Benny Kirk
1,727 ARTICLES
2023 Toyota Crown: An Exclusive Japanese Luxury Name Reborn, on Display in New York
7 Apr 2023, 17:03 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Last year, Toyota practically stole the show at New York's International Auto Show. But at least to most petrolhead sensibilities, it'd make sense why the Gazoo Racing Toyota Corolla hatchback, a family hatchback turned fire-breathing mon...
The Citroen Oli Concept Could Change the Way We Drive, but the Auto Industry Won't Let It
3 Apr 2023, 22:33 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / It's not often that a concept car comes around that legitimately makes us go, "wow!" It's especially rare when said concept isn't a low-sprung sports car of some kind. But there's something about the Citroen Oli EV cro...
These Four Souls Will Bring Humans to the Moon On Artemis II, Here's Why Each Got the Call
3 Apr 2023, 19:43 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Christina Koch, Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Jeremy Hansen. These are the names of the first human souls to leave the safe and comfy bounds of planet Earth to travel around the Moon in over 50 years. With Artemis II scheduled to launch in the f...
Nine Mile Point: A Deep Dive Into America's Oldest Working Nuclear Reactor
2 Apr 2023, 16:21 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / We tend to look fondly at machines that stand the test of time. Things like cars, trucks, and motorcycles that last 40, 50, or even 60 years or more can justifiably be called classics. But nuclear reactors? That's a whole different ballgame. N...
Republic Rainbow: A Pretty Name for the Most Advanced Piston Airplane Ever Built
1 Apr 2023, 19:48 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / By the end of World War II, piston-engine military airplanes were already on their way out. But like early 90s grunge rock before mainstream pop took over, the Republic XF-12 Rainbow showed piston engines could still power an impressive airframe ri...
Alvis Saracen: The British Army 6x6 at the Heart of Northern Irish Troubles
30 Mar 2023, 22:50 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / If a hoard of HUMVEEs rolled through your average American city center, the response would be nothing short of pandemonium. Happily, Americans seldom get close to the conditions needed for army trucks to start patrolling the streets. But other plac...
Caproni Ca.60 Transaero: Nine Wings, Eight Engines, Zero Bleeps Given
30 Mar 2023, 07:02 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / The Italians are known the world over for not giving a rat's behind about what foreign nationals think of their engineering. More to the point, it's because the Italians really know how to build exciting machines. In the automotive world,...
Road of Bones: How Forced Labor Built the Soviet Idea of a Federal Highway
27 Mar 2023, 23:11 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Back in July 2022, we showcased a story about Interstate 90, America's longest interstate highway dotted with post-industrialized cities longing for days long past. It takes the brunt of horrifically strong winter storms from time to time as w...
Short Empire: The Ultra-Luxurious Flying Boat Built for Pre-War British Aristocrats
26 Mar 2023, 16:26 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Before the outbreak of the second world war, the British could still ostensibly consider themselves the world's pre-eminent power. The country that pound for pound influenced the global goings-on more than France, Germany, the Soviets, and yes...
Lyte Aviation SkyBus: A 40 Seater eVTOL Concept With Huge Potential
24 Mar 2023, 16:05 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / It's not often more than an eVTOL concept comes along that really excites us. Mostly because many of them tend to be personalized leisure vehicles rather than utilitarian transport for the masses. That's the kind of tech bound to change o...
Molten Salt Reactors: The Power Source That May Change Our Lives Decades Before Fusion
23 Mar 2023, 02:44 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / When the National Ignition Facility in Livermore, CA, achieved a fusion energy gain factor of 1.6 on a test of its laser-based fusion reactor, the response was either utter elation or jaded skepticism. What wasn't up for debate was whether com...
Fokker-Republic Alliance: The Dutch-American Supersonic VTOL That Never Was
22 Mar 2023, 14:10 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Has anyone here seen the old American sitcom The Odd Couple? Admittedly, I haven't. But that doesn't mean I can't milk the title to make ham-fisted comparisons between two aerospace companies. Fokker of the Netherlands and Republic A...
Rolls-Royce Wants To Put a Nuclear Reactor on the Moon by 2029, Has the Funding To Do It
19 Mar 2023, 20:05 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / On a long enough timeline in which mankind doesn't abandon human-crewed spaceflight beyond LEO as we did in the early 70s, a nuclear reactor will likely find its way onto the lunar surface at some point. Thanks to Rolls Royce, that day could e...
Minnesota Nuclear Reactor Springs Leak, 400k Gallons of Radioactive Water Escapes
19 Mar 2023, 18:20 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / As per a report by the Associated Press, upwards of 400 thousand gallons of potentially radioactive water has escaped containment at the Monticello Nuclear Generating Plant's nuclear reactor. The situation is stated to be under control by Minn...
30 Years Ago, the ESA Almost Built Their Own Space Shuttle, Details Inside
18 Mar 2023, 20:25 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / It's not often we run into a spaceship concept we've straight up never seen before. But every so often, something long forgotten from the very fringes of science and engineering makes itself known to us. When this happens, we have two cho...
Early 80s Corvettes Were Kind of Lame, This LT4-Swapped 1980 C3 Is the Opposite
17 Mar 2023, 18:59 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / It's been ages since we've seen a custom Corvette that made us go, "wow!" But if anything, the reason why this particular 1980 C3 Corvette swapped with a custom LT4 crate engine is so awesome is because of how drab it was from t...
autoevolution Returns to the 2023 NY Auto Show on April 5th, See You There!
17 Mar 2023, 16:33 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Last April, autoevolution made its triumphant return to the New York International Auto Show for the first time in 11 years. The first running of North America's longest-operating yearly motor show after the global health crisis certainly made...
Germany and Spain Declare War On Nuclear Energy, Here's Why They May Regret It
16 Mar 2023, 23:01 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / European nations getting along in the present day is actually the exception to history rather than the norm. But even with the EU and NATO making most of Europe play nice with each other, Germany and France are finding ways to be at odds with one a...
MQ-9 Reaper: The American Drone That Just Took a Russian Jet to the Face
16 Mar 2023, 16:51 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / For almost as long as there's been aerial warfare, unmanned drones always have had a place on the battlefield. As early as World War I, people were strapping bombs to wooden bi-planes with piston engines and hoping they generally flew near the...
Russia Doesn’t Want to Mess With Turkey’s F-4E Terminator 2020, Punches Above Its Weight
14 Mar 2023, 20:34 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / The McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II is a hilariously outdated jet fighter in 2023. There's a reason to suspect nothing of substance, value, or objective positivity can be gained from an airframe that first flew in 1958 in the modern day. Well...