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Revisiting the Vegas Grand Prix 16 years later
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — In seven months, the Las Vegas Strip will echo with the sounds of Formula 1 when grand prix racing returns to the valley. Organizing, managing and pulling off a race like this is a major challenge, but it’s not the first time Las Vegas valley streets have been turned into a race track. This is not about the F1 races at Caesars Palace. This was the Champ Car World Series that raced around downtown and what’s now called the Arts District. The 2007 Vegas Grand Prix for the Champ Car series happened was April 6, 2007 — 16 years ago. Champ Car driver Will Power drives during…
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Ranking the top 10 pre-war grand prix cars
Grand prix racing had been around for nearly half a century before the arrival of Formula 1. The inaugural world championship in 1950 is often used as a starting point, but there had been plenty of brilliant machines and epic races already. The rules were modified regularly from the inaugural French GP in 1906 to the outbreak of the Second World War. It was a period of huge change and innovation, creating a wide variety of eclectic machines – and some milestone ones. For this list, we’ve considered the success of each car that competed in major GP events between 1906 and 1939, and the impact they had on motorsport.…
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What to know about this week’s IndyCar St. Pete Grand Prix
Festivities for the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg begin today in downtown and culminate with Sunday’s IndyCar Series season opener at the 1.8-mile, 14-turn street course. Here’s what you need to know about this year’s version of one of the area’s biggest annual sporting events. It’s bigger than usual The first turn will have more cars vying for space than ever this year. [ IVY CEBALLO | Times (2021) ] The field for the headlining IndyCar Series is expected to feature 27 cars. That’s the most in Grand Prix history (there were 26 entrants last year and in 2012). The event has also been able to resume the Thursday night 5K…
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Junkyard Gem: 1993 Jeep Grand Cherokee
Jeep, then part of the American Motors Corporation, introduced the unibody XJ Cherokee for the 1984 model year, and suddenly there was a tough-looking truck that drove like a car and got much better fuel economy than the rest of the truck world. Ford responded with the Explorer SUV for 1991, and suddenly commuter trucks were everywhere. Even before Chrysler bought AMC in 1987, a snazzier successor to the Cherokee was being cooked up in Kenosha; it debuted in the 1993 model year and was an instant sales success. Here’s one of those first-year Grand Cherokees, found in a Colorado wrecking yard last fall. The Grand Cherokee had a wheelbase…
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2023 Jeep Grand Wagoneer L Review: I6 Sense
Design | Comfort | Tech | Performance | Safety | Fuel Economy | Pricing | FAQ Verdict 8.6 / 10 I don’t mean to speak ill of the dying, but the Jeep Grand Wagoneer’s 6.4-liter V8 was probably not the best choice for a flagship SUV. Perfectly at home in muscle cars and pickup trucks, the 471-horsepower Hemi wasn’t quite energetic or refined enough for a 6,000-plus-pound luxury SUV. The 2023 Grand Wagoneer’s new twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter straight-six, though, feels tailor-made for premium duty. In high-output guise (exclusive to the Grand member of the Wagoneer family), it packs 510 hp and 500 pound-feet of torque with a smooth, quiet charm. This…
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2023 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe PHEV Costs a Lot to Save a Little
Hearing the Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe described as the “most fuel-efficient Jeep ever” gives us the warm fuzzies. It feels like a win for the world and makes us want to parade through an aisle at Whole Foods, high-fiving every farm-to-fork enthusiast until our palms turn red. But while the 4xe’s EPA-estimated 56 MPGe and 26 miles of electric-only range are good for a Grand Cherokee, the plug-in-hybrid option is an expensive one. That’s not to downplay the effort by Jeep to reduce its wonderfully luxurious SUV’s usage of gasoline. The Grand Cherokee, which was redesigned last year, is an absolute honey on the road. With a firm brake pedal,…
