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Autoblog's top 50 car photos of 2016

This one shouldn't need much explanation. We like cars a whole lot, and that includes not just driving them but taking great pictures of them. We've collected our 50 favorite images from this year in the mega-gallery above. It's a mix of old and new, with a healthy dose of vintage and modern race cars mixed in, and not one single shot under the harsh lights of an auto show. So click through and enjoy. Featured Gallery Autoblog's Top 50 Photos of 2016 View 50 Photos Image Credit: Copyright 2016 Autoblog.com Audi BMW Chevrolet Dodge Ferrari Ford Lamborghini Mazda McLaren Mercedes-Benz Porsche Rolls-Royce Volvo Convertible Coupe Motorcycle Luxury Racing Vehicles Performance Supercars Classics

2018 Mazda CX-5 Buying Guide | Specs, safety, expert reviews, and more

Crossovers are all the rage these days, and spunky Mazda devotes half of its six-vehicle portfolio to the segment. The compact CX-5 slots right in the middle of its crossover lineup, size-wise, and outsells all other Mazda vehicles by a country mile, with sales continuing to climb so far in 2018. The CX-5 was the first car to feature Mazda's KODO design language, which has given its vehicles a more premium appearance and made the CX-5 longer-looking and more taut. Now in its second generation, Mazda offers the CX-5 in Sport, Touring and Grand Touring trims, with the option of front- or all-wheel drive configurations. This Autoblog buyer's guide is aimed at helping you to make an educated decision about whether to buy the 2018 Mazda CX-5. We'll summarize safety and reliability ratings, engine specs and horsepower, fuel economy ratings and pricing. We'll also touch on what Autoblog's professional reviewer thinks of the crossover. Is the 2018 Mazda CX-5 safe? Based on its crash tests, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration gives the 2018 CX-5 a four-star overall rating. It awards five stars for frontal- and side-crash protection, and four of five stars for rollover crashes. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety further vouches for the 2018 Mazda CX-5, giving the crossover its coveted Top Safety Pick + award — at the time of this writing, the only compact crossover to get this rating, thanks to available adaptive headlights. It also has good ratings for all of its crash-test metrics and headlights, a superior rating for front-crash avoidance, with optional equipment, and an acceptable rating for the ease of use of the child-seat LATCH anchors. We encourage you to visit the NHTSA and IIHS websites to review ratings on the specific vehicle you're researching. Is the 2018 Mazda CX-5 reliable? J.D. Power gives the 2018 Mazda CX-5 an overall score of 75 out of 100, considered average. On its 10-point scale, it rates the vehicle an 8 on overall quality, which is in the average range, and 9 — considered among the best — for overall performance. It rates an 8 for overall depreciation. As is customary, we note that Autoblog has raised concerns about the way J.D. Power weights serious and less-serious reliability issues. You can read more about that here. According to NHTSA, there has been one recall involving 682 models of the 2018 CX-5 because the side curtain airbags may not properly deploy following a side-impact or rollover crash.

Watch this 1,500-hp Mazda MX-5 smoke a race track

In December 2014 we watched New Zealand drifter "Mad Mike" Whiddett assemble his RADBUL, an NC-series Mazda MX-5 Miata with a four-rotor engine aided by twin Garrett turbochargers. The Dr. Frankensteins at engine builders Pulse Performance expected their creation to be good for 1,500 horsepower. This year we get to watch Whiddett run the monster around Highlands Motorsports Park in New Zealand, brewing up enough tire smoke to set of fire alarms in the International Space Station. When the car was finished in February Pulse Performance put it on the dyno, toning down the boost because "the tires easily smoked the rollers." The result on the day was 1,032 horsepower from the 2.6-liter engine. When Whiddett campaigned it at the Forth Worth, TX round of this year's Formula Drift Pro Championship, he said tiny adjustments have a huge effect on the way the car behaves so they were still trying to find the right balance a few months into the season because of the testing limit outside of competition. Unsurprisingly, he also said the car "is so damn fast that I'm actually having trouble slowing down." RADBUL is the third in Whiddett's line of Mazda drift specials, after the RX-8 BADBUL and the RX-7 MADBUL. Check out the video above for the ballet, and for more, check out the behind-the-scenes and the 360-degree POV videos.