Full Image of 2023 Honda Civic Type R Leaks Just Before Debut
We'll keep this brief, given how extensively we've covered the new 2023 Honda Civic Type R's gestation over the past two years or so. From watching it lap Suzuka to watching it lap the Nürburgring to, well, just watching the same camouflaged prototypes again and again and again, we have a good idea about the basic contours of the 11th-generation-Civic-based Type R. At long last, we now know when we'll see the rest of the hot hatchback's details—and, you know, its uncovered body: July 20.
Just days after announcing that date, Honda's Japanese factory museum and showcase website (Honda Ayoma) included an image of the new Type R uncovered among its listed vehicles on display. The image was posted to the Civic11forum before it was pulled from Honda's site, and depicts a Championship White (our guess) 2023 Civic Type R in all its naked glory. Given what we've seen already—mainly those swirly-camouflage-covered Type R prototypes—the new R's look isn't all that surprising save for its relative conservatism. Unlike the last-gen car, which sported a riot of vents, slats, and other racy addenda on top of the already riotously styled regular Civic hatchback, this new one takes after the much cleaner 11th-gen Civic hatch and Civic Si sedan, both of which wear clean, understated looks. Of course, the Type R suitably amps up the regular Civic with a bulging hood and front fenders, a bigger lower intake, and that big ol' wing on the liftgate.
Honda's official announcement had helpfully provided our until-now only peek at the 2023 Civic Type R without any camouflage on it. That darkened photo (we tried lightening it more, to no avail) is below.
While full information surely will drop on the 20th—just over one week away—we'll give you some of what to expect from this updated monster: It'll likely continue to be front-wheel drive, and powered by a version of the same turbo 2.0-liter I-4 as the outgoing model. Look for more than 300 hp, a six-speed manual transmission, Brembo brakes, huge tires, a wild wing, and even snappier dynamics than the already sharp-handling last-gen version. Now, with that, let's hope there are no more teasers (or leaks) from here on out.
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WHAT IT IS: A fully electrified hellsled from the automotive industry's gas-chuggingest, tire-smokingest, hair-on-your-chestiest brand, Dodge.WHY IT MATTERS: When even Dodge is preparing to transition to EVs, it's time to accept the inevitable: The revolution will be rechargeable. Of course, that doesn't mean abandoning heritage. So Dodge, the marque behind the Challenger, Charger, Hellcat, Demon, and myriad other badass badges, is spinning up an electric muscle car as a bridge between its fully electrified future and its Hemi-powered past.This car's retro flavor will help that mission. As seen in teaser images/video and our exclusive renderings, its boxy nose will ape those of classic Chargers—wouldn't that be an appropriate name to use on the EV?—from the golden period of muscle in the late '60s and early '70s; that era's triangular Fratzog logo returns, too, and is expected to appear on all of Dodge's EVs moving forward. The eMuscle name has also been bandied about, although it's not yet clear if this will be the new muscle car's name or an overarching theme for Dodge.2025 Dodge eMuscle Electric Muscle Car Rendering with WingPLATFORM AND POWERTRAIN: Carlos Tavares, CEO of parent company Stellantis, has called the car "so brilliant that it is shocking"—it's electric, get it?—and teasers confirm it will have all-wheel drive, showing smoke billowing from all four tires. AWD means the muscle car will pack at least two electric motors, and Stellantis has said the car's STLA Large platform will offer motors that make as much as 443 hp each, which means it could have nearly 900 horsepower. But this is Dodge we're talking about, so it's entirely possible the car gets three or even four electric motors to help it achieve 60 mph in a rumored 2.0 seconds."If an electric motor will make it quicker, we will do it," Dodge chief Tim Kuniskis has said. The battery packs for STLA Large will range from 101 to 118 kWh in size with up to 500 miles of driving range, though surely not in this beastly machine. Worried about doing burnouts in silence? Fret not: Dodge wants the car to be loud and has created a muscled-up sound that intensifies based on how you're driving.ESTIMATED PRICE: The sweet spot for muscle cars is from $40,000 to $50,000, Dodge says, so figure the production EV muscle car will land in that zone—at least to start. As with the Hellcat models and the Demon, you'll pay a premium for more performance, even as Dodge looks to maintain its traditional power-per-dollar value.
