Indholdsfortegnelse for March 2021 i MotorTrend

@markrechtin Welcome to the annual Best Driver’s Car issue, arriving a few months later than usual. Also, welcome to the Top Gear America issue. That’s what COVID-19 did to us. Normally, we conduct BDC testing in July and get you the issue in late September with a November cover date. But planning for these events started in March, and with everything falling into chaos and disorder (and stay-at-home order), we quickly made a decision to postpone our annual supercar shenanigans. We performed some test runs of socially distanced group gatherings in the process of performing our Car, Truck, and SUV of the Year evaluations. Having slathered ourselves in Purell, wiped down all cars with 91 percent isopropyl alcohol between drivers, and installing a COVID cop to ensure that we were…

Even if it ain’t broke, a few things can be fixed Meet the 2022 BRZ. Not only is the sheetmetal all new, but our prayers for more power have at last been answered. Let’s start with all 28 extra horsepower. The engine remains naturally aspirated but grows from 2.0 to 2.4 liters. The result is 228 hp at 7,000 rpm and 184 lb-ft of torque at 3,700 rpm, up from 206 hp and 156 lb-ft in manual cars and 200 hp and 151 lb-ft of torque in automatics. Why no turbo? Subaru says to keep the BRZ’s price down. In the Age of Hellcat, the BRZ no doubt sounds underpowered. Keep in mind, however, that Subaru says the new BRZ weighs less than 2,900 pounds, which would be about 100…

We drove the electric Jaguar I-Pace from London to Berlin in mid-2018 before scooting through the deserts of Abu Dhabi in Audi’s electric E-Tron just before Christmas that same year. We flew to Norway to sample the electric Mercedes-Benz EQC in May 2019. With luck, we’ll get to drive a production version of BMW’s electric rival to all three, the iX, in late 2021. Which raises the question: What took BMW so long to enter its challenger to a wave of Euro-luxe electric SUVs? You don’t have to wander far into the iX’s 23-page press kit to find a clue: The new SUV, it says, is BMW Group’s new technology flagship. This X5-sized SUV is being positioned as a vehicle that, more than even BMW’s traditional flagship, the 7 Series…

Michael Faraday discovered solid electrolytes in the 1830s, and the solid-state battery has promised to be the next big electrical thing almost ever since. The idea frequently makes news that I resist reporting because, to borrow a baseball metaphor, these “batters” too often start their home run trot before realizing it’s just a fly ball to the warning track. But noted scientist Paul Albertus says 10-year-old Stanford University battery startup QuantumScape appears to have hit a “home run in terms of their solid-state battery performance data.” Here’s the deal with solid-state: These batteries have long promised to solve the thorniest issues preventing widespread battery-electric vehicle adoption while providing better performance on many metrics. Liquid or gel electrolytes in today’s batteries are flammable and can freeze, so they require costly, heavy…

We’re somewhere east of Flagstaff, Arizona, in the Coconino National Forest. A bustling film crew crunches back and forth over shifty piles of ancient lava rock. There’s no one around for miles; cellphone service is nonexistent. One car has stubbornly conked out halfway up a steep hill. We’re losing light, and fast. In any other situation, this would be a recipe for disaster. But on Top Gear America, this unexpected turn of events is par for the course. And as a producer on the show, I’m seeing it all occur in real time. For the past 28 seasons and counting, the U.K. version of Top Gear has been the gold standard of high-quality automotive content. Originally a straightforward review series, it underwent a dramatic transformation in 2002. Although the show…

2021 PORSCHE CAYENNE TURBO PRO Supercar performance, well-hidden weight, great fun to drive CON Sick-pumpkin appearance, high price, it’s an SUV “How do you explain it?” I asked the Porsche PR man standing along the K-wall at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. Legendary wheelman Randy Pobst had just finished his hot laps in the Cayenne Turbo Coupe, and something had gone, well, not quite right. Quite wrong, you might even say. See, Porsche is owned by Volkswagen Group, as is Audi, and Audi owns Lamborghini. At our 2019 BDC, Lambo’s Urus had set the SUV lap record at Laguna Seca, at 1:40.90. You maybe see where this is going. The Porsche, which stickers for $82,559 less than the Lambo, beat the Urus with a 1:40.27 lap. “Well,” the Porsche flack said,…

2020 PORSCHE 718 CAYMAN GT4PRO Supreme balance, fantastic teacher, great track tool CON Jittery suspension, tire noise, underpowered This car has all the makings of a Best Driver’s Car winner: engine mounted in the proper place directly behind the driver and revving to a glorious 8,000 rpm, a delightful manual shifter (unique this year), unflappable carbon-ceramic brakes with excellent pedal feel, and sticky Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires. This is a sports car that punches way above its 3,127-pound featherweight status. The 2020 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 lapped Laguna Seca quicker than a Ferrari 458, AMG GT 63 4Matic+, and various flavors of Nissan GT-R. Like with any Porsche I have ever driven, I can tell it’s a Porsche in the way all of its controls have matched efforts and…

