Category Archives: The Octane Lounge

SEMA 2022 sampler
The Octane Lounge October 31, 2022

Overview

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Description

It’s a great venue for automakers to show off highly customized and modified versions of their production vehicles. And the more odd-ball and extreme, the better, or so it seems.
Here are a few examples of the hundreds of unique vehicles displayed from automakers at the SEMA Show this year.

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GM’S 2035 deadline
The Octane Lounge February 1, 2021

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The company has a new logo to emphasize its zero-emission future and a new marketing campaign to promote that vision.
And there’s more to it than just clever slogans, advertising and flashy new graphics: By the end of 2025, GM plans to invest $27 billion to introduce 30 electric vehicles (EVs) globally, which is an ambitious agenda that fundamentally transforms the company’s identity. Bigger still, the company also announced a goal to sell only zero-emission vehicles by 2035.

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Building a four-door EV is nothing new for Ford, but calling it a Mustang?
The Octane Lounge November 25, 2019

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How much is at stake with Ford’s upcoming all-electric 2021 Mustang Mach-E?
A solid case can be made that this will be the single car that proves either consumers truly crave electric cars and will pony up to buy them, or that battery power is the answer to a question no one asked.
“We’ve pushed all our chips to the middle of the table,” Ford’s chairman, William C. Ford Jr., told the New York Times. “I hope this will show we are now deadly serious about electrification.”

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When you love the look of 50-year-old cars, but not the 50-year-old technology that comes with them
The Octane Lounge October 22, 2019

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The recent event in Scottsdale, Ariz., in January saw about 160 Corvettes cross the block, but the cars that commanded the most money — in a strange turnabout — were extensively modified and modernized during the restoration process.
The idea behind these so-called “restomods” is simple enough. Vintage cars from the 1950s and ’60s are nice to look and fun to collect, but to drive? They are a far cry from modern fuel-injected vehicles with proper brakes, responsive steering, real air conditioning, real tires and their comfort and convenience features.

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Porsche at 70
The Octane Lounge September 24, 2019

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In 2018, Porsche has gone big and that includes product: Porsche announced earlier this year that its first all-electric sports car, which had been code-named Mission E, will be called the Taycan. The 600-horsepower beast will go into production next year. As if all that weren’t already enough, Porsche dropped a couple of bombshells in late September when it introduced two more new cars: Thoroughly modern takes on the legendary Porsche 935 that dominated endurance racing in the mid-1980s, and the latest iteration of another halo car, the 911 Speedster Concept.

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Six from Frankfurt
The Octane Lounge August 26, 2019

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The Frankfurt Motor Show in September is an every-other-year affair in Germany, alternating with Paris event as one of Europe’s premier automotive events. This year, electric and hybrid vehicles played a prominent role in the show, no surprise given the heavy investment by manufacturers into the electric market.
That said, there were still some eye-catching debuts of cars and light trucks powered by the traditional internal-combustion engines. Here are six Frankfurt debuts that caught our attention.

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It’s here
The Octane Lounge July 15, 2019

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The longest rumor in automotive history is at long last a reality: Chevrolet has finally created the mid-engine Corvette and it looks to be nothing short of spectacular.
Officially called the 2020 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray, the new General Motors halo car hits a remarkable combination of deltas, as its base price will be slightly under $60,000 — full pricing details to follow later this year — yet when equipped with the optional Z51 Performance Package, it will be the quickest production Corvette, ever. Consider the current 650-horsepower Z06 model and that’s no small feat.

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Gladiators
The Octane Lounge April 15, 2019

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For the past 53 years, one of the most celebrated rites of spring for serious connoisseurs of high-intensity off-roading has been the Moab Easter Jeep Safari, which brings thousands of passionate Jeep fans to the rugged Utah desert for a full week of fun and frolic. The Jeep brand has a fanatically loyal fan base, and those who made it to Moab this year were able to participate in some challenging off-road exercises over the weeklong event and see hundreds of production and prototype Jeep Performance Parts.

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When you love the look of 50-year-old cars, but not the 50-year-old technology that comes with them
The Octane Lounge October 22, 2018

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Corvettes continue to be among the most desirable collector cars in the marketplace. For years, buyers of these two-seat fiberglass sports cars have valued one thing above all else: originality.
Limited-run high-horsepower Corvettes usually fetch the highest dollars at auction, but whether a Corvette is one of a few L88s built in 1967, or a more garden-variety model, what most collectors have wanted are matching-numbers cars that have all their original parts, from the engine, transmission and rear differential, down to the carburetor(s), alternator and even the hoses . . . and the clamps that hold the hoses.

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Five from CES
The Octane Lounge October 15, 2018

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The annual early-January CES event in Las Vegas, Nev., is beginning to steal some thunder from Detroit’s North American International Auto Show, which follows the CES event a week later. CES is rapidly becoming its own car show. Not surprisingly, a number of top automakers chose to use the backdrop of Las Vegas to roll out new technologies and in several cases, new cars.