kia sorento Full OverviewConsider this the torture test for our long-term Kia Sorento. Over the course of 17 days and 4,059 miles across seven states and seven national parks, I nearly doubled the miles of our golden go-getter, all while facing the elements nightly in a rooftop tent. Even though it wasn't as extreme as our 7,000-mile off-road trip with Rivian across the Trans-America Trail, you get to know a car pretty well when averaging nearly 240 miles a day.1. I'd Rather Sleep on the GroundI'll admit, a rooftop tent has its advantages. The built-in mattress is larger and more comfortable than any traditional sleeping pad, there's little chance of waking up to a bear outside your door, and it looks ultra rad. It kept me safe and dry in a heavy storm, too. I still wouldn't buy one.They're tricky to install in the first place (ours weighs about 100 pounds), and even once it's up there and I had erected the thing 10 times, it still took at least 20 minutes of climbing around on the roof to set up. The added wind noise is a drag (get it?), especially with long hours on the highway. Not to mention, you have to find a perfectly flat parking spot, and you can't drive anywhere until it's folded up.Our Thule Tepui Explorer Kukenam 3 didn't hold up all that well, either; after a couple weeks of hard use, plastic pieces cracked and fell off, some metal tent supports became permanently bent, and one window fastener fell off altogether. For the near $2,000 asking price, we'd much rather have an easy-setup conventional tent and an air mattress, plus probably a wad of cash left over.2. The Infotainment's Hidden GemOur long-term Sorento SX rocks a 10.3-inch touchscreen in place of the base model's 8.0-inch system. The display is large, bright, and positioned high on the dash, but my favorite feature is easy to miss.Throughout the majority of my trip, the screen was displaying Apple CarPlay. Thing is, CarPlay doesn't occupy the entire screen—there's a 2-inch-wide strip of real estate on the far right of the screen. It displays the outside temperature by default, but swipe up or down, and it has other functions, including a compass and altimeter.An altimeter would not have excited me a few years back. I lived in Rhode Island, a state entirely devoid of mountains where the highest elevation is a paltry 812 feet at Jerimoth Hill. Yes, hill. But watching the altitude reading climb higher as I ascended to the 12,183-foot tundra along the historic Trail Ridge Road running through Rocky Mountain National Park was a novelty I won't soon forget.3. Off-Road SurpriseFor a mainstream three-row crossover, I was pleasantly surprised with the Sorento's performance away from pavement. Our long-termer is fitted with AWD and a factory lift that affords 8.2 inches of ground clearance; we put them to work.Nightly trips to national forests for free camping meant driving down rutted, occasionally muddy dirt roads for at least a few miles, and the Sorento handled them like a champ. One slick trail up the side of a dam in southern Idaho required selecting AWD lock and Snow mode, but with a bit of wheelspin, the 'Toe and I were rewarded with a tranquil sunset over the lake.The family hauler proved fun, too. Kia allows the driver to disable both traction and stability control. The nannies still limit power with the tiller angled more than a few degrees off-center, but they'll allow for little four-wheel drifts on the slippery stuff if you want to play rally driver. Another impressive note: After hours driving lumpy washboard trials, the Sorento didn't develop a single squeak or rattle.4. Driver Assist Features Aren't PerfectWe've already spilled digital ink on how useful the Sorento's Highway Drive Assist active safety features can be. I'd estimate I had the lane centering and adaptive cruise system active for at least 75 percent of my miles, and the trip was better for it. The HDA suite even managed to keep itself centered on a road without any lane lines. Until it didn't.One major flaw in the system is that it doesn't issue any audio or sensory alert when it can no longer read the road—only a tiny green light turning off in the dash. Had I not been actively watching the road, hands and feet at the ready to take control, I might have found myself upside down in a ditch in central Wyoming.No matter how much you trust these systems, they do not assume your responsibility as a driver. Rather, your responsibility shifts from controlling your inputs to monitoring the road and the system.Looks good! More details?
