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2022 Ford Maverick gets a surprising amount of attention

People notice the 2022 Ford Maverick. You could chalk it up to metro Detroit being a company town, but that’s too easy. The Maverick, despite its modest size, has presence. I expected the truck to draw curiosity. Aesthetically, the MaverickÂ’s closest rival, the 2022 Hyundai Santa Cruz, is far more eye-catching with a flashy grille and curves and creases front to back. The MaverickÂ’s squared-off truck demeanor makes it an understated attention-getter, and it does have some design flourishes, especially up front with the blocky headlights that Tetris with the grille. ItÂ’s not just the looks. The sub-$20K MSRP offers real value and is an articulation of FordÂ’s strategy to pivot from cars to similarly sized offerings. This is better than a Ford Focus, and it makes sense why Ford took such a big risk revamping its lineup. And the hybrid version gets up to 42 mpg. Ford sold 4,140 Mavericks in October, outpacing the Santa CruzÂ’s still-healthy tally of 1,848 units. Ford says the trucks were moving off dealer lots in an average of five days, which is a brisk pace. The Maverick is also bringing in young buyers, with a quarter of its sales to people 18 to 35 years old.  While the sales figures are interesting, the Maverick starts about $4,000 less than the Santa Cruz, and Ford sells more vehicles than Hyundai in the United States, so thatÂ’s just part of the equation. Ford and Hyundai will define success for their small trucks in different ways. TheyÂ’re both attention-getters, but the Maverick surprised me with its star power. It will be interesting to see if this segment has staying power for Ford, Hyundai and perhaps others. Other news and notes The North American Car, Truck and Utility of the Year Award finalists were announced this week at the Los Angeles Auto Show, and the Maverick and Santa Cruz both made the cut in the truck category, where they were joined by the Rivian R1T. The Honda Civic, Lucid Air and Volkswagen Golf GTI/R  will vie for top honors in the car segment. The Ford Bronco, Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Genesis GV70 make up the SUV field. Winners will be announced in early January. The finalists were culled from a field of 23 semifinalists. Full disclosure: IÂ’m a NACTOY juror.  HereÂ’s an odd one: Famed designer Marcello Gandini is disavowing the rebirth of the Lamborghini Countach. Lambo essentially restyled the Sian with a modern interpretation of the CountachÂ’s design cues.

Lamborghini Huracan Sterrato prototype spied testing in the snow

Back in the summer of 2019, which seems like so much longer than two and a half years ago at this point, Lamborghini showed an interesting concept called the Huracan Sterrato. It was a lifted, widebody version of the mid-engine supercar, and its name literally translated to dirt. It was quite cool, and surprisingly grounded. And it must've been received well not just by us, but possibly customers, because these spy photos seem to indicate Lamborghini is working on a production model. There are a few indicators, but the most clear is the fact this test car has a noticeably taller ride height than its pavement-pounding predecessors. The concept, for reference, had an extra 1.85-inches of ground clearance. Furthermore, the prototype is sporting roof rails like those seen on the concept. Some other interesting additions that may or may not indicate plans for the production car include the skid plate up front, the additional lighting on the hood, and a new roof scoop up top. They're all clearly temporary additions, but the concept had bodywork that suggested some sort of skid plate, as well as auxiliary lighting. The roof scoop is a bit of a head-scratcher, though. We're not one to turn down a sweet mid-engine supercar scoop, but roof rails would seem to suggest carrying stuff on the roof, which would seem to directly block said scoop. On the other hand, that scoop could provide cleaner air when out in the dirt. Missing from the concept are the fat fender flares, but that's not too much of a surprise. We would expect the powertrain is basically the same as that of the Huracan Evo with a naturally aspirated V10 and all-wheel drive. It will probably have specific driving modes that adjust the traction and stability control systems for sporty, slippery driving conditions. We could also see the car being shown sometime either this year or next year, since it will likely be based on the current Huracan. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

The Huracan Performante will be the fastest Lamborghini yet

We expected the track-special Huracan you see above to be called Superleggera, as it's the lighter and more hard-core version of the little Lambo, but reports now confirm the name will be Performante. That's not the cool part. Thanks to a bunch of changes, including a new active aero system called ALA, this has the potential to be the fastest Lamborghini yet. That means faster than the Aventador SV, and quite possibly faster than the Porsche 918 Spyder. That measure of speed and world domination relates to the car's Nurburgring time, which hasn't been announced yet. We'll see the camouflage-free Performante first at the Geneva show in March, where it's likely the 'Ring time will be announced. What we know about it so far is very interesting, though. Motor Trend has driven a Performante prototype and provides a lot of details. Perhaps the coolest part, and the biggest facilitator for the extra speed, is the new active aero system called Aerodynamica Lamborghini Attiva. From MT's description, it sounds like it can "vector" airflow, opening and closing a flap on either side of the rear wing depending on which direction the car is turning. It also does away with heavy hydraulic rams in favor of electric motors to accomplish the active part. The car also gets a more powerful 5.2-liter V10 (around 30 more horsepower for a total of about 630), a weight reduction of about 90 pounds, upgrades suspension, stickier tires, and a retune of all electronic systems like those governing the transmission, ABS, traction control, and stability control. We'll bring you the full details on this monster Lamborghini track machine from Geneva in March. In the meantime, prepare yourself for a little Lambo that's quicker than its big brother – and pretty much every other production car out there. Related Video: Featured Gallery 2018 Lamborghini Huracan Superleggera Spy Shots View 12 Photos News Source: Motor Trend Lamborghini Technology Coupe Performance Supercars confirmed lamborghini huracan superleggera