Benny Kirk
1,726 ARTICLES
This French Airplane Maker Gave Bugatti's EB 110 a Foundation Like No Other
1 Dec 2022, 05:17 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / It's the first day of Celebration Month here on autoevolution. A month in which every year, we just choose to write about whatever topic we please. For this month's Air & Space portion, we'd like to start by telling the story of ...
ESA's ExoMars Rover Survives Russian Exodus With Boost in Funding, Will NASA Step In?
30 Nov 2022, 04:54 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / It might be easy to forget that the European Space Agency is perfectly capable of operating in space on its own when they aren't helping NASA get to the Moon. In fact, they have the self-agency to work with whomever they please, including Rosc...
Artemis I's Orion Can't Stop Shattering Records, II and III's Will Be Even More Amazing
29 Nov 2022, 19:43 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Lockheed Martin, the brilliant engineering team behind Artemis I's flagship Orion Space Capsule, has claimed it is indeed capable of going to Mars one day. Based on the first Artemis mission's performance so far, we have absolutely no rea...
This Hellcat-Swapped 1998 Dodge Dakota Is Better at Drag Pulls Than Hauling Lumber
29 Nov 2022, 08:25 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / The second-generation Dodge Dakota was a perfectly fine medium-sized pickup truck. One that tried as hard as possible to appeal to people who longed for a smaller truck than the full-sized RAM while also not cannibalizing the RAM's market shar...
This 1970 Shelby GT500 Boasts a One-of-a-Kind Specification, Hits Auction Block Next Year
29 Nov 2022, 06:47 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Every Shelby Mustang from every era is a very special car indeed. But some, usually those from early generations, are more special than others. Mecum's 2023 Kissimmee, Florida's Classic Car Auction, is shaping up to be one of the hottest ...
DIYer Makes Airless Tire With Plastic Pipes and Metal Bolts, Michelin Not Calling
29 Nov 2022, 06:15 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / There's a reason billion-dollar tire and rubber companies take their sweet time developing airless tires. Most of the time, they don't even get made in more than a handful of test units. So what makes some un-named social media goofball t...
Are Rare Muscle Cars Your Obsession? This 1-of-1 1968 Olds 442 Droptop is Your White Whale
29 Nov 2022, 05:20 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / In spite of its less-than-cool reputation by the time of its demise, Oldsmobile used to be one of the cool, hip GM brands alongside Pontiac. Coincidentally, that, too, bit the dust only a half-decade later. But there's a certain unspoken hiera...
Droopy Eyed 1978 Lincoln Continental Town Car Begs to Be a Restomod, We Hope It Happens
27 Nov 2022, 04:58 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Big-block American V8s are a dying breed in new cars. Maybe the only thing dying off from American roads faster than these engines are the land yachts that were paired with them. Nowadays, old Big-Block land yachts are most often found in sheds and...
Artemis I's Orion Dazzles Scientists, Shatters Records as it Parks in Lunar Orbit
26 Nov 2022, 21:15 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / The last time a NASA crew-rated spacecraft was anywhere close to as far behind the Moon's dark side as Artemis I's Orion Spacecraft just passed, there were three men on board who didn't know if they were going to make it home alive. ...
This Luxurious Morane Saulnier MS-760 Was Owned By the Shah of Iran, Could Now Be Yours
26 Nov 2022, 06:27 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / It takes little more than a suitcase full of money to buy a small private jet. You know, your Cirrus Vision SF50s, your Cessna Citations, and so forth. But it takes a profound, lifelong love of military aviation to willingly fly around in a surplus...
This Crusty 1950 Cadillac 62 Deserves a Second Chance and a Loving Home, Will It Be Yours?
26 Nov 2022, 03:08 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / The second generation 62 was the very first post-World War II Cadillac. As a result of Ally's decisive victory in the war, Cadillac was one of the first American luxury brands to celebrate through the designs of their automobiles. Though this ...
Forget the New M4, This Viper V10-Swapped Classic Hudson Wasp Is the Ultimate Sports Coupe
26 Nov 2022, 01:09 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / If you want an off-the-shelf, well-sorted sports coupe, you go to AMG, BMW M, or Audi. At least historically, that is. But if you aspire to drive a sporty two-door that's profoundly different than anything new in 2022, you desire somethin...
This Long Dead Russian Carmaker Just Returned From the Crypt, Here's Its Bizarre Story
24 Nov 2022, 06:15 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / The Russian Federation is one crazy place to be at the moment. The reasons why should be self-evident and need not be re-hashed for the umpteenth time. What matters about the circumstances in Russia from an automotive perspective is that Western br...
This Classic Douglas AD-5 Skyraider Was the Warthog of the Cold War, Now for Sale
24 Nov 2022, 04:16 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / The A-10 Warthog takes all the glory when it comes to modern close-air support enthusiast circles. That's in spite of more than a couple of flaws that its superfans seem to deny at all costs. But before the Thunderbolt II, America's go-to...
Forget a Blazer EV, We Want "Bully" the Ringbrothers 1972 K5 With a Stroked LS3 V8
24 Nov 2022, 02:13 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / The modern Chevrolet Blazer crossover is like the automotive equivalent of an overcast late fall afternoon. One where the wind is chilly and any warm feelings of summer are well and truly gone. Blazers of old, on the other hand? They're pretty...
This 1959 BMW Isetta 250 Rocks Colors Like Its Maker's Timeless Emblem, Now for Sale
24 Nov 2022, 00:33 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / You might find it strange that BMW thought it proper to build a microcar that looked more like an egg than it did a passenger vehicle. But that's exactly what the BMW Isetta was. At a time when post-war West Germany needed something other than...
Ikarus S-49: Yugoslavia's Answer to the Spitfire and the P-51 Mustang
23 Nov 2022, 17:59 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Yugoslavia was one of the most surreal places to visit in the world in the second half of the 20th century, and they had an eternally polarizing leader to match in Josip Broz Tito. There's a theory that Joseph Stalin's death in 1953 wasn&...
1-of-1 Matte Black Ferrari Enzo Brings Us Back to the Simpler Times of 2004, Now for Sale
22 Nov 2022, 21:48 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / We bet you thought breaking news stories about the Ferrari Enzo, sometimes wrongfully called the F60, were a thing of the past. What with the LaFerrari usurping the Enzo's position as the ultimate vehicle to come out of Modena and. But ne...
This 1954 Jaguar D-Type 'Buck' Bare Shell Could Breathe New Life Into Any Car Enthusiast
22 Nov 2022, 14:52 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / If cars really are an extension of the soul of the people who drive them, what do you think a 1954 Jaguar D-Type would have to say? How about the 'buck' it was built on? Would it tell tales of chisel-jawed men with cajones several times w...
Watch Out, Great White North, SpaceX Starlink Now Available in All of Alaska and Canada
22 Nov 2022, 13:32 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Say what you will about the leading man in charge of SpaceX. But one thing isn't up for debate, the Starlink initiative to bring reliable, high-speed internet to users across the planet is the next profound leap in the history of the world wid...