chevrolet silverado-1500 Full OverviewProsPowerful V-8New interiorSuper Cruise ConsSome questionable exterior styling decisionsDoor-mounted mirrorsRough rideIt happened not once but twice, and it's the only time we recall it ever happening. As if SiriusXM satellite radio knew how to mitigate the uneasiness we felt by the fact our test truck—a 2022 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 High Country pickup—was driving us courtesy of its Super Cruise system, we couldn't help but sing heartily along to Bob Seger's "Like a Rock." If you're of a certain age, you know this song backed Chevrolet's epic pickup ad campaign of the 1990s. And in this moment as we drove the Silverado 1500 High Country, it magically and nostalgically bridged the gap between the Silverado of the past and the Silverado of the present. Yes, the Chevy Silverado 1500 has come a long way since its "Like a Rock" days, but it's still a Chevy truck through and through.By the StickerHere's a quick rundown of the Monroney label—otherwise known as the window sticker—for the 2022 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 High Country 4x4. The High Country is the Silverado lineup's top trim alongside the off-road-oriented Silverado ZR2. We'll leave it to you to decide whether you love or hate the idea of a street-oriented luxury Chevy with 22-inch painted aluminum wheels featuring chrome inserts. One opinion is that the wheel's complexity could render well in an even larger 24-inch (or more) diameter.Chevrolet delivered the Dark Ash Metallic (a new color for 2022) Silverado High Country to us equipped with a bounty of add-ons: High Country Premium package (power sunroof, all-weather floor liners, 22-inch wheels), Super Cruise, Technology package (rear camera mirror, head-up display, adaptive cruise control, enhanced automatic emergency braking), power-retractable assist steps, adaptive ride control suspension, wheel locks, and Multiflex tailgate.0-60 MPH: Trailing the Twin-Turbo V-6s, Leading Other V-8sThe 2022 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 High Country is powered by Chevy's 6.2-liter EcoTec3 V-8 gasoline engine. It's good for 420 hp and 460 lb-ft of torque, backed by a 10-speed automatic transmission. This is the largest-displacement, most powerful naturally aspirated V-8 in the segment. Bigger doesn't always mean better, though: While GM continues to smash this stout V-8 under the hood, many of its competitors offer smaller-displacement twin-turbo V-6 variants.To the point, how does the 5,578-pound Silverado High Country stack up against the new 2022 Toyota Tundra Platinum? The latter is a prime example of a truck that ditched its V-8 in favor of a 3.4-liter twin-turbo six-cylinder that makes 389 hp and 479 lb-ft of torque. (There's also a stronger hybrid version.) According to our previous test numbers, the Tundra—532 pounds heavier (woof) while lacking 31 hp but gaining 19 lb-ft compared to the Chevy—accelerates from 0 to 60 mph a mere 0.1 second slower than the Silverado's 6.0 seconds. Sure, there are a bunch of additional variables at play here—we didn't test the two trucks at the same time, and they feature different gearing, transmission tuning, and so on—but the lighter, higher-horsepower 6.2-liter V-8 Silverado didn't run away from the turbo-V-6-powered Tundra.As for Ford's EcoBoost V-6? The 2021 Ford F-150 4x4 Lariat FX4 twin-turbo EcoBoost 3.5-liter V-6 (400 hp, 500 lb-ft, and 238 pounds lighter than the Silverado) hit 60 mph in 5.3 seconds. The 2021 Ford Raptor (with the high-output 450-hp, 510-lb-ft EcoBoost and 391 pounds heavier) needed 5.6 seconds, followed by the High Country 0.4 second behind. Ultimately, the Silverado's 6.2-liter V-8 is unsurprisingly better suited for heavy towing up grades than it is for track sprints against turbocharged V-6 trucks. Interestingly, the 6.2-liter Silverado RST—158 pounds lighter than the High Country—put down a 5.5-second 0-60 time, which spanks the High Country by half a second and lands it between the two EcoBoost Fords.How does the 6.2-liter 2022 Chevrolet Silverado High Country fare against other V-8 trucks in its class? The 2021 Ford F-150 4x4 King Ranch, packing a 400-hp, 410-lb-ft 5.0-liter V-8 and carrying an additional 109 pounds, hit 60 mph in 6.2 seconds. The 2019 Ram 1500 Limited 4X4 eTorque featuring a 395-hp and 410-lb-ft 5.7-liter V-8 Hemi (and 298 pounds heavier) did so in 6.5 seconds. So the 6.2-liter Silverado is no slouch against the other naturally aspirated V-8s in its segment.Finally, on paper and in certain conditions, GM's 6.2-liter V-8 certainly outperforms the 355-hp, 383-lb-ft 5.3-liter V-8, another engine option for the High Country, as is a 3.0-liter diesel. For daily trundling, though, it would be hard to discern a 5.3-liter from the 6.2. Worth