We are most assuredly not talking about Publishers Clearing House, or its please-go-away sweepstakes, with this entry. Instead, we’re watching Ford mark the first year in the marketplace, more or less, of its Mustang Mach-E, which is doing impressively well in terms of buyer interest, enough so that Ford has rolled out the all-electric crossover’s first special edition.

Which brings us back to PCH, in this case standing for its rightful definition, Pacific Coast Highway, in honor of the new 2022 Mustang Mach-E California Route 1 Edition, using the iconic coast road’s formal name. With a starting MSRP of $43,895, and available for immediate reservation and ordering, the California Route 1 model combines all-wheel drive with standard heated seats and a heated steering wheel, just the ticket for chilly, fogging mornings along the rocky, twisting shore. The photo illustrates what else is new for 2022, a Premium Ice White Appearance Package, which adds a black-finished roof that’s now also standard on the Mach-E GT and GT Performance Edition.

Today, the vaunted American specialty manufacturer is known as Shelby American, it exists as a subsidiary of Carroll Shelby International Inc., and it’s based in Las Vegas. This most holy of American performance nameplates will mark its 60th anniversary in 2022. And given the sort of delectable mayhem that Shelby unleashed on the street and the track during its unforgettable history, the birthday bash has to be done precisely right. To that end, Shelby American has declared its plans to offer just 60 copies of an upgraded King of the Road package, which will be applied to selected Shelby GT500s assembled between 2020 and 2022, a total of 60 cars for each model year.

So, how do you make an already exclusive, and very expensive, performance coupe even more special? The KR package will take the existing GT500 and add a dry carbon-fiber hood, specific wheels, and tire-and-chassis tuning protocol, and best of all, a lot more horsepower. Precise details are forthcoming but Shelby American expects that by changing the GT500’s supercharger and intake cooling, it can add 140 horsepower to the car in one shot, nailing a tee shot that will put output on the far side of 900 horsepower. The first production copy of the reborn Shelby GT500KR will be offered at no reserve during Barrett-Jackson’s mega-auction next month in Scottsdale, Arizona.

An enthusiast darling of the Aughts, the Audi TT sport coupe has been with us, sometimes a little anonymously, since 1998, having been produced across three distinct generations and riding now on Volkswagen’s multi-purpose MQB front-drive or AWD platform. Any car that’s been in the market as long as the TT can legitimately claim a distinguished legacy, which, as always, is finite. Audi is retiring the TT RS, its current model, after the 2022 model year and has come up with some highly exclusive ways to bid the little veteran farewell.

Audi has just disclosed a series of very, emphasis on “very,” limited editions of the 2022 TT RS, in five colors that originally were applied to one of Audi’s most storied performance cars, the ur-Quattro of World Rally Championship lore. Each of the five colors will be applied to just 10 cars each, meaning that only 50 of the heritage TT RS examples will be produced. Each such car will have specific contrasting leather interiors and piping, along with a script etched in the right-side quarter glass enumerating the firing order of the turbocharged five-cylinder engine, keyed to each of the specialty colors. Listed as such, the color combinations are Alpine White with Ocean Blue leather and Diamond Silver stitch, Helios Blue metallic with Diamond Silver leather and Ocean Blue stitch, Stone Gray metallic with Crimson Red leather and Jet Gray stitch, Tizian Red metallic with Havanna Brown leather and Jet Gray stitch, and Malachite Green metallic with Cognac Brown leather and Black stitch. The 2022 TT RS Heritage Edition will start at $85,350, with non-heritage models beginning at $73,200.

Wind the calendar backward by a year or so and you may recall that General Motors unleashed a maximum-decibel campaign around the relaunch of the Hummer brand as part of the GMC model portfolio. Lots of teaser photos, etc., to keep interest up. Which it did, very successfully, leading up to the all-electric Hummer’s official rollout during the Super Bowl. Very obviously, GMC would very much like to remix a little of that magic as it prepares to boot an all-electric version of its most premium pickup.

If nothing else, the arrival of electric vehicles in the mass market has redefined how automakers present the frontal profile of their products. The teaser image that GMC released about an hour ago depicts the frontal exterior startup lighting sequence for the forthcoming juiced Sierra, which will be offered only in the maximum Denali trim level. In addition to the apparent LED daytime running lights, both the logo and the grille are framed in glowing electrons. Built on GM’s new all-electric Ultium platform, the Sierra Denali EV will emerge for its reveal next year from the retooled GM Factory ZERO plants in Detroit and Hamtramck, Michigan.

Kia is preparing to launch its first fully electric vehicle for the mass market in North America, the EV6. Part of any such rollout is at least a preliminary estimate of mileage or fuel economy, however the vehicle defines it. Today, Kia issued findings from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which performs those evaluations, that the 2022 Kia EV6 has a certified maximum all-electric range, or AER, of 310 miles on a single charge. The test reflected a 2022 EV6 equipped with a 77 kWh battery and operating with rear-wheel drive only.

Doing the math, the EPA certification allows the EV6 to have an overall efficiency level of 4.0 miles per kilowatt-hour. The EV6 will also be desirably offered with all-wheel drive which the EPA certified at an AER of 274 miles per charge. The EV6, which has an attractive filial resemblance to the Hyundai Veloster sport coupe, goes on sale in the first quarter of 2022. Among its advertised attributes are ultra-fast charging capability and a flat floor with superior V2L functionality.

