Cars – Page 12

F1 in Monaco: No one has ever gone faster than that

Cars, F1, Formula 1, monaco, racing / Paul Patrick / May 27, 2025

The principality of Monaco is perhaps the least suitable place on the Formula 1 calendar to hold a Grand Prix. A pirate cove turned tax haven nestled between France and Italy at the foot of the Alps-Maritimes, it has also been home to Grand Prix racing since 1929, predating the actual Formula 1 world championship by two decades. The track is short, tight, and perhaps best described as riding a bicycle around your living room. It doesn’t even race well, for the barrier-lined streets are too narrow for the too-big, too-heavy cars of the 21st century. And yet, it’s F1’s crown jewel.

Despite the location’s many drawbacks, there’s something magical about racing in Monaco that almost defies explanation. The real magic happens on Saturday, when the drivers compete against each other to set the fastest lap. With overtaking as difficult as it is here, qualifying is everything, determining the order everyone lines up in, and more than likely, finishes.

Coverage of the Monaco Grand Prix is now filmed in vivid 4k, and it has never looked better. I’m a real fan of the static top-down camera that’s like a real-time Apple TV screensaver.

Nico Hulkenberg of Germany drives the (27) Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber C45 Ferrari during the Formula 1 TAG Heuer Gran Premio di Monaco 2025 at Circuit de Monaco in Monaco on May 25, 2025. — The cars need special steering racks to be able to negotiate what’s now called the Fairmont hairpin. Credit: Alessio Morgese/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Although native-Monegasque Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc tried to temper expectations for the weekend, the Ferraris were in a good place in Monaco. With no fast corners, the team could run the car low to the ground without risking a penalty, and this year’s car is very good at low-speed corners, of which Monaco has plenty.

A 10th of a second separated comfortably being in Q2 from being relegated to the last couple of rows in the grid, and a very long Sunday. Mercedes’ new teenage protegé, Kimi Antonelli, failed to progress from Q1, spinning in the swimming pool chicane. Unlike Michael Schumacher in 2006, Antonelli didn’t do it on purpose, but he did bring out a red flag. His teammate George Russell similarly brought a halt to Q2 when he coasted a third of the way around the circuit before coming to a stop in the middle of the tunnel, requiring marshals to push him all the way down to turn 10.

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200 mph for 500 miles: How IndyCar drivers prepare for the big race

Cars, Features, Indianapolis 500, Indy 500, IndyCar, racing, simulation / Kris Guyer / May 25, 2025

Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood and Marcus Ericsson talk to us about the Indy 500.

#28, Marcus Ericsson, Andretti Global Honda prior to the NTT IndyCar Series 109th Running of the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on May 15, 2025 in Indianapolis, Indiana. Credit: Brandon Badraoui/Lumen via Getty Images

This coming weekend is a special one for most motorsport fans. There are Formula 1 races in Monaco and NASCAR races in Charlotte. And arguably towering over them both is the Indianapolis 500, being held this year for the 109th time. America’s oldest race is also one of its toughest: The track may have just four turns, but the cars negotiate them going three times faster than you drive on the highway, inches from the wall. For hours. At least at Le Mans, you have more than one driver per car.

This year’s race promises to be an exciting one. The track is sold out for the first time since the centenary race in 2016. A rookie driver and a team new to the series took pole position. Two very fast cars are starting at the back thanks to another conflict-of-interest scandal involving Team Penske, the second in two years for a team whose owner also owns the track and the series. And the cars are trickier to drive than they have been for many years, thanks to a new supercapacitor-based hybrid system that has added more than 100 lbs to the rear of the car, shifting the weight distribution further back.

Ahead of Sunday’s race, I spoke with a couple of IndyCar drivers and some engineers to get a better sense of how they prepare and what to expect.

INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA - MAY 17: #28, Marcus Ericsson, Andretti Global Honda during qualifying for the NTT IndyCar Series 109th Running of the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on May 17, 2025 in Indianapolis, Indiana. — This year, the cars are harder to drive thanks to a hybrid system that has altered the weight balance. Credit: Geoff MIller/Lumen via Getty Images

Concentrate

It all comes “from months of preparation,” said Marcus Ericsson, winner of the race in 2022 and one of Andretti Global’s drivers in this year’s event. “When we get here to the month of May, it’s just such a busy month. So you’ve got to be prepared mentally—and basically before you get to the month of May because if you start doing it now, it’s too late,” he told me.

The drivers spend all month at the track, with a race on the road course earlier this month. Then there’s testing on the historic oval, followed by qualifying last weekend and the race this coming Sunday. “So all those hours you put in in the winter, really, and leading up here to the month of May—it’s what pays off now,” Ericsson said. That work involved multiple sessions of physical training each week, and Ericsson says he also does weekly mental coaching sessions.

“This is a mental challenge,” Ericsson told me. “Doing those speeds with our cars, you can’t really afford to have a split second of loss of concentration because then you might be in the wall and your day is over and you might hurt yourself.”

When drivers get tired or their focus slips, that’s when mistakes happen, and a mistake at Indy often has consequences.

A racing driver stands in front of four mechanics, who are facing away from him. The mechanics have QR codes on the back of their shirts. — Ericsson is sponsored by the antihistamine Allegra and its anti-drowsy-driving campaign. Fans can scan the QR codes on the back of his pit crew’s shirts for a “gamified experience.” Credit: Andretti Global/Allegra

Simulate

Being mentally and physically prepared is part of it. It also helps if you can roll the race car off the transporter and onto the track with a setup that works rather than spending the month chasing the right combination of dampers, springs, wing angles, and so on. And these days, that means a lot of simulation testing.

