Benny Kirk

6 days ago | autoevolution.com | Benny Kirk

17 photosPhoto: Benny Kirk/autoevolutionThere are times in this industry when you have to say tough things. Moments where you have to critique something you cherish in the name of maintaining journalistic integrity. That's why it hurt so bad when I had to say some fairly un-flattering things to the 2024 Volkswagen Golf GTI S. It may be a fun daily driver like the ones of yore, but its unintuitive, buggy center screen and bewildering interior control scheme totally ruined the experience for me.

6 days ago | autoevolution.com | Benny Kirk

There's been no bigger critic of Nissan over the last decade than me. Admittedly, I didn't spend most of that time bloviating over a platform with tens of millions of monthly readers. Most of it was spent in mechanics' offices, staring at the floor, wishing I'd bought a Toyota instead. All while my old 2017 Sentra was being diagnosed as needing its second transmission replacement. But here at the Jacob K. Javits Center in New York City, Nissan looks practically transformed.

1 week ago | autoevolution.com | Benny Kirk

12 photosPhoto: Benny Kirk/autoevolutionI can't tell you how many times I've heard people say Maserati is on the edge of the abyss over the last five years. At least as long as I've been in this line of work, people have been banking on Maserati, or every non-supercar Italian brand left in the US, for that matter, to go under before this decade is out. "They'll go full EV and be dead in a year!" People would say. Yeah, not if the 2025 GT2 Stradale has anything to say.

1 week ago | autoevolution.com | Benny Kirk

6 photosPhoto: Speedway Motorsports It's easy to get an idea about what life as a member of a famous family is like. The idea that these folks might have an advantage in life that automatically gives them a better opportunity to succeed. While that's true of families involved in certain businesses, it's typically not the case in motorsport.

1 week ago | autoevolution.com | Benny Kirk

10 photosPhoto: Hennessey Special Vehicles Hennessey Venom F5 is more than just an all-American hypercar, it's an ambassador for its ability to compete on a global scale. That means it has to evolve by any means necessary. In this case, that means making it sleeker, making it faster, and make it even more powerful. When the baseline is similar to power figures old World War II fighter planes cranked out, that takes more know-how than any old sports car.