The Lotus Exige remains one of the purest sports cars money can buy and the following example kitted out for hillclimb events in Europe might just be the most focused out there.
A company by the name of SB Motorsport located 50 miles east of London has announced it is building an insane Nissan Navara with the powertrain of a GT-R.
Of all the sporty compact cars out there, the 2020 Honda Civic Type R would seem to be the one that would have the most obnoxious exhaust note. It has oodles of scoops and vents, a towering rear wing and fat fender flares. And yet, as we discovered in the above video, it's actually soft-spoken.
The video showcases start up, moderate acceleration, downshifting during deceleration, full-throttle acceleration, and free revving, in that order. The overall volume in all situations is low, which is a bit of a shame, because the tone itself is pleasant. It's a smooth, slightly bass-y note shared with many factory performance Hondas. Perhaps that's not so surprising since the Type R still uses a variant of the venerable K-series four-cylinder to make its 306 horsepower and 295 pound-feet of torque. Stay tuned for more details on the new Type R in our upcoming first drive review.
The best thing about the 2020 Infiniti Q60 Red Sport 400 is its engine. That 3.0-liter twin-turbo V6 makes one of the better noises in the automotive landscape on its way to the 6,800 rpm redline. It makes 400 horsepower and 350 pound-feet of torque, and the engine feels every bit that strong. Peak power is made at a high 6,400 rpm, so it feels linear all the way up to that point. There's no mistaking this for a naturally aspirated engine with the lag off the line, but once it's up and running, there's no obvious fading of power in the higher rpms.
As for the sound … it's also pretty spectacular. We took the Q60 out to some of our favorite deserted backroads and let it rip with a GoPro attached to the bumper. This particular Q60 Red Sport 400 is fitted with a more aggressive exhaust from Infiniti. It's an axle-back exhaust, aptly named the "Axle-Back Sport Exhaust Kit." Infiniti sells the exhaust on its official online parts store — there's one available for the Q60 and another for the Q50. It's currently listed for $707 and is backed by the original factory warranty. Buy it from the store, and then have the dealer fit it to your new (or old) car.
For decades, the Toyota Century has been the car manufacturer's flagship vehicle in Japan and is an understated, yet extremely luxurious, limousine. The following Century, owned by YouTuber effspot, isn't understated any more.
FUKUI--A permanent exhibition at the Fukui Prefectural Museum of Cultural History here allows visitors to travel back to the Showa Era (1926-1989) to see how people's lives were beginning to change at the time.
"Life in the Showa Period" features items and scenes from the period during which Japan achieved rapid economic growth after its defeat in World War II.