Benny Kirk
1,723 ARTICLES
Automakers Cut Annoying Holiday TV Commercial Budget Over Cratering Sales, Mercifully
12 Nov 2021, 17:15 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Have you always longed for a welcome bit of reprieve from tone-deaf, ham-fisted car commercials? Do you envision a time when no anthropomorphic hamsters, no Matthew McConaughey, or some other calculated media trick to try and get you to break out t...
Mitsubishi Mirage Continues Quiet Renaissance, Passes Chevy Spark for #1 in U.S. Sales
12 Nov 2021, 09:45 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / The highly unexpected second renaissance of the polarizing Mitsubishi Mirage is one of the few heartwarming stories of an otherwise very mixed bag in the year of the great microchip shortage. If the used car market drying up all its available relia...
The Humvee May Be Retired Soon, Let’s Pay Tribute to Its Very Oldest Ancestor
12 Nov 2021, 09:15 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Well, it looks like the mighty AM General Hummer's days as the king of U.S. Army ground vehicles may soon be at an end, with military-industrial giants like Oshkosh and AM General competing for a new contract with the U.S. armed forces, guaran...
This Cold War Jeep Packed Mean Horsepower in Its Comms Array, but Not Under the Hood
12 Nov 2021, 07:30 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / When it comes to vehicle mods, you're pretty strapped when it comes to choices. You could turbocharge your engine or add a nice infotainment head unit, for example. But if you're the United States Military in Vietnam War-era Indo-China, y...
Here’s Why Tuners in Southeast Asia Love the Mitsubishi Mirage
11 Nov 2021, 23:56 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / In America, the three-cylinder Mitsubishi Mirage is a car that just can't stop being joked at by people who call them wimpy, puny, or heaven-forbid a "pansies" car. As despicable as it is to appropriate one's choice of car wi...
Up-Close and Personal With the Fastest and Scariest Airplane That Ever Flew
11 Nov 2021, 17:35 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / It's not often the average mortal person is allowed to get even within eyeshot of a machine that once flew at nearly six times the speed of sound. Or the machine helped train Neil Armstrong to land on the surface of the Moon as a test pilot. B...
Spotlight USA: Come to This Pizza Joint for the Homemade Sauce, Stay for Hidden Car Museum
10 Nov 2021, 21:50 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Is there anything more American than a big old cheesy slice with all the grease and fixings? You may think hamburgers, but it's actually a closer race than you might think. What does any of this have to do with cars? Well, on the face of it...
'98 Chevy S-10 EV Conversion Work in Progress Reps The Next-Gen of Tuning Culture
9 Nov 2021, 20:13 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / It's tuning month here at autoevolution, a month in where we pay tribute to what's possible with an idea, some nuts, bolts, and too much time on your hands can achieve in the form of wicked custom cars and trucks. The overwhelming majorit...
1949 Chevy 3100 Restomod is Worth As Much as a Fully Loaded New Silverado
9 Nov 2021, 18:05 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / The 2019 Silverado is the kind of full-sized truck that ticks all the boxes any self respecting workman could need, along with looks that wouldn't make it out of place parked alongside posh, luxury SUVs that their clientele like to drive. But ...
Graphics Card Giant Nvidia Launches "Omniverse" Technology To Help Cars Drive Themselves
9 Nov 2021, 17:04 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Say what you will about the hoards of gamers camping outside electronics stores to buy Nvidia graphics cards that some argue were made deliberately scarce. But dear Neptune, some of the technology the multibillion-dollar tech manufacturer comes up ...
Subaru To Unveil All-Electric Solterra SUV at LA Auto Show on November 17th
9 Nov 2021, 16:31 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Subaru is a brand that so often plays second fiddle to the might of its rivals at Honda and Toyota. But, on November 17th, 2021, at 10:45 a.m., nothing's going to stop them from being the center of media attention with the launch of the all-ne...
Bentley Models Get New High-Performance Winter Tire Package, Ready for Snow Rally Debut
9 Nov 2021, 15:36 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Want to know the way Bentley owners and Rolls-Royce owners are different? There are a few obvious answers, like the number of 0s in their bank accounts, obviously. But the all-new winter wheel and tire option coming to 2022 Continentals, Continenta...
1987 Dodge Ramcharger's Ready to Wipe the Floor With any Modern 4x4
8 Nov 2021, 18:04 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / In the last item we presented to you for Autoevolution's Tuning Month, we showed you how a one-of-a-kind show car with striking looks but not much under their hood still serve a purpose. That truck was a 1987 GMC Jimmy. The Dodge Ramcharger we...
Tricked out GMC Jimmy's Engine is Less Advanced Than the Game Console In the Back
8 Nov 2021, 17:30 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Believe it or not, not all tuned customs are built to be as fast as a supercar. Some are destined to spend their whole lives sitting parked and looking pretty. Welcome to the world of the show-car, a world where it doesn't matter if the engine...
Factory Five GTM With 454 LSX V8 Could Give the C8 a Run for Its Money
8 Nov 2021, 16:11 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Before the genesis of the incredible C8 Corvette, there was only a hand full of methods to experience the awesome power of an LS V8 engine in a mid-engined format. One of the best methods, in our opinion, was the Factory Five GTM kit racer that all...
Korean Think Tank Contradicts Jaguar Land Rover, Says Chip Shortage Will Last Through 2022
8 Nov 2021, 14:44 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / A short time ago, the Indian-owned Jaguar Land Rover group announced they were confident that the current microchip shortage would be gone and behind them by mid-2022 at the earliest. It appears the Korea Automotive Technology Institute (Katech) do...
Make Your Jaguar E-Pace Hybrid Look Exclusive With the New Baracuta Edition
8 Nov 2021, 13:53 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / A short while ago, we showed you how Jeep's new Graphic Studio gives you the opportunity to deck out your off-roader with custom graphics inside and out. The latest collaboration between Jaguar and outdoorsmen's clothing company Baracuta ...
Two Automakers Defy News Reports, Say Magnesium Shortage Is Not Dire Yet
8 Nov 2021, 13:10 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / Automakers across the globe are in the midst of a resource shortage it hasn't seen for generations. It seemed global car brands were at least treading water while attempting to bring a solution to the chip shortage. But the recent news that Ch...
Predicted Magnesium Shortage is Here, China Cuts Production
7 Nov 2021, 20:41 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / A short while ago, we presented a news story detailing how the Chinese magnesium industry was edging closer and closer to a full-on shut down due to a spike in demand it couldn't compensate for. Well, that predicted shortage has now arrived, a...
Explosion Rocks Canadian Stellantis Production Plant, Police Investigation Conducted
7 Nov 2021, 20:02 UTC · By: Benny Kirk / The Windsor, Ontario Stellantis production plant was already reeling from the wrath of the current semiconductor shortage before a suspicious explosion rocked through the facility at 5:45 pm local time. In an act that local police are calling "...