The multi-axis driver in the loop simulators might look like just a very expensive video game, but these multimillion-dollar setups aren’t about having fun. “Everything that you are feeling or changing in the sim is ultimately going to reflect directly to what happens on track,” explained Kyle Kirkwood, teammate to Ericsson at Andretti Global and one of only two drivers to have won an Indycar race in 2025.

Andretti, like the other teams using Honda engines, uses the new HRC simulator in Indiana. “And yes, it’s a very expensive asset, but it’s also likely cheaper than going to the track and doing the real thing,” Kirkwood said. “And it’s a much more controlled environment than being at the track because temperature changes or track conditions or wind direction play a huge factor with our car.”

A high degree of correlation between the simulation and the track is what makes it a powerful tool. “We run through a sim, and you only get so many opportunities, especially at a place like Indianapolis, where you go from one day to the next and the temperature swings, or the wind conditions, or whatever might change drastically,” Kirkwood said. “You have to be able to sim it and be confident with the sim that you’re running to go out there and have a similar balance or a similar performance.”

Kyle Kirkwood's indycar drives past the IMS logo on one of the track walls.

Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood is the only driver other than Álex Palou to have won an IndyCar race in 2025. Credit: Alison Arena/Andretti Global

“So you have to make adjustments, whether it’s a spring rate, whether it’s keel ballast or just overall, maybe center of pressure, something like that,” Kirkwood said. “You have to be able to adjust to it. And that’s where the sim tool comes in play. You move the weight balance back, and you’re like, OK, now what happens with the balance? How do I tune that back in? And you run that all through the sim, and for us, it’s been mirror-perfect going to the track when we do that.”

More impressively, a lot of that work was done months ago. “I would say most of it, we got through it before the start of this season,” Kirkwood said. “Once we get into the season, we only get a select few days because every Honda team has to run on the same simulator. Of course, it’s different with the engineering sim; those are running nonstop.”

Sims are for engineers, too

An IndyCar team is more than just its drivers—”the spacer between the seat and the wheel,” according to Kirkwood—and the engineers rely heavily on sim work now that real-world testing is so highly restricted. And they use a lot more than just driver-in-the-loop (DiL).

“Digital simulation probably goes to a higher level,” explained Scott Graves, engineering manager at Andretti Global. “A lot of the models we develop work in the DiL as well as our other digital tools. We try to develop universal models, whether that’s tire models, engine models, or transmission models.”

“Once you get into to a fully digital model, then I think your optimization process starts kicking in,” Graves said. “You’re not just changing the setting and running a pretend lap with a driver holding a wheel. You’re able to run through numerous settings and optimization routines and step through a massive number of permutations on a car. Obviously, you’re looking for better lap times, but you’re also looking for fuel efficiency and a lot of other parameters that go into crossing the finish line first.”

A screenshot of a finite element analysis tool — Parts like this anti-roll bar are simulated thousands of times. Credit: Siemens/Andretti Global

As an example, Graves points to the dampers. “The shock absorber is a perfect example where that’s a highly sophisticated piece of equipment on the car and it’s very open for team development. So our cars have fully customized designs there that are optimized for how we run the car, and they may not be good on another team’s car because we’re so honed in on what we’re doing with the car,” he said.

“The more accurate a digital twin is, the more we are able to use that digital twin to predict the performance of the car,” said David Taylor, VP of industry strategy at Siemens DISW, which has partnered with Andretti for some years now. “It will never be as complete and accurate as we want it to be. So it’s a continuous pursuit, and we keep adding technology to our portfolio and acquiring companies to try to provide more and more tools to people like Scott so they can more accurately predict that performance.”

What to expect on Sunday?

Kirkwood was bullish about his chances despite starting relatively deep in the field, qualifying in 23rd place. “We’ve been phenomenal in race trim and qualifying,” he said. “We had a bit of a head-scratcher if I’m being honest—I thought we would definitely be a top-six contender, if not a front row contender, and it just didn’t pan out that way on Saturday qualifying.”

“But we rolled back out on Monday—the car was phenomenal. Once again, we feel very, very racy in traffic, which is a completely different animal than running qualifying,” Kirkwood said. “So I’m happy with it. I think our chances are good. We’re starting deep in the field, but so are a lot of other drivers. So you can expect a handful of us to move forward.”

The more nervous hybrid IndyCars with their more rearward weight bias will probably result in more cautions, according to Ericsson, who will line up sixth for the start of the race on Sunday.

“Whereas in previous years you could have a bit of a moment and it would scare you, you usually get away with it,” he said. “This year, if you have a moment, it usually ends up with you being in the fence. I think that’s why we’ve seen so many crashes this year—because a pendulum effect from the rear of the car that when you start losing it, this is very, very difficult or almost impossible to catch.”

“I think it’s going to mean that the race is going to be quite a few incidents with people making mistakes,” Ericsson said. “In practice, if your car is not behaving well, you bring it to the pit lane, right? You can do adjustments, whereas in the race, you have to just tough it out until the next pit stop and then make some small adjustments. So if you have a bad car at the start a race, it’s going to be a tough one. So I think it’s going to be a very dramatic and entertaining race.”

Jonathan is the Automotive Editor at Ars Technica. He has a BSc and PhD in Pharmacology. In 2014 he decided to indulge his lifelong passion for the car by leaving the National Human Genome Research Institute and launching Ars Technica’s automotive coverage. He lives in Washington, DC.

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F1 in Imola reminds us it’s about strategy as much as a fast car

Cars, F1, Formula 1 / Rejus Almole / May 20, 2025

Who went home happy from Imola and why? F1’s title race heats up.

