The Lancia Stratos is instantly recognizable, not only due to its exotic shape, but for the splash it made on the automotive scene, purposely built for rally racing and burning the Alitalia racing livery into our brains forever. The Stratos never saw a follow-up, which certainly played a part in it becoming an icon of the era, but in case parent company FCA wanted to bring the nameplate back today, an artist rendering shows what it might look like.
The rendering comes to us from Bold Ride and Hansen Art, styling a new Stratos out of the existing Alfa Romeo 4C. It’s more than just slapping its famous signature livery on an existing car, however. A 4C-based spiritual successor would make a lot of sense. Like the Stratos, the Alfa is a small, mid-engined, rear-wheel drive sports car. The Lancia was powered by a 2.4-liter V6 that came from Ferrari after the Dino went out of production. 500 of these engines were used to make road cars, satisfying homologation rules and allowing the Stratos to race.
The Alfa Romeo 4C wasn’t purpose built for racing, but its mid-mounted 1.7-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine makes it pretty spry, producing 237 horsepower and 260 pound-feet of torque.
Nowadays, four-wheel drive is the name of the rally game, but upping the power output and crafting a modern iteration of the legendary Lancia for road use is something we’d be perfectly happy with.
BYD has launched the third-generation Qin Plus DM-i in China, and the first thing that caught my eye is its price. According to CarNewsChina, the plug-in hybrid sedan starts at 79,900 yuan, which is about $11,980. That’s an incredibly low price for a brand-new car, especially by US standards.
What’s even more impressive is the range. The Qin Plus DM-i can drive up to 137 miles on electricity alone, which should cover most people’s daily commutes without using a drop of gas. Once the battery runs out, the 1.5-liter engine takes over. Thanks to its 17-gallon tank and roughly 91 mpg with a drained battery, the combined range reaches up to 1,423 miles.
Apple won the PC market’s worst quarter, but that’s not the entire story. It won the race by stumbling less than everyone else.
PC makers shipped just 57 million computers worldwide in Q3, which might look good, but it’s a 21% year-over-year plunge (via Counterpoint Research). And despite Apple’s Mac shipments falling by 11%, to 5.6 million, its market share rose from 8.7% to 9.8%. How did that happen?
Update (October 22 23:54 PT): In response to our query, GM clarified that offline recording support is already available on eligible vehicles. Like Tesla's Sentry Mode, it requires owners to connect a USB drive to save incident recordings, which can be viewed on the vehicle's infotainment screen. The upcoming Connected Cameras feature will build on this by giving owners remote access to these recordings via the revamped OnStar app, allowing them to check footage without walking out to their car.
General Motors has announced plans to add a new Connected Cameras feature to its OnStar service starting next year, giving drivers a way to monitor parked vehicles remotely and capture footage of certain incidents.