Road Trip

The boys are back! After their LOCHdown special, which aired back in July, this year’s next Grand Tour Special, which is also their Christmas Special dubbed Carnage A Trois, dwells a little deeper into French cars. Owing to the lockdowns which would have been in place when this film was made, the Grand Tour team really couldn’t venture far to some exotic locales like Brazil or Namibia. So instead, they had to stick within the confines of the U.K. Nevertheless, the trailer does look pretty darn exciting.

You’d think the Ferrari 812 Superfast has been turned over its every side by pretty much all the car journos that matter at the moment and you’d be right. However, Harry Metcalfe of Harry’s Garage wanted to see if the super-fast Superfast can be used as a good old grand tourer, as Ferrari claims. Hence this 35-minute experiment transposed into a YouTube video.

Taking a road trip in California isn’t just about enjoying the breathtaking scenery that the Golden State provides. You’ll have your fill of lush forests, beautiful coastlines, and countless tourist destinations that you can stop over and enjoy. But if you’re into unique viewing experiences on your road trips, keep an eye on the abundance of bridges that are found in California. Bridges are awesome. They can be as breathtaking as the Golden Gate Bridge, marvellous as the Sundial Bridge, or they can even tell unique historical stories like the Bridge to Nowhere. California has no shortage of incredible bridges, and the ones we identified aren’t just awesome because you can drive on them, but also because of the stories they tell of eras in the state that have long been forgotten by the passing of time.

California may be home to Los Angeles’ nightmarish traffic-generating roads, but driving in the Golden State shouldn’t be defined by the traffic situations on I-5, US 101, or I-10. The state is also home to some of the most beautiful roads, not just in the U.S but in the entire world. Scenic highways dot the California coast, and stretched roads take you to high peaks and luscious meadows. You can even drive to Death Valley on your way to Las Vegas from California. If you somehow find yourself in California these days, take your car out for a spin on any of these roads. Not only are the views as good as advertised, but there are quiet and desolate stretches of roads that are going to allow you to literally let loose and enjoy the ride. There is, after all, nothing quite like joyriding in the great state of California.

Bored of highway driving and idling while bumper-to-bumper in the heart of a busy city? Why not start planning now for your next trip? We’re here to help you make it a memorable one. As we know you love cars and driving as much as we do, we decided to put together a selection of six absolutely memorable strips of road that should be on your shortlist for the next time you take a road trip through Europe - or your first time. You might’ve heard about some of these while some may be new to you but we guarantee they’re all going to leave you breathless and in awe.

Europe, with its varied landscape and countless mountainous regions, has no shortage of blissful roads for you to tackle in your car or a rental that’s got some ponies and some controls that give you the appropriate feedback. While many roads on this list are, indeed, snaking their way at rather high altitudes, such as the Grossglockner Hochalpenstrasse in Austria or the Transfagarasan Highway in Romania, not all are closed during the winter months although your safest bet would be to schedule the road trip for the summer months or, if you wish to miss the bulk of the traffic, try late spring dates or even early-to-mid autumn.

Finding the right camper trailer for you these days is a double-bladed-sword affair. On the one hand, compared to some decades ago, the spectrum of choices is a lot wider, but on the other, there are so many offerings and sub-niches that the soft-core customer might get easily confused. If we can draw a parallel, the scenario is similar to what’s happening in the car industry, where SUVs and crossovers of all shapes and sizes are creating new niches on a regular basis. Nonetheless, there’s one thing that you can’t miss when it comes to the Patriot Campers X1H camper trailer: it is built rough for people who are not afraid to challenge themselves and their gear. Let’s check it out.

Nothing spells adventure better than a camper trailer attached to your car and the open road nicely taking shape through the windshield. In a market that’s oversaturated with camper trailer manufacturers and products of all shapes and sizes, it’s very important to stand out from time to time with a stylish trailer. So here’s our selection of some of the best camping trailers out there that will also let you travel in style.

While we love debating horsepower and performance specs as much as the next petrol head, it’s important to remember that, at the end of the day, cars are meant to be driven, preferably on some winding stretch of tarmac strung through a slice of stunning natural beauty. Luckily, those of us residing in the U.S. have plenty of options when it comes to experiencing such pleasures, and now, travel tech company Expedia has rendered five of the best driving roads in the U.S. in a series of pixel art videos. Taking inspiration from classic arcade racers like Sega’s Out Run (1986), these videos are definitely getting us hyped to get out there for a drive.

