Henry Payne, The Detroit News

With a colossal 670 horsepower from its 4.0-liter, twin-turbo V-8 (14 more than the standard Vantage), the supercar inhaled the landscape in front of me. Developed alongside the Vantage GT3 car that is leading the 2026 IMSA Weathertech SportsCar Championship’s GTD class, the Vantage is remarkably nimble for a 4,000-pound production car.

After cruising across Washtenaw Couty, I entered Hell and selected TRACK mode. The variable shocks noticeably stiffened, making the car feel as one with the road. Sticky, summer Michelin Pilot Sport S tires gripped the asphalt. Switch the eight-speed automatic transmission to MANUAL mode. Pull the bat-wing-shaped paddles behind the steering wheel to keep the V-8 in its fat, 3,000-6,000 RPM torque band.

Third gear. Full throttle.

Snatch fourth gear. Brush the brakes into a right-hander. Back to third.

SNAP! CRACKLE! POP! Fireworks from the quad exhaust.

Back to throttle.

Sweet V-8 music. And for 2026, it comes in a convertible.

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Chris Graythen, Getty Images

WASHINGTON, D.C. ― The NTT IndyCar Freedom 250 race around the National mall was one of the most electric races in the history of American motorsport. Like the Indianapolis 500 on Memorial Day weekend, it was a stage unlike any other ― its trophy coveted by drivers and teams.

In execution, however, D.C.’s street race celebrating the nation’s 250th birthday was similar to Penske Entertainment’s annual home race, the Detroit Grand Prix.

The traveling IndyCar circus is the world’s most challenging race series because it tests drivers (and organizers) on venues from 240-mph ovals to writhing road courses to gritty street courses.  This year, IndyCar had five urban slugfests on its 18-race calendar: St. Petersburg, Florida; Long Beach, California; Markham, Ontario; Detroit and D.C.

The latter pair have the most in common. “The track is a lot like Detroit, actually,” said Indy 500 winner and Andretti Global ace Marcus Ericsson in a trackside D.C. interview. “Very bumpy with a long front straight that is the best spot to pass.”

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Henry Payne, The Detroit News

While the Elantra N takes inspiration from its IMSA Michelin Pilot-class, championship-winning Elantra with a scowling fascia covered in more black greasepaint than Baltimore Ravens Hall-of-Famer Ray Lewis, my Kia tester is dressed for a night on the town.

The elegant front end is framed by Cadillac-like vertical DRLs (Daytime Runing Lights) that glow orange. Look at them head-on and they remind of a Fu Manchu mustache at the corners of Kia’s signature tiger grille. The distinctive styling continues in the rear with a red horizontal taillight that turns down at the ends like, well, a handlebar mustache. It’s cool.

“Wow, very dramatic,” said friend Lisa as Mrs. Payne and I picked her up for a night out.

It’s reminiscent of the Stinger GT that turned heads in the market from 2018-24. It changed consumers’ perception of Kia. Like K4, it was a hatchback with can’t-turn-my-eyes-away styling. And man was it affordable, offering Audi A7-like performance for two-thirds the price.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — In one of the most extraordinary events in America’s year-long celebration of its 250^th birthday, the Freedom 250 Grand Prix brought IndyCars to the nation’s capital Sunday, August 23 to race around the National Mall. Organized by American racing legend Roger Penske, the event was wrapped in a red-white-and-blue who’s-who of Americana: U.S. Air Force aircraft flyovers, the president of the United States lapping the track in a Cadillac limo and Andretti Global racing team’s popular American driver Kyle Kirkwood holding the trophy.

The winning powertrain manufacturer? Honda Motor Co.

The prominence of the Japanese automaker in the historic U.S. event is a testament to the integration of the Tokyo-based brand in American life. If Coca-Cola, McDonald’s and Ford Motor Co. are U.S. brand ambassadors abroad, Honda is as American as, well, the Freedom 250.

