2018 Subaru Wrx With Many Upgrades on 2040-cars

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Caddy XT4, Subaru STI Type RA, and blazin' Elon | Autoblog Podcast #553

On this week's Autoblog Podcast, Editor-in-Chief Greg Migliore is joined by Senior Editor Alex Kierstein and Green Editor John Snyder. We talk about time spent with the Cadillac XT4 and Subaru WRX STI Type RA. Then we get into other topics, including the death of the VW Beetle, our thoughts on the state of the Nissan 370Z, cameras replacing mirrors, the trouble with the Ford Focus Active, and Elon Musk blazing a fat blunt. We indulge in a little conversation about the process of writing about cars. Finally we help a listener choose their next EV in the "Spend My Money" segment.Autoblog Podcast #553 Get The Podcast iTunes – Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast in iTunes RSS – Add the Autoblog Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator MP3 – Download the MP3 directly Rundown Cars we've driven: Cadillac XT4 and Subaru WRX STI Type RA RIP, VW Bug What's up with the Nissan 370Z? Lexus to replace side mirrors with cameras RIP, Ford Focus Active You do you, Elon On writing about cars Spend My Money: electric edition Feedback Email – Podcast@Autoblog.com Review the show on iTunes Related Video: Green Podcasts Cadillac Ford Lexus Nissan Subaru Tesla Volkswagen Car Buying Technology Coupe Crossover Electric Police/Emergency Sedan cadillac xt4 subaru wrx sti type ra

Buy a Toyota GT86 and your wife will hate you

Marketing can be a very strange business. Convincing a man or woman (or child, really) that they absolutely cannot live without the latest, greatest new bit of technology oftentimes takes a unique approach. In the "online film promoting the Toyota GT86" you'll see below, created by agency Happiness Brussels, men are reverse-psychologied into thinking a new sports coupe will make them more masculine by getting their loved ones to hate them. Or something like that. We think.
In any case, we suggest you watch the video below to see how much fun men can have with a GT86 - or Scion FR-S or Subaru BRZ, presumably - at the expense of their significant others. Fair warning: There's a potential Not Safe For Work moment in the ad: beware of a brief male butt shot about 44 seconds in.
Marketing. Gotta love it. Unless you're married to a man. Or something like that. We think. Whatever, just watch.

This Subaru BRZ has a snowmobile engine and gets 104 mpg

A hybrid powertrain didn't win the Honda CR-Z numerous fans, but it might be the magic ingredient in making the Subaru BRZ more potent. This is the "Car of the Future" as envisioned by Mississippi State University's Center of Advanced Vehicular Systems – the result of a two-year project, which married a front-mounted 850 cc snowmobile engine with two electric motors powering the rear wheels. The battery pack accounts for 12.7 kWh, which enables the car to go 50 miles on just electric juice. The two-liter boxer engine is no more, but what the car loses in cubic inches it gains in MPG. According to MSU engineers, the re-engineered car gets 104 mpg equivalent, and it only weighs 2,904 lbs: about 60 lbs more than an unmodified Sportshift BRZ. It clocks a 0-60 mph run at around 5.7 seconds, too, which beats a stock automatic BRZ by a second. The electric brain of the car improves the range by calculating optimizing algorithms, based on earlier driving. The guys from MSU's Bagley College of Engineering call this Predictive Engine Control. The most likable thing about this project might be that it's still clothed in a sports car body. Future-proof car designs are often focused on mobility instead of the driver, and choosing a BRZ as the basis shows how there's still room for petrolheads in the future.