Indholdsfortegnelse for July 1986 i MotorTrend

International Report was compiled with the assistance of Yuichi Natori in Japan, Bernard Cahier and Michael Cotton in Europe. Alfa Romeo 75 Sportwagon The Sportwagon version of the Alfa Romeo 75 model shown at Geneva will be integrated into the Milano range for America in 1987. Stylist Rayton Fissore diCherasco was called in to help design the wagon, which actually has more pleasing lines than the 75 sedan. Also on the stand was a turbocharged racing version of the 75 model, already homologated for competition. It has a Garrett turbo carefully tuned to provide high torque at low revs, and develops 150 hp. —Michael Cotton Legend Today, Climax Tomorrow Honda has tabled a whole list of registered names, including such unlikelies as Quattrovalvole, and every now and then the names…

There is no reason for mysteries of the past to remain so. And with the 626 GT Turbo Sport Coupe, Mazda engineers searched out solutions to an old mystery: How to give a sport coupe stunning performance in objective terms—and polished refinement in those subtle, subjective shadings. The answers to that mystery, they knew, would give driving excellence. Proof of their solutions is found searching out other old mysteries of another, older past. Deep in Mississippi’s woods, the old Natchez Trace winds its way through soft hills and a nation’s history. So, too, will go the 626 GT Turbo, along that old river, through old haunts, chasing old ghosts. But with new solutions from Mazda’s engineers. One is under the hood. The overhead cam engine delivers the razorsharp response and…

Almost everywhere we drove the Monte Carlo SS Aero Coupe, people turned their heads toward it. Take a good look at this automobile—it just isn’t that different from other Monte Carlos. All that sets the Aero Coupe apart from the basic Monte Carlo SS is the sloping backlight, the “Thunderbird window.” Yet, at stoplights, folks couldn’t help but ask if this was a totally new car. If the Aero Coupe’s performance at this year’s NASCAR Daytona 500 was any Indicator, this certainly is a new car. Apparently, the perceptions of the populace bear this out so far. Because the Aero Coupe debuted so late in the model year, only about 100 copies will be made. Base price at suggested retail is $12,466 for the SS, plus $1285 for the Aero…

Dan Gurney, Maserati, Phil Hill, Ferrari, Stirling Moss, Lotus, Bob Bondurant, Corvette Gran Sport, Innes Ireland, Cooper, Dick Guldstrand, Abarth, Ronnie Bucknum, Austin-Healey … oh, hell: Dannyongaisjaychamberlain, talbot-lagoelvatyrell & georgefollmerbob-byunserporscheagle, alfa-romeosastonmartin&nash (frazer)peerlesstroppe, dolphinscooter-patrick & denisemcluggagerogerward, lewspencer, with shelbycobrashelbygt 350 bobdra-kemclaren, and of course petelovelyol’yellar-maxbalchowskylancia, yes, bentley, o joy siata-johnvonneumann, samhanksmorgantriumph-kurtis stanguellini, williamsmgjaguarbmwmer-cedes-benz, and of course, brabham, and a Partridge. The pear tree was somewhere off course as were most of the competitors. Palm Springs, a hundred miles east of Los Angeles, give or take, hosted a series of airport races back in the ’50s that, like the races at Santa Barbara to the north, have achieved legendary proportion on their way toward the mythic. It was true that West Coast racing produced most of America’s international racing stars (after the…

The hors d’oeuvre, that inescapable appetizer served before a meal, exists ostensibly to stimulate the hunger centers of the brain, preparing the stomach for the food to come. Too often, though, the hors d’oeuvre course is littered with such gastronomic nonsense that the digestive process cannot recover, and the subsequent meal is ruined. Conversely, some hors d’oeuvres are so precise an embodiment of the term “delicacy” that they overshadow the main course—again, the meal is ruined. The trick is to serve appetizers that are tasty enough to stimulate, but not too rich as to cloy, too filling as to satiate. This particular epicurean balancing act, when done correctly, can have the dinner guests virtually rushing to the table in a state of salivary anticipation. At that point, dinner is a…

Subaru has never claimed to be anything but practical. With strong regional sales success in the snowbelt, it has fallen short of being anything but a “cult” car in the warmer climes of North America. Subaru’s become “the other guys from Japan,” you know, like the ones without the blimp. In an effort to break into the conventional car market, Subaru introduced the XT Turbo Coupe last year and, frankly, only dug the trench a little deeper. Though the XT has fared well in the marketplace, it’s done little to cast off Subaru’s weird-car image. For Subaru, it must feel a great deal like Saab has felt for the last 20 years. Quick to tout its No. 2 standing in customer satisfaction, Subaru has been building a strong, reliable, fully…