noting: The 6.2 is available only with four-wheel drive.Track Attitude: Getting Aggressive in a Luxury TruckGranted, not many folks will ever drive their 2022 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 High Country like a sports car. But if you overheat its brakes, the truck tells you so via a dashboard message. A 45-mph speed limit kicks in at that point for a short period while the brakes cool down.As for the High Country's performance on the MT figure-eight course, which tests handling characteristics, tester Chris Walton was surprised by how sporty the upscale Silverado was in auto four-wheel-drive mode. "The firm brake pedal is quite effective, so long as you stay out of the ABS," he said. "Do it right, and you can bleed the brakes into the skidpad almost like a sport sedan. The truck doesn't roll much on the skidpad and stays quite neutral with a mild bit of understeer. The throttle mapping, however, is a bit off. The throttle is sensitive and makes it difficult to maintain a constant speed on the skidpad. Overall, it comes off as quite sporty for a luxury pickup truck."(Not) Driving With Super CruiseOne of the big deals about the 2022 Chevy Silverado 1500 High Country is that it has available Super Cruise, a $2,200 option. Yes, GM's semi-autonomous hands-free-driving system has trickled down to Chevy trucks. We found some compatible freeways and gave it a try; despite some inherent trust issues, it worked, but we have a few stories.On one occasion, a car was merging onto the freeway at a substantially slower rate than we were traveling. We could see it was going to merge in front of us, but when it seemed like the truck "missed" seeing the car and did not lift, we took control and initiated braking. It's likely the Silverado would have seen the other vehicle by the time it was fully in our lane, but it might have left "unsmart" cars behind us braking too hard for comfort.On another occasion, Super Cruise deemed there was room for a lane change, but traffic in our new lane slowed substantially as the truck made its move. The High Country, still wanting to leave a rather big gap between itself and the car in front, also slowed substantially. We saw the driver behind us needed to unexpectedly brake hard—and our maneuver came across as a "brake check." Super Cruise was just doing what it computed was best for the situation, but we received an angry middle finger in return.A Cockpit Worth Talking AboutThe 2022 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 High Country's new interior is one of its other big deals. Good news: it's not offensive anymore. It feels and looks like it belongs in 2022, and it's competitive with other pickups on the market. It's natural and contemporary, more horizontally oriented than upright. The 13.4-inch color touchscreen, 12.3-inch digital gauge cluster, and 15.0-inch head-up display contribute to its modern feel.Did you notice the shifter on the center console? That's different for a Chevy truck. It took a split second to figure out how to work it, but we never looked back once we did. Also, the location of the wireless charging pad cubby is perfect and out of the way—and not inherently serving double duty as a crap pad. You know that spot where fast food trash, banana peels, and loose change resides. Don't worry, Chevy left some removable rubberized pads around three sides of the shifter for miscellaneous things.In terms of interior colors, our tester was labeled as Jet Black and Nightshift Blue. In true Chevrolet fashion, there's an uncountable number of available colors—variants of chrome, piano black, blue, gray, tan, brown, silver—in a cornucopia of materials including smooth plastic, textured plastic, open-pore wood, and leather. All in all, the touch points are soft, the seats are comfortable, charge ports are accessible, and it's all palatable and impressive.Indeed, this 2022 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 High Country is "like a rock," but one that's unrecognizable compared to what it used to be. Consider it a big win for Chevy.2022 Chevrolet Silverado High Country Specifications BASE PRICE $64,945 PRICE AS TESTED $75,820 VEHICLE LAYOUT Front-engine, 4WD, 5-pass, 4-door truck ENGINE 6.2L direct-injected OHV 16-valve 90-degree V-8 POWER (SAE NET) 420 hp @ 5,600 rpm TORQUE (SAE NET) 460 lb-ft @ 4,100 rpm TRANSMISSION 10-speed automatic CURB WEIGHT (F/R DIST) 5,578 lb (57/43%) WHEELBASE 147.4 in LENGTH x WIDTH x HEIGHT 231.9 x 81.2 x 75.5 in 0-60 MPH 6.0 sec QUARTER MILE 14.4 sec @ 96.8 mph BRAKING, 60-0 MPH 133 ft LATERAL ACCELERATION 0.75 g (avg) MT FIGURE EIGHT 28.1 sec @ 0.60 g (avg) EPA CITY/HWY/COMB FUEL ECON 15/20/17 mpg EPA RANGE, COMB 408 miles ON SALE Now Show All Looks good! More details?
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