Sunday
Jun292025
JULY 2, 2025
Sunday, June 29, 2025 at 07:44AM 
The original - and still our favorite - Autoextremist logo.
The AE Quote of the Century: Everybody loves The High-Octane Truth. Until they don't. -WG
SPECIAL EDITOR'S NOTE: We're thrilled to announce the debut of Peter's first work of fiction, "St. Michael of Birmingham." Make no mistake, it doesn't resemble anything you've read from him before. In fact, it is quite a dramatic departure. It is mystical. It is sexy. It is funny. It's moving. And it is a flat-out wild ride unlike anything you've experienced. Having said that, it is definitely not for everyone, but then, it is from PMD, so that probably shouldn't come as a surprise! Check it out on Amazon Kindle here. -WG
(Porsche images)
Editor-in-Chief's Note: We thought things were a bit too quiet of late at Porsche. After all, the industry's reigning "Greed Merchants" hadn't come up with a new revenue generating scam in a while. But our wondering didn't last long, because a new press release from Porsche touting its "new" 911 variants for 2026 appeared in our email box this morning (7/2). -PMD
And what is this breathless news from Zuffenhausen? Porsche is expanding the 911 model range with three all-wheel drive models for the 2026 model year: The 911 Carrera 4S coupe and Cabriolet, as well as the Targa 4S. All three models gain more power, improvements in standard equipment and enhanced brakes compared to their predecessors. With their arrival, the range of new 911 models with all-wheel drive grows to six variants.
And what's new? The new all-wheel drive variants of the 911 adopt the upgraded engine of the Carrera S. Its 3.0-liter twin-turbo six-cylinder boxer engine produces 473HP (353 kW) and 390 lb.-ft. of torque. That is 30HP (22 kW) more than in the predecessor. This increase in performance is partly due to the optimized intercooling, the design of which comes from the 911 Turbo. An eight-speed Porsche dual-clutch transmission (PDK) transmits power to all four wheels. The 911 Carrera 4S coupe accelerates from 0 to 60 mph in 3.1 seconds using Launch Control with the optional Sport Chrono Package, and is capable of a top track speed of 191mph. One good thing in this latest missive from Porsche is the fact that the standard equipment for the Carrera 4S and Targa 4S models is significantly enhanced. The improvements include: Sport Exhaust with tailpipes in silver, brakes taken from the previous generation 911 Carrera GTS models measuring 408 mm on the front axle and 380 mm on the rear axle; uprated dampers with optimized hydraulics are more responsive and improve ride quality over the preceding model. Performance-focused standard features of the prior model remain, including Porsche Torque Vectoring Plus (PTV+) and staggered 20/21-inch Carrera S wheels. Porsche Ceramic Composite Brakes (PCCB) are available as an option, as is PASM Sport Suspension, which lowers the ride height by 10 mm. Rear axle steering is optionally available on the Carrera 4S and Carrera 4S Cabriolet. The system offers increased agility at low speeds and greater stability at high speeds. If equipped, this system also includes a quicker steering ratio and revised front axle kinematics. The 911 Targa 4S has rear-axle steering as standard. How much is all of this going to cost? Porsche isn't saying, which means that you can count on a significant price increase. In other words, bring plenty of ca$h-ola. These new variants arrive at the end of this year, we'll know more then.
And what is this breathless news from Zuffenhausen? Porsche is expanding the 911 model range with three all-wheel drive models for the 2026 model year: The 911 Carrera 4S coupe and Cabriolet, as well as the Targa 4S. All three models gain more power, improvements in standard equipment and enhanced brakes compared to their predecessors. With their arrival, the range of new 911 models with all-wheel drive grows to six variants.
