If you’re in the rolling, eastern South this weekend, and you’re looking for something rewarding to do, we’ve got the ticket right here: Point your ride to Chattanooga, Tennessee, right near where Tennessee meets with Alabama and Georgia, and take in the Chattanooga Motorcar Festival, which commences its third annual run on Friday, and runs through Sunday, October 16th. There’s a huge array of goings-on scheduled for the three-day run including RADwood, V8s in the Village, the Concours d’Lemons and various displays by local car clubs. But the big attraction here will be the gathering of truly exclusive historical cars that will be on the show field for your viewing pleasure.

An example of what we mean is shown here, the exotic, dual-cowl 1933 Issota-Fraschini Tipo 8A two-door sports tourer with coachwork by Castagna, to be presented in Chattanooga by Stephen R. Plaster of Lebanon, Missouri. Sold only as a coachwork-ready chassis when new, this Tipo 8A is one of just two built, and was a showcase car at the 1933 Paris Salon de L’Automobile. It’s reported to have appeared in several Hollywood productions, the last known of which came in Giant when James Dean drove it across Texas in 1956.

One of the big successes in the orbit of big SUVs, the Kia Telluride – yes, it also exists as the Hyundai Palisade – is back for 2023 with pricing that will get out of the gate at $35,690, for a two-wheel-drive Telluride LX, an entry-level figure that will increase by $2,000 if you opt for all-wheel drive. The line is expanded for 2023 by the addition of two new trim levels, X-Line and X-Pro, for those who are determined to get their jollies off the pavement.

From the LX, the trim levels rise through S, EX, SX and the pinnacle of the Telluride SX-Prestige, which is set to top out at $52,785 with all-wheel drive. The 2023 Telluride is assembled alongside the K5, Sportage and Sorrento lines at Kia’s stateside assembly plant in Georgia, and is scheduled to be ready to order later this month.

There exist all kinds of sub-genres in the big, wide world of collectible vehicles: Classic motorcycles, fire apparatus, hot rods and vintage race cars. To these specialist categories, one could add farm equipment, whose sales are ably (and regularly) conducted by Mecum Auctions out of Wisconsin. In fact, Mecum actually has a separate division for agricultural vehicles, known internally as Mecum Auctions Gone Farmin.’ One of its major sales that just concluded was the George & June Schaaf Tractor and Truck Museum liquidation in Frankfort, Illinois. How big is tractor collecting, you ask? Sufficiently large that the Schaff sale drew more than 1,000 bidders, who rang up more than $6.2 million in total sales.

Mecum may be best known for selling top-end muscle cars, but the Schaaf sale demonstrates that the house knows its market when it comes to farm vehicles, too, as you look upon the top-selling lot from the Frankfort auction. This is a 1917 Willmar Little Oak compact tractor, the only Little Oak known to still exist, which drew a hammer price of a full $420,000. If you look closely at the front axle, you’ll notice that it has a pivot or articulation point in the middle of the axle, “steered” by chains, meaning that this vintage tractor resembling an ancient Soap Box Derby racer apparently steers like one, too.

Los Angeles, America’s motoring capital, has been hosting an annual automobile show for 115 years now. Running at the Los Angeles Convention Center from November 18th through 24, the Los Angeles Auto Show approaches the start of its run with an industry-leading number of manufacturers as exhibitors and notably, a record-setting number of test tracks at the show where attendees can sample conventional ICE-powered vehicles, hybrids and the coming generation of BEVs.

The organizers of the L.A. show says it gathers more manufacturers into one hall than any similar U.S. automotive salon. Off-roader types can experience obstacle-course drives presented by Camp Jeep, Ford Bronco Built Wild and Ram Truck Territory. Outside the convention center, street test drives will be available from Alfa Romeo, Dodge, Fiat, Ford, Jeep, Ram, Subaru, Toyota and Volkswagen. Additionally, closed-course indoor EV tracks – no emissions, remember – will be set up and operated by Ford, Hyundai and Nissan, while a separate outdoor EV track will offer rides from Kia, Porsche, VinFast and Volkswagen, with additional brands to be announced soon. The show site offers the opportunity to buy cashless event tickets.

A grand interlude in Ford Motor Company performance history is coming to a conclusion, as Ford prepares to mark the final special edition of its current, roadgoing generation of the Ford GT supercar. With production coming to a close by the end of 2022, Ford chose a glorious achievement as the theme for the final GT special edition, which viscerally honors the GT’s overall win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2015. That near-sweep of the podium had the added distinction of Ford’s partner, Chip Ganassi Racing, turning the GT from a road concept to a Le Mans winner in just 395 days.

The 2022 Ford GT LM Edition, as it’s being officially called, will be limited to just 20 copies worldwide as Ford GT production concludes. These cars are all about recalling milestones, which Ford has accomplished uniquely with this car: Following the 2016 race, the engine was pulled from the winning car and saved before being disassembled and having its crankshaft ground into a fine powder, which was in turn used to cast the special interior badges that will grace the dashboard of each LM Edition.

