Category: Speed

They have turned the cutesy Inster into an aggressive road racer, and it looks fantastic.

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Mild design tweaks don’t change the off-road Ram trucks’ capabilities Ram Power Wagon still has no direct competitor 2025 Ram Power Wagon costs $74,235 and Rebel HD costs $70,740 The competition woke up and realized there’s room to play in the heavy-duty off-road sandbox. But Ram doesn’t want to give an inch of a segment it has defined…

Stellantis may be looking to adapt planetary gear hybrid systems—like the one currently used in the Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid plug-in hybrid minivan—to more rugged vehicles, a patent filing indicates. The Pacifica Hybrid uses a planetary power-split system to juggle its 3.6-liter V-6 and a pair of electric motors, which can both be used…

The Santa Fe gains hybrid power, 36 mpg combined It outdoes the Toyota Highlander Hybrid and Kia Sorento, and looks like a Land Rover The Hybrid model costs only $500 more than the gas-only Santa Fe A three-row crossover SUV with a hybrid powertrain may be nothing new, but packaged with a blocky Land Rover look and an interior that puts the…

New minivans can be had with gas, hybrid, plug-in hybrid, or fully electric powertrains The Toyota Sienna can only be had as a hybrid, and with all-wheel drive it gets 35 mpg combined The VW ID.Buzz is an electric van with 231 miles of range with AWD Minivans have never been better. Minivans are nowhere near as popular as they were at the end of…

• Edmunds pits the electric Dodge Charger against the most powerful Ford Mustang in a U-drag race.
• The Ford has a better power-to-weight ratio, but the Dodge has more power and traction and quicker acceleration.
• The Dodge beats the Ford in both races, but the second race is very close, highlighting the two cars’ strengths.

Electric vehicles are just quicker in a straight line compared to combustion cars thanks to their plentiful and instant torque, precise traction control and no need to shift gears. Period. You floor a powerful EV, and it will leave an equivalent gas car for dead, at least in a straight line. But would a U-turn at the end of a drag race be enough to secure a win for a lighter gas–powered car?

In the case of the Dodge Charger Daytona EV versus the Ford Mustang Dark Horse, the answer is nope.  Even though, on paper, the ‘Stang has a superior power-to-weight ratio, Dodge’s electric muscle car can still take it down.

Edmunds put the two head-to-head in two of its U-Drags, basically a drag race with a U-turn at the end that is meant to highlight not only cars’ acceleration but also how well they scrub off speed, their cornering speed, and how well they put their power down.

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On paper, the Mustang Dark Horse, which has 500 horsepower and is the most powerful current model variant, can hit 60 mph from a standstill in 3.7 seconds with the 10-speed automatic transmission; it’s 4.1 seconds if you go for the manual. Until the new Mustang GTD goes on sale, this is the top-shelf Ford ponycar. 

However, the Dodge Charger Daytona EV with the Scat Pack, which has up to 670 horsepower, is four-tenths quicker with a time of 3.3 seconds, which was shown to be even lower in independent testing.

Even with the power advantage, the Charger weighs a lot more and it’s the Mustang that has a better power-to-weight ratio. This should be a close race between the two, and it is, but even with the extra weight it has to carry around, the Dodge still manages to pull ahead.

Having a U-turn at the end of the first acceleration run highlights how much better the lighter and more track-focused Mustang is around the bends. It stops and steers much better than the Charger, which looks cumbersome by comparison, but it still loses to the Dodge in both races. Edmunds swaps drivers and lanes for the second race to make everything fair, and even though the difference was smaller and the Mustang put on a better show, pulling out of the U-turn ahead, the Charger reeled it in by the end of the run.

Nonetheless, the electric Charger has been a polarizing vehicle, disappointing some reviewers for lacking the ability to do burnouts and sometimes shaky EV powertrain. We’ll be testing it again for ourselves soon here at InsideEVs, so stay tuned for that.

The Bugatti Tourbillon’s standout feature is an 1,800-hp plug-in hybrid powertrain built around a high-revving V-16, but Bugatti didn’t forget about the aerodynamic work needed to make use of the immense power on tap. The goal was to surpass the Bugatti Chiron in slipperiness, Paul Burnham, chief engineer for the Tourbillon, said in a video posted…