With nearly 10% of the U.S. auto market, Honda shares the same challenges as domestic automakers from regulatory changes to tariffs to rising Chinese competition. At the Freedom 250, top Honda executives, drivers and engineers joined in celebrating an America that has brought Honda riches well beyond Japanese borders.

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Henry Payne, The Detroit News

WASHINGTON, D.C. – With the 670-horsepower, 5.5-liter V-8 engine screaming behind my ear at a stratospheric 8,400 RPM, the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 hit 135 mph on west-bound Pennsylvania Avenue before hot shoe and General Motors’ Vice President for Product Programs and Motorsport Ken Morris buried the brakes into Turn 2 and pulled the eyeballs out of my head.

And no cops pulled us over.

The nation’s capital has hosted military flyovers, parades, and riots over its 226-year history but it has never seen anything like the NTT IndyCar Freedom 250 Grand Prix that will race around the National Mall Saturday and Sunday, August 22-23.

I got a taste on my Friday afternoon hot lap of what it’s like to go (legally) 110 mph over the 25 mph speed limit down Washington’s six-lane main street that connects the White House and the Capitol Building. This weekend, IndyCar’s will top that by another 50 mph – hitting 185 before diving into Turn 2, the best passing opportunity on the track.

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Henry Payne, The Detroit News

Holly — In addition to capturing multiple Formula Drift championships in a Ford Mustang, Vaughn Gittin Jr. has made a name for himself as one of America’s top off-road racers, winning class victories at the Baja 1000 and King of Hammers in a Ford Bronco. The self-described “fun-haver” is one of the most engaging, outsized personalities in motorsports.

My purple and aqua Mystichrome-painted, 37-inch-tire, dirt-kicking Bronco RTR ROVR tester from his Ready to Rock mod shop is infused with Gittin’s DNA.

RTR is responsible for Ford’s forthcoming in-house Bronco and Mustang RTR models, but the North Carolina-based company continue to make its own, dealer-installed mods that are fully covered by Ford warranty. ROVR is one of those packages, and my Bronco Badlands-modified fun-haver was loaded to the gunwale.

The great thing about off-road performance vehicles, of course, is you don’t have to travel all the way to Drummond Island in the Upper Peninsula (117 miles of trails) or legendary Moab, Utah, to be a fun-haver.

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GM, GM

Here’s a stoplight drag race we’d like to see at a future Woodward Dream Cruise: the Porsche 963 RSP vs. the Cadillac V-One.

At Carmel, California’s summer autopalooza last week, The Quail, General Motors Co.’s luxury brand unveiled the wicked-looking V-One Concept based on the Cadillac V-Series.R hypercar that endurance-races across the globe from Daytona to Le Mans.

The V-One comes a little over a year after Porsche’s street-legal hypercar — also based on their Le Mans endurance racer — debuted at the 2025 24 Hours of Le Mans in France. The car was gifted by Porsche to Roger Penske, Porsche’s partner in international sports car racing.

Like the 963 RSP (short for Roger Searle Penske), the V-One is a street-focused version of the V-Series.R. The two cars are likely the fastest street-legal vehicles ever conceived. Unlike the Porsche, Cadillac hailed the V-One as a halo for future V-Series brand design.

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Pontiac – Dawn broke over the Woodward Deam Cruise here Saturday revealing asphalt black with burnout marks at the intersection of Woodward and Pike.

It’ll got a lot blacker today.

The bookends of the Woodward Dream Cruise have very different personalities. Ferndale opens the Cruise Friday at 5.30 PM each year – blessed by the presence of Ford’s sprawling Mustang Alley display at Como’s – with an official ribbon cutting at Nine Mile and the Lights & Sirens Parade of city emergency vehicles.

Pontiac is the Wild West. No ribbon cutting. No officials. No manufacturer presence. Just wall-to-wall car owners enjoying the world’s biggest car event. After the sun went down Friday, the revs turned up as cars cruised the West Track Loop at the north end of the Cruise’s 16 mile strip before turning south.

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