If you came of age in the 1970s, you remember the explosive force with which BMW slammed into global motorsport with its tri-color M Power campaign, which rolled up production-based victories throughout Europe and North America. BMW has chosen to make this anniversary especially meaningful, by rolling out the race-ready version of its new BMW M Hybrid V-8 for global prototype competition at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles.

The new hybrid will compete in the GTP category in IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship events in 2023, starting out with the Rolex 24 at Daytona in February. The M Hybrid V-8’s heart is a 4.0-liter twin-turbocharged V-8, projected to produce 640 horsepower. The team will be run in North America by Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing; principals Bobby Rahal, David Letterman and Patrick Lanigan were present at the Petersen for the rollout. At the same time, BMW revealed its driver lineup for the effort: Connor De Phillippi (USA), Philipp Eng (Austria), Augusto Farfus (Brazil) and Nick Yelloly (UK) will share the new BMW hybrid’s hot seat, with a prominent assist from INDYCAR star Colton Herta.

The Ford Motor Company this week put shovels into dirt on the opening stages of what promises to be a major new manufacturing facility for EVs at a new plant in Stanton, Tennessee, not far from the Memphis metro area. BlueOval City, as it’s going to be know, represents a $5.6 billion investment to set up a new plant to build Ford-badged electric trucks and their batteries at a complex that will encompass six square miles and eventually employ 6,000. BlueOval City will produce batteries and related equipment for both Ford and Lincoln vehicles once it’s fully online.

The photo shows the first structural steel going skyward at BlueOval City, a major element in Ford’s long-term plan to establish itself as the world’s second-largest producer of EVs. That comes less than a year after Ford and technical partner SK On disclosed their plans to construct the sprawling Tennessee plant. An associated project has Ford working in close conjunction with Tennessee education officials to enhance STEM programs in local schools, where future BlueOval City staff may be in the classrooms today.

You know what they say Yankee ingenuity can accomplish. Here’s some amazing proof of that capability, a full-on pavement Late Model that has an entirely electric powertrain, something that would be ideal for the paved bullrings that dot New England. The Late Model is out of Fitchburg, Massachusetts, the home to such local luminaries as Reino Tulonen, Ron and Kenny Bouchard, “The Travelin’ Man” Peter Fiandaca and Jean Michaud. Fitchburg is also home to the Maki family, which has been active in New England motorsport since they sponsored the cutdown of their fellow Finn, Tulonen, going back to the 1950s.

Jay Maki, seen here in his Late Model in New Hampshire, is a scion of the family and more than your typical backyard racer. He has engineered this Late Model himself with a battery electric powertrain, eliminating the snarling V-8 entirely. There is a strong likelihood that American short-track racing will be running something similar to this in coming year, a transition that Maki, from his Fitchburg shop, wants to assist. Part of that effort involves displaying the EV Late Model at the PRI – remember, I’m one of their authors – and SEMA trade shows that are the largest in private industry stateside. To get the car to the PRI show in Indianapolis and the big SEMA blowout in Las Vegas, Maki has established a GoFundMe page, to which you can donate and promote this coming advance in grassroots American motorsport.

Most of the conversation at the Detroit International Automobile Show centered on alternative fuels and electrification, with one notable exception: The seventh-generation Ford Mustang made its debut to the public, 58 years after the original, and while all the particulars haven’t been released, this edition of the Mustang promises to deliver copious power, dramatic looks, and a new level of cabin digitization and driver assists.

Aside from still being unmistakably a Mustang, the 2024 edition incorporates two new powertrains, with one of them, the turbocharged four-cylinder EcoBoost, aimed at reducing the pony’s hoof print in terms of emissions and fuel use. The other engine announced is the most potent version of Ford’s 5.0-liter Coyote V-8 yet produced, earmarked squarely for the Mustang GT. But the new car will also boast an unprecedented level of driver assists, all delivered through a customizable 12.4-inch digital instrument cluster that Ford says is inspired by the cockpit displays in military aircraft. The 2024 Mustang will be produced at Ford’s assembly facility in Flat Rock, Michigan, for a debut aimed at next summer.

This is an admittedly arcane story whose purpose it to show how deeply economic forces can affect big-time automobile racing, even at the top levels. Just before last weekend’s World 100 for dirt Late Models at Eldora Speedway in Ohio, Hoosier Racing Tire announced that it will be providing a single series of spec tires to all sanctioning bodies that present dirt Late Model racing in North America. The deal required agreement between the sport’s two main promotional rivals, the Lucas Oil Dirt Late Model circuit and the World of Outlaws, both of which were well-represented at the big Eldora blowout won by Jonathan Davenport.

The National Late Model Tire, as it will be known, will consist of three rubber compounds for 90-inch-circumference tires and another three for 92-inch components. A simplified compound-identifying series of lettering will also be adopted. Why’s this important? Because with pro-level racing still coping with lingering COVID-related supply shortage, anything that streamlines the availability of tires will be hugely beneficial, rather than forcing traveling teams to haul across the country with big supplies of multi-sized tires from multiple suppliers in their ranks. Full disclosure: I recently produced a story on Hoosier and its streamlining plans for Performance Racing Industry magazine, which looked in part at the fact that Hoosier is now owned by the European rubber giant Continental, which has enhanced its capability to make major product moves like this one.