It was a day for the homeboys as the ‘86 Formula One season kicked off in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. To the delight of some 80,000 sun-baked partisans, native sons Nelson Piquet and Ayrton Senna cruised to an 1-2 finish at the 3.12mile Jacarepaguá circuit. It marked the first such sweep for a pair of Brazilians since Emerson Fittipaldi and Carlos Pace dominated the field at Interlagos in the ‘73 BGP. While hardly definitive, the results confirmed widely held suspicions that even with the talents of defending World Driving Champion Alain Prost and new teammate Keke Rosberg at its service, Team Marlboro TAG-McLaren is destined to face some decidedly serious troubles in making good on a bid to take three consecutive Constructors titles. Off-season developments gave every indication that the…

Mercedes Competitor The next serious Eurosedan from Japan may come from Mazda rather than Toyota or Nissan. Prototypes of a new model—to be called Luce in Japan and 929 abroad—have been seen circulating at Mazda’s Miyoshi proving ground with a Mercedes 190 in hot pursuit, clearly indicating Mazda’s aspirations. Power will come out of an all-new 3-valve-per-cylinder SOHC 3-liter V-6 with fuel injection and natural aspiration, although a turbo rotary may also be used in Japan. Transmission will be a 5-speed manual or a 4-speed electronically controlled automatic, with drive to the rear wheels that will be suspended via a multi-link setup like that in the RX-7, but tuned to rival the ride comfort of the small sedans from Stuttgart. Spied! Reátta—oBuick’s Answering Volley in the 2-Seater Wars Rumor has…

“Cadillac: An American Icon,” by Stephen Salmieri (photos), Owen Edwards (text), and Sydnie Michele Salmieri (photo coloring). Published by Rizzoli International Publications, Inc. 597 Fifth Ave., New York, NY 10017; 144 pg., 14 x 11 in., 80 B&W photos (60 tinted), $50. This is a picture book on a narrowly automotive topic. Or—if you like—a graphic social commentary with a narrow automotive focus. There is text, but it is limited to 16, 17, or 18 lines of enormous type on the facing page, sometimes displaced by more pictures. While all the photos were shot in black and white over 12 years of searching the length and breadth of America (with heavy emphasis on New York and Southern California) for old Cadillacs, some appear in sepia tone, while others have been…

Let’s get one thing straight up front: If you’re reading this to learn more about the “Eurosedan” from Pontiac, you might be in for a surprise. The Grand Am isn’t Euro-anything. Despite what both the television advertising campaign and the option list tells us, this uptown dandy is all dressed up with nowhere to go. After all, putting on a European suit doesn’t make you the Count of Monte Cristo. Based on GM’s N-body series, which the Grand Am shares with the Oldsmobile Calais and the Buick Somerset/Skylark, the Grand Am offered real promise. As with most things 1980s, it’s a front-engine front-wheel-drive platform, with GM’s all-things-dull “Tech IV” aka “Iron Duke” 4-cylinder engine as a base, but our tester was fitted with the much more exciting 3-liter V-6. In…

Less than six months after the international shows of Frankfurt and Tokyo, the world’s manufacturers caught their collective breath at Geneva in March. For a wealthy 50 customers only, the Aston Martin Zagato will create a new legend, while the world’s proletariat concentrates on some worthy newcomers such as the Volvo 480 ES, the Renault 21, the Saab 9000 injection model, and the inevitable cabriolet versions of the Renault 5 and the Peugeot 205. This time, anyway, the Regie was not left hanging on Peugeot’s coattails, and history may show that 1986 was a turning-point in its march back to popularity. For most manufacturers, especially the Germans and the Swedes, there was the satisfaction of outstanding sales and financial reports for 1985 based almost entirely on successful trading in America,…

From the gray, distant past, I recall a magazine story about two lucky enthusiasts who drove a Maserati Tipo 60, the 2-liter Birdcage, from New York to Florida in the late winter of 1958 or 1959. They had a wonderful time, lots of adventures—and went straight into the hospital on arrival, suffering from a combination of exposure, bruised kidneys, and pneumonia. The Birdcage was Maserati’s last unquestionably successful racing car, but it certainly was out of place on the New Jersey Turnpike in lousy weather. We thought of the Birdcage as a complex car when it was new—all those tubes, the shrieking transaxle, dry-sumped light alloy engine—but, really, it was three quarters of a ton of unconfused purpose effected through artful light castings and innovative design. The Spyder today is…

