20 Years of Koenigsegg: A History of Its Extreme Hypercars!
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Koenigsegg is celebrating 20 years of making the wildest (and most Scandinavian) supercars in the world with a hell of a birthday present to itself: the CC850, essentially a remaster of its first car, albeit with a wildly clever manual/automatic transmission. That first car would be the CC8S, which founder Christian von Koenigsegg spent nearly a decade creating, starting with a very rough prototype and progressing, finally, to the company's first production model. The road from there to here has been fast and wild—it's hard to believe it's been two decades, in fact, a testament to how fresh and how bold the company's cars were when new. Read on for a guided tour through the marque's 20-year history, a quick way to understand how Koenigsegg became the inventive outfit it is today.
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With the introduction of the 2022 Toyota Tundra, we began to wonder when we'd see the next Sequoia SUV come out. Considering the full-size three-row SUV is loosely based off of the full-size pickup, it'd make sense that a new Tundra might beget an updated Sequoia. Sure enough, it looks as though a new Sequoia is finally happening, as Toyota has begun to tease out the look of the next-gen large SUV. Even better? It looks like there might be a few stylistic references to early Sequoia models in the new one.What We Get To See, So FarFrom the looks of the teaser image above, the 2023 Sequoia's design is going to depart from the current, second-generation model, which has been around since 2007. The rear end shows just how much change to expect: Where rounded, doughy, early naughts bodylines once meandered there now live more muscular, straight edges. The tail lights also show a new "T" design fast growing familiar across the Toyota SUV lineup. They draw not only further forward and into the rear quarter panel, but also further across the liftgate.The teaser also shows that the C-pillar has adopted a piece of black trim (instead of a body-color treatment) and brings the rear quarter window closer—physically, as we can tell thanks to some exposure editing—to the back of the rear doors. Toyota also gives the rear quarter windows a new arrowhead shape with a gray, silver, or chromed piece of trim between it and the body. Also getting some potential chrome treatment on this teaser image are the door handles.The New Liftgate Design Is A First Gen Sequoia CallbackThe bumper has also changed from a straight body separation on the body to now an angular one from the lower portion of the tail light to the molded overfender, however this separation does not continue into it. With our enhanced exposure edit, we also get a look at how the rear gate blends into the quarter panels, seemingly like the piece on the first-generation XK30/XK40 Sequoia. Instead of being completely encased into the liftgate, the rear window now curves around the gate and into the body, just like the 2001-2007 models' did.Unfortunately, we can't see how the glass separates to form the liftgate as its separation is not evident in the edited image. It's possible that the last bit going into the body is just a piece of trim—either black plastic or darkly tinted glass bonded by adhesive—and the separation follows the line seen in the rear spoiler and taillight just as it did with the first generation Sequoia. Or it could be one whole piece that lifts up with the rest of the liftgate. Finally, we also get a quick tease of the wheel, which on the surely up-level trim highlighted here looks to be a black-painted aluminum wheel with a machined face.Anything Else Teased?For the moment, this is all Toyota is giving out. There is no news on available engines, drivetrains, suspension, TRD versions, or the like. We imagine that the new Sequoia will get the same engine and drive treatments as the newest Tundra short of the live axle rear. Despite the Tundra's change to coil springs, we just don't see the Sequoia backsliding from its multilink, independent rear suspension setup—recently adopted by segment heavyweights from General Motors, the Chevy Tahoe and GMC Yukon, and long a staple of Ford's Expedition—to the Tundra's live axle, however improved it might be.Given how the Sequoia's teaser train has left the station, figure on the big SUV making its formal debut sometime soon.
It's time to present the finalists for the inaugural MotorTrend Performance Vehicle of the Year. Yes, after running through our contenders—those rides that missed the cut for the final round of voting the PVOTY honors, we're introducing those that did make the finalist cut. One of these vehicles earned our Golden Calipers, having excelled in all six of our criteria (safety, value, advancement in design, engineering excellence, efficiency, and performance of intended function). The weighting of some of those criteria may differ slightly from our Car, Truck, and SUV of the Year competitions—after all, when outright performance is our focus, efficiency is perhaps graded on a curve—but every single one is considered when choosing our winner.Read on to meet the first four members of our finalist field—the rest will be unveiled tomorrow—to represent the cars that made it out of our initial round of voting following evaluations at Hyundai's Proving Ground outside of Los Angeles. The finalists then went on to road drives on Angeles Crest Highway and, later, grueling track tests at Willow Springs Raceway. Come back on Monday, February 14 to see which one emerged with the title!
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