As the 2022 Ford Mondeo Hits Chinese Dealers, What Might Have Been?

Every one of us has a dream car. Doesn't matter what it is or why we want it, what matters is the desire. Many of us won't be so lucky as to own our dream car—or even sit in it. Some do, though. Paul Walker had a dream car and was lucky enough to have the means to afford it. For two short years, he was able to live his dream behind the wheel of this 1973 Porsche 911 RS 2.7.Walker needs little introduction, so here's a short one: He was one of the original stars of the Fast and Furious franchise, headlining the first seven wildly successful movies before his untimely death in 2013 at the age of 40.Two years earlier, Walker got himself a present. Those who knew him say it was his dream car. Not just any old Porsche, but a 911 Carrera RS 2.7, the car that made the 911 a legend. Maybe that's why he wanted it. Maybe it was because, as he pointed out to Jay Leno in a The Tonight Show interview a few months before the purchase, it was made the year he was born. Maybe he wanted it because its VIN was 901, matching the internal code for the first-generation 911. Maybe all three.What we know for sure is that the car was purchased on his behalf by his friend and business partner, Roger Rodas, at the Russo and Steele auction in Monterey, California, in August 2011. Curiously, Walker told Leno he'd already bought the car sight unseen after seeing an ad for it on the internet; we can only assume an earlier deal fell through for some reason. We also know, from the car's documentation, it was originally sold to Adolf Hiller (no "T") in 1973. It was sold several times around Europe before being purchased by Dr. Herminio Cuervo in 1980. Cuervo was a U.S. Air Force doctor stationed in Germany who took the car home with him to Florida after his rotation was up. From there, it changed hands several more times in the States before being sold to a doctor in Modesto, California, who had the engine and transmission restored in the '90s before eventually consigning it to auction in 2011, where Walker acquired it.We may not know exactly why Walker wanted a Carrera RS 2.7 or this specific car, but we know why the car is highly sought after by most collectors. In his words, it's from the "golden era of Porsche." The mighty 917 was dominating Le Mans, the crowning achievement of a then-small brand that had been building a name for itself in road racing, particularly with the 906 and 908. The little air-cooled cars from West Germany were beating Ferrari at its own game.Not the 911s, though. Introduced in 1963 as a '64 model, the roadgoing 911 just wasn't finding the same success in racing as its purpose-built brethren. Part of the issue was its rear-mounted engine that gave it unusual snap-oversteer handling characteristics, and that problem was exacerbated by its aerodynamics, which created lift at high speeds instead of downforce.Aerodynamicist Hermann Burst was brought over from the 917 development team to sort it out. Despite its racing success, Porsche was still a tiny company and Burst's budget was tiny. Not only that, he couldn't mess with the 911's shape. With the help of fellow aerodynamicist Tilman Brodbeck and stylist Rolf Wiener, the famous "ducktail" spoiler was born. Paired with a new front air dam, the car not only made downforce, but it also reduced drag, allowing for a higher top speed. To top it all off, the ducktail even improved engine cooling.The Carrera RS 2.7 is more than just a rear spoiler, though. To really make it competitive in FIA Group 4 racing, more had to be done. Porsche engineers fitted wider rear wheels (a first for the 911), necessitating wider bodywork in the rear. To reduce weight, the entire body was made from thinner steel than a standard 911, and the same was done for all the glass. Sound insulation was also removed, and if you ordered a RS 2.7 Sport model, so were the rear seats, the clock in the dashboard, the glove compartment lid, and all of the carpeting.Behind those wider wheels and tires the race engineers fitted stiffer springs and thicker anti-roll bars all around. Crossmembers under the car