Did the literary world really need another book on Shelby American and its cars, a topic that’s been dealt with endlessly in the past? The short answer is that when it comes to telling a compelling story in the process, the answer is “yes.” One of the more respected automotive authors out there, Preston Lerner, has taken on the subject in fine fashion with a highly literate and compelling take on the iconoclasts who collectively made up Shelby American, starting with its founder. Shelby American makes it clear that a lot of people in the Shelby orbit with freethinkers who didn’t exactly fit with the prototypes for auto executives at the time.

At 326 pages, there’s more than enough heft to the highly personal narrative to keep even knowledgeable Shelby enthusiasts engaged in the story. One element that sets this story considerably apart from the shelves full of Cobra books out there is that Lerner directly engaged the help of our friend Dave Friedman, the original Shelby American company photographer and one of the last of the firm’s surviving employees, whose irreplaceable photos dot the text throughout. For a Shelby fan, or someone just learning about the firm’s glorious history, this is a more-than-worthwhile read.

A million times, probably, people who write about cars have used the mutually coined phrase “hot hatch” to refer to a subcompact with a lot of strapped-on performance credibility. The Volkswagen Golf GTI – remember the first German-language “Little GTI” commercials? – embodied the concept in the early days, arguably more than any other single model. It’s been 40 years since that heady rollout, and Volkswagen is coming out with a very limited Golf edition to make sure we’re all aware of the milestone.

The 2023 Volkswagen Golf GTI 40th Anniversary Edition is coming to market with just 1,500 copies earmarked for U.S. buyers, about half the cars to be offered with a six-speed manual gearbox and the rest sold with Volkswagen’s seven-speed DSG automatic transmission. Four colors will be offered, including edition-specific Tornado Red and Urano Gray. Nineteen-inch alloy wheels with red accents form another part of the package. The equipment level is essentially based on the GTI S but will add performance summer tires, DCC adaptive shock-absorber control and speed-sensitive power steering. Power continues with the EA888 turbocharged 2.0-liter engine that produces 241 horsepower. The MSRPs will get underway at $33,055 when deliveries start midway through the model year.

Fresh off disclosing its intention to field a works team in Formula 1, Audi has announced that it will commence a technical partnership with Swiss-headquartered Sauber Motorsport AG as a strategic partner in developing the future Audi F1 car for race readiness, a deal that will also see Audi acquire an ownership stake in Sauber. The deal will establish Sauber as Audi’s factory team at the pinnacle of world motorsport. The plan calls for Audi to create the F1 car’s hybrid-based powertrain in an expanded engine-development shop at Neuburg an der Donau in Germany, while the car itself will be brought on line by Sauber from its facility in Hinwil, Switzerland.

Founded by Peter Sauber in 1970, Sauber cut its teeth in European hillclimbs and in the World Endurance Championship, most notably partnering with Mercedes-Benz when the firm finally returned to organized motorsport after a decades-long absence. Sauber was also elemental in the building of the current Alfa Romeo team in F1. That deal runs through 2023, with Audi expected to join Formula 1 full-time, after utterly vanquishing Le Mans for a decade-plus, in 2026.

Porsche has just announced a special edition for one of its most fabled cars, which recalls an even more famous Porsche of the past. The 911 GT3 RS, one of the world’s most desired track-day cars, is getting a new Tribute to the Carrera RS package, which salutes the iconic 911 Carrera RS 2.7 that was the pinnacle of customer-ready Porsche performance some 50 years ago. Besides the obvious styling cues, this exclusive package for the GT3 RS also includes an NFT program, believed to be the industry’s first such sojourn.

The new edition will be offered in white with accents, including the wheels, in Python Green. The project’s basis is a 911 GT3 RS equipped with the Weissach package and a leather-and-Race-Tex interior. The wheels are cast from featherweight magnesium, and styling accent abound, including on the wing sideplates. The Weissach package adds considerable amounts of carbon fiber. Total MSRP is set at $312,550.

The world’s best-selling vehicle of any kind – about 45 million copies since its inception, at last count – the Toyota Corolla enters 2023 with a fully primed selection of models, including new SE and XLE premium variants and no less than five different editions of the Corolla Hybrid. The most fascinating entry from the standpoint of technology, at least from here in Daytona Beach, is a Corolla Hybrid with electronic on-demand all-wheel drive, helping to plug a gap in the world of traction and electron-assisted powertrains. The combination combines an Atkinson-cycle 1.8-liter engine with dual electric motors operating through a planetary-type, continuously variable automatic transmission. For 2023, hybrid output is boosted to 134 horsepower.

Equally newsworthy is the fact that for 2023, the Corolla Hybrid LE model gets a price reduction of $1,250, always a welcome happenstance. One of the other hybrid versions is the one shown here, the Corolla Hybrid SE, whose red exterior and interior accents proclaim it as the lineup’s sporting model. Fittingly, it’s known as the Infrared Edition.