In Italy there are two religions, and one of them is Ferrari. Credit: Ryan Pierse/Getty Images

Formula 1’s busy 2025 schedule saw the sport return to its European heartland this past weekend. Italy has two races on the calendar this year, and this was the first, the (deep breath) “Formula 1 AWS Gran Premio Del Made in Italy e Dell’Emilia-Romagna,” which took place at the scenic and historic (another deep breath) Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, better known as Imola. It’s another of F1’s old-school circuits where overtaking is far from easy, particularly when the grid is as closely matched as it is. But Sunday’s race was no snoozer, and for a couple of teams, there was a welcome change in form.

Red Bull was one. The team has looked a bit shambolic at times this season, with some wondering whether this change in form was the result of a number of high-profile staff departures toward the end of last season. Things looked pretty bleak during the first of three qualifying sessions, when Yuki Tsunoda got too aggressive with a curb and, rather than finding lap time, found himself in a violent crash that tore all four corners off the car and relegated him to starting the race last from the pit lane.

2025 has also been trying for Ferrari. Italy expects a lot from the red team, and the replacement of Mattia Binotto with Frédéric Vasseur as team principal was supposed to result in Maranello challenging for championships. Signing Lewis Hamilton, a bona fide superstar with seven titles already on his CV, hasn’t exactly reduced the amount of pressure on Scuderia Ferrari, either.

Frederic Vasseur, Team Principal of Scuderia Ferrari, is at the Formula 1 AWS Gran Premio del Made in Italy e dell'Emilia-Romagna 2025 in Imola, Italy, on May 17, 2025, at Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari. — Ferrari team principal Frédéric Vasseur. Credit: Alessio Morgese/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Lewis Hamilton was much closer to teammate Charles Leclerc this weekend, which will be encouraging to everyone. After Hamilton’s exclusion from the Chinese Grand Prix, he has had to run a higher ride height, which has cost him speed relative to his younger teammate. Now it looks like he’s getting a handle on the car and lost out to Leclerc by 0.06 seconds in Q1 and 0.16 seconds in Q2. Unfortunately, Leclerc’s time was only good for 11th, and Hamilton’s was only good for 12th.

Sunday brought smiles for the Red Bull and Ferrari teams. In the hands of Verstappen, the Red Bull was about as fast as the black-and-orange McLarens, and while second was the best Verstappen could do in qualifying, the gap to McLaren’s Oscar Piastri was measured in the hundredths of a second.

Verstappen’s initial start from the line looked unremarkable, too—the Mercedes of George Russell seemed more of a threat to the pole man. But Verstappen saw an opportunity and drove around the outside almost before Piastri even registered he was there, seizing the lead of the race. Once the Red Bull driver was in clean air, he was able to stretch the gap to Piastri.

IMOLA, ITALY - MAY 18: Oscar Piastri of Australia driving the (81) McLaren MCL39 Mercedes leads Max Verstappen of the Netherlands driving the (1) Oracle Red Bull Racing RB21 George Russell of Great Britain driving the (63) Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team W16 Lando Norris of Great Britain driving the (4) McLaren MCL39 Mercedes Fernando Alonso of Spain driving the (14) Aston Martin F1 Team AMR25 Mercedes and the rest of the field at the start during the F1 Grand Prix of Emilia-Romagna at Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari on May 18, 2025 in Imola, Italy. — Oscar Piastri is seen here in the lead, but it wouldn’t last more than a corner. Credit: Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Getting past someone is notoriously hard at Imola. In a 2005 classic, Fernando Alonso held off Michael Schumacher’s much faster car for the entire race. Even though the cars are larger and heavier now and more closely matched, overtaking was still possible, like Norris’ pass on Russell.

Undercut? Overcut?

But when overtaking is as hard as it is at a track like Imola, teams will try to use strategy to pass each other with pit stops. Each driver has to make at least one pit stop, as drivers are required to use two different tire compounds during the race. But depending on other factors, like how much the tires degrade, a team might decide to do two or even three stops—the lap time lost in the pits by stopping more often can be less than the time lost running on worn-out rubber.

In recent years, the word “undercut” has crept into F1 vocab, and no, it doesn’t refer to the hairstyles favored by the more flamboyant drivers in the paddock. To undercut a rival means to make your pit stop before them and then, on fresh tires and with a clear track ahead, set fast lap after fast lap so that when your rival makes their stop, they emerge from the pits behind you.

The undercut doesn’t always work, but in Imola, it initially looked like it did. Charles Leclerc stopped on lap 10 and leapfrogged Russell’s Mercedes, as well as his former Ferrari teammate and now Williams driver Carlos Sainz. Since Piastri wasn’t closing on Verstappen up front, McLaren decided to bring him in for an early stop.

IMOLA, ITALY - MAY 18: Race winner Max Verstappen of the Netherlands and Oracle Red Bull Racing celebrates on the podium during the F1 Grand Prix of Emilia-Romagna at Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari on May 18, 2025 in Imola, Italy. — Verstappen’s wins this season are far from inevitable. Credit: Clive Rose/Getty Images

But his advantage on new tires was not enough to eat into Verstappen’s margin, and he did not emerge in clean air but rather had to overtake car after car on track as he sought to regain his position ahead of those who hadn’t stopped. Sometimes, a strategy is the wrong one.

McLaren’s other driver, Lando Norris, couldn’t make a dent on Red Bull’s race, either. Having recognized the two-stop undercut wouldn’t work, Norris had stayed out, but he was almost 10 seconds behind Verstappen when it was finally time to change tires on lap 29. Shortly afterward, Esteban Ocon pulled his Haas to the side of the track with a powertrain failure, triggering a virtual safety car. With all the cars required to drive around at a prescribed, reduced pace, Verstappen was able to take his pit stop while only losing half as much time as anyone who stopped under green flag conditions.

Victory required a little more. Kimi Antonelli’s Mercedes also ground to a halt in a position that required a full safety car. With some on fresh rubber and others not, there were battles aplenty, but Verstappen wasn’t involved in any and won by seven seconds over Norris, with the recovering Piastri a few more seconds down the road.