When Nissan introduced its new ‘86½ truck line some months ago, our overall response was very favorable, particularly of the high-line SE model with the optional 3.0-liter V-6 engine. We did, however, mention that when the going got really rough, there was some room for improvement in the suspension department. Apparently, we were not alone in our opinion. The scenario goes something like this: At the Catalina Island introduction of the “Hard Body,” the engineers in Product Planning got a fairly consistent consensus from attending journalists that the front suspension was too soft and the rear too stiff, causing a pitching or oscillating motion over rough terrain. Due to the fact that this was an all-new product aimed directly at sagging truck sales, the Product Planning engineers took these comments…

By Volkswagen’s reckoning, the Golf Syncro, newly released in Europe, is the 21st 4-wheel-drive system in passenger cars since Audi took its bold step six years ago. It is, though, only the second “hands off” system requiring no action by the driver in the switch from 2-wheel to all-wheel drive. Road conditions and wheel slip determine when the Ferguson viscous coupling engages to apply power to the rear wheels. It was an open secret that VW would choose the Ferguson setup over Audi’s permanent 50/50 all-wheel drive found in the Quantum, but few would have guessed how well it works, and not only on snow or ice. The venue for VW’s demonstration last February was a frozen lake in Sweden, with both 2-wheel and 4-wheel drive Golfs on hand. The…

It’s hardly surprising to see the name Andretti making headlines at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. For the past two seasons, since Indy Car racing supplanted Formula One on that city’s streets, Master Mario has reigned supreme. This year, it was Andretti again. But in 1986, Mario’s 23-year-old son Michael was the one who extended the family streak to three for three, much to the delight of the 77,500 fans on hand. Joining Andretti on the rostrum were two other sons of racing legends, Al Unser Jr. and Geoff Brabham. The heretofore unprecedented gathering offered eloquent proof that CART should have little trouble enduring the inevitable changing of the guard. Andretti’s long overdue first win came in his 36th Indy Car start. Presently driving a fourth season on…

In 1951,while writing the opening chapter (What We Have Lost) of his celebrated “The Kings of the Road,” Ken Purdy—the consummate car freak—observed: Once Upon A Time the American people thought of the automobile as an instrument of sensuous pleasure… Aye, many a man crossing a city street that is a turgid river of jelly-bodied clunkers too clumsy to get out of their own way remembers a day when he ripped down a country road in a canary-yellow, bucket-seated Mercer, master of all he surveyed, high-riding, able to see where he was going, with a wheel in his hands that really steered the car instead of shyly suggesting that it changed direction … He may be younger, and remember the Stutzes, Cords, Auburns and the regal Duesenberg roadsters that used…

Dodge Daytona Gets Nose Job Dodge’s entry in the ponycar sweepstakes, the Daytona, will get a new proboscis for the upcoming model year. The tasteful new front end fashioned of plastic features hidden headlights rather than the exposed quad lamps of earlier iterations \ of the Chrysler G-body. Come 1987, the Dodge Daytona will be the only Mustang-fighter in the Chrysler corral. The Chrysler Laser is being dropped after failing to make much of a dent in the marketplace. 959 Overruled Car-hungry aristocrats can stop licking their lips over the prospect of owning an ultra-high-tech $150,000 Porsche 959. The 4wd 185-mph Kevlar-bodied dream machine isn’t coming to these shores because Porsche doesn’t want to screw it up and possibly double its price trying to meet our tough safety and emissions…

Thursday morning, Lake Lanier, Georgia. A torrential downpour destroys an opportunity to photograph the ‘87 Porsche 924S. After a quick confab, Porsche officials suggest driving the car 2500 miles to Los Angeles, where better weather should prevail. They don’t have to twist my arm. Within 10 minutes, I’m behind the wheel, blitzing toward Atlanta. Let’s face it, the original Porsche 924 had a reputation about as spotty as Mata Hari’s. It was a car that flirted with you, toyed with you, and then, almost inevitably, left you in the lurch. Certainly, the 924 wasn’t as bad as some would have you believe. In fact, thousands are still in the hands of proud and happy owners who wouldn’t trade them for the world (though, perhaps, for a 911). But looking at…

