1992 Mitsubishi 3000gt Vr-4 Gto Coupe 2-door 3.0l on 2040-cars

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Mitsubishi is killing the Lancer this summer

The small sedan segment is going to get a little smaller this summer. At a Mitsubishi event last night, the company discussed its new focus on the crossover market. It left us wondering where this leaves the future of Mitsubishi sedans. We asked executive vice president and COO of Mitsubishi's North American division Don Swearingen about this, and he said the Mirage G4 will remain on the market to handle some sedan demand, but that Lancer production will end this August. Swearingen did explain that there will probably be leftover stock for a few months after the end of production, but that the car would effectively be gone this summer with 2017 its final model year. He said the sedan market is shrinking and the company needs to make sure any new product it develops is profitable, which is why Mitsubishi continues to shift its focus to the ever-growing crossover market and there are no current plans for a new Lancer. It should also be noted that the current Lancer was introduced a decade ago and wasn't terribly competitive to begin with. Still, we'll miss the Lancer line, even if it was only for the hope that we'd see another Lancer Evolution someday. Related Video:

Elon Musk: Teslas will already know where we’re going

In the future, cars will drive us. And probably not surprisingly, they'll often know where to go without us even needing to tell them. That's the theme of a short back-and-forth conversation on Twitter recently between Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk and a user who tagged him in a comment suggesting that "it would be cool" to be able to tell a car where to go. Responding to user James Harvey, Musk replied, "It won't even need to ask you most of the time." Later, after Harvey asked how the car would know where he wants to go, another user suggested that the car would know what time you go to work. "Yeah, don't exactly need to be Sherlock Holmes," Musk tweeted. It won't even need to ask you most of the time — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 21, 2017 Yeah, don't exactly need to be Sherlock Holmes. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 21, 2017 That the ability to know where we're going will be part of our future driving experience shouldn't be surprising. After all, the smartphones we carry around already possess the ability to predict what we want — think Google's cleverness in tailoring search results or providing traffic information just before your commute, Facebook's highly customized News Feed content or even auto-fill technology, which can predict the words you're typing. And plenty of automakers have been touting their own work in developing in-car artificial intelligence systems. Like Audi's Elaine concept, which will be able to learn, think and even empathize with drivers. Or Mitsubishi's e-Evolution concept, which can not only assist your driving, but also assess your skills and teach you how to improve them. Tesla's vehicles, of course, are being outfitted with all the latest autonomous driver-assist technology, with the automaker eager to one day reach full Level 5 self-driving capability. According to Inc., Teslas will be able to listen and respond to directional commands, and they'll even have access to your calendar to comb for information about where you need to go. Tesla has also said it's developing an update to its Autopilot hardware and remains on track to achieve full Level 5 autonomous driving by the end of this year, which strikes a lot of people as wildly unrealistic. At any rate, the promise of cars knowing what time we're sneaking out to get donuts or picking up the kids is interesting, coming from the man who has warned that AI presents "a fundamental risk to the existence of human civilization."Related Video:

Your 2013 Pikes Peak Hill Climb primer: "Donuts at 14,000 feet."

The teams have all set up their pits and paddocks for today's run of the 91st Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, and there's nothing left to do but take a shot at the title. At 8 am Mountain time (9 am EST / 7 am PST), the first of a field of 83 bikes and 63 cars - whittled from an original field of 157 - will race 12.42 miles through 156 turns from the start gate at 9,390 feet to the summit finish at 14,110 feet. The summit is where we'll be all day, having arrived on the media bus at around 5 am and not allowed to come down until the race is finished. If it's anything like last year that could mean a 14-hour day on the top munching on donuts at the summit café, begging for hits of pure oxygen and trying to stay hydrated and warm...
Here are the event with Hyundai, we enjoyed dinner with Rhys Millen got his take on what's happened and what's about to happen. Millen said the issue that caused his engine swap last week was minor, a head gasket (a production part) that was causing a bit of hesitation and a slight drop in top speed. He said it's the first time they've stressed the engines this hard, pushing boost pressures up to 19 psi at altitude, which equates to 25 psi at sea level. Offering testament to the strength of the engines, though, he said that Paul Dallenbach's engine did the entire 2012 drift season as well as Pikes Peak, and it's the engine being used again for the hill climb this year.
We also chatted with Dallenbach, who has come back from that beastly crash last year in the Unlimited category to lead almost every practice day this year in the Time Attack class. Telling us he's happier behind the wheel this year than he has been in 20 years, he asked us, "Know what my dashboard says when I turn the car on? 'Donuts at 14,000 feet.'"