Benny Kirk
1,724 ARTICLES
Chevy Dually Truck Does Fusion Dance With Old Cadillac Escalade, End Result Now for Sale
24 May 2022, 16:40 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Sometimes when it comes to classic cars, less is more. We can all remember a time a custom car could've become a certified classic only for its designer to go completely off the deep end in terms of design. With a simple change to this Chevy t...
Glenn H Curtiss Museum: a Former Wine Factory Full of Vintage Cars, Bikes, and Airplanes
23 May 2022, 03:02 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / We've had the pleasure of traveling to some truly spectacular museums and private collections in my travels at autoevolution. But perhaps never before in the history of our time traveling to take pictures for you have I been able to satisfy so...
Forget Harley and Indian, Curtiss Built the Coolest Antique American Motorcycles
23 May 2022, 02:01 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / If you visualize an antique American motorcycle, you think of Harley Davidson or Indian. At least, that's what you're inclined to believe if you overhear two older gentlemen in leather vests with long grey beards chatting about vintage Am...
Two P-40 Warhawks Collided Mid-Air 78 Years Ago, Their Remains are Now Nearly Restored
22 May 2022, 22:03 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / The Glenn H Curtiss Museum in Hammondsport, New York, is a warehouse-sized facility filled with artifacts from the Curtiss Airplane and Motor Corporation, the brainchild of Hammondsport's favorite native son Glenn H Curtiss. But of all the...
35 Years Before the Regal Turbo, Buick Helped Build This Jet Engine for American Warplanes
22 May 2022, 20:24 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / When you think of Buick engines, you inevitably think of one of, at most, three examples. The Fireball straight-eight, the Nailhead V8, and the 3.8-liter V6 turbo. But we bet most of you had no idea whatsoever that 30 years before they were messing...
Wright R-3350: The Underappreciated Muscle Behind Enola Gay, Bockscar, and So Much More
22 May 2022, 19:38 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / To win a World War, you can't start without a foundation of excellent engines. History teaches us this many times over. Be it with the Liberty V12 in World War I or the Rolls-Royce Merlin of World War II. No great warplane is complete without ...
Harley-Davidson XA: The U.S. Army's All-American, Unused Answer to German BMWs in WWII
21 May 2022, 16:16 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Harley-Davidson lives and breathes all things Americana. It's a defiant symbol of U.S. pride and self-preservation, prooving even with gargantuan problems to solve, the American spirit endures. So long as the road keeps on rollin'. During...
1938 BMW R 35: Made in Nazi Germany, Now Preserved in a New York Museum
21 May 2022, 11:23 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / The Glenn H Curtiss Museum in Hammondsport, New York, is a warehouse-sized facility full of some of the most stunning classic cars and airplanes that Mr. Curtiss himself helped to design. But in its hallowed halls, aside for his inventions, is a...
Virginia Dare II: 1920's America's Idea of an Ultra Luxurious Speed Boat
20 May 2022, 09:17 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / We bet you think people 100 years ago lived like savages compared to how most people in the developed world live in 2022. Our sports cars, leisure vehicles, and our engines have all advanced into what might look like witchcraft to anyone alive in, ...
Curtiss Aerocar: the Century-Old Ultra Luxurious Genesis of the Fifth-Wheel Camper Trailer
20 May 2022, 04:57 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / In 2022, people are going crazy over towable recreational vehicles and travel trailers. By last year's estimates, RVs of all shapes and sizes represent an industry worth over $40 billion. But at least as far as towable fifth-wheel camper trail...
This Curtiss C-46 Commando Played Second Fiddle to the Skytrain, Now It's Like a Barn Find
19 May 2022, 23:31 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Not every vintage warbird is destined to spend the twilight of its life taking to the skies for the endless inspiration of those below watching. The sad truth is, a good percentage of existing warplanes from World War II especially will never, ever...
Step Aside Elon Musk, This Man Was the Original Eccentric Billionaire Aviator
19 May 2022, 06:24 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Love him, or Elon Musk has his sights eternally on the stars. But don't even think for a single solitary second that he's the first of his kind among eccentric, tortured genius aviators. Before SpaceX, before Elon Musk, even before th...
Moscow's Mayor Wants to Revive an Awful Old Soviet Automaker, Why?
18 May 2022, 22:39 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Russia is a pretty wacky place to be at the best of times. But in very recent times, this has only increased by an exponential factor. With Renault-Nissan prepping to hand over their Moscow production facility to the Russian state, the Federation&#...
This U.S. Twin Engine Attack Plane Ate Tanks for Lunch, Now It's For Sale to Civies
18 May 2022, 19:50 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / A standard North American-Rockwell OV-10 Bronco is not the kind of airplane that civilians would enjoy flying. Sure, its Short Takeoff and Landing (STOL) capability meant you could take off from the street your house stands on. But a spartan interi...
Triple Black 1989 Mazda RX-7 Drop Top Is a Car Dreams Are Made Of
18 May 2022, 16:40 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Walking past this 1987 Mazda RX-7 FC without knowledge of classic JDM may not elicit as much as a passing glance. But if you're in the know, it's a car that's bound to make you twist and contort your body 180-degrees just to get a se...
Columbia Double Eagle: The Bizarre Tandem BMX Few Have Ever Seen Before
16 May 2022, 03:35 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / So, you did it. You finally found a significant other who loves the hobby of BMX riding just as much as you do. You've carved trails together, raced each other, and helped each other up when you both inevitably eat dirt on occasion. First of a...
BMW X6 M: The Easiest SUV to Hate in the World, Or Are We Just Jealous?
14 May 2022, 10:36 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / The BMW X6 M is the kind of SUV that didn't really need to exist. It's a vehicle with a reputation that precedes itself wherever it goes, and for some reason it elicits judgments of the people driving them even before they've stepped...
This Classic BMX Has a Frame Made From 125 Recycled Soda Cans, Beat That, Fisker Ocean
13 May 2022, 01:13 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / We can't hear the end of it about environmental sustainability in 2022. After years of constant exposure, you might find most of it to be disingenuous corporate hogwash. So much so that you're liable to be justifiably jaded when you do ac...
40 Years Before Polestar, Itera was Volvo's Long Lost Second Brand
12 May 2022, 03:03 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Excess weight is the enemy of bicycle riders as much as it is for sports car drivers. It spoils handling, makes you slower, and ensures anyone with a vehicle lighter than yours will have the edge in tight corners. That said, saving weight was the i...
Dan Gurney Eagle Monoshock: A Rare Classic BMX Endorsed by an American F1 Hero
10 May 2022, 23:03 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / If you're familiar with the name Dan Gurney, it's probably because of his reputation as, more or less, the only American Formula One Driver worth talking about, or maybe as an innovator in both NASCAR and Indycar. But a select handful of ...