The practice of pre-reserving special-edition automotive offerings – or in some cases, such as the Ford Mustang Mach-E, reserving the chance to buy the entire vehicle – has gained currency as means for manufacturers to provide the masses with a measure of exclusivity. The latest interpretation of that marketing strategy has Dodge buyers being notified that they can do a build-and-price ordering evolution on the brand’s website for two new limited option packages that will allow shoppers to create a 2022 Charger and 2022 Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye Jailbreak variants, each of them most notable for Jailbreak-specific powertrain calibrations that boost both models’ output to 807 horsepower, which ought to satisfy even the most clenched-jaw drivers out there.

Most immediately recognizable by their widebody fender flares, the Jailbreak package lets buyers personalize their Dodges in more than 20 equipment and appearance categories, plus exclusive Hammerhead Grey interior themes set off with copper-toned carbon fiber dash bezels. Blue and yellow brake calipers plus specific wheels add to the visual distinctiveness of both Jailbreak specials. Steering wheel, seating and badging selections can also be customized. Best of all, the Jailbreak package costs out to $995, considerably less than the rest of the car, particularly the Hellcat/Redeye power packaging.

Every so often, we pause to recognize an accomplishment by a JDOW colleague, in this case, Dr. Patrick Sullivan, whose name you ought to learn if you seriously enjoy auto racing, especially the open-wheel variety. Born in Kansas City, Pat is enshrined in the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame and Museum in Knoxville, Iowa, for excellence as a historian, journalist and track announcer. You’d need several hands’ worth of fingers to count all the places he’s manned the mike, but we’ll stick here with fabled Indiana locales including Bloomington Speedway, the Terre Haute Action Track and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where Pat’s been part of the track’s news staff for years.

The Dave Olson photo we borrowed depicts another one of Pat’s distinctions, bestowed only last night at the Indiana Roof Ballroom in Indianapolis, during the same affair at which the United States Auto Club crowned its champions. Pat’s accolade is priceless, the USAC award named in honor of the late Dick Jordan, its esteemed and longtime publicist/statistician, basically bestowed for excellence in letting the world know about the drama of non-wing USAC racing. If you tune in to a USAC broadcast streamed live on FloRacing, especially of an Indiana event, you’ll likely hear Pat as part of the announcing team and can listen to his disciplined, unbroken and accurate stream of facts, history and color yourself. I knew Dick Jordan and guarantee he’d approve of USAC’s choice. Pat also holds a doctoral degree from the University of Kansas, and in his day job, is a professor of psychology at IUPUI, whose full name is Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. Well done, professor.

Based in Charlotte, the World Racing Group is a top-tier sanctioning body for national, regional and local short-track racing, mostly on dirt, in large part through its ownership of the World of Outlaws national series for Sprint cars and dirt Late Models, plus the northeast-centered Super DIRTcar Series for big-block dirt Modifieds. Full plate, right? Yes, until WRG CEO Brian Carter stood up yesterday at the Performance Racing Industry trade show in Indianapolis and announced that WRG will organize two new national series for non-wing Sprint cars and Midgets, like you see below. They’ll officially be called the Xtreme Outlaw Sprint Car Series and the Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series.

The announcement in Indy made no such statement but this much is immediately clear: WRG has fired a Magnum-caliber shot squarely across the bow of the United States Auto Club over its longstanding – since 1956 – hegemony in presenting back-it-in open-cockpit action on dirt, sans wings. According to the announcement, each series will have a 10- to 15-race schedule in 2022, the events piggybacked off existing World of Outlaws race dates on both the Sprint and Late Model sides. WRG anticipates a minimum point fund of $100,000 for each series. The first Xtreme Outlaw event is set to take place in February at the DIRTcar Nationals, held at Volusia Speedway Park, another WRG property. The event traditionally kicks off Daytona Speedweeks and will partially overlap USAC’s annual Winter Dirt Games that take place down the road, literally, at Bubba Raceway Park in Ocala. This is a major power move by a growing sanctioning force and is going to be highly interesting to watch unfold.

The basic looks of it ought to give anyone pause, as Hyundai’s design staff laded on holiday-proportion helpings of dramatic lines and angles when it drew up the vehicle that became today’s 2022 Hyundai Tucson. As if the midsize SUV already didn’t cause onlookers to involuntarily swivel their heads in surprise, Hyundai’s bumped things up still further by adding an off-road-themed XRT trim level for the Tucson, which can be specified for either front-drive or AWD models.

We love this Hyundai photo because the low morning sunlight shows all those styling cues in brightly illuminated relief. It also shows the Tucson XRT’s external visuals, namely the blacked-out alloy wheels, side mirror housings and window surrounds. The high-impact frontal styling treatment is also specific to the XRT model. Right now, the trim package will be exclusive to ICE-powered Tuscon models, with or without Hyundai’s HTRAC AWD technology. Pricing gets underway at $32,625.

If you’re in the market for a three-row SUV with copious interior room and a retail price that won’t permanently turn out your lights, the Mazda CX-9 definitely deserves a slot on your shopping list. The current generation of Mazda’s largest vehicle for the North American market now offers serious power as standard equipment, in the form of the turbocharged 2.5-liter Skyactiv-G engine, mated to a standard six-speed automatic transmission, and with output that begins at 227 horsepower when the CX-9 is fed 87-octane unleaded. Mazda is serious about offering CX-9s with broad appeal to buyers with different appointment tastes, and offers the SUV in no less than seven trim levels for 2022.

Listed in ascending order of appointment level, the 2022 CX-9 is available in Sport, Touring, Touring Premium, Touring Plus, Carbon, Grand Touring and Signature editions. Got all that? Pricing begins at $35.280 for the CX-9 sport but if you want to travel first class, the CX-9 Signature will list for $47,210, which will buy you Nappa leather, second-row heated captain’s chairs, Santos Rosewood interior trim, and an array of exterior accents, including 20-inch alloy wheels. The CX-9s, all of them, are set to hit retail outlets this winter.