded to entering the Second World War. We know well and celebrate their military-industrial complex's ability to bring an entire nation from strict isolation to full-scale global war manufacturer...
Coyote Swapped 1949 Ford Tudor is a Restomod for the Anti Muscle Car Gentleman
23 Feb 2022, 21:40 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Think of the classic Fords that are out there that are ripe for the picking for a restomod? Think of the Mustangs, Falcons, Broncos, F-Series Trucks, and all the rest of it. Stuff that you want to throw a big 5.0 Coyote V8 engine right into...
Queensboro Bridge: Ferrying New Yorkers Toll-Free to Manhattan From Model T to Model 3
23 Feb 2022, 20:46 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Last fall, we showcased what we found to be the most anxiety-inducing bridges and tunnels in New York City and where to go instead to avoid them. Of all the bridges in that feature, perhaps none was more important than the Queensboro-59th Street Br...
Grumman Boats, The World's Best Leisure Canoes With Fighter Plane DNA
23 Feb 2022, 16:53 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / If you know Grumman, it's probably because of their famed Navy Cat line of fighter planes spanning all the way from the late 1930s until the mid-2000s. There's a lineage behind the military aircraft made by the Long Island New York aerosp...
These are the Classic Helicopters of the Bosnia-Herzegovinian Air Force
23 Feb 2022, 06:09 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Bosnia and Herzegovina is a part of Eastern Europe a fair amount of North Americans probably couldn't point out on a map.. But to fill you in, they're a warrior nation where every citizen could become a guerilla soldier in a pinch if need...
New York Man Buys New Audi, Gets Horrifying Call That It's On Fire
22 Feb 2022, 07:20 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / The Central New York city of Utica is a real blue-collar, working man's kind of city. The people who live there need to work hard to be successful, no gold-coast aristocratic money around these parts. So when one local signed on the dotted...