Future Cars

My first car was a Mini, a 1968 Australian-built Mini Deluxe. Its previous owner(s) had added chrome wide wheels, a rorty sports muffler, and a Saas wood-rimmed three-spoke steering wheel, all of which delivered plenty of street cred in the high school parking lot. But the 2021 DBA Mini Remastered Oselli Edition (phew!) is a Mini beyond anything 16-year-old me could have imagined. My Mini packed 38 hp and 52 lb-ft of torque, courtesy of the 998cc version of the BMC A-series four-banger under the hood. The DBA Oselli Edition punches out 125 hp at 6,200 rpm and 113 lb-ft of torque at 4,500 rpm from a 1,450cc, near-race version of the venerable A-series (an engine introduced in 1951 in the Austin A30 that stayed in production until the last of the original, pre-BMW-era Minis rolled off the line in 2000). My Mini took about 20 seconds to struggle to 60 mph and had a top speed of 75 mph, though I swear on a downhill stretch with a tail wind, I once saw the speedo needle flickering aroun

A strange thought lingered briefly in my mind the other day  for about the same 9.34 seconds it takes the new Tesla Model S Plaid to clear the quarter mile: Is the Model S Plaid essentially just an electric Dodge Charger Hellcat Redeye ? The electric Jekyll to the Charger’s internal combustion Hyde? Initially it sounds ridiculous to compare the Model S Plaid and Charger— and maybe it’s the g forces talking —but they have a lot more in common than you probably think (aside from the fact we’ve actually compared them before ). For starters, both are full-size American four-door sedans. The Charger went into production in 2011, the Model S in 2012. Both were only offered out of the gate with rear-wheel drive, but all-wheel drive is available today. Both were also relatively pedestrian compared to their 2022 counterparts when they first hit the market: The Tesla made 416 horsepower in its most potent trim, and the Dodge Charger produced just 375 hp. New powertrains have been their only