Yahoo Autos Bring on 2021!
I know I’m not alone in being more than ready to kick 2020 outta here. Be safe and we’ll see you next year.
FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK
To say goodbye to a dreadful 2020, I asked a few people for their thoughts on what they loved/hated/whatever about the year. It could be a drive they took, a story we did, an experience they had, anything. What will 2020 be remembered for?
Here are a few responses.
From Los Angeles, Mark Vaughn reported that he got to “drive/ride/fly a lot of cool cars/bikes/jets.” You can check out his list.
Vaughn said that of the supercars/sports cars, he liked Chevrolet’s new Corvette best. “It was the most liveable day-to-day while offering almost as much performance,” he said.
His favorite bikes were actually a tie between the Ducati Panigale V2 and the Triumph Rocket 3. “The Ducati offered the crazed, flypaper grip of a superbike, while the Triumph offered 165 lb-ft of torque,” he wrote. “I can’t pick between the two.
“The jet was an HA-420 HondaJet, only $5 million or so but with a range of up to 1,654 regular miles.
“However, of the cars I drove this year that I would be perfectly happy owning and driving every day, it would be: A VW Golf GTI that Volkswagen had me car-sit for three months. It was both fun and practical, with enough room for everyday living and enough sporty composure for twisty road enjoyment.”
Vaughn said he also liked Ford’s F-250 Super Duty 4x4 Crew Cab Limited. While he had it, he loaded it up with mountain bikes and gear. “It was huge, yes, but that was its only drawback (except price: $88k!). It was as comfortable as a Rolls-Royce. Speaking of the Rolls, Vaughn says the Ghost he got to drive a couple times had the most-refined suspension he has ever driven. Ever! “Drawback was sticker price at $332,500.
“And finally,” he wrote, “after 35 years of circling the globe in big commercial jets, this year I really enjoyed not traveling anywhere. While I hope the pandemic eases soon, I am also hoping its lingering presence has changed our ideas about work and how it gets done.”
Patrick Carone said no month in 2020 was more topsy-turvy than March. By its conclusion of course, schools and businesses were closed, masks were essential, and the entire planet was under total lockdown.
“That’s what makes it almost impossible to comprehend that, at the beginning of the month, I hopped on a plane to Florida to surround myself with thousands of fellow enthusiasts at the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance,” Carone wrote. “While attending such an event would be a highlight of any year, the memory of gawking at priceless Alfas and Ferraris, toasting with dear friends in crowded bars, and simply walking around without fear of passing on or being infected by a deadly disease is all the more meaningful in 2020. We recorded an episode of the Autoweek podcast the week I returned, which stands as a surreal reminder that we truly had no clue what was in store for the world.”
While Jay Ramey reflected on the year being one of tremendous loss he did manage to find a few automotive bright spots.
“Ford debuted not one but two new Broncos which immediately saw plenty of interest in the marketplace, more than I had pictured, and they weren’t a rehash of some existing vehicle,” he wrote. He pointed out the Bronco attracted attention from a wide ranging group, including a generation that barely remembered the old Broncos or knew what they were supposed to look like. Ramey said it will be interesting to see “if the new model can break the Wrangler’s monopoly on angry headlights in the U.S.”
Ramey also said the best racing story of the year was Formula 1 driver Romain Grosjean surviving that fiery wreck in November. “Even a decade ago an identical crash would have ended poorly to put it mildly,” he wrote, “but it also demonstrated that F1 has not been made entirely safe even with all the modern tech, and all courses have not been lined with stacks of tires to make it as consequence-free as Mario Kart.