were also strengthened. In the rear, they even found the budget to upgrade the suspension control arms.The pièce de résistance, of course, was the engine. Bored out to 2.7 liters from the production 2.4, the deeper-lunged flat-six made 210 horsepower. Claimed to weigh just 2,116 pounds in sport trim and 2,370 pound fully dressed, the Carrera RS 2.7 was among the quickest road-legal cars on the planet. Officially, it had a top speed of 152 mph and could hit 60 mph in just 5.8 seconds, the latter number likely conservative.How to Watch the Mecum Auctions Monterey Event Live on MotorTrend+ and MotorTrend TV: August 19-20 / 1-5 p.m. EST Simulcast on Discovery: August 20 / 1-3 p.m. EST Sign up for a free trial to MotorTrend+ today! You feel it the first time you drop the throttle and let the engine sing all the way to its 7,200-rpm redline. The tight cockpit, low seating position, and thin components make the RS 2.7 feel twice as quick as any modern, insulated, and isolated car that does a 5.8-second sprint to 60 mph. This car is made of the bare minimum of parts necessary to be road legal and stay in one piece, and it never lets you forget it.This particular RS 2.7 isn't just a 50-year-old survivor, either. Documentation shows it was sent to esteemed Porsche specialist Jerry Woods Enterprises in the '90s to have its engine and gearbox gone through. You can tell, because it has the best shifter of any early, air-cooled 911. If you've driven a few, you know the gear locations noted on the shift knob are rough approximations. Not this car. The lever is a lot longer than one from a modern Porsche, but the throws and the gear spacing aren't far off.Not wanting to put a rare car with celebrity provenance in any jeopardy, we didn't push the racing suspension or the old-school Avon tires hard. Still, even at moderate speeds, there's a crispness to the steering and a confidence in the body and suspension movements you don't get in other early 911s.If nothing else, you can imagine how that might be appealing to an accomplished driver like Walker, who'd taken up club racing in the real world when he wasn't street racing on the silver screen. Only close friends and family would know how much he drove the car in the two years he owned it, but we hope it was a lot.We do know he had plans for it. Before his and Rodas' death in a recently purchased Porsche Carrera GT, the RS 2.7 was disassembled at their shop, AE Performance, and sent to the current owner's shop to be repainted. Walker wanted the car returned to its original yellow instead of the white respray it was wearing when he purchased it.Once the paint dried, though, everything stopped. Estates had to be settled and lawyers had to determine who owned what. 13 months later, in December 2014, it was determined that Walker owned the car and the current owner was granted permission to buy it from his estate. Not just the parts in the paint shop, but everything removed and stored at AE. After that, the project sat, unfinished.Eventually, the current owner (who wishes to remain anonymous) decided to have it put back together. They knew from past conversations what Walker's plans were for the car and began the reassembly process in 2019. The car received new upholstery, including the tweed seat inserts Walker specified and the new tires. As many original parts as possible were reused, and the owner estimates only a few small parts like the horn had to be replaced.Since final assembly, the owner's put fewer than 100 km on the European speedometer, plus a few more courtesy of MotorTrend. Having been a friend of Walker and Rodas, they consider the car too special to risk driving around much, nor do they want it simply collecting dust down at the garage. It's slated for the Mecum Monterey auction on August 19, where it's expected to bring between $1 million and $1.25 million.Who knows why the future owner will buy it. Maybe they're big fans of Walker. Maybe they've wanted a Carrera RS 2.7 just as badly as he did. That this restored Porsche legend meant an awful lot to someone we in the car hobby remember fondly just adds an extra layer of poignancy.