And what's new? The new all-wheel drive variants of the 911 adopt the upgraded engine of the Carrera S. Its 3.0-liter twin-turbo six-cylinder boxer engine produces 473HP (353 kW) and 390 lb.-ft. of torque. That is 30HP (22 kW) more than in the predecessor. This increase in performance is partly due to the optimized intercooling, the design of which comes from the 911 Turbo. An eight-speed Porsche dual-clutch transmission (PDK) transmits power to all four wheels. The 911 Carrera 4S coupe accelerates from 0 to 60 mph in 3.1 seconds using Launch Control with the optional Sport Chrono Package, and is capable of a top track speed of 191mph. One good thing in this latest missive from Porsche is the fact that the standard equipment for the Carrera 4S and Targa 4S models is significantly enhanced. The improvements include: Sport Exhaust with tailpipes in silver, brakes taken from the previous generation 911 Carrera GTS models measuring 408 mm on the front axle and 380 mm on the rear axle; uprated dampers with optimized hydraulics are more responsive and improve ride quality over the preceding model. Performance-focused standard features of the prior model remain, including Porsche Torque Vectoring Plus (PTV+) and staggered 20/21-inch Carrera S wheels. Porsche Ceramic Composite Brakes (PCCB) are available as an option, as is PASM Sport Suspension, which lowers the ride height by 10 mm. Rear axle steering is optionally available on the Carrera 4S and Carrera 4S Cabriolet. The system offers increased agility at low speeds and greater stability at high speeds. If equipped, this system also includes a quicker steering ratio and revised front axle kinematics. The 911 Targa 4S has rear-axle steering as standard. How much is all of this going to cost? Porsche isn't saying, which means that you can count on a significant price increase. In other words, bring plenty of ca$h-ola. These new variants arrive at the end of this year, we'll know more then.
(Mercedes-Benz images)
Editor-in-Chief's Note: For all of you EV fans out there, this is the latest high-performance thinking from Mercedes-Benz.
The Mercedes-Benz team at Affalterbach have enveiled the CONCEPT AMG GT XX, which introduces a revolutionary drive technology in the form of the innovative axial flux motor.
Its technological underpinnings were originally developed by British electric motor specialist YASA – a wholly owned subsidiary of Mercedes-Benz AG. For its application in the CONCEPT AMG GT XX and subsequently in series production, the concept was taken to a whole new level of performance. This was achieved in a collaboration between Mercedes-AMG and the technology experts from YASA. The performance specialists from Affalterbach have also developed the software for the operating strategy, which optimally utilizes the high performance of the motors. The innovative electric motors enable high output from an extremely compact package and enter series production at Mercedes-AMG in 2026.
Thanks to a peak output of over 1,341HP, the CONCEPT AMG GT XX can reach speeds of more than 223 mph. In combination with the new high-performance battery, the three axial flux motors attain a completely new level, particularly in respect of continuous output. This allows the CONCEPT AMG GT XX to be pushed to its limits repeatedly, offering a new level of continuous performance that was almost unthinkable in the world of electric mobility – until now. The battery remains in an optimal temperature range even during intense driving, enabling both performance on the road and extremely fast charging. The concept vehicle can charge to approximately 400 kilometers (WLTP) of range in around five minutes, which is roughly equivalent to the distance from Affalterbach to Spa-Francorchamps. After fast charging, the vehicle can immediately deliver full output again - an unprecedented capability.
Axial flux motors offer many benefits: they are significantly more compact, lighter and, above all, more powerful than conventional electric motors (radial flux motors). The power density of axial flux motors is around three times that of conventional electric motors. At the same time, the innovative motors are around two-thirds lighter and are just one third of the size.
Another one of many technical highlights on the CONCEPT AMG GT XX? The active Aero Wheels optimize brake cooling, aerodynamic efficiency and maximum range. The 21-inch five-spoke forged aluminum wheels are equipped with five movable elements. When closely positioned, the blades close flush to the wheel, thereby reducing drag. This improves range and reduces energy consumption.
Its technological underpinnings were originally developed by British electric motor specialist YASA – a wholly owned subsidiary of Mercedes-Benz AG. For its application in the CONCEPT AMG GT XX and subsequently in series production, the concept was taken to a whole new level of performance. This was achieved in a collaboration between Mercedes-AMG and the technology experts from YASA. The performance specialists from Affalterbach have also developed the software for the operating strategy, which optimally utilizes the high performance of the motors. The innovative electric motors enable high output from an extremely compact package and enter series production at Mercedes-AMG in 2026.
