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Brendan McAleer

Automotive Writer and Photographer

Vancouver, BC

Brendan McAleer

Likes cars, loves stories.

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Does the Toyota Supra Deserve to Be Revered?

Put fifteen grand into it and make a monster. Overnight parts from Japan, if you have to. Ask 'em the retail, then blow their doors off. You know the drill: in the pantheon of import speed gods, there's the Toyota Supra, and there's everybody else. It's Zeus with sequential twin-turbos.
Road & Track Link to Story
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Driving the Alpina B10 BiTurbo, The World's Fastest Four-Door in 1991

To the average bystander, it's just a BMW 5-series. E34-chassis, four round headlights, twin kidney grilles, and a silhouette well balanced between greenhouse and sheetmetal. It's a classic from the era when Bimmers had an air of elegance to them. But this is no BMW. It's a weapon. At the top of a mountain, a collector-plated Honda VF 750 Interceptor curls in to get a closer look at a forest-green sedan.
Road & Track Link to Story
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This MGB GT Is the Forgotten Hero of Sports Car Racing's Golden Age

You may be forgiven for thinking the Battle of Britain was won by the Spitfire alone. That silhouette of elliptical wings banking to dive on a Messerschmitt or Focke-Wulfe is memorialized time and again on film and canvas, a machine made legend by its deeds. In reality, the wood-and-canvas Hawker Hurricane inflicted just as much damage on the invading Luftwaffe.
Road & Track Link to Story
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The Car That Started the JDM Tuning Scene Turns 50

It was quick, curvaceous, expensive, and exotic. Never mind that: The 2000GT wasn't half as important as a homely little shoebox that showed up in the same year.
Road & Track Link to Story
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Clash of Clans: 2017 Type R vs 2018 370Z vs 2018 STI

In the mael-strom of battle in feudal Japan, foot soldiers would bear the mark of the clan, while an elite samurai might carry his own insignia. So it is, centuries later, that three ronin arrived at a lonely back road branded with symbols of legend: Z, STI, and Type R. It’s the last that called for this showdown.
Road & Track Link to Story
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2018 Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid: First Drive

The more education you get, the longer your title. The longer your title, the fancier Porsche you'll likely be able to afford. The fancier (and more expensive) the Porsche you buy is, the longer its title will be. Say hello to the Herr Professor Doktor of cars, the Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid. “Before, we were asking our very top customers to make a choice between the Turbo model and the hybrid,” said Dr.
Road & Track Link to Story
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This 500-Horsepower Volkswagen Eos Is the Ultimate Sleeper

The Volkswagen Eos would probably be a nice choice for your aunt, the one with the permed 'do and the clip-on earrings. It is a comfortable, somewhat heavy front-driver, with a folding metal hardtop of astounding complexity. Perfect for fun in the sun, brunch with the gals, and spending lots of time at the VW dealership getting to know that dishy service adviser.
Road & Track Link to Story
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The need for speed

The Goodwood Festival of Speed is a great tribute to the U.K.’s motorsports heritage. High clouds in the sky and thunder on the ground – for the 25th year in a row, the Goodwood Festival of Speed pits some of the fastest wheeled machines created by human hands against a narrow, 1.86-kilometre ribbon of tarmac.
Link to Story
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Walter Wolf's 210 MPH Road-Legal Porsche 935 Was Far Crazier Than Any 911 GT2 RS

At the Goodwood launch of the 911 Turbo S Exclusive Series, Porsche brought racing legend Walter Röhrl up on stage and invoked the mighty 935. Various attendees either ground their teeth or rolled their eyes. Porsche is known for leveraging their history until it groans under the burden, but get a grip.
Road & Track Link to Story
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A passion that starts with the children

How a children’s author is making sure automotive enthusiasm has a future. To tell a child a story, you must first begin by telling them the truth. It’s the reason Harry Potter is so successful: It’s not the fantasy of the magic, it’s the realness of the friendships. When it comes to books about cars, there’s plenty out there that’s zany or humorous, but nothing that has that same spine of real to it.
Link to Story
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TO BIG HELL – AND BACK

Only 15 runners have finished the notorious Barkley Marathons in the wilds of Tennessee. Canadian ultramarathoner Gary Robbins came six seconds short. Brendan McAleer reports on a rising mania for extreme endurance, and Robbins’s quest to pick up where he left off. Gary Robbins is playing hockey on the patio with his 20-month old son, Reed, while the family dog, Roxy, eyes one of the tasty-looking orange balls.
Link to Story
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Built for the moneyed, mastered by thieves

It is the perfect day for a spot of villainy. The sky is cloud-dappled. The spring air crisp and clear. I have two strong cups of tea inside me and the keys to a big bore straight-six saloon with wire wheels and a capacious boot. Welcome to the firm, guv. Time for a bit of the old mischief.
Link to Story

About

Brendan McAleer

Brendan McAleer first drove a stick-shift at the age of eight, and it's been pretty much downhill from there.

He has written stories on everything from a mint-condition Hyundai Pony to a Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead. His work appears in the Globe & Mail, Time's TheDrive, Autos.ca, Road & Track, and elsewhere.

His inbox is always open to hearing about the machines that move us, physically and emotionally. He currently resides in North Vancouver, British Columbia.

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