BASE PRICE $59,995 PRICE AS TESTED $92,365 VEHICLE LAYOUT Mid-engine, RWD, 2-pass, 2-door hatchback ENGINE 6.2L/495-hp/470-lb-ft OHV 16-valve V-8 TRANSMISSION 8-speed twin-clutch auto CURB WEIGHT (F/R DIST) 3,587 lb (39/61%) WHEELBASE 107.2 in LATERAL ACCELERATION 1.04 g (avg) 2.2-MI ROAD COURSE LAP 97.83 sec EPA CITY/HWY/COMB FUEL ECON 15/27/19 mpg ENERGY CONS, CITY/HWY 225/125 kWh/100 miles CO2 EMISSIONS, COMB 1.03 lb/mile SUSPENSION, FRONT; REAR Control arms, coil springs, adj shocks, anti-roll bar; multilink, coil springs, adj shocks, anti-roll bar BRAKES, F; R 13.3-in vented disc; 13.8-in vented disc, ABS WHEELS, F; R 8.5 x 19-in; 11.0 x 20-in cast aluminum TIRES, F; R 245/35R19 89Y; 305/30R20 99Y Michelin Pilot Sport 4S BASE PRICE $277,480 PRICE AS TESTED $386,288 VEHICLE LAYOUT Mid-engine, RWD, 2-pass, 2-door coupe ENGINE 3.9L/711-hp/568-lb-ft twin-turbo DOHC 32-valve…

Set the date on the calendar, kids! Top Gear America is (finally) coming exclusively to the MotorTrend app, starting January 29. This isn’t some rip-off of that motoring show from across the pond, either—this is die-hard car enthusiasts who live and breathe cars. When two of the most influential brands in automotive history—MotorTrend and Top Gear—join forces on a car show, what could go wrong? We couldn’t ask just anyone to take up the American mantle of the most iconic car show in history. There have been many copycats and tributes over the years, but they all pale in comparison to that most venerable of trios: Jeremy Clarkson, James May, and Richard Hammond. But this ain’t that. Sure, we’re calling it Top Gear, and it’s a trio of hosts, and…

You might not know Chris Corbould by name, but you certainly know his work. With more than four decades of special effects experience under his belt, Corbould has left his mark on the likes of The Who’s Tommy (his first industry gig), Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy (where he helped develop the Tumbler, among other things), and the James Bond franchise, including the latest installment, No Time to Die (his 15th Bond film to date). As the movie’s special effects and action vehicle supervisor, Corbould and his team were responsible for bringing the action sequences to life on the big screen. We spoke with Corbould, who shared his thoughts on No Time to Die, the new Land Rover Defender, and his past Bond work. How was it working with the new…

2020 FERRARI F8 TRIBUTO PRO Missile acceleration, quick cornering, bumpy-road mode CON Wooden brakes, light steering feel, looming snap oversteer In reviewing the Ferrari F8 Tributo with proper clarity, we need to go back a few years and admit with mild chagrin that our 2017 Best Driver’s Car–winning Ferrari 488 GTB might have been a ringer. This goes beyond Ferrari sending four factory techs to work day and night to be sure everything ran perfectly. (By contrast, Porsche traditionally sends Frank the PR Guy, who watches the Italian antics with mild amusement.) Rather, the 488’s testing numbers we posted were more akin to what the 661-hp GTB would have produced had it been chipped to 800 hp. And well-placed sources with deep connections say that might indeed have been the…

2021 PORSCHE 911 TURBO PRO Absolute magic on a back road, wonderful GT car, insanely quick CON Magic replaced by cold competency on the track, street tires only We thought it was gone. Banished. We believed the good people of Stuttgart, with a bit of help from Weissach, had finally cured the Turbo’s one remaining weakness. Charging valiantly into our 2020 Best Driver’s Car field, though, the 2021 Porsche 911 Turbo S revealed that its Achilles’ heel remains. That one issue, the one that’s deprived 911 Turbos of the past from more than one MotorTrend podium, is the car’s cold, emotionless virtuosity when pushed to the limit. (The 911 Carrera S, last year’s winner, does not have this problem.) It’s a trait that was far more apparent on previous Turbos,…

