Links We Like October 22 2024

Another great interview from CAR, this time Alfa's CEO,

CAR's Luke Wilkinson interviewed Alfa's upward-moving CEO at the Paris Motor Show. I quite like this chap because he seems to have both saved Alfa from the Marchionne madness (yeah, fight me) and has sensible things to say about the government's role in the EV transformation.

‘I don’t need incentives, I need plugs’: Imparato on the future of Alfa Romeo

Alfa Romeo’s irrepressibly charismatic bossman has moved up the Stellantis hierarchy. We’ve been chatting with him to learn about the challenges facing the brand over the…

Bauer MediaLuke Wilkinson

Drive's Tom Fraser has a quick round-up of the best car-racing sims, from the hardcore to the casual. I am mildly jealous of his setup.

The best simulator racing games available in Australia for 2024

From beginner to advanced, including arcade games and dedicated racing simulators, you can play these best car racing games in 2024.

DriveTom Fraser

Car and Driver has a fascinating insight into the manual uptake of the Subaru (Impreza) WRX in the US. A huge number of folks like to change their own gears in the turbo flattie and I for one have renewed my hope for that benighted country. Well, for a moment at least.

The US is very strange on this front – BMW supplied US buyers with manual versions of the E60 M5 but not Europeans. Go figure.

Subaru WRX Buyers Are Overwhelmingly Choosing a Manual Transmission

More than eight in 10 buyers of the sport-compact are choosing the six-speed manual over Subaru’s humdrum CVT.

Car and DriverBrendan McAleer

Carsguide's excellent Tom White has an interview with MG Australia's COO about the brand's future in Australia, specifically whether other SAIC sub-brands will come to our shores.

‘Everything will be MGified’: Why Australia’s most popular Chinese car maker won’t expand into sub-brands to rival GWM, Lexus and Xpeng despite plans to conquer every segment - Car News

Australia’s original Chinese-backed success story, MG, won’t diversify into a range of sub-brands as its rivals challenge it from every angle. Speaking to CarsGuide MG’s Chief Operating Officer, Giles Belcher, explained MG had no interest of expanding into sub-brands Down Under despite its SAIC parent company having many ready-made options to choose from.

carsguideTom White

Autocar features a story about one of my favourite cars ever (I have never driven one but love them) - the Audi A2. To celebrate the toddler's 25th anniversary, Audi has dropped the one-off A2 e-tron.

The A2 was way ahead of its time and ironically the e-tron version makes it instantly contemporary.

The Audi A2 E-tron has been reinvented with electric power | Autocar

Seminal 1990s supermini celebrates its 25th anniversary with a one-off electro-mod conversion

AutocarFelix Page

Autoblog (still not doing URL previews) has an interesting story about the difference in EV uptake between US states. I find this stuff interesting and goes back to one of my favourite quotes in the Alfa CEO interview..

https://www.autoblog.com/news/the-end-of-gas-cars-ev-adoption-accelerates-across-america

And that's Links We Like for today. Let me know if 4pm is the right time for this or if you'd prefer a lunchtime hit of automotive goodness.