Author: kirklandc008@gmail.com

Small to large. By a small margin, Buick is the oldest North American company still building cars today, was the first to be incorporated into General Motors, and marked its 120th birthday in 2023. To have survived so long, Buick has clearly been doing something right for the last 120 odd years, which is as good a reason as any for us to delve into its history: The founder David Dunbar Buick (1854-1929) was born in Arbroath on the east coast of Scotland, but was taken by his family to the US at the age of two. Like Henry Ford (1863-1948),…

Computex 2026 is over, and as usual, the show floor was packed with more laptops, PCs, components, peripherals, and oddball gadgets than any one person could properly process in a few days. There were sleek ultrabooks, massive gaming rigs, AI PCs, experimental designs, and plenty of products that looked like they were built mainly to make people stop and stare. A handful of products stayed on our minds long after we left the show floor. They weren’t always the most practical, powerful, or important announcements, but each had something memorable about it. So, in no particular order, here are the…

“It’s a genuine Chelsea tractor,” says Mike Hurst, pointing to the Chelsea & Kensington parking permit on the windscreen of his 1992 J-reg Range Rover 3.5 V8 Vogue SE auto, finished in Ardennes Green.It’s not his permit: it was there when he bought the car 19 years ago, unbelievably from a chap at the roadside.

High performance and reliability don’t always go hand-in-hand — especially at lower prices. There is no such thing as a new sports car with 400+ horsepower for cheap. The current Nissan Z coupe counts for something, but even it starts at over $40k today. That said, many high-horsepower models sacrifice reliability in the name of performance. In order to find relatively affordable cars with around 400 horsepower and decent reliability, we have to move to the used market. Giving up the idea of buying a brand-new car doesn’t have to be a sacrifice itself, though, since the used market offers…

Scottish engineering and powertrain experts Danfoss have developed a new digital hydraulic system designed specifically for electric construction equipment that can reduce energy consumption from the machine’s battery by 35%, and improve runtime by more than 50%. (!) Danfoss started with a Develon DX300LC‑7 crawler excavator that was fitted with a Danfoss Editron EM-PMI375 drive motor, EC-C1200 inverter, and MC050 motor controller, and three 140-kWh batteries to make it fully electric. The company then replaced the unit’s conventional swashplate hydraulic pump with a Danfoss-developed DDP180D pump motor to service the excavator’s boom, arm, bucket, and swing. The new unit, instead…

Every year at Summer Game Fest, nestled in between the splashy blockbuster showcases, the Wholesome Direct provides a nice change of pace. It’s similarly packed with games — this year’s edition had more than 50 — but the vibe is more chill and, well, wholesome. As in years past, I’ve pulled out some of the more intriguing reveals and announcements, though you can watch the whole thing for yourself right here. And if you’re interested in checking out some of the games — a few are available now, and a bunch have demos — there’s a dedicated Steam page.Way back…

Long before retro-inspired muscle cars became a major industry trend, Pontiac took a bold gamble on nostalgia by reviving one of the most legendary performance names in American automotive history. It was an attempt to reconnect modern buyers with the rebellious spirit that helped define the original muscle car era of the 1960s. The revived Pontiac name brought muscle-car-era characteristics to the 2000s but didn’t quite hit the same mark that Dodge achieved with the renewal of the Charger and Challenger. Still, the revived muscle car delivered serious horsepower and rear-wheel-drive performance, but its understated styling and unusual Australian roots…

Details for a potential deal haven’t been finalized yet. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images OpenAI could be the latest tech company that the US government takes a stake in. As first reported by NOTUS, “senior US officials” have had discussions with AI companies about potentially acquiring stakes in their firms. CNBC confirmed the talks and its source said that the talks between the Trump administration and OpenAI’s Sam Altman dated back to 2025 when the CEO first proposed the idea. The discussions have led to a potential agreement that could see OpenAI voluntarily offer some equity to the US government, which…

Some might be thinking that with all these chassis and aero improvements that Aston Martin has also gone to town with the car’s AMG sourced V8, but only a gentle remap to improve the top-end performance has been carried out, resulting in a 20bhp increase to 690bhp. Which is, as you’d expect, plenty. The DB12 has never left you feeling wanting in the performance stakes and the S is no different, pulling with muscle-car strength from low down and barely breaking sweat, to fizzing at the top end like a thoroughbred sports car.  There’s genuine duality in how you can…

Most American car enthusiasts will have heard of the Chevrolet El Camino. This unique vehicle, halfway between a car and a pickup truck, became an icon of mid-century American motoring, symbolizing the idea of road-trip freedom. The El Camino had a fairly long lifespan, sticking around on the market for nearly 30 years. What many enthusiasts don’t know, however, is that one of Chevrolet’s sister brands sold its own version of the model for a slightly shorter period of time. In the 1970s, GMC produced a rebadged version of the El Camino called the Sprint, a name that was later…