Thanks to a peak output of over 1,341HP, the CONCEPT AMG GT XX can reach speeds of more than 223 mph. In combination with the new high-performance battery, the three axial flux motors attain a completely new level, particularly in respect of continuous output. This allows the CONCEPT AMG GT XX to be pushed to its limits repeatedly, offering a new level of continuous performance that was almost unthinkable in the world of electric mobility – until now. The battery remains in an optimal temperature range even during intense driving, enabling both performance on the road and extremely fast charging. The concept vehicle can charge to approximately 400 kilometers (WLTP) of range in around five minutes, which is roughly equivalent to the distance from Affalterbach to Spa-Francorchamps. After fast charging, the vehicle can immediately deliver full output again - an unprecedented capability.
Axial flux motors offer many benefits: they are significantly more compact, lighter and, above all, more powerful than conventional electric motors (radial flux motors). The power density of axial flux motors is around three times that of conventional electric motors. At the same time, the innovative motors are around two-thirds lighter and are just one third of the size.
Another one of many technical highlights on the CONCEPT AMG GT XX? The active Aero Wheels optimize brake cooling, aerodynamic efficiency and maximum range. The 21-inch five-spoke forged aluminum wheels are equipped with five movable elements. When closely positioned, the blades close flush to the wheel, thereby reducing drag. This improves range and reduces energy consumption.
The AE Song of the Week
Everybody listen to me
And return me my ship
I'm your captain
I'm your captain
Though I'm feeling mighty sick
I've been lost now for days uncounted
And it's months since I've seen home
Can you hear me? Can you hear me?
Or am I all alone?
If you return me to my home port
I will kiss you Mother Earth
Take me back now
Take me back now
To the port of my birth
Am I in my cabin dreaming?
Or are you really scheming
To take my ship away from me?
You'd better think about it
I just can't live without it
So please don't take my ship from me
I can feel the hand of a stranger
And it's tightening around my throat
Heaven help me
Heaven help me
Take this stranger from my boat
I'm your captain
I'm your captain
Though I'm feeling mighty sick
Everybody listen to me
And return me my ship
I'm your captain
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
I'm your captain
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
I'm your captain
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
I'm your captain
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah...
I'm getting closer to my home
I'm getting closer to my home
I'm getting closer to my home
And return me my ship
I'm your captain
I'm your captain
Though I'm feeling mighty sick
I've been lost now for days uncounted
And it's months since I've seen home
Can you hear me? Can you hear me?
Or am I all alone?
If you return me to my home port
I will kiss you Mother Earth
Take me back now
Take me back now
To the port of my birth
Am I in my cabin dreaming?
Or are you really scheming
To take my ship away from me?
You'd better think about it
I just can't live without it
So please don't take my ship from me
I can feel the hand of a stranger
And it's tightening around my throat
Heaven help me
Heaven help me
Take this stranger from my boat
I'm your captain
I'm your captain
Though I'm feeling mighty sick
Everybody listen to me
And return me my ship
I'm your captain
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
I'm your captain
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
I'm your captain
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
I'm your captain
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah...
I'm getting closer to my home
I'm getting closer to my home
I'm getting closer to my home
"I'm Your Captain (Closer To Home)" by Grand Funk, from the album "Closer To Home" (1970).* Written by Mark Farner. Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind. Listen to the track here.
*"Grand Funk guitarist Mark Farner wrote this song and sang lead. The song is about the captain of a ship who is sick and fears he is going to lose his vessel. The song has much more metaphoric significance, however. In a Songfacts interview with Farner, he explained how the lyric came to him from the heavens: "Initially the song came to me after I said my prayers one night and I put a P.S. on the end of my prayers. I asked God to give me a song that would touch the hearts of people that the Creator wanted to get to. I got up at 3 o'clock in the morning - I'm always getting up at different times of the night and writing things down. A lot of them are not songs but this happened to be one.
