This Robotic Audi RS7 Could Beat You Around a Racetrack

Earlier this year, we spoke with Audi R&D chief Ulrich Hackenberg about the prospects and requirements for autonomous cars. At the time, he told us that he had defined two situations that an autonomous car must be able to handle. One of them was getting a car from the left lane of a three-lane autobahn to a safe stop by itself—important if, say, the driver suffers a heart attack. The other one intrigued us: The car needs to be faster on a racetrack than Hackenberg himself. Nota bene: Hackenberg is a talented race driver.

Audi may be closer to reaching the latter target than we thought. On October 19, a driverless RS7 will circle the Hockenheim racetrack “about as fast as with a professional race driver” and “with millimeter precision,” Audi claims. The twin-turbo V-8 hatchback will reach up to 150 mph, and the company believes it will take just over two minutes to lap the track. Testing has commenced, and the actual performance will take place at this season’s final DTM race.

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We think that this kind of autonomous driving could be fun. “Officer, the car was doing it all by itself!” Now, how about autonomous drifting?

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Man Steals New Z/28 “Gone in 60 Seconds”–Style, Drives It Through Dealership Window

Kip Raines, is that you? A Seattle man decided to steal a car, Raines-style, but instead of a silver 996 Porsche 911, he swiped a new Camaro Z/28. In doing so, yes, he drove it quite literally out of the dealership.

It’s almost romantic: Plan to steal a beautiful, desirable car; break into the dealership in the dead of night; then drive said car through a glass window in a Hollywood-esque escape. But the 2014 Z/28 may have proved too burly for the culprit—after driving through the glass doors of Bill Pierre Chevrolet in Seattle, he took his newly acquired sled on the shortest joyride ever: a half-mile.

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Fortunately for the dealership, police were able to locate the stolen Camaro relatively quickly, as a cruise of nearby neighborhoods turned up the car sitting in a driveway. While we don’t yet know if the thief has been apprehended, he obviously ain’t no Kip Raines and “this ain’t the Dukes of Hazzard.”

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U-S-A! U-S-A! American Alexander Rossi Poised to Race in Formula 1 This Weekend

Despite not having turned a single Formula 1 race lap this season, Alexander Rossi has been on quite a ride. The 23-year-old was dropped from Caterham, picked up by Marussia, told he would drive at Spa due to contract disputes between the team and Max Chilton, only to have that opportunity snatched away at the eleventh hour. Now, Rossi is finally set to make his F1 race debut this weekend at the Russian Grand Prix as a substitute for the injured Jules Bianchi.

RELATED: Alexander Rossi, American F1 driver, meets the famous Lotus 49

Though the team hasn’t yet formally announced Rossi’s spot, Marussia has “registered the American rookie as one of their two eligible drivers for this weekend’s Sochi race, alongside Max Chilton,” according to F1’s official website.

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Should Rossi start on Sunday—which it now looks like he almost certainly will—he’ll become the first American F1 driver to compete in a Grand Prix since Scott Speed left open-wheel’s top-tier series in 2007.

Congrats, Alex. Give ‘em hell.

This story originally appeared on roadandtrack.com.

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Porsche’s Rennsport Reunion to Return to Laguna Seca Next Year

Simply put, Porsche’s Rennsport Reunion is one of the better single-marque celebrations we’ve attended. A combination vintage-motorsports race/concours, it’s positively crammed with impossibly rare Zuffenhausen iron. And aluminum. And carbon fiber. Previously held every three years, the gap between events has been stretched to four, with the next one scheduled for October 9–11, 2015.

First held at Lime Rock, then twice at Daytona, the last Rennsport Reunion happened in 2011 at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. And it seemed as if anybody who ever half-loved a Porsche came out for it. Other than during the famed motorcycle-racing weekend back when MotoGP was on the card, we’d never seen the place so completely packed with fans.

The Porsche Cayman Interseries paddock at Rennsport Reunion IV. Note historic liveries.

