Benny Kirk
1,727 ARTICLES
Fly By Wire vs Steer By Wire: How Lexus Adapted Fighter Jet Technology for the Road
23 Apr 2023, 23:11 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / When it comes to the all-new, all-electric Lexus RZ, it's easy to get the impression things are a bit of a hit-or-miss affair, with the whole novel EV drivetrain shoved into what looks like a typical Lexus RX and all. But what isn't in qu...
Europe's Most Powerful Nuclear Reactor Just Went Online, Took 18 Years to Build
23 Apr 2023, 00:26 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Depending on what side of the atomic fence you reside on, the notion of the most powerful reactor in all of Europe going online this month either greatly excites you or terrifies you to your core. In truth, the story of Finland's Olkiluoto Nuc...
SpaceX’s Starship Explosion Wasn’t a Failure at All, It’s a Landmark Day in Space History
22 Apr 2023, 01:58 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / On April 20th, 2023, America watched in amazement as the SpaceX Starship booster and its spacecraft roared to life and lifted off from its launch pad in Boca Chica, Texas. Little more than a few minutes later, this same 390-foot tall spacecraft was...
This Wankel-Powered RQ-7 Shadow UAV Is an RX-7 With Wings, Hangs in a Museum
20 Apr 2023, 19:17 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / The last time we checked out the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Long Island, New York, their seasonal change in exhibit space was dedicated to personal air mobility, with a section of a museum dedicated to lightweight electric machines that could lif...
SpaceX's Starship Explodes During First Orbital Launch, Back to Square One
20 Apr 2023, 16:07 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Rocket science will always be rocket science, no matter how rich, notable, and borderline larger-than-life SpaceX's leading man truly is at the moment. That's why when the first SpaceX Starship Orbital test didn't go anywhere near ac...
Ridden: Vanpowers' Manidae Got Me off the Couch and on the Trails
19 Apr 2023, 21:38 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Before last month, I hadn't ridden a bicycle in 15 years. I may have secretly envied the people on staff here who get to test ride all the fancy bikes that manufacturers sent them for review, but I figured my place in the pecking order meant t...
Northrop YF-17 Cobra: The Long Forgotten Common Ancestor of the Hornet and Super Hornet
19 Apr 2023, 06:04 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / The legacy of the McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet will one day, possibly sometime soon, come to a close. When both the Hornet and the Super Hornet finally leave the decks of aircraft carriers across the globe, the world will look back on the platfo...
It’s Easy to Mock SpaceX Scrubbing Starship’s First Orbital Test, Here's Why You Shouldn’t
18 Apr 2023, 02:04 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / It might be easy to mock SpaceX at times for any number of reasons. For its larger-than-life character of a 21st-century venture capitalist of a leading man or the drama surrounding Elon Musk's other billion-dollar companies. Take your pick fo...
Hades Freezes Over: Toyota Proves All-New Prius Is Legitimately Cool in New York
16 Apr 2023, 04:13 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / If you told anybody you thought the Toyota Prius was a good-looking, desirable, or even remotely "cool" car back in the early 2000s, the reaction from other people would have probably been abject laughter. A Prius? A cool car? That's...
Chevy Flexes Ultium EV Platform at the 2023 New York Auto Show, Makes Statement to Rivals
15 Apr 2023, 20:00 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Questions once abounded about whether General Motors had what it took to transition from internal combustion power to a fully electric vehicle lineup without losing the heritage and the design cues people have come to enjoy about the brand. That sa...
Genesis Humbles BMW and Audi at the 2023 New York Auto Show
14 Apr 2023, 03:53 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Remember when Hyundai used to build awful cars? When being seen driving around town in an Accent or a Santa Fe elicited the same response as an NPC vehicle in a not-all-that-well-made Grand Theft Auto clone? Spoiler alert, those days are long gone,...
Hardman Label: An Ultra Luxurious SUV on an F-150 Chassis for Pop Stars and Influencers
13 Apr 2023, 16:28 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / The modern automotive sector is all about sustainability. Sustainability of manufacturing, supply chains, and the sustainability of environments that cars and trucks drive around in. That's why everything's going all-electric, and you, th...
Chevy Hides Final ICE Sedan Behind a Wall at the 2023 NY Auto Show, They Shouldn’t Have
12 Apr 2023, 23:27 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Have you noticed a pattern at the 2023 New York International Auto Show this year? If you thought everything worth talking about at the Jacob K. Javits Center was either a sports car or an SUV of some kind, we thought the same thing during our trip...
Bland and Boring: How BMW's Booth Dropped the Ball at the 2023 New York Auto Show
12 Apr 2023, 02:29 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / I'm fond of listening to stories from some of my older colleagues about what automotive journalism was like before I came along. So as I looked over photos from BMW's booth at the 2023 New York International Auto Show with my editor, good...
2023 Lotus Emira: A Low-Key Sports Car You Can't Help But Love in the Flesh
11 Apr 2023, 19:34 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / If the old time-honored motto of Lotus' founder Colin Chapman "simplify and add lightness," applied to everyday life, every self-help guru would simultaneously be out of a job. But at least in the automotive space, the all-new Lotus ...
Think Pony Cars Are Dead? The New Mustang Dark Horse Wants a Word With You in New York
11 Apr 2023, 03:21 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Okay, folks, here's the scoop. The Chevy Camaro is going the way of the dodo. As is the Dodge Challenger. Or, at least, there's not been an announcement that they'll be directly replaced with something yet. But while GM and Chrysler&...
Koenigsegg Gemera: Pound for Pound the Coolest Vehicle at the 2023 New York Auto Show
10 Apr 2023, 19:05 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Not every car at the 2023 New York International Auto Show is worth writing home about. In fact, some of the booths this year really could have been better. We're looking at you, BMW. But while Bimmer parked three cars on a patch of carpet and...
Up Close and Personal With the New Chevy Corvette E-Ray: Steals the Show in New York
9 Apr 2023, 18:14 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Remember when everyone used to call the Chevy Corvette a mediocre sports car? You know, back in the days of the C4 through the C7 when Vettes were often technically brilliant and fun to drive but never considered to be in the same league as sports ...
We Rode Shotgun in the All-New Hyundai IONIQ 6 in New York: It's a Real Gem
9 Apr 2023, 02:10 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / It's easy to get the wrong impression about the Hyundai Ioniq 6. As an EV that looks to be a weird chimera between a VW New Beetle and an old Porsche 911, you might get an idea that the Ioniq 5 is just a South Korean take on a timeless German ...
Dodge Charger Daytona EV: The Most Important Muscle Car in 50 Years Shines in New York
7 Apr 2023, 21:51 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Muscle cars are supposed to be going dodo again soon, right? At least, that's what every crusty muscle car gatekeeper on your online forum of choice on the matter tries to tell you every time he posts. There's no replacement for displacem...