I got up and I wrote it, and as I'm writing it, I'm between the state of subconscious and conscious. I've got one foot in dreamland and my pen is writing these words down. It didn't make a whole lot of sense. It was kind of weird, I thought, as I was writing it. I didn't sit there on the edge of the bed and read it over and over, I just wrote it down, and when I got to the end of it, I just folded it over and put it on the nightstand. There it was."
Farner put the lyrics he dreamed up to music the following morning. After having some coffee and looking at the horses in the pasture, he grabbed his George Washburn flattop guitar and started playing. "I made that C chord," he told Songfacts. "I made a mistake. I was going for the G and it was a little short and I hit the C. And I looked down because that chord spoke to me in such a way. I've never heard that come out, that inversion of the C. I thought, Wow, that's a cool chord. Then I thought maybe with those words in the other room, maybe that's a song, so I grabbed the legal pad and laid it down on the table next to my coffee and I just started strumming. 'Everybody...' And it just started coming out."
Much like :Hey Jude" by The Beatles, this song stretches out with a very long outro where an orchestra plays and Farner sings the line, "I'm getting closer to my home" over and over. Grand Funk drummer Don Brewer told Songfacts how that came about. "We used to rehearse at a place called The Musicians Union Hall in Flint, Michigan," said Brewer. "We used to work all of our stuff out there. Mark came in one day with basically the beginning of the song, the 'I'm your captain part.' We always worked out everything with a jam - he would have an idea, somebody would have an idea for a bass part of whatever, and we'd just kind of work on these things and jam out. For a day or two we worked on this song and it just didn't go any place, that was about as far as we could get with it. One day, coming out of a jam that we were working on, we fell into that half time part, and that's when Mark came up with the lyrics, 'I'm getting closer to...' So we had that, and we all felt, 'Oh man, that's great, we'll put that piece together with that, and that's going to work,' then we said, 'What are we going to do from there?' So we got into the guitar part where it breaks into full time again. Then we had a brainstorming session, 'What are we going to do for the rest of the song?'
At the time, rock bands had experimented with orchestras, and we said, 'Let's put an orchestra on this thing, we'll just play endlessly, and we'll get Tommy Baker, our friend down in Cleveland, to write the score for it, and we'll put an orchestra on it. It was a new thing for us, kind of new for the day - there hadn't been too many bands using orchestras. When we recorded the song in Cleveland, we didn't have the orchestra there, we didn't know what the final outcome was going to be, we hadn't even recorded the string arrangements, we just recorded the end of the song on and on and on over and over, knowing they were going to come in and put an orchestra on it later. When we finally heard the song about two weeks later, it just blew us all away. It was a religious experience." On the album, the song runs 10:09, which wasn't a problem for the many FM radio stations that were happy to play it. The single version, sent to radio stations with tighter formats, goes 5:31, which is still far longer than most pop songs. Still, it reached #22 on the Hot 100 in October 1970, giving the band their biggest hit to that point. Repeat play on FM rock radio kept it around for generations.
In 1973, Grand Funk exploded with their #1 hit "We're An American Band" and became one of the top live acts in the US. "Closer To Home" remained a fan favorite and staple of their setlists. When this song was released in 1970, the Vietnam War was still going on but there seemed to be no path to victory for the American soldiers fighting there. This song resonated with the troops. "If you're in a foxhole in Vietnam, you're pinned down by so much fire coming in, you want to be Closer To Home," Mark Farner told Songfacts. "That song 'Closer To Home' just really registered with our Vietnam brothers and sisters."
The Closer To Home album was released on June 15, 1970. The day before, Grand Funk's label, Capitol Records, unveiled a huge billboard in New York City's Time Square to promote it at a cost of about $100,000. This thing was impossible to miss: It took up an entire city block. The album got a huge sales bump from the publicity, as did this song. The billboard was supposed to run for two months, but stayed up about five months because of a labor dispute with billboard workers.(Knowledge courtesy of Songfacts.com)
I got up and I wrote it, and as I'm writing it, I'm between the state of subconscious and conscious. I've got one foot in dreamland and my pen is writing these words down. It didn't make a whole lot of sense. It was kind of weird, I thought, as I was writing it. I didn't sit there on the edge of the bed and read it over and over, I just wrote it down, and when I got to the end of it, I just folded it over and put it on the nightstand. There it was."