The winter holidays have come and gone, and before you know it, the roads will look a whole lot more inviting. Now is the time to start planning that epic road trip that’s been swimming around in the back of your brain, and if you’re looking for inspiration, just hit play. Chronicling a six-day journey across the western U.S., this ten-and-a-half minute video features a nice mix of sports cars enjoying incredible scenery via winding ribbons of tarmac. This is driving nirvana.

Adventure Drives was responsible for organizing the event, offering participants a departure from the craziness of rallies like the Gumball and Bullrun. Instead, AD focuses on actually enjoying the journey, without the bravado of who got the biggest speeding ticket.

The video starts in Denver and ends in Napa Valley, bouncing between Telluride, Park City, Zion National Park, Las Vegas, Death Valley, and Mammoth Lakes along the way. The caravan is made up of the usual suspects, such as exotics from Lamborghini, Ferrari, and Porsche, but the roster also includes more accessible machines, like a Subaru BRZ, Audi A5 Cabriolet, and a first-gen Acura NSX.

There are plenty of videos out there showcasing the world’s great driving roads, but watching this, you realize you don’t need a passport to enjoy them. So – what are you doing this summer?

It was the scorching, early morning sun that greeted me as I walked from the side door of the hotel into the parking lot. The sticky humidity hanging in the Florida air instantly salted my skin with perspiration. As my eyes adjusted to the daylight, I caught my first glimpse of Chevrolet’s newest pony car – the sixth-generation Camaro. There it was, in various trim levels and colors, all 11 examples that Chevy had brought for the trip.

My driving partner and I had the fortunate luck of drawing keys for a 2SS-trimmed model coated in Summit While and fitted with the six-speed manual transmission. This would be ours for the next 36 hours as we trekked north and then west through the pan handle of the southern most state. New Orleans was our destination, but two day’s worth of driving and nearly 900 miles lie in between.

All this was part of Chevrolet’s “Find New Roads” campaign, a somewhat unorthodox media event that traveled the country giving journalists some unprecedented seat time and free reign to plan routes and stops. Though the Orlando to New Orleans leg is what I traveled, the cars had been traversing states from the west coast to the east coast, traveling through the Midwest. This leg would point them west once more, though on a decidedly more southern latitude. Chevy’s goal: to get the new Camaro to all 48 contiguous states.

Completely redone for 2016, the Camaro underwent a significant diet in switching to the Alpha platform. It also hit the gym for more power with its trio of new engines and took cotillion classes for more refinement, especially within the interior. There’s no harder test on a vehicle’s livability than to road trip it. Chasing the sun for hours on end reveals the tiniest of details that would otherwise go unnoticed. Small annoyances become headaches while well-executed components can make the trip more enjoyable. I found both.

Continue reading for the full story

Meet the Earthroamer XVLT, the baddest RV on the planet. If Rambo and McGyver came together to build a camping rig, this would be it. The XVLT is built off a Ford F-550 Super Duty Chassis Cab and is powered by the mighty 6.7-liter Power Stroke V-8. With 400 horsepower and a globe-twisting 800 pound-feet of torque, the turbodiesel doesn’t care how much weight it has to lug up mountains.

Earthroamer has been manufacturing off-road campers for decades, and the XVLT doesn’t let lose of the legacy. The stock Ford suspension is ditched in favor of a heavy-duty air suspension system with two bags up front, along with four bags out back that replace the rear leaf spring setup. The F-550’s six tires are replaced by four military-grade Continental tires and beadlock wheels.

At the Super Duty’s front, Earthroamer adds a massive bumper fitted with an array of on- and off-road lighting and a winch rated for 16,500 pounds. At the other business end, a second winch with an identical rating is mounted above the 12,500-pound-rated trailer hitch receiver. Swing-away cargo boxes add storage or cooking options. Pull the lever and the boxes reveal additional storage integrated into the custom-built camper shell.

