Welcome to Must Read, where we single out the best stories from around the automotive universe and beyond. Today we have reports from Yahoo! Sport, Wheels, and The Truth About Cars.
Sorry, Seb: It's not your fault, but F1 was better in the old days — Yahoo! Sport Europe
That jamoke Sebastian Vettel keeps winning all the races and making Formula One about as exciting as taking a nap. But this writer says it's not his fault.
The Japanese Grand Prix this weekend showed exactly why F1 has got so dull, and it has nothing to do with the genius of Sebastian Vettel or his car designers at Red Bull.
It's because they've discovered that the way to win isn't by trying to drive faster than the other guys, like it used to be in the good old days when duels could last half a race. It's about managing tyres.
The death of the automatic gearbox — Wheels
Hide your kids, hide your wife. The CVTs are coming.
Bosch says currently its CVT tech can drive cars developing up to 450Nm of torque and 300 horsepower, but it won’t be long before the growing market necessitates technological advancements – Bosch has already manufactured its 25 millionth CVT belt, yay - and before you know it a CVT will be able to handle double the current power cap. 2023 Nissan GT-R with a CVT? Lovely…
Generation Why: The Skyline Fades From The Rear-View Mirror — The Truth About Cars
The Nissan Skyline might be on the way out. Here's a take on that from my boy Derek Kreindler over at TTAC.
The fatal blow to the Skyline nameplate was delivered when the R35 GT-R divorced itself from the Skyline range upon its 2009 introduction. Without the GT-R, the Skyline is just another anonymous commodity car in its home market, just as the Chevrolet Impala is a rather unremarkable car when the hot SS versions aren’t around.