If memory serves, Spectre used to be the name given collectively to the bad guys who tried and failed to dispatch 007 on the big screen. Here, it’s the official name for the automobile that everybody knew was in the pipeline, the first fully electric vehicle from Rolls-Royce. Envisioned as the spiritual successor to the famed Phantom Coupe, the Spectre will utilize all-aluminum architecture, and promises to have a 0-60 time of around 4.4 seconds while simultaneously delivering 320 miles per charge. Another tidbit teased by the manufacturer is the Spectre’s offering of a new Planar suspension, as it’s being called, with both mechanical and electronic damping aids.

At the pinnacle of the automotive market, personalization is everything, and the Spectre is expected to offer bountiful such opportunities. One of them, called Bespoke features, is Starlight doors, wherein the interior will be studded with nearly 4,800 miniaturized light sources that will achieve a night-sky effect inside. Final technical details are still being hashed out, but Spectre commissions will be accepted immediately for initial deliveries expected in the final quarter of 2023, with pricing expected to be set partway between the existing Cullinan and Phantom models – which is to say, don’t ask.

BMW has long operated a U.S. production facility outside Spartanburg, South Carolina, an operation that stands to get a lot busier as the U.S. market continues its gradual transition toward electric vehicles. That’s because BMW has announced its intention to invest $1.7 billion in building new generations of electric vehicles in Spartanburg, which will be headed by $1 billion to create an advanced assembly presence at the plant for the first of at least six new EVs that BMW plans to build for U.S. buyers by 2030.

Another element of the EV strategy is earmarking $700 million to build a new high-voltage electric battery assembly facility in Woodruff, South Carolina, which will serve operations at the recast Plant Spartanburg, as BMW refers to it. That plant will be operated by a BMW technology partner, Envision AESC, which will be developing new power sources for the latest generations of BMW’s eDrive, as the electrification campaign is known.

There’s no shortage to the welter of special events that take place at the hallowed ground of Daytona International Speedway, but here’s a new one: Next Saturday, October 22nd, it hosts the daylong blowout for Subaru enthusiasts known as Subiefest, the Florida stop for a national network of shows that focus on all things Subie, ranging from the latest offerings in the showroom to the galaxy of tricked-out road rockets that populate the Subie Nation is such great numbers. If you’ve got a killer Impreza or WRX like the one shown, Subiefest is where you oughta be.

Subiefest Florida, as it’s officially known, will run from 10 a.m. through 5 p.m. in the House that France Built, with tickets going for $20 either in advance or at the speedway gate. The ticket will designate the time each festival goer can enter the speedway, after which registration for the big car show and rallycross event will occur. Subaru rally star (and Formula 1/NASCAR veteran) Scott Speed will be on hand to provide rides in an all-out VT21x WRX STI during the ride-and-drive. The Halifax Humane Society in Daytona Beach will also be hosting a pet adoption.

If you’ve never visited it, the Speedway Motors Museum of American Speed in Lincoln, Nebraska, is a treasure you’ve just got to visit. It’s a collection of exhibits that celebrate the American speed industry and motorsport in the United States, very fitting giving the lofty presence in speed manufacturing that its founder, the late Bill Smith, occupied. The collection numbers some 150 historic racing cars and examples of literally thousands of pieces of rare speed equipment that Speedy Bill, as he was known, accumulated over the years. So what’s Halloween look like at a place like this? Read on.

On Saturday, October 29th, the museum will demonstrate how it marks the spooky date. Beginning at 8 a.m. Central time and lasting through noon, the museum will host a Cars and Coffee gathering for car enthusiasts that will dispense free coffee and donuts, give appropriate recognition to the wildest Halloween costume, and present BMX-themed entertainment at the Speedway Motors complex. Bring along a specialty car to display during the gathering and Speedway Motors will present you with a free museum voucher, which is a big deal because this museum has one of the greatest collections of vintage performance parts on the planet.

It’s too bad, because the company builds some thoroughly decent vehicles, that Mitsubishi doesn’t always roll off the tongues of those shopping for import cars, especially from Japan. Which is not to imply that Mitsubishi’s U.S. dealer body, some 330 strong, doesn’t put in yeoman work trying to change that. This week, Mitsubishi took time out to recognize its longest-standing American dealership for both longevity and loyalty.

The guy on the left is Michael Seidle, the second-generation operator of Bill Seidle’s Mitsubishi in Doral, Florida, which has been selling the three-diamonds brand under the same name since September 1982, longest of any U.S. dealer. On the right is Mark Chaffin, president and CEO of Mitsubishi Motors North America, which recognized the Seidle milestone this week. After 39 years at the same location, Bill Seidle’s Mitsubishi recent moved into a new showroom complex in Doral, where it will be taking part in a new Mitsubishi sales incentive program aimed at helping buyers who lost vehicles during Hurricane Ian.