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Drive like a prince: Join us for a walk through Monaco's car collection

Small, crowded, and a royal pain in the trunk lid to drive into during rush hour, Monaco sounds like an improbable location for a huge car museum. And yet, this tiny city-state has been closely linked to car culture for over a century. It hosts two major racing events every year, many of its residents would qualify for a frequent shopper card if Rolls-Royce issued one, and Prince Rainier III began assembling a collection of cars in the late 1950s. He opened his collection to the public in 1993 and the museum quickly turned into a popular tourist attraction. The collection continued to grow after his death in April 2005; it moved to a new facility located right on Hercules Port in July 2022. Monaco being Monaco, you'd expect to walk into a room full of the latest, shiniest, and most powerful supercars ever to shred a tire. That's not the case: while there is no shortage of high-horsepower machines, the first cars you see after paying ˆ10 (approximately $11) to get in are pre-war models. In that era, the template for the car as we know it in 2023 hadn't been created, so an eclectic assortment of expensive and dauntingly experimental machines roamed whatever roads were available to them. One is the Leyat Helica, which was built in France in 1921 with a 1.2-liter air-cooled flat-twin sourced from the world of aviation. Fittingly, the two-cylinder spun a massive, plane-like propeller. Government vehicles get a special spot in the museum. They range from a Cadillac Series 6700 with an amusing blend of period-correct French-market yellow headlights and massive fins to a 2011 Lexus LS 600h with a custom-made transparent roof panel that was built by Belgian coachbuilder Carat Duchatelet for Prince Albert II's wedding. Here's where it all gets a little weird: you've got a 1952 Austin FX3, a Ghia-bodied 1959 Fiat 500 Jolly, a 1960 BMW Isetta, and a 1971 Lotus Seven. That has to be someone's idea of a perfect four-car garage.  One of the most significant cars in the collection lurks in the far corner of the main hall, which is located a level below the entrance. At first glance, it's a kitted-out Renault 4CV with auxiliary lights, a racing number on the front end, and a period-correct registration number issued in the Bouches-du-Rhone department of France. It doesn't look all that different than the later, unmodified 4CV parked right next to it. Here's what's special about it: this is one of the small handful of Type 1063 models built by Renault for competition.

Texas sues GM, saying it tricked customers into sharing driving data sold to insurers

Texas filed a lawsuit Tuesday against GM over years of alleged abuse of customers' data and trust. New car owners were presented with a "confusing and highly misleading" process that was implied to be for their safety, but "was no more than a deceptively designed sales flow" that surrendered their data for GM to sell. The suit contends that at no point was selling driving data ever even suggested as a possibility, putting GM in violation of the state's consumer protection laws. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is seeking a jury trial and at least $10,000 per offense (every GM car sold in the state since 2015) and a hefty add-on of $250,000 in cases where the victim was over 65. Texas seems to be flying high after a recent $1.4 billion settlement from Meta over other privacy concerns. This may well be a way to solve any pending budgetary issues in the Lone Star State.

2021 Cadillac Escalade shown inside and out in leaked photos

Fresh off the official reveals of the all-new 2021 Chevrolet Suburban and Tahoe, here come leaked images showing the redesigned version of their upmarket sibling, the Cadillac Escalade, inside and out. The images were posted on Instagram by user @allcarnews, with a hat tip to Jalopnik, and give us our best look yet at the unadorned exterior and the new interior.           View this post on Instagram                       A post shared by A L L C A R N E W S (@allcarnews) on Dec 11, 2019 at 12:22am PST Let’s start with the body design of the large luxury SUV, with bears strong echoes of both the aforementioned Suburban and Yukon, albeit with a chrome stripe along the lower doors and chrome trim framing the windows. Then thereÂ’s the redesigned grille, which looks like a larger-maw version of the XT6Â’s grille and adopts the same horizontal LED headlights. Instagram commenters also liken the exterior to the new XT6, CadillacÂ’s smaller three-row crossover, and even the Hyundai Palisade. The swept-back, slightly tapered rear end in profile even reminds us a little of the Lincoln Aviator. All of which will beg the question of whether Cadillac has done enough to distinguish its flagship SUV to compete against the Lincoln Navigators of the world.             View this post on Instagram                   (UPDATED) LEAKED: 2021 Escalade ? _____________________________________ [12/11/19] (NEW INTERIOR SHOTS) CadillacÂ’s Escalade for 2021 has been leaked and well.. the exterior is subjective.. What I will point out is the side profile which is unfortunately still identical to the Tahoe & Suburbab albeit with a chrome bar on the bottom and chrome window frame trim. The rear gets full sized LED verticals taillights again, but now more integrated into the rear. The front is big and loud but looks like a blown up XT6. After reading your comments, it seems a mixed bag, especially with the horizontal headlights (which i lightened to show the elements) but the massive verticals LED DRLÂ’s remain thankfully. ???????????? ???????????? ???????????? ????????? ? @Allcarnews Spec Sheet: Powertrain wise there will be a carry over 6.2L 420HP+ V8 paired to a 10 speed auto gearbox. A supercharged V8 version (or TT V8) will be coming in the future with up to 650HP in some sort of V designation. Expect blacked out wheels, trim and grille. ? ???????????? ???????????? ??????????? But..