Our story begins more than four decades ago, when I decided I had to buy a sports car. Tatty MGBs, I quickly discovered, were going for about $5,000, which was more than I could afford. And when I actually drove one, I was dismayed to discover it had pitiful performance, woeful handling, trucklike steering, and so-so brakes. Sports car? My mom’s Valiant station wagon was faster, cornered better, and had electronics that actually worked. Assorted Triumphs, Austin Healey Sprites, and MG Midgets were even more expensive and only marginally better to drive. Childhood dreams were shattered: British sports cars of the ’60s and ’70s weren’t actually all that good. But I still needed to scratch that sports car itch. Alfa Romeo’s original GTV coupe, the one styled by Giugiaro when…

My first Ford Mustang had a 4.6-liter V-8, five-speed manual, and rear-wheel drive. My next might have two electric motors, single-speed automatic gearboxes, and all-wheel drive. The 2021 Ford Mustang Mach-E is an all-electric, four-door, battery-powered SUV that’ll eventually have up to 480 hp and 634 lb-ft of torque. More than that, the new Mustang Mach-E is going to force the world to rethink just what it considers a Mustang. I’d argue it doesn’t really matter—what does is that the Mustang Mach-E is quite good. The Mach-E shares many of the traditional Mustang styling cues—like its signature tri-bar taillights, roofline, and a dash-to-axle ratio reminiscent of rear-wheel drive—but that’s about it. It’s quite easy to get into the weeds here, but the important things to remember are that the Mustang…

Quick as a Raptor and can power your house We borrowed a 2021 Ford F-150 Lariat Sport 4x4 PowerBoost, strapped our gear to it, and were frankly amazed that it’s ready to race Raptors for pinks. But by the end of our three days with this F-150, it was the power in the pickup box, not under the hood, that most impressed us. Sandwiching a 44-hp, 221-lb-ft electric motor in between the 394-hp, 492-lb-ft 3.5-liter twin-turbo V-6 EcoBoost engine and the 10-speed automatic transmission boosts total output to 430 horses and 570 lb-ft. The outgoing Raptor made 20 more horses but 60 fewer lb-ft of torque, and the last one we tested weighed 171 pounds less, but the hybrid has a better weight-to-power ratio. It shouldn’t surprise anyone, then, that…

Stop us if you’ve heard this before. An automaker realizes SUVs of all shapes and sizes sell like hotcakes, so to maximize profit, it releases a swoopy “coupelike” variant of one or more of its traditional (squarer) SUV models. If that sounds familiar, it’s because BMW, Audi, and Mercedes all do it. Now you can count Infiniti among this group. The 2022 Infiniti QX55 hopes to challenge vehicles such as the BMW X4, Audi Q5 Sportback, and Mercedes-Benz GLC 300 Coupe. Infiniti wants consumers to think back to the original Infiniti FX when eyeing the QX55, which cribs its sloping roofline from Infiniti’s groundbreaking crossover. Although its profile harks back to Infiniti’s past, the QX55’s front end aggressively evolves Infiniti’s current design language. With its gaping maw and squinty headlights,…

But first, a correction: On page 42 of our December 2020 issue (SUV of the Year), we mistakenly published a photo of the Audi SQ7’s interior instead of the BMW X6’s. Apologies to Audi for mistaking its interior for the Bimmer’s. BMW—you’re welcome. Reactions to Car of the Year Starting in 2009, your COTY winners have included everything from a Nissan GT-R to a Tesla Model S to the Corvette. And since that time, I have owned or leased nothing but new Mercedes-Benz E-Classes. I am on my fifth, a 2020 E 350 4Matic. Having owned several brands before and having other brands in the family now, I couldn’t agree more with your assessment that “this is a car I could happily drive every day for years on end.” Throughout…

2020 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z51 PRO Great powertrain, refined cruising, launch power CON No manual transmission, regular summer tires, no performance variants (yet) The mid-engine Chevrolet Corvette feels like other exotic cars, which is a new sensation for anyone familiar with the Chevy sports car. Hopping from Ferrari to Lamborghini to Chevy, the Corvette affirms that we made the a pretty good choice when we named the C8 our 2020 Car of the Year. Let’s be clear: The mid-engine Corvette Z51 is a car designed around the driver. Yes, it’s easy to look at the strip of Chiclet-sized HVAC control buttons separating the driver from the passenger and make fun. But once you’re behind the C8’s funky steering wheel, you’ll realize that the controls you need are the easiest to get…

2020 FORD MUSTANG SHELBY GT500 PRO Chassis to match power, steel brakes, intimidating power CON Drives big, stiff on back roads, intimidating power Often, history is made simply by breaking a cycle. Sounds easy enough, but sometimes a thing hasn’t been done for a good reason. The GT500 has never been the best Mustang, just the one with the biggest engine. Not anymore. The 2020 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 has changed history. “This car is the ultimate expression of what the American pony car can be,” pro racer Randy Pobst said after only driving it on the street. After driving it on the track: “God, that thing pins you to the seat running from corner to corner. It hooks up very, very well. That impresses me tremendously. Ford Performance has…