Zuffenhausen used the event to mark the North American debut of the 991-platform 911. The 935/78 “Moby Dick” was on display. Seemingly everything Jeff Zwart has ever driven was in attendance. John Morton drove around the track in an Abarth GTL with all sorts of wires stuck to him. We wandered by Derek Bell casually sitting in a 917K. As one does.

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Speaking of the vaunted 917, the last event also marked one of the crazier, omigod-that-just-happened moments of our career as we stood between a Kurzheck model and a 917/10 Can-Am car while they both fired up. Yeah. It’s that kind of place. Can we really wait 365 more days?

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Watch Ken Block Assault a Mountain with His Beastly Tracked F-150 RaptorTRAX

Don’t ask Ken Block to go snowboarding. He’ll show up with all the wrong gear. Monster recently turned Block loose on the mountain with pro snowboarders Zak Hale and Ethan Deiss. Block left his board at home, preferring to bring along his wicked Ford F-150 Raptor with a TRAX conversion. The three spent a day bashing around Baldface Lodge in Nelson, British Columbia, before stopping to grill some brats.

Looks like a swell time. Check out the video of the antics below:

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This story originally appeared on roadandtrack.com.

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2015 Porsche 911 GTS Photos and Info: Big Hips, More Power

Porsche is sticking to a well-proven recipe with the GTS versions of its current 911. As before, the brand claims that the GTS models “close the gap” between the Carrera S and the delectable GT3. But in fact, the new variant is positioned much closer to the S versions, which its flat-six eclipses by 30 horsepower. Available as a coupe and a cabriolet and with both rear- and all-wheel drive, there is a GTS for almost everyone in the lineup, provided they can pay the price of entry—which is significantly higher than the S models before you start accounting for options. The GTS is significantly better equipped than the S, and starts at $115,195 for the rear-drive coupe and rises to $133,795 for the all-wheel-drive 4 GTS cabriolet. READ MORE ››

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2015 Kia K900 Long-Term Test Update: 10K Miles on Pillows and Butterflies

WHAT WE LIKE AND WHY: Just over 10,000 miles into its stay with us, the K900 continues to garner praise for its quiet operation, spacious cabin, and supple ride quality. Like a princess’s pea, bumps are filtered through what feels like a layer of zero gravity, a water mattress, and a thousand golden retriever puppies before reaching occupants. Several drivers have sighed relief over the infotainment system’s ease of use and plethora of hard buttons, which make quick work of switching among audio, navigation, and other functions. Fuel economy is another high point. Well, relatively at least—21 mpg isn’t great, but for something this big, it’s not bad. READ MORE ››

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2014 Hyundai Elantra Sport

“Sport” as applied to the revised-for-2014 Hyundai Elantra sedan’s trim level should not be misconstrued. An Elantra Sport is not a sports sedan. It isn’t even a sporty sedan, really, despite boasting “sport-tuned” suspension and steering. Instead, the 2014 Elantra Sport is a label that denotes the four-door model with the Elantra lineup’s biggest available engine, a 173-hp 2.0-liter four-cylinder that’s standard in the Elantra coupe and GT hatchback. Sport is applied here in the same way that “deluxe” means your burger comes with fries and slaw. They had to name it something. READ MORE ››

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Last Call: Current Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG Coupe to Stay in Production Through Early 2015

Fans of AMG’s amazing naturally aspirated M156 V-8 may yet have the chance to buy one. We’ve found out that Mercedes-Benz will continue to offer the outgoing-generation C63 AMG coupe through the spring of 2015, when production officially draws to a close.

The awesome new twin-turbocharged 2015 Mercedes-AMG C63 (notice the name change from “Mercedes-Benz” to “Mercedes-AMG”) will be launched shortly, but the outgoing, possibly even more awesome C63 AMG will briefly sit alongside in showrooms this coming spring—provided there are any left, that is. As a bonus, this isn’t a Euro-only last call; the new 2015 C63 sedan arrives stateside in March, and we’re quite sure the old C63 coupe will be sold here until at least that time (again, provided there are any left).