The Earthroamer XVLT is all about exploration off the grid. It contains a massive battery pack that powers everything on the inside. The bank is recharged by roof-mounted solar panels during the day, along with the alternator when the engine is running. Self-contained fresh, gray, and black water boxes keep everything in its place while an additional 50-gallon fuel tank gives the XVLT a 90-gallon diesel fuel capacity.

Of course, that’s just the outside. Keep reading for more on the Earthroamer XVLT

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Between the useless advice memes and pointless status updates regarding comments made by that rude barista (if you see her every day, maybe you should go to another coffee shop?), there are actually some interesting things to be found on social media. For example, Porsche recently held a contest to celebrate eclipsing 10 million fans on Facebook. One of those fans, 27-year-old Austrian Ingo Georges Vandenberghe, was lucky enough to win, netting him the oh-so-sweet prize of a 1,000-km (621-mile) road trip around England and Wales inside the cockpit of a 918 Spyder.

The hybrid hypercar was joined by two other electrified offerings from Stuttgart in the form of a 2015 Cayenne S E-Hybrid and Panamera S E-Hybrid, demonstrating the long-range capability of these performance vehicles in sip mode. The journey began April 27 in central London, first heading to Oxford, then Wales and the Cotswolds, finally ending at the Porsche Experience Centre at the UK’s preeminent racing track, Silverstone, on April 30. Once in the proper environment, Vandenberghe got the chance to experience the 918’s full potential as it was unleashed around the famous British circuit.

The 918 was wrapped in a special material to encourage Porsche fans and owners to sign the car at its various stopping points. You can check out highlights from the trip in the near future at www.porsche.com/10m. 

Continue reading to learn more about Porsche’s road trip prize.

UPDATE 02/18/2015: The fourth and final installment to the JK Experience series is live on YouTube. Click past the jump to see all four videos.

Every year, a dedicated group of Jeep Wrangler JK enthusiast led by Eddie and Cindy Oh and their organization Wayalife, gather together for an adventure trekking across hundreds of miles of open road and narrow off-road trails. It’s called the JK Experience and it includes folks from around the world who are obsessed with the Jeeping experience and lifestyle.

For 2014, the hearty group of 46 people and 22 built-up JK Wrangler gathered in the Pacific Northwest. The group began the journey just east of Mt. Vernon, Washington at the Walker Valley ORV Park before heading over the Cascades and into the sand dunes of Moses Lakes. The group ends up venturing more than 200 miles south, down in the wild countryside below Seattle.

Along the way, the Wranglers had extreme obstacles to overcome, tight trails that narrowly wound between trees, and plenty of mud and rocks. Plenty of Jeeps got stuck and needed to be winched free. Thankfully each Jeep packed hard-core equipment like 37- to 40-inch tires, locking front and rear differentials, thick skidplating, roll cages – and oftentimes most importantly – winches.

The four-part series showcase the extreme off-roading, mechanical mishaps, and comradery between Jeepers. Currently three of the four videos are live on YouTube with the fourth coming soon. Be sure to watch them in order below the jump.

UPDATE 02/18/2015: The fourth and final installment to the JK Experience series is live on YouTube. Click past the jump to see all four videos.

Watch all three videos below the jump

When I was a child, my only real experience with the idea of summer camp was watching Salute Your Shorts on Nickelodeon. I was always active and outside, I just never went to an actual camp. Now that I am an adult who is staring at 30, the idea of going to summer camp sounds even more laughable. At least, it did until I got a quick message from Flyin’ Miata asking me if I wanted to come out for its annual Summer Camp.

This isn’t a s’mores, campfires and Kumbaya style of summer camp. Rather, it would be a several days of epic drives, track time, food and friends, all wrapped up with the lovely veneer of driving in a roadster.

Within hours of the invitation I was trying to arrange flights.

Upon my arrival in the great state of Colorado my time as a FM Summer Camp attendee began. From my blast up Pikes Peaks in the supercharged NC, Nancy, to a welcoming party, two full track days, several information seminars and the awards dinner, the next few days were packed with fun, friendship and long-lasting memories. The heat was a bit intense though, and as you can see by the photo, it made me do some really weird things.

Special thanks to Travis Ingram Photography for the photo.

Read more about the Flyin’ Miata Summer Camp Festivities after the break.

