If you follow global motorsports, you know the British specialty fabricator and high-technology research warren known as Prodrive. Founded and nourished in the pro rally world, Prodrive first entered a Porsche 911 SC that Henri Toivonen took to the European Rally Championship in the early 1980s before a 19-year running operating Subaru’s World Rally Championship efforts and later, switching to circuit cars by race-breeding the Ferrari 550 Maranello and Aston-Martin Vantage. Now, Prodrive is introducing a self-branded exotic that’s based, generally, on the Bahrain Raid Xtreme entry driven by Sebastian Loeb.

What you see here is the newly introduced Prodrive Hunter, billed credibly as the world’s first off-road, all-wheel-drive hypercar. The builder says that in terms of pure output, the Hunter is superior to even Loeb’s ride, with its twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter V-6 producing an estimated 600 horsepower in customer trim, about a 50 percent boost, if you will, from Loeb’s total output. Built around a space-frame tubular chassis with all-wheel drive and dual shock towers at each corner, the Hunter parallels the Dakar car’s technology, with two exceptions: The extra power, and the substitution of a six-speed paddle shift for the competition car’s sequential mechanical gearbox. Prodrive claims a 0-60 time under four seconds, and says the Hunter will priced at 1.5 million pounds Sterling.

In lots of spaces, including this one, Subaru was feted for bringing a new generation of its most impressively fast vehicle, the WRX STI, to market for 2021 along with copious turbocharged – which necessarily means gasoline-burning – performance horsepower. Likely to the alarm of many Subiephiles, Subaru of America disclosed this week that this current generation of petroleum-fueled STI performance cars will be the last, as Subaru pivots toward an electric future a bit more slowly than some of its bigger competition from Japan has managed up to this point.

In a statement released from its corporate headquarters in Camden, New Jersey, Subaru of America said that anticipated limits on fuel consumption and emissions, especially of the greenhouse variety, has led it to determine that a next-generation, internal combustion engine WRX STI will not be produced based upon the new WRX platform. Subaru is in the early stages of reimagining the radical performance STI as an electric car, or at least an electrically assisted one, as it begins its launch of the Solterra EV that it jointly designed with Toyota, and is built on a new-generation EV-capable platform. As Subaru explained, “The Subaru WRX STI and the STI brand represent the zenith of Subaru’s performance vehicles exemplifying Subaru’s unique DNA and rally heritage. As we look to the future, we also look forward to incorporating the essence of STI into our next generation of vehicles.”

“Direct Connection” is a magical phrase in the world of Chrysler lore, going back to when the automaker was still called Chrysler and when drag racers such as Judy Lilly promoted Direct Connection, the corporation’s marketing arm for performance parts, on the sides of their race cars. High performance is still big business at Stellantis, the European conglomerate that now owns Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep, in part justifying the major sponsorship dropped recently on Tony Stewart Racing’s new nitro drag teams. That effort has involved rebranding the network of retailers who stock Direct Connection goodies, everything from electronics to fully built crate engines, as the Dodge Power Brokers.

The lineup of Dodge Power Brokers stores runs to about 100 dealerships nationally, selling Direct Connection components – we love the old-school sign on the right, just above the exhaust header – and other goodies to make your Mopar quicker, faster and more trick to the eye. That’s a total of more than 200 individual components, including no less than 14 performance kits for the production Dodge Challenger alone. Don’t live near a Power Brokerage? No problem, because Stellatis has also teed up a new Direct Connection retail website that has everything you need. Somewhere, Ronnie Sox and Dick Landy are smiling about all this.

It’s officially called “holoride,” and if you invest in buying a new Audi later this year, it could be a part of your ride, too. What holoride is, basically, is virtual reality-based infotainment designed specifically for cars and the use, we should make clear, of passengers. Introduced in 2019 at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, a collaboration between Disney Games and Interactive Experiences, holoride is an onboard gaming adventure involving Marvel Entertainment characters that actually fuses the vehicle’s motions – your vehicle – into the gaming scenario. It’s all undertaken through VR goggles linked to the vehicle.

Beginning in June, a broad range of Audi vehicles, including the all-electric e-tron, designed and produced with Audi’s third generation modular infotainment toolkit (MIB 3) and the latest software cluster will be holoride-capable. The initial launch will be in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, with other markets following. So, what’s holoride do? Essentially, it adapts the ride motions of a VR-equipped vehicle to the process of a game in real time. If you’re Audi accelerates, the spaceship or monster in your game will blast or lurch forward. When the car turns, so do they. In the digital world, this is known as extendable reality, and holoride will be further adaptable to link directly with Audi’s autonomous-driving technology when it comes on line, which presumably will allow the driver to play, too.

Some of the most intriguing new vehicles produced by Mercedes-Benz haul a lot more items other than really rich people. Mercedes-Benz Vans, as that segment of the pioneering automaker is formally known, now fights for sales with the Big Three for every van they market to a tradesman. For 2022 Work Truck week, Mercedes-Benz announced two very significant changes to its very successful Sprinter van lineup. They’ll continue to offer AWD models in a welter of configurations, only with a technical twist.

Aside from a freshened visage, four-wheeling Sprinters will now have an automatic AWD system that replaces the foregoing manually engaged setup. The new AWD system allows torque on demand with up to an even 50-50 split per axle. Elsewhere in the powertrain department, the Sprinter will transition to exclusively four-cylinder power, gasoline or diesel, with the new OM654 engine to be offered with two output levels. In all cases, the engines will be linked to a new 9G-TRONIC automatic transmission, with nine forward speeds.