Welcome to MotorTrend's inaugural Performance Vehicle of the Year (PVOTY) competition. A quick history: We've awarded our Car of the Year title since 1949. In 1978, we added Truck of the Year and then SUV of the Year in 1999. Alongside Person of the Year, these have been our automotive Of The Year awards for decades. Until now.Why, and why now? It's instructive to look back at MotorTrend's old Import Car of the Year. First awarded in 1970, the idea of ICOTY was to finally acknowledge an indisputable truth: Cars from auto manufacturers outside of America were here to stay and should be celebrated, at least for a while.We awarded ICOTY alongside COTY until 1999, when my predecessors decided to fold the former back into the latter because shifts in automotive manufacturing and global economics challenged the notion of what constitutes foreign and domestic vehicle production. What is a car's country of origin if the engine is made in Brazil, the body panels are stamped in Canada, the transmission and wiring harness are produced in Mexico, and final assembly occurs in Michigan? Or if multiple factories around the world assemble the same vehicle? Our editorial forebears ultimately decided none of this matters and that the inherent goodness of the car, the breakthrough experience it delivers, and how history would view it were much more important.They read the room and made the right call, which is what we are doing here with our focus on performance. I submit to you the following:We live in a golden automotive age. Thirteen years ago, we reported the horsepower wars were over. We were wrong. To twitch an eyebrow these days, you need at least 500 hp, if not four figures for tongues to really start wagging. This inflation is not just limited to hyper-expensive exotic cars. For $37,000, you can buy a Ford Mustang GT with 460 ponies. Need more vroom? Try the 505-hp Alfa Romeo Stelvio. Or if you need to move a couch, in a hurry, up a sand dune? The 702-hp Ram 1500 TRX has you covered.These power and torque increases, along with all the fancy systems that allow their delivery, have resulted in a golden age of performance, as well. Those who monitor lap records at the vaunted Nürburgring Nordschleife know what I'm talking about. It used to be that a stock production car lapping the iconic German test track in less than 8 minutes joined an exclusive club. Now, a hot hatch like the Honda Civic Type R is quicker than that, and we see Porsches, Mercedes-AMGs, and Lamborghinis running in the 6:40 (or quicker) bracket. Our own testing bears this out; in the past two years, we've seen our 0-60 record fall twice—first to less than 3.0 seconds and then to almost less than 2.0. This is bonkers.Megawatt advances in automotive tech are responsible for a lot of this golden-era shine. While one of the highest-horsepower production cars is still a 16-cylinder, quad-turbo, gas-burning Bugatti Chiron Super Sport, you can order our electrifying 2022 Car of the Year Lucid Air with up to 1,111 hp, or a Tesla Model S with 1,020 hp. On the truck side, the Hummer EV pickup is also available with 1,000 hp, and our 2022 Truck of the Year, the Rivian R1T, comes standard with 835 hp. Oh, and the two vehicles that broke our 0-60 record? Electric all-stars from Porsche and Tesla.As we continue to cover the evolution of the automobile and the automotive industry, we believe our electrified future is inevitable, so we're going to walk a second, parallel path with all the existing, mostly gas-burning vehicles we know and love.Internal combustion technology has never seen higher outputs, greater efficiency, or more thrills per cubic inch than right now. But as more carmakers trumpet about going all in on EVs, we receive quietly distributed notices about their final run of internal combustion engines, starting with the burliest V-10s and V-8s. Exiting right alongside: manual transmissions.We know some of you mourn the coming loss of dropping the clutch, mashing the gas, and ripping your right hand through six or seven gears. You loudly curse this transition; we hear you and understand. Every year, for more than a decade, we sent dozens of staffers on the road for two weeks, testing and driving the world's top sports cars in search of the Best Driver's Car. But that BDC program has run its course; PVOTY is Version 2.0, built upon the belief it's possible to be excited for the future, embracing all the broken barriers to come, while celebrating the end of an era. That is what we set out to do with our Performance Vehicle of the Year. We're applying our decades of experience and rigorous, industry-leading Of The Year framework to the realm of performance machines, whatever body style they happen to come in.Time is short. The world is changing. So let's round up the stickiest-tired whoop machines—whether gas- or electron-powered—and smoke 'em while we got 'em (and can still drive 'em). Please enjoy our first MotorTrend Performance Vehicle of Year competition.