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We can see why Benz might want to keep the old C63 around for at a little while longer. Besides boasting the absolutely epic M156—instead of the new C63′s M177—the two-door gives the automaker, well, a high-performance two-door to sell, since at launch, the new C63 lineup will consist only of sedan and Estate wagon (Europe-only, sadly) variants.

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Blowing Your Way to Savings: How Electric Superchargers Boost MPG

When you need a potent engine or a sturdy gearbox for your fantasy supercar, Ricardo should be your first call. This U.K.-based engineering firm has roots reaching back more than a century and branches that cover Europe, Russia, Asia, and the U.S. of A. Ricardo’s expertise can be found across the industry. Among its recent projects is the HyBoost, a Ford Focus fitted with an electrically driven supercharger. Ricardo built this HyBoost with two goals in mind: topping Toyota Prius fuel efficiency while skirting the cost, bulk, and weight of the Prius’s two electric motor/generators and battery pack. The experiment is a timely one—every carmaker sees 2025’s 54.5-mpg CAFE requirement looming, and most need help meeting it. To create the HyBoost, Ricardo replaced the original 1.6-liter four-cylinder engine with a 1.0-liter EcoBoost three-cylinder and augmented that engine’s turbo with a Valeo electric supercharger. Two years ago [“A Real Electric Charge,” January 2012], we speculated that BMW might use an electric supercharger to sharpen throttle response at low engine speeds. While that has yet to come to fruition, Audi has one under the hood of its RS5 TDI concept car. Essentially a turbo’s compressor mated to a DC electric motor, this supercharger can spin to 70,000 rpm in less than 0.4 second, supplying 8.7 psi of boost before the HyBoost’s larger exhaust-driven turbo wakes up. Ricardo met its goal of increasing the Focus’s fuel efficiency from 39 mpg to 59 in European test cycles. A switch allows acceleration testing with or without the electric blower operating. We used fourth-gear acceleration from 30 to 50 mph and from 50 to 70 mph to gauge the supercharger’s effectiveness. Goose the HyBoost’s throttle and there’s a shuffle under the hood accompanied by a modest increase in forward surge as this device goes to work. The key word is “modest.” The supercharger trimmed the 9.0-second 30-to-50-mph run by only 0.3 second. In the upper speed range, there’s less benefit because there’s sufficient exhaust flow above 2800 rpm to spin the turbo. Despite the HyBoost’s poor showing on the test track, we’re enthusiastic about the Valeo supercharger because it runs cool and can be mounted nearly anywhere under the hood. Count on seeing this device on production models soon.

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Hyaboosta: Ricardo’s mpg special ditches the Focus’s 1.6-liter for a 1.0 and its five-speed for a six. It has an electric supercharger and a stop-start system. The blower gets its juice not from a battery, but from 10 supercapacitors that capture energy during deceleration.

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Baja Fresh: We Sample BFGoodrich’s New On/Off-Road Tire, the All-Terrain T/A KO2

If you have ever watched so much as a minute of off-road racing, odds are you have seen BFGoodrich off-road tires in action. Since winning class eight (full-size, rear-drive pickup) at the 1977 Baja 500 on the first all-terrain tire using radial construction, the brand has racked up 80 overall wins on the Mexican peninsula, including 25 overall victories out of the past 28 runnings of the grueling Baja 1000. Needless to say, the brand dominates SCORE’s premier races.

Just as it did nearly 40 years ago, BFG vetted its newest all-terrain tire, the All-Terrain T/A KO2, with a 2013 entry in the 1000. Rather than competing in the premier Trophy Truck class, the tire featured in Baja’s spec buggy class, Baja Challenge, or BC for short. Because it is a spec class, all BC buggies ran on the new tire, so it was guaranteed victory if even a single buggy finished.

