1970 Nova 396/4spd Rock Crusher 12 Bolt Posi on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Autoblog In Cuba: 1957 Chevy Bel Air Review

If you've been following the Autoblog In Cuba series, you may remember that my efforts to rent a car in the country were ultimately unsuccessful. Misinformation, bad planning, and a lack of rental car inventory conspired to disrupt my hoped-for driving adventure. I discovered in my week of exploration, however, that the terrific thing about Havana is that there's always another adventure to be found – if you're willing to look. A car I could drive myself might have been impossible to come by, but a ride to remember was not. After all, even when reviewing a new car, I've found that impressions about the car and the route can be credibly formed from the right seat. Starting from the parking lot of the grand Hotel Nacional, finding an interesting car for hire is as simple as walking up and down the block. Scads of classic American iron wait just outside the hotel gates, in a riot of colors and conditions befitting the tropical climate. Fords from the 1940s are plentiful – more sedans than coupes – and the glory days of General Motors are represented by enough Pontiacs and Cadillacs to fill a Bruce Springsteen B-sides album. But the Chevy Bel Air is the king of the road here, by some margin. View 30 Photos I settled on a burnt orange 1957 Chevy Bel Air convertible, in tourist-appropriate condition. I was looking for a hardtop at the request of my crew's audio/video needs, but settled on a burnt orange 1957 Chevy Bel Air convertible, in tourist-appropriate condition. This car might look good as a prop in the background on your vacation photos – hair blowing in the breeze with the ocean at your back, parked in front of Che's face in Revolution Square, etc. – but was far from pristine on a closer inspection. A perfect representative of the Cuban average. At least the price was right: $50 for two hours to make it 12 miles to Hemingway's house, and back. My driver was a kid named Daniel who looked to be about 20 years old. The Chevy doesn't belong to him, he co-drives it with the owner, but he was able to give me the basic mechanical rundown. The eight- or six-cylinder engine that Chevy shipped this convertible with was long gone. No surprise there, as nearly every American-made car I'd ridden in so far was powered by some belching Mercedes diesel. Despite it's clattering note, Daniel said the lump under the hood of the '57 drinks gas: a four-cylinder of Russian origins, pulled out of a GAZ Volga as best I can understand.

Leno drives Ringbrothers' latest, 1966 Chevy Chevelle Recoil

Jay Leno has been checking out quite a few older rides in his garage as of late, but has mixed things up a little this week. Ringbrothers took home an award at the 2014 SEMA Show for the 1966 Chevrolet Chevelle it named Recoil, and now the car has proven it can do more than just look good on Jay Leno's Garage. While the latest guest might look vintage, underneath those classic lines is a thoroughly modern muscle car sporting a claimed 980 horsepower. The heart of this beast is a supercharged LS7 V8 from Wegner Motorsports and a six-speed Tremec manual gearbox. Even with so much power, it can still run on 91-octane pump gas, and when Jay gets on the throttle the result is a wall of sound from the wailing supercharger. Despite the muscle, the Recoil doesn't really scream about its performance aesthetically. The color is a surprisingly plain beige, but the carbon fiber touches and side exhaust certainly indicate that there's something special here. The owner's sole request for the car was to include metal seats, and Ringbrothers provided them with a few bits of leather offering a touch of comfort. After checking the Recoil out from stem to stern, Leno finally gets behind the wheel and treats our ears to pull after pull from that big, supercharged V8.

Chevy preparing new Camaro ZL1 Convertible?

It's a given that when an automaker introduces a new performance model, it's only a matter of time before an even hotter variant arrives. The Ford Mustang begets the Shelby GT350 and the Dodge Challenger R/T spawns the SRT 392 and Hellcat. And for Chevrolet, that progression sees the Camaro SS evolve into the ZL1. That's probably what our spies have captured here. The convertible variant of GM's most powerful Camaro is betrayed not by its big, black wheels or quad exhaust tips – both of those items have been fitted to the far tamer 1LE in the past – but by its brakes. To put it simply, they're enormous. The old ZL1 had 14.6-inch rotors in front and 14.4-inchers in the back, with Brembo-branded six-piston calipers up front and four-piston binders at the rear. While the overall size of the calipers doesn't appear to have changed much, it looks like the rotors – especially in front – seem to take up a larger space inside the front wheels than in last year's model. Perhaps Chevy moved to a straight 15-inch rotor? It's difficult to discern any more from these images, though. Chevy did a fine job with the camouflage, making it difficult to pick out ZL1-specific body parts. From the rear spoiler to the front fascia to the side sills, each body piece looks like it's the same as the standard Camaro or is just completely obscured. If this is a Camaro ZL1, it seems like Chevy may have just stuffed the vital organs inside the body of more pedestrian droptop. According to our spies, it's unlikely that Chevy will mix things up under the hood. Expect the 6.2-liter, supercharged V8 from the Corvette Z06 and Cadillac CTS-V to move the ZL1 from 550 horsepower to around 640 ponies when it debuts for model year 2017. A six-speed manual transmission will be standard, while the Camaro's big brother will probably donate its eight-speed automatic. Related Video: Image Credit: Brian Williams / SpiedBilde Spy Photos Chevrolet Convertible Performance chevy camaro zl1