1986 Toyota Tacoma Rn63 Std on 2040-cars

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Toyo Tires will bring another wild catalog of rides to SEMA

Toyo Tires carts all kinds of toys to SEMA every year, the rubber company planning another 30 or so automotive exhibits this year in two locations. One of them, the Baja 911, comes with a pedigree not usually associated with the bewildering wares hawked at the Las Vegas show. TJ Russell was once lead fabricator for Singer Vehicle Design, now he's the head of Russell Built Fabrication in Sun Valley, CA. Sticking with the marque he knows well, Russell started with a 1991 Porsche Carrera 4 cabriolet, fitted the interior with a full roll cage, then built a hardtop around it to design a desert runner channeling the old Rothmans safari 911s. Underneath that bodywork lives a box-plate trailing arm suspension with 12 inches of travel, working 15-inch Fifteen52 FIA-approved Gravel wheels and 30-inch Toyo Open Country A/T II tires. Power comes from a purpose-built 3.8-liter air-cooled flat-six with about 350 horsepower — 100 hp more than stock — in a car that weighs 400 pounds less than the original. Oh, and as documented on Instagram with the tagline "All race outside, all business inside," the interior's full of quilted, cross-stitched leather, and Toyo says Russell's going to do a low-volume run of the Baja 911 starting early next year. ruffian-ford-mustang-sema-01 View 10 Photos Chris Ashton built a 1970 Ford Mustang Fastback called the Ruffian Mustang, inspired by the Trans Am Racing Series. The exterior changes are more subtle than one might think – the chin spoiler, hood scoop, and side mirrors are barely exaggerated versions of those on the original car, the intake vents astride the front lights and the steel bumpers teleported from 1970. Changes outside include de-chromed and flush-mounted glass, vented hood, front fenders that are dropped an inch, rear fender vents, dual side-exit pipes, and gargantuan fender flares over staggered Signature One wheels and Toyo Proxes 888 tires. The interior's fitted with a roll cage and race car workings. In spite of the Boss 427 badging, the engine's a 625-hp Chevrolet LS3 V8. button-built-ferrari-355-sema-01 View 13 Photos The Button Built Ferrari BB355TT picks up from last year's stanced BB328GTS widebody that gave many Internet denizens heart attacks. Laid up on a 1999 355 Berlinetta, the BB version appends a widebody kit designed Mitchell Button, rendered by Khyzyl Saleem and drenched in Azzuro la Plata, a color from Ferrari's Scagliette palette first used on a 1967 275GTB Le Mans racer.

MotorWeek remembers retro icons, Supra and NSX

It's easy to poke a joke here and there about John Davis, the long-time host of MotorWeek. His voice is so monotonous that, from time to time, if you closed your eyes, you may think it's generated via a computer. But you have to give him and the rest of the show a lot of credit. The program has been on the air for decades, giving people direct, straight-down-the middle automotive reviews.
MotorWeek's massive back catalog of reviews are slowly making their way onto YouTube, and they provide a fascinating chance to look back on how performance cars rank against their contemporaries from back in the day. Two recent additions include the show's old looks at the 1986 Toyota Supra, the dawn of the third-generation model, and the now-iconic 1991 Acura NSX.
Both reviews are interesting in their own way. These days you hear nary a negative word about the original NSX, but MotorWeek isn't afraid to point out a few flaws. And the Supra really shows the progress of suspension tuning in the intervening decades because it has some serious body roll in the corners. Scroll down to check out both videos and get a blast from the automotive past.

The 11 best scenes from the 2015 Goodwood Festival of Speed

Over the last three days, the Goodwood Estate has played home to the eponymous Festival of Speed. Thrown by the biggest gearhead in the British aristocracy – Charles Gordon-Lennox, the Earl of March and Kinrara – the Festival of Speed is essentially a tremendous, gasoline-fuelled party, complete with a very large lawn sculpture, that features the world's hottest, weirdest, fastest, and loudest race, production, and historic models. While there are quite literally dozens and dozens of videos from the event – not to mention the full-day replays (of which only day one is available, at present) – we've sifted through them to pluck away the very best. There's stuff from the official Goodwood YouTube channel, as well as several videos from automakers and other third-party channels, and it's all available below. 2015 Ford Mustang GT350R Looks Barely Controllable If you thought the highest-performance Ford Mustang would somehow get more tractable or civilized once it moved to an independent rear suspension, this video shows you have nothing to worry about. Watch as an unnamed driver wrestles the new Shelby GT350R and its flat-plane, 5.2-liter V8 up the hillclimb circuit. Even with the new suspension and sticky tires, this Mustang wants to go any direction but straight, especially following its launch. 2016 Ford Focus RS, Is Very Loud, Blue Ken Block makes his first appearance on our list. Before he steps into his Hoonicorn Mustang, though, the Gymkhana expert tackled the hill in the all-new Focus RS. The vicious bellow of the 2.3-liter, turbocharged four-cylinder is the star of this commentary-free video, although the gorgeous Nitrous Blue paint job is a nice accompaniment, as well. 1965 Ford Mustang Hoonicorn Runs Hill, Nearly Kills Lord March Mr. Block's two runs behind the wheel of the Hoonicorn were, unsurprisingly, very eventful. While one attempt goes off without a hitch, seeing the American rally driver slip and slide his way to the top of the hill while taking a short break for a donut, the other is slightly more dramatic. Block, along with Lord March in the passenger seat, carries a bit too aggressive an angle into a turn and nearly puts the NASCAR-powered Mustang into the hay bales. Check out the first video above, and the second one below. Kimi Raikkonen Makes Us Miss F1's V8 Era The latest Formula One cars have been maligned for the lackluster noise produced by the new 1.6-liter, turbocharged V6.