Articles by Iain Kelly

The Blue Oval suits were sent into a flat-spin the other day when a 20-year-old Instagrammer called Sinister_Lifestyle leaked images of what is purported to be the next Shelby GT500 Mustang!

RM Sotheby's has just blown away all the records for a 911 Porsche sold at auction with this brand new 993 Turbo S "Project Gold".

Most people are obsessed by the size of a car's engine, but what does an engine's capacity really mean?

If your car didn't have a transmission then it wouldn't move, but what is the difference between a manual transmission, an auto transmission, a gearbox, a dual-clutch transmission, a CVT transmission, a DCT transmission, a tiptronic transmission, a PDK transmission, a DSG transmission, an SMG transmission, an E-CVT transmission, or an AMT transmission? In some cases, not much!There are two basic types of car transmission – manual and automatic. They both make up a key part of the system known as the drivetrain by joining the back of the engine to the differential via a prop shaft. They pass the engine's power to the driving wheels via the diff. But how does a transmission work? A manual transmission uses a clutch to engage drive to the gearbox or transmission, like a switch. The manual is made up of spinning gears, which the driver can select (known as shifting gears) to keep the car accelerating, and these were the primary type of transmission used in cars from the automobile's inception until the 1990s.An automatic, or auto, basically uses fluid to shift its own gears based on engine RPM and how much throttle you're using. These started to become common in the 1950s, but really overtook manuals around 15 years ago.AMT transmissions, refers to an Automatic Manual Transmission and is the semi-official name for tiptronic-type transmissions. These are basically an automatic you can shift manually, either via the gear-shifter or by steering wheel paddles.In the last 20 years car makers started using automatic transmissions which used dual clutches inside them for much faster, smoother gear shits. These are commonly known as dual-clutch transmissions, and you may have heard of them referred to as DCT (BMW), DSG (Volkswagen, Audi), or PDK (Porsche).Dual-clutch transmissions have caused a lot of controversy as they have replaced manual transmissions in driver-oriented performance cars thanks to their lightning-fast changes. This angered traditional car enthusiasts who see them as removing a vital part of the driving experience, and they had significant reliability problems in their early iterations.All transmissions need to be looked after and a transmission service will have to be done on any type of transmission. With manuals, this is normally changing the fluid and sometimes removing the transmission to change the clutch. Automatics can have more transmission problems, particularly if they are overheated or run low on oil.Transmission repair costs depend on the car they're fitted to but modern dual-clutch automatics are normally the most expensive type of transmission to repair, with dual-clutch transmission rebuild costs running up to $15,000.Proper sequential transmissions are really only used in race cars as they are not able to handle the rigours of regular driving over hundreds of thousands of miles. BMW released a transmission called SMG which was a clutchless manual sequential, though it struggled with reliability and feel, and was replaced with the dual-clutch DCT later.There really is no best transmission or worst transmissions in general, as it depends on the car they're fitted to. However, the Porsche PDK is the best dual-clutch transmission I've driven and the BMW E46 M3 CS is the best manual I've driven.

Have you ever been happily tootling down the road when something has gone very wrong, very suddenly?

Among the vast fields of three-letter acronyms used in cars today is one that has vitally serious importance.

Heading off to the snow for some fun on the slopes is plenty exciting. But if you are driving down in a diesel vehicle then you best know about Alpine Diesel fuel to prevent getting stuck in the car park at the end of the day.Alpine Diesel is a form of winter diesel fuel resistant to freezing, and it's very common overseas (more so than Australia). In cold climates, where the temperature gets down to below zero each winter, diesel can start turning into wax or gel and prevent the car from starting. The diesel freezing point is much warmer than the freezing point of petrol (-30 degrees C).The temperature where diesel starts to thicken up and form wax is known as the cloud point, and cloudy diesel is a big problem as it can clog injectors and filters and cause plenty of damage.Australian Standard AS 3570-1998 specifies maximum cloud point limits for diesel around Australia, depending on local weather conditions. Alpine Diesel is a special diesel blend made with a four degrees Celsius lower cloud point, which allows the fuel to be used in areas where regular diesel would have started forming wax already.In areas where the temperature regularly drops to zero or less, most service stations will offer Alpine Diesel, or a diesel additive for winter conditions, as the cloud point switches depending on the season and average temperature.If you're planning on a trip to these areas, make sure you put at least half a tank of Alpine Diesel, or add an alpine diesel additive. You can purchase alpine diesel additives from automotive parts stores to pour into your tank, and these tip-ins are required when driving in areas where the temperature regularly dives under minus seven degrees.On top of Alpine Diesel, there is also a blend of fuel called Highland Diesel, which is in between Alpine Diesel and regular warm-weather diesel for areas that don't get quite so cold.

Since cars have been around people have needed car headlights to drive them at night. Today we're used to car lights featuring three settings: parkers, low-beam, and high-beam. Parker lights are to provide a minimal amount of forward illumination while there is still a good amount of ambient light.Low-beam is the setting you drive around on in metro areas where there are oncoming vehicles, and it features a cut-off to dip the illumination away from oncoming traffic and focus the light on the road ahead of the car. High-beam broadens and lifts the light beams, lighting a broader area ahead of the car. Early cars used glass headlights known as "sealed beam" lamps, which you swapped out as a complete unit rather than changing globes. It wasn't until 1962 when a consortium of European headlight and globe manufacturers invented the H1 Halogen high-output globe that output took a big leap. American laws prohibited their use until 1983, after which time the Halogen lighting system became the primary source of illumination for cars.There are now several types of Halogen globes (including H7 and H4), designed to work in headlight housings that have also gone through thorough redesign processes to improve light output, while lowering the power needed to use them. High-Intensity Discharge (HID, and sometimes referred to as Xenon headlights) lights first appeared in the mid-1990s on the BMW 7-series. They, and the later Bi-Xenon headlights, are an evolution of the Halogen system, with more work put into the reflectors in the housing to focus the light which is one reason aftermarket HID upgrade kits are not always legal in Australia.LED headlights refer to Light Emitting Diodes and these have become common fitment since they debuted in 2004, taking a fraction of the energy to run compared to HID lights or Halogen while having a much longer lifespan and giving clearer light. BMW i8 and new 7-series, plus certain Audi models are now using laser headlights. Supposed to use less energy to run than LEDs but offer superior light output, laser technology will eventually filter down through other cars to become the norm for headlights just as Halogen and LED did.Because of the risk to blinding oncoming drivers there are strict rules around upgrading headlight globes or using aftermarket headlight conversion kits in Australia. These are controlled by Australian Design Rules (ADRs) which set out the brightest legal headlights you can use in Australia. You should replace headlight bulbs in your car with the same type used by the manufacturer unless a qualified professional confirms an upgrade is safe and legal. There can also be issues with brighter bulbs melting wiring for the headlights due to excess current draw needed to light up the brighter bulbs. There are ADR-approved LED headlights on sale but you need to check with the seller whether they will guarantee that ADR-approval before you buy. LED headlights are legal in Australia, but you need to research if you need to upgrade the housing as well as the bulbs as this is a requirement for some ADR-approved LED headlights. The good news is popular cars in Australia, like the VE Commodore, Ford Territory and BA Falcon, Toyota HiLux and Hyundai i30 all have great headlights from the factory and shouldn't need upgrading. 

A sheriff in the American state of Georgia is in trouble with his bosses at the Department of Justice after buying a brand new Dodge Charger Hellcat using taxpayer funds!

Ken Block has had a day he would rather forget, destroying his genuine Group A ex-World Rally Championship Ford Escort.