One of the world’s truly great automotive happenings, The Amelia pays equal tribute to cars for the road and the speedway, along with the people who make them notable. Seminars with the luminaries of global motorsport are a standard part of every concours weekend at The Amelia. With next year’s event set for March 2nd through 5th, 2023, The Amelia was looking for a different kind of racing hero to salute, and it settled on Jeff Gordon, the NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee and current vice chairman of Hendrick Motorsports. As the Amelia’s 2023 honoree, Gordon’s seminar will be conducted by another NASCAR hall of famer, the former crew chief and team owner Ray Evernham, a frequent Amelia visitor who, as Gordon’s longtime crew chief, marshaled him to multiple titles in the NASCAR Cup Series.

This image from Hagerty, which now conducts The Amelia, shows the NASCAR legend in his element, figuring out how to make race cars go fast. Besides gorgeous concours cars in multiple categories, The Amelia will also feature a premium sale of desirable automobiles by its new auction partner, Broad Arrow Auctions, which is in the early stages of lining vehicles up for the sale. Gordon joins a long list of racing greats to be designated as The Amelia’s honoree, a list that runs from Roger Penske to the late Sir Stirling Moss.

Especially in Florida, this is a very big deal: You won’t wait long around here before you encounter a news report about some doofus facing criminal charges because he or she left a child or pet unattended in the sun-blasted interior of a parked car. It’s the kind of stupidity or carelessness that can get somebody killed. Last week, Hyundai marked an oft-overlooked milestone in its own quest to improve occupant safety in its vehicles by meeting its voluntary goal to install rear-seat occupant protection, which it calls Rear Occupant Alert, as standard equipment in the bulk of its U.S. model lineup.

Upon engine shutdown, an ROA-fitted Hyundai kicks out a digital warning at the front of the instrument display warning drivers to check the rear seat before exiting the vehicle. The ROA system is standard across all U.S. Hyundai models except for the NEXO. A more advanced, ultrasonic version of the ROA system is standard equipment in the Santa Fe range and optionally offered across other Hyundai model lines, with the goal of preventing pediatic or veterinary heat stroke for those who ride in back. This deserves positive recognition.

We just marked Veterans Day – remember, it always falls on the day of, not the following Monday – which salutes the patriotism and sacrifice of the millions who have proudly worn the uniform of the United States. We shouldn’t be grateful to veterans just one day a year, a notion that Jeep is advancing by extending its incentive to veterans through the end of this month.

Jeep’s deal is to offer new or recently retired members of the U.S. armed forces a special $1,000 military cash bonus on each copy of the Wrangler or Gladiator optioned with the limited-edition, military-themed Freedom appearance package through November. The Freedom package includes both external and interior visual cues that people who served are certain to enjoy. With each Freedom-fitted Jeep sold, the manufacturer will make a $250 donation to support charities that serve the people who’ve served us so proudly.

Also in the news concerning two-wheeled motivation is Honda, and if you can’t find a suitable road bike after perusing the affordable-bike pioneer’s 2023 model lineup, all we can say is that you must have some really unique needs. Honda will offer no less than 11 road bikes of various trims and displacements for 2023. The highlight is this motorcycle, the Rebel 1100T DCT. The alphabetized name means that the Honda “T'” designation is being extended to the Rebel line for 2023, which in turn means that the Rebel line now gains a “bagger” variant, with much-improved capabilities for wind protection and luggage capacity.

The low saddle, angled tank and relatively high handlebars give the be-bagged version of the Rebel an unmistakable cruiser stance. Also on the attribute list is Honda’s in-house DCT, the name bestowed on its advanced Dual Clutch Transmission. A large windshield is standard, as are the bags, which combine for some 35 liters of cargo capacity.

One of the grandest performance names out of the United Kingdom, Aston Martin has already had one experience in allying with another British legend, Brough Superior, to produce a bespoke superbike that’s worthy of both names. The strategy worked once, so the protagonists are joining forces yet again, this time to unveil the AMB 001, a track-only two-wheeler just introduced at the motorcycle salon in Milan. With a displacement of 997 cubic centimeters, the new bike is directly inspired by Aston Martin’s vaunted Valkyrie AMR Pro hypercar.

This is one super-trick two-wheeler, with production to be limited to 88 units worldwide. The engine, machined from a solid aluminum billet, will produce 225 horsepower, 25 percent better than the previous collaboration between the manufacturers. Downforce is aided by winglets strategically placed on the cycle’s fairings. The bike’s power-to-weight ratio works out to 1.28 kilograms per horsepower, which is basically a Formula 1-wild number.

Genesis, the halo brand of the South Korean mega-manufacturer, Hyundai, achieved a couple of milestones last week. First, it expanded its portfolio of premium EVs to three models, by debuting its electrified GV70 luxury SUV at the ongoing Los Angeles Auto Show. Next, Genesis disclosed that the electric GV70 will be assembled in the United States at the huge Hyundai-operated plant in Montgomery, Alabama, making it the first Genesis-badged vehicle to be built on these shores: Indeed, it will be the first Genesis assembled outside South Korea.

