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Confession: I really like to listen to music in the shower. It helps me get energized for the day when I shower in the morning and is just a nice mood booster any time. A little dance party while I wash my hair is just plain good vibes. But buying a dedicated speaker for the shower has always felt a bit silly, since it's not a place I spend a ton of time.
Volkswagen did something truly unhinged back in 2007 when it built the Golf GTI W12-650. Two months before Austria’s annual Wörthersee gathering of Vee-dub faithful, designers widened a Mk5 GTI and stuffed the W12 engine from a Bentley Continental GT in the trunk.
The new BMW M4 CS is here, and it's fast. And it's not just fast in a straight line. The car can lap the 12.9-mile Norschliefe loop at the Nürburgring in 7 minutes, 21.99 seconds, making it supremely close to being the fastest production BMW at the Green Hell.
Bentley has confirmed that it will replace its outgoing W12 engine with a V8-based plug-in hybrid (PHEV) powertrain that puts out 750hp. The firm suggested that the setup will produce, “four-figure torque over a wider plateau”, implying that it will at least match the 1,000Nm of the tuned W12 in the recently revealed Batur.
Chevrolet is suspending production of the Malibu—its last sedan standing—in order to retool the assembly plant that currently makes the four-door and clear the way for the upcoming Chevy Bolt. On the surface, this seems like another blow to the sedan segment, which has been on the decline for the last decade or so as full-size trucks and SUVs overtook them in popularity in the U.S. But the death of the Malibu comes despite the sedan having sold over 130,000 examples in 2023, as Automotive News reports.
Toyota has always paid close attention to in-car audio quality, which I'm grateful for. The Japanese carmaker's dedication to audio dates back to the 1990s, and possibly further back, with models like the Toyota Aristo and Sera, which my colleague Adam has written about at Jalopnik. Like the Sera, the Aristo featured some killer audio features, such as physical DSP controls that ran your tunes through different filters, of sorts, to give your listening experience a different vibe. These controls are something the majority of people won't miss in modern audio systems, especially with the ubiquity of Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, but they highlight how car audio is no longer fun and experimental.
The first Formula 1 race I ever watched on TV was, believe it or not, the 2005 United States Grand Prix. I was 12. And to a normal person, rather than a precocious preteen, a farce like that wouldn't turn anyone into a fan. Yet, for some, strange reason, the drama, the politics, and the fallout resulting from both hooked me. I suppose that's why some people get into WWE.
The age-old debate of vinyl versus digital is never-ending. Some people swear the warm, analog sounds of a record are better than a computer-recorded track. Whichever side you're on, you have to admit a vinyl record of a screaming Revuelto V-12 engine sounds like a pretty cool idea.