Meanwhile, Hamilton had been having a pretty good Sunday of his own. Although he started 12th, he finished fourth, to the delight of the partisan, flag-waving crowd. Some of that was thanks to Leclerc coming together with the Williams of Alex Albon; after that on-track scuffle was sorted, Albon lay fifth, with Leclerc at sixth. Albon was right to feel aggrieved that he lost fourth place but equalled his best finish of the year.

IMOLA, ITALY - MAY 18: Ferrari fans wave their flags in a grandstand prior to the F1 Grand Prix of Emilia-Romagna at Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari on May 18, 2025 in Imola, Italy. — A fine fourth and a sixth were redemption for the Tifosi. Credit: Bryn Lennon – Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images

Leclerc needed to cede the place to Albon, but at the same time, his complaint about the amount of rules-lawyering that now accompanies every bit of wheel-to-wheel action is getting a bit tedious. If F1 isn’t careful, the rulebook will end up being too constraining, with drivers playing to the letter even if it’s bad for the sport and the show. And sixth place was still a decent result from 11th; the championships already look out of reach for Ferrari for 2025, but at least it’s in no danger of being overtaken by Williams in the tables, even if that is a threat on track.

McLaren is already at 279 points in the constructors’ championship, 132 points ahead of next-best Mercedes, so the constructors’ cup is looking somewhat secure. Things are a lot closer in the drivers’ standings, with Piastri on 146, Norris on 133, and Verstappen still entirely in the fight with 124 points.

Next weekend, it’s time for the Monaco Grand Prix.

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The 2025 VW Tiguan caters to US tastes at an affordable price

car review, Cars, First drive, Volkswagen Tiguan / Mike M. / May 18, 2025

In the modern era, cars keep getting bigger and bigger between generations. Or at least, they’re certainly not getting smaller. That’s especially true in America, where bigger is always better and the vehicles in the current crop of “compact” crossovers are now nearly as large as full-size SUVs from a decade ago. Don’t ask about curb weights, either, as more powerful drivetrains, including widespread adoption of hybrid-electric components, add significant mass, as highlighted by the new BMW M5 “sport sedan.”

Within that fray, however, the new Volkswagen Tiguan stands apart. VW purposefully refined the third-gen Tiguan to cater better to American consumer needs, which meant dropping the third row to create more interior volume for the front and rear seats. The wheelbase still measures the same length at 109.9 inches (2,791 mm), but shorter overhangs mean the overall length actually shrinks by nearly two inches. Yet more efficient packaging on the inside also results in a marginal passenger volume increase of about two percent.

To help keep pricing attractive at below $30,000 to start, VW also decided to skip out on a hybrid variant, but the new EA888evo5 2.0 L turbocharged-four nonetheless delivers more power and improved fuel economy. And all of the above actually contributes to the Tiguan losing weight while evolving from the second to third generation, shaving about 160 lbs (72.5 kg), depending on trim.

There’s some ID.4 in here, but also a big helping of generic. Michael Teo Van Runkle

Generic outside, great inside

Volkswagen USA recently invited Ars to join a rainy test drive of the Tiguan’s SE and SEL R-Life trims in Bozeman, Montana. At first glance, the new exterior definitely hews more closely to current crossover trends, which the Tiguan arguably helped to inaugurate back in the late-2000s. There’s also a healthy dose of Volkswagen ID.4 design language throughout, especially at the nose. The interior truly steps up to a new level, though. I started out in an almost-base Tiguan SE, which means front-wheel drive and minimal options, not even onboard navigation.

Like most buyers, though, I connected my iPhone via Wireless CarPlay, which effectively makes onboard nav obsolete. And the SE’s 12.9-inch touchscreen atop the dash provides all the necessary tech, as premium materials throughout clearly prioritize touchpoints to enhance the impression of quality.

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Forgive me, Volvo, I was wrong: The 2025 V60 Cross Country review

car review, Cars, Volvo V60 Cross Country / Paul Patrick / May 17, 2025

Perhaps if I was more patient I’d have gotten closer to the EPA combined 27 mpg (8.7 L/100 km), too—instead the best I could average was 23 mpg (10.2 L/100 km). One wonders how much lower it would be without the 48 V mild hybrid system.

While I am a big fan of the way the V60’s front seats look, they could do with quite a lot more lateral support. It definitely feels like you’re sat on them, not in them, if that makes sense. The $56,595 (including delivery charge) Ultra trim adds ventilation and a good massage function to the front seats, as well as options like the tan Nappa leather you see in the (not-great) photo. (Sadly Volvo’s media site didn’t have any good ones either.) Ultra also adds a heads-up display and a better sound system, although our test car was given an even better $3,200 Bowers and Wilkins sound upgrade.

Otherwise, the cabin is still much as it was five years ago. I appreciate the helpful features, like well-designed hooks in the cargo area that keep your shopping bags in place, which aren’t always as useful as the ones here. While the infotainment system is old and its screen is small by 2025’s standards, there are four USB-C ports in the car, and Google is built-in. There’s also Apple CarPlay, but you’ll need to use a cable. You’ll want to plug your phone in anyway, as there’s no wireless charging pad.

My biggest complaint about the V60 Cross Country is the over-eager rear emergency braking system. A large curb or bollard can trigger it, slamming on the anchors in the process, which is annoying when I am backing into a parking space at maybe 5 mph, but I understand why the safety-conscious automaker has programmed it the way it has. After two weeks with the car there was little else I could find to criticize, and I missed its agility, easy ride, and relatively reasonable size compared to the big electric SUVs that have taken its place in the testing schedule since.

