AUTO REVIEW—It’s a vestige of an era gone by. With SUVs, trucks and alt-energy vehicles commanding most of the attention these days, Mitsubishi went and offered its Final Edition of the Lancer Evolution X. It’s the modern day Last Samurai—a casting no less improbable than having Tom Cruise portray the historic last samurai on the silver screen.

AUTO EVENT—The Mecum Auctions (surely you’ve seen one on television … right … way cool cars, trucks, motorcycles, even man cave memorabilia all being paraded across an open stage in front of a raucous crowd, each barely slowing down as they cross from left to right, only to pause for what seems split seconds with an auctioneer shouting, cajoling, challenging, and quite unsubtly suggesting prices that ratchet show on a gargantuan overheard scoreboard that flashes the current bid in bucks, euros, and two or three other basic world currencies) were just in town.

AUTO REVIEW—Can you hear that? Ssshhhhh! Can you hear the 2.4 liter, four-cylinder engine? Can you hear the wind noise? Can you hear anything? No, because this is a surprisingly quiet vehicle. My objectivity might be little skewed, since I had just gotten off of an 11-hour flight. It was after this flight that I picked up the 2017 Sportage. The kids fell asleep as we left the parking garage, and my wife and I were struck with how quite the car was. Had this been a Mercedes S-class, or an Audi A8, I would not have thought twice about it. But in a Kia Sportage? Sweet. John-Fredrik Wright reports.

LA CAR REPORT—”The coming of the cheap automobile has meant for Southern Negroes, who can afford one, a partial emancipation from Jim Crowism.” That’s Petersen Education Coordinator Jason Hartwig quoting Gunnar Myrdal back in 1944, at the Museum’s inaugural Explorations series. Surrounded by the Mullin Family Grand Salon’s collection of Bugattis, Hartwig gave a presentation unlike any that one expects from a car museum. “The Car and Civil Rights” presentation ran the automotive gamut.