Half a decade ago I tested a Kia Soul EV in Los Angeles and concluded that “unless you own a house, owning an EV still sucks in 2016.” I liked the car well enough but had a hell of a time finding places to charge it. Now we’re revisiting this concept away from the coast. Our dude Kevin Williams is working through a whole bunch of EVs in his hometown of Columbus, Ohio and is finding that even with a big population and business environment, the electric car experience can still be pretty challenging.
But while our EV future still seems murky to me, I’ve been polishing my rose-tinted goggles of nostalgia by buying a car I lusted after in college: an eighth-generation Honda Civic Si. Read about that, and see some cool vehicles from the LA Auto Show, in this week’s Car Bibles roundup.
Car Bibles is generally focused on DIY-related content, practical advice, cultural commentary, and automotive entertainment celebrating low- to medium-budget motoring. We’ve stepped up our schedule to six posts a day each week—including a daily feature photo—so if you like what you see below, I would love to see you over on our site to check out the rest of it! Anyway, on to the roundup:
Charging EVs in Columbus, Ohio, Is Way Harder Than It Should Be
Columbus, Ohio might not have the metropolis energy of NYC or LA, but it’s no cowtown. The city is home to around 2 million people, spread all over mostly low-density housing. It seems like the kind of place that could be ripe for EV adoption and if you look at the number of EV chargers on a PlugShare map, you might think it’s already electric-car friendly. But those maps can be optimistically misleading, as Kevin Williams has been learning in his EV testing this month.
I Landed One of My Dream Cars After the Hardest Used-Car Hunt of My Life
Everything you’ve heard along the lines of “now’s a tough time to buy a car” is true. The simple reality is that supply is scarce and demand is high, and what’s worse, it seems to be the case on everything from modest getaround cars to high-end exotics. For those of us who are tragically addicted to car collecting but aren’t millionaires, it’s been frustrating. I got so bold as to broaden my search parameters to simply “anything remotely interesting,” but I’m excited to report that I just landed one of my favorite cars of all time: An eighth-generation Honda Civic Si.
This C8 Corvette Z06 V8 Cutaway Shows How Impressive This Engine Really Is
One of the most exciting engines in this year’s crop of supercars is definitely the 2023 Chevrolet Corvette’s LT6 flat-plane 5.5-liter naturally aspirated V8. Ever since realizing how closely it mirrors the C8.R race engine, we’ve been all about it. In fact, it looks like it’s on for one of the best performance bargains of all time and we at Car Bibles got to see a cutaway of the engine on the LA Auto Show floor. Here’s what we noticed.
Hyundai Showed Solid Commitment to Motorsports at the 2021 LA Auto Show
Check out some cool images from Hyundai’s LA Auto Show satellite stand — not only are there some good N variants of road cars on display, but racing machines are parked right there too. It’s one of the LA Auto Show highlights this year; if you can’t make it to the convention center, take a little virtual tour at this link.
The 2022 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS’s True Magic Is in Its Aerodynamics
The 2022 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS has been all over the internet this week and is easily one of the spiciest items at this year’s LA Auto Show. The car’s spec sheet is impressive, but taking a closer look at the thing in person really helped us appreciate just how incredible its complex aerodynamics are. Come take a look!
If you liked any of those stories, I hope you’ll join us on the regular over at Car Bibles. Our comment section’s always open and we’ll be doing a lot of experimenting throughout the year as we look for new and fun ways to bring automotive entertainment to you.