Raising the V60 by 2.4 inches does not in fact ruin the car. Jonathan Gitlin

Station wagon shopping in 2025 is a short process; once Audi stops selling the A4 Allroad, this V60 Cross Country has no real rival left. So it’s a good thing it’s a pretty decent example of the breed.

Forgive me, Volvo, I was wrong: The 2025 V60 Cross Country review Read More »

Tesla changes lease policy, didn’t use old cars as robotaxis

Cars, Tesla / Tim Belzer / May 16, 2025

Tesla has raised the ire of some of its customers, who are accusing the carmaker of misleading them. Until recently, it would not allow customers who leased its EVs to purchase them at the end of the lease. Instead, the leases stated that it “plan[s] to use those vehicles in the Tesla ride-hailing network.”

Tesla instituted that policy for Model 3 leases starting in 2019 and later expanded it to the Model Y until changing the policy last November. But Tesla is not currently sitting on a fleet of several hundred thousand ex-lease autonomous Models 3 and Y, and as of today there exists no actual Tesla ride-hailing network.

Instead, it has been spiffing up the ex-lease cars with software updates and then selling them to new customers, according to Reuters. And that has made some former leasers a little unhappy that their old EVs weren’t pressed into service making money for Tesla on an ongoing basis but rather just as a one-time transaction.

Although Tesla Models 3 and Y depreciate heavily now, that was not the case for much of the duration of the “no buyout” policy. Were buyouts permitted then, it’s likely that the buyout amount would exceed the actual value of those 3-year-old Teslas, which therefore may possibly have done these aggrieved owners a favor.

In the meantime, Tesla’s share price benefited heavily from CEO Elon Musk’s constant promotion of the cars’ supposed ability to drive themselves and the scale this would enable for a putative ride-hailing network. If his word is to be believed, autonomous Teslas will start offering rides in Austin, Texas, next month.

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Apple’s new CarPlay Ultra is ready, but only in Aston Martins for now

Apple CarPlay, Aston MArtin, Cars / Rejus Almole / May 15, 2025

It’s a few years later than we were promised, but an advanced new version of Apple CarPlay is finally here. CarPlay is Apple’s way of casting a phone’s video and audio to a car’s infotainment system, but with CarPlay Ultra it gets a big upgrade. Now, in addition to displaying compatible iPhone apps on the car’s center infotainment screen, CarPlay Ultra will also take over the main instrument panel in front of the driver, replacing the OEM-designed dials like the speedometer and tachometer with a number of different Apple designs instead.

“iPhone users love CarPlay and it has changed the way people interact with their vehicles. With CarPlay Ultra, together with automakers we are reimagining the in-car experience and making it even more unified and consistent,” said Bob Borchers, vice president of worldwide marketing at Apple.

However, to misquote William Gibson, CarPlay Ultra is unevenly distributed. In fact, if you want it today, you’re going to have to head over to the nearest Aston Martin dealership. Because to begin with, it’s only rolling out in North America with Aston Martin, inside the DBX SUV, as well as the DB12, Vantage, and Vanquish sports cars. It’s standard on all new orders, the automaker says, and will be available as a dealer-performed update for existing Aston Martins with the company’s in-house 10.25-inch infotainment system in the coming weeks.

“The next generation of CarPlay gives drivers a smarter, safer way to use their iPhone in the car, deeply integrating with the vehicle while maintaining the very best of the automaker. We are thrilled to begin rolling out CarPlay Ultra with Aston Martin, with more manufacturers to come,” Borchers said.

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The 2025 Bentley Continental GT: The highs and lows of borrowed bits

Bentley Continental GT Speed, car review, Cars / Kris Guyer / May 13, 2025

We spend a week with Bentley’s new plug-in hybrid grand touring car.

The new Bentley Continental GT was already an imposing figure before this one left the factory in Crewe clad in dark satin paint and devoid of the usual chrome. And under the bonnet—or hood, if you prefer—you’ll no longer find 12 cylinders. Instead, there’s now an all-new twin-turbo V8 plug-in hybrid powertrain that offers both continent-crushing amounts of power and torque, but also a big enough battery for a day’s driving around town.

We covered the details of the new hybrid a bit after our brief drive in the prototype this time last year. At the time, we also shared that the new PHEV bits have been brought over from Porsche. There’s quite a lot of Panamera DNA in the new Continental GT, as well as some recent Audi ancestry. Bentley is quite good at the engineering remix, though: Little more than a decade after it was founded by W.O., the brand belonged to Rolls-Royce, and so started a long history of parts-sharing.

Mind if I use that?

Rolls-Royce and Bentley went their separate ways in 2003. The unraveling started a few years earlier when the aerospace company that owned them decided to rationalize and get itself out of the car business. In 1997 it sold the rights to Rolls-Royce to BMW, or at least the rights to the name and logos. Volkswagen Group got the rest, including the factory in Crewe, and got to work on a new generation of Bentleys for a new century.

This paint is called Anthracite Satin. Jonathan Gitlin

VW Group was then under the overall direction of Ferdinand Piëch, often one to let bold engineering challenges make it all the way through into production. Piëch wanted to prove to the rest of the industry that VW could build a car every bit as good as Mercedes, and thus was born the Phaeton. Over-engineered and wearing too-plebeian a badge, the Phaeton was a flop, but its platform served as the perfect foundation for some new Bentleys. These days VW itself doesn’t have anything quite as sophisticated to share, but Porsche certainly does.

It has become common these days to disclose power and torque; in more genteel times, one was simply told that the car’s outputs were “sufficient.” Well, 771 hp (575 kW) and 737 lb-ft (1,000 Nm) could definitely be described by that word, even with two and a half tons to move. The twin-turbo 4.0 L V8 generates 584 hp (435 kW) and 590 lb-ft (800 Nm), and, as long as you have the car in sport mode, sounds rather like Thor gargling as you explore its rev range.

