Cars - TechEBlog

Ferrari 499P Modificata Auction Brings Unrestricted Le Mans Power to a Select Few

By Bill Smith November 6, 2026

Ferrari built the 499P Modificata so a handful of its best customers could drive something that shares almost every important piece of engineering with the prototype that took overall victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2023, 2024, and 2025. Chassis number 21, finished in its original red livery, has never turned a wheel beyond the factory shakedown runs that confirmed everything worked. Gooding Christie’s is offering it on November 8 in Geneva with an estimate in excess of CHF 7,500,000 ($9.2 million), the first time any Modificata has reached a public sale.

Ford Bronco Frostwarden Hits SEMA with 1200 Horsepower Arctic Rescue Power

By Bill Smith November 5, 2026

Ford rolled a single Bronco into SEMA this week built specifically for the kind of winter work most vehicles never attempt. Named Frostwarden, the one-off sits on portal gear lifts from 74Weld, runs 42-inch BFGoodrich tires on custom 18-inch Weld bead-lock wheels, and carries a supercharged 7.3-liter V8 that produces more than 1,200 horsepower and more than 1,000 lb-ft of torque on race fuel. The whole package was assembled by Kincer Chassis in Tennessee as a demonstration of what Ford Racing Parts and a short list of partners can do when the brief is simply to go as far as the platform allows.

Kia Sculpts Full-Size EV4 GT From Tennis Court Clay for Rafael Nadal

By Bill Smith November 5, 2026

Designers mixed industrial modeling clay with earth taken from the courts where Rafael Nadal won his titles and shaped the blend into a full-size Kia EV4 GT that now sits at his tennis academy in Mallorca. Sources for the court clay include the surfaces in Monte Carlo, Rome, Madrid and Roland-Garros in Paris, places that produced 63 of his singles titles and the record 14 French Open victories that earned him the King of Clay name.

Toyota’s Snowhunter Concept Family Brings Tracked Winter Capability to Five Models at SEMA

By Bill Smith October 30, 2026

Toyota’s CALTY design team in Ann Arbor built a family of five concepts that turn ordinary body-on-frame trucks and SUVs into machines meant for deep, unplowed snow. The Tundra, Tacoma, 4Runner, Land Cruiser, and Sequoia each lose their tires and gain large white powder-coated track assemblies that bolt onto the existing hubs.

Honda Passport Baja Spec Hybrid Trophy Truck Targets Overall Baja 1000 Victory with 1,300+ HP

By Jackson Chung October 30, 2026

Honda Racing Corporation USA unveiled its Passport Baja Spec Trophy Truck at a private downtown Los Angeles event, with the first public appearance scheduled for SEMA 2026 in Las Vegas from November 3 to 6 in the HRC booth. This purpose-built racer becomes the first hybrid-powered vehicle entered in the SCORE World Desert Championship top Trophy Truck class. A mid-mounted 2.4-liter twin-turbocharged all-aluminum V6 sits behind the cab and works with an 800-volt hybrid system to produce more than 1,300 horsepower.

Toyota Crown Signia GT-S Concept Lowers Into a Canyon Ready Grand Tourer for SEMA

By Bill Smith October 29, 2026

Toyota Motorsports Garage has prepared a Crown Signia GT-S Concept for the SEMA show in Las Vegas, taking the practical hybrid crossover and giving it the posture of something meant for winding roads while keeping space for people and gear.

Aston Martin Valhalla Spider Claims 217 MPH as Open-Top Hypercar

By Jackson Chung October 29, 2026

Aston Martin Valhalla Spider Open-Top Hypercar
Aston Martin revealed the Valhalla Spider as the open-top version of its mid-engined hybrid hypercar, capable of the same 217 mph top speed with the roof removed that the coupe achieves with the roof fixed in place. That figure makes it the fastest open-cockpit car the company has ever built, and the engineering team preserved nearly all of the coupe’s structural stiffness and aerodynamic balance while adding a removable roof system. Deliveries are scheduled to begin in the third quarter of 2027 after a public debut at the Concours at Wynn in Las Vegas.

Hand-Hammered Copper Cloaks the One-Off GFG Style Peralta D Grand Tourer

By Bill Smith October 28, 2026

Fabrizio Giugiaro and GFG Style built the Peralta D as a one-off 2+2 grand tourer for Mexican collector Carlos Peralta. The car follows the earlier Peralta S, which used an aluminum body on a mid-engine Maserati MC20 and was dedicated to Peralta’s sons. This new version carries the letter D for his daughters and also for the Italian word donne.

Michael Pick Turns a Used BMW i3 Into a Compact Electric Pickup for Under $8,000

By Bill Smith October 26, 2026

Michael Pick wanted a small electric pickup without paying forty thousand dollars or waiting for something like the Slate to reach the market. High gas prices made his old V6 Ranger feel expensive to run, so he bought a high-mileage 2017 BMW i3 REx sight unseen from an online auction for fifty-eight hundred dollars and set out to convert it himself.

Michelotto Gruppo 4 Tributo Crafts a Lightweight V8 Manual Tribute to the Rally 308

By Bill Smith October 23, 2026

Padua’s Palazzo Moroni hosted the reveal of the Michelotto Gruppo 4 Tributo on October 10, 2026, fifty years after the Ferrari 308 received its Group 4 homologation. AC Motorsport, started by Padua entrepreneur Francesco Calzavara following his years at Michelotto, promoted the effort while Michelotto Group carried out the design, development, and construction.