Nor should they, really. Mazda’s MX-5 Miata already offers the option of an aluminum-and-steel overcast with its delightfully gimmicky and functional RF variant.

Still, past MX-5 owners often shelled out for a simple and attractive fiberglass top to accompany their factory cloth top. You’d often find it stashed in the garage next to the lawn mower. So popular were these aftermarket accessories, Mazda saw fit to offer customers the all-weather confidence and convenience of a retractable hardtop, starting in 2006. With the RF, it chose a different way of letting the sun shine in.

Well, there’s now a new removable top available to MX-5 owners, but you’ll never see it on the street. Read More >

Ricky Taylor pulled away from Joao Barbosa and gave Wayne Taylor Racing and Cadillac a victory during 36 Hours of Florida at Sebring Raceway. Taylor pushed his Konica Minolta-sponsored No. 10 Cadillac DPi-V.R to a 13.6 second win over Barbosa’s Action Express-backed entry, following a long mid-race battle between the two Cadillacs.

Much of the race was a recreation of the prototype duel between the Taylor family and Mustang Sampling Racing at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. However, with three hours to go at Sebring, Jordan Taylor passed Filipe Albuquerque for the lead in dense traffic and built up a sizable gap. Calling in the No. 10 Cadillac to pit and swap drivers in the final hour, just moments before the race’s final course caution, resulted in Ricky Taylor maintaining a commanding lead for the remainder of the event. Read More >

In the world of motorsport the World Rally Championship reigns supreme as the event with the most unbelievable crashes and saves. While I don’t want to diminish touring car racing’s ability to mix it up or Formula One’s high-speed, explosive launching of cars, WRC is the only sport that routinely has drivers flying off the track and through obstacles only to return and finish the race — often missing a tire and half of their vehicle’s bodywork.

On the final stage of Rally Mexico, Citroën’s Kris Meeke hit an unexpected bump and took a Sunday drive off the course and into a parking lot, destroying the rear end of a Volkswagen in the process. After avoiding a group of bystanders, he then proceeded to fling the car around some of the most willy-nilly parking I’ve ever seen, return to the track, and win the race by a sizable margin. Read More >

Cadillac took a definite “more is more” approach for its return to prototype racing. By handing over its engineering masterpiece, the V8 DPi-V.R, to the distinguished Wayne Taylor Racing, LeMans veteran Massimiliano “Max” Angelelli, and NASCAR legend Jeff Gordon, it assured itself the one-two victory at the Rolex 24 in Daytona.

However, despite an ideal finish, it wasn’t a perfect day for the team. Read More >

Formula One super-magnate and extremely old person Bernie Ecclestone was just ousted from his position as chief executive by Liberty Media — F1’s new owners.

Having bought the company and the voting rights, the American media group’s board of directors designated Chase Carey as Formula One’s new CEO. Unlike Ecclestone, who has been active in motorsport since the 1940s, Carey has a ridiculous mustache and no racing experience whatsoever.  Read More >

If you live in the United States, odds are that you prefer NASCAR over Formula One. However, if you occupy space anywhere else in the world, the opposite is likely true.

Liberty Media, the American company that purchased Formula One for $8 billion earlier this year, is planning to flip the script and revamp the motorsport to better appeal to everyone — especially Yankees.

The strategy revolves around stretching the traditional weekend of practice, qualifying, and actual race into a full week’s worth of events and coverage, aping the stock car strategy of turning a single competition into an automotive Burning Man.   Read More >

FCA and Ferrari boss Sergio Marchionne said that he would love to see Alfa Romeo returning to the Formula 1 Championship with its own team, provided that they are never, ever as good as Scuderia Ferrari. Instead of being a genuine F1 contender, he imagines Alfa as the junior varsity team designed to condition future talent for its big-league brother.

“Alfa Romeo in F1 could become a fine breeding ground for young Italian drivers,” Marchionne said after announcing GP2’s Antonio Giovinazzi as Ferrari’s new third driver at the company’s annual Christmas media event. “For that very reason we are thinking about bringing it back, as our competitor, to racing, to Formula One. It’s important for Alfa to return.” Read More >

As it prepares to return to the World Rally Championship after a 17-year absence, Toyota and its Gazoo racing division just revealed a piece of brain candy for hot hatch lovers.

Making sky-high horsepower from its diminutive four-cylinder, the Toyota Yaris WRC hits the pavement — and dirt and snow — in Monte Carlo next month, but the vehicle itself could spell a less buttoned-down future for the brand. Read More >

As things get older they gradually become “priceless.” However, before that happens, there is a long period of grotesquely inflated cost mathematically intertwined with the object’s historical relevance.

When Jaguar announced they would resume production on the 1957 XKSS in 2017, they added up the D-Type’s success at Le Mans, Steve McQueen’s seal of approval, the car’s extremely limited numbers, and the tragic production-ending fire at the Browns Lane factory. A continuation car dripping with so much historical mystique wasn’t going to go cheap. Jaguar sold the nine “new” cars at $1.5 million each.

Aston Martin’s DB4 GT has a similar allure. It’s a low-production high-performance version of an already coveted classic. Even if you are filthy rich enough to own one, it probably exists in a temperature controlled garage next to other massively expensive vintage automobiles you dare not drive. Well, sixty years after being first introduced, Aston Martin plans to build twenty-five new track-only continuations of the DB4 GT. Read More >

High-tech computer-aided design has made relative child’s play out of laying out new ideas when building cars and eliminates tedious, expensive, and time-consuming trial-and-error. Some Australians have taken to YouTube to show off what they can do when they turn their multi-core processors toward the most basic form of motorsport: Formula Vee.

Read More >

Automotive athletes tend to age a little better other sports figures. While Formula 1 drivers tend to be a little younger, the average NASCAR driver is in their late thirties. That means racing retirement can be delayed well-past the comparative norm for an Olympic boxer or linebacker in the NFL.

However, every sport seems to share the common theme of athletes’ complete inability to remain retired after making a public announcement that they were packing it in.  Read More >

The old NASCAR adage “Win on Sunday, sell on Monday” still temps modern automakers, and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles CEO Sergio Marchionne isn’t immune to its spell.

After pulling out of stock car racing in 2012 to get its financial house in order, FCA now wants to see the Dodge brand back on the track. Read More >

Cadillac Racing has dutifully fielded entries in the Pirelli World Challenge since 2005, but the automaker’s motorsports division will now return to endurance racing after a 14-year hiatus.

The automaker revealed its 2017 Cadillac DPi-V.R, designed to hit the track in January as an entry in the 2017 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Series Prototype (P) class. Its maiden voyage? The 24 Hours of Daytona — erm, “Rolex 24 At Daytona.”

All of this, of course, is designed to get you into a new CTS. Read More >

Drew Bowler, the founding father of monstrous rally-ready Land Rovers, passed away unexpectedly on November 14th. For over 30 years, Bowler Motorsports has produced a succession of iconic vehicles for winning trials, hill rallies, comp safaris, and raids.

Read More >

Forget about your tame, hand-me-down Celebrity Eurosport or Lumina Euro of yesteryear, Chevrolet wants you, yes you, to go further in gussying up what could be a very mild vehicle.

The automaker has launched its 2017 Chevrolet Performance catalog, which now boasts added heat for almost every model in the lineup. For some vehicles, the new offerings could be the makings of a performance monster. For others (such as the Malibu), you’ll want to give those factory-backed add-ons some sober second thought. Read More >