You know how stores or restaurants sometimes hang banners outside that read “Under New Management?” The Amelia, as the landmark concours in northeast Florida is now formally known, is too classy a happening for that. But last weekend’s edition marked the first under the ownership of Hagerty, the Traverse City, Michigan, conglomerate that markets specialty insurance products and a lot more than that. There was all the traditional Amelia Island beauty you’d expect plus some new stuff, with new sponsors, including the Saturday program now called Cars & Community, which incorporate the RADwood showing of underappreciated cars and in the same spirit of unserious fun, the Concours d’Lemons. But one thing will never change, and that’s The Amelia’s ability to put the very best on its show field.

The 215 cars that took to the Ritz-Carlton greens for Sunday judging were, as always, fabulous. Among the noted automobiles taking part were one of the first three Porsches to race at Le Mans, and one of the most influential hot rods in history, the Doane Spencer roadster owned by collector Bruce Meyer, which anchored the 1932 Ford specialty category. But this event photo captures the pinnacle, The Amelia’s dual Best of Show winners, one each for road and race cars. Among road cars, the highest award went to the 1934 Duesenberg J-531 displayed by Harry Yeaggy of Cincinnati, Ohio. One of the final Duesenbergs produced, this LaGrande Convertible Coupe was originally built for Marjorie Merriweather Post, the General Mills cereal heiress. Among race cars – officially, The Amelia calls it the Concours de Sport – the top honor’s recipient was the 2017 Cadillac DPi-V.R displayed by the Jackson Collection, of Ellicott City, Maryland. Fabricated by Wayne Taylor Racing and packing a 5.5-liter Cadillac racing V-8 with 600 horsepower on tap, the prototype scored the overall win in the 2018 Petit Le Mans before grabbing an outright win in the Rolex 24 at Daytona the following year.

You may not have yet heard about this rule change, but if you’re the type of enthusiast who likes to drive – and more importantly, buy – a really unique ride, the change applies directly to you. Thanks in great part to lobbying by SEMA, the Specialty Equipment Market Association, producers of specialty cars that build 325 or fewer cars per year will now have a significantly streamlined federal regulatory process that recognizes their limited production volume. Full disclosure, I write for Performance Racing Industry, the motorsport-component element of SEMA, which represents the $50 billion American automotive aftermarket.

The regulatory streamlining approved by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is a potential boon, or a least a headache remedy, for specialty builders who turn out everything from jewel-quality street rods to Cobra replicas and more recently, built-up replicas of 1960s pony cars made entirely from aftermarket reproduction parts. So if you’ve got the means to commission a one-of-one treat like this built-from-scratch, deeply channeled Deuce roadster, the process of obtaining one is about to get considerably easier.

A longtime fixture in the Jeep world, reaching back to when it was an American Motors property, the Jeep Cherokee is made over big time for 2022 across no less than four trims levels, not bad for what once was a standalone model. The new-generation Cherokee for 2022 blends standard, turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder power with independent suspension at all four corners, a level of chassis sophistication that once would have been unthinkable at Jeep Central in Toledo. The optional engine, we should add, is a 3.2-liter V-6 with Chrysler lineage, along with a standard nine-speed automatic transmission.

The image you see here shows a 2022 Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk, one of the four models that now compose the Cherokee range and which also include the Cherokee X – talk about hearkening back to AMC – the Cherokee Latitude LUX and the Cherokee Limited, with the Trailhawk slotted just below the Limited in the model hierarchy. Two four-wheel-drive systems are offered – the Latitude LUX also offers two-wheel drive – with a best-in-class towing rating of 4,500 pounds for Cherokees with V-6 power. Suffice to say that the list of available safety and convenience appointments runs to more than 80 items.

You can make a strong argument that more than any other vehicle it sells, the Sportage compact SUV is the one that made Kia’s reputation in North America, enjoying its status as the longest-running model range in Kia’s portfolio on this content. The fifth generation of this bite-size SUV is now hitting the showrooms, with new safety features that include intersection monitoring and reverse-collision avoidance technology. The 2023 Sportage will be offered across seven full appointment levels.

The image from Kia shows one such Sportage, the premium X-Pro Prestige, which will start at $36,790 under 2023 Sportage pricing that Kia announced this week. That’s the top of the food chain, because you’ll be able to get into a new Sportage with pricing starting at $25,990 for a base Sportage LX with front drive only. The line then ascends to add AWD plus escalating trim levels EX, X-Line, X-Line Prestige, SX, SX Prestige and two versions of the X-Pro model.

You may be of a certain age to recall the years when Volvo based its reputation in large part on declarative magazine advertising that plainly explained the cars were safe, boxy, boring and reliable. Volvo’s vehicles and marketing have advanced considerably in the ensuing decades, but occupant protection is still a very big part of Volvo’s message when it comes to selling vehicles. It’s fitting, therefore, that Volvo is once more the beneficiary of an accolade that deals with its ability to keep passengers alive.

The recognition has been directed to one of Volvo’s newest vehicles, the all-electric C40 Recharge, which has won the TSP+ designation from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The designation translates to Top Safety Pick – Plus, the highest rating that IIHS bestows in its annual crash testing of new vehicles. Volvo’s publicly stated goal is the total elimination of fatalities in accidents involving its vehicles. Part of the reason for the industry-leading IIHS rating is the safety that Volvo engineers into all its vehicles, not just this one, which include automatic emergency braking, forward collision warning, pedestrian, and cyclist detection.