Americans have begun cultivating a rather intense interest in the world of double-duty work/play machines. The market for 4wd passenger vehicles is currently enjoying a period of phenomenal growth. Paralleling that popularity has been the equally robust demand for compact, space-efficient, multi-purpose transporters, frequently taking the form of small/tall station wagons. Industry experts are forecasting that this category of vehicles, offering both added safety in everyday use and additional flexibility for weekend getaways, will continue to thrive in the ‘80s and beyond. Seizing a great opportunity to perform critical first-hand investigation as well as avail ourselves of some well-deserved R&R, we brought together five key vehicles in this category for a head-to-head confrontation. Our roster of players, all of which originated in Japan, included the Dodge Colt Vista, Honda Civic,…

We traveled to the lair of the “good ol’ boy,” Talladega, Alabama, to have a look at, and a drive in, an optional model of the ’86 Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS. The one we were to see at Talladega is expensive, has no warranty and a strange options list, only gets 4.8 mpg, is completely worn out after only 500 miles, and isn’t widely available—in fact, the only dealer where you can find one is Junior Johnson Associates of Ronda, North Carolina. You could reasonably wonder why anyone would want such an impractical vehicle, unless you understood the function of this purpose-built Monte. Its sole mission in life is to win NASCAR Grand National races. If you could (as we did) stand near the edge of the track, in the…

The Jeep CJ-7 is a venerable, hard-working son of a grizzled mountain climber, with lineage going back in an unbroken line to the topless war wagons used in WWII—perhaps back to the infantry saddle horse, if one cares to trace its ultimate utility that far. But 40 or more years ago, we didn’t have the word “yuppie” with which to tag the upwardly mobile; 40 years ago, the upwardly mobile were simply “college graduates.” Shown here is Jeep’s unvoiced answer to the sensibilities of the 1980s, the Jeep Wrangler. The “YJ,” as it was code-named early on, is a softening and freshening of the classic Jeep CJ lines and mission. Jeep purists will need time to rule on how well the new YJ replaces the old CJ lost to us…

TIME: Oh-dark-fifteen (Even earlier than oh-dark-thirty). PLACE: Frankfurt, West Germany. WEATHER: 15° F, heavy snow falling. QUESTION: What the hell are we doing here? ANSWER: We are about to board a plane to travel to northernmost Sweden to test drive a multitude of cars equipped with Mercedes-Benz’ newer-than-new Active Safety and Driving Dynamics concepts. More accurately, we are about to board a plane to the future. After wheeling these computerized playthings across frozen lakes, up snow-covered mountain peaks, and through hushed wooded glades, driving will never be the same again. The beauty of good technology is that it makes difficult jobs seem simple, and we can attest to the fact that Mercedes’ new systems make the harrowing completely pleasurable. If this stuff is safe, why is it so much fun?…

One of Europe’s favorite compact cars, the Opel Kadett, will be imported to America next year and sold as the Pontiac LeMans. It will not, however, be made in Bochum, West Germany, nor in Ellesmere Port, England, where the carbon-copy Vauxhall Astra is manufactured. The new Pontiac will come from South Korea, courtesy of an agreement between General Motors and the Daewoo Corporation, at a rate of up to 100,000 cars per annum. In years gone by, the LeMans model has earned high regard, and without prejudging an unknown package, the Oriental offering will have to be lively and well-equipped to live up to its name. The sound reputation of the Kadett/Astra in Europe is based on excellent utilization of space, fine handling, and aerodynamic efficiency, the latter improved in…

Rover will be up to a year later than Honda in marketing its version of the Acura Legend in America, the Sterling/800, but the company filled the gap neatly at the Turin Show in April with the CCV, which stands for Coupe Concept Vehicle. Daring and dynamic, the CCV incorporates the best features of the M.G. EX-E concept car seen in Frankfurt last fall and previews what may be seen in the second-generation Sterling. With the launch of the Rover 800 in Britain still some months away, though, why show a revised version? “We were working on XX, the 800 model, three years ago, and for us it’s now history,” said stylist Richard Hamblin. “CCV is the next stage, a future face-lift that could go into production in 1989, assuming…

Smog. Yuk! Everybody hates it and wants to get rid of it. The car-buying public has suffered through smog pumps, EGR valves, and catalytic converters, and now hears talk of “closed-loop emissions control.” Is closed-loop control simply another in a long chain of add-on emissions equipment, or a significant advancement in the war against junk in the air? It is definitely a significant step forward, and to understand how closed-loop systems help keep our lungs pink, we need to start with a review of the chemistry of combustion. Gasoline is composed of natural hydrocarbons and some chemicals added by the oil companies for various reasons, blended to a specific octane rating. The air we breathe is 79% nitrogen, 20% oxygen, with the remaining 1 % a complicated mixture of other…