2003 Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder Gs Convertible 2-door 2.4l on 2040-cars

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Second 'No Time To Die' trailer drops with lots of crunching metal

The second trailer for the new James Bond film, "No Time To Die," was posted to social media Thursday morning, getting us thoroughly hyped for the forthcoming installment thanks to some spicy car content and lots of other ridiculous, big-budget action sequences.  Fair warning for the purists: This might contain plot- and character-related information from the trailer itself. Also, it appears that many Land Rover Defenders died in the making of this film, so the footage may not be for the faint of heart; don't say we didn't give you advance notice.  As is typical of Bond films, most of the automotive eye candy is of the European variety. The classic Aston Martin DB5 gadget car (which we saw doing some crazy machine-gun donuts in the first trailer) makes yet another appearance, as does what appears to be fourth-generation Maserati Quattroporte. There's even something which might be a car, but also appears to be both some sort of airplane and submersible. Never change, Bond. We love it.  And then there are the Defenders. We've got Defenders speeding down hillsides, Defenders crashing through forests, Defenders flying over Land Cruisers. Yeah, do you like Land Cruisers? There's a Land Cruiser. It even (spoiler alert!) survives relatively unscathed; the same cannot be said for most of the automotive shenanigans we get to see here.  "No Time To Die" was originally slated to debut back in April, but its original release date roughly coincided with the projected peak of early coronavirus infections. Given how important the Bond film franchise's continued success is to MGM (it's virtually the only thing the studio has had going for it for 30 years) and the producers (who only make Bond films), meager box office returns were not an option. The last film, Spectre, pulled in the worldwide gross of $880 million, including $200 million in the United States and $83.5 million in China. The wait is almost over. "No Time to Die" will hit theaters Nov. 25 in the United States.  Related Video:

2019 Maserati Ghibli GranLusso S Quick Spin Review | A mixed designer bag

It's been a minute since we've driven the Maserati Ghibli (our first drive was way back in 2013), the twin-turbocharged, V6-powered smaller sedan from the legendary Italian outfit. In the last couple years, rumors have swirled that the Ghibli would donate its platform to the Dodge Charger and its Challenger and 300 siblings. So, in a sense, our time in Southern California in the 2019 Maserati Ghibli GranLusso S was both a preview of FCA's shared rear-drive sedan future as well as a check-in about how the Ghibli is maturing in general. Not that the Ghibli hasn't evolved in the six years since it went on sale. For 2018, Maserati moved to an electrically-assisted steering rack, mostly to enable driver assistance systems with steering intervention. The V6's output has been bumped in the S, to 424 horsepower. The headlights and grille have been updated, too, to compliment the newer and more aggressive Levante. In Los Angeles, at least, the Ghibli doesn't stand out – the town is lousy with Ghiblis, Levantes, and Quattroportes. Good for Maserati, I suppose, but bad for exclusivity. Nor does the car pop in photos like it does in person. My tester was a metallic, creamy white, which is flat and dull in photos or from far away. That's a shame, because this car has phenomenal contouring. From behind the wheel, the driver's side fender porpoises above the shapely hood. Walking along the side, the curvature of the rear fender where it meets the deep tumblehome of the C-pillar is delightful. Everybody stares at an exotic, but the owner of a Ghibli should feel special contemplating their sheetmetal. This sense of specialness dissolves inside. There are Maserati tridents everywhere, presumably to help you remember that you're looking at the expensive Italian sports sedan you just purchased rather than a riot of low-rent, Chrysler-derived bits. The steering wheel buttons feel cheap and wobbly, the too-shiny center console finish seems synthetic, the prominent lighting and engine start/stop controls to the left of the steering wheel are ensconsed in a dull plastic surround. Some of the aesthetic choices – subjective, yes – are confounding. Take the textile inserts on the seats and door cards. I love the fact that interior designers are playing with textiles, which can be used to great effect. And the pitch here is compelling: an apparently famous Italian designer (Ermenegildo Zegna) used a fancy fabric (mulberry silk) with special weaves and textures.

Junkyard Gem: 1989 Chrysler TC by Maserati

Lee Iacocca's friendship with Alejandro de Tomaso went way back, and it led to the Ford-powered De Tomaso Pantera being born in 1971 (when Iacocca was running Ford). After Iacocca moved over to head Chrysler in 1978, he began working with de Tomaso (who owned Maserati by that point) to develop a sports coupe based on the Chrysler-salvation K-Car platform. It took quite a while, but eventually that car became reality: the Chrysler TC by Maserati (officially known as Chrysler's TC by Maserati). Some 7,300 were built through 1991, and I've found one of them in a Denver-area car graveyard. I've managed to document four of these cars in their final parking spots prior to this one, in wrecking yards in Colorado, California, and Wisconsin. The Chrysler's TC by Maserati does have a devoted following, but they can't save 'em all. The TC really was assembled by Maserati in Italy, but the underlying chassis was taken from the Dodge Daytona. The body bore a strong resemblance to that of the Chrysler LeBaron GTC, which was unfortunate considering the price difference between the two cars: the MSRP on the 1989 TC was $33,000, while the LeBaron GTC cost $17,435 (that's about $80,880 and $42,730 in 2022 dollars). The TC had three different engines driving the front wheels over its short lifetime: two varieties of turbocharged Chrysler 2.2 four-cylinder (one with 160 horsepower and one with a Cosworth cylinder head with 200 horsepower) and that good old workhorse of a Mitsubishi V6: the 6G72, with 141 horses. This car has the 160hp 2.2. The Cosworth-headed cars (500 were built) got a five-speed manual transmission, but the other 6,800 TCs got a Chrysler slushbox of either three or four speeds (this one is a three-speed). There was a lot of snobbish disapproval of the TC by the automotive press, but just look at that interior! Even the most over-the-top LeBaron never got this level of swank inside.  Every time I write about one of these cars, I hear that the factory hardtop roof is worth fantastic money… but four out of the five examples I've found in junkyards had the hardtop, and I think every single one went to the crusher with its car. How many miles? Not many! Maybe the speedometer cable broke in 1995. The radio and HVAC controls are straight LeBaron, but the wood and leather are the real thing.