Even if you can’t hear that fast-approaching thunder, you know when you’re in Sport mode, as the car is so quick to respond to inputs. I was able to tell less of a difference between Comfort and B mode, the latter standing for “Bentley,” obviously, and offering what is supposed to be a balanced mix of powertrain and suspension settings.

Even in Sport, the Continental GT will raise its nose and hunker down at the rear under hard acceleration, and the handling trends more toward “heavy powerful GT” rather than “lithe sports car.” For a car like this I will happily take the slightly floaty ride provided by the air springs and two-valve dampers over a bone-crushing one, however. It can be blisteringly quick if you require, with a 0-to-60 time of just 3.2 seconds and a top speed of 208 mph (335 km/h), while cosseting you from most of the world outside. The steering is weighty enough that you feel you’re actually piloting it in the corners, and it’s an easy car to place on the road.

As this is a plug-in, should you wish, you can drive off in silence thanks to the electrical side of that equation. The 188 hp (140 kW) electric motor isn’t exactly fast on its own, but with 332 lb-ft (450 Nm) there’s more than enough instant torque to get this big GT car underway. The lithium-ion battery pack is in the boot—ok, the trunk—where its 25.9 kWh eat some luggage capacity but balance out the weight distribution. On a full charge, you can go up to 39 miles, give or take, and the electric-only mode allows for up to 87 mph (140 km/h) and 75-percent throttle before the V8 joins the party.

Recharging the pack via a plug takes a bit less than three hours. Alternatively you can do it while you drive, although I remain confused even now as to quite what the “charge” mode did; driving around in Sport did successfully send spare power to the battery pack for later use, but it was unclear how much charge actually happened. I still need to ask Bentley what the miles/kWh read-out on the main display actually refers to, because it cannot be the car’s actual electric-only usage, much as I like to imagine the car eeking out 8 miles/kWh (7.8 L/100 km).

Made in England

Then again, the Bentley is British, and as noted with another recent review of an import from those isles, electrical and electronic oddness is the name of the game with cars from Albion. There was an intermittent check engine light on the dashboard. And sometimes the V8 was reluctant to go to sleep when I switched into EV mode. And I also had to remind it of my driving position more than once. Still, those are mere foibles compared to an Aston Martin that freaks out in the rain, I suppose.

The ride on 22-inch wheels is better than it should be. Jonathan Gitlin

Even with a heavy dusting of spring pollen drybrushing highlights onto the Continental GT’s matte exterior, this was a car that attracted attention. Though only a two-door, the rear seats are large enough and comfortable enough for adults to sit back there, although as noted, the cargo capacity is a little less than you’d expect due to the battery above the rear axle.

Obviously, there is a high degree of customization when it comes to deciding what one’s Bentley should look like inside and out. Carbon fiber is available as an alternative to the engine-turned aluminum, and there’s still a traditional wood veneer for the purists. I’d definitely avoid the piano black surrounds, if it were me.

I also got deja vu from the main instrument display. The typefaces are all Bentley, but the human machine interface is, as far as I can tell, the exact same as a whole lot of last-generation Audis. That may not be obvious to all of Bentley’s buyers, but I bet at least some have a Q7 at home and will spot the similarities, too.

No such qualms concern the rotating infotainment display. When you don’t need to see the 12.3-inch touchscreen, a button on the dash makes it disappear. Instead, three real analog gauges take its place, showing you the outside air temperature, a clock, and a compass. First-time passengers think it quite the party trick, naturally.

Even with the UK’s just-negotiated tariff break, a new Continental GT will not be cheap. This generation got noticeably more expensive than the outgoing model and will now put at least a $302,100 hole in your bank account. I say at least, because the final price on this particular First Edition stretched to $404,945. I’m glad I only learned that toward the end of my week with the car. For that much money I’m more annoyed by the decade-old recycled Audi digital cockpit than any of the other borrowed bits. After all, Bentleys have (almost) always borrowed bits.

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Trump cuts tariff on UK cars; American carmakers not happy about it

Cars, trump tariffs / Mike M. / May 11, 2025

The British car industry got a big break from US President Donald Trump yesterday afternoon. Trump and UK Prime Minister Kier Starmer have agreed to a bilateral trade agreement that cuts tariffs on a range of imports from the UK, including pharmaceuticals, aluminum and steel, and cars.

Now, the first 100,000 cars that come to the US from the UK will only be subject to a 10 percent tariff rather than the 27.5 percent they have been under since the start of this trade war in April.

“The car industry is vital to the UK’s economic prosperity, sustaining 250,000 jobs,” said Jaguar Land Rover CEO Adrian Mardell. “We warmly welcome this deal which secures greater certainty for our sector and the communities it supports. We would like to thank the UK and US Governments for agreeing this deal at pace and look forward to continued engagement over the coming months,” Mardell said.

As it turns out, 100,000 is almost as many cars as the UK exported to the US last year—about 102,000 last year. Not every car that wears a British brand’s name is made there, but Aston Martin, Bentley, Jaguar Land Rover, McLaren, Mini, and Rolls-Royce all manufacture cars in the UK.

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Everything you ever wanted to know about four-wheel steering

Cars, explainer, rear-wheel steering / Tim Belzer / May 8, 2025

With roots in early 20th-century trucks, 4WS is not widely understood.

The GMC Sierra EV is one of a number of new electric trucks to use rear-wheel steering. Credit: GMC

Like any big industry, the automotive business has several dumpsters filled with products and ideas that should have remained conceptual. From modern climate controls buried within successive infotainment menus that neither Lawrence of Arabia nor Columbo could find to the old and unlamented Chrysler TC by Maserati with its atrocious build quality and a terrible cylinder head (the Maserati part), the collective car circus has spawned no shortage of bad ideas.