Earlier this month, we reported Ford's corporate offices had warned its dealers against demanding extra deposits or other payments on reservations for hotly anticipated vehicles like the upcoming F-150 Lightning. Now comes word GM sent a similar letter to its Chevrolet, GMC, Buick, and Cadillac dealers around the same time.Originally posted to Corvette Action Center and attributed to GM North America president Steve Carlisle, the letter has since been confirmed by GM as authentic. In it, Carlisle notes most dealers are playing fair, but says "a small number of dealers have engaged in practices that do not support a positive sales experience for our customers."Market Adjustments And Additional Dealer MarkupsCarlisle specifically calls out dealers demanding extra money beyond the cost of a reservation and or adding huge markups to the final vehicle cost. Known as "market adjustments" or Additional Dealer Markups" (ADMs), these surcharges are added to the price of the reservation and or the final price of the vehicle by the dealers and are pure profit.At the root of it are simple laws of supply and demand, exacerbated by plain old greed. These vehicles are highly anticipated and have either limited reservation slots available or long waiting lists. Dealers charge markups because, simply put, people are excited enough about the vehicles to pay whatever it takes. In some cases, this can mean tens of thousands of dollars or more above the Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price (MSRP).Dealers can get away with this because they're effectively allowed to charge what the market will bear. The S in MSRP is critical: Thanks to strong state franchise laws pushed by dealers and their political allies, automakers cannot dictate the final sale price of a vehicle. That's why nearly all vehicle sales at dealerships are negotiations.Automakers Strike Back, Sort OfWhile GM can't tell its dealers what to charge for a car or prevent them from adding a markup, it does have some leverage. According to Carlisle's letter, Article 5 of the GM Dealer Sales and Service Agreement states "Dealer agrees to effectively, ethically and lawfully sell and promote the purchase, lease, and use of Products by consumers ..." and "Dealer agrees to advertise and conduct promotional activities that are lawful and enhance the reputation of Dealer, General Motors, and its Products. Dealer will not advertise or conduct promotional activities in a misleading or unethical manner, or that is harmful to the reputation of Dealer, General Motors, or its Products."In essence, Carlisle is saying demanding extra money on top of the mandatory reservation fee and adding markups to the final price could put the dealers in violation of their agreement. Carlisle specifically calls out dealers that tell customers an extra fee on top of the reservation price is mandatory to keep that reservation, which is not true under GM's reservation policies.As punishment, GM is threatening to take away an offending dealer's allocation of the vehicles in question and give it to another dealer that's following the rules. The offending dealer would still get its normal shipment of other vehicles, but would be cut off from receiving hot new vehicles to sell, such as Hummer EVs, Corvette ZO6s, Silverado EVs, and Lyriq EVs. The letter also threatens "other recourse prescribed by the Dealer Sales and Service Agreement" but does not specify what that would consist of.Closing The Broker LoopholeCarlisle also calls out dealers planning to sell hot new vehicles to independent brokers who will flip them for much higher prices. In such a scheme, the dealer would either sell the vehicle to the broker at an inflated price but not as high as what the broker can get from desperate customers, ensuring a profit on both sides, or receive a kickback when the broker resells the vehicle at a higher price.The letter reminds dealers that selling to brokers is specifically prohibited by the Dealer Sales and Service Agreement, which reads "Dealer agrees that it will not sell new Motor Vehicles for resale" and "Dealer is not authorized … to … sell Motor Vehicles to persons or parties (or their agents) engaged in the business of reselling, brokering (including but not limited to buying services) or wholesaling of Motor Vehicles."Dealers caught selling hot new vehicles to brokers and resellers will likewise have their allocations of those vehicles "redirected" to another dealer.No Restrictions On Private CustomersUnlike Ford, GM has not gone as far as to bar private buyers from reselling their vehicles for a profit. Ford has provided language for dealers to include in their sales agreements that requires customers to keep their vehicle for at least one full year before reselling it or face a lawsuit for breach of contract. This would prevent the average person from flipping their personal vehicle for a profit, at least for a year. GM has not yet provided such language to its dealers or addressed private resales so far as we know. https://www.motortrend.com/news/ford-warns-dealers-scalpers-about-f-150-lightning-sales/https://www.motortrend.com/news/2023-chevrolet-corvette-c8-z06-first-look-review/https://www.motortrend.com/news/2022-gmc-hummer-ev-pickup-pros-cons-review/https://www.motortrend.com/events/2024-chevrolet-silverado-electric-truck-first-look-review/https://www.motortrend.com/reviews/2023-cadillac-lyriq-first-look/https://www.motortrend.com/news/2022-ford-f-150-lightning-electric-first-look-review/