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Are supercars becoming less special?

There's little doubt that we are currently enjoying the golden age of automotive performance. Dozens of different models on sale today make over 500 horsepower, and seven boast output in excess of 700 hp. Not long ago, that kind of capability was exclusive to supercars – vehicles whose rarity, performance focus, and requisite expense made them aspirational objects of desire to us mortals. But more than that, supercars have historically offered a unique driving experience, one which was bespoke to a particular model and could not be replicated elsewhere. But in recent years, even the low-volume players have been forced to find the efficiencies and economies of scale that formerly hadn't been a concern for them, and in turn the concept of the supercar as a unique entity unto itself is fading fast. The blame doesn't fall on one particular manufacturer nor a specific production technique. Instead, it's a confluence of different factors that are chipping away at the distinction of these vehicles. It's not all bad news – Lamborghini's platform sharing with Audi for the Gallardo and the R8 yielded a raging bull that was more reliable and easier to live with on a day-to-day basis, and as a result it went on to become the best-selling Lambo in the company's history. But it also came at the cost of some of the Italian's exclusivity when eerily familiar sights and sounds suddenly became available wearing an Audi badge. Even low-volume players have been forced to find economies of scale. Much of this comes out of necessity, of course. Aston Martin's recent deal with Mercedes-AMG points toward German hardware going under the hood and into the cabin of the upcoming DB11, and it's safe to assume that this was not a decision made lightly by the Brits, as the brand has built a reputation for the bespoke craftsmanship of its vehicles. There's little doubt that the DB11 will be a fine automobile, but the move does jeopardize some of the characteristic "specialness" that Astons are known for. Yet the world is certainly better off with new Aston Martins spliced with DNA from Mercedes-AMG rather than no new Astons at all, and the costs of developing cutting-edge drivetrains and user interfaces is a burden that's becoming increasingly difficult for smaller manufacturers to bear. Even Ferrari is poised to make some dramatic changes in the way it designs cars.

Junkyard Gem: 1986 Dodge Ram 50

After years of selling the Isuzu Faster with Chevrolet LUV badges here, GM replaced it with the S-10 in 1982. Ford sold Mazda Proceeds with Courier badges for even more years, but ditched the Courier once the Ranger became available as a 1983 model. Chrysler was able to put truck beds on Omnirizons at that time, but didn't have the deep pockets to develop its own rear-wheel-drive small pickup; for this reason, Dodge-badged Mitsubishi Forte pickups continued to be available in the United States all the way through the 1994 model year. Here's one of those trucks, found in a Colorado car graveyard. The first Chrysler-imported Mitsubishi Fortes showed up in the United States as 1979 models. The Dodge-badged version was known as the D-50, while Plymouth dealers got theirs with Arrow badges. The Dodge D-50 became the Ram 50 for the 1981 model year, while the final Plymouth Arrow trucks were sold as 1982 models. Just to make things more interesting, Mitsubishi started selling its own vehicles in the United States beginning with the 1983 model year. That meant that the Ram 50 had to compete for sales with a near-identical twin sporting Mitsubishi badges. Things in the Chrysler-Mitsubishi universe got even more exciting a bit later, when there were four marques selling essentially the same car here simultaneously: the Mitsubishi Mirage, Plymouth Colt, Dodge Colt and Eagle Summit. All of the Dodge D-50s and Ram 50s came with Mitsubishi power under their hoods. This one has a 2.0-liter SOHC straight-four rated at 88 horsepower and 108 pound-feet. For a while, a 2.3-liter Mitsubishi diesel was available in the Ram 50. It had been discontinued by 1986, however. This one has the base five-speed manual transmission. It appears that this truck was being used for long-term storage of many, many boxes of random household stuff when it was banished to this place. Much of the stuff was scattered on the ground nearby. Perhaps it was parked at a rent-a-storage facility and got evicted for lack of rent payments. Much of the contents consisted of stacks of newspapers and magazines from the 1960s and 1970s. Here's an Art Buchwald column about then-Vice President Spiro Agnew from February 23, 1971. Here's a Beetle Bailey strip from the same year. There's plenty of history in the junkyard, if you know where to look. There must have been a half-ton of paper in this truck when it arrived here. Sadly, some family's photo albums were here as well.

General Patton's Dodge WC57 Command Car headed to auction

Indiana will see some excellent vintage metal on several auction blocks this summer. Mecum Auctions has the 1965 Pontiac GeeTO Tiger and 1963 Shelby Cobra that was a Ford demonstrator planned for in Indiana in late June. Two weeks before that, and as noted by Carscoops, Worldwide Auctioneers will offer what could have been Gen. George S. Patton’s Dodge WC57 Command Car. We say "could have been" because although the WC57 came out of the National Military History Center in Auburn, Indiana, a few years ago and is fitted with the modifications Patton made to his personal WC57, the auction house doesn't have paperwork explicitly linking Patton to this car, and there are other replicas of Patton Command Cars out there. That could help explain why when RM Auctions put this WC57 up for sale in 2017 with a pre-sale estimate of $100,000 to $150,000, the vehicle failed to make the $60,000 reserve. Dodge had been making vehicles for the U.S. military since before World War I, most of them based on civilian models. Before the U.S. entered World War II, Dodge turned its civilian TC pickup into the 1940 VC-1 military truck. The VC-1 quickly evolved into the WC range, the WC57 Command and Reconnaissance Weapons Carrier riding on a three-quarter-ton, 4x4 chassis and weighing almost 5,400 pounds. Built from 1942 to 1945, they were powered by Dodge's T214 side-valve, 230-cubic-inch inline-six with 92 horsepower.   This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. General PattonÂ’s Dodge WC-57 Command Car - Offered Without Reserve The WC57 was simple, reliable, capable, and at the end of the war, was part of the inspiration for the Dodge Power Wagon. The story is that soldiers returning from active duty badgered Dodge for a civilian version of the indefatigable WC warhorse, so Dodge responded with the postwar's most hardcore pickup in 1946. The open-topped WC57 rig was also popular with U.S. Army officers, and because of that, it was popular target practice for German infantry and Luftwaffe pilots. So Patton, before heading to France in 1944 with the Third Army, had the motor pool in Cheltenham, England, modify his WC57. Mechanics added an armor flap to shield the radiator, half-inch armor plate under the floor, and a Browning M2 .50-caliber machine gun for fending off aerial attacks. A second, drop-down tailgate provided extra space and covered tool storage.