Winning wasn’t the point so much as proving that BFG’s newest off-the-shelf tire could take 1000-miles of racing abuse (the 2013 event was actually only about 900 miles). This new tire needs to fill large shoes. The old T/A KO (T/A for Trans Am, an homage to BFG’s TA racing heritage, and KO for key off-road) is popular and proven capable. BFG says the most frequent complaint about the previous tire was durability, so beefing up the KO2′s stamina was a requirement for this fourth-generation All-Terrain. Working truck tires have to endure driving on debris-riddled job sites; chunks of broken concrete and jagged rebar are not friends to sidewalls. According to BFG, 84 percent of all-terrain tire failures are sidewall-related.

BFG claims the KO2 has a 20 percent tougher sidewall and to get there, it developed an entirely new sidewall toughness test (see above). The test basically employs a chunk of steel that digs into the sidewall as a loaded tire is rolled over it. The test is repeated as the steel is indexed up and in, digging deeper into the sidewall until there is a failure.

After lots of testing and plenty of failures, BFG settled on what it calls Coreguard for the KO2. It’s a three-legged stool employing tougher, cut-resistant sidewall rubber borrowed from the Baja T/A KR racer, thicker and extended shoulder rubber, and an advanced deflection design that reduces the chances of snagging hazards in the sidewall.

We sampled the KO2 on some BC buggies and Ford SVT Raptors with Wide Open Excursions, an outfit that rents BC buggies and guides you around Baja’s extreme terrain. We’ve been on a Wide Open tour before. It is a seriously good time, independent of your interest in desert racing.

We’re accustomed to testing tires on tarmac, but not used to Baja’s constantly changing conditions of dirt and rock. Thus, we lack the experience to say whether or not the KO2 has more or less grip than other offerings, but the KO2 imparts the kind of confidence required to run quickly through blind corners with cliffs on the outside.

We didn’t have access to another tire to make our own comparisons, so to get some perspective we polled pro off-roaders Ryan Arciero and Rob MacCachren. These pros say when they’re testing rubber, the biggest impression a new tire can make is in how it bites in a corner. The new “side biter lugs” probably improve this characteristic because they are significantly more pronounced than the lugs on the KO, and the extended shoulder rubber should help. Either way, they say, off-road testing is a far more subjective matter than the more objective approach that we’re familiar with on pavement.

There is data, though, and if BFG’s proves accurate, these tires are a serious upgrade from the KO. BFG claims the KO2 has two times the tread life in gravel and can last 15 percent longer in road use. It also claims 10 and 19 percent better traction in mud and snow, respectively, thanks to tread-block sipes that provide additional gripping edges without sacrificing tread squirm.

Called locking 3-D sipes, these aren’t straight perpendicular cuts in the tread block toward the tire’s center like conventional sipes. Instead, 3-D sipes are wavy cuts that lock a tread block under load. Michelin (BFG’s parent company) uses the same technology in other offerings, including the all-season Defender and X-Ice winter tire.

The All-Terrain’s tread pattern changed very little because the interlocking block is a good and efficient design for on- and off-road conditions. Also, the design is nearly as iconic as the chain-link tread of an L.L. Bean boot.

It was important for BFG to improve in all regards, but the gain on snow is particularly notable. The old KO and the Goodyear Wrangler All-Terrain Adventure were the only two all-terrain truck tires that carried the “snowflake in a mountain” pictogram, which indicates the tire exceeds industry snow-traction requirements. KO loved being able to run one tire all year long. Not all KO sizes had the winter badge, but all KO2s will. We’re going to test the winter traction of the KO2 as soon as possible. If this coming winter is anything like last year’s around here, we’ll have more than enough snow.

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The KO2 goes on sale at the beginning of November in select sizes. Prices vary with size, though the KO2 is about the same cost as a KO. BFG is rolling out the KO2 in three waves throughout the following year and it will eventually completely knock-out the KO.