Farner put the lyrics he dreamed up to music the following morning. After having some coffee and looking at the horses in the pasture, he grabbed his George Washburn flattop guitar and started playing. "I made that C chord," he told Songfacts. "I made a mistake. I was going for the G and it was a little short and I hit the C. And I looked down because that chord spoke to me in such a way. I've never heard that come out, that inversion of the C. I thought, Wow, that's a cool chord. Then I thought maybe with those words in the other room, maybe that's a song, so I grabbed the legal pad and laid it down on the table next to my coffee and I just started strumming. 'Everybody...' And it just started coming out."
Much like :Hey Jude" by The Beatles, this song stretches out with a very long outro where an orchestra plays and Farner sings the line, "I'm getting closer to my home" over and over. Grand Funk drummer Don Brewer told Songfacts how that came about. "We used to rehearse at a place called The Musicians Union Hall in Flint, Michigan," said Brewer. "We used to work all of our stuff out there. Mark came in one day with basically the beginning of the song, the 'I'm your captain part.' We always worked out everything with a jam - he would have an idea, somebody would have an idea for a bass part of whatever, and we'd just kind of work on these things and jam out. For a day or two we worked on this song and it just didn't go any place, that was about as far as we could get with it. One day, coming out of a jam that we were working on, we fell into that half time part, and that's when Mark came up with the lyrics, 'I'm getting closer to...' So we had that, and we all felt, 'Oh man, that's great, we'll put that piece together with that, and that's going to work,' then we said, 'What are we going to do from there?' So we got into the guitar part where it breaks into full time again. Then we had a brainstorming session, 'What are we going to do for the rest of the song?'
At the time, rock bands had experimented with orchestras, and we said, 'Let's put an orchestra on this thing, we'll just play endlessly, and we'll get Tommy Baker, our friend down in Cleveland, to write the score for it, and we'll put an orchestra on it. It was a new thing for us, kind of new for the day - there hadn't been too many bands using orchestras. When we recorded the song in Cleveland, we didn't have the orchestra there, we didn't know what the final outcome was going to be, we hadn't even recorded the string arrangements, we just recorded the end of the song on and on and on over and over, knowing they were going to come in and put an orchestra on it later. When we finally heard the song about two weeks later, it just blew us all away. It was a religious experience." On the album, the song runs 10:09, which wasn't a problem for the many FM radio stations that were happy to play it. The single version, sent to radio stations with tighter formats, goes 5:31, which is still far longer than most pop songs. Still, it reached #22 on the Hot 100 in October 1970, giving the band their biggest hit to that point. Repeat play on FM rock radio kept it around for generations.
In 1973, Grand Funk exploded with their #1 hit "We're An American Band" and became one of the top live acts in the US. "Closer To Home" remained a fan favorite and staple of their setlists. When this song was released in 1970, the Vietnam War was still going on but there seemed to be no path to victory for the American soldiers fighting there. This song resonated with the troops. "If you're in a foxhole in Vietnam, you're pinned down by so much fire coming in, you want to be Closer To Home," Mark Farner told Songfacts. "That song 'Closer To Home' just really registered with our Vietnam brothers and sisters."
The Closer To Home album was released on June 15, 1970. The day before, Grand Funk's label, Capitol Records, unveiled a huge billboard in New York City's Time Square to promote it at a cost of about $100,000. This thing was impossible to miss: It took up an entire city block. The album got a huge sales bump from the publicity, as did this song. The billboard was supposed to run for two months, but stayed up about five months because of a labor dispute with billboard workers.(Knowledge courtesy of Songfacts.com)
Editor's Note: You can access previous issues of AE by clicking on "Next 1 Entries" below. - WG
