Lists

The Top 10 Under-a-Liter Sports Cars of All Time

By Tom Anderson on Mon, 05/21/2012 - 04:00

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When most people think of sports cars, they probably think of two seats, maybe an open top, and stupendous agility. Of course, that agility tends to be compromised the larger and more powerful a sports car is. Thus, designers and engineers who are serious about giving their new machines genuine handling prowess put a lot of effort into reducing their weight.

And, as we all know, the lighter a vehicle is, the less power it needs to get moving and keep moving. So it’s only natural that many of history’s smallest sports cars were powered by engines displacing less than one liter (or 61 cubic inches for all you metric-phobes). But rather than try to list all of the sports cars that fit this criteria, we’ll instead tell you about 10 of the most iconic, most entertaining and, yes, cutest members of the under-1,000cc club.

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The Top 10 Pro Driver Endorsed Racing Games of All Time [w/ Videos]

By Ari Cox on Mon, 04/30/2012 - 04:00

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Top 10 Pro Driver Endorsed Games

One of the best ways to sell a racing video game (aside from taut controls, gorgeous graphics and a great selection of vehicles and tracks) is to get a professional racing driver to attach his or her name to the game’s title, if not be involved in the actual development process. In the late 1980s, this trend really started taking off, as some of the best and brightest from IndyCar, NASCAR, Formula 1 and elsewhere lent their monikers and likenesses to numerous arcade and console games.

Of course, some of you might be too young to remember some of these games, as well as the drivers behind them. Well, this is your lucky day, young ‘uns, because we’ve put together the following list of ten classic racing games with pro drivers’ stamps of approval. And as an added bonus, each one is accompanied by a gameplay clip, so you can see these titles in action.

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The Top 20 Strangest Wheel Designs of All Time

By Tom Anderson on Mon, 04/16/2012 - 04:00

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One of the easiest, if not the easiest, ways to transform the appearance of a vehicle is to change the wheels. Bolting on a set of big, sporty looking wheels can make even the most dull and pedestrian vehicle look more muscular and snazzy. Of course, that’s assuming the wheels are themselves muscular and/or snazzy looking.

At the opposite end of the spectrum lie wheels that are strange, if not downright weird. Some of these rims were fitted at the factory, but most are aftermarket pieces, and they run the gamut from functionally funky modern art pieces to kitschy tributes to cultural touchstones. Here then, in no particular order, are 20 of the most curious and kooky rims that have ever been attached to road-going motor vehicles.

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The Top 10 Vehicles That Could Be April Fools’ Jokes

By Tom Anderson on Sun, 04/01/2012 - 02:06

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Sunday is April Fools’ Day (No, really, it is!), so be on the lookout for pranks, gags, and other sundry acts of bamboozlery being lobbed in your general direction. So if someone offers you a jar of peanut butter, politely decline. Look before you sit, lest you land on a whoopee cushion. And please, for the love of all that is sacred – and some of the stuff that isn’t – DO NOT borrow a pair of binoculars (even if you encounter a rare species of bird).

This holiday for hams also got us thinking about occasions when car companies released a new model about which they were quite serious, but in practice it looked like they were intentionally pulling the motoring world’s collective leg. What follows is a list of 10 vehicles past and present that are so tone deaf to marketplace whims and inconsistent with their brands’ core values that they could have just as easily sprung from the minds of The Onion’s editorial staff as their makers’ product planning departments.

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The Top 10 Pre-GTO American Muscle Cars

By Tom Anderson on Mon, 03/19/2012 - 04:00

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An overwhelming majority of sources assert that the Adam of the American muscle car species is the 1964 Pontiac GTO. It was certainly the first muscle car to be marketed toward leadfooted baby boomers, but it was not the first high-performance American passenger car. Nor was it the first American car to combine one of its maker’s big car engines with one of its small car body and chassis.

In short, the history of the muscle car stretches back many years before the O.G. Goat showed up. Just how rich is that history? Take a look at the following 10 factory hot rods and we think you’ll agree it’s pretty doggone rich.

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