U.S. Highway 129, cutting through the foothills of the Appalachian mountains, is a ribbon of tarmac that spans the gap from Tennesee to North Carolina. The section of the road that cuts through Deal’s Gap is known as the Tail of the Dragon, and it is regarded as one of the best driving roads in the world. With 318 turns in a span of only 11 miles, it is easy to see the appeal. Still, with so many sharp hairpin turns and sheer drop-offs on one side, the Dragon is not to be trifled with. Since 1995, nearly 40 people have lost their lives on this tiny strip of asphalt.

Despite being only an hour from my house, I have never tackled the Tail of the Dragon. Sitting in my driveway is one of the latest and most advanced toys from the house of Porsche, a 2014 Panamera S e-Hybrid. What better vehicle to tame the Dragon with than a plug-in hybrid that is over 16-feet long and costs more than my house? Best yet, I got news that a plug-in charging station had just been installed at the top of the mountain and nobody had used it yet.

I took it as a sign that I needed to be the first. I pointed the big Porsche south and went hunting for Dragons.

Read on to see how my first trip to U.S. 129 went.

The list of things that bring me joy in this world is a long one. I enjoy tire smoke, nice scotch, sunny days, road trips and so much more. Way up near the top of this list is fresh cherry pie. It just so happens that the woman I married is one of the greatest pie chefs the world has ever seen. The big issue is the best place to get fresh cherries is in Door County, Wisconsin; about 1,000 miles from home. As fate would have it, Mazda gave me a buzz to ask if I would be interested in taking a road trip in a 2014 Miata.

I couldn’t think of anything else that sounded better than 1,000 miles of topless fun on the way to a fresh and tasty pie.

The trip wouldn’t be all fun and games. Thanks to conflicting work schedules I only had a four-day window to make the trip happen, and most of the trip to Wisconsin would be in an overnight blast. It was late Wednesday evening as I packed the trunk full of clothing, camera equipment and an empty cooler for my cherries. The wife slid into the passenger seat, I lowered the top, and we set off into the night. 1,000 miles is a long distance, but the Miata is a willing dance partner and my desire for pie gives me strength.

Hit the jump to read about my epic search for pie with a Japanese roadster

A massive robot swings its single arm left, and picks up the entire shell of a Hyundai Sonata, lifting it skyward, twisting it around, and setting down perfectly in place on a jig where more robots angrily attack it with welding guns. Sparks fly as more pieces find their way into the new 2015 Hyundai Sonata.

As you may have read in my review of the all-new 2015 Sonata, my recent time behind the wheel of Hyundai’s newest car also came with a quick spin around the automaker’s Alabama assembly plant. The behind-the-scenes tour weaved its way past massive robots, around long conveyer belts, and over thousands of square feet of floor space all dedicated to building cars.

Scenes like that above happen all over the three-million square-foot facility, around the clock and every day of the week. The Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama plant is responsible for making nearly half of every Elantra and Sonata sedan wandering American roads and every single Sonata Hybrid sold in the States. Each and every day, another 1,000 new Hyundais roll off the assembly line thanks to the work of some 3,000 workers and over 400 robots.

Click past the jump for an inside look into the HMMA Assembly Plant

If you watched the live podcast this morning, you are well aware that I am heading to Miami to take part in this year’s Gumball 3000. As you read this I am likely in the air on my way to the sandy beaches and hot cars of Southern Florida.

While there are more than one hundred cars on this year’s grid, the one I will be spending my time with is a Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder. The car and team are owned by an online dating company called Anastasia Date, and two lovely ladies from the company are going to be the main pilots of the car on its 1500+/- journey to New York City.

The trip officially begins on Thursday, but there are lots of things to see and do on Wednesday, so expect to hear a lot from me.

After the jump I have included every social outlet I will be using, if you are interested in all the different ways to keep up with my live coverage. I have also included a photo of the lovely ladies who will be piloting the car along most of its journey. I was even nice enough to include some info about some of the other cool cars that are in the rally. Enjoy.

Feel free to Tweet in my general direction if you have any questions or comments about the car, the team, or the event. I may even try to do a live stream chat from the car if the cell signal holds up. Anything is possible.

Check the jump for the best ways to keep up with Moe during the rally, see some pretty cool people, and learn more about some of the teams.