More gadget review in www.mamaktalk.com

Screen-Plate Club: How License-Plate Scanning Compromises Your Privacy

Towing companies are a necessary evil when it comes to parking enforcement and property repossession. But in the Google Earth we now inhabit, tow trucks do more than just yank cars out of loading zones. They use license-plate readers (LPRs) to assemble a detailed profile of where your car will be and when. That’s an unnecessary evil. READ MORE ››

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Dodge Wins TUDOR United SportsCar Championship Titles, Sends Viper Racing Program Packing Three Days Later

At 1 p.m. Monday, we were on the phone with racer Kuno Wittmer, who on Saturday drove a Dodge SRT Viper GTS-R to the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship GT Le Mans season driver’s title and team title, to talk about his bright future in 2015 with SRT.

At 1:30 p.m. that same day, Kuno Wittmer was out of work.

That’s when he got the call with news the rest of us would quickly become aware of when the press release hit the wires 15 minutes later: Dodge was pulling the plug on its sports car racing program for 2015 and beyond.

“Our company has made a business decision to discontinue the SRT Motorsports Dodge Viper GTS-R racing program,” said Ralph Gilles, Chrysler’s senior vice president of product design. “We are very proud of the amazing achievements our fantastic teams, drivers and partners have achieved on track the last few seasons.”

In August of 2012, on a conference call with reporters, Gilles expressed similar sentiments when he announced that Dodge would not return to NASCAR the following season. Team Penske, then the lone full-time Dodge campaigners, had just won the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship with driver Brad Keselowski. Twice now Dodge has won a championship, but given up on defending it.

So the Dodge Viper SRT GTS-R 2014 racing season—and immediate future—concluded Saturday with the two-car SRT Motorsports team winning the team and driver titles. “SRT Motorsports won two of three championships contested in the class and finished second in the GTLM manufacturer championship in just its second full year of the program,” said Monday’s press release. How all this foreshadows the life span of the production Viper itself is unclear, but it isn’t good. After all, the company recently whacked $15,000 off the car’s price to get sales moving a little, which reportedly, it has.

So where does this leave Chrysler’s Viper racing program? They may continue to support the rejuvenated Trans-Am series, and they may offer some support to Ben Keating, who fielded a privateer Viper in the TUDOR Championship’s GT-Daytona class with considerable success. That might be a smart move: Texan Keating is the world’s largest Viper dealer.

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The only remaining Chrysler racing program locked in for 2015 is NHRA drag racing, but that’s through Mopar, the parts and performance arm of the company. Sunday, Dodge driver Matt Hagan won the Funny Car race at Maple Grove in Pennsylvania, moving him to the points lead.

But does he really want to win the NHRA championship? Given the company’s recent record of winning, then canceling, maybe he should try coming in, say, second place.

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Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Gears Up for International Racing, Stars in New Video

Lamborghini’s Squadra Corsa racing division has already showed us the competition version of the new Huracán supercar, the LP620-2 Super Trofeo, but now it’s taking the concept a step further with a full-blown GT3 version.

Whereas the Super Trofeo is destined for Lamborghini’s single-make Blancpain Endurance Series, the Huracán GT3 is the automaker’s first in-house effort at a GT3-eligible race car for international competition. Like the Super Trofeo, the GT3 racer is being co-developed with Dallara Automobili, although it will make its racing debut after the Super Trofeo in early 2016. Testing on the GT3 has officially begun—you can watch the car in action in the video below—at the Piero Taruffi circuit outside of Rome.

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Such a Tease: 2017 Jaguar XE Configurator Goes Live

Jaguar’s new BMW 3-series competitor, the 2017 XE sedan, only just debuted at the 2014 Paris auto show, and already the automaker has launched a preliminary online configurator so fans can start playing around with the model’s different configurations. (Check it out here.) We’re as excited as anyone for the XE, but those seeking a full-blown XE fantasy machine with a full options list and pricing will be disappointed.