Production of the electrified GV70 is expected to commence at Montgomery in December. While no particulars were immediately disclosed, buyers can expect high luxury and a robustly powerful EV driving experience from the new Genesis, plus the chance to wrap themselves in the dramatically themed styling that’s come to typify vehicles from Hyundai, Kia and Genesis.

The first thing you need to know is that there’s an excellent automotive museum located in Saratoga Springs, New York. Next, realize that the Saratoga Automotive Museum is home to the permanent exhibition on the vast history of stock car racing in the Empire State. Taken together, they join up on the Saturday of each Thanksgiving weekend to present the live historical retrospective known as Lost Speedways, and hosted by our longtime friend and fellow Speed Sport contributor, Ron Hedger, himself a child of upstate New York. Lost Speedways is a daylong journey into New York’s racing past as recounted by a series of presenters, which always include the heroes of racing’s yesterdays, buttressed by a bevy of knowledgeable historians and their artifacts, which are also on display.

The photo shows the longtime Holy Grail of racing in New York, Super DIRT Week at the lamented New York State Fairgrounds mile in Syracuse. The Lost Speedways program has just added 1992 Syracuse winner Richie Tobias Jr., part of the fabled Pennsylvania racing dynasty, to the list of presenters, who will bookend with another champion of the mile, Kenny Tremont Jr., the native of Rensselaer County, New York and a prolific champion at both Albany-Saratoga and Lebanon Valley speedways. Other New York luminaries making appearances will be past Syracuse winners Rob Yetman and Rocky Warner, both still active drivers. Panel discussions will include racer interviews, a look at drag racing in the infield of Fonda Speedway (where the Top Fuel legend Shirley Muldowney, who grew up in Schenectady, got her start), and even on the evolution of the Soap Box Derby in New York, which launched its share of racing careers. Lost Speedways 2022 will take place at the museum on Saturday, November 26th. Memorabilia displays will open the event at 10:30 a.m., with presentations getting underway at 12:30 p.m. We can personally vouch for the excellence of this program.

Mercedes-Benz already has an electrified analogue to its vaunted S-Class sedan series with the start of its EQ series of EVs. That universe is about to be expanded by the introduction of the EQE sedan lineup, which essentially puts an electron-fueled powertrain into a package that mimics current E-Class proportions and appointments. Built on the dedicated EVA2 platform for premium electric vehicles, the EQE will be offered in three broad model ranges, with three trim levels available for each, once deliveries to U.S. showrooms commence about a year from now.

Prices are currently set to begin at $74,900 for the base EQE 350+ model. Any such purchase will include the use of a nationwide charging-station network via the Mercedes me Charge system, which will allow for 30-minute fast charging. Among the niceties offered in the EQE line will be a passenger cabin that can be remotely purified using the key fob before the occupants climb aboard.

If it’s early November, that means that SEMA, the Specialty Equipment Manufacturers Association, has just opened its vast trade show in Las Vegas, the biggest conducted by any industry, where both the $50 billion automotive aftermarket and the OEM manufacturers turn out en masse to tease their latest creations. Full disclosure, I write regularly for the house magazine of SEMA’s subsidiary for hardcore motorsport parts, Performance Racing Industry. The SEMA show is an absolute must for anyone seriously involved in the car business, and the awards for special achievement dispensed there are highly prized indeed.

From its first trade show in Los Angeles way back in 1948, when it mainly displayed hot rod parts, SEMA has always saluted excellence in automotive conception, both among new cars and those tricked up by the aftermarket, often under commission of the industry. For the first time, recognition from SEMA is also being extended to vehicles that don’t have internal combustion engines. To that end, the Volkswagen ID.4 electric vehicle has been named the recipient of SEMA’s inaugural Electric Vehicle of the Year award, marking not only the first time SEMA has honored an EV, but likely also a Volkswagen product. Even the base ID.4, now known as the Standard, has a rear-drive electric motor that delivers the equivalent of 201 horsepower and an EPA-estimate range of 209 miles on a single charge.

When it comes to all-out, go-fast goodness, the skies open up ever time discussion turns to Nissan’s outrageous performance coupe, the GT-R, which was sadly denied to American buyers for too many decades. With the availability issue remedied, and the GT-R now safely available at Nissan showroom, the manufacturer has released 2023 pricing for both editions of this no-compromises spaceship.

Be honest: Can’t you see this coupe rather easily translated into a NASCAR Next Gen car? Coming back to reality, the GT-R is offered as two models. Pricing for the Premium edition will start out at $113,540, which will buy you a GT-R with the base, if that’s the proper word, powertrain, consisting of a 3.8-liter twin-turbocharged DOHC V-6 rated at 565 horsepower, mated to a dual-clutch, paddle-shift six-speed manual transmission and Nissan’s ATTESA E-TS all-wheel drive system. This is the base model, remember? If you’re willing to part with $210,740, you can step up to the 2023 GT-R NISMO, which adds the turbochargers used on Nissan’s GT-class racing engine and boosts output to a robust 600 horsepower.