However, there are a few good ideas buried under the weight of poor execution, lousy technology, dreadful marketing, steep pricing, or just merely something being ahead of its time. Several of these morsels deserved a better launch and a second chance. One of them is four-wheel steering.

Four-wheel steering, in concept

The idea of steering a two-axle vehicle’s front and rear wheels isn’t new. Very early American 4×4 trucks from the dawn of the 20th century sported four-wheel-steering systems (4WS), including the Cotta Cottamobile, the American ¾-ton to 10-ton trucks, and Jeffery/Nash Quad Lorry 3-ton trucks.

By the early 1980s, a more modern iteration of active 4WS systems was found as a feature on concept (show) cars. However, since that breed of machine rarely had to prove itself, these are more display pieces than working technology.

Active 4WS systems do two physical things. First, they impart opposite-phase steering angles to the rear wheels from those applied to the fronts. When the fronts turn right, the rears turn left at a fraction of the front’s steering angles. This effectively diminishes the vehicle’s turning circle or radius, making it more maneuverable in tight spaces like parking lots.

An illustration showing how rear wheel steering systems work — Credit: Honda

Depending on the system’s engineering, opposite-phase steering takes place only below a certain vehicle speed or with lots of steering lock applied (generally, more than three-quarters of a turn of the steering wheel or about 270 degrees of lock from center). It also never occurs above a trotting pace. Inducing opposite-phase steering above 30 or 40 mph could cause drastic instability at speed, creating a very rapid yaw moment that would likely cause an unrecoverable skid.

The second action of active 4WS is same-phase steering angle input to the rear wheels. Turn the wheel right, and the rear wheels also turn slightly to the right. However, that rear angle is even shallower than the opposite-phase angles in the above scenario. This improves higher-speed stability, like when a driver changes lanes or corners rapidly through fun twisties or on a racetrack. Rear steering angles vary anywhere from 2.5 degrees to 10 degrees, depending on vehicle design and purpose.

Four-wheel steering, in hard parts

In real nuts, bolts, and notoriety, Honda first brought 4WS to modern production in the 1988 Prelude Si as an option. Nissan followed suit with its HICAS system, and Mazda had a system with extremely limited production, but Honda made the biggest splash.

The Honda system was entirely mechanical. It used a shaft connecting the front steering rack to a planetary gear. That gear created the phase (direction) and degree of rear steering indexed to steering wheel input. This shaft led to a sliding rod that acted like the rack of a rack and pinion steering gear, carrying that input to the rear wheels.

At small steering angles, the rear wheels turned a maximum of 1.5 degrees in phase (in the same direction) as the fronts. At larger steering wheel angles above roughly 270 degrees from center, the rear wheels steered as much as 5.3 degrees out-of-phase with the fronts, tightening the turning circle about 10 percent.

The results in those 1980s and ’90s Preludes were impressive. Some auto critics, like that most cerebral of British scribes, L.J.K. Setright of Car Magazine, cited that the third and fourth-generation Honda Preludes with 4WS exuded the finest steering in the history of history. Weight, feel, accuracy, and telepathic information all sent the auto critic into automotive euphoria.

Four-wheel steering, digitally rendered

As Honda engineers toiled away on their system outside Tokyo, about 37 km away, Nissan worked on its HICAS (“High Capacity Actively Controlled Steering”) variants. Only active above roughly 90 km/h (55 mph) and below 200 km/h (125 mph), it used a computer-controlled hydraulic actuator to move the rear lower lateral links. A computer signaled a rear steering rack, allowing toe changes of plus or minus one degree, depending on speed and front steering angle.

The rear wheels of Nissan’s system would initially (and briefly) steer out of phase with the fronts to improve turn-in response. It then switched phasing for greater stability. This enabled excellent slalom performance with rapid directional changes, which Nissan considered important in contemporary vehicle reviews and tests of sporty vehicles at the time.

However, this early HICAS system had no rear steering at low speeds. The Nissan system also differed from Honda’s in that it relied on a variety of sensors to instruct operation, whereas Honda’s was entirely analog.

Other manufacturers had been working on 4WS at roughly the same time, and others even launched production cars with the system before Honda. Mazda’s MX-02 concept car in 1983 showed a real working system, reaching production in the 1988 626 Turbo. Mitsubishi had a system in the Galant VR-4 in 1987 that only steered with same-phase angles above 50 km/h (30 mph). But none made as big an impact as Honda’s.

However, 4WS did not take the world by storm in the marketplace. The complexity of sporty cars coming out of Japan in the 1980s grew enormously. Coupled with the Japanese Yen’s dramatic rise in value against the US dollar and after the Plaza Accord agreement in September 1985 between major industrial countries, the cost of Japanese cars in overseas markets skyrocketed. In the US, the 1984 Nissan 300ZX Turbo cost around $16,000. By 1990, the 300ZX Turbo’s MSRP was $33,260, more than doubling in just six years.

The bigger meaning for us in 2025 is that, conceptually, today’s 4WS systems essentially do the same thing. Slow-speed opposite-phase inputs tighten maneuverability. Same-phase steering at high speed improves directional changes like lane shifting with generally small steering angles at the rear.

Trucks

Even though the 4WS concept dates back to the early 20th-century trucks, GM is the only manufacturer that has produced a 4WS pickup in the modern era. (Ford has tested systems, though.) The initial Quadrasteer system of the 2000s used a set of trailing tie rods (behind the axle), leading to a steering rack, the pinion of which was an electric motor. This motor dialed a maximum of 15 degrees of steering angle out-of-phase with the front wheels, but only below 45 mph. Where a normal GM pickup had a turning circle of 47 feet, a Quadrasteer truck required only 37 feet, a giant 22 percent improvement.