So far, Jaguar’s online build-your-own tool for the XE allows users to choose among three models—XE, XE R-Sport, and XE-S—and select interior and exterior colors, wheels, and, on select models, minor things like headlights and cabin-trim designs.

There is no indication of what stuff costs, standard equipment, or what sort of optional extras XE buyers can look forward to, but the R-Sport trim level indicates Jag will have an intermediate sport model to combat the likes of BMW’s 3-series M Sport or Lexus’s IS250/IS350 F Sport cars. (Jaguar uses R to denote high-performance models; witness the XFR, XJR, and the F-type R coupe.) No mention is made of engine choices, but we already know the XE will offer U.S. buyers a turbocharged four-cylinder in both gas and diesel guises, as well as a supercharged V-6. All-wheel drive will be available.

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We find Jaguar’s decision to begin letting folks fiddle around with their XE virtually a bit curious. After all, here in the U.S., the XE doesn’t go on sale until early 2016. That’s a long time to tantalize the masses and auto journalists alike.

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2015 BMW M4 Automatic Tested: Dag! It’s QUICK.

Mick famously preaches that you can’t always get what you want, which couldn’t be truer of the new BMW M4—and in more ways than one. We’d hoped to test a model without the $8150 carbon-ceramic brakes and $1000 adaptive dampers because we wanted to see how a more affordable M4 ($70,000 or so) would fare. Unfortunately, that will have to wait: Every single M3/M4 (which isn’t an algebraic way of expressing three-quarters) currently in the BMW press fleet is fitted with the pricey grabbers. READ MORE ››

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What I’d Do Differently: Jim Farley

C/D: What’s the coolest thing that’s happened to you at Ford?

JF: Hundreds of things. Like when I met Hal Sperlich, I couldn’t stop asking him questions. “What was it like to design the Mustang, and why didn’t Ford go for the first minivan?” Being able to call Carroll Shelby to talk about cars. Talking to NASCAR drivers. Historic-racing a GT40 at the Le Mans Classic with a Porsche 917 right next to me in the rain—who’s gonna lift first for the chicane? Talking to you. READ MORE ››

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The Sound that Slayed Ferrari: Listen to the Hellacious Fury of the Ford GT40 Mk II

The Ford GT40 Mk II was decidedly exotic in comparison to most American cars of the era (of course, that’s mostly due to its Anglo-American heritage and the help of Lola), but its 7.0-liter big block was built of the same stuff as the Galaxies coming off Ford’s assembly lines back home—iron block, pushrods, and all. Still, there’s something magical about hearing it snarling, barely contained by the GT40 Mk II’s rear bodywork.

READ MORE: An all-new Ford GT is coming, and it will race at Le Mans in 2016

The retro-modern Ford GT didn’t race, officially. All its track exploits were privateer efforts. That makes the original the last one to run in anger with Ford’s full blessing. And it’s part of what makes us so excited about the likelihood for a new Ford GT—one designed from the get-go to race at the highest level againt the world’s best competition.

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Not that the last GT itself didn’t sound great on its own:

Old, new, it doesn’t matter; when you drop with a big, bad-ass American V-8 amidships, only good things ensue.

READ MORE: Jim Glickenhaus announces Road-and-Race version of his SCG 003 supercar

This story originally appeared on roadandtrack.com

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Enraging Bull: We Attack the Stelvio Pass in a Monster Lamborghini

Dawn is more smashed than broken by the time we come over the crest and into the valley. Ahead of us lies another stretch of road, one that climbs like a Holmby Hills parvenu to the distant ridge in a sawtooth oscillation of metronomic vacillation, between hairpin bends that bitch-slap it from zig to zag and back to zig. And the first is getting closer, rushing toward the Lambo’s windshield like we’re seeing it both in slow motion and fast forward at the same time. READ MORE ››

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