The Quadrasteer’s in-phase rear-steering topped out at 5 degrees to improve highway stability at higher speeds. More importantly, since this was on a pickup truck, towing had to be considered, too. Therefore, GM limited the low-speed, opposite-phase steering angle in towing mode to 12 degrees. This prevented drastic angles from binding up a trailer while turning.

However, GM’s Quadrasteer system fell flat because of its high price. It didn’t cost the moon to produce, but GM priced it at $5,600. The company also made it optional only on the top trim levels of the Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra.

GM also faced resistance among truck buyers because more complex mechanicals could mean a threat to durability. And if nothing else, pickup buyers want durability from their trucks, especially work trucks.

Modern-modern day

Today, 4WS is still not commonplace, but many luxury cars and SUVs use it for the same reasons that existed nearly 50 years ago when Honda, Nissan, and Mazda began their studies in the mid-1970s. Mercedes offers it today on several vehicles like the electric EQS, plus S-Class and E-Class models. And it is showing up on some large GM EVs, like the new Silverado and Hummer.

GMC offers a system on pickup trucks that aids low-speed maneuverability and allows the vehicle to crabwalk, changing direction with no yaw. Some high-powered Porsche models and top-level Audis use 4WS with slight variations, but all for the same fundamental reasons as in the 1970s and 1980s. Despite other developments in suspension design, computer aids, and active driving assists, which didn’t exist in the 1980s, the fundamental benefits of four-wheel steering—improved maneuverability at low speed and improved high-speed turning stability—still exist nearly 50 years after the concept first saw the light of day.

A veteran of journalism, product planning and communications in the automotive and music space, Jim reports, critiques and lectures on autos, music and culture.

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2025 Alfa Romeo Tonale Turbo review: Italian charm that cuts both ways

Alfa Romeo Tonale, car review, Cars / Kris Guyer / May 7, 2025

While it’s nice to see that this feature is standard equipment, the ACC system can be a bit overeager to close the gap between you and the car in front of you, and it has a bad habit of braking later than it should. This resulted in several panic stops where the adaptive cruise control’s behavior triggered the forward collision warning system despite the fact that I was plodding along at just 15 mph (24 km/h) stop-and-go traffic.

In a canyon with some paddles

Out in the canyons, I switched to the Dynamic drive mode, which sharpens the Tonale’s reflexes and adds more urgency to the proceedings. The dampers’ added stiffness in this mode cleaned up the crossover’s body control to a tangible degree, but the transmission’s ongoing search for more efficient gears was only alleviated by switching to manual mode and taking over control of the gearbox with the paddles. While the overall tuning is a bit softer than some enthusiasts will prefer, the Tonale’s performance is buoyed by a gutsy powerplant and the confident stopping power delivered by the four-piston Brembo brakes equipped up front.

With a starting price of $36,495 ($48,130 as-tested, with destination fee), the Tonale 2.0 L Turbo is roughly $10,000 cheaper than its hybrid counterpart, and it also undercuts other European premium compact crossovers like the Mercedes-Benz GLA and BMW X1 by thousands. The Tonale’s extroverted character is also a nice change of pace in a segment filled with anonymity, and given the negligible compromise in straight-line performance, the lower curb weight, and the significant cost savings, I’d choose the 2.0 L Turbo over the PHEV model without hesitation.

Telephone dial wheels ftw. Alfa Romeo

The Tonale 2.0 L Turbo’s biggest rival is arguably the Dodge Hornet GT, which offers a similar driving experience but starts at a base price that’s roughly $6,000 lower. The premium you’ll pay for the Tonale largely comes down to its Italian aesthetic and the sense of occasion that the Alfa Romeo name imparts. Those attributes may seem trivial at first glance, but one should never underestimate the value of style.

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NASCAR, IMSA, IndyCar, F1: GM’s motorsport boss explains why it goes racing

Cars, F1, General Motors, IMSA, IndyCar, Motorsport, NASCAR, racing / Tim Belzer / May 3, 2025

The late Richard Parry-Jones, who rose to CTO over at rival Ford, had a similar take: vehicle dynamics matter.

“There are people that think no one can tell the difference, you know, and I’ve always said they absolutely can tell the difference. They don’t know what it is. And the structural feel of the car going down the road, you know, people might explain, ‘It feels like a vault.’ Well, I can tell you exactly what’s going on, physically, from the parts and the tuning, and it’s an outcome that we strive for,” Morris said.

Does it need to be electrified?

The addition of electrified powertrains has certainly been one of the biggest trends in motorsport over the past decade or so. Since F1 made hybrids mandatory in 2014, we’ve also seen hybridization come to IMSA and WEC’s prototypes, and most recently, IndyCar added a supercapacitor-based system. But it hasn’t been a one-way street; this year, both the World Rally Championship and the British Touring Car Championship have abandoned the hybrid systems they adopted just a few years ago.

Win on Sunday, sell on Monday, like concrete tech transfer, is much less of a thing in the early 21st century, but marketing remains a central reason for OEM involvement in the sport. I asked Morris if Cadillac would be endurance racing with the V-Series R if the LMdh ruleset didn’t require a hybrid system.

“I think it’s an interesting discussion because you know, current EVs—the development [needed] where you can really do lapping at the Nürburgring or lapping full laps and not one hot lap, then you’re done, there’s just going to have to be development, development iteration, iteration, and that’s what racing is,” Morris said.

While the mechanical specifications of the hybrid Cadillac (and its rivals) are locked down, software development is unfettered, and Morris is not the first competitor to tell me how important that development path is now. Battery cell chemistries and battery cooling are also very active research areas and will only get more important once Cadillac enters F1. At first, that will be with Ferrari engines in the back, but starting in 2029